[Che Timvara]

Benjamin Franklin once said “Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” Douglas McArthur is once reputed to have said “Worry, doubt, fear and despair are the enemies which slowly bring us down to the ground and turn us to dust before we die.” And the great Julius Caesar once said “As a rule, what is out of sight disturbs men’s minds more seriously than what they can see.”

Tony Mowbray is making the journey right now. We don’t yet know if he will reach the destination. He too risks being branded a failure, but then all men who seek greatness risk that. Robert Browning said it best; “Man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a Heaven for?”

The Celtic support is doing a lot of worrying right now. About what we’ve seen, about what we can see and about what might be coming not too far down the line. On Monday, we were golden, with the arrival of Keano. The future seemed to hold only promise, and the past was just that; something that couldn’t be changed, but something best left behind. It had no ability to drag us down. Now it does. Now it seems to echo into our future. Instead of illuminating the road ahead – as the past does when you use it to learn and grow – it casts dark shadows in front of us.

How in the Hell did it ever come to this?

Before I go on to that, let me throw something at you all which might be a little bit controversial. I grew up with two things happening in the world; the Tories were winning General Elections and Rangers were winning league titles. It might seem odd, but in both areas, things started to change on or about the same time, and they’ve followed close parallels ever since, at times remarkably so. Bear with me friends.

Let’s start in 1994 or thereabouts; Fergus had just taken over. The club was in transition. We hadn’t won a title since our centenary year, but finally we were clawing our way back up the footballing world. At the same time, Tony Blair had just taken over the Labour Party, which hadn’t won an election in almost two decades, and had been out of power since Thatcher secured her first electoral success in 1979.

In the three years that followed, the fortunes of Labour and Celtic improved out of sight. In 1997, everything clicked. Labour won back power, and our historic “season we stopped the ten” began. Within a year of Labour winning the landslide, I had seen both the end of the Tory party hegemony and the rebuilding of Celtic completed; a Labour leader was in Downing Street and the league flag was flying over the brand new Theatre of Football in the East End of Glasgow. I celebrated both.

We know some disillusionment followed, as Rangers regained their title and rebuilt. Yet, we had laid down a marker. Even as Blair was telling the party he would not consider the work truly underway until Labour had won a second term, we knew our own would not be finished until we had again won the SPL title and asserted ourselves as top cats.

By the time Labour secured its second landslide victory, in 2001, we were, again, the top side in Scotland, with Martin O’Neill at the helm. That, truly, was a glorious time for our team, and yet it ended on a sad and sour note, with the period of decline beginning.

And what were the characteristics of the period of decline? Well, in 2005, by the time Labour won its third election, there was no more talk of the Tory Party being dead. They had clawed back ground, and Rangers had just won a last day title win, courtesy of Scott McDonald and some poor finishing on the final day at Fir Park. By the time Labour’s third term started, we had a new manager, Artmedia had followed and trouble seemed all around us. As it was going on, the Labour Party erupted as the civil war between Brown and Blair got underway.... and for the first time in years the talk in the party was not about victory, but about direction.

Celtic was about to become engulfed in the same debate. Good things still happened. We won titles – three of them in a row – but there was disquiet about the mood, about the so-called strategy. In particular, there was anger about the man at the top of the house, in our case Gordon Strachan. In the world of politics, Blair was taking a pasting over Iraq and the continual rightward march of the Labour Party. The path’s of the two Gordon’s, Brown and Strachan, were about to meet, dramatically.

At times the parallel paths are too close for comfort.

A war had erupted amongst our support; some wanted a manager who would play “The Celtic way”, others were content to stick with Strachan as long as he could bring us continued success. And then there were some who simply wanted a Celtic man at the helm – although there were never as many of these people as the media believed, or wanted to believe. (And by Celtic man, no, I don’t mean Irish or Catholic – another media lie.)

The same, of course, was happening in the Labour Party; a successful leader was on the verge of being kicked out and a more “traditional” leader on the verge of being brought in. Success, it seemed, wasn’t enough.

In 2007, two months after the Celtic manager won his second title, with a Nakamura freekick, the other Gordon was at the zenith of his power, as he took over from Blair. The two Gordon’s should have had it made; they were at the top of their game, in total command of the universe in which they lived. Celtic, and Labour, should have seen a glorious future in front of them with success on the menu for years to come.

Yet, that was when the decline really began, when the victory was close enough to reach out and touch.

Brown fluffed the chance to hold a snap election in the autumn of 2007, and Strachan failed to address crucial weaknesses in the team when hostilities commenced for his third season in the same year. What the Celtic manager called Team 3 looked suspiciously like Team 2, only lacking in imagination. The magic, if such it was, fading fast.

We scraped the third title, winning it on the final day, and Strachan’s fourth season saw mistake after mistake make his position near impossible. As the pace of our decline grew, a return to the Celtic way was called for, and that call has been answered.

Indisputably, that, like Brown’s attempts to mould Labour into something of his own making, has been a disaster.

Take a look at Brown as compared to our manager Tony Mowbray. You will find, as I have, that it’s un-nerving how alike they are. We’ll start with the Prime Minister, a man whose life has had its share of tragedy, outside the political circles in which he made his name.

With a General Election looming, and the near certainty of a return to Tory government, one can only ponder as to why no-one has yet put Brown – and Labour – out of its misery. Failures in policy wiped out the climate of financial stability he had tried to build as Chancellor. Failures in other areas have resulted in a Tory lead which could translate into a landslide come election day in May.

The press has turned on him. His cabinet is split and leaks spring up daily, many commenting on his poor style of man-management. Having not even completed a full term in office, he might be remembered as the worst Labour leader of the modern era – a truly horrendous place in history for a man with the party in his blood, and, like his politics or not, a thoroughly decent man at that. A tragic end looms for him.

In football, Celtic have blown a similarly beneficial financial climate, where a bereft and skint Rangers have not simply been allowed to keep pace with us, but have actually over-taken us on the pitch. Now the financial superiority we hold is threatened, as disillusionment at the strategy takes hold in the fans. Even a boon like the signing of Keane has turned against us; some now seem him as nothing more than an expensive prop.

Tony Mowbray inherited a Celtic team which had been beaten to a title race, and promised to take us back down the road of sexy football. Beset with problems from early on, the media hates him and goes after him with relish. His dressing room was divided, leaking far worse than the defence he has sought to dismantle. He has been criticised for poor man-management and his inability to inspire. Having not yet completed even a season in charge, his record is already being whispered about as the worst of any Celtic manager in modern times. For a man with Celtic in his blood, and a good and decent man at that, it is horrible to watch what this job – and the current climate – is doing to him.

