16 Dec 2015 21:34:44
Let me start by saying I haven't been Ronnie's biggest fan but having had a while
To think about it I have come to the conclusion
That Ronnie's not had the best hand to play with . the analogy I would use is this I run my own company small but relatively successful and the success I have is based on the staff I employ whe are all excellent at what they do now if I deciced to cut costs and let some of them go and replaced them with a less skilled workforce then obviously my business would suffer and that basically is the situation that Ronnie is in Having to compete while being asked to improve inferior players and when you look at the improvement in players like rogic biton Griffiths forrest and the emergence of young teirney then I think it's fair to Say theres signs that he is going in the right direction.
16 Dec 2015 22:19:26
You employed the the staff or approved there selection so if the quality is not there it is your fault no one else. Do not place the blame on others, You cannot say that RD has made the correct tactical decisions in Europe where a very poor defence has lead to very bad results. O'Neil, Stachan and Lennon realized that a stong defence is a must in Europe and a tight 1-0 or 2-1 win was better than all out attack and losing or drawing the game. RD and his staff must go and go now so that a new manager can prepare for next season.
As for January if Bitton is leaving what about a swap with Ki Sun Yung, for another striker what about Hooper and a goalkeeper - Marshall, with two new experinced centre halfs we could put together a very good team. I know this would cost money but not astronomical ammounts. This would also increase the age of the squad and help on the training ground.
16 Dec 2015 22:25:02
I think that you are perputating the myth that Ronnie has improved some players, to say he has improved some players is, in my opinion, being very generous to Ronnie, to use your analogy, what if you had some workers that were good at a certain job, but you thought, just for the heck of it, get them to do something that they were'nt guite as good at, or if someone phoned in and said he was'nt feeling 100%, but you said 'don't worry son, just come in, i'll look after you.
16 Dec 2015 23:08:50
Jonace mon and strachan both had their own disasters in Europe with far supperior players so I don't think we can compare like for like . Aindoh I think their can be no doubt that biton rogic and griffiths have improved under Ronnie and as I said I wasn't Ronnie's biggest fan but I think too many of our fans myself included at times have expectations that a team playin in our league simply cannot live up to and before somebody points out the relative budgets of Malmö Maribor what's the budget of Man U? Who are they playing in the last 16 of the cl.
16 Dec 2015 23:22:53
i think you have his analogy wrong. he isn't RD. He owns the company and he pulls the financial strings. RD would a new area manager perhaps, who is designated with providing the greatest possible output. As you both have suggested above, the managers role here is being undermined and he is being ask to continue to put out the same results without the same employees and equipment beneath him.
17 Dec 2015 03:23:24
Jonace apart from last 16 CL season which was Lennons 3rd CL attempt AND crucially had it not been for Sion fiasco would of been the first euro group stages of any competition that he would of got us to!
His cup tournament record was absolutely diabolical and he is a rotten manager. How can you possibly justify appraising his euro record, yet feel need to slate Deila who has a far better euro record at same point in his career as Lennon had?
You and a few posters on this are evidently blinkered and it is clear that even if he won CL next season, Deila would still have the witch hunt out to get him.
17 Dec 2015 10:01:42
It would be a start if he could qualify for it before we think about winning it!
17 Dec 2015 10:01:42
It would be a start if he could qualify for it before we think about winning it!
17 Dec 2015 16:05:03
Ronny's a total failure in Europe, he can't even get us to the Champions league let alone beat Barcelona.
All Ronny can manage is getting us demoted to the competition for the also rans and he can't even win a game in that.
Thank goodness there isn't a lower competition than the Europa league, I'm sure Ronny would soon have us in that.
17 Dec 2015 17:15:53
Jonace in their 4/5 years each managing Celtic neither O'Neil WGS or Lennon seem to have found the key to European success, none have had their best European season in their final year. So why should Ronnie use their template which they haven't proved successful . By the way Barcelona haven't necessary built their defence only, in their quest for European success.
How did these three "icons" do in their first two yrs with Celtic, all three with far higher budgets and I am ashamed to say a small number of Celtic fans sniping on the side lines making the job more difficult .
