Peter Lawwell

It’s not too early to be panicking to be fair. I get the point you are making, but our transfer window has really got me worrying. When Rodgers come back it was talk of signing next level players to try and make an impact in Europe. There was a lot of excitement amongst us as a fan base because we all know we have money available to do that. I’m not talking about winning the CL or that because that is of course pie in the sky stuff, but we should be able to make a dent.

Now we are sitting with a few days left of the window, we have lost key players and haven’t even replaced all them yet. On top of that, we still need a goalkeeper, a left back and we’re still crying out for a proper holding midfielder. Something that is crucial to making an impact in Europe, and I said the very same last summer and we didn’t bring one in either.

This window has the hallmarks of Lawwell all over it. Whether he is having a big say on transfers I don’t know, nobody on here does, but we have seen this type of transfer window all too often in the past when it was widely accepted he was the main instigator. He is in a position of power at the club again now, so I don’t think it’s totally out of the question to think he is having a big say.

It looks like this has been the plan all along to be honest. Someone had to go after the Covid shambles, and he was the biggest reason for that when he took the tinpot decision to appoint Lennon. So he * off, but a couple of years later and the anger has subsided after a few successful seasons domestically, he is brought back into the fold. It’s a * disgrace he is back at the club in all honesty.

He has held us back massively over the years. Yes we had a couple of decent CL campaigns, and we were very dominant domestically. I think we would have done far more than that with someone in charge who had a bit of ambition about them. He cost us untold millions over the years by allowing us to go into CL qualifiers totally unprepared.

 

Jota, Starfelt, and Mooy all away. All starters, all key players. Jota our best player and source of creativity.

Joe Hart is a year older.

Callum McGregor looks to have lost a yard and will naturally decline over the course of the next few years.

Taylor, Maeda, and Abada do not have the attributes to play in a Brendan Rodgers team.

Oh is unproven and has shown no signs that he is a capable replacement for Giakoumakis.

Hatate looks like someone has shat in his cornflakes any time he takes to the field.

We are significantly weaker than the squad that won a treble, and that squad needed massively improved even if we stood still. We’ve regressed heavily.

I’d rather win the league and try and win a knockout tie in Europe for the first time in 20 years than win more trebles.

If we only care about trebles then we only care about Rangers being our benchmark. Something that should never be entertained, unless you are happy to just be marginally better than them forever, and achieve nothing else.

 

Wasting your time mate.. He thinks BR came back to the club to make a mark on Europe and the first thing he said was go out and get me this Australian kid who will be injured for a few months and this lad Kwon that's playing second division football in South Korea.

As you said some of our fans are happy with domestic dominance over the huns and Europe is just a bonus. Its been ingrained in them for the last 20 years.

 

I get everything your saying mate, some I agree with some I don't. I get the frustrations on transfers, I think we all expected quite a few upgrades on current first teamers and, on the face of it, all we've got in the main so far are promising younger guys.

But we're only 4 games into the season with a new manager, a big injury list and a transfer window that's still open and some folk already have lawwell hung, drawn and quartered even though no one has any idea what's going on behind the scenes.

Let's see how things go, what new signings come in and how the team does when we're at full strength. Hopefully there will be big improvements.

 

I think I'd give Maeda and Abada more time; but I think everything else there is spot on.

 

What about the Irish Republican Army though eh?

Great bunch of lads I'm sure we can all agree.

 

Blood Orange gin FTW. Ironically.

 

The dicking around has already seen us dumped out a cup and dropping points in the league. We should have already had the team sorted by now. The flip side to your point is that we are already 4 games into the season and we are nowhere near where we should be. Even though we are in arguably the best financial position we ever have been.

 

Nor did we when he wasn't in a high profile position.

Coincidence though...

Sent from my M2012K11AG using Tapatalk

 

I got a speeding ticket last week, PL's fault.

 

Can you give us the 3 points?

 

Transfers aside mate, injuries and a new manager trying to alter our playing style have been the biggest factor in our performances so far imo.

 

More than happy to do this but PL has said naw...

 

I agree, we should have had 95% of our business done. This last week should have been to do some needed business with injuries or someone who we been chasing but wasnt on the market. But we are literally needing 4 first team players at least.

 

This last week of the window we should be adding the final additions to the squad the 3rd and 4th choice players instead we are looking for starters to play at ibrox in under a week, ludicrous.

 

The squad is quite evidently *. We've lost a few players through injury and managed to lose at Rugby Park and draw at home against SPFL dross. First time in, I think, 5 years we've went two domestic games in a row without scoring. So aye, the squad is *. It was also fairly evident at the tail end of last season.

Bain, Siegrist, Ralston, Scales, Yuki, Bernabei, Turnbull, McCarthy, Iwata, Forrest, Haksabanovic. There's 11 players who wouldn't be missed in the slightest if we had a fit squad and they left. And that's not counting the new signings - and if we're honest, going by the way it usually goes, at least 1 or 2 will end up doing very little in a Celtic shirt.

So aye, it's a * squad.

And see your point about winning a treble. Aye it's great. But it's Scotland. The second best team in the country have dross clogging up their squad as well. How good is our squad when we play any reasonably competent team in Europe?

 

In response to @FrankMcCallum & @Officer Doofy ...

Fellas, my point, referring to previous posts I've made not just in this thread but in the BR one also, is not to say things are perfect, but then again when have they been? But this is not all just about the squad, when the manager needs to be taking a fair bit of the responsibility here. Players do not just turn from a side capable of winning a treble and 5 trophies in 2 seasons to bad and they're all dross in less than 3 months.

