About a week and a bit ago, I said that not only was it important that we win this title, but that we do it by winning the remaining games. I thought that if we didn’t that we would see the emergence of a narrative around this season that would be all about devaluing what Rodgers and this team had done. That was the easiest prediction I’ll make this year.
Because one game after the split and we’re already seeing that narrative start to play out, and of course The Daily Record are the lead-off hitters. Jackson wrote about it this morning. Another of the hacks at that deplorable rag weighed in this afternoon.
“Celtic and Ibrox’s combined inadequacies should carry a health warning and neither look like champions” screams Jackson’s piece. The only thing I find amazing about that is that he and others are starting to acknowledge that Manneken Piss and his side have some; they have certainly not been shy about pointing out Celtic’s problems this season.
None of these headlines was in evidence a month ago. The Ibrox club were widely believed to be rolling towards the title and Celtic were struggling to keep up. But our form has been much better than the media wants you to recognise, and not only was it good enough to keep us in contention but it was good enough to put us back in front.
We’ve had some sticky spells during this campaign, and the limitations of the squad, courtesy of an appalling summer transfer window (and the two before it) are crystal clear. There is a ton of work to do once this season closes out.
But teams don’t win titles by accident. They win them by being the best side in the country. You always hear the hacks say that the league table doesn’t lie; they don’t follow that up with a largely unspoken truth that it has, from time to time, been known to exaggerate.
Too many of them get all emotionally invested in the Ibrox club’s COVID title win and the margin of victory; it was obvious to any sane person that Celtic had simply suffered a calamitous season, but that talk of us being ejected from the summit as Scottish football’s only remaining superpower was grossly premature. Five trophies out of the next six followed.
If we win three of our remaining games, we’ll have secured the title during a 90 plus point season. Which makes The Record’s second headline of the day a complete joke; “Who are the worst EVER Premiership title winners as Celtic and (Ibrox) stagger towards the finishing line.” I’ll tell you this right now; if we win this title we’ll be miles from making a ridiculous list like that, if the Ibrox club was on course for it then nobody would even be asking the question.
The 2018-19 title, under Neil Lennon, was won with 87 points. I’m certain that we’ll beat that score, although whether it would be enough to make us champions is a trickier question to answer. Nobody has suggested that it was one of the worst sides ever to wear the crown.
Here’s an even more remarkable stat; Rodgers second title, in a treble winning year, was won with a mere 82 points. We’re only one point off that right now, and we’ll finish comfortably above that barring a meltdown of monumental proportions.
If we win our next four games in the league, however it’s done, we would finish on the 93 points which Ange Postecoglou secured in his debut campaign. I don’t think we’ll finish far off that total, and nobody has ever suggested that they weren’t worthy winners.
The commentator on Sky Sports Scotland yesterday said that Manneken Piss’ results before the wheels came off had been “miraculous.” I can think of other words. The media is fully entitled to lie about that if it wants, and take solace in the idea that he will have “his own players” next season, as if that should cheer up anyone who looked at the January business he did.
But if they are going to say that they should consider that this Celtic side will be more formidable next season once Brendan Rodgers has his, because what really would be miraculous is a manager coming in and taking over a weakened version of his predecessors side into which some accountant and Football Manager wannabe had thrown a bunch of sub-standard signings.
If Rodgers manages to secure the crown, with 90 plus points on the board, I will consider that an outstanding achievement from a guy who has been maligned and written off and had to run the whole thing this season with a hostile media, a section of our support on his back and a board that initially tried to make him dance like a puppet on a string and with someone else’s players. He will deserve the highest praise for it … but he won’t get it.
That much the media is making clear with this abysmal narrative about how no side will deserve it.
It’s exactly what I said would happen, and the closer we get to putting our hands on this trophy the louder that chatter will become.
But if we do it by winning the next two games at Celtic Park, not only will the 90 points be within our reach but we’ll have done it by seeing off The Mooch and by beating the Miracle Worker twice at Parkhead and drawing away … in short, we’ll have taken ten points of a possible twelve off of their side.
A manager who can slap his rivals around with that much aplomb deserves more praise than he’ll get, just as the manager who won one point out of nine against his rivals would deserve the criticism.
But title winners all deserve it, and if we do win our next four games nobody, no matter how hard they try, is going to be able to deny that we’re worthy champions.
I just don’t want us to stumble any further and let that narrative grow roots.
The rangers blogs are full of details of rebuilding a full new team down ibrox way yet the club is talking about new deals for the old tat they have including Lundstram. The club are worried Gerard is coming to take Tavs and Goldson, No laughing at the back!!!
