Someone online posed a question to me just the other day; is this a Celtic team in decline already? It was a response to some of the articles on the blog of late, and a lingering fear that what we saw in this league campaign was a sign of the times and of our future.
And the answer to it is a resounding no.
We’re very far from being a team in decline.
It’s just that this season we lost our momentum at a crucial stage and never got it back. We raised our game when we had to, but we couldn’t hit the overall standard which we did in the season before. It’s important to remember that it was an exceptional season anyway … but this campaign would have been a contentious one even without it for comparison.
But the idea that it marks a decline is simply not supported by the evidence.
On the contrary; our defence performed exactly the way it did last season and that is summarised in an identical number of goals conceded, but also by the goalkeeping stats; Craig Gordon personally secured 13 clean sheets in 26 games, Dorus De Vries had 3 in 6 games and Scott Bain managed 3 in his 7 starts overall.
That we still won the league in a season of relatively poor form in that competition should scare our rivals half to death.
Because it’s our worst performance, points wise, since 2012 when we secured a mere 79 and still won the league.
That team was supposed to be “in decline” too … but they secured 99 points the following season, 92 the one after that and 86 in Ronny’s second campaign. Who really believes that Brendan Rodgers will preside over such a poor points total as this one (82 points) for a second successive campaign?
If our players were all getting old, and past it, you could point to them and say they are in decline, but this is far from the truth; in fact, our average age means that this is a squad that hasn’t yet hit its prime and whilst players like Brown and Lustig are getting on this should not be taken as indicative of the team as a whole.
Besides, Scott Brown “in decline”?
Who could argue that with a straight face when he’s just won every player of the year honour in the country?
There were contributory factors for why our form in this campaign was so poor. The number of games was part of it; too many of our players were stretched too thin and that wouldn’t have been the case had the bulk of the squad been fit most weeks … but over the course of the season, we had a whopping 14 members of the first team out with injuries ranging from a few weeks to months at a time and no side could have coped with that as well as we did.
We didn’t even have a properly settled side until late in the campaign. No wonder our form was all over the place. These were exceptional circumstances and even in a repeat of them I would bet on our form being better than it was.
There are people who are desperate for the slightest sign that we’re slipping. They cling to it like a drowning man hanging onto a life raft, and their reasons are wholly understandable. It’s the only way we’re going to be caught. Their biggest fantasy – that our squad would all start drifting off before next season starts – looks likely to be denied them too; Rogic’s decision to commit to a long-term deal, and Griffiths and Boyata being next, signals that Brendan is determined to keep this squad together and that the players believe in his vision for it.
On the cusp of a double treble it seems absurd to be saying that things can only get better … but I genuinely believe they can and will. This isn’t a team on the slope towards the end of the road … this is a team that’s just starting out on its journey.
This is a team we’ve not even seen the best of yet.