The reaction to points dropped yesterday was not on the same level as the disappointment after we similarly rescued a point against Hibs late on the game or went out of the League Cup last week, this one was expected by all and did no more than provide further confirmation of where we are.
This run of two wins in 12 games will eventually end, but by then it will be too late – possibly too late to see off Hearts in the Scottish Cup Final. In 11 games between now and February, only two are outside Glasgow, short journeys to Hamilton and Paisley, and we have no international fixtures to contend with, but as St Johnstone, Ross County and others have established, that is no comfort.
St Johnstone’s goal was unlike our most in our recent glut. The defence was briefly in position before breaking into a moment’s disorganisation, Frimpong rushed forward, leaving May unattended, Kane reacted while his marker, Bitton, looked the other way. Neither Celtic player demonstrated defensive instincts.
Not that the defence is to blame. The volume of good chances was insufficient to convince anyone a Celtic goal was coming and those that came were missed by our once-prized asset. The equaliser had more than a touch of good fortune about it. Whatever ails Celtic, it is not limited to the back line.
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From previous article.
Celtic by numbers produced a great article showing that in Europe during BR’s reign, our expected goals and our conceded goals were matched, but that last season in Europe we were conceding fewer goals than our expected goal number.
Even more amazing was that our expected goals conceded v Sevco in the LC final was greater than our expected goals conceded tally v PSG in the 7-1 game!
A combination of FF’s brilliance and poor finishing meant that we were not on the receiving end of a mauling by Sevco.
Yet people still go on about trophies won without looking at underlying performance, direction of travel or the circumstances (taking over for a treble winning side and spending £40m).
What ails Celtic is gross incompetence at boardroom level leading to short sighted penny pinching appointments.
Any thoughts on our CEO, Paul?
No news yet from Club.
Absentee major shareholder. Toothless board filled with nodding ducks. CEO in hiding from media and fans —- also briefing against fans and the ring of steel nonsense. He has turned into a real nasty piece of work as he clings onto power much like he intimidates internally to get his way. I think Bobo Balde was the only one who stood up to his bully boy tactics —-I am the CEO of Bobo Balde.
10 has gone.
The leadership is non existent ; A self serving CEO has caused this mess.
Lawwell as the responsible cannot be associated with any forthcoming change as it is immediately flawed if he is anywhere near it. He can only see change through the lens of retaining power and lining his own pockets. He cannot be allowed to damage the club from within again.
Dermot may need to put a temp CEO to run the changes that need to be made even if some of them are only to end of the season.
Let’s also be clear Dermot needs to go too as his 2 calls a week does not cut mustard. He has also allowed a toothless board with some of them only in it for the liquid lunches to be a doormat for Lawwell. This will need to wait to 21 but the club needs to be put on the market as one option.
The fans have been shafted by Dermot and Lawwell. The share price is down 35 % and no kick in price around may / June timeframe like others. Season tickets will also be down due to failure and financial challenges of the support. Covid will be around next year with only 20% max of worlds population being vaccinated by end of year end. So not a pretty picture.
They have took us to where we are now. They Desmond and Lawwell are not part of the solution going forward.
My question is *why* are we here?
Who has enabled such a spectacular fall from top spot?
We can’t be top dogs indefinitely, though the rate of our regression begs a number of questions.
No more excuses, no more delays
It’s over.
NORRIEM @ 10.00am ( last article )
We don’t have a right back at the club ( unless Anthony Ralston is up for another go )
Deciding to retire Mikael Lustig we also retired the position it seems, we’ve signed three players, Moritz Bauer, El Hamed and Jeremie Frimpong yet the position is still vacant.
Pingback: Further confirmation of where we are Paul67 - Celtic FC News Aggregation
St Johnstone’s goal was unlike our most in our recent glut.
Totally disagree Paul,yet another goal from the right back area,too many to highlight….
Thinking back,Fraser Forster covered up a multitude of sins last season.
Lenny won’t win the league this season. The issues – whatever they are – are clearly beyond his ability to fix. That much has been clear for some considerable time.
That’s not to say that the position is irrecoverable and the league lost, but it won’t be recovered by Lenny.
Whether the decision is taken to replace him while the position remains recoverable, or afterwards when there is no prospect of recovery, is the critical variable in the story of this season.
I can’t influence the decisions of the leadership at Celtic, and while they continue to keep Lenny in post, the only rational mindset is to write off the league.
