GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - SEPTEMBER 20: Celtic's Cameron Carter-Vickers looks dejected during a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and Rangers at Celtic Park, on September 20, 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Yesterday Chris Sutton slammed Cameron Carter-Vickers for the comments he made in the aftermath of the last game, and I genuinely do not know quite how to feel about it.
I suspect other Celtic supporters are wrestling with the same dilemma, because I agree wholeheartedly with Sutton on one fundamental point: players should not be prejudging the manager’s tactics or second-guessing them publicly after the event. Their job is to get on with it and play football.
But all of us watched those tactics too, and let’s be honest about this: they were absolutely shocking.
The players are clearly confused and frustrated by what they are being asked to take part in. I have no problem recognising that. What I do have a problem with is players going to the media and running their mouths off about it.
Yet at the same time, it is instructive to have a player go on the record about how he feels, because it tells us something important about how deep the problems inside Celtic now run.
That matters, and let’s not pretend otherwise.
There are going to be two camps here. Some people will say that if something is badly wrong then the players should feel entitled to vent publicly. Others will agree completely with Sutton and say this stuff should remain inside the dressing room, to be sorted out between the players and the coaching staff.
The uncomfortable thing is that I can see both the right and the wrong in each position.
I understand why some supporters are glad to know the players are unhappy. I also understand why others wish they did not know at all.
But at least it removes doubt.
I may not like the way this information has reached us, and I feel much the same way Sutton does about players publicly questioning the coaching staff, but it tells us just how bad things are inside the club. It tells us the problems are not superficial. They run deep, and I would rather know that than not know it.
I simply wish there had been another mechanism by which we could have discovered it.
I have no doubt whatsoever that the mainstream media knows far more about what is going on inside Celtic than has made its way into the public domain. In fact, I know that there are people who are clued up on much more than has currently emerged, and some of it will come out eventually.
Graham Spiers has already dropped a fairly large hint by saying that the truth will out, but that was never really in doubt anyway. Scottish football is simply too small a community to keep major secrets forever. It is too small a town, if you like. People gossip. People talk. Rumours circulate and eventually information finds its way out.
Information, though, is only useful if it helps you understand what is happening or allows you to do something about it. There are people who know far more about the internal issues at Celtic than they have made public, but my rule of thumb on this stuff has always been straightforward: is disclosure in the interests of the club and the supporters? Will it help, or will it hurt?
That is a question Carter-Vickers must surely have considered before making his feelings public. He must have understood that once he crossed that line there would be consequences, and perhaps he concluded that public disclosure was more effective than whatever private discussions had already taken place.
The players will know much more than we do. They will know exactly how chaotic the summer became. Celtic Park and Lennoxtown must feel like profoundly strange places to work right now, and these guys did not need a tactical shit-show foisted on them on top of everything else.
If more than a few players who would otherwise have been perfectly secure and content at Celtic are now looking towards the exit door, I would not be remotely surprised.
Every single one of us who has watched this team over the last few weeks knew there had to be problems because the system has been so incoherent. It has been so strange and so completely out of sync with the kind of football we watched before.
There are theories about why this season has fallen off the edge of the cliff so spectacularly when there was at least some coherence last season. The most obvious explanation to me is that O’Neill and his coaching staff initially worked largely within Rodgers’ framework. They tweaked it, absolutely, but they did not immediately rip it up and start again.
Perhaps the summer is when that really changed.
Whatever the players are now being asked to do, it appears markedly different from what they were doing before. I certainly do not remember such a cautious Celtic team playing two matches against the Ibrox club. I do not remember a Celtic midfield looking so incapable of moving the ball forward.
Yes, the midfield is weaker. Of course it is. But we played plenty of football last season without Arne Engels in the middle of the park and still looked far more robust and coherent than this.
So, whatever is being done differently, the players clearly are not buying into it, and that is important to know.
I do not have much sympathy for footballers who cannot adapt. Their job is to adapt. But I also cannot be too furious about some initial resistance or frustration when what they are being asked to do appears so obviously dysfunctional.
The question of whether that anger should ever have surfaced in the press is precisely the point Sutton is making, and he is not being particularly subtle about it.
But now we know.
We have had a glimpse behind the curtain, and our worst fears about the coaching situation appear to have been confirmed. The players are unhappy. They do not believe the style and system suit this team. They do not appear convinced by the internal logic behind the decisions being made.
