Should Celtic get rid of Strachan after yet another loss and yet another failure to score?
i voted for sack him if they dont win the league as there was no “sack him at the end of the season regardless of if he wins the league or not” option
I need to sleep on this!
Personally, i hate making rash judgements. I think he should be persevered with, definitely.
The sheep had one shot last night and scored,we battered them for 90 minutes.
The question is who’s out there to replace him?
Agreed on the first point Manus. As I posted elsewhere I thought the result last night was an abherration. I don’t think Aberdeen deserved to take anything from that match, but they did. In an isolated context that would just be bad luck but we don’t seem to be having much luck in any match recently which would make you question whether we’re doing the right thing.
Despite facing an excellent Barcelona team there’s no doubt that we didn’t come close to doing ourselves justice over those games. We were taken apart comprehensively and that was something that really shouldn’t happen to a well organised team. There are a few signs that suggest we haven’t improved at all in the last 12 months - a lack of solidity in midfield, a leaky defence that hasn’t improved and a real failure to play with any sort of attacking variety. I think if he wins the league then Strachan will have really delivered for Celtic so deserves to stay on and I’d hope nobody would argue with that. But if we hand a treble on a plate to the huns then I don’t see a compelling case for retaining Strachan and the support certainly won’t be behind him.
As for replacements, I’d go after Mowbray.
I haven’t cemented my thoughts on Strachan yet but if Rocko and I were on the Celtic Board then I’d veto his proposal of Tony Mowbray taking over when Strachan eventually leaves. His West Brom side play attacking football but are suspect defensively, much like his Hibernian side was, and though they’re generally accepted as being the best footballing team in England outside the EPL, I think it’s far too big a jump to go from managing them to taking charge of Celtic. I’d like to at least see if he delivers promotion for them after they missed out last season but at the moment he’s no more qualified than Strachan was he initially came to Celtic. I’d want someone with more experience and who’s more proven than Mowbray. Davie Moyes has done very well with Everton over a prolonged period and made them a consistent top 6 side, he’s stalling on a new contract and he’s played for Celtic in the past. He could be worth a shout.
[quote=“therock67”] I think if he wins the league then Strachan will have really delivered for Celtic so deserves to stay on and I’d hope nobody would argue with that. But if we hand a treble on a plate to the huns then I don’t see a compelling case for retaining Strachan and the support certainly won’t be behind him.
[/quote]
So it’s a results game? All about the silverware on the table at the end of the season, rather than the football that was played to deliver the trophies? If that’s the case, you can’t really dismiss the result of the game last night as “an aberration”. If Celtic really are battering teams for 90 minutes but can’t score, something is wrong. If you’re not happy with a trophlyless season then results like last night’s probably merit a bit more worry.
I take the point Sledge but I was more worried about games where we didn’t perform at all and never really looked like scoring (i.e. most of our games in December). Every team loses games at some stage that they don’t deserve to lose. But when it becomes a common occurrence it starts to get worrying. When it’s a common occurrence and when it coincides with crap performances that result in losses too then it’s very worrying.
Moyes is an outstanding manager. I’d rate him as the best of the younger ones in the epl by some distance. He’d be a major coup for Celtic, but would he leave the money in the epl for the spl. He seems happy at Everton so its doubtful but not without some promise. Good shout bandage.
I’ve been thinking about some further options - their current clubs / national associations in brackets: Tony Mowbray (West Brom), Davie Moyes (Everton), Mark McGhee (Motherwell), Martin O’Neill (Aston Villa), Paul Lambert (Wycombe), Mark Hughes (Blackburn), Stephen Staunton (Leeds United), Quique Sanchez Flores (Unattached - I think), Michael Laudrup (Getafe), Carlos Ancellotti (Milan), Roberto Mancini (Internazionale), Jose Mourinho (Unattached), Paul Doolin (Drogheda United), Sam Allardyce (Unattached), Owen Coyle (Burnley), Louis Van Gaal (AZ Alkmaar), Steve Clarke and Henk Ten Caate (Chelsea), Gerard Houllier (French Football Federation), Paul Le Guen (Paris St Germain), Guus Hiddink (Russia), Steve McClaren (Unattached), Frank Riijkard (Barcelona), Joachim Loew (Germany / Playing The Part of Sandy Coen in The OC), Glenn Hoddle (Unattached), Walter Smith (Rangers), Roddy Collins (Unattached), Luciano Spalletti (AS Roma).
Discuss.
Interesting list Bandage.
Owen Coyle will be a class manager with a bit more experience same with Mowbray.
Whether or not any of the higher profile managers would go to Parkhead is debatable.
I’m not sure Roddy Collins could manage a good shite,nevermind Celtic.
[quote=“manusboyle”]Interesting list Bandage.
Owen Coyle will be a class manager with a bit more experience same with Mowbray.
Whether or not any of the higher profile managers would go to Parkhead is debatable.
