Celtic Board to blame but Rodgers and players won’t escape criticism

Celtic’s custodians are principally to blame for our current woes, more so than anyone else. Yes, Brendan Rodgers and the players are culpable too, but the in my view we should lay of blame directly at the feet of our incompetent and unambitious hierarchy, sitting there smugly at Tynecastle yesterday with around £80m sitting in the bank and an absolute shambles of a team on the park especially in attacking areas.

The rot at Celtic started at boardroom level, that is unquestionable. For years now they’ve been content with just being better than the Rangers to continue domestic dominance, and qualifying for the odd champions league group stage, and the lavishing riches that brings. Participation is enough for the Celtic board when it comes to European football, not progress. Michael Nicholson explained this to the supporters at the recent meeting at Celtic Park and it’s all there in the minutes of the meeting that the club themselves approved and released.

They have continued to neglected the recruitment side of things with their buy potential and buy it cheap, hoping to make a big profit, but whilst we’ve unearthed a few gems, the majority of incomings have been disastrous, when we would have been better investing elsewhere on better and more experienced quality.

Instead of being untouchable domestically, and making strides in Europe, we don’t even look that competent in the second tier of European competition, and at home we sit second eight points adrift of Hearts, which is a sad indictment of the way we are been run.

This lethargic and incompetent approach has come back to bite the money hoarding board at Celtic big time. The upcoming Celtic AGM promises to be the most eventful in recent years although there will be strategic questions planted so that the focus on the real issues escape some of the scrutiny that otherwise would come their way.

Brendan Rodgers will be there too and will have to decide if he is going to ‘play the game’ and back his bosses or say what he really thinks. He’s made a pretty poor job of hiding his feelings in recent months but most supporters don’t blame him for that.

The January transfer window is going to be crucial if Celtic want to win the league this season and before that Rodgers has to set aside all the issues and work with the players at his disposal to maximise the points total we take between now and the window opening.

Progress in the Europa League is a bonus and the Premier Sports Cup semi-final will take care of itself. It’s Celtic’s final chance to get a 2025 victory over theRangers and that in itself should be enough motivation for the manager. We need positive Brendan this week and we need three points against Falkirk on Wednesday night at Celtic Park where the grumbles will not be slow in coming if things don’t start positively.

Experience at the back is needed now, not rookies. Battlers in midfield alongside the captain, not passengers (Hatate) or showboaters (Nygren) and the best of what’s available up top (Jamesy, Shin and Tounekti) or go 4-4-2 like we suggested last week to solve the wingers (or lack of them) problem. It could have got us a point yesterday, Brendan.

Celtic should have been compact at Tynecastle yesterday, a draw was a decent result or us in the circumstances. Now every point is so precious and after yesterday the jury is now out on the manager and so many of his players. It’s up to them to prove their point on the park.

As for those on the board, for them their time is up, that’s abundantly clear.