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Ten Key Decisions At Parkhead That Delivered Nine In A Row To Celtic.

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Celtic’s nine successive titles were won by a combination of different factors.

Earlier in the week, I did a piece on how our decision to split from Sevco in terms of our sponsorship and marketing strategies was one of the crucial elements in hammering a nail into their coffin and making us the biggest force in the land.

There are other key factors in why we’ve made it nine.

That’s what I want to explore in this piece.

There are ten of them, in my view, on top of that decision to shatter the Old Firm myth.

Each one of these was massive. Their significance should be obvious.

They were all taken inside Celtic Park.

There are other decisions which were taken elsewhere; I’ll cover them later.

The Signing Of Mikael Lustig.

We signed Mikael Lustig from Rosenborg in 2012.

He was here at Celtic Park for eight years, the first eight of the nine.

That is an incredible statistic.

He was a stalwart performer in the Hoops, starring in big, big games and providing great balance on that right hand side.

Over the course of 273 games in our famous Hooped jersey, Lustig was a real find for us. We got him in a January deal in 2012, as a pre-contract signing. He penned an initial three-and-a-half-year deal, joining us just a month before Whyte sent Rangers spinning into Hell.

By the time he left he had an armful of medals; eight as a league winner, four Scottish Cups and four League Cups to go with them.

It is an amazing record and a tribute to one Hell of a footballer.

To call him a bargain doesn’t do it justice; as a free transfer this was a steal.

Aside from being brilliant for Celtic, Lustig was a fantastic player for his country in that time too.

More than half of his 82 international caps for Sweden came in his time at Parkhead.

He became a more complete footballer whilst at our club.

I don’t think his contribution to the nine can be understated.

The Emergence Of James Forrest

My namesake is one of only two players in the current squad who has been there throughout the years of the nine.

He is still one of the most underestimated footballers in the squad; my own relationship with him is complicated to say the least.

I have been repeatedly asked if I am him.

Anyone who’s met me and seen my physique knows I don’t play football professionally.

Some of those who ask me if I’m the footballer have actually done so on social media during games in which he’s taking part!

A Russian football agent once thought I was him and tried to tap me up.

I got a great article out of that, and even a spot in a national newspaper.

I love having a footballer with my name in the Celtic squad.

But I have slated this guy on numerous occasions.

I once wrote of him that he is talented but also that he was useless.

That was back before Rodgers came breezing into town; Forrest looked like he was on the way out of the club, having no apparent interest in signing a new contract with us.

The kid who had gotten his start under Lennon had not developed into the formidable player we’d all hoped – not at that time – and looked like being no loss.

Yet the appointment of Rodgers galvanised him; Forrest bloomed under him and has been one of our most consistent performers ever since.

A handful of goals short now of joining Celtic’s 100 club, if next season is as good as this one he’ll certainly make it in time for the ten.

Ronny Deila’s Fitness First Plans

Neil Lennon won the first of the titles, and the latter of them.

Brendan Rodgers gets a lot of the credit for the way he set out his team.

But in between them both was Ronny Deila, and his contribution to the cause has forever been misunderstood and under-rated.

And that’s a shame because he did much that was to prove crucial to our march towards ten.

As far as I’m concerned, he’s the recent a number of players have been such huge success stories – Callum McGregor owes his career to Ronny in some ways – and he brought a style to us which teams didn’t really know how to adapt to at first.

Ronny was denied a treble by one of the most bent refereeing decisions I’ve ever witnessed.

But what he did for us above and beyond that was that he brought to Celtic Park a professionalism and focus on the fitness aspect of the game which Rodgers often, erroneously, gets credit for. It was Ronny who started that off, it was Ronny who first got us focussed on all the idea that professional footballers should see themselves as athletes first.

Did you think the development of our players into the super-fit unit which won an Invincible treble really happened overnight? It was two years in the making before Rodgers even showed up. He worked a wonder, of course, but Ronny started the ball rolling.

