The point was made to me by one Celtic fan before kick-off, “We are like a group of accused arriving at court with a suitcase packed. Every one of us expecting to go down.” Again, Celtic dominated the opening half against a poor looking Scottish Premiership side, again, the opposition manager spotted the fix at halftime and went home with the points. Individual errors at throw-ins did cost the goals, but there’s a reason we were susceptible when individual errors happened – this is the most fragile Celtic I have seen in a long time watching my team. The system is not sufficiently robust to cope when errors are made. The system is at fault.
Confidence is king. When the equalising goal went in, you could see Celtic shoulders shrink. Inspiring confidence and resilience in your players is part of the job, it cannot be left unattended. We have no confidence or resilience. Evidence of faith in their leader, is not visible from the players.
Changing a game when things are going wrong is also part of the job. We repeatedly meet opposition managers able to do this. We change things, but the last time Celtic made a change which positively impacted the outcome was the League Cup semifinal. Substitutions yesterday and on Tuesday are unfathomable. Did the midfield simply slide one along? Was Ralston playing as a conventional central defender? Who knows, certainly not the players, by the look of it.
As I predicted a week ago, Celtic’s then status as Premiership favourites would quickly vanish. Hearts are now top tip at the bookies. Celtic are second favourites; keep an eye on that lofty position.
We are two points ahead of Motherwell with a game in hand, that’s less of a gap than has opened up between us and Hearts this week. Motherwell have the momentum on Celtic, a top three finish is in no way certain.
Comparisons have been made with Ange Postecoglou, who lost his first three away games before new recruits arrived and changed history. Ange inherited a losing team and was unfortunate to leave Tynecastle and Ibrox empty handed. Eight games ago, Celtic were far from the finished article, but they were a winning side, able to get results over the line.
We will talk about the self-owning pre-match presser tomorrow.
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Just go…
Where’s our striker?
Broadsword calling Danny Boy
Broadsword calling Danny Boy
Sack Nancy he is a clown, well out of his depth, he does not have any insight tactics or player management skills to win a football match for Celtic.
I still think we can win the league, but not with this guy.
He talks in riddles, and seems incapable of learning from mistakes.
I would imagine that on their first day back one of the key things on the commercial team’s agenda will be planning for ST renewals.
All I can say is good luck
Need to get this Rodgers guy out now before the season is gone completely……
So who is to blame? Brendan Rodgers?
And what is the solution?
Over to you Paul67.
Brendan was right again..
I agree with every word, Paul.
However, your refusal to question the process which led to this appointment, your refusal to question the lack of action to rectify the mistake, is at best very strange.
And it hurts your credibility. Oh for the halcyon days of doubles and CL wins…
This was the CQN header on June 12th 2023. A couple of days before the return of Brendan Rodgers. The contempt for our soon to be retuning manager was already in sight.
—————————————————————-
Rodgers interview is just
noise
BY PAUL67 ON 12TH JUNE 2023
CQN BLOG & COMMENTS
Can everyone just calm their jets on the notion that Brendan Rodgers, or anyone else for that matter, is in prime position for the manager’s job?
I’ve seen these appointments at close quarters for a long time. An interview is often little more than a courtesy. Remember years ago, the ex-Juventus boss, a disaster in Turin, never taken seriously in Glasgow, but he had an influential agent that Celtic wanted to get closer to?
There was also an ex-Celtic player who applied.
Everyone know he was a hopeless manager, but still, am ex-player deserved a little courtesy. He was interviewed, then politely told they were going in a different direction.
Brendan was a winning Celtic manager. If, as reported, he was interviewed, you’d better believe he has invested some capital in even being considered. The way he behaved at Liverpool, then Celtic, and his lack of structural legacy at both these clubs and at Leicester, means Brendan has a bit of a reputational challenge going forward. Even being considered by Celtic would do him good.
I don’t see it going any further than this, though. We’ve seen what an actual great manager can do. One that leaves a legacy of a valuable squad. One that never considered short-term loans as part of his modus operandi. A team player in every sense.
We have had an elite operator for two years. The difference to what went before is stark.
I know that in 2019 we didn’t as much appoint Neil Lennon as end up with him after an unfruitful search.
So, if we’re reading the signs, there’s a chance we’ll end up with a breaker, not a builder.
I’m reading the signs and I just can’t see Brendan
Rodgers getting this gig. His interview is just noise, it’s not the sound you should be paying attention to.
