Season Review 2022-23 – The Celtic Wiki

Matches: 2022 – 2023 | League Table | Statistics

Trivia

Celtic seal the domestic treble and completed world record eighth domestic treble! Also now have 115 major domestic trophies plus European Cup which some opine makes Celtic the most successful club in the world!
Ange Postecoglou in second year as Celtic manager.
Former Australia/Liverpool player Harry Kewell joined Celtic backroom working alongside John Kennedy and Gavin Strachan.
First full season without covid restrictions.
Lowland League voted in favour of admitting Sevco, Celtic and Hearts’ B teams into the competition for the 2022/23 campaign, second year in a row for Celtic & Sevco.
Ange Postecoglou inducted into the Football Australia Hall of Fame.
World Cup: all four Celtic players teams made it thru the group stages (Mooy (Australia), Juranovic (Croatia), CCV (USA), Maeda (Japan). Only Croatia made it thru to quarter finals, and Juranovic was a key player for the Croatia who made it to the semi-finals losing to eventual winners Argentina.
Following January signing of Oh Hyeon-Gyu, Celtic now have 8 Players whose nations are members of the AFC (Asian Football Confederation).
Poor time for ex Celts in the EPL down south. Southampton relegated (Armstrong and Elyounoussi), Leicester relegated (Rodgers sacked), West Ham just survive (Moyes). Tierney played sparingly as Arsenal just miss out on league title. Bournemouth (Christie) just escape relegation zone too.
Celtic had the highest average attendance in world football outwith Europe’s ‘Big 5’ leagues during the 22/23 campaign. Only twelve clubs from across the entire globe had a higher average than our 58.828.
Postecoglou left Celtic a few days after the Scottish Cup final.

Season points

VAR was to be introduced after 1st round of matches bringing Scottish top tier belatedly in line with much of the rest of top tier European football. Brought forward to October 2022. Absolute shambles.
VAR has been a shambles with controversies galore.
Quality across the league has been mostly poor and has ended up with really the top two in a league of their own.
Celtic break league scoring record overtaking Lisbon Lions total from 1966-67.
Women’s team just miss out on league title but win the women’s Scottish Cup title. A very pivotal season with record crowd numbers at the major games with support from the ultra groups.

Transfers

Europe

Celtic automatically into group stages of the Champions League.
Some have erroneously said that Celtic got group stage champions league place because of the efforts of Sevco; that’s incorrect as Celtic contributed more to the 5 year coefficient: Celtic – 34.000; Sevco – 31.250.
Celtic create unwanted history by being first side to lose 7 home group stage matches in a row. Drew final home game to end the embarrassing run.
No wins in the group stage since 2017, no home wins since 2013.
Celtic out of contention for Champions League knock out stage after just the first four matches.
Then out of Europe completely with one game to spare. Finish bottom of the group with just two draws.
Hearts in Conference League Group stage. Sevco in Champions Lge Group stage.
Real Madrid v Celtic – First ever Celtic match with a female referee.

Notes

World Cup held in late autumn for first time so annoyingly splitting season in two for most European leagues.
First season without covid restrictions for three seasons
UK Queen died, so new UK King – Charles III;
Three UK PMs (Boris Johnson then Liz Truss then Rishi Sunak); In NI Catholics outnumber Protestants for first time in consensus figures.
Scottish FM Nicola Sturgeon stepped down, Humza Yousaf is new FM.

Season Review

Second Season 2022/23

After the emotions of last season, Postecoglou greater motivation in him to push the Celtic side further. Morale had returned and there was optimism that Celtic could step up a gear even in Europe. The more cautious though were still concerned especially after the debacles in the Uefa Cup as well as the failure to overturn Sevco in the last two meetings.

There was the benefit of a more relaxed summer with Celtic entering the Champions League group stage automatically for a change. The key transfers of the summer were the conversion to permanent of both CCV and Jota, whilst Bernabei, Siegrist, Mooy and Abilgaard (loan) were brought in to shore up the squad. On loan Jenz was needed to support the defence. It turned out to be the most laid back transfer window Celtic had had for at least a generation.

Upto the world cup

Postecoglou continued from where he left off and Celtic from the start of the season were continuing their dominance with some major skelpings along the way. A nine nil victory over Dundee Utd was a bittersweet victory, as great as it was for the Celtic support it was humiliating for the once great Dundee Utd side.

With all due respect to the rest of the league, Celtic were pushing their weight on field and the real first expected challenge of v Sevco turned into a one-sided affair with Celtic demolishing Sevco 4-0! It was a humiliation for Sevco as after a decent last season, having not lost in the last two matches v Celtic, they were clearly second best. For Postecoglou it clearly showed that at least domestically his methods were paying dividends.

