If we only win the League will this season be deemed a success?

I guess that would be another definition of what ‘successful’ means but I think that would be a much less popular definition. It’s not a definition I would use to be honest.

 

I think the club as a whole has under achieved this season if we go from treble winning squad with £100m+ in the bank and a top manager to only winning the league against a squad assembled by a PE teacher.

I would question our overall ambition as a support if we see this season as an over achievement given our position going into the season.

A double is a much improved situation.

 

I thing there is scope to do neither. If Rodgers had an objective to win the league and he did so, I think you can say he successfully achieved his objective without over- or under-achieving.

That's kind of how this season feels to me. He achieved what he set out to do. No more and no less. We can't shoot the lights out every season.

 

Put it the other way round: would a Cup double feel like enough to you this season, vs that circus of a Huns side and their Alan Partridge of a manager? Imagine we had lost this League title to that mob. The authorities couldn’t invent enough domestic cups for us to win to cover that humiliation.

Not winning this weekend would end the domestic season on a bit of an embarrassing tone (but not as embarrassing as Ange ended last season: losing to St Mirren et al, winning the cup, openly suggesting you might stay, and then leaving 2 days later, for a toxic chairman and fan base).

However, losing the final would do nothing to erase the fact that the League is the biggest prize and we’ve taken it. We achieved that over the course of a difficult season, in spite of serious institutional bias within both the media and the game authorities, and despite being ripped off by our penny-pinching board.

I want the Cup, but if it was down to just cups or the League alone, then certainly this season it’s a no-brainer. I’ve faith in the manager and team that it’ll be a resounding ‘both’ by the end of the final though.

 

How much would the Huns love to debate a thread like this...

That's the difference I guess..

 

I think it’s for each person to look at the club and decide what is and isn’t an underachievement. As I’ve said, given our situation in the summer (which isn’t an arbitrary point at all, by the way) I would say Celtic were in one of the strongest positions I’ve ever seen them and therefore should be turning that into significant achievement.

Only winning the league from that position would be an underachievement for me.

I don’t disregard the challenges we’ve faced through the season, but these challenges are something we have to handle every season. With injuries it can be mediated through recruitment - which is a particular area we * up - but that is still on us to do better.

I’m kinda surprised at two of your points.

Why argue the exact number we have in the bank, for example? We have an undeniable * tonne of cash, which is the main point.

Also saying Rodgers hasn’t managed the squad before doesn’t suddenly make having a treble winning squad a negative. Every new manager coming to a club hasn’t managed the squad before, but clearly more can be expected from a squad that have just won 5/6 trophies. For comparison, our main challenger inherited a PE teachers losers mid season.

Besides that, off the top of my head maybe 6 out of our last 8 managers have won at least a double in their first season, despite not having managed the squad before. Again, given our squad and resources, despite this challenge, only clearing the league would be an underachievement for us this season to me.

 

Don't know about that. They will be up there with St Johnstone..

 

Yeah it’s a success given the turnaround in the summer and the way we’ve played this season.

In the position we’re in though, better players, manager and more money etc…a double should really be what we’re looking at going forward.

 

Wait, what?

You read my post and you think I'm trying to argue how much money Celtic has in the bank?

And whether Rodgers managed this squad before this season?

That is amazing

 

I have no faith anymore that we will use that money to finally crack on. What it does do, though, is stop the Huns from using it to build something. That's quite important.

 

I think the key thing here is it's about Rodgers under/over achieving, whereas I'm more talking about Celtic as a club.

He obviously had to handle challenges the club inflicted on him with regard to recruitment.

 

I guess it comes down to what we all mean by "Celtic". If "Celtic" means the entire organisation, then we have undoubtedly massively underachieved this season, for all the reasons you say. If "Celtic" means the players, the coaching staff and the fans (which is how I often think of Celtic TBH), then we have definitely overachieved IMO, for all the reasons Paul says.

 

Definitely. We are not going to win the treble every season, but we won the one that matters most. As others have said, the injuries and our lack of ambition in the transfer market makes it more of an achievement.