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.
The signing policy over the last two years has been poor.We had seven million pound
sitting on the bench. Pukki,Balde 4mil ,Jonny Russell 750 thousand.? Boerrigter a waste
of space? I am happy at the Griffiths signing,prefer him to Fletcher. Also would prefer
McKay-Stevens to Forrest.
Vinny,
Mackay-Stevens is a good shout.Forrest
is offering less ans less.
As said earllier,IMO,can’t see pukki,balde
and boerrigter,making it.Even with a run of games.
Lenny will be our manager next season.
The summer window will be his most
important EVER.
His job is on the line.So,he has to be bullish.And demand funds from Lawwell.
The non- triers have to go.The balance of
the team has to be right.
Domestically, we should have a striking
partnership up front,at all times.
A strong,target man, who can hold up the
ball,a la Sutty,and bring his goalscoring
partner into play.
And also bringing the midfield up the park.
A creative midfielder is also a must,with
MS on the wing.
So, if it takes 10M, to.buy a striker and silky midfielder,Lawwell should stump up.
Anybody agree ?
Is Lennon a good Manager.?? Very debatable. His achievements last season in getting in to Champs League last 16, and winning Scottish League + cup double, are excellent on paper, but disguised a consistently poor domestic campaign. Could be argued we got lucky in Champs League. Certainly Barca this year illustrated that we got lucky the year before. I think in landing Spartak Moscow, we got luck of the draw for once. As for this year, i make no apology for saying its been poor most of the way, bar the odd high scoring victory on domestic front. Beating Partick Thistle, St Mirren, Ross County and the likes is a pre-requosite. Its a standard minimum, we as fans expect, because these teams with all due respect are extremely weak. Aberdeen are the only worthy challenge in our league, and even their true level or quality will be shown in the summer when they attempt to pre-qualify for Europa league. We are playing poorly in a poor league, and i just don’t get the signing policy or strategy. Far far too many players are bought, then not even played. I dont know any other club in the British game that does this. 2.2million on Pukki, and 3 million on Boeriggter, is just not shrewd investment.
Perhaps we scored too early, and we then thought the game was over, due to this ” clean sheet run” Too casual and more inportantly no pace up front. Very easy to defend against.
A term you will hear from a lot of fans is “papering over the cracks”….. what happens is generally this. We got murdered 6-1 in the Nou Camp, and all the teams weaknesses are laid before us. We then re-enter the domestic fold, and go on an unbeaten run. We face literally no opposition until Aberdeen at the wk.end, and then what happens.? The same old weaknesses laid before us yet again. Lets be clear… We are a less than mediocre team, operating in a league where the teams we play would struggle in the English Conference level. A guy like Stephen Thompson leads the line for St Mirren. He just about got a game in the English Championship when he was at his peak. He would be lucky to get a game for an English League 2 side. And thats the reality of Scottish football…. but the point being, we should be doing much much better. We should be winning trebles, and we should be beating teams by 4 and 5 goals, most weeks. By having access to Champions league riches, we are more privaleged than any other European club, because they operate in leagues where financial revenue is evenly distributed across their leagues. In Scotland, we at Celtic get the lot…. Yet we can’t ram home our advantage. It is very Poor
To me lennon has peaked and found his level, and has been an undoubted failure as a manager of celtic. He is a great motivator, hence the great start he made as a manager here, however you can only use the same team talks so many times before they lose their effectiveness – hence our current predicament. Tactically he has always been poor, this is not in doubt, and you simply cannot improve and evolve a team on motivation alone, especially in europe. The facts are with no domestic challengers we should have won treble after treble, or at the very least doubles, not constantly went out with a whimper. Real managers build teams, they recognize weak areas and strengthen them, they alter tactics to suit the players available, and sometimes to counter the oppositions strengths/weaknesses, they bring through youth players, they focus on specific qualities and tactical systems from the youth teams through to the top team, allowing for a steady stream of talent well versed in how to step into the top team, only when no youth players are good enough, they identify someone in another team in that position, or with those qualities and buy them i.e. purpose and focus – lenny does none of that. it appears our transfer strategy is find a decent player in any position as long as he’s cheap. as position doesnt actually matter as lenny sticks with the same tactics regardless and will happily play players out of position to suit. no matter how bad they are. I have been saying this for years, lenny has been very fortunate that he took over the club at the same time rangers imploded, leaving him a free run at the league and cups (although he has even messed the cups up). Lenny himself has said in interviews that tactics dont matter etc – tell that to the most successful managers in the game. If we want to move forward we need to bring in a proper tactician and coach. I think it would also help if the our fans started expecting us to act like a top club i.e. barca, real, etc and actually challenge those, rather than simply being happy to just beat the best in scotland. Porto won the cl, ajax won the cl, monaco got into the cl final, rosenberg have gotten to the semi’s – proving poor leagues and lower budgets dont matter, when proper tactics and well drilled players work together as a team. the truth is you could put mourinho and guardiola in charge of any team no matter how bad and after a few years they would be challenging….. something for you all to consider.
