The full Celtic season review and another rebuild on the way

Enda, James and Alan look back on the Scottish Cup final, whether Celtic should make Adam Idah a permanent signing and what the rebuild might look like over summer.

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and you’re very welcome along to the Huddle breakdown and here in the company of James and Alan Morrison and Celtic are now double winners at the end of the season and I mean if you said that at the start of the Season you would have bit your hand whoever’s hand off for it and even after the drama of throughout the year and how bad it felt at times to Come Away with you know a record that’s pretty much the exact same as an pasta kog I’d say brandan Rogers is pretty happy with that but we will move on as well there’s going to be some new names coming into the the team and we are entering the transfer window so there’s loads to talk about on today’s show going to be doing The Cup Final first and then we’ll be looking a little bit ahead to next season as well as back at the season as a whole um Alan you were in Glasgow for the Scottish cup as was I so are you we’ll get to we’ll get to my experience in a second we’ll get to my experience in a second it’s far moreing than anything I have to say how did you how did you find Glasgow for the scarco final and then I will get to my story yeah some bits were were very nice other bits less so but um yeah and um it was it was funny you know so shout out firstly to to Ray and Christy and Andy that kindly let me share their Cup final day with them so you know thank you thank you guys they were all really confident the Celtic were going to win like three three or four nil and I as soon as I saw the teams I just wasn’t I wasn’t confident at all like that I just thought this is going to get really sticky but actually you know because I I just assumed that when I saw the teams that that clemont was going to line up with uh Raskin and diamand and Sterling in Midfield and play you know canwell and uh whoever else they had as wide players um Silva I just thought that’s that’s that’s how he’s going to set up in this is you know this is going to be really sticky you know we’re going to they’re going to they’re going to really sort of make it the midfielder absolute SLO and uh we’re going to you know struggle for fluidity but he didn’t do that and in fact I don’t know why clont played any midfielders at all because he basically just kind of missed it out uh for most of the game so lots of interesting nuances to it you know we’ll get into the obviously the fact that you know it’s such a hollow Victory as it because you how Dreadful were we and how how can you be such a poor team and be so second best that you know how dare we pick up that trophy I mean we’ll need to get into that as well I guess yeah well like I’ve spoken about this already on the podcast this year in how badly Celtic have played against Rangers and still not lost to them and like last Saturday was genuinely an impressive effort from Celtic as to how bad they could possibly play and still beat Rangers it was it was Dreadful I don’t like genuinely I I don’t know if anybody can come away from that game and say with an honest straight face that they were impressed with Celtic’s performance because it it was just it was really really really poor but but the other L were worse that’s the thing they were significantly worse it’s the same as it’s the same as there not being any any there’s no such thing as a bad penalty that in there’s no such thing as a bad Scottish Cup Final that you win you know nobody remember nobody will remember in 10 years time that Celtic played so badly in this final they will remember that Celtic won and Adam scored so late to win it for them um but much like huus was uh the key theme on the podcast last week ahead of the game um Hub came back to bite me in the hole a little bit um in Glasgow as some fans that I met in uh the Brazen Head and the garbles before and during the game uh we’ll know H so I got the tickets last minute they were uh sorted by my boss who had a few Connections in Glasgow went to the stadium and was outside hamon outside the front where the split was happening between the two sides or two fans guy comes up hands me the tickets and I noticed that the number of the gate or the letter of the gate that I have is directly on the opposite side of where all the Celtic fans are going in so um we go into the stadium me and my pal uh go into the stadium and we say look we’re going to be in the r Ranger section as long as we’re close enough to the middle we should be okay we go to our seats it keeps getting further and further and further left off the middle of the ground and right into the corner right beside uh the the vast majority of uh let’s let’s say non-friendly Rangers fanss so yeah so the Cubs not quite the ones that were running away um in the middle of glasgo City Center at 10: a.m. after attacking a Celtic pub but but not not where you want to be if you’re a Celtic fan so we did a risk assessment we tried our best to get across to the other side uh the steuarts were not uh not willing to let us go across the a policeman actually just told us we were [ __ ] um and then we left the ground so uh my my Scottish Cup Final I I I can still say that I I went I can still say that I I was at the Celtic Rangers game I wasn’t at it for very long um I ended up back in the Brazen Head H watching it in the pub like everyone else who didn’t get a ticket so yeah it was look it was fun it was fun you know how do you feel about your boss telling you that he hates you without telling you he hates you does your your boss have keyman life insurance on you some or something well there’s actually there’s a guy who works for our UK team who is a Rangers Fan um Ed Campbell he works for politics Joe and um he sent me a message today to say oh it’s great to see there’s another there’s another bear in the office so yeah they’re having a right good laugh at me I should everyone in the comments and for anybody who says or is going to say in the comments that we shat it we did but I I I still have uh the ability to speak on this podcast as a result so that was my Scottish Cup final day experience I’m glad that Adam pulled it out of the bag to save me from being completely miserable to be honest because if when that when that Rangers goal went in I was like oh my God this day can’t get any worse um I suppose there’s it’s it’s it’s hard to analyze this game especially when you watched it in the Brazen Head like I did but um the biggest moment is that push really on Joe Hart like it’s soft right I’m I’m right in saying that it’s soft I I mean I don’t think so I I think it’s I I think uh if if he does that kind of movement and the arms aren’t fully extended then I would say yes but the fact that Rasin completely extends his arms and almost locks out his elbows I mean that’s a shove I mean it’s it’s not a violent shove but it’s you know if you extend your arms like that you’re you’re begging to get called for a foul so um yeah I I didn’t think it was sorry the the Yorkshire whistlers I’ll quote him directly right this is a neutral you know independent fully qualified expert uh his summary was an easy decision to chalk off the goal for a clear foul on the goalkeeper that’s it that’s it that’s that’s really all you need to say and the end yeah I I I think that the you know it was fortuitous meaning that I you know um had he not fouled him I think Hart may have struggled to deal with it uh so you know that was it was it was a good thing that Rasin was dumb enough to do that um and you know the only and I again I don’t know from a rules perspective but from what I read and heard uh any grappling that Taylor was doing prei I mean it’s not it’s not reveal it’s not you know what I mean like that that’s the kind of thing that the ref either deals with before the kick as they often do and come out and wag their fingers at them both and pretend that they’re you know giving them a talking um but as soon as the ball’s kicked if it’s if they’ve already kind of separated from any romantic interlude before the kick then it’s it’s a kind of a done deal so yeah I to me that’s a uh that whole episode’s kind of a classic um understandable you know I I get it like all fans are like this it’s not unique to Ranger supporters of the art uh we’ll gripe over those type of things too I mean it’s just to get the emotions of of that kind of goal and then have it rightfully chopped off um you know it’s easy to hallucinate alternate realities yeah that’s true and look it’s it’s one of those ones I do think it’s a foul but I would be annoyed you know absolutely you know it’s just one of those you you can completely understand why people are annoyed by it and particularly because it may not have been impactful meaning that it’s not like you know the ball was going dead to where he was standing you know where Hart was standing so he was going to have to make an athletic you know quality play in order to deal with that cross well you know Corner um so yeah I mean I I’d be pissed at rasing if I was a I mean it was a numb skull stupid thing to do um which you know that that goes back to gener like I think the reason why I can always speak for myself but talking to some other people messaging and stuff I think the reason why the performance felt so bad was a combination of um expectations going into it and they were pretty high as Allan was saying a lot of people including me and I thought we’d you know probably until I saw the lineup um from Rangers I I felt really confident