Celtic have had some wonderful teams over the last decade.
In fact, next year will be the ten-year anniversary of Brendan Rodgers making his initial move to Glasgow to replace Ronny Deila. Time flies.
Rodgers brought a level of strategy and mentality that transformed what the Hoops could achieve domestically – only to depart midway through his third season in a shock switch to Leicester.
This paved the way for the shock appointment of Neil Lennon, who initially continued Rodgers’ success before everything came crashing down in the closed-doors 2020-21 season.
The show got going again when Ange Postecoglou’s rebuild took us all by storm – and one Celtic hero is longing for those days right now.
Chris Sutton on ‘boring’ Celtic
Postecoglou’s team was special, but when Rodgers returned to replace the Australian after his move to Tottenham, there was a feeling that the club could hit an even higher level.
It looked like that might have happened in the Champions League last season, when the Hoops qualified for the knockout stage for the first time in 12 years and came close to an almighty shock against Bayern Munich.
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Today, they sit behind Hearts in the Scottish Premiership table, and without a win after two Europa League games having disastrously failed to qualify for the Champions League.
In his column for the Daily Record, Chris Sutton detailed the extent of the drop-off and compared this Celtic side to Postecoglou’s.
He said: “There are a zillion issues with Celtic right now, but I can’t get away from the most damning thing about the side right now.
“They are boring. That’s not something I say lightly or for effect. It’s remarkable the extent of the drop off in such a short space of time.
“Almost a year ago Celtic were running rings around a RB Leipzig side that arrived in Glasgow unbeaten in the Bundesliga. Eight months ago they were going toe-to-toe with Bayern Munich in the Allianz Arena.
“This current Celtic team is a million miles away from that. Livingston have scored more in the Premiership, for goodness sake. We’ve gone from the thrill ride of Angeball, to the high-scoring Brendanball of last term to this.
“It’s slow, it’s negative, it’s disjointed – and it’s so predictable. That’s the biggest thing. You’re looking for the connections and patterns of play on the pitch but I can’t see it.”
A damning indictment, but one equally hard to disagree with.
How much blame does Brendan Rodgers take for Celtic’s drop-off?
Celtic fan protests against the board make it clear that the majority of supporter frustration is not being directed at the pitch or the dugout.
But results are always king, and Rodgers always carries that responsibility. His teams may not play with an Ange-level tempo, but we have seen them play far better football than this.
The likes of Callum McGregor and Reo Hatate are not playing their best football, and these issues cannot be solely blamed on the transfer window.
But Rodgers isn’t yet in a position to be properly questioned, with obvious mitigating circumstances. It would not surprise anyone if he can guide the team to putting a run of results together, and end the run of ‘boring’ performances.
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