Regular readers will be well aware that I’m starting to find Chris Sutton more than a little tiresome this season. This morning, to the shock of nobody who has been watching, he’s had another go at Brendan Rodgers.
Rodgers is not a man without sin, not someone who should be denied a share of the responsibility for this bin-fire season, but anyone placing the responsibility for this calamity solely on his shoulders is badly out of step with the reality of it.
Speaking on Sky, Sutton said, “Everyone talks about stuff about the board and signings and this moment being a long time in the making. But Brendan Rodgers has to take responsibility.”
He then put forward the idea that we should be playing more like we did under Ange.
Which is probably the point in this debate where I most want to find a sharp object and impale something on it. It’s when you know somebody’s viewpoint is too moronic to be taken seriously, because it’s a bit like saying that Sutton himself could have had a better managerial career if only he had gotten his Lincoln City team to play more like Barcelona.
That’s the logic of his position.
Because getting a manager to clone the style of another manager is basically what he’s suggesting Rodgers do here. How can that be a serious debate point?
How can he have spent so long in football and not recognise how daft that is?
Let’s stop messing about here; this canonisation of Postecoglou is pretty ridiculous when you break it down. We built this team to his standards, to his design, and if you believe the board apologists on this (and on this one I do because their defence of the strategy is too barmy to be something they made up and just mental enough to have a ring of truth to it) the club based its summer signing profile on the idea that he would still be here.
We don’t know how well or not Ange style football would have worked in the third year, but there’s a reason people in football subscribe to that ancient superstition that “the third year is the killer”. Because any manager who has one certain way of playing gets found out after a while.
Why do you think I’m so sure Ibrox will drop enough points this season that we could yet still win this with games to spare? (The problem will be our form, not theirs.)
It’s because once clubs adapt to how Manneken Piss sets his team up they will counter it.
This is why The Mooch got off to such a great start with his team but then watched it unravel fast; once teams have found that magic bullet, they all use the same tactic and any boss who is inflexible will find himself furiously digging in an ever-deepening hole.
My own suspicion is that form would have taken a major dip even under Ange.
We already know that significant players would have been leaving in the summer, and we can already see what state the club’s strategy for replacing them was in.
Sutton has never struck me as a particularly weak individual, but I think it’s time to seriously start questioning his motives for attacking Rodgers so relentlessly.
This by itself would be at least partly excusable if he was also pointing his guns at the Celtic director’s box, but his complete unwillingness to go there suggests that he’s either been co-opted by them or is scared to make enemies of them by writing the bald, simple fact that they are the architects of this crumbling ruin.
His comments could also spring from personal animus against Rodgers himself; I have no way of knowing whether or not that’s the case, but I find his recent output to be almost universally lamentable and his obvious desire to steer criticism away from the men in the boardroom is no longer possible to ignore or deny.
The Sunday Mail has a ridiculous piece taken from a deranged caller on Radio Clyde yesterday who accused the manager of laughing towards the end of the game yesterday.
I don’t know why that individual was watching the dugout and not the pitch, but if Rodgers was laughing, I suggest it was more in resigned horror than good humour.
But he’s not the only one who must have been laughing.
The people truly responsible for all this must be pissing themselves because there is no pressure whatsoever on them at the moment, and Sutton for one would clearly like to keep it that way.
James, open your eyes. Rodgers is a huge part of the problem. He can’t get a tune out of the players and is taking us backwards. His football is turgid and uninspiring. Sutton is 100% right to call him out. You are still hanging on to the idea that Rodgers is the same guy from 2016. Football has changed and progressed and he hasn’t.
A comment which is typical of the complete FAILURE to understand what you are watching.
Where’s your criticism of the board in that statement? Cause I’m not seeing the finger pointed where it belongs.
James your spot on!
The club has stagnated over the last few years, we got lucky with Ange but that’s all it was “luck”.
One of the ideas behind the Bunnet creating a PLC was to prevent the Club going back to the Kelly and White days but that’s exactly what has happened, a few individuals make all the decisions and they have surrounded themselves with yes men, there are no fresh ideas and guys like John Kennedy etc should have been let go years ago. Nepotism is rife at Celtic and it’s destroying the Club.