assuming that they played lrom and um you know the other part is they were a wreck I mean you know they had a left back who had one day of training raskins barely played they have two Wingers playing that aren’t Wingers um they have their third and fourth string center backs playing and you know ticktock Todd running around and not doing anything of substance so the fact that we it was as kind of close as it was given the expectations and giving the mess that Rangers were I mean it was disappointing I to me I mean it was like you know we should have blown them away with that with those Dynamics and how inform and relatively fit we were going into it um but again none of that matters I mean that you know that’s the the microcosm of you know kind of expectations and performance you know we we we get to Dance En Joy um from from all the discussions that we had from January forward about who gives a [ __ ] about performances it’s all about getting over the line in the league and this was like a cherry on top um so you know it it I think it and I don’t I think there are some projectable things out of the game that we can talk about as we go forward potentially but um yeah as far as the microcosm of the game that that’s kind of my take as to why it felt a bit deflating until that until that until the 90th minute I mean yeah I I don’t want to dwell was real last thing I’ll say that you know that that cup final against Aberdine with the legendary rocket goal was pretty crap too yeah and and that that hasn’t really the legacy of that crapiness hasn’t really lived on so I suspect this will uh be be similar the only thing that’ll be remembered from this game is Adam’s goal essentially like that that that will be what what is remembered from it and that’s why I don’t want to dwell on it too much because I mean like we spoke about it last week on the podcast cast in terms of form in the derby but also then how do you relate that to cup a cup final because a cup final is almost a completely new thing that you know doesn’t really doesn’t they don’t tend to follow the same rules as any other game throughout the season it’s almost like a game that’s plucked out of nowhere and you you can’t really take too much into it because I just remember like a couple years ago when Liverpool and Tottenham were in the Champions League fin both teams were in amazing form and ended up being one of the worst Champions League finals in the last decade because the two teams just shot it and I not that Celtic shot this Scottish cup but there was a lot of a lot of bad stuff in this Allan but at the same time I don’t think it’s things that you need to dwell on overly because let’s face it even the match day winner may not be at the club next year so it’s hard to take much from this other than Celtic have won the double and it’s another trophy for Brandon Rogers and the feeling he said he would be back in May to chat to the fans he was back at the stadium with two trophies in his hands h promise fulfilled essentially for Von Rogers yeah listen there’s no way that you know they weren’t going to kick fight punch scrap for their lives in this game there’s just no way that that wasn’t going to happen right and and and then also you know clemont it’s obvious he doesn’t have faith in a lot of the players in his Squad and so rather than risk trying to play football which you know if you watch them against some teams when they beat you know D d52 they passed the ball around pretty well but against Celtic he doesn’t feel he’s got the players to do that and so he made the game basically um he just tried to eliminate the Midfield from the game uh and they sat their defense sat so deep right so they were not going to get caught in behind they were not going to get caught on the break at all and they just and they had five players it was basically like a some kind of Bas you know I don’t you I don’t know what sport you’d call it like a net ball kind of formation was like a five and five was how they set up with Raskin sitting in front of the Defenders I mean you know I didn’t even know Yilmaz was playing until very late on he never went over the halfway line they just they just sat deep and they just made sure Celtic couldn’t break Celtic couldn’t couldn’t um you know release their quicker players over the top and then of course he just played long balls and then it was all just can we fight for it can we win second balls can we win Corners etc etc that that was the game plan and that’s the game plan of a manager that doesn’t trust his team to out football you know the the opposition and fair enough he’s probably right so um I don’t think it was I don’t think it was um ridiculous what CL on set to do but it certainly made it certainly contributed to being a really bad game football and then I think you know Celtic didn’t I think frustrating thing for me is at half time the guys I was with because Celtic were already 3-0 up were like oh and I was like oh this is all right H it seemed to me like it was just a matter of time you know if we just keep going we just keep be patient we keep the ball we keep pressing them it will come it will come i’ no no issue with that but the forting thing for me is we just we seem to get worse as the game went on and they they got more of a boost from their substitutes initially uh than we did but we obviously you know that paid off for Celtic in the last minute but um you know but even then even as bad as Celtic were in that second half in terms of by bad I mean really not creating many chances of note um you know to say that they were supposed to have dominated until the 9th minute and you know they were supposed to have had a brilliant second half they didn’t they didn’t have a show shot on goal between the 80 the 55th and the 83rd minute I don’t mean a shot on target I mean any shot at all at goal now you know Celtic didn’t have any either to be fair well we had one in the fifth 56th minute um so so you know but what I’m saying is you know both teams were Dreadful at this point both teams were really struggling to uh for any attacking sort of cohesion at all so listen I’m not going to say and pretend it was a good Celtic performance as James has said absolutely wasn’t um but they mainly controlled the first half they controlled the early part of the second half and then I think whether it was just fatigue or what or you know it just kind of both sides just became Dreadful at that point and really it was just a case of almost like a who could get a free kick or a corner or something first that would you know that would hit the target so listen I’m old enough to remember the 1980 when you know Andy Lynch penalty 1 nil Celtic and the 1989 Joe Miller 1 nil Celtic and they were both absolutely appalling games of football as well and this this is not to be this is not to be you know not unexpected you know they they were it always going to be two teams you know fighting it out and they made sure that they Cel just played as or tried to play like they normally do they tried to make it this kind of long ball net ball game uh which is fair enough is you know there’s no there’s no right or wrong way to play football but it did tend to make it rather difficult to watch and in the end it just came down to a moment of quality and it’s a very good jumping off point for moving on towards H the future and what the future might hold for H Brandon Rogers at Celtic and some of the players at Celtic and the winning goal was you know not really set up but it was a a Ed he will get the assist for for it by Bernardo and made a a bursing run and got a shot on Target and then it was finished by Adam um I mean this is the part of the podcast that people will start to hate us for because I can almost guess how it’s going to go because uh the the hype is in overdrive for animat to come back to the club after what he did so the Darby dust has been sprinkled in huge proportions yeah I’m going to lay the I’m going to lay the foundations and then we’re just going to see what we think so I mean he came in 15 games eight goals in the Scottish League winner in the Scottish Cup Final also scored what could have been h a winning goal at Rangers and you know scored big goals when Celtic needed big goals scored a couple of winning goals outside of that as well and did what he needed to do like he he did what Celtic needed was that player who could come in if kyogo wasn’t scoring adame could come in and he could score goals and he give Celtic a different dimension so he made me eat my words slightly he I I think he overperformed from where I had seen him previously I think he played to the potential of the player that we had mentioned uh in that Ireland game against Portugal like that’s the that’s the adoma level that he can get to whether he can do that over a consistent basis is where I probably had the most amount of questions over him so taking out take away the fairy dust of scoring the the winning goal in the derby to win the Scottish cup do self to expend the6 million pounds needed to bring adamina back on a permanent basis well I I’ll first say that this was one of Allen’s patented three mistakes lead to a goal situation um it was it’s like a quintessential example of that uh because Scott Wright pulls an absolute I don’t even know what the hell he was doing um which enables the turnover and then Rasin who again has hardly played is 90 minutes into a game and doesn’t make a tackle he probably should have or like a fresh player probably at least has a better shot at doing it which you know and Bernardo makes a great turn and you know smokes him but uh you know he he’s