So where did it all go wrong for Ronny Delia? First of all, it didn’t all go wrong. He won two leagues, and if you think it was impossible to lose those, just think back to a team in last season’s Championship, who enjoyed an equally superior income over their competitors, but lost the league to Hearts by the length of the M8.
It was just as possible for Aberdeen to win the league this season or last, as it was Hearts (reeling only months after going into administration) to win the Championship last season. Ronny delivered the primary requirement each season – the league title, but he failed on the second tier requirement – qualify for the Champions League.
Soon after the Legia Warsaw debacles Ronny reflected on the question about whether it was right to ask his new team to adopt his tactics, instead of waiting until he’d recruited players to fit his system.
Two years on we are still remarkably short of players to play his system. Innumerable wide midfield players have come and gone, with many still lingering in the stands. We have an enviable list of creative mids in the squad, yet none have been able to dislodge Stefan Johansen, who by his own admission is having a disappointing season.
Then there’s the striker roles. Leigh Griffiths has been a significant reason why we’ll be crowned champions again over the next few weeks, but he’s pretty much on his own. No one has been able to put pressure on him. For a while Leigh had to wait until John Guidetti and Stefan Scepovic dropped out of the picture, but you’ll struggle to recall this season’s striker arrivals, Carlton Cole and Colin Kazim-Richards, three years from now.
For these reasons, we can say recruitment is where it all went wrong for Ronny. It’s not about 4-2-3-1, half the top teams in Europe play with that formation, nor is it (the now abandoned) zonal marking system, also the dominant top-level defensive system.
We’ve simply recruited the wrong players for creative midfield and striker positions. It’s also subtler than to just say we’ve not recruited good enough players. Some who have escaped Celtic Park after arriving in the last 22 months have done pretty well elsewhere. Guidetti and Scepovic are La Liga strikers, while Jo Inge Berget also made it to the Bernabeu this season.
None of them are great, but I suspect we made them look poorer than they are. Kazim-Richards is unlikely to trouble Sergio Ramos next season, but there’s more to him that what we’ve seen, or will see. We’ve been a place careers diminish disproportionately.
On the positive side, Ronny brought the best out of Leigh Griffiths. He moved the disintegrating Emilio Izaguirre aside for 18-year-old sensation, Kieran Tierney, (the biggest winner on Sunday). And he finally resolved some of the least-organised set-piece defending known to man with the recruitment of Erik Sviatchenko (on this point, you cannot over-estimate the value of adding one good player to a team).
One thought crossed my mind several times this season: If he hadn’t spent so much money fruitlessly trying to make one system work, would he have acknowledge he was on the wrong road and changed tactics?
He backed himself into a corner so stuck with the same faltering policy at Celtic, but surely, surely, if he walks into another job soon, unhindered by that wasteful use of budget, he’d not follow the same tactical strategy which failed him?
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What if PL genuinely had nothing to do with players beyond writing cheques? Recommendations came from scouts and final decision lay with manager.
What if his bonus related only to revenue generated outside transfer activity?
What would some of you do then? It would be like a dagger to your hearts.
That said our average revenue is approximately £10M lower than it should be if it had increased with inflation since 2005.
Delia – Some players are glad that I’m leaving (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36103216
Can we just get the season over with and appoint a manager quickly so that we can get on with my favourite part of the year…
the bit where we are all utterly underwhelmed by our transfer activity…
I just re-read today’s article by Paul67.
You know, we mock a certain set of people for their apparent sense of entitlement, so it’s no surprise that comments in today’s article like “First of all, it didn’t all go wrong. He won two leagues,” sit ill with me.
This league is not yet won. I believe we’ll win it; I fervently hope we do, and despite all the rancour behind the scenes and dissatisfaction with the PLC board and so on, I will be there at every home game giving my 100% support to the eleven guys wearing the jersey, no matter who they are.
But this league is not yet won. Say Aberdeen win their next game, and we draw against Ross County on Sunday in a negative atmosphere at Celtic Park. Then Aberdeen win again, and we lose away at Tynecastle. Aberdeen will come to Celtic Park just three points behind us.
This league is not yet won and I for one think it’s premature and presumptuous to say it is. I repeat that I believe we will win it, but it ain’t over till it’s over.
