Celtic is rotting from the inside out, and we can do nothing but watch…
Celtic is a team in shambles – that is clear to see. Two domestic defeats in a row now and I’m not confident of ending that streak against Livingston next Saturday. Whether we like it or not, we are fair game for anyone in the league right now, and that’s not good when we have a Glasgow Derby game coming up in two weeks.
For a team that dominated under Ange Postecoglou, how we can go from looking like a powerhouse of Scottish football to losing at Celtic Park to a much weaker side is unexplainable.
Are tactics the problem? Maybe. Last season’s top goal scorer, Kyogo Furuhashi, has played 17 games this season. In those 17 appearances, he has scored six goals – a significantly lower number compared to his tally from this time last season. That may not be his fault though as he is being taken out of the game. But what is the problem here?
It could be the tactics used by Brendan Rodgers, which were criticised a lot earlier in the season due to the deeper role that Kyogo was being asked to play. As X user BhoyinRed put it, this is how Celtic play: “Get the ball. Pass it around the back for a few minutes. Give it to the winger. And if the winger keeps the ball for more than a few seconds, whip the ball into the box. Rinse and repeat.” This summary is hard to argue with, as it’s what we’re all seeing on the pitch! This system clearly does not suit Kyogo or any of our wingers currently fit to play a game.
It’s also a fact that most of our fit wingers are not good enough to be in the team. Mikey Johnston lost the ball 18 times in 45 minutes, leaving our star striker completely isolated at the top of the park. Although I personally rate him, the statistics and what we’ve seen from him recently don’t put Yang in a positive light either. Last season, Kyogo had Jota to supply him. This season, he has Mikey Johnston!
A big talking point from the game was the chants directed towards the Celtic board, and chairman Peter Lawwell in particular. ‘Sack the board’ and ‘Lawwell, get to….’ were some of the chants heard around the stadium, with stewards being deployed around the director’s box as tensions grew inside the ground.
Why this guy removed freedom a speech that right you can’t slate these money grabbing Tory bastards pic.twitter.com/uUFMAnJAIc
— GOVAN EMERALD CSC (@GOVANEMERALDCSC) December 16, 2023
The board have done nothing good this season.
The Green Brigade have now been banned since the end of October, and although talks between the GB and the club were rumoured, they have seemingly yet to have come to an agreement.
In addition to this, the club have just pulled in record profits and revenue for the year – yet I can take a good guess and say that we won’t see that represented in the players we bring to the club in the upcoming transfer windows.
Speaking of transfers – ONE of our summer signings started yesterday, with only two of the others being on the bench. That means that Yang, Tilio, Phillips, Nawrocki, Lagerbielke, and Holm were nowhere to be seen. For heaven’s sake, what is happening at our club?
It makes you wonder if it was even Rodgers that wanted these players in the first place, but even if they aren’t, you can’t justify only including three out of nine summer signings in the squad.
Alright – we’re always going to lose games. We’re always going to drop some points. But with the squad we have, filled with players that won a treble last season, we need to be doing much better than this.
If you dare to speak out about what you think is going wrong, you will be banned from partaking in things like media conferences – as seen recently when a Celtic Podcast was apparently banned for giving their opinions on the board. Celtic is rotting from the inside out, and we can do nothing but sit back and complain.
Jessica Elliott
Do you agree with Jessica’s assessment? If you would like to outline your own thoughts on what happening at Celtic this season please email editor@theCelticstar.co.uk and we’ll publish today. Alternatively you can add your comments below…
From a treble winning team to 5 in front with the Huns 2 games in hand. Rogers came out with a shocking statement at the beginning of the season which was, he gets given the players and he coaches them to make them the best they can be. As soon as I read this, red flags were front & centre. Around the same time in North London, Ange was asked about his players and he stated categorically that no one other than him in any team he has managed gets to pick the players coming in or play. There’s the difference right there. Rogers is happy to sit back and take what’s forces fed to him, whereas as soon as one window closed, Ange was personally scouring looking for players who could play and fit his style, and not the bank balances. Celtic don’t need to spend their £72m on players, but they do need experienced players who suit the style that Brendan wants to play. They absolutely need players who are big in size, build & character. If Rogers agreed to this during the weeks of negotiating at his Villa in Spain, then on that basis, he’s just as guilty as the ones filling the team with duds.
Unfortunately, the truest statement from Jessica’s post was “ Celtic is rotting from the inside out, and we can do nothing but sit back and complain”, and that is the saddest indictment of all.
Sit back and complain!!! ???
I beg to differ.
If we,as a support,were to initiate an absolute boycott of ALL Celtic merchandise then at least we are affecting these parasites cushy existence.
No pies bovril,Paradise Windfall tickets at the games.