BR has the look of a man going through the motions as he’s been sold a pig in a poke. We have a wage structure 20 years behind the times which means no quality players are going to be enticed to come, a team full of cheap projects all on long term deals that we can’t get rid of and a model/strategy that’s all about protecting the share price.
If that mob get the enhanced CL money next season plus given our reluctance to spend, it could be a very grim few years for us.
What has Rogers got to do with appointing the pivotal role of head of recruitment not on the basis of experience ability or knowledge, but on the basis of being the Chairman’s son?
The blame for this farrago lies with Big Daddy Lawwell.
My main criticism of Rodgers is his reluctance to call this out, particularly after his publicly stated desire to get in another 4 quality players ready to play in the team was ignored by Chairman Liar, whose place man “Junior” went for the cheap and mediocre option as usual.
Jeezo. Some of these players aren’t even “projects” given the poor level of ability we have seen thus far.
Pathetic, and if there isn’t a clear out soon at board and player level, Celtic will be doomed to a future of more mediocrity. The huns couldn’t in their wildest dreams have hoped for a better outcome.
In my view if you support the present board you may as well don a sevco scarf right now.
Look at rodgers face yesterday on the sideline , flanked either side by by lawells yesmen , he has lost the dressing room , if he had balls he’d have had it out with the lawells about additions to the squad as far back as the summer , and he did not , this league was gifted to sevco while rodgers went along in the back ground with it , we are not fools , weaker teams are prepared better than celtic , in any event peter has rescued sevco from the sink hole and not for the first time , if i was a shareholder i’d be calling for an investigation how 60 million C L money was lost to our rivals
Happy now Peter ? Gwan the fu?
The football would make your eyes bleed and Rodger’s is 75% at least the blame. I feel like Lennon would get more out of these players the now. Just look across the city they have brought clement in a actual decent coach and look at what he’s done with a squad we were laughing at a few months ago.
Spot on James. These people who want to blame the manager , completely ignore the fact that if the boards actions re signings appalled us, imagine how they made the players with any ambition feel. Never mind Callum, how do you think a player like O’Rielly feels seeing a very good team dismantled around him. The players who were committed to the team, would, like us, have been thinking about how a couple of good signings could maybe have taken us to a new level, turned some of those better Euro performances into wins etc. How utterly demoralised do you think they feel, seeing the exact opposite happen, when the club will have £100 million in the bank come next season?.
How well do completely demotivated players perform?, watch almost any Celtic game this season for an answer. How would an ambitious manager feel for that matter, totally motivated, hopeful for the future?, I think not, and this is what we are witnessing the results of.
james if rodgers was a man and worried about his reputation as a manager he’d have stood up to the lawells , has he done that ? i think he’ll be gone before the season ends with a Schofield type sweetner , the board won’t escape either , i’m quiet sure if they put up a resistance that the fans will not be found wanting with their ingenuity,
Actually cannae grasp how, after bein in a position if strength, this has been ALLOWED tae happen and fall apart so quickly. We’re never gonnae win this league. No because the ibrox club are anythin special and that’s a fact. WE’RE tactically naewhere and that’s where the manager and coaching staff come in, along with half the team not fit tae wear that Jersey. Far as ahm concerned, can expect that lot tae start pullin away in the league now, this is where we are and by far, the biggest culpability lies with lawwell and desmond for this collapse. Greed inspired neglect and sheer incompetence. Congratulations tae them. Job well done.
The percentage of where the blame lies is very quickly rising from the 80% board and 20% manager is disappearing on a weekly basis, a manager of his experience should be getting a hell of a lot more from that group of players and he is starting to really throw them under the bus.
He has been talking the talk for long enough, I said a while ago that I thought that he didn’t give a F*** , I am starting to think that again, and I’m fed up hoping that am wrong.
Difficult times are here now.
The malaise comes from top to the bottom. We’ve brought in sub standard players to save a few quid while raking in millions in player trading. That has Lawell written all over it. From the start, Rodgers seemed to have lost his swagger, he accepted the coaching set up, that hasn’t changed from Lennons time at the club, he accepted a recruitment team led by the CEOs son, with no experience and no credentials. This club is run on nepotism and a culture of fleecing the fans at every turn.