ITALIABHOY on 21ST APRIL 2016 1:54 PM
I did get your point, and it’s a fair one, but I hope Paul67 continues to blog exactly what he wants and not what he feels he should or what people posting in the comments section think he should.
GIGGSY on 21ST APRIL 2016 2:00 PM
There is no point shouting who signed who and who decided what.
With all due respect there is:
Question’s
Do the scouts/agents who work or contact CFC primarily in the first instance contact or send reports to the manager of the 1st team first at Celtic
Does the 1st team manager then request from the CEO funding for specific transfer targets
or
Does the CEO plus scouts/agents deliver players and player choices for the 1st team manager to select from
Clarity and transparency is required to know just exactly were the problem is before we can apply a fix
Paul67,
.”He backed himself into a corner so stuck with the same faltering policy at Celtic, but surely, surely, if he walks into another job soon, unhindered by that wasteful use of budget, he’d not follow the same tactical strategy which failed him?”
I’m not sure how you square the circle above. Surely he made a wasteful use of the budget and what’s to say he won’t again.
Or are you suggesting the use of budget was not any of his doing, a commonly held belief of fans?
Árd Macha
Dont worry bhoys…i will keep cracking gags.
Some would like us all to be middle-class and refined…culturally superior.
Apparently, we are not capable of understanding the mechanics of business.
In fact…im so bereft of understanding….that im reduced to cracking gags:)
When will i ever learn eh.
Those fine bourgeois gentlemen really do know their stuff….while the poor wee Green Man, knows nothing.
Ha
Celtic40me
re read my previous comment – I said it would be best for EVERYONE not just myself.
I don’t know how long you have been on the blog but if its anything like the time I’ve been on it you will surely have noticed a change in direction from being objective ‘not just lazy journalism’ to a virtual mouthpiece for offoicial CFC communication…?
If its just me that’s noticed this then I’ll accept I’m wrong – maybe it has always been a quasi official mouthpiece. I’d be inetersted in hearing from others.
As for stinking the place out – I guess you’d like the sycophantic perfume of roses to be the ever present scent in CQN but not all in the garden is rosey, in case you haven’t noticed it. Pretending otherwise has led us to this point. CQN used to not only be objective but tolerant of a wide range of views …unless that too has changed?
Keep clapping!
Steve Evans?
Never heard of him, so did the Google thing.
20 years doing the rounds of non-league and lower league football.
Convicted of conspiracy to evade tax.
Banned from football for 20 months for failing to disclose full details of contractual payments to footballers
And he’s quoted as a candidate for Celtic? Really?
WTF!!!
OldTim67 1:18
Interesting post. I said early in Ronny’s term (when he was speaking about 24 hour athletes) that I thought the younger players would buy into it easier than the older ones.
Part of me wonders what might have happened if we had kept Ronny, got rid of the underperforming charlatans and gone with youth.
Obviously wouldn’t happen – too much demand for ten in a row, CL every year, trebles, etc.
But I think we would be better off 4-5 years from now.
So where did it all go wrong for Ronny Delia?
Getting off the plane ?
Taxi to Celtic Park ?
Signing the contract ?
Not resigning after the first champions league debacle ?
Not resigning after the 2nd champions league debacle ?
All or any of the above
You know in years to come when Ronny is a janitor in a school near Oslo will the ostrich brigade still try to impress us with their uber faithfulness by posting ……..In Ronny We Trust ?
We’re 100% against RC and ST J. Unbeaten in the league against Hearts. 2 Wins from 3 against M/Well albeit the loss was at home. Leaving Aberdeen, who we convincingly beat at home.
In total 10 wins, 3 losses and 2 draws. Taking the most recent encounters with each team 4 wins and a loss.
Aberdeen are a bit patchier. No 100% records and no unbeatens either. ^ pts from each of Ross County, Celtic and Hearts and 4 from M/Well and St J.
8 Wins, 5 losses and 2 draws. From the most recent encounters with each team 2 wins, 2 losses and a draw.
The Green Man says SACK THE Board on 21st April 2016 2:09 pm
Always with the deflection when you’re called out eh – read you like a book mate.
