Former Celt Greg Taylor popped up on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard last night making his debut in their ‘beat the pundit’ challenge, you can watch that below…
And the former Celtic left-back, who left the club last summer after six trophy laden seasons, to join Greek club PAOK, has been watching intently from afar as Celtic struggled throughout much of what was a turbulent season with three sets of management staff in charge of the team.
Key figures pulled Celtic over the line
However Taylor never lost faith that with the core of the team led by the likes of Callum McGregor, James Forrest and Kieran Tierney, the Hoops could still emerge with the title – even if it ended up being much closer than is usually the case.
“For long parts of the season it probably was not what the fans have been used to, or what the players have been used to,” Greg Taylor admitted as he looked back at what was an incredibly eventful season at a troubled Paradise.
“I don’t think you can argue who deserves it”
However when the business end of the season arrived, the challengers showed that they didn’t have the guys to grab the glory while Celtic returned to being a lethal winning machine taking 21 points from the final seven Scottish Premiership matches to get our noses in front with 87 minutes played in the final match of the Scottish Premiership campaign.
Taylor continued on Super scoreboard: “Any team to win seven games in a row to win a league, I don’t think you can argue who deserves it in that situation. The mentality within the group, and speaking earlier, guys like Callum and James and Kieran now carried the boys over the line in the end.”
“I’d be lying if I said throughout the season I thought it was a foregone conclusion that Celtic would win the league”
And while that might have been a surprise to some it certainly wasn’t to the former Celtic stalwart.
“I wasn’t shocked,” Taylor admitted. “I think I’d be lying if I said throughout the season I thought it was a foregone conclusion that Celtic would win the league.
“There were definitely points near the end where Hearts were on a strong run that you maybe thought it wasn’t going to be the season we’d hoped for. But in the end, as I said, to put that run together, the big players, we spoke about that for Scotland, they were going to be vital.
“And the big players for Celtic, getting Alistair Johnston back fit, Daizen hitting form at the right time, I think these were key moments in a very key part of the season.”
One of the many reasons that Celtic did struggle during the season was the loss of form for talisman Daizen Maeda who was denied an agreed transfer window move to Bundesliga side Wolfsburg, primarily due to the boardroom failings in the summer 2025 transfer window, which left us without a recognised striker.
“I don’t think it could all be down to Daizen not having his best run of form”
And to make matters worse, the Celtic Board went ahead with the sale of Irish International striker Adam Idah, seeing the £7.5m on offer from Swansea as too good to refuse. Perhaps it more a mystery that Daizen did re-discover his mojo at all rather than losing it in the first place.
“I think in a difficult part of the season for not just Daizen, that was everyone within the building, whether it was staff or players. So I don’t think it could all be down to Daizen not having his best run of form,” Taylor said.
“He’s been a real key, consistent, top performer”
The former Celt continued: “But he found it at the key part of the season, and he’s been a real key, consistent, top performer.
“Even if he’s not been finding the goals or finding the assists at different moments in the game, his pressing and his relentless energy have been a key component of a strong Celtic team throughout the years.”
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1 Comment
Our team last season, was defined by moments, and the biggest moments tended to come very late in matches?
That’s what eventually secured another double winning season, everything else is nothing more than a smokescreen imo?
Our overall play as a team, has to improve massively, which hopefully will help, if we can form better squad stability, moreso than having such an injury list in operation?
Hence, we need a stronger overall squad, where there is competition for the starting position within a line-up, with the rotational option available, within such a packed and hectic footballing calendar in operation these days imo?
International players could be looking at another 60 odd matches again next season, and this on the back of, being involved within a world cup at present?
Far to many matches, if the quality of player is as big as it can tend to be, between 1st and 2nd choice player’s imo?
Even when Maeda did eventually return to form, he was still required to do a duel role within a match?
That’s more down to not having the players within our attacking areas, but getting a better form of stability within our squad eventually?
We can continue to play the blame game as much as we like, but no planning for any given season, would have involved, what did actually occur last season imo?
So as a club, still think that we need to be far better prepared for the unforseen within the planning process, than trying to place the blame, especially as we don’t actually know what goes on behind the scenes imo?
But a better playing attitude should help matters, as was questionable from so many, at various points throughout last season, which hardly makes managerial decisions any easier, with testing squad spirit, depth and quality at the same time?
If there was ever a time to learn and improve upon events of last season, then that time is now?
As don’t believe our club needs another season with so many moments within it, and as much as the good moments were glorious, there was still plenty that we don’t want to endure again imo?