I do not care for Brendan Rodgers latest comments on transfers. Not at all.
He says he’s in no hurry to get deals in, because they have to be the right deals for the club. Understandable, up to a point. If we were hurtling towards the window with injuries mounting up suddenly and players banging on the door to leave then you can understand why he might not feel like those above him are responsible because they didn’t move faster. But this is not like that at all. We’re now 19 days into the window and the only thing we’re heading for is the end of it.
He sat there at a press conference many weeks ago and assured fans that in terms of the Asian Cup that the club had everything in hand. They had been talking about it for a while, they were ready, they were prepared. This blog has already pointed out that this is largely a nonsense. No club that was “prepared” and “thinking about this” already would have brought in one third of our summer signings knowing they might be called up to play in that competition.
Those above Brendan Rodgers left us scandalously exposed for that spell. Scandalously exposed. If we now lose Kyogo to injury we’re going through the remainder of this month and the better part of the next largely without a recognised striker. For a club like Celtic and one which saw the Asian Cup on the calendar and must have known what it meant that is absolutely not good enough at all.
They have had months to get a target list in place, a realistic one, and to start working off it. Months. If we’re no nearer a signing and talking about leaving it up until the last day then that’s a disgraceful situation for this club to have found itself in. We should have been up and ready to go the moment the starting gun was fired. What in God’s name have our “recruitment department” spent all that time on?
Today Josh Doig signed for a club in Italy, for a fee we could have afforded. The Ibrox club was linked with him for a while. Good enough to play in Serie A but not good enough for the SPFL. Is that our attitude? You may argue that he would not have been more than a backup to Taylor, but right now that’s a backup we don’t have because Bernabei is a waste of a jersey.
I am not arguing that we should have signed Doig. But for people to be trotting out the same old pitiful excuse that it’s “hard” to do business in January isn’t going to cut it at all, and for Rodgers to sit there as the picture of nonchalance and hand the board yet another opportunity to stiff him … is this guy stupid or what?
This is like dealing with the Ibrox club here. If you give these people an inch, they will take the mile. Give them the opportunity to drag their feet and they’ll do it just to save money on the wage bill. This board needs to be harassed to spend money, it has to be harried to keep the foot on the gas or it just won’t.
“There’s a lot of work going on and hopefully before the window shuts, we can improve the squad,” he said. Hopefully? It should be inconceivable that we don’t strengthen further. But what’s worse is that he then added the following unbelievable piece of nonsense. “It normally goes right through to the end.”
Yeah because we have a board that doesn’t care to shift into gear if it saves a few quid on fees. That they are allowed to get away with this so regularly disgusts me. We have plenty of money to spend. Leaving it to the last minute doesn’t improve your chances, it lets people know you are desperate.
But Rodgers wasn’t finished. “I am quite relaxed on it. I know what we need to improve but unless it’s the right type of quality and player then we won’t be in a rush to do anything.”
And who decides that? And if the right type and quality of player isn’t known to us right now, then I repeat; what have people at Celtic been doing all this time?
Let me tell you what the fixture list coming up looks like. After the Scottish Cup we have Ross County at home. Following that it’s Aberdeen and Hibs away, then Kilmarnock who have beaten us twice, albeit this is at Celtic Park. That takes us beyond the Asian Cup but we’ll have players who are fatigued and probably in need of some downtime, or we risk late season burnout.
We also have a Scottish Cup fourth round squeezed in there somewhere; this is not one of those situations where the board can get away with doing damn all.
It’s not good enough to bring players in at the last minute; we have Aberdeen away three days after the window shuts, so what time are guys supposed to have to get to know their team-mates prior to that?
We have Hibs right on the heels of that, four days later.
If we’re not ready – and I mean with players bedded in – for those games that’s a problem, and those problems multiply exponentially if the board, listening to how relaxed Rodgers is, decides not to proceed with signing anybody else because our players will only be in Asia for a further few days.
If a weakened Celtic team drops points in those games, or we get a horror draw and go out of the Scottish Cup in the fourth round, I am going to blame people in our boardroom, but I’m also going to blame the manager for the utter stupidity of leaving so many hostages to fortune. These people walked all over him during the summer, and if he continues to act weak that’s how he’ll be treated by them going forward and right now that could cost us a league title.
He won’t survive that. I hope he knows it. There is no question of it whatsoever. If he’s content to dance to the tune of people with no skin in the game that’s his look-out because they won’t hesitate to dispense with him. He needs to have his arms all the way around this and I don’t like the way he came across when he said that today.
He’s letting them squander time he doesn’t have.
The Celtic board seem to be addicted to the gamble. And for what? To have a 60 million profit rather than a 50 million profit? To keep the old firm branding alive? To piss off their customer and supporter base? This penny pinching and gambling cost us John McGinn’s signature. It cost us 10 in a row. It cost us Brendan Mark 1. It may now lead to us losing Brendan for a second time and handing the champions league pot of gold to Sevco. These actions are the classic definition of a 5th columnist – and this board may be it.
This situation would NEVER have happened under Ange. Lawwell and his buddies were scared of him but Rodgers is just proving he is their lap dog. We’ll end up bringing two projects on loan on the final day of the window and Rodgers and Lawwell will claim the window as a major success. Deja vu anybody ?
Our Board is having a laugh – at our expense, as per.
