If ever 90 minutes told the story of a season, it was last night in Dingwall. A miserable team, bottom of the league and who sacked the manager that won at Celtic Park in November, took to the field with a cunning masterplan: put numbers behind the ball and wait for a set piece.
Ross County’s goal was exasperating. Diego Laxalt did not get close enough to Jordan White to impede the striker’s movement, perhaps taking lessons from the lumbering Tom Rogic, who was equally lax at a first half corner that went unpunished. The speed of delivery caught Scott Brown cold as White rose behind him to score the only goal of the game.
Despite Celtic enjoying the vast majority of the ball and territorial advantage, County could consider themselves unlucky not to be ahead at the break, after Spittal’s shot was stopped by Scott Bain pulling off the finest save of the game.
Eduard and Christie both had gilt-edged chances before that to put Celtic ahead but neither troubled the keeper. Both are stalling on a contract offer and will hope prospective employers were busy watching something else on TV last night.
The only consolation is that this wretched league campaign will be over soon. Well done to John Hughes and his County players, never short of endeavour.
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Get him out NOW !
Happy Monday all.
Stockmarket is open.
HH!
Not soon enough! What plans for next season?
Only 8 games left.
Weeks away from the official end.
Onwards and upwards..
HH
The consolation is that our discredited, failed CEO will be gone in the summer. He should never darken our door again. And as for Lennon, sniggering on camera after the game like a neddy wee school boy. Both of them are nothing short of an embarrassment. To themselves chiefly and to our club.
Just announce he is leaving at the end of the season ….. that will ease some of the anger being directed at him and give us the news that we have something to look forward to …
Picture the scene. It’s last June in the boardroom at Celtic Park. A bemasked Peter Lawwell looks around the room to Bankier, Lennon and Brown. “Right lads, we’ve had our fun. How do we assist our struggling friends over at Ibrox this season and ensure not only that we destroy our relationship with our own fans for this year, but for years to come?”
It’s been such an unrivalled shambles at all levels it’s almost possible that conversation took place.
I do find myself wondering how bad things have to get before p67 calls for the removal of the manager ?
Seriously, how bad ?
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I’m one bad result away from having 30 cats.
” I have been handed the reins of management and I alone have to do the picking,tactics,coaching and scouting,I have full responsibility.I see now why I am here”.
Jock Stein into his second game,a one nil home defeat to St, Johnstone March 1965.
That sort of ‘management’ is required at Celtic Park,no interference at all.
The big man was light years ahead.He was ‘manager’ in all aspects,that is what is required at Celtic Park.
STILL CELTIC
Still no call for the manager to be sacked Paul !!!
Almost, but didnt so dont bother yersel
“The only consolation is that this wretched league campaign will be over soon. ”
————–
Well there might be some consolation if there was any indication that the big changes that are essential were likely to be implemented.
The idea that this is a “well run club” which has been blighted with bad luck this season and we just carry on as is and all will be okay again next season is utter garbage.
We have not won a European knockout tie for 17 years.
We were in a good place 2016-18 but have made a series of dreadful decisions since then which have taken us to where we are now.
Huge challenges ahead. Not insurmountable but requiring a quality of thinking that does not seem to be currently within the club.
Paul67
Wretched…….. ( excellent )
To lose once to Ross County may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose twice looks like carelessness.
Saw the team selection, and saw the same old mistakes in a season supporters want ended now, just give them it. The Token Tim at Centre Back and the one vital free kick still going over everybody’s head, including Neil Lennon and John Kennedy.
You could run a competition to try and repeat Ryan Christie’s boundary effort and still be waiting for a winner at Christmas. Edouard on the other boot seemed frightened to touch the ball. The lamentable fake diamond creates next to nothing, and is only used because we failed to recruit the right personnel surely?
It was like any game you could have seen in a public park. We are very poorly off in the goalkeeping department, have no signed full backs, we’re short at centre back, and up front log jammed by a bench of unpickable strikers.
M.O.M Calum MacGregor
Big Yogis comments on how to stop Celtic put Lennon’s tactics to shame. Give John Hughes the Job for a couple of months until they can find someone decent.
Only after we appoint a DOF will there be any changes to the management personnel.
Assuming we do go down the DOF route.
The problem now is not how bad we are but we are getting worse.
Last night’s performance was so bookies friendly it hurt.
NL has lost everything with this season’s campaign — there is no way back.
I have supported him in that he is not the issue — PL is to blame.
But putting out a team to deliver that level of performance and then doing nothing about it.
Game is a bogey.
The hubris of some in the support was never a pretty sight.
Now it is just window dressing to our current shambles.
You have to be very special to run the club this badly.
BSR @ 12.35
CMcG had a good game with the ball at his feet.
He was the one player in the team who tried someone individually.
Rather than using the ball to take players out the game — we tried / we failed.
It defies belief that NL is still in post this morning. The second biggest season in our history was in ruins by late November and this clown continues to stink the place out with his rank incompetence as we approach March.
Disgusted
GENE on 22ND FEBRUARY 2021 12:36 PM
Only after we appoint a DOF will there be any changes to the management personnel.
Assuming we do go down the DOF route.
—/
I don’t see why we can’t remove the failing manager and install an interim boss as we await permanent appointments.
It defies all logic keeping Lennon in post.
Mixed bag for me Pablo.
IMHO,
Agree with your main theme (as will most I suspect) – last night was wretched.
The goal?
Scorer was inside the post when he made contact.
One CB (Welsh) leapt high but too far away.
The other (Ajer) was close but didn’t get a leap.
Brown and Laxalt could have done more but slightly unfair to name them only?
“Christie …. stalling on a contract offer”
I’ve got a simple solution for that one !
Final point ….
Manager’s can be heard in empty stadia.