Like I said, the parallels are too close for comfort at times.

Much of what is said and done, by both men, is subject to a scrutiny other men do not have to face. Much of the coverage they receive in the press is biased, designed to put a negative slant on everything they do. Gordon Brown was slated for writing a letter to a grieving mother, because he made some spelling mistakes. Tony Mowbray speaks of football management being a difficult job, and not an enjoyable one – stuff which Martin O’Neill has said many, many times, to name but one top coach – only to read the headlines which say he is not happy as manager of Celtic. Both Brown and Mowbray are sober, sincere men who focus intensely on the work at hand; neither is prone to an excess of emotion.

Above all else, both men are extremely dignified in public, although they must both left off some steam in private. For no two men I can think of have lived their public lives under such a harsh glare, or in the midst of such an appalling avalanche of criticism. Even when they get it right there is no respite for them; Brown steadied the economy after the bank crash, and now is being criticised for being too cautious with the recovery – when almost every economist worthy of note says he did, and is doing, the right thing. Mowbray’s Celtic was the subject of much ridicule at the start of the season for problems in defence. Tony moved swiftly to sort those out, and when he is not being portrayed as heartless and cruel for doing so, the press slams him for breaking up a “settled team.”

I could go on, and on, and on. There are more similarities than you might at first think. It’s almost as if some great outside force is pushing these two institutions in the same direction.

Amongst the many coincidences, consider this one.

Labour had a leader named Tony, a moderniser with no historical ties to the party. He was unloved despite being a success three times in a row, largely because he changed the way things were done, and the ideals behind the institution. They clamoured for his resignation, and were taken over by a guy named Gordon, a guy whose historical profile was more in keeping with the party faithful. Now Gordon is being seen to drag the party down, and there are calls for him to quit.

Celtic was run by a guy named Gordon; he was unloved by the fans for the most part despite three successes in a row, due in part to changes in the way we played and in part to having no prior connection to the club or base of support. He resigned and the team is now run by a guy named Tony, a former player at Celtic, who himself has gotten negative results and is now facing calls from some quarters to quit.

Spooky, isn’t it? These are the thoughts that keep me up at night.

To all appearances, Celtic and Labour, Tony and Gordon, are living through similarly evolving disasters; every morning must seem like Groundhog Day, with neither knowing from which angle the next hammer-blow will come. For Brown and Labour, the much trumpeted pre-election re-launch was undone by the “Hoon-Hewitt letter plot” of some weeks ago; for Celtic, the fight-back was supposed to start with the signing of Robbie Keane. The following day, it was back to square one.



So, it’s square one, then, friends. This is where we find ourselves. Labour are behind in the polls, by ten points, although some polls suggest the lead may have dropped to as little as seven. In another malefic echo across the landscape, we are behind by the exact same margin, and fully expected to be down by only seven, but for the reversal at Kilmarnock. The revival we all thought was coming has stalled; now Rangers lead at the top is cemented and seemingly secure. We can make up six points, if we win the two games we still have to play against them – a big ask - but we are still dependant on others doing us favours. All in all, it doesn’t look good.

Labour needs a similar sized revival, and might benefit from some help from the Liberal Democrats, who may just be important in the final swing, if the race is close and we have a hung parliament.

This brings me to the central point, and our central problem, and the biggest question of all which requires an answer.

The idea was mooted more than once that what Labour required to recover the ground was a change of leadership. The press has buzzed from time to time with the names of the potential leaders-in-waiting, and speculated as to whether their presence in Downing Street might avert disaster, or even lead the party to an unlikely victory. Coups have been attempted, although never with the kind of name attached which would have made a difference; ironically, John Reid was once discussed in just such terms, another echo between these two unrelated worlds.

All came to nothing, and there is not a commentator in the land who thinks it would make a bit of difference if, tomorrow, Brown was suddenly removed from power. It’s too late now. There are only three months to go until the election. What might once have been possible no longer is, and so stand or fall, it’s Gordon Brown until the end.

As the Good Ship Celtic sails further into troubled waters, would a change of manager make any real difference at this point? We face the same pressing time issues; indeed, we too have a bare three months left before all the cards and their values are known to everyone at the table. There are fifteen league games to go; Rangers need to lose four of them; we need to win each and every match. Is it possible? On paper, yes, of course it is, in much the same way a Labour revival and victory is possible. In reality – sadly, the arena we’re dealing in – it’s unlikely, and one is tempted to suggest that equation and its harsher realities will remain regardless of who is in charge of our football team. Cold facts don’t change.

As discussions of Milliband as an incumbent Prime Minister taking on the untested Cameron are pure conjecture, so too is the idea of a Lambert or Willie McStay leading us down the home straight. The reality is that Tony Mowbray is as entrenched in his post as Gordon Brown is sticking firm in his, and barring a staggering change of heart and a resignation which would shock all around them, neither will go of his own free will. Speculation that Mowbray has handed in his notice three times since taking over is patently nonsense; one suspects the Celtic board may very well have bitten the man’s hand off had such a thing been offered recently.

This Celtic board has never had to take a tough decision like this, being largely changed from the one which confronted John Barnes almost ten years ago to the day – February 10th 2000, we play Hearts at home on the anniversary – and acted ruthlessly to remove him. Then, we were left with an interim manager, and we were damned lucky Kenny Dalglish was there and available or we might never have ended up with Martin O’Neill. Think on that a little friends, think on it and tell me what you think.

Had we been forced to appoint someone mid-season, what are the chances we’d have got it right? We know what would have happened; the job would have been rushed. Anyone could have ended up manager, and the success that followed might never have come to pass. ????: http://www.MonTheHoops.co.uk The Only Member Moderated Celtic Forum http://www.monthehoops.co.uk/showthread.php?p=446170

Does this board have what it takes to sack Mowbray right now? Would they pay the compensation required, and then find the money to make sure a good successor – the right successor – was brought in to replace him? The toughest men might waver faced with a choice like that one, and where would Celtic go in the meantime? We could not afford to wait weeks until a new man came in, not if competing for the title was still the main objective. The slim chances of winning it would have gone, the whole club would have been destabilised, and Rangers probably allowed to pull further ahead, even to the point where they could formally enter administration and still win the SPL title – surely the ultimate nightmare scenario, if one excludes another dark possibility, that of not finishing second.

