Set up to fail by no-spend policy

So the dust has settled on a top-of-the-table encounter that was not so much a disappointment as a confirmation of the worst fears of Celtic supporters.

What have we learned? Nothing.

What have we been forced to confront? That the club's negligence in maintaining an adequate squad (never mind aiming to improve) could better be described as reckless endangerment of our title ambitions.

For 45 minutes, Celtic dominated a Rangers team whose paucity of talent is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that the club and Scotland's top scorer was not allowed a second on the park while Lee “Elbows” McCulloch was invited to start the match and introduce his studs to rib-cages at his whim. Despite this, only one chance was created.

In the second half, the team somehow contrived to allow time on the ball to Barry Ferguson and Pedro Mendes – the only two quality players in blue (and with the greatest respect to Ferguson, time has taken its toll on his limbs). This resulted in Celtic actually managing to be second-best to Rangers after the break.

But here's the rub: Rangers are and were awful, their smothering 4-1-4-1 epitomising the anti-football of the pathologically inferior side. Celtic looked almost embarrassed, like a strapping young man being attacked by a drunk pensioner but constantly slipping on an icy pavement, continually looking round to make sure that no-one was watching.

Is this a team to achieve a treble (yes, Darren and Giorgios, that question is aimed at you)? Not unless all football conventions turn on their heads, Celtic Park is laid with one-way grass and referees like Willie Collum start moving walls away from balls instead of the reverse.

Given recent form and a transfer window that saw Celtic defy the odds and enter February actually relatively weaker than the club that ended 2008, the best we can hope for is a stumbling performance the like of which was last seen when Wim Jansen's side tripped over the line with the least-worst form of the two hamstrung giants.

Our strikers – all three of them – seem to have spent far too much time at the hands of Zero Tolerance, habitually assuming a non-threatening demeanour. Scott McDonald looks like a player who, with a big fat pay check thinks it is appropriate to replace quantity with rare, special quality when it comes to goals.

Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (much admired on this blog) is demonstrating how injuries to nippy players with a turn of pace over ten yards are as nothing compared to the crocking of one-gear strikers without an accelerator. Jan has been quoted as saying he must end his goal drought, which is tantamount to saying that the banks ought to get their act together.

As for Giorgios Samaras? Well, suffice it to say that his polo neck is hotter than the odds of him upsetting any goalkeepers these days.

On the other hand, we have a glut of talent in midfield – too many to play – amounting to a “too many cooks” scenario that is by no means adapting to squad rotation.

The defence continues to have its wobbles – with personnel still looking uncomfortable with zonal marking every time something unexpected (like a cross or a mis-hit pass) is witnessed.

On this, it is only right to mention Lee Nayor. Lee has suffered from constant demands for a new left-back (hey, his form has led to demands for a new left-back) but on Sunday he performed reasonably well, as he has on several occasions this season. We absolutely need competition in that area but the attempts of our financial decision-makers to smudge over this weakness has exposed poor Lee to the sort of unwarranted intrigue last seen when Saddam Hussein was filmed in his y-fronts.

Lee has not been an especially weak link of late and he hasn't prevented any signings.

But we know the men who have.

All this doom and gloom is a roundabout way of returning to an inescapable point: Celtic are regressing while attempting to keep one notch ahead of parity with a Rangers that is heading down the toilet.

There are easily identifiable people who shoulder the blame for the wreckage of our squad and squandering of our ambitions.

We know who they are and the empirical evidence helps to identify them, despite what their paid apologists claim.

But that is another story...





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