These are strange days at Celtic.
Of course, it is normal for there to be a dip in form through a season.
However, it is when the performance of a team falls off a cliff that there is usually some external reason.
In the five matches before hosting CFR Cluj at Parkhead Celtic had scored twenty goals and conceded three.
Their high energy and direct style of play against St Johnstone and Motherwell brought praise.
Clearly, this was a team in a hurry to go about the business of scoring goals.
Then came the first half against the Romanian champions at Parkhead.
It was lifeless and listless.
On Saturday it took extra time and James Forest to edge past Dunfermline.
In the pre-match presser, Neil Lennon said that he didn’t believe that his team selection against CFR Cluj had any bearing on the outcome.
I know Neil Lennon and like him personally.
Moreover, I applauded his appointment in May.
However, that is a nonsensical comment.
Putting Callum McGregor at left-back and leaving Scott Brown to toil largely unaided was a crucial decision that clearly did not work out.
Neil Lennon also left two newly acquired defenders on the bench during the match against the Romanians.
Even with only eleven minutes to go and ahead in the tie he apparently didn’t trust them to shore up the defence.
Both were played on Saturday and against Dunfermline I’m told that they looked less than assured.
I am left with two possible scenarios to this mystery:
- Neil Lennon convinced Celtic to spend a combined fee of £10m on Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo and Christopher Jullien. He then realised that they were not up to the required standard. This makes the Marvin Compper shambles look like a discrepancy in the petty cash.
- Neil Lennon did not source or sanction either signing.
If there is a third scenario then I can’t think of it at the moment.
The Celtic manager also opined in a presser last week that Scott Brown “wasn’t the brightest”.
As I have already hinted in a previous piece it is my belief that there was a free and frank exchange of views in the run-up to the second match against CFR Cluj.
I am very confident in the integrity of my source who briefed me on Friday at some length apropos this matter.
However, I waited to see what public data Saturday would yield.
Now, I cannot remember the last time that Broony was “rested”.
Can you?
He wasn’t even on the bench.
I spoke to several folks who were at Parkhead on Saturday and they said that Celtic sans Broony looked dispirited and disjointed.
At a time when Sevco are in financial turmoil off the field, the champions could be contriving to score a goal of Shakespearean proportions on it.
There are undoubtedly some fatal pathogens in the mix at Celtic just now.
All that it needs is for them to come into alignment.
Partnerships are crucial to success in any team sport and association football is not an exception to that sturdy rule.
For example, successful sides usually have a complimentary centre back pairing.
However, probably the most important relationship is that of manager and captain.
I have been told that this relationship has broken down at Celtic and it has, unsurprisingly, sent tremors through the squad.
Certainly, something seems to be amiss on the evidence of Saturday.
I’m told that Mr Desmond is preparing to get more directly involved in the running of the club than at any time since the summer of 2016.
It is usually serious when he alters his golf tourney schedule!
If Mr Desmond comes to the conclusion that a catastrophically bad recruitment decision was made at Hampden on May 25th then he will not be forgiving of the person who advocated that course of action.
He cannot dither like Hamlet if he decides that there is an Iago in the boardroom.
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Seems to be a fair bit of a Ntcham bashing mood in the air. Sorry, but I’m breaking ranks on that one. I actually think he’s a seriously good footballer AND he’s not played a bad game any time I’ve seen him this season.
The 3rd scenario. Lennon did not scout them but he sanctioned them. Jullien is on record as having met Lennon in Paris in April. Lennon was manager when Boli was recruited. NL & PL appear to be working together. Is NL being bonused on the net difference on played bought v players sold?. Would explain Ntcham and the ludicrous “technicians” statement as a route to getting him in the shop window. It rarely works out in the long run when a former manager returns.
It is shambolic executive management to not have sought out the best available and then duck in with the nonsense he spouted about everyone against us and need a man who know this, especially this year – at the recent festival.
We have a cheap, compliant manager and given the strength of the last manager, the players will see right through this.
If Desmond is going to act (and I don’t believe he will as his preference dividend is in good hands) both should be replaced immediately.
Phil, Dermot Desmond already makes the main decisions, it was him that appointed Neil Lennon on the spur of the moment inside Hampden, despite the fact other candidates were due to be spoken to the week after the Cup Final. Let’s hope peace breaks out between Broony & Neil and we can get things going again on the pitch.
You’ve got an aging owner who’s asset-stripping the club. You’ve got a CEO whose bonus depends on facilitating that. Is it any wonder the best players want out? That the best manager in decades left in the dead of night? That his replacement is lucky to be in management at all? None of this is surprising.
“Sometimes I had to fight more against my own people than against my opponents. ”
Wim Jansen – June 1998
Bringing players in a few weeks before the Champions League starts and expecting them to fit right in is hope over reality.
I cannot believe how quickly we turn on players.