Celtic took in £3.5 million for the Scott McDonald deal. All told, the Keane signing will cost us less than £2 million over the course. Would Celtic use the £1.5 million remaining to sack the manager? And if they did, who would they replace him with, and how much more money would it take? One is tempted – very tempted – to imagine a Hughes in the manager’s office next, a move with short-term impact but would be more akin to one step forward and two steps back. Celtic requires a proven coach, a man who has made an impact somewhere in the game. Would such a man join a club which had just responded to adversity in such knee-jerk fashion?

Adversity is what this is. The media has been harsh to Tony Mowbray, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. The John Barnes scrutiny stands up when you look at it, except in that Barnes had not been twice knocked out of Europe and was still in the league cup. Worse, for Tony Mowbray, the former Liverpool player was sitting pretty in second spot in the league. Right now we are two points ahead of Hibs.... who have a game in hand. We are a stone’s throw from third, 23 games into the league campaign. For a club like Celtic, there is no excuse for that sort of performance.

Like the Labour government which is floundering, and threatening to sink, we are in perilous waters. We are facing the same discussions about where we go next, and about how Celtic survives in the meantime. The 10 point lead is sizeable, but we have all seen comebacks from this far back; Gordon Strachan pulled off his third title win being seven behind when Rangers had a game in hand .... and this with only seven matches of the season left. We have a similar gap to make up, in twice the time, and as then we have two games against Rangers still to come.

Right now, there are some positives to take from this, because despite all the similarities we are not in the position Labour is in, nor is our leader. Brown lacked the ability to shuffle his pack for one. When he wanted to replace the Chancellor Alastair Darling during the last cabinet shuffle he was barred from doing so for fear of the consequences if his Scottish colleague decided he didn’t want to go and sparked a revolt. Mowbray, when faced with his own room of dissenters, and leakers if you believe the rumours, was able to rout them and assert his own authority. Brown never got the chance to put his own stamp on Labour; this is Mowbray’s team. Whereas Labour’s former director Peter Watt claims Brown never had a clear plan beyond becoming leader, Mowbray definitely knows where he and this team of ours are going. There is a definite path being mapped out.

Of course, should we lose in the Scottish Cup to Dunfermline on Sunday then all bets are off. Such would be the response of the press and the fans that there would probably be no option but to dispense with the services of the manager, and a full-scale crisis would engulf the club, as it did a decade before with the sacking of Barnes. That crisis ushered in the tremendously successful O’Neill-Strachan era, which could have been a dynasty had there been people at the club with the vision to create it.

Mowbray undoubtedly has such a vision. He wants to revolutionise Celtic in a way Brown never wanted nor tried to change Labour, a move which may have put him on the road to greatness. Mowbray smells greatness; he knows with Rangers in such a perilous position there is a chance to build a Celtic which will rule the game in Scotland for years to come, perhaps all the way up to the day we leave this league entirely, to go after bigger game. We know if he gets it right we will be unstoppable in this country and seen as a cagy prospect for the European teams to visit, the kind of draw none of them wants to get in the early stages of a competition.

All things are possible with Tony, if he gets it right, but the appropriate word here is that two letter one; if. There is a flip-side to the coin; if Mowbray isn’t cut out for this, if for some reason this exceptionally talented man, so like the Labour leader it’s scary, had found his level in a previous post, like Brown, and doesn’t have what it takes in the rarefied atmosphere of running a top club, if this man wilts like his mirror image, then we are in for more pain, and so too is he. It will be tough to take.

Speaking frankly, as someone who has written about them both over the years, and as someone who’s watched their career progressions thus far, I have grave, grave doubts either can pull it together. I wrote in a blog last year that Labour needed to stick with Brown because it had no choice, and for no other reason. Celtic has to stick with Tony because not to would be to risk the freefall of the whole club, but the crucial difference as to how I feel about the two men is that I believe in what Tony Mowbray is trying to do, and I want desperately for his vision of Celtic to be a successful one, and I don’t doubt it can be, over the longer timeline.

My doubts are all about the short term, in what I see in front of me right now, in those horrible statistics which compare so unfavourably even with a guy like John Barnes and in what might happen next week or later this month when this Celtic team has to go to Ibrox. If we leave that ground within seven points of their team, I really do see us pushing them all the way, to the extent my money will be on us taking back that which is rightly ours, the SPL title. If we leave with a ten point gap, or worse, then serious and searching questions will need asked for next season, especially if Hibs are still within touching distance of second.

Frankly, if we finish the season in third then Tony Mowbray will not get the time his vision needs to mature. I would go further; if Rangers finish the season with a double-digit winning margin, it’s all over. To survive – and do so comfortably – Mowbray’s minimum requirements must be a Scottish Cup win and second place in the league, having cut Rangers lead beneath double figures, or preferably a final day decider. Short of that, Mowbray and Celtic will have to sweat through a long, hot summer, where doubts will hang in the air like the cold snap of an early autumn chill. He will be neither comfortable nor safe during that time, as season ticket sales will decide his ultimate fate. For Tony to make it, we have to improve dramatically, enough so that we look forward to next season instead of viewing it in the manner of this one, like a slow, unfolding nightmare.

That is what Tony Mowbray must do, but we have a part to play in this too, and it should not be doubted how important that is. I have let myself down this week by getting spooked by worries about might be coming next. That is the kind of fear Benjamin Franklin, Douglas McArthur and Caesar were talking about; not fear of what is real, but of things we conjure inside our own heads. Looking at Tony’s record, I am concerned, but he has asked for time and promised a better tomorrow. If he can deliver the goods, we will see a decade which makes the last one look like a series of failures. I still want that enough, and believe the idea is right, to trust that the man has a plan for delivering on what he’s promised.



There is mitigating evidence for Mowbray, which doesn’t exist for Brown, who’s inability to stamp his own authority over Labour has destroyed any hope of a comeback under his leadership. Whereas the Party has made real the textbook definition of the idea that “A house divided against itself cannot stand”, becoming a model of unruly behaviour, Mowbray has not allowed his own authority to become undermined in the same way. He has ruthlessly cleared out the dressing room, ridding it of the players who some suspected would not perform at his behest. He has brought in new people, some of whom have personal loyalty to him. In short, he has done what all leaders who seek to control events do; he has surrounded himself by a team he can call his own, and rooted out disruptive or opposing elements.

It is not yet Mowbray’s team which will take the field against Dunfermline, but with every week that passes his imprint will be seen more and more in the line-up itself and in the way we play. When he has a side out there made up mostly of his own men, playing in a style he has selected them for, sure of each man’s ability to adapt to that style, he will be inviting a harsher judgement than he faces today, because then he’ll be out of excuses. Right now, his team is “bedding in”; he has that in his favour. In the weeks to come, these players will have to perform, and perform in a way which gives us hope for the future, or it’s all over.

