GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - OCTOBER 29: Celtic Chairman Peter Lawwell, Dermot Desmond, majority shareholder and Michael Nicholson CEO are seen during the Premier League match between Celtic and Falkirk at Celtic Park on October 29, 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
There is an old story about Desmond which might be apocryphal. No one knows for sure. The story goes that in another cup semi final at Hampden, which feels like a lifetime ago now, he was so incensed by the celebrating of the Ibrox board after they had inflicted a penalty kick defeat on us that he called together his people at the club and told them to go and get Rodgers.
The irony of that should not be lost on any of us going into this game.
To have had Rodgers twice and to have lost him twice takes some doing. People who cannot stand him will blame him but it is his fellow Irishman who should carry the can for the state we are in right now. That state can be summed up by two things.
First, Rodgers is not in the dugout and O’Neill is. Second, even if Rodgers was still in the dugout or O’Neill was in his prime, there is not one of us who feels one hundred percent confident going into this game. This against perhaps the worst Ibrox side since the one that beat us in that cup semi final.
Stop for a moment and think about that.
Think about how you feel today. We should be absolutely buzzing. The confidence should be obvious. Every Celtic fan should be looking forward to this like never before. I was over the moon when we got them in the draw.
It seems like a long time ago now.
Back then you still expected Celtic to do something in the transfer market. Back then you still expected us to emerge from the window stronger than we went into it. Boy oh boy.
There is not one of us who looks across the city and sees anything to fear. There is not one of us who looks across there and feels any fear about what they might do. What scares us is how weak we are.
It is not just the injuries to key players although they have cost us and been tough to take. We are at the mercy of our own stupidity. Desmond and his board have put us in a seriously difficult place. We are so denuded of firepower that facing that abysmal defence of theirs makes you wonder where the goals will come from. You wonder if we really have it in us to pull this off.
This is not just about them. I do not know a single Celtic fan who was fully confident we would go to Tynecastle and beat Hearts.
That is virtually unheard of.
I said we would win but I was not fully confident of it. At best I had thought we would probably get there but I knew the dominoes would have to fall just so. I knew nothing could go wrong. Rodgers’ mad decision to play two raw kids on the right side of the defence was every bit as cataclysmic as you might have guessed it would be.
I do not know what he was thinking.
Even accounting for that decision it never felt, going into that game, that belief surged through the supporters. This is the flattest path into a cup semi final against an Ibrox club that I can ever remember.
Yet there is no fear of them. Celtic is jumping at shadows. It ourselves we’re scared of.
Of the mistakes we might make and the screw ups in our house that might contribute to a disaster. O’Neill should give us confidence. O’Neill’s record against Ibrox teams is outstanding. At the end of the day, he is working with the same squad and it is lacking in at least three or four areas.
I believed in Rodgers and believe in O’Neill. But I believe they have been dealt the same lousy hand.
I genuinely hope Desmond did not just fly back over to Ireland the moment the game in midweek was over. He should stay for this.
He should sit in that stand and watch what happens. If we go out of the tournament today, I will blame him and many other people will blame him. If he is the shot caller, and he went out of his way this week to make sure we all know it, then he is lousy at it.
He has failed miserably. The prospect of a gloating Ibrox club rubbing our faces in it, telling us they are on the road back and we are on the slide, should damn him. He should feel sick when he looks in the mirror because a loss today is on his shoulders.
It’s down to him that we’re not sure we’ll get over the line in spite of all the limitations of the opposition.
I genuinely do not know whether I believe we will do this today or not. I suspect we have too much about us to lose it but there are too many unknowns and too many bits of it up for grabs. That is why so many doubts are sloshing around our heads.
Today will answer some questions about where we actually are but I suspect the answers will not differ much from the ones we already know.
We are going into January needing a major round of surgery. We need big signings. On top of that the board needs to pull a rabbit out of the hat and make sure we have a manager. My confidence in this team today is stronger than my confidence in this board over the longer term. That is why this feels especially sickening.
All our fears and concerns come from our own neurosis about how bad we have been.
About how disjointed, fragmented and dysfunctional we have looked all season long.
We think about the players we have lost and not replaced. All of us can see the firepower taken out of this team. We all know it did not have to be like this.
We made these choices ourselves. These decisions have caused all our problems.