Notable (for me) last night in particular?
The players’ reactions to SPECIFIC messages from Neil Lennon.
From what I could see these were largely ignored.
Hail hail
Keep The Faith
Or at least, not successfully acted upon
Paul – “The speed of delivery caught Scott Brown cold as White rose behind him to score the only goal of the game.”
——————————————————————
This summation is akin to Christie’s efforts on goal…plenty of effort, but wildly inaccurate.
What game were you watching Paul?”
Is this your polite way of saying Scott Brown was caught on his heels, ball watching?
Whatever…White was neither behind Scott Brown nor did he “rose” for the ball.
White was two steps in front of Brown when he headed the ball. His feet were barely 6” off the ground when he connected with the ball – while our captain was poised, feet planted, knees bent, waiting for the ball to land on his forehead.
It’s bad enough that you don’t call out NL or PL.
Worst still to feed us inaccurate, reinvented summations of events we witnessed with our own eyes.
Ps – you were at least correct in picking up on Laxalt’s deficiencies at the goal.
HH
No criticism of the manager Paul?
ST TAMS on 22ND FEBRUARY 2021 12:27 PM
Still no call for the manager to be sacked Paul !!
—————————————————————-
Don’t be silly. You’ll be asking him to criticise PL next!
;-)
HH
MADMITCH on 22ND FEBRUARY 2021 12:38 PM
Lawwell is to blame for the appointment of a below average manager is the showers whilst discounting every other candidate because “he knows the city”. However Lennon’s team selections and “tactics” have been the root cause of the implosion this season. Both are equally culpable despite the “he’s a legend” brigade spouting on here.
I would really like to know who is signing our players.
Who has the final word.
I look at the signings of Bayo, Klimala and Ajeti for circa 10 million
plus wages, then look at players who aren’t getting a game if Edouard
is fit. We have few signed defenders yet we can spend 10 million
on 3 players who are bit part players. And add Griffiths occasional
appearances when he hasn’t fallen out with the manager and it’s even
more ridiculous.
Then add to that signing Moi on loan. Even if he is a forward or a midfielder
we don’t need him. Signing Duffy, Kenny and Laxalt at least made some sense.
We should be doing nothing to prevent Welsh, Soro and Turnbull playing now.
They should be the first names on the team sheet.
We also might as well play Ajeti and Klimala, at least we will see how good or not
they are. What are we going to do now? Wait until the end of the season, Edouard
legs it, and we are left with forwards who have hardly ever played.
Based on this seasons performances there is not one player that would command a large wage with a hefty transfer fee.
How can we sit back watching millions disappear due to inept displays.?
Our custodians maybe don’t see things from the heart as we do, but surely using the head they can see what is necessary.
HH.
Happy birthday Karamoko Dembele, 18 today! Hope Neil remembered to get him a Colin the Caterpillar cake. He’s come a…..erm……long way since being named one of L’Equipe’s six “outstanding young players set to revolutionise the game” in 2019. But how has his revolutionising compared with others in the list?
Karamoko Dembele (18) – 4 appearances for Celtic
Ansu Fati (18) – 31 appearances for Barcelona, 4 for Spain
Joelson Fernande (17) – 4 appearances for Sporting CP
Sebastiano Esposito (18) – 21 appearances for Inter/on loan
Mohamed Ihattaren (19) – 51 appearances for PSV
Karim Adeyemi (19) – 51 appearances for RB Salzburg/on loan
SONSOFERIN
Do t worry his appearances will increase for his new club next season
Been clear for months now that Desmond and Lawwell didn’t want to appoint a new manager, no doubt not wanting him tarnished with this season’s shambles, but tell Lennon to clear his desk,and make someone up till the end of the season, Kennedy and Strachan as they are damaged goods and should be hunted along with Hammond in May.Does Desmond run all his business like this? I bet not…
AN DÚN on 22ND FEBRUARY 2021 12:49 PM
GENE on 22ND FEBRUARY 2021 12:36 PM
‘It defies all logic keeping Lennon in post.’
###
No it doesn’t.
Depending on how you look at it, and what your preconceptions are.
There’s an interesting series on Radio 4 at the moment.
Side Ways in which ‘Matthew Syed* explores the ideas that shape our lives with stories of seeing the world differently.’ Worth a listen.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000s2kt
* coincidentally related by marriage to Stevie Chalmers.
SonsOfErin
I would guess he’s 7″ too short and 4 stone too light to play in the SPL
GREENPINATA on 22ND FEBRUARY 2021 1:08 PM
‘Based on this seasons performances there is not one player that would command a large wage with a hefty transfer fee.’
###
Not so.
The Frimpong transfer is evidence that clubs will pay for unrealised potential, not just achievement. There’s a lot of unrealised achievement in the squad.
It’s going to take the Huns winning the Title at Paradise to wake the remaining few up to how bad things really are. The Keep The Faith mob who are as bad as our manager and players.
Lennon should have been sacked after the first Ross County debacle in November. I believe that if our board had acted swiftly then, we would be on the cusp of 10, as any half decent coach would have walked this league with our squad.
However, our inaction has been our downfall. Loyalty has cost this generation of fans of the chance of their Lisbon moment.
Shame on you Celtic. Manager, PLC, Happy Clappers and Players.
Scott Brown should be put in charge until the end of the season.The job is now untenable for Lenny.
His comment last night about losing another goal from a set piece,and saying basically,he had no idea how to stop this happening.Really,Lenny,thats your fekin job.We have lost 48% of our goals to crosses,so its not a new thing.FFS.
Ernie,
I know your thoughts on DD throwing the league,but sorry,not in the Universe I live in.
MM @ 12.41
Best of a bad lot, isn’t much of a M.O.M but its all we have.