A disreputable Rangers website, with grandiose pretensions and a bigoted agenda, one I’ve written about before, tells a story of how Lawwell interferes in team selection matters; they are barking mad and no-one sane can read and believe in such rantings. Neither Mowbray nor Strachan would allow such a thing, and if it was true, and they went public, the outcry of the press and the Celtic support would halt all such practices overnight. Few doubt that Lawwell is a preening individual who loves the limelight, and one who’s own jacket is on a wobbly nail following the disgrace that is the Tennents sponsorship deal – which this writer and others warned against – but even this man knows his limits. It is clear that Mowbray is very much his own man, a man who does things his own way.

The trouble with that is the buck stops right at his door.

Tony Mowbray is in a curious position, but he is luckier than the man with whom he shares so many traits. Some Labour MP’s have talked of a “nightmare scenario” where Labour wins and Gordon Brown is still Prime Minister this time next year. I cannot think of a worse indictment to hang around the necks of some of the pond filth that inhabit the PLP, that they would welcome defeat just to be rid of him.

On Celtic Quick News, a number of posters have posed the question “would Celtic fans settle for a Dunfermline win on Sunday, if it would speed up the Tony Mowbray endgame?” The kind of mind which could conceive of such a question does not belong at Celtic Park, in my humble opinion. They may as well buy tickets for Ibrox, if they are seriously hoping for such a calamity to strike us. I am appalled at such talk.

Gordon Brown will have gained no respect from turning around the Labour Party and the Ship of State. He will forever be the target of plotters and backstabbers, who will haunt his steps from his first day back in office, if such a day dawns and he finds a way to win. In that event, he will take none of the credit for the victory – that will go to Mandelson and others – but in the case of a defeat, he alone will shoulder the blame.

In some walks of life, it has forever been thus.

John F. Kennedy once said “Victory has a thousand fathers. Defeat is an orphan.” If this season ends in failure for Tony Mowbray he will be buried under an avalanche of press and public opprobrium, as Sir Walter Scott’s poem says, “Unwept, unhonoured and unsung.” His career might effectively be over; the manager who won an English Championship title and reached the semi-final of the FA Cup will be forever remembered as the man who got West Brom relegated and was fired by Celtic.

If this happens, mark my words, Tony Mowbray will not fall alone. The fans will swiftly identify the other guilty men, and we will demand they too pay the ultimate price for failure.

Success, especially if it ends in the ultimate achievement, a league and cup double, against all the odds, will see Mowbray elevated to the pantheon of heroes. He will be given all the time he requires to put the grander elements of his plans into effect. Others will try to share the credit for keeping the faith. They will largely have done no more than kept their heads down. The transfer window was Mowbray’s baby; he rebuilt a team and he balanced the books. It is an awesome achievement in itself, but one he should not have been expected to deliver.

Few can argue he has been backed – but only in terms of his judgement, not by great bundles of cash. Tony Mowbray is flying on a wing and a prayer, in a way which is infuriating and inspiring in equal measure. There is no doubt we emerged stronger; that is his greatest accomplishment to date, but it will not save him if he comes up short in the areas where it matters most, out on the pitch and in the league table.

Gordon Brown has spent his life working towards a single goal, that of being Prime Minister. He reached the destination, but without having made the journey. It is doubtful he ever will, and in all likelihood, he will be ultimately be judged a failure at that job.

Tony Mowbray is making the journey right now. We don’t yet know if he will reach the destination. He too risks being branded a failure, but then all men who seek greatness risk that. Robert Browning said it best; “Man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a Heaven for?”

It remains to be seen whether Tony Mowbray can take the prize which sits on the top shelf, if this man with whom our club has such a connection has found himself overmatched, but as with Brown, one thing is certain; this man is not for turning, nor quitting.

At a time when the Tories are climbing into bed with the Ulster Unionists in a bid to appease extremists in their party, and Rangers are pandering more and more to the lunatic fringe of theirs, the enemy has never been in clearer view. With that in mind, it is perhaps fitting that Tony Mowbray has chosen a man called Brown to be our captain and standard bearer for the battles which lie ahead. The symmetry is too neat to ignore.

Right now, Gordon and Tony are captaining their respective ships through choppy seas, and amidst all that is uncertain there is but one certainty in front of them both; a battle is looming. By the end of May all will be revealed and their respective fates known.

Gentlemen, “The fightback starts here.”

Let’s go on and win this damned thing, Celts.

[Seanybhoy1888]

Tony Mowbray and Gordon Brown have something in common indeed. They both picked up the baton from men who had run both Labour and Celtic into the ground.

[patmac2712]

Originally Posted by Seanybhoy1888

Tony Mowbray and Gordon Brown have something in common indeed. They both picked up the baton from men who had run both Labour and Celtic into the ground.

and both should be chased

[scofy]

I would love to think we could win this however.........
They are just too consistent, they don't drop points.
We need to win every game, we can't win 2 in a row, haven't won 3 in a row consistently for years now.
This season has been a disaster, I shudder to think what will happen if they get a buyer and are given a bit of money.

It's over, stop torturing yourselves.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by scofy

I would love to think we could win this however......... They are just too consistent, they don't drop points. We need to win every game, we can't win 2 in a row, haven't won 3 in a row consistently for years now. This season has been a disaster, I shudder to think what will happen if they get a buyer and are given a bit of money. It's over, stop torturing yourselves.

With all due respect, thank god you aren't the Manager with an attitude like that.

The odds are stacked against us yes, but it certainly isn't over by a long shot.

Keep The Faith

[masterson]

Originally Posted by scofy

I would love to think we could win this however.........
They are just too consistent, they don't drop points.
We need to win every game, we can't win 2 in a row, haven't won 3 in a row consistently for years now.
This season has been a disaster, I shudder to think what will happen if they get a buyer and are given a bit of money.

It's over, stop torturing yourselves.

FI, FO, FI FUM!.

[mikiebhoy]

well said

Originally Posted by Che Timvara

Benjamin Franklin once said “Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” Douglas McArthur is once reputed to have said “Worry, doubt, fear and despair are the enemies which slowly bring us down to the ground and turn us to dust before we die.” And the great Julius Caesar once said “As a rule, what is out of sight disturbs men’s minds more seriously than what they can see.”

Tony Mowbray is making the journey right now. We don’t yet know if he will reach the destination. He too risks being branded a failure, but then all men who seek greatness risk that. Robert Browning said it best; “Man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a Heaven for?”

