The other factor is entirely in Celtic’s hands with the appointment of Mark Lawwell and his very limited contact book.
There are a multitude of angles to take on the story. Fergus McCann and Brian Dempsey were central to it, as was Willie Haughey and Dominic Keane with Edinburgh based Celtic fan John Keane, no relation to Dom, an underplayed saviour by depositing £1m ahead of McCann’s transatlantic dash to…
Lawwell Senior might see greater strength, getting players shifted out on loan looks like the priority for Lawwell Junior when the January Transfer Window opens.
Even poor Hearts teams have managed to make things hostile for Celtic at Tynecastle, today’s side seemed afraid to get involved in case their opponents moved up a gear.
Fans often discuss and demand recruitment at their club, over the coming windows Mark Lawwell has to double up on removing players, a first team squad of 25 seems more than adequate, currently Celtic have around 40 players in their first team pool.
One match into a Champions League campaign the ambitions of June and July are in tatters, this Celtic squad isn’t about to advance in Europe, matching last season’s tally of two points is far from certain.
English and German clubs are scouting the best Academy players and signing them at the age of 16, the leftovers go into the Lowland League and soul destroying matches against Cumbernauld Colts, Edinburgh University and Caledonian Braves on plastic pitches.
Rodgers watched these developments from afar, raised his concerns when approached by Dermot Desmond and was reassured by Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay that things were now being done very differently.
Harking back to the good old days isn’t going to do Rodgers any favours in a dressing room full of treble winners.
Hopefully. I think you can see we need that quality; we’ve had quality go out of the building so we definitely need that quality in.