Kasper Schmeichel was seemingly having an enjoyable start to the season a few weeks ago.
For club and country, Schmeichel didn’t concede a goal in any of his first eight appearances – pretty impressive for a 38-year-old goalkeeper.
Fast forward a few weeks to Thursday and Celtic’s lacklustre defeat against Braga, and there are calls for Brendan Rodgers to drop him.
It’s the life of the Celtic goalkeeper, when you can go entire games without your goal being bothered – but when it is, particularly in Europe, you need to step up.
A man who knows that as well as anyone long-serving Hoops goalkeeping coach Stevie Woods – and one former Celtic hero has bizarrely claimed that he ‘won’t be having’ Schmeichel’s error from Thursday night.
Peter Grant says Stevie Woods ‘won’t be having’ Kasper Schmeichel’s Celtic mistake
Schmeichel hasn’t made many high-profile errors for the Hoops, but his luck has been such that his two biggest have come in two high-profile matches.
His own-goal in last season’s Scottish Cup final eventually cost the Hoops the trophy, putting a stain on what had been an exceptional debut season for the Dane.
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For Peter Grant, speaking on the Go Radio Football Show, the error came in a sloppy spell for Schmeichel – and that’s what Woods won’t be having.
Grant said: “I just thought he was being sloppy. He had a couple of kicks and he put them out the park and made the wrong choice.
“I think it was at that stage that he was showing a little bit of – and it’s maybe the wrong word to use – arrogance, to say that ‘I’m good at that.’ But the fans started getting on him a little bit.
I thought he’d went dead on his heels – near enough on his line, which is strange as well. And then, when he reacts, I’m thinking that everything about that was sloppy.
“I’m not a goalkeeper, but I listen to Stevie Woods, even when I was there – and I know how Stevie Woods works. Stevie wouldn’t be allowing that.
“The goalkeepers I’ve worked with, they always had to make saves. So they always had to be prepared. I thought Kasper looked sloppy in that 20-minute period, everything he done. And he never reacted the way I thought he should’ve done.”
Will this be Kasper Schmeichel’s last season at Celtic?
Schmeichel is in the final year of his Celtic contract, having joined the Hoops in 2024 on an initial one-year deal with an option to extend for another.
Most Hoops fans would’ve wanted him here forever before the Aberdeen final, when an uncharacteristic error proved costly.
Now, the jury is out. A goalkeeper of Schmeichel’s experience and character is fully capable of proving his doubters wrong, regardless of his age.
But with Viljami Sinisalo waiting in the wings, nothing is guaranteed for Rodgers’ current number one.
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