The Celtic support is doing a lot of worrying right now. About what we’ve seen, about what we can see and about what might be coming not too far down the line. On Monday, we were golden, with the arrival of Keano. The future seemed to hold only promise, and the past was just that; something that couldn’t be changed, but something best left behind. It had no ability to drag us down. Now it does. Now it seems to echo into our future. Instead of illuminating the road ahead – as the past does when you use it to learn and grow – it casts dark shadows in front of us.

How in the Hell did it ever come to this?

Before I go on to that, let me throw something at you all which might be a little bit controversial. I grew up with two things happening in the world; the Tories were winning General Elections and Rangers were winning league titles. It might seem odd, but in both areas, things started to change on or about the same time, and they’ve followed close parallels ever since, at times remarkably so. Bear with me friends.

Let’s start in 1994 or thereabouts; Fergus had just taken over. The club was in transition. We hadn’t won a title since our centenary year, but finally we were clawing our way back up the footballing world. At the same time, Tony Blair had just taken over the Labour Party, which hadn’t won an election in almost two decades, and had been out of power since Thatcher secured her first electoral success in 1979.

In the three years that followed, the fortunes of Labour and Celtic improved out of sight. In 1997, everything clicked. Labour won back power, and our historic “season we stopped the ten” began. Within a year of Labour winning the landslide, I had seen both the end of the Tory party hegemony and the rebuilding of Celtic completed; a Labour leader was in Downing Street and the league flag was flying over the brand new Theatre of Football in the East End of Glasgow. I celebrated both.

We know some disillusionment followed, as Rangers regained their title and rebuilt. Yet, we had laid down a marker. Even as Blair was telling the party he would not consider the work truly underway until Labour had won a second term, we knew our own would not be finished until we had again won the SPL title and asserted ourselves as top cats.

By the time Labour secured its second landslide victory, in 2001, we were, again, the top side in Scotland, with Martin O’Neill at the helm. That, truly, was a glorious time for our team, and yet it ended on a sad and sour note, with the period of decline beginning.

And what were the characteristics of the period of decline? Well, in 2005, by the time Labour won its third election, there was no more talk of the Tory Party being dead. They had clawed back ground, and Rangers had just won a last day title win, courtesy of Scott McDonald and some poor finishing on the final day at Fir Park. By the time Labour’s third term started, we had a new manager, Artmedia had followed and trouble seemed all around us. As it was going on, the Labour Party erupted as the civil war between Brown and Blair got underway.... and for the first time in years the talk in the party was not about victory, but about direction.

Celtic was about to become engulfed in the same debate. Good things still happened. We won titles – three of them in a row – but there was disquiet about the mood, about the so-called strategy. In particular, there was anger about the man at the top of the house, in our case Gordon Strachan. In the world of politics, Blair was taking a pasting over Iraq and the continual rightward march of the Labour Party. The path’s of the two Gordon’s, Brown and Strachan, were about to meet, dramatically.

At times the parallel paths are too close for comfort.

A war had erupted amongst our support; some wanted a manager who would play “The Celtic way”, others were content to stick with Strachan as long as he could bring us continued success. And then there were some who simply wanted a Celtic man at the helm – although there were never as many of these people as the media believed, or wanted to believe. (And by Celtic man, no, I don’t mean Irish or Catholic – another media lie.)

The same, of course, was happening in the Labour Party; a successful leader was on the verge of being kicked out and a more “traditional” leader on the verge of being brought in. Success, it seemed, wasn’t enough.

In 2007, two months after the Celtic manager won his second title, with a Nakamura freekick, the other Gordon was at the zenith of his power, as he took over from Blair. The two Gordon’s should have had it made; they were at the top of their game, in total command of the universe in which they lived. Celtic, and Labour, should have seen a glorious future in front of them with success on the menu for years to come.

Yet, that was when the decline really began, when the victory was close enough to reach out and touch.

Brown fluffed the chance to hold a snap election in the autumn of 2007, and Strachan failed to address crucial weaknesses in the team when hostilities commenced for his third season in the same year. What the Celtic manager called Team 3 looked suspiciously like Team 2, only lacking in imagination. The magic, if such it was, fading fast.

We scraped the third title, winning it on the final day, and Strachan’s fourth season saw mistake after mistake make his position near impossible. As the pace of our decline grew, a return to the Celtic way was called for, and that call has been answered.

Indisputably, that, like Brown’s attempts to mould Labour into something of his own making, has been a disaster.

Take a look at Brown as compared to our manager Tony Mowbray. You will find, as I have, that it’s un-nerving how alike they are. We’ll start with the Prime Minister, a man whose life has had its share of tragedy, outside the political circles in which he made his name.

With a General Election looming, and the near certainty of a return to Tory government, one can only ponder as to why no-one has yet put Brown – and Labour – out of its misery. Failures in policy wiped out the climate of financial stability he had tried to build as Chancellor. Failures in other areas have resulted in a Tory lead which could translate into a landslide come election day in May.

The press has turned on him. His cabinet is split and leaks spring up daily, many commenting on his poor style of man-management. Having not even completed a full term in office, he might be remembered as the worst Labour leader of the modern era – a truly horrendous place in history for a man with the party in his blood, and, like his politics or not, a thoroughly decent man at that. A tragic end looms for him.

In football, Celtic have blown a similarly beneficial financial climate, where a bereft and skint Rangers have not simply been allowed to keep pace with us, but have actually over-taken us on the pitch. Now the financial superiority we hold is threatened, as disillusionment at the strategy takes hold in the fans. Even a boon like the signing of Keane has turned against us; some now seem him as nothing more than an expensive prop.

Tony Mowbray inherited a Celtic team which had been beaten to a title race, and promised to take us back down the road of sexy football. Beset with problems from early on, the media hates him and goes after him with relish. His dressing room was divided, leaking far worse than the defence he has sought to dismantle. He has been criticised for poor man-management and his inability to inspire. Having not yet completed even a season in charge, his record is already being whispered about as the worst of any Celtic manager in modern times. For a man with Celtic in his blood, and a good and decent man at that, it is horrible to watch what this job – and the current climate – is doing to him.

Like I said, the parallels are too close for comfort at times.

Much of what is said and done, by both men, is subject to a scrutiny other men do not have to face. Much of the coverage they receive in the press is biased, designed to put a negative slant on everything they do. Gordon Brown was slated for writing a letter to a grieving mother, because he made some spelling mistakes. Tony Mowbray speaks of football management being a difficult job, and not an enjoyable one – stuff which Martin O’Neill has said many, many times, to name but one top coach – only to read the headlines which say he is not happy as manager of Celtic. Both Brown and Mowbray are sober, sincere men who focus intensely on the work at hand; neither is prone to an excess of emotion.

