Brendan Rodgers’ team had their worst performance of the season and were captives to fate in the Scottish Cup Final.
In yesterday’s Scottish Cup Final, Aberdeen’s Jimmy Thelin received personal redemption while Celtic’s Brendan Rodgers was denied a personal distinction.
The Swede experienced the predictable blowback when the Dons dropped to fifth in the final Premiership table last weekend after four defeats in a succession, including a humiliating humiliation at home to Celtic.
Yesterday’s forecast predicted an unsightly tin lid to be placed on a perplexing season of mood swings for the boss.
A rampaging Celtic side was hoping for a single win to cap off a string of outstanding performances.
Celtics like to believe that they are linked with the creation of history. On this time, they were the architects of their own demise.
Rodgers’ side delivered their worst effort of the season while also being held prisoner by fate.
If things could go wrong, it did for a team who squandered a triple owing to their own ineptitude. An own goal by Kasper Schmeichel cost them the game in regulation time.
Player of the Year Daizen Maeda had a poor miss, and when captain Calum McGregor missed the first penalty of the shoot-out at Celtic’s end, the hand of fate was all over the game.
But nothing can take away from the Dons’ determination, as evidenced by the flawless execution of the four penalties they converted.
A defeat may have raised doubts about Thelin’s future. A victory elevates him into the immortal category. Jimmy can now clear his schedule for May 2060 at Aberdeen’s Music Hall.
That’s where they had a night on Thursday to commemorate the Dons’ last Scottish Cup Final victory, which came against Celtic in 1990.
They dubbed it the Legends Return, implying that yesterday’s side would be given the same respect.
Celtic, and Rodgers in particular, must deal with a performance at the National Stadium that was a dereliction of duty.
On the day Celtic won the league, Rodgers admitted that few people knew him and even fewer understood him.
However, no unique perceptual abilities are required to understand exactly what is going through his head right now.
This should have been the moment Rodgers became the first Celtic manager to win three Trebles. The day the club celebrated a world record-breaking ninth Treble, six in the previous nine years.
The Dons may have defied logic and reason to win, but Celtic succumbed to their own complacency in finishing second.
By the league’s end of play, the champions were 39 points ahead of Aberdeen. Celts scored 19 goals against them in league and cup matches this season, five of which came from a makeshift team Rodgers selected for a game at Pittodrie ten days ago.
Sir Alex Ferguson, the greatest Aberdeen and Scottish manager of all time, once referred to complacency as a “disease” in football.
Rodgers’ hatred of complacency was undoubtedly forged on the night, 11 years ago, when he led his Liverpool team to face Crystal Palace with their Premier League title aspirations on the line.
On May 3, 2014, with three goals up and 11 minutes to play, his team managed to allow three, and a tie marked the start of his nightmare. For Selhurst Park, substitute Hampden Park. Rodgers has been heartbroken in both places.
And now the post-mortem begins to determine the cause of posterity’s catastrophic collapse. Rodgers must rebuild to face the challenge of a Rangers team that will be reinvigorated following their 49ers Enterprise takeover.
Dermot Desmond, Celtic’s main stakeholder, will not have been pleased with yesterday’s debacle. Reputations have been called into question, as has the appropriateness of some players in the future. There is no divine right to win.
But, at the same time, there must be safeguards in place to prevent, statistically speaking, an inferior side from overwhelming the one with immortality in their grip.
Unprecedented sums in the bank provide Celtic the finances to rebuild the team on the pitch.
Aberdeen revealed the flaws in Rodgers’ team. Celtic fans will now wait for action while trying to control their rage.
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