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Adam Idah needs two things; one goal and the Celtic fan’s support until it comes.

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Image for Adam Idah needs two things; one goal and the Celtic fan’s support until it comes.

Last night, in the aftermath of the game—even during a presser where Brendan Rodgers criticised Austin Trusty for being weak on one of the goals and too easily intimidated—he made a point of defending one player who didn’t have the best night.

A BBC hack asked a shocking, negative, and utterly transparent question, designed to stir the pot. It was about why the big lad, Adam Idah, ran straight up the tunnel after coming off and included a comment about a supposed look Rodgers had given him.

Brendan was visibly offended by the question and wasn’t about to give the journalist an inch to spin his nonsense. Rodgers responded plainly, “He came back, didn’t he? Or did you not notice that?” When the BBC guy sheepishly admitted he had, in fact, missed that, Brendan poured on the scorn.

“All right, okay, of course you would,” he said. “You would miss that. But yeah, he walked off to get something warmer because he’d come off, and then he obviously came back to the dugout.”

There’s criticism, and then there’s throwing someone under the bus. Brendan wasn’t about to do the latter, nor was he going to let anyone else do it—least of all a representative of the Biased Broadcasting Corporation, packed as it is with ex-Ibrox players, many of whom are former EBT recipients.

I saw the big lad’s face as he came off, and he was gutted. This is someone who is really struggling right now, and Brendan has a tough decision to make about how to handle it. There are two schools of thought here, each with its own merits.

The first says you keep him in the starting XI. You show faith in him, tell him you trust him, and select him for the game against Kilmarnock without hesitation. You make him believe it will all come good, and you hope it does. There’s a logic to that—it can be the confidence boost he needs.

But when someone’s confidence is this low, are you doing more harm than good by keeping them in the firing line? That’s the second school of thought: you take him out of the spotlight for his own sake. Don’t ask him to carry the weight of games right now. Instead, bring him on when the pressure is off—when the game is wrapped up, and he doesn’t feel the world on his shoulders. That approach makes a lot of sense too.

If I were Brendan, I’d be torn. It’s clear that whatever is going on in Adam’s head, it’s not a good place. He’s overthinking everything, trying too hard, and spiralling as a result. The deeper he goes, the harder it will be to climb out of this.

What really doesn’t help are the constant references to the transfer fee—from both fans and the media. What the hell does that have to do with anything? Would this be any less worrying if he’d cost us £1 million? Or more worrying if he’d cost £20 million? Believe it or not, players in that price bracket struggle too.

Let’s get something straight: players don’t set their own transfer fees. The clubs do. Yet too often, players carry the burden of decisions that have nothing to do with them.

Every mention of that £9 million fee makes it sound like the player should somehow “live up to it.” That’s not his job. His job is to go out there, enjoy playing football, and when chances come, put them away. Instead, he’s carrying the weight of expectations tied to a number someone else decided. That’s not fair.

For what it’s worth, I didn’t think we should have paid £9 million for Adam Idah. I said there were better options in that price range. But let’s not forget how that deal came about. The geniuses at the club dragged their feet for weeks, then had to rush the deal in days when Norwich realised how desperate we were. Where’s the criticism for them?

Players have been crushed under the weight of inflated transfer fees before, and better footballers than Idah have cracked under the pressure. But Adam Idah won’t be one of them. Let’s not forget, we didn’t pluck this guy out of a phone book. We’re not guessing that he might have something. We know he does. He was here on loan last season, and he more than justified the move to make it permanent.

In case anyone’s forgotten, Idah scored some of the biggest goals we got last season. His contributions were pivotal in big games, and that’s not even counting match-winners like the one at Motherwell. The third at Ibrox. The goal in the final. Need I say more? The big lad has proved that he can handle pressure … except that which is in his head right now. Self-doubt. That’s the worst kind of pressure.

All this guy needs is one goal. One. A single moment to get the monkey off his back, to reset his confidence, and to turn this around.

Brendan said it best a week or so ago when he reminded supporters: when things are at their toughest, the team needs their backing most. If that’s true for the squad, it’s true for every individual player.

So instead of moaning, griping, or adding to the endless online drivel about what a “dud” he is, how about fans sing his name?

How about they stop demanding he “justify” a price tag he didn’t set? How about they show him the same faith they’d want in his shoes?

He’s earned that faith. He proved it last season. And if we give him the space to breathe and play without the crushing weight of expectation, he’ll prove it again.

And again. And again. And again.

Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images

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14 comments

  • Pilgrim73 says:

    Sorry James, he needs to be dropped. This isn’t Adam Idah FC, he needs to justify his place in the starting line up the same as everyone else does. Would you advocate starting Kasper every week if he was conceding howlers week in week out, of course you wouldn’t. His last goal was on the 30th November against Ross County. He hasn’t managed one assist either. I don’t care if he costs 10k or 10m that isn’t the type of form that should see him starting games.

    • terry the tim says:

      I think Idah is better coming on as an impact player.
      I also think Celtic will let Kyogo go after the two European games and then sign another forward.

      • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

        Hope they don’t sell Kyogo Terry…

        Definitely better the devil that you know rather than the devil that you don’t !

  • Jay says:

    I’ve been critical of Idah in recent weeks & whilst I see your point I think it is justified & plain & simple the price does play a factor whether he set it or not.

