I genuinely don’t know what it is with these pundits and their timings for criticising Celtic players.
Throughout the whole of their coverage of Sunday’s cup final and even after the win, Clyde 1 pundit, Hugh Keevins was lambasting Hoops defender Carl Starfelt. Yes, the big Swede didn’t have the best of games, but for the last couple of months, he has been a rock in the centre of Celtic’s defence with Cameron Carter Vickers.
It really is astonishing how pundit’s mind works.
Another one that doesn’t have time for the big Swede, is former Celtic midfielder Davie Provan.
Provan takes every opportunity on The Go Radio Football Show to dismiss the qualities of Starfelt and even after a cup win, he couldn’t help but lambast him after the final whistle, “I think they’ve got to go and get another proper striker in case Kyogo gets injured. He needs help up front.
“They certainly need a centre back. Starfelt, for me, is not up to it.
“If they get a proper centre forward, another centre back and another number 10 type, they won’t be far away [from a title winning side].
“I would have Bitton instead of Starfelt. I know he plays in a back three for Israel and a lot of the time he is spare but I still just think Starfelt is is not up to it.
“Sometimes you’ve got to be truthful in this job and you’ve got to be hard on on players and I just haven’t seen anything and Starfelt to suggest is a proper Celtic centre back.
“I think Bitton, even though his best position is probably a screen in front, I still think I’d have him in a minute as left centre back.”
To suggest he would have Bitton in the centre of defence shows you one of two things.
Davie hasn’t been paying attention to the big Israeli’s performances when he is playing in the middle of the park or he is so completely entrenched in his views about Starfelt, hes has completely forgotten how hopeless Bitton is in defence.
The recent attacks on Starfelt by the pundits are completely harsh and unnecessary. But the Celtic fans are not daft. We know what we have seen over the last few months from both of these players.
Don’t let the pundits try and tell you otherwise.
Got to agree with the both of them, Starfelt is competent at best, at worst a disaster. If you have been paying attention then you would have noticed how good he was in the first half against Hearts, that changed when he was up against a physical forward. His heading of the ball has to be questioned, he jumps like a puppet with the strings cut, not for me I’m afraid.
Provan is absolutely spot on about one thing! Sometimes you have to be truthful in his job.
However he clearly doesn’t practice what he’s preaching!
The truth is that Provan is for some reason very anti-Celtic, and bitter against the club that made him famous as a player.
They stood by him and paid him well while he was out for a very long spell with Mono!
But when he returned and the club decided he was going to be made available for transfer, he disregarded all of the support the club had given him and has had the knives out ever since.
Maybe he needs to be truthful about that before any Celtic fan will respect him again.
In his prime, a great player but had used up his shelf life when released. Like nicholas, he thinks the club owe him.
Neither one has much respect from fans with their constant anti-Celtic campaign.
So yes Davie, sometimes you “just have to be honest in this job” try it sometime!
Shouldn’t you be honest all of the time Davie ?,but then that would mean…….. telling the truth!! Heaven forbid!!
The negative comments about Starfelt are exaggerated. His attacking headers were off target and can surely be improved- coaches please see to it. He was bamboozled twice in the game seconds apart by one of the best forwards in the SPFL an d one quite a number of fans think Celtic should buy. Does a defender have to win every one on one? It doesn’t happen anywhere. And he gives as good as he gets so he’s o pushover.
So far, Starfelt is generally the weak link…He could have lost Celtic the final…theRangers will not have missed this…Provan is not great but I agree with everything he says here…
I think provan is bang on .starfelt is not celtic class he’s too slow he’s not physical enough he’s knocked off the ball to easily from what I’ve seen I do not believe he is good enough to be a celtic player