So Kris Boyd reckons that Celtic are facing a full scale dismantling of the squad in the summer, eah? How nice it is to have someone with such wisdom commenting on our club. There’s just one problem with what he’s said; it’s absolute cobblers.
But hey, this is Boyd after all, so what’s new?
There are about four players I’d expect to leave in the summer.
One of them – Olivier Ntcham – will hardly be missed. Ryan Christie might go; in fact I’d say he probably will. Edouard will leave. Kris Ajer will too. This is not exactly a full-scale meltdown.
Loanees will return to clubs. Brown will probably get one more year and drift in and out of the team as a squad player. We’ve seen greater turnover of squads than this.
All of these guys can be replaced.
Callum McGregor would be harder to do, but I am willing to put my hand on my heart and say I honestly believe he’ll stay at the club.
Of the likely departures I would once have said Eddie is the guy we’ll miss most, but we’ve seen so little from him this season that I think we’re more likely to shrug and say “So what?” than mourn too much.
Once we have a new manager I expect things to move more quickly than Boyd might believe.
It is still folly to do this in the summer, but even then the guts of this team will remain regardless of how long it takes to break the new boss in.
Boyd hasn’t considered what might happen at the club across the city.
On the surface everything over there looks rosy, but that club is, itself, never far away from a major flare-up or crisis. They are having a good season, but they are riding their luck a lot too.
It feels like I’ve written nothing but negativity on this site in recent months; it’s not actually true, but it does seem that way. But the problems we have are about leadership; this is still a strong club and nothing Boyd or anyone else says will change that.
Get the big decision right and you’ll see the picture change quickly … and Boyd probably suspects this, and fears it as well.