I have been supporting Celtic since the 1990’s and wow what a horrible introduction to football that was, all we ever did was lose, we had the bright lights of 1997/98 and then the wilderness re-appeared before Martin O’Neill took charge and a period of 2 decades saw us win 15 league titles, losing 4 of 5 of them on the last day.
Mowbray and the performance last year the 2 cataclysmic disasters in 2 decades where we have swept all before us, what strikes me as we press the reset button at Celtic, with a squad clear out a new gaffer and CEO is that we are repeating history in the finest of ways, we are mirroring our strategies in 2000.
Martin came in and instead of relying on domestic transfers, the academy or taking a punt on a project went for immediate quality in key positions.
Sutton and Hartson came in to join the King of Kings to form the finest attacking line I have ever seen or likely ever will at Celtic, it was truly something beautiful and flexible with the system allowing for the use of a target man, Henke in the hole or 2 up front with Henrik coming from wide or off the shoulder, it changed over an again meaning we had far more than a plan B we had half a dozen different strategies.
In the defensive midfield came Neil Lennon, for all the pelters Lenny is getting at the moment he was a magnificent servant to the club and fought tooth and nail for every football when playing for the club, the amount of attacks he stopped and the amount of football he turned from defence to counter attack was monumental.
Each of these 3 players came with a price tag of £6 million, they all came from English clubs and in today’s money would be worth a fortune, that the club embarked on such a massive investment saw the Oldco forced into the deadly EBT scheme, as fotmer Ibrox gaffer Alex McLeish admitted, Celtic were simply spending too much money and the liquidated club simply couldn’t keep up.
Celtic see the same opportunity here, we have much more money, time we spent some of it not on the Lawwell era style of projects who may blossom into being the next VVD or Wanyama but are internationals like Juranovic, Hart and Furuhashi, top scorers in big leagues like Georgios Giakoumakis or come highly rated like Liam Scales.
We are bringing in players who can expect to be unveiled and walked into the first team.
Players like Shved and Bayo who had great careers before coming to Celtic and were given no game time, no opportunities, sent out on loan and sold for tuppence whilst we swamped ourselves with loan players we never had any intention of actually buying is a disgrace.
That we are not hearing about stop gap solutions at Celtic, that the players we are signing appear to not just have Celtic futures but are actual pieces in an overall strategy which has been laid out before us and is coming to life week after week is thrilling after a horrible interruption of the supremacy we have become accustomed to.
Ange said we would press high, our wingbacks would lead the charge, we would harass, we would push and we would play high energy attacking and entertaining football, we are doing this with a few players that a few weeks ago people were saying couldn’t play this system.
Ralston has taken the bit between his teeth and with today’s reinforcement of right back with Juranovic signing a 5 year contract we have covered this position and indeed have depth in it.
Taylor is improving but still not to the level required, with Scales expected after Shamrock Rovers European qualifier next week, we have a very exciting Celt arriving with the incumbent giving his all.
Welsh and Starfelt have the acid test of having to hold the line alone when the wingbacks advance, Welsh is improving at an exponential rate, Starfelt hasn’t settled but there is enough quality there to say we have a footballer on our hands, we just need to get some of the elementary errors sorted and the gaffer seems like the man to get that fixed.
Our midfield is awash with quality, McGregor, Rogic and Christie look like new signings, on the latter it is key we get an extension out of Ryan, he is exactly what we need in the team as his dominant display vs Dundee showed.
Kyogo has us already forgetting about Edouard, Griffiths and Ajeti, the three of them would be better off our wage bill with another new striker Ange wants a better priority than the signings of other men.
Hart has recaptured his best form and Celtic again have a big name between the sticks, if only we had actually moved for him last year instead when we decided to by Barkas pointing at our business model of buying young quality keeping a few years and selling big.
That business model has served Celtic well but now as a new era begins we are seeing again players like McCarthy and Hart with no resell possibilities come to Celtic to finish their careers with honours and European nights.
We are seeing players like Kyogo and Juranovic come to the club at age 26 entering the best years of their careers in contracts where they will be born out playing in Hoops.
Even our prospects in Abada and Scales are for large transfers and from pedigree clubs where they are extremely highly rated, the guess work is being taken out of our transfer policy, we are entering a period where the manager selects the players revolving around his desire to build something he has stated he wants.
Not buying a swathe of players for the manager to use at some stage when they come of age or a host of loan players we will freshen up for another gaffer, finally we are seeing a manager who has a clear vision to lead what was a broken team and a depressed support and to treat us to the football and vision we all want.
At 43 years of age I remember this feeling, I remember it from when in my early 20’s I saw a team take the field and knock the Oldco 6-2 and thought to myself what on earth did I just see! With Sutton, Hartson, Agathe, Thompson, Valgaren joinng up with players like Larsson, Mjallby, Petta and Petrov.
The best of the old team and the clear choices of the new manager, freeing up the distractions of former stars like Viduka and getting rid of the dross like Scheidt.
Celtic are rampant. We are playing better football now than we did under Rodgers and that was a very high standard. We are only months in. What a journey this is going to be.
— – (@Tam_Selleck) August 22, 2021
Here in 2021, we are seeing history repeat, those who are remaining are playing better, those who are coming are raising the standard and those who have left are already forgotten.
Let us hope the board backs Ange in the coming weeks and that Eddie agrees terms elsewhere, the rest of it is on the pitch with Europe and a derby standing out as the key dates whereby Angeball will be tested in the crucible.
As in 2000, we are setting out on the construction of a project that has no limits placed on it, now as then I am both confident and expectant, again, it feels great to be a Celt, Ange has got us all dreaming again as we once did after an era of defeat.
You can feel their fear, it tastes delicious.
Gavin Devine
Gavin is a new guest contributor on The Celtic Star, he has his own Celtic site over at IndyCelts.com – please check it out. You can also follow Gavin on Twitter…
Excellent piece, really well written with some very astute observations.
I concur but, to be pedantic, it’s an inverted full back system.
Sorry, I’ll get ma coat !