The Celts Wrap Up Another Title
Article by James Payne
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Celtic are champions of Scotland for the 46th time after last weekend’s results. The Bhoys produced their best performance for several weeks – arguably of the season- during the 5-0 hammering of Dundee at Celtic Park on Friday evening to leave nearest challengers Aberdeen needing to win at Tannadice against Dundee United the next day to keep their challenge alive . Surprisingly the Dons lost to a home side that had looked done for the season less than a week earlier when losing 3-0 to Celtic.
It is a bit odd, unsatisfactory even, to win the title not kicking a ball- this was last done by Celtic in 1968- and it is better to win the thing in a match that Celtic has been playing in but after a tricky season few of us who support Celtic were complaining at ten to five last Saturday. The Bhoys have played 58 games so far and with one or two of the players looking a wee bit stale even on Friday hopefully some of those who are struggling a bit will be given a rest for the last three games. It’s not that long until those Champions’ League qualifiers after all.
I will not use much of the rest of this article to point out that Celtic’s achievements under Ronny Deila have drawn even less in the way of praise from the paid media – I expected no different from them and hope that the results in the forthcoming play off matches to decide the twelfth team in next seasons Premiership disappoint them. Oh and Mon The Doonhamers!
Ronny Deila’s team clinched this season’s title 39 days later than Neil Lennon’s last year, has scored 13 goals fewer with an equivalent number of games played and cannot match last season’s points tally either. This suggests a falling off in standard but in this instance I believe statistics are deceptive and overall I think Celtic has had a better season than last time around and is also now a better team. Neil’s team did very poorly in all three cup competitions and by the end of the season was already in the course of being reconstructed. At this stage last season Celtic was worse than 9 months previously but this season the opposite is true. Whether the marked improvement – most of which has taken place since an unexpected defeat to Hamilton in early October- can be continued is part of the fun of following my team.
Celtic had a pretty poor time of it early in the season with dreadful showings at both home and abroad and several signings such as Berget, Wakaso, Tonev and Scepovic looked either unsuited to the Deila style or in at least two of those instances not good enough for any style anywhere. Against Astra of Rumania in the Europa League Celtic produced one of the worst performances I have seen since Lou Macari was manager and Deila’s approach was ridiculed by more than me, ex-players with axes to grind or hacks who think everything would be all right again if it was still 1999.
But something had happened in the weeks before that Astra match. Deila, supposedly a football romantic who wanted his team to play beautiful attacking football in the style of Barcelona actually got his team to win ugly. The Astra game was painful but Celtic did win it all the same and in the coming weeks the team ground out results in a manner that did not exactly get pulses racing with one victory in particular, a last minute win at Aberdeen when down to ten men, being all about ‘bottle’ and precious little to do with modern, pressing, attacking play.
There was a mini crisis at the turn of the year as Aberdeen drew level- mainly because they’d played more games – but after a short break in early January Celtic didn’t just win but also played well. The team did not score enough to please me completely- an awful lot of games were won 2-0 with Celtic relaxing a touch too much late in games for my taste- but the improvement in play, especially after MacKay- Steven and Armstrong were signed and James Forrest had returned from injury was clear. The ‘treble’ was not achieved because Celtic lost the plot after a dreadful refereeing decision (and because Inverness played well) but two trophies have been won this season- Neil Lennon managed this feat in only one of the four full seasons he was in charge.
Ronny Deila still has some to go to be considered a permanent success. Some of his tactical management such as substitutions and variations in formation seem a bit sketchy and he does still have some hard tasks this summer given the possible, even probable, departures of both Jason Denayer and Virgil Van Dijk which will leave a gaping hole to be filled in the team. But it looks as though he has improved fitness and team spirit and crucially those players who will be there next season seem to have bought into his methods. I expect Celtic to be better again next time around.
