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Tuesday’s defeat was horrendous and a shock to the system for every fan who thought Brendan Rodgers appointment could, on its own, transform the fortunes of this team. It was never likely to be that simple. Money was always going to need spending. Some of the players were always going to be playing for the futures.
Others just don’t have any to play for.
So let’s take a look at the starting line-up and a few of the subs and whether or not they have a long term future at the club and can be part of the long term plan.
With any luck there will be an internal discussion along these lines at Lennoxtown, and if Brendan Rodgers is as good a manager as we think he is there will hopefully be some of the same conclusions.
Craig Gordon:
For some Celtic fans, one of the strongest cards in the deck. For others, a player who occasionally worries them and every now and again scares them. He is a fantastic shot-stopper, of that there is no doubt, but his positional sense is sometimes suspect. He can fail to look commanding in the penalty area. He has been responsible for some shocking mistakes in his time thus far, but on the whole seems easier to forgive than certain others.
Saidy Janko
The former Manchester United kid is rated, highly rated, and there are a lot of good aspects to his game, including blistering pace. But the worry is always there that he lacks experience and there are always concerns over whether or not a full back who gets that far up the park is leaving too much to chance and neglecting his actual duties. It’s not an unreasonable worry. There have been signs of both the good and the bad, but Janko is young and anyone who’s watched him knows he’s definitely got some talent. One to keep, and to see how it goes.
Efe Ambrose
Without question the biggest waste of a jersey out on the pitch. A lamentable selection, a shocking decision to leave him on the park and a colossal mistake to leave the manager in a position where he was the only backup sums up Celtic’s transfer policy in a nutshell. This guy has made so many mistakes in a Celtic shirt that you could do a Worst Of DVD. As bad as he is there ought not to have been the slightest chance of a costly screw up here; this was an amateur team. Yet it’s a measure of how poor Ambrose is that he was booked within nine minutes and was a big part of the reason we lost the goal. We simply cannot continue with this guy in the squad, and every single time the manager fields him he’s gambling with his future. The fans know Ambrose is a walking disaster. If Brendan Rodgers continues to play him, the inevitable mistakes will be down to him too but I expect to be writing this again. Ambrose was a starter until Lennon – who was defending him today – and under Deila. Their misplaced loyalty to him was ludicrous but I would be lying if I didn’t say that I already expect Rodgers not only to keep him around but to inflict him on us periodically until there’s a calamity nobody can possibly ignore.
Erik Sviatchenko
Class. Absolute class. One of the only players who could barely be faulted the other day, and although the team lives in infamy people will look back on his time at Celtic and see better days both before and after. Erik has become a fan favourite already because he is unflappable and gets what we are all about. A future captain, his is the presence we should be building the whole team around, let alone the defence. He looks indispensable right now. God help us if something happens to this guy before we’ve brought in at least two central defenders.
Kieran Tierney
Another class act. Shows what our youth system is capable of producing. He looked sick at the end of the game and I know his pride hurts as much as that of any fan. Kiernan is another of those who gets pass marks from the game, but then he gets that in lots of matches where other players let the side down. Kieran is a model pro who plays with the pride and the heart we want to see form every single player in a Celtic shirt. He’s a great kid. The choice about whether to keep him is no choice at all. He’s got to be a Celtic player for years to come.
Scott Brown
I don’t think it’s unfair or an exaggeration to say that there are Celtic fans who have never taken to our captain. He divided opinion like few other players. Some vouched for him as someone capable of grabbing a game by the scruff of the neck whilst others said they’d yet to see him do it when it mattered most. Brown is no longer an enigma to us. He slows the game down to a crawl, passing the ball across the way and back. He’s got no imagination whatsoever and lacks the pace or the flair to be anything more than he is. If a manager wants to play an attacking game, with quick movement on and off the ball, Scott Brown is the last player he should consider playing. Like with Ambrose this is a song many have been singing for a while. I expect to be singing it a while longer Rodgers had a private meeting with Brown before the rest of the team; that tells you he’s going nowhere and will be a key part of whatever the manager’s plans are. Yet how he handles Brown will be a key factor in what his Celtic career shapes up to be. Rodgers has a big, big decision to make here.
Nir Bitton
Far too much like Brown, far too inconsistent, far too unreliable. He has been linked with big money moves almost since the day he became a first team regular and he’s made noises on and off about believing his future lies in England. Yet he also signed a 5 year deal in an act of loyalty some didn’t expect. But it’s not enough. He’s contributed very little in pre-season and if the manager wants to play a certain way he’s not going to be able to deliver. If the money is right, we should let him go and wish him well. He will be a success somewhere, but not at Celtic.
