Regardless of the chorus of derision aimed at Rodgers over the course of this day – much of it deserved, some of it bordering on lunatic and hysterical, and some I suspect motivated in no small part because this is, after all, El Rat – there have been a few people who have echoed what this site has been writing for a very, very long time.
Celtic’s problems start at the top and are now so embedded in every facet of the club’s operation that we should be looking at a major rebuild of the playing squad and the management team in the summer only as the first steps in a much bigger restructuring.
Over the last ten years, we’ve put trophies galore in the cabinet. But underneath all the success there have been systemic issues that we’re not even close to fixing. In order to fix them, you have to recognise them. Then, when you do, you have to tackle them. The willingness to do that has to be present. It is hard to argue that this is the case.
We are surrounded by a culture of denial. We are not the first football club to paralysed like this. In fact, this inertia is rife not only in the sport but in the culture as a whole. Look at the major issues of the day, like global warming. It’s a clear and present danger to our future as a species. It will impact our children and grandchildren. We all know what the solutions are. Yet our political class hesitates and obfuscates and fiddles whilst Rome burns.
In some ways, the global warming debate is a perfect analogy for what is wrong at Celtic. We’ve ignored the obvious issues at our club for years because the weather was warm and the sun was on our backs, not at all unpleasant.
We ignored the occasional superstorm. We even endured the heatwaves with equanimity. It’s only now when the forests are burning and the rains, when they come, are filling the rivers and spilling their banks that we recognise the trouble we’re in.
But for a long time now people have been pointing out that the superstorms just weren’t normal. The Lennon hiring was terrifying to those of us who recognised the amateurish decision-making process at the heart of it. The Shower Scene From Hampden and Lawwell’s egotistical and idiotic statement in the aftermath of it was worse.
Rodgers left the first time in no small part because his player recommendations were ignored and scorned and because the board insisted on shoving on him footballers he didn’t want and had no use for.
Those who want to blame him for this mess are welcome to do it, but stop kidding yourselves that sacking him will fix this.
These are the same issues he had to deal with the last time he was here.
You cannot recognise that and conclude that life inside this club is harmonious. Once you accept that Rodgers would never have voluntarily walked back into that situation, what other conclusion can you draw but that they lied to him, or changed the plan once he accepted the gig? And once you conclude that, can you still blame him for this unravelling?
The club is a collection of disparate pieces, none working with the others to form a collective, functioning construct. Indeed, as this summer revealed – and as Rodgers first term revealed for those who can look beyond the “rat” narrative to root causes – some of those sections are actually working counter to one another.
Instead of meeting the needs of the manager the recruitment department threw a random bunch of players at him … whose interests was that serving? That was more than just an expensive mistake, it has proved to be disastrous and the costs will not only be incurred in the players we’ve squandered the money on but in allowing the biggest Champions League jackpot in history to slip through our fingers and into the coffers at Ibrox.
Our issues do not stop at the managers door. His coaching staff are mostly handovers from previous regimes, built in with the bricks, immovable objects in spite of world football being filled by better quality coaches. To understand how bad our coaching setup is, look at two things; the number of dead ball situations we score from and the number we concede from.
That tells you that the coaching department reeks. And that’s not an issue which has only just arisen, that’s a carryover from when Lennon was appointed to the job for the second time and he imported those issues from the two clubs he’d been at prior to ours, Bolton and Hibs.
If you Google for it you can actually find him giving a raging interview whilst at the English club about how they can’t stop conceding from corners and expressing his bafflement that they hadn’t had that problem before he arrived at the club.
But Lennon’s problems didn’t depart with him. Instead, they remained to haunt us under Ange and now under Rodgers.
What’s the common denominator? The coaching teams never corrected those basic mistakes, and they don’t work on finding solutions to them, and why should they? Kennedy and Strachan are basically un-sackable so there’s no incentive for them to do things differently or better. Rodgers is pissing in the wind surrounded by these guys.
Rodgers hasn’t just been denied his players, he’s working without his most trusting lieutenant and the quality staff he needs. We’re one of the only allegedly major clubs who won’t build a proper coaching department; three first team coaches to cover a thirty-man squad is lamentable. There are so many specialist areas where we don’t have anyone at all.
Celtic has been running a second-rate operation for years now, and it’s no coincidence that things improved briefly when there was no-one called Lawwell in the building second guessing the experienced football manager in the dugout who knew what he needed and wanted and made sure that he got it.
