St Mirren, who are ninth in the Premiership controlled yesterday’s Scottish League Cup Final and won the trophy with an historic and deserved 3-1 victory. Celtic had the bulk of possession but were unable to turn that into enough chances to deserve anything more from the game.
For the third game in succession Celtic went behind from the first corner they had to defend in the game. That weakness was a painful feature of the Covid season is back. Those who successfully campaigned for a return to four at the back will have to contemplate the fact that the defensive formation is well down the list of problems Celtic have. Celtic were exposed at the back throughout the game, St Mirren had more shots on target and more attempts from inside the box, measures of which team was always more likely to score.
For the 35 minutes he was on, Kelechi Iheanacho gave Celtic a taste of what an effective striker can bring to a team. The recurrence of the hamstring injury which has limited him to fewer than 90 minutes since October cast a long shadow over an already dark day.
The performance was consistent with so many this year. When pressed one-on-one, Celtic players get rid of the ball quickly – and often backwards. Reo Hatate was the only one who took the ball in and attempted to get past his man. Without taking any opponents out of the game, there are no options for a forward pass.
In the hierarchy of responsibility, Wilfried Nancy has to take his share, but he is not at the top. The squad is not up to the task and needs a radical overhaul. Such an overwhelming reluctance to take responsibility on the ball indicated they are playing without confidence. Who can blame them? Managers have come and gone, one having publicly undermined them, while the feedback loop when a ball is mis controlled or a pass goes astray would have the best of us hiding on the field.
The challenge facing the new manager is significant. He needs to restore confidence to a squad who look shattered, impose a tactical regime which creates chances and fortified the defence, while nurturing the most fragile collection of hamstring muscles in sport.
You and I laughed at Newco fans who were so unable to cope with defeats they hounded a succession of managers out Ibrox and made the job toxic. That’s not how we fix this problem. The man needs our support right now as do his players.
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We had 4 at the back?
When?
Often looked like 2, or even 1, when St Mirren broke.
But then our Pseudo Intellectual Head Coach had out most solid defender at Outside Left, his confidence shot by being asked to play where he doesn’t belong.
We never played a back 4. Shit, at times we had a back 1 of Trusty with McGregor often the nearest to him. I never saw any of our hierarchy of responsibility introduce Nancy to Scottish football. Just left alone, in an unsupported manner. I’m not for sacking a manager at a ridiculously early stage but I really don’t see us winning many or any games soon. Some of the players have been woeful. Unfortunately, for any boardroom and structural changes to happen, things were going to have to get worse and I’m sorry to say they definitely have.
huns at home jan 3rd
could this happen aagain ?
https://www.thecelticwiki.com/1994-01-01-celtic-2-4-rangers-premier-division/
as an aside – seen mo salah coming on as sub for liverpool
one of the greatest players of his generation was being shown something or other on a tablet
any mocking ? nah.
James Forrest at 12:19
Spot on.
A quite ridiculous article, defending the indefensible, attacking BR….again and asking for support for a manager who obviously does not have the slightest clue.
Calmac appears to be furious with this guy and rightly so.
Bring MON and Shaun and co back….. PDQ. Otherwise we are down the toilet.
BHOYS TOWN on 15TH DECEMBER 2025 1:39 PM
Lionroars67
Brendan could be soon splashing the transfer cash
—–
Hopefully on Engels, Tounetki, Balikwisha and Nygren
Ange never spent any Spurs cash at Celtic
I suspect IF Brendan gets the position neither will he spend the cash of Al Qadsiash
Again IF he gets the job and gets the backing of Bader Alrziza, we may yet get a reply to Dermot’s character assassination on the clubs website ? time will tell
Lionroars67
He may not come for those you listed but he could very well offer Callum life changing money on a 2 yr deal ,and this board will let him go.
During the 1950s, the American military developed a compound known as ‘BZ’ or Quinuclidinyl Benzilate. Its effects are profound: powerful delirium, vivid hallucinations, and severe cognitive dysfunction.
For years, a disturbing rumour has persisted that certain nursing homes in West Scotland have used this chemical agent to sedate patients during periods of unrest. A notable and peculiar side effect of its administration is the induction of grandiose delusions, wherein individuals such as retired crayon salesmen and former middle-managers from small factories become convinced they are CEOs of multinational corporations.