“Motherwell have the momentum on Celtic, a top three finish is in no way certain”
Winning the league would almost be certain if he/they act tomorrow and appoint someone who can set up a team and give him a loanee striker, a central and right sided midfielder.
Sorry if this sounds overly simplistic, but sometimes it’s best not to overthink things.
Tictastic on 4th January 2026 12:17 pm
So, if we’re reading the signs, there’s a chance we’ll end up with a breaker, not a builder.
The only ones guilty of “breaking” celtic are still there…..
We’ll finish 5th. If we’re lucky.
Worst managerial appointment in Scottish football history.
Brought to you by the high handed, arrogant, know nothing, serial duds of Celtic plc.
We are paying our CEO the guts of 1m to sit on his hands.Time to earn that salary.
Well make it clear to them that you will not be buying their season tickets at renewal , write to Nicolson now tell him that this is what you plan to do, this ineptitude cannot go on.
Onenightinlisbon….
You are 100% correct. We are getting torn apart from those within the corridors of our club.
Celtic have banished sections of our own support.
There has never been such a disconnect between our support and the board since the days prior to Fergus McCann taking over.
I am hoping and praying that it won’t be long until we hear that “The Rebels Have Won”…..
Today’s custodians are no better than the custodians back then…
Those on here that still back the board are part of the problems that we face at this present time.
Lazy Journalism is at the very core of the problem.
The board are a shambles, firstly they refuse to back rodgers in the summer, in fact worse than that they undermine him by selling our best most productive players and then brief against hom for challenging them. They go and replace him with interim boss o’neil who somehow gets a song out of the team thinks look up, they then replace him at a critical time with nancy who rips up all the good work done and we go into freefall. All the while they attack celtic supporters, stakes holders and, share holders and show their contempt for us all.
Do they prepare for january transfer window, you know the need for a striker etc. No working away, working away, working away.
They dont like celtic supporters, they like the money they hand over each and every season. Got a feeling that particular gravey train is about to dry up.
Folk say oh but if supporters stop going and buying stuff we will lose our financial advantage etc. I ask what use is a financial advantage if its not used to improve the team? I real terms we have no financial advantage cause its bee put into a one way bank machine.
freefall
Tictastic on 4th January 2026 12:32 pm
Onenightinlisbon….
Those on here that still back the board are part of the problems that we face at this present time.
Lazy Journalism is at the very core of the problem.
100% on the ball. If you still support the board you would be as well putting on a blue scarf and singing “No surrender”….
By the looks of it Mikel Arteta is the only manager in the UK who runs the football department for his club.
He identifies the players he wants (not the position) and the club goes out and buys him…..and so far this season it’s working an absolute treat for the club. Gyorkes so far the only one not repaying his transfer fee.
Even Pep only identifies the positions he needs recruits for….but he knows Man City will go out and buy the best for those positions……
Celtic are doing then, what almost all clubs are doing now and buying players to fill positions the manager/head coach identifies……difference is is our football department responsible for this are crap.
We only look at bargain basement type players and if they’re not cheap enough then we’ll go without….hence no strikers, right mids, centre backs and so on….
If Wilf remains this will continue….the “make do” policy.
We not only need a new manager….we need one that will stand up to the penny pinching board…..someone like ….say…..Brendan Roger’s…
Any other ambitious , progressive, professionally run football club would have binned him now , if not before .
We are none of these things . Even the huns have done something to stop their bleeding while we bleed to death with Desmond and his servants looking on in defiance .
Paul 67
As good a summary of current position.
On current trajectory, we are possibly qualifying for the Conference League , which is the logical conclusion if the shitshow continues…. But it can’t, can it?
To lighten the mood , heard again from season ticket buddy that Dermot first encountered Paul Tisdale at Gavin Stratchan’s wedding , the rest is history , Paul is pals with the bloke who’s Wilfs assistant…. This is as likely a scenario as a well thought out approach / strategy ….. the Board are just sitting there taking this bollocks from the de facto owner….
Somebody needs to find the room with the big green reset button and hit it really hard.
HH
Ah The Strachan’s 3 employed at Celtic and father was a Consultant or something wonder if he is having input into stuff?
Paul 67,
But what is a credible solution ?
HH.
