celtic at another crossroads

big decisions lie ahead for the board as WGS strives for four-in-a-row

Are you taking over
or are you taking orders?
Are you going backwards
Or are you going forwards?

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own

I’m not going to rehash the arguments regarding the deficiencies of Gordon Strachan’s Celtic team that stands poised on the brink of a historic four league championships in a row. You have all heard them before and have probably discussed them ad infinitum after each game where its glaring deficiancies have been exposed. Left back blah blah blah, striker blah blah blah, midfield partnership yadda yadda yadda.

That the same arguments have been repeated over and over for the last two and a half years tells its own story as well. How so much success in terms of league titles have managed to generate so much disharmony among the fans is the enigma of the presenrt regime.

Except it’s not really an enigma. The reason is simply that most supporters are now fed up with the quality of football on display. Forget about doing the garden; root canal dentistry work is now looking like a better prospect for some than having to endure another performance like Hibs away the other week. Winning this championship has almost become a sideshow as bigger issues about the future of the club assume huge significance. The joy of going to watch the Hoops has been dwindling over the last few years. The time is fast approaching when the board will have to put that matter right or risk jeapordising the progree we have made in the last ten years.

As we approach the last game of the season Celtic need to beat Hearts at home and hope that Rangers draw or lose at Tannadice. If this had been a season where both teams were playing brillianrt football and slugging it out at the top of the table this might be exciting. As it is, the old bromide of two baldy men fighting over a comb seems more apposite than ever.

The buck, it would seem, is about to stop. The manager is the most likely candidate to carry the can – it’s a results business and there are fewer willing to put up a case for where the team is going under his leadership – but it should move further along. Gordon Strachan has implemented and accepted the policies of the board. He has done a good job, albeit other circumstances with the Death Star imploding have been kinder to him than previous managers. But there has to be a change of strategy for next season at the top level of the club.

We are now in the paradoxical situation that the failure to spend money on addressing the quality of the first team squad runs the risk of costing the club more money in the short to medium term. As more fans give up their season tickets in order to pick and choose the games they attend (and it is surely the sight of so many unallocated seats that will galvanise the board into action as much as anything) so one of the club’s major revenue streams is choked off and the spiral into even more downsizing looms large.

As the quality of player in the first team diminishes further the thought of qualifying for the Champions League – another of the board’s main cash cow - in seasons to come hardly bears thinking about.

Whether it is Gordon Strachan who will be charged with taking us forward is another question. The smart money would be on the Suits attempting to limit the potential financial damage by reuniting the fans behind somebody else. For some, the fact that it isn’t WGS would be enough. For me, some of the names being bandied about as potential replacements are no more exciting than the prospect of the present manager staying in situ. I’m glad I don’t have to pick Strachan’s successor nor, indeed, hand him his job spec. A change of manager guarantees nothing, of course, but it’s a call the board will have to get right, not least because, for all his faults and merits, Gordon Strachan is a man who divides the supporters, and a house divided can never stand. It’s not a witch-hunt and it’s not the 90s revisited.

Meantime, there’s a league we can still win.

C’mon the Hoops!

MANFRED LURKER