Several players had really excellent seasons. The best in my opinion have been the superb Craig Gordon in goal and captain Scott Brown who, although he still gets booked too often, is a vastly improved player – his passing may be less ambitious than previously but it is now both telling and accurate. Stefan Johansen was voted as the players’ player of the year on Sunday and in the tricky spell of last autumn he, more than just about anybody, really knuckled down and helped the results to come. He did fade slightly as the season reached its conclusion but he probably played more games than anybody else and I have no fears that he will be a one season wonder. Nir Bitton looked to be another misfit last season but after settling into the team in late autumn he has been superb. The Israeli looks casual but isn’t and he has a good range of passing. He should score more- anybody capable of scoring the kind of brilliant goal he did last Friday night should have more than the two against his name for this season. All of these men could I think play in better quality leagues.
Leigh Griffiths and Kris Commons both had excellent spells after the team began to play better and the two central defenders- when not carried away by their own brilliance- were excellent once they gelled as a partnership. There must be question marks against the futures of Stokes, Matthews and the seemingly permanently unfit Lustig and Mulgrew although I would hope that some of these players are still around until the middle of next season at least. Emilio Izaguirre had a patchy season and needs competition for his left back role whilst the forward line needs strengthened assuming that Guidetti does not stay on.
We have a good team- one that is easily the best in Scotland and have systems in place to maintain that position should an even stronger challenge emerge next season. However I would have thought Celtic are still a bit away from attaining the desired, and realisable, status in Europe which is to have a team that invariably plays in the Champions’ League group stages, and if it qualifies for European competition post New Year nobody is surprised and where winning at least one tie in the knockout rounds would not be looked on as unlikely.
This has been a long, long season and there have been bad times and good. But this is a time for celebration and for Celtic to be praised as it should. Somebody has to.
© e-Football 2015 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football
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Celtic are champions of Scotland for the 46th time after last weekend’s results. The Bhoys produced their best performance for several weeks – arguably of the season- during the 5-0 hammering of Dundee at Celtic Park on Friday evening to leave nearest challengers Aberdeen needing to win at Tannadice against Dundee United the next day to keep their challenge alive . Surprisingly the Dons lost to a home side that had looked done for the season less than a week earlier when losing 3-0 to Celtic.
It is a bit odd, unsatisfactory even, to win the title not kicking a ball- this was last done by Celtic in 1968- and it is better to win the thing in a match that Celtic has been playing in but after a tricky season few of us who support Celtic were complaining at ten to five last Saturday. The Bhoys have played 58 games so far and with one or two of the players looking a wee bit stale even on Friday hopefully some of those who are struggling a bit will be given a rest for the last three games. It’s not that long until those Champions’ League qualifiers after all.
I will not use much of the rest of this article to point out that Celtic’s achievements under Ronny Deila have drawn even less in the way of praise from the paid media – I expected no different from them and hope that the results in the forthcoming play off matches to decide the twelfth team in next seasons Premiership disappoint them. Oh and Mon The Doonhamers!
Ronny Deila’s team clinched this season’s title 39 days later than Neil Lennon’s last year, has scored 13 goals fewer with an equivalent number of games played and cannot match last season’s points tally either. This suggests a falling off in standard but in this instance I believe statistics are deceptive and overall I think Celtic has had a better season than last time around and is also now a better team. Neil’s team did very poorly in all three cup competitions and by the end of the season was already in the course of being reconstructed. At this stage last season Celtic was worse than 9 months previously but this season the opposite is true. Whether the marked improvement – most of which has taken place since an unexpected defeat to Hamilton in early October- can be continued is part of the fun of following my team.
Celtic had a pretty poor time of it early in the season with dreadful showings at both home and abroad and several signings such as Berget, Wakaso, Tonev and Scepovic looked either unsuited to the Deila style or in at least two of those instances not good enough for any style anywhere. Against Astra of Rumania in the Europa League Celtic produced one of the worst performances I have seen since Lou Macari was manager and Deila’s approach was ridiculed by more than me, ex-players with axes to grind or hacks who think everything would be all right again if it was still 1999.
