True expectations?

At the start of the season in all honesty what was your true expectations? Mine personally was properly what we have now the Europa league, was it what I wanted? No! But was it what I expected? Yes. Every other Manager in recent history has started out at this point and went on to do pretty well(Lennon actually got thrown out of both the Champions league and the Europa league before getting a second chance). What in my opinion people need to remember is that the manager has took on a squad of players that is not his own, that have not suited his style of play, hasn't had backing from the board from the get go and maybe you could say has been unlucky with injury's. Hopefully the board gives him the backing and we see results. So honestly what was your expectations before a competitive ball was kicked?

 

Mine was the Europa League. I'm disappointed given the circumstances but don't blame any of this on Deila or even the players although it's clear from these qualifiers that one or two might want to look at * off in the near future and most importantly that the board give Ronny money to build the team. Loans won't cut it, especially when they're injured, or require work permits and would be ineligible anyway. I'm not actually that * off as I felt that although we could've been better out there tonight, bad luck played its part; as did the stingy board that didn't give Deila the money to really make a push for this despite the two-leg pumping by Legia that should've gotten the chequebook out.

 

I expected us to be signing more players, quality strikers who can score goals like a typical Hooper and others that I could name. Thing is, I feel sorry for Ronny. He's had * all backing and I think he's got the right mind set and attitude for the job. That shower of arseholes better get him some backing.

Tournament wise, I expected us to get Champs League. We should be beating mediocre Polish and Slovenian teams, end of. I still expect us to take home the league and at least another piece of silverware.

 

I was thinking we would make the CL, although I did expect us to add some new players, particularly a striker, before the biggest games of our season. Which was wishful thinking on my part.

If we actually invested some of the cash we've had over the last few season from the CL & player sales on some genuine quality replacements, we would have beaten Maribor no problem at all.

I expected CL Groups, League & Cup.

 

Yeah I was hoping it might signal the start of a mini-clearout and replacement job as we do have an inordinate amount of "decent" players and not enough in the way of "quality" players. Deila was brought in as he's supposed to be good at developing young players and identifying/selecting targets on a shoestring and I was looking forward to seeing what kind of players (obviously identified by the scouts initially) he'd select for us to sign especially given the fact we've picked up guys like Wanyama (and under Neil Lennon who signed his fair share of duds but was relatively inexperienced). As it stands we've signed a bunch of guys on loan and the manager hasn't been given a bean to spend. This lack of faith and vision shown by the hierarchy is almost as disappointing – if not moreso – than not qualifying for the CL and questions whether or not (a) the board have faith in him; and (b) if we would have made it had Ronny been given the money to spend to bring his own guys in.

 

That's it, we lack quality. Decent isn't good enough at CL stage. That year we got through to the last 16 and got done by Juventus (in goals, I thought we played ok, cheating * haha!) we had quality in the likes of Hooper, Wanyama, Forster (who was on fire) and Ledley. Where are they all now? Down south. Selling not to invest, makes me sick to the teeth. I was born a Celtic fan and will never stop following, but if things don't change then it will be made a * experience for the future.

 

Personally I will be 100% honest I actually backed the board before this season, but after what I have seen this season my backing for them has completely changed! I have seen people compare Deila to Mowbray, they need to remember Mowbray spent 3.8M on Fortune alone! Deila yet hasn't spent a penny. I think if we had of got the Serbian striker in alone before this play off we might have had a fighting chance of going threw with that cross going into the box that stokes seemed to be an inche or 2 with connecting with, to the crosses that were swinged into the box with no one in the box to attack! The board seriously need to get some players in and back the manager!

 

Me too,

Hooper £5M - Balde £1.8M
Wanyama £12M - Biton £1M
Forster £10M - Gordon £0M

Bring in £27M replace with £2.8M

 

Disgrace man :/ Don't even know what else to say tbh.

 

We need a like button on here like facebook! At the minute I am just hating the negative feeling towards a manager who hasnt been given a chance from the fans, the board and what I feel even the players. It almost seems as if you will get more time from the fans if you are an ex Celt or Scottish!

 

Yeah we haven't even made a real effort to replace like-for-like in key areas even for a few hundred thousand.

Our answer to selling Wanyama wasn't bringing in another anchor man it was shifting Mulgrew (who's out of his depth in that position in Europe) and bringing in Nir Biton for buttons who's a playmaker and not a defender.

Our answer to Hooper was blowing the guts of £7M on 3 or 4 strikers who were never realistically going to replace him (rather than spending, say, £4M on an obviously great player like Finnbogason and gambling on making only a modest return on what's in truth a small investment given that the money we've made in recent seasons dwarves this amount).

These two positions haven't been addressed in two transfer windows and for our troubles we get pumped 6-1 by Barcelona in year one and fail to qualify for the group stage the following year.

I think Johanson will turn out to be a good replacement for Ledley but then I never really considered Ledley in the same bracket as Hooper, Wanyama, Forster or Van Dijk although he was a good player for us. Obviously this makes them more difficult to replace but then we could at least make an honest effort. It just doesn't seem to be that we have and even then we're still stuck with too many decent players and lacking in key players.

 

In truth I still do back the board's methods but I'm * off at them for the way they've nonchalantly gone around their business. The business model is sensible and probably correct, the execution this year however has been woeful.