As several ex-Celtic players flail around looking to blame Rodgers or the players or Rodgers and the players for the malaise at our club, it is gratifying that at least one person in the press corps can see the woods for the trees. Of course, it’s Michael Stewart.
The reason I’ve always liked Stewart is that he is not gratuitous in his criticism. He knows where the line is. When he is coming after Celtic or others it’s because we deserve it. He never does it just to hear the sound of his own voice. He doesn’t pursue personal vendettas. He has been courageous. He has taken hits, professionally and personally, for doing so.
“(We) all assumed that to get Brendan back in it was because they were going to back him heavily. It’s been so far the other way that I find it astonishing,” he said. And it has been. In fact, it’s been disgusting. Stewart is one of the few people who knows exactly what the problem at Celtic is and he doesn’t care about saying it out loud.
He also believes that Rodgers should be retained beyond this campaign, regardless of whether or not we win the title. That’s where I would argue with him. Rodgers can’t survive losing this league, not when all he had to do was get over the line from a seven-point lead. Beating the Ibrox club twice means we should be out of sight now, and if we’re not then someone has to swing for that and it will be him. I don’t think there would be a lot of debate about it.
Michael Stewart recognises that Celtic will find it hard to get a better manager. I personally dread the very idea that we might need to replace Rodgers because although I’m really not enjoying where we are right now, we could be in a far worse position if the board gets the next managerial decision wrong, and that’s not exactly hard to imagine.
Even though Rodgers will carry the can and the media will be happy to see him blamed, everyone in football will know what actually happened inside Celtic Park; there are no secrets on the inside of the game, not anymore, and I don’t even want to think about what the general perception of Celtic is at the moment out there in the wider footballing world.
Can you even imagine the calibre of manager we’re going to be able to attract? Jesus, with a controlling board, unhappy fans, a media which is all over the Ibrox boss and a massive rebuild on our hands? And all run under the current transfer system with its lowball focus and its £2 million average signing price-tag and the notorious wage cap?
No wonder Stewart is telling us to hang onto Rodgers, and whilst I don’t see how we can I know exactly why he thinks we should. We need more journalists to do as he has done and start pushing the board as the true culprits here, because I don’t see how we solve the real problem without trying to solve that one. I am just glad someone is telling it like it is.
It’s true, the board have hamstrung him and set us up to struggle. However, we’re playing the same dreadful stuff we were in September. A first half against Kilmarnock where I thought we looked slightly better disappeared when Rodgers (not the board) changes the formation back and got us playing bore ball again. I think in the right setup Rodgers is still a good manager. But this ain’t the right setup and if he’s too married to a certain style of play when our players can’t do it….he’s part of the problem.
There’s no way he’s here next season, regardless of the outcome. Smart money is on us trying to get Clarke after Scotland exit the euros. How we all fee about that is…variable. Especially as it wastes May-July. The Teflon suited Lawwells will survive this, sadly.
This club needs major change. Dynamic board, modern European DoF (ideally with no previous ties to Celtic, because…well, nobody Celtic minded has the qualifications or experience, frankly) and restructured footballing department. Wage cap lifted, markets switched from £2m to £5m region, player sales increased, squad size trimmed.
Not a single bit of that will happen. It hasn’t for the 15 years it has already been needed, it won’t now.
Be careful what you wish for. The dynamic change at board level might be Desmond selling to the highest bidder. Dubai Celtic FC?
if he has to close the upper tier good luck to him on that one !!!
I think this league is over and done with and will be amazed if it even gets as far as May.
Rodgers should never have been back and the Grey Brigade should have done their job for once and sourced an up and coming young manager who had ideas to take us forward.
Postecoglou’s appointment was more to do with luck than planning after chasing Howe for far too long.
Dominic McKay left after a few months because his ideas to take us forward were too much for the over comfortable dinosaurs of the board.
They are too old,too arrogant and too set in their ways to realise their time is up.
Excellent Analysis (100% Spot on)…..
100%
I was delighted when Rodgers was announced because I thought the board had realised they’d made a mistake last time and it was time to put things right.
There is still time for that to happen. Not this campaign, obviously, as the window is shut and the damage is done. But if the unthinkable did happen and Messrs Lawwell were told to GTF then we could bounce back very quickly.
I know this is not going to happen. We’ll sail aimlessly towards the end of the season like we did 3.seasons ago and the board will take another punt and hope for the best.
We, as Celtic fans, should not accept this. We also should not leave it to the eejits to voice our anger like last time.
Well said James, the board are the ones who should go first, particularly the money grabbing Lawwells.
This league is not over yet but i believe even if Rogers turns it round an wins it he will walk away leaving a bigger problem for the Celtic board to contend with namely details of what was promised to the manager on signing and what & who was really pulling the strings at the club.
