One foot Barry gets his dig in
We’ve already had ex-Celtic player Scott McDonald coming out and slating Tony Mowbray, now is the time for Barry Robson to put the boot in. The midfielder did add that element of “dig” to the Celtic side and it has to be said, he has started brilliantly at Middlesbrough, with some Boro fans referring to him as the Ginger Juninho.
Okay…..
Anyways, Robson had this to say about his current boss Gordon Strachan in relation to Tony Mobwray;
“I think, if we’re being honest, the Celtic fans will be missing him too now because what he achieved in his time at the club was brilliant.”
To be honest Barry, most of them probably aren’t because it was time for a change.
The embarrassing capitulation which handed the league title to Rangers last season was all the fault of Strachan and much of the shaky foundations of Celtic’s season can still be laid at their former bosses door.
Don’t get us wrong, Tony Mowbray has got a lot wrong and there are serious doubts over whether he will be in the job next season. There are Celtic fans who want Mowbray out but it is a very small amount that would want Strachan back.
Which is still not very encouraging for Mowbray, it has to be said.
However, the tabloids are looking for big headlines and a great way to strike at the heart of Celtic fans is to try and sell off one of their big players. It’s a common tactic used by Scottish journalists but it is always a shame to hear players give them the lines they crave;
“There’s a good chance that Aiden will leave in the summer as well because he [Mowbray] wants to try something different so it will be completely Tony’s team soon. And it was obvious to me that was the way he wanted it.”
If Celtic do sell Aiden McGeady it is likely to be to offset the loss of Champions League money or because the player wants a new challenge. There has certainly been nothing from Mowbray to indicate he would want Aiden out of the door.
What Mowbray did in January was clear the dead-wood out of the club.
You know, the players who are so embarrassingly one-footed that they will turn in circles before using their weaker leg. That’s the sort of player a manager can happily lose in January, not a wide player who has the most assists at the club.
Like McDonald, it is a shame Barry Robson feels the need to speak out like this. Most fans will remember Robson for his part in the title run-in which saw Celtic clinch their third title in a row but comments like this will stick in some fans throats.
With Stephen McManus on loan at Boro, he will be unlikely to speak out about Celtic but can we expect any of the other ex-hoops to talk about their ‘Mowbray hell’?
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Some very good comments there… I wouldn’t have Strachan back. I think time will tell with the wee man. Once the pressure is on, honeymoon period over he will be his usual indignant self and the Boro fans will lose their toleration of his behaviour. As for Robson, he was always injury prone, totally agree with the one footed comments.
pity we lost MacDonald and Fox, Caldwell and McManus have been awful for us this season. I hope Mowbray gets a break and we see a litle team consistency and the potential for next season.
I get cheesed off with anyone as the voice of “Celtic fans” – there’s a lot of us with very wideranging views on everything from the left-back problem to the finer points of geopolitics.
My mood is that I’m missing Strachan. I liked the guy, liked success and I didn’t want him to go – that said I wouldn’t want him back and I also don’t subscribe to the fact that certain fans forced him out.
BTW rather than having a dig at Celtic fans, do you think Robson is just being supportive of his current boss? Just a thought
)
These are Barry Robson’s opinions. I dont see the problem with that. Is he saying anything we do not already know?
I was a BR fan when he was at Celtic . Its a shame he went. Not one of TMs better decisions if you ask me. One footed or not, the guy is class. He has taken Boro by the scruff of the neck and that league is tougher than our own SPL. WAY tougher.
As for Gordon. Well I disagree with Barry and agree with this article that most Celtic fans would not want WGS back . I was and am a WGS fan but he should have went after 3 in a row.
It also has to be said that we were not up against a strong rangers side during those 3 years. We would not have won the league at tannadice either were it not for a tiring rangers team and the forced appearances of one Barry Robson who saw us to that 3rd title.
Like the site, keep it up.
Are people forgetting just how dire last season was also? I know Tony Mowbray has failed big time this season but that’s partly due to the fact he played half the season with much the same duds and underachievers that he inherited.
Strachan’s record is indisputable (although tedious to watch in his final 2 seasons, apart from the 8-game run at the end of the 3rd season) but he has moved on and I have to admit I was not sorry to see him go, just like the majority of players who have left in the last 2 windows.
Cheers everyone, it’s good to get a range of opinions and it certainly proves Jocky Bhoy’s points.
Hopefully the point of the article was to have some debate about Barry Robson’s thoughts about what Celtic fans are thinking but as said, its just an opinion, no more or less valid than anyone else’s.
Another issue is probably the timing of it – these views broke in the Daily Record with a Keith Jackson exclusive. Keefy was probably just upset that Ronnie Cully had trumped him with the Skippy interview and was looking to have his own wee share.
Barry Robson, for all his limitations as a footballer, lacks nothing in fight and determination and comes across as an honest person in interviews. It is good to see him doing so well in the Championship and maybe suggests that the level of the SPL is not so inferior to the Championship as some would have us believe.
Corrib04 makes a good point about the toughness of the Championship – its a crazy league with so many games and the desire for promotion but the fact that players like Robson, Ross Wallace and Charlie Adam have been standout players perhaps suggests there is hope for Scottish players down south….which could help Craig Levein.
I didn’t want Gordon to leave, but if I wanted anyone back, it would have been the guy we had before him!!
We all wondered who the mole was in Gordons team who was leaking anti-Celtic stories to the laptop loyalists, it looks like there could have been more than one!!
They must pay the wages at boro in silver coinage!!!
