It is clear now that a lesson has been learned by the Celtic directors that a lack of investment in the team is a strategy that does not work. The result of not replacing key players with those of an appropriate standard has become painfully obvious.
At the present time Celtic are threadbare in midfield and up front and it is only as a result of the management of MON that they are still contenders for the two most important competitions in Scottish football, notwithstanding the fact that the team at present is not particularly good.
When players such as Kyogo, O’Reilly, Kuhn and Idah left little effort was made to replace them with players of similar ability. I believe that the board of directors had a particular plan at the time to try and muddle along with players of lesser ability in the knowledge that they would still be good enough to rake in domestic trophies and that success in Europe was not prioritised as they were never going to win a European competition in any case.
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I remember writing in this column about a year ago about the exploits of Nottingham Forest under the management of Brian Clough and his assistant Peter Taylor and the plan they had known as “observe and replace”. What this plan involved was to look at all the players and when it was felt that a particular players performance was slipping he would be moved on and someone at least as good as him would replace him. It seems clear that Celtic had no such plan [or any other plan]. There is a term for this type of approach when applied to industrial relation where it is known as “manpower planning” and thousands of books have been written on the subject.
In any event, when the above-named players moved on, there was nobody to replace them but it seems that the board felt that the existing panel could compete with the opposition in Scotland and keep winning. Europe was not prioritised as it was felt that the team was not strong enough in any event. In fairness to the board, it has to be admitted that injuries formed a major part in the unavailability of players with such luminaries as Alistair Johnston, CCV, Jota and Engels, Tierney and Calmac being unavailable for large parts of the season. This meant that at least half of the first team was injured for a sizeable portion of the year. In addition we have Kelechi Iheanacho who has been sidelined for most of the season.
I think we can safely say that Celtic have been unlucky with injuries this season. It seems that the board did not foresee this happening and its’ potential impact on the team and this is another lesson. Football clubs of any kind must anticipate injuries and it is clear that this was not the case. To make matters a lot worse the penny pinching continued with the appointment of Wilfried Nancy. I don’t need to say a lot about this time as it has all been said already except to say that we would be twelve points better off at this stage if Martin O’Neill had been left where he was the first time and we would be out of sight by now.
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MON has performed a minor miracle keeping Celtic in the race for the title. It is as a result of O’Neill’s great work that we are in this position.
I turn now to the team itself. Whatever happens this season, Celtic are not strong enough for the coming season, although we have an excellent keeper and defence. Sinisalo has come in instead of Schmeichel, who is injured, and is playing really well. The full-backs Araujo and Sarachi have been playing very well [and in addition Ralston, Donovan and Tierney are also available] and there is a wealth of choice in the centre in the form of Scales, Trusty, Murray and Benjamin Arthur [on loan from Brentford]. With Araujo is now out injured.
It is further out the pitch where the problems lie. Firstly, it’s a pity that Hatate is not playing as well as he was previously. I’m not saying he is playing badly – it’s just that he doesn’t seem to be as good as he was before. When you add to this the absence of Engels and Calmac during the season through injury it is clear to see that there are problems in this area. It’s just as well that we have McCowan and Nygren in this area and the signing of Oxlade-Chamberlain has been prescient even though he doesn’t seem to be fully match fit in the sense of being able to compete for the full game. As regards the forward line Maeda is not playing as well as previously and this is a pity.
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We are lucky that Yang is playing well now. I remember writing previously saying that Yang was improving. Since then has has been up and down but now we can see the potential being realised. He was great recently in the home game against Motherwell, scoring twice. As regards the players brought in on loan recently, it is clear that they are not good enough to play for Celtic and they will have to be moved along. Cvancara is an odd case. He has converted two very important penalties for which were eternally grateful it is necessary that a centre-forward be capable of scoring regularly other than from penalties.
Looking at the team in the round, Celtic will have to sign a new keeper to back up Sinisalo. I believe that the back line is sufficiently strong, particularly if Celtic are able to sign the two full backs Araujo and Sarachi on permanent contracts. In midfield there is every chance that Engels, Hatate and Nygren will move on. I’m not too worried about Engels or Hatate but I would prefer if Nygren stayed. At the time of writing he has scored nineteen goals. This is a fantastic scoring rate for a midfielder and in the absence of these goals Celtic would be out of both competitions already. However, because of this ability, we will have a number of English clubs knocking on the door to prise him away. Arising out of all this Celtic will have to sign one or two players in this area. I understand that Celtic are looking at Miguel Chaiwa the Hibs midfielder and he would be a good signing.
As regards the forward line I think Celtic should sign the two Motherwell players Elijah Just and Tawanda Maswanhise. I also believe that Celtic are looking at the Plymouth Argyle player Aribim Pepple. This is a worthwhile approach, that is to search the lower leagues in England. For example, if a player is scoring regularly in League One, this means that he is Championship Level and if he is Championship Level he is good enough for the SPL [think of Gary Hooper].
And who will be in charge of all these players? The current favourite is Jens Berthel Askou. Having said that, I was looking at his CV lately and I thought it was a bit light. He is doing well with Motherwell but we’ll see.
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Finally, after this difficult season, I will be more than satisfied if Celtic win the Scottish Cup alone, after the gutless display away to Dundee United in the League. This loss means that Celtic have lost 8 games in the League. No team has ever won the League after losing this amount of games. This fact will not be changed this season. In this context, and having regard to the difficulties experienced by Celtic this season [some of which were self-inflicted], this is a significant achievement [i.e. winning the Cup], and it is clear that normal service will be resumed next season.
Tim Molloy lives is a life-long Celtic supporter and an Irish language enthusiast. He is a law graduate of London University. Read Tim’s column in every issue of More than 90 Minutes
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