Whether we like the manner in which that information reached us or not, that is one hell of a bad place for a dressing room to be.
And it should tell us something about what now has to happen.
In my considered opinion, the coaching staff has to change. Martin O’Neill should not return from the international break as Celtic manager, although I have already given up expecting that to happen unless this club suffers an even more spectacular meltdown.
And that meltdown no longer feels like some remote possibility.
It feels frighteningly close.
Whether you approve of what Carter-Vickers did or not, he has at least helped spell out where we are and how serious this has become.
Some people will regard what he did as disgraceful, and up to a point I may even agree with them. But it reminded me of an analogy I used last year about Easy Company before D-Day, when a group of NCOs rebelled against their commanding officer, Herbert Sobel, because they no longer trusted his leadership.
The men handed in their stripes rather than continue serving under him. Their commander, Colonel Robert Sink, was furious. He punished some of them severely, and had circumstances been different the consequences could have been much worse.
He hated the way the message was delivered. He hated the challenge to the chain of command. But here is the important part: he recognised that there was truth in the message itself. And he acted on it.
That is what real leaders do.
They do not have to like what they are hearing. They do not have to approve of the way the information arrived on their desk. They can punish the breach of discipline if they believe one has occurred.
But they still judge the underlying issue on its merits.
That is where Celtic has to be now.
I do not particularly like Cameron Carter-Vickers publicly questioning the coaching staff. I do not like players believing they can overrule managers through the media, and I certainly do not want a culture where every tactical disagreement becomes tomorrow morning’s back page.
But I am not going to ignore the message because I dislike the way it was delivered. Because on the thing that actually matters, Carter-Vickers is right. This system is incoherent. It does not work. The players do not believe in it.
And if Celtic persists with it simply because acknowledging the problem would mean admitting that the coaching structure has failed, then this is not going to end well for anybody.
Sutton is entitled to condemn the messenger. I understand why he has. But Celtic had better listen to the message.
Because that message is right on the money.
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CCV was interviewed after the match, he was asked a question, thought about it and answered honestly. I don’t think he was revealing dressing room whispers or even considering the knock on effect of his answer. He just answered honestly and he was right. We shouldn’t censor players interviews.
We were 1-0 down at home with plenty of time left and instead of having faith in the game plan, we threw subs and formations out in hope and desperation. These guys, like CCV, are used to having enough self belief and confidence, not panicking.
Changes were needed as the plan wasn’t going to work but a far more considered approach was required than the chaos we watched.
I agree with you.No player should be censored.
He was asked questions and gave an honest answer.
CCV works at CELTIC and has done for may years.He and the players are the ones at the coal face.If there is a problem with coaching then speaking out about it is a good thing.The culture of cover up has destroyed many business.
CCV worked with Brendan,Ange, he was coached by John Kennedy a Coach good enough for Ange to ask him to go to Spurs.
Brendan took him to Saudi and he is top of the table in the Saudi Pro League.
Nancy brought his own team in and was shafted by Mute Mike after 33 long hard days.
Then Martin comes back to
“Save The Day” Nobody and I mean Nobody should ever forget the coaching contribution of John Robertson he was a brilliant player and a brilliant Coach both John and Martin served their time under Brian Clough and Peter who took Notts forest to two European Cup wins.
Without John Robertson Martin would not have been as successful as he was.
Fast forward Martin now has someone who failed as a Coach and manager at Wigan and Hibs.
I am sure Malone is doing his best, however “He is no John Robertson”.
Martin living down South and being a Part Time manager is not good enough.
It is about 25 Year out of date.
Any friends of DD & Son should not be anywhere near our Beautiful team Celtic FC.
Interesting take – MON followed the Rodgers playbook last season and won a double (would have been a treble if Nancy, endorsed by one James Forrest, hadn’t been brought onboard) with a Honda Civic… It was quite clear then that Rodgers had lost the dressing room and his tactics were awful – I recall you accusing him of dialling it in.
On this point Chris Sutton is 100% correct and you are completely wrong. CCV should have been more circumspect and vented his displeasure behind closed doors and not in public, never in public. If you don’t understand that James then there is no hope for you – team sports are based on trust and honesty within the team to conquer the external challenges the team faces. You don’t need to like your teammates or your coaches but you commit to the joint endeavour. Falling back on made for TV box sets narratives to justify your position isn’t the strong case that you think.
