Celtic’s training session ahead of their match against Aberdeen ends in crisis as Callum McGregor disagrees with Nancy’s strict rule and storms out.
Callum McGregor’s Celtic ‘end of the world’ confession rings loud and Wilfried Nancy must take note
The captain’s comments at Tannadice show just how far Celtic have fallen in the last year
Just days before Christmas and Celtic had failed to beat Dundee United. The frustration was written all over the captain’s face as he admitted their Tayside flop wasn’t good enough and lessons needed to be learned.
But this wasn’t Wednesday night. This wasn’t off the back of a fourth straight defeat that has left the Hoops trailing by six points in the title race. This wasn’t even after a defeat. No. This was almost exactly a year ago when Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic side suffered a stalemate against United to make it 14 wins and two draws from their opening 16 games.
They were still nine points clear. Still unbeaten with a goals for column reading 44 and only FOUR goals conceded. They had only a week earlier dumped Rangers to lift the League Cup and were sitting pretty in the Champions League.
End of the world? My goodness, what must the skipper be thinking now at the exact same point of the season?
Four straight losses under Wilfried Nancy. Four defeats and two draws from their 16 league games with 26 goals scored and 13 conceded. Six points off leaders Hearts. Beaten by St Mirren in the League Cup Final. And with their Europa League hopes hanging in the balance.
This really must feel like armageddon. The standards that led McGregor to describe that draw at Tannadice a year ago as feeling like a defeat appear to have evaporated.
His comments 12 months ago were spoken to us journos in the media room. But they were undoubtedly directed at some of his colleagues too as a wee reminder. A well-timed jag.
He said: “The success that we’ve had over a long period of time now means every dropped point feels like a defeat.
“It feels like the end of the world. When you win something it feels like it’s business as usual, you come back in and then you’ve just got to go again.
“It’s good for the players to see that response and understand how it feels, because we’re a team that’s used to winning all the time.
Sometimes you learn a wee bit more when you drop points or you lose. Sometimes it’s okay to be disappointed and feel hurt. You try to use that in the coming games.
“You try and limit the amount of times throughout the season that you feel like that.
“When it does happen then the players feel it and they do everything they can to put it right in the next game.
It’s good that the boys take responsibility because then you know that they care and they understand it. That’s never really been a problem for us.”
Well it appears to be a big problem now. Celtic followed that draw at United by winning their next two games 4-0 against Motherwell and St Johnstone as they coasted to another title.
But on current form you wouldn’t bet the sixpence in your Christmas pudding on them beating Aberdeen or Livingston in their next two games.
The fall from grace has been unfathomable. Nancy insists he can see improvements in his side but the truth is the standards have fallen off a cliff in a matter of months.
It’s not all the new boss’ fault of course. But he’s not helped himself by trying to implement his system on a group of players not yet equipped for such an immediate, radical change.
Standards on the park have started to slip. McGregor – reportedly a target for Rodgers as the former boss looks to kick start his career in Saudi Arabia with Al Qadsiah – hasn’t
But you can bet the man who is dripping in silverware after a decade in the Hoops’ top team hasn’t been shy in having his say in the dressing room. Winning is the priority. The supposed ‘way’ of winning should be secondary.
McGregor’s team mates could do well to listen. Maybe Nancy too. Otherwise doomsday really might be just around the corner for the new boss.
