After a competitive first half Celtic stepped up a gear in the second to swamp Kilmarnock. The back four, aided by the protection of Ismaila Soro, contributed to our first clean sheet in nine outings. David Turnbull picked up where he left off on Thursday with another assist from a corner kick, this time converted by the renewed Shane Duffy.
Celtic’s run of form extends to only two games but if any innocuous effort encapsulated it more it was the run Patryk Klimala made deep into his own half to pick up a throw-in that ultimately led to the second goal. The movement of Turnbull, Soro and Klimala (when he replaced Odsonne Edouard) has transformed Celtic into a team easy to play against into a solid operation that looks confident.
I never expected our play to right itself by moving Kristofer Ajer to right back and adding Soro and Turnbull to the midfield. After St Johnstone, I didn’t expect Neil Lennon to find a workable formula so quickly, I doubt he did either.
After demonstrations against Neil, the players and the running of the club (which I assumed was a metaphor for not sacking Neil), the appetite to demonstrate against Neil and the players has dissipated, although I am unsure if the lack of a sacking still counts as a demonstrate-able event.
I did not back Neil Lennon to get the job in 2010 or in 2019 and as recently as a week ago, I didn’t think he had a hope of getting a decent 90 minutes out of this squad. It would have been easier to have a bloodletting than for the board to tell us their man has the best chance of turning things around.
I still don’t think we will win the league this season, but it would be a Celtic fans with a heart of stone, or at least a tendancy to overreaction, who would campaign to tear our infrastructure asunder right now. Get results for the next three weeks and see what happens next.
Our Annual General Meeting was held by videoconference this afternoon. The highlight, not for the first time, was Celtic FC Foundation’s chief exec, Tony Hamilton, who explained that the Christmas Appeal in 2019 was our best ever and that our Football for Good campaing this year now topped the £1m mark.
Peter Lawwell gave a robust defence of strategy. The year between summer 2019 and summer 2020 saw the largest spend in the club’s history, £35m across the transfer windows. He affirmed his manager’s credentials and made it clear the board remain committed to the title fight this season. It is difficult to do rallying calls by recorded AGM videolink, but this was as close as we are likely to see.
Some of us have juices flowing at the prospect of a fourth consecutive treble. We won the fourth treble in our history in 2017. Yes, this clearly is pitchfork time.
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We laugh at the lies and bollox, at the huns AGMs ,we are worse.
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Absolute Tosh
It was never pitch fork time. Supporters have rightly claimed that the custodians at our club are Old Firmers and have no other ambition for the club than to be ahead of Sevco.
Supporters have every right to be alarmed and tell the custodians so.
`Peter Lawwell gave a robust defence of strategy. `
I agree…..but I think I would struggle to find others who also agree !
My big disappointment remains the apparent refusal to do anything significant re Resolution 12.
Agreed re Kilmala, talented tho Eddy is, he looks like the best player at the 5s moving around in second gear trying nutmegs and flicks but not breaking sweat.
Reluctantly I have concluded we will see the best of him in other colours as with Dembele
The board have made it clear it is not changing direction or in the way it operates and deals with issues of concern to supporters ,not Lindsell Train or the other corporate investors who get the 6% on prefence shares annually, it is now down to the support who buy season tickets tickets and merchandise to decide if they agree and want to continue to fund the plc.
Not one single incisive question put to Peter Lawwell or to Bankier by Gerry McCullough in the published interviews. All were gentle softballs, and probably scripted. A thoroughly stage managed sham.
“I never expected our play to right itself by moving Kristofer Ajer to right back and adding Soro and Turnbull to the midfield.”
It has been obvious for the entirety of this season that there was a “2018 Scott Brown” size whole in front of our defence and, that if we could plug that, then we would at least have a solid foundation to build upon.
Ajer has solved the 2 pigmy full back issue and Turnbull has solved the set piece delivery issue like Griffiths did in early 2020.
Football is not rocket science as Neil likes to say.
Not a penny more.
I guess I’m one of those “heart of stone” types then …
Initial thoughts on the farce we just witnessed. Article without the link.
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Peter Lawwell, Whatever You Once Were You Are No Longer “A Celtic Supporter.”
I believe in words. Words have meaning.
Words are important.
Peter Lawwell is too smart a man not to understand the meaning of words.
He uses them as weapons, so he understands them alright.
He understands context and how to construct an argument.
I thought Lawwell might announce his departure at the end of the season today; no such luck.
Lawwell will be at Celtic until he’s dragged kicking and screaming down London Road.
I thought we might see some humility today.
Instead it was complete arrogance and disregard for any opinion not his own.
I thought we might hear contrition for the disaster that this season has been so far.
Instead it was given a hand waive as a “bad eight weeks.”
This guy really does think he’s special.
He thinks he’s the best CEO in the country.
This guy gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night thinking he is Celtic.
Not in the whole history of our club has one single individual had such sweeping control over affairs at Parkhead, and he is well capable of doing more damage than any single individual ever has if he is allowed to continue to operate without restraint in the way he does.
