GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - MARCH 08: Celtic's Julian Araujo celebrates at full time during a Scottish Gas Scottish Cup Quarter-Final match between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox Stadium, on March 08, 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
There are seasons in football when things go wrong. And then there are seasons when everything goes wrong. Celtic are deep into the latter right now, and the injury to Julián Araujo feels like just the latest twist in a story that has already taken on a life of its own.
Christ almighty. What did we do to deserve this?
Of all the players to lose for the remainder of the campaign, a guy who gets it.
A guy who was here on loan but who was nevertheless fully invested and willing to run through walls for the cause.
It couldn’t have happened to Adamu or to the Lesser Spotted Winger … it had to be this guy.
At some point, people around me stopped talking about tactics, systems or even individual performances. They started talking about luck. About fate. About whether the whole thing is, for want of a better word, cursed.
I have never experienced a campaign that feels more like that.
You hear it everywhere now. In the stands, in the pubs, on message boards.
People half-joking, half-serious, asking how one team can be on the end of so many terrible breaks and issues. Because once a season starts to spiral like this, it stops feeling like a series of isolated incidents and starts to feel like a pattern.
And football fans are wired to look for patterns.
That’s where superstition creeps in. It always does. Fans start to remember the small things.
The missed chances that hit the post and bounce out instead of in. The refereeing calls that never seem to go your way. The injuries that pile up at the worst possible times, always in the same areas of the pitch, always to the same types of players.
One becomes two, two becomes five, and suddenly it feels like every time the team takes a step forward, something drags it back again.
Araujo’s injury fits that narrative perfectly.
A player who could have contributed in the run-in, now gone. Another option removed. Another problem added to a list that already feels too long. It’s not just the loss itself. It’s the timing, the accumulation, the sense that nothing is breaking in Celtic’s favour.
In his book Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby writes about the rituals that fans go through to ward off bad luck.
These are the guys who sit in the same seat on the bus. They wear the same shirt. Hornby talked about his mate buying a sugar mouse before every game; they couldn’t go near the stadium unless he’d ate it. He was convinced that it was propelling the whole campaign.
These people refuse to change routines on matchday because the last time they did, the team lost.
It sounds ridiculous when you say it out loud, but it’s part of the culture of the game.
It’s a way of imposing some sense of control on something that is, by its nature, completely uncontrollable. But beneath all of that, there is something real going on.
Because while superstition fills the gaps, there is a genuine phenomenon in football where seasons collapse under the weight of accumulated disasters.
Confidence dips, performances drop, and suddenly everything becomes harder.
Players hesitate. Decisions take a fraction longer. Passes that would have been instinctive become cautious. That hesitation spreads. It is worse when you are at a club where aside from all this bad luck there are genuinely dire decisions weighting it down.
Injuries play a huge role in that. Not just because of the players you lose, but because of what it does to the group as a whole. Continuity disappears. Partnerships break down. Managers are forced to change things week to week, sometimes game to game.
It becomes impossible to build rhythm.
And rhythm is everything in football and every time we’ve looked like getting some we have promptly lost it.
Some of that is our own fault, and no doubt. But the injuries we’ve had have been beyond belief, and it’s not just the number of them but the nature of them. Long term injuries. Ones keeping players out for months.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear there is someone, somewhere, in Larkhall sticking pins in Celtic player voodoo dolls.
When things go wrong, they compound. He missed Tannadice and we were a mess.
We had to put Hatate at right back at one point in that game and we saw what that resulted in. This stuff has had a real-world impact. This one led to dropped points. And dropped points bring pressure. That pressure tightens everything up even more.
Soon enough, it feels like nothing works.
That’s where Celtic are right now. Not just dealing with individual setbacks, but caught in that negative loop where each problem feeds the next. Araujo’s injury is part of that. So are the performances. So are the results. It all connects.
That doesn’t mean the season is literally cursed. It means the margins are going against you, and when that happens consistently, it creates the illusion of something bigger at play.
Fans sense it before anyone else. They always do. They might wrap it in humour or superstition, but what they’re really reacting to is momentum, or the lack of it.
The truth is, there is no hex, no jinx, no unseen force working against Celtic.
There is only a team that has lost its rhythm, a squad stretched by injuries, and a season where small moments keep landing the wrong way. And yet, even knowing all that, supporters will still knock on wood, still cling to routines, still talk about curses.
Because when everything starts to go wrong at once, it’s easier to believe in something supernatural than to accept just how fragile success in football really is.
For myself, I have thought for many months this just feels wrong, it feels like one of those seasons fated to end in disaster. We have helped that feeling along … but it hangs over us just the same, like something external, a force pressing us down.
I just want this campaign to be over.
