CELTIC PRE-SEASON PANIC: UNDERSTANDABLE BUT ALSO UNNECESSARY
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- Jul 13
- 2 min read
It’s never fun watching Celtic lose, particularly when the winning goal is as defensively chaotic as yesterday’s winning goal for Estrela was.
I said on yesterday’s post-match bulletin that, under normal circumstances, I doubt a game like that would even have been broadcast.
After Watching Celtic Pre-Season Defeat, Fans Ask Which is Worse, our Defense or Celtic TV?
There were no fans, it was a “closed door friendly”. Celtic Pre-season games, especially at this early stage are seldom scintillating affairs.
However, almost 2 months on from Celtic’s last home game, it’s fair to say that a lot of fans are feeling serious withdrawal symptoms. So, Celtic struck a deal to stream the game for us.
Anyone who was able to get past the usual chaos of Celtic TV’s constantly malfunctioning login and registration page, (which somehow managed to charge my dad for the game twice and still not let him watch it) was probably left wishing they hadn’t bothered.
Indeed, I’d say that even a week or two from now, no-one will even remember this game, let alone want to talk about it.
However, seeing Celtic lose, and the manner in which they did so has finally prompted a number of fans, already unhappy at our seeming lack of incoming, first-team ready signings, to hit the panic button.
This is understandable, but also, in my opinion, a bit of an overreaction.
We are still 3 weeks away from the league kicking off, and more than a month away from our UEFA Champions League Play-Off tie. That’s plenty of time to get this right.
We are still missing about half a dozen or so first team players. I also believe in addition to Shin Yamada, who will arrive shortly after his international duties with Japan conclude on Monday morning Celtic Park Time, that Celtic will add at least another 3 or 4 first team ready players in this window.
Probably as soon as next weekend, when we face Newcastle upon our return to Celtic Park, you’ll see a radically different Celtic team to what we saw today.
Now Newcastle are one of the best-funded teams in Europe at the moment, so don’t be too surprised if we lose next weekend.
However, what I would say is, the way Celtic play, regardless of the result, will tell us a lot about how preseason is really going. I expect Brendan Rodgers to play as strong a team as possible next Saturday, and perhaps deploy a similar play style to how we will set-up once the league gets underway next month.
To those panicking at the moment, I say, calm down and keep the faith.
However, if we turn in a similarly disorganized, tactically naïve and error-strewn performance next weekend against Newcastle, then it might be time to start worrying.
