Against a side who started 8 points adrift at the bottom of the table, the champions-elect were miles short of what is required and deserved nothing from the game. St Johnstone gave warning of the danger they could be from a free kick just a minute before they scored. The warning went unheeded as Celtic conceded the only goal of the game inside four minutes.
After the game, Brendan Rodgers suggested the players were timid and too comfortable. It is true they are in a comfortable position, without any domestic challenger worthy of the name. The manager excused only Callum McGregor from this criticism. It is a weighty accusation to level at a group you have coached into a second season.
For most of us, the consequences of yesterday’s defeat is that we will not be there when the title is won. Players (and managers) often don’t get the importance of this. They are always there; the ordinary fans less so. Now, it is just as likely that the title will be won after Aberdeen face Newco on Sunday. You might learn about it by text message.
If the players are too comfortable they will not win the treble. You are the manager, Brendan. Fix it. At least it’s not a continuation of the malaise which was evident during last season…..
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I see that the troll is exploiting the situation. Well done Paul67!
Imagine we are on the way to a possible three? You pick. Keep going, and we might have Wayne Biggins and a Carl Muggleton as our next signings. Who would we get as manager when we think of a football backwater such as Scotland. I do not know. Well as for as long as we get rid of Brendan, who cares.
Ordinary a citizen are you sponsored by Paul 67? If so, let us suggest that Paul Brennan be the next manager of Celtic!
Engels was brought in to be our enforcer in M/F, at the moment he’s just not up to the job. I’d start with McGregor,Bernardo and McCowan against Killie.
Engels is not and never will be an enforcer.
Engels is classy player in the making. Not the finished article yet but still very young and relatively inexperienced and he will come very good. If you can’t see the player in Engels I reckon you should join the bowling club.
Brendan and our match day squad let the Celtic support down on Sunday in Perth. Not for the first time this season.
It was a special buzz tonight for me watching on tvx, John Higgins completing his comeback win in the 2025 Tour Championship v Selby yesterday. The snooker audience may have missed his Jota fist raise after crossing the winning line. Celts didn’t.
More power to you, Wizard of Wishaw.
The value of the Leicester City playing squad is £229m.
The value of the Newcastle playing squad is £570m
Nowhere near the disparity of the Celtic and St Johnstone squads where our squad is around 13 times more valued.
HH.
Coming on to a Celtic blog and constantly bad mouthing its host is like the huns being welcomed to Paradise then trashing it.
Our host’s opinions are there to be questioned. But surely the venom is unnecessary.
Greenpinata on 8th April 2025 12:30 am
Coming on to a Celtic blog and constantly bad mouthing its host is like the huns being welcomed to Paradise then trashing it.
Our host’s opinions are there to be questioned. But surely the venom is unnecessary.
=====================================
Do you not think that is what Peter67 is doing to the ever decreasing readership of cqn Gp.
It “appears” ‘our host’ is like Burnley78 full of petty and real misinformed pesh when it comes to having a go bout Celtics Manager.
The venom huilds in reaction to Peter67 wax on,wax off style of chronic out the loop syndrome’ writing,always a snipe or a dig needlessly aimed at our manager Brendan Rogers.
Like many others 4 pages would have been a late tea-break read at 3.15,now it is the total number of pages on the blog.Brendan does not need to prove anything to you,Peter will parrot your response of is it the other way around,what the problem is becoming is our hosts hun like scattergun approach at BR,that impacts any tim sticking up for our manager,usually its huns but tonight Matthew our host feels bold enough…he is not that smart,just out the loop.
HH
Gp
Wish we could have had a blog bout huns coming back a shoitin about our home,investigative and uncomfortable truths would have to be asked of Peterpuppeteer and the board
AT,
I wanted BR back. I still trust BR. I still think he is the best fit manager for us.
However I like to think I can constructively criticiise him on here without any venom.
I do not like passing the ball around our 18 yard line, running five yards, then stopping then passing back.
Rinse and repeat. I just cannot get used to that style of football against teams that have a fraction of our resources.
