Is the end beginning?

Not so long ago, I read a quote from Tony Watt saying that he didn’t want to be remembered as the guy who scored against Barcelona when fans look back on his time at Celtic.

After us being knocked out of another domestic cup competition at the weekend, is Neil Lennon at risk of being remembered as the manager who beat Barcelona and took us into the last 16 ?

I’ve been going to Celtic games for as long as I can remember and outwith Seville, I can’t think of any better an achievement than getting into the last 16 of the Champions League.  However, this season for me has been a massive let down.

I’m not one of the fans who think that Celtic have a right to win every match but as and when we do suffer a defeat, the one thing that I expect is for the players to go down with a fight.

I also expect our manager to change things to at least allow us to battle.  Against Aberdeen, too many players were off form.  Too many passes were not reaching their intended target.  That’s ok, that sort of things happens but what is not ok is the fact that not enough of the players seemed to be willing to get the sleeves rolled up and get stuck in.

I think back to when Neil Lennon and Johan Mjallby were playing for us.  They’d fight until the death and they’d never stand down against an opponent so why have they not passed that on to our players ?

While watching the game, it wasn’t going our way from early on so why didn’t the coaching team make any major changes?  During Gordon Strachan’s time as manager, part of my criticism was that the football wasn’t particularly exciting to watch, this season, it’s felt similar to me.

My question now is what do we have to look forward to a Celtic fan?  On Sunday morning, my first thought relating to the football was that Fergus McCann is coming back for the opening day of next season but there’s nothing in between.

This seasons signings haven’t exactly lit the heather on fire.  There’s no cup football, there’s no European football to look forward to.

Is all that’s left for the season the thought of playing for a record that not very many people care anything about?  I’ve said before that I don’t care about records, I’d much rather see us integrate younger players.  That is of course, if we have any left as most seem to be out on loan.

The next thing that I want to comment on is the double standards that we seem to encounter when hearing about how fans are treated.  Some Celtic fans have been arrested for signing some songs.  I’m not looking to debate whether or not I think these songs should be legal or not.

But I do want to know why our fans are often singled out for when other fans can do what they like.

Aberdeen fans singing songs about Jimmy Saville and how we are in the

wrong country, there was songs about ferry departure times.  Did anyone condemn them ?  Not from our club.

Our club seem quick enough to slate our own fans but seem to be very quiet when other fans are involved.

I guess on a more cheerful note, there’s another home match next week and the result and performance of that match will be sure to dictate how our mood is but with no competitors in domestic football, I feel that we’re badly missing a chance to move forward with our club.