Jackson’s Latest Piece Is Typically Rotten … But There’s Still A Serious Message For This Celtic Board.

So it’s Monday again, and I’m back from a nice weekend of peace and quiet, and I am back covering the news from the weekend.

And because it’s Monday, that means Keith Jackson.

I have to say, I’m not hammering the guy as I would usually be doing. Because he and others are only saying what is obvious to the rest of us.

Yes, of course it has moronic moments … what else do you expect from him? But for the first time in a while there are less of those than there is plain simple common sense. Hard as that is for us all to believe.

As ever, let’s do the headline first.

Michael Nicholson is testing Celtic fan patience with spotlight now on him to swerve transfer apoplexy – Keith Jackson

Apart from being surprised that Jackson is using so sophisticated a word as “apoplexy”, he has a good target in the gunsights here.

It’s set to be a big three weeks at Parkhead with the Hoops boss making no secret in his desire to add quality to his squad

He’s been singing from the same song-book for the last 16 months. I have very little faith that they are going to deliver for him now. Still, Jackson needs to know the basic facts. So with the sub-headline out of the way, let’s get on to the main body of the text.

Let’s get one thing perfectly straight.

Oh God, we’re starting like this now …

At some point, over the course of the next three weeks, Celtic will spend some significant sums of money. Of course they will, because failure to do so would represent a potentially catastrophic dereliction of duty and the men in charge of the Parkhead club simply aren’t foolish enough to fall into such an obvious trap.

What “trap” exactly? Believe me, they are perfectly capable of brass-necking a bad transfer window. In case Jackson hasn’t noticed, they’ve done this before. And before.

They might not much like the idea of signing cheques just for the sake of it but the fact remains it would be entirely counterproductive should they baulk at the idea of loosening the purse strings while there is business still to be done during what is left of the current summer transfer window. For a start, they have an elite and ambitious manager to keep content and Brendan Rodgers has made no secret of his desire to sprinkle a bit of stardust ‘quality’ on a squad which was strong enough to help itself to two of the three domestic trophies up for grabs last season.

First, buying players is not, and never has been, “signing cheques just for the sake of it.” That’s an absurd and idiotic way of looking at this, and I would be even more worried if I thought people inside the club were taking that attitude than I am right now. But I know they’re not. Whatever else they might think, they take this more seriously than that. I do agree on Rodgers; if they have any sense they will keep that many as happy as they can.

And they must also dig deep to prevent their own support from going into the kind of full scale rebellion which often leads to protests and public disorder in the car park. These fans are paying out hand over fist to fill their own stadium and kit themselves out in the club’s official merchandise and the last thing the board of directors need now is for them to start getting all militant again now that the club is back in charge of its own destiny in its own backyard.

When were we ever not “in charge” of our “own destiny” in our “own backyard”? I do agree on the general point, but I’m just curious what the answer to that question is.

With (Ibrox) attempting to haul themselves out of a state of disrepair, the biggest enemy to Celtic’s supremacy is complacency itself which is precisely why all eyes are now locked onto the men in charge of keeping the till.

The Ibrox club has been trying to dig its way out of the hole for years now. I’ll believe it when I see it. They are addicted to chaos over there.

Rodgers actually did his under fire superiors a turn the other week when he stopped short of putting a number on the amount of new faces he expects to welcome in over the threshold at Lennoxtown between now and the end of the month.

Yeah and I don’t think he should have let them off like that, and I hope that if he doesn’t get what he wants and needs that he doesn’t feel he has to spare them.

But you can bet your last dollar he won’t have been anywhere near so obliging or so vague during his own discussions with Celtic’s board. On the contrary, they know precisely what he expects them to deliver and if they should fall short then they can’t complain in retrospect if Rodgers should decide to start sending out messages in managerial morse code.

We, the fans, would prefer straight talking, something that cuts through all the BS and leaves even the pro-board apologists no fig leaf to cover their embarrassment.

After all, he is prone to straying away the party line whenever he feels as if his own reputation is in danger of being undermined by the incompetence of others. And with such a mountain of cash gathering dust in the vault – and with much more where that came from still to be deposited – there is no legitimate excuse for any unwillingness to invest in the product they are serving up on the pitch.

This is one of those rare times when I can offer very little criticism of a Jackson piece.

Rodgers will not tolerate another botched job if it means he’s left hopelessly exposed and open to ridicule in the top level of the European game. If he feels he’s been sold a pup he will jab a finger of blame towards the stop of the staircase and, if that happens, the supporters won’t be slow to follow his lead.

Most of the supporters are perfectly capable of working this stuff out for themselves without Rodgers having to point it out to us. His frustration, on the other hand, when added to ours will be quite the combustible combination.