he was gassing already rasing pretty clearly prior to that um and then you know the best goalkeeper in Scotland in the world in in the history of the universe uh uh dumps a ball right out front and it’s a swerve shot but for Christ’s sake it’s from 20 20 yards it’s you know should have been handled um by a professional keeper who’s the greatest of all time and um so those three mistakes there’s your goal and you know um so yeah I just wanted to say that first but yeah you know this is so this this is where first of all we got a small sample size you know so this is a um any kind of statistical analysis on EA I think is uh fraught because of that so that’s where you need to look at his history longer term what kind of player he’s been what’s the potential fit what’s his potential development curve and there you know there’s a lot of um subjectivity in in doing that kind of an analysis and give you my opinion the fir the first thing is what we do know this is kind of the measurable stuff um and this this is just the from the league minutes that he had which was almost eight games so not quite alls magic nine in the league um but he would have that with with the cup uh games is probably uh is you know he scored on average 76 non-penalty goals but that was on 39 in post shot XG so what does that mean is that you know a number of his goals were scored because like in the one Derby you know the the best keeper in Scotland did not stop a shot that he pretty much shot right at butland um and butland wasn’t quick enough to to save it um so you know so there’s some of that which is that you know his his actual play his actual quality of performance is is not reflected in the number of goals that he scored and there’s a chunk of that that’s from opposition keeper play and that you know I always go back to these controllable versus uncontrollable uh so I think that the the the mood on his performance level while he’s been at Celtic and again with the caveat that it’s not a sample size enough for it to be at all determinative about you know what what type of player he is or whether we should sign him um is way inflated and then you throw you know the Darby dust on top of that and it’s like completely out to lunch relative to where where he’s performed while it’s Celtic in my view um you know I I actually you know I I think given his athleticism given Rogers um preferences I think we could do worse uh in that price range it wouldn’t you know I wouldn’t be uh uh horribly critical about it but I think we can do better in that price range I think if we’re smart um we can do better and um you know so yeah it wouldn’t be my preference but it also wouldn’t like drive me nuts it wouldn’t be like a uh it was it wouldn’t be an ablard uh loan signing where I’m sitting here going what the hell are we doing or a quan signing or you know it wouldn’t be of that level uh of just a patent absurdity um but yeah that not my preference but uh as we get to the second uh one I’ll have a a stronger um opinion but E I kind of wishy-washy on yeah so I think you you actually touched on a key point there in saying that if we’re smart we could do better and I think you’re giving Celtic a lot of credit there um so what what I mean by that is we actually have a bit of a proven person here that we don’t we know there’s no risk in whereas with uh Celtics track record especially in this price range H we do not have a good track record in being smart so I actually think i’ I’ve done probably a 180 on either not because of the last minute goal more so of what I’ve seen elsewhere from this game like you have to remember he is also 23 years old and I think this is probably the crossroads of his career this is probably the moment where he either takes the risk and goes to Celtic and kicks on or he remains at Norwich and still has three years remaining and still tries to make it at a lowlevel premier league site which you know doesn’t tend to work out all that often and but mentally the difference in playing for Celtic and what that can do for a player’s progression I think it might this might be the move for Eda this might be the move that is the one that you know is the Catalyst for him to kick on and improve his career and improve as a player and improve what we’ve seen so far whereas he just has not done that at Norwich because there’s been so much turnover so much turnover manager Championship to Premier League to Championship to on the bench to long-term contract and his career’s been all over this the place whereas you know it’s sort of like when uh semi-professional golf player finally gets his p PGA card then suddenly he’s a world beater because all of the pressure is off like that’s sort of where I almost feel Adam could go here um and I I think I’ve just seen enough from him in terms of his overall play as opposed to the goals Allan that would make me confident that if the expectations are lowered from Celtic fans in that he is going to be a Jo Jack amuses number two that is there for pressure moments when you need to change your game plan and CH you know Chim in with 12 goals a season to 12 to 15 goals a season that’s where adamita is if that’s what we’re getting for six million that’s probably where Celtic fans need to change their mentality towards them yeah so I I’ve enjoyed watching him I really have um from a fan perspective but you know when we talk about being smart you know if I said to you you could have exactly this profile of player 23 three-year-old Striker who’s got completely different characteristics to kyogo and I can get you him for about2 million rather than6 million you know you’d think oh that’s quite smart and the funny thing is such a player exists in the building right so this is going to infuriate I know but I can’t help the data right so you know just to say completely agree with James right there isn’t enough data I don’t have 900 minutes for o even with Cup games with for um EA even with Cup games um so so this is all quite you know carries lots of warnings really but essentially when I compared o and AA uh you know if if you looked at the stats bom data you would be you would be picking o if I’m honest and if I looked at my own data it was kind of like profiling two players who who’ve got this pretty much the same the same profiles the same strengths it’s bizarre and at the same age Sim very similar strengths I think he does more effect I think he is a better player outside the box than o is and I think actually he do better in the air than o is but in all other respects um o numbers actually from the from the not not this season but from last season under an O’s numbers were better than eers this season okay so we talk about being smart right that that to me I would be looking at that but frankly it doesn’t matter what I think because Brendan Rogers likes Eda and Oh’s not been on the bench for months and he clearly doesn’t like him for whatever reason well that that’s what I was going to say like we we saw a trend with Rogers this season in that when push came to sh he chose players that he could trust and I know like you’re you’re speaking in in data terms here but I mean if Rogers feels that he can trust data does that not outweigh the idea that oh is a better player if if the manager can’t trust the player to perform when needed then he’s not much good to you so this is this again this is where you hope there’s a a healthy constructive conversation you know comparing data and Analysis with manager hunch and opinion and and listen brandan Rogers is the expert here clearly right it’s not just some guy this guy you know Rogers has managed lots of football and knows what he wants out out of players so you know that that clearly is very important and data isn’t everything it’s just one part of the jigsaw so all of that for sure but I just I’m just a little bit scratching my head up to in all honesty as to why we’re in this situation not I’m not saying that oh is going to would turn out to be the better player than Ido I’m just saying they they profile very similarly and if I had somebody in the building that could do the same job that Eda was brought in to do rather than spending six million I’d be getting this guy to the guy already have already have that’s all I’m saying and and there might be things going on behind the scenes there might be you know attitude things I don’t know I honestly don’t know but um that that’s that’s so I’m with kind of with James and I honestly think if we’re going to spend six million pounds in a striker I think we could do better I really do and that’s not to you know ‘s ID’s made an impact bit of cult status you know two Derby goals he’s got the late penalty hibs and all that um and I get all that I get all that but just trying to step back and just look at performance I I I wouldn’t be I wouldn’t be disappointed if we can have found a you know a smarter alternative to be honest yeah the other thing I’ll say is you know I to me there were you know I go through my whole benchmarking exercise when we sign players and um there haven’t been too many cases where I’ve missed on the over uh optimistic side right so you know uh my reputation precedes me on that and justifiably so the two that I was relatively optimistic on that got ghosted this season uh were o and Holm um and you know Holmes seemed to be kind of a different type of guy uh shall we say so and to Allan’s point you know no way of knowing it training and how guys respond having to compete for their job and you know earn their place onto the bench Andor playing time and some people just don’t respond well to that you know so I could see that