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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One upside to the current shambles is that Desmond is being exposed as a know nothing laughing stock, serially mocked by the huns and fans of other clubs.
“Keep the Board”!! How will his mammoth ego ever cope?
PCS @ 8:12 am.
With you all the way.
It’s a cheap, easy shot.
Faux emphasis to indicate how great one’s anger is.
Price to be paid for Paul’s brilliant blog being available to all
(As it absolutely should be)
My suggestion if i may?
Rise above it and keep posting.
PLB @ 8:12am
Interesting, genuinely.
Genuine question – yours (with a variation) straight back at you.
.. and, genuinely again, not to challenge you but to stimulate a discussion.
How will the self made billionaire’s mammoth ego ever cope?
(I’m not lauding his achievement, simply setting out what he is)
PS … discussion will form part of the ultimate resolution to this big problem.
That discussion won’t involve you and I clearly, 😉 … but no harm in us setting an example
…….
B2B
There will be no discussion between the board and the fans. They treat the whole fanbase with disdain and god forbid if anyone points out any perceived failings of the board. An olive branch will be extended when season ticket renewals are coming out, but the damage will have already been done. I have found the Green Brigade a bit self indulgent over the years, but I now have way more in common with them than I do with the people running the club.
spikeysauldmhan@2.52am
Well the Labour Party won a landslide victory, in terms of elected MPs, ergo the Labour Party formed the government. Now, you may not like the Starmer led government any more than I do, but trust me you will like any replacement a whole lot less. Presumably you also believe that we do not really have a “Celtic” Board, and yet our recent Chairman attended the 1965 Scottish Cup final as a Celtic supporting youngster. Maybe not Celtic enough for you?
I certainly will dislike Reform more – absolutely.
Will there be much of a difference tho in domestic/foreign policy ?
Not really interested in 1965 in 2025/26.
Paul the Spark @ 09:20am.
Cheers.
“There will be no discussion between the board and the fans”
Respectfully, I disagree. It WILL happen.
When? I don’t know
What will be discussed? I don’t know
What board composition? I don’t know
Which fans? I don’t know
(100% won’t be GB or anyone aligned to them)
But it will take place …
… for no other reason that it has to.
Because the alternative to it not taking place?
… is MUCH worse.
spikeysauldmhan
Funnily enough I didn’t think you would be…..
Keeping Nancy is a deliberate act of self harm. It is the concession of a league title we were raging hot favourites to win just a month ago.
This could be a year zero event for this board. Offering olive leaves in April and May come renewal time, after the league has been lost will see a big drop off in renewals.
I suspect Desmond couldn’t give a damn about that but presumably other board members think it important not to cut your biggest source of income ?
🪱🐛 🤮
An Dun, I don’t think he cares. He’ll cut the playing budget to maintain a financial profit and blame us for not taking up the tickets. However the impasse needs to be overcome.
Talking about board credentials as being attending a match in 1965 is irrelevant. I was only a yr old then.
Plus I actually put money into the club.
There are many things to talk about but the most important is the future of the manager. I agree with Alex Gordon that there is nothing in WN’s CV that suggests he can turn this around. His changes on Saturday suggest he is more committed to ideals rather than realities. Yes, nice to give our new player some game time but against rangers at that point and at the expense of moving our best player from a position in which he was dominant suggest the manager doesn’t understand what he is now part of. Nancy’s failure to change anything to counteract Rohl’s changes are another indictment. I think he has to go asap. I can only think that the best thing to do is to bring back MON and give him a couple of signings of his choosing. There are no guarantees, but I think the chances of winning the league would be increased.
Nancy’s departure should be followed by that of Paul Tisdale. And Michael Nicholson’s position is surely untenable. He should do the right thing and step down. That will do for starters.
Aberdeen and Man Utd both sack their manager?
Do these things still happen in 3s?
You wouldn’t think the Brendan Rodgers school of football management, undermining your own players, attacking your Board, would provide a template for managers at other top clubs but you would be wrong….
Enzo Maresco at Chelsea sacked, and now Ruben Amorim @ Manchester United …..sacked. Heads have rolled.
Meanwhile in the footballing Paradise of audi Arabia where Brendan now resides, the Saudis hit a new record for executions in 2025, namely a total of 356. The vast majority by decapitation.
In Saudi heads really do roll….
YegottarollwithitCSC
Amorim bagged by Man U
ILJASB on 5TH JANUARY 2026 10:12 AM
The national lottery use to have a scratch card called ‘set for life’. Basically the winner got a very generous salary for the rest of their days.
