John Hartson: Celtic will be Scotland’s ‘Invincibles’

Dated: 02/03/15

Hartson watched the Hoops charge six points clear in the title race with a 4-0 win over nearest rivals Aberdeen on Sunday.
That gap will increase to nine points if the Bhoys beat St Johnstone tomorrow in their game in hand.
And Hartson feels the Hoops can go on and claim the treble.
The Welshman said: “Celtic can go nine points clear on Wednesday and they look unbeatable domestically now.
“They have brought in the two lads from Dundee United and they have given the group a lift.
“I’m not being disrespectful to the other clubs, but you have to think the treble looks a real possibility.
“There is a League Cup Final to look forward to, the league looks a shoo-in now.
“Apart from an absolute calamity or switching off and being naive, I can’t see past Celtic. They also have Dundee United in the last eight of the Scottish Cup and they have lost their two best players and are not in good form. The treble very much looks on.”
Ronny Deila would become only the third boss in Celtic’s history to claim a treble – following on from Jock Stein and Martin O’Neill.
And Hartson believes the only team who can stop Celtic is themselves.
The former Parkhead striker added: “It is only complacency, switching off and the players maybe thinking the job is done. But I would be surprised if this Celtic team threw it away.”

Dated 08/10/14:


John Hartson has claimed that under-fire Celtic manager Ronny Deila is out of his depth.
Hartson, who played for the Parkhead club for five seasons and knows what it takes to succeed, believes the Norwegian is struggling to live up to the role. He said: “I listened to what he said after losing to Hamilton Accies at the weekend and thought to myself ‘you don’t have a clue.’ It’s like he doesn’t have the first idea of what being the Celtic manager is all about.”
The Welshman told the Sun that he has supported Deila since day one but that Sunday’s defeat to Hamilton was a watershed for him. He said: “Right now Ronny Deila is a laughing stock. Except there aren’t many Celtic fans smiling - it’s the rest of the world.”
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Hartson insists Deila must use the international break to “take stock of things”. He added: “I suggest he starts to get real, pronto - and starts showing why he was brought to the club in the first place.”

 

Well it does kind of sum up the Ronny Deila thread on here...

 

Alot changes in 6 months. How many people on here have stated something then 6 months later completely change their mind? Doubt there'd be anyone that hasn't tbh.

Take a look at the various player threads for examples.

 

At least he admitted he was wrong. He was talking out of his * in October.. It was clear Ronny was always going to need time.

 

He jumped on the bandwagon when the media were slating Ronny when results weren't going our way now we're looking good he jumps on the bandwagon of Ronny is great. Which many of us have said all along, same with some of the 'fans' i've seen on facebook.

 

Not to be "that guy" but I had faith in Ronny the whole time and my posts would attest to it. :icon_mrgreen:

 

Same

 

I agree with the sentiments.

While Big John has eventually seen the light. I find it hard to understand why someone who has played football at the highest level, didn't understand Ronny needed time to implement the changes.

Was he commenting on games he hadn't seen because of his commitments to the EPL and was basing his opinion on hearsay??

Same with Sutton as well. Two guys who have been around the game for so long ,should know how difficult it can be for new managers and new ideas to be implemented.

 

Exactly, that's my biggest problem.

It was obvious that everything wasn't going to click straight away.

 

It's become clear to me in the last few years that playing football at the highest level doesn't necessarily result in you having a good understanding of the game, or mean that you'll be a good manager/coach. Think this is apparent with both Sutton and Hartson, neither have a clue and wouldn't have much hope for either of them trying to make a career in management.

 

This is actually why I respect Hartson alot more than Sutton. At least Hartson has the balls to come out now hold his hands on and say he got it wrong. Sutton on the other hand is still Deila bashing any chance he can get.

 

* him, sold his soul to the Sun and then was judge and jury on the 'Dundee riots' without being there, no way back from that, his opinion is an irrelevance.

 

I thought that Ronny was massively out of his depth at the start of the season. I wanted him away.

I thought it was more than the normal bumps in the road of taking a new manager onboard.

I'm glad I was wrong.

 

Totally agree with you, I was a massive critic of him since Day 1 but have definitely changed my tune. He's got us playing some lovely football, I was in Ajax last year and Milan last week, the difference between the 2 teams and performances was clear to see.

I do still worry about our defence but if we can sort that out for next season, I think we've got a real chance to qualify for the UCL. Ronnie will have been in situ for a year then, he'll have (hopefully) got rid of a lot of deadwood and perhaps have a decent striker and replacements for VVD and Denayer.

The future's under Ronnie's bright, the future's Ronnie, Green & White

 

I'm with you. Didn't quite think Ronny would get the team playing to this level, but knew we would come good in the end. Transition period well and truly over and now look at us!

 

The only time I worried, was after the Hamilton game, and our club captain come out and said that players were hiding on the park. That was a concern, as it suggested to me that some players didn't want to play for him. I didn't blame him for the disastrous start to our European campaign, because he was given no backing going into the games whatsoever. I think one thing that many would need to hold their hands up over though, is the formation. Far too many pressed the panic button early doors regarding this. Although Deila took over a far better team than what Lennon did, he still effectively started from scratch in my opinion. He implemented a whole new system, and wanted us to play in a totally different way to how we had been used to. That was always going to take time, and we are seeing the benefits of Deila being "stubborn" as many put it, by sticking to his philosophies.

 

I still think he was wrong to do that so early, he should have let the players go into the qualifiers with what they were familiar with.

The level he's got us to now is excellent, doesn't mean mistakes weren't made earlier this season. The most important thing is Ronny seems like a very astute learner.

 

Disagree mate. We have discussed that at length before to be fair. Even leaving out the qualifiers, there were plenty on here up until not so long ago still going on about playing with two strikers.

 

Aye, I know. The main problem is probably our most important games of the season are the first. I'm of the mindset of get them won and out of the way then you can focus on other stuff.

Champions League money is far too important to us, I think Ronny will get there next year though and with the BT deal it's double the money. I'm looking forward to see what Ronny can do with a bit of resource behind him.

 

To be fair, the high tempo pressing game Deila likes to play, I don't think it would have mattered what formation we played, because our players weren't capable of doing that at the start of the season. * me, there was even sections of our support moaning when he spoke about a change in diet and lifestyle. I remember folk saying they would prefer our players eating burgers and chips if it mean we could still win football games, as if it was a choice between healthy eating and getting results :smiley-laughing002: