“Some people think football is a matter of life or death. I assure you it us more serious than that.” We all know what Bill Shankly was getting at when he made that comment and to be fair it is from a different era. The man who is currently filling Mr Shankly’s boots at Liverpool FC, brought it up to date with words we can only marvel at for a man with English as his second language. Mr Klopp told us that during the current pandemic, football is “ the most important of the least important things”.
The Scottish government have the moral high ground, they are currently fighting a noble battle to save lives. Our current manager decided to pick an argument with them and others on the fallout from the Dubai trip and how we were being treated unfairly in footballing matters. Neil, you are losing too many battles on the park and this is also a no winner. In footballing terms, it is equivalent to losing 4:1 in both legs to Sparta Prague reserves. Learn from Donald Trump and know when to concede…..oh, wait a moment!
You may or may not agree with the manager’s comments and I think there is some merit in them but the more interesting question is over timing. I know he has been in self isolation but I hadn’t appreciated he had taken a vow of silence during that period. I am pretty sure he picked the teams and called the shots on the substitutions during our last two games. His fingerprints were all over them.
(Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)
He may even have primed Gavin Strachan on what to say post match that we regretted nothing. So, why didn’t he come out with his comments before yesterday? I guess he made his views clear internally but lost that particular battle and Peter Lawell was forced into an apology. Now that he is back centre stage, he took the first opportunity to go rogue.
His comments were not designed to help Celtic FC on the park, it is too late for that, and they have damaged us off the park. At best they are self serving.
To more footballing matters, our strong “reserve” side failed to win at home to either Hibernian or Livingston. It is obvious that we have not turned things around. The performances on the park have been and remain unacceptable and arguably we have gone backwards. Gavin Strachan told us after those games that off field events have dented the players’ confidence. That is where we were a few months ago!
The players are far from blameless but the coaching staff are to blame for the failure to get that best out of them; it’s a case of the total being less than the sum of the individual parts. We have failed in Europe for some time and we are now failing domestically.
Why is Neil Lennon, and the two other coaches, still in post? The mood music coming out of Celtic is that changes are coming. Let’s hope so, but who is capable of making such decisions on the playing side? Nick Hammond is not long in post and I don’t think holds much sway. Peter Lawwell thinks he is and that is part of the problem. None of the other Board members would be involved in such footballing matters, their specialist subjects being finance and the law.
It is 100% Mr Desmond’s decision. Let’s hope he decides quickly and wisely.
Until such changes are made, a pertinent question is, have we reached the bottom? Unfortunately, I suspect there are more playing disasters just around the corner; it is not only the players’ confidence that is low.
Chris Wotherspoon