Madness and Love

 

Madness and Love

Watching the forlorn figure of Reo Hatate wander round behind the goal of the Jock Stein stand after he was substituted in the match against Shakhtar was somewhat poignant. He no doubt thought he had not had his best match in the hoops and removed his shirt as he trudged around the track. His slack pass in midfield had eventually led to Mudryk’s beautifully taken goal but it was certainly wrong to blame him as the talented Ukrainian side were in possession 80 yards from Celtic’s goal. Sometimes you see a goal of such quality, you just have to say, ‘fair play’ and take it on the chin.

As if sensing Hatate’s despondency, the Celtic support started chanting Reo’s name. It grew into a warm embrace which told him, yeh, we have some moaners in our fanbase but we’re all in this together. We all want what’s best for Celtic. It reminded me of Didier Agathe saying after taking some abuse from his own fans after a European tie, ‘It’s not that they don’t care. It’s that they care too much.’ Agathe had a point; Celtic means so much to so many. In games like the one with Shakhtar, the fans are so engrossed in the game, they contest every decision and try to drive the team on to victory.

Sometimes, a minority get frustrated when it isn’t going well and make it obvious by groaning at a misplaced pass and moaning at players who don’t do as they would wish. We live those games, breathe them, kick every ball and when things aren’t going right, that positive energy we fans give the team can easily turn negative. ‘It is,’ as my old man used to say, ‘an easy game to play from the stands.’

Few teams fuse with their supporters as Celtic do and countless opposition players and managers have commented on the atmosphere Celtic’s followers generate. Some supporters rightly say that they’d rather they’d comment on the Celtic team than the fans but on occasion it is a remarkable symbiosis. Sporting Journalist, Paul Heyward wrote in the aftermath of Celtic’s victory over Barcelona in 2012…

‘’A club set up to feed the poor in Glasgow’s East End took a bite out of the rich in a front of a home tribe so passionate that even Barcelona’s Clasico veterans were taken aback. “No words to describe the atmosphere at Celtic Park,” wrote Gerard Piqué, who knows so well the cauldron of Real Madrid v Barcelona. “The stadium is a marvel – the fans, the people, how they support their team,” Xavi added. “It’s an example for every team.” “The stadium was spectacular,” said Tito Vilanova, the Barcelona coach. “I have been lucky in my career to have been to many grounds, but I have never seen anything like it. This was their 125th birthday and I wish them many more years.”

There is a certain weariness among Celtic fans about continental managers and players praising the atmosphere at Celtic Park in the aftermath of dismantling Celtic’s team on the field. Celtic's epic victory over Barcelona was ten years ago now and in the decade since then the Hoops have barely landed a punch on the giants of European football. Football develops fast and the elite teams of the modern era have developed in terms of technique, ability, speed and stamina. Celtic’s team of 2012 was modest in terms of cost and achievement in Europe but they did possess a fighting spirit and sheer stubbornness that even Barcelona’s golden generation couldn’t break. They also fed off the crowd and, vitally, scored the first goal. That gave them belief and something to hold on to. Paul Heyward commented on that phenomenon with the memorable words…

‘Somewhere between madness and love, this fanaticism did for Barcelona on a night when the Celtic team and their disciples were indivisible. Money can’t buy you that.’

Watching Postecoglou’s Celtic play Shakhtar, it was clear that our players gave all they had in the match and matched a decent European team in both home and away fixtures. In the end a draw was about right although either side could have snatched the win. The fans see progress in the 18 months Ange has been in charge and most accept that the Champions League is a hugely challenging environment for teams of modest resources like Celtic and it will take time to acclimatise to its demands. In all of the games Celtic has played in this season’s group stages, they have given their opponents a real match and even against the mighty Real Madrid, only succumbed after an hour of give and take. The need to compete at that level for the entire match is crucial to making an impact in this, the world’s toughest club tournament.

Toni Kroos, Real’s German playmaker, may have talked of managing the game well at Celtic Park but the truth is had McGregor’s shot which struck the post or Maeda’s miss from six yards found the net, the outcome could have been very different. The Spanish press were impressed with Celtic with one sports reporter writing…

‘Postecoglou has brought Celtic into the modernity of the game and to his credit is doing so without big stars. The team played well, with dynamism, ambition and disdain for defensive tactics. Hence, the value of Madrid’s victory. Real went through some worrying moments in the first half and was surpassed by its rival, who reached the area with ease and had several shots.’

Celtic are a young, developing team with no stand out stars who can turn games with moments of magic. Rather they are attempting to play a modern and, by Scottish standards, sophisticated style of play which relies on energy, effort, organisation and above all else, functioning as a team. It takes time and experience to adapt to the rigours of Champions League football and Celtic need to get back there as soon as possible to gain this. It may not be so easy, with Scotland’s co-efficient taking a pounding this season but we do have grounds to be optimistic.  Postecoglou’s young team will develop further and with a few additions and a more ruthless mindset, can do better in Europe.

