What about the plan, Celtic? The vindication of the fools

It was announced on Friday, with no fanfare whatsoever, that John Park had left Celtic.

John Who? The majority of Celtic fans who have taken a close interest in the club’s operations over the past few years will know the name well.

Football Operations: John Park and Peter Lawwell

Having been at Hibs and credited with the discovery of Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson, Derek Riordan and Garry O’Connor, among others, it wasn’t surprising that Park would have been seen as an attractive target for Celtic. What club wouldn’t want a guy who had a track record of unearthing local talent that went on to earn international caps?

I should state here that no criticism of John Park is implied – I have no doubt that he did hs job exactly as he was expected to do.

However, despite constant denials from Celtic – and successive coaches, who may have been contractually obliged not to comment on negative aspects of the workings of the club – suspicions remained that Park’s role was not always consistent with the footballing aims of the manager/head coach, whatever we are supposed to call him.

The alarm bells first started to ring shortly after Gordon Strachan left the club. Overall, Strachan did an exceptional job for us and should be thanked for that. However, shortly after he left he made a cryptic statement indicating that he would never again sign a player he hadn’t seen.

During Strachan’s time, Celtic signed Thomas Gravesen and Roy Keane – both of whom he had assuredly seen, but neither of whom he apparently wanted.

Keane, in his inimitable style, went on to say that his future manager’s absolute disinterest in having him as a player was an extra motivation to sign – an “up you, Gordon!”

Gravesen was a different case in point, altogether. Stilliyan Petrov had gone to Aston Villa, having been kind enough to sign a contract with Celtic, meaning that the club would get £7.5 million pounds for him, when he could have landed a much fatter deal by letting the contract run down.

Gravesen was then brought in, meaning that Celtic landed a Galactico to replace Petrov, and pocketed a whopping profit at the same time. Great!

Gravesen was a tremendous player – built like a brick sh*t-house, with an irrestible drive and energy that allowed him to dominate the middle of the park. In that regard, he was much like Victor Wanyama but he also had an attacking instinct and a powerful shot that persuaded Real Madrid that he could transpose those qualities to La Liga.

But there was a problem – Gordon didn’t want him and this established pro was neither able nor willing to change his style of play to suit the more controlled passing game that Strachan favoured.

It still seems surreal to recall that many people thought that Gravesen wasn’t good enough for us. He certainly was – but RIGHT for us at the time; maybe not.

Roy Keane was a different case altogether. Keano is one of a select band of players who I admired greatly in a pre-Celtic career before finding that the reality of him in a Celtic shirt was one inextricably-linked to an image of him as an utter ******le.

Both Keane and Gravesen were known quantities – but the warning signs were there. Our manager was being asked to work with players he didn’t know – like Du Wei, for example.

Many of us rang the alarm bells at the time but we were mocked by those who thought themselves the more “intellectual” Celtic fans. You know them – the ones who talked about “The Plan”.

The Plan (as another blog noted this week) seemed to involve John Park being a de facto Director of Football, with Peter Lawwell doing the contract stuff while Park identified the players in his “roving” role.

We were told that this was what was needed, rather than the "homespun" approach of Celtic managers signing players they have identified.

We signed some good players – Forster, Wanyama, Van Dijk – and sold them to Southampton as soon as they offered eight figures. For this, Peter was rewarded greatly and, we must presume, Park was, too.

We also signed players who would walk into the all-time Hall-of-Guff, should such a thing ever exist. But that didn’t seem to matter – six flops were more than offset by one £10m pay-off.

Those of us who protested were decried as fools. We were asked how much money we wanted to spend and told that amount would bankrupt the club – even though we had never answered the question.

We were reminded of the mantra of The Plan, an entity lauded by the followers of one site (who routinely referred to its owner as if he was a knight of the realm). Those who couldn’t or wouldn’t sign up to said scheme of modernism were labelled as naive, wreckers who would see the club bankrupted.

There was to be no middle-ground between reckless spending and feckless recruitment with a view to player-trading being the primary function of the club.

We were reminded of Porto – we never came close to Porto’s achievements.

“Celtic fans” -- the new kind who understood business better than the common-or-garden “beggin’-yir-pardon-sir” plebeians – told us that the balance sheet was what mattered most of all.

What – you want to watch a good team, playing good football with aspirations to raising the standards year-by-year? “I suppose you think we should spend £12m on the likes of Tore Andro Flo? No? How much should we spend - £20m, £30m? Do you have any idea how well we’re run?”

Buy your ticket and shut your mouth was the mantra.

And yet – look what has happened.

The Plan has changed. Why? (Whisper it.) Because The Plan failed.

The Plan, which saw Celtic radically under-invest in the post-Rangers years, also brought Euopean failure, fans expressing apathy and anger, the club giving the Head Coach’s job to a virtual rookie and key players in the squad sold from under him.

And what was the response to this failure?

That is something you are never likely to hear from the “new realists” who lavished praise on the Celtic knight, while they munched their prawn sandwiches, laughing about their pie-eating, team-on-the-park days.