This delusional state was largely tolerated by staff at the homes in question. However, the situation escalated when some of these afflicted individuals began posting extensively in the internet blogosphere, detailing their imagined corporate empires. Their online activity inadvertently raised public awareness and scrutiny, ultimately exposing the alleged illegal practices at the named facilities.
A comprehensive file has now been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), and formal investigations are ongoing.
During the 1950s, the American military developed a compound known as ‘BZ’ or Quinuclidinyl Benzilate. Its effects are profound: powerful delirium, vivid hallucinations, and severe cognitive dysfunction.
—
watching celtic recently has the same effect
DESSYBHOY on 15TH DECEMBER 2025 2:37 PM
Lionroars67
He may not come for those you listed but he could very well offer Callum life changing money on a 2 yr deal ,and this board will let him go.
Maybe ? he was close to Callum, as Callum himself has stated
I’m sure Brendan has a list to work through a world away from what Celtic transfer targets
I wouldn’t blame Callum he has been a tremendous servant to Celtic and as you say the money on offer will be enormous
Are you not entertained?
Weird scenes inside the goldmine.
I don’t for a minute think Callum would be looking to move but the state the Club is in at the moment, the direction it is heading in, it looks a very unhappy place to play.
I am at a loss for words as to how bad yesterday was. We have went from the highs of Martin O’Neil coming in and bringing a sense of pride back to the players and the fans, to one of the worst weeks that we have had in many a year, and yes, it’s only been a week!!! Once again a dig at the manager who is not there anymore, but not at the people that decided to bring someone in midway through the season, who obviously has not looked at the squad he was inheriting,or maybe I am wrong. You cannot come in and just change the formation and think that it is going to work. The players look lost. I feel bad for Cal Mac, who is summoned over every time there is a break to change the tactics again and again. God knows what we will be like when that class player and captain decides to hang up his boots. I don’t understand these days the fact that we have wingers who don’t attack the byeline and cross, but then again who are they crossing to when we don’t have a recognized striker on the field. How can a team like Celtic, with its proud tradition of great #9s up front, have nothing to call upon. I hope I am wrong but I don’t think the january transfer window will be enough to get us back on our feet. I want to give the new managwer the chance, but time is not afforded art clubs like Celtic, especially when you start so negatively. There are people higher up that need to accept the responsibility for the way we are on and off the field. The fans deserve better.
Sorry for my all over the place rantings, just hurt like the rest of you.
Sean
i think most players in the squad would be happy for a convenient exit strategy to fall into their lap without them necessarily asking their agents to make it public that they want away.
BS
Responsibility is not what the higher up ones take, the CEO hides from scrutiny, the Chairman shut the AGM down, the CEO has continued a stadium ban for a section of the support and the man in Cork fires out caustic statements to a departing Manager and to an anti establishment support, how does this get fixed without those responsible being ousted? The squad is an utter disaster area not just at Number 9
Some people on here attempting to defend this shambles is an even bigger embarrassment than the shambles itself.
The Celtic Board have finally found a way to spend Smaug’s hoard by hiring and firing managers but heaven forbid that a player would be bought.
Why, in the name of sanity, does anyone expect Celtic to score goals when the Quisling Board have left us with not one recognised striker:
Sell Kyogo – Not buy a replacement
Sell Kuhn – Not buy a replacement
Sell Idah – well you know the rest.
This, on top of the departures of O’Riley and Abada, has left the team devoid of creativity.
Meanwhile, every transfer window is a rinse and repeat, Sell, sell, sell, and only begin attempts to sign anyone jn the final week of the window.
To make matters worse this Quisling Board doesn’t have the spine to tell the largest shareholder, NOT THE OWNER, to butt out of the daily running of the business.
If Dermot Desmond wants to run this club then buy the shares to take you to 70% and dispenser with this shower of inept, incompetent, and arrogant individuals.
Since about 2005 Celtic have been the only club in Scotland turning a profit. For those who claim that our trophy haul should be lauded as if it is down to the magnificence of our structure, then I would suggest that domestic dominance should be the minimum requirement in such a financial landscape.
Celtic have no God given right to win everything, yet domestically that should be the case given our massive financial advantage. That we can all, with the exception of few, see that dominance being effectively undermined from within is, I think, what most fans find utterly frustrating while the people who have ultimately caused this situation throw a fledgling manager under the bus to deflect from their own deficiencies.
