Celtic midfielder Mika Baur says the players have had a clear-the-air meeting of sorts, and it should be music to the ears of Bhoys fans.
The Hoops went into the break on the back of three straight defeats, and any Celtic fan will tell you, the results themselves were not the biggest concern. While three defeats on the bounce is always an issue, the bigges problem was the nature of the performances, which were flat and often lacking in fight and spirit.
Those are non-negotiables at Celtic, and Martin O'Neill has to find a way to ensure his players are ticking those boxes regardless of whether things go thr way of his team during games.
But the players need no reminding that they are not currently playing well enough, and that is evidenced by the fact they have held a meeting to find out what the issues are between them.
"We had a meeting," midfielder Baur told reporters after returning from international duty with Germany. "We had the chance. I think the other players who were here the last two weeks had a few more chances but they told us the problems we had, the things we have to do better in the next games.
"I’m really looking forward to it because it’s what we all want – to play all the time. I think it’s a lot of Thursday-Sunday weeks because of the Europa League. I’m really positive we can improve, that we can maybe come back to a winning streak.
"We’re still top of the league so we want to play like that with a lot of confidence and not look to the past and what happened. We just can learn from it and make it better in the next games."
That should be music to the ears of Celtic fans, who have felt as though these players don't care enough because of their flat performances over recent weeks.
The meeting says a lot. It says that the players know there are issues and they have to put the work in themselves rather than solely relying on Martin O'Neill to find solutions.
Those tactical issues exist, but there is also a clear mentality problem, and that's for the players to find a solution for, and they must. If they can't get up for back-to-back Old Firm games, then something is wrong, and they need to be calling each other out for it.
It appears as though they are finally willing to do that, and we have to give them credit for it.
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