Bottom line? Celtic v Ross County this Sunday. Theres a chance for peaceful demonstration, if ever you intend to back up those highly emotive blog posts with some action in the real world.
You feel like you can’t go to Celtic Park because of the actions/inactions of the current custodians, yet all you’re prepared to do about it is bump your gums on a blog for ‘random gags, slagging, and moaning.’
Is that all you’ve got?
If it was really Ronny controlling how money was spent on players, as opposed to rubber stamping the players put forward to him, why over the course of two different managers have we signed so many players represented or linked to a single agent?
I’ve been reading this blog for what seems like a decade. There is no other Celtic outlet online that better’s CQN for fan interaction and debate. I have to admit though in the last few years it has taken on a bias towards support of the board. That is Paul’s choice to make. It will not stop me continuing to enjoy the thoughts, discussion’s and debate, not only of our club, but the myriad of social topics that regularly affect all our life’s.
WHAT IS THE STARS on 21ST APRIL 2016 2:22 PM
So basically you’re saying absolutely anybody can come here and win 2, possibly 3 trophies in 2 seasons. Stay in Europe past Christmas at the 1st attempt and give Inter a decent game.
If Steve Evans is ruling himself out of the Celtic job then maybe I should also!!
Davidopoulos on 21st April 2016 2:12 pm
Can we just get the season over with and appoint a manager quickly so that we can get on with my favourite part of the year…
the bit where we are all utterly underwhelmed by our transfer activity…
———-
Dare I say it, but one player who has caught my eye recently is the legendary Alfred Finnbogason. On loan at Augsburg, scoring goals. Good physical presence. Could play up front on his own or with someone playing off him.
Tin hat on and off oot!
Clydesider on 21st April 2016 2:28 pm
I’m not entirely alone in that case – perhaps we are both fools?
So where did it all go wrong for Ronny Delia?
Not taking the Malmo job he was supposedly offered at the time he took the Celtic job. At least they are a Champions League team and have played such big clubs as Real Madrid and PSG. Probably more patient too. Their fans seem to back their team as well…
We went through this yesterday. Nobody on here that I know of would like us to all be middle class, refined or culturally superior.
I know it’s really hard to believe at the moment but generally we are more educated as a support. However Some perceptions may be that a degree educated professional person is Middle class.
Not mine I may add.
Currently we are moaning about a hypothetical managerial appointment. How astute and refined is that ?
The atmosphere on Sunday is down to us. Support the team to 5 iar.
HH.
“One of the reasons we haven’t had that improvement is because of the pressure and speculation around me all the time.”
If you want another big job Ronny, stop talking mate.
Yes Man…or…Rookie
Thats what you are getting, like it or not.
Same old steaming bs served up on a platter.
Pay up..or..shut up.
Donkeys, loan players,…Derk, Carlton Cole, Ciftci the No 1 Target……and they want top dollar for that!
Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
Its a disgrace and a total cop-out to blame anybody else for the decline of Celtic, its the PLC who are culpable.
Not fans, not the media….but DD, PL and the rest of the board.
Deflection wont help anybody…..because they will only repeat the same mistakes, over and over again.
Until they are prevented from doing what they like.
Celtic are our club…not the plaything of the board.
Hold PL to account for his failures….anything else is just bs.
Greenpinata on 21st April 2016 2:31 pm
We went through this yesterday. Nobody on here that I know of would like us to all be middle class, refined or culturally superior.
============
Apparently I do, for calling out TGM!
HH
CULTSBHOY
Quite possibly :)
GlassTwoThirdsFull
LOL!
Dear Mr Fletcher
As you will be aware all is not well at Celtic and for that I bare some responsibility. I have been in a reflective mood and have tried against my natural instincts to reflect upon my own failings in order to inform future strategy of the club.
A reoccurring thought that keeps me awake at night pacing my driveway in my bare feet is the opportunity to invite you to join Celtic. Therefore I am minded to wind the clock back and see if I can recapture the good times.
Therefore I am writing to ask you Do you have Willo Flood’s mobile number?
Yours sincerely
Peter L
“He won two leagues”.
Aye nae bother, we qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League too.