Agree entirely. The guy in charge of Bayern last year would do nicely. Show a degree of ambition Celtic
i wouldnt argue with that, andreas villas boas would be perfect too. we do need some ambition and more continental thinking here. look at southampton and pochettino, he’s did everything that lenny isn’t. he’s brought youth through, identified weaknesses, bought to fill the gaps, has a system from youth team to top team, and were flying until a lot of injuries tore his team apart, every player southampton have now are worth more than they bought them for (or cost to develop). i hope action is taken before its too late.
When Celtic lost the Uefa final to Porto we went down fighting and no-one could ever criticize the attitude and will to win of the team….but Saturday’s defeat merits a helluva lot of criticism of the players, first and foremost the players. I recognize the valid points made about tactics by other posters, but even if Jock Stein had set out the tactics on Saturday he would have been hard pushed to get a result. It seems to me that too many of the players are adopting the same attitude that the club has been advertising these last two years, that players are here to be sold on later for a profit, and so they seem to be waiting for their next “big move” to the EPL or abroad. They just parade themselves on TV in the shop window with their nice Celtic top on, waiting for the rumours of offers to begin, saying “I’m so happy to play at Celtic” while their agents scurry around inviting interest from “bigger” (bigger paying) clubs.
There was almost no desire to break sweat on Saturday, to impose themselves on their opponents…ffs these are guys are paid thousands of pounds a week to play a game of football, let’s strip away the fancy dressing here, it’s a game of football……but they don’t want to battle, run the extra yard, stretch themselves to win. If a player, for any reason, has no/little desire to win then he’s a waste of space. All the talent in the world doesn’t make a winner if he doesn’t have the in-built desire to win. So I sympathize a wee bit with Lenny….but now he should kick some arses and make drastic changes in the team line-up for the next game and send a fekking clear message that he/we will not accept anything less than players giving their all if they want to remain in the first team “shop window”. Now is the time, we have the league nearly confirmed, get rid of the dross and non-triers now!!!!!
Spot on! Well said.
I concur with all you say.Whilst no one likes to get beat,it’s slightly more palatable if a bit/lot of fight/desire is shown.My policy would be NO SHOW NO DOUGH but unfortunately contracts have stopped that policy ever being implemented.
We’ve got two big problems at the moment: PL is nowhere near as clever as he thinks he is. And NL doesn’t learn from his mistakes.
PL has wasted millions on players that no other team would buy. And NL still doesn’t know how to set out a team to get the best out of the players he has.
I also think that the only reason NL was given the job in the first place was because PL knew he could wrap him round his little finger. And, I think NL gave up two years ago when it sunk in that he has zero say in what players we buy or sell.
For anything to improve, at least one of them needs to go.
What more do people want from Lenny? He is continuously expected to sustain a successful team on the pitch while his best players are sold off from underneath him and replaced with ‘works in progress’ and mediocrity. He is then expected to take these new players and those who are left and mould them into a successful team who not only beat all that’s in front of them but one that plays with flair and scores for fun. And what’s his reward if he manages all this, his best players are sold off once again and he is left with yet another rebuilding job. Oh and on top of that he has to cop all the flak for the duds he has signed because he has been forced into working to a signing policy that is far too restrictive. Give the guy a break ffs!
If you want to direct your anger somewhere then why not direct it at those who force Lenny to work under the constraints of a signing policy that completely undermines any long term stability of the team.
Our signing policy seems entirely geared towards developing young low cost players as quickly as possible with the sole purpose of selling them on for a profit the minute they become remotely successful, regardless of how it affects the team’s stability or progress. It doesn’t allow the manager to bring in older experienced players because there is no sell on value, and also seems to ignore home grown talent in favour of more expensive foreign imports who are unproven, untested and know nothing of the club or what it means to play for Celtic, which is probably the main reason why there is a lack of fight in this team.
Get off Lenny’s back, he can only work with what he’s got. Give the man stronger foundations to build on then you can judge the quality of his work.
Hail Hail.
Boeriggter at 3million, isn’t a low cost strategy….. It’s a costly mistake. One too many, as far as a lot of our fellow fans can see
Spot on, Andybhoy.
“What more do people want from Lenny?”
RESIGNING WOULD BE A START!
