Sometimes there are no words. Sometimes none are necessary. Unfortunately, I’m not in a position where things can go unsaid.
The nature of this job means finding the words even when that isn’t easy and sometimes it means saying things you don’t particularly want to say. Especially on a night like this, when I want to forget Celtic even exists and tune in to something else.
But that’s a cop-out and I won’t do it..
Recently, I watched an incredible film on Netflix; Society Of The Snow.
It’s remarkable, the story of the rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes mountain range and who survived appalling conditions in a white hell-scape for two months before two of the party walked across mountains to find help. It’s inspiring, and it’s a reminder of what we can do as human beings even when things seem at their most grim.
So it’s no surprise that I feel curiously detached from anger and even disappointment tonight, that I actually just want to put this aside for a while and not think about Celtic. I’ve reached the point where part of my brain knows that we’re a better team than this, that Rodgers is a better manager than he’s showing and that there’s a long way to go … but a deeper part of me understands that those things ultimately might not matter.
And I sense that the part of me which already said in these blogs already this season that this one was starting to unravel was way ahead of the part which wanted to hope for a happy ending.
I don’t like getting up every day and being pessimistic, but I’d be kidding if I denied that the leaden feeling in my gut that we’re watching an unfolding disaster has been there this whole time and hadn’t gone away. I’ve tried optimism; if you’ve read the recent pieces you know I stuck with it even after a lot of other people had chucked it.
I still hope for a happy ending. I even see a road by which we might pull it off, but in the parlance o US electoral politics, the paths towards victory are closing off one at a time. It’s no longer obvious how we’re going to get there. I am not convinced our rivals are that good, but I’ve never been completely convinced we had it in us, and all they have to do to win it now is what I’ve always accused our board of doing … they only have to be one step ahead of a team which hasn’t just taken a backwards step but is falling over its own feet.
So, I realise now that just as some of those boys in the Andes early on realised that it was crazy to hope for a rescue that very obviously wasn’t going to come and started to mentally prepare for what they might have to do in order to survive, I realise I’ve already been mentally preparing myself for a day just like this, and I know that because of the emotions that aren’t there.
One of the analogies I’ve used in previous pieces, at other times, concerns a chapter in Tom Clancy’s novel The Sum Of All Fears called Three Shakes.
The entire chapter takes place over the aforementioned “three shakes” – a span of time measuring milliseconds. It describes the mechanics of a nuclear explosion and if that sounds hopelessly geeky then I assure you it is and that you’re right, but it’s always been interesting to me because, of course, that complex series of reactions leads to one momentous outcome and because Clancy ends the chapter by saying that in strictly scientific terms everything that will happen has happened already … in other words, that’s the explosion.
Everything which happens next flows directly from it. The main event has already finished. All that comes afterwards are consequences.
That’s where we are right now.
The sequence of mistakes and misjudgements and the internal mechanisms which will decide this title have already happened, and that’s the worst realisation of all but strangely enough it’s also the knowledge that enables me to detach somewhat from tonight. We can blame individual errors from the boss and from the players, and we can pick our scapegoats but the truth is that the explosion has already happened and we’re now seeing the effects.
We’re where we deserve to be and where this season has been heading since the summer transfer window shut. We got one chance to alter its trajectory and wasted it.
But we’re here because of the choices the people who run Celtic have made, and those choices were made a while ago. Today has been inevitable since Mark Lawwell was brought to this club to enact the strategy Daddy and his cronies had decided on. The average cost of a player in this Celtic team is about £2 million. There is no quality in depth.
The manager was doomed from the moment he sat and told the media that he would work with what they gave him. That was the moment that started the detonation and we’ve been watching the slow motion version of it. The closure of the January window and the fury we all felt was the last of the Three Shakes. And there’s no further point in trusting to hope.
These people have not allowed Rodgers to build his own team. They’ve thrown random players at him and told him to do something with them … no manager could do it. It’s not just incoherent, it’s self destructive, and we’re now locked in because the window’s shut, there is no further mechanism open to us to change course … and now the consequences are all that are left.
And whilst I’ll hope for the best I’m mentally resigned to the worst now.
I’m mentally adapting to the idea that this season is gone … and you know what? I can do that, I can let this go, because when you are in the midst of a disaster and you know help isn’t coming you can start to deal with the reality of it and that reality is that we either start thinking about how we can save ourselves – in short how we can save next season, realising that it’s too late for this one and that we’re going to have to deal with a lot of appalling consequences from that … or we can write off the next one as well and God knows what after that.
In terms of the here and now, if this season goes the way it’s looking the manager cannot possibly survive and his will be the first head to roll, and he’ll deserve it for leaving his future and this campaign in the hands of people who think they are beyond reproach and won’t ever be held to account – more on that tomorrow, you better believe it.
