‘We’re the worst coached team in Scotland and the players all are grand’

Celtic have been ranked as the worst coached Scottish Premiership side despite winning the domestic double last season, not to mention Martin O’Neill’s side currently sit top of the top flight standings with a four point advantage, admittedly having played a game more than our nearest rivals.

The boffins behind AI technology PLAIER and at the University of St. Gallen have complied a deep dive into clubs across the globe as part of their latest global state of football report, and it doesn’t make for good reading from a Celtic perspective.

It is noted that the Hoops underperformed their squad quality despite being crowned Champions of Scotland for the previous five seasons and 14 times in the last 15 campaigns. Incredibly Celtic’s was the only F grade to be dished out, with a score of -1.16.

In contrast, Motherwell earning the only overall A grade in the Premiership – as they were crowned Scotland’s club of the season. The club were also named best performing side in the division for coaching efficiency under former boss Jens Berthel Askou with a grade of 1.53. That is ahead of the other two A grades dished out to bosses, David Gray at Hibs (1.12) and Derek McInnes at Hearts (0.92).

In a positive for The Scottish Champions they were named as the league’s only A grade for financial stability with an estimated profit of around £33 million.

It’s not the least bit surprising that Celtic are down the pecking order when it comes to coaching structure and overall tactical efficiency. After all many Celtic supporters are forever calling out the incompetence that plagues our tactical approach to games.

But the very fact that the club won a domestic double last term, and currently lead the Premiership pack it doesn’t say much for the standard of our domestic game.

Imagine we were actually the best coached side in the country like in the days of Ange Postecoglou and Brendan Rodgers (twice) – when the football more often than not in the Invincible season for example, or Angeball over two years – was a joy to behold for the Celtic support.

Last season and this we had a coaching staff trying to maintain elements of the Rodgers tactics while adding in their own elements, then the manager asking for his changes on top of that and what we are now left with is a situation we are relying on individual quality players in our squad to win matches, rather than any tactical discipline.

Ironically enough the only attempt at introducing a distinct tactical approach last season was through Wilfried Nancy but there was no real buy-in from the top down at the club. It was disgraceful how he was introduced at a pre-match media conference without any of the board in attendance to given their new man their backing.

Jens Berthel Askou was clearly the standout coach in Scottish football last season, yet Celtic didn’t go for him, instead opting for more of the same. Can we expect trophy success this season? There is hope. Can we expect to improve our F dunce rating? It’s not looking likely is it?

Players like Cameron Carter-Vickers, Callum McGregor and Mika Baur have subsequently spoken about it. The warning signs were there in Linz in the summer when Celtic didn’t have the tactical wherewithal, despite the squad weaknesses to see out a £40m Champions League play-off contest with LASK with an hour to play while holding a 4-0 aggregate lead.

Hopefully the F rating is as low as they go or we could end up in G or H territory and probably still as Champions.

Maybe a wee update to the words used in the Celtic song is in order.

Just an Ordinary Bhoy