again I’m not saying this is the case but uh if guys throw a huff and start to be more about themselves than the team um you know so I could see those scenarios um you know playing out but you know to your point and uh I mean this is this is what you know the the stats and and the accompanying Advanced analysis can help with is measuring what actually happened so when you say he doesn’t trust o it wouldn’t be because of what he actually has done when he’s played um it shouldn’t be I should say you know uh in a big sense I meaning that again we’re not talk unless he’s like just T he’s just completely not following instructions and you know that kind of stuff like that we can’t know about that um so so maybe he’s just a maybe he’s a you know a ticktock o I don’t know um but yeah but um you know so that you know we can’t rule out those kinds of issues but generally speaking the AL point and it and this goes back to this issue of that I I always talk about and I spend a lot of time trying to figure out is how much is you know Celtic uh driven and competitive situation of Celtic versus how much is players specific and as far as what their performance contribution is and that’s the part where when I was you know I I’ve talked about repeatedly in the last few months about replacement level like to me aa is a replacement level Celtic Striker like I I don’t see him as being likely to be a guy that develops into a line leading Champions League or late stage Europa League guy who’s gonna win us a trophy or get us into the last 16 of the Champions League that kind of thing like he he might be a solid player he could be a solid number two um but to me he’s probably not a needle mover and like a drop your draw you know your jaw umer he was brought in to be the backup to kyogo he performed as the backup to to kyogo and he performed as pretty much as well as the other other guy did previously the end yeah that’s is that I don’t think that’s worth six million frankly I don’t yeah and that was kind of my that was my view when I did my benchmarking of him up to until prior to joining in January that’s basically what I kind of laid out as his upside me I thought he was probably a good candidate to do exactly what he did which is to be an impactful sub and you know be very good in that role um just a final point for me because like this this is not a hill I’m willing to die on I’m you know I wouldn’t be you know desperately upset if Celtic didn’t go out and spend the Six Million and they brought in someone else but is can it not be true that o and AA profile quite similarly and we have the same similar enough players in the building as what AA does but Ida is a clutch player and oh is not you know that’s fair and and but again I don’t know how you’d get a sense of that I mean you know all scored the winning goal against mirin crucial goal this season you know with five six minutes to go right um who got the assist on that one the other the other guy that got ghosted you got better memory than me um so you know it comes back come I’m not trying to avoid the question it’s a good question I just come back to it simply don’t have enough data we haven’t seen o o in those situations and fair enough it has performed you know in big games and big moments and that absolutely is a factor and it’s it’s not a you know it’s more of a qualitative thing than a quantitative thing for sure and I accept that absolutely but I don’t I’m not convinced that oh wouldn’t have done similar you know really I just don’t know I I’m not I’m not saying good I just don’t know yeah no it’s fair enough I I mean It ultimately it’ll come down to Brandon Rogers I would imagine um whether or not they bring him back um another guy involved in the goal James I presume you have something to say about Bernardo I mean like I don’t I really don’t know where I fall on Bernardo I’m like had some really you know really decent he was a completely different player to what I thought he was going to be and real real sort of Midfield and I mean this in the best possible way like a donkey not in a you know he’s bad at football can away more so he just he’s a water carrier and that’s not what I expected him from at all but I mean he’s had a couple of big moments he you know got that goant in the derby um you know the they’re run at the weekend um to do this but also some decent performances in the Champions League as well like solid without light in the world alot yeah I I I would actually say not solid generally speaking uh I mean he he’s had aspects of his play that have contributed um but again we’re talking about a Celtic Midfield position on a dominant team that should be a impactful attacking Force I mean that that is the description of you know what that position should be that’s what you know we talked about with um and and that doesn’t necessarily mean scoring goals and even creating assists we’ve talked about ball progression you know these transition phases which are so important um to get you know come from the the defensive third to the middle third to the front the attacking third and you know but every time I go back and do a comprehensive review of his performance levels they’re just not up to Snuff I mean it’s just it’s just they’re just not um and and that doesn’t mean that it’s impossible that he could developing it but again he’s not 19 he’s not 20 playing at this you know he’s not like the the kid at uh you know what’s his name Lennon at uh or Miller lenon Miller at motherwell who played at 17 in the Premiership or um Conor Baron who’s I think 19 or 20 at Aberdine right so you got to take development and and how old these players are and 23 is not young anymore I’m sorry like I keep saying this for years now but 23 is middle-aged in modern uh you know dynamic Sport and so yes could he get better from here but his Baseline is so poor from a total game perspective like if you look at all of his elements of you know the one thing he’s he’s pretty good at defending I mean that that he is um and and he did a decent job of doing that in the Champions League this year but that was all he did like he he did not help with buildup he didn’t help with attack he didn’t help in you know in attacking transition uh to to a level that we need um so to me I mean again you know always fall back to what’s the price um but I don’t see him being a material upgrade on and to spend money on to bring him in you know I to to me if he W if he was some guy we brought in on loan from you know a a a second division uh Spanish team or French team um you know you I think the the Benfica label and the recency bias with with jot is is really clouding along with the two uh uh issues of of Darby dust of of you know and they were one was a great finish and one was a great turn and um you know a pretty good shot from from distance um but that’s you know for the most part he hasn’t done much else in attack and um so yeah I’m I’m a hard no unless they get him for such a number that if you have the upside of maybe he does develop um but again even there I’m not terribly optimistic because he’s not that young yeah I think that’s what I that’s probably a more detailed version of what I meant by water carrier in that like you know he he’s he he doesn’t really have the passing ability he doesn’t have the flare of hatate he doesn’t have the control of K McGregor like if you’re looking at what what what does he bring to the team you can see he’s not even that fast he’s not fast he’s he’s he’s quite slow um positionally quite good apart from that you know I think he disappointed I think like you’re like you’re saying about Benfica is that because he came from Benfica and because he had already made Senior appearances for the club you were almost expecting this sort of dynamic you know fast-paced expect him to be one of the best players in the league yeah and that’s that’s not what he was I think Celtic have an option to buy for six million Allen so I don’t think that I think this is a bit more clearcut I think Celtic can do better for six million H than poo Bernardo yeah I mean other than the fact other than his age he’s actually 22 um I don’t disagree with much of that really so um yeah he’s he’s actually same what we’re in the mood to annoy people annoy people but it’s a fact he’s actually got a higher expected assists uh value than hatti right but I but but his expected goals are significantly lower than hatti surprisingly so overall but you see again I would use mat O’Reilly as a benchmark here for what what we need out of a number number I was going to say Al that said an indictment on the complete uh abstraction of where people think hatate is in versus the reality where he is can I can I ask question and and and his last his last six performances have been almost off the off the cliff right yeah yeah yeah on on the expected assist though how many were assists they actual actualist R sorry bear with me I’m I’m looking at incredibly detailed and complicated spread I say complicated they’ve just got lots of numbers on them so what I mean yeah I apologize for interrupting no no his actual assist rate is 37 assists uh per 90 minutes his expected assists is. 26 so he’s he’s over overachieving there where hati’s total assist was 42 as as expected as 0.24 so again he he overperformed relative to the quality of the chances he actually created so you got a bit bit lucky with some of the finishing maybe or whatever whatever it might be but back to Bernardo then yeah I think we’ve got a real problem especially if O’Reilly gets soed because I’m not sure you know I’m not convinced by any of the remaining players in that