Celtic legend Frank McGarvey believes that the club’s board showed disrespect to their supporters and the rest of Scottish football when they appointed “cheap option” Ronny Deila, and he says that they will only have themselves to blame should Rangers - or anyone else - beat Celtic to next season’s Premiership title.
McGarvey is pleased with the appointment of Brendan Rodgers as the man to succeed Deila, but he firmly believes that an experienced big name should have been brought in years ago. While McGarvey says that Deila did the best he could, he is adamant that the board’s decision to appoint the Norwegian has set the team’s progress back several years from where it should be.
Because of that, he is now worried that Rangers could seriously challenge Celtic for the league title in their first year back in the top-flight.
Read more: Five things Brendan Rodgers must achieve as Celtic manager
“A big name like Brendan Rodgers should have been appointed years ago,” said McGarvey.
“I don’t blame Ronny Deila for the state of Celtic last season and the poor football that was being played – he was the cheap option and did as well as he could. I blame people higher up at the club.
“Celtic showed disrespect to their fans who pay good money to watch the team and disrespect to the rest of Scottish football by appointing the cheapest option possible.
“What they should have been doing is chasing European football and the money that comes from that so that when Rangers came back up, they would be in a much stronger position.
“I don’t understand the mentality shown by Celtic over the last few years. This is Celtic we’re talking about, doing just enough to get by should never have even be considered.
“Make no mistake, Rangers won’t be coming up to the Premiership to play second fiddle to Celtic. They have 50,000 supporters at their home games and they are every bit as demanding as the Celtic fans.
“They might not be in a position at the minute where their squad is good enough to challenge for the league title, but the fact that Brendan Rodgers is scrambling about now trying to get players in and move players on means that Celtic are in a much weaker position than they should have been.
Read more: Celtic in line for £1m windfall if Victor Wanyama moves to Tottenham Hotspur
“I’m not saying that Rangers or anyone else but Celtic will win the league next season, but it’s far from the sure thing that it should be.
“The appointment of Rodgers is great but it has come too late for me. If Celtic don’t win the league next year the blame will lie with the board.”
Despite any misgivings he has around the timing of Rodger’s appointment, McGarvey is excited by the prospect of Celtic returning to an attacking style of play more closely associated with their traditions under the Northern Irishman.
In his opinion, players like Leigh Griffiths can thrive under Rodgers, and he feels that the striker could even better last season’s tally of 40 goals this term.
“Brendan Rodgers will bring excitement back to Celtic Park and attacking football,” McGarvey said. “When he was manager of Swansea and Liverpool I would turn on the telly just to watch them because they played football the right way.
“Some people are casting up that he hasn’t won any trophies, but don’t forget that if Steven Gerrard hadn’t slipped against Chelsea he would almost certainly have led Liverpool to the English Premier League title.
Read more: Scott Brown - Exciting times under Brendan Rodgers at Celtic
“He is the best manager that Celtic could have got. If it was between him and Davie Moyes for the job, I would have gone for Brendan because he plays the sort of attacking football that will excite Celtic fans. He gets the club and he knows the style that the fans want to see.
“It would be great to see what Leigh could do if he had a partner up there with him, even to take a bit of the pressure off of his shoulders. When I played for Celtic I had Charlie Nicholas up there with me, and while he didn’t make many goals for me directly, he would take the pressure off by scoring a goal himself and contributing in that way.
“Leigh doesn’t have that, and he has had to do it all by himself. He deserves immense credit for the way he has played and for his goals. He’s dug Celtic out of countless holes. It will be interesting to see how many goals Leigh can get playing in a side that is set up to create lots of chances. I think he will go on and score even more goals next season.”
“It’s shaping up to be an exciting season for Celtic.”
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