If he walks then they cannot silence him John…
But he seems a kinda quiet type of fella and would probably protect them at all costs –
As for Micheal Stewart…
That The Sevco Huns detest him makes him a very honest and impartial pundit in my humble opinion !
i would hope for that to be true , but he’d have done it by now and saved his reputation in to the bargain , but there’s millions at stake if he walks , he’ll be fired and his contract bought out with a schoefield gob job done on him
Firstly EVEN is Celtic lose the league this season we will not get rid of Rodgers (he will not be sacked) regardless of what peoples opinions are. Brendan will not walk away either so lets stop with the hearsay.
Now watching the match on Saturday I was confused by the first half set-up and the on field play… it made no sense at all and he is why.
We had full backs coming into the middle of the park to compensate with the extra forward at the same time we have Rodgers favoured inverted wingers who were also coming inside.. The middle of the goal was crowded.
Now my thought with inverted wingers who cut inside was the full backs over lap and become wide mes, KT had a great couple of seasons doing this. Though on Saturday it wasnt happening. Was this tactics or were players not doing what they were asked to do??
In the second have it was changed slightly but BR a few times got animated when players ie full backs and wingers were not in the correct places. Clearly some player were getting confused do I come in or do I go wide??
It was torture to watch
Absolutely spot on Pablo. I was standing in my local Celtic bar gesturing wildly at the wide yawning spaces of green sitting open on either wing while our wingers ran headlong into the throng of defenders packing the penalty area.
What I don’t understand is that against Buckie Thistle we were doing what we did in Rogers first spell and using mobile triangle of wingers, full backs and midfielders exchanging positions constantly until the defence didn’t know who was going where and how or if to track them. We pulled much better defences than Buckie’s right out of shape by doing that in the past. Now we seem just to have abandoned the tactic.
I knew a dog named Stewart.
Very true words from Michael Stewart, if we as season ticket holders don’t get on top of the board and make them feel so uncomfortable that they have to leave the club, we are as much to blame as them because we are allowing them to take us all for mugs, and we should start crying them out from this weekend at Motherwell
Michael Stewart is by far the best pundit in Scottish football even with the BBC trying hard to control him, although he is a Hearts fan he finds it easy to be objective in his opinions.
I think our club is at the crossroads, after years of domestic success and money in the bank to spend, we had hoped to move on up and improve in Europe,sadly this board had no ambition which has taken us backwards.
If it is BR or anyone else as manager this board has got to change tack, cut back in project signings and spend a bit more on experienced players, whilst raising the wage ceiling.
If this board circle the wagons rather than change, then I’m afraid there will be all out war between the fans and those in the boardroom.
The media would rather hype and push the idea tae have everybody believe that the swing in momentum, is due tae the new ‘messiah’ and obvious tactical genius over at ibrox and not the reality, which is mainly due tae utter neglect by this Celtic board. They’re wettin their pants over this and couldnae believe their luck when this window was over. Tho they’re never gonnae highlight, or push the ‘real’ issue now are they ?!
IF we win the league this season,
THEN what could PL and MN offer BR to stay?
‘Quality’ signings to make ‘progress in Europe’ ?
Think BR will be off to Spain or Italy,
or even to a – genuinely ambitious – Championship club?I
Wouldn’t blame him either.
Firstly if Rodgers departs and a new manager is needed ,the guy will be ultra wary of the board being tighter than a brown jockstrap on spending issues .Trying to attract a ‘ name ‘ will be very difficult . That’s going to be a major problem . Secondly and this is vitally important . If the Rangers win the league and deposit a £60 million + kite into its bank account , the bank manager will be bending over backwards to accommodate loans and overdrafts and a credit facility of which has not been available since the old Rangers went nipples up back in 2012 . They will become a sound financial ‘risk ‘ once again and we will be playing catch up this time . There is a bigger picture to losing the league this season and the board are doing its old head in the sand Ostrich routine again .
The board were quick to reveal £72m in profits but slow to release funding for signings.Their policy seems to be,to buy 7 or 8 players and hopefully uncover a gem to sell.Celtic will not make progress with that policy,as it will be one step forward and 2,3 or 4 back.The standard of the football has dropped considerably since ange left and isn’t good to watch either.
I agree with Stewart. We must keep Rodgers, win or lose. That said, Rodgers needs to play the players he has in a way that maximises their strengths. He needs to swallow his pride and get 100% from his players for the remainder of this season, even if that incorporates a form of Angeball, which some players seem to perform better in.
At the season’s end, and with another League title, hopefully, he then needs to grow a pair, and give the Board an ultimatum; back me, or I’m off.
Given the way he left last time, he’d need to do this publicly, to demonstrate that he doesn’t want to leave, but that his hands are tied.
But I fear that won’t happen. Instead, the season fizzles out, we have a cupboard like Old Mother Hubbard, Brendan continues with his despondent interviews, CalMac says we need to do better yadda yadda, Sevco scoop the £60m CL money, and all is changed, changed utterly.
No amount of money.
No quality of player.
Rodgers will maintain his horrible NEGATIVE style, its a boring rigid non creative style that does not suit the players.