Before blaming Rodgers you have at least the fleeing responsibility to look at the people above him and the way this club is run, and has been run for years whenever these people have wrenched the controls away from the experts.
And ask yourself this; if you were a professional, credentialed and respected in your field, would you want to work with these sub-par individuals looking over your shoulder and checking your homework, with no experience whatsoever or expertise in your area? How great would that working environment be? How comfortable would you feel going to work every day?
Until we focus on the problems at Celtic, the real ones, and the real people responsible for them, we’re not getting out of this mess. These people keep on telling us to look at the success on their watch, but that success was won by the very sort of people they continually contradict and ignore. Their arrogance is why we’re here.
People need to stop feeding it, recognise their role in this and hold them to account.
Hold them to account. How?
My god, take about short memories, have yous lost you minds, sack Rodgers, he wasn’t properly backed in January never mind last summer! Liewell & Co are going out of their way to shaft him (as he wasn’t THEIR man, he wasn’t THEIR pick for the managerial role). Rodgers is being set-up to fail, to help cover for their incompetence, to have him removed in order to put in place another ‘YES Man’, that won’t rock the boat and dose what he’s told!
What about sack the board, where’s the calls to have Liewell & Co removed, for they are the root cause of all of this sudden upheaval. Liewell is only in the door a year and look what’s happening. They’ve deliberately went out of their too caused division among the fanbase by stoking the fires, they had the Green Brigade removed, and now they are using Rodgers as a scapegoat to protect themselves and their money hoarding operation from within the Celtic Park, to line their pockets and starve us of any sort of success on the European front.
Our pitch looks like a cowfeild, our recruitment department is full of wasters, we have a youth academy that dosnet work (hast worked in years) but systematically destroys the fragile careers of the any aspiring Celtic first team teenage, we’ve £70 million (or more) in the bank, with an additional £15 million line of credit and they claim they can’t afford to buy players, WTF? And while all this is going on, we have a board simultaneously handing themselves millions in pay rises, just to stay a hair breath ahead Newco., seriously but WTF. Open you F54king eyes you idiots, the board is the problem, not Rodgers. Liewell & Co are going out of their way to steal your hard-earned cash every year, in order to manufacture a false sense of competitiveness with our city revels, to push them on and save them and the SPFL long term, to negotiate shitty sponsorship deals that have us the laughing stock of Europe football
Do yous remember when Liewell &Co (along with Lennon), screwed us over with the 10 in-a-row and when the fans righty kick a shit storm, they attacked us, the fanbase, with the following actions.
The Board:
Celtic fans backed us during a global pandemic, we flushed £35 million down the toilet & blew the 10iar, we the board erected barricades, we the board ignored yous and we the board used the blue nose tainted elements of the British media to insult & labelled our fanbase ( Celtic fans) with untrue, deceitful slurs of ‘entitled’, ‘mob’, ‘scum’ & dirt, yet, after all that, faithfully blind as they are, they still came back for more of the same, renewing in their thousands ???? beggars belief, you’s want Champions League fitba, aye right, we’re downsizing! now shut up & give us your money, idiots.
Lawwell, The enemy within, Celtics keyser soze
1: constantly interfered with the recruitment process
2: continuously undermined managers to pursue their own agenda
3: wasted millions on project players & journeymen
4: Held BACK on money needed for EUROPEAN qualifiers
5: THEY’VE regressed Celtic to a joke & laughing stock of
European football to the point we’ve become the
whipping boys for Europe’s smaller clubs
6: under THEIR mismanagement, we’ve only qualified for the
champions league twice in the last EIGHT years
7: under THEIR mismanagement we’ve lost out on 280 million
of much needed champion’s league revenue
8: under THEIR mismanagement THEY flushed 35 million down
the toilet, blew the 10iar & CALLED IT PROGRESS
9: under THEIR mismanagement, sevco have been resurrected
to save the ‘old firm’ brand & the long-term financial future of the spfl
Bob , your right about this fucking board of ours ,but where your wrong is why did Brendan come back to work under this same board that pissed him off and made him bolt,why would he come back under the same regime,I’ll tell you why he got fed a load of shite from his big mate desmond and he swallowed that load of shite ,so he can’t now go back can he ,and £3 million pounds says , Brendan shut up and do as big Pete tells you,this board is every bit to blame for where we find ourselves, behind the team that’s been on the bones of there arse for the last ten years but now have overtaken us, Rodgers got sold a pup and never once stood up against liewell,why didn’t he ask his big mate desmond to sort things out,nah don’t rock the boat,he is a piss poor manager 20 years behind the times with his side to side back passing non penetrative abysmal mind numbing tactics, even McInnes has sussed him out FFS, we’re fucked because even a piss poor sevco will now leave us behind especially with the help they will get from the MIB.