Above all else, both men are extremely dignified in public, although they must both left off some steam in private. For no two men I can think of have lived their public lives under such a harsh glare, or in the midst of such an appalling avalanche of criticism. Even when they get it right there is no respite for them; Brown steadied the economy after the bank crash, and now is being criticised for being too cautious with the recovery – when almost every economist worthy of note says he did, and is doing, the right thing. Mowbray’s Celtic was the subject of much ridicule at the start of the season for problems in defence. Tony moved swiftly to sort those out, and when he is not being portrayed as heartless and cruel for doing so, the press slams him for breaking up a “settled team.”

I could go on, and on, and on. There are more similarities than you might at first think. It’s almost as if some great outside force is pushing these two institutions in the same direction.

Amongst the many coincidences, consider this one.

Labour had a leader named Tony, a moderniser with no historical ties to the party. He was unloved despite being a success three times in a row, largely because he changed the way things were done, and the ideals behind the institution. They clamoured for his resignation, and were taken over by a guy named Gordon, a guy whose historical profile was more in keeping with the party faithful. Now Gordon is being seen to drag the party down, and there are calls for him to quit.

Celtic was run by a guy named Gordon; he was unloved by the fans for the most part despite three successes in a row, due in part to changes in the way we played and in part to having no prior connection to the club or base of support. He resigned and the team is now run by a guy named Tony, a former player at Celtic, who himself has gotten negative results and is now facing calls from some quarters to quit.

Spooky, isn’t it? These are the thoughts that keep me up at night.

To all appearances, Celtic and Labour, Tony and Gordon, are living through similarly evolving disasters; every morning must seem like Groundhog Day, with neither knowing from which angle the next hammer-blow will come. For Brown and Labour, the much trumpeted pre-election re-launch was undone by the “Hoon-Hewitt letter plot” of some weeks ago; for Celtic, the fight-back was supposed to start with the signing of Robbie Keane. The following day, it was back to square one.



So, it’s square one, then, friends. This is where we find ourselves. Labour are behind in the polls, by ten points, although some polls suggest the lead may have dropped to as little as seven. In another malefic echo across the landscape, we are behind by the exact same margin, and fully expected to be down by only seven, but for the reversal at Kilmarnock. The revival we all thought was coming has stalled; now Rangers lead at the top is cemented and seemingly secure. We can make up six points, if we win the two games we still have to play against them – a big ask - but we are still dependant on others doing us favours. All in all, it doesn’t look good.

Labour needs a similar sized revival, and might benefit from some help from the Liberal Democrats, who may just be important in the final swing, if the race is close and we have a hung parliament.

This brings me to the central point, and our central problem, and the biggest question of all which requires an answer.

The idea was mooted more than once that what Labour required to recover the ground was a change of leadership. The press has buzzed from time to time with the names of the potential leaders-in-waiting, and speculated as to whether their presence in Downing Street might avert disaster, or even lead the party to an unlikely victory. Coups have been attempted, although never with the kind of name attached which would have made a difference; ironically, John Reid was once discussed in just such terms, another echo between these two unrelated worlds.

All came to nothing, and there is not a commentator in the land who thinks it would make a bit of difference if, tomorrow, Brown was suddenly removed from power. It’s too late now. There are only three months to go until the election. What might once have been possible no longer is, and so stand or fall, it’s Gordon Brown until the end.

As the Good Ship Celtic sails further into troubled waters, would a change of manager make any real difference at this point? We face the same pressing time issues; indeed, we too have a bare three months left before all the cards and their values are known to everyone at the table. There are fifteen league games to go; Rangers need to lose four of them; we need to win each and every match. Is it possible? On paper, yes, of course it is, in much the same way a Labour revival and victory is possible. In reality – sadly, the arena we’re dealing in – it’s unlikely, and one is tempted to suggest that equation and its harsher realities will remain regardless of who is in charge of our football team. Cold facts don’t change.

As discussions of Milliband as an incumbent Prime Minister taking on the untested Cameron are pure conjecture, so too is the idea of a Lambert or Willie McStay leading us down the home straight. The reality is that Tony Mowbray is as entrenched in his post as Gordon Brown is sticking firm in his, and barring a staggering change of heart and a resignation which would shock all around them, neither will go of his own free will. Speculation that Mowbray has handed in his notice three times since taking over is patently nonsense; one suspects the Celtic board may very well have bitten the man’s hand off had such a thing been offered recently.

This Celtic board has never had to take a tough decision like this, being largely changed from the one which confronted John Barnes almost ten years ago to the day – February 10th 2000, we play Hearts at home on the anniversary – and acted ruthlessly to remove him. Then, we were left with an interim manager, and we were damned lucky Kenny Dalglish was there and available or we might never have ended up with Martin O’Neill. Think on that a little friends, think on it and tell me what you think.

Had we been forced to appoint someone mid-season, what are the chances we’d have got it right? We know what would have happened; the job would have been rushed. Anyone could have ended up manager, and the success that followed might never have come to pass.

Does this board have what it takes to sack Mowbray right now? Would they pay the compensation required, and then find the money to make sure a good successor – the right successor – was brought in to replace him? The toughest men might waver faced with a choice like that one, and where would Celtic go in the meantime? We could not afford to wait weeks until a new man came in, not if competing for the title was still the main objective. The slim chances of winning it would have gone, the whole club would have been destabilised, and Rangers probably allowed to pull further ahead, even to the point where they could formally enter administration and still win the SPL title – surely the ultimate nightmare scenario, if one excludes another dark possibility, that of not finishing second.

Celtic took in £3.5 million for the Scott McDonald deal. All told, the Keane signing will cost us less than £2 million over the course. Would Celtic use the £1.5 million remaining to sack the manager? And if they did, who would they replace him with, and how much more money would it take? One is tempted – very tempted – to imagine a Hughes in the manager’s office next, a move with short-term impact but would be more akin to one step forward and two steps back. Celtic requires a proven coach, a man who has made an impact somewhere in the game. Would such a man join a club which had just responded to adversity in such knee-jerk fashion?

Adversity is what this is. The media has been harsh to Tony Mowbray, but even a broken clock is right twice a day. The John Barnes scrutiny stands up when you look at it, except in that Barnes had not been twice knocked out of Europe and was still in the league cup. Worse, for Tony Mowbray, the former Liverpool player was sitting pretty in second spot in the league. Right now we are two points ahead of Hibs.... who have a game in hand. We are a stone’s throw from third, 23 games into the league campaign. For a club like Celtic, there is no excuse for that sort of performance.