If the Ibrox club gets a result today Rohl will be a managerial genius and all will be well over there again. That is the fantasy they wrap around themselves. That is the lie they will tell. The truth is if we lose this today, we beat ourselves, and that is harder to take than losing to them.
Every wound we carry is self inflicted.
Im no expert but why not just rain down cross after cross into their box becase their defence is rank and Butland is good for at least a fumble or two. In fact his wife won’t let him haud the wean!
That other lot are poor but will snarl and defend and try and nick a goal.
We need to play our football and don’t get caught up in playing their style of game.
Can see a 1-0 win and a rubbish game.
1-0 victory for the bhoys I would take all day long, as you have said that’s a disgraceful situation for us to be in.
We should be going into this game brimming with confidence but I don’t feel it.
Cmon the hoops.
One thing’s for sure they will not know if we’re going to play tippity tappety, that’s an advantage to us straight away.
That’s a very good point Jim, they won’t know how to prepare for the game as they don’t know what MON is planning. The only thing they know for sure is that it will be different from anything they’ve faced under Brendan.
My money’s on 4-1 Celtic.
I wish he’d just piss off and take his lackeys with him. This club deserves to be fan-owned — the best thing he could do now is sell his shares back to the supporters.
Fergus never wanted the likes of him in charge of Celtic.
We don’t want to descend into the disaster of what was the 1990s ever again – led by incompetents who couldn’t see past their own self importance.
James have you blanked the past 5 games under BR versus the Huns out of your mind. The first 20 mins we couldn’t get out of our own half, tippy tappy football whilst they tore into us with their high press.
We couldn’t beat a team that everyone else in the League was either beating or drawing with. Looking forward to seeing how we start todays game, I would bet we won’t be as passive against them as we’ve been lately.
I see auld pishy pants Spew Heevins at it again today with his article leaving our club without a name and only one trophy to play for should we lose the game today,that bring the Scottish Cup as the league has gone.
No doubt auld pishy pants will be talking up sevco for the treble today should they beat us,with us collapsing along with Hearts for him and rest of the BIGOTS in the Scottish press to all excited again about their favourite team.
I hope MON can motivate the team enough to win today. We definitely have the edge of a better quality team but only just. Shocking the paucity of the Celtic squad. Given the poor quality of both teams it’s like 2 bald men fighting over a comb. I think it will be a worse game than the last one. 🙁
It may have been Falkirk at home the other night, and we may not have been perfect, but the glaring difference was the style of play.
You sensed the players actually enjoyed it.
I can tell you the crowd enjoyed it.
Caution has been put a little to the side in favour of moving the ball faster, and more directly, toward the opposition box. That could open us up a bit but it will prove disarming to our opponents in the manner we used to do.
As for starters today, I’d honestly be tempted to put out the same starting 11 as the last game and have at it. Save Daizen and Iheanacho for later in the game. Kenny is playing with confidence and is scoring, plus his movement is excellent. All attributes for a starting striker regardless of reputation or competition for places.
Get intae them.
Hampden park is too wide for the huns to cope with us.am feeling fairly confident we will do ok at this one. Tournecki on one side meada on taviners has to be the stuff of nightmares.
Calmac going fwd at will engles at defense and cutting passes, bernado starts for me through the mids, hatate, kenny coz no one else trusty scales sirrachi
2 5 3 shakes it right up
Hampden is one yard wider than both Ibrox and Celtic park, so I’m not sure that 18 inches at either touchline would make a lot of difference.
Jesus wept James, I was feeling confident about today until I read your article and now I feel like slashing my wrists. Can you not offer a wee bit of encouragement? It’s almost as if you would welcome a defeat so that you can continue your mission against the Club’s hierarchy. Don’t get me wrong we all want that action to continue, but not at the expense of a defeat today, for that is unthinkable.
It could be worse Johnny, imagine James was doing the team talk!? Honda Civics would become (un)Reliant Robins!
🙂
Felt before the Hearts game that we would lose to both them and sevco, It was more to do with the style of play employed by BR than anything else, today I now have hope. If we can weather their early storm, move Calmac into an advanced position so he cannot be marked out of the game and have some pace through the middle I feel we will spring a surprise.
RESULT – RESULT – RESULT !!!