Quality Post, Bob.
A first class accurate summary.
We’d all better buckle-up *extremely tight* as the period of time in the next few seasons are going to be stressful beyond belief… Why? The Board are not going to want to wrenched off the teats of the cash-cow that keeps giving….
We, the Celtic supporters are seriously, *really 100% seriously* going to have to unite and fight to GET THEM OUT. We’re the lifeblood of of OUR football club – We a helluva fight on our hands, but the time has finally come. The Top >>> Down Clearout has to begin asap – NO merchandise, snacks in the stadium,(eat before you leave the hoose/pub), *ANYTHING* No season book renewals – yup! that’s the hardest one, but it’s the only thing those avaricious bas*ards in the grey suits care about > NEED PROOF? < just look @ the state of our 1st team squad, FFS!!! We've maybe 4, possibly 5 players, (on a good day), 'fit to wear the jersey' & that's it! WE, the Celtic Supporters(!!!!!), have to start the process ASAP or we're going to see much, much worse a-happenings comin' down the line & it'll be our own damn fault!
Rodgers isn’t blameless, although he was lied tae when he took the job again. Nothin will convince me, that lawwell and desmond don’t see themselves as bigger than our support and our club itself. They couldn’t care less what the support thinks and that is an arrogant, slap in the face of every Celtic fan, especially the support who put money towards the club with ST’s, merchandise, or any other means. It even mocks the famous words on Jock Stein’s statue outside the ground. Support should act and show the club belongs tae them and no a bunch of egoistic, greed motivated, profiteerin tory bastards. Stop their cash flow, its the only way.
Kevin – spot on, buddy….!
My exact sentiments, i.e, my post directly above yours.
For us, the SUPPORTERS, we have to begin the fight to take back our club – *From the Very Top* w/ that bunch of arrogant, self-serving BOARD members told in no uncertain terms TO GET OUT (>>> Dermot Desmond is going to be a tough one to shift, but we have to do whatever we can so that he fully, 100%, gets the message from Celtic supporters that we want him long gone from our club and to never, ever darken our door for the rest of his life, with the same applying to his ‘heir-in-waiting’ of a spoilt, waste of space laddie o’ his, too.
ALL CELTIC SUPPORTERS *MUST !!* try to reach agreement(s) w/ the various supporters groups and associations, and all the vast number of Celtic supporters, like ma’sel’ for example who form part of the wider, ‘Global Celtic Family’ who get up at all hours of the night to watch our beloved team via Celtic TV, but especially top priority are our massive number of season-ticket holders. We will all have to put our minor differences of opinion to one side so’s to *REALLY* concentrate our collective energies to be totally focussed on one thing & one thing only – Getting rid of every single one of those self-entitled, vastly overpaid individuals on the Board who seem to think that they can get away with anything. For us; the faithful through & through Celtic Supporters who are the very lifeblood of our glorious football club it is NOW TIME to finally ‘down tools’ – The Board are now past any way, shape or form of redemption regardless of what crumbs they sneeringly chuck at us.
I’ve been a diehard supporter of Celtic, thru’ thick & thin, for over 55 years and, for me, this is the most disgraceful bunch of arrogant, disrespectful bunch of charlatans I can ever remember, and I’ve suffered through some seriously tough periods, as many other around my age has, too. Personally, for me, this is far, far worse; even more serious than the shenanigans that went on during the White’s & the Kelly’s era who, if wee Fergus hadn’t arrived in the nick of time, would have run our uniquely special football club w/ all its glorious history forever right down to the dying embers.
This time the Board are much more detestable because they are fully aware of how we, the faithful life-blood of the Club, who are keeping every last one of those conniving, sleekit bas*ards in financial clover, without even the merest of hints of an ounce of remorse shown for just how badly they’ve treated us for far too long.
For the sake of the SUPPORTERS, the ‘perfect storm’ was the January window; not just because they sold our manager on lies – but also seemed to take great satisfaction in really pushing his face & in turn, the SUPPORTERS faces into the dirt, too.