The fans obviously dont buy into it as they vote with their feet circa the 75 minute mark..
Cheers and HH.
AT,
The one thing the blog was virtually unanimous about was not wanting the huns back into Parkhead.
Events proved us correct.
HH.
Gp,you and i are content with BR
Our host is not,he does try but splits between twitter feed,ie tfer book ripped up and thrown away contrasted with the meek(is this ok Peter) really does Paul,his blog and Celticfans no favours. Its empty rhetoric “malaise pash is an example.
If Perer67 wants alternative,name him,be bold,where would you like change instead of blandly not wantin to dissent Peter.
Re wanting/not wanting huns
Yup when it was mentioned,it would have been a good blog that? Who at Celtic decided to let them in? What were tbe pressures involved?
Of course among ordinary you will get objection,however as 2012 showed there is money to be made in that there hate.pucks of it!
HH
Good Morning Celts – Fine Day To Be A Tim…
MMCCARTNEY @ 10:59 PM,
“Engels was brought in to be our enforcer in M/F, at the moment he’s just not up to the job. I’d start with McGregor,Bernardo and McCowan against Killie.”
No idea why you would make that up about Engels but no doubts you have your reasons.
However, it does beg the question, why was Arne Engels really brought in?
He was brought in as a development player – the mantra from Celtic PLC for over a decade now, is we need to recruit young development players, so we can add value and transfer the player out, hopefully at a substantial profit.
The difference between Engels and Holm is simply the price bracket.
The manager made it clear, he understands Celtic’s approach to bringing in development players and he would abide by that.
However, we don’t have to exclusively recruit development players.
We need to be prepared to pay more for our development players.
We get three Odin Holm’s or one Arne Engel.
There has obviously been great examples of where our buy low, sell high mantra actually worked*, however like I’ve stated many times before, the idea that Celtic have a magic “moneyball” formula that identifies low priced youngsters, with huge footballing and high value future transfer potential is a myth.
It has been proven time and time again over more than a decade – the way Celtic PLC implemented “moneyball” was seriously flawed.
Now we are told the data told us Odin fitted the model, we are told he was YPOtY in Norway.
Yet consider this.
We brought Ronny Delia in to enhance the player development plan over a decade ago.
He knew the Norwegian market, he knew the potential top youngsters there, he had some key targets.
He tried to recruit the teenage Martin Ødegaard, even on loan the sixteen year old was not coming – Real Madrid were already there.
The best we managed was the slightly older yet full of potential Kris Ajer – who proved a very good development signing.
A decade later, we were looking at the Norwegian market and trying to recruit quality development players four years older for circa 3mn.
What are the chances of that working out? How many top Norwegian prospects ply their trade in Norway at that age?
If we pay more for young players whose career is already ascending – Arne Engels good young prospect in the Bundesliga, we have players that can go on a development path and still make our first team.
Maybe more expensive but the risk to benefit is much, much better.
Celtic have limited development resources, they have very limited options of giving good prospects proper high level game time outside our first team.
Arne Engels makes much more sense for us than Palma, Lagerbielke and Holm – the latter three not bad players at all, but, where is the fit.!? The former does fit, yet is still young, still developing and that must be recognised.
He plays better in the UCL than agricultural SPL – there is a good reason for that, we can’t turn our approach on it’s head ’cause now and again we drop points against chaos football.
Of course, we need to find away of winning those games, we do need more aggression and physicality** and that will surely come .
* Like I’ve said, bargain “moneyball” players do exist, yet there is normally a back story – Kuhn and O’Riley are good examples of that
** The manager asked for players with those exact attributes in the summer of 2023 and got the exact opposite- those supporting that transfer window, yet chiding our manager are at it!!
Hail Hail
BURNLEY78 @ 12:25 PM,
“A lifetime of supporting Celtic (60 plus years), including travelling up from London Our trophy haul is really good but I have this concern that I really am not enjoying it anymore.”
We have had discussions before on your lifetime of supporting Celtic.
A few seasons back you were stating these were the best times of your lifetime supprting Celtic – we had never had it so good, a Generation of Domination.
