You know what I’ve gotten heartily sick of in the past couple of weeks? This idea that the manager is responsible for the state of this team.
This idea that he and we have blown the transfer failings out of all proportion. That the manager should still be “doing better with what he has.”
It’s as if the people who spent the summer screaming at our club that it was failing to deliver have now turned 180 degrees and are now telling us that the board delivered after all.
And of course, that’s exactly what some of them are telling us. Others are actually blaming the manager himself for the summer business, as thought it was Rodgers who aimed the blunderbuss and fired. Andy Walker is the latest to push this rubbish, demanding that Rodgers himself answer the question as to where the quality is. What a clown that man is.
It’s as if we keep having to pinch ourselves to make sure we’re awake, to make sure we didn’t hallucinate it all; the manager urging the quality, the papers linking us with a slew of players who got us excited and who were clearly the sort the manager would have gone for, and the underwhelming nature of the players we actually got.
It happened. We went through the summer without adding one guaranteed starter, in spite of bringing in ten players.
And we ended that window with no new left back, no striker to challenge Kyogo for his starting slot, a hole in the midfield and no new keeper. But we signed three wide players, four central midfielders and, in the end, three centre backs.
No manager would have added that many players to those bits of the squad when so many positions which needed it were left untouched … and three additional Asian Cup call-up possibilities to boot. (Two out of the three were on the plane.)
Nobody who has ever built a team for a living would have made those mistakes. Anyone who thinks the manager was responsible for that horror show, they’re too dumb to reason with. Anybody who thinks that the summer was anything less than a horror show isn’t playing with a full deck of cards. Yet these are the two stories which are being pushed on us.
Even Chris Sutton has been running this garbage, and I’ve written about that a couple of times because it genuinely annoys me and puzzles me at the same time.
And I know why these narratives are being pushed on us; they protect the board and put the blame on the manager. Some of these people want to protect the board.
Some of them just want to blame Rodgers. If they can destabilise Rodgers they can flip this whole season towards Ibrox in a way that truly matters, and they know that this narrative plays with a section of our own fan-base. It is one of the most underhanded stratagems they have ever deployed.
They might even be getting away with it too except for one thing; they were trying to drive a wedge between the fans and the manager from the moment of his arrival back at the club.
That’s why it’s so recognisable; they’ve literally being doing this from the second he walked in through the door again.
It has been relentless, and they got lucky because they early results fed into the perception that Rodgers was a lesser figure … it is only slowly that he has started to re-emerge and seize back command of the story being told around him and this team.
Now that he has, they will ramp it up to full and hope for some further bad results. We just have to hope that the squad and the coaches have the bit between their teeth now and press on towards the title. If they do that, it doesn’t matter what story the media is telling itself.
But all the while, remember this; we are not imagining it. The board of directors sold this guy short both in the summer and in January. They denied him the chance to build his own team.
That actually happened, and not only must we remember it but we have to hold them to account for it. It would suit a lot of people if we put that aside, including our enemies.
And looking to this coming summer…
with all the same individuals in place in the
recruitment and football departments, and on the Board:
why should we, the supporters, expect anything radically different this summer?
After 2 seriously underwhelming windows,
we would be stupid to expect a window this summer
which actually delivers the 4 quality players STILL required
to make any ‘progress in Europe’.
…unless any ideas about European ambition have now been dropped
by the Board?
We have Peter Lawwells son as Head of recruitment and Gordon Strachans son as Head of European scouting.
Strachans son had only ever had one job in football before celtic and that was his dad giving him a job as a scout. Before that he worked in a golf shop.
Mark Lawwell’s job at City wad recruitment & scouting online content manager, whatever that is. Sounds like an office job making sure all data from scouts is kept updated on a computer system.
They are the reason for a crap transfer window. Each window will be the same until they are removed
One hundred percent correct Paul- jobs for the boys!
Lawwell wasn’t happy with the huge salary & fat bonus he’s already taking so employing his own son opened another revenue stream for the family. These individuals have only one interest and that’s to fleece the club for as much as possible. Totally unqualified for their positions they also have no ambition to take the club forward on the field. Next level my arse.
If we go on to win this title, all of them with their poison pens will be well and truly fucked.