Anyone who think that the players aren’t aware of the massive unrest amongst the support just needs to have watched our rapid decline in any cohesive tactics or rushed decisions or our failure to score the easiest of chances, or play the ball to the guy n plenty of space inside the box thus, giving them at least a chance at scoring – much rather have that than the selfish cutting inside from our utterly wasteful, ‘alleged’ wingers w/ none of them worthy of getting anywhere near the quality required to be wearing The Hooped Shirt(s) as clearly, and sadly far too often, over the last 6 months which followed the shameful acquisition of players farce of a Summer Transfer Window & then onto the farce of the January window…..- w/ none of them fit to even be a Celtic player let alone be in contention for a 1st team bench-warmer, and never in a month o’ Sundays worthy to be even remotely considered a starter for *any* game for our glorious Hoops –
+++++ THE SUPPORTERS HAVE TO UNITE & FIGHT, AS ONE, TO GET THEM OUT – NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES+++++
+++++ AND THAT FIGHT HAS TO START AS SOON AS POSSIBLE +++
ToGETHER, ma’ fellow Celtic through & through supporters WE ***CAN** DO THIS!!!
aw’ the best tae every one o’ ye!
We know the club needs restructuring but can those who have created this situation be responsible for it?
At present there is no-one with football expertise or knowledge on the board. We need a concentrated professional and commercial approach to improving the club. An outside agency should be brought in to do a root and branch review and report submitted. However can we trust that there will be any action or will it be left to wither on the vine like other reviews in Scottish football? We live in hope.
A well written piece. That as usual stops short of caring a spade a spade.. The problem,, is the “traitors” within the upper echelons! “THE BOARD”…
Nothing will change while Desmond is the major shareholder. He clearly doesn’t give a toss about what’s going on and he must be responsible for Lawwell’s return. I can’t see a situation where he sells his shareholding to someone who cares about the club. Only then can the Lawwells, Nicholson, the rest of the board and Kennedy and all of the Strachan’s be shown the door. Otherwise they will all stay put and pick up their bonuses. With regards to Rodgers just remember all the lies he peddled on the board’s behalf earlier in the season. This makes it hard to believe him now. With regards to his managing I still can’t believe why he persists with the so called style he used even when it is dreadful. Even though he has been given a poor hand by Lawwell mini we should still be good enough to beat Kilmarnock.
Spoke to a few mates yesterday said that corners especially point to our coaching being non existent defensively or offensively Kilmarnock were much better organised at both ends of the park. We’ve bought 4 wingers couldn’t make a decent one out of them all. Anyway keep the faith hail hail.
I agree that two of the major problems is our inability to put in decent crosses and to defend set pieces. I’ve read comments on this site of the improvements seen at CL this season. Ok the stats are that only 16% of crosses actually got into the opposition box, 700 passes went left sideways, 700 went right sideways and nearly 500 were back passes. We shipped 15 goals and scored 5.
The team is so predictable you wouldn’t need to be super qualified opposition coach to set up a team to make life difficult. Welsh gets ball either passes to Scales or meanders up to half way line. Either no one is moving into space or he can’t see it so he either passes back to Scales ( or whoever is near him) or passes out to the wing to a player that is wearing the opposition player like a snug jacket and then has to pass it back. In the meantime the opposition have organised into the defensive shape. Scales is at least trying to get quick ball out. The 1st hour against Kilmarnock was at least pretty well paced but then it all falls away when it becomes way to intricate in the 18yard box.
We have wingers who just want to come into the congestion rather than try and hit the byeline (aka Jota). The crosses are woeful anyway. Jury’s out on Kuhn, doesn’t look like he’s going to add anything better than Yang or Maeda.
Against pretty poor SPFL teams we’ve got away with it and had some pretty decent results. I’m not convinced that Rangers are up to much individually but there does seem to be much better structure and organisation since Clement came in
@ JM. And its been the same, season after season mate, still cannae be trusted tae defend set pieces. There’s a common denominator through all this, kennedy and strachan sittin in that dug out. Thats nae coincidence.
Instead of talking about about all that is wrong with our great club, let’s do what Fergus wanted . If 100,000 Celtic supporters, which I am sure there are all over the world, were to pledge to put up £1,000 , we could put great pressure on all these board members,Desmond and all the other shareholders, to sell their shares to the Celtic supporters, then the club would be run in the proper way
Just a thought!
Kennedy looked like he cuda been a player until injury cruelly took that away from him, but I dont care how many badges uv been and done, there’s nothing beats been there done that, and JK certainly does not have that sort of experience.
Ive long lamented that the defensive coaching has been dire for years, unfortunately the club has returned to the jobs for the bhoys that existed pre Fergus.
We’ve had the occasional diamond go thru our back line, but they quickly get sold on.
