The past 2 months have been horrific, turgid, depressing times for all Celtic fans and the worrying thing is, this might not be the worst of it.
We are all trying to put our finger on why this team, stacked full of serial winners, has all of a sudden become a group of men who barely look each other in the eye. In the summer the board decided to make numerous additions to the playing squad, with most fans very pleased with the arrivals at the club. Big money was spent, and also some big name players slipped out the back door with hardly any coverage at all.
Jozo Simunovic, Scotty Sinclair (departed in January), Craig Gordon, Jonny Hayes, Fraser Forster, all left the club for pastures new and most people weren’t too fussed about this at the time (except for Forster of course).
Now, deep into the most depressing run of form experienced since the early 90’s when Lou Macari signed Willie Falconer with the tagline “he’s not going to set the heather alight”, we are seeing some quarters yearning for the aforementioned departed to be prized back to rescue our season. Granted the return of big Fraser would be a huge improvement and I am all for the club going on double bended knee to the Southampton back up keeper to, pretty please with cherries on top, come back up the road and give us a hand? The other 4 however, I mean come on, let’s not get mental now.
Jonny “he always gives 100%” Hayes is being talked about in some parts of the support as the type of man we need. I just don’t buy it. I mean yes, he’s a popular guy and does burst a gut when he plays but please – is he better than Laxalt? The Uruguayan is at least 2 levels above Hayes and I’m just not entertaining that thought for a start. Simunovic? He left the club in the summer and is still a free agent – why? Because he failed a medical when on the brink of a move to Croatian side Rijeka. Do we forget how much football this guy missed? Sorry, not for me.
Scotty Sinclair is someone who will always be a huge talking point with fans, and rightly so, his contribution to the club was immense. He did leave the club after a barren run of form and was a bit part player for a long time before signing for Preston in January. His form in England has been pretty good, underlined by a spectacular long range goal during the week which saw tweets demanding the club make him a priority to come back up the road. While I can see the argument, is he any better than Elyonoussi? Do we also bring in a 31 year old and then further blunt the progress of Mikey Johnston, who is almost ready to come back after a long spell on the sidelines? Jury is out, but this is an avenue I would not like to see the club go down.
Finally, Craig Gordon. Again, do people forget that this guy was our 3rd choice keeper last season? Is he better than Barkas? That is actually quite a difficult call given the Greek stopper’s woeful performances of late but Gordon is in his late 30’s and plays in the championship.
The reason for all this looking to the past? It’s simple, we were winning games then. It is perfectly natural to want to return to the very recent times when we could actually grind out results and at times play some good stuff. That combination has disappeared along with my hairline and I’m sorry to say that unless real and decisive change is made at the club, its going to be a while before we see those heady days again.
Brian McVeigh
