As I write, Celtic, the current champions, are sitting on top of the SPL, having dropped some unnecessary points over the past few weeks.
Our European campaign for this season is over – bottom of our Champions League group, albeit with some memorable results on the way, and without the consolation of UEFA Cup football after Christmas. Our defence seems to be taking a wee break from football at the moment, and the injuries continue to mount up whilst our highest paid player (I assume) is getting skelfs on his Brazilian arse at the expense of young Aiden.
It’s a tricky one this – on the face of it, there’s a lot to be frustrated about, a lot to be angry about.
But why are we frustrated?
The simple answer is that we are frustrated that the club has not continued its growth and development on the park at the same rate as has happened over the past few years. Frustrated that we can’t spend £3 million on a new player, that we’re not in the second phase of the CL, and that we’ve not pulled away from a, frankly, very poor Rangers side in the SPL.
But look at it this way – Relate it to a car, on a long motorway journey.
You’ve been stuck in traffic for hours – moving at 5MPH for ages. Suddenly, you clear the jam, and the speed increases – you get faster – that acceleration from 5MPH to 70 is sweet, fast, and glorious.
Pushing it from 70 to 90, in your Mondeo 1.6 rep-mobile (for arguments sake) takes a little more effort – a little more push. You’ll hover from 90 to 70 on and off, depending on what’s up ahead, and going back down to 70 frustrates you.
Celtic were in a jam before MON. When he came to the club, he very quickly got things organised, and soon we were going at 70.
Seville got us closer to 90 – on the way back to where some say we belong – with the cream of Europe.
But since then, life’s not been so easy – the brakes have had to come on occasionally, and life ain’t quite as good. Sure, it’s a hell of a lot better than back in the day, travelling at 5MPH, but we all want to be cruising at 90, don’t we?
Crap analogy I know, but it’s pretty much the way I see things at the moment. We don’t have the cash to splash that we feel should be there – the players ain’t performing the way we think they should be – but think about it – a good few years ago if someone told you we’d be holding our own against Barca in the Nou Camp, twice in a year, you’d have laughed in their faces.
All we need is a bit of perspective. We are Celtic supporters, faithful through and through – apparently.
Sure, debate, discuss and vent your opinion and your disillusionment – but sack the board? Sack MON? Do me a favour…. step back and look at what we’ve achieved in the past 5 years. And accept that there will be blips on the road, that some things will go against us, that there will be dips in form and cash is tight.
The highs are sweeter when you’ve got the lows. And if this is as low as it gets for a while, I for one will be a happy man.