James Forrest
The Emperor of Ice Cream
Sometimes, as a Celtic fan, you’re subjected to a media that pretends to know more than it does. At other times, you’re subjected to one that pretends not to know what it very clearly does. So, when the press tells us that Wilfried Nancy is the first Celtic manager ever to lose his first two games, it offers no context. None.
It ignores that this season has been disintegrating almost from the moment it began. It ignores the chaos inside the club. On top of that it ignores the fact we are on our third manager in a matter of months.
The media knows all this. It will even mention it in passing.
But it will never offer these things as mitigating factors for Nancy, because that would spoil the punchline: “Celtic in crisis.” It pretends that even the best Celtic sides wouldn’t have struggled last night against a Roma team with ten times our resource and ten times the readiness to use it. It pretends this squad should be delivering flawless results when it hasn’t looked flawless under anyone.
Danny Röhl, across the city, has had an equally dreadful start. Things aren’t improving there. A couple of wins against strugglers aren’t convincing anyone. And once again, on the big stage, his side flopped like a fish on a line. Robbie Keane called the match “easy,” and he was right — his team should have scored more.
The Ibrox club is in a mess. That doesn’t excuse ours, but it underlines how differently Röhl is treated. The hacks know they can’t try to hound two Ibrox managers out in one calendar year — it would make the club look like the basket case it is.
The media also pretends not to know that Röhl has already lost a League Cup semi-final. It pretends not to know he’s led his side out of the Europa League when they had a genuine chance to progress. No actual progress has been made there at all, but acknowledging that would kill their narrative.
Is progress being made at Celtic? We simply don’t know yet. We have a manager who led a team into a massive match two days after arriving in the country, and then had to take them into a European tie for which no Celtic manager would have been adequately prepared. This club didn’t prepare us well for anything.
Are there extenuating circumstances? Hell yes. A whole pile of them.
Brendan Rodgers — one of the most experienced managers in the business — couldn’t get a tune out of this squad. O’Neill put together a very good run, but let’s not rewrite history: we needed a last-minute winner at St Mirren for our first shot on target of the night. We scraped past Dundee and Hibs. We needed extra time to beat a ten-man Ibrox team in the League Cup final, a side barely standing.
This is not a squad that’s setting the heather on fire under anyone. This is not a group you could confidently trust in these pressure games. Nancy has been handed a dreadful hand. O’Neill played it well, but it was still a weak hand no matter which way you cut it.
People online today say, “They’re laughing at us.”
By “they,” they mean the media and the club across the city. And yes, the media is laughing — but what else do you expect? They are desperate for this guy to fail. They’re trying to engineer that failure through you, me, and every other Celtic fan. They want us to panic. They want us to lose faith. It’s part of the plan.
But what’s the club across the city laughing at? Their own team went out last night. We’re still in with a chance of qualifying. They have nothing to laugh at — but the media does. And the media will keep laughing as long as we help them create pressure.
No Celtic manager has ever needed more benefit of the doubt than this one. No Celtic manager has ever needed supporters to set aside the start and focus on what happens next. Yes, he has to win on Sunday. That’s undeniable.
Sunday is the textbook definition of must-win.
He cannot lose three in a row, with a cup final against St Mirren as part of it. If that happened, the pressure on him would be outrageous, and too many of our own would refuse to give him a chance. That’s the worst possible outcome.
Concerns are valid. Panic is not.
The biggest problem here is still the squad, not the man in the dugout. Rodgers struggled with this squad. The same squad O’Neill dragged results out of by force of will. It’s the same squad Nancy has inherited — and which he must work with for at least a month, probably longer, because I don’t expect signings on day one even though we desperately need them.
I said at the weekend this would be an unbearable week — and I meant it. I didn’t think we stood a chance of winning last night because of the state of this team and how unprepared it is for this level of test. But everything snaps back into shape if we win at Hampden. Win the cup. Put silverware on the table.
Give the manager his first triumph. Then we’re off and running.
Nancy said last night this is not the time for panic. He is absolutely right. Panic is what kills us. Panic is what drags us into the kind of existential madness happening across the street. There’s no need for it. Concerns, yes. Meltdowns, no.
Last night was his free hit.