MCPHAIL BHOY on 7TH DECEMBER 2020 12:05 PM
‘It might and that’s a big MIGHT take two (2) to plan the nonsense scenario you paint but it takes all of the team and coaches to enact it, that simply is not happening regardless of what you think. No doubt you’ll come back a tell me that Lennie, the other coaches and all the players are unknowing actors in this plan by PL and DD but come on, really?’
###
Can you give me an example of a club with the financial resources of Celtic appointing a manager without any of his own coaches or backroom staff?
Do you think such a decision is consistent with being desperate to win 10 in a row at all costs?
I would not call giving Lenny,38.5 million,as “Penny pinching”..Quite a few on here might,but I don’t.
Now you might call appointing Lenny as this,but winning all the trophies available to him,kind of negates that argument.Should be relieved of duties now.Yes,but none of us,including those with the marvellous gift of hindsight,saw this total meltdown coming.We need DD to step in now.Forget PL,he is an employee,and see what he can come up with.Will he?I have no idea,but would be very surprised if he did not.
I have been very surprised before.
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 7TH DECEMBER 2020 12:18 PM
The possible forfeiting of games for breaches of Covid rules gives me a straw to grasp at.
Then I remember this is Scotland.
Seems like watching a train wreck is the board’s preferred stance.
Paul67 you’re right with one statement after Thursday it will be 2 wins in 13
See Mr Keevans talking about Desmond and the possibility of him producing a “marquee” manager to save the season…..look forward to that one….
The Battered Bunnett,
So true, an inspired coaching appointment could revigerate the players & support. Would then be interesting to see the points difference after 3rd derby of the season in early March and whether zombies could handle the run in pressure.
We might never know however without immediate action. We have approached our last opportunity now.
like most Celtic boards its all down to money. They hope NL will do the honourable thing being a great celtic man and resign thereby saving them any money, meanwhile NL knowing its his last big gig in football is going through the motions, waiting on the board growing a set of sandy shaws and sacking him and in turn having to compensate him.
The implosion is staggering beyond belief and if DD is looking to salvage what he has built on, and benefitted from Fergus then he wants to do it now. Billionaires don’t become billionaires by being sensitive to decisions.
A week until AGM. Recall going to the Fergus hosted meetings, held in the main stand in those days. All were heated affairs with one in particular, after a defeat by Airdrie in the League Cup more akin to a Radio Clyde phone in rather than a meeting of Shareholders. The anger directed at Fergus was because of his desire to control the finances rather than spend on players. While I disagreed with Fergus on a number of issues and still retain disappointment that he walked with all the cash rather than leave funding for training/youth academy, what could not be disputed was his focus and determination. I remember sitting there believing that this guy would succeed because his five-year exit plan depended on it.
Cannot say the same about present custodians who are well past their sell by date and have been in post far too long. More interested in what they get out rather than contribution. Complete overhaul required throughout.
Cui Bono?
Have we all figured out how powerless we are after we’ve passed over our SB money yet?
Old Rangers used EBTs for years to cheat us out of leagues and CL prize money. Our Plc knew and chose to look the other way. Cui Bono?
The plc continued to look the other way as the New Rangers emerged and LNS and the 5WA did its work. It actively stifled Res 12 as it does to this day. Cui Bono?
Board strategy has rendered us a laughing stock in Europe. To the extent that this week we may well become the weakest team ever to compete in the EL group stages. Why so little priority attached to European performance commensurate with our stature and resources? Cui Bono?
We fans too have chosen to look the other way on all of the above, so long as we were on course for the hallowed 10. That is changing fast as the 10 is ground into dust.
So why take such unnecessary risks with the 10?
– appoint a mediocre manager with a mediocre track record?
– impose a coaching team on him that you don’t know will gel?
– persevere with this arrangement long after it has failed, catastrophically?
– look the other way as the New Rangers tool up in ways that look suspiciously similar to the Old Rangers?
Cui Bono?
I don’t have the definitive answer to that, but based on all available evidence it is my belief that it reflects the plc’s calculation of where shareholder financial interest lies.
That interest being best served by a ‘strong Rangers’ and therefore a ‘competitive league’.
It is this thinking I believe that has delivered us to the place P67 describes, where the 10 is going, going, gone and the New Rangers will likely take the treble this season.
In short, where in 8 years we have been comprehensively overtaken by a Phoenix club playing out of Ibrox.
The cold, hard fury of the Celtic support is coming to the fore as that bitter penny drops.
