Over the last five years Celtic fans have celebrated the successes of Brendan Rodgers and Ange Postecoglou, a relationship apparently reciprocated then been left putting the jigsaw pieces together over shock departures.
Both men left Celtic with three domestic trophies tucked away in the Boardroom.
The summer return of Rodgers, two weeks after Postecoglou left for Spurs is still difficult to comprehend. Very little has changed at the club since his first stint in charge as last week’s podium at the club AGM confirmed.
Could see Rodgers leaving again if he isn’t given the quality he needs. Everyone can see from the bench every week that we have no depth at all. Who can blame Rodgers if he does leave again tbh. Some of the utter dross we have as well need to go, squad needs cleansed majorly. https://t.co/WMkXmSDJiU
— CelticLisboa (@CelticLisboaa) November 28, 2023
It seems that the game changer is Mark Lawwell, the mystery man with no background and no credible CV that is now in charge of First Team Recruitment and Scouting.
Back in June the returning manager was at pains to express how impressed he was by the work of Lawwell Mini. Many fans were far from convinced but were prepared to go with the idea but a summer window of signing seven projects to weaken the squad raised alarm bells.
Without Jota, Carl Starfelt and Aaron Mooy Celtic have been massively weakened, throw in injuries to Liel Abada, Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda and the failings of the summer are thrown into focus.
Luis Palma seems to have something but wouldn’t have played ahead of Abada, Jota or Maeda last season. The other signings look well short of what is required, with virtually no playing time it is hard to see any of them having a storming second half of the season.
How Rodgers reacts is impossible to guess. First time around his stock remained high, Liverpool was fresh in the memory, now his last reference point in England was relegation with Leicester.
Having sang the praises of Lawwell Mini and his transfer projects it will be hard to distance himself from the club strategy.
Unless January 2024 matches the quality of 2022 which brought in Hatate, Maeda and O’Riley there is certain to be speculation that below the surface everything isn’t quite as hunky dory as is being portrayed.
Rodgers will be well aware that his Champions League record is destroying his reputation, whether he is prepared for another campaign trying to make something out of Lawwell’s projects remains to be seen.
What do you expect from Celtic's January signings?
More projects
We'll go for quality
100%
If not backed he will go, squad worse off than last season not his fault, board a disgrace— Derek Mahony (@dellerm93) November 28, 2023
Ange’s first 2 transfer windows were great, but his last 2 were pretty poor, and the summer one was awful.
It won’t change, as the club won’t go beyond the transfer fees we’ve been paying. They want a £2M player they can develop into a £20M player and sell on ????
— mmabhoy (@mmabhoy1888) November 29, 2023
Wouldn’t blame him this time
— David CFC (@DavidCunni73366) November 28, 2023
He should have walked or threatened to after the dross he was supplied with in the summer.
— Spuggy?????????? (@Spuggy1967) November 28, 2023
It Peter Lawwell that’s the problem as long as he and his son are at the club it will repeat itself over and over again. We are not a bank! £70M in bank and no intention on spending on quality players. Their wages on the other hand is very healthy!
— StuRam (@Sturam78) November 28, 2023
He’s hardly wet behind the ears regarding how the club operates.
He gets paid £3m per year.
He needs to take his share of the blame.
— Gus Mac (@GusMac71) November 28, 2023
I don’t think it’s a case of him leaving a couple of windows to bring his own players in and it’ll be different, get rid of the dead wood and reduce the squad.
— DMC (@davmac1888) November 29, 2023
i couldn’t blame him for leaving if he did, he was obviously made promises in the summer which were nowhere near met
— Marty Kyogo ?? – Hostage of an Involuntary Union (@martybhoy1979) November 29, 2023
He’s quite right in calling out the board to provide quality players. Our first 11/12 are decent but the rest are average at best. Problem is they are still better than the rest in Scotland
— MF (@MFossett1) November 29, 2023
Rodgers is involved with the board. He’s just doing his daft wee “cryptic” messages while saying he is fully responsible for recruitment, which I believe is a lie.
— cowabunga1.2 (@2Cowabunga1) November 29, 2023
Since Lawell has came back the club has had problems, everything was running smoothly when MN was running things
— brian (@Ireland1997) November 28, 2023
Lol and the sane 60,000 will still show up regardless how bad we play or who the manager is,they ain’t the problem the board is.
The AGM last the board sat there and laughed at officials being called out for cheating by punters attending the AGM,the thing is the board weren’t laughing with the punters they were laughing at the punters,let that SINK IN.
The board are the biggest cheats.
Cant believe 62% voted for successful window, but then maybe I can, they’ll never do anything to rock the boat, no matter how many times the board mess things up, and seem happy with our way of running a business, indeed many still praise the board. As long as we beat pretendy Rangers they are happy, and then they have the cheek to slag the hun supporters,lol
Well said 100%
Permanent embarrassment in Europe under Lawwell. We used to win a few games now we go into them expecting defeat. That’s Lawwells Celtic, gtf
Yet another European embarrassment and it’s all on Lawwell and co with their penny pinching projects .
We need quality signings to progress in Europe, not players who may make a few quid in a couple of years time. Those millions in the bank for a rainy day when we don’t reach the champions league could be used to ensure we do qualify every year and maybe progress to the knockout stages.
We have too many passengers as well, James Forrest being the the prime example, time to clear the decks in January and bring in proven talent.
Every summer you hand your money over without question you lose your power for change.
Fans need to voice their displeasure. Start a Celts for change group, power is in numbers. Time for action, moaning is getting zero results.
Address the main issues which is the cheating officials and SFA.
Also warn the board members that when the coefficient is so bad because of the recruitment and the club are losing out on 50 M CL money then they will be held responsible and boycotts will happen until removed from post. Losing millions for the club must come with repercussions.
Just those 2 topics being dealt with will strengthen the club enormously.
Time for action,
Very good shout Sid,it’s time these issues were brought to a head and made known to this board how the fans feel about our constant depressing European adventures ,I don’t know how lawell can go to these uefa meetings and not get the piss taken out of him about how bad Celtic are becoming in Europe now ,but hey ho we’ve got 72 million tucked away .
Turnbull should be in in place of MacGregor as he is much more attack minded.
I rember this very clearly. Scott Brown got injured and the team had to change tactics from passing about aimlessly similar to they do today.
They started winning 5 nil, 4 nil, 6 nil because they no longer had their midfield breaking up the attack.
When Brown, whom I rate highly but think he was used wrongly, came back they were defeated in their first game and continued to struggle..
The idiot, I forgotten who, managing at the time failed to see the problem.
Rodgers and the coaching staff are the problem as they have no idea how to deal with the same tactic they face each week.
Just to highlight Celtic must have had around 80% of the ball against Motherwell and the one chance the opposition had they scored with.
Against Lazio he playerd Forrest, Johnson and Hart, 3 men down and effectively playing with 8 men.
As bad as they are the board are, they are not responsible and are we saying because of Lawwell our team options are not as good as Motherwell and the rest.
Rodgers should go for Celtic’s sake.
I don’t know why Rodgers came back under the same regime and penny pinching board ,that made him scarper the first time round,was he that naive that he believed what liewell must have promised him to come back as manager again,or did he know exactly what to expect ie penny pinching ,John mcginn type saga again,I just see why he is risking his reputation again ,in saying that even when he was here the first time he had a far better squad but we still took some mighty humpings in Europe. maybe ourselves and all the Scottish teams should just stay out of Europe because it gets more embarrassing each year,look at Aberdeen Hibs Hearts , they’ve all been terrible against even diddy teams in Europe, sevco got a flukey run to a final but that was a one off.