Of course, there is an argument to say Rodgers doesn’t need to put a dent in Celtic’s bank balance given the emphatic nature of his side’s dominance in the domestic game. Where is the strategic sense in splashing out a small fortune to achieve what can be done on a shoestring level of squad investment?

That’s not an argument. That’s an excuse. That’s why the board won’t even bother to waste our time, or theirs, trying to sell us on it. They have other ideas in mind. Besides, Celtic fans are past the point of being content merely with domestic dominance and so is the manager. He didn’t come here to swat aside Ibrox bosses as though this was target practice.

And that theory may well have gathered a bit of weight over the last week or so, given the manner with which the champions have opened up their latest title defence. A four goal romp over Kilmarnock on opening day was followed up yesterday with another almost entirely stress free day trip to Easter Road.

We’re miles in front of other sides here, including the one at Ibrox. No-one will be allowed to use that as an excuse. And Rodgers won’t accept it.

Celtic were ahead with less than three minutes on the clock when Nicolas Kuhn slid home from close range and the contest was effectively done and dusted a quarter of an hour later when Callum McGregor’s thunderbolt ripped into the back of Josef Bursik’s net without the keeper seeming to notice.

Callum was underappreciated by the media when he played for Scotland. The national side will miss him. The hacks will see what a team without him looks like.

Of course, Scotland boss Steve Clarke just had to be there in person to see McGregor’s stunner from long distance just to remind himself of what he’s about to miss now that the Celtic skipper has decided to focus fully on his club commitments from here on in.

Unlike the hacks, Clarke knew what he had in Callum and he knows how difficult he will be to replace. He will have been vaguely nauseated yesterday watching that display.

That’s the thing about McGregor, he is devastatingly under-stated. But he will be almost impossible to replace which is why Rodgers will be quietly delighted about the decision to call time on his international career and concentrate on maintaining prime condition for as long as Celtic need him.

Yep. And so say all of us.

Rodgers has enough on his plate worrying about whether or not Matt O’Riley will still be hanging around beyond the next few weeks so it will be a comfort to the boss to know that he has McGregor’s full attention.

The boss isn’t in the least bit concerned about O’Riley. He knows that under no circumstances can the board not give him a replacement for him. They might screw the rest of this window up, but nothing will more surely bring the fury than not doing that job.

He now needs more of the same from chief executive Michael Nicholson who will have to step up into the spotlight even though he prefers to keep a low profile.

He most certainly does not need “more of the same.” He needs more. A lot more. More of the same would essentially be more foot dragging and nothing to show for it, which is why so many of us are pissed off. If he delivers “more of the same” he’s finished with a lot of fans.

Playing cat and mouse with Norwich over a fee for Adam Idah is all well and good but the patience of Celtic’s supporters is being tested all the while and the sight of Kyogo Furuhashi going down clutching his dodgy shoulder yesterday will have sent them veering off towards apoplexy.

No, it’s not “all well and good” at all. It’s a joke. It’s scandalous. And it is dangerous too.

Yes, the Japanese striker was able to carry on leading Celtic’s attack after a quick patch up job and some running repairs from the medics but that’s hardly the point.

No, it isn’t. We’re riding our luck. And it will run out …

Because one of these days Kyogo’s long running issue is going to require more than just a quick blast of magic spray from the physio’s bag. And the overarching concern is that no-one can be sure when that moment will arrive and the striker is forced to go under the knife for corrective surgery.

…. and then we’re in a world of trouble, because he’ll be out for months.

Come to think of it, perhaps the morse code began shortly after this scare when Kyogo was invited to sit the rest of the contest out and the manager replaced him with Mikey Johnston – a winger who was deemed surplus to requirements by Rodgers last season and allowed to leave on loan to West Brom.

What a stupid point to make. And you’re going to follow it up with an un-necessary and useless piece of elaboration, aren’t you?

It did feel like Rodgers was using this substitution to showcase the lack of attacking options available to him, while also wrapping his only fit centre forward up in cotton wool in the meantime.

What a clown Jackson is. What a moronic contention. Rodgers wasn’t doing any such thing. He was dealing with the reality of the situation. If the board needs the manager sending them “smoke signals” when the facts are right there in front of them then they are farther gone than any of us had nightmares about. Rodgers simply went with the one option he had on the bench. If the board needed that pointing out they are thicker than the Record’s head of sport.

This is a plainly ridiculous situation which simply cannot be allowed to continue because, if Kyogo was to be sidelined for any length of time then it might test the measure of Celtic’s domestic dominance never mind how exposed such a loss would leave them in the Champions League.

Even putting us in the position where we’re taking that risk is disgusting.

The smart thing to do then would be to spend a few quid in the summer sales. And the sooner that penny drops the better for the men in charge of guarding Celtic’s money mountain.

 To Hell with what’s best for them.

This is in the best interests of everyone else at the club.

I am no longer interested in what the board’s thinking is.

It needs to change. Dramatically. Quickly.