Let me tell you a little story, which I’ve always found instructive.
During the building of Sellafield, an engineer called Terence Price raised a question about what would happen if a fuel cartridge came apart. In that instance, irradiated dust could catch fire, and the smoke could contaminate the facility and spread to the outside world. Sir John Cockcroft, who was the leader of the project, overruled the concerns of the bean counters and the naysayers and added filters to the 400-foot chimney, which would have to release any buildup of gas.
So-called experts sneered at Cockcroft and Price for their excess of caution. The filters were duly added, and they were nicknamed “Cockcroft’s Folly.” Well, it was those filters that probably saved thousands of lives during the Windscale Fire, the incident that was the closest we’ve ever had to a meltdown here in the UK.
Engineers and architects, my friend. Engineers and architects. You can see the same basic philosophy—only in reverse—when you look at the collapse of Boeing. Boeing was a company built on engineering expertise. Its people prioritised safety above everything else. And if that meant that a project was grounded for 18 months until they made sure that it was safe, then so be it. And if the cost of that ran into millions, it was a small price to pay. Then Boeing was taken over by accountancy types, who decided that they, not the engineers, would make crucial project decisions.
You can watch the documentary on Netflix on what the consequences of that decision were. They were pretty damned harrowing.
Architects and engineers—we have one of those in the dugout right now. An architect and an engineer. A man who has built this team to do its job. But because we allowed the accountancy types to run amok for an entire summer, he still has to work with some very shoddy tools and some very inferior machine parts.
And there are still those who think they can second-guess this guy. There are those who have the balls to think they’re smarter than Rodgers. Even when that’s been disproved again and again. They will tell you that it is folly—that Rodgers spent £9 million on Idah, that he spent £11 million on Engels, and that he spent £6 million on Trusty. But look where we are right now. Look at what we achieved last night—a higher points total than Manchester City. You tell me who the fool is.
Across the internet today, there’s some kind of perception that Brendan Rodgers was sending a message to the board last night with his late substitutions. First, I have no problem with Brendan Rodgers sending coded messages to the board if he thinks they’re dragging their feet. A lot of us think they’re dragging their feet. A lot of us think that the last week has been, frankly, embarrassing.
But when he brought off Adam Idah last night and put on Daniel Cummings, that was not sending a message to anyone. That was simply an acknowledgment of a very real fact—we didn’t have an alternative on the bench. I don’t know what people’s problem with that is. Idah had run his course. We took him off because we need him for other games. Bringing on Cummings was the only option left to us. And the board doesn’t need to be sent a message on that one.
Maeda was out, and we have no other striker. That’s not sending a message. That’s just working with the hand he’s dealt. I don’t think anyone should be looking for smoke signals there, and we didn’t need them anyway, because Rodgers, at the end of the game, pointed out that the only reason Cummings got brought on was that there was no other option. So, it was less sending signals than stating the obvious.
As to the idea that bringing on young Murray subjected him to some unfair level of scrutiny, that also is pretty laughable. The question’s been asked why we didn’t just bring on Nawrocki. That surely doesn’t require an answer. There is one surviving player from that transfer window who is still playing regularly in this team, and he’s a busted flush and Rodgers has already solved by bringing in Jota.
We saw last night in the performance of Yang exactly what that transfer window was worth—not very much of anything.
It may be the single worst transfer window in Celtic’s entire history for the sheer waste and for the sheer dearth of genuine standout talent that it produced. And it’s only right that the person most responsible for that left the club. It’s not anybody else’s fault but his that those players aren’t up to snuff.
Rodgers has delivered a verdict on that transfer window which is crystal clear. And to be blunt, it was crystal clear going into the end of last season when he refused to play a single one of those players regularly when we were in the title run-in. Given his own ability to shape the squad, we’ve seen the results—one of the best Champions League campaigns we can remember in a long time.