respect and again you know think about think about jot back to jot he was Portuguese similar um pedigree similar kind of background came in and it was just like it was it was you the classic no-brainer as the as the as the kids say you know it just it just you know bernardo’s ended up playing the equivalent although he’s appeared in 33 matches he’s only racked up the equivalent of just over 16 matches worth of minutes so he’s been a bit part player again I come back to if going to pay 16 6 million sorry for essentially your fourth choice number eight or your third choice number eight I’m thinking you can do I would be look I would be looking to develop home in all honesty having invested the money in or or La LEL or somebody like that rather than spending six million on Bernardo so he he’s not creative enough um he didn’t give any of that attacking flare that I was expecting given his he seem to have a pretty good record at Portuguese national level age level um it’s his pack passing was where it really all fell down for me I mean he probably completes if you look at um hatti you know hatti is nearly eight pack passes a game O’Reilly is um just over about six and a half uh even McGregor is nearly nine a 8.7 and Bernardo was a 3.5 you know 3.47 uh pack passes that’s just not enough I mean he’s just not he’s just not um creative enough in his forward passing that to me was the the one glaring aspect of his play I did like the fact that in the Europe Champions League games he gave the team that sort of athleticism and solidity in Midfield that that we were asking for uh and and I thought that was really encouraging but it didn’t come with any great threat you know what I mean in the final third at that level um so I think it’s a no excuse me it’s a no from me as well because again I come back to you know there’s no way that he is anywhere near replacing Matt O’Reilly’s performances I mean just not even in the same universe right so you know and to me if we’re going to if I was going to spend six million I’d want to buy a player that I thought might might be able to get to that that sort of O’Reilly level in all honest this isn’t so then as we move on to future and I mean probably immediate future uh brenon Rogers was speaking on Sky Sports and I thought he had a pretty interesting quote he said when he was talking about the squad and transfer plans he said I think there will be a natural change uh some of the players have been here for three years and if you look at the cycle at Celtic then that there is normally the change in that third year so it’s getting to another step in the types of profiles that I would like uh I would want within the squad to allow us to progress and to develop so that to me screams clear out and we’ve spoken already Celtic needed clear out because their squad’s too big but that to me screams clear out of some names that came in under an big which yeah big name players so look probably accepting that M Riley is gone probably accepting that anyway uh Joe Hart is gone that’s another big change does not look like a guy who either wants to be or is going to be at the club um in the next year uh who knows about kyogo who just signed a a new deal so that could have been happy days secure him I think that would be huge for Celtic but then as you look through the squad I mean just looking at just looking at the Midfield alone aada feel too impress home feel to impress Quan is not getting his move to Bayern Munich anytime soon um you know Mary will be gone H Bernardo will probably be gone that’s five players already H just in the Midfield alone you’re unlikely that Yang will ever make it um you know like you’re talking you you could name about six seven maybe eight players that you can like immediately say probably will not be at the squad next year going up that’s a big clear out um so I think have a lot of money in the bank here we do actually time have a lot of money in the bank and a lot of security financially like this is the this is the year that you need to do it if you’re going to do it you need to start breaking that threshold of what you’re spending and the speculation around or at least what we speculated around the ma the kyogo Deale and the you know the new contracts that were handed out this season was a a raising off that bar of Wages that’s where Celtic need to get to to bring in those higher level transfers so I mean positivity would say that’s what we’re aiming towards but how do we feel heading in there’s also change within the you know the actual uh transfer element at the club with the recruitment side of things so like this is this is a huge summer for Celtic well I I I think that the the reality is that uh Rogers inherited another manager’s team that was hugely overrated in my view I said it before so and um subsequent went to that uh and they do not fit the profile that the current manager likes or wants pace and power is not other than you know maybe Alistar Johnston you know you could maybe throw him in that bucket of uh the pace and power mix um but outside of that you’re you’re really not you know there’s not much else there there um you know may ma obviously um but you know you’re to me the the 800lb gorilla is the Midfield and if we’re going to compete um at the aspired for level with another year aged uh Cal McGregor playing almost every game um we’ve got to surround him with top athletes like guys who can run all day at speed with size that are competent you know technically um because otherwise I mean I mean that that’s at at that level I mean I I I went back and looked I mean if you if you basically take from the beginning of the an era forward I I was doing it as kind of a a debrief of of a lot of things but uh we played um uh 20 group games and the two uh the tie with um photo glimp and we conceded 2.5 goals on average per game between the two uh Champions League campaigns and the Europa League in angre first season um and I mean there’s a lot of factors that go into this but one of the big ones has been you know I I think we just do not have the athleticism in Midfield um to play at that level and if you look at even when Rangers had their run in the Europa League to the final the core of their Midfield was two guys that are not are flawed players but they’re pretty big strong and fast um and so I to to me that’s you know with that power and Pace this is where guys like I I even question whether kyogo I mean whether Rogers would want to keep Kiyoko um as a number one Striker as as the lockdown top guy um based off of what his preferences are based off of who he targeted in his first you know uh tenure um he’s not a dumb guy like he he used Jamie vardy very effectively but he inherited a Jamie vardy he didn’t sign Jamie vardy and Jamie V’s got a lot of talent and ability um just like kyogo um but he’s he’s probably got as best of a chance to form you know uh the club in His image and the squad In His Image as he’s ever going to have at any club um true so I I I think we might be surprised as how overwhelming the overhaul is this summer uh now it doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of risk with that because there is um and and you know to my knowledge we haven’t uh at least that I’ve seen anyway hired a new head of recruitment uh or anything like that so you know we’re kind of back to where we were and when an arrived it’s like okay we’ve got probably a need to do a huge overhaul and do we have the people in the infrastructure in place to to facilitate that and do it in a wise way um so he looks like Rogers is going to get his crack at it um yeah uh with his personal roll of decks so we’ll we’ll see how it goes well HH did his usual Squad depth graphic which is very helpful for the likes of this because it saves everyone else doing the research for it but I mean like just looking at the actual graphic that he’s created two glaring areas that Celtic need to improve it’s definitely a fullback because uh Greg kayl and Adam Montgomery and Alistar Johnson and Anthony Roston are currently the only fullbacks at the squad so they’re you know there’s a need for depth there be that a third choice or Greg Taylor becoming not second choice and a a First Choice become coming in h at left back you know you’ve got camard Vickers Liam scales neosi lager Bea Steven wellon Yuki H Kobe asashi at the club at Center back I mean this year it was a essentially Cameron Carter Victor in Liam scales and naski and lagera weren’t trusted at all so I mean do you need more there in the Midfield as I mentioned already K McGregor is aging mat riy is probably gone hatate we don’t know a isn’t good enough to be anything other than a a replacement you do have Daniel Kelly coming back from loan you do have Hol who you know I think showed decent enough Sparks and you’ve got Quan I mean Quan is never going to be a Celtic player to be honest um but you do also have boson lawwell coming back um on loan from Fleet witht who did quite well this year I think he could fit the bill for the power and pace and strength that Rogers is looking for whether he can kick on now and be a Celtic player is another question at right wing you’ve got Kon Yang forest and Tio Tio didn’t exist this year H Yang wasn’t good enough this year forest was clutch when he needed to be and then K was decent um and then left wing you’ve got Palmer who disappeared mid-season MAA rovada who is still you know could be gone at the end of you know you never know he could be a player that leaves the club Mikey Johnson coming back from West Brom not didn’t good enough for Bren Rogers this year and SE Hax Evanovich and then