But our problems, and they are big problems, don’t start at his office door and they certainly do not finish there. The rain is coming. It’s not yet here, but we better start building the ark. If we wait for it we can kiss off more than just this title.
And another thing, why are we so shite at set-pieces? We get plenty of opportunities yet never try anything clever, never look threatening. Similar to open play there’s nowhere near enough creativity. We look dodgy defending set-plays too.
Every player we brought on done nothing and from the kick off wee we’re shit.. One of them games that doesn’t feel right and it ended up just like i though and we’re going to drop more points
Actually, you should really watch the true version of the the rugby team that we’re stranded in the Andes. The film is called Alive and not some crappy version on Netflix. Also, historical documentation of the facts.
As our football team, manager, board maybe we should ditch them in the Andes for a week and see who survives.
Good basis for an idea. However, let’s entertain the fans who have been deprived of entertainment this season. Throw them into a glass tank and have them all fight to the death. Last man standing wins the prize of only having his toes cut off.
Like someone else who posted earlier, I’m a glass half full person. Today I went to the game full of optimism, and remarked to a few fellow fans, that we’d win comfortably. I thought the first half was passable and we should have been ahead by at least two goals. By god, what happens to us every second half ? We made Kilmarnock look like Real Madrid, and there are no excuses for that. There are so many things wrong with our team at the moment and not enough paragraphs to describe it !
Second half we were clueless, gutless and lacking any guile whatsoever. Final third, we are completely hopeless, with no wingers that can either beat a man or deliver a telling cross.
Teams now come to Celtic Park knowing that if they keep it tight, they’ll certainly get chances ! The fear factor has long gone ! Regardless of that, to lose yet another injury time goal, is criminal! I thought seeing it from my seat at the ground that it was a clear foul and would be ruled out, but the TV highlights don’t show that !
You can’t have the dire home form that we’ve shown this season and expect to win titles …
I’ve defended our manager , team and squad , but today clearly demonstrated that we are either bereft of confidence and ability on the park or clear guidance from our manager. BR admitted after the game that he takes responsibility for today’s garbage, and rightly so.
Our fanbase has many opinions, but it is unequivocally clear that our club needs a broom that will rid us of Lawwell and all associated cohorts. This season has unraveled in a drastic manner and our hopes of retaining the title, are not looking great !
As an eternal optimist, I still look for glimmers of hope or maybe divine intervention !
I speak regularly with my pals that are lifelong fans, and who have supported our club for years and through the absolute lowest times. They are scunnered, gutted and have seen enough ! These are not entitled or fair weather fans …fans of over 50 years and more !
The biggest puzzle for myself and others, is why BR returned ? I’ve previously mentioned that he’s stated how tight his relationship with DD is…if that’s the case, why has DD allowed Lawwell and cohorts to undermine the manager and not allow the backing that he was reputedly brought back for ?
If ultimately we relinquish this title to a very poor Sevco, Rodgers will carry the can and get the boot ! Unless there’s a much needed clearout at the boardroom.
Celtic fans deserve so much better than mediocrity and lack of ambition! They say, be careful what you wish for, as there’s always a catch !
We shall see!!!
Celtic at the double. Rangers are bad and will drop many points. Still 10 matches unbeaten since double loss. Almost sure St Johnstone draw or win tomorrow. Rodgers will win all 4 or 5 derbies. Relax and enjoy. No worries.
Your head is in the clouds.
We don’t win games because we slow our attacks down to the point where any chance of exploiting space and players out of position has gone. The opposition can lose it in our box, safe in the knowledge we will let them get their shape fully set up before we dare to cross the halfway line.
We all know the board needs a clear out. We all know we need to start signing 2 or 3 5 or 6 million pound players per year rather than 8-10 1 or 2 million pound ones. We all know what we’re watching is boring and ineffectual.
But we also know nobody in a position to change that gives a toss. Rodgers included. The board may want to make him a scapegoat… Great, sack him now. But if they think that means their own heads come off the chopping block they’re deluded.
I do however think that changing manager to someone who actually plays attacking football would see us improve this season with the current squad. Won’t happen though.
No manager should ever get a 2nd crack at this job, by the way. It has never worked.
We knew what Brendan was like in terms of the style of football. We’ve been blinded by the 2 trebles. His football is fucking awful. The people who make the appointments are supposed to know this. Why they thought having us watch play snails’pace football after 2 seasons of Ange is anyone’s guess.
And yes. I am changing my tune re: Brendan. I was happy when he was appointed. But it was clearly a mistake that our “visionaries” at board level should have been WELL aware of.
