Football is a lot about perception. Right now, Celtic are struggling badly. The brand of football that they are playing is boring, and the results are no longer coming either. And there is a belief that the Hoops have never played entertaining football during Brendan Rodgers' second spell at Parkhead. That is not entirely true though.
At the start of the 24/25 season, Celtic were actually playing very decent football. So much so that they were winning games against the likes of RB Leipzig in the Champions League.
It did not last for a long period though. It was about three months or so before the quality of Celtic's football declined and they were back to grinding out results rather than playing teams off the park.
So, why did this downfall in quality happen? Well, there are multiple reasons behind that. But one of them might be parting ways with key players and then not replacing them with those capable of doing so.
Brendan Rodgers names mistake that has made Celtic worse
As reported by Glasgow World, Rodgers said recently:
"If you think of what we had, the football is going to look different. Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen when he's playing and Nicholas Kuhn, it's a different level of speed, so we don't have that. The game will look different, but we can still be better and faster and more dynamic in our actions, and that's the challenge."
It is hard to argue with that. Celtic still have not replaced Kyogo. As for Kuhn, just look at the options they have on the right flank. And Maeda has looked like a shadow of his former self this season, having admitted that he wanted to leave in the summer.
It remains to be seen how things turn out for the side moving forward. One thing is clear though, this squad is not good enough and improvements need to be made.
That is down to the board, not the manager or the players. They have sanctioned key exits without bringing quality replacements. Hopefully, they will be realising their mistake by now and getting ready to make some serious investment in the upcoming January transfer window.