How many dissenters ever said we had to spend £10m-£20m, however hard the saints of Peter’s rapid news site asked? Few, if any. On the other hand, many welcomed the change of approach for this season.

A manager – not just Head Coach – who is in charge of the football operation because he understands it better than anyone. I’ll admit that I wasn’t convinced that Brendan Rodgers would be the best choice for us because I’ve always been suspicious of “highly-regarded” picks.

I cannot give him the backing that he has given to Scott Brown as both regular readers of this blog will know that I never give more that 100% to anything – it’s illogical.

But what have we seen – Moussa Dembele, who had shown his potential in the English Championship, persuaded to come to Celtic for the next stage of his development.

This was not part of The Plan.

Those of us who are old enough need only cast our minds back to the tears Henrik Larsson shed when it seemed as if Feyenoord would scupper his move to Celtic. That was not to do with love for Celtic at that time but, as Henrik said, he had seen how Pierre Van Hoojidonk had developed.

Neither was it part of The Plan – it was a straightforward reaction by a player who had potential, recognising that he could emulate or exceed Van Hoojidonk’s achievements, if only given the chance.

That’s one of the reasons why Dembele is such a great signing for us. It’s not just because we have such an exceptional player (whose comments on receiving player-of-the-month were just what every Celtic fan would love to hear).

But, when Moussa signed, Zinedine Zidane said it was a logical move for a player he had been watching. Zizou said he had to score in the Champions League – Moussa duly scored. France Under-21 caps – two goals in two games, drawing praise from Didier Deschamps, who has already discussed bringing him into the top squad.

This seems lost on some people – we have a manager who was influential in the development of Raheem Sterling and Luis Suarez and who Steven Gerrard described as the best one-to-one coach he had ever worked with.

His initial work with Dembele will also be noted by other players whose aspirations match Moussa’s – to play in the Champions League and get the attention of the coach of one of the elite European national teams.

If Moussa can get his full call-up for France, why couldn’t any other French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or English player seek to follow his path at Celtic?

That wasn’t The Plan – find some potential, give them a couple of seasons to show their licks, sell the best for big money. Figure out what to do with the rest.

The Plan would never have brought Henrik to Celtic and this is the time for those criticised for objecting to it, to recognise that.

There are two other distinctly “off-plan” signings but the sort who idiots like me always sought (you know, we were hell-bent on the destruction of the club).

Signing Kolo Toure did not fit The Plan. He was a “diminishing asset” before Brendan Rodgers persuaded him to leave Liverpool, where fans expected him to be offered another contract.

What Kolo has become is more than a defensive rock – he is the defensive coach in-situ; the guy who knows exactly what has to be done, where players should be and the decisions they should make. Any defender who doesn’t learn from playing with Toure will demonstrate much about his future potential.

(In this, he is adding value to his defensive cohorts, Plan followers.)

And the third “off-plan” player is – of course Scott Sinclair. Sinclair epitomises something else that we should be seeking to exploit – a player with abundant skill, who has had a hiatus in his career, but who an astute manager can assist towards fulfilling his full potential.

Players like Scotty don’t make any sense according to The Plan – you take someone who is paid a massive salary and invest a great deal to persuade him that he should come to Celtic and, if he has sufficient belief, might flourish again; even maybe play in the Champions League.

Once upon a time, it was Chris Sutton – devastating with Norwich City and Blackburn Rovers – but discarded by a too-rich club who paid £10m for him while most of the English media chose to forget how good a player he was.

Chris Sutton is one of the best Celtic players I have seen with my own eyes. Scott Sinclair need only look to him for inspiration.

There is, though, a fourth issue, and that is about keeping players. For that, look no further than Kieran Tierney. With major clubs said to be ready to offer in the region of the magic £10m, Kieran actually chose to sign a long-term deal with Celtic, the club he supports.

I’m not the only Celtic fan who gulped a little bit of emotion when KT chose to stay with us, a Celtic supporter ready to fulfill his dreams in a Celtic shirt. But again, many of us suspect that the prospect of working with off-Plan Brendan Rodgers was significant.

This is not The Plan – but neither are Celtic facing bankruptcy. In fact, the club is enjoying just the sort of financial rewards hoped-for by non-Plan exponents, while The Planners were espousing the benefits of the Europa League, instead of the other tournament we were supposed to qualify for, three years out of five.

It is worth remembering that nothing has been won this season. Fans and players need to be conscious of that. And it was wonderful to hear Pep Guardiola defining what it means to pull on a Celtic shirt – to win every week. When Pep is paying homage to the values of the club, it can also serve as a reminder that complacency never fits with being a Celtic player.

We respect the opposition, no matter who they are, and play to win.

We know that we do not have a divine right to win and that every point or victory must be earned on the park.

These are the values and ethos of the club – not any immutable Plan, supported by people who could well be called propagandists.

A proper manager who knows what he is doing (with astutely-chosen professional assistants), leading the football operations of the club – in charge of signing policy.

That’s not The Plan – but it’s what reckless fans like me thought could work, all along.

Some Celtic “fans” probably hope we’re wrong.