This is not Barcelona, PSG, Inter Milan, or any top European type team, we will never have players that play possession football, who can adapt rapidly with moving the ball forward and creating chance after chance.
Rodgers is trying to do a style that’s for far higher calibre players.
Rodgers needs to adapt to suit our players strengths, he won’t or just can’t.
You don’t put an alsation into a greyhound race.
Heart surgeons don’t perform brain surgery.
The bin lorry driver doesn’t fly 747 jets.
Am I making my point.
Our players are good, just not world class.
We have to play a style they are good with.
Rodgers is failing, just as he was on the downward spiral on his 1st stint, then he did an Usain Bolt.
Rodgers will lose us the league.
Lawell should have been gone and never given another position.
That is DD to blame.
Far to many of our players are small and lightweight, that’s not the players fault so we must support them, however we are far to quiet, The Rangers are 90% more vocal than us.
Rodgers style doesn’t fit Celtic and never will, I have never liked this non creative style and I never will.
Rodgers must go as he will only drive down the current players and any type of future quality we can sign.
My fear is if br goes who will come in because I believe we might get kennedy or lennon mr lawwells wee pals.
Excellent article,, for once we have someone who is backing the Manager and not slating him, the Celtic Board has a lot to answer to me a loyal support, we have a person in charge of looking out for players, but he’s never played the game,, its jobs for the boys, very sad for every supporter in the world,
A lot of pundits saying that big lurches lot clawing the points back games won blah blah, wrong our brainless board lost they points through not backing brendan
M Stewart is head and shoulders above any pundit out there for honesty, opinion, assessment of game and impartiality. If we had more like him, then there certainly might be a shade more integrity and intelligent covering of Scottish football.
It’s always very easy to criticise…anyone can do that ! If it’s done constructively, then how can we complain. Too many of our ex players prefer the predictable sound bites, to satisfy their paymasters.
If BR leaves or is sacked at the end of this season, as the sacrificial lamb for the major failures of others, then god knows what manager we would get next from this board.
If BR stays, is he going to get the calibre of player that we’ve been looking for since last summer? Onwards we go to the next part of this season’s pantomime!
Just a we reminder this manager inherited double treble wining squad.
Minus the players that were sold, moved on, or on long term injury list or off to the Asian cups.
A HEFTY CHUNK OF OUR FIRST TEAM STARTERS AND CREATIVE PLAYERS.
Think you should THINK before you type.
Jimmy
I don’t need a wee reminder! I’ve commented many times that our manager has to take his share of the blame for a lot of very poor performances.
He did indeed inherit a treble winning squad minus Jota ( never been replaced,) the oft criticised Starfelt, ( who’s not been replaced) and the retiral of Mooy ( who again is badly missed!)
Two of our best players, CCV and Hatate, have had constant injury issues and their absence(s) has certainly impacted our performances!
We can all speculate who signed off on the summer signings, but when the manager frequently states he’s looking for 4 quality signings, in the January window, and doesn’t get them, then it’s quite clear the present squad is not at the standard he wants. Plus those in the recruitment department and above have failed to provide these players, that would have comfortably won us this league!
So I get and fully understand the criticism of our manager, the football on show and the performances up to now.
Whether he can provide the spark and inspiration for these players to retain the title, remains to be seen. However, it is clear to me that there have been mitigating factors at play, since his return !
This is the nonsense people have to stop. You’re wrong right from the start. Three starters, Jota, Starfelt and Mooy from 11 is 27% less. Factor in Juranovic and Giakoumakis who were massive experienced players in your double winning squad and you’re now at 46% lighter. Only 5 players started at the weekend from last year and only 2 finished.
Considering not one new signing is better than before we are a minimum 50% weaker, that’s before you add in the injuries to CCV Hatate Abada. Yet your expectations remain the same regardless? Not only is your point wrong your expectations are also wrong.
Couldn’t agree more Sid, especially the experience point with GG and JJ. The league wasn’t won when they left in January 23 but I don’t think many of us thought it was in doubt. We had a seriously depleted squad on opening day and injuries have accentuated that. Our starting 3 midfielders last season had about 15 years more experience than this season’s starting three (CM, MOR and Bernardo).
The injuries have killed us more than anything else. Several huge players missing for most of the season, it is difficult to overcome. The one thing I don’t understand is why James Forrest is not starting every match? Has he really gone that far backwards? Even at 75% of what he was, he’s still way better than the other wingers offensively. Maeda is awesome, but not crossing the ball. He gives us huge defensive pressure and grabs garbage goals and can run like a madman for 90 minutes. Forrest is the best ball crosser in the league, and can pop up with goals from nearly anywhere. He just trains and gets no chance to help, while we slowly sink with lazy players like Palma. At least the Scots will play their hearts out for us, bench the lazy people. That’s my only criticism of Rodgers, he knows darn well what Forrest can do and refuses to play him. My two cents worth.