And Clement quoted today:
“”We are not the most wealthy club in the world. I know that…
You need to have players that are in contract. Like this season,
to have five players out of contract is a crazy situation because
you throw away money. They are of no value any more if the
contract is ended…”
Clement getting p!ssed off about his squad and a lack of transfers-in?
PL will just be sitting back, counting the club’s cash pile, yet again ?
It will be surprising if we do actually bring in another player this window. 🙁
He might sneakily want out as it’s clear him and Lawwell cannot and should not be anywhere near the same building and if he loses this title, like you say it simply has to be the sack which will cost Celtic plenty and Lawwell will still reign supreme…
And heaven forbid that it should pan out in that manner but if it does that’d be Brendan finished in The Premier League in England for sure –
Huddersfield Town, Rotherham United and Plymouth Argyle it’d be from then on for Brendan – That said The Championship in England is a far far better League than the one above it in my humble opinion for excitement and drama…
Anyway, still a bit to go in the transfer window so let’s see what happens !
Where is the voice of the support? We have so many clever supporters, yet we have no voice. We were badly found wanting during the EBT scandal except for a few lone voices.
Nicholson boasted about progressing in Europe, then delivered a bunch of projects.
Why don’t bloggers team together and voice their displeasure.
The board should be warned now, blow the 60M CL money and they all pay with their jobs.
Ange would never have let this happen, I believe you’re correct and he needs to grow a pair real quick. The grey brigade are taking the piss out of us all…
Rodger’s is now being shown up as another yes man for Liewell he will take his £3 million and do whatever the board say.Why did he ever want to come back under the same restriction’s by the same clown’s running our club.This board are dismantling a team that were 3 or 4 player’s short of making a fist of the Champion’s League,they have absolutely no ambition for Europe and this stems from the absentee landlord Desmond.
You have changed your tune on the board are gonna blown sevco away with 15m signings. Anyone who follows Celtic with their eyes open know it will never be different with lawwell at the helm
You are talking bullshit. I have not “changed” anything. I had faith in the manager having gotten a grip on things.
He sounds like a man who still hasn’t realised the chance he’s taking.
Rodger’s is under extreme pressure. As time goes marching On. “ Quality over Quantity “
The ridiculous points dropped at home is shocking waste and probably destroy our Season. Add 7 points to the present count puts us 15 in Front
Regardless of games in hand. 6 points from two derby games. And possibly only 2 points in front.
It’s history Now…
Stand up Rodger’s Your head on the Block At 52.
He’s long enough in the game. To see our requirements..
Same issues from before summer window, personally the Names Lawell & Rodgers should be removed from Celtic.
I could write an essay on their past but everyone knows what went wrong.
Dump all 3 as all you get is ? ? ?
Your being disrespectful to the manager
by saying ( is he stupid)
The manager and his staff will be working in the background.
Just have tae wait and see and the time’s just rollin on once again. And it’s the usual, ‘tried and tested’ pattern of complete silence from the quiet men of the board.
I think the manager is a realist and will not be panicking to the press. His own forte is not scouting, unless with the £Millions of Liverpool or Leicester. With the players Celtic have there is anticipation of a Title (it has to be won by someone). A lot depends on professionalism and attitude.
I know it’s probably very unlikely but you seem to have totally dismissed Buckie Thistle in your equation. Hopefully that’s not a situation that occurs.
If that does however happen then I would wish them all the best and they will have gained another supporter.
Rodgers is relaxed that’s because he’s a management puppet He will have even more time to relax when he gets sacked the fans are being treated with contempt by our board and Manager Rodgers should not have come back he is a dud a blind man could have seen we desperately need a goalkeeper Now. I am 72 years old and have been a Celtic fan all my life
If there are no more new players in by next Saturday, we’ll that’s the chance for the support to give the whole board doesn’t abuse at the county game .
It sometime does take time to complete deals, for if the team you are dealing with are prepared to sell, but only if they can replace their player in advance of the deal going ahead, then we have to be patient to a certain extent until the chips fall into place. True, it might not happen that way, and even eventually fall through, but should we be jumping onto our 2nd choices instead during this window, or trusting the squad we already have and wait until the Summer? It is not an easy decision to make and I trust Brendan to make the right choice. As fans we will always be looking for the quick fix, but it can obviously be a bit more complicated than that with other considerations in the mix.
Que sera, sera.
I’ve said it before, Rodgers was happy to get another chance here after blowing it at Leicester,he is a lapdog quite happy to go along with whatever liewell and the board tell him,he will not rock the boat,why would he? 3 million reasons why he won’t.I never understood why he came back under the same regime but now it is clear he is desmonds puppet.
For all he’s giving a calm demeanour at press conferences, I don’t believe for one second he’ll be the same behind closed doors. He’s not going to feed the SMSM with the headlines they’re desperate for by displaying there’s disharmony at the club.
Rodgers said he wants quality over quantity” but to bring in very good players cost money and wages we paid £6 million for Jota and Vickers so that’s the type and quality we should be aiming for no disrespect to the German lad we have just bought. I thought we would be going for Jota type players but lawell is pulling those horrible strings again and Rodgers is going along with this route the lawell way. Still time to prove me wrong but over many years except for Ange lawell got his way and Desmond they both like the bigots to be on board with pretence.