The Norwegian has earned his standing ovation when we unfurl that tenth flag.

The Signing Of Leigh Griffiths

This one made it in over the head of another player, and on balance I’ve made the right decision by putting in here in front of that.

Leigh Griffiths has been one of the most significant footballers at our club in the last ten years, and his goals and performances were critical.

He has been at the club for seven years.

In that time, he has joined our 100 goals club.

He has won seven titles, four League Cups and two Scottish Cups. Not only did he carry the side through a couple of seasons, but his re-emergence into the first team squad was what allowed Neil Lennon to re-cast the forward line in January, equipping us to win the league.

Griffiths arrived from Wolves in the winter window of the 2013-14 campaign; he had spent much of his time as a player at that club out on loan at Hibs, where he was a free scoring footballer with a flair for the dramatic.

He was a Lennon signing who I had always admired as a striker.

He has been finding the net his whole career.

It was not even slightly surprising to see him do so well for us.

The next campaign will be massive for him, but we all expect him to do well in it.

If Edouard is going to be challenged as the SPL top scorer next season it will be Griffiths who does it.

The Signing Of Odsonne Edouard.

There are three reasons why the signing of Odsonne Edouard was so important to this team.

The first is simple enough; he was the player we broke the club transfer record for.

It had endured for more than a decade, since Martin O’Neill paid £6 million for Chris Sutton.

Many of us did not believe that deal would be beaten, not with the club’s signing policies.

The signing of Christopher Jullien would not have been possible without us having gone that far to sign French Eddie.

The second reason is this; French Eddie allowed us to seamlessly replace Moussa Dembele, who could have been a very significant loss to us. This cannot be underestimated; Dembele was an enormous talent and his goals in big, big games were crucial to us during his two campaigns at the club.

We could have been in real bother trying to find someone to fill his shoes.

But not only did French Eddie fill them, but the final reason is that we’ve actually got our hands on a better footballer than Dembele.

Indeed, I reckon that Eddie is the best Celtic striker since Henrik Larsson, with a perfect combination of attributes that makes him a deadly finisher and creator of goals into the bargain. He is a terror for defences to play against.

His goals in the last two campaigns have made a mighty difference; indeed, his spectacular bursting into the public consciousness at Ibrox when he won that match as Brendan’s late substitute was just as important as any goal he’s scored since.

He is going to be vital to the campaign for ten.

Bringing Home Callum McGregor And Making Him Vital.

We cannot underestimate one of Ronny Deila’s earliest decisions as Celtic boss; the decision to bring on-loan youth player Callum McGregor back from Notts County where he was on loan.

A lot of folk might have thought McGregor was never going to make it at Celtic Park. Ronny knew better.

He changed everything about Callum’s game.

And we have never looked back.

Indeed, McGregor is, on his game, the most complete midfielder in Scotland, and the best natural talent we’ve produced in that area of the pitch in decades.

Just as capable of defending as he is getting forward and scoring goals, Callum is a magnificent footballer who is just getting better all the time.

It’s not for nothing that he is highly sought after outside Parkhead.

Three managers have now aided in his development, but he will be forever grateful to Ronny Deila who gave him his debut and turned him into a top footballer.

Brendan may have opted to play him further up the pitch, but Ronny turned the bhoy into a man.

It’s another thing we owe the Norwegian big time for.

The Adoption Of Two Separate Tactical Systems

In the course of the nine, we’ve basically played, for the most part, with two different tactical systems; the 4-2-3-1 and some variation of the 3-5-2.

Lenny favours two up front. Ronny and Brendan both used the European system with one striker and two attacking wingers.

All three men were able to use the tactics to devastating effect.

Those two systems are actually very flexible; sometimes Lennon’s system looked more like a 4-4-2 and at times Brendan was effectively playing with a 4-3-3.

That we’ve been ready, able and willing to adapt has given us enormous advantages over more one dimensional teams.

The change from Lenny to Ronny gave us a breath of fresh air.

