Today was another one of those days, another one of those days full of excuses, of our manager talking absolute rubbish, another example of everything that’s wrong at Celtic at the moment.
The one thing that went right were the fans; they took the opportunity afforded to them to let Lawwell and the board know they’re not off the hook because they’ve got a plan to dispense with the services of the manager.
Everything else reeked. It purely and simply and plainly reeked.
Those of us who feared Deila being allowed to stay on got the performance we expected. There’s no heart or fight in this team, and the manager was typically abject and useless. The tactics that have got him sacked were on display as ever; even having lost his job because of this approach hasn’t made him alter course one iota. It’s dreadful to see.
After the game, Peter Lawwell went into the dressing room. Ronny Deila, defending the CEO for the third time in a week, says Lawwell went in there to talk to him.
This is pretty unbelievable in itself; the whole concept of the manager defending the guy who’s sacked him. I’ve never heard of a case like it in my life, and I believe Lawwell went into the dressing room to talk to the manager like I believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden.
Why not wait until he was finished with the players?
What was so urgent?
So pressing that it had to be done there, in front of the squad?
The Chief Executive should never set foot in a dressing room in his life, unless he’s taking someone on a tour. That holiest of holies should be off-limits to anyone who’s not involved in the football side of a club.
Some fan forums had people on them criticising the supporters. Craig Gordon is in the papers again saying the players have to take the responsibility. The management team says it belongs to them. The boardroom guys say nothing, letting others do the talking for them in their typically cowardly manner.
Today Lawwell didn’t just see the writing on the wall; he saw it in the stands, and it pissed him off and scared him to death and that’s why he showed up in the dressing room.
Anger and fear.
But his anger is nothing compared to that of the Celtic fans and his fear will be multiplied when season ticket renewal forms are sent out and only a few come back.
Fans feel not only let down but actually insulted at the moment, and years of treating them like “customers” instead of valuing them has resulted in the predictable fracture with the predictable consequences. People feel like they can spend their money and their time better.
How’s Celtic going to win these people back? Who knows what this has cost us over the course of the season? The fans don’t want to hear garbage from Craig Gordon about how he and the players take responsibility; without consequences it’s nothing but empty words. If they want to donate some of their wages to charity then great … otherwise we’re sick hearing it.
We’re sick of a lot of things right now.
The week ahead better see some forward progress on the manager’s front, and not in the form of an interview for one of the Usual Suspects; Clarke, Mackay, Coyle et all.