2015 saw Celtic win our fourth consecutive league title, a feat achieved only twice before in our history: 1908 and 1969. The 1908 win came during Willie Maley’s team’s imperious 10 titles in 13 seasons. The 1969 win, by one of our greatest teams, preceded our second run to the 1970 European Cup final, where we lost to Feyenoord in Milan.
It was only on reflection that we realised 1970 was a turning point for Celtic. Jock Stein’s teams eliminated the champions of Italy, Portugal and England that season, a far more testing journey than the team of 1966-67 endured. Until that point, only Celtic and Real Madrid outside those three countries had won the European Cup, but Martin O’Neill would be manager the next time Celtic eliminated a team from what we now know as Europe’s major five leagues.
We knew nothing of that in 1970. Indeed, Celtic won a further four consecutive league titles, but others were laying better foundations. Our model was copied, improved upon, and eventually rendered irrelevant. Celtic travelled to Milan for that European Cup final in 1970 with the whole of Europe expecting to them win. We were the top team in Europe, clearly heading in the right direction. Or so it was thought.
The reality was that we were facing the wrong direction, we just didn’t know it.
There are parallels between 1970 and now. Four in a row is appreciated by those of us who craved a quarter of this achievement in the 1990s, but our domestic dominance is such, that we all look to Europe for that extra fix. Now, it’s not a European Cup final defeat we’re lamenting, we’ve been exposed by lesser-resourced teams as we bombed in the Europa League.
Apart from the fourth title, and five-in-a-row looking a comfortable certainty, the other portents have us heading south. Two seasons of Champions League football have been followed by two of Europa League, with performances dropping each consecutive season. What we don’t know is whether what’s happening on the surface is indicative of the foundations we’ve been laying for 18 months.
Herein lies the issue: the fruits of Ronny Deila’s labours are not evident, not on the surface, anyway. There are some positive portents: he’s improved Nir Bitton, blooded Kieran Tierney and given Leigh Griffiths the stage his talent needed, but this season spaces in our defence have been as wide as the Clyde, and just as worryingly, the transfer success hit rate has been abysmally poor.
Fixing the former problem should be achievable, Ronny has taken teams to the Milan, Amsterdam and Istanbul and defended professionally (if not successfully), but fixing the ineffective transfer strategy will be more difficult. It’s not clear why we’re misfiring, or whether we can amend our ways. Throwing more money at the problem may improve things, but the problem is not fundamentally finance, Malmo and Maribor both operate on a fraction of our expenditure.
There are mitigating circumstances for our recruitment woes. Unlike Malmo and Maribor who take time to develop teams, we’ve been buying first team players for years, and the market has moved away from us at a remarkable rate over the last five years.
A decade ago only a few teams in England could outbid us, and they didn’t compete directly for talent with us anyway. We’ve now living in an era when Stoke City sign top internationals from Bayern Munich, and England is not the only league which is drifting away.
Mitigating circumstances are all fine and well, but that’s the challenge for Celtic. Work smarter, find the untapped scouts, be better than those with more money than they know what to do with.
2016 will bring another title and possibly one or two cups, but as 1 January approaches I’m hopeful the lessons learned in the transfer market since 2014 are put into practice.
Have a fantastic New Year.
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The mrs not been very well for a while,she stayed up to bring the bells in wi me and watch
Jools hootenanny
A wee tune for her
http://youtu.be/5LWpw3CMCEg
Ray La Montagne
Worth a listen
HH
BMCUWP – cheers man. Life seasons a chap. And without seasoning there ain’t much flavour.
A big hail hail to you and yours.
Our mammy’s are the rock on which it’s all built. Here’s tae them……
BMCUWP…
How the feck can you write a post like that at this time of day on New Year’s Day :)
Last year I returned to Indonesia from Scotland, to find a muslim woman had attacked my house with a paintbrush. Any suggestions how I handle this situation, should I live with the grafitti or redo the house.
HH
Hope this link works?
http://i66.tinypic.com/2udxnd2.jpg
weet weet weet(GBWO) on 1st January 2016 1:46 am
Hope 2016 brings better health to your wife Happy New Year
HH
INIQUITOUSIV
Aye,it ain’t easy finding Stones stuff on Yooooochooooob (Scottish spelling) these days…
Enjoy the moment when it arrives,mate. And the year that it heralds.
