Today we’ve heard that Stefan Johansen will be returning to the Celtic squad for the Scottish Cup tie against Morton this weekend. This is the kind of decision that will frustrate Celtic fans enormously. It’s also the kind of baffling decision – and not just from Ronny Deila – that aggravate football supporters far and wide.
Why is it that some managers stick with certain players through thick and thin? Why are they so blind? History tells us that this kind of over-reliance is bad for bosses.
Some of them pay the ultimate price for it, by ending up with the sack.
How many times have you seen managers at Celtic Park persevere with the same players way past the point where it made any sense at all?
Footballers go through form dips; we all know that. Good managers can help those players come out of them. But sometimes a player’s not in a form dip but a terminal decline.
Why do managers keep the faith with them?
Part of it is loyalty. If a player has proved himself to a boss, if a player is willing to run through walls for him, then you can, in part, understand why he would cut that footballer some slack and excuse some of his mistakes. But there are managers who seem to pick favourites to whom, on the surface, they appear to owe nothing at all.
These aren’t guys who have been through the wars for the manager; they just seem, through no means at all that we can fathom, to make themselves seem indispensable.
Except to the fans, who oftentimes can’t believe it when certain footballers seem to walk into the squad every week, unchallenged, although plenty of alternative options are available.
Let’s take Charlie Mulgrew, for example.
Ronny Deila came to Celtic Park with no preconceptions about Charlie Mulgrew. I’ve not been a fan of the former Aberdeen player for years. When Neil Lennon went I would have put all my money on the new Celtic boss seeing, clearly, what Lenny apparently couldn’t; that this was a guy who couldn’t pass a ball and who’s lapses in concentration cost us big.
Within weeks of his arrival, Ronny had adopted the self same player as one of his first choice picks, and he played on Tuesday night, in a holding midfield role, although there’s no supporting evidence at all to suggest he’s any better there than he was in central defence.
Another reasons why bosses stick with players who are past is the belief that these guys hold a little of the old residual magic, that they store up it for big occasions. It’s why some bosses will trust the club’s veteran striker even when he no longer has the legs to chase down loose balls or the sharpness to get in front of a defender.
To the layperson, these decisions make no sense whatsoever.
Of course, when we’re talking right now about Ronny playing favourites it’s not Mulgrew the Celtic fans have in mind, but Johansen himself, and the thing of it is that I actually liked the guy and rated him as a player until not that long ago. Yet his collapse in form has been astonishing, and the manager’s trust in him appears grossly misplaced at the current time.
Celtic and Ronny are in a tough spot right now, and I understand the manager’s need to fall back on the tried and tested, the trusted few who he believes in absolutely and without question.
It’s also dangerous, as some of these guys have let him down over and over again.
Stefan Johansen might not start the game on Sunday; I suspect he will though. The very fact he’s back in the squad strongly suggests that he will. Mulgrew might well start too. These are big decisions, maybe amongst the biggest the manager has ever had to make.
Because woe betide him if he gets this wrong.
Loyalty can kill you in football.
Managers get sacked for it.