As I pointed out then, the best years of our Celtic supporting life was the Stein era, an Historic Celtic era, unmatched.
But you wouldn’t have it – look at the trophy haul, to you, this was better than the Stein era.
In the summer of 2023 after the treble, you said that we had, had twenty glorious, unsurpassed seasons and that Peter Lawwell had delivered 35 Trophies (sic).
So, what is different now, we have not only continued with the “success” you purred about, we are actually doing better.
Every aspect of our organisation has improved, yet you are now down in the mouth.
For me there can only be one explanation for your comments, the cult of personality.
It’s all about Peter Lawwell and his circle.
Late in 2003 Peter Lawwell came in as Head of Operations, a year later he was promoted to Chief Executive.
Those are the years you picked out as the glory years, that was the era that surpassed Jock Stein.
Yet, since Martin O’Neil came in at the turn of the Century and until now, there is no marked difference in what Celtic are achieving.
Martin O’Neil was before Peter Lawwell of course, Peter and Martin fell out.
Peter doesn’t like Brendan Rodgers, so just like Martin’s BR’s achievements are belittled by you and your ilk.
In fact for twenty five years, before and after Peter Lawwell was CEO, Celtic have managed to dominate Scottish Football.
Being as good as, or better than the Rangerses, with the exception of the Walter Smith era and 2020/21.
So, you have no argument for the greatness of your era outside the fact, you believe you can give Peter Lawwell credit for it.
Jock Stein lacking, Martin O’Neil not good enough, Brendan Rodgers pathetic…
Why!?
‘Cause you can’t give Peter Lawwell credit for it.
It is that simple isn’t it?
Well Peter Lawwell was a Executive who was vastly overrated and overpaid for just doing his job.
The Executives before PL, the Executives after PL did a better job for less money and that’s the fact isn’t it? And you will try to bend reality to make it not so…
We have quarter of a century of evidence that says it’s Celtic F.C. and not your man that’s exceptional, long may it continue.
Hail Hail
CHAIRBHOY
👍👏👏👏
Morning all.
Baffles me why people want to come on to CQN simply to bemoan Paul67. He has his opinions. You may not agree with them. Many don’t. You can always go elsewhere but why poison the atmosphere here on his site?
Good morning all from Govanhill. A lovely day in old Glasgow Town.
Chairbhoy
It’s simple – our recruitment strategy is very diffetent from a “moneyball formula”. We need to make a profit on player trading, that much is a given.
Brendan informed us that the way forward was a mix of proven quality and more expensive development players. He told us about the logic of signing players for £8-9 miliion because they could be sold for £30-40 million. How much that translates to for an £11m player us for others to work out, I guess.
Engels is comfortably our record signing and our main development project. He also has the weight of expectation of a £30-40 miliion fee over his head thanks to Brendan’s games. He’s also part of £26m in transfer fees which were poorly spent because of how the players were recruited. Fortunately he seems like a level headed young man but he’s clearly struggling under the expectation. Hardly ideal conditions for developing a young footballer.
It’s not clever, it seems like it’s a nod to the idea of a development model but no more than that.
Our new transfer strategy isnt working for the now or for what’s needed in the future.
We need to sign more development players in the Summer for the years after Brendan leaves, and be smarter with the older players we bring in. The stakes are too high to rely on players he fancies now, it’s not his strength, he needs to accept that
It might be just about next season for Brendan but the rest of us who were here before and will be after him it’s a bit more complex than that
The new article will be up at noon.
https://x.com/RhebelRhebel/status/1909338703786611084?t=WQpkD55dbepKcG_tKWSy5Q&s=07
I believe our standards have dipped since our performance against Bayern away and 3 defeats from 6 games is somewhat concerning however if we get the next two trophies over the line (still work to do) Brendan dould have won 12 out of 13 domestic trophies , he also had a decent lead in the league in 2019 before leaving for Leicester where he won the FA Cup and led them to 2 of their 3 highest ever league finishes which isn’t bad when you look at where they are now.I believe he deserves to be backed for next season which includes Champions league qualifiers. He has been backed previously but I believe we actually made a profit in all transfer windows recently, well most at least,maybe its ti.e to spend that large bank balance and trust our manager.
