Celtic need a Bow-Wow factor
Celtic had the wow factor last season. Now they need the bow-wow factor while showing dogged determination in the face of recurring problems.
Last updated 29th Jan 2018
A long term injury list which has denied them, or is about to cost them, Craig Gordon, Tom Rogic, Leigh Griffiths, Patrick Roberts and Stuart Armstrong for months at a time is remarkable when you consider the scale of the contribution those players made to the winning of the Treble in Brendan Rodgers’ first season as manager.
And that’s not all Rodgers has to contend with.
When I said on Superscoreboard earlier in the season that Moussa Dembele was depreciating in value faster than a Skoda with a faulty gearbox the sound of laughter could be heard echoing around the studio.
What’s so funny now?
Dembele now has to be introduced to the concept of removing his thumb from his mouth and persuaded to go in search of the form that made his first season at the club as dazzling as the team’s achievement of winning all the domestic honours without losing a single game in any competition.
The Frenchman’s goals were an immense asset at that time. Now he has to prove that Celtic haven’t missed the boat by not cashing in on him when he was the hottest ticket in the draw.
And he’s not the only one who’ll need to step up to the plate in the face of un-forseen adversity.
If Celtic achieve their dream of a double Treble this season it’ll arguably be an even greater accomplishment than the Invincibles pulled off last May because this term has been beset by mishap.
Rodgers’ introductory campaign was a storybook affair, record wins over Rangers here and fairytale endings there. The fates seemed to conspire in Celtic’s favour and resistance was useless on the part of their so called challengers.
That assessment applied to Rangers in particular, but the word resurgent could now easily be applied to the side controlled by Graeme Murty.
The farcical period when a struggling Mark Warburton was replaced by the bizarre figure of Pedro Caixinha in the manager’s office at Ibrox is at an end and for the first time in years Rangers look like a proper team.
The Celtic fans always howl down any mention of their historic rivals but a caller to Saturday night’s programme gave the game away.
He insisted Celtic’s fourteen point lead at the top of the league table vouched for his team’s ongoing supremacy, except for the fact that it was only eleven points.
Celtic were, at that time, fourteen points ahead of Rangers. In other words, the fan assessed Celtic’s well-being in the championship on the basis of how far in front of Rangers they were. That’s how it has always been, and the traditional ways are making a return.
Murty has assembled a decent squad and normality has taken the place of the surreal days of green boots being banned and motivational messages being painted on the walls at Ibrox while the team staggered from one humiliation to the next.
If the two teams met tomorrow you wouldn’t dismiss Rangers in the way you could have done twelve months ago.
But Rodgers’ 101st game in charge of his side is actually against Hearts at Celtic Park tomorrow night, and that will be interesting enough in itself.
Kyle Lafferty and Steven Naismith will play together for the first time since they scored the goals that beat Celtic 4 – 2 at Ibrox seven years ago.
Hearts were the last team, and so far the only one, to have beaten Celtic in a domestic match under Rodgers.
It will be a match to test the resolve of a severely under-strength Celtic and one that will offer an accurate indication of how badly affected, or otherwise, they have been by circumstances outwith their control.
Their most reliable goalkeeper is a victim of injury and their best striker is in the same boat. Now the rest have to overcome a side who’ve only conceded one goal in their last nine games and took four off Celtic in their last meeting.
The fact that Rodgers has clocked up one hundred games in a season and a half ALSO shows the physical toll that has been taken of his players on a domestic and European basis, a not inconsequential consideration at this particular time.
But sinews will have to be stiffened because the remainder of the domestic season has taken on a different complexion after Saturday’s medical problems.
Zenit St. Petersburg in the Europa League? Let’s not go there for now