One result and the manager is being called into question, players are wanting to jump ship and there is a £20million black hole to fill in the budget, add this to millions being spent on strikers only for them not to get picked and all is not well across the city.
We saw all to well what happened last Christmas when Rangers – for the first time in years – won at Parkhead, to put the title, technically, in our own hands, however, it didn’t quite go according to plan after Steven Gerrard and co returned from Dubai without the form that had served them so well in the first half of the season.
There is something different about this season though, Neil Lennon didn’t just hang his players out to dry or thrown them under the proverbial bus after the calamitous 2-1 defeat to Ferencvaros, he did everything possible to absolve himself of any blame whatsoever and circled the wagons with the old pals act in the media.
Kris Ajer and Olivier Ntcham, according to Sky Sports, have made it clear that they want to leave Celtic, with their agents requesting the club’s valuation of them, regardless of your opinion of the two, they are key players of a squad that has won* every trophy going for the last few years and there is no way that Odsonne Edouard will want to stick around if he gets the chance to move to a decent Premier League or one of the continent’s finest teams.
Why is this relevant to us? In 1998 we saw something similar, Brian Laudrup wanted to leave, Paul Gascoigne was “distracted”, Marco Negri shouldn’t have played “squash” and a successful core of the team were past their best, the parallels are there for everyone to see.
Are Celtic losing the plot?
Yes
No
Celtic didn’t “stop the ten” in Walter Smith’s last season – first time around – Rangers handed the title to them, if this is how they react after losing a Champions League qualifier, image the fall-out that would come if Gerrard and his men could apply serious pressure by putting together a consistent run of form.
One game at a time though, starting with three points against Hamilton is all that we can do, and let them squabble, take their eye off the ball and leave the way clear for 55 to be lifted in May.