Chris Sutton

That intro

 

BT actually care about Scottish football can’t wait till they have the full 60 game package and get that sky to *

 

Legend

Just seen the intro from last night.

 

That is * wonderful!

 

Henrik and Martin talking about Chris

 

Obviously Sutton was on the end for the 2nd, but how * great was Agathe there setting that up. Lightning! His timing and decision making was spot on, as well.

 

By Chris Sutton.

Brendan Rodgers has laid it on the line.

And reading between them, he was saying: Slacken off again and you’ll be out.

As far as I’m concerned, there are a few inside Celtic Park who better heed his words.

Rodgers comments this week about the season ahead and the improvements demanded from last season’s efforts were eye-opening and an indication that he’s not going to settle for just doing enough.

In some ways, it’s nearly impossible for an outsider to criticise a group of players who won the Treble for a second-successive season last term and wrote their names in the history books. But this was their leader.

There were clearly moments last season when Celtic dipped below their levels.

Given what they put into the big games and how they delivered when it came to the crunch and they were really asked a domestic question, you could almost excuse a few lucklustre performances.

In particular, some of the boring draws at Parkhead when they didn’t scale the heights at all.

Rodgers, though, isn’t for excusing it. Not when you read what he had to say as he reflected on the campaign.

He spoke about people not doing enough, the pressing not being good enough, the play not as he wanted. Saying he’ll make sure it won’t happen again.

Of course, Rodgers didn’t name names. However, the punters who watched Celtic week-in, week-out would have known who he was talking about.

In truth, those boys will know themselves and the manager’s words would have shuddered through their minds.
Let’s put Europe aside as the manager wasn’t talking about that. Anyway, no-one apart from Scott Brown really did themselves justice all of the time and there were times when many of them looked off the pace in certain matches.

As Rodgers said, Celtic are miles from the top level on the continent.

It’s the domestic front he was discussing. Three trophies or not, Rodgers is demanding more and it’s hard to argue there were a few who got nowhere near the heights of their first season and the Invincibles run.

Brown, James Forrest, Tom Rogic, Callum McGregor, Kieran Tierney all escape criticism, for me.

Same for Olivier Ntcham and Odssone Eduoard given it was their first seasons.

Moussa Dembele' didn’t fire all of the time, but much of that was down to injury and a saga around the time of the January transfer window which I didn’t really feel was of his making.

That’s a story for another time and, anyway, given there’s a good chance he’ll leave, it makes this discussion less of an issue for him.
Scott Sinclair, for one, was a huge disappointment. Rodgers tried to dress up his displays with statistics at one point, but the fact he started leaving him out of big games by the end of term tells you all you need to know.

It can’t have been easy to follow up a first season when he won every Player of the Year Award going, but the drop off was staggering.

Stuart Armstrong was another who didn’t get near it. The impressive figure who finished the first Treble season went missing.

If he’s going to stay, and that’s a big if with no contract signed, he needs to get it going because Ntcham has gone past him in the pecking order at the base of the midfield and McGregor and Rogic are away in the distance when it comes to the No.10 role.

I’m a huge fan of Leigh Griffiths, but he needs to stay fit and be available more often. If he does, he’ll score goals because he’s a natural, but he can’t keep breaking down and missing matches.

Kouassi Eboue needs to start showing why big money was paid for him and, to be honest, I’d say the entire back four except for Tierney have questions to answer and progress to make.

At one end of the scale, you have Mikael Lustig. He’s been a brilliant servant to the club, but there are signs he is creaking. He made far too many mistakes and lost his consistency. That’s not good for a right back and, with a new one surely going to be signed, the Swede needs to up his game.

At the other, Jack Hendry is just starting out in his Celtic career and he has to grasp the nettle. I’d forgive him the first five months after signing from Dundee.

The lad was settling into the place and also asked to play at right-back, which doesn’t seem to suit.

He’s a centre-back, but it’s up to him to force his way in there and make the position his own.

I was interested that Rodgers handed Kristoffer Ajer a new long-term deal. There is no doubt he did well for a first real term at the back, but can he build on that and become a dominant defender?

He’s not a kid anymore. He won’t get away with making the errors that he did last year and get a pat on the head to say he’s learning. That’s up to him and Dedryck Boyata falls into the same category.

Sometimes you watch the Belgian and he looks solid, but you can’t keep making basic mistakes and expect to keep getting second chances.

Jozo Simunovic is another defender who really should be doing better. He has all the tools, all the attributes, but isn’t doing enough to convince and that’s not good enough at this stage of his career. He should be a regular. A first pick.

Craig Gordon is also under pressure from Scott Bain. The experienced keeper needs to maintain a regular level of performance because it looks as though an able deputy lies beneath.

Celtic did enough to cover the issues of inconsistency and below-standard shows from a variety of individuals with their trophy haul.

But Rodgers’ comments tell you he wasn’t fooled.

 

I think hes a wee bit harsh on Ajer. But overall its spot on

 

Aye it was weirdly critical of someone whos learning a position and has just turned 20. Especially considering he impressed for the.most part

 

Decent article. Only real gripes are he excuses Dembele due to a stop/start season with injury when the same could be said of Griffiths and Armstrong. Disagree with criticism of Ajer aswell because I thought he was excellent pretty much all season.