I like to think that Celtic is not a team which requires additional motivation when it comes to getting itself in the mood for big matches. The whole point of being at a club like Celtic is to play in those games, and those who know that are the ones who do best here. The winning of trophies and titles is the motivation. We don’t pin stuff up in the dressing room.
But if we did, yeah, we’d have something to decorate the walls at Celtic Park today after Cyriel Dessers media interview after the game against Hearts yesterday. They beat a team which barely showed up, a team whose tactical approach was woeful, whose performance was pitiful, who were so poor that Todd Cantwell looked like a footballer, which is easy to do when you have all the space on the Hampden turf that you could possibly want.
In the aftermath of trouncing this same Hearts team 5-0 earlier in the season, the hype went into overdrive although after that game the Celtic sites were the only people who pointed out that Naismith’s team could have sat in the dressing room for the 90 minutes and made more effort. They were at their swaggering, most arrogant.
They were going to sweep all aside although most observers pointed out that they had been awful in the run-up to that game.
Eight days later, Motherwell beat them on their own turf and the wheels came all the way off. All their big talk evaporated. You’d think they’d have wised up. You’d have thought they would be smart enough to stay on message yesterday.
But this lot never learn. No top manager would have allowed himself to get carried away by that yesterday; it’s embarrassing how euphoric he was, with all his talk about the “real” team turning up … Hearts backed off them the whole match and made it an easy afternoon.
But what Dessers said was even stupider.
They are the best team in Scotland? The one we’ve beaten and drawn with in front of their own fans, the one we’ve already beaten at Celtic Park. We’re the side at the top of the table. We’re the current champions and holders of the Scottish Cup. Their side has to come to Parkhead next and then face us in a cup final. There is tempting fate and there is daring fate to do its worst. Because fate has a habit of doing exactly that.
They have narrowly survived a point of crisis; a more motivated team would have made them sweat for every inch of ground yesterday, and yet there is not a trace of humility in their side. St Mirren will certainly not roll over this weekend. They might be laughing on the other side of their faces, and one way or another they will be when they leave Parkhead.
Their manager should never have permitted a player to say such a foolish thing, and especially not one who has failed to do the job against us.
No disciplined club would have done that, and the thing is, message discipline is not difficult to enforce, but it has to start at the top and for all the praise Clement gets he hasn’t even been able to do that simple thing.
For all we have been slagged this season, we’re the disciplined team in this country, we’re the ones who have respect for our opponents and the sense not arm them with further motivation to beat us. Egotism rampages over there; they don’t believe they need to show humility or respect, but even by their standards that was ridiculous yesterday.
We won’t be pinning those words to the dressing room wall. Why should we? We want to win the double, we are sufficiently motivated to do so. But that doesn’t mean that anyone at Celtic Park will forget about them, that doesn’t mean that we won’t save our response to them until after the game at the start of next month. We’ll let our football do the talking.
And at the end of the season, we’ll look at the league table … and that’s how we’ll know who won.
The tribute act are lucky they drew Hearts. Had they drawn Aberdeen, post match conversations may have been very different.
If we are not as good as Rangers, I wonder if he thinks he would walk into our team, not a chance.
And that clown McCoist gave him man of the match yesterday.
We (Celtic) have not been as good or as bad as ‘Rangers’ since 2012 Robert…
Just a wee reminder of the fact that 2012 was the year that they went to the football fires of hell…
But sadly Sevco are just a tad too close for comfort giving him his (hopefully false) impetus to spout his gob off…
Hopefully it has the same effect as Sakala last year and Celtic become Champions and Scottish Cup Winners !
All the same, we have to be careful. They may get a bounce from this week. After Dundee I would have said they had chucked it. Not so sure now. And let’s be honest, our defence is pants. The club was seriously negligent last Summer and we are paying the price now. Failed to kill off Rangers and failed to kill off Aberdeen. That said, we are still favourites and we have the players to win. They just need to show it.
‘Rangers’ killed themselves off finally in 2012 Henry…
That said you’re correct in that we failed to kill off Aberdeen and it’s also concerning that we have failed to kill off Sevco this season so far…
We absolutely will as you say need to be careful indeed !
Ach, why NOT pin it to the wall? It’ll make it all the more SWEETER when we PUMP them in Paradise next month.
It’s just an example of the noise we can expect in the comin weeks. It’s already back tae the super hype. They don’t dae level- headedness, thats for sure, nor dae they need any encouragement, tae go straight in wi the hysteria at the slightest excuse. Let them go, let them mouth off. Makes it all the better if we get the the job done. We’ll just focus on our own games and if we can get a win at Dundee for a start, that’ll be just what our players need for their confidence.
I honestly don’t care what he said. It’s just noise, like boxing trash talk – “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”, as Mike Tyson once famously said…..
Let’s just hope that the result is the same for this year’s big Liebrox gobshite (Dessers) as it was for last years big Liebrox gobshite (Sakala) and that Celtic retain our League and our Scottish Cup…
If that’s the way they are about a team that have never beaten them (Sevco) nor their late daddy (‘Rangers’) in their (Hearts) 150 year history at Hampden then just think how utterly unbearable it’d be if they took our scalp…
I often wonder what Sakala thought as Celtic romped to a world record 8th treble…
Did he regret his brash hubristic and ultimately embarrassing bragging that so blew up in his face on an industrial scale ?
Probably not as he’s got not one iota of feeling for Sevco like the rest of the foreign brigade though you wouldn’t think that while they are on Scottish shores…
They are clearly well schooled the minute they are in the door at Liebrox and clearly by what’s reported on here are very well schooled in the ‘Positive about all things Sevco’ mantra by The Scummy Scottish Football Media !
I thought Hearts were the better team yesterday. But their finishing was woeful. A more experienced front line would have buried them yesterday. If Dessers thinks that’s sevco with their “mojo” intact, then he’s in for a rude awakening at Parkhead. I tend to agree with you concerning St Mirren “not” rolling over this weekend. In fact, the league could be totally done and dusted by the time they head for Celtic Park for the Glasgow Derby. Clement,s kidding himself on as well if he thinks that was magic football. Sevco couldn’t string two passes together yesterday. Anybody that understands what good football looks like, watching that would realise that. The clock is ticking for them. Let their euphoria wash over them, until they play a better team. Then the bugger,s eyes will water.