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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Mackay Stevens uses wash and go…he would last five minutes in a Celtic top…
THE EXILED TIM
GMS can play on either win and higher up with the strikers if needed, would be ideal for us, he can play, better than derk that’s for sure.
Likely wages would be much lower as well.
joe filippis haircut
10:23 on 2 January, 2015
CORRECT ….it’s bad enough knowing we are being shafted, but would incredible if a Celtic Board remained silent when the SPFL official spokesman knowingly misrepresents the truth, and does so in a corrupt manner……..
PEDROCARAVANACHIO67
Indeed he was-and looking rather fetching too,I thought!
starry plough
Ever seen this?? I thought the Joe hart one was bad enough
http://youtu.be/hCHubmYUzhQ
BMCUWP’s
Naw, I’m sure he was there.
United and Aberdeem don’t have the squad, one or two injuries and that’s them feked, they are not even close to being a league winning team in any country in Europe.
Lotsa Tims scared in here, not me we will pish this league, along with the SLC and the SC and I’m not going out on a limb here we are way better than any of them in every department
If any thing I would like to be a wee bit more cuter, or as they say here flyer .
tonydonnelly67
10:52 on 2 January, 2015
Your viewpoint on Doncaster’s statement is strange, to say the least …….and, in agreeing with you on most of your views, I have to say you are sounding like one of the ‘we want them back, history and all’ brigade ?
Gordon-j backing Neil Lennon
10:11
The Three bears are only going to find what Nash and Wallace found.Onerous contracts.
These have got to be rid of,for the Three Bears and the South African Liar to move the pariah club forward.Only liquidation will do it,hence the lies and nonsense from Doncaster yesterday.IMO.
Inter.
Milan media claiming that Inter and Arsenal have reached an agreement re Inter taking Podolski on loan.Reportedly he will have the medical tests etc tomorrow..Inter still being linked with a long list of players.Mancini still being quoted as wanting 3/ 4 players.Media still punting the line that winning the Europa League is the only way Inter can qualify for next season’s Champions League.
pedrocaravanachio67
Of all people, surely you know best!
;-)
HH jamesgang
Robert88
Brilliant:))
The clamour for GMS every time he plays a decent game for Utd kinda says to me that not many of us really want us to develop our own young players and bring them through. It seems now too many of us myself included want instant success under a new manager if we sign another “winger” I swear I’ll eat my CQN beanie, get a tough tackling ball passing midfield collosuss to get this fecking team moving in the right direction…
CELTICROLLERCOASTER
Dropping three points against Dundee Utd was largely due to mibbery-and bad defending,admittedly.
Ross Co? Ffs,but it happens.
Plus a postponement.
That’s one point which should have been seven while Aberdeen have taken nine.
A blip,but one we cannot afford to repeat too often.
A few weeks back,the English press were talking about Chelsea as The New Invincibles.
Not so now. Poor wee run and Man City have caught them. Pretty sure Mourinho’s position is still safe,and that he has the full support of the fans too.
So it should be with us and RD. If Celtic dump a highly-rated young European coach due to perceived failure-still in the cups,top of the table,in Europe after Christmas-we will be repeating the mistake Rangers made with Le Guen.
They were toxic overseas after that,and left with a pool of Rangers-type candidates.
I still don’t think he should have been appointed,but we have to back him. And that ‘we’ includes the board.
Anyone in East Kilbride, there’s a hailstorm from hell heading your way, it just dumped on Castlemilk there WOOFT.
Firstly, very hoooopy 18th miss Doc (Rachel)
Hail Hail
Jamesgang
I’m convinced, he was there….
I was sober, hadn’t had a drink before arriving ( well in to the afternoon ).
I was observing someone close to our group, observing our group….
Someone a wee bit incognito :-)
67heaven … i am neil lennon ….the angels are with wee oscar in heaven.. ibrox belongs to the creditors
You don’t even know how far off the mark you are, I’ve refused my ticket for the semis, and vowed NEVER to watch that team at Celtic Park they cheated and should not even be in ANY Scottish football Park,
Hope that cleared that up for You?
BMCUWP, greetings
We will remain in 2nd or 3rd for most of January due to the fixtures ( some of it our doing).
It’s going to be a roller coaster :-)
HH
CRC
Starry plough,
There’s one thing we don’t need to sign and that’s another striker, i keep seeing links to all these strikers.