No placing bets at their sponsors and especially not one replica top or other tat from the superstore.
Hit these parasites where it really hurts them…..ln the pocket.
It’s the ONLY language they understand !!!
Absolutely spot on William.
We should also do something very significant and obvious.
At the next game, we should absent ourselves completely and continue this until something is done. Celtic is indeed rotting on the inside.
Hearts deserved their victory yesterday. However – a word on the referee. There was no foul on the Hearsts player by Carter-Vickers. Rather, it was the other way round if the was one. Mr Clancy is incompetent, but it may even be worse than incompetence and I believe he is part of a disturbing trend. It certainly looks as though Celtic are judged by different laws in the game. The game seems to be corrupt in Scotland.
The Board are content with this and want to maintain a duopoly – to the detriment of all the other clubs. This should not be tolerated. This Board is a cancer working inside our club and keeping it from progress, consequently affecting the whole of Scottish football.
Mr Rodger’s does not look a good fit either. His recent line-ups defy belief and he seems to be wanting sacked so he can pick up another big pat cheque. He has begun to hang the players out to dry. An Ange team would have stormed back after Hearts first goal.
Spot on William I’ve been advocating this action for a while now,it’s the only thing these money grabbers of a board would understand,words are cheap and don’t frighten liewell and co.
Spot on re needing” players big in size , build and character”…
Kyogo is lost without service and our wing play is non existent …enough has been said about Mikey but imho Palma is never Celtic class….a fan dancer if ever there was one. I think Brendan will see how we are in the next few games and IF we collapse in the league then fingers will be pointed at the board for penny pinching….
They aint seen nothing yet if they thought the protests on Saturday were bad.
Can’t agree more , this has been going on for many years , it’s as if this board think the r……s won’t get better , but they will and we’ll pay dearly for that, they are putting profits before success , in Europe were a laughing stock, Ten in a row proves that , peter lawell supposidly left only to come back under a new position , only to do the same job ( projects will be our downfall this time ) only way to fix this is get rid of all the players not good enough and bring in three to four good players who will start , even if we need to spend serious money to make this happen , the rewards at the end of the season will justify this .☘️🙏
Rotting from the inside…..Complete and utter claptrap. Reads like a headline from the Hugh Keevins school of Journalism or should I say lies! Hard to disagree with anything you say about the team and the type of football we are playing. It’s there for all to see. BR is not managing the transition well at all. We are dropping points at a rapid rate and if we don’t smarten up sharpish then we could be in trouble. Your comments about the board are opinion based with the facts no where to be seen. As for podcasters being APPARENTLY banned for freedom of expression, Keevins, Jackson and the rest of the haters would have been proud of that line. Our board are by no means perfect and need to be held accountable, no doubt about that. Reading this piece and others you would think we were back in the Kelly/White era. Get a grip!
You refuse to see what’s going on a board level. We are back in the Kelly/Whyte era. A board full of untouchables and dominated by two families who have been in the job for almost two decades. A chief of recruitment with no experience who happens to be the chairmans son? And has made a pigs ear of it. What more evidence do you need? I assume you, like me, are old enough to remember those days. It’s no coincidence we heard sack the board from the fans at Celtic park yesterday for the first time in 30 years, since we got those charlatans out. Do we have to finish fourth in the league as we did then for the penny to drop?
And you and your ilk Brian are a huge part of why we’ve showed no progression in 20 years, and why we never will.
why do celtic fans always blame the board? is our manager looking for a way out? Celtic are currently east to play against, if wingers don’t perform we have no plan B, we go down outside then for some obscure reason come inside around the 18 yard box and run into trouble. there is something really amiss and I am of opinion it is stemming from the training ground not the board. It is the football side that needs addressed. If Brendan Rodgers is not surprised by lack of mental toughness why is he continuing to pick these players. and more importantly, can you throw players under the bus and then expect them to perform for you? he is without doubt sowing division in the dressing room, which is not a recipe for success
Celtic may very well be rotting. Not sure why though. There is something seriously wrong with this team playing the way they do. Kyogo for some reason is not getting goals. Perhaps the way Brendon wants his team to play is the reason. There is real confusion here and it must be almost impossible for the team to play. They appear to have lost faith in the manager and the manager in them. The players brought in were prospects and Celt must always try to attract such players. However, better players need to be brought in with them. That is the mistake made by the board who appear not to want to sanction buying some tried and tested players. January is not the best time to buy in and Brendon must stop the criticism of his players publicly. They will not play for him otherwise. Somehow things have to be turned around if we are to progress and win the SPL and get into Europoe.
