Celtic Need To Make Big Changes… Bringing In Moyes Would Be A Start!
When I currently think of Celtic Football Club usually the word rut springs to the top of my thoughts.
It might seem strange to a Scottish football outsider as the Hoops currently top the Scottish Premiership and are looking to win a fifth Championship in a row. And although Aberdeen are making a fist of it at the top of the table, it will take a collapse of banking proportions for the Glasgow giants not to secure yet another league title come May.
Now I could go on about the inept board that keep their heads buried beneath all the healthy looking bank-sheets. Peter Lawwell and Co lack ambition to improve the squad via meaningful funds and thus have found themselves on the outside of European’s elite competition in recent seasons.
If I’m being perfectly honest, the board seem content on waiting on Rangers to return to the Premiership. The relationship between the clubs custodians and the majority of fans has been increasingly strained for sometime now.
Now I think the time is right for a few of these board members to step aside and allow a new wave to come in and start a new era at the club. But I’ve been saying that since Celtic’s last AGM.
So in this blog I’m going to concentrate on the on-field problems that need to be sorted out.
I think the Ronny Deila experiment hasn’t worked out.
The Norwegian manager seems like a nice man and has some decent ideas. But ultimately Celtic have regressed under his tenureship rather than progressed.
His appointment was always going to be an inexpensive gamble but his failures in Europe cannot be overlooked. He’s always struggled to find a Plan B and he’s often been exposed tactically against continental opposition. Then there is the fact that he’s struggled in certain domestic cup competitions.
Last weekend Celtic went to Hampden Park and limped out of the League Cup as Ross County soundly beat them 3-1. Then in midweek their closest title challengers Aberdeen defeated them 2-1 at Pittodrie and the Dons are now just three points behind the leaders.
In both of those games Celtic supporters complained that the team lacked desire, imagination and fight.
Players who ended last season in form, have also gone backwards this term. The biggest example of that is probably Stefan Johansen, last seasons player of the year.
The deadline day signing of Colin Kazim-Richards wasn’t welcomed by the club’s faithful. The Turkish international forward has never been prolific, he only scored once in the Dutch Eredivisie in this campaign. He left Feyenoord under a cloud after he was suspended by the club before his move to Parkhead after he threatened a journalist. People have questioned his attitude throughout his career and that latest incident in Holland did nothing to help him lose the ‘bad-boy’ tag.
The fact that Celtic signed him to a two and a half year deal worries many at Celtic Park. It’s another sign that the board lack ambition and the manager lacks the authority to question his boards signing policy.
Now I think for Celtic to improve on these issues they probably need an experienced British manager who can take the club forward and help force the boardroom to think beyond the balance sheets.
With that in mind I think David Moyes could be convinced that he could spend between three and five years at Parkhead and start a new exciting era in Glasgow’s East End.
Moyes showed at Everton that he can commit to a cause and work well on a budget. He also has a good eye for unearthing top young prospects and allowing those prospects to flourish in the first team.
Now people will point to his time at Manchester United and his stint in Spain with Real Sociedad and suggest he’s a spent force in management. I actually think he would be desperate to prove those doubters wrong and he’d probably jump at the chance to turn around Celtic’s fortunes in the Champions League.
If he could rebuild his reputation with Celtic then everyone at the club is a winner!
Being a former Hoops player should help him, although I’ve never been one to believe in the whole Celtic minded thing.
What an experienced manager like Moyes would do, is push the board to show ambition and demand more from the scouting team. The coaching staff would in turn demand more from the players.
In essence I think he’d make the whole club feel like a Champions League club again rather than a team stuck in rut!
Posted on February 6th, 2016 by scott
Filed under: Article
Why Davie Moyes? Moyes has a less than spectacular win rate as a manager, check it out. Is it because he is an ex-Celt. Moyes spent a fortune at Everton. He was given funds of 10 million and more for one player. How would he fare at Celtic? Why does he not have a job at the moment. possibly because he is not that good. Celtic are a work in progress. It will take anothe rcouple of years before Deila’s impact is really felt. Celtic cannot afford to go back to the days of a manager over-spending on mediocre players from the Championship. Developing home-grown talent is what they should be doing. Not listening to the hysterical rantings of internet supporters who cannot see further than next weekend and believe everything they read. Celtic are unfortunate in they have so many ex-players with financial problems that they are willing to put their names next to articles slating the club. The Oldco’s ex-players are not even allowed to admit that they died. Can you imagine BFDJ, Hately or Dodds criticising Sevco the way rancid little turds like Walker do about Celtic. He needs to remember the shameful theft he carried out on his second spell at the club. Poor Chris Sutton is bankrupt and needs the Daily Records coin, therefore he spends the whole week engaged in a rather worrying Deila hate-fest. Ignore them and work towards creating something new.
