Celtic Family at War – Healing can only come from the Board

How in heaven’s name have we got ourselves into this position? People say that it’s not the Celtic way to get rid of a manager so quickly but what’s the alternative? When I was asked about his appointment (two weeks ago!) I said I didn’t know anything about him but had heard he was tactically astute. Sadly, classic one trick pony.

Heads need to roll for this and the mismanagement that has been evident for some time.

Some further ramblings…

Before last night’s game, Wilfred Nancy got TWO votes of confidence. Johnny Kenny was effusive in his praise for the new manager and the Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson gave him what used to be called the Chairman’s vote of confidence. What struck me about the first one was why a fringe player should feel the need to come out with it.

If Kenny had to go public with anything it should have been that he is working hard in training to improve his game and to get back into the first team. Oh, and by the way Johnny, don’t expect the manager to reciprocate.

The second one was tagged onto the CEO’s valedictory speech for Peter Lawwell. We now know why he says very little in public because subsequent events tend to make him look foolish. I guess that following last night’s debacle, he will resort to type and stay schtum.

I thought Brian Wilson’s comments on his interim appointment were encouraging and a tacit admittance that people at the top had got it wrong and indeed the Board was not “world class’ after all. That’s another of the CEO’s comments that will come back to haunt him. The proposed review of operations is also encouraging as long as it not the old politician in Brian Wilson trying to kick things into the long grass. Time is not on his side.

I suspect his call for unity will fall on deaf ears and his comment about fans backing the team is misdirected. The fans have and always will back the team. The Board wouldn’t listen to the fans’ concerns and, in their arrogance, disabused them for daring to speak out.

Continues on the next page…

The healing can only come from the Celtic Board

The healing can only come from the Board. Whilst we await the review of operations, what about the here and now? We all know how this ends, it’s only the timing that is in doubt. Sorry Wilfried but you are French toast. Whoever recommended you for the post or put your name in the ring also needs to be punted, now. Serious questions have to be asked asked about those who decided on your appointment and whoever is calling the shots on football matters at the club.

I only picked up on Liam Scales recent comments about the manager being wedded to his system in the run up to last night’s game. So we know he is not going to change, whatever the opposition, whatever the outcomes.

He admitted after the Roma game that the players were questioning him. Despite that, we then go into the cup final with the same system and concede two second half goals to St Mirren in quick succession. Onto Tannadice with the same system and we concede two second half goals in three minutes.

Yes Wilfried, that’s all it takes to lose a game when you cannot defend and the players’ confidence is shot. In any case, it wasn’t three minutes. It was obvious from the start of the second half that we were under pressure so why wait until we go behind to make the changes.

There was a classic post on Talk Celtic last night by Foxy Bhoy just after the Celtic team was announced….

“Genius tactical move by Nancy. Nobody is able to guess how we’ll line up and play Of course it doesn’t help that neither do the Celtic players.”

Nailed it!

I don’t normally read articles on the BBC website given their partiality on Scottish football but I wasn’t myself this morning and read one by Tom English. To be fair it was well written and well balanced……perhaps there is a silver lining to that cloud named Trump? Amongst other things he wrote….

“The defeats by United, St Mirren, Roma and Hearts now joined the ones that went before in America – Cincinnati (twice), Chicago Fire, New York City and New England Revolution.”

“Nancy finished seventh in the regular season in MLS, won 14 of 34 games, ranking joint sixth in the league for goals scored and eighth for goals conceded. After being manager of the season the year before, it was all very blah.

His credentials for the Celtic job were, at best, thin, despite the excited rhetoric of some observers in America, who painted him as a special one and his capture as a coup.”

I am truly shocked by those figures and it raises questions about what due diligence was undertaken by the coterie of financial men and their advisors that were entrusted to appoint our new manager. How could he be your first choice from the start given his track record? In what way was he head and shoulders above the other candidates? I am beginning to think that it was a coronation rather than a selection process.

How much is Nancy’s contract worth? Brendan Rodgers was on around £2.5m as he was operating at the elite manager level, yet various reports suggest that our current manager is on a much more modest figure – in comparison to Rodgers – around £300k.  So he’s effectively a punt. Getting someone in on the cheap and dressing the appointment up as something similar to Ange Postecoglou.

In another hostage to fortune, the CEO said yesterday that Nancy is to be backed in the transfer window. That would just compound the felony. I wouldn’t trust those in power at the club to make any more signings….not a penny more! Their recent track record is abysmal.

Whoever is running Celtic needs to take the advice of Stan Collymore and be “ruthless” now. Should this drag onto January/February or, heaven help us, beyond, the fractures will only deepen and the repercussions for those in power will be significantly greater.

If the Board won’t listen to the fans then listen to the players who are questioning the tactics, listen to the opposition players who are saying we are too easy to play against, listen to the celebrity fans who are raging at what is going on at the moment or listen to the Celtic minded pundits who can’t believe how we are playing.

Time for a reset on the coaching side, on the footballing operations and on the running of the club.

Christopher Wotherspoon

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