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I never wear the hoops on match day, nor does my son. Grandson says to hell with that, he wears his many celtic tops every day. But somethings wrong. I dont wear my top and we still lose but I dont dare putting it on. Daft I know but a hard habit to break
It has nothing to do with bad luck or being cursed. It is a complete self implosion by failing to predict possible consequencies by an inept incompetant board of “world class in all we do” clowns. I cant see a recovery from this dissaster for several years going forward without the revenue squandered with the self inflicted failure to progress in the champions league. We are in a downward spiral with no reverse looking likely. I hope to God l am wrong….
i didn’t get looking at any of the articles posted over the weekend until late last night but I want comment on the two inter related ones concerning the Green Brigade and season ticket renewals.Firstly it is fairly obvious that the ban on the GB is going to be permanent,that decision was taken last year and the board have been keeping them dangling on a string. The GB will be kept out until this battle is won and probably better off out than the accept the punitive measures that are being placed on them.I believe this will be announced at the same time as ticket renewals so as to dishearten the present season ticket holders who have been opposing the board and to push them towards not renewing. The board will be hoping to replace them with new season ticket holders to try to break the Not Another Penny campaign amongst other things.Personally I believe all presnt season ticket holders should renew if that is their choice after all you are renewing to support the team not the board.Also it is better to be using your voice on the inside thsn to be outside looking in.There is also a slim chance Desmonds house could collapse over the summer,although this is very unlikely.The Celtic board will look at their handling of the GB as a success and will and will now move to emulate this in their dealings with the Fan CollectiveWith the post split fixtures and the FA cup matches coming up they will claim there is no room in the calender to set adate,then it will be into the summer and the excuses will be interviews for a new manager and new player recruitment which will take until the end of August.Then they will be a couple of months for the new season to bed in so it could be October before Brian Wilson gets his doodling pad out again. In reality they will just be playing for time hoping for cracks and disagreements within the collective and for people to lose interest and drift away
But ther is an event on the horizon that can reinforce the bond within the collective and the fans to stay focused and that is the glasgow council elections in May 2027.I believe the Fan Collective should look at the possibility of running candidates in this election and if not the collective then another group they can endorse and call on all Celtic fans and their families and friends in glasgow to support. A colossal task but you just have to believe it can be done. If you look at the Calton electoral ward where Celtic Football Club,Barrowfields,Lennoxtown and Parkhead are situated at the last council elections in 2022 there was almost 20,000 people on the voting register but only 6,000 voted and the quota to be elected was 1,254.surley there is scope for CFC candidates to be elected next May and as the Calton ward is the beating heart of Celtic Football Club why not all 4 seats.There would be great satisfaction to be gained from taking the 2 seats held by Penfolds party.A cursory glance at the other electoral wards also show huge voter dissatisfaction when it comes to council elections with extremely low turnout and a lot of candidates being elected without reaching the quota.There is scope in these wards also to get CFC candidates elected.To have elected councillors would be seismic for the fan collective with a mandate to deal with various bodies on behalf of the fans such as the Safety Advisory Group and police scotland.Im sure they and Mark Hargeaves have their kettling plan in place for the next glasgow derby but the Celtic board will not speak up for the fans.I’ve read a comment on a previous post from someone who believes the fan collective are out of ideas but with the collective meeting this week the possibility of running candidates next may should be discussed
Armagh,
Some good points there, and taking James’ article first, I don’t believe in superstition or anything similar, is affecting this season.
We all have our own views whether you look at things spiritually or secularly, and in the case of our season, it is down to a group of people who have and continue to run this club downwards, whilst dismissing fans and all the positives that go into being a successful football club.
They have been incompetent, negligent, arrogant and penurious for years, and this season is the result.
It can be said ad nauseam, but until we have bright, bold, innovative and positive leadership at our club, we may encounter more of this.
I am an optimist at heart, but like so many others, this season has certainly tested that, to the limit. I will keep believing that change, to the betterment, will happen, but unfortunately I don’t happen to have a timeline for that occurrence!
On Armagh’s comments about STHs, I do think he makes a good point.
Although we’d love to be rid of these charlatans, and many thousands of fans may consider that the best option is not renewing.
Would that really be the best option ?
If thousands didn’t renew would we be putting our beloved club further in the hands of these clowns, whilst allowing those on this “waiting list” ( mythical or not,) to get seats that have been with fans for decades.
By the way, I am aware of folk on the list and full respect to those that have had to wait for years, and if some of them finally do manage to get a ST.
My point is, if a large majority of our fans gave up their STs, and once those that are on the list, deservedly get their STs…would Celtic park turn into stadiums like the EPL where they keep ST numbers low and turn into a place for tourists, where they can buy tickets at exorbitant prices and the place is inhabited by people who may like their football but have no real love for our club?
Celtic FC is all about the fans and the families, and feeling that excitement with those around you every time you go !
As Armagh said, maybe it’s better to have our voices inside, rather than on the outside looking back in !
We know for sure that our soulless leaders don’t have any interest in you whether you are a ST holder or not, and neither do they share our love for the club.
So it’s why they need replaced rather than our faithful fans and families giving up their STs.
Only an opinion, as I also have to weigh up my options and decide whether I renew or not.
A disgrace that we are even talking about this, but it falls entirely on those, currently in control !
Whether you believe in luck, fate or natural events, let’s hope their time at our club soon comes to an end ! HH
Cursed? Perhaps it would have helped if he wasn’t hanging from the roof of a Glasgow bar blitzed after our Scottish Cup victory.
Yep – celebrating when we had won nothing. My very thoughts when I saw that footage was how is a professional athlete behaving like that? Not the first time we have seen “pub scenes” that were more suited to the 1990s for players.
I don’t really believe in witchcraft or such hokey pokey…
But I do believe in medical fuckin failings off the Richter scale…
They’re not so much at The Fuckin Southern General Hospital…
They’re at PARKHEAD !
I think Occam’s Razor would suggest two things. Simply they are not being prepared for the rigours of the professional game by the fitness coaches or they are not being protected by the officials. Both probably.