Tonight Celtic banked their place in the Champions League groups.
We’ve played six games in Europe this season and up until tonight we’d yet to lose a goal.
The Sevconuts are delighted over our loss of four in one game, although we scored three and booked a £30 million bounty. As Brendan said, we did it with midfielders at central defence and even played two games without a recognised striker. Not bad going for a wee Scottish club.
Still, there’s delight in La La Land.
You’d think their own club had made tremendous Progres.
You’d think they had nothing to worry about.
But they do. And they know they do.
You ever watched someone who’s been dozing off suddenly come awake?
That’s always fascinating.
It’s because of a neurological mechanism called a myoclonic, or hypnic, jerk; it’s an involuntary muscle twitch that startles you out of a sleep state momentarily and gives you the sensation of falling. Everyone knows what that’s like.
This week an entire football support is experiencing that in one way or another, and websites like our old favourite here, Ibrox Noise, are wondering how they were ever so lulled into the dream in the first place. You know, the dream of glory and victory and this “going for 55” garbage. That has rapidly taken on nightmarish qualities and one by one they are waking, with a start, and that sense of falling is all that’s left.
It will not go away. It will only become more acute as the season goes on.
Because they are falling, rapidly, from a great height and it’s a long way to the ground.
The question their fans are asking is this; can disaster be averted? Can the board scramble together a rescue, either by giving Caixinha more players (chortle) or by moving him on and bringing in someone who can do a better job?
The answer to both of those questions is the same; it has two letters, and the second one is o.
They are in trouble, and there’s no easy way out of it.
The hacks, too, know that Pedro has almost exhausted the patience of the support. They are already writing about how the next few matches are “must win” games for the club. They are, but I ask you, honestly, what will happen if they don’t?
I’ll tell you what will happen; a lot of griping, moaning, wailing … and nothing.
Pedro Caixinha will get time.
Not a lot of it; by Christmas he’ll be on the edge because then there’ll simply be no choice for the board over there.
But in between he’ll get enough time to thoroughly wreck the Ibrox operation.
They’ve bet all the marbles on this joker.
Amazingly, King has been able to absolutely isolate himself from any responsibility here, which makes it all the more absurd and incredible.
Caixinha was the figure the rest of the board plucked from obscurity after a global search and not a one of us can understand how that came about, far less how King dodged out of any involvement in it. Imagine a scenario where some members of the Celtic board chose the manager without bothering to get the input of our biggest shareholder, or the chairman of the club, or Peter Lawwell himself … this is just unbelievable, and yet it happened there.
King didn’t even speak to the guy before the deal was done … and that’s perhaps the most staggering thing of all.
So when this falls apart Dave King will be able to blame everyone else, and with full justification. Caixinha and his backroom team ought not to be the only people who are shown the door, but that raises the first major question here and presents them with the first problem.
The people who are keeping the lights on over there are precisely the people who made this calamitous decision.
What’s King going to do?
Ask them to leave the board?
All they’d have to do is call in their loans and the ball is up on the slates. So if Caixinha and his people swing the likelihood is that they will swing alone, save, perhaps for Stewart Robertson who on paper cannot possibly survive this when things go balls up … although I suspect he will.
The thing is, Caixinha still has a cadre of supporters, people who believe that all these exotic players he’s bought have to come good.
But as I keep saying, had they been signed by Motherwell or St Johnstone no-one would have blinked far less tipped them as title challengers and so far that looks to be the appropriate level for these guys.
Their fans already sense this, and they know this board is rabbit in the headlights scared of what they might have to do.
Because listen, there’s going to come a moment where the fear of sacking Caixinha is replaced by the cold realisation that there’s no other option open to them.
They will have to do it, it’s as simple as that, because it will become readily apparent that if they are to maintain the slightest semblance of support in the stands they’ve have no choice at all. Season ticket sales will tank and at that point it’s game over.
Where’s the money going to come from? I have no idea, and neither do they, but they can’t go into next season with him still at the wheel, not unless they want to play in front of empty stands. So they’ll have to act, no matter who picks up the tab.
But yes, the question is valid; who’s going to pay?
Because on paper, they can’t afford to do it.
They’ve given this guy every available penny, and a little more.
The European result was a catastrophe, no matter how they might try to dress that up now as something unimportant.
Its effects will be felt at Ibrox for years to come.
The financial consequences will reverberate well into the future, with their seeding shot to Hell and their chances of reaching the groups of the Europa League almost non-existent.
But equally, there’s going to be a point where the anger in the stands explodes.
This garbage they are constantly fed about being a special club, a big club, one that has to be challenging is going to assure that those fans will not indefinitely live with mediocrity although it’s the level their club is at.
When those fans lose it there’s not going to be a choice in the matter and at that point no matter what the financial consequences are they will not be able to afford not to do it.
The earlier that happens the better off their club will be, but until it becomes impossible to do otherwise they’ll give Pedro every minute they are able to.
To sack him now, so early in the season, is financially unfeasible and it would make them look an anarchic mess.
So time, yes, and just enough to make matters worse.