2014 saw Celtic win their third consecutive league title, but we didn’t reach either cup final. A period of significant change got underway during the summer when we said farewell to Neil Lennon.
Neil took over from Tony Mowbray, his first managerial appointment after working with the Youths at Lennoxtown. His first season was the one that got away. Defeat at Inverness with the title within their grasp, Walter Smith’s Rangers took their third successive title against the third difference Celtic manager.
Three months into the next season, Celtic were 10 points behind a Whyte-McCoist inspired Rangers, but that was overcome, with interest, by Christmas. Celtic went on to win the league by 20 points, although 10 of them were as a penalty for Rangers incurring an insolvency event.
Thereafter it was plan sailing for Neil. He never looked back in the league and reached the Champions League group stage twice, progressing to the knock-out stage on the first occasion. He learned the managerial ropes at Celtic and did enough in his four years here to establish himself as a European-class manager. He was our third unqualified success in four appointments.
By this summer it was evidence to all, including Neil, that significant rebuilding was needed. The job was handed to Ronny Deila.
Ronny’s first challenge came in the Champions League qualifiers in the form of Legia Warsaw. Despite the record books showing Celtic progressed after a 3-0 default home win, Legia wiped the floor with Celtic home and away. Celtic looked like a team of strangers, unfamiliar with the system they were asked to play.
That was, of course, true, the system was unfamiliar, but it’s execution was miscalculated, the on-field results were deserved. The Champions League playoff round against Maribor was unusual inasmuch as Celtic dominated the away first leg and deserved more than the 1-1 draw, but the Slovenians arrived in Glasgow with their game face on. Celtic were outplayed and out of the Champions League.
Things slowly got better, although home performances against Motherwell (by my measure the worst) and Hamilton Accies (who were impressive), and latterly Ross County indicated there is still a long way to go.
Ronny’s Celtic found their feet in the Europa League, where they finished second behind a very accomplished Salzburg. The away performances against Salzburg and Astra gave an insight into how things could be for this Celtic team.
It was, to say the least, disappointing not to qualify for the Champions League. It denied the club millions of pounds and shaded our trump card in to be used in attracting players, but in reality we’re not a Champions League team this season. The Europa’ gave us an opportunity to play European football on our level, pick up coefficient points and extended interest after Christmas (if you’re young this won’t mean much, if you’re my age, you’ll recall this being our Holy Grail).
Inter Milan await in the next round. They are also going through a rebuilding exercise and are as vulnerable to lesser-resourced teams as Celtic – so unlike Juventus two years ago – we have a sporting chance.
The tactical direction of the club is visibly distinct from what went before Ronny. Is this a good thing? Probably. Neil Lennon and his players over-achieved in their first Champions League season on a scale it’s difficult to measure. That squad had no right to reach the levels they did; theirs was a herculean effort. Play Matthews at left back, alongside a central pair of Wilson and Ambrose. Put Miku up front, with Mulgrew and Ledley in the middle – then go beat Barcelona. It was beyond impossible.
Barca, Ajax and Milan were prepared for Celtic last season; we finished bottom, out of ideas and direction on that stage. We needed to change, same again wasn’t going to wash.
Ronny’s played a high-pressing game, mostly with players who are unaccustomed to the demands of this game-plan. This has been a mistake on several occasions, most notably against Legia and Maribor. He’s working on player fitness, but in all likelihood it will take the next two transfer windows before he can craft the squad into the shape he wants it to be.
We’re halfway through the season and, with Aberdeen playing before us tomorrow, there’s a chance they could go top of the table, for a couple of hours, anyway. That’s not good enough, by any measure. Notwithstanding the revamp, we should have done better in the Champions League qualifiers and we should be further ahead in the league, but the fundamentals remain intact:
We needed to start post-Neil Lennon with a new tactical strategy.
Trying hard not to be disrespectful to Aberdeen, but we’re going to win the league.
We’re in both cup competitions.
We remain in the Europa League.
I was happy with the direction we took in appointing Ronny Deila and remain so. The problems of the last six months could be classified as First World Problems. We’ll get over them, while others watch on from the Other Worlds.
Have a Happy Celtic New Year, strap in and enjoy the ride, I promise it’ll be a great one.
Sale on at CQNBookstore, fill your stockings.
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Celtic are set to sign two Spanish players
in the January window.