When was the last time the board stood up for fans, the constant media attacks on our supporters, UEFAs crusade against our fans while ignoring other infringements from other clubs all goes unanswered. The SFA referees dubious decisions all in the spotlight and our spineless board sit stum, nada.
The reason is they couldn’t care less, they view the fans with distain, as customers to be sneered at, described as ‘entitled’. The truth, without the fans they wouldn’t have the 70 million in the bank to fawn over. Desmond plays golf with his celebrity fans, probably doesn’t even check the scores when he’s not soaking up hospitality at the games. Its a toy to him, hes no interest othwr than the shre price.
From top to bottom the club is rotten and has rode its luck because the orcs across the city have been in constant turmoil. They only had to get lucky once, the champions league pot next season will put them into a new era of spending. The difference in their board and ours??? Their board will spend the money, every penny of it, they have even spent their own money to get here…our board wouldn’t even pay for a coffee at games let alone spend their own money to help the club. Theyre leaches, every single one of them, and I hope theyre held to account for the criminal mishandling of this great club. Celtic is nothing without its fans…the board need reminded of that!!
The champions league money they will get will not make a huge difference in how they are run as the soft loans over £100 millions will have to be repaid,they will invest in new players but whether they can get quality in is open to debate as they will face same problems as us in that the standard of the league is the problem,our board could have avoided this by bringing in decent standard players instead of always trying to hit the jackpot but hey we’ve got £92 million in the bank.
I think James that the board are a great deal to do with what’s happening at present,not just the manager,though I still think a manager like Rodgers should be getting more out of these players,you state yourself that we have the better players, certainly better than Killie so how come we’ve struggled 3 times against them this season,has McInnes sussed out BR already,and as for this saint Ange stuff you’re right because we were falling away at the end of his last tenure.I totally agree that this bunch of charlatans of a board have hindered Brendan but I still blame him for coming back under the same regime that obviously pissed him off the first time round,was he fed a lot of chicken shit that he swallowed and agreed to go again under liewell and that greedy bastard desmond, I’ll say one thing about sevcos board they put there hands in there pocket when it was required,our board only ever took money out.
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Do you have to criticise the board before you’re allowed to say anything negative about BR? Wake up man, we’ve gone from ‘we never stop’ under Ange to ‘we never start’ under Golden Boy. Face facts, the Hun boss has cobbled together a team out of Beale’s dross yet our ‘elite manager’ can’t beat a team of hammer throwers like Killie with ten times the resources McInnes has. Rodgers is a dud and will be gone by the summer – God knows who the board will replace him with.
Rodgers has to take the blame of how celtic set up and style of play and what seems to be a severe lack in self belief or conviction in what the players are doing , the board on the other hand have no idea how to handle the advantages celtic have in finances, it’s a collective shit show from the board room to the dugout to the pitch, Ange showed us a glimpse of the promise land, now he’s gone and along with him the know how to trade players and play a system players can understand and play and flourish in,, its a massive regression in a short space of time
If Celtic had signed Miovski, or even Shankland, they would be 4 points better off today and there would be no rejoicing like that which was seen in Perth today. You just wonder what odds the
Celtic board got from Paddy Power on a £70 million bet on Old Firm Sevco to win the league. It`s the only explanation that makes sense that I can think of and the reason for the cash being
“ring-fenced”. Maybe Haarland (or Wolfe even) will be at Celtic
next year.
I don’t think Sutton is suggesting a full on cloning of Ange, more that his fast high pressure football is more effective domestically. Which is true. Sutton is right to let Rodgers have both barrels. Celtic pay me £3 million a year less than him and I can see that his style is not suited to the way teams here set up against us, and getting “better players” won’t happen and wouldn’t necessarily work.
The board are the cancer in this club and it’s very clear they like a bit of downsizing for whatever reason, but this squad should be able to get more than a draw from 3 games vs Kilmarnock. They’ve been coached to play the way they’re playing. Always turning back to their own goal, never exploiting the counter. It’s bilge, it’s an insult to anyone with eyes to claim Rodgers isn’t failing miserably.