Rodgers is not impressed by a single one of those players. Not a single one of them. And to be perfectly honest, I didn’t see anything in any of them except Luis Palma at the start that made me think we had any real talent at all. Lagerbielke looked like he might have had something to offer, but he certainly doesn’t fit into the Brendan Rodgers system.
I think it’s a bit rich certain people pointing the finger at Rodgers and accusing him of playing games when all he’s doing is addressing in public the very real needs that this squad has got. Those needs aren’t a secret from anybody. Every single one of us knows that this squad is painfully short in a couple of areas, and if Rodgers prefers an untested kid over a guy we paid a lot of money for, that is an indictment on the people who paid that money, not on the manager who’s making the call.
If those people did their jobs a little bit better—if they hadn’t entrusted the chairman’s son with a position of enormous authority and influence at Celtic based on not very much at all—we wouldn’t have so many players on the books who simply aren’t in the manager’s plans. That entire window was farcical, and the judgment on it has long since been rendered by the manager himself.
Eighteen months on, we are very clearly still cleaning up the mess from that window and from that wasted summer. When you see what Rodgers has managed to achieve in the past 8 to 10 months, it makes you wonder what he would have achieved had we had a straight runway for the last 18. But an entire year was wasted. An opportunity to put his mark on this team sooner than he did was squandered.
Rodgers realises this. And Rodgers realises what his one fault was—that he walked in here ever thinking that those people should be trusted to make those kinds of decisions. He will never allow that again—not at Celtic and not anywhere else. And if people only came to the conclusion last night that he’s rendered judgment on any number of players from that window, then they haven’t been paying attention in class.
This window has only days left in it, and anyone who doesn’t think that we’re dragging our feet again—I would suggest you’re not paying full attention to what’s really going on. What’s really annoying and frustrating is that the longer we leave it to go for our top targets, the harder clubs are going to make it for us to get them.
And I cannot understand a board that is allegedly concerned with nothing but piling up cash behaving so stupidly in a way that only encourages teams to jack up the prices.
Rodgers knows his business inside and out.
He knows exactly what he is doing at all times. He didn’t need last night to send a message. If that message isn’t already ringing in the ears of everyone inside our club, I’ll be astonished. All he did last night was play with the hand he was dealt. If he then pointed that fact out in the after match press conference, that was the way for the handful of people left who still can’t read the writing on the wall.
Photo by Michael Regan – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images
Our latest podcast – The Hardest Part – is out now.
Nepotism and self serving entitlement, ego and greed, unprofessionalism and arrogance.
Step forward Peter Lawwell.
Celtic supporter my arse.
Oh he was, very much so. As a young teenager he attended the same school as me and my brothers.
Then he went to University, got educated as a glorified bookkeeper, in essence that is all a basic accountant is.
Various posts later turns up at Parkhead, as we called it pre Fergus. Couple of years doing the books and hey presto he’s the CEO of a Multi Million pound ‘Business’, a PLC no less and the rest is history.
A history that for a Club of Celtic’s size and stature and Global appeal was somewhat less than stellar.
Sure we had good years, who can forget the MON era especially.Strachan’s early years and even Neil’s Caretaker spell.
However each era was followed by mediocrity as the preservation of the duopoly that was the O** F*** inevitably led to manager’s expectations being ‘Managed’ by ‘bean counters’ and planned austerity was imposed even as Celtic’s turnover increased, not by much initially, well not as much as the salary and benefits package of our CEO operating in a so called ‘footballing backwater’ did.
We all can remember the great players we had, who left because of Celtic’s glass ceiling on earnings. We can even recall the garbage they were followed by, Biggins anyone, ex Army player can’t even be bothered looking his name up, Chinese recruits and rejects from the lower leagues of the English Football pyramid.
