CHRIS SUTTON is correct in his conclusions in his newspaper column this morning but there’s perhaps more to this than meets the eye.
Earlier in the week, in an interview with The Celtic View, Brendan Rodgers pointed out that in the second double winning season certain standards slipped and the team ended up finding ways to win matches when not at their best.
Stuart Armstrong spoke a few months ago about the punishing schedule that the Celtic players have had to endure with the Invincible season pretty much running into the Double Treble campaign. Six Celtic players turned out for Scotland in the crucial World Cup qualifier against England at Hampden. Two weeks later the Celtic boys were back in pre-season training getting ready for the Champions League qualifying campaign – so vital for the well being of the club.
Indeed had Armstrong toe bashed the ball out of the park at Hampden deep into injury time instead of attempting a pass, the Celtic Scots could have been heading for Russia and we’d undoubtedly suffer the consequences of this next season.
As it stands Lustig, Rogic, Gamboa (offski) and almost certainly Boyata – after the mattress fiasco yesterday – will be heading to the World Cup.
Celtic will pick up £800,000 for their participation – our noisy neighbours will receive £150,000 as Alves is in the Portugal squad – but the downside is that these players – three from four are first team regulars – are not going to be there for the qualifiers.
And those of us with longer memories will recall the very difficult season that Celtic had after Scotland made it to the World Cup with lots of Celts in their squad.
Sutton is of course right in the players he has exempted from criticism for the shift they put in last term.
Scott Brown was brilliant – KT, James Forrest, Callum, Tom Rogic (when fit) all were star performers.
His criticism of Mikael Lustig was maybe a little harsh. Celtic changed their shape with Lustig sitting deeper so Tierney – who didn’t gel with Scotty Sinclair in the early part of the season – they seemed to be getting in each other’s way – could bomb forward. By this time the Invincible season’s Player of the Year was usually starting on the bench.
There were so many injuries to the Celtic squad – a consequence of the punishing schedule and the lack of a decent break. Leigh Griffiths had one problem after another and after scoring against Hibs in January he battered the turf in frustration at his calf going again.
Paddy Roberts had not one but two hamstring pulls which effectively wasted his second loan period at the club.
Armstrong played with an injury before going under the knife in January and Boyata’s big howler at Ibrox on the first of three Beautiful Sundays came in the opening minutes of his comeback from injury.
Jack Hendry has been played, somewhat unfairly, at right back and frankly that is never going to be a position he will excel in. Kristoffer Ajer, got a little bit of criticism from ex-Celtic striker, and that too was harsh. There would have been one or two errors he could be picked up on but he was outstanding in his first extended run in the first team.
Armstrong’s mistake in that Auld Enemy match will benefit Celtic, who made sure that it was fringe players who made the trip to Peru and Mexico in these rather pointless friendlies.
Yesterday Mark Dingwall from the Follow Follow website spoke on Sky Sports News about the arrival of Steven Gerrard at Ibrox. All fans have a right to be optimistic in the summer before a ball is kicked.
Much was made of his mistake in claiming Celtic spend £70m on players last season, rather than £7m and that over-shadowed the logic he outlined in how Rangers can challenge Celtic in the league. Dingwall yesterday released the latest round in allegations regarding a suit at the SPFL – he is close to Dave King.
His website also led the campaign to have Celtic supporters removed from the Free Broomloan stand, and these initiatives have been widely applauded on all their forums.
Dingwall explained that if they can match Celtic in the games against the other sides in the league – he didn’t say ‘Diddy teams’ but that was implied, then the league could come down to the four “Old Firm” games.
Did this silly fucker just say Celtic spent over 70m on the team last year. I give up with them. ????????♂️ pic.twitter.com/yJAlENHKxz
— Tommy Hamilton (@Tommy__Hamilton) June 1, 2018
They know that they can play a certain way at Celtic Park and steal a point in the two games. That gives Celtic a 3 points advantage. Their problem is that they have taken nothing at all from Celtic at Ibrox since Brendan Rodgers arrived.
Banning the Celtic supporters from the Free Broomloan is really about this stat:
Played 4 Lost 4 Points 0
Unless something changes Celtic would have an 11 point advantage from these “Old Firm” games – boy do they cling to that – and the league would be Celtic’s.
They will take comfort in points dropped by Celtic in the season just ended – especially in the number of draws, many of which were 0-0s. Celtic only had Scott Sinclair in double figures for goals scored.
So while Sutton is correct, there are reasons. Brendan is well aware of these and has already stated that this won’t be repeated. Had King, Dingwall and the rest realised it, then they would have had a chance to stop 10IAR last season.
