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Celtic’s Goalkeeper Problem Exists Because We Keep On Asking The Wrong Question.

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Rumours galore about goalkeepers today; The Record says that Forster is now out of reach. Hallelujah.

If it’s true I’m glad, because there is no way we should be going back to him.

Another rumour says that we are trying to sign Dundee Utd’s goalie.

These stories are not the last we’re going to read. I think we’ll almost certainly sign a goalie in the January window, and I can’t say enough times how ridiculous that is considering we’ve already got a very expensive international in the squad.

Absolutely no good will come of us throwing more good money after bad. We need a right back and a right sided midfielder more than we need a new keeper. I sometimes think that those in charge of our club don’t have a strategic idea in their heads.

We are asking the wrong question here.

We have three goalkeepers at the club and all of them have made mistakes.

Goalkeepers concede goals at times, and all three of ours have because the defence in front of them leaks like a sieve.

If we fix the defence, we’ll fix this problem. If we spend money on another goalkeeper, we’ll be back to the start again before we know it. The whole issue over the keeper is a classic case of our club doing things in a haphazard and stupid manner.

The moment we dropped Barkas we were throwing that guy to the wolves.

We’ve reintroduced him to the team and then promptly dropped him again, as if doing so the first time wasn’t daft enough.

We have succeeded only in undermining this guy.

In choosing to select Hazard we’ve undermined Bain as well.

When does it stop?

When we’ve signed a fourth keeper and undermined Hazard?

Or when we drop the new guy to start from the beginning again?

At some point we need to find some continuity here.

At some point we need to start trusting the people we’ve got.

One of my constant bugbears with Lennon is that he and his people are hopeless at actual coaching; these guys cannot make players better, and so we are forced, under him, to revert again and again to the transfer market to solve our problems.

This is both stupid and expensive, and nowhere is that clearer than it is during this campaign.

We have to stop being so reactive and short-term in our thinking.

Does anyone really believe that the £5 million we spent on Barkas is a complete waste?

That there’s nothing there at all?

That he can’t do some kind of job?

This guy is a bloody international player; why can’t he produce for us when he can do it elsewhere?

I cannot say this enough times. If we sign another keeper we’re writing this guy off.

If we learn to organise the damned defence better this guy will have a chance to settle properly and then we’ll see what he has.

Not every problem can be solved by going to the transfer market.

We have fundamental issues with our coaching and the way we organise the team, and if we solve those then a lot of other things will fall into line. Buying keeper number four is not going to get us back into this title race. All it will do is leave us a bigger hole to fill prior to the next campaign.

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