It’s been the same story for most of the past 20 years. Every time we assembled a squad that looked as if they could compete on a European level we would inevitably sell one or more of our best players and replace them with junk. No surprise Managers wouldn’t hang around. Meanwhile austerity didn’t seem to apply to Executive salaries. For those ‘happy clappers’ who like to jump in with the ‘at least we didn’t end up like them across the way’ and the Company is well run etc
Any reasonably competent CEO would have been able to match or probably exceed Celtics growth in turnover because the Company is fundamentally sound in and of itself. By any conservative metric the growth of Celtic’s Turnover prior to the Adidas Sponsorship deal has been less than stellar. As for ending up like ‘thum’ well The Company would never fail because of the underling affinity and support of the thousands and thousands of fans who buy into the Club. The CLUB. THE FOOTBALL TEAM.
I sometimes get really depressed when I listen to the Board apologists when they witter on about being gratefull for not ending up like the other ‘mob’ or how well the Club, ( when they really mean the Company) is run. I’m not saying that the Company shouldn’t be well run, I’m saying that the focus of the Board should be, on something that might sound quite revolutionary, solely on the betterment of the Football Team. The purpose of the Company should be First, Last and Always how do we support the Football Club to be the best it can be. How can we repay the Supporters for their financial and EMOTIONAL Investment year after year. That should be the sole purpose of the Company. Not Hotels or any other pieces of Corporate embellishments. Definitely no self congratulatory Statues for superannuated Employees of the Company. Footballing legends are for the fans to decide and one definitely for Fergus when he is finally agreeable.
Rant over.
Pile on incoming
LOL. So that is the reason you hate PL so much, he went to the same school as yourself but he became a success and a millionaire. I hope he never bullied you in those informative years and stole your lunch money.
Paranoia and jealousy, it’s a dangerous mix. 🙂
Quite happy with my life. Lovely wife two adult Children who have become successful in their chosen fields.
Own my house no mortgage. Retired. Two company pensions and a paltry State one.
What’s not to like. Oh and I went to University 3 years ahead of him.
Envy is not in my nature. I just can’t abide hypocrites, arrogance and nepotism and the faux I’m a Celtic man through and through when he’s bled the Club for so long while wasting countless millions by interfering in Footballing matters.
It somehow feels as if he’s extremely jealous of the love and affection bestowed on managers like Ange or Brendan and others. He seems to always want to shuffle them out the door or piss them off and no sooner are they out the door then he goes down the austerity route, like Ronny, Neil and to some extent Gordon. Then following that up with dismantling the, then current Team making any incoming manager’s job more difficult. Oh just a thought, he must have made it up with Gordon. Well he did employ him in a rather lucrative Consultancy temporary position and we seem to be now permanently responsible for two of his offspring in our Football Coaching / Statistics Dept.
Drat just thought what was the outcome from that I’ll defined Consultancy and now I’ll need to add ‘Cronyism’ to the list of his transgressions. Worse than the never ending story.
*Ill defined, obviously.
Calm down SFA, I said what I did tongue in cheek, you left yourself wide open and so I took advantage and had a wee dig, you did say, pile it on 🙂
Ok. Apology tendered.
Spot on James.
We have to bear in mind that the Rodgers criticism from last night came from Brennan at CQN, the biggest brown nose blogger there is.
If you are unfortunate enough to have read his crap then its obvious that he could give two hoots about the team on the park as his main love is his bum chums on the board and he will write any old shite to blindly back them up.
The guy is a feckin weirdo.
Couldnt give two hoots it should say.
I prefer to think that Brendan brought the young boys on to give them the best experience of their lives so far, to let them know that they are appreciated and to encourage them, particularly in Cumming’s case, to stay at Celtic Park and not be tempted to leave should anyone come sniffing around them.
It was all about man management and it is what Brendan is particularly good at.
That was also my take, especially to Cummings (“you won’t get this at (fill in for EFL club making promises)). Pity Dane Murray slipped up in last minute (although a bad throw from AJ) to spoil experience for him – but at least it had no real impact.
I think it was a veiled dig at the board to get their finger out – And out fuckin well pronto at that as well !
