Is Lennon waiting on Craig Gordon!

       

UPDATE ON YESTERDAY'S BLOG! 

The team that has to be built at Celtic in any season is one to beat Rangers! Yes it’s that simple. That’s the starting point before any other priority. That team needs character, leadership, organisation & bottle, because they don’t take prisoners! Where were those qualities at Ibrox? As for leadership on the park, Celtic have been missing this for some time and it doesn’t look like it’s gonna change soon! Personally I am not a fan of Scott Brown as player or captain, but I realise a lot of fans are! For me the Europa League is getting in the way of our top priority, as it did yesterday, as Celtic’s tank was well empty before Mulgrew’s lobotomy removal second yellow red card offence. Yesterday’s four against could have been six or seven. To ignore that is to stick our heads in the stand!

Yesterday was the first test against them, and apart from a 15 minute spell, we were second best to just about everything. Character comes to the fore when your opponents run at you like they did and surely for any footballer that is enough to motivate you? In return you take it on and sort it out, well that’s if you have it in you! Clearly many of this team don’t have that vital ingredient. That’s not a snap knee-jerk judgement of an opinion from someone who watches the team every week, no it’s a considered opinion! In 4 games to date against Sion, St Johnstone & Atletico Madrid the evidence in front of you bears all the fruit you want.  

One of our best players Beram Kayal, who has been offered a new improved deal in the same fashion as Izaguirre has yet to sign it. We have a captain in Scott Brown who has been negotiating a new contract for three months now and it’s unsigned. Whether or not he deserves a new 4 or 5 year deal is another matter completely. Fact is, it is not good for a team to have such uncertainty with a captain’s contract in his final season. The point is, something is not right regarding both of them and it doesn’t help form unity in the squad. Yesterday unity is what we required but it was so badly lacking!

Therefore who has it and who doesn’t in this type of game? When you cannot do it against Rangers then you have to stop kidding yourself on and be brutally honest. It’s okay players taking the plaudits & winning against other SPL teams, but that’s no real test in the bigger picture is it? The Celtic fans were massively let down at Ibrox and you do wonder if some players realise that? I don’t think some of them do. Perhaps a few are too far removed from the importance of this fixture in the lives of the Celtic fan and it’s the cheque that matters most to them!

Naismith, Lafferty, McGregor, Whittaker, Wylde & Davis all knew what was required. On our side Mulgrew & Mark Wilson & maybe Anthony Stokes were the only Celtic fans in our side. They know the hurt, how many of our imports, know it, or want to know it? On the goalkeeping front we are now in our second year with a loan goalkeeper. That is ludicrous for a Club of our size. Forster looked completely spooked yesterday and is Fraser any better than Zaluska? Or is the reason that Neil signed Forster up on a one year loan deal due to the fact that the keeper he really wants is Craig Gordon who is out of contract in the summer?

The look on McCoist’s contorted face in today’s press was another reminder to the importance of winning this game. We need that back and we need it quick!

Who stood up yesterday & who didn’t? (not a difficult question you may ask?)

Fraser Foster: is an unconvincing Newcastle reserve keeper. A big lad who doesn’t inspire any confidence in his defence or watching fans. He is a cheap loan option and not a top class keeper!

El Kaddouri: is a stop gap player until Izaguirre comes back with lots of experience but was out his depth at Ibrox.

Mark Wilson: is in his last year at Celtic and has dropped below his ‘Steady Eddie’ play of last year and now looks slower!

Glenn Loovens: is as unconvincing as he was when he first stepped into a Celtic strip. Has no spirit of encouragement about him at all. How long has this to go on for?

Kelvin Wilson: was a complete shambles from start to finish. No command or spirit about him at all. His clearance for their first goal would be laughed at on a public park.

Charlie Mulgrew: is a big honest tradesman being very silly with his challenges and should have been hooked earlier. One more poor tackle and he was off, and he was.

Beram Kayal: can play alright but was today struggling. Is his mind elsewhere?

Ki: fluttered & flattered about with no real hold on the game. Ghosted about and was never in  it physically!

Scott Brown came into the game for 15 minutes and disappeared again before his injury flared up. Not my type of Celtic player at all & one who flirts with the proud responsibility of being the Celtic captain.   

Georgios Samaras surely now has no future at Celtic. Neil’s obsession of continually playing him at Ibrox is so out of date. In a playing sense, he’s so last year! Neil, he will hang you if you hang onto him.

Gary Hooper did his best but when you’re playing with a drunk giraffe as a striking partner then everything you do will be on your own.

In summary: There was no cohesion, no shouting or conversation on the park between our players and the defence in particular looked spooked when they caught sight of each other. Lenny has to seriously look at his team selections and the fascination for thinking certain guys will do it for him- when in fact they best they will offer him is a noose for his managerial future. Of course Peter Lawwell’s bonus will still be paid for keeping the transfer budget down win or lose the league, with the fans turning up & paying up only to be gutted once again! Then you have a watching Celtic board who simply do not deserve us! The PLC are deceiving the support with their obsession for the balance sheet. Yes, we know about lack of TV cash but the other lot are in the same boat and are beating us.

FOOTNOTE: As for the Daily Record’s apology it was pathetic. Had there not been such an uproar they wouldn’t have offered one. It was an empty gesture probably written by the tea boy. They will eventually get back in to Celtic Park, but Celtic should make them wait and demand assurances. Anything less would be the Club shafting their own fans who were concerned enough to email the Press Complaints Commission!