A message to the Celtic board
Posted on May 22nd, 2005 in Football | 1 Comment »
Back on the 24th of April, Celtic ventured across the city to Ibrox where they convincingly beat their Glasgow rivals to go 5 points clear in the SPL.
Fast forward five weeks and Celtic manage to squander their advantage on the very last day of the season to giftwrap the title to Rangers. It makes me sick to type it.
However, titles are not won over 5 weeks, but the whole season and this season, while neither side have set the heather alight, Celtic just were not good enough.
The loss of Henrik Larsson became all so significant in the last months of the season where in times past the super Swede would conjure a goal out of nothing to save Celtic time and time again. The arrival of Craig Bellamy on the 5 month loan at least added a touch more skill and flexibilty to the forward line but in the end was just not good enough.
And so now the Celtic board must look to the future. Following Martin O’Neill’s comments on Friday that he may not be the manager of the club next season, it is clear there may be massive changed afoot. Of the eleven players that started today’s 2-1 defeat at Fir Park, seven were over 30. Three of them - Robert Douglas, Jackie McNamara and Neil Lennon - all have contracts expiring in the next week. Of the three I feel only Jackie is certain to stay. Craig Bellamy is likely to move back to the Premiership to a club who can afford both his wage demands and the transfer fee - a sad indictment on one of the biggest clubs in the world, no longer able to compete for players in the transfer market. Also in the last weeks a get-out clause in Bobo Balde’s contract has been leaked, allowing the big defender to leave for free this summer.
Next season it is likely the nucleus of this ageing team will have changed, but who will form it? Rumours of a £15 million share injection from majority shareholder Dermot Desmond - available as Mr Desmond sold his Man Utd shares to Malcolm Glazer - could provide the manager with a transfer kitty. The manager probably won’t be Mr O’Neill - through resignation or sabbatical - with Stuart Strachan reportedly in reserve should the Northern Irishman leave.
I have renewed my season ticket for next season - convenient how the cut off day came before this league defeat - and will follow them but the board must be aware that the support is not happy. Players and managers futures are in doubt and we do not know if we have the finances to replace them. We SHOULD and DESERVE the finances after how much the support has given the club, but I won’t hold my breath.
