Celtic FC - A New Chapter

Article by James Payne

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Before I start on Celtic a quick comment about Scotland’s match last Sunday.

I thought we played quite well and could well have got a result given the spirit and skill of our display against the World Champions. Playing well against the big teams has rarely been a problem though for Scotland over the years – usually the big problem has been producing it against the teams we should have realistic chances of beating . Georgia, Ireland and Poland are far from invincible but they won’t fear Scotland either so I’m hopeful but no more. Oh and why do Sky employ Davie Provan as a pundit? He was a very good player with Celtic but he says nothing ever that adds any insight. Oh and Davie when one of their players stops one of our players, Maloney, from breaking up the park it is not ‘ a good one for the team’ it is serious foul play that should lead to the transgressor being sent off.

Celtic restart their season with a home match against Aberdeen this Saturday lunchtime. The Dons have made a mediocre start to the season which, domestically, began with a 3-0 home loss to Dundee United. Derek McInnes’ team was expected to be the strongest challenger to Celtic this season after both knocking Celtic out of the Cup after a merited win in the tie at Celtic Park and being the only team to beat us in the league in the whole of last season. However Aberdeen’s season finished on a low note when they were knocked out of the Cup by St Johnstone and lost 1-0 on the last day, at home, to Motherwell to unexpectedly surrender 2nd place to the Lanarkshire team. The Dons will be as keen to jump start their campaign as Celtic will. Both teams will be looking to win which should make it a decent match and given Celtic’s poor defensive showings this season so far I’d be surprised if the visitors sit back and defend.

Celtic need to win this game and do well in their opening Europa League game in Salzburg the following Thursday [i.e. not lose] or the disquiet many in the support feel about the way the club is being run at board level and the way the team is being run by its coaching staff will grow. Celtic ended up with no fewer than 5 loan signings in the transfer window and with three of those new bhoys as well as permanent signing Stefan Scepovic still to appear for the first team it will be interesting to see if Ronny Deila picks all, some or none of the new additions this weekend. I’d like to think he’ll be quite bold here as several of the players he has inherited from Neil Lennon look highly uncomfortable so far but, too date, Deila’s chief characteristic tactically has been to pick players in positions in which they are uncomfortable at best or in the case of Pukki, Berget and Leigh Griffith truly miserable. Even the highly praised Callum McGregor looks to me as though he would be better playing on the left of midfield rather than on the right where teams already seem to be growing wise to his tactic of cutting inside so that he can shoot with his left foot.

I was not happy at what transpired in the summer at Celtic particularly with what happened in the transfer market where the club spent no money until after it was out of the Champions’ League. That chief executive Peter Lawwell has failed to admit that this tactic has contributed enormously to the embarrassments against Legia and Maribor is sadly typical of a man who is the front man for a board that is out of touch with the feelings of many in the support. Instead Lawwell came out with a series of mealy mouthed platitudes in a stage managed interview on the club’s own TV station. It is likely that Celtic will open only the lower tier of the stadium for the home matches in the Europa League. This will, I would imagine, annoy those who sit in the lower rows of that top tier who probably have the best views in the ground and says more about the ongoing mismanagement of the club by Lawwell and his cronies than anything I or any other mere blogger ever could. Continental teams come to Celtic Park and are often intimidated by the huge crowds. Instead they’ll come out to 28000 fans or so and walls of empty seats. Great work Peter.

Celtic can though get the support feeling more positive about things if the team – hopefully a fired up team with new faces galore- starts to play well. New strikers Scepovic and the Swede John Giudetti are the latest signings and whilst it’s hard after Bangura, Brozek, Miku, Lassad, Balde [8 goals amongst them] and Pukki to have any great faith in any new forward scouted I have a feeling that at least one of the pair will be a big hit.

Peter Lawwell remarked in his interview that the first chapter of Ronny Deila’s story had a sad ending [let’s just forget the farcical middle of that same chapter] and that draw up at Dens’ Park didn’t exactly get Chapter 2 off to a gripping start. I and my fellow Celts can only hope that the introduction of some mysterious new characters can turn this season into a thrilling page-turner.

That’s enough rubbishy book metaphors.

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