DessyBhoy,
Completely agree with you. Was only pointing out the deficiency that we have up top right now as it should never be at our club. Those in a position of power will not accept the responsibility, it will be passed on to someone else.
It is a sad state of affairs we find ourselves in, and no solution in sight.
Sean
BBC
Martin O’Neill would “happily have stayed on” as Celtic manager after his interim spell ended with seven wins out of eight games.
The former Northern Ireland player stepped in to replace Brendan Rodgers, who resigned in late October. Wilfried Nancy subsequently took on the job permanently and has lost all three of his opening games in charge.
O’Neill described his near six-week spell back at the club he managed from 2000 to 2005 as “holding the fort for while”.
However, he said remaining in charge for Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup final, which Celtic lost to St Mirren, was not a motivating factor.
“Only if asked,” he replied on Talksport when asked if he had wanted to lead Celtic out at Hampden.
“That was not a driving force. I’d happily have stayed on.
“If they had asked me to stay on, I would’ve done so, but the minute that they said, ‘no, that’s your time’, that’s fine by me.”
O’Neill, 73, said he had only had a “10 or 15-minute conversation” with the “affable” Nancy as the changeover took place earlier this month.
The Frenchman endured home losses to Scottish Premiership leaders Hearts and Europa League opponents Roma before Sunday’s 3-1 cup final defeat.
“I stepped into the job, [major shareholder] Dermot [Desmond] had said to me, he said, ‘you could be in it two weeks or two months, we’re looking for someone’,” O’Neill explained.
“When you get into it, you really enjoy it. You enjoy winning, that’s the point – this is what it’s about.
“You’ve got to give managers chances. I think back to my own time at Leicester City, where I eventually enjoyed nice success. Can’t win a game to save my life, crowd baying for blood and after 10 games. How lucky I was to win a couple of matches of real importance at a stage.
“You’ve just got to win, you’ve got to win. You’ve got to steady it again. There’s some excellent players at the football club. There’s some boys who have won big time as well. Lean on some of the senior players. Lean on them and get them on your side.
“It is recoverable, of course. You’re in the football club 10 or 12 days.
“You cannot make a judgement on anybody over three games. The matches were difficult. You have got to give a manager some time.”
O’Neill feels Celtic “need harmony again” amid unrest between fans and the board.
“Celtic disunited are not the Celtic that people should be aware of,” he said.
And, when asked if his brief return to management had whetted his appetite for another job, his answer was clear: “I would have to say absolutely.
“I’ve never lost the appetite for the game, I’ve certainly not lost enthusiasm and I’ve got energy to burn.”
Kettlewell available.
Cheaper than what we have i’d imagine, knows Scottish football. . . .. . . . . .. .
Has anyone thought …. Maybe he only knows one system !!🥴🫣
I can envisage a fair number of loanees inbound in January – has that Tony Mowbrey season look to it.
ERATIC on 15TH DECEMBER 2025 3:40 PM
That absolutely has crossed my mind – terrifying though it is.
Old cliche, but Rome was not built in a day.
Wilf has his ideas of forward thinking attacking football and it will take time for the players to totally understand what is expected from them, but we simply must give the guy a chance, surely.
It is possible he is out his depth, but maybe not. I have always been an advocate for attack is the best means of defence and I stand by that.
Still, we are faithful through and through are we not and we dont care if we win, draw or lose and all that,
Just LOVE Celtic and back the team on the park please
kingLUBO
I was stunned when I heard Martin say that he only had a ten to fifteen minute handover with WN. Surely this required an extensive overview on every player, their strengths/weaknesses and best positions etc?
I know this doesn’t normally happen with a new man coming in but we had the opportunity to do it this time.
I can only assume this was left to Strachan junior as he escaped the cull.
Even so, I think an overlap of at least a few games would have been advisable to try and ensure a continuation of the successful run we were on. To throw WN into the deep end like that was just irresponsible as were his immediate changes (probably).
There is a tendency to think that “the board” could somehow impose a transition period when they appointed WN.
I don’t think the world of football works like that. Once WN was offered the job and accepted, he would be calling the shots as to which existing coaches he wanted and what conversations he chose to have.
He might well have underestimated the task ahead and overestimated his own ability.