Like the Labour government which is floundering, and threatening to sink, we are in perilous waters. We are facing the same discussions about where we go next, and about how Celtic survives in the meantime. The 10 point lead is sizeable, but we have all seen comebacks from this far back; Gordon Strachan pulled off his third title win being seven behind when Rangers had a game in hand .... and this with only seven matches of the season left. We have a similar gap to make up, in twice the time, and as then we have two games against Rangers still to come.

Right now, there are some positives to take from this, because despite all the similarities we are not in the position Labour is in, nor is our leader. Brown lacked the ability to shuffle his pack for one. When he wanted to replace the Chancellor Alastair Darling during the last cabinet shuffle he was barred from doing so for fear of the consequences if his Scottish colleague decided he didn’t want to go and sparked a revolt. Mowbray, when faced with his own room of dissenters, and leakers if you believe the rumours, was able to rout them and assert his own authority. Brown never got the chance to put his own stamp on Labour; this is Mowbray’s team. Whereas Labour’s former director Peter Watt claims Brown never had a clear plan beyond becoming leader, Mowbray definitely knows where he and this team of ours are going. There is a definite path being mapped out.

Of course, should we lose in the Scottish Cup to Dunfermline on Sunday then all bets are off. Such would be the response of the press and the fans that there would probably be no option but to dispense with the services of the manager, and a full-scale crisis would engulf the club, as it did a decade before with the sacking of Barnes. That crisis ushered in the tremendously successful O’Neill-Strachan era, which could have been a dynasty had there been people at the club with the vision to create it.

Mowbray undoubtedly has such a vision. He wants to revolutionise Celtic in a way Brown never wanted nor tried to change Labour, a move which may have put him on the road to greatness. Mowbray smells greatness; he knows with Rangers in such a perilous position there is a chance to build a Celtic which will rule the game in Scotland for years to come, perhaps all the way up to the day we leave this league entirely, to go after bigger game. We know if he gets it right we will be unstoppable in this country and seen as a cagy prospect for the European teams to visit, the kind of draw none of them wants to get in the early stages of a competition.

All things are possible with Tony, if he gets it right, but the appropriate word here is that two letter one; if. There is a flip-side to the coin; if Mowbray isn’t cut out for this, if for some reason this exceptionally talented man, so like the Labour leader it’s scary, had found his level in a previous post, like Brown, and doesn’t have what it takes in the rarefied atmosphere of running a top club, if this man wilts like his mirror image, then we are in for more pain, and so too is he. It will be tough to take.

Speaking frankly, as someone who has written about them both over the years, and as someone who’s watched their career progressions thus far, I have grave, grave doubts either can pull it together. I wrote in a blog last year that Labour needed to stick with Brown because it had no choice, and for no other reason. Celtic has to stick with Tony because not to would be to risk the freefall of the whole club, but the crucial difference as to how I feel about the two men is that I believe in what Tony Mowbray is trying to do, and I want desperately for his vision of Celtic to be a successful one, and I don’t doubt it can be, over the longer timeline.

My doubts are all about the short term, in what I see in front of me right now, in those horrible statistics which compare so unfavourably even with a guy like John Barnes and in what might happen next week or later this month when this Celtic team has to go to Ibrox. If we leave that ground within seven points of their team, I really do see us pushing them all the way, to the extent my money will be on us taking back that which is rightly ours, the SPL title. If we leave with a ten point gap, or worse, then serious and searching questions will need asked for next season, especially if Hibs are still within touching distance of second.

Frankly, if we finish the season in third then Tony Mowbray will not get the time his vision needs to mature. I would go further; if Rangers finish the season with a double-digit winning margin, it’s all over. To survive – and do so comfortably – Mowbray’s minimum requirements must be a Scottish Cup win and second place in the league, having cut Rangers lead beneath double figures, or preferably a final day decider. Short of that, Mowbray and Celtic will have to sweat through a long, hot summer, where doubts will hang in the air like the cold snap of an early autumn chill. He will be neither comfortable nor safe during that time, as season ticket sales will decide his ultimate fate. For Tony to make it, we have to improve dramatically, enough so that we look forward to next season instead of viewing it in the manner of this one, like a slow, unfolding nightmare.

That is what Tony Mowbray must do, but we have a part to play in this too, and it should not be doubted how important that is. I have let myself down this week by getting spooked by worries about might be coming next. That is the kind of fear Benjamin Franklin, Douglas McArthur and Caesar were talking about; not fear of what is real, but of things we conjure inside our own heads. Looking at Tony’s record, I am concerned, but he has asked for time and promised a better tomorrow. If he can deliver the goods, we will see a decade which makes the last one look like a series of failures. I still want that enough, and believe the idea is right, to trust that the man has a plan for delivering on what he’s promised.



There is mitigating evidence for Mowbray, which doesn’t exist for Brown, who’s inability to stamp his own authority over Labour has destroyed any hope of a comeback under his leadership. Whereas the Party has made real the textbook definition of the idea that “A house divided against itself cannot stand”, becoming a model of unruly behaviour, Mowbray has not allowed his own authority to become undermined in the same way. He has ruthlessly cleared out the dressing room, ridding it of the players who some suspected would not perform at his behest. He has brought in new people, some of whom have personal loyalty to him. In short, he has done what all leaders who seek to control events do; he has surrounded himself by a team he can call his own, and rooted out disruptive or opposing elements.

It is not yet Mowbray’s team which will take the field against Dunfermline, but with every week that passes his imprint will be seen more and more in the line-up itself and in the way we play. When he has a side out there made up mostly of his own men, playing in a style he has selected them for, sure of each man’s ability to adapt to that style, he will be inviting a harsher judgement than he faces today, because then he’ll be out of excuses. Right now, his team is “bedding in”; he has that in his favour. In the weeks to come, these players will have to perform, and perform in a way which gives us hope for the future, or it’s all over.

A disreputable Rangers website, with grandiose pretensions and a bigoted agenda, one I’ve written about before, tells a story of how Lawwell interferes in team selection matters; they are barking mad and no-one sane can read and believe in such rantings. Neither Mowbray nor Strachan would allow such a thing, and if it was true, and they went public, the outcry of the press and the Celtic support would halt all such practices overnight. Few doubt that Lawwell is a preening individual who loves the limelight, and one who’s own jacket is on a wobbly nail following the disgrace that is the Tennents sponsorship deal – which this writer and others warned against – but even this man knows his limits. It is clear that Mowbray is very much his own man, a man who does things his own way.