But something had happened in the weeks before that Astra match. Deila, supposedly a football romantic who wanted his team to play beautiful attacking football in the style of Barcelona actually got his team to win ugly. The Astra game was painful but Celtic did win it all the same and in the coming weeks the team ground out results in a manner that did not exactly get pulses racing with one victory in particular, a last minute win at Aberdeen when down to ten men, being all about ‘bottle’ and precious little to do with modern, pressing, attacking play.
There was a mini crisis at the turn of the year as Aberdeen drew level- mainly because they’d played more games – but after a short break in early January Celtic didn’t just win but also played well. The team did not score enough to please me completely- an awful lot of games were won 2-0 with Celtic relaxing a touch too much late in games for my taste- but the improvement in play, especially after MacKay- Steven and Armstrong were signed and James Forrest had returned from injury was clear. The ‘treble’ was not achieved because Celtic lost the plot after a dreadful refereeing decision (and because Inverness played well) but two trophies have been won this season- Neil Lennon managed this feat in only one of the four full seasons he was in charge.
Ronny Deila still has some to go to be considered a permanent success. Some of his tactical management such as substitutions and variations in formation seem a bit sketchy and he does still have some hard tasks this summer given the possible, even probable, departures of both Jason Denayer and Virgil Van Dijk which will leave a gaping hole to be filled in the team. But it looks as though he has improved fitness and team spirit and crucially those players who will be there next season seem to have bought into his methods. I expect Celtic to be better again next time around.
Several players had really excellent seasons. The best in my opinion have been the superb Craig Gordon in goal and captain Scott Brown who, although he still gets booked too often, is a vastly improved player – his passing may be less ambitious than previously but it is now both telling and accurate. Stefan Johansen was voted as the players’ player of the year on Sunday and in the tricky spell of last autumn he, more than just about anybody, really knuckled down and helped the results to come. He did fade slightly as the season reached its conclusion but he probably played more games than anybody else and I have no fears that he will be a one season wonder. Nir Bitton looked to be another misfit last season but after settling into the team in late autumn he has been superb. The Israeli looks casual but isn’t and he has a good range of passing. He should score more- anybody capable of scoring the kind of brilliant goal he did last Friday night should have more than the two against his name for this season. All of these men could I think play in better quality leagues.
Leigh Griffiths and Kris Commons both had excellent spells after the team began to play better and the two central defenders- when not carried away by their own brilliance- were excellent once they gelled as a partnership. There must be question marks against the futures of Stokes, Matthews and the seemingly permanently unfit Lustig and Mulgrew although I would hope that some of these players are still around until the middle of next season at least. Emilio Izaguirre had a patchy season and needs competition for his left back role whilst the forward line needs strengthened assuming that Guidetti does not stay on.
We have a good team- one that is easily the best in Scotland and have systems in place to maintain that position should an even stronger challenge emerge next season. However I would have thought Celtic are still a bit away from attaining the desired, and realisable, status in Europe which is to have a team that invariably plays in the Champions’ League group stages, and if it qualifies for European competition post New Year nobody is surprised and where winning at least one tie in the knockout rounds would not be looked on as unlikely.
This has been a long, long season and there have been bad times and good. But this is a time for celebration and for Celtic to be praised as it should. Somebody has to.
© e-Football 2015 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football
You play in a one-team league so will win the league for the next ten years, the rest of the clubs you play have gates of 2,000 to 8,000 and most probably have to get the cattle off the pitch so the games can start.
ReplyDeleteTo say you have the best team in Scotland doesn't say a lot as the football is simply awful most of the time and, let's be honest, Celtic would struggle in our Championship. The days when you could expect to have done well in the Premier league departed years ago when Scottish football became a bit of a joke.
Playing at Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Ross County and Hamilton is NOTHING like playing at Chelsea, Arsenal, United, City or Liverpool, believe me. I'd expect West Brom or West Ham to dominate Scottish football if they ever entertained the idea of entering it.
Winning your league is better than not winning it but if you didn't win such a relatively poor league it would be a disgrace!
From
A, Sassenach
Well, you can't argue with reasoning like THAT! Sounds about right . . .
ReplyDelete