Quite simply I think Brendan has lost the dressing room,that and his old fashioned slow motion side to side and back to the goalie ineffective football style and tactics,yes the board are to blame for not backing the manager,but as everyone says our players should be beating the likes of Killie and the other SPFL teams, funny thing is we can beat sevco but that’s no good if we keep dropping points elsewhere.I too think the league is gone this year which is bad enough but my biggest fear is that lot getting CL money and spending it on their squad which they will certainly do and will leave us for dust in the years to come,we should have killed that lot of when we had the chance but golf heed desmond and greedy liewell made sure we didn’t and now we’re paying the price.For sevco who has been totally skint and relying on confetti share money for years ,to be breathing down our necks and probably pass us is disgusting.
Sticking to football for a minute. Kyogo, Idah, Bernardo and O’rielly all had guilt edge chances to score yesterday. Only Kyogo delivered the goods. We’ve done a similar thing in most other games this season, most recently Aberdeen. That means we are making enough chances in games. so something the manager is doing is working. We should be scoring 3 or 4 goals a game but we don’t have the players who are clinical enough to bury chances. Our defence is vulnerable too, which means that teams will almost certainly score at least once in a game against us. We have two left backs who are too short to defend cross balls against big journey men strikers. That shouldn’t matter in most games though because we should be out scoring teams with the chances we make. The answer for me is we need attacking players who are more clinical at taking the chances we always make if we want to save our season. The bad news is we don’t have them at the club at the moment, so I fear the treble is going to Ibrox. Hatate and Carter Vickers coming back will not change this reality. We need Idah, Oh and Kyogo to emulate Larsson, Sutton and Hartson. Not going to happen… is it?
This season is a glaring example of how the Celtic board and the Celtic supporter are totally detached. This situation we are in just now didn’t just creep up behind us. This Celtic team has struggled all season and we all knew approaching the winter break Celtic clearly needed help. This was also the veiw of the manager too, yet the window came and went and we spent 3 million on one player who to me doesn’t look any better than what we’ve got. Celtic Football Club have bragged about how rich we are, yet we are about to hand the league title to Old Firm FC because we wouldn’t spend money.We have an owner in Dermot Desmond who has an estimated worth of 2.2 billion pounds, this has a horrible stink of the good old days with the kelly’s and the Whites. This board don’t deserve this support that would give their last for the club. Their a discrace.
Martin O’Neil, in the devastating situation of family illness, said on his convenient to all parties exit that “Celtic fans need to get used to living in the slow lane” He had seen the initial dramatic cost cutting, obsession with Capital Preservation and severe down sizing the former Financial Controller under Terry Cassidy had immediately instigated and his stated lack of ambition by his Old Firm “One point ahead “requirement. A Sales Pitch for controlling interest but minority share purchase to an Irish Investor keen to add to his social kudos as per his mates McManus and Magnier facilitated PL riches beyond his ability and DD the only Billionaire in the world to make money from a football club. That Celtic fans have been taken for a ride and bankrolled these money hungry charlatans is depressing but the owner can and does do what he likes. ?????
Ange saw the writing on the wall. Rodgers has been sold a pup and knows it. He’ll walk by Easter. PL will appoint JK who he has always wanted. You can’t have too many Yes Men when you’re a troughing balance sheet obsessed Dictator. Celtic fans will suck it up, pay their money and settle for the next great green and white hope whilst the Troughers will gladly keep Troughing until DD sells and another owner steps in.
It’s only going to get worse till at least May and probably for next couple of seasons. Why would players or a manager of quality or potential want to come to Celtic. It’s a graveyard for ability.
During the invincible season there was no challenge on Rodgers.
He ran away as Gerrard and his average team gave him a fright.
The boring slow football he brings is suffocating the team.
Rodgers has to go.
The board have to go.
We as fans are to quiet, away matches are noisier than home matches.
Plus The Rangers have fewer fans but are far louder.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The amount of spending is not the problem. The problem is the way it’s being and has been spent. Girona and Villareal are close to the top of La Liga and both of budgets much smaller than ours. Kilie have seen us off a few times already this season and one of our first-team squad probably earns more than their annual budget.
And God almighty, how many years has it been since we were able to defend and score from a set-piece. Back in the days of Sutton and Hartson?
I feel exactly the same. Was hoping that Rodgers had came in with assurances in regards to signing players and budgets. It’s clear now that wasn’t the case and it’s staggering that a manager of Rodgers standing has allowed a board, that continues to be neglectful in it’s steering of our football club on the pitch, to pull the wool over his eyes.
I said to my seat neighbour yesterday that when McGregor ends his career he will be the last of the long term players that get what it’s like to play for our Club. And that will suit the board fine. It probably irks them that they were never able to sell on CalMac and squeeze money out of him. But soon we will be a roll on roll off assembly of players being punted for the first bit cash shown and whoever the manager is has to make do with wasted projects and fake gems.
Rodgers will shoulder the blame and that’s how it goes for Managers but this situation will never change as long as we have a board that cares not a jot about footballing progress.
I totally agree with everything you have written
We have no plan. B in any game which allows every team to plan against us