This is what the plc are about. However, I fear they are not anywhere near as clever as they think they are and that they grossly underestimate the destructiveness of their strategy.
I fear the carnage to come for our club, in the short, medium and long-term.
That is the legacy Peter Lawwell and Dermot Desmond will bestow when they inevitably step down in the summer in the face of fan fury and a collapse in company income.
Cui Bono?
PS I suspect the change of leadership at Ibrox is a factor. They hated King. They have a business relationship with Douglas Park.
Very downbeat leader Paul, almost a resignation that we are doomed.
Have we reached the bottom of the curve yet?
Paul67
The St Johnstone goal did have ‘the sieve’ in common and loads of other goals from the 2 wins in 12 in a row run. It may well be after Christmas before Barkas is willing to dive, he presently shares Jamesie’s invisible cloak with one or two others.
A flukey equaliser is an irrelevance to the situation at Celtic where any manager should have the January sales uppermost in thought.
Revolving door CSC
Paul, the 2 players you mention, Frimpong and Bitton . Neither are defenders and we have been losing goals from this area all season.
Giving Bitton a new contract and releasing Simounivic doesn’t look like a good move now. Should have been the other way around
Sorry, I should have been clearer. The penny pinching appointment was the downgrade from BR to Lennon. The £38 million spent/wasted highlights how poor an appointment Lennon was and continues to be. That Lawell didn’t bother looking at anyone else tells you everything about how lazy and incompetent his approach his.
There was a number of folk totally against Lennon getting the gig permanently but I agree, no-one saw this coming.
What everyone can see is that he has to go & Lawell should too.
NOTTHEBUS
No, that will happen when we lose the cup final
BSR…was thinking about about that earlier…we never did replace Mikel Lustig the player nor the character. He was a big personality in the dressing room and on the field. And the same on the other side. We haven’t replaced Tierney. Two guys who played huge roles in our success…
After last week’s defeat to Ross County, the plan/spin was a run of wins against diddy teams, a victory at Mordor and credible reinforcements arriving in January.
Whilst it was seductive, it fooled no one and I said at the time it’s chance of success was ‘40% tops’.
Yesterday the plan unravelled at the first hurdle.
What’s the plan now?
It appears we’re resigned to a defeat against Hearts and the league pretty much gone by Jan 2.
What then? Are the board really going to give him money to spend in January?
This implosion has been spectacular and will only get worse with each passing week.
TBB- So wrote off the league, added to getting pumped in very winnable CLQs,to stick by Neil Lennon? I don’t think anyone knows what they are thinking, or trying to achieve here.
Could anyone help? I still haven’t received my notification of the AGM. It’s possibly lost in the post. Is there a telephone number I can phone? I take it the AGM will be by zoom.
It’s a long queue to say “I told you so”, and I’m afraid this header is somewhere near the back.
In Lustig and Tierney, we also lost 2 big characters and personalities, who were brilliant in the dressing room, and the training pitch too.
weebobby….
Taking three goes at ‘replacing’ Keiran Tierney is a poor show, but taking three goes
at replacing Mikel Lustig is downright carelessness.
The Sun.. I know..but….
Scottish Sun Sport
@scotsunsport
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3m
Celtic board give Neil Lennon fresh assurances his job is SAFE for now
ANDY PATONS MULLET on 7TH DECEMBER 2020 12:28 PM
‘like most Celtic boards its all down to money. They hope NL will do the honourable thing being a great celtic man and resign thereby saving them any money, meanwhile NL knowing its his last big gig in football is going through the motions, waiting on the board growing a set of sandy shaws and sacking him and in turn having to compensate him.’
###
Don’t think it’s about them saving money. In the overall scheme of things the amount is chickenfeed.
It’s more about NFL catching a lot of the flak, and shielding them, to an extent. And so long as he’s in post they don’t have to appoint anyone else.
Hearts 15/2 to win the cup.
….Lump on to help deal with the likelihood we haven’t hit rock bottom.
HH
Frimpong and Bitton . Neither are defenders and we have been losing goals from this area all season.
add to that list Ajer
Frimpong? Bitton? Of course they don’t have defensive instincts , because thet are not defenders .
You are right about one thing Paul, it’s where we are and unfortunately it looks like the board and Desmond are happy for us to stay there for the time being .
Instead , they should be addressing the cause of the decay and how to re-establish our club .
If not now, then when…..
If not today,
Then, why make your promises?
– Tracy Chapman CSC