Ryan Christie

He’s a massive miss for us. As much as McGregor over the last few weeks imo.

Criminally used by us in recent times tbh.

 

I assumed by letting him go we'd be getting a replacement.

Looks like an awful decision now.

We'd have been better of keeping him until Jan at least.

 

Was always gonna be a big miss..

We needed a left winger and am energetic centre mid once he was away..

Look at our midfield now. Getting overrun by Livi and Dundee United..

Was pathetic that under this system, we decided we didn't need anything more combative, with leg's, in that middle. Disgraceful..

 

McCann was such an obvious and easy buy. Negligence.

 

Trying to play mad end to end open football with McCarthy, Rogic, Turnbull and Ajeti in the middle.

 

So scary that our manager thinks that's the way to go..

We are limited but why no go with

Lawal
Turnbull
Henderson

Brooks
Abada
Jota

Even something like that as an option would give us some more pace, energy and freshness..

 

Was massive to the way the manager wanted to play but hey ho we have James McCarthy now

 

They guys would get over run physically remember were they play and how many crunching tackles they will have to take before a fouls called, I'm all for giving yougesters a try but on maybe 2 at a time

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That is 2..

Henderson has been around our first team for 2 year now and played quite a few game's. He's 21 now..

Lawal physically looks more than ready, Brooks less so but very quick and talented. They're already playing against men in a physical league..

If you want to talk about player's being overrun then look no further than our midfield trio yesterday..

 

Wonder if he got a pint ok or kept rattling them over the bar.

 

What other club do former players still seem to get involved with so much?

 

Guys plastic should have chased him out the door

Any proper Celtic fan would have signed new contract so Celtic would get a better fee


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Money aside- exchanging that atmosphere on Wednesday to play in front of 10,000 (max) in the Championship...

 

I was there and asked him "why you here?" he looked up sheepishly and said "I just want to feel like a star again... Will you please take pictures with me...?"

 

Happens with most big clubs tbh.

 

Socrates himself may not have been able to philosophise exactly why Celtic capitulated in their 10 in a row campaign.

So asking Ryan Christie to put his finger on where it all went wrong may not have provided the attacking midfielder with much of a chance.


The 26-year-old was part of the Hoops' quadruple Treble winning side who looked unstoppable at times.

Until, of course, last season when it all came tumbling down in what felt like the blink of an eye.

Neil Lennon's players looked a shell of their former selves in defeats to the likes of St Mirren and Ross County.

Not to mention the three league losses to rivals Rangers and the draw which might have felt like another defeat


For Christie it was a serious shock to the system.




The Scotland cap always understood that football can be an unforgiving sport, a cruel mistress.






But even that knowledge could not prepare him and his then-teammates for what backlash would come from the supporters and pundits who expected much more from the reigning champions.

"It was strange, even to this day I look back at it as what could have been," Christie told Football Scotland during an exclusive 30 minute conversation.

"It was probably an accumulation of all sorts of reasons.

"I hate to play the Covid card but it certainly didn't help and as a squad we just didn't gel or put together a run of results at any point to gain that confidence.

"It felt like it was getting worse and worse and at a club like Celtic because we'd been so dominant domestically, as soon as that went off course a little bit it seemed to throw everyone off.

"Us, the supporters, everybody. It was a bit of a shock and we didn't deal with that too well.

"That was a learning curve in itself. It wasn't a great time to be involved, you want to be successful. But you come away having learned an awful lot."




Manager Lennon copped plenty of flak from the fanbase who had had enough by Christmas.

The boardroom, and in particular Peter Lawwell, also got it in the neck by the frustrated masses who would not accept what they had been watching on the pitch



There seemed to be a new banner outside Parkhead every week demanding their heads.

Resignation calls were also a regular occurrence and angry messages on social media boards were commonplace.

On the evening of November 29, 2020, however, it was something entirely different that left Christie shaken.