Ampadu a Dubliner
Think i will stop my seasom ticket and celtic shop purchases to purchase shares instead. I will be handing my proxy vote to the celtic trust. I know it will likely make little difference but if a few thousand folk did same over time a small but significant amount could be bought up. The alternative is to continie to hand over money to a board whos only interest is making themselves wealthier. They have forgotten celric is a sporting institution.
HH
No tribute to Dixie Deans yesterday……..
Why is it assumed that a top 3 finish is possible? For that to happen we would have to get better and we aren’t. On present trajectory we would be just above relegation and bottom 6 at best. Who thinks the players will start to buy into something they can’t understand? Where is the renewed confidence to come from?
The Board may be reluctant to admit a mistake but it has got to the stage that this is already priced in and every further disaster adds a new level of incompetence that they will have to shoulder. Leaving it to the end of the season would seal their fate. This is the only reason I think Nancy is already toast but that the Board is also pretty incompetent in arranging it.
I can think of only one reason this might come to pass and that is if the absentee landlord continues his hissy fit, making him look even less a mature adult than the man child in the Whitehouse. In this situation the Board would have to make a decision against him and that’s unlikely from a crowd that won’t even do a proper interview.
What can’t go on won’t go on. Or so I keep telling myself.
If WN has done nothing else he has given (almost) every Celtic fan something we can agree on. Au revoir.
Although the Board cannot read the room and seem set to sign an injured winger with 2 goals in 20 games in Israel. What’s the definition of madness again?
https://x.com/henriklubo/status/2007791138577797165?s=48&t=pLERKYVBy2vfK2Cym_B3Tw
Provoking the guy to get a reaction, to lift him
THE BADA BING on 4TH JANUARY 2026 12:53 PM
No tribute to Dixie Deans yesterday……..
….
That happened at the previous home game versus the Sheep ….
HH
You can blame the manager, or the previous manager, or the tactics, or a pre-match press conference but at some point you must face reality and call it out for what it is, and that is gross ineptitude, incompetence, and arrogance from a Board who are out of touch and out of their depth.
Everyone of the excuses offered above land at their door because they hired the individuals driving this clown bus.
It is the Board who have put in place a recruitment team, that in five transfer windows, have failed to sign a single player who can consistently impact a a game of football.
On the 2nd of January we brought in yet another “star spotter”, WHEN THE WINDOW WAS ALREADY OPEN. The guy should have been in the door months ago and it wasn’t even the club that announced it but the guy himself. This is how bad our communication has become.
We now have scouts that have been used to scouting in England’s lower leagues. NEWSFLASH: those players are in those leagues for a reason and will rarely rise above that. Meanwhile the guy that we have supposedly tracked for two years, Balikwishi, cannot beat a man or cross a ball.
The fundamentals of recruitment are broken and until that is rectified you could gave Pep in charge and nothing will change. The fact that we have a manager, who at best is struggling, or at worst out of his depth is sapping the life out of players who simply cannot grasp what he is demanding of them.
If we can wave a magic wand tomorrow and replace the Board and the manager then nothing will change as the same failed policies and practices will remain and ultimately that falls at the door of Dermot Desmond. It is him that appoints all the Quislings on the Board. If this was any of his other businesses and departments were consistently under performing, people would be shown the door but, because we have no targets or expectations other that staying an inch ahead of domestic competition then nothing will change.
I noticed the increase in our area of 107 of yet again witnssed more aggressive stewarding towards someone a few rows behind us this is really making fans feel angry and not wanted and unwelcome this season totally bizarre.
EKBhoy- so there was mate,getting old…..
To sack Nancy now, shows that the board have made a huge mistake…
Too many huge egos parked in the Directors Box for that to happen….
Wait it out until the end of the season…then the board can say that they backed him, rather than sacked him, and that it just isn’t working,…and thank him and put him on his way…
Yes….we are world class in everything that we do…apart from run a functioning football club….
Our board should be putting the best team that they can out on the football pitch…along with the best manager and coaching staff….that should be their number one priority…
They are failing in every department…
The Egos have certainly landed…
I keep telling you and will till the cows come home, it’s a planed downsizing, competition makes money, dominance doesn’t, least that’s the way the board see it.
They could have taken the European football route by strengthening when we were miles ahead and been a decent force euro wise, CL footy every year and the cash would be rolling in, but they chose the OF route instead, and trust me it WILL get way worse.
B B C 2 KYOGO coming on for BIRMINGHAM.