Celtic Need More Stars Like Kris Commons!
Let me start off by saying that no player should be happy when they are subbed off. I remember former Rangers defender Julien Rodriguez used to sprint off when his number was held up, it was embarrassing to see a player looking relieved to be hauled off.
So when I saw Celtic’s Kris Commons yelling at his manager and coaching staff after they substituted him during the Molde defeat in midweek I felt for the player and admired him.
Celtic were once again pretty hopeless in a European tie, sloppy defending seems to be the norm under Ronny Deila’s regime during the continental competitions.
It seemed odd that he would choose Commons as the player to come off as the former Scottish internationalist had scored the Hoops consolation goal and now has seven European strikes to his name.
Kris was saluted by the fans as he made way and the substitution was heralded by boo’s directed towards Celtic’s own gaffer.
Stefan Johansen had a disappointing game yet seems untouchable most of the time. Now I’m a big fan of the Norwegian midfielder but he wasn’t playing particularly well on Thursday night and probably could have been a better choice to go off.
The fallout from the Commons outburst has actually taken a bit of attention away from the poor performance in terms of media coverage.
Celtic boss Ronny Deila described his players reaction as ‘unacceptable’ and ‘disrespectful’.
Kris has since come out and apologised for his actions.
Now obviously the player shouldn’t have let his frustration get the better of him and let his emotion boil over in public. But someone needed to say something.
In all honesty Celtic could do with more players with the same pride, desire and ability that Commons has shown for the club. Too many look vulnerable, void of any confidence and not shown enough heart.
The fact is that while the press seemed to concentrate on the argument on the sidelines, the Celtic fans were pointing the finger at the Celtic management team that seem to be going back the way when it comes to European football.
‘Tactically inept’ was being used often as the supporters went through their own post-mortems after the game’s full-time whistle on social media to describe the Norwegian boss.
Obviously fans hate to see their side losing but they hate it more when the team and the coaching staff show little to no emotion. They love Commons due to his skill and commitment. He appreciates that support and that’s why he reacted the way he did,
As I said it wasn’t his smartest move to yell at his manager (plus John Collins but who can blame him for that?) but I wouldn’t call it ‘disrespectful’ or ‘unacceptable’.
I’d use those two words to describe most of Celtic’s performances in Europe so far this term!
Posted on October 24th, 2015 by scott
Filed under: Article
I agree. It was neither disrespectful nor unacceptable of Kris Commons to react that way. It was a frustrated reaction, but I fully understand his reaction. He is a human being not a robot and he genuinely cares. This is not someone who picks up an easy pay packet. Kris always gives his best, even when things are not going well. He had the courage to speak out, although had he not been so frustrated, he may have been in a better position to choose his moment to protest. I have the utmost respect for him as a player and person, having had the pleasure of chatting with him. I hope that his apology has been accepted with good grace and there are no internal sanctions. It would be disgraceful if there were.
The eyes of many of us are now on the management team. I personally would not have John Collins anywhere near our club as he is a totally disruptive influence. His role in this is unclear, but I’ll wager he is involved somehow. Deila and Kennedy have some work to do now to convince the fans of their credibility.
Well done to Kris Commons. To me it is Ronnie that should be saying sorry to the fans and accept that he is not fit for the job. As I have said before elsewhere that we went 3 – 1 down with 30 mins left and he once again made a hash of it by not making a move until 15 mins. His man management is shocking. How much money has he lost us in Europe? That alone is enough to let him take the long walk down London Road and not turn back. Bye Ronnie.
You are spot on. The deflection away from what is quickly becoming just another excuse from Deila was the typical “norm” from Deila.
In more than 50 years a Celtic fan never have I witnessed so many deflected excuses from any manager. Commons should not have been withdrawn. This is the clear opinion of anyone who watched the game. He also had every right to fire things up. The dugout was like sleepy girls at a slumber party! Celtic are delaying the replacement of Deila too long. The board need to accept they made a terrible mistake with him, and quit this gambling before we are too far behind. Lets be honest, for Celtic not to be successful is a disaster to all fans. Celtic is our life! Celtic embarrassing themselves in Europe is bad. But we shouldn’t take it for granted we are going to win the league either. This team with the very poor management are by no means certain to end up as champions this season. If this happens, Deila won’t have to be fired, he will be lynched! If we leave this necessary move too much longer we may lose the leeway of games to catch up. We are at the present time very very fortunate to be on top. Aberdeen had to lose three straight games for us to leapfrog them. This is not likely to happen again! Meanwhile, we scrape past teams like Motherwell to steal points. The fans, the real fans, are sending a message. Less than 9,000 turned up to watch the Motherwell game! I remember playing in front of more fans as an amatuer! I remember being at Barrowfield watching them train and there were more fans than were at Motherwell! The message is clear. The product on the park is not good. Horrible to watch, no tactics, no passion, no plan, no plan B or C. The cheap gamble hiring Deila has failed. If we do nothing about it now, and we do not win the league, it will be a total disaster. Make no mistake, contrary to what other fans of other clubs believe, we really DO have a divine right to be champions, but we are risking it all on the cheapest choice, least competent, least capable manager in history. Those fans who think Ronny is the right man need to clear the smokescreen of Ronny coming to the fans at the end of a game and fistpumping! This is smoke and mirrors and fools only the naive. Time is not on our side!