you’ve got kyogo and O in the middle so I mean that’s that’s not that’s not a good squad that’s not a good squad there’s a lot of work to do there Alan so it’s it’s quite stunning actually um and the the parallels with past’s first first season are are are are quite Stark as well in that essentially Rogers settled on 17 players that he could use there’s only only 17 players this season have got 900 minutes plus and off those 17 if you if you remove the ones that probably don’t appear to be in Rogers long-term plans and then the likes to Joe har and if we assume that Matt O’Reilly is going to get sold that 17 becomes 12 right and if you look at those 12 I I personally this is just my opinion I would argue that of those 12 only McGregor Johnston Carter Vickers maida and kyogo would to me be players I’d be happy to see playing every week in the first te that’s that’s incredible right this is this is a huge job this is an absolutely huge job there’s 23 players that we used this season that didn’t manage to complete 900 minutes but if you look at those a number have already left the club um two or three more were on on loan and you know so of those who who who realistically that was kind of bit part do you see stepping up and being one of those first team Stars lotki I don’t know home you know didn’t seem lightly at this stage you know with the information that we have today how many of the youth prospects you know the likes of Daniel Kelly that you mentioned vat Tio Mitchell frame BOS La Montgomery Ben Summers Matt Anderson who’s had a really good season in Austria second division Toby wey sorry the goalkeeper who also played in Austria I mean of those players laal and Anderson had terrific uh loone spells I would like to think they would at least be given a shot over preseason to take a squad place but again we’re scratching at the surface here in terms of um you know I I’ve just gone through my squad list I reckon there there’s probably 14 first team 14 first forget the youth players 14 first team players Celtic need to get rid of right this is an enormous job that is ahead of us here and we know from the past that uh these things don’t happen in one window it’s just not feasible I mean it’s just Logistics right there’s only one there’s only one guy signing checks right there’s there’s a limited number of people in the recruitment Department there’s only one Brendan Rogers as the song goes this isn’t we don’t have an army of 100 people you know doing this stuff right there’s only so many contract negotiations you can be in at any one time this is going to this is a huge job this is a massive massive job that we have ahead of us and uh you know if if if the answer is that Rogers has been given the keys and and everyone else has to kind of Co to to to his demands you know that that you know as Liverpool found out that could be horrendous really I hope everyone’s kind of grown up a bit since those days and that you know it is more of a kind of team effort and that you know we we have talent in the recruitment team and so forth that means that you know him they and the manager work together um that’s that I think that is to be seen and we also need talent in the business management side of it to get rid of those players I mean we need to get rid of those players we can’t have a squad of 40 50 players it’s just it’s not feasible we we and we we’ll start to fall F of FSR it’s not not next season but season after we’re down to 70% of football income has to be uh you know no more than 70% could be spent on on player wages now that’s that you might think oh we’re win the Champions League yeah wi the Champions League will we win the Champions League next season the season after and you can’t budget for that right you can’t that would be Madness if you did so you have to budget at a level that assumes you only get into the Champions League maybe one every so many years that’s a that’s a risk decision that you have to make a risk management decision that you have to make because you’re going to have to you can’t hit 70% one year and then not hit it the next year because you know you didn’t get into the champions league right so you have to be sustainability means having a wage bill that’s sustainable in the good years and sustainable in the bad years and the next bad year right so we have to get rid of a load of players that are probably on good wages this is this is a huge huge job that we have here yeah I do realize we’re almost an hour into the podcast so we don’t want to labor too much but I mean I thought the most interesting part of that Brenan Rogers interview was his what he mentioned in the and the quote that I read out was the threeyear element to the cycle and like i’ been I’ve been thinking about the way that Celtics run as a club and how it’s set up and you know sporting directors and all that there manager versus everything and like a part of me is coming around to the three-year cycle a part of me is thinking that so should not be planning longer term Beyond a three-year cycle because the three-year cycle is likely how long we can hold on to players like mat riy and the the really top players that we do manage to get into the club at a a low budget it’s generally the length or at least half the length of the tenure that the managers that we’ve had undergo and it’s generally the length of time where Celtic can feasibly plan ahead to the point of they know what their financial situation is going to be so like a part of me is like maybe we just aim for threee Cycles like this maybe we just aim to bring in as much quality as we can within three years develop them sell them and then you have a massive clear out again hopefully not to the extent that we have to keep doing it but you just you start to narrow that framework that okay we’re getting rid of 14 players this year next year a realistic thing would be we only need to get rid of 10 and then you start to lower that Gap and you just a for three years rather than thinking 10 years down the line This is where Celtic need to be I don’t know if that’s completely wacko or not you know I think it’s not wacko I think the issue becomes um the degree right so there’s there’s going to be natural Talent Cycles even within the three-year cycles that you’re talking about um you have abs and flows based off of development your hit rate and recruitment even if you’re doing it well you know with even with you know even within the band you know Brighton’s going to have their own swings as far as you know the quality that they bring in even though they’re doing a good job generally there’s always some some swings there um so I I I think the issue is raising the level of all of those things and you know that’s that’s the constant Challenge and um you know the the the incoherence of the manager of God as God model is that you almost by definition turn it into a major overhaul every three years or two or two years um um and you know that and some of that’s just human me you have you know look at uh was his name Derby the guy just left Brighton right these managers have big egos you know this is a guy who knows better than how Brighton’s running things that’s why he left apparently at least that’s my read and take on it I know fair enough you know that everyone’s not but it’s like you know dude look at why Brighton’s do doing well it wasn’t you no offense you know ask Potter about that um and you know how’s he going to do depending on where he goes next um so you know get getting all these structural things in in place raises that Flor and I think that’s you know we we’re basically now into what year four going into year four as far as um wasted time meaning that you know looking at that Squad that you just went through those depth that that is a byproduct of four seasons of incoherence of that you could even start a little earlier than that um because of the incoherence of the recruitment that there was Talent there but it wasn’t necessarily coherently recruited relative to you know Lenin’s um uh last couple of Seasons uh so is what I’ve written about and I talked about a lot I mean look at the talent that was in that eight 1920 season you know the fongs the you know the guys that were even role players that you know were pretty good like real high level Talent guys L Uni’s gone on to have you know really productive seasons in Mitchel land and you know even Eric shenko coming out you know like our our talent levels you know they’ve gone on to have good Seasons at other clubs so we’re just we’re not getting enough Talent through the door um so this is the definition of Madness the insanity we just keep doing this over and over again um hoping that we’re just going to magically start bringing in talent and value for money um and maybe it’ll happen this time like I you know Rogers is a smart guy he’s got a roll ofex he knows a lot of people I’m presuming in in in the industry so you know he’ll he’ll have relatively lwh hanging fruit like post uh an did you know I mean his the first window and a half for an was really good so hopefully we get the benefit of that um this window and next with with Rogers but again is it sustainable is it and is it going to take us to that level of you know we we constantly talk about you know I’m I’m uh I’m still skeptical until we see evidence that it’s it’s shifting well that that’s actually why I think we should uh bring our approach back like so if you look at say the last say what how many years is it seven years um there’s been good players come and go from the club based on that amount of time and the amount of quality that we brought brought in to the