People at Celtic need to stop talking about fixing stuff and start doing it.

This morning, Paulina wrote an excellent piece on the culture of avoiding accountability at Celtic, and she talked explicitly about the players. Last night, Callum McGregor came out again and told us that Celtic are still in the title race.

And because of that, I wanted to pick up a little on one of the points she made. Callum McGregor is an excellent servant to this club and he has been a brilliant footballer. But seriously, fans have grown accustomed to hearing this over the course of the campaign. Its time these players shut up and start producing.

He said that we need to win “five or six” of the remaining games. We have to “stay calm.” The team needs to “go on a run.” We’ve heard it all before.

At some point, words stop carrying weight. At some point, the repetition of the same lines, the same tone, the same message starts to sound less like leadership and more like routine, and right now, at Celtic, it feels like everything is routine.

Talk, not action. Talk, not progress and talk instead of accountability.

This is not about singling out the captain. McGregor is doing what captains do. He stands up, he speaks, he tries to steady things, he tries to project calm in a moment where everything around the club feels anything but calm.

But this is bigger than him.

What he is saying is not new. It has been the language of this team all season long. He is not the only player we’ve heard it from. “We need to respond.” “We need to go on a run.” “The team needs to be better.” “The players will learn from this.”

And yet, here we are. Eight league defeats. Seventeen points worse off than last season. A team that has stumbled from one underwhelming performance to another, always promising a reaction, rarely delivering one that lasts.

So, when you hear those words now, they do not reassure. They frustrate. Because they are not backed up by evidence.

Let’s look at what McGregor actually said.

He does not believe the title race is over. Fine. Mathematically, it isn’t. But then he says we need to win five or six of the last seven games that is not belief. That is an admission of how far off it we are. Then comes the call for calm. Again, we have heard this before.

At every difficult moment this season, the response from inside Celtic has been the same. Stay calm. Trust the process. Keep working.

But calm only works when there is something underneath it. When there is a structure, a plan, a clear direction that justifies that composure. Do you see any sign that we’re on the right track? We went to Ibrox and got two very good results; this is true. We got through the cup game on penalties after recording not one single shot on goal. Prior to the Ibrox games and all that surrounded them, Hibs beat us at home.

So right now, there is no evidence of things improving or any sign that we’re learning lessons. If anything, we seem to be going backwards.

What we are watching is not a Celtic team temporarily off track. It is a team that has been off track for months, occasionally correcting itself, but never staying there long enough to convince anyone that the issues have been resolved. That is why the calls for calm ring hollow.

From top to bottom, this club feels like it has become comfortable with talking about problems instead of solving them. The players talk about standards, but performances do not reflect them. The manager talks about improvement, but the same flaws keep appearing. Those on the board talk about long-term vision, but the short-term reality continues to deteriorate.

Everyone has the words. No one has the answers.

Or at least, no one is showing them. That is why Celtic supporters are angry. Not just because of results, but because of the disconnect between what is being said and what is being seen. Because fans are not stupid.

They can see the same games and the same patterns. They can see that this is not a team on the verge of clicking into gear. It is a team that has been stuck in the same gear for too long. So, when they hear calls for calm, they do not feel reassured.

They feel dismissed.

Because calm is not what is required right now. Clarity is. Action is. Accountability is.

And until those things appear, the words will continue to sound empty.

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