Every top team in every league in the world eventually falls off its perch. Everyone can accept that fact, the big question is, how quickly can any fallen football team return to the top?. That’s the big anxiety around Celtic fans at the moment. What is going to happen next?
There are so many doors closing and chapters ending with nothing but uncertainty looming for the next few months at Paradise.
One major chasm we know a new management team will have to try and fill is the captaincy role and the hole that Scott Brown’s absence will leave both on the park and in the dressing room.
Callum McGregor is a decent shout for captain but remember it took Brown years to grow into that role and become a real leader. Chris Sutton in his Record Sport column said yesterday that after McGregor he doesn’t see any real leaders around the Bhoys dressing room and made comparisons to Arsenals’ fall from grace through a loss of captain figures.
“These days, it’s different. Where Adams was the skipper at Arsenal, now it is Pierre Emerick Aubameyang.”
“Maybe that’s why Arsenal are in the position they are now compared to where they were under Adams, I don’t know. What I do know is that a team needs an abundance of leaders. Yes there will be one at the front, but you need a cast of them through the squad and that’s my concern for Celtic.”
“If you look through that Celtic squad and see who else could lead the team if McGregor was not there, who would you say? Kristoffer Ajer would be about the only one and he’ll be leaving.”
You could say the same for Man United, they lost their way after losing big dressing room characters and warriors out on the pitch. Players like Pogba get slaughtered all the time for having all ability and no real desire or hunger. Virgil Van Dijk was instrumental in the Liverpool revival but look what happened in his absence this season.
Neil Lennon suggested some players wanted away from Celtic in one of his off-the-wall interviews. Some players have certainly performed as they want away from Celtic Park this season.
We think Sutton has a good point but hopefully any new manager has a Scott Brown-type character lined up to come into the side and help McGregor lead the Hoops back to the top. Martin O Neill brought players like Lennon, Sutton, and Hartson in his first season, players he knew would play with fire in their belly.
It is not great reading or writing about the future of the club the last few weeks and what the fans need more than ever is some communication from the board on how they plan to steady the ship with so many departures looming.