Sutton surprises me, but Walker, that’s a whole different story, he is just a vindictive little turd.
This is a time for unity, as far as the fans, players, and the manager are concerned, and hopefully the summer will take care of all the deadwood upstairs. Hail Hail
Self sabotage driven by Lawwells old firm agenda.
Get him and his useless son out of our club.
SACK THE BOARD.
Only one person culpable if we lose this title and that’s lawwell. Rodgers can only try and get the best out the players he’s workin with and has available. Tho everybody and their dug, could see we badly needed quality back up in 4-5 key positions, which would’ve made all the difference. Again the support got the ‘silent’ treatment from the board. The window came and went and has left us woefully short. Can only hope we get our full squad back ASAP, because a lot depends on it. Win or lose this title, this board should be taken tae task once and for all for their greedy, gross, negligent gamblin with our season.
Right now, there is no one to blame for the transfer window, you can only blame someone for something when things go wrong and that has not exactly happened yet. If we win the remaining two trophies, then this season will be seen as a roaring success. So, let’s wait and see what happens before dishing out criticism… or plaudits… depending on the final outcome. The transfer window is now history, let’s forget it for now.
@JG. Lawwell is every bit tae blame for the shambles of a window. 60 million at stake and even if we won this league, if anybody thinks that vindicates, or justifies the massive gamble lawwell & co took with our season, yer as gullible as the rest of the pro-board stooges. Ah always believed ye strengthen, if ye can, when yer ahead, no just when and where in the team it’s obviously needed. In this case we could easily have given ourselves a better chance by re-inforcin 4 or 5 key areas properly and lawwells failed on both these accounts.
I didn’t day it was a good transfer window, far from it, but there is no benefit in continually harping on about it. It is what it is and we need to adjust and react accordingly. As I said, let’s wait and see what transpires, the knee jerk reactions should be put to bed and let’s just get on with it.
Another Board apologist doing his bit.
Delusional thinking more akin to the gullible, Deludemol addicted buns across the City.
Did you even read what James has just posted?
A board apologist?, did you even read what I said.
There’s a village out there looking high and low for someone like you.
The squad is considerably weaker whether we win the title or not, that then carries on to subsequent seasons, it’s not hard to get, Celtic are regressing in quality.
At the end of the day, Rodgers has to take a lot of the blame, even if it is only for the non-use of the power he has.
He has power in the fact that he isn`t working to survive, to pay, mortgages, rent, fuel bills, etc. He has a mouth with a tongue. He could easily have told Lawwell, or whoever, that he was demanding the strengthening of the required positions, that he was talking for the supporters and a failure to come up with the goods would mean another goodbye: not forgetting to tell them where to stick their non-disclosure. If he signed a contract just to accept the manager`s job without any caveats, then on him be it, but if there are conditions in his contract that are not met, he is entitled to go with full compensation. He, and he only, is the one person in the whole world who has the power.
to talk for the support. The more he remains silent, the more they will s4!t upon him. Having said that, though, he should still be able to have kept the points lead that was thrown away against teams with players of virtually no footballing ability, so, repeat, he has to take a lot of the blame. And for good measure, he should demand that Celtic cease advertising Clyde SSB at Celtic Park in full view of the people they hate.
I agree with you 100% James Forest and thanks for reminding us of those last two disasterous recruitment windows overseen by Lawell and son.
Celtic can’t progress in Europe with Lawell Sr in charge or in Scotland with Lawell Jr as head recruiter.
Effarr, you’re right to sn extent, Rodgers has no choice but to work with what he’s got and we are still definitely in the title race so he’s kept us up there,but like you what I don’t understand is ,why did he take the job on with all the restrictions on transfers,was he given a lot of promises that the board failed to keep,if so he was duped ,so the other side of it is ,the board told him the truth about transfer policies and he accepted it, either way he has made a mistake and he does indeed have the power to shout about it.
I think that collectively they are all to blame – The Board and Rodgers…
And the players shouldn’t be able to slither out of things either –
I’m just shocked that Rodgers allowed himself to be duped to work with Sonny Lawwell’s pile of steaming shite that he recruited…
As for Andy ‘Fcukin’ Walker –
Can this Walker not just Walk into obscurity for once and for all and just vanish and gie Celtic supporters piece !