Soccer Football - Scottish League Cup - Final - Rangers v Celtic - Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - February 26, 2023 Celtic's Cameron Carter-Vickers in action with Rangers' Alfredo Morelos REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
I think every one of us felt the same yesterday when, just before kick-off, we got the news that Cameron Carter Vickers was not in the Celtic squad.
Not just not in the starting eleven, but not in the team at all.
We all knew at once it was an injury.
The feeling was not shock or anger or dismay. It was a complete numbness. A complete absence of surprise or fear. News like that has become the norm this season. News like this is no news at all. It’s just another day at the office, so to speak.
How the Hell has this happened? Injury ravaged seasons are not new; indeed, we’ve had them for the past three or four years. But why do they happen? What is it that we’re doing wrong in terms of our medical teams? Something isn’t right, that’s clear anyway.
Maybe we’re cursed. Doesn’t this whole season feel as if it’s cursed? And that feeling has been there right from the start, hasn’t it? It’s as if we just never got momentum, as if we just stalled somewhere and couldn’t really get things to move. Even when we were getting results something just seemed off. The mood has been subdued and strange.
Everyone I speak to agrees. Nobody I talk to about this stuff can put their finger on it, but all of us I think have felt the same way. The campaign is almost done.
Why does it feel like we never really got started?
Back when we were seven points clear, I heard all the same grumps and gripes I’m hearing right now, and the same heavy feeling was in the air that the club wasn’t quite functioning right. Part of it is the shadow of the chairman; his presence in the building was virtually assured to be divisive and his presence guaranteed to imbalance the club … but that’s not everything, and it’s not even the poor quality of the signings his son made.
This crazy season has had it all, and nearly all of it negative.
We’ve just lost Abada due to a conflict thousands of miles away. Who the Hell could have foreseen that? When Saudi Arabian clubs started spending obscene amounts of money on players, who could have suspected that we’d be one of the first sides plundered, or how that move would turn out?
We lost Carter Vickers for a long spell already. Hatate for two of them. Who knew that a club like Atletico Madrid would come in and unsettle player of the year certainty Matt O’Riley? Or that our club and the two most prominent fan groups in the stadium would have a full-on barney and that it would cast a shadow over the last few months of last year?
It’s easy for the critics and cynics to point the finger and say that a lot of our problems were, quite literally, Made At Celtic Park. Easy and lazy. And a cop-out as some of them have attacked this club day in day out since Rodgers came back and are at least in part responsible for surrounding us with this black cloud of negativity.
Too much of it has been self-inflicted. The summer was characterised by the ludicrous sight of the recruitment team completely ignoring the manager and going all scattershot on the signings; ten players were brought in.
Not one of them would be a first team regular in a fully fit squad. Indeed, one has already returned to the club we loaned him from and two have been sent out on loan.
We retain the services of Lagerbielke only in case of yet another deep injury crisis but none of us can conceive of circumstances where we see him start another game.
Amidst it all, then, we’ve also lost a head of recruitment.
Which just adds to the impression that we are a club wandering in an alien landscape this season, one where anything that can go wrong has gone wrong.
When you throw VAR issues and refereeing into the mix, I think most people will be glad when this campaign is over, whatever the outcome of it is.
That too is a strange place for us, as fans, to be. But that’s this season for you.
It’s been a god awful season alright and if CCV is out for a prolonged period of time then the game’s a bogey, probably.
I do believe the majority of the fault lies with recruitment team under and including Sonny Lawwell and the board for sanctioning their vision (or delusion as it is really).
If we had a 1st team squad of quality players then the injuries would be less impactful as their replacements would not be unestablished developmental or project youngsters.
There’s only the boards’ footballing model to blame for that. Coupled with their arrogant down playing of the manager’s desires and there you have it.
Aye the season’s end can’t come quick enough and in truth I worry whether the changes required asap, why wait until the summer, will be the right ones or made by the right people. Deary me. What a mess.HH
Oriley is miles away from being a top player. He lacks pace and physical strength. Both essential in a top midfield player.hes an average spfl level player
O’Riley looks as though he doesn’t want to be there and looks to be going through the motions;good player but maybe not as good as he thinks he is,midfield is weak physically and defence erratic, regardless of lacknof top quality we should still be seeing of teams like Motherwell and Kilmarnock and Hearts for that matter, the manager has to take share of the blame also as does the board and recruitment team,it’s not too much enjoyment watching team at the moment and tbink I would prefer avoiding Rangers in the semi in the hope we can lift ourselves for a final but have my doubts.
Rest assured Dennis – Yourself will absolutely NOT be preferring to avoid ‘Rangers’ in the Scottish Cup Semi Final as they finally rotted away in 2012 !
Folks of a Celtic persuasion may or may not though want to avoid SEVCO in The Scottish CupSemi Final !
