The scriptwriters have certainly given Shane Duffy a lead role this week.
He finally got to the club he has always supported.
Then he captained his country in Sofia last night with Donegal man Seamus Coleman on the bench.
However, any good story arc must have a bump in the road.
He was badly out of position for Bulgaria’s goal, no question about that.
It was looking like Stephen Kenny’s first game I charge was going to be a defat.
Then his captain rose for a Free Derry Corner.
One all.
It was the one bright moment in a dire performance.
I think it is fair to say that Stephen Kenny has all of his work in front of him.
The simple truth is that we haven’t had a world-class player in the green jersey for almost twenty years.
This was the last one.
And then he fekked off!
Successful teams, either at club or international level, need a dependable spine of consistent performers.
Duffy adds that to the Hoops and Celtic have a proper centre half now.
Moreover, he isn’t “a project”.
If Celtic close the deal next summer and sign him on a permanent basis, there will be little re-sale value.
It would appear that, for at least this season, Neil Lennon is getting his way and the board are providing him with battel harden veterans.
That is why Aaron Hickey is heading to Bologna and not Parkhead.
The deal was there to be done.
The Tynecastle club anted £1.5m for the kid with all of that upfront.
Certainly, affordable for Celtic.
My information is that Nick Hammond recommended the signing.
However, the guy in the dugout didn’t approve the acquisition.
Instead, I’m told that the Celtic manager would prefer Barry Douglas of Leeds to fill that left-back berth at Parkhead.
At 31 years of age, he is certainly not anyone’s “project”.
The good news in all of this is that the Celtic manager has the final say on players.
That is as it should be and hasn’t always been the case at Parkhead.
Neil Lennon knows that he needs senior pros to get them over the line this season.
Last night in Sofia, one of them bounced back from a major error to get back on terms.
That took character, and the Armagh man knows that his team will need plenty of that quality going forward to Ten In A Row.
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Smells like ‘self preservation’ by the ‘board’ and if we get the 10 it will be ‘as you were’ for next season.
Sorry Phil but I do not believe for one minute that Lennon has the final say on signings, if he did then Klimala would have seen more game minutes.
Just my opinion on him and him only.
PS: Klimala will never ever make it as a Celtic player (just saying)
HH
Once Neil delivers the 10 he will be an immortal in Celtic’s history.
it seems ridiculous we didnt close on Aaron Hickey – Celtic are getting 30% of the fee – so it would have been around 1 million to get this over the line – a poor decision on Lennon’s part if this was the case
It’s all about opinions……… but mine is that Hickey is rank, if true Lennon put the block on it I say well done , he’s no better than Taylor ….in fact I’d say a lot worse
Birger Melling was sold for around €1m in July.
Whilst I agree Hickey should have been a target at that price I would say Melling was an absolute steal at his price.
No project either already proven in Europe.
I doubt Neil Lennon has anything to do with making an approach.
The poor decision was letting him go. BR???
There is little doubt that they will buy him at the end of the season and that he will probably succeed Brown as captain as well when Scott goes for his coaching badges. I would have taken Hickey at that money.
Football like most sports seems quite simple. You identify your strengths and play to them while eradicating your weaknesses and then do the opposite for the opposition.
Jock Stein lost Joe MacBride to injury and simply went out and bought a replacement in Willie Wallace. It seems simplicity is the stuff of genius.
Celtic have needed a left-back and a centre-half for ages so so Duffy is a step in the right direction finally.
As far as bouncing back from a bad mistake you only need to think of Larsson and he turned out ok!
Joe McBride wasn’t injured when Celtic signed Willie Wallace.
From the Celtic blog “The Celts are here” :
“He (Joe MacBride) is still in the top three goalscorers in the league post WWII on 221 goals behind McCoist and Celtic’s own Willie Wallace, who many believe was signed to cover for McBride in the European Cup winning season, something which Stein denied.”
You may well be right but I believe the my point was he picked a player with equal goal scoring ability. A simple swap.
I’m 100% correct Wallace was signed before McBride was Injured..
I’ll try again. What Big Jock didn’t do, as two recent managers might have done, was to put either a midfielder (Christie), a winger( Morgan) or no-one in Joe MacBride’s position. He decided to change like for like and I can tell you no-one had a clue about Wallace, at the time. That is what set Stein apart.
I know those players mentioned were not around at the time.
Wallace was signed on December 6th 1966 and made his debut on the 10th against Motherwell. Joe McBride played his last game of that season two weeks later on Christmas Eve against Aberdeen.
Many believed he’d broken his leg in training. This is NOT the case. He’d been having difficulties for some time with a mystery knee problem. He eventually had surgery to remove tissue and cancerous cells were discovered.
He made a full recovery but was out of action for the best part of a year, scoring a hat-trick in his first match back, I think it was against Morton.
He was eventually sold to Hibs and scored 10 goals in his first 5 games.
Anyway. Bottom line. There was a clear overlap between the arrival of Wallace and McBride dropping out of the picture.
I wonder what kind of partnership they might have formed in different circumstances?
This is exactly why Neil Lennon shouldn’t have got the job on a permanent basis. A football dinosaur.
What is? I suppose he was to blame for Duffy and his partner’s fuck up for the Bulgarian goal.
No but he’s responsible for us looking for our 3rd LB in little over a year.
Sounds like an urgent eye examination is called for given that his “eye for a player” was purported to be one of the reasons he got the job.
Leave it Brendan we know who you are.
🔔 🔚
Like your sign-off tab, very apt. 😉