I’m not sure Roddy Collins could manage a good shite,nevermind Celtic.[/quote]
yeah but it would be some craic if roddy got the job…imagine the shit talk out of him…he would surely sign trevor molloy and richie foran for celtic
I’m adding the following to my shortlist: Roy Keane (Sunderland), John Collins (Unattached), Luis Filip Scolari (Portugal).
surprised you left out the following bandage:
mick mccarthy, did a reasonably good job where ever he has been
billy davies, good up and coming manager
henrik larsson, soon to retire strikes me as an intelligent guy could be a potentially good manager
especialy as you have steve staunton and steve mclaren on the list
From The Glasgow Evening Times:
Yes, we are in crisis
by Ronnie Cully
GORDON STRACHAN today admitted it is crisis time for him and his Celtic players.
The holders crashed out the Scottish Cup at Parkhead last night, losing 1-0 to Aberdeen.
For the first time ever, Celtic have been knocked out at home in both domestic cups in the same season. In the CIS Insurance Cup they lost at home to Hearts, and last night was only the fourth time in 50 years they have lost at home in the Scottish Cup.
Having survived several such crunch moments in his career as a player and a manager, Strachan is ready to meet this one head on.
They trail Rangers by three points in the championship with a game more played, but he remains confident his side have what it takes to defend the one remaining trophy available to them.
Strachan made no attempt to underplay the situation after the calamitous defeat by the Dons.
Just one goal in four games - the injury-time equaliser in the cup at Aberdeen - is squeezing the life out of Celtic’s season, and Strachan was pulling no punches.
“This is the crunch time now,” he admitted. "There was a crisis when I first came here, when there was a changeover and all the rest of the stuff. We handled that and won the league. Then we retained it, which was another crisis.
"Here’s a crisis now because we need to win again. It’s how we handle it as a club, manager, coaches and players. We’ll have a good look at ourselves. And we have to do that as we’re all in this crisis together.
"But it’s nothing new. You get a crisis when you’re in a reserve team as a boy at Dundee and you’ve got to be big enough and strong enough to get into the first team.
"Then you get bumped out of Manchester United.
"There are so many crises you come across in your life and you have to deal with them.
"You go to Coventry, and you’re second bottom. Can you deal with that? Yes, we got out of that crisis.
“You go to Southampton, and they are second bottom. Can you deal with it? Yes, we have done that as a group. Now here’s another one.”
Strachan cancelled the squad’s days off planned for today and tomorrow so he can spell out to his players how important it is to stick together to ride out this storm.
He said: “We always have to understand that if one or two of us are not at our best, people have to take it on their shoulders a bit more.”
Sunday’s SPL game against Gretna suddenly is a potential banana skin. “It’s going to be that way all the time now,” he said.
“We’ve put ourselves under more pressure because of last night. It’s not media, it’s not anything else. It’s expectation from our fans and from ourselves and the fans are the ones whose expectations you have to make sure you live up to.”
Well over half that list are either too crap or too good for Celtic. There are plenty of decent picks in the midfield though, I wonder would the club be that open-minded when looking for a new manager or would they just have a look around the goldfish bowl.
As a neutral, who would you regard as a good pick? Obviously I was taking the piss with a few on the list but is there anyone else that might be a viable candidate that you can think of? I think Celtic sometimes tend to undersell themselves as we do have a good reputation around Europe and have made progress at that level in recent seasons. I see managers with big reputations managing in Holland, Portugal, France and the likes and don’t see why they wouldn’t be attracted to Celtic.
The appointments of the likes of Wim Jansen and Dr Jo Venglos suggested Celtic were looking further afield but the John Barnes / Kenny Dalglish disaster prompted a back-to-basics type approach perhaps. Martin O’Neill was somebody who had proven himself consistently with lower ranking teams and was ready to make the next step up the career ladder and the fact he had a massive desire for the job as a Celtic supporter himself made it a great fit. Strachan was kind of an extension of this as he’d kept Coventry in the EPL and taken Southampton into Europe and was ready to make the step up.
Personally, I see Davie Moyes as a similar type of manager to these two though he’s achieved quite a bit more with Everton than O’Neill and Strachan did with Leicester, Coventry and Southampton. What more can Moyes achieve with Everton? He’s not going to break into the top 4 and the best they can hope for is a League Cup or something. The reason I don’t think they’ll break into the top 4 is because they lack the out and out class of those sides and how can they overtake them if the top 4 keep getting stronger financially every season. It’s a real chicken and egg situation.
Everton simply don’t have the firepower of a Ronaldo/Rooney, Ballack/Lampard/Drogba, Gerrard/Torres, Fabregas/Adebayor but Moyes has literally taken them as high as possible and moulded a good solid side around a strong back four with a little bit of class and flair in Arteta, Pienaar and Cahill and the goal threat of Yakubu and Johnson. So he’s shown he’s a good manager but does he want to come and manage in the Champions League?
[quote=“Bandage”]Martin O’Neill (Aston Villa)
Discuss.[/quote]
O’Neill has clearly used Celtic as a stepping stone and has moved on to bigger and better things. Can’t see him moving back down the ladder.
maybe Mick Wallace would be interested? fantastic record with wexford youths in the All-Ireland.
Have to agree with bandage, at the end of the day the champions league is where every player and manager wants to test themselves and Celtic now offer regular champions league football and so, if and when strachan goes, they should be setting their sights quite high.