Overall
Celtic’s summer business was in all, successful. The game at Ibrox on Sunday highlighted that Celtic are still, despite all the noise, clearly the best team in Scotland and have eventually recruited well. Whether it was a reaction to the fallout of our defeat to Cluj or not, Celtic made strides in the transfer market to genuinely strengthen.
The circumstances that led to the club crashing out of the Champions League as we annually gamble with that money; although Neil Lennon acknowledged that since he returned as full-time manager, he has only suffered one poor half of football. Incidentally, with a handful of youthful signings, it suggests that there is some long-term planning in place within the recruitment department. That said we have signed a number of loanees, which doesn’t scream long term planning; however, all loan signings have potential to materialise into more permanent options.
Have you noticed that all the deals have been on four year contracts? It looks like we are building for the future which is great to see.
The biggest negative remains the team selection and performance against Cluj. Neil Lennon blamed the players, the Celtic support blamed the manager and the CEO Peter Lawwell. Yes Scott Brown had a shocker, so did Scott Bain (costly for him). Yet it could have been easily avoided without spending any more money that has been spent looking back in the window this morning.
All summer long The Celtic Star told us we would be shopping in Kilmarnock. Greg Taylor could have been bought for the same sum on the FIRST day of the window and not the LAST.
In Cluj they kept the grass long and down our left hand side Bolingoli and Morgan had shockers, but we got a 1-1 draw. Neil Lennon then presumably reckoned that Cluj would target Bolingoli in the second game so he tried to outsmart Desperate Dan by playing Callum McGregor at left back.
Scott Brown and captain and John Kennedy as Assistant Manager – both involved at Ibrox on 29 December – should have raised the red flag at that point.
Had Taylor been signed on the first day rather than the last day you feel that we’d have easily taken care of Cluj, as indeed we’ll prove in the Champions League.
The Fans Media
This site (The Celtic Star), The Celtic Blog, Video Celts, Celts Are Here, Celtic Underground, E-Tims and the 90 Minute Cynics all voiced serious concerns about the way Peter Lawwell was running the club after the Cluj disaster and all should be applauded for standing up for the support.
Some wanted Neil Lennon to get the job in May (eg The Celtic Star) while others were very vocal in arguing the opposite position (eg The Celtic Blog). That was NOT the issue in the summer. All the sites mentioned got behind the manager and the team but we wanted to ensure that the Board kept their promise and backed him in the window.
Selling KT and playing Calmac at left back in the most important game of the season suggested otherwise.
Yet the board’s puppet called the other sites Bed Wetters ahead of Ibrox – on Celtic Noise, the Celtic Star editor had a thread up all week on the match predicting another Beautiful Sunday, a scoreline of 2-0 and that Odsonne Edouard would score, so not sure where that is coming from.
But the fans media did have an impact and will always speak up. When acting collectively they have a very powerful voice.
Lubo98
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