I think there is definitely something more sinister going on with this Board than many realise. Ange Postecoglu had the Celtic team playing such dynamic football that the fans were actually beginning to believe that maybe the club could build on it and start making some headway in Europe. Although the team didn’t get anywhere in the Champions League under Ange the first time of asking, it was clear that the team he had had rattled a number of bigger European clubs. Only a combination of inexperience and bad luck stopped the team from really stamping their authority on what was a really tough group, including Real Madrid.
Anyway, the Board realised fairly quickly that with fan expectations and a manager who insisted on strengthening the team with each window, choosing players to recruit long before the window opened, there was going to be a demand for a bigger transfer kitty. And, since Celtic is first a business to the bonus-loving Board, when Ange left for Tottenham they saw an opportunity to get on of their own back in the door.
Brendan Rodgers was hired to slow the pace and reduce expectations to what they were pre-Postecoglu, which is exactly what he’s done. Of course, winning the premier league was always an expectation, but beyond that Rodgers knew full well that part of his remit was to reduce any and all hopes of progressing in Europe while declaring the opposite to the press. It is now so patently clear and it is also quite obvious that Rodgers, unlike Ange, has not selected any of the players added in the summer.
Brendan Rodgers is yesterday’s news as a manager. He was great first time around, many moons ago, but Celtic have moved on since then, or so we thought. He destroyed Leicester City, a team that was on fire, just like Ange’s Celtic, when he entered the building. When he left, they were on the verge of relegation, which subsequently happened.
I think he has already lost the Celtic dressing room, for no team of the calibre of Celtic would draw and lose this frequently if the manager and his tactics were respected. He has single-handedly destroyed Kyogo’s confindence, not to mention a few others who are a shadow of what they were last year. His footballing tactics are outdated, boring and destructive, the very polar opposite of Celtic under Ange. No one will convince me that it’s accidental. The Board knew exactly what they wanted after Postecoglu, and why, which is the real reason behind Rodgers’ return.
I agree totally Martin.
I also believe the Board work to support the O ….F……. Tag to the detriment of all the other clubs.
There are two cancers here, the Ibrox club and certain members (most) of the Celtic Board.
It seems nobody can have an opinion that conflicts with that of the Board. So we are indeed back to the Kellys and Whites era.
I think Jessica makes alot of good points ,and the “rotting from within”Jessica is really just the managed decline we were witnessing pre Ange.BRs body language to me looks like a man being held at gunpoint.It very rarely works out 2nd time around.I just knew when PL returned and Ange left we would return to this.Thing is we have had a glimpse of where we could go with the right guy in charge,and a bit of ambition from the board,and the thought of going back to this has enraged us as a support .I don’t agree tho Jessica that there is nothing we can do.I was out in that Kerrydale car park in 94 when we ousted the old regime.
Rogers was bought back because he was finished as a manager after Leicester City.
The board knew Rodgers, (with his tail between his legs) would shut up do as he is told and not rock the boat by demanding new signings.
Desmond doesn’t care for this club t is just a cash cow to him.
That’s why we have groundhog day of Lawell and Rodgers overseeing the most tepid Celtic team displays since the pissing away 10 in a row season.
Only problem is this time no EPL club is going to come and save Rodgers career.
A loss to the Hun in 2 weeks and it is all over for Rodgers at Celtic and we will have an interim manager until a month before next season kicks off.
Seen it all before.
Hear, hear.
Every comment here has valid points although the board does need to come under scrutiny. Ange fell into our lap and would always leave if he proved himself with us. The warning signs have been there all season, we are a shambles at the back, we rely too much on Mcgregor and the Jap/ Asian boys have fallen off a cliff. This has the 10 season written all over it and it will be criminal if we lose this league to a team who haven’t really improved. If Ange was still here the league would be secured already, so Rodgers is at fault to some degree. As soon as Lawell returned, I had the fear, that could never be seen as a step forward, especially with his son in a position to influence transfer policy. Dangerous times for our club as this has the potential to become a malaise we will struggle to recover from.
Let’s knock this manager crap right in the head. The team have been rubbish, so has Rogers and his tactics. The thing is this is not happening in a vacuum, this is a symptom, all this was predicted by many people months ago, and in many cases years ago. There is no great mystery, like in science the power of prediction is huge, and proves the voracity of an arguement. We have a board married to old firm plc, happy to turn a blind eye to all sorts of historical cheating and to ignore massive discrepancies in how Celtic are officiated every game when compared to our ‘friends’ across the city.This is not open to debate, it’s been made as plain as the the nose on your face for years now, happy to dominate a corrupt league, keep our business partners solvent and challenging us, and show zero ambition in Europe( in more than one case, making us weaker for Europe before it starts). But why not, they get massively remunerated for a business our size, and in their eyes that’s what we are, ‘a successful business’, no interest in football.