Most Celtic fans I know simply had enough of Strachan, who let’s be honest, was never universally accepted at Celtic by the majority of the supporters. He had a hard act to follow in O’Neil an Irishman with deep feelings for the club, someone that many of the supporters had a real connection with.
But and it’s a big but, he had a better record than O’Neil and indeed his record stands scrutiny only to the late Jock Stein. He never had the same money to spend either, another huge factor in Strachans capitulation, was the failure of the PLC board to release cash in January 09 window. Had they signed Fletcher and a more prominent midfielder than Willo Flood, he could’ve held on for 4IAR.
Mowbray has his own ideas and his own type of player, something completely different to what Strachan had/has.
What I will say is that many Rangers fans, myself included, think Celtic have a far inferior management team at present compared to Strachans days, they also have lost the heartbeat of the team and have no real player in their ranks who can roll up their sleeves and dig a win out when required, they most certainly don’t have anybody in the squad that even resembles Captain material like Lambert, McStay, Aitken etc
Quagz,
Was there a wee hint of a ‘Celtic-minded’ dig there perchance? I think you’ll find the majority (or all) of celtic fans certainly connected with someone like Wim Jansen who had no Irish/Celtic background whatsoever. To state that ‘the majority’ of Celtic fans never took to Gordon Strachan for whatever reason is WRONG in the extreme. A few of the older generation perhaps who remembered the wee nyaff from his Aberdeen days but NOT the majority. Many tired of him in the end and felt he should have left after 3IAR as the set-up was beginning to look very stale and predictable. Something we are still attempting to deal with now.
Martin O’Neill of course enjoyed a near-messianic existence while at Celtic Park. This was due to us becoming a force again in Europe under him for the 1st time in many a Celtic fans life (mine included). There was also the small matter of his 1st game against Rangers. I’m sure you could provide us with your recollections of that!
Heh Billy, there’s nothing wrong with the ‘Celtic Minded’ bit and yes there will be managers like Jansen who wasn’t from the ‘family’ but by and large we like our own guy’s who know the history and heritage of the club. Advocaat was all sugar or all shite and Souness very quickly understood the traditions of the club, apart from those two and the failed PLG experiment. Rangers have always looked within their own ranks so to speak.
I would say the vast majority of Celtic fans were looking for a a manger who knew what Celtic was all about, unfortunately it would appear that you got the wrong guy, Coyle for me would have been a terrific appointment.
As for my recollection of the 6-2 game, I thought it was a pretty even first half and if Billy Dodd’s goal on the stroke of half time would have stood (perfectly legitimate goal as well, must be they Masonic officials again!) then if I remember correctly, that would have been 3-2 at HT. Sadly it wasn’t to be and Celtic turned the screw in the second half with Larsson having a field day. It was a result that Advocaat never really recovered from, even though we skelped you 5-1 in the next game!!
But he spunked £12M on Flo and well, we all know what happened there.
Quite a lot of debatable decisions in the 6-2 game.
Sutton’s opener still causes uproar to some Rangers fans.
There still hasn’t been video evidence to show that Rangers first goal actually crossed the line.
As mentioned, what appeared to be a perfectly good Rangers goal not being allowed. at a crucial time of the match.
Rangers being awarded what looked to be a soft penalty.
Haha….clearly the ref (was it WeKnowSFA favourite Dougal?) just set out to balance things up with some mental decisions for both sides….although most of them could probably be blamed on the linesmen!
A crazy game though, even though Celtic went 3-0 up early on, Rangers missed a few easy chances in the opening ten minutes as well.
hope he is right about mcgready. he is a wee middin and canny defend either wae him in oor team. should have sold him first.
IF we hadn’t been on the wrong side of some horrendous descisions this season we would have been well ahead of Rangers in the league and to be perfectly honest we played well in Europe for the most part as well. So come on we can’t have it both ways. We are either being cheated or Tony is a bad manager what is it.
Your managers gash, six league defeats and four home draws tells you where the clame lies.
But let’s blame the referees and the establishment, its the Celtic way.
Quagmire, an argument would be that referees were a major factor in three of the four home draws.
The away defeats at Tannadice and Tynecastle were the ones where the central defence were abysmal and suffering from brain-waves at regular points of the game and the home defeat to Hibs was one of they nights where naivety caused Celtic the points – again, could very well stem from the manager.
No one is saying Celtic are anything but poor – so many wrong footballing decisions / tactics and bad mistakes have cost them but to dismiss the referee factor is equally wrong.
The change in pressure on the players caused by dropped points creates a cyclical effect – its human nature. you only have to consider how people in serious debt behave – they start looking for major plays and gambles to wipe their debt out…but 8/10 times this behaviour only leads to further debt.
On one hand – Rangers consistency is the key, that cant be taken away from them.
However – to absolve refs from the blame because Celtic are crap is wrong. Equally, to absolve Celtic from blame because the refs are crap is wrong too.
It is possible to have more than one reason impacting on an outcome – striking the balance and determining portions of blame is the key factor….and one that would be impossible to agree upon.
Fair enough Ed, a chip on each shoulder should do the trick!!
It’s the perfectly balanced way to life your life!
As long as there is no salt and sauce going on the chips.
Ah salt and sauce, a fellow east coaster I presume!
Was resident in the East for a couple of years….at the moment, only during working hours.
Not a fan of the salt n sos!
Funnily enuff I was brought back here by the link from the “strachan shows more contempt for ‘tic fans”. Seems the tabloids looking for big headlines and a great way to strike at the heart of Celtic fans by trying to prompt off one of their big players. It’s a common tactic used by Scottish journalists but it is always a shame to hear players… ” You want to give the hypocrism a rest guys…?