If you won that ticket, would you give it up ?
Michael Nicholson ain’t doing a DoM McKay, he ain’t walking into another CEO position on a good salary. He knows that. He ain’t giving up his lottery win.
Celtic Mac – and btw, I respect/applaud PL for all the good that he done for Celtic – and I was not great fan of BR either
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 5TH JANUARY 2026 7:14 AM
Thanks for running me through the psychology of winning and losing in football dressing rooms
Luckily to have been in or coached managed very good teams in a few decades involvement in football during which I enjoyed many more winning league and cup dressing rooms than losing
I didnt require the mansplaining
Professional footballers know life is precarious, new management in, means you could be out
Getting an agent who looks after your best interests both financially and selection of club is vitally important
Rodgers main strategy was always to get players an increase on their contracts, it made them feel valued and important
It is a unique occupation really not comparable with us PAYE workers
Getting paid for doing something you would pursue for leisure, 90 minutes of excitement, what an adrenaline rush, no wonder retired top pros struggle after their playing career is over, it just can’t be matched in any other occupation
All the sitting round the campfire signing we love you Celtic may mean everything to you, players applaud at the end, sometimes its due to being directed to do that either by the manager or the captain, its not high on my list of importance
I stayed to the end on Saturday left in an orderly way, lots of unhappy Celtic fans all over the stadium who let their feelings and emotions out, I wasn’t one of them but I understood them and did not judge
And another thing what’s with all this talk of Brother Wilfried “losing the dressing room”?
Didn’t seem to have any trouble finding it after the final whistle on Saturday…..
CELTIC MAC on 5TH JANUARY 2026 10:19 AM
Israel is committing a genocide in Palestine, ICJ and the UN have judged that dreadful war crimes have been committed, thousands of innocent Palestinians many of them children, Celtic deem it fit to do business In Israel
Celtic have just signed an American coach, we did/do business with the biggest warmongering country on the planet
Who sells all their arms to Saudi Arabia ?
The UK has sold over £9.5 billion in arms to the Saudi-led coalition since the Yemen conflict began in 2015, with total estimated values exceeding £33.9 billion including open licenses. Key exports include Typhoon/Tornado jets and Paveway bombs used in Yemen. The US has similarly massive, long-term defense deals, including a 2025 agreement for $142 billion in weapons and technology. Despite court rulings challenging the legality of these sales due to humanitarian concerns, the UK government has continued to authorize them.
Luke McCowan should have done a CalMac.
Naive CSC
Yep,as the Tangerine Terror recently said”We are locked and loaded.
God help us all.
Brighten up the misery.Have read at E- Tims,this morning.
Here’s part of The Athletic’s column on Amorim’s departure from Man Utd;
The countdown started on Saturday when Amorim admitted the 3-4-3 system he’d been sticking to with bloody-minded stubbornness wasn’t clicking, and nor did he have the players to make it click (prompting the question of why he was sticking with it). At Leeds, he went much further with a stream of petulant comments, hinting at serious friction behind the scenes.
Sound familiar?
B2B @8.43am
I honestly can’t predict how he’ll respond. I only know that his next action will be driven by how he thinks it best protects his self-image of master of all he surveys. Sticking with Nancy most likely but it risks continuing mockery and humiliation.
And all available evidence indicates he’s losing his cool like never before; eg Rodgers statement, nepo baby statement at AGM.
lionroars67 on 5th January 2026 10:41 am
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 5TH JANUARY 2026 7:14 AM
Thanks for running me through the psychology of winning and losing in football dressing rooms
——–
LR67 – cheers.
Hmm. Suggestion
Why don’t we go with some honesty here?
You don’t really mean “thanks” do you?
More likely you feel patronised?
Fair enough. Free country.
Your emotional response to own.
I’ll make a concession publicly and easily.
You have greater experience in a football dressing room environment than I do.
There. Happily conceded. Wasn’t difficult.
I have never been in a football dressing room where money (beyond chump change expenses for a chosen few) and livelihoods were at stake.
That post of mine you referred to?
Respectfully, have a look at it again.
It wasn’t about an environment you know and I don’t (the professional football dressing room)
It was about human beings in dreadfully difficult professional circumstances … and what they are feeling (like e.g. Luke McCowan)
One doesn’t need to know the details of how hellish it is to understand it IS hellish.
As for fans booing at full time?
You think I’m being judgemental.
