Celtic Must Make Changes Starting With Strachan or We Will Get Worse

This season’s results both domestically and in Europe have proved once and for all that Gordon Strachan is out of his depth at Celtic Football Club. He is a competent manager when in charge of the likes of Coventry City and Southampton, but when it comes to a club that is one of the biggest clubs in the world, he has proven to us all that he is not up to the task.

The Pro-Strachan camp can bang on about how many trophies he has won since taking over at Parkhead, but his success has came when our arch rivals Rangers are struggling financially and fielding some of the worst Rangers teams in the club’s history. Yet the first sign of competition from the Ibrox side has shown that Strachan is tactically naive and has been lucky during his tenure-ship.

Do I want Strachan out of Celtic Park despite winning three titles in a row, qualification to the Last 16 of the Champions League two years in a row, and Domestic Cup victories? Yes.

Since Strachan took over from Martin O’Neill, I was disappointed at the board’s inability to find a manager with the credentials to take Celtic forward after the successes seen under O’Neill. While O’Neill was hailed as a legend by many Celtic fans, he still had his faults including throwing away two titles on the last day of the season. Yet he led us from the shambles that was the Barnes era to the UEFA Cup Final and domestic success year in year out.

Strachan is no O’Neill, but we don’t want another O’Neill. We want a manager who will surpass O’Neill and what he did at Celtic. Sadly the inability of the board, coupled with the hiring of Strachan has set the club back by at least five years.

We all know that the club could not fork out the money that O’Neill spent on players, like Chris Sutton, John Hartson, Neil Lennon etc. and that we cannot compete with the money being spent in the English Premier League, but for a club of Celtic’s stature and to have a scouting system that encompasses the world—how do we still come up with signings like Willo Flood, Niall McGinn, Georgios Samaras and Massimo Donati to name but a few.

Strachan was tasked with reducing the wage bill at Celtic Park when he took over, and that saw a whole host of O’Neill’s stars leave the club for a variety of reasons, including major fall outs with Strachan - and that wouldn’t be the first time either.

Despite giving him the chances to change my opinion of him, he has thrown it all back in not only my face but other Celtic fans faces with his constant arrogance after matches, in the press and with signings that have baffled many a fan. The club since Strachan took over have signed for the most part, average SPL players.

Willo Flood a recent signing has played two games and has not been seen since—a total waste of money. Massimo Donati has proven that despite having his wages paid by AC Milan, that even the Italian giants can make huge mistakes, but at least they got rid of one of the worst Italian midfielders I have ever seen pull on a pair of football boots. He gives a headless chicken a bad name.

Talking of headless chickens, the biggest flop in recent years Thomas Gravesen signed from Real Madrid for £2.5 million another great piece of business by the Ginger tactician. I could go on with the likes of Adam Virgo, Du Wei, Hesselink, Samaras, McGinn, Misun, Doumbe, Naylor etc but can the blame be firmly placed on Strachan’s lap? Of course not the board is at fault also.

In this time of financial uncertainty it was great to hear that Celtic have reduced their debt to just under £1 million. However, their inability to give Strachan the necessary funds to strengthen the team not only during the summer transfer window, but more importantly in the January window, when everyone knew changes were needed to keep a hold of the championship, have proven that they are thinking more of the financial aspects of football and not about the on the pitch matters.

At Christmas time Celtic were seven points ahead of Rangers, who had just spent big after being knocked out of the Champions League by FBK Kaunas. We had came bottom in our Champions League group after defeats to Manchester United, Villareal away from home, and embarrassingly drawing at home against Danish minnows Aalborg and then losing away to them despite having the lead up until the last 10 minutes of the game.

January was the time that Celtic needed to strengthen to increase our dominance in the league, by signing a striker, an influential midfielder to partner Scott Brown and a left back. Yet we signed a midfielder Willo Flood, plying his trade with Dundee United because he wasn’t good enough for Championship side Cardiff City. During that period we made further signings, but these signings were for the future—for three years down the road seemingly. But what the club needed was signings that would make immediate impacts on the pitch in the present and results this year have proven the fans right in their estimation that the club were trying to win the league on the cheap, and overestimating the problems at Rangers.

Since January we have dropped a seven point lead twice, we have lost to the likes of St. Mirren and Hibernian, dropped points against Hearts, Motherwell, Inverness Caley Thistle and Dundee United and we have this season only won once against Rangers. Our record against our rivals this season has been pitiful, we were hammered 4-2 at Celtic Park, we won 1-0 at Ibrox, we drew 0-0 in one of the worst ever Old Firm derby matches in recent years and we lost on Saturday there 1-0 despite dominating possession.

And what does Strachan do? He compliments the opposition and the spirit of his players despite defeat. What manager in his right mind would actually praise his players for a defeat or for dropping points?

There is a difference between man management and babysitting them. Is he scared of launching a broadside into them after the debacle surrounding his spat with Aiden McGeady? But to say that Strachan has man management skills is a joke. Celtic this season have not played a single games brilliantly for the full 90 minutes. It has either been a good first half and poor second half or vice versa. The team has been inconsistent throughout the season, and losing when we should have won comfortably.