Today Peter Lawwell dragged out a soundbite that was so similar to the one Neil Lennon came out with later that you have to believe that they scripted it.
As appeals go it is a heart-string tugging one but maybe it’s because of Rodgers and Tierney and others who’ve come before them that I get very cynical when I hear it.
But both men put a slightly different spin on the comments; Neil Lennon referred to himself as a Celtic fan. “I’ve been a Celtic fan all my life, and I’ll be a Celtic fan for the rest of my life,” he said.
Fair enough. I’ll give him that. It’s certainly true in his case.
Lawwell chose a different word. “I was born a Celtic supporter and I will die a Celtic supporter,” is how he chose to put it.
But that word doesn’t apply to Lawwell.
That word doesn’t remotely belong in the same sentence as Peter Lawwell.
Because a supporter is someone who gives.
Someone who contributes.
Whenever I use the word I use it in connection to the people who go to games and buy merchandise and subscribe to CelticTV and all those other things that pay for everything that goes on at the club. That’s different from being a fan.
We have fans all over the world, and their passion and love for Celtic is without dispute.
But they are not Celtic supporters in the fullest sense.
Peter Lawwell is definitely not a Celtic supporter.
He has spent the last decade taking from Celtic.
He talked again today about our ambitions and not for the first time called us a Champions League club.
But there is only one person at Celtic Park who earns a salary commensurate with that grand objective and that’s him.
He has sucked on the life-force of this club, like a fat, well-fed leech, for far too long.
What he earns as our CEO is obscene.
His interference in areas not his province is obscene.
His use of our club as a vehicle for his own self-aggrandisement and self-enrichment is obscene.
Lawwell intends to remain.
He intends that Lennon should remain.
Lennon is his mistake, his ghastly ego-driven error, his yes-man, his puppet on a string … in a sense, I am glad that Lawwell has chosen to bind their fates inexorably.
I just wish our season wasn’t inexorably tied around the pair of them.
Lawwell boasts on us having spent £35 million in the last year or so.
Well, I don’t know where this accountant is getting his figures from but if I were him, looking at the wreckage of our Europa League campaign and the humiliation it brought to us, as well as the League Cup exit, I would not be boasting on how much had been squandered in pursuit of those failures, as well as the larger one of ten in a row.
Which is to say nothing, of course, of the allegation that he has lied to all of us; fans, supporters and shareholders alike.
Lawwell has been at Celtic for far too long and if he’s determined to hang on our club is going to remain stuck in this pitiful place of short term thinking and low-quality options.
As long as Celtic remains this small pond, this ever expanding bloated fool will continue to be the biggest thing in it.
That’s how he likes it.
If we really want this guy out, we have to starve him out even if that means that the club itself takes a short-term hit.
It’s time some of our supporters tried being fans for a while.
We will all be better off for it.
Getting rid of this guy is the most important task we have now.
Paul67,
Is being papped out of 3 tournaments and a lost league/TIAR this year’s quadruple or treble?
£35m and we’re winging it badly against truly awful football teams in Scotland, there’s a fence around the ground and an AGM where the ‘custodians’ (their words) tell the plebs “nothing to see here”…
The ‘pitchfork’ euphemism is just another way of talking down to fans who can spot a massive decline in the club that has arrived at the worst possible time.
No protests, no questions at AGM is not the way to engage with the fan base.
HH
Good to see Lawwell give JPT some deserved praise.
“He acts as a conduit between me and the fans”.
In other words he deals with all the crap while I collect £1m plus pay packet.
@HarryBradyCU – 53m
NL – Lack of fans has affected us more than virtually any club in Europe #ticagm
—
Absolute tosh Neil. Everything but the manager’s fault.
HH
On brink of quadruple treble…
Unimpeachable strategy…
Record spend on (an already successful) team…
Right manager for the job…
We won’t win the league…
Anyone else see the logical inconsistency here?
Lennon stuck with Brown when he was done. He did so through lack of imagination, misplaced sentiment or some combination thereof.
Soro has made more impact in 2 matches than Brown has all season.
No place for Turnbull until now? Really?
We are in this place because the manager proved incapable of making the right judgements. The last two months have been the worst in 30 years. Dire.
The CEO put him there. And has stuck with him.
A good 2nd half against a poor Kilmarnock – much as I enjoyed it – doesn’t make it all right.
Missed the AGM due to work commitments
(I always do).
Can someone who attended let me know
… what questions (if any) were put by non-directors to the board of directors.
… what the responses were?
Cheers
When the usual AGM question of having a fan on the Board, the standard BS answer is ‘ we are all Celtic fans on the Board ‘….is anyone going to believe this crap anymore? I really hope not.Liars and leeches, every last one of them.
You want change at the top, stave them out, been telling you that for years, thankfully more and more are beginning to realise it, they only care about relieving you of your hard earned.
James Forrest
I have read your stuff over the years and have admired a good deal of it. Today’s utterance is such a load of crap
I better lookout that pitchfork from the 90’s !
BIGBHOY:
Okay then, let’s have a chat about it. Where are we in disageement?