I’m not sure about the midfield and who we would sign or if its required, I’m more concerned about the back four, and what will happen with say Denayer and possibly Virgil in the summer. I know people dislike Efe but he has his attributes, He could do a job if we decided to play as 3-5-2 dare i say it, as a sweeper. He has the pace and can play the ball out of the back.
Miffed .
Hercules on the blog. Immediately think of the great Aaron Neville choon – Hercules (Mercury 7 ” ) Want to give it a spin – cant – aint at home .Bummer..
Off oot to the flics – Turner.Hope it justifies the reviews.
I think it’s great that we seem to have a competitive league race this season, shuts up the doom and gloom merchants who pine for the dead club.
Celtic were always going to slip closer to the pack this season as we are at the beginning of what will be a transition period where there will be a large turnaround of players over three or four transfer windows.
In saying that our points total at this stage is remarkably similar to previous four seasons with the exception of last season. After 18 games we have 39 points, previous four seasons we’ve had 48, 37, 40 & 41.
The biggest difference this season is Aberdeen and DU have significantly more points than previous four seasons after 19 games. Aberdeen on 40 points compared to 35, 27, 20 & 17 previously. DU on 37 points compared to 32, 25, 22 & 26 previously.
So it’s the vast improvement in Aberdeen and DU, more than Celtic being significantly worse that’s contributed to the competitiveness of the league this season.
pedrocaravanachio67
Was he a big handsome dude ?
Td67
Are you confident in RD having the team playing to the correct tactics to win, and get us back on top ?
Me I’m not convinced to date, and we can all state statistics, mines 72% success so far in league, drastic improvement needed, and we’ve been saying that from CL Qualifiers
Hail Hail
CowieBhoy, Miss Doc says thanks ya Roaster:-)
I added the bit at the end on:-)
R88
Aye, even a fat bassa like me would be better than Derk :)
Strange one is Derk, he looked the biz for half an hour, then got injured, a game against D Utd I think, I recall him looking like he was terrified to get the ball, he knew he would be taken out, and the ref would do sfa, which brings me to my main gripe about our suits.
I want them to address the cheating referees, at the end of the day, we know that they will say sfa about the hun, they are saying sfa about the blatent corruption, not that I expected them to, but the protection of our players should be parramount.
Rememebr when the hun were doing their 9iar, and how they always got papped out of europe, and the smsm keep saying that they needed competition in scotland, total pish, they kept getting humped in europe because the refereeing was fair and unbiased.
Sort the referees, sort the problem.
HH
pedrocaravanachio67
That would be intriguing.
Or mibbe focus had their own version of serpico on the case!
Aff in Timdom. My dad’s arrived.
HH jamesgang
Gary67
You are right, for the first time in a lonnnnnnnnng time yesterday, I looked at another SPFL’s forthcoming fixtures.
THE EXILED TIM
It was his debut against Ross county, first game of the season, fell over on the line! off before half time.
that wont happen, the only thing that would work is if refs came from other countries to officiate every week. similar to Europe.
Happy birhday to the wonderful miss Doc. Have a cracking day.
Hail Hail sister
Doncaster has just started the softening up act.
I’ve been told by a couple of people that a Realrangers was being developed in the background to enable true rangers men control of a rangers club.
I’d heard that this could possibly involve buying out an existing SPFL member and that collusion had taken place at SFA/SPFL level.
The SFA’s block on MA increasing shareholding and Doncaster’s prepared statement could be seen as part of this. This excellent post on TSFM would lend considerable support to that argument. Crash the bus. Dump the onerous contracts. Same club. Same Ground. Gullibles part with their cash again to support real rangers.
HirsutePursuit says:
January 2, 2015 at 10:35 am
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Danish Pastry says:
January 2, 2015 at 8:51 am
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HirsutePursuit says:
January 2, 2015 at 1:07 am
38 2 Rate This
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Fascinating @HP.
If the Ashley camp maintains boardroom control, though (the SoS seem to think that camp will), it still holds all the aces.
The three bears don’t have enough clout yet, surely. Wouldn’t there need to be others willing to step up and buy out other investors? Thing is, if Laxey were powerless to effect change, — and they must have had some allies — what can these well-meaning bears achieve, even with more getting on board? They seem more honey bear than grizzly, so far
=====================================================
Laxey do not have Rangersitus and would not put in sufficient funds to take overall control. Funnily enough, Laxey’s MO is to do exactly what big Mike has done: namely, provide minimal investment to leverage maximum boardroom control.