If you can tell me a single point of time since 1970, when most of the Lions were still at the club plus Big Jock had brought in a couple of quality signings such as Harry Hood and the Quality Street Gang (Danny McGrain, Kenny Dalglish, Davie Hay, George Connelly, Lou Macari etc) were coming through. That is probably the last time that there hasn't been a load of complaints about the wider squad, but undiybtedly there were still some driftwood that was around at the time even then. But using that as a marker, tell me a single point in time when everything has been pretty much perfect?

Who is to blame for the signings that have been made? If you're going to tell me that BR did not make sure when he agreed to come back as manager that he did not include some stipulations regarding having a significant say and control, veto and greenlight over transfers, then I don't know what to tell you.

As fir some of the players mentioned, no doubt Hart is coming to the end of his career and really my statistical analysis regarding his record over the past few years speaks for itself. He is a great guy, a great personality, but totally I agree, we should be seeking - if not already have had in - a long term replacement.

CalMac only just turned 30 and should have a lot left in the tank. He has pretty much played every game, non-stop, for club and country whenever he has been fit. No littlel Cup game off here or there, for example. And we both know how rarely he has ever come off before the fulltime whistle is next to never. The only two times he has missed games in the last couple of years was about 3-4 weeks out prior to the World Cup last year and when his face was blitzed the season before, and even then he still only missed literally 2 games. BR was anble tyo rejuvenate Brown and no dount CalMac will be just fine, may just need to tailor his game slightly. Have no doubts about him, whatsoever.

Oh has 6 goals in 510 min on the pitch as a Celt. That equates to a 1.04 goals per 90min on the pitch. GG was great, but how many 2x gold boot winners (2020/21 in Eredivisie & 2021/22 here in Scotland on essentially half a season of football) are willing to sit and be second fiddle to Kyogo? GG wasn't, but I tell ya what, a guy who is currently averaging basically a goal per game is not a bad option.

It remains to be seen if Oh can fit BR's system. For all we know he might be a better fit for it than what Kyogo is, because we most certainly are not getting the best out of Kyogo playing th esystem that has been introduced, compared to the previous couple of seasons. Not saying that Oh will be better, because we simply don't know, and like I pointed out, a guy scoring at a rate of better than a goal every 90min on the pitch at least deserves to have a shot before writing him off, no?

Injuries happen in football. We don't want them to, but they do. It is inevitable, so how is having injuries equate to being *? And yes, we have gone back to back games without a goal, and if you think i'm happy about that, I can assure you I am not. FTR, it was in 2019, not long after BR left and NL took over that had that 2 game dry spell)

Instead of pointing the fingers solely at the squad alone though, I think it's more sensible to be asking BR a few unconfortable questions.

IMO, the manager has to be shouldering a fair bit of the responsibility for this situation. He inherited a team full of goals across and full of positivity, geared to going forward, and has turned it into a possession based team going sideways, and literally has Kyogo running in the wrong direction, coming into MF instead of in behind the CB's. We've gone from 'we never stop' to 'we never start'.

Perhaps in the long run it will reap benefits whennt hings begin to click into place, but we really haven't seen much in the way of evidence of that. Even in the very early period of Ange's tenure there were a couple of big 6-0 type wins against opponants at the time (think it was St M & Dundee off the top of my head) who were of roughly the level we have faced the last few weeks, and yeah, it wasn't all smooth sailing, but there were signs of what he was doing was finding it's footing.

Sidebar - That is not to take away from Killie, who have been very impressive this season so far and even goinfg back to last year are really tough to beat on their own patch. Only 3 times in 2022 has that been done, including when the Bhoys won there in April. Considering for a side like Killie to have a home record like that is pretty * imoressive and has only gotten better this season so far. A lot of teams will be leaving Rugby Park with not much to show for it this season, I suspect.

But there is absolutely no justification for what happened this last weekend at home v StJ. Yes, StJ GK had a day out to remember (he has just gotten a call up to the Bulgarian NT btw), but for all that possession to create so little was pretty pitiful to say the least.

That all said, I agree with you 100%, we should have more than enough quality to be beating both of those sides.​

Compared to now and what we have bears all has the hallmarks of trying to fix something that wasn't inherantly broken. By all means, tweak it, adjust it, make it his own, but an entire overhaul was not what was needed here. They could work on the training piitch to perfect the new system or finding a way to blend between the two so that we are getting the best out of the players we have, but if what we are saying otherwise, is that BR is too inflexible or is uncapable of adjusting and adapting his tactics then again, that is a big question the manager has to answer.

Am not trying to be arguementative with you for the sake of it, guys. I respect you both and your opinions, but to simply write all of the failings we have witnessed over the past couple of weeks (and even before that, against County and Dons we were less than all that slick and showed signs of rust), not to mention failing to keep clean sheets even when Starfelt was still here, and before both CCV and Nawrocki got crocked were still leaking goals, all of these failings squarely at the squad is to be doing them an injustice and letting BR off the hook for what has been and is his responsibility.

I agree, there is more to the game than just domestic football, but this is the bread and butter, and quite simply, no Celtic manager has ever been sacked for his failures in Europe. Sure, progression would be great and think we would all like to see that, but to set that as the yardstick at the cost of neglecting the bread and butter is a recipe for disaster.

 

@Taz you're right about no Celtic manager being sacked for European failures. But Rodgers should be sacked if he loses on Sunday. All evidence so far is pointing to him having made the team worse than he inherited, tactically speaking. And the board must answer for appointing him.