club has degenerated throughout those seven years um but if we concentrate on just three years on a three-year cycle and get the talent levels back up in those three years we can forget about what happens in the six the you know the the six year period so like you named a couple players there you could name you know in the past six years Celtic have had uh FR pong who just won you know the Bundesliga with Bayer leverkusen’s probably going to go to a bigger Club again Christopher ire has finally broke through at brenford and is playing Premier League football Aon Edward is playing for Crystal Palace C McGregor would be playing for a big Club in the Premier League sh had he left H Ryan Christie is playing Premier League football for Bournemouth this season and you know you had Dem belly who went on to play for leyon played for Atletico Madrid his career slightly tailed off and you name some of the bitar players as well on top of that plus say m riy for example so you’ve got a a good talent base there but the problem is in that team that Rogers had with that had a that had Adair that had D Bal they had five or six really top level players whereas now you could look at sou and they only have three so the the the aim is to have always have six to seven top quality players I think that’s a realistic thing that Celtics should be aiming for alland you know absolutely absolutely I mean it is harder you know it’s becomes every year it becomes increasingly difficult to attract good players to um Scotland and that that’s going to be continue to be an issue the the quality of the league isn’t improving that’s that’s self-evident by performances in in Europe and so um that it just becomes a harder a harder cell um and you know it’s a complicated picture sure you one of the one of the one of the many brexit dividends one has to say is the other you know other markets for footballers uh have opened up you know is now possible to sign Brazilian players and so forth a lot easier than it was when you had kind of EU um you know residency rules and all that sort of thing so it’s it’s a complicated picture but you know and Celtic this is the last year that you know we’ve got guaranteed uh Champions League uh football and so again if and that looks that actually looks ominous from everything that I’m saying I mean we’re very unlikely to be in Champions League you know three to four years out yeah we need those coefficient monkeys to get busy and start winning some games in those minor competitions come on coefficient monkeys get busy that’s what I say yeah um but yeah no seriously that’s that’s a that’s a real concern that that that um you know we don’t recover um you know that coefficient place now these things you know they have been flow a little bit I think you know Jeter’s had a good year Etc but once you once you slip out it’s hard to then then come back in so all of that yeah it’s it’s hard it’s harder but like you say the biggest concern I have is just still that I’ve got no confidence that we’ve got you know a fully functioning recruitment uh you know capability and I don’t I don’t just mean data I mean I mean more of the Personnel do we have the best people um um you know the talent in the right roles so because that’s really what it comes down to it comes down to the talent of the people doing the recruiting you know Celtics should be able to find um players on their price point that that that mean that we can put out a competitive team in the Champions League by competive I mean you know a shot at win winning three or four matches maybe in in the in the new format right we should we should be able to do that with the wage bill that we pay I think ours is not that much lower than atlantas that got to the Europa League final and they won won the Europa League sorry and they you know they’re a much smaller Club really in all other respects other than obviously the the TV money they get from Italy so that’s the sort of benchmarking that they need to do we’ve talked about this for years now and that’s I’ve still got no confidence though that that that is going to happen and that will be the case and if it is all down to Rogers again I come back to you know he’s a very good coach I’m not sure he’s he’s an elite recruiter of talent right so and that’s a different skill set it needs different different you different talent in those roles and and what we found out is and sure as hell isn’t no right I mean that you know he he he uh had a a pretty decent hit rate in that first window second window you know okay yeah he had he had a he had a he had a his manager was one of these Global super agent so we had him on speed dial and he had his head as as as James calls it the L L FR low L low hanging fruit the ones that he just knew from from Japan mainly or or from that part of the world so yeah um and you know rogers’s expertise is in England and we know that is a very risky and expensive Market to be uh taking punts on players yeah yeah I mean I feel like we can go round and around in circles with the conversation that we’ve practically been having since we started this podcast and it’s just that there are obvious disadvantages that Celtic have to fight against not not mainly the financial standpoint of global football right now but also like you mentioned Atlanta there it’s all well and good that Atlanta have a similar wage Bill than Celtic but Atlanta play in Syria and playing in Italy is a much more uh promising Prospect for a player than playing in the Scottish League it’s much more attractive for them to say you know if they play well at Atlanta that might get them a move to AC Milan you’re not getting a move to AC Milan from Celtic you know you might get a move to Bournemouth you know it’s you know these things do play a role but the fundamental issue is that Celtic don’t have the Personnel at the club that have a good success rate when it comes to bringing in good quality players and they don’t have people in the board that have a good success rate in spending any sort of real money when it really matters and I think John mcin is always the one that stands out as yeah had him he wanted to come to the club he was ready to go and then they just didn’t want to spend that tiny bit extra that takes to develop the club so are we optimistic is probably where I would finish the podcast I I’m actually reasonably optimistic for next season because I do think we’ll get some low hanging fruit like the you know I think that the the floor is pretty elevated um there are risks around that because again I the another problem with all this is the longer that we dick around just by luck Rangers could back into someone who’s actually talented at their job right so they got this new guy in from PSV you know I I was actually reasonably impressed with what they did in January um I have no idea on what they’ve signed so far but you know and then they’re like perpetually a basket case in many regards but you know we keep giving them an opportunity to just go from being a big Basket Case to reasonably not a basket case and just with normal variants all of a sudden the leagues in a two Team league you’re like it was this season I mean we we we basically gifted them a chance to make this a title race into April um because of you know bad Recruitment and injuries and a lot of other things um so I I I just you know I I I’m relatively optimistic for next season changing the Champions League format should help in in that regard um you know but Talent point I mean it it’s hard to overstate the degree with which this could be an overhaul um and quite frankly should be given the talent levels that we have um but you know again talk to your the three-year cycle and does does MAA want to be here forever you know I mean is is Glasgow the place he wants to be long term um he’s been here a number of Seasons already and given his profile as a player he could go get I’m sure go play in the Bundesliga on a high press team which they are there’s no shortage of teams in in Germany that uh could use his Services uh and he could probably double his wages you know um that kind of things so I I I I’m I’m I’m optimistic in the scope of the opportunity um and I’m I’m going to stick with that optimism for now the problem is I was this optimistic Last Summer at this time and then the the summer window went completely off the rails and that turn you know up until the last day of the window I was holding out hope of optimism that we’d sign somebody like kis Garden or somebody like that um so I I am Resolute and maintaining optimism for now what about you Alan yeah I mean all the building blocks are there if if you hold to the um to the view that Rogers is effectively won an internal mini War for control then which you know I don’t think is far from reality and I I would as observed many times as the season’s going to come to an end the cohesion that I sense especially amongst the player and the man the player and the managers and Brendan himself seems to be I suppose somebody put it to me you know got his mojo back when he’s a non- DAT Teran but he just seems more relaxed but also driven a little bit in his in his um in his work that all points to me that you know there isn’t this perhaps this cultural baggage in the building that is kind of has has this very Celtic way of doing business and that we know we we we we have the opportunity here we certainly have the resources right we have the resources we have an opponent who to James’s point they only have to beat Hearts right to make it a two two horse race right so that’s why is as impoverished as they undoubtedly are and his bad as