    If he cost us £1m it can be put down to bad business or the classic “project” player & we move on. £9m was a significant sum of money for our club to be spending on a player & the inflated sum was based on a player we knew could do the job & as of right now he is failing his job.
    If we’d paid £20m you can be dam sure whoever approved that purchase would have fans calling for them to be removed with immediate effect.

    Scottish football is not a prosperous financial ground, we are the exception but that doesn’t mean we should not acknowledge when we have vastly overpaid for a player & been irresponsible with our spending. Again that’s not on the player but it is a factor when the player is being analysed within there form.

    Engels is another example of someone who has been criticised heavily & it also comes back to the price tag on him also. Engels though I think it is clearer he is expected to develop into a player who we will sell on for a large sum in the future.

    As an example nobody is pulling there hair out that Holm didn’t work out & that is entirely down to the players fee that was paid for them.

    The fee sets expectation & you are correct bigger players with bigger fees have failed to live up to the weight of it. It’s par for the course though & is an unavoidable fact of football.

    Idah was signed not for future profit but to come into the first team & deliver.
    I hope you are correct & it is just one goal he needs but I think there are other issues. His hold up play & first touch has been poor.

    In the last 4 games Kyogo has gotten himself into scoring positions more than Idah even though he has been playing off the wing.

    There is definitely a player in there & confidence will of course be a factor but Idah has to step up himself & put the hard yards in to get back to the player we had last season.
    Despite this I do think BR should stick with him in the starting line up. We seem to be starting games better than we are finishing them which gives him the best chance of a goal.

    The good thing is we are on the outside of the dressing room & we can be sure that every other player is behind him & will help him succeed.

    Going by the window so far I don’t expect any incomings so this team need to group together, accept the fact they have had to performances not acceptable to the standards of the club in the last 2 weeks & kick on as a team now.

  • Chris says:

    The problem with Idah is his lack of ability.
    Signing him was crazy, in order to compete in champions league properly, signing a guy who is a journeyman and lacks the basic skill set was ridicuous.

  • fun time frankie says:

    Why didn’t we sign MIovski from Aberdeen at the same time ,cause we had the cash and imo liewell still has to much involvement in OUR CLUB get this money grabbing bastard tae fcuk,as I have been saying on your blog for years now James.

  • Wee Jock says:

    The thing that struck me again last night was that the Manager did not start with what I would consider to be his strongest team or even the combination that brought Saturday’s game to life. If he had we would have had energised confident guys carrying on from where they left off and players like Idah there as back up if needed. The problem for me is not taking chances and being over elaborate in build ups. There are players who don’t have the skill to play a fast one touch game and we need to bring in people who can. A striker needing two or three touches in a packed penalty box will never score. Tony Doherty said he sacrificed the wings to protect the inside areas. That’s what Goodwin did when they got the draw so maybe we need to rethink the approach and arm ourselves for the games to come.

    • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

      That’s the thing Jock – Docherty And Goodwin changed the tactics…

      Something that I think Brendan is either unable or worse unwilling to do !

  • JT says:

    Is Idah not the player the manager wanted, and we did not appear to have an alternative when it became obvious that Norwich were playing hardball and asking £3 – £4m more than sensible people at Celtic really wanted to play. If negotiations had begun with an alternative striker, it is more than likely that fee would have been reduced to a more realistic level.

  • Brattbakk says:

    Don’t care about Idah price tag, I only care that he’s not scoring. You done an article recently about body language being a lot of shite, well Idah is the exception that proves the rule. His lack of confidence was written all over him yesterday. I’m expecting him to be Hartsonesque when he gets going. I hope I’m right

  • Kevcelt59 says:

    Don’t think it helps, any of our support remindin him of the price tag. Tho bottom line is, he’s scored some important goals and he has tae prove he can get back tae scorin and sustain that type of form. He needs tae prove that tae himself as well as the support.

  • DixieD67 says:

    I see your pal Kieth Jackson just let his guard down and inadvertently confirmed who he supports. During a discussion about Kieran Tierney he said “…when Mark Hately came to Rangers…” A phrase you would only ever use if you support them!

  • Gerry says:

    Unfortunately for big Idah, he didn’t set the £9M price tag and realistically, we should have paid £4 or £5 M tops. For whatever reasons, our board dragged their heels and paid way more than they initially intended! .

    We are all fully aware that our board are hugely tardy in their transfer dealings and by leaving deals to the last minute, whilst waiting for the sale of MOR to go through, we paid more than we should have.

    Our two expensive summer signings have had their struggles and been criticised by sections of our fanbase…however they didn’t set the transfer fees, even though it might weigh heavy on them at times !

    Engels is by no means the finished article,and struggled for a while, but I have no doubt he will blossom in the requisite manner and justify the fee we paid for him !

    Similarly, big Idah is certainly struggling at the moment, but I believe he will also come good !

    Maybe it might be prudent to give him a rest and let him make an impact, again, from the bench.

    As you said, he scored crucial goals for us last season, which ultimately contributed to our double success, so we know he has what it takes to play for Celtic!

    I’m sure the big man will keep the faith, as will the manager, in his ability!
    HH

  • ThunbergsNooNoo says:

    I like the big guy.
    He’ll come good I’m absolutely convinced of it.

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