Tom Rogic
A surprise start and one that offered optimism before the kick-off. Rogic is another player who has constantly been linked with a move away. He came onto one Hell of a game towards the end of last season so there is no doubt at all that he’s got something, including what Brown and Bitton don’t – forward play and an ability to score goals from midfield – but doubts persist about his commitment to the cause. For long stretches of the game he looked like he couldn’t be bothered and if he’s not signing a new deal we should get shot of him whilst we can. But he’s clearly got the goods; if he’s willing to stay and play a role it can be a big one given the right backup and tactics.
Ryan Christie
A star in the making, being played in an odd position in midweek. We’ll see how things go with this kid over the course of the season but it was wonderful to see him getting a start even if he was a little frustrating to watch. There’s no question that he should be getting more first team football; the fans are excited about him and not without good reason. Let’s forget his performance on the night and move on, because he is a special talent who’s going to be crucial to the Rodgers Revolution as it develops. I can see this boy being a fans favourite, fast.
Leigh Griffiths
Not much to say here, is there? The best player at the club last season by miles and the best in Scotland to boot. Clinical, brilliant, scores for fun. The guy who carried us to the title last year, and yet Brendan’s first move of consequence was to move him from the central position and play him elsewhere. That might prove to be inspired; it’s based on the number of goals he scored by cutting inside last year, but it might also prove stupid beyond measure, dumb beyond comprehension, and be one of the first things he changes. If this works, great. If not a lot is going to ride on other players within the system to make up for the lost goals … this is a risky move because if you leave Leigh in the central position those goals are guaranteed.
Moussa Dembele
The new kid on the block and comes with an impressive pedigree. Didn’t have a terrible game, forced a couple of good saves and looked sharp. When we can guarantee good delivery to him he will be a great asset. He holds up the ball well, which we haven’t had in years. The manager wants him to play in Leigh’s position. As risky as it sounds I do see the logic. If he’s in the middle and capable of holding the ball, he can feed Christie and Griffiths both which could get us more goals across the team than we’ve seen in a while. He also looks like he’s capable of finding the net on his own; he was very unlucky to have a goal chalked off in the game when he went for a 50/50 header and collided with the keeper. That was a perfectly legitimate challenge.
Nadir Ciftci
Came on late in the day and you know what? He actually played reasonably well. Keeping him on long term though, well that doesn’t seem likely; he looks like a Deila signing and keeping him around reeks of settling for mediocrity. When it was suggested last season that he had been the manager’s number one signing target upfront that was the moment a lot of us realised Ronny had completely lost the plot. Went to Turkey where his team was relegated and is now back in Glasgow. Bringing him on showed how weak our squad is. Rumours continue to suggest that the manager wants one more striker on the books; I’d be surprised if he didn’t. That spells curtains for this guy and there’s not a single Celtic fan who would be complaining.
Stuart Armstrong
Came on and suffered as a consequence of playing alongside the Brown and Bitton partnership. He’s the most mobile, creative central midfielder we’ve got. This guy bagged a goal against Inter Milan in Deila’s first season and looked as if he was going to be a key part of the team, but inexplicably dropped off the map in the manager’s second. If Rodgers doesn’t make this guy the lynchpin of the midfield – and quickly – I’ll be stunned because he’s got the stuff. It was immensely frustrating watching him on Tuesday because he’s clearly capable of a lot more.
James Forrest
Depressing to see this player getting into the team. Depressing. Clearly has no interest whatsoever in playing for the club; people at the game describe him as training with no enthusiasm, as if he was going through the motions and doubtless that’s exactly what he was doing. It’s what he’s been doing for a couple of years now, masquerading. It’s not a shock that no-one was remotely interested in talking to him after he refused to sign a new deal. That new deal now represents charity, nothing more, and if it isn’t withdrawn it will be a shocker. He has nothing to offer us whatsoever. He never improved as a player and has now regressed to the point of utter uselessness. The manager has promised everyone a fresh start. He, along with Ambrose, should be the exceptions, but I trust that it isn’t going to take Rodgers long to realise that he’s a waste of a shirt.
Changes need to be made at our club. Big ones. There are guys in the squad who ought never to pull on the famous Hooped jersey again. Rodgers has had his first searing experience in watching this team fail him. The responsibility for that lies on the heads of players who did nothing to save the former manager’s job and will do nothing to keep Rodgers secure in his. Ronny Deila was loyal to those players past the point of logic.
Brendan Rodgers dare not make a similar mistake.