After all the plaudits for the excellent start to the season and a five point gap opened up over second place, Celtic did hit a troublesome spell. A shock comprehensive defeat to St Mirren (2-0 in September 2022) brought the side down to earth, and was followed up by some concerning performances against Motherwell and St Johnstone. Losing Carter Vickers to injury was given as a reason followed then by the loss of McGregor also to injury, but this over reliance on single players demonstrated that the squad was not necessarily as comprehensive as purported by some.

Combined with some sterling efforts, Celtic swatted all sides domestically, maintaining a long unbeaten run through much of the season.

A curious problem that was arising was the profligacy of the front line. Depsite the much vaunted attacking prowess of the team, the return was often below expectations. Kyogo and Giakoumakis were too often underpar early on in the season. It was a concern going forward. However, Kyogo in particular turned his form around and became a regular scorer.

A packed out schedule due to games being cramped up due to the upcoming World Cup meant the much vaunted squad was to be tested to the limit. Albeit, this affected all sides, and despite the challenge domestically, Celtic very much held their own whilst nearest challengers Sevco started to falter badly.

A pivotal 4-3 victory v Hearts likely reflected the best at Celtic and defined best the current mentality at Celtic. If any victory could be said to have been the decisive one for the league title then it would be have to be this victory. There may be other higher profile examples, but the ethos of the ‘never stop’ mantra can be little bettered than from this pulsating and difficult match that saw the two sides fight out a hard match with Celtic winning by the benefit of a stronger mentality more than all else. The team played together and battled together, with the goals coming in droves.

As for Postecoglou, despite all the sniping from media and annoying questioning, he got on with the job and little complained (platsic pitches), if anything he was careful about any targets.

However, the introduction of VAR into Scottish football turned into a shambles, and tested the patience of Postecoglou to the max.

As for the rivals, Sevco weren’t even within touching distance, with their manager (GVB) sacked after a string of poor results. They had incredibly made the Uefa Cup final last season, but couldn’t replicate that form domestically or in the Champions League group stages.

At the end of this first period to the World Cup break Celtic had amassed a nine point gap over Sevco. It said it all, and a lot to take pride from.

The World Cup in Qatar demonstrated the value of the Postecoglou mantra too, with the teams of the four Celtic players at the competition beating the odds to qualify out of the group stages. Maeda and Juranovic in particular were key players for their sides, and owe a debt to their club manager.

Post World Cup

With the world cup out the way, eyes were on how Celtic were to wrap up the season. With a nine point lead in the league and two Cups still to play for, there was a certain confidence for the upcoming second half of the season.

Problem was that the word was out about transfers. After a stellar World Cup it was obvious that Juranovic was heading out, but Giakoumakis was reported to want to exit too with Abada also on the radar for some wealthy clubs abroad too.

On the field, the break was surprisingly a boost! The players for a change benefitted from the time off and the win record just rolled on and on.

The play improved too, with notably new boy Johnston slotting in brilliantly with no loss from the departure of Juranovic! The defence was little under pressure ably managed by Carter Vickers.

But the real star was Hatate who controlled the midfield and set the tone of the matches. With McGregor, the pair set the tone whilst Kyogo hit the jackpot with an inordinate amount of goals.

You could see across the results, as Celtic dominated the domestic scene. Victories to outsiders appeared to come easily for Celtic but that was more due to the incredible form of the side who were developing strongly.

But one aspect was to hover over all else in Scottish:VAR. The implementation was both applied late yet also rushed, with the end result being a long series of controversial judgments made. Celtic had so many decisions against it was concerning, with thankfully Postecoglou even coming out publicly to slam the system. Unsurprisingly, Sevco had vast majority of decisions in their favour. The authorities tried to bat away accusations of bias, but the evidence was hard to argue against. It clearly marked Scottish football down but there was no turning back with VAR.

Celtic carried on as from before the break, but Sevco under their new manager Michael Beale was clearly making some progress, matching Celtic for points against the rest of the league sides but not goals so remaining stubbornly still well behind Celtic.

The only notable stutter was a two each draw away at Ibrox in December, but little else to be concerned about. If anything, with Celtic fighting back to grasp a draw at the death of this match, it further proved the mantra of “we never stop” was in practice by the players.

What sealed the season and put an end to any hopes for Sevco was the 2-1 league cup final victory by Celtic which was more comprehensive than the scoreline suggests. A further victory over Sevco in the league a week later proved that there was truly only one side truly at the top this season. The later Scottish Cup semi final victory just reinforced Celtic’s dominance.

Celtic’s victory over Sevco at Celtic Park was played in front of a no away fans crowd which was to the detriment of the tribilism of the game. Sevco may have started the spat but for the best of the game, away fans must be allowed back at both grounds.

One measure to the success was the arguments over who was the best player that season with those supporting CCV, Hatate and Kyogo all having strong cases. Many others also deserved praise, especially McGregor as captain. It reflected the incredible job that Postecoglou was doing at Celtic.