You get my drift despite my errors above
How can we judge players like Holm Lagerbiele as they are not good enough,if they are that bad why are they still playing for other clubs,look at Nawrocki played 2 good games then on Sunday he is dropped in favour of Trusty ,why because Rodger’s likes a left sided player,I think that’s just poor judgement,but as some on here say Brendan knows best?
PCS …
Yip. Baffles me too.
“Doctor, my arm hurts when I do this”
“Well don’t do it then”
“Greenpinata on 8th April 2025 12:30 am
Coming on to a Celtic blog and constantly bad mouthing its host is like the huns being welcomed to Paradise then trashing it.”
A good analogy.
PS For those who disagree, please note the word `constantly`.
PS – good morning CQN.
Glorious day beckons.
Champions league tonight – looking forward to watching a quality game of which I care not about the outcome.
Speaking of which – the race darn sarf for places next season is hotting up.
Newcastle making a move, Man City, Chelseaand Villa hovering.
Heaven forbid Villa finish 6th in EPL and win the CL.
Now that would be bad for Celtic.
Every Celtic manager in my lifetime has been criticised by the support to some extent or another.
Big Jock had lost it, was the chatter following his return from the dreadful car accident he was injured in.
Billy McNeill got it during both stints, Davie hay in between.
Brady and Macari were hopeless. TB was naive, Wim too pragmatic, Dr Jo out of touch, Barnes (urgh).
MON was a hero who let the team age and diminish.
WGS teams would get the game banned.
Mogga ought to have.
Lenny got lucky (Mulgrew at Kilmarnock) (Liquidation) (John Parks), then skyed the park to England at the first chance as performances regressed.
Ronny Deila was a dreamer, not savvy enough for Celtic’s level.
BR first time round was invincible, then somewhat vincible.
Second time he was the returning rat.
Ange was too open, too dogmatic, not Bodo/Glimt enough.
Folk have criticised our managers for as long as we’ve had them. We should beware though applying attributions to the critics beyond their impatience for better.
DisquietudeCSC
FWIW – I’m happy with Arne Engels.
In terms of development and performances?
Frankly, he’s exactly where I expect him to be.
I’m confident he’ll be a big influence next season.
Parkheadcumsalford on 8th April 2025 8:37 am
Morning all.
Baffles me why people want to come on to CQN simply to bemoan Paul67. He has his opinions. You may not agree with them. Many don’t. You can always go elsewhere but why poison the atmosphere here on his site?
Back to Basics – Glass Half Full on 8th April 2025 10:42 am
PCS …
Yip. Baffles me too.
“Doctor, my arm hurts when I do this”
“Well don’t do it then”
=================
PCS/B2B
Coming on daily to history revised
Constant sniping at our manager
What end does that serve?
Its not as tho we are going through a torrid time
Paul reserves his right to snipe
I reserve the right to bemoan and criticize his unfounded pash,am afraid you bhoys will just have to sup it up like i do bout the constant sniping of our manager
HH
Back to Arne
He without doubt is a very talented player, BUT, a prospect, a future star. But we need players who are great now, as we all know, tomorrow never comes, stay in the present, here and now.
KINGLuBO
Palestinian Christians reject U.S. Catholic Bishops collaboration with pro-Israel group
https://mondoweiss.net/2025/04/palestinian-christians-reject-u-s-catholic-bishops-collaboration-with-pro-israel-group/
HH
Moisey 17,” If you can’t see the player in Engels I reckon you should join a bowling club”
By an enforcer I don’t mean a dirty barsteward running around kicking people, what I meant was, I think he was brought in to add some physicality to our M/F . I accept he is a young player and has the potential to come good. At the moment I would like McCowan and Bernardo to be used more than they have been.
Engels and Hatate look to me as if a busy season of playing both domestically, and internationally have taken their toll.
Joining a bowling club at my age? Not for me, I’d need somebody to help me up off my knee every time I rolled a bowl.