Fair enough.
You’re probably partly correct.
Do I think booing is totally understandable?
Absolutely.
Do I think it makes humans we purport to love (yes “love”) perform worse on the pitch than they otherwise would?
Even more absolutely.
So, am I suggesting supporters take some responsibility to look at this logically
… even while this horrendous situation is killing us inside …
… And to suppress a perfectly understandable instinctive response
… to provide a sliver of benefit to our team?
Yes I am.
Hail hail
People often fall into this trap because party politics is presented as a dramatic clash of opposing ideologies, which obscures the deeper, often bipartisan, consensus on core actions.
Voters get caught up in the style of governance, the Tories’ belligerence versus Labour’s diplomacy, mistaking this theatrical rivalry for a genuine choice on the fundamental outcome.
The system rewards amplifying these stylistic differences, so parties focus on selling their distinct flavor of the same policy, letting the predetermined, shared end goal proceed regardless of who is in power.
Thus, the electorate is left arguing over the volume and tone of the announcement, while the march to war continues unabated.
Pay attention.
PLB @ 11:21 – cheers.
“And all available evidence indicates he’s losing his cool like never before; eg Rodgers statement, nepo baby statement at AGM”
Yip. No argument here.
I suspect most of us on here have had broad enough life experience to give us some confidence at interpreting people and events even if just generally.
I’ll concede to having almost no reference point here.
I have never (knowingly) spent time in the company of a self made billionaire.
Also, I have never (knowingly) spent time in the company of a self made billionaire’s middle aged son.
I’ll guess though … that the prisms through which they see things are quite different.
(Which might be a factor in the healing that needs to happen at some point)
DD ?
I’ll try (and likely fail) to put myself in his shoes for a minute.
(It’s all guesswork, Dermot so please keep the lawyers away from me ! )
Not a committee man.
Governance and Organisational Behaviour is primarily an evolutionary consequence of my initial success.
“I didn’t get where I am today by …”
… and all that
Celtic managers?
I’ve jumped in twice and got the right man
– Martin
– Brendan (yes, both times Dermot)
.. so I know what I’m doing and am unafraid to make the big decisions.
Plus, the shares in Celtic we know he owns?
£68 million. That fact is not going away.
Plus …
He was 50 when he got us MON
55 when he underwrote the 2005 share issue
But is now 75 years old.
Entirely possible he’s thinking
Sod this for a game of soldiers. I’ve had a hard life and sacrificed a lot. I want to enjoy my life a bit more.
(Steps back outside the guy’s shoes here)
I’m not defending or criticising him.
Merely interpreting a factor that actually CAN just be blithely despised on line … but doing so brings us no closer to a resolution.
new article posted.
B2B
I dare say you’re right. I have assumed similar. Desmond has certainly been good for Celtic at significant moments. However, I believe the COVID season poisoned his view of the support (they were right, he was in the wrong – self-made billionaires only think they’re infallible).
This season’s judgements are inexplicable if you want Celtic to succeed. They are more explicable if you want to make the supporters suffer. Many people approaching the end get to the Don’t Give a Fuck stage. Some are more inclined to that attitude than others – perhaps self-made billionaires amongst them.
Brings me back to it. Only appeals to his ego can save us now, certainly not concern for the support which he clearly despises.
Best all round that he departs stage left and enjoys his final years without the hassle and we can thank him for his significant contribution. But will his ego allow it?
Long time no post but still read, with extreme ad interference diffulty.
Those of the long tooth who refer ‘been following Celtic for x years ‘ are as wide of the mark as the years they quote. The time supporting depends on how young you were and how old you are. It does not make your ‘credentials’ any better than a lhad of 20 who has been going for 15 years.
As for Burnley 78 … I’ve been going longer than his number and Brian Wilson, an NED for twenty years- shouldn’t happen- does not a Celtic Chairman make.
Not a penny more, WN sacked, the vast majority of the board quit and we might get somewhere
The anger/angst is not entitlement, it’s due to £80 million in bank and no striker, wingers or full backs replaced.
I waited eight years before I saw us win a trophy and still loved every minute.
Now… I go to my local CSC and watch the games.
Hubris P67, hubris Sir. You reap what you sow.
lionsroar67@10.55
Wilfried is er French….works in Scotland, having previously worked in Canada and the USA
Brendan works in and for a Saudi Arabian State owned Football Club
In a country where that self-same State executes prisoners on a daily basis….
YegottarollwithitCSC