This cannot be happening!!!!

What a truly awful 72 hours in the life of Celtic eh? We suffer our heaviest defeat to Rangers in over fifteen years in a manner that was freakish yet not entirely surprising (especially considering that Strachan had once again bottled it on the selection front…). Then, when Celtic supporters possibly could not feel any lower, reports emerge of Artur Boruc giving a one-fingered salute to the away end on Sunday and Neil Lennon being assaulted by two sectarian scumbags on Sunday night. All in all, a truly dreadful end to last week and an even worse start to the new week! All these incidents were played to the background of zero activity toward the end of the transfer window and the lack of ANY substantial signings – both in terms of monies spent and quality of personnel.

So where do you begin to analyse a mess like this? Well, first of all, it is clearly obvious that our squad has not been strengthened properly. There is still only ONE recognised left back in the entire first team squad. We have a squadron of midfielders whose effectiveness is debateable and whose value for money is entirely questionable. We have a defence whose reputation and statistical performance do not together add up with so many supporters remaining, at best, unconvinced and, at worst, dismissive. We, also, have a manager whose post-match analysis NEVER matches those of the supporters or commentators – particularly when we lose – and, for having such a reputation as ‘training ground manager’ has not fixed any of the teams glaring problems for a number of years now. We, lastly, have a board of directors whose only evident ambition is to drive up the profit levels of the club at the expense of team strengthening and to constantly take advantage of the supporters in various ways (when did the board actually make any gesture to thank the support either financially or practically by the way?).

I have also been angry at the complacency of some elements of the Celtic support in recent times. Some parts of the Celtic cyberspace community have been openly dismissive of our main rivals’ threat this season with constant misplaced confidence in our esteemed management team and our supposedly more skilful and better squad. While Rangers’ tumble may have provided short term laughs, these laughs have stopped pretty sharpish with two main events, namely A) David Murray actually living up to one of his promises and providing ‘Uncle Walt’ with a significant war chest, and B) Rangers beating Celtic so comprehensively. It is not enough just believing that you have the better players – you need the best team and the best management.

We have fundamentally failed to deal with any of the problems that have plagued the squad for the last two years. While last years championship win was, ofcourse, wonderful and courageous in its own way, we also played some truly awful, disjointed football – particularly at home while also allowing possibly the most negative Rangers team in living memory to trounce us in the old firm games at ibrox.

Once again, I wait to be proved wrong by Gordon Strachan (and the board of directors for that matter). That’s my big problem with this whole sorry episode – why does it always have to come to some drastic and wrenching situation? As I mentioned in my last article, Celtic were at a crossroads after Rangers’ spectacular implosion in Kaunus. As I fearfully pointed out Celtic had never taken the chance to bury any potential rivals in the past and we have failed to bury them now. The big fear amongst the Celtic fans is ‘are we being left behind’?

I have also been angry at the complacency of some elements of the Celtic support in recent times. Some parts of the Celtic cyberspace community have been openly dismissive of our main rivals’ threat this season with constant misplaced confidence in our esteemed management team and our supposedly more skilful and better squad. While Rangers’ tumble may have provided short term laughs, these laughs have stopped pretty sharpish with two main events, namely A) David Murray actually living up to one of his promises and providing ‘Uncle Walt’ with a significant war chest, and B) Rangers beating Celtic so comprehensively. It is not enough just believing that you have the better players – you need the best team and the best management.

We have fundamentally failed to deal with any of the problems that have plagued the squad for the last two years. While last years championship win was, ofcourse, wonderful and courageous in its own way, we also played some truly awful, disjointed football – particularly at home while also allowing possibly the most negative Rangers team in living memory to trounce us in the old firm games at ibrox.

Once again, I wait to be proved wrong by Gordon Strachan (and the board of directors for that matter). That’s my big problem with this whole sorry episode – why does it always have to come to some drastic and wrenching situation? As I mentioned in my last article, Celtic were at a crossroads after Rangers’ spectacular implosion in Kaunus. As I fearfully pointed out Celtic had never taken the chance to bury any potential rivals in the past and we have failed to bury them now. The big fear amongst the Celtic fans is ‘are we being left behind’?

Comments

[Scott]

0-0 against Aalborg. Rubbish display. Celtic out of group already. Won't beat the Danes at home and Villareal have the measure of ManU.

[mccb]

I was also well dissapointed by the 'fans' who left when the 4th goal went in. These will be the ones complaining when they can't get a Cup Final ticket or an away European ticket.
Faithful through and through? Only for some.
Don't get me wrong, it was hard to watch. Painful even.
WGS has given us 3 in a row together with 2 last 16's in the UCL. You would think that would make him and his team(s) the most revered since the Lisbon Lions. It hasn't. Why not?
Personally I don't like the football we have played the last few years. Dull for the most part with the odd last minute winner in games we should have won anyway (Spartak and Milan aside which were top notch victories and credit were its due).
I also don't think we have the team we should have after three years in the job. The defence is weak, the midfield uninspiring, and the strikers unconvincing.
With the problems Rangers have had recently we should be streets ahead. We're not. Some would say they have a better squad than us. It shouldn't be up for debate. We have missed opportunities to keep ourselves at the top and the board must share responsibility. Have they given the manager a transfer fund to compete in Europe or the SPL?

[Liam]

Calm down. It’s one match and a somewhat freakish result.

Your lack of faith in Gordon Strachan is way off the mark. His post match comments are as much for his players as the public and are designed to motivate them to greater efforts. You can't do that by berating your team. He's got the backing of the dressing room and I reckon we'll have our day at Ibrox and cancel out this defeat.

Strachan deals with the media with a raised eyebrow and I for one applaud him - they are parasites and he knows it. Any Celtic fan worth his or her salt gets their news direct from the club or through supporters websites. In these post-newspaper days the distortions of a handful of sports journalists are less and less relevant.

[LondonBhoy]

Agree with the sentiments. While Mr Strachan's record is good on paper, I feel the team have moved backwards in terms of the quality of their play and ability to close teams down. I remember we had a 73 match unbeaten run at Celtic Park a few years ago; no chance of such a run re-occuring anytime soon.
I was at the Old Firm game on Sunday, and while massively disappointed by the performance (and the idiocy of JVoH in particular) was even more disappointed by the thousands of fans who left at 1-4 down. For all their faults, Celtic are our team - and such an obvious show of dissatisfaction will never inspire the players