| News |
|
|
|
|
GREAT EXPECTATIONS -
SHORT MEMORIES
September 8th 2008 The reaction of many people to the Scotland result on Saturday reminded me of what may lie ahead for Celtic this season. The Scotland team's performance got a real slating by the fans and media but what exactly were they expecting? Scotland over achieved in the last campaign, they beat France home and away which looks good on paper but the truth is they rode their luck in both of those matches and let's not forget they ultimately failed to qualify. The result that cost them dearly was the defeat in Georgia and I knew there and then that we would not be heading to the finals despite the media convincing everyone that Italy would fall at Hampden. People tend to forget how the points were acquired and would rather just remember the good bits like being top of the group for long spells or two wins against one of the World Cup finalists no matter how lucky they were. With Celtic, two successive seasons of reaching the last sixteen of the Champions League and three SPL titles in a row has some fans expecting four in a row and a place in the last eight of Europe's premier club tournament while at the same time forgetting how we got to where we are. Two seasons ago we made the Champions League last sixteen for the first time despite losing all our away games and we achieved the same feat again last season with an identical away record. In five of our last six home Champions League group matches we have scraped a victory by a single goal margin and while a win is a win no matter the score it's more a case of getting away with it rather than easing comfortably through the the next round. In fact last season, had it not been for Benfica pulling off a shock result in Donetsk we would have been out. As for the SPL, the first two of our three consecutive wins were mostly down to Rangers being as poor as they have been since the eighties but last season many Tims were still believing that Rangers were shite even though they were ahead of us in the title race, had the CIS Cup in the bag and were through to the UEFA and Scottish Cup finals. Some won't admit that we won the league despite our squad rather than because of it but that's the way I see it, that plus Rangers' fixtures catching up with them. Failure to add real quality (Shaun Maloney apart) to the squad in the summer transfer window has done Celtic no favours and yet again we see a window close without the addition of a left back. That lack of a decent full back has cost us three points against Rangers already though it wasn't the fact that Wilson is a right back who was played out of position at left back, it was because he was just not good enough full stop and I believe he would have been shown up whether it was at right back or left. I believe that we were inferior to Rangers last season but got a bit of luck at the right time and I had hoped that because of that wake-up call we would be certain to significantly strengthen the squad in the transfer window but obviously Strachan and Lawwell don't think it's necessary, content instead to sign players who can then be sold on at a profit. Whatever happens this term I hope that the supporters don't expect too much because I don't see really that we have a better team this year than last. |