Jota was lost to the team at a crucial time and Kyogo, who could do no wrong last season, has had a dip in form but both will be back in time. Players like Grieg Taylor have improved exponentially under Postecoglou’s tutorage as indeed has McGregor and Ralston. The team seem to know where they are going and what they are doing. Clear and strong leadership has been vital to this.

Next week Celtic head to that cathedral of European football, the Santiago Bernabeu with no one giving them much of a hope at the home of the current European Champions. We know gaining any kind of result there will be immensely difficult but we do expect our players to be brave and realise that they are on a stage they may never experience again. Enjoy it, do you best but most importantly, learn from it. It may seem an intimidating arena but it is no more noisy or passionate than Celtic Park.

So, on the slim chance that Reo Hatate reads this article, I hope he will understand that those who moan when things go wrong do so because what they feel for this club is, in the words of Paul Heyward, ‘somewhere between madness and love.’ The majority of us know that complaining is counter productive and simply want to drive our team on to be all it can be. Celtic players carry our hopes and dreams on their shoulders when they wear those iconic hooped shirts. We have come so far since an Irishman named Brother Walfrid set the good ship Celtic afloat. Players come and go, managers too, but we, the fans are here forever. This is our club, our heritage, our joy. All we ask is that you give your all and make us proud.  

 

Storm in a tea cup

 

Storm in Tea Cup

Have you ever had a discussion with someone and find that it’s only after they go away that you come up with the perfect response to their argument? There are many instances in life of the things we should have said at the time but didn’t. I felt that this week watching a smug Sky Sports Newsman grilling a young woman from the Irish FA over some of the players singing ‘Celtic Symphony’ after their victory over Scotland at Hampden. The song, a favourite among Celtic fans, references the IRA with the words, ‘ooh ahh up the Ra’ and this caused a bit of a media storm.

The Sky presenter asked, ‘we’ve seen a statement from the FAI which apologises for players singing a song which references the IRA. Would you like to apologise?’ The young woman did and ate some humble pie live on TV. What she should have said is something like this…

‘Yes, if it caused any offence then I am sorry, it was never our intention, the team was celebrating reaching the world cup and perhaps got carried away. While we’re here, would you like to apologise for occupying our country for centuries, the confiscation of our land, the outlawing of the faith most here held, the penal laws, the deliberate starvation of hundreds of thousands of people, the slaughter in Drogheda the forced migration of millions, the evictions, the absentee landlords, the exploitation, the plantation of Ulster, the famine graves, the coffin ships, oppression, partition, humiliation, collusion, Bloody Sunday, Ballymurphy and the poverty you inflicted upon us?’

What grated was the presenter suggesting the team needed ‘educating’ about the past when the average English person has no idea of the crimes perpetrated on Ireland by the UK. Nor indeed the crimes committed all over the world in the name of empire. Of course, Ireland is moving towards a new reality with the northern statelet no longer certain it has a Unionist majority. It is time to build a new society where the old war songs are allowed to lose their potency. The Irish women’s team may have hit a nerve with their choice of song at Hampden but the national anthem they sang before the game is hardly a song of peace and harmony. ‘Amhrán na bhFiann’ (The Soldiers song) was sung by the men in the Post Office in 1916 and was a favourite of the Irish volunteers who fought a brutal war of independence with the British. It contains the lyric…

‘Impatient for the coming fight,
And as we wait the morning's light,
Here in the silence of the night,
We'll chant a soldier's song.
Soldiers are we
whose lives are pledged to Ireland;
Some have come
from a land beyond the wave.
Sworn to be free,
No more our ancient sire land
Shall shelter the despot or the slave.
Tonight we man the gap of danger
In Erin's cause, come woe or weal
'Mid cannons' roar and rifles peal,
We'll chant a soldier's song.’

Is the lyric above any more or less warlike than ‘up the Ra?’  Perhaps it is less potent to the non-Gaelic speaker due to them simply not understanding what it is saying.  Is it in any case a fact that songs from the war of independence are more acceptable than songs about the more recent conflict in Northern Ireland?

Let me be clear to any Irish folk reading this. No Irish person should ever need to apologise for singing songs of resistance to the occupation of their country. It’s part of your history as much as ‘Flower of Scotland’ or ‘Scots wha hae wi Wallace bled’ is part of Scotland’s. My old grandfather, a native of county Clare, would sing ‘The Croppy boy’ on occasion and why shouldn’t he? Countless people gave their lives in the struggle for self-determination, are they to be forgotten because of modern political correctness?

Those of us who follow Celtic have always had to deal with this hostility towards our identity, perceived or otherwise. It’s one of life’s ironies that the more something is mocked and disparaged, the more people hold onto it. The attempt to make Celtic remove the Irish flag from their stadium following crowd trouble at a New Year’s fixture with Rangers at Ibrox was a prime example. The demand put to Celtic was that they 'refrain from displaying in its park any flag or emblem that has no association with the country or sport.'