The injuries tae players have played a key part that’s clear and imo, if we managed tae keep a full squad, the league would’ve still been a possibility. Some of these players adaptin tae Rodgers’ style have been findin it hard. Others just aren’t good enough. Even when we were 8 points clear, any Celtic fan i know, the talk was about the importance of bringin in ‘experienced’ players for key positions in that January window and as a result, the general opinion was that we were confident of leavin the ibrox club behind. This board had MONTHS tae look for players and back up key positions. Yet again the window days went past and the silence from the top was ominous and it led tae the inevitable outcome. What did we get ? A winger who’s best game so far, has been against a rid rotten, relegation threatened Livingston and a striker, who’s beginnin tae look worse instead of better. Both have a lot of convincin tae dae. We’ve no had our problems tae look for, tho if that board had done their buisness properly, every reason tae believe things would be lookin a lot different.
We didn’t know it, but the 1st half against Ross County in the first game of the season portended the rest of the season so far. We could have been 2 down at half time but actually went in ahead at the interval and went on to win comfortably. We lost a 2nd goal in the last minute something that has happened a lot this season. We thought it was a bit of rustiness and that normal service would resume, it hasn’t. How many times have we thought we’d turned the corner this season and seemed to lose our way again.
Our club is judged differently from every other club in Scotland, even by our own supporters, that is because Celtic have always been asked not only to win but to entertain. For most of their history they HAVE entertained
I agree it has been a strange season, high points were 2/2 victories against the Ibrox mob and 7 points ahead at end of November. Who would have thought that we’d be two points behind in early March. As you’ve said James, a strange old season indeed.
We can still win this League and even the double, it will take a super human effort but my God what a great feeling it will be if we do.
‘Glad when this Season’s over”. You havin a larff…
If Sevco lift this title and the CL Treasure chest I personally will be incandescent with rage.
The birth of that 12 year old club was a harbinger of the worst of Scottish insularism, racism, religious intolerance and outright BritNat inspired Supremacism.
Never mind football. If they shake off their history of debt and then flourish, this Country will pay a heavy price.
The hun of today is a thousand times worse than pre Liquidation. The garb of Victimhood and the reality confounding acceptance of the ‘Lie has bred a more virulent nastiness in them. George Square will continually be like a war zone and our media will cover with ‘ its only boyish pranks’ while our Police Force will have raffles for the bounty of a day off to assist in the celebrations and our Civic and National Government will roll over and take it. Be warned it will get ugly. They can’t help themselves as it’s in their nature and violence will ensue.
The only recourse we will have is a mass sustained campaign to remove our entire Board starting with Lawwell senior.
He of the “ I’ve never seen the 5 Way Agreement’. A document so foul and contrary to the spirit of fair play and a level playing field that it’s inconceivable that Lawwell and the Celtic Board, despite their protestation to the contrary, in reading the contents could not even surmise the hold on our Club that they were handing over to our worst enemy. All for the sake of Lawwell’s annual bonuses taking a hit over the notional “this is going to cause us a £5 million p.a. hit”.
My anger over this is mainly reserved for our Board and Pistol Pete in particular. The Huns don’t know any better. Our Custodians should have.
The majority of what SFAThe nadir says is bang on.
The feelings that we presently have as Celtic fans, are ones of disgust, that our board have allowed a bigoted, debt-ridden, reincarnation of a bigoted, debt ridden mess of a club, to be on the cusp of winning their version of EuroMillions, and thus unleash, yet more hate filled supremacist, establishment club mentality on us.
These are not feelings of self entitlement from our fanbase, due to our recent successes, as some of the Sevco cheerleaders in our media and beyond would like you to believe. No, our feelings are those of incredulity, and outrage that our board, has managed to mess up a season, that should have played out so much better.
We re-hired Rodgers, and expected to see him getting equipped with 4-5 ‘game changers,’ to augment and strengthen our squad. Instead we signed a collection of projects, with very few of them, shining as we’d have liked. Throw in the injuries to key men, lack of continuity in our team selection, and generally turgid performances, then it’s easy to say it’s not been a good watch. Of course our manager must take his share of the blame, but for me, the presence of PL, just undermines everything at our club!
The phrase ‘ asleep at the wheel,’ has been used to describe our board’s lack of ambition and desire to really speculate, whilst in our present position of complete financial strength over Sevco. Our narcoleptic board have taken it one step further and crashed head on whilst at the wheel.
It would be utterly unforgivable if Sevco win this title, whilst £70 million plus, gathers interest in our club accounts. How could any board member, possibly justify that ? Not a chance !!!
Yesterday was again, a very tough watch, and our defending was shambolic at times. Scales & Welsh together, does not fill me full of confidence. Reiterating the need for CCV to be consistently playing, is again, stating the obvious.
Who would have thought, when the season kicked off, that we would be reduced to chewing our fingernails, as we looked for a winner at home to Livingston in a cup QF?
My optimism remains that we shall retain our title…however that may now be completely dependent on who we have available, in conjunction with how many more rabbits, our tainted officials pull out of their pockets in favour of The Orc’s 11.
A strange season indeed!