Under O’Neill and even previous managers, including Barnes, we used to bully teams off the pitch. Now under Strachan it is us that are being bullied off the ball. We have a captain who is one of the worst captains ever to done the armband for Celtic, we have a defence that leaks goals in part down to McManus and Naylor’s inabilities to clear the danger, as well as the worst tactic ever—Zonal marking.

Strachan has used this for several seasons now and it did not work when he first tried it out, back against Artmedia Bratislava and it hasn’t worked since. Everyone from the fans, to players to fellow managers and pundits can see that it doesn’t work, yet Strachan continues to use it.

Why? because he thinks he knows better and ignores everyone else.

That brings us to Saturday’s game against Rangers. With the club one point ahead and needing a victory to give us some breathing space at the top of the SPL, Strachan decides against fielding his strongest team. He selects Shaun Maloney, who has not played first team football since February, instead of one of the best performers for the club this season Aiden McGeady.

It was even more baffling given the opponent that McGeady would have faced—the geriatric Christian Dailly. It is great having hindsight, but even before the match the decision to play an unfit Maloney was slammed by the fans who demanded McGeady’s introduction that would of caused huge problems for Dailly at the back, yet he did not come on until midway through the second half. And to make matters worse it was Maloney’s failure to track back that allowed Steven Davis to come in at the back post to score the only goal of the game.

Despite McGeady having a quiet season this year compared to last season, he has added to his game with his defensive duties, and it is all IFS and BUTS in such a scenario, but would Davis be in that position had McGeady been on the park? Maloney was non-existent throughout his time on the pitch, yet with McGeady he was a thorn in the side when he was introduced.

And with minutes remaining in the game, with Celtic chasing an equaliser, instead of bringing on Barry Robson to replace the tired and ineffective Shunsuke Nakamura, he sends on Lee Naylor a full back in place of Darren O’Dea. This just proves that Strachan has not got the will to manage Celtic.

It wouldnt matter if we lost another goal at this stage, we would have still lost so why not sub one of the defenders for a midfielder? Or take off Nakamura who had shown nothing throughout the game either in place of Robson who is a battler and despite his fitness being limited after coming back from injury, he would have still caused some damage in the final minutes of the game.

I may sound bitter in my opinion of Strachan, but this season has shown that he has not got what it takes to be Celtic manager. And the board must make the decision early on in the summer to replace the manager and give the new manager whoever it may be, the funds to reclaim the SPL title, because I do not see Rangers slipping up now with only three games left to play.

But I can see Celtic dropping further behind against Dundee United tomorrow night and in our two remaining games also. While I will always support Celtic Football Club with all my heart, my faith is being seriously tested to the limit by Strachan, the board’s penny pinching, and the inferior players we have donning the hoops nowadays. Even more so against a Rangers team that is no better than what we faced when Paul Le Guen was in charge.

Now the board have came out this season and stated that the season tickets for next season have been frozen, in another PR stunt to get the fans on board once again. But did they forget that the VAT was reduced by the government in a bid to help us through the recession? They may have frozen season ticket prices, but given that last season the VAT was at 17.5% and this season it is somewhere in the region of 13.5% that is a total of 4% they are bringing into the club.

£440 at this time of financial uncertainty is a lot of money to part with, even more so with what is on show on the field and a manager who buys players that would struggle to grace the strip of his beloved Hibernian FC let alone Celtic.

Despite their claims with the tickets etc, the board must now use the money that they receive from the season ticket holders this summer, as well as merchandise revenue etc to strengthen the side in all departments. They have already started by signing Dundee United keeper Zaluska who in my opinion is a quality keeper, and who could rival Boruc in the Celtic goal’s if he stays that is. But before we bring in new signings we must offload the duds and those players that are now past their best.

The players who must leave Celtic - Mark Brown, Bobo Balde, Paul Hartley, Georgios Samaras, Hesselink, Massimo Donati, Willo Flood, Shunsuke Nakamura, Stephen McManus, Glenn Loovens, Lee Naylor and Chris Killen. However I doubt that many of them will be sold on unless the manager is changed also - which is also a must, no a demand by not only me but the majority of Celtic fans, even more so when we lose this league against one of the worst Rangers teams in their history.

I may be attacked for my outspoken views on the team and on Strachan, but I am not the only one feeling the same way. You can log onto any Celtic forum right at this moment in time, and get far more negative comments aimed at the board, the players and the manager by fans who have been following Celtic for longer than my 20-odd years and despite the odd one or two eejits saying that he isn’t Celtic minded. For the most part they are all correct in their estimations of Strachan and his inabilities.

It is time the board got rid of the penny pinching, the returning biscuit tin mentality and invest in the team and in a manager who will move Celtic forward both domestically and in Europe. A manager that will back his players through thick and thin, that can manage all the egos in the dressing room and to treat the fans the way we want to be treated.

We are not customers, we are not statistics we are supporters, we are the people that pay their wages, we are the people that buy hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of merchandise, tickets etc following our beloved hoops all over the country and the continent, in the hope that we will see the football on the pitch that bring back the glory days of Jock Stein and the Lisbon Lions.

At this moment in time such hope is more a fantasy, and what we are witnessing at Celtic Park and in grounds where we play is nothing short of a nightmare.

One thing is for sure Jock Stein, would certainly be spinning in his grave with the players we have signed, the results under Strachan and the manager himself, who is now giving John Barnes a run for his money in terms of managerial incompetence.