One humorous moment was when the Celtic fans anti monarchy chants, for the upcoming Royal Coronation, at the Scottish Cup semi final went viral globally (match won one nil by Celtic)! Another viral success was musician Ellie Dixon doing a cover of a song for Jota! It all brought the club a lot of new admirers.

The most befitting point for Postecoglou was likely winning the league title at Hearts away, as having won the league title back to back was an incredible achievement, especially taking in that it was at Tynecastle where he opened his account with a frustrating defeat which initially signalled little light ahead.

A reality check came after a three nil defeat to Sevco away in an admittedly dead rubber game in the league in May 2023. Playing some reserve players, it was clear that the talk by certain Celtic fans on the squad was hyperbole with various players on the day not giving a good case for themselves (e.g. Kobayashi). Maybe Postecoglou got too over confident with the team he sent out, but a lesson learnt. Finally, better to have found out now, in an essentially meaningless end of season game, than in the first week of the Champions league group stages.

Celtic’s reserves didn’t give a good case for themselves when played in a few end of season matches which was a concern, most notably including a 4-2 defeat to Hibs away. It highlighted some issues but nothing that would derail the first team.

Celtic wrapped up the League season with a comprehensive 5-0 win with doubles from Kyogo and Oh in front of a party atmosphere, with a major jamboree down the Trongate.

The Scottish Cup final was needed to cement the dominance of Celtic, and having swatted aside all sides on route to the final (including defeating Sevco in the semi final), Celtic were to play second tier Inverness CT in the final. This was the one domestic trophy that Ange had yet to get the his hands on, so there was as much for him as there was for the club to win this title.

Postecoglou had achieved the most important target of the season, winning the league title, and he was deserving of all the praise that came with it. He had fashioned the side in his own way, but he had also adapted his managerial and playing philosophy as could be seen from the tactical changes from the initial matches under him. The first team were now more patient and playing the long game, with many teams getting stung late on by Celtic. The players were happy and the progress was there for all to see. The fanbase was clearly invigorated.

As was the norm by this time, it meant repeatedly being linked to roles down south, especially as the number of chopping and changing managers had reached epidemic levels. The vacant Spurs role was always going to be tempting, and coincidentally he was in consideration along with ex Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers (sacked recently by Leicester). Few felt he’d take that role as it was a poisoned chalice for many other managers, with reports that others had already turned the offer down.

The media and opposition fans had sneered and mocked his appointment, but now were praying for his departure.

It’s been such a great season that we might have been becoming a bit complacent at times late on in the season, perhaps even with some feeling as if we could win just by showing up. That’s ridiculous and arrogant, and hubris will always chopped down the over confident. It’s not a Celtic trait and best avoided.

The season also showed that Celtic under Postecoglou were not yet the complete package. The first 11 were excellent, but take away a few key players, especially in defence, and Celtic looked too open and lacking in physicality. The manager needs to strengthen in the summer, albeit there will also be unwelcome transfers away of some key names too.

Still room for development, with notably some transfers struggling or failing. Abildgaard (loan cut early), Ideguchi, Bernabei and Kobayashi were not adapting well to date, and so a rethink was needed. Various youngsters were also completely lost or sidelined, incuding Welsh and Lawal. Nobody out on loan was proving that on their return that they would be of value to Celtic on field.

Despite the high notes domestically, a word of caution. This season can also be seen to be a landmark turning point for the global game and all sport. The dominance in sport of the oil money backed Man City winning a European Cup, League and Cup treble has changed the landscape of the game (for the worse). The last era which began around the start of Champions League era, has now likely ended with the old sugar daddies being trumped by petrodollar states, a kind of hyper-capitalism with some sport-washing thrown in. How Celtic, with far less resources, can even attempt to keep in touch, is a daunting question, and likely heralds a depressing future for the game for clubs away from the top table.

This all came to a head and startling realisation when Postecoglou left soon after the completion of the treble.

Leaving Celtic (June 2023)

In what was a quick turnaround post-season, Ange Postecoglou opted to take the vacant Spurs managerial role in the EPL. As one of the richest clubs in their league, it was too big an offer to easily refuse. Postecoglou had hinted in emotional terms about his journey at Celtic and it was clear that moving to Spurs was a big decision he was making. As he put it:

“Let’s not beat around the bush, I was a joke when I was appointed. A lot of people made fun of my appointment. But the supporters, for their own reasons just put their collective arms around me and said no, he’s one of ours.”

The Celtic support had to take in the decision swiftly, but at least he was not leaving Celtic in the lurch like Brendan Rodgers had done so. Celtic were in an infinitely better position than the day he had arrived. There was still so much to achieve at Celtic (especially in Europe), but financial offers such as the one from Spurs were ones that for most can come only once in a lifetime.

We were all going to miss him. He’d far exceeded all expectations and helped return the respect to the club. We wished him the best.

The problem was though as he was the man who had brought stability back to Celtic, what now with him gone? It left the club under a cloud but we all had to move on.