FOR some time now Tom Rogic has suffered from being ‘Out of sight, out of mind’. Today against Ross County at Celtic Park he may well have the opportunity to put himself back to the forefront of all ours.
An opening has arisen with Ryan Christie suspended. The chance to profit was just about to be grabbed by our French malcontent Olivier Ntcham. That was until Neil Lennon’s press conference where it would appear the cruel hand of fate may have passed on this possibility to another. Oliver has apparently rolled his ankle and is very much a doubt for today.
With Ryan’s self-imposed period in detention and Ntcham strapping ice packs to his ankle, a chance has arisen surely for Tom Rogic to send us all a gentle reminder of just what we’ve been missing. It may be one of those sliding door moments that has a massive impact on a Celtic career and the club’s season.
So far this season the mercurial Aussie has struggled for game time. His injury last season was either worse than thought or niggling subsequent issues delayed a return. It left a player in dire need of a strong pre-season unable to benefit from it.
As such Tom has made one competitive start when he played 90 minutes and grew into a wonderful goalscoring performance against Partick Thistle in the League Cup and the grand total of 29 minutes of Premiership football over two substitute appearances.
Opportunity has been limited due to the not insignificant impact Ryan Christie has made this season. Ryan has temporarily moved from this seasons Messiah to the Naughty Boy’s step following his sending off against Livingston. The Messianic role use to be one Tom Rogic himself carried. Now he has fallen behind Olivier Ntcham in both the eyes of the manager and those of the supporters.
It’s easy to think when he’s been missing for so long that Tom’s gone off the boil, he’s injury prone and he’s substituted more often than the 40 a day man in your Sunday league team. When Rogic goes with the national team he’s never back in time to be in contention for Saturday. The other reason could be that many saw the last 6 months of Tom Rogic last season as disappointing by his own standards. All of those arguments have validity.
The counter to that however is that prior to Christmas last year and Celtic’s public fall out with the Australian national coach, any bids for our playmaker would have been laughed off as so derisory it wouldn’t warrant consideration and any thoughts he wouldn’t be the first choice playmaker would have been dismissed from our minds. Now? Well it seems some have shorter memories, I think I’d include myself in those numbers.
The clamour for his retention prior to last season’s December Glasgow derby was huge. The end result may have had little to do with his absence but his own Celtic opportunities have receded quicker than Willie Collums hairline since. Matched only by our own fading recollections on his ability to impact games for Celtic.
Now I’m not airbrushing Tom’s end to last season or this season so far, but it’s fair to say there have been mitigating circumstances.
Most of our International players are European based. When they head for national duty they are relatively local most of the time. It’s rare they have to span many time zones. Tom on the other hand in the main is in Australia and if they are playing away he’s travelling even further. This to-ing and fro-ing is bound to cause fatigue.
The best example was at Christmas when he travelled injured. The knock on effect on body and mind was huge. Criminally in my view he was also played by his national side when clearly unfit for duty.
As such it is grossly unfair therefore to judge him as standards dropping when he’s been injured and struggled to get back up to speed with little time to really rest and recover between injuries and rehab. It is perfectly understandable and also excusable. He’s been doing these round the world jaunts for a long time now, it’s not surprising it’s taken its toll.
Perhaps we’ve forgotten a little just what Tom Rogic brings to Celtic. When Scott Brown was out last season McGregor, Tom and Ryan Christie gave us the very best and fluid midfield we saw all season.
If there is a better player playing in Scotland in taking the ball in tight situations, manoeuvring on the half turn and causing havoc where it matter most, in the final third then I’ve yet to see him.
When it comes to the finish from distance there’s not many at Celtic outside Leigh Griffiths with the same level of execution, the accuracy married to the minimal back lift required that leaves the opposition with no real sense as to when it’s about to happen. Add to that, the vision to attempt to find teammates is something also now out of sight and out of mind. There is no way he’s lost that has he? Well now he may well get the opportunity to prove it one way or the other.
For large parts of last season and also before, there was an almost telepathic on field understanding between James Forrest and Tom Rogic. In fact this time last year to the day Celtic defeated Hibs 4-2 at Celtic Park. In a brilliant encounter full of sublime artistry and goals, the link up play between those two was the stand out contribution in that exemplary performance.
With Forrest himself flitting between the sublime and the ordinary this year, the return of a partner may turn out to be a kick start to consistency for both players.
To quote Hippocrates- ‘Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity’.
Opportunity may just be about to knock at the door of Tom Rogic today. He needs to answer.
Niall J
Every Celtic home goal against Ross County. pic.twitter.com/STD2TEXX7w
— Li’l Ze (@LilZe85) October 18, 2019