Having watched Celtic for 60 years I can confidently say that Scott Brown is one of the best Captains….and players.. we’ve ever had.
His contribution and leadership has been immense….so I’ll forgive him some recent lapses.
If, however…. as is being suggested…he has ” fallen out ” with Lenny….then that’s a serious matter and there will only be one winner there…unfortunately.
Time will tell if that’s the case.
And for the avoidance of doubt….I don’t know Scott…I’m not related to him….and I’ve never spoken to him.
I just thank him for his service to the Club.
There are several factors that seem to have been overlooked in my opinion.
The first is Lenny rested McGregor a few weeks ago.
He played more games than any other player in Europe last Season.
Secondly our best Midfield last Season had neither Brown or Ntcham in it.
McGregor,Christie-Rogic produced our best period of football in the entire Season.
Third of all John Kennedy was in Brendan’s coaching staff when he decided to deploy McGregor as a Left Back 11 TIMES last Season and yet we are led to believe that the decision to play him in there v Cluj was all Lennons doing?
Was John Kennedy not kept on as No 2 in order to maintain “continuity”? and if this is the case was he involved in any way for the decision to go with McGregor whilst a fit Hayes sat there doing hee haw?
Lastly Scott Brown looked a yard short v Cluj from the get go and could it not simply be the case the Manager feels at his age that a home tie v a second rate Dunfermline in the Diddy Cup is prime time to rotate and rest him with 4 tough ties coming up?
It’s all well looking in through the Fan looking glass but we are not privy to the player stats or training ground performances like the Management team are.
Also did Brown not pick a knock up in the Cluj game and was forced to run it off?
There is nothing in that post I can argue with. I WAS stunned to learn that Calmac had played 11 times at LB last season. I do know that by the end of December he had played SIX MORE games than ANY PLAYER IN THE WORLD at that point in the season. The two closest were guys playing in S. America. As for Lenny and Broony. I spoke personally to Lenny when he was appointed first time round and I know for an absolute fact just how HIGHLY he regards Broony. This was at a time when not all Celtic fans were sure of his attributes. I asked why he was an automatic “first name on the sheet” choice for EVERY manger he’d EVER played for. His answer was very to the point. “Every single one of us has played the game at a high level. Most fans NEVER played above school level and the vast majority not even to that level. EVERY one of us, has at some point, come up against a Scott Brown. He is your worst fuckin nightmare as an opponent! It’s NOT pretty to watch mostly, but he is unbelievably effective. He destroys your concentration. When it gets to the last 20 minutes of a game and someone gives you the ball, you’re not thinking of the pass you should be making, you’re thinking “Where the fuck is he?” You CANNOT appreciate what a Scott Brown gives to a team until you’ve played against one.”
A wee follow up to my above post. First time round Lenny got the job on a temporary basis with eight league games remaining of the season. We won them all. In the first eight games of the following season we won them all. 16 games, 48 points. Scott Brown played every minute of every game. He was suspended for the next game, picked up an injury in training, and ended up missing nine games. Of the 27 points available during the games he didn’t play we dropped 13.
THAT is a huge statistic.
Your piece seems to suggest that the situation which ended his reign at Hibs is in danger of repeating itself. Or has already done so. That is a serious matter indeed.
Peter, you have hit the nail on the head. I believe that Ntcham was indeed in the side in order to put him in the shop window, and If so, what type of feckin’ circus-act is Lawell running at CP. Then again, Lenny was quoted, I believe, as saying, something along the lines of.’ Ntcham had to be accommodated in midfield’. Really. HAD to be accommodated? For his earlier comments Ntcham should have been accommodated right out the bastard door…do not pass, go. As it were.
Would the NFL of a few years back, have given this guy a 2nd chance. The whole shape of the team was blown to hell. Meanwhile players who are desperate to wear the colours are either shunted to another position, totally unsuited to their talents. Or, they are dropped altogether. Total madness and all so unnecessary. We know the talent is there so why the feck is it not being allowed to blossom.
If indeed there is an issue between the captain and the manager, there can only be one winner. Anything else leads to anarchy, in a footballing sense. Here’s hoping everything is sorted out, sooner rather than later. HH
Another thing I find strange is supporters hate towards Peter Lawell. This guy has done a fantastic job for Celtic growing the club year on year and putting us in a position to push the boat out on transfers. Our club could not be in better hands. We are the envy of every other club in Scotland, yet so called supporters want to derail us. All monies generated by Celtic is invested in Celtic on and off the park.
