MON five years on: the rebuilding job starts now

So here we are in 2005, top of the league, but not with the kind if points cushion that we've enjoyed in previous seasons and certainly not enjoying the kind of domestic domination we have in recent seasons.

As we enter our fifth year under Martin O'Neill we're now beginning to wonder how he will go about building his second Celtic team. The first one sure has been a powerful machine; three SPL titles, two Scottish Cups, a league cup and of course a restored reputation in Europe (weÕre maybe not feared, but teams would rather avoid us). So far so good. On the other hand we had the dismal showing in the 2002 cup final against the huns (twice in the lead but never looking good, we didn't deserve to win, that was the worst thing) and the league race of 2002-3. Despite the run to the UEFA final we lost that league thanks to poor 1:0 wins against league canon fodder early in the season. Only ourselves to blame and that same season we had the ridiculous underestimating of Caley Thistle just days after our win Anfield, thus we handed the huns the Scottish Cup (and treble) on a plate.

After the events on the last day of the season when Dunfermline went to Ibrox in order to 'Enjoy the occasion' (A quote from Jimmy Calderwood on Radio Scotland an hour before kick off, seemingly oblivious to the fact the if his team perform the occasion would be some 30 miles away) do you really think we'd have lost the cup final to them? No chance, but we didn't get the opportunity.

And of course the way our tactics and style have altered recently has caused increasing concern. For the first time in his tenure as Celtic manager Martin O'Neill is attracting, if not criticism, then certainly some healthy debate.

While we've certainly been successful recently only the most blinkered of fans could have said that our football has been exceptional. Too often we're missing out the midfield, the ball simply going from Varga up to the front two, it certainly hasn't been pretty. The loss of Larsson was a huge blow; you can't lose a player like that and not feel it. But in terms of simple goals scored Hartson has done just as well, in the big games as well as the run of the mill ones.

The repositioning of other players is most confusing. Why has does the most feared winger in the league find himself shackled at right back? Agathe used to terrorise defences, yet now he looks like he's on instruction not to cross the halfway line. Seriously frustrating when we're failing to kill of opponents.

In the areas of man management O'Neill is untouchable - he's managed to get top class performance at the highest levels from players who (if you believe the media) are only playing in Scotland because they can't hack it elsewhere. But there's more than just that to managing a club the size of Celtic. Whether there's a problem with delegation of duties or whatever there has to be a culture change at Celtic Park. If there isn't anyone at the club capable of successfully scouting new talent then we have to hire a top scout to start getting in some quality Bosman signings. The club is at a cross road with an ageing squad. It would be better to act soon rather than get caught out again by end of the transfer deadline and wind up chasing yesterday's men.

As we go to print the January transfer window remains open for a couple of weeks but there is little sign, as yet, of any new signings at all, Bosmans or otherwise, despite a feeling throughout the support that two or three new faces are essential to perk up a squad that has surrendered a seven point lead in the league in the most uncharacteristic fashion imaginable. Given that this is the last chance of making a few transfers before the season ticket renewal letters are posted out, and given that there is almost tangible sense among the supporters of the club being in a state of stasis, you would have thought that this was an issue the board and the manager might care to address.

Even a pre-contract announcement or two would be preferable to the Camora-like silence emanating from the Walfrid. They have a responsibility to manage the expectations of the fans as well as balance the books. We're all for being realistic in the harsh modern football world, but this is not good box office.

If they needed any further incentive to act now in order to strengthen the prospects of Celtic securing the league title then it should be that Rangers are in a state of disarray once again and now would seem as good a time as any to hammer another nail into their coffin. Even a stuttering Celtic team was able to see them off quite comfortably in the Scottish Cup with the net result being that the Huns have managed one draw in the last six years at Paradise. So bad is it that the Eckmeister actually pronounced himself pleased with the performance of his troops, an allusion to the fact that they had actually managed a goal (far less a shot at goal) this time round. You might think that, what with being pumped out of Europe twice before Christmas, losing all the Champs League money to Celtic, having to sell their best player because they're pratted, panic buying anybody for any position they can get their hands on and then going out in the third round of the Scottish Cup might at least produce one negative headline - even a wee mini-crisis?

Instead we were treated to pages of guff about David Murray's rights issue. The Ibrox faithful rallied to Murray's call in the manner of the rodents on the Titanic leaving him to underwrite £50 million of the £57 million he was hoping to raise. He even had the temerity to than everybody who took up his offer (a list which included David Murray, Dave Murray, Davie Murray, D. Murray, D.M.Urray... continue ad nauseam). The sum raised by private investors eventually reached £1.15 million, or slightly less than a half decent Blue Peter appeal. Of that £1.15 million, £700,000 appears to be going towards one of Murray's companies as expenses for managing and administering the share issue. The net result is that far from eliminating their debt they will still be lumbered with a figure of some £40 million in the red. Call me a drivelling old paranoiac, but had it been Fergus McCann...

In fact, isn't it curious how far from being a crisis specific to Rangers, their economic and European travails somehow seem to reflect badly both on Celtic and the rest of Scottish football? But then again, in the Josef Goebbels world of the Scottish press there is no such thing as bad news for Murray or for Rangers. Even George Orwell wouldn't believe half of what they get away with.

JB Banal
and a Gentleman