IN THE AFTERMATH of the depressing Champions League exit to the nonentities of Kairat Almaty and 24 hours before Celtic’s excursion across Glasgow for the first derby encounter of the season, I asked for Brendan Rodgers to prove he was an elite manager.
Please don’t accuse me of kicking a man when he is down and the proof is here if you wish to check out my pleas to the Hoops boss following two miserable scoreless encounters on the team’s way to Euro elite oblivion.
Celtic played three and a half hours of football against the Kazakhstan minnows and didn’t lay a glove on them.
Alas, it didn’t get much better in the penalty-kick shoot-out when three fairly tame efforts from Adam Idah, Luke McCowan and Daizen Maeda were repelled by the grateful keeper.
The game at Ibrox was the perfect time and place to respond to the gauntlet that had been thrown down to Rodgers and his players.
The outcome? You and I know it was another uninspiring show in an abysmal 0-0 draw with Russell Martin’s strugglers, rated one of the worst all-Glasgow affairs in living memory.
GRIM VIEWING…Brendan Rodgers watches Celtic toil to a goalless draw at Ibrox in August.
Jack Butland wasn’t tasked with getting his knees dirty that afternoon. He could have caught up with his Sunday reading throughout a pathetic first-half without a solitary attempt to test out the net behind him.
It didn’t get much better after the turnaround; whatever Brendan said to cajole and coax his troops during that crucial 15 minutes must have gone in one ear and out the other.
Reo Hatate hit one on target around the hour mark, but Butland will probably have more difficult backpasses to deal with this season.
As a sorry sortie in Govan limped to an inevitable snore draw, the champions had failed to score for the third time in seven outings.
You don’t require an Oxford University education to comprehend that is unacceptable.
Celtic, of course, had parted with a trio of marksmen in Kyogo Furuhashi, Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah without adequate replacements, as Rodgers mentioned once or twice.
Danish striker Kasper Dolberg had been flagged up as a possible £10million recruit, but in the end the lumbering forward left Anderlecht for former club Ajax.
I think we can all agree the Hoops dodged a bullet with a forward who fired a blank in his solitary appearance for the Amsterdam outfit and has now sat out the last four games with an abdominal injury.
FACE OF FRUSTRATION…Brendan Rodgers can’t hide his feelings as he gives Kasper Schmeichel a pat on the back after the dismal derby draw.
If any proposed switch had received the go-ahead, a section of the support may have been satisfied the hierarchy had signed a sizeable cheque for a new frontman, but we all know you cannot be guaranteed success in any transfer.
Dolberg, to me, looked like Idah with a blond wig and a headband.
Since the eyesore of a game in Govan, Celtic have failed to register in three other matches – the 0-0 home draw with Hibs, the 0-2 Europa League loss to Sporting Braga, again at Parkhead, and the identical scoreline against Dundee at Dens Park.
Managers have been invited to walk the plank for less.
Twelve Premiership goals had been scored in nine games before the manager’s climactic departure on Monday.
Brendan Rodgers won 11 of the 13 domestic honours open to him during his two spells at Parkhead. You cannot argue with that praiseworthy statistic.
If you wish to be pedantic, you could say it should be 12 – involving three trebles – but a feeble showing in the Scottish Cup Final against Aberdeen in the last game of the previous season was both mystifying and catastrophic.
Rodgers’ side had to rely on an own goal from the accommodating Alfie Dorrington to lead as the clock ticked down to what would have been acclaimed as another wonderful success.
MY BALL…a rare moment of action for Jack Butland as he claims the ball while Japanese duo Shin Yamada and Daizen Maeda look on.
In truth, Celtic bumbled their way through the so-called showpiece and paid for their lack of gusto when Kasper Schmeichel gifted the Dons an equaliser and the rest is history.
The Hoops had 82 per cent of possession that afternoon and Dimitar Mitov was required to make a mere two saves, one right at the death when Maeda should have scored the winner, but his effort lacked pace and precision and the Bulgarian No.1 was happy to thrust out a left foot and divert the ball to safety.
All that possession and nothing to show for it? That should have sent alarm bells ringing. Clearly, it didn’t.
Since the kick-off to the current crusade, a similar pattern has been in evidence. The team looked as tired and jaded as the manager.
Off the top of your head, dear reader, can you name a game this season that has had you on the edge of your seat, your excitement levels heading for the stratosphere?
No, me neither.
It’s been fairly bland and, in the main, intolerable and insufferable.
JOY BHOYS…Johnny Kenny and Sebastian Tounekti celebrate one of the Irish striker’s double in the 4-0 win over Falkirk. The Tunisian winger got on the scoresheet after the interval.
There was a bit more oomph in the midst of a more direct approach in Martin O’Neill’s comeback in midweek. Four goals were scored, there were 26 attempts and 11 were on target to test Scott Bain.
Taking into account the calibre of opposition – and I mean no disrespect to Falkirk – I don’t think anyone will be cheering from the rafters and believing we have turned the corner.
Tomorrow afternoon at Hampden will be more of an acid test.
I note that one of the talking heads has already predicted a goalless draw with the Premier Sports League Cup semi-final being settled by penalty-kicks, mirroring the showpiece confrontation in the same competition last December.
I think we have had enough blank scorelines for one season, don’t you?
After months of faltering, footering offerings, the Celtic support is due some enthralling, exciting, adventurous play with a goal or two from their favourites.
On Wednesday, the players appeared to have rediscovered their mojo as well as their route to goal.
Let’s hope they don’t lose their direction in the southside of the city tomorrow.
ALEX GORDON
