Following the cup final at the weekend, I went away for a couple of days on a little planned sightseeing tour with our visiting friend and co-writer on the site, Paulina Jaczek. She’d come over for ten days to take in the title party and the cup final, which we were hoping would be a treble celebration.
Although that turned out not to be the case, she’s had an absolute blast in her favourite city following her favourite club, and her outlook on it all has allowed me to gain a bit of perspective in the time since the game.
I’m usually pretty upset after a cup final loss. It takes a while for me to fully process it. For a Scottish Cup final, it’s worse, because you’ve got the whole summer to obsess over it, and it usually takes a few weeks before you feel like a little equilibrium is returning. This one feels particularly painful because it was an opportunity to win a treble which slipped through our fingers.
As a lot of sites have said, this is why we celebrate trebles the way we do. This is why Paulina came over from Poland – so she could be here in the event that we did it. They’re rare and precious and beautiful things. They are extremely hard to win, because it only takes one bad day, one slip in a cup competition, and it’s over.
And that’s what we saw at the weekend. We saw one of those bad days. We saw one of those slips. We can be angry about it, or we can acknowledge that it proves what a lot of us had been saying earlier in the campaign – this stuff is not easy.
We’ve occasionally made it look easy.
I got some stick for my articles on Aberdeen and the way they approached the game. I don’t apologise for what I said. I wasn’t wrong. I think a media which praises a side that won a cup final on penalty kicks with 20% possession – and had to rely on a late own goal to get them to extra time in the first place – is undeserving of credit.
I think they’re responsible for it being one of the most unmemorable finals in the history of the competition. And it wasn’t some tactical masterclass, as some are pretending it was. None of that changes the fact that we ourselves did not do enough to break them down. I’m not being bitter or giving into anger here.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written about teams who come up against Celtic and play wholly negative tactics. It’s a common theme on this site, and I’m appalled to see a side do it in a cup final.
I fully believe that, had we got the win, the Aberdeen fans would have been disgusted by the way their team played and their manager would have questions to answer.
I also think our own boss has questions to answer, and I’ve written that several times as well. I don’t know why he didn’t change tactics. I don’t know why we stuck to the same tactical approach all the way through 120 minutes when it so obviously wasn’t working, and it wasn’t going to break down their defence.
But as I said in the piece I wrote directly after it – this doesn’t change the fact that the season itself was a triumph. A double is a great result in any campaign. Marry that with the European progress that we all saw, and which was clear to everybody, and I don’t think it can be called anything other than a success. That’s made me feel a little bit better and given me a bit more perspective.
What makes that especially acute is how well Paulina has dealt with it. After the initial upset, her upbeat confidence that she will be back for a treble party at some future time reminds me that we Celtic fans still have a lot to look forward to.
And I guess that’s the thing. I guess that’s where I am in my head now. I guess I’m tuned into the idea that although the season ended in disappointment, the thoughts have immediately turned to next season.
Although the next four weeks – prior to our first pre-season game – are going to feel long and horrible and terrible in a lot of ways, there’ll be enough going on to keep us all interested. Hopefully that includes some signs of life from our club about how it intends to approach the next campaign.
Ideally, you’d want to see some signings made early doors.
So thankfully, the disappointment has started to fade a little bit. And now that I’m getting some perspective on how the campaign went overall, I can see that there were a lot of positives this season – and there’s a lot to be thankful for and to look forward to in the next one.
Now that the last game has been played and the players are all off getting their much-needed and well-deserved rest, we can put that season in the rear-view mirror and start thinking about what the next one might bring.
It’s been a good, successful season. I’m generally positive about Celtic but I doubt ignore the more pessimistic, negative fans and there is evidence that we’re not on the up and up. A lot of fans see cracks after the recent games against the tribute act (I don’t go along with that, apart from the new year game I haven’t been impressed by them), also, a lot of fans are unimpressed with Rodgers signings and lastly our form for the last 4 months or so was definitely patchy. Preseason set us up well last year, we need that again along with a good transfer window to get the belief and unity back because even if we have dipped, we’re not far away and capable of pushing on.
* don’t ignore
Here are the aspects to consider and ponder on:
1. The board should change their approach about getting the transfer dealings done. I don’t mean we should spend so much money, but we need to let some players go to release money for better quality players and their wages. If need be spend big, if not get a bosman. At least three defenders, 2 midfielders, one or two wingers and a striker is what we need.
2. The manager should stop being so close-minded and start thinking about introducing different tactics. Not just one hitting against the wall attitude. Unless he really learns and matures, we will still lose easy games or losing points (sevco games, Hibs , St Johnstone, Dundee, St Mirren, cup final).
3. The future. Champions league gives us so much money, especially after the new format (8-10 games, prize money, gates money and so on).
From season 2026/27, if we win the title, we are certain to start in July from round two. We do have to be ready and prepared from early on.
It’s so frustrating that we have no debt, sit on the +40 million from this year, yet we sell kyogo and nobody is coming in.
In addition I wonder if a little complacency sets in at times. Brendan also needs to inject a consistent high tempo into Celtic’s play. The constant recycle and restart tactics look as though they can be countered by lesser teams.
