Chris Sutton identifies the pair who Celtic should focus on in January.
Although losing to Malmo in the third round of the Champions League was a setback, winning the August Glasgow Derby appeared to solidify their position as the favorites after the previous season’s events. Steven Gerrard had managed to hold onto all of his title-winning players.
Although Celtic’s progress was gradual, Gerrard left Ibrox for Aston Villa on November 11; the following weekend, Celtic defeated St Johnstone in the League Cup semi-final. The following day, Goldson’s squad was behind 3-0 at halftime against Knoy Hibs at Hampden, and in a post-game interview, the former Shrewsbury defender was very scathing of his teammates.
Chris Sutton identifies the pair who Celtic should focus on in January.
Although losing to Malmo in the third round of the Champions League was a setback, winning the August Glasgow Derby appeared to solidify their position as the favorites after the previous season’s events. Steven Gerrard had managed to hold onto all of his title-winning players.
Although Celtic’s progress was gradual, Gerrard left Ibrox for Aston Villa on November 11; the following weekend, Celtic defeated St Johnstone in the League Cup semi-final. The following day, Goldson’s squad was behind 3-0 at halftime against Knoy Hibs at Hampden, and in a post-game interview, the former Shrewsbury defender was very scathing of his teammates.
Celtic moved into top place in the Premiership on February 2 and went on to win at Ibrox on route to winning the title by six points.
Since the summer of 2021 the trophy count has been 9-2 in Celtic’s favour with every indication that the hoops will add to that gap this season
Steven Gerrard had held on to all of his title winning stars, losing to Malmo in the Champions League third round was a blow but winning the August Glasgow Derby seemed to underline their status as favourites following the events of the previous season.
It was slow progress for Celtic but on November 11 Gerrard quit Ibrox for Aston Villa, the following weekend Celtic beat St Johnstone in the semi-final of the League Cup. The next day Goldson’s side were knocked out by Hibs, trailing 3-0 at half-time at Hampden with the former Shrewsbury defender highly critical of his team-mates in a post-match interview.
The following month Celtic beat Hibs 2-1 in the League Cup Final, Postecoglou had delivered a trophy with doubts emerging at Ibrox as they faced a serious challenge with fans back inside stadiums providing an extra dimension.
Speaking to the Daily Record Goldson explained how Celtic took control domestically:
I always remember doing an interview after we lost to Hibs in the League Cup semi-final when Steven left.
I got absolutely hammered for it at the time. But that was me saying that we had come back and weren’t as hungry as we were the year before when we knew everything was on the line.
I could feel it in the pre-season. The running we’d done the year before … suddenly people didn’t want to do that any more. I felt after that semi-final was the right time to say it and maybe it didn’t come across well. But when I was at the club, I felt I was the person who had to say things like that.
I took the stick for it but do I regret it? No, I don’t. We didn’t look as hungry or as fit as we’d been the year we won the league.
Celtic lost a lot of key players that summer and – it was fortunate for them – but no-one thought that Ange would do what he did there.
When Celtic lost a number of players and their manager, the entire football team lost focus.
Regretfully for us, they swiftly reversed it. Since I could see what was happening at the moment, I was frustrated. What was happening was visible to me.
I felt I had to say something to generate a response, even during the season when we had lost points and the fight for the title was still close. Although it didn’t go well, based on how things have turned out, I believe I was correct. The standards dropped once Steven left.
On February 2, Celtic took the lead in the Premiership and won at Ibrox to secure the championship.
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