We were all thinking it during the game, so what on earth is going on with Celtic’s pitch these days?
The Hoops overcame Airdrie 3-0 yesterday to progress into the next round of the Scottish Cup. It was as routine a performance as you could’ve hoped for, and there were plenty of positives to pick out.
Yet there was one intriguing negative to pick out from the contest too. That, of course, being the total state of the Parkhead surface.
Celtic of course had their new £1.5million “state-of-the-art” turf installed in the summer. The project took two years to complete, with Brendan Rodgers highly critical of the previous grass in place when he first arrived.
It’s apparently the same hybrid surface used by Premier League clubs such as Chelsea. The grass is a hybrid mixture of natural grass infused with artificial fibres. The idea is that it prevents a surface turning sticky and bobbly.
The only problem is, if our pitch continues at the rate it currently seems to be ripping up at, it won’t be long till we’re playing on a surface like the moon.
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Celtic’s best performances have been at home
Ironically, of course, Celtic’s best performances have still come at home. They’ve won every single home match this season domestically. Some of their best performances of the campaign have come on the cut-up surface. Rangers, Hearts, and Kilmarnock have all been emphatically put to the sword on it.
But nobody can look at the pitch and say that everything is going swimmingly with it. The grass doesn’t look to be bedding in the way it should be. With another 11 home games at Celtic Park to come at the very least (and there likely will be more), god knows what it could look like come the end of the season.
Certainly the likes of Stamford Bridge don’t have the same issues with the surface. For such a costly price, it shouldn’t look as patchy as it does for this stage of the season.
It was a good, convincing win once again from Celtic yesterday. But the ball noticeably bobbled on occasion too. It certainly wasn’t as smooth a turf as we would all like to see. Rodgers is likely thinking the same.
It’ll therefore be interesting to see how the turf develops over the next few months. At the moment, however, it’s looking terrible.