George Graham, Secretary of the SFA and a man described even by his friends as a bigot was the leading light in the attempt to force Celtic to shed part of their identity. In the end Bob Kelly, Celtic’s chairman, faced the clique at the SFA down and the threat of being thrown out of the league was defeated, ironically enough with the help of Rangers.

The Anglo-centric view put forward by the Sky reporter this week is typical as is the 24-hour news hungry media which picks up on the smallest thing and magnifies it out of all proportion. This storm in a tea cup will pass when they move on to the next item. No one who remembers the bad old days forgets the horrors of the troubles. There were many dreadful things done by all sides and the implication in so much of the reporting this week; that the British government holds the moral high ground, falls apart under closer scrutiny.

The Irish women were a bunch of young folk exhilarated after reaching the word cup. They’ll doubtless be more careful about how they celebrate in future but come on, was it really that much of a big deal?

 

A man with a plan

 

A man with a plan

Celtic supporters have now had time to digest what went wrong in the Red Bull Arena on Wednesday evening and for the most part is not panicking about what they saw. As with the Real Madrid game, Celtic were in the match and creating chances until individual errors undone the team’s good work. It is a harsh lesson to learn, but in the Champions league you will be punished for not taking your chances and not defending properly. It was suggested that Joe Hart’s mistake turned the tide in the match and in truth it was a body blow at a time the game hung in the balance but that being said, Hart has been brilliant for Celtic both on the pitch and in the dressing room. He’s a consummate professional who held his hand up about his error. As always with keepers, errors are usually punished but we should not forget his two or three goal saving saves in the match.

To have any chance at this elite level of football, clubs like Celtic need to be on their A-game for 90+ minutes. We have already seen how the top clubs are utterly ruthless in front of goal and Celtic’s ratio in Germany of one goal from twelve attempts needs to improve. We have lost in arenas like this before but are now giving these teams more trouble and that is a mark of how Celtic have advanced under the big Australian. He commented after the game that some people will see the result and not the improvement Celtic have made in the past 18 months.

At yesterday’s press conference, Postecoglou spoke of Celtic having a champions league support but not yet having a champions league team. His words were very revealing about his thought processes and where Celtic are.  He said…

‘I’m no miracle worker, it’s not as if I’ve taken over a team that’s consistently been in the semi finals of the Champions League. It does take time. We’re not the only club in this situation. There are a lot of clubs like us who want to make an impact in the champions league but know there is a process in getting there. The clubs of our size that eventually get there- it takes time. I’d love to fast track that process and that’s what I’m trying to do. I think the way you do that is by being brave and bold and not just looking to survive.’

Postecoglou’s obvious annoyance at the team playing the ball back to Joe Hart at times and not being brave enough was obvious after the match. This is no Brendan Rodgers trying to go toe to toe with PSG or Barcelona with no real pragmatism in his tactics and we all know how that ended. This is a coach who knows exactly what it takes to go head-to-head with the elite clubs of Europe and is hungry to see Celtic joining them. It may well be that his evolving squad doesn’t yet have the depth of quality to do that but he is setting the pattern of how he wants the game played and it does augur well for the future, especially if Celtic back his ambition by continuing to invest in the sort of quality players who will enhance the squad. It was noticeable how much Carter-Vickers was missed at the heart of that defence and McGregor’s injury will also leave a hole in midfield. To succeed in the rigours of a long hard season, top clubs have quality replacements of equal stature ready to come in. Celtic are not yet in that position.

Postecoglou is a real football man who lives and breathes the game. He is enamoured with Celtic because he sees that same passion and hunger among the fans. They are as desperate for the club to succeed as he is and he sees that. This is not a manager who would patronise the support with glib praise, he is being honest when he said of the support in Leipzig…

‘Our fans were unbelievable again. It felt like we were in Glasgow as we left the hotel. It was just amazing. They create such a good atmosphere wherever they go. They supported us unbelievably. They’re disappointed with the outcome but that’s just fans being passionate and caring. I have no issue with that. I think they also acknowledge that we didn’t go to Leipzig to try and survive. We went there to try and create something special. We didn’t, but I think for the most part, if people see endeavour, I think they are encouraged by that. It was right to acknowledge them at the end. We’ve got a Champions League support; we just need to become a Champions League team.’

Celtic fans are no mugs, they know the game and they know the challenges at the top table of European football. Celtic need to compete there to gain the experience necessary for real improvement to take place. It has been a few years since the Hoops appeared in the group stages of the UCL and that gulf in standards from the SPFL to this elite level is stark. The players are trying to implement what their coach is saying to them and there are obvious improvements just as there are obvious flaws in the team. We need to trust the process, trust the manager and back him in the stands and in the board room if his dream of making Celtic a Champions League team is to come to fruition.

Ange Postecoglou is a man with a plan and the character and knowledge to be a top coach. If Celtic don’t match his ambitions there will be others with more resources who will. His affection for Celtic is genuine as is his understanding of the values and history of the club. Now is not the time to falter, we’re on a journey and our leader knows exactly where he wants to take us.