The trouble with that is the buck stops right at his door.

Tony Mowbray is in a curious position, but he is luckier than the man with whom he shares so many traits. Some Labour MP’s have talked of a “nightmare scenario” where Labour wins and Gordon Brown is still Prime Minister this time next year. I cannot think of a worse indictment to hang around the necks of some of the pond filth that inhabit the PLP, that they would welcome defeat just to be rid of him.

On Celtic Quick News, a number of posters have posed the question “would Celtic fans settle for a Dunfermline win on Sunday, if it would speed up the Tony Mowbray endgame?” The kind of mind which could conceive of such a question does not belong at Celtic Park, in my humble opinion. They may as well buy tickets for Ibrox, if they are seriously hoping for such a calamity to strike us. I am appalled at such talk.

Gordon Brown will have gained no respect from turning around the Labour Party and the Ship of State. He will forever be the target of plotters and backstabbers, who will haunt his steps from his first day back in office, if such a day dawns and he finds a way to win. In that event, he will take none of the credit for the victory – that will go to Mandelson and others – but in the case of a defeat, he alone will shoulder the blame.

In some walks of life, it has forever been thus.

John F. Kennedy once said “Victory has a thousand fathers. Defeat is an orphan.” If this season ends in failure for Tony Mowbray he will be buried under an avalanche of press and public opprobrium, as Sir Walter Scott’s poem says, “Unwept, unhonoured and unsung.” His career might effectively be over; the manager who won an English Championship title and reached the semi-final of the FA Cup will be forever remembered as the man who got West Brom relegated and was fired by Celtic.

If this happens, mark my words, Tony Mowbray will not fall alone. The fans will swiftly identify the other guilty men, and we will demand they too pay the ultimate price for failure.

Success, especially if it ends in the ultimate achievement, a league and cup double, against all the odds, will see Mowbray elevated to the pantheon of heroes. He will be given all the time he requires to put the grander elements of his plans into effect. Others will try to share the credit for keeping the faith. They will largely have done no more than kept their heads down. The transfer window was Mowbray’s baby; he rebuilt a team and he balanced the books. It is an awesome achievement in itself, but one he should not have been expected to deliver.

Few can argue he has been backed – but only in terms of his judgement, not by great bundles of cash. Tony Mowbray is flying on a wing and a prayer, in a way which is infuriating and inspiring in equal measure. There is no doubt we emerged stronger; that is his greatest accomplishment to date, but it will not save him if he comes up short in the areas where it matters most, out on the pitch and in the league table.

Gordon Brown has spent his life working towards a single goal, that of being Prime Minister. He reached the destination, but without having made the journey. It is doubtful he ever will, and in all likelihood, he will be ultimately be judged a failure at that job.

Tony Mowbray is making the journey right now. We don’t yet know if he will reach the destination. He too risks being branded a failure, but then all men who seek greatness risk that. Robert Browning said it best; “Man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a Heaven for?”

It remains to be seen whether Tony Mowbray can take the prize which sits on the top shelf, if this man with whom our club has such a connection has found himself overmatched, but as with Brown, one thing is certain; this man is not for turning, nor quitting.

At a time when the Tories are climbing into bed with the Ulster Unionists in a bid to appease extremists in their party, and Rangers are pandering more and more to the lunatic fringe of theirs, the enemy has never been in clearer view. With that in mind, it is perhaps fitting that Tony Mowbray has chosen a man called Brown to be our captain and standard bearer for the battles which lie ahead. The symmetry is too neat to ignore.

Right now, Gordon and Tony are captaining their respective ships through choppy seas, and amidst all that is uncertain there is but one certainty in front of them both; a battle is looming. By the end of May all will be revealed and their respective fates known.

Gentlemen, “The fightback starts here.”

Let’s go on and win this damned thing, Celts.

well said

[North Stand View]

What a difference a few days can make. My work has taken me out of the country so instead of watching Celtic beat Hearts I had to listen to "Open all mikes" on the web. It's an odd way to follow the game but I was left with some impressions I would like to share. The fans turned up in numbers and got behind the team. More of the same for the rest of the season please. Rasmussen on the bench? Odd choice given his ability to strike and the passion he showed for the game at the weekend. Chance after chance created, Aiden in magnificent form and Scott Brown as captain. All this against a background of Rangers struggling against Motherwell. Like a child on a bike with the stabilisers removed, might this be the sign that our players may be at the start of a pivotal journey? One that sees them becoming a "team"? Do I believe we can win the league? Absolutely. Will it be easy? No. Will it be exciting? Yes. I see that we have new players with talent and a fresh spirit. A spirit that is hungry for success. I would love to see the fans leave doubt behind for each period of 90 minutes yet to come, playing their part by getting behind the players on the park, intimidating the opposition and helping deliver the points, one game at a time. There will be time for doubts and worries but do not let them dominate the thinking, and cast them aside when the whistle goes. Make no mistake, we're in a battle but do we roll up the sleeves and get stuck in or do we look at the opposition and give up? I'm looking at our enemy in the light of tonight's results and they don't scare me. If we dare to dream, and we should, we will never forget this season.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by North Stand View

What a difference a few days can make. My work has taken me out of the country so instead of watching Celtic beat Hearts I had to listen to "Open all mikes" on the web. It's an odd way to follow the game but I was left with some impressions I would like to share. The fans turned up in numbers and got behind the team. More of the same for the rest of the season please. Rasmussen on the bench? Odd choice given his ability to strike and the passion he showed for the game at the weekend. Chance after chance created, Aiden in magnificent form and Scott Brown as captain. All this against a background of Rangers struggling against Motherwell. Like a child on a bike with the stabilisers removed, might this be the sign that our players may be at the start of a pivotal journey? One that sees them becoming a "team"? Do I believe we can win the league? Absolutely. Will it be easy? No. Will it be exciting? Yes. I see that we have new players with talent and a fresh spirit. A spirit that is hungry for success. I would love to see the fans leave doubt behind for each period of 90 minutes yet to come, playing their part by getting behind the players on the park, intimidating the opposition and helping deliver the points, one game at a time. There will be time for doubts and worries but do not let them dominate the thinking, and cast them aside when the whistle goes. Make no mistake, we're in a battle but do we roll up the sleeves and get stuck in or do we look at the opposition and give up? I'm looking at our enemy in the light of tonight's results and they don't scare me. If we dare to dream, and we should, we will never forget this season.

Can you be out of the country more often?