Yesterday Simon Jordan presumed to tell Celtic fans what Brendan Rodgers has to achieve to be considered a success at our club next season. It was a ludicrous, arrogant thing to attempt and so completely lacking in self-awareness that it was nearly mind-blowing.
Chris Sutton spoke yesterday too, on the same subject, and being closer to the action at Celtic and with some kind of understanding of our club, he said all the right things.
A treble is a ridiculous demand to make on a boss in his first season, even one who has been at the club before. A double would certainly do nicely, but the league is non-negotiable.
In terms of Europe he was clear; a third place finish in the Champions League and qualification for the Europa should be our primary objective. Not winning the Europa, not getting to the last 16 in the big competition … it was grounded, it was realistic, it was sensible.
It is the kind of narrative which will definitely be missing from most of the rest of the media, who are determined to use every word the manager says or has said against him, and to elevate expectations through the roof so they can paint him as a failure if he doesn’t hit the ludicrously high mark that they have set for him.
It helps to have someone like Sutton to put these things in a bit of perspective, and he’s done that. All talk of reaching a European final … it’s an aspiration, it’s not a bloody commitment, and I can see full well why the media would want to make it sound like one.
Let me put it this way; if Rodgers wasn’t talking ambitiously they would be criticising him for that and saying that he was lowering our horizons. When he does talk about those kind of ambitions they immediately want to weaponize it against him.
Celtic fans should be very careful about falling into their trap.
Sutton recognises it for exactly what it is.
Absolutely!
Minimum: 3rd place in our CL Group – and retain the SPL title.
That would represent a successful transition of managers,
whilst achieving some tangible progress in Europe.
Simon Jordan’s hostility to Celtic is well known. Therefore his idea of what would constitute success and therefore failure should it not be achieved, is pitched at a deliberately unrealistic level, to allow him to crow about underachievement in the event of not meeting
his ridiculous criteria.
He is a well known sevco apologist and hun fan boy and anything he says should be treated with the contempt it deserves.
Great piece of writing there indeed ! – Aye I think we really need to be realistic and realise that any third place aspirations in The Champions League need to be met with a reasonably lucky draw, that said I’m just glad to be garaunteed to be there in the group stages for sure….
Imagine (I know, I know, and we can’t) but still imagine being in Sevco’s shoes !
The majority of Celtic fans will never fall into their so called traps, they are far too obvious. Neither will Chris Sutton, he is far too clever for them by half and he will always suss out their nasty wee jibes and underlying agendas. It’s a strictly no contest for the big man.
Win the league and at least 1 game in Europe… We won’t go from not even winning a game to winning a trophy. But people like Jordan are just laying the groundwork for their “Has Brendan Rodgers failed” article in May. All part of operation soothe and completely consistent with Rangers magic, Celtic tragic mindset. Best ignored.
The league will still remain our priority over the course of next season and even moreso with a prize with a place within the expansion of the CL up for grabs.
Also have to take into account that a split season still operates within Scotland.
So the 1st half of the season, CL takes priority while remaining strong within the league campaign.
Also great to win a cup before the winter break, and a big reliance upon squad depth required for the 1st half of the season also.
The 2nd half of the season begins with hopefully still being involved within European competition, with the push for home and another league title.
The Scottish Cup holds even more importance if the 1st cup has already been won.
Again squad depth is going to hold more relevance to keep all those possible achievement as goals for the season ahead.
The same mantra of one game at a time will still be applied regardless.
Already really looking forward to the season ahead and remain confident that much success will be gained, not sure just how much yet.
A favourable draw within the CL would be appreciated very nicely, yet we don’t seem to get favourable draws in the CL to date, hopefully biggest chance for ourselves next season
Totally agree,smsm are trying to set him up to fall and use the ‘failure’ tag