Three years ago John Hartson couldn’t imagine anything other than continuing Celtic success.
Yesterday at Ibrox he watched the current squad hand back the final trophy of the Quadruple Treble.
Twelve trophies won over four seasons but surrendered in six horrendous months.
In October Celtic lost a Derby fixture without getting a shot on target, the following month Ross County ended the defence of the Betfred Cup shortly before sacking Stuart Kettlewell. The writing was on the wall.
When Hartson went to Ibrox the home punters slaughtered him for a variety of reasons going back to a ‘failed medical’ in 2000. He revelled in it alongside team-mates that knew what it took to win. Bobo Balde, Alan Thompson and Henrik Larsson played to win, in 2006 Hartson had Roy Keane and Neil Lennon as team-mates.
Yesterday Celtic looked like a team expecting to lose, with very few exceptions the players didn’t seem to fancy the scrap, the cut and thrust. They lost the early battles, self-inflicted errors created two first half goals. Dominating the second half counted for nothing when they couldn’t even score with a penalty kick.
Picking up on his appearance on Premier Sports, the Daily Record reports Hartson saying:
To lose the league by 20 points there is certainly a lot of work to be done. It’s incredible to think they were so far ahead, I was actually going about telling people they will do 12, 13, 14 in a row, they were that far ahead at one point.
Scott Brown is leaving the football club, Peter Lawwell is leaving after many years, and Celtic at this moment in time are still searching for a manager. There’s not even a manager in place. In terms of players leaving, who is coming and going, who is making those big decisions?
There are players at Celtic on loan, there are players out on loan, the two big players Edouard and Ajer will probably leave the club, Christie has one year left. At this moment in time there is so much work to be done staff wise and personal player wise.
Dom McKay starts to shadow Peter Lawwell today, he can be in no doubt about the size of the challenge he has taken on.
“There were too many fantastic performances for me to single anybody out.”
“From goalkeeper to centre-forward, it was outstanding!”
John Hartson is blown away by what he has seen from Celtic ? pic.twitter.com/2Rf8NiVrVi
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) November 8, 2018
‘Just perfect, outstanding’ John Hartson after Celtic’s Europa League win over RB Leipzig.