It was always going to be like this, Stevie

It was always going to be like this, Stevie.  You have the resources to comfortably be better than Aberdeen, but you don’t have the experience to put those resources to effective use.  You were knocked out of the Scottish Cup, not because you or your players didn’t try hard enough, but because you are new to management and it is not all about “wanting it” in an ever-louder-higher-pitched voice.

Celtic will eventually lose a cup game, the randomness of chances scored and conceded guarantees it.  When they do, you have as much chance of benefiting as anyone else, but you will need to be good enough to outsmart decent managers with a fraction of your budget, and you are not there yet.

Your employer needs to come up with an apparently viable strategy to win the league each season ticket renewal time.  The City trader with the brain the size of a planet failed, as did the exotic European with a hotline into desirable, cheap and untapped player markets.

You are there because the best talent in England, if not the world, will batter down your door in order to play for you.  That was the ‘elevator pitch’ last year.  It is not because they think you are a great coach, they know you are not.

If you want to succeed, stop bringing in midfielders from Dundee and sign the next Steven Gerrard.  That is why you are in the job and if this cannot be done, you will fail.  In the meantime, all you will achieve is to turn your fans into a cash cow for the rest of the league.  Which is nice, but is ironic, given your own club’s financial perils.