You want to judge him properly? Judge him on Monday morning.
The post Wilfried Nancy cannot be judged on last night. Everyone needs to calm down. appeared first on The Celtic Blog.
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It ignores that this season has been disintegrating almost from the moment it began. It ignores the chaos inside the club. On top of that it ignores the fact we are on our third manager in a matter of months.
The media knows all this. It will even mention it in passing.
But it will never offer these things as mitigating factors for Nancy, because that would spoil the punchline: “Celtic in crisis.” It pretends that even the best Celtic sides wouldn’t have struggled last night against a Roma team with ten times our resource and ten times the readiness to use it. It pretends this squad should be delivering flawless results when it hasn’t looked flawless under anyone.
Danny Röhl, across the city, has had an equally dreadful start. Things aren’t improving there. A couple of wins against strugglers aren’t convincing anyone. And once again, on the big stage, his side flopped like a fish on a line. Robbie Keane called the match “easy,” and he was right — his team should have scored more.
The Ibrox club is in a mess. That doesn’t excuse ours, but it underlines how differently Röhl is treated. The hacks know they can’t try to hound two Ibrox managers out in one calendar year — it would make the club look like the basket case it is.
The media also pretends not to know that Röhl has already lost a League Cup semi-final. It pretends not to know he’s led his side out of the Europa League when they had a genuine chance to progress. No actual progress has been made there at all, but acknowledging that would kill their narrative.
Is progress being made at Celtic? We simply don’t know yet. We have a manager who led a team into a massive match two days after arriving in the country, and then had to take them into a European tie for which no Celtic manager would have been adequately prepared. This club didn’t prepare us well for anything.
Are there extenuating circumstances? Hell yes. A whole pile of them.
Brendan Rodgers — one of the most experienced managers in the business — couldn’t get a tune out of this squad. O’Neill put together a very good run, but let’s not rewrite history: we needed a last-minute winner at St Mirren for our first shot on target of the night. We scraped past Dundee and Hibs. We needed extra time to beat a ten-man Ibrox team in the League Cup final, a side barely standing.
This is not a squad that’s setting the heather on fire under anyone. This is not a group you could confidently trust in these pressure games. Nancy has been handed a dreadful hand. O’Neill played it well, but it was still a weak hand no matter which way you cut it.
People online today say, “They’re laughing at us.”
By “they,” they mean the media and the club across the city. And yes, the media is laughing — but what else do you expect? They are desperate for this guy to fail. They’re trying to engineer that failure through you, me, and every other Celtic fan. They want us to panic. They want us to lose faith. It’s part of the plan.
But what’s the club across the city laughing at? Their own team went out last night. We’re still in with a chance of qualifying. They have nothing to laugh at — but the media does. And the media will keep laughing as long as we help them create pressure.
No Celtic manager has ever needed more benefit of the doubt than this one. No Celtic manager has ever needed supporters to set aside the start and focus on what happens next. Yes, he has to win on Sunday. That’s undeniable.
Sunday is the textbook definition of must-win.
He cannot lose three in a row, with a cup final against St Mirren as part of it. If that happened, the pressure on him would be outrageous, and too many of our own would refuse to give him a chance. That’s the worst possible outcome.
Concerns are valid. Panic is not.
The biggest problem here is still the squad, not the man in the dugout. Rodgers struggled with this squad. The same squad O’Neill dragged results out of by force of will. It’s the same squad Nancy has inherited — and which he must work with for at least a month, probably longer, because I don’t expect signings on day one even though we desperately need them.
I said at the weekend this would be an unbearable week — and I meant it. I didn’t think we stood a chance of winning last night because of the state of this team and how unprepared it is for this level of test. But everything snaps back into shape if we win at Hampden. Win the cup. Put silverware on the table.
Give the manager his first triumph. Then we’re off and running.
Nancy said last night this is not the time for panic. He is absolutely right. Panic is what kills us. Panic is what drags us into the kind of existential madness happening across the street. There’s no need for it. Concerns, yes. Meltdowns, no.
Last night was his free hit.
You want to judge him properly? Judge him on Monday morning.
The post Wilfried Nancy cannot be judged on last night. Everyone needs to calm down. appeared first on The Celtic Blog.
Continue reading...