Brown may have been dropped, so what, he may have stepped over the line. Who knows. Maybe its absolutely nothing. Why is this page resorting to tittle tattle. I expect pish like this from the Daily Record. Celtic supporters are the biggest danger to 10 in a row. The team all of a sudden look shaky. Fallen off the cliff as you put it Phil. Well no wonder when you see the pish that’s written on here designed to fire up the clowns. This isnt the White’s or the Kelly’s running Celtic. Get a grip. Start supporting the club, because the club and it’s current custodians deserve it. Hail Hail
Patrick I agree with the ” sentiments” of your post….but it has to be said that our Transfer Policy ( which I assume is controlled by PL) is shambolic and has been for years.
There is no doubt that he has steered us to financial security away beyond anything I would have dreamed of…but this aspect of the Club’s business is extremely poor and needs addressed …now.
Hail hail
We should be making PROPER signings. Not signing players on loans. The window CLOSES in ELEVEN DAYS!!! And we’ve done almost ZERO BUSINESS. If we had a properly functioning recruitment system the players we need would be identified months in advance and moves would be made to get them in the MINUTE the transfer window opened. They’d be joining the squad on day one of pre-season and be properly bedded in for the first competitive games.
We shouldn’t be scrambling around with days to go looking for whatever fuckin discards we can BORROW!!
IT’S AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE that next to the clowns at the crumbledome WE LOOK AMATEURISH!!!
Money is not advantage when you have a fool spending it. Celtic are and have been a perfect example of this over the past 5 years or so. In most companies the owner employs a fall guy to carry out his wishes and take the blame. Dermot Desmond has nominated Peter Lawwell as his fall guy. Desmond is the majority shareholder and ultimately has the power. He is obviously happy for Lawwell to run Celtic to make enough profit to keep the preference share dividends rolling. To blame Lawwell is ultimately a bit naïve. Desmond is no sugar daddy.
Right now, I am as dis-spirited, totally pissed-off and as angry as I have been for many a long day, re the goings on at CP.
You were correct the other day there, Phil. The PLC board are indeed doing the work of Mr King.
It’s got to the stage where I now could not give a Fiddler’s Feck about the result, over 2 legs, against the Swedes. I know this is heresy, but, please hear me out.
If we do reach the group stages, the knock-on effect will be that we will have a raft of Sunday games, meaning the other mob will always be playing first, therefore putting the pressure on.
More than any other season since we stopped the 10, this is a vital season, league wise.
I would gladly forego everything else to win the league. HH
Hear,hear,me too,THE TEN is thee Holy Grail
The boards ‘ambition’ is NOT that of the fans
Until it is,this will repeat ad nauseam…
I believe the board has no real honest ambition,getting to the group stages is success for them.
IF Lennon isn’t in FULL control,then what happened with him in his first tenure,is bound to happen again
Surly,Lennon didn’t take the job on with the same terms as he previously had,for that would just be bonkers🤪
Lenny the past couple of weeks has made some very bizarre statements before, during and after games. The one that has stuck out the most to me was that he wanted to have Ntcham in side v Cluj because he had been playing well and wanted his technical abilities in lineup.
Sorry, but on both counts I have serious questions as to Lenny’s current sanity.
To give him benefit of doubt, was the insertion of Ntcham into team forced on him by Lawwell in order to showcase him for sale? Was it his inclusion into lineup that maybe caused the bust up with Broony?
Phil; if Neil Lennon didn’t sanction the signing of the 2, then did he speak out against it beforehand? If he did, that could explain why there was a falling out with Lawwell.
But that doesn’t explain the problem with him and Broony? What on earth caused this?
I am a massive Celtic fan but even I am ashamed of some of my fellow fans comments this past few days…..absolute shame on you all..
So we have judged big Julien already have we?
Bolingoli, is a young player, yes it is not his fault he was selected early in his career but the fact is that he was…
why the fcuk was Meling not bought sooner? we all knew KT was for the off.
BINGO! There is the real question that should be getting asked – and it needs asked to Lawwell, not Lenny.
Like others I find there’s a need to criticise the board,very occasionally.But constructive criticism.
However,I’m of the belief…
IF you don’t love Celtic FC🍀 at their worst,
Ye DON’T deserve Celtic FC🍀at their best.
I did have a picture with a father and son walking along as the father said the above to his son,but couldn’t add it here.
WE ‘support’ Glasgow Celtic FC🍀 but sometimes,in their/our blinkered selfishness,people forget the meaning of the word ‘support’ and start moaning and worse.The KT exit was blown out all proportion by way too many selfish fans angry that Kieran is looking after his and his families futures!!That is completely selfish and a deplorable way of thinking,I thought CFC🍀 fans were The Best In the World,that honour seems like such a long time ago now.Fitba fans can be totally irrational at testing times like these.
NO doubt there’s something afoot @CP let’s hope it is settled real quick.✅
I actually think that given time and good coaching Bolingoli could turn out to be an astute investment. My initial reaction to big Julie? Sorry, I don’t see £7m in that boy.