Its been a problem far too long and the whole defensive coaching team needs cleared out, as does upstairs too.
James, you may not like this comment, but you cannot keep mentioning Lennon in a negative context yet keep cutting Rodgers slack. We know the board are the main problem but the meet with Rodgers in Mallorca and offering him the job looks as disastrous as the Hampden shower scene. Rodgers gets away with murder by many. His football style is numbing and it’s difficult to expect fans to pay to watch it
Good shout Dan , Lennon in the shower 2nd time , Rodgers in Mallorca 2nd time , neither appointment was looked at , obviously after Howe took the piss out of the great desmond and liewell Rodgers was told a pile of pish and the daft cnut swallowed it hook line a sinker ,now he’s been left out to dry and we’re left with a manager 10 years behind the times even McInnes has him sussed.
February 19th. 2019.
Many Celtic supporters world wide woke up to discover
The Manager , our National hero.
Has scampered out the door to manage the Mighty
Leicester City.
5 years later it’s still incredible to think This alleged
Born Celtic man fks off on the verge of Treble Treble.. totally unbelievable I even cringe at looking at this guy..
Not In million years should he be employed or near parkhead Dermot Desmond, has made the biggest mistake of his life.
Rodger’s is sell by Date and extremely overpriced
He seems to dodge criticism for unknown reason
His signings of almost 40 Duds is embarrassing. His latest Quality singings yesterday absolutely shocking. This winger No 9.. looks like school boy
More money down the drain… awful is understatement.
And you fall into the CLASSIC trap and destroy your WHOLE ARGUMENT.
You did it the second you talked about “his signings.” You’ve slept so long you’ve missed the whole class.
I am astounded that you’ve so spectacularly failed to get the point.
James the biggest mistake I think Rodgers made was coming back under the same regime,was he naive, gullible,greedy ,ie 3 million,what on earth possessed him knowing liewell was back ,and I think his tactics that may have worked 10 years ago are now obsolete and every piss poor manager in the spfl seems to have sussed him out ,I know he has beat sevco twice but what’s the point when you lose to piss poor teams with a 20th of our budget, even the mannequin pis seems to have got a tune out of that DRECK that you smugly used to call them.In your own words James we have a better manager and a better team than sevco,what are your words now?
The board and the manager need to go as do Strachan and Kennedy, players look like they want to be anywhere but here, looks like some of our better players have downed tools and if that is the case they have to be sold or let go in the summer. First and foremost we are a football club and should start behaving accordingly. HH
Spot on as usual, Man Utd have three coaches, just for taking the kick off, we have guys with no experience anywhere else and no credentials for being their positions, can’t believe we’re still paying a wage to Strachan, employ his two sons, along with Lawells son and Desmond’s son. Lack of forward thinking and any real enthusiasm from the board to the back room staff
Had a buddy text me to say McGregor has broken ranks and admitted that the club is a mess…
Someone at Celtic speaking the truth at last –
Someone lifting their head outta the sand and above the parafit…
A welcome change if ma mate is texting me the truth !
The thing that really haunts me about Celtic is what we could have done the season after the Porto final if we had added 1 or 2 quality players, we could have been real CL challengers. Instead we got Pearson from Motherwell so even back then there was no ambition to be a ” big Club”.Our Club motto should be ” we only ever do enough”.
Are you aware that was the beginning of Peter Lawwell?????
Can you join the dots?
agree entirely james….BR is not to blame…but he carries a percentage because he accepted the gig…and all that went with it – without kicking up !…celtic fc is rank rotten….amateur hour.
question is…..how and who fixes it ? we saw the board and desmonds response during the 10IAR(sic) season when the fans erupted….
i really fear it’s gonna get a hell of a lot worse, before, if ever, it gets better…
i hate desmond every bit as much as i hate that smug, arrogant bastard lawwell….
by any chance, if the perpetrator of the lawwell car burning incident is a tim, and is reading this, and he has plans/instructions to repeat the deed….will you please, ffs….make sure he’s sitting in it the next time?
The board is no more fans pisst right of its plain to see wear are not a foot ball club we are a Money making machine for the BOARD
Lawwell has proven himself to be a friend of the huns.
The huns are our enemy.
Therefore the friend of our enemy is also our enemy.
Q.E.D.
I’d really love to know what Dom McKay did to be removed…..
Serious questions need to be asked over that mate, and they’ve never been put to these people.
@ CMcD. Aye, that’s another one that most of us seem tae have forgotten.