What if WN wasnt interested in finding out about his players their strengths and weaknesses, instead he WN was only interested in his model of how the game is played by his teams, that’s the way it looks to me and it’s why we will struggle every game to get a win.
BURNLEY78 on 14TH DECEMBER 2025 8:18 PM
Tom McLaughlin
Agreed.
There was one on the radio 5 there. Claimed he wanted Celtic to lose today and last 20 years had been a disaster.
Entitlement is not just a Celtic problem although we are an extreme example of it. It is a societal problem. We see it with Reform and awe used to see it with Rangers. Sadly it is thriving in our midst.
If the manager and team left in 6 weeks or so I cannot imagine who would want to play for such a bitter entitled so called ‘support’ as we have.
A mob who could not even bring themselves to encourage their own team at a cup final today from the first minute.
The team were crap and the new manager seems to be taking time to get to grips with his utterly shredded squad of players who have zero confidence in themselves…….but surely punters can see moaning and groaning from minute 0 and then shouting about the board is not helping us win.
I do accept there are many like the guy on radio 5 who are so bitter and troubled that they have to project onto a football club which has hithero given them their only association with success in life but wanting Celtic to lose is poor.
……………………
Ah so Celtic’s entitled fans are the root of the problem. I never saw a single fan on the pitch failing to defend corners in our last three games. I never saw a single fan wearing goalie’s gloves passing the ball out to opposition players either on those three games. Nor did the Celtic fans choose the teams or decide on the formation or tactics during those three games.
You rightly say that the team have no confidence in themselves. How do you explain that? These same players won 7 out of 8 of their last games until Wilfried Nancy showed up with his philosophy.
You still continue to attack our fans, now calling them ‘a mob’. You are a Board lackey and should be ashamed to call yourself a Celtic supporter. You’d rather see us win nothing than admit that Desmond, Lawell, Nicholson are incompetent.
You’re the 2025 equivalent of Comical Ali.
A crayon salesman, with ideas above his station.
The feelers are being put out. . . .
“Former Celtic interim manager Martin O’Neill has said he would return to the club for a third stint = if asked. “
PeterLatchfordsBelly @ 2:21 pm
This will end in the destruction of the Board. The only question is how long it will take and whether they are prepared to burn the whole club down around them. I think we know the answer to that one.
——
Maybe so, PLB.
But will it change the share ownership composition?
Excl.DD, the board (incl.NEDs) own c.5-10%?
(I don’t know the exact figure, grateful for any data)
i could never imagine myself posting on here with the basis of my post being about something someone said on a radio phone-in.
We lost the run of ourselves when we started playing with one striker.
Which manager started that?
We got away with it domestically because of the dire levels of competition.
Although, if a £20 million Sevco team can defeat a £200 million Dortmund team on their way to Europa League Final in Seville whilst Celtic and their sleekit fans were hiding behind the sofa from a fake virus and demanding the banning of posters who refused to take the knee for krankie the mass murderer and the crooked as fk Snp, then maybe the long overdue awakening has arrived? lol
Living on your knees and sucking up being lied to by Irish Tory grifters is not what it takes to be a Celtic supporter.
What it will now take is the smoking gun to be entered into the shambles.
A smoking gun of an 100% season ticket boycott, which will be difficult given the amount of weak suckers that there are among the supporter base.
a smoking gun which presents CLEARLY the drift of the PLC project from the actuality of Celtic Football club.
A season ticket boycott will damage the share price.
THAT has to be the target.
A fallen share price = a failing PLC project.
It will probably take 2/3/seasons of boycotting to have a sack the board event legitimately entered as a smoking gun of evidence that the customer base no longer has any faith in the PLC project.
Or take the| KEVJUNGLE | approach and kick in the boardroom doors and throw the PLC creeps out of the boardroom windows. lol
The board has in excess of £100 million lying spare underneath
the boardroom table so that will cover at least 3 years season ticket revenues.
AND THEN.
The PLC will start asset stripping the playing squad and even take Celtic down a division just to hold onto power.
I believe that the PLC have the necks to brass that out.
I’m not saying that Celtic fans should become like Huns fans to get to the point of all of this shambles.
BUT.
Reputations mean that the Rangers board would be more fearful of the Hun support than the Celtic PLC would be of Celtic supporters who consistently prove that they will just suck it up.