Ruggygman,
Agreed. It was a waste of £3m but he’s been the exception rather than the rule. Every other player signed has been under 23, cost no more than £1-2m tops, and have either been development players or bench warmers at their previous clubs. It all adds up and it’s been a waste of our precious resources, would rather we signed 1 proven established player than 2 or 3 ‘punts’ just because they fit the criteria of this blinkered signing policy.
s tee,
Your entitled to your opinion but I do not share it. Lenny’s options have been limited by a restrictive signing policy and he has been forced to work with a mixture of mediocrity and players who ‘might’ come good. Not exactly a recipe for success in my opinion.
Hail Hail.
Celtic fans?
I would like to see Dermot Desmond sell his shares we need a change of policy and direction.
Short memories guys…everyone is entitled to an opinion but a lot are kicking the wheeckie out of this…Celtic will win the league, that much is certain as we are all aware.
Are some of you so shortsighted that you believe that the directors and management team do not realise what has happened this year?
Keep the faith ffs guys!
If Green Brigade had been there on Sat we’d never have lost. Been outsung by that mob was a disgrace….would never have happened on the GB’s watch
Absolute bloody nonsense which insults pro footballers who had a bad day at the office.
Do you guys think that Celtic should win every game…that’s the kinda thinking that leads to ‘Downfall’.
Dry your bloody eyes and enjoy what we have…
In other words, be careful what you wish for.
They’ve had far too many bad days at the office in Europe and in the cups ! What exactly do we have ? A weaker team than we had 12 months ago ? The prospect of losing Forster and VVD in the summer and replaced with Championship players ? No GB and an almost non existent atmosphere, Peter Lawwell is prepared to sell every player because he is only interested in showing a profit to dish out bonuses, the product on the park is poor and will get worse as long as Lawwell is at the club.
Aldo, you’re 100% right….but who’s fault is that? The Green Brigade’s of course..they were well warned, not only by the club but by many, many loyal fans who recognized that they were becoming a power unto themselves. They are not Celtic, they are a group of fans who often brought colour, noise and atmosphere to the stadium….but insisted on being treated like a special case, a class apart from the common fan. I suspected from the beginning that there were strings being pulled from afar when this group (brigade!!!) insisted on mixing politics with being a Celtic fan. I have supported Celtic since I was 5 years old, I’m a Catholic, don’t have Irish blood that I know of (and don’t mind if I do), I didn’t support the IRA and I resent that the Green Brigade (and those pulling the strings) seek to connect the Northern Ireland hate-filled mess with our club. Celtic’s roots are proudly Irish, and rightly so…but that doesn’t mean it is a “sporting wing” of any terrorist group or foreign political party, and I believe that the majority of Celtic supporters feel similarly.
Funky, I do have Irish blood (get it from my parents) and do consider myself a Republican (although I despise the behaviour of the dissidents) but I do agree with you that Celtic Park shouldn’t be used as a soapbox for these viewpoints. We are all there to support our club and have a shitload of songs to sing that don’t mention the IRA. I find it disrespectful to the folk who have lost their lives in the struggle overby and their families who just want to get on with their lives to be trivialising such a huge issue at a football match. It is possible to keep Celtic and Irish politics separate.
Oh, and the GB May have out sung the sheep botherers on Saturday but anyone is extremely deluded if they think for a second that it would have made the slightest difference to the result.
Funky :f**ck off back to Ibroke
Diarmuid shut up you bigot.
Diarmuid, you show yourself up sunshine…I must have touched a nerve with you for you to react like that, or maybe you’re a member of the Green Brigade and you’re having a wee tantrum ‘cos yeez got put in your place. I don’t do “fucking off” by the way.
Poor game in front of a poor turnout! I thought it was the Hun that died and is dying again?
Frank McGaaaarvey, thanks for your sensible reply. HH.
Funky,
Joe and stevie’s blogs are informative and
a source for good debate.
To deviate from the subject matter,and to
have a go with fellow fans,and vice vesa,
is not the.norm on here.
We are Celtic supporters faithful through
and through.
Keep the Faith, old.chum
Peter, I didn’t introduce the subject of the Green Brigade, and I also didn’t say anything offensive to anyone. I accept that other people might think differently about them though and I don’t verbally abuse people for holding a different opinion. I think your comments would be better directed to “Diarmuid”. Anyway, water under the bridge. I’m already looking forward to see how the team performs in the next match. GBNL and HH.
So to recap after one bad performance we should sack the board, sack the management team, sack the players.
Disbelief at these reactions from ‘ Celtic fans’ ?
Question time
Is the current team better than the one he inherited? Undoubtedly and at the same time we’ve made £20M+ from transfers in/out that time.