Sfa so true but I am not a happy clapper Celtic is the be all of everything of me like so many other millions I just want us to be best of what we can be
Cummings had to come on due to no other option, Murray came on for the experience. We could’ve kept the starting 11 on for 90minutes (mind those days?) and pushed for a point while risking injuries. Real or Bayern is brutal
Real or Bayern a challenge yes, brutal is not the word I would use – this is the premier club competition in the world. We get to test ourselves against top teams, that’s the point surely?
Great article James, and very well articulated points/opinions, SFA…
I watched last nights game with a sense of realism, in that no one expected us to win…and also with strong feelings of sentimentality, with regard to two previous winners of the European Cup, ( that in previous eras were on a level playing field,) that were now playing each other on such disparate financial terms, due to the leagues they play in !!! Although we went toe to toe at times, we all know the gulf is massive !!!
Maybe I’m a dinosaur, but the greed in modern football, disgusts me, and it is difficult to love the game now and all the parasites and charlatans that inhabit it…the 21 yr old, Duran going to Saudi for over £65M is just another example!!!
On the game, I think we played ok, but if we’re being honest, and given all the circumstances surrounding and in the lead up to this fixture, we were probably fortunate to escape with a 4-2 defeat.
On this transfer window, it just reeks of normality for our board. Any sensible or forward thinking person/company/club, continually strengthens when they have the power to do so. Our club drag their heels in moments of strength, and allow others ( Sevco being a case in point,) an opportunity to try and catch us.
I’m not saying for one minute that they’re close to us financially or otherwise, but when a club like ours, continually neglects the most important part of the club …ie the team, then you give others a fighting chance, and also deprive the fans seeing the strongest possible version of Celtic.
I still believe we require a striker, left back, dcm and another wide player, and I can only pray that we see some incomings by close of play !
Last night was another big step up for our bhoys and I’ll never be overly critical of our team. They gave 100%, but they got ruthlessly punished as always at this level, a level they’ll never experience in the SPL !
Whether BR was making a point or not, by fielding the youngsters, is probably irrelevant. For those young lads it was a tremendous experience and well done to both of them !
We all know that BR is a tremendous manager and is wanting the very best for our club at the highest levels of the game.
Give him the tools and the players, and he’ll continue to progress our club. Keep hampering his efforts to improve our playing staff, and it will be no surprise if he was to leave again !
It would be wonderful to bring through lots of talented, home grown players from our academy, rather than spend millions elsewhere.
However, ( to the board) now is the time, whilst we can, to strengthen this team, and give the fans the best possible Celtic FC team that we have seen for many years!! There should be no excuses!!! HH
PS
Undoubtedly, as per, we had thousands of fans who travelled to Birmingham and ensured the good name of our club was maintained! Well done to all!
For those that tarred our name and reputation, shame on you for acting like Sevco fans !!!
Just one point to make about Nepotism, cronyism etc, no I am not saying it’s right. but it is not the evil transgression that some folk constantly direct at the Celtic Park hierarchy, for it happens in all walks of life, Have none of you ever helped a relative or friend to get a job or vice versa. Be honest with yourselves, for it is a natural thing, a human thing to do given the chance…..within reason of course.
I understand your point. However our Board as Custodians of the PLC have a legal and moral duty to be above reproach in these matters. There is also the point that it is their responsibility to hire the most appropriate people for the roles. Lawwell jnr was a case in point. He had absolutely no experience in footballing recruitment. Nada, none at all. He was responsible for the Social Media / PR element of the comings and goings within the Squad at Cittehh. We paid and are still paying a heavy price for his farce.
Rodgers could go at the season end if this window does not end with major improvements to the squad. Why would any decent manager stay at a club who have no intention of trying to improve, but merely to stay around the same level constantly. No point really.
So correct.
If Roger’s had those players he has his eye on and knows where they would git in the jigsaw that would have impacted on bonuses available to the boards personal bank accounts owing to the cash/profit the club has made.
Cannot have our kickback cut by buying expensive playes.