Colin Kazim-Richards has blasted his time at Celtic in a bizarre rant. The striker, who was pretty useless in his time at the club, criticised Ronny Deila. Kazim-Richards (or the Big Z) was signed with little fanfare from Feyenoord on January 31 2016 as backup to Leigh Griffiths as other backup strikers Carlton Cole and Nadir Çiftçi.
Speaking to Filthy Fellas podcast, the nomadic striker decided to cast up his time at the club, which was probably the only thing of note that the Turkish forward has done in his journeyman career.
“You asked who’s the worst coach, he’s the worst coach. We won the league that year but got beat in the cup (sic. semi) final as well. Celtic, massive team.
“Out of respect I am giving you answers as we can sit here and joke and tell you he’s this and that. But from my perspective, it was more like, I like to learn and once you stop learning at whatever situation you’re in, you become stale.
“It’s because you aren’t learning. I think with Ronny Deila, there was nothing he was doing that any of us was learning. There was no motivation, no communication, no relatedness and on the pitch one thing he was not good at is tactics.
“It was like ‘what are we doing?’ He brought this full fat diet into the team. No carbs, but there was bacon, pork sausages, everything fat and meat diet. If I am lying, I am sure you can look it up somewhere. You would come down to breakfast at nine in the morning and it’s all fried food, just meat, you’re like ‘what’s going on?’
“It was a difficult situation and I don’t think he was having a good time there as well.”
The striker made his debut with Celtic 2-0 down at half-time against Aberdeen. The then 29-year-old had little contribution in his debut apart from receiving a yellow card. He got a goal in the Scottish Cup against East Kilbride; although his performances left an awful lot to be desired. Slow with the first touch that wouldn’t have been out of place in a pub team, Kazim-Richards wasn’t very good.
Kazim-Richards did score a brilliant goal at Tynecastle as Celtic all-but confirmed 5IAR. He took the ball down on his chest before thundering the half volley into the net to send Deila’s side on their way in the match.
The striker arrived at the club to play second string to Griffiths, who carried the team at various points that season. It was a poor season that was exemplified by players like Kazim-Richards.
Keith Richards would have been better.
Deila was another cheap move by Lawell, there was no energy in this team clearly the builders diet was ridiculous for professional athletes.