It is always amusing to me when Ibrox’s fans come to a conclusion that the rest of us came to ages ago. You want to congratulate them for catching up, even as you want to slag them for stupidly believing their own press in the first place.
Now, as realisation dawns, and the three-point gap remains with only ten games now left to go, the Ibrox fan-base is facing up to a January window which was a complete waste.
They could have signed Souttar and strengthened the central defence … instead they went for two midfielders, a winger and a right back. None played any role against Motherwell.
This is a critical point. None of them got onto the pitch; one of them wasn’t even available for selection because he’s too unfit to kick a ball. We all know who he is. But if they paid a small fortune for him you wonder if they got the kid from Manchester United all that much cheaper. That was an obvious bling signing before even the real one.
These players have been largely anonymous, and the fans look at these players and the signings from the summer and wonder who is approving these players.
Ross Wilson has had some amount of hype in the media; the fans are now asking the questions which the press corps won’t.
Why aren’t they finding better players? How do Celtic do it?
These are just some of the questions they are asking and they are right to.
Take Hatate. It is clear that we have signed not only a great footballer but acquired an excellent sellable asset.
Yet we paid less money to get him here on a long term deal than they have to bring Ramsey to the club on loan. One of these players has scored goals and helped win points.
The other has confirmed his status as a colossally expensive bench warmer.
The result against Motherwell has convinced them that their winter window was a disaster.
The number of points they have dropped is only part of it. When none of the signings played any part in the weekend game, what did that tell the fans?
That they aren’t trusted to do the job.
That they aren’t rated.
That they aren’t considered good enough.
And if they aren’t good enough why exactly were they brought to the club? What purpose did these signings serve? When do they start to make an impact, and if they can’t or won’t and that costs them the title, who should answer for that?
Van Bronckhorst probably can’t survive a Celtic title win.
He is the manager who has blown the six point lead.
But the fans are starting to question Wilson as well, as the architect of the “signing policy”, one which comes more and more to resemble the insanity of the latter Lawwell period; players signed for reasons beyond what the manager’s requirements are.
Celtic has junked that policy just as Ibrox embraces it.
The winter window already shows what a potentially disastrous decision that might prove to be.