Lol
A season of record breaking goals by BR and you say his tactics were awful.
The team needed refreshed as many had been here too long and wanted away for some time.
What did the board do?
Denuded the team of a goals and kept players who wanted away.
Lol.
Carter Vickers should have kept his feelings to himself as he is part of the problem. Why he is lauded by many fans is beyond me. First of all he has no pace whatsoever, he is too small for a centre half and certainly too heavy to jump. He does not win many Ariel duals in either box. His build is far from athletic, more akin to rugby union, no surprise that no other club has come in for him. I cannot believe the flak Liam Scales gets while this guy is treated like a star!
Liam Scales gets flak because he is rank fucking rotten.
I agree with you.No player should be censored.
He was asked questions and gave an honest answer.
CCV works at CELTIC and has done for may years.He and the players are the ones at the coal face.If there is a problem with coaching then speaking out about it is a good thing.The culture of cover up has destroyed many business.
CCV worked with Brendan,Ange, he was coached by John Kennedy a Coach good enough for Ange to ask him to go to Spurs.
Brendan took him to Saudi and he is top of the table in the Saudi Pro League.
Nancy brought his own team in and was shafted by Mute Mike after 33 long hard days.
Then Martin comes back to
“Save The Day” Nobody and I mean Nobody should ever forget the coaching contribution of John Robertson he was a brilliant player and a brilliant Coach both John and Martin served their time under Brian Clough and Peter who took Notts forest to two European Cup wins.
Without John Robertson Martin would not have been as successful as he was.
Fast forward Martin now has someone who failed as a Coach and manager at Wigan and Hibs.
I am sure Malone is doing his best, however “He is no John Robertson”.
Martin living down South and being a Part Time manager is not good enough.
It is about 25 Year out of date.
Any friends of DD & Son should not be anywhere near our Beautiful team Celtic FC.
Scales is a DD & Son pick.
He should never have came back from his loan to Aberdeen.
He is the source of panic in and around our box!
It doesn’t matter how we get the information at least now we know, we now know this coaching team are way out of their depth if we want to salvage our season they’ve got to go ASAP otherwise what we’ve seen so far will look like a walk in the park compared to what’s to come.
Your choice of words baffles me: if CCV is “second guessing” the tactics that suggests he wasn’t told what they were when it mattered and that’s a problem. And how can he”prejudge” after the event? Surely his judgement is after what he witnessed and experienced on the park. Please explain.
Perhaps CCV as a vice-captain was at the end of his tether with the coaching and his in-house objections were repeatedly ignored.
Leaving him no other option but to go public.
Indeed it is Sutton’s description of CCVs proclamation which I find “disgusting”.
Sutton doesn’t know the circumstances the players are being forced to play in, so perhaps he is the one who should keep schtum instead.
The players are getting it in the neck from the fans for a disastrous “system” or “style” they didn’t create, so it’s only to be expected that they will fight back as a team, especially a vice-captain for his teammates.
This is also of huge benefit to the fans as it confirms the bleeding obvious we see week in week out, confirmed by our own eyes and the damning statistics, but from within the dressing room.
So thank you CCV for your honesty, bravery and info to us, the neglected Celtic fan base.
I can also see both sides of the argument, but at Celtic I feel there are mitigating and possibly unique circumstances.
The fans are all deprived of information about their club. The manager is the only person who addresses the fans’ concerns and media questions, including matters of football, coaching, recruitment, stadium bans, fan behaviour etc. etc. and even then he is pre-censored or programmed by the one man board to keep to the script.
The players were getting a lot of flak, and mainly the back four who CCV organises on the pitch. The players must be as frustrated as the fans at the lack of support and communication from the board, so I think CCV must have felt compelled to give the players’ side of the story. If he was just fed up with the club and wants to leave then he wouldn’t be so desperate to fix things.
The players struggled with Nancy’s system, but that was only one system that Nancy never changes for anyone. Now the system is changing game to game and remarkably even within a game. The players were asked to change system 3 or more times during the last match and the fans and media were all asking what they were trying to do. How must the players have felt?
The Celtic fans have been wondering what’s happening behind the scenes at their club and CCV has let them know (bravely in my opinion) that the standard of coaching is a major problem. As MON doesn’t do any coaching then CCV has told us all who is the current source of the problems on the football side of the club.