Most independent shareholders will, when pressed, support the largest shareholder block in a company because it traditionally creates the most stability. This is why 30% is seen as the tipping point for having effective control.
The 3 bears currently hold around 20% of the shareholding. Big Mike and the Easedales collectively control around 36%. The largest block have effective control.
However, there is just about to be a 2 for 1 offer to existing shareholders. The 3 bears have offered to underwrite the new share issue in its entirety.
Assume that Big Mike and the Easedale block take up their full allocation – they still only control 36% of the company. If the 3 amigos sweep up the rest, they will have 37% of the company. I have heard (but do not know if true) that Artemis are amenable to selling out – but in any case, there are bits and pieces that could be picked up to take the bears total shareholding close to or even over the 50% mark.
After the share issue, the 3 bears will control the largest block of shares and will effectively control the company.
With the SFA’s ownership restriction in place and Neil Doncaster’s intervention made, I don’t think there is a lot that big Mike or the Easedales can do to prevent the 3 bears crashing the bus. If that is what they are so minded to do.
Robert88
I like Efe, his speed is his greatest attribute and I think he can still do a job for us despite the fashion of him being this years scapegoat, I have a feeling we can tie Denayer up for another year, Virgil will go if Ronny can’t persuade him to stay.The slagging that the Bhoy gets on here for being a good young prospect is embarrassing but then again it doesn’t do to be confident in the West Of Scotland:))
A lot of talk of Kris Common’s goals last year but Efe was also part of a record breaking defence?? Where did it all fall down this year, different tactics for sure, injuries too and the readjustment that it takes under a new coach, I think Efe is one who can make the transition what worries me is that we are into January and I am still not sure what our best team is:))
HH
R88
His debut was against RC, the game I was thinking about was against DU at Tanadice, he was taken out a few times, each was a stonewall yellow, one I recall wasn’t even given as a foul, hence he looked terrified to get the ball.
HH
tonydonnelly67
11:19 on 2 January, 2015
That’s why I was so surprised…..your views on the orc hoardes is the same as mine….!!!
Surely it is, therefore, totally unacceptable to allow this ‘lie’ to persist, since we must do all we can to ‘cleanse’ Scottish Football …… teams like Hearts would not have been allowed back , had they been liquidated ….. and every other team in the Country is successfully managing their way through the recession etc …. Why the fluke should that mob of Neanderthals be guided ‘back in’ ……it’s an absolute joke and we need to ensure the myth is ‘exploded’..
Finally, what is PL’s view …… .
starry plough
New manager and new ideas, its a big shift for the players.
Its similar to spurs, my mate is a spurs fan and Pocchetino has had lots of trouble transforming how they play, eg high pressing at Southanpton, spurs just don’t have those type of players and are adapting, hence their very indifferent form, in Europe as well they have been dross but managed to get through.
RD is having these issues in adaption with the current crop and bringing in his own type of players.
cowiebhoy
I’ve never been more confident in my life as I am now, Celtic win in a canter, league will be over by the middle of March.
BCW
Naw
I’ve met some brilliant people from this site, all different, but brilliant nevertheless.
People post on here, we like and identify what we read and see a bit of that in ourselves. So we do something about it. There have been 4 or 5 hootenanny’s, there’s 5 asides, a pre scottish cup knees up ( the onesie night ), golf events, CQTEN and now 11. There has been loads of charity work incorporated into the above and also separate.
There have been posters assisting each other, when going abroad or family going abroad….midfield maestro and Tom McLaughlin / Doc and Awe naw to name a few examples.
We have became a community in Celtic and most of us wear our hearts on our sleeves.
Why do I mention all this…..
Well, one guy comes on here, and the only time he posts is to further his anti independence agenda…..it’s boring and it doesn’t fit with all of the above.
I’ve rambled on and noo am aff oot.
pedrocaravanachio67
11:17 on 2 January, 2015
Jamesgang
I’m convinced, he was there….
I was sober, hadn’t had a drink before arriving ( well in to the afternoon ).
I was observing someone close to our group, observing our group….
Someone a wee bit incognito :-)
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Wisnae me….!
Ayrshire is Green and White