There was something of being put out your misery about Celtic’s defeat at Ibrox this afternoon and with it the meek concession of the third of our previously hard earned and maintained trophies over four consecutive years.
The last of the Japanese solders still fighting the 20/21 war may point to form being temporary and class being permanent and that would make sense if the loss form was a minor aberration, or those now left behind had supplied the initial consistency.
Sadly, what is left amongst the remnants is not the Tierneys, Lustigs, Sinclairs or Dembeles nor the Gordons and Forsters – guys you’d expect could shake off a one-off season and re-emerge with a resurgence of form.
Instead, the ones we hope will return Celtic to the permanency of class are the likes of an aged and emptied Scott Brown, alongside loan players like Jonjoe Kenny and Diego Laxalt – discarded might have beens from other clubs with no interest or investment in ours – as well as a second-choice goalkeeper purchased from Dundee for just that role.
Individuals thrust into expectancy, and through no fault of their own, due to a gamble taken at CEO/Director of Football level, one operating under a micromanaging all-encompassing role, where the tactic was to agree, even suggest, a Five-Way agreement to ensure some version of a ‘Rangers’ survived. And all the while assuming with an ego out of control, and criminally unchecked, that he could ensure theRangers survived, but somehow assumed he could keep the ‘rivalry’ and funds it drew in alive, and as he did so assume his Machiavellian skills would ensure they would always be kept at arm’s length under his watch.
And you know what? Bar a worldwide pandemic, he’ll now excuse himself as that being the reason. An act of God, as Peter Lawwell begins the handover of his role and the subsequent lack of balance between dividend returns and competency on the field of play, a now a poisoned chalice rather than a seamless transition of power, to a long overdue successor tomorrow morning.
Today we’ll all be side-lined. Kennedy is Lennon Mark II, Lennon was entirely to blame in the first place, Celtic haven’t coped with the pressure of the Ten, Wantaways were kept in place when they should have been sold, Big Bad Covid cost us history.
But all of that is minimal in comparison to the managed decline Celtic, under the outgoing CEO, has overseen.
Today was the culmination of decisions taken at boardroom level, where the rest of the board members happily placed a blazer around their shoulders and rested their backsides on a heated and cushioned main stand seat, but couldn’t shoulder the responsibility their role came with, to challenge a CEO with a remit he had long since exceeded. Thomas Cromwell would applaud.
Today we’ll look back on missed penalties, bizarre efforts to convert from Odsonne Edouard and Stephen Welsh, alongside frustration at Moi Elyounoussi taking an extra touch and the abdication of defensive responsibilities by Kris Ajer.
And all that would be right if today was just a one off, if the quality and mentality on the field of play, or available to any manager charged with the responsibility of picking a team, hadn’t been slowly eradicated by the gamble of all gambles, the decision and complicity to stay just one step ahead of the revived corpse of a rival, rather than construct a sustainable and adaptable football and business model while we had a free reign for years to design and implement it.
Some will blame Edouard, Elyounoussi, Ajer et al for-today’s result and as a one-off blame game how can you disagree, but today wasn’t about those 90 minutes, it was a culmination of dreadful mismanagement, ego and hubris at boardroom level. Today was simply another symptom, it was far from the cause.
Niall J