I agree with most of what you say. Good article.
Your diplomacy though takes some of it to task.
The “inexpensive” gamble with Deila has actually proven to be very expensive indeed! In order to save a couple of million on a decent and competent manager who would have taken us where Celtic should always be, Deila’s failings has effectivly cost us well in excess of £25 million. So to me, this is no gamble, this is sheer incompetence at board level. Subtract the £2 million from the £25 million (minimum) and you still get a loss of £23 million regardless of how you cut it! We all laugh at how Sevco bleed money. What about us?
We are in an era when Celtiv should be so far ahead of anything in Scotland and also winning trebles every year. Since the demise of the old Rangers and the birth of the new club, we have actually gone backwards. Like you, I would love to see Moyes as the next manager. But it won’t happen for tthree reasons.
1. We are too cheap to pay for a proven man.
2. Moyes won’t come to a team who has shown lack of ambition.
3. Moyes wouldn’t come to Celtic and become a puppet with others making all of the decisions.
Thanks for the comments John.
You seemed to miss the bit I mentioned that I didn’t buy into the whole Celtic minded thing. That said Celtic fans will allow him more time because of it.
You are right he spent fortunes at Everton… But not at the start of his career at Goodison and only after he sold players for a profit. That remind you of any other transfer model?
Rooney, Barkley, Hibbert, Rodwell, and Osman all came through the youth ranks at Everton under Moyes.
Under current regime you have players like Cole, Kazim Richards and Boyata coming in. That isn’t developing homegrown players.
The fact is Celtic aren’t as good under Deila than the were under Lennon. Nothing to suggest that they ever will be… So why continue?
Joe – Very good point, I did think that but couldn’t quite fit it in.
As regards to Moyes…. I agree a lot of changes would need to be made and promises given to him for him to accept Celtic job.
….. the board seem content on waiting on Rangers to return to the Premiership…..
I think it best that you read Lord Brodies comments from the Court of Session yesterday.
He ridiculed the Sevco gers lawyer for trying to make a case that the deceased club is the same as Sevco gers.
You cannot return to somewhere you’ve never been.
Anyone who thinks Delai needs more time or has any clue what he is doing at this level should be in a padded cell.
John, why Moyes? On a tight budget, Davie Moyes kept his Everton side in the top half of the EPL amongst teams with ten plus times his budget. To say he was a failure is off the mark. He was set up to fail at Old Trafford. Who could possibly gave been an instant success after Fergie? The bar was set too high for a new manager regardless of who it was going to be. Just look at the “proven” LVG who came in as a Messiah after Moyes. He had a proven track record at a variety of clubs with success domestically and in Europe.
The fact is that his Man Utd record isn’t as good as Moyes’ and look at the money he was given that Moyes wasn’t!
Make no mistake, of all available managers out there, Moyes should be top of the list, but I still don’t see him accepting with the terms our board would place on him.
We are still in the dark ages, still ultra cheap, and still lack ambition. We saw ambition under big Jock Stein, and Martin O’Neil, but that’s it. As soon as each of those two finished up, the board at the time seized control! Each time, we went backwards and this time, backwards further than at any other time in our history.
There is no need to go back to overspending. There is a level in between overspending and not spending!
As for Chris Sutton, you don’t have to like what he says, but you should respect it! He is in my opinion bang on in his comments anout Deila. Ronny has and continues to prove he is not good enough, nor big enough for the Celtic job. He has been the abject failure.
Lawwell is a disgrace, plain and simple! The current situation is absolutely incredible! Instead of being in the healthiest state in our history we are signing guys like Carlton Cole and playing the worst football for years! I actually don’t know what Lawwell has done for the club! The manager isn’t good enough, the team isn’t good enough, the scouting isn’t good enough and we haven’t brought a world class player through our academy for 40 years! We have a guy John Park, no fan has ever heard him speak, and pistol Pete only answers questions he chooses! As for Ronny – the team can’t pass, the defence is appalling, there is no leaders, the players don’t communicate, no aggression, nothing! The team isn’t fitter/fit enough, they aren’t strong enough! This season has been hell from day one! There’s not been 1% improvement. Please go Lawwell and take Park and Ronny and the coaching team! We need a manager with experience, a strong character, who will sort these imposters out! Get Bielsa or Prandelli now!
Sorry Moyes’ style of football, far too technical as per LVG, is like watching paint dry. We need a manager trying to play the ‘Celtic way’. Moyes record is dire. Went to Man Utd and could not cut it. Went to Spain and also could not cut it. In terms of risk analysis, these are the facts.
David moyes a guy that has won fuck all and cant get a job any where else! Give me strength.