The Shambles that is Celtic FC’s signing policy. We have £10 million pound spent on defenders who seemingly cannot keep elephants out a telephone box, A captain who has lost faith but sees a future in netball? A manager who is wobbling and huddles with players in an empty stadium. Men in the board room on the brink? DD’s golf cancelled.? One defeat and an extra time cup win, and we are dropping the life boats. Will Ibrox be Armageddon day?
Brown was on the end of a nasty tackle against Cluj and it took him some time to shake it off. He did well to see the 90 mins through. So, his exclusion on Saturday could be just as simple as ‘resting’ him. Others needed game time and it made sense to give him, and others, a break – in theory (to be proved wrong on the day), we didn’t need him.
AS for him looking dispirited, ditto most of those who played and almost everyone in the stands. The team was shattered, after Cluj and that may explain a lot. The only thing we as fans can do is to do what fans a are supposed to do and back the team – in every game, and that includes the Green Brigade who thought ‘silence was golden’ onSaturday.
You really DO need to re-read that sentence…
Scott Brown should’ve been left out, he was atrocious and caused the 2nd and not blameless in their third. He lacked leadership on the park FS. Where’s the captain telling his crew “I need help back here”
As for the defensive pairing you speak of they were ok, we won a grinding no win situation match. End of.
Scott Brown had a rare below par game and we lost. Perhaps that says more about the collective inadequacies of the team rather than Brown. If we NEED one specific man firing on all cylinders to win every game we really are in deep shit.
I think you are reading too much into squad harmony and player quality at this stage of the season. Disagreements in football teams, especially following big defeats, are common and healthy in teams that want to win. It is early days in the Celtic careers of our new recruits, we famously wrote of Larsson as being a flop in his first matches.
Our summer recruitment is still not finished and its success or failure unknown. I believe we set up the Cluj defeat in January by sticking a plaster on a gaping wound in the defence. That blame is shared by Congerton, Lawell and Rodgers.
This season the jury is still out but the hyperbole is here to stay, it seems a disease of too much success and an obsession with 10IAR. We’ve all dished it out big style to our hun mates and we are petrified of what they will say if they turn us over finally!
It is interesting that their high risk strategy appears to have more than a punchers chance of succeeding at this point in time in the season. Phil, as someone that has ridiculed them as much as you have I can imagine you must be “shitin yersel”…
Lenny has had one bad result and we are on him and the team like a pack of wolves. If we want to stop the huns, there is only one option right now – back Lenny and back the team. Otherwise our fears will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
First half away to Cluj. we were rotten. First half away to Motherwell we were rotten. First half home to Cluj rotten.. Last season when Lennon took over we were rotten more often than not. Back to the Motherwell game, Phil, was the frank exchenge of views anything to do with the players ditching the managers tactics after Motherwell scored?
Long BEFORE Lenny took over last season we were RANK ROTTEN in a helluva lot of games. But we were generally winning and that put an artificial gloss on the performances.
When Lennon took over after Rodgers, the quality of the football declined significantly.
The goalless home draw with Livi, the turgid, uninspired display at home after McNeil’s passing, and against TRFC…
But, he got the benefit of the doubt because it wasn’t his team – and he did an undeniably fantastic job to secure the Treble – despite the p!sh football on show.
Whether or not Lennon was involved with any of the summer signings is a moot point. He’s worked with Lawwell before and knows how he operates.
IF Lennon was lied to about the future transfer process before he took the job permanently – then that misjudgement falls on his own head.
Regardless, it’s now Lennon’s team.
Yes, after a bright start the team now seems to be playing as poorly as it did post-Rodgers.
Something has to change, and quick…
As they say, By the pricking if my thumbs something Wicked this way comes.
If Peter Lawwell signed Boli and Christopher, then I fully expect Celtic to spend a long 90+ minutes from trying to keep the home fans in the Broomloan Road Stand from celebrating too many goals, come a week on Sunday
TED
How does it feel to follow a team who have never won a major trophy?
if that’s is the case that the relationship between Brown and Lennon has broken down…..then a decision will have to be made before things get a lot worse. Celtic still have time on their hands to make that change now if required, not in late February!! When the open air talk on celtic forums is one of fear of losing the league in Mid August then you know something is clearly wrong behind the scenes. That kind of talk is normally left for Mid March!!!
So body language experts are out in force at CP “brown looked dispirited and down” jeez what a load of nonsense
Oh dear, how unfortunate for you.
Please re-read the sentence.
This time carefully…
I admire your diplomatic handling of the guy who misread your Broony reference….
Incidentally,his absence from the team on Saturday could be due to having his achilles raked by studs the other night. Just a thought,but i suspect not the whole story.
The official explanation was that he was being “rested” not that he was suffering from an injury.
If anyone needed a rest it was Callum McGregor , so I don’t buy into the rest thing. If broony wasn’t injured then our captain and manager have problems imo.