Wake up, Celtic, before you throw the league away

I insisted that there was no way Celtic would lose the league to Aberdeen. I did not believe that Celtic could stumble so badly that the unthinkable would happen. And yet, just hours later as the curtain had come down on one of the worst performances I have seen at Celtic Park in a long time, I have to say that my attitude had changed entirely.

This is a Celtic team that badly needs to wake up. And fast.

Up until now I have seen no danger that the league could be lost. But on recent performances you have to feel that what we are seeing suggests that something catastrophic could happen this season.

There is no easy way out of this now for Celtic. It doesn’t matter how the message is put across, whether it is in anger or whether it is delivered calmly but it needs to get through quickly – get the sleeves rolled up and get the results, whatever that may take.

The football may not be pretty now. It doesn’t matter. Points are needed and the only way to take off some of the pressure and lift some of the confidence is by winning games.

The finger of accusation will always be pointed at the manager when results are like this. What happens now we will have to wait and see and I am always uncomfortable speculating about someone’s job. To a certain extent the board will also come in for criticism, but the players should not be above reproach either.

No-one is saying that they are not trying. But the bottom line is that they are not trying hard enough.

What I saw in that game against Dundee was too many players frightened of the ball. Too many players hiding when a team-mate was in possession and too many not wanting to take responsibility. They need to stand up and be counted now. This is the time when things are not going well that you need leaders, players willing to put their hands up and take the ball, take responsibility for making something happen.

Kieran Tierney at left-back could be excused, the goalkeeper was fine and the two centre-backs were solid enough, although their distribution was shocking.

Patrick Roberts looked like he was going to light up the game in those early stages but he just drifted out of it.

And while Tierney has been a revelation this season, what you have to worry about is the fact that he can be dragged down when the team is performing at this kind of level.

Normally in circumstances such as this Scott Brown can be relied upon to get the game by the scruff of the neck, but even he looked out of it last night. I don’t know whether or not he has come back from injury too early and is not quite fit, but he has not looked like himself.

They finished the game against Dundee with twin strikers but the bottom line is that formations mean nothing when the attitude is wrong.

Celtic fans do not turn up to games to boo the team. It is not in their make-up. But there was no other reaction they could have given the other night.

The atmosphere in the ground when there are substantial numbers of empty seats and you can feel the anger coming from the stands can be very difficult to play in. I always felt as a player that when there was a huge crowd that in some ways the sheer volume of noise almost went over your head.

But when there are recriminations and angry comments, they do get through when the stadium is sparse.

The performances on offer these past few weeks have made for genuine concerns that this is a team who could throw the league away. What has been unthinkable for so long is in danger of becoming a reality.

We have become used to describing the beginning of the season as the most important time for Celtic since those UEFA Champions League qualifiers underpin the remainder of the campaign – but these remaining ten league games are massive.

To not be in there for those qualifiers would be an absolute disaster for Celtic.

The consequences of such a failure would be far-reaching.