It’s easy to make a case for the players owing the supporters one as Celtic face up to theRangers at Celtic Park today. For many of these players however past glories, they will feel, entitle them to some be cut some slack.
For others, they’ll believe this season has an in-built Covid-19 excuse mechanism for which there should be some empathy exhibited by those who follow the club, and whilst standards have dropped, there should be a level of understanding exhibited from those who would normally fill the stands this lunchtime. For some battle-hardened players who fully understood the magnitude of it all, their own malaise is probably as a result of watching others around them week after week dropping below expected standards and being dragged down with them.
Whatever the players are using to excuse their own deficiencies for this season, to help them reconcile their glaring inadequacies when it comes to their own part in this limp excuse for what should have been a record-breaking season, today is an opportunity at the very least to start showing they have some pride left, that they can see a brighter future for themselves or for this club. And if that motivation is not to be the support, and it appears not to have been for many this season, perhaps they can look elsewhere for the drive needed to win today.
Make no mistake for those donning the Hoops this afternoon, many on the field of play will be under the microscope. Celtic, it is reported, are apparently 90% of the way thorough the appointment of a Director of Football.
If it is, as believed to be, Manchester City’s Fergal Harkin, you can be certain one of is key performance indicators will be how a player performs in an environment such as this, how they respond to adversity, implement tactical instruction and have the passion and hunger required to impact an occasion such as this And if they can deliver, or if this season has left some on the outside looking in as new plans and structures are put into place.
And if the new Director of Football is watching today, it’s not much of a stretch to consider the new head coach or manager is doing the same. The DOF will have an idea of who he wants, he will have thought of little else other than who he can trust to coach the first team, as it is on that appointment that he will live or die. As such he is likely to have already sounded out the man he thinks he can work with to turn this around, therefore the players can be certain that man too is likely to be tuned in with a cup of tea and a keen eye for those he can hang his hat on.
Inconsistency at the very least, whatever the cause, has impacted on a season where the 9-in-row champions surrendered the tenth title with less fight than the French defending Paris in 1940. Excessive variability of performance at a club expected to win every game cannot be tolerated. Consistency is the minimum requirement for every player going forward and many have let themselves down.
For those who wish to have a future at Celtic the first foot back on the path to consistency comes with the injection of confidence a win over your rivals will give. Today is step one to regaining the levels of constancy Celtic need to get back on track, it will also supply the belief that the team twenty points above them in the table is not an insurmountable obstacle to overcome after all when next season comes around.
Those who wish to remain at Celtic are not playing for an interim manager, or to apologise to the one who lost his job on the back of their performances, nor the supporters or the cause. They’ve supposed to have been doing that all season and it’s been evident for many none of that was motivation enough. Instead, they are playing for a position in a bright new dawn, to show that they still have something to offer where they may have been written off. The new men watching is who need to be impressed now.
But that won’t matter much for the wantaways, the ones who Neil Lennon called out as wishing to ply their trade elsewhere and those who have lacked, with one big Norwegian exception, the respect for their employer or themselves to put in a shift every week.
If, as you’d assume, those players are not motivated by the assessment of a new Director of Football or Head Coach, seeing as they do their future career path away from Celtic, they can still play for themselves and this is a game where they can showcase a big game mentality at least.
For many the exit from the Champions League, the bottom of the group Europa league performances meant a chance to showcase their abilities was left to the meat and drink of Scottish Premiership football. It is likely few believed performing in that environment would have an impact on how future employers viewed them. It’s probably why some managed to perform admirably for their countries and reverted to type when they returned to club football. But today is different.
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After all there are few games in Scottish football that scouts will give much credence too when assessing the value of a player’s talent and contribution, but this is one. This one tests all the component parts a scout needs to quantify before recommending a player or otherwise to their paymasters. Hide in this encounter and you’ll stick out like a sore thumb, give anything less than 100% and the game will appear as if it passing you by. Conversely, exhibit skill against a team that has attracted heightened respect for their European performances and you may well improve your chances of impressing the assessors of big clubs tuning in from home and win that move and pay-packet you covet.
For many this will be their last Glasgow Derby at Celtic Park and from the starting line-up today as many as six or seven will move on or drop down to the role of supporting cast next season.
For those who feel they can alter the perception of themselves these last few games of the season are the last real opportunities to prove themselves as players to be trusted post revolution. If for others that motivation isn’t to the supporters, to John Kennedy or a hunger to right some wrongs then find it from somewhere, do it to impress the new men watching you this lunchtime or perform to the point you can become a Liverpool rather than a Brighton player next season.
Whatever it takes find that motivation and deliver a performance befitting of the jersey you wear and find it today, it is long overdue.
Niall J
COMING SOON…