Do the players generally get better under Lennon? Definite improvement can be seen in a number of players which would suggest there is very good coaching taking place and the players are in a good environment.
Have we seen the best of Lenny as a manager? No, in his first job Lenny has made mistakes but will only improve with time IMO. Time is something he should be afforded considering what he has achieved as a manager and the constant abuse he gets while trying to do his job.
one bad performance? have you seen celtic in cup games? morton? karagandy? sion? most cl games etc. winning a one horse domestic race, and falling at hurdles in 2 other one horse races is completely unacceptable. the truth is MON would be on for 3 trebles and no doubt gone just as far of not further in europe if he was appointed instead of lenny (even with these players).
i cannot believe the complete lack of ambition from some fans. when sevco arrive in the top league in 2 short years they will immediately challenge us. why? because we simply have not used this advantage wisely. we have used this time to build up a cash reserve, not to improve out football team.
our whole financial policy relies on buying players on the cheap, hoping one or 2 turn out decent, then pimping them to the english leagues asap, and also getting scraps from the cl money (despite us struggling to get through the qualification games every year) – its a farce.
For example, if we do not qualify for europe next season, every player will be for sale and if anyone goes they will only be replaced with more unknown risks, lets be honest how many wanyamas and hoopers are out there? for those 2 there are 20 odd duds. The season after that say we do not qualify again, we’ll be back to where we were before the huns went bust, only we will have a new huns foaming at the mouth to beat us, they will also no doubt show ambition and buy big as lets be honest, if it doesnt work out they can always declare themselves bankrupt and start again with no punishments and all their titles blah blah.
pessimistic? maybe but i’m also realistic – look beyond the balance sheet people, we are only a few results away from the milk & honey drying up. lenny has wasted too many chances so far, and while he remains in charge that risk increases.
My greatest fear is that we will not be able to capitalise on the 10 in a row opportunity due to the “we only by for value approach” adopted by the current board. I don’t believe that 10 in a row really means that much to the board as long as the cash position is healthy and their bonuses are paid.
I do believe Lenny can win us 10 in a row but needs to demand more on the signings front rather than take it on the chin.
Let’s be honest, 1 world class signing would have won us more champions league points and possibly made the difference at the weekend never mind putting bums on seats for what is left of the season.
Where’s the THUNDER gone?? Lenny needs the 12th man,we all have a part to play for Celtic on and off the field. This is the age of Jelly and Ice cream, a time of 3-in-a- row,a year of records for a club which is amongst the healthiest and most charitable on planet fitba. A fantastic achievement for the manager and congratulations to ALL for the effort,so let’s keep the faith and know that next season the treble will be just as hard as ever to win,with or without champions league. I trust in ALL at the grand old team to see, Celtic
Hail Hail and Thunder
Paul,
Well delivered.
Passion channelled in the right way.
Hail Hail
GBNL
The most annoying thing out of all of this is that we’re still losing games and playing like donkeys for the same reason we we’re losing games and playing like donkeys in Lenny’s first season:
He’s got this stupid idea that he needs to play with four forwards to play attacking football. That having four forwards is magically going to magically produce more goals.
But the only thing playing with four forwards does is allow our midfield to be overrun and dominated by inferior teams with inferior players. (And don’t anybody try to tell me that Samaras, Commons, or Forrest play in the midfield).
Practically, every important game we’ve lost in the last three years has been because of this SAME mistake. It’s the same mistake over and over and over again. It’s no coincidence, either, that our best results come when we need to play with a stronger midfield- even in the game against Hearts, when we scored goals for fun, we had a stronger midfield. Get a grip Neil.
Paranoidandriod…. Think you make a fair point. That said, I think a lot of clubs probably 80% of English premiership teams are all looking to follow the same script…. 4-2-3-1…. Chelsea perfect the system, but they have both the personnel and the discipline, work ethic to make the tactic successful. If u watch Jose mourinho’s team closely there is a midfield 5…. 2 sitting, and 3 advanced. All 5 however, including the advanced 3 Oscar, Willian, hazard, work their backsides off (add to that, top level ability). Where I disagree with you, is that Samaras, Commons, and Forrest on Saturday did play as midfielders, I.e our advanced 3, in a 4-2-3-1…..but, and this is an important “but” , not one of those 3, offered any sort of work ethic, defensive discipline what so ever. And as much as many a manager is trying to emulate the Mourinho model/system, it requires a certain level of discipline, and hard work, allied to ability. Unfortunately for us, our midfield 5 don’t have the footballing nous to carry it off.
Totally agree; We don’t have the players or the discipline to play without three strong midfielders. Something along the lines of how Lennon, Lambert, and Thompson used to play.