Striker Don Quixote and midfield dynamo Sancho Panza
Tilting at giant windmills are their forte.
BCW
yes very
Lets start at the beginning. You said the board gambled witb RD. I agreed with you. I then asked if you think this is good custodianship ?
So do you ?
HH
Bcw
CC awe naw
A genius suggestion!
The previous blog chapter becomes the venue for the ‘square go’.
FightclubCSC
But seriously Ghuys. No idea what the contretemps is about but surely tonight more than ever all good Tims need to stand together.
And I know you’re both good Tims.
HH jamesgang
Doc
22:17 on 1 January, 2015
Sandman, Doncaster is not only an interloper.
He is CEO of the SPFL, and as such his statements have the weight of that office.
He runs the league we play in.
=====================================
Yeah, not for long. There is no ‘weight’ to that office; it’s laughable – NOTHING they have initially proposed since the Zombies committed hari-kari has come to fruition; always, the other clubs/supporters groups have dictated the way forward.
We are the most powerful club; Doncaster and his likes are Ogilvie’s bitches but the very most they can do is taunt and attempt to draw Celtic on their haverings by causing friction among the fanbase. It’s very weak strategy.
When there’s REAL business to be done, Celtic will slap them into line. And they will sit in their corners like good little fingerbobs. ain’t that right, Neil?
Remember – the Huns re-started in division 3, not the top, despite the logic and scaremongering of Doncaster and Regan. Division 3. Where we wanted them to be.
Our determination, NOT Ogilvie’s, not Regan’s and certainly not K.D Lang’s.
The Celtic mindset, our way, no longer their way, laid down Fergus: ‘Not one thin dime…’
gordon64
They’re 40?!?
Moantae grips Gordy, there was me thinking Lubo was old when we got him!
HH jamesgang
‘The cheats’ are the SFA ……
OLDTIM
I’ve said it before,I’m amazed at the number of posters on this site whose opinions of the board have turned negative over the years.
To the extent that many no longer renew their Season Tickets.
If the board really believe that everything is due to the absence of Rangers,therefore everything will be for be and dandy when they return,then they really have no place in running Celtic.
I hope you renew,mate. More importantly,I hope Celtic don’t give you reasons not to.
Happy New Year,btw.
BCW
I am an hour ahead and have an early rise tomorrow. I will bookmark this page snd catch up with you next time I am on the blog.
HH
the glorious balance sheet:
And that, in a nutshell, is the point, right there.
If this is allowed to stand then there’s nothing to stop The Three Bears or whatever fairytale characters are involved with that club next from simply ignoring their debts, running them up to the ceiling and then stiffing all the creditors and starting again.
Furthermore, if the league’s position is that the club is the same, what does that mean to employment law for its players? Should we expect a PFA statement? What does it mean for commercial contracts? Do they survive?
If this is allowed to stand, our entire strategy, whether you agree with the fine points of it or not, our last few years of struggling on only spending what we earn … what was the point of any of it? We could have ditched prudence and chased the dream.
His statements are outrageous. They cast serious doubt on whether football integrity even exists in Scottish football anymore.
Silence is acquiescence. He is speaking for our club today, as he is for all the clubs in the SPFL, and I do not believe he had a mandate to do it. We are fully entitled – in fact, as a PLC we are LEGALLY OBLIGED – to seek clarity on those remarks, because they have a profound influence on the enivornment in which we operate.
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo
22:21 on 1 January, 2015
Petec,
He might not even survive that our bored will ditch him if ST sales plummet. They are that myopic. DD never wanted him as a number one in fact neither did PL.
HH
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have no idea about anything at Celtic Park. I’ve never claimed to know anything and I’m comfortable about that.
I believe in the Big Guy up above and if you look into things it is amazing how amazing stories transpire. Look at the unlucky Jose tonight, what a sore loser…an interpreter as well.
Celtic is a lot more than a Football club.
ST sales are going down but I reckon RT nailed it correctly.
FWIIW, I don’t feel comfortable being superior, especially in this day and age.
the glorious balance sheet
22:23 on 1 January, 2015
=====================
I belive it’s better for us if we let them keep digigng until they’re so far down they’re beyond daylight and we can quit their corrupt gig. I don’t see logic or capital for Celtic in highlighting their failure. Use it when we need to, and get out of Scotland.
Jamesgang
I’ve just suggested that.
How about it Awe Naw.