Rodgers has effed it. The board are a disgrace. Both things can be true at the same time. Sutton is focusing on Rodgers because that’s the more realistic change.
Agree with every word Martin. The Board, Brendan Rodgers, The Coaching Staff and Recruitment dept are all to blame for the debacle this season has become.
We need a miracle and quite honestly I don’t think this team can deliver one, the defending at the Killie goal was terrible. Hate to pick on one player but Bernabei was hopeless, and should never been near any Celtic team, the manager should have recognised that a long time ago.
The problems Celtic are facing just now is the complete lack of support from the board to Brendan in the transfer windows. Where are the 4 quality players he wanted? My only gripe with Brendan is that he let Lawwell and Son walk all over him. Brendan should have played hardball or gone directly to Desmond about the dire transfer situation. Failing any joy from Desmond, he should have walked and brought this nonsense to a head.
At least 60 million in the bank and we have a corrupt bankrupt team lording it over us at the top of the
league because the board won’t invest in order to save the dead ‘old firm’ brand. A board of dinosaurs that need to become extinct pronto.
This has been a purposefully managed decline without a dought.
Suttons employer will have him toeing the party line without a dought.
The question is…
What is the 70 million rainy day fund actually for?
I wouldn’t put another penny into the club at the moment.
I’ll buy my tops from China ?? ?
Seriously though… without sounding like a conspiracy theorist. WTF else could this be other than industrial sabotage.
Free massonary at its finest I’d say ?
What do you think James?
That was just plain daft. I am afraid that Brendan Rodgers is not quite the “top coach” that some think he is. He does not have quality wide players which has hurt Kyogo and there have been injuries, That is not a good enough excuse though. It is humiliating for us all to have to rely on a fourth choice centre forward from an English Championship team as some kind of saviour. If he is a true Celtic fan he will resign. If not he has to go, regardless of what happens this season.
Davie Moyes incoming close season watch this space as Rodgers will go, Moyes will be sacked & our Board are so hopeless, so out of touch with what is required to take us forward that they would see this as a brilliant decision..
Some of our supporters are more interested in a conflict in the Middle East than what’s happening here, I personally I’m not interested in the Middle East, I’m more interested in the club that I love. Brendan is not getting a turn out off his players, poirot has got his players running through a brick wall, Brendan is the manager it’s his job to get a turn out of the players. Derek mciness has got Kilmarnock who have a budget of about 46p in fourth place, so how Brendan can’t get guys who are on far more performing better is down to him as well. They need to get the finger out and fast.. I would have them working overtime at lennoxtown this week.
The blame lies all round. Board, manager, backroom staff and players. When Chris was slaughtering the sevco managers, boards and players we all agreed he was right but now he,s slaughtering us he,s wrong. Too many ostriches in our support
At the third time of asking, Sevco went to the top of the league…in the main due to our inadequacies and the usual ‘patterns of assistance,’ that we’ve all came to expect.
The unraveling of our season and displays has been so uncomfortable to watch, and in allowing such a sub standard Sevco to get where they are today is nothing short of disgraceful. Rodgers is not the sole or main reason for this, but he has to take his share of the blame, along with our players, squad and coaching staff.
I’ll get onto our board in a minute.
Rodgers agreed to come back in the summer and we can only speculate on the finer details of those negotiations. He also claims to have a very strong relationship with DD. So why in god’s name are both of them allowing lack of, and poor recruitment, rather than the ‘quality,’ he has banged on about many times?
Or if he is clearly unhappy, and has been totally undermined or promises have been completely
reneged on, why does he not just come out openly and publicly and call out those responsible? Is that too much to ask as Celtic fans? Can we never get transparency or honesty from those within our club?
We have all mentioned the cronyism and nepotism on this board and it has to end. The question is, how do you or can it ever be changed?
Celtic FC is a club for all the fans, and not a plaything or dividend collection point for fat cats in the boardroom.
The general disregard, alienation and disdain from our boardroom towards the fans has increased year upon year and will only continue.
Change is required throughout our club and an acknowledgment that Celtic, without the fans, and their voice, is nothing.
I did say, that we might now need divine intervention to win this title…or 12 wins! What do you think is the easier option ?