Who knows,by this time next year…
FESS19 Brilliant!
Fess19 on 1st January 2016 1:51 am
Brilliant
HH
DENA29 Great minds think alike. Happy New Year to you, and all in your wonderful city.
WEETWEETWEET
Please give her my very best,big fella.
Here’s a wee choon for you both,from yer gauche pal.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dO1rMeYnOmM
ABURNTOUTCASE on 1ST JANUARY 2016 1:59 AM
DENA29 Great minds think alike. Happy New Year to you, and all in your wonderful city.
I was thinking exactly the same ……..
Happy New Year to you and yours
HH
FESS 19
Send her over to Swindon as a punishment,there’s a guid lad!
HH
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on 1ST JANUARY 2016 2:00 AM
WEETWEETWEET
Beautiful
HH
SIPSINI
I only responded. It wasn’t me demanding Ronny gets the sack less than 100 minutes into 2016.
HNY,and HH
Ya sober quiet man,ye…
Gooodnight Timland
HH
Bobby
Argue…definitely incorrect adjective
God bless and Haill Hail
Bedtime for me………………….. That’s me a nearly a year on Cqn where does the time go
Ronny must stay !
BMCUW…
I missed the out the word mange :)
A wee song for my ghirl..
https://www.youtube.com › watch
Manage?
Oh well, new year catching up.:)
And the link didn’t work :(
All the best M.
Dena29/BMCUW
Many thanks guys
Have a guid yin
HH
Young Dubliners Foggy Dew – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com › watch
GERRYFAETHEBRIG
I honestly wasn’t having a dig there. Standing joke,in my company things get heated because why spend yer time wi yes-men?
But we never argue,we just have animated discussions. No point arguing since we’re never gonna agree.
It’s quite funny watching the horrified faces of bystanders listening to a strange melange of local,Scots,cockney,scouse,etc,accents getting heated,followed by their bewilderment when one declares that he’s getting the beers in,another one effs off to the the bookies,etc.
And then another topic is raised…
Happy new year to all on CQN I hope 2016 delivers al your hopes and dreams
SIPSINI
Is this the track you were looking for,as a wee gift for your lovely daughter?
She has excellent taste…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=35CBWwy98nc
Happy New Year to all on CQN and across the World.
The Book of John is well worth listening to if you want to reflect on things, especially if an unbeliever.
John
Come on Ronny D, win the Treble in Style.
Offending.CsC
A happy new year to all on Cqn, and Tims worldwide.
HH!!
I’m not too sure if Ronny is the right man for Celtic but i sincerely hope that in 2016 he proves that he is.
R I P, Trapper.
Loved my adolescent Wednesdays with you when Celtic weren’t playing.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L68pVCRubCs
Oops…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z8RmfbexJaA
Happy New Year paul67 and to all on CQN from a sunny and warm Surf Coast.
Steak pie (with sausages and kidney) ready to go.
Bring home a treble Ronny and the Bhoys.
HH
Colours ~ The Wakes
https://youtu.be/Ak7CGlWjkP8
HH
Happy new year to all celts. still lurking after all these years
HH
Phil
Bobby
Low points of 2015 (putting Ronny aside for one moment) was your absence from C.Q.N.
Without grovelling or fawning or hissing in your pocket, you`re needed.
Got it?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Incidentally,your old man owes me a pint of the guineas.
PETEC on 1ST JANUARY 2016 3:13 AM
Guid New Year,Peter.
And it will be if……………………
Guess what comes next.
Hail Hail,my fellow Tim.
:-)
macjay1 for Neil Lennon,
I’m still listening to John.
It crumbles me and also Empowers me.
God Bless yer Crew Macj!!!!!!!
Hail Hail the King of the Jews!!!!!!
Yeshua fulfilled all Jewish Laws.
Come on the Gentile.
Jesus and the New Testament, Unbeatable.
macjay1,
Maybe Mick will buy me a pint in the Future?
Who knows ;)
The Book of John audio (youtube) finished……
Here is something more likely to be listened to, yeah ok it is a lot shorter. :D
In the Future… when all is well
Have the Best New Year ever. Hopefully you are marvelling at Ronny D and how he has transformed the Team with little investment,
respect rascar capac
Hi,Pete.
Pint buying is in the lap of the gods.
Which gods?
Who knows indeed.
Cheers,pal.