It’s probably something to do with those high levels of debate you demand lol, but I’m struggling to make sense of what you are writing at times……..a little incoherent, inconstant and repetitious……..
Sandman, I’m usually an optimist when it comes to Celtic.
I am worried tonight, Doncaster’s position is as the voice of our League.
It carries weight, he may not.
I do believe Celtic are working behind the scenes, but sometimes front and centre is where action is needed.
This is one of those times.
I hope you are right though.
Aiden Bhoy
Good to see you back on and posting, hope you an the family had a great Festive period :-)
Now, why are we Celtic supporters allowing external forces to influence how we feel about our club ?
We all know the Truth – they were Liquidated, end off
What I do feel is our Board seriously needs a response to ensure our fans can get back behind our Great Club 100%
They are not helping the huge dissatisfaction being felt by our Supporters, which is having an impact on our crowds. And that should be a major concern for them
Forget the bigoted pound, and get the Green pound back on board, it’s worth much much more
Hail Hail
dena29
22:19 on 1 January, 2015
goodnight Timland
not a happy clapper :-(((
pullyourfingeroutpetecsc
HH
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
OK
;))
sandman
22:14 on 1 January, 2015
Aiden Bhoy
21:57 on 1 January, 2015
Sandman
Ha! Ha! Now you mention it, he does have the look of a ladies prison inmate.
Getawayfrommycarpetcfc
Sandman
22:14
Hearts and Dunfermline would have been goners,just like Gretna.Rules for 42 senior clubs the same .Don,t think so .Clean sport is all we are asking for and we have not got one.This has the potential for football lovers up and down the land to walk away forever.
Often found it curious how John Reid left shortly before the Hun explosion.My guess is that he would have called out the lot of them,Ogilvy,Doncaster,Bryson,SDM,Green and the rest.
You see he would not of lost a seconds sleep over potential so called Loyalist threats,cos he was used to getting them off the real ones.I suited DD for him to leave IMO
Sandman
21:23 on
1 January, 2015
Hi-diddle-dee-dee(tis an actors life for me)
19:12 on 1 January, 2015
The game was up when, Aberdeen fans came to Celtic Park and waved a banner stating – “Your Silence is Deafening!”
This was after the LNS verdict.
If I was an Aberdeen fan at that time, I would have thought that with Celtic FC’s silence that, the O## F### was alive and well and that, one side was as corrupt as the other.
Would I have been wrong to think that?
Not been on for a while – Happy New Year to all on CQN.
=============================================
Happy new Year to you.
And yes, you have been WRONG to think that.
By making any proclamation on the fortunes of the Penny Dreadful, Celtic PLC would associate themselves with that murder of eternal losers across the city.
The financial markets, whose mercy any PLC is at, wouldn’t react well to Celtic couching themselve in some petty, parochial points-scoring exrecise to pander to the particular egotistical needs of a few needy supporters.
Better that Celtic act like the grown-up professional organistation they need to be, and give NO recognition to the festering comic-tragedy in Govan.
The same supporters who demand a statement of irrelevance from Celtic about the current Zombie incarnation are the same supporters who bleat long and loud about Celtic even mentioning them in ticketing/fixtures; if only they could do irony…
===================
For clarity: The reason that Celtic said nothing at the time is simple. The legal advice given to the SPL was that there were no grounds for appeal. Celtic had no basis to say anymore than they did.
However since then it appears there is a case that the legal advice given to SPL was wrong because it was based on all ebts under consideration being legal. The early ones that also had side letters not divulged to the SFA (or HMRC for that matter which is what enabled HMRC to bill Rangers for them in 2011 although the tax years were 2000/01/02 and outside the normal six year collection limit) were illegal or irregular to use the same term as LNS.
This has been pointed out to the SPFL Board and the SPFL lawyers, who were unable to refute the argument that LNS got it wrong and subsequently passed it over to the SFA where the matter now lies unanswered for now.
Awe_Naw
I’d humbly suggest that someone who demand a higher level of debate, is a little more than an hour ahead……….
See that bookmark thingumy will it find an example of “slander” or do you have problems with the definition ?
Doc
21:44 on 1 January, 2015
AidenBhoy, that really is what I was getting at.
If he has spoken out of turn, he has to go, when this first broke earlier I said his position has to be untenable.
If this has been done with the backing of the clubs, all of them, not singling Celtic out, then the games a bogey.
