Everyody was delighted in our camp. In those of our enemy, they were worried and rightly so. It was for me, at last, a indication of intent to try and take the club forward. To not only cement our superiority, but to show we meant to increase that dominance.
In the first season we did that, all be it with a Sevconian team who were awful , but we hammered them. Tore them apart, not just at home, but in their midden. Giving me at least undiluted, overwhelming joy. We fucked them into the ground. We celebrated at Greyskull in a way that sent sevconians into utter despair, just where I like them to be.
We took on City in the CL and played brilliantly against a great team. A great start, but it became evident that our improved play was being cut off at the knees by a defence not worthy of the name. He needed to strengthen that area and failed miserably in that. We went cheap and for a player playing for Dundee and another who couldn’t get a game in Germany. From those signings I knew we were in for trouble.
Last summer with the World Cup leaving us without Lustig and Boyata and also Rogic, I couldn’t believe knowing this we did nothing to help the defence. We went into those qualifying games with Hendry who was at fault for a couple of goals and we were out against possibly the weakest team we had faced in the final play off. Shambolic.
McGinn was lost, no one came in, Boyata wanted away, refused to play and even in January we knocked back a bag of cash for someone who would leave for nothing. Instead of selling him and using every penny gained to replace him. Shambolic.
We started to decline as a force and needed an injection of class. It didn’t happen and three of our best performers left and weren’t replaced. Still the defence didn’t get looked at and we suffered humiliating defeats because of that in Europe. At home we were just making up the numbers mostly and the fortress parkheed mindset was a distant memory. And a painful one as too often our team played like rabbits in the headlights. Scared to make a pass, take a player on through zero confidence in our defence if they lost the ball. We all watched it and couldn’t believe how the simplest pass became beyond us.
He presided over this failure to improve, bought a minibus full of projects that so far, not one has delivered anything. Not a singular one. What we have is over a dozen players you would literally walk by in the street, and tragically for us are a huge drain on our budget and will be for the forseable future.
Too many for too long backed him with a level of belief that blinded them to these glaring failures and took even the mention of them personally. The same people now want him beheaded. Funny old game football and a lesson that nobody is above criticism at our club. Not a single fucking person. And neither should they.
In the last season it has been evident to all who wished to see, that there was a major breakdown in the relationship with Lawell. For me this was the singular reason he left when he did, to who he left for. He didn’t in a month of Sunday’s see his ego settle for Leicester, or more money. That’s convenient and feeds the betrayed feelings, but to me, a critic of his, bullshit. I could be wrong but my take is the deterioration of the relationship with Lawell, the failure to strengthen with quality and the failure to secure McGinn. If anybody still feels he just couldn’t knock back Leicester then you are deluding yourselves.
To leave when he did, to the club that he did, tells me at least he felt his plans were not accepted by Lawell. Now I accept Lawell looking at the track record of his acquisitions would have been worried about his judgement, I certainly was, but, I had hoped he would stop trying for punts and go for quality. That never happened. Why that never happened to me is the key to what transpired. Again I may be wrong, but I will never accept Leicester was his hoped for move.
Trying to maintain the first years momentum was never going to happen without a few players of quality being brought in. No one was.
Inevitably we started to stall, then slide and our performances reflected that.
Now his legacy is one of the need for a major overhaul. That is not acceptable, but is it his fault alone? We don’t know who he wanted. Who he asked to be bought. What we do know, as he stated, we stood still. Not that he stood still, the club did. The reasons for that are the reasons he left and we are were we are.
Sevco are scraping together every crooked coin to stop us. They have closed the gap for the simple reason we have stopped to wait for them. They will do the same in the summer and if anybody believes the shite that they are going bust anytime soon, they probably believe Leicester was his number one club to move to. We have put ourselves in a corner that was his and the boards responsibility. Both needed their arse kicked.
He won every competition he entered. That was great. He hasn’t left us with a squad that could guarantee this would continue without an overhaul. Continuous improvement is something Celtic never do. We get better, sell our players, fall back then have to start again. Well, here we are again in the same fucking complacent boat.
My overall feeling is one of an opportunity lost. The saddest thing is from the outset I repeatedly said it wouldn’t be Sevco who derailed us, it would be us. And it has been.
We had a glimpse of hopefully becoming a team, secure at home and better in Europe. Wether we are is totally reliant on how we respond in the summer. If thevreasons Rigers left was indeed a refusal to spend money in quality, then the people who refused to do that are still there. I don’t hate Rogers. I hate the circumstances that led him to leave, circumstances I feel are being overlooked through our reaction to him going. That’s dangerous and could be missing the core problem. One of professed ambition and zero action to realise fine words.
Lenny will be the gaffer if he wins the treble. I am sure of that, but I am absolutely sure no top coach will consider us if the reluctance to invest in quality is continued.
Rogers was a bright star that burnt out. What burnt it out is my worry. I understand the anger, but I would much prefer to understand the reasons.
We move on as we always will. The board are in the crosshairs of the support. They need to show we mean business to swat the Huns down. They had fucking better. HH