Disciplined anger is the worst sort to have to face. Undisciplined anger is easily dealt with, either by punishing it or ignoring it completely. Disciplined anger is different.
Directed properly it is lethal, and we saw some disciplined anger directed today at the team. But others inside Celtic should take heed of it too because it can easily be directed at them.
No manager likes to suffer a humiliation.
Today we all suffered one. A modest one, and by the time the season ends I suspect no-one will ever bring it up again, but let’s not kid ourselves; that, today, was horrific in parts and the manager knows it.
He’s been dealt a bad hand. He knows that too.
The failure, by our club, to bring in a central defender in January was deplorable and we’ve been playing for it ever since. But I understood in part why we failed on that front; backing Lennon with more money when he was being ushered to the door would have been ludicrous.
Yet the absence of long-term thinking was obvious.
It still is.
Even now, this club seems to be having some difficulty raising itself to the expected standards of the manager.
Some of the players do too, but those who can’t won’t be at the club in the long term. This is a work in progress, and so we’ll forgive a lot … but really, the team let itself down badly today, and the manager didn’t like it.
Partly because a result like that reflects badly on him.
He wants this team to play a certain way.
I’d wager that didn’t involve so many players, so high up the pitch, that a long ball over the defence had us beat.
He was correct to say that the whole team needs to defend as a unit; we left those kids massively exposed today and that’s not right. That’s one of the many things that went badly, badly wrong today.
But look, this team bears no resemblance to the one we should expect to have at Celtic Park in a matter of weeks.
It’s a searing lesson for all involved at the club about what still needs to be done; we’ve made signings, but we need at least five more in critical areas.
There is an obvious need for them and Ange has known it since the day he walked in the door.
His after match comments were bang on, and he directed his fury perfectly; at the collective, not at individuals, because individuals make mistakes but a performance like that is only possible if the whole team lays down the tools and that’s what it looked like a bit today.
There were elements of what he said that need to be explored in their fuller context, and so they’ll get articles of their own.
But what is obvious is that this guy is pissed off tonight and he wants to make sure that this is clearly understood by all at Celtic.
All at Celtic.
People need to take note.
This guy is not messing about.