—- It will be for mr
Donkey is either endorsed by the clubs or they call him out we’ll see.
It will break my heart but i cannot be party to it.
DOC
If his statement was sanctioned,I agree things are worse than I thought.
If no action is taken against him-or at least proposed-I’ll have to assume that to be the case.
Sad,innit? The contortions our great leaders perform to keep a minority happy. While ignoring the majority,blithely assuming they have no way of objecting.
Most commercial failures are a result of taking for granted the customer base. Scottish football is just following a well-trodden path.
As,sadly,are Celtic.
Supporting a football club is not rational.
It requires blind faith and allegiance.
To attribute rational debate is therefore nonsensical.
Mr SpockCSC
It will be for mr= for me
stevie g to leave liverpool in may.
James Forrest
22:31 on 1 January, 2015
Silence is acquiescence.
====================
Or, it’s refusing to acknowledge idiocy/lunatic rantings.
There’s been a dozen points ove rthe past few years where statements from Celtic have been called for, at least.
If Celtic had been moved to make a statement at every demented pronouncement like Doncaaster’s latest fantasies, there would be at least a dozen statements from Celtic dpoing the rounds; it would make us look amateurish, knee-jerk and a million miles for the professional organisation we nee dto be to even attempt to rub shoulders in the big bad world of top-level football.
It would make us look like the Huns.
I would argue that Celitc’s silence is NOT acquiescence – it is percipience.
Evening Timland from a freezing hun free mountain valley.
If the Doncaster statement is not challenged, then we will know 100% that all the clubs are in on the con.
I wonder what Ms Budge thinks just now !!!
It’s ok to stiff all your creditors is the call here.
This on the day I was given some shares in the club as a pressie.
HH
Well done to Partick Thistle for donating their food stuff that would have been sold at game today to homeless charity
Gerrard moving to US soccer…
Leftclick, many will be left with a decision to make. It’s shocking.
BMCUWP’s, it is sad.
CowieBhoy, what if Celtic are complicit in this lie?
Sandman, silence really isn’t an option for Celtic, not this time.
And I haven’t been looking for one ’til now.
Testing time ahead for our Club.
Sandman:
I think this time is different. Doncaster is speaking as the head of the SPFL on which our club is a board member. Even if we weren’t, he is laying this lunacy at our door whether we like it or not.
This isn’t going looking for a fight, or inventing a controversy.
This is getting our ducks in a row. This is living up to the responsibilities we owe not only our own shareholders but the other stakeholders in the game, the other clubs.
Every club in the country should be taking a similar stand here.
Understand this, I am not suggesting for one second that Doncaster has been sanctioned to do this. It’s my firm belief that he, like Regan during “Armageddon” is simply running off at the mouth and putting his own ridiculous view front and centre.
But today he stated that this is the OFFICIAL POLICY of the league.
I don’t think the board at Celtic Park will be anything other than raging about that. Because I don’t believe that it IS the policy of the league … because the league is the member clubs and not just one man.
He had no damned right to tie us to the club rattling the tin cup. None. And I don’t believe it would be out of order for us to say that.
THE EXILED TIM
Congratulations on becoming a shareholder.
ACGR will see you at the AGM!
I’m assuming all those who are up in arms about Doncaster’s statement today, and looking to boycott season tickets, adopted the morale high ground when we played AC Milan , Juve and will do similar for Inter game.
Not saying I agree with Doncaster’s comments, but they don’t irk me enough to withdraw my support, and I am actually more concerned with our current form.
LeftClick, you and I will always be part of this club.
Thats a prediction.f
But I have concerns tonight.
Cowiebhoy
Future brother in law a bit under the weather today your daughter getting the blame.
BCW
See my last post.
Very clear. No typing mistakes.
30 posts later and still no answer from you. No need for 30 posts. That is what I mean about a higher level of debate. One post would have sufficed about your assertion that our custodians have taken a gamble and whether it is good custodianship or not.
I genuniely dont see the difficulty.
Goodnight All.
HH
JAMES FORREST
Correct. And the clubs must instigate disciplinary proceedings because of it.
Or be seen to be complicit in the statement being made,and in agreement with its content.
AWENAW
I genuinely smiled at yer wee typo there!
Oh for the good old days of you and I battling to out-pedant each other,just for a laugh…
BobbyM
I will be there for sure.
HH