A double is s successful season, however, taking into account our massive financial and facilities advantage, there are possibly too many low points, even games we got the three points but sat through some horrible performances. Is it all about just winning? What happened to playing the Celtic way. That has gone. I’m not sure Rodgers can change tactics. The new year game was a very harsh lesson and he learned and changed nothing after that. That does not make any sense at any level. When you see what Stephen Robinson gets from his St Mirren players on a shoestring budget, it makes me wonder how good Brendan really is. Great communicator and handles the media well, but not so sure about the tactical side. He never seems to get the defence right, we still cannot defend crosses and teams who press us. He also seems to have strong favourites in the team as well including his mate in goal.
Whilst winning a double isn’t to be sniffed at, our form since the New Year[6 defeats,5 draws] is a warning that I hope BR and his team of coaches are taking on board. Complacency in this Celtic team was obvious in the past few months, The defeat against relegated St Johnstone should have been the lowest point of the season, to repeat it against Aberdeen in the Cup Final was a disgrace, and a lot of those players should be ashamed of their performances. Since November, Aberdeen have been the worst team in Scotland, that is a fact. BR and his players have to start next season with a more pacy and physical style of play, the passive, possession based style has been sussed, our performances in the 2nd half of last season won’t be good enough. The warnings are there.
Our form from January onwards has been poor, losing twice and drawing with a team from Ibrox is inexcusable. A league & league cup double is a step back from a league & Scottish cup double. The squad is worse. Engels isn’t a patch on O’Riley. Idah is a downgrade on Kyogo. Maeda and European form the highlights of the season. The board needs to get its act together and fully back the manager this summer, no more ending a window with a transfer surplus.
Pilgrim – whilst I agree our form has been poor in 2025 (for me since dropping out of the Champions League), cup football is a lottery. Stein “only” won two trebles and the man with no surname one during the 1990’s despite their financial advantages. We have areas to improve in our squad but you omit Jota who is a step up from where we were. And I don’t hear any saying that Idah was the Kyogo replacement. Perhaps more to the point, would we have Kyogo back given he has been transfer listed? He was fantastic for us for two seasons – sadly I think he was ill advised with regard to his shoulder and not getting it fixed and secondly by the move he made. He wasn’t forced out the door by Celtic.
The O’Riley / Engles comparison there Pilgrim73…
Is the perfect excuse for Lucan to Question Brendan…
And for once he might just be correct !
Yep – I’m starting to come to terms with it now for sure…
If you’d told me at the start of the season we’d have got Champions League Football to the knockouts, won The League by a country mile and won The League Cup I’d have taken it…
Especially as Sevco won fuck all – But only just by the skin of our teeth did we make them win fuck all !
Of course your comments about Aberdeen were wrong. You seem furious that we didn’t meekly show up for another battering like you’ve been giving us all season when we’ve played a more open game.
You have 50 times our money. Position for position you have better players, because it would be ridiculous if you didn’t. We’ve tried going toe-to-toe with you and the outcome has been about one win in a decade.
“Tactical masterplan”? Not particularly. The bleeding obvious, really. But it was the only tiny hope we had of nicking a win in a one-off game, and we executed it brilliantly.
A glorious spectacle for the TV audience? Hell no. But still far better than you being three up at halftime again and everyone switching off in a different kind of boredom. At least this way there were 140 minutes of suspense.
“You could only score with an own goal!”? Mate, so could you. Mitov had one save of note in the whole game and you took the lead when a shit header going wide deflected in off Alfie Dorrington’s shoulder. We had as many decent chances – Polvara and Gueye should both have found the net late on – as you did with a quarter of the possession.
“If we’d gone two up we’d have won!” Very likely. But I’m reminded of that great line from the Porridge movie when the organiser of the celebrity team says “You wouldn’t be doing this if we’d brought David ‘Diddy’ Hamilton!” or something like that, and Barrowclough icily gives hi the immortal reply: “No, probably not. But you didn’t, did you?”
Because while we don’t have better players than you, on the day they PLAYED better. Our execution of the parked-bus strategy, which often fails, was exemplary. Your players failed at breaking down a defence that’s been leaking goals since November.
Aberdeen fans wouldn’t have complained if the tactics had failed. Pretty much none of us gave the team an earthly. If it had resulted in a 1-0 defeat we’d have gone “Well, at least we didn’t get thrashed out of sight again”. You should be thanking us for even showing up, given how rank the team’s been for the last six months, and not giving you your great walkover spectacle in a half-empty stadium.
The bottom line is the tactics we played were our ONLY hope of winning that game, the manager had the insight to recognise that, the media correctly praised him for doing so and the players for pulling it off, and you’re moaning that we had the sheer temerity to give ourselves a chance instead of just providing a “showpiece” where you ran in another hatful of goals, most of which nobody saw because they’d switched off after 45 minutes of a foregone conclusion?
Mate, take the L and have as much dignity about it as your team have admirably done. You lost fair and square to the better team on the day, and bleating about their successful tactics is a poor look.