Last night, Joe Hart was honoured at Celtic Park just a day after he had made the crucial save in the penalty shoot-out at Hampden. Joe got pretty emotional on social media; I can only imagine that he was even more emotional in person.
As many have said before him, he may not have arrived here as a Celtic fan but he will leave us as one, a lifelong one.
On Sunday, he exuded calm during that shoot-out. How many times have you watched a player turn away after missing a penalty looking absolutely despondent? And although as a keeper Hart knew he’d have a chance to make amends, I was impressed by the way he laughed it off and stayed in his headspace.
That was major. I think it really psyched them out.
Hart has had a fine second half of the season, after some slippery performances. He has kept us in several games that we otherwise might not have gotten the full points from. As I said in the piece about Forrest, a lot of it is about experience. Although it’s not always evident on the pitch this guy is very obviously a huge personality around the club.
It is easy to miss things like this when you are compiling a list of the reasons why a club succeeds. But these people play a great role at a club. I think about the role Tom Boyd played at Celtic and around the squad even when he was no longer a key part of the team.
I remember reading Clough’s first book and he talked in it about having leaders in the team. During the bus journey to one cup final at Wembley he was so buoyant that Peter Taylor asked him how he could be so confident and he told him to look up and down the rows and count how many leaders there were in their side. He thought that was crucial. It is.
You can never have enough of those big personalities in the dressing room. They are the people who rouse a side when others in it let their heads go down. They organise. They make demands on others to be better and work harder and do more.
That might be where we miss him most, and you cannot replace a guy like that with a project.
It is important that at least one summer signing be a guy with this kind of experience, a dressing room presence, a leader. They aren’t always cheap – that we got Hart for such a low fee is pretty amazing – and they are often hard to find, but it is imperative that we do go out and get one.
I would love if big Joe was persuaded to stay on at Celtic Park, perhaps in a coaching capacity. Or as a team morale officer.
Hail Hail.
Totally agree
Love big Joe, will miss him next season, he is a big personality in the dressing room, and a real leader . These type of players are worth their weight in gold. He has had a terrific career, and it’s nice he can go back down south to be with his family. Let’s get the double for him, it’s well deserved . HH
Maybe another Joe Hart type from England even if he is a wee tad older, it doesn’t quite matter as much for The Holy Goalie position I’d say…
Or if we win the league we could really troll Sevco with an offer for Butland knowing fine well we’d be told to fcuk rig off…
But the trolling would be funny for sure !
Totally agree with your comments about big Joe and leaders and I think its one of the reasons we’ve struggled this year as we don’t have enough leaders in the squad (and one of the biggest flaws in our “develop and sell” strategy as the players who are already our leaders, or will become our leaders, are the ones being sold and then replaced with young players who lack leadership skills at that stage of their career).
Our leaders are Hart, CCV and CalMac and that’s it – two of whom have missed significant chunks of the season. When Hart goes we’re down to just two and who knows we may lose CCV to a decent bid as well. I hate to say it but our rivals have far more leaders in their squad. Yes they are for the most part pretty s**t footballers but the likes of Butland, Balogun, Jack, Lundstram, Roofe etc are definitely leaders and capable of dragging Rangers over the line against most SPL sides (especially when the MIB will be giving them every favourable decision possible!)
Totally agree with you about the flaw in our project signing policy, That is what happens when the accountants and lawyers at the club have far more influence than the knowligible football staff.
We all know that we have to be careful with our limited finances, but sometimes one 6 million signing is better than 3x2million project signings and yes leaders are needed in every dressing room. I just wish these bean counters would get that through their skulls.
Wholly agree with your sentiments James. Man Utd assisted a Disability Football Program. Joe was happy to help in coaching.