I’ll start us off right? There are 12 main points in that article, and I’ll list them below.
Which ones do you disagree with?
1) Lawwell knows the meaning of words
2) Lawwell did not give us a humbled, chastened statement today.
3) Lawwell believes he’s got every major decision right
4) Lawwell does not give Celtic money, he takes money from Celtic
5) Lawwell is therefore not a Celtic supporter
6) Lawwell is overpaid
7) Lawwell is over mighty
8) Lawwell interferes in areas that ought not to be his concern
9) Lawwell has been at Celtic too long
10) Lawwell talks a good game but has no long-term vision
11) Lawwell boasts that we’ve spent £35 million to be in a worse position
12) Lawwell has no intention of leaving Celtic and things won’t change until he does
Paul67
Quite depressing reading that header today.
The delusion is something else.
No wonder prominent bloggers rip the piss out out you.
Other sites do the same.
You are not compared to Smithers for nothing.
”After demonstrations against Neil, the players and the running of the club (which I assumed was a metaphor for not sacking Neil)”…the protests are specifically aimed at Lawwell for appointing Lennon, res 12 lies and making himself DOF.
‘Some of us have juices flowing at the prospect of a fourth consecutive treble. We won the fourth treble in our history in 2017. Yes, this clearly is pitchfork time.’
Sarcasm. The reason for the demonstrations is the way the club is run.
Thought Bankier looked ill throughout AGM. Disappointed that he didn’t reference the £25m we got for Kieran given its importance on the financial results.
He did say that every shareholder that submitted a question would get a written answer – if the question had not been answered at the AGM. I think a considerable number of shareholders should be getting a letter in the post.
As I suspected the lack of fans got the blame for some horrific performances. Rather pathetic excuse.
This lead article has to be the worst ever makes Pravda and Tass seem like reliable sources.And is Tony Hamilton not the guy who makes jokes about innocent Celtic fans being “Kettled”.Peter Lawwell the highest paid CEO in British football has meddled into the football operation time after time he mentions how much has been spent but doesn’t mention how much we have received in recent times.We have failed to reach the Champions League for the last 3 years he is not doing a good job.
JAMES FORREST on 14TH DECEMBER 2020 1:43 PM
I’ll start us off right? There are 12 main points in that article, and I’ll list them below.
Which ones do you disagree with?
1) Lawwell knows the meaning of words
He does not know the meaning of SINCERELY.
Everything else you wrote is true however.
James Forrest
I emphatically agree with every word.
Lawwell has long been a liability, a handbrake on the club.
The dissonance between his performance and remuneration is grotesque.
As you say, why brag about spending £35M to achieve a collapse?
No succession planning for himself, Lennon and Brown?
Why not? Partly negligence, partly where his motivation lies; ie himself.
BIGBHOY on 14TH DECEMBER 2020 1:38 PM
Hi Peter
LAMBERT14 on 14TH DECEMBER 2020 1:54 PM
BIGBHOY on 14TH DECEMBER 2020 1:38 PM
“Hi Peter”
He’s better looking than PL :))! por cierto
Not surprised at AGM outcome but again disappointed. Disappointed that lawwell didn’t hand in his notice and things are going to stay as they are which in my opinion will end badly for the club on and off the field.
lawwell what can you say about this man ?
As res 11 got a plan B ?
TOMMOCELT on 14TH DECEMBER 2020 2:00 PM
lawwell what can you say about this man ?
###
Mathew 25:23
Dot Cotton CSC
James Forrest – I would agree with most if not all of your points above (1.43 pm). But we knew that before the AGM and, as we know how he runs our Club, we knew how he would stage manage an AGM behind closed doors. No surprises. None at all. He is not going anywhere anytime soon, nor is Neil. DD and PL have repeated this 2-3 times this month.
The next crisis point will be either next week, if we lose the cup, or in January if the huns dimantle us.
With a bit of luck we could leave 2020 and then Ibrox with a quadruple treble in the bag and the chance to close the gap to 4-5 points when games in hand are taken care of.
That’s the gamble. Distract, deflect and pray.
The bigger question of their competency is back on the shelf until the above wing and a prayer strategy fails.
In the short time that Mickey Johnston was on the park you could see that’s something that has been sorely lacking this season, the ability to ghost past defenders, which leads to spaces opening up for others. Looking forward to seeing more of him on the pitch, and “wee jamsie” when he returns, por cierto.
Some think stinks a boardroom level they are obviously complicit in the plan to get new ‘rangers” back as soon as possible probably worried that UEFA would ban Scottish clubs and the national team from European competition if the truth came out it’s the only way you can make sense out of their strategy and of Paul 67’s U turn on resolution 12.
PC- I think MJ will make the bench on Sunday, embdae know how many subs are allowed?
POR CIERTO – Agreed. I was trying to see if he had bulked up a bit, but it was hard to tell? If he is back in the team it reduces the need for Taylor or Laxalt to push forward and thus reduces the exposure of our CHs.
Bada,
It’s three with a fourth permitted if we go into ET…
HH
BADA
Subs for Final, You can name 7 and use 3, por cierto