their recruitment has been so long as it’s good enough to beat Hearts you’ve got the kernel of a of of a title race um you know and if what’s if if clont if they have like say a more talented manager that can figure out how to beat Celtic then it is it can be game on even with a massive disparity in resources but Celtics shouldn’t fall into the Trap of looking at that and making decisions based on that they should Benchmark themselves in Europe and they should take care and build a squad that they feel can win as I say three out of eight at least Champions League matches next season at least get through to the next stage and and if you do that the Scottish League will take care of itself trust me it will just take care of itself because we you know we’re far better resourced and will be for years to come unless something unforeseen happens um you know we will be the better resource team for many many many many years to come but and and and the the tensions and the um difficulties in the building appear to now gone away um are these people talented enough now to do this job well this is this is this is the next step and we’ve got to hope that that that will be the case but it’s to be proven I would say so let’s be optimistic and say that you know it will be it will be proven but it’s it’s to be proven yeah I mean like God knows how many times I’ve said on this channel before and that if Celtic aim for Europe then that will always be naturally good enough to win the Scottish League you like Celtics should not be winning to aim like or aiming to win the Scottish League they should be aiming to make a dent in Europe because that that’s like the league will take care of itself at that point if you’re good enough in Europe you’ll be good enough to win the Scottish League that that’s a simple principle that Celtic haven’t followed over the last uh decade decade and a half really and that’s that’s why we’ve seen that regression in the club because they’ve just they’ve been happy to take their nine in a row happy to take The Trebles happy to take the trophies which is all well and good well but then if you know it’s great it’s great as fans I’m not gonna say it’s not but yeah so you’re touching on a pet peeve of mine I I don’t think they were happy with that I think that they have not pro ly um analyzed and judged how that translates into Europe I mean I think they overestimate and I think there is some risk to that with this season um you know if you project forward certain things with certain players and you know uh you assume because we’ve you know lorded over Scottish football for all these years now I I think there’s been a uh a bad job at understanding what that means how it manifests in Europe or doesn’t um and that’s I still think we’re still there by the way um and and you know there there’s a lot of nuances to how the season played out that you know may cover in the future but um that that aren’t projectable I think um yeah and this is where you get into like fan narratives things like signing Bernardo and E like understandably fans get caught up in narratives and personalities and you know th this has always been my concern and criticism is that a lot of times in the boardroom it seemed like or the CEO level prior CEO that it was almost being run like a fan as opposed to more of a ruthless uh objective um you know sporting Enterprise that that that are both paranoid and uh mercilessly ambitious in in moving things forward um and and you know so I I think I I’m still I think Rogers knows all this and if you looked at I mean we you know given the state of the squad and what we did in Europe this year and I I would argue we were more competitive with a much worse Squad given in the injury situation and the terrible recruitment that’s part of why like I said I’m I have that optimism going forward I mean I we just have to get some recruitment right and I think Rogers will turn that into a competitive Force given the new Champions League um uh format um but again that’s again Atalanta just won the Europa League Rangers made a Europa League final was it olympos just won the conference League yeah right you get into the dortmund’s in the freaking Champions League final tomorrow I mean they are not that good of a team you know so you get into these tournaments and you just need your shot you need to you know and that speaks to the fact that we’ve been in it all in these tournaments every year and we haven’t even taken even a pretend shot like it’s been almost ridiculous how bad we’ve been um you almost have to try to be this bad uh so yeah some something has to change yeah well what I was saying there I I wasn’t doing the you know the conspiracy idea that the Celtic board have conspired to keep them that’s if you read the uh the retirement statement from Peter lell who left the club for about two seconds um it had a list of all his glowing achievements H which you know are notable and are fair to list as achievements as a CEO but he seemed pretty pleased with himself that he was leaving the club in a a better position than than when he got it even though in a global sense they weren’t like so I mean that’s that’s more what I meant by that but I’m I am I too I should say I am I am more optimistic on into the summer I was last year my my uh typically long-winded effort I could just said I think they’re True Believers I I I think Peter La actually believes that I don’t I don’t think it’s this some big upping like I I think that they actually value what they’ve done domestically and almost ignore Europe it’s almost like a de a compartmentalized oh you know they don’t want to think about it you know it’s simple simple it’s simple in their mind in their mind it’s simple two things one is look at the trophies at Celtic one domestically and every year Desmond got his dividend and that’s it that is literally it that’s that is it and and and you our point is okay they’re they’re legitimate goals right for a business but you’re missing the European you’re you’re you’re completely ignored the key the key performance Mark that you need to use to to to actually judge yourself and on that on that basis we we’ve failed miserably absolutely miserably for for years as you said yeah and that’s that’s that thinking that needs to change well hopefully we do start to see a bit of change uh over the summer at Celtic and before we finish up the podcast I should say there is going to be a bit of change on this podcast um that this is going to be my last huddle breakdown recording and several reason there’s loads that goes into it but essentially as you may have noticed the consistency levels have been below par this season in terms of the podcast 95% my fault um I went back to the office this year with a new job became increasingly more difficult to record the podcast at a time that suited all three of us and I’m also moving to Australia uh in July so you know uh a further uh change to scheduling is not something that’s going to help or benefit the podcast so for theit sorry to interrupt make sure you’ve got your ticket for the right plane yeah oh well it’s easy when you it’s easy when uh scales’s agent uses his private plane to send Enda to the the I hear rumors of a Oceanfront Gold Coast flat that’s being rented in your name based off of what’s been going on here the last couple of years and this new bumper contract little little four-year contract you know nice little nice little bonus for that you know that’s that’s what I’m saying good work together I’ll tell you yeah I’ll tell you H yeah it’s been it’s been a blast it’s been a pleasure it’s been miserable times I will say that it has uh firstly for to for a couple of reasons for sometimes trying to think of what to talk about when an was just winning 5- nil every week to uh the first season of the podcast where we had to sit through Co ball and they land and that’s where it all started it all started in a bedroom where I was recording off my phone and chance message to James led to this podcast so um yeah an absolute mad couple of years and massive thank you to the two men that are on the podcast with me for putting up with me and putting in way more work than I did over the course of the four years watching the games more closely providing the stats providing the entertainment providing the chat and a massive thank you to everybody who watched and subscribed and listened and commented and hated us and loved this and um we got like some unbelievably kind messages over the last four years uh some horrible messages too which is part of it we’ll take that but uh the the good ones are always the ones who remember more H so thank you to everyone who did listen and did subscribe and did comment and everything all all that oh that’s that’s the sapy stuff out of the way so yeah so yeah sad sad for sure and you know end that is The Rock really that holds all this together us us two idiots wouldn’t much the actual the actual professional Al yeah yeah so listen but so very sad but you should make clear as well that James and I will kind of muddle on I guess we’ll see we’ll F if if one of us idiots can figure out the tech side we’ll try we’ll try anyway but yeah it won’t it won’t it won’t be the same it won’t be the same sure as long as you get your internet sorted out and it’ll bit ground all right yeah that’s righto um for the last time for me thanks very much and uh James and Allen will talk to you next time on the channel hopefully it’ll all put come together and it’ll look as uh as professional and as normal as always um until then H it’s been a pleasure thanks very much and we’ll chat to you later