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b"The 9iar Chronicles - Season (not) Ten 1974/75

Two Cups - but no Ten-in-a-Row
\\u2022League Position \\u2013 3rd -\\xa0finishing 11pts behind Rangers who won the League\\xa0and 4pts behind Hibernian\\u2028
\\u2022League Cup \\u2013 Winners\\u2028
\\u2022Scottish Cup \\u2013 Winners\\u2028
\\u2022Drybrough Cup - Winners\\u2028
\\u2022European Cup - First Round
\\u2022
Celtic were to miss out on a world record of ten consecutive League championships this season and had to be content with the two domestic cups and the Drybrough Cup in it's last year. This season saw the retirement of\\xa0Billy McNeill\\xa0and the departure on free transfers at the end of the season of the last true veterans of the golden age with the release of\\xa0Jimmy Johnstone\\xa0and\\xa0Jim Brogan. The only remaining Lisbon Lion at the end of the season was\\xa0Bobby Lennox.

Celtic did not travel abroad for any pre-season games this season but used the\\xa0Drybrough Cup\\xa0and domestic friendlies to sort the team out. There was an embarrassing one-off trip to West Germany to play\\xa0Schalke 04\\xa0in Gelsenkirchen which ended in the joint highest defeat under Jock Stein so far. Interest in the Drybrough Cup was faintly raised when the final threw Rangers and Celtic together with the game ending in a draw and Celtic winning the rights to the\\xa0Cup 4-2 on penalties. This was the last season this Cup would be played though it would return in 1979. The performances were somewhat jaded and lacking in enthusiasm one normally expected from a Celtic team but this was put down to a short inter-season lay-off period with the World Cup and Scotland's involvement in that also taking place during the shut down. Added to this would be that Danny McGrain had returned from the World Cup having been diagnosed diabetic.

The\\xa0League Cup\\xa0saw Celtic in Group 4 with Motherwell, Dundee Utd and Ayr Utd. The format had been changed with one team qualifying from each group for the Quarter finals and the rather silly offside rule used in the Drybrough - only being offside beyond the 18 yard box - persisted with even though it was disliked by all. In the\\xa0second game\\xa0Celtic received a shock losing to Ayr Utd. The jaded performances were for real and Jock Stein found himself with three immediate problems :- a goalkeeping crisis, a vulnerable defense and the strike force misfiring. These all needed to be addressed. None could be addressed with immediate effect. Celtic, however, duly put the results together to qualify for the quarter finals with a game in hand in the Group Satge and were drawn against Hamilton Academicals managed by ex-Celt\\xa0Eric Smith. A\\xa02-0 win at home\\xa0followed by a\\xa04-2 away win\\xa0saw them comfortably through to face\\xa0Airdrie in the semi final.\\xa0This was a turgid affair settled by a single goal from Stevie Murray in the second half. Hibernian had also made it through all the way and\\xa0the final\\xa0was a classic Celtic performance with Dixie Deans scoring a hatrick as well as Joe Harper also getting a hatrick and ending on the losing side.

That was one Cup in the bag done and dusted by the end of October. Already Celtic had seen\\xa0George Connelly\\xa0walk out and state that he was quitting football. He did relent and returned to train and eventually win a starting place again in November and December. But the assessment of the team had seen\\xa0Jimmy Quinn,\\xa0Vic Davidson,\\xa0Jimmy Bone\\xa0and\\xa0Andy Lynch\\xa0all told that they could leave on frees. Also by this time Celtic found themselves out of the\\xa0European Cup\\xa0at the first hurdle. A\\xa01-1 draw at home\\xa0achieved after the sending off of an Olympiakos player was not enough and in the flare and smoke of the Athens game Celtic went down\\xa02-0.Olympiakos were an unfancied side and they duly made their own exit at the next round. Was this an indication of European fragility? The side that had won the big cup, made the semi final twice and had been described as European attack masters looked woefully out of sorts.

What happened in the League to lose the tenth successive title is really a continuation of the faults that had been seen at the start of the season being cruelly exposed in the second half in the New Year. By that point\\xa0Ronnie Glavin\\xa0had been signed after much beating around the fee from Partick Thistle. At the age of 23 he had been the Jags captain and leading player as well as a Scotland U-23 cap. Signed in November for a club record of \\xa380,000, Glavin had been a target for a number of clubs and Partick Thistle, under manager and ex-Celt\\xa0Bertie Auld\\xa0were looking to cash in. Glavin arrived to add extra firepower and to help Dalglish who was turning out to be easily the most competent and rounded player in Scotland. After a successful scoring debut he found it not as easy as first thought to fit into the team and in January he found himself dropped as Stein wrestled to find a winning formula again.

The catalyst that started to bring the house tumbling down was the\\xa03-0\\xa0loss to Rangers at Ibrox in January. Celtic did not play too badly but there were too many first team players that failed to hit form and this was worrying. With a further 4 points dropped in the next five games which included dispiriting draws away to\\xa0Arbroath\\xa0and at home to\\xa0Dumbarton. With the goalkeeping crisis much in evidence\\xa0Peter Latchford\\xa0was recruited from West Bromwich Albion. Latchford came up and played in a\\xa0Friendly\\xa0and in wizard time he was duly signed on an initial loan deal and saw out the rest of the season as first choice keeper. At times the support and Jock Stein must have thought what they had taken on as Latchford was prone to the occasional howler and soft goal. But he would develop substantially from this his first season at Celtic. Despite trying everything the crisis could not be averted and Celtic would drop a further 13 points in 10 games to finish third behind Rangers and Hibernian. Needless to say this was a shock to the supporters who had come to see over the last 10 years the Championship as a permanent feature at Celtic Park and the League programme kicking off each season with the raising of a new Championship flag.

The reality was that the flow of players coming through had dried up. Though\\xa0Dalglish\\xa0was without doubt the most accomplished footballer in Scotland he could not do it all by himself. The midfield lacked a David Hay type player. George Connelly, whilst a gifted sweeper and defender as well as having exquisite skill, was now emotionally fragile. McNeill was reaching the end of his career as too was Jim Brogan. Add to that a lack of bite upfront, despite\\xa0Paul Wilson\\xa0having his best season ever, it was more a collective malaise within the strike force that saw them missing chances and playing underpar when before they had been the Green Machine.

The retrieval of the season came with the Scottish Cup winning\\xa03-1\\xa0against Airdrie who were in their first Cup Final since 1928. By this point the League had already been lost so it was with absolute faith that Jock Stein sent them out onto the Hampden pitch knowing that they would return with the cup. At the end of that game Billy McNeill announced his retirement.

If the club felt low at having to bear the loss of the tenth successive League title then they could console themselves with two trophies at least. Things could not get worse. Could they?

Enjoy\\u2026"