His one man up front system had started to get a little stale, if we’re being honest; Brendan’s version was so much more dynamic, and he had Forrest and Sinclair firing on all cylinders as well.

Lenny knew exactly what to do to get the best out of his team for the run-in after January.

The change to two up front was critical in getting us past Sevco.

It was a tactical masterstroke, and in particular using roving fullbacks in the manner of a Martin O’Neill team.

With the squad balance we have, we can keep changing it up until the cows come home. My only regret, and it will be quickly fixed next season, is that we didn’t get to see the Griffiths-Edouard partnership against Sevco; it would have been devastating to them.

Scott Brown Becoming A Leader Of Men.

Aside from the appointments of two particular managers, the greatest single element to Celtic’s nine in a row march is the performances, and leadership on the pitch, of Scott Brown.

A good manager can make a huge difference to a team, but the man who the team looks to on the pitch when the pressure is on and the going gets tough is vital.

That man has been at Parkhead for over a decade now, and he has dominated games, and dominated the league, in that time.

Pretenders, such as Barton, have come and gone … Brown still reigns supreme, Brown still stands over them all.

This guy has been such a major part of our success that you wonder what we’ll do when he inevitably hangs up his boots.

Finding someone to fulfil the role he plays in our team looks difficult enough, but the much harder task of replacing him with a leader of his stature … that’s an even tougher challenge.

Brown will be back at the club one day after his playing career ends; his taking on a coaching role is about as inevitable as anything can be. His commanding presence on the touchline will be welcome, but his leadership on the field will be missed.

In his time at the club Brown has amassed quite the list of honours.

Ten Premier League titles, five Scottish Cups and six League Cups. Most of them have been won in the course of nine in a row.

Neil Lennon: First And Last

Neil Lennon’s role in the nine in a row is not only important, it is critical to understanding how we got here.

He started the cycle and he looks as if he will close it out with the ten.

Where we go from there is going to be interesting too; all the targets could fall to us when we get over that particular line.

It is something to look forward to.

A confession; I was not in favour of Lennon getting the job either time. I wasn’t even initially in favour of his getting the role on an interim position after Rodgers left, although I quickly realised that in terms of stabilising the club it was a masterful move.

Lennon has been immense. His contribution to the Celtic cause over the course of his three spells here, twice as manager and once as a player, cannot be overstated. He is the colossus at the centre of our football operation.

I went from not wanting him to get the job to being one of his biggest fans before the end of the season was called.

It was the European performances which started to turn me around; he made one costly error in his team selection for the Cluj Champions League tie, and it was a mistake he never repeated. We got ourselves back on winning ways and put together an excellent run in the SPL.

Even the defeat against Sevco didn’t rock my confidence in him.

When we came back from the winter break we cruised. Lennon changed the formation and we never looked back.

That takes a real leader to do that, to realise a formula wasn’t working and to alter it.

This is what title wins – and legends – are made of.

The Appointment Of Brendan Rodgers

Whatever we think about the end of his reign, Brendan Rodgers’ appointment was a masterstroke, an as much as anything else it set us on the path towards nine – and ten – in a row. It was quite simply the perfect appointment at the perfect moment for us.

A recitation of the achievements of the team under him would be wasteful; every single one of us knows it chapter and verse.

Rodgers came along at a time when fans had become a bit disillusioned and when Sevco was making loud noises about knocking us off the top spot.

He transformed the outlook at Celtic Park in an instant.

The football we played in that first campaign was blinding.

The signings were superb, Sinclair and Dembele, in particular.

They powered us forward.

Trebles were secured, two of them.

He looked on the way to a third, although Lennon finished that job.

Rodgers will take a bow at Parkhead on the day we win the ten.

He will deserve that for his excellent management and leadership.

If the roar isn’t quite as big as Lenny gets or what Ronny will get, that’s only to be expected for the manner of his departure.

But mark my words, his appointment was the moment when the quest for nine became almost the inevitability of it.

It was the moment we stopped dreaming about it and started looking forward to it as something tangible and real.

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