The fans don’t want Sima now as he is injury prone and out for the season #2 it seems. Maybe the manager made a mistake in bringing him back too soon.
Maeda back is a game changer for us. The arrogant Belgian’s long ball game is rubbish to watch. He’ll be away before Santa comes.
Do you know something James.i couldn’t care less how we win it as long as we do..the media never say anything nice about us anyway so who cares what they say
I think it’s very apparent, and has been for many years, that our fanbase are fully aware of the biased narrative from our smsm, and their like minded media chums.
I’ve said it many times on here, that this season has been, in the main, a difficult watch.
Nevertheless, when we get this title secured, it will be one of the most satisfying, for many a year.
All because of the pro Sevco bias and sycophancy that has rained down on us, since they won their one & only ‘Co-vid’ title.
The ‘we’ve won 55 titles,’ fairytale is one, that even Hans Christian Andersen, would have struggled to dream up and write. Nevertheless, that is the result of having a support that regularly overdoses on hype, fantasy and these writings, that are fed to them, by a fawning media !
They build up their managers, suitably assisted by our complicit smsm! Only then, to see them fall flat, and be quickly ushered off the premises, when they fail!
When we win this title, it will be fully deserved & merited, regardless of how this season has unfolded. Or how it may be reported by our ‘honest & unbiased media!’
If, and it’s a huge IF, we can also get our act together in the summer window…then maybe big Phil of Clement will decide he’s had enough and their fanbase will be looking for, and trumpeting the next Ibrokes saviour, to continue their fairytales!!!
Colin Hendry said No way Butland should have been sent off …in fact it wasn’t even a free kick…..he got the ball first he said…. it’s just a pity he didn’t say that when Alistair Johnston got the ball first before Silva dived over his leg…so a high tackle,stopping a goal scoring opportunity, reckless and dangerous play. According to Colin Hendry shouldn’t have been a free kick (BBC pundit) stuff there..yet Yang see’s a straight Red … almost on the half way line near the touch line…and the player rolled around as if tackled by BUTLAND
To be honest, James, I am glad Celtic are being singled out for being poor. As you have said yourselfn it hasn’t been an enjoyable season. I am glad that the message we are being told is “you are not good enough”.
I enjoyed your piece from yesterday about why Celtic look so slow and cumbersome without Daizen in the team. The fact he will be on the bench for the game at the weekend gives me hope.
But I also think about beyond this season. Will Brendan stay? If so, will he be allowed to bring in the pace and power that we need to replace the lightweights (excluding Jamesie of course) we have to cover for Daizen when he is not playable?
Let’s all hope we win the title
But let’s not gloss over the Ibrox title win with solely our collapse.
They never lost a game and got nearly record points. Beat us and one draw in five games. Gerrard had a very excellent record over is. He put them back on the map for sure and in Europe where there recent record is far far far better than ours … look at coefficient and a Europa league cup final.
Gerrard? I thought it was Beale who was the brains of that operation.
Not so long ago the entire Scottish sports media were calling that mob a juggernaut
Are you sure it wasn’t Goldson they were referring to? He certainly turns like one.
If we win our last 4 games we finish with 93 points. In the last 20 years, the league has been won by more than 93 points on 5 occasions. So their argument that its been a poor league season really doesn’t stack up!
Excellent point mate 🙂
Its all about perspective. The statistic you quote makes it seem that its been a good season but do you really think its not been a poor league season??
We all think Celtic have been p**h for most of the season (which we have) and the Huns fans think they were utter p**h under Beale (which they were) and that they’ve been p**h since the end of February (which they have been). Killie in 4th place are nearer to 11th than even to 2nd. Aberdeen and Hibs ended up in the bottom six and have only avoided relegation with 4 games to go – two of the biggest five clubs in the Country in total disarray. Whilst its good that no-one is capable of going the season unbeaten etc its hardly because the other teams have seen some dramatic improvement in their points totals (with the exception of Killie and let’s be honest that’s mostly down to their God awful pitch). The league is full of poor players who’s only asset is physicality and the top two teams are bang average at best so it’s clearly a poor league. BUT that doesn’t mean if we league we don’t deserve it or that we shouldn’t celebrate it. Let the hacks write what they want – they’re simply bitter huns and their pain makes winning titles even more enjoyable. Then we get after our board to allow the manager acquire a squad worthy of our financial capacity!!
They don’t even hide it anymore negative stories are the norm and some so called celtic fan’s buy into it