First thing first we were awful on Thursday night and got exactly what we deserved.
No one can or is defending the performance.
However the hysterical over reaction has again reared its head, and its from our own fans.
This has to stop.
And to be honest I do not care one bit if I offend anyone in this article, its time some of our fans grew up.
The level of abuse hurled at our own club is ridiculous. We have too many fans demanding too much. They don’t seem to understand how the physical game and/or business side works, and as such make too many unreasonable and unrealistic demands on the team.
We have to accept where we are and what stage of development our team is at.
A major criticism after Thursday was this “we beat them on the Thursday before and played well, we should automatically have done the same this week.”
This shows a real basic lack of knowledge on how football, and for that matter, how life works.
If every player and every team played the same in every game, or in life, what would be the point?
The next one was “there was no desire and no heart” – really?
This is essentially saying that professional footballers are not trying, just can’t be bothered. That, again, is a criticism that seems to come from a lack of understanding of football because it gives no football over view – its just “ah they don’t care.”
The old favourite was also trudged out “we need to get rid of all of our players and throw money at it.”
Infantile nonsense.
Celtic fans need to realise that we are not good enough to compete at the European level just now, qualifying for the Champions League groups and getting third is probably punching above our weight. Our financial circumstances dictate that we have very finite resources and as such, until we have another source of substantial income, we cannot compete at the mid level never mind above it.
Yes we have a healthy balance sheet but we also have a wage bill, which includes more than players, and we have other outgoings which must be catered for before we can just throw money at things, and – I have said this repeatedly – when you throw money at playing staff the players come with commensurate wages, this can affect the whole wage structure, which, again, given our circumstances we cannot afford to do.
The performance against Zenit in the first leg was an exception, not the norm, the second leg was the norm, for now.
Zenit also played a lot better than they did at CP and took advantage of our mistakes, which happens when you can only afford players at a certain level.
Zenit have built that squad over two years at an approximate cost of £200m – we cannot be expected to match that, in most cases these teams and players will come through over two legs. And consider that Zenit aren’t even the very top of the tree they are a middle European team.
But they are a couple of levels above us and with that higher level of player comes a higher level of consistency, but as shown last week they too can’t perform at the same level all the time and as we are down from them we will be inconsistent more often then them – week to week even.
Take domestic football as the example we are very consistent – three losses in 18 months – because the other teams are level(s) below us.
If you don’t want to or can’t accept the above, then give an alternative argument, just throwing the “they are shit” phrase is childish.
The “I am entitled to my opinion” phrase has also come out, if that is your opinion, why are you supporting a team you think is that bad and who’s players don’t try?
The player’s level of ability doesn’t change, what does change is the level of opposition and that can change from game to game – even with the same team – remember beating St Mirren 7-1 then losing the next week against them?
All of this is based in football and if you have a different football argument then fine, but I suspect most don’t – it’s why the average football fan doesn’t actually understand the game. If that has hurt your feelings or if you are offended by it – tough – life, including me, isn’t here to make you feel nice.
Now having said all that, no one is saying we cannot grow and progress as a club and with the players within the club, some have to be moved on, I am not enamoured with Lustig or De Vries, but a team evolves over time, that’s about understanding the game, and not just demanding we throw money at a problem.
My prediction is this if we do not qualify for the Champions League group stage next season there will be calls for the manager to resign, from some of our own fans.
Our enemies will use this, as they have tried in the past, to force that issue as they cannot stand to see us successful, when they call for him to be sacked they will say “ah but your own fans are saying this”, they will use the naivete and lack of knowledge of our own fans as fuel.
I don’t want that to happen, so I don’t care if some feel touchy at this piece.
I feel that where the club is, and what it’s moving toward, is enhanced by having the current manager in place
In Brendan We Trust.
David Campbell is frustrated at last night’s performance, but even more so with some of the reaction to it.
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