Attacking midfielders and strikers….2012 till now!
I got this (I think) from Etims and it was only as I stared at the utter profligacy that the full questions of what was happening and how much we seemed to be relying on luck in our recruitment…i.e. catch lots of fish and some of them will be tasty…or at least edible.
From £8 million!!!!!! rated Miku to …..ach you can see for yourselves.
And they gave us …..
https://goo.gl/uy0Tae
Hail hail
Matt
Steve Evans was a non-starter; not Old Firm-y enough.
TRAD88
Theres a whiff of Mr Pastry about you.
Ive repeatedly told you….this is a blog…you dont get it.
You refuse to understand what people are saying to you.
Thats a deliberate tactic….but its old hat.
Stroll on
Paul,
I cannot let your leader pass without comment. IMHO it completely misses the mark. It conforms with the suggestion often put out by RD that the players let him down. I think it was the other way round. He let the team down by not reading games properly and making appropriate adjustments. These could either be appropriate subs at a meaningful time, or adjusting the shape of the team. He was incapable of doing either. This is why, at this stage of his career, he should have been hired as a number 2.
He was given plenty of opportunities to learn but he never did, as last Sunday ably demonstrated.
RD’s resignation speech was pure class, let’s not sully it by re-writing the history of what happened. He deserves an accurate appraisal of his time at Celtic.
Rebus
The Green Man says SACK THE Board on 21st April 2016 2:38 pm
Haha – and theres the tactic of last resort… the multiple login accusation!
Desperate stuff TGM.
TRAD88
Ah…touched a nerve i see:)
You know the real problem…dont you?
The truth hurts.
Carry on Napoleon….squeem and squeem, and stamp your wee feet.
Its no fair…..boo hoo
Whatever system a team plays, you need the players to make options for each other when we are in possession. Looking back at Sunday when Roberts and others got the ball they were often on their own with no obvious passes on, no celtic players going to meet them, all running away looking for killer passes etc.
Football is simple. If you have the ball, get in to spaces and angles to take a pass from your team mate. If not get in to the position you’ve been given and defend your bit of the park or follow your opponents run.
The lack of the former baffles me.
Sevco were doing it but don’t have a good standard of player. In possession we were totally static most of the time.
Baffling
No one wanted to see Ronnie fail but those with decent footballing acumen could see the writing on the wall from the outset.
First of all Ronnie succeeding was like putting money on the 80/1 outsider at the Grand National. Unproven, inexperienced, parachuted into main race due to others pulling out and not bred in any respectable European league. However, these horses do sometimes win and worth the gamble if only putting a tenner on but Celtic’s case it was was the cost of dropping attendances, European football revenue, missed opportunity to cement gulf with nearest rivals as well as keep our respect and prestige in the footballing society.
Now we are in a position of an over sized and hugely expensive squad that needs gutting, a PR disaster in playing hot potato with media appointed managers and a now realistic and serious contender in Sevco in taking league next season due to simple fact that the got a decent manager.
Ryan Giggs if even considered for the role would be the final insult as far as I am concerned. A guy who is the equivalent of another trainee manager who is unproven getting to play football manager with a huge but shrinking club. He is just another Ronnie but with a more Googe-able name. Which is also a major problem for moralistic people like me who see what type of man he is out with football. That and he took a dive against us in CL which luckily Boruc saved.
We need to nail this next appointment. We need an experienced manager who gets respect from the squad and also is ambitious. Paul Lambert looks now to have done a better job at Villa than we thought. My preference.
Dharma Bam on 21st April 2016 1:16 pm
Traditionalist88,
Thinking about it (a la Charlot), to me, you seem like you are agitating for a supporters’ protest at Celtic Park.
That would make great copy, along with a cracked crest above it, wouldn’t it?
I imagime the people who matter at Celtic Park will be getting the message by now. Money talks, and to people who have a strong monetary interest, it appears to be the only language that’s understood. And when it talks, I’m sure it’s a clear enough message for them.
============
It made great copy in 1994, look how that turned out for them, in more ways than one.
I’m not agitating for anything, I am calling out those who have hit Celtic with the ultimate sanction before:
1) we know all the facts, and
2) before all other avenues have been exhausted.