This Celtic board, for years led by Peter Lawwell and latterly by his wingman Michael Nicholson have been quite intent with being just a little bit better than theRangers, but that strategy has now backfired on them big time…
Celtic’s custodians are principally to blame for our current woes, more so than anyone else. Yes, Brendan Rodgers and the players are culpable too, but the in my view we should lay of blame directly at the feet of our incompetent and unambitious hierarchy, sitting there smugly at Tynecastle yesterday with around £80m sitting in the bank and an absolute shambles of a team on the park especially in attacking areas.
The rot at Celtic started at boardroom level, that is unquestionable. For years now they’ve been content with just being better than the Rangers to continue domestic dominance, and qualifying for the odd champions league group stage, and the lavishing riches that brings. Participation is enough for the Celtic board when it comes to European football, not progress. Michael Nicholson explained this to the supporters at the recent meeting at Celtic Park and it’s all there in the minutes of the meeting that the club themselves approved and released.
They have continued to neglected the recruitment side of things with their buy potential and buy it cheap, hoping to make a big profit, but whilst we’ve unearthed a few gems, the majority of incomings have been disastrous, when we would have been better investing elsewhere on better and more experienced quality.
Instead of being untouchable domestically, and making strides in Europe, we don’t even look that competent in the second tier of European competition, and at home we sit second eight points adrift of Hearts, which is a sad indictment of the way we are been run.
This lethargic and incompetent approach has come back to bite the money hoarding board at Celtic big time. The upcoming Celtic AGM promises to be the most eventful in recent years although there will be strategic questions planted so that the focus on the real issues escape some of the scrutiny that otherwise would come their way.
Brendan Rodgers will be there too and will have to decide if he is going to ‘play the game’ and back his bosses or say what he really thinks. He’s made a pretty poor job of hiding his feelings in recent months but most supporters don’t blame him for that.
The January transfer window is going to be crucial if Celtic want to win the league this season and before that Rodgers has to set aside all the issues and work with the players at his disposal to maximise the points total we take between now and the window opening.
Progress in the Europa League is a bonus and the Premier Sports Cup semi-final will take care of itself. It’s Celtic’s final chance to get a 2025 victory over theRangers and that in itself should be enough motivation for the manager. We need positive Brendan this week and we need three points against Falkirk on Wednesday night at Celtic Park where the grumbles will not be slow in coming if things don’t start positively.
Experience at the back is needed now, not rookies. Battlers in midfield alongside the captain, not passengers (Hatate) or showboaters (Nygren) and the best of what’s available up top (Jamesy, Shin and Tounekti) or go 4-4-2 like we suggested last week to solve the wingers (or lack of them) problem. It could have got us a point yesterday, Brendan.
Celtic should have been compact at Tynecastle yesterday, a draw was a decent result or us in the circumstances. Now every point is so precious and after yesterday the jury is now out on the manager and so many of his players. It’s up to them to prove their point on the park.
As for those on the board, for them their time is up, that’s abundantly clear.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter, signed copies by Danny McGrain available from celticstarbooks.com
Don’t miss the chance to purchase the late, great Celtic historian David Potter’s final book. All remaining copies have been signed by the legendary Celtic captain Danny McGrain PLUS you’ll also receive a FREE copy of David Potter’s Willie Fernie biography – Putting on the Style, and you’ll only be charged for postage on one book. Order from Celtic Star Books HERE.
I’m 100% not buying into this nonsense of “let’s blame the board”!
The board gave the manager almost £40M in transfer money last season! If you look at how he wasted it, it makes absolutely perfect sense that they are very cautious about giving this same manager more! His track record is terrible! You only need to look at the “superstar” buy! Engels! £11M. As hard as the media try to convince themselves, this guy is NOT the hero or midfield genius they try to make out! Against the Austrians in midweek he took a corner that Nygren scored from and everyone hails him as a genius!
But if our defence had all stood that still and allowed a free header like that from a corner we’d go mental! IT WAS JUST A NORMAL CORNER! Engels is no more than a £2M player.
Rodgers ruined Kyogo, Idah, Oh, Kuhn, Palma, and more. The first two are strikers! Yet he wants more strikers! Why? HE DOESN’T PLAY TO STRIKERS! Look at Kenny, then Dhin yesterday! They end up being criticized but got ZERO service!
This isn’t the board! This is seriously bad player management!
Joe, you do talk a load on nonsense. Idah’s fee was down to the board not having a clause in the loan deal and also Idah in being a huge success helping up win the league and Scottish Cup, he scored the winner remember! They could have bought him for £3m that January I seem to recall. Trusty and Engels played in every Champions League game last season, Idah scored three goals and forced the OG that got us through. Celtic got £7m back when they sold him so all of the above not worth £2m to you?
Joe
The saying that its better to think you are deluded than to say something and prove it has never been more apt.
Get well soon.
Got no issues with making accusations, that are only really opinions, especially as it’s never going to be revealed in what actually goes on behind closed doors, with NDA and privacy laws in operation.
To many culprits available to place the free fall solely upon just 1 person imo.
Nothing to suggest that a good working relationship exists between Rodgers and the board.
Growing concerns between Rodgers and his players.
Never will be a connection between supporters and board.
Believe that is the current make up of our club, which makes the managers position the most important within the club imo.
When that position is becoming more questionable in each passing week, especially when his own decision making is showing more signs of becoming erratic, than finding solutions.
Then who really is becoming the biggest culprit?
Personally struggling to totally blame the board campaign, especially as I don’t have full trust in Rodgers decision making process either.
This nonsense of nothing more than playing the blame game, and deciding which side of the fence, your expected to sit on, is beyond frustration levels at this stage, especially with so much failure on show within our club at present imo.
The fall guy will eventually be Rodgers, and at this stage, fail to see how a new contract will or should be offered to him.
Certainly not buying into this nonsense that his decision making actually warrants a new contract, especially when the complete opposite is more on show imo.
A Celtic manager also requires a decent level of development in order to please the board and ourselves in a financial sence, as that keeps financial stability in place, with a player trading model to compensate no TV deal worthy of talking about.
Rodgers hasn’t provided that whatsoever, with players only rated by fitting into a 1 dimension team set up and style.
So it’s of no surprise that a non working relationship exists between Rodgers and board and possibly will never happen again either.
Change will happen when Rodgers is no longer manager, that’s nearly a certainty of happening.
So growing question remains as to when that should actually happen.
Fail to see how Rodgers can’t be held highly responsible also, for the free fall.
Especially with Rodgers possibly the biggest culprit within the whole shitshow, and hiding behind the amount of excuses being offered to him, for his own failings imo.