Furious punters gathered outside the ground following Celtic's 2-0 defeat to County in the Betfred Cup and mayhem erupted when they destroyed barriers and allegedly clashed with cops and stewards.

The players and management staff were kept inside the stadium for a lengthy spell to help them avoid any potential trouble.

That didn't sit right with Christie, especially after they had been so dominant in previous seasons.

"(The protests) were a bit of a shock to the system, I definitely didn't expect it to go like that," he said.

"It was shocking to us that we were losing games and not picking up points but you know how much it means to the fans so when it doesn't go right you know you're probably going to be on the wrong side of some criticism.

"It was supposed to be a huge season and you want to do it for yourself to write yourself into the history books as well as for the fans.

"But it wasn't to be and you come out the other side frustrated.




It got to the stage when we weren't picking up points or we were going through a bad spell, everyone from the outside wanted to throw any excuse out there and people would jump on it.

"Going into every game we thought we could turn it around. Certainly at no point did we think we'd already thrown up the white flag and given up.

"That was annoying because when we were going through the tough run around November/December time we felt like every game it was going to take one win to get us back on track.

"It went the other way and got worse and worse.

"The pressure's so high at Celtic and if you keep going down that route it can be very damaging to the squad's confidence and everyone around the club.

"That's why I was so impressed when Ange (Postecoglou) came in and he flipped it on its head so quickly."

So, to the elephant in the room.

Did Neil Lennon have the players' full support towards the end?

From the outside looking in it appeared as though the Northern Irishman may well have lost the dressing room, to an extent.

Results were poor and performances were worse.

The support had certainly had enough.

For Christie, though, it wasn't necessarily about Lenny losing support





It was the noise and the pressure from the outside that made it difficult for the retired midfielder to keep his job.

"Around the time when people are calling for change around the club, whether that's managerial or even higher, it's hard as a player not to see it," the Bournemouth player explained.

"All it takes is having a close friend thinking you've got the inside scoop, but you know as much as they do!

"There was definitely a feeling of uncertainty at times going in, and it did end up changing, but there was definitely uncertainty throughout the later half of the season about whether there would be changes."

That Celtic had allowed their season to drop off so spectacularly was one thing but there were always early signs that things may not go the way they wanted that year.

After a dismal early showing against Ferencvaros in their Champions League qualifiers, a fiery Lennon met the media upon full-time and lambasted his wantaway stars for throwing in the towel.

"There are some players who may want to leave and have made inroads into that over the last six months or so," he said at the time.

"Some of you don't want to be here? Leave.






I just want the players who want to be here."

It was an explosive post-match presser and had everyone speculating which players he could have been addressing.

Kris Ajer was first on the list and then Olivier Ntcham's name popped up.

Christie himself was also tarred with that brush by sections of the support but the former Aberdeen ace wasn't having it.

It was, of course, a disastrous result and knockout blow to be turfed by the Hungarians.

But Christie was as disappointed as anyone.

And after Lennon's outburst - which had been 'bugging him for a while' - the players inside the changing room could have been forgiven for being irked by their boss's words.

Were there conversations among the squad about the necessity of Lenny's fury?

"It was tough because, number one, I don't think anyone had stated they were absolutely desperate to leave at that point," Christie told Football Scotland.

"A few people had maybe had offers in like Premier League or elsewhere that was promising for them.






It was so early in the season where it's a bit different for Celtic when you have such important games at the start of the season that it means you have to be focussed straight away.

"That's when the transfer market takes over a little bit at the start of the season.




Did it have to be said? I'm not so sure. I think everyone was desperate to get a result.

"Everyone in our squad was firing on all cylinders to try and get through.




Had we got into the Champions League that season I'm sure that would have steadied some players' heads about leaving because that's an attraction itself.

"People probably look back at those comments now and think, 'That's where it started going wrong so early' but we took it as a minor blip, it was frustrating but it was still early and in our minds we were still thinking we'll go on to have a successful season."

 

Why the * he moved to Bournemouth I'll never know.