17 Dec 2015 19:29:39
Oldboy, the three you mentioned, took over a struggling team domestically, their first job was to try and overtake Rangers. Martin O'Neill for example took over the team when we were well behind Rangers, Europe was just a pipe dream then, but he won us the treble in his first year, the team improved on the year before.
It's the same with Strachan and Lennon they both took over when we had fallen behind Rangers, both of them in their first seasons improved us on the year before, Europe was never the priority in their first seasons, we had fallen so far behind Rangers, and it wasn't all down to dodgy refs, we just weren't very good.
Ronny on the other hand had none of these problems, he took over when we were Champions of Scotland, we were playing in the Champions League the year before, and there was no Rangers, in his first season he managed to get us knocked out of the Champions league qualifiers twice, and relegated us to the Europa League. In his second season he again got us knocked out of the Champions league qualifiers, and took us down into the Europa league where this time he became the first Celtic manager to fail to win a group match, along the way we found ourselves being humiliated by those European giants Molde.
I find it amazing that some people think it's totally unacceptable to be getting hammered by Barcelona, but think Ronny is some sort of genius after getting hammered by little Molde.
They won't sack him, he's the perfect manager for this board, any decent manager wouldn't touch the job with a barge pole, and even if they did they would probably be speaking out against the board within a few weeks, something Ronny is too weak to do.
Somehow we have got to hope that things improve over the next couple of years, but from what I've seen of Ronny so far, I'm not holding out much hope.
By the way I'm not sniping on the side-lines, I go to all the home matches and a few away ones as well, I put my money where my mouth is, so I'm perfectly entitled to an opinion, if supporters see things going wrong at the club and just sit on their hands and let them get on with it, then in my opinion they are doing far more damage to the club as you are just allowing failure and incompetence to win the day.
17 Dec 2015 22:02:45
I have come to the conclusion that the reason Celtic are not very good in Europe is because they are not that realy good domestically either, they have played really well in a few games but most of the time they don't play that well as a team but still win because of the opposition in Scotland, take that game against ST J., the defence was cut wide open two or three times, against better oppo that would have been punished, Ronnie should forget this playing one team domestically and one team in Europe nonsense, forget squad rotation, play the best players in their best positions, forget zonal defence, go all Nobby Styles and bite the ankles nearest you, just defend, play two up front, I said when Ciftci signed . I thought he and Griffiths would make a great partnership, as for Ronnie improving players, take a look at how Griffiths played for Hibs last time, some people are going to give Ronnie credit for people growing up and growing older next.
17 Dec 2015 23:00:43
Gerryc MO'N took over a totally under performing team, yet a highly talented team that had been missing the incredible World Class star Larsson through injury .
MO'N fair play to him was able to dictate who he wanted to sign and he did sign well, maybe overspent and we have suffered since . By Christmas in his first season he had assembled not only a better first 11 but also a better squad of players than Rangers
In fact Rangers had too introduce a new level of fiddling to try to complete .
Those were the days we had fantastic players and a big strong team .
WGS looked at the youngsters coming through and said that we had great youngsters but were very small.
18 Dec 2015 00:17:59
Gerryc and Deila never took over a team that was struggling domestically? What happened to Lennons last season in charge in respect of scottish cup and league cup? Total abysmal last season in charge!
18 Dec 2015 05:39:36
DN30, I don't know how long you have been a Celtic fan, but I used to watch them in the Lou Macari era in the early 1990's, that was really bad.
In those days, winning the league by 29 points would have seemed like utopia.
Having experienced those days, I don't want Celtic to go back to them, but if we continually do things on the cheap, then I think that's where we're heading.
18 Dec 2015 20:04:50
So what's the scenario Gerry if your wish is granted tomorrow? The Champions League is a joke (The clues in the name) Champions?2nd,3rd,4th placed ain't no Champions! . The Europa League is our Level just accept it.
18 Dec 2015 23:21:58
This is a pointless argument, everyone has their own view. For me MON was the man that destroyed Rangers for the first time in. A generation we were the dominant team. Actually the team he took over was sham logic and demoralised and he rebuilt it rapidly. Lenny inherited the worst team since the Macari era, I think he did a fabulous job getting us back on track. We can all pick out games here and there to support our argument but for me RD makes too many simple errors and hasn't come anywhere near delivering what he promised. his new found confidence is staggering now the threat of further European humiliation has been removed for the next six months.