Good morning to you from Western Australia where a few hours ago I was up in the middle of the night watching our latest Euro capitulation despite dominating the possession stats over the 95 minutes.
Caught with so-called sucker punches at the beginning of each half, showed a defence that we all knew was simply not good enough at this level and which if we had progressed to the group stages would have been torn to shreds at every turn.
This brings me to your article which I just read. We have run this race before, no investment in the team until the horse has bolted, the yearly qualifying round gamble and still it goes on. This year we were dealt the psychological blow of losing out on John McGinn and I believe that even though John would have been ineligible to play for us in the qualifiers, it has shocked our fans to the core and created a depression that needs to be lifted almost immediately.
John’s partner of nearly five years is my niece and together with her older sister, they have spent the past week here with me and my wife in Mandurah, even coming with me to watch the Hearts game on Saturday night at our CSC.
John McGinn was invited to visit Brendan at his home in May and did so, the two then kept in touch via phone messages and conversations until Celtic and Lawwell in particular, royally ballsed the entire thing up. It culminated in Lawwell or one of his lackeys calling the McGinn family directly to try to play an emotional joker but by this time the young man had become disillusioned with Celtic’s lack of intent and the deal with Aston Villa was done.
Brendan called John to wish him all the best but the outstanding young Scottish talent of the past two years was gone. On a personal note, I’m gutted, having met John at my sisters last year, I knew what a good fellow he was.
The failure to sign John McGinn is gross incompetence in my opinion, the failure to fix our defence is a gross dereliction of duty and added to the Ronny Deila fiasco and more pointedly the lack of any commentary on the ongoing Rangers cheating over 20 years, among many other issues, it is time to replace Lawwell at Celtic Park. We need someone who is going to lead and ensure that we remain at the forefront of the game in Scotland, last night’s result is just the culmination of many years of complacent commercial management of a footballing giant with a fan base that is all too often treated with utter contempt.
Make no mistake, if this was any business other than football, the past two or three weeks inabilities to have business concluded in a professional manner would result in people losing their jobs, and rightly so.
Hail Hail
Denis Doherty
Another celtic supporter blinkered by the scottish media. Rob Petrie was never going to sell us John McGinn. We offered the same money as Villa with the same wages but he chose villa, thats upbto him, he wont play for Celtic anytime in the future. The celtic board delivered Eddy at £7m were negotiating with Boyata who was saying he was keen to extend. Rogic, Forrest, Tierneyand Ajer on 5 year contracts all cost money. I didnt see anyone complaining about these deals. Getting the right peoole in to improve the team is always going to be difficult in Scotland. Players are attracted by rhe champions league and the really good ones wont sign unless they are guaranteed. The Celtic support have sllowed themselves to be conned by the the Scottish Media. We have completed back to back trebles, the big prize is 10 in a row and a split within the club/ supporters the only thing that can jeopardise this. The article above panders to the media agenda. Support the club, lets get 8 with 2 to go, do well inbthe Europa League and deliver anorher treble, all achievable challenges with a small improvement in the current playing staff. We need to remove Boyata because of his attitude, bring in experienced right back and left centre half allowing Ajer and Hendry time to develop.
Peter, nobody is fooled.
Glover, everyone is entitled to their opinion but if you read the article and accuse someone of being blinkered by the Scottish media who lives on the other side of the world. I’ve been here for more than 20 years and not only am I not blinkered by them, I never even look at a Scottish media web page.
A few facts, we matched Villa’s bid when John, his agent and his parents were already being treated with respect by that club in Birmingham, at Aston Villa’s expense.
I for one will be very surprised if this board paid anything close to 7M up front for Edouard, with add-ons possibly. If they were negotiating with Boyata’s group and he was saying that he wanted to extend, that didn’t end well?
Getting existing players on extended contracts is their job and that should be happening any time we have good players. In the past three seasons this board has gambled with CL qualification and managed to ride it in the previous two, buying after we qualified, like everything else in life, if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail, it has bitten us this time with the lessons of previous years ignored, don’t forget, these are the same guys who declared that Nadir Ciftci was our number 1 target a few seasons back.
I agree that we should remove Boyata and bring in the other guys but this should have been done in time for at least the third qualifier.
Definitely not blinkered by the Scottish media or anyone else.
AR