Peter Lawwell’s Celtic statement just not good enough and I’m simply not buying transfer excuses
Peter Lawwell didn't have anywhere to go with Celtic's interim report. He knew it, everyone knew it, he basically admitted as much and a fair few of his comments didn't cut it for me.
I’ll be honest, I’m not sure there were enough satisfactory answers in there to key questions. Mainly, the disappointment of failing to further add to the squad. Collective responsibility was taken, but it doesn’t change anything and the big question is why were these mistakes made? Who is to blame? If funds were available, there’s a culpability somewhere and, although they’ll never actually say, that’s the point and it leaves Celtic wide open to criticism and speculation.
Identified targets were unavailable. Well identify more or some alternatives. Because, quite simply, are you telling me there wasn’t a single left-back out there available as better cover to Greg Taylor than Alexandro Bernabei? Come on. Also, I’m not entirely sure what transfer activity being at its lowest in England for 10 years has to do with Celtic. Regardless of happenings in England, given Brendan Rodgers talked about needing to be braver in the market, would they have spent big to buy from the Premier League down south anyway?
In any case, what about the summer that really mattered for Celtic. Odin Thiago Holm, barely kicked a ball; Marco Tillo; gone. Kwon, gone; Hyun-jun Yang, project; Gustaf Lagerbielke, told he could have gone in January; Maik Nawrocki, now behind Stephen Welsh in the queue.; Luis Palma, done okay but has faded and needs to get fitter; Nat Phillips, been and gone; Paulo Bernardo, took time to get going and lost his place in the side when he did.
The reason Celtic were scrambling in January is because of those mistakes last summer and the two arrivals Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah aren’t automatic starters, which says it all. There was some good chat. Talk of renewing contracts such as those of Matt O’Riley and Cameron Carter-Vickers is correctly pointed out. That’s excellent business, brings stability and adds and protects value to the individuals.
Words about Celtic’s new Barrowfield facility also struck a positive chord. This is a good investment. Producing top talent from the academy squads is vital because the club has to unearth their own gems.
Bettering Lennoxtown is also of benefit to current senior stars with enhanced medical and sports science facilities hopefully preventing the type of situations which sees Reo Hatate miss most of the season.
But, just like the transfer talk, the European comments baffled me. The chairman’s statement talked of taking consolation from a number of good performances which will serve our squad well.
How does finishing bottom of a gentle group serve a squad well? Am I missing something? This season’s Champions League was a wasted opportunity and would have done more harm than good, I suspect.
In terms of an exciting new format in European football, Celtic fans are looking at their club, with cash in the attic, having their automatic place in next season’s major competition put into jeopardy from a position of strength. I don’t feel there was enough in there to satisfy a support which is deeply unhappy at the events of the past few months.
I did note Lawwell saying that there remains a long way to go, all to play for and it being about uniting behind the team for these purposes. That I do agree with wholeheartedly for their sake. They have to draw a line under the chaos and unrest.
If it rumbles on, they’d be as well handing Rangers the title right now. Rodgers has spent his entire two-spell Celtic career as the hunted. Now he’s going to be the hunter.
You have to ask yourself one massive question. Does he or his team right now look like they have the killer instinct?
Not to my eye and that has to change. And it has to change immediately.
If Celtic are going to chase this title down, they need everyone on board. The manager has to find a way and stick with it and find the right personnel for it.
My instant feeling would be to revert back to the 4-3-3 system with Kyogo Furuhashi up top. That’s no big criticism of Adam Idah, but the system that has brought Celtic success in the past couple of years has worked this season. Just look back to the Rangers game at New Year.
It’s not the system that was broken. It was the work that was taking place within it. Pick two wingers and stick with them. For me, they would be Daizen Maeda and Luis Palma.
Get back to three in midfield with Bernardo filling until Reo Hatate gets back and the back four almost picks itself with Cameron Carter-Vickers due to return. Joe Hart’s announcement of retirement should finally make any lasting doubters realise what a good signing he has been.
He’s made mistakes and isn’t perfect, but he’s been huge in recent weeks and is nowhere near as bad as some critics were making out last season or the start of this. Hart is going to be vital for the run-in because, again, Celtic didn’t buy a proper back-up for him in the last window.
Celtic simply cannot afford to be making any more mistakes at this stage of the season. Rangers aren’t perfect, yet Philippe Clement is getting a tune out of them.
I keep hearing people say that Celtic still have an upper hand because they have players who have been over the course before, but the issue is the ones in the squad who now have not. As was shown against Kilmarnock last weekend, your senior boys can only do so much.
It is not lost. Far from it. But it will take a unified effort and it is time to draw a line under what has gone before. That can, come May, give the the right and definitive title answer.
