Scottish football is in a perilous place. By the time the new season kicks off – if and when it does – every club side in the country which survives at all is probably going to be weaker than it is right now. Maybe considerably so.
That this will obviously impact on our quest for ten in a row does not need spelling out.
It is more than possible that we will be just as affected as the other clubs. If we didn’t have a cash surplus and a board of directors capable of putting together a business plan to see us through this, I would say that we were virtually certain to be.
But Celtic’s strength is greater than all the other clubs combined. In truth, there seems little reason why we’d have to suffer great losses in our pursuit of great glory. This team of ours is strong. This club of ours is strong. We can get through this period without real damage if we play our cards right.
That must be the top priority for every single person at Celtic Park.
Neil Lennon went in front of the press yesterday and spoke about how he doesn’t think the team needs radical surgery; I am completely in agreement with him on that. The team does not need big changes. What we do require is that it stays intact.
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If we can keep the core of this squad, then there’s no reason for us to fear what’s coming next.
The campaign for ten will be a walk in the park if we can hold onto our best footballers, because this was already the best squad in Scotland and if the rest of the teams suffer the calamity that looks certain to come then we’re going to continue to have the best squad.
There will be no challenge from Sevco, that’s for sure.
Yesterday they began the long slide down; the players they have released are only the first.
When the transfer window opens – if the club lasts that long – every footballer at Ibrox will be available for a knock-down price.
They need to do that if they are to survive at all. Even then, I don’t fancy their chances.
If we keep this squad together we’ve got it won, it’s as simple as that.
We do not need five or six new signings; that is wholly unrealistic in the current market and at the current time. What we do need is to maintain our winning formula, to hang on to the players who deliver for us over and over again, the McGregor’s, the Forrest’s, the Edouard’s, the Ajer’s.
I think most of us are realists when it comes to where we are at the current time. We cannot rightly demand that big money be spent when the club has taken a battering from the global health crisis. If possible, though, we should be looking to hang on to what we’ve got.
This is how to best secure ten in a row.
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