SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

Following on from our discussion of how we have fared under our two managers since the covid season of 2020/21,it is only right that we switch our attention across the city to make comparisons there. R2ngers were quite rightly on a high after halting our long consecutive run of titles at that time, boosted by Chairman King’s hubristic boasting about how the sky was the limit for them and how Celtic were collapsing like a house of cards just as he had predicted. Little did he know that the collapse would be much closer to home…

The problems for that new club set in when Gerrard realised that there was little money left in the kitty for much needed new signings to bolster their title-winning squad, and only increased when he realised that Ange was The Real Deal, well capable of providing a genuine title challenge despite his poor start to the campaign. While he had long harboured his pipedream of managing Liverpool, he was sensible enough to recognise that the job was unlikely to fall into his lap based solely on one season of success in Scotland. He actively pursued a move away from Glasgow, and when the offer to take over at Villa arrived, he was heading south faster than you could say Holte End. 

Sadly for him, heading south was also the direction that his career in management would follow, lasting only a year before being sacked in favour of Unai Emery. R2ngers weren’t too perturbed though; they still held a decent if shrinking lead in the title race and also had a much-needed cash boost of £3m in compensation for Gerrard and his team. And Gio Van Bronkhurst, a former player, had recently become available for free. 

GVB had some success at his former club Feyenoord, and that was enough to persuade the hordes that he was the very man for them. And while he took them to the final of the Europa League that season, his squad wasn’t strong enough to hold off Ange’s dominant Celtic as they surged to the title. Which put his jacket on that shoogly peg. Sure enough, despite some spending in the summer to bolster an aging squad, the groundswell of opinion against the manager overwhelmed the supine board who invited Slippy’s former right hand man up to look the place over and throw Gio under the bus. 

Van Bronkhurst lasted a year, but is still being paid by the club due to the terms of the contract he signed when he joined. Remember that! Michael Beale strode imperiously into the hotseat, and was welcomed by the fans in the stands and in the SMSM as The Second Coming, the man who would soon put our mouthy Aussie back in his box. Strictly speaking, I suppose it could be argued that the bold Mickey did see Ange off; after all,the Celtic manager left the club the following summer. But not before signing a lucrative four year deal to join Spurs, one of the so-called Big Six of English football. And winning a treble,the club’s eighth, prior to his departure! Mickey could only look on jealously, knowing that the failure to return his club to the top of the domestic game was gonna cost him dear. 

His desire to do just that, and the need of the fans and the board to reimpose themselves above their hated upstart rivals, saw them take a risk unprecedented in their short history, and probably matched only by the sheer stupidity of Murray twenty-odd years earlier. They pushed the boat out with money that they did not have and could never hope to generate, outspending us in the summer window and pushing their wage bill way beyond our own. But scattergun signings, even those costing around £5m, do not build a team. That takes forward planning and incisive scouting and analysis. What does this player offer, where will he fit into our system? These are important questions in the modern game which were ignored by the Ibrox manager and hierarchy in their clamour to be seen to “dae sumfin!” Another equally important question that was ignored was a simpler one-do we even have a system? 

It soon became apparent that while Beale did not have a system, the club had a tried and trusted one. And one which they were prepared to use again. Wait until an international break, fire the incumbent and get in another guy. Beale accepted his pay-off in accordance with his contract, and headed south to Sunderland, where he lasted longer than the twelve days of Christmas-but not by much! He too is still being paid from the diminishing coffers at Ibrox. 

In strolled possibly the most arrogant manager Ibrox has ever seen, outdoing even Souness. Philip Clement had some limited success in his native Belgium, but bombed disastrously when he moved to Monaco. The R2ngers board were only interested in the success part of his CV, and certainly didn’t follow through on the reasons for failure at Monaco. That should be a warning to them for future reference, that there may be valid reasons why someone doesn’t succeed elsewhere, but some of them may actually be his fault after all. And those reasons for failure might just possibly be following him around, ingrained to his nature and to his management style. 

Not that you would know any of this during Fleep’s first six months. Not at all, no digging was being done by the SMSM or fan media over Ibrox way. Everything was going just swimmingly, they even managed to climb above Celtic in the table and herald much rejoicing over an imminent treble. Sadly for all concerned, the only thing that was imminent was the collapse of such lofty dreams, and how we laughed as we celebrated our own double. 

Various legal problems were also dogging R2ngers, with large payouts and fees screwed out of them by Mike Ashley and Ideal Sports siphoning the last dregs of cash down the back of the settee. And with a new austerity being resisted by the fans, the club soon lost their CEO and their chairman, leaving them rudderless in difficult times. Times that were becoming increasingly difficult for them on the field too, as they failed to qualify for the megabucks Champions League and fell a whopping nine points behind both Aberdeen and Celtic in the title race. And so we find ourselves in another international window with another beleaguered R2ngers manager-but one who hasn’t been fired! What’s changed? What’s new?

Well,the club don’t have a chairman or a CEO to fire him,not even a Director of Football. Plus they are already still paying two former managers on top of the current one,and times is tight. Especially after declaring a whopping £17m loss for the year to 30 June and having a few other issues to concern them. Such as the outstanding debt for hiring Hampden, and the cost of buying new superstar Connor Barron. Plus there is a new reality there,that not only is money not available anymore, but neither are suitable replacements should they indeed fire Clement. And that any new manager is likely to look at the current playing squad and demand an upgrade ASAP. Which simply cannot be done. 

There is one man who might be stupid enough to accept the job, and if I’m honest this is a major part of this article. Derek McInnes. His is an unacceptable brand of football to these eyes,but I suppose it might bring back warm memories of Sir Walter of Cardigan for some. Kilmarnock are unlikely to be difficult to deal with should the decision be made. And while some in the SMSM are reining in the criticism of Clement after some pressure from the Ibrox board, one man has come out all guns blazing in his support. Step forward,Keith Jackson. 

It is widely known that Deek interviewed for the job in 2017 while King was chairman, and that King revealed afterwards that he had turned the offer down. That is usually enough not to be asked twice-but Jacko went public with another explanation. That McInnes had actually turned King down because he couldn’t trust the R2ngers chairman! So that makes it alright then, because he had never actually turned down the club in their hour of need! All bets were still running, but that wasn’t enough for the bold Keith. He went further, explaining that McInnes had actually picked the team for the upcoming game against Ross County, all this while still working as Aberdeen manager!!!

Now,this would be damning in most other jurisdictions, and it remains to be seen if the SFA will launch an investigation into this. But we should be careful about launching a witch-hunt based on hearsay, particularly as it comes from someone who still denies that R1ngers went bust, and who revealed to the world that Craig Whyte was a Motherwell-born billionaire! But with how things work at Ibrox, and McInnes’ well known love of the club, it has a ring of truth. I suspect that the outcome will be that Clement and McInnes remain where they are-though Killie may be reviewing their own options-and that clubs considering McInnes in future will think long and hard about it. 

Meanwhile,The Good Ship Celtica floats serenely forward with plans being mooted for an overdue upgrade to our main stand. More on that next week, meanwhile let’s all enjoy the fun on the other side of the city. We need something to keep us happy during these international breaks. 

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Above article by BMCUWP