SUMMARY

Well what a season it has turned out to be! I did not expect to be reporting on the fact that not only did we reach the play-offs we somehow won promotion.

In the semi’s we  like Leicester  seem to freeze in the penalty shoot out and in the end we kept our nerve.  The final against Joao’s Sporting CP was as I expected a back to the wall affair by us and somehow we snatch a winner through our tails man Alario.

BACKGROUND

I took over at Celtic halfway through season 11 and my target then was to stay up which we just achieved with 44 points and 14th position.

So for season 12  as with any team I have had was to  improve my points tally and league position. We certainly did that finishing 7th with 57 points. In my view we over achieved  in what was and still is a very tough division. There was never much separating most of the teams.

THE SQUAD

Goalkeepers and Defenders

I had to 87  keepers (Campana and Santos) and rotated them throughout the season.

The defence had no  high rated players and for Hoedt to drop twice in 4 months was a tough one to take. With  Lustig dropping to 85 (expected) as my main RB  did not make things any easier. Was compensated by having 87 rated Dodo and Reinaldo as left WB’s. Wishing Reinaldo well on his move to Swansea.

Midfielders

I  had only 2 senior CM’s througout the season – Paulinho and Hernandez and they did me pround.

Support by Forrest and Snodgrass who always seem  to provide steady support. I did acquire Duda midway through the season, but he has found it hard to adjust , hopefully better next season. One that did surprise me was Schaub who joined at the same time and has chipped in with 8 goals and 5 assists.

Forwards

For many games I just played one  striker and this meant Pratto did not get that many starts, but still scored 7 goals and 5 assists.

But the  man who not only kept us in this division but  sent us up was Alario – In 29 starts he scored 15 goals, 7 assists and 9 mom’s.

WHAT NEXT

Firstly prior to the last few games I had agreed  a 2 season extension at Celtic with David.

Next season to put in mildly will be very hard as we have some aging players and the youngsters are someway off the first team, but as they say I give it a go at staying up.

 For now of to enjoy some Glasgow hospitality – is there any bars open ???