I mean, lets face it, Celtic fans fall for a lot of guff, £49 Old firm ticket treason, LNS, Res12, 5WA, and lots of other guff, and you just keep turning the other cheek for even more slaps.
Who is to blame for that?
Religion turning you into sheep?
Although given that Churches are all having to amalgamate because folk got the Internet and started to find out the UNTOLD truth about Religion, don’t believe me, just look at all of the empty seats from the last time that the Pope was in what used to be, “Catholic Ireland”, so religion is just another label, like white guilt for stuff that happened hundreds of years before we were born, but we must be made to suffer for it.
Says who?
The woke media and bent politicians?
You have to get it into your heads that is the media and politicians who should be serving us, NOT dishing out punishment beatings because the Lobby says so.
Right now, Nick Fuentes [yes him] is the only one making any sense here as HE is pointing out that we are continually made to feel horrible about ourselves, AND, continually told lies and NOTHING BUT LIES regarding WW1 and WW2 and how these lies have utterly destroyed the people who live in the Western world and who weren’t even born when WW1 and WW2 happened but it is our fault anyway, just because.
Some of the stuff that NF says is over the top.
BUT.
So are the conditions that only he is addressing.
Get on your knees or you are a racist is a red line.
Example: The horrible shootings in Bondi yesterday were carried out by a guy and his son, from Pakistan.
And yet, the Australian PM is straight out of the traps blaming White people for this tragedy?????
We live in a back to front world full of liars who are leading us.
They spent the last FIVE YEARS trying to kill us off with Covid Vaccines, and now they are trying it again calling it by its real name again, “The Flu” and folk are still falling for all of these fkn liars on the media and in Western Parliaments.
The amount of missed opportunities for effecting regime change at Parkhead AGAIN since 1994 are far too many MISSES which has just created a lethargic, spoiled, laziness.
The supporter base has gone from Larsson to Brattback and these chances to sack the board are all lazily ignored.
And now you might be thoroughly punished for it as Celtic season ticket holders, as the board, Imho, have brought in, Wilf, to stick it right up you all for protesting?
How?
Imho, Wilf will take us out of the top 6.
AND THEN.
Sleekit Broony, or some other sleekit will get a brown envelope from the PLC, to be worse than Wilf, and take Celtic down a division, just to teach you manners.
In short – The PLC fear only your APATHY.
Who is to blame for that?
What a time to be alive.
HH
oot.
Good Golly Miss Molly.
CHAIRBHOY on 15TH DECEMBER 2025 2:05 PM
Bournesouprecipe @ 1:58 pm,
Also the petulant, extreme demand avoidance doesn’t help…
Hail Hail
——————————
Indeed, the big picture unfolding.
FWIW Picked a great day for baby sitting, the internet outside CQN’s wee bubble, is bound to be a riot, we’ll get “ the circle the wagons ” routine before the sheep rock up at the weekend, that’s if we can negotiate Tannadice and maybe manage a ‘ dire draw’ ‘as it was christened on here a year ago, when we’d a good manager, just before we sold Kyogo. ( Have we replaced him yet? )
Make no apologies for reposting the same as I did in August the squad is the victim of neglect, the support know it, this board IMO took a deliberate election not to spend recycled transfer profit, like they normally do, the mad spend to prove that they could, might have made a bad situation worse, it’s been downhill all the way from Munich to Hilltown.
Not only did they not strengthen the squad, they weakened it, and then decided to employ ‘the man from nowhere’ who has single handedly destroyed any remaining semblance of credibility they had, inside seven days using his favoured 3-5-3. We’ve to back him because the alternative is too terrible to think about or is it, and we’re all just Sellic supporters anyway. Ironically, the last thing Celtic need is another transfer window we’re still suffering the after effects of the last one, and now look – what they’ve gone and done. Somebody ahem has to find him players in a notoriously difficult window or as Celtic supporters know it, a window.
Win with Wilfred ✌🏽✅☘️
Hail Hail
* Wilfried ☝️
Suspected in summer Stephen McGowan had fallen out with someone at Parkhead his piece today confirmed it.
KINGLUBO on 15TH DECEMBER 2025 3:46 PM
Old cliche, but Rome was not built in a day.
—-
Neither was Columbus Crew. He’d a 40% win record there last season.