Celtic FC Player of the Year 2025/26

CELTIC PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2025/26

*RESULTS FROM GAME #25 CELTIC 1 HEARTS 2 (TIERNEY)*

The first talking point from yesterday emerged at 1.45 pm when the team lines came out, and we saw that Wilfried was going with 3 at the back. It was open to debate as to where the remaining 7 outfield players would be positioned, but at least we were trying something different.
And for the opening 25 minutes, we played some of our best football of this season, mostly in Hearts’ half of the pitch and with some really good intricate close passing movements and triangles. Why we didn’t continue with that approach is the biggest mystery from yesterday, and perhaps muscle memory triumphed over new ideas as we were certainly less adventurous for the remainder of the game.
I’m not in the camp that believes we changed managers at the wrong time. And neither was I disappointed that we changed formation despite having very little training time to prepare for it. Because I do not think that either of those 2 events was directly to blame for our defeat. To me, it’s simpler – we don’t have enough players who are playing anywhere near their best football. There’s no creativity, no one spotting runners, and very few of our passes are played in front of the intended recipient. We simply need all of our players to be giving more than they are currently doing.
And then there’s the atmosphere within the stadium. Now, the boos at the half-time whistle were surely being aimed at the officials who had just allowed what 50,000+ eyes believed was a clearly offside goal. And of course, we all later learned that Arne had indeed played the Hearts attacker onside. But when the 2^nd goal went in, I expected there to be a minute of low grumbles and then a rousing chorus of The Celtic Song or similar. Instead, we had 10 minutes of ‘sack the board’ related chants – how is that meant to encourage the players on the pitch?  And the mass exodus from the stands during the final 10-15 minutes wasn’t very pleasing on the eye either.
The disconnect between the fans and the board has to be sorted as quickly as possible, with proper discussions and a willingness to listen and learn from both sides. Or we could get to a point where it’s too late to repair.
And finally, the other notable feature from yesterday, game 25 of the season, was that it is the first time that we have decided to only use 13 players. 20 of our games have seen 5 substitutions, 3 games where we used 4 and 1 game where we used 3.

We have now played 25 games, and have won 14, drawn 6 and lost 5. We have scored 43 goals and conceded 21.
 
As for the voting numbers, it’s a significant drop off from recent games, but my sincere thanks to the 74 who did take the time to nominate 3 players, which (given that we lost) generates another £3 donation to CHAS.

The total votes cast for each player are as follows, with my own nominations asterisked. For this game, I’ve listed the players in a 3-5-1-1 formation despite not being entirely convinced that that’s what it was!

Schmeichel: 1
Trusty*: 43
Scales: 10
Tierney: 65
Yang*: 36
Nygren: 0
McGregor*: 46
Engels: 9
Tounekti: 0
Hatate: 2
Maeda: 8
McCowan: 0
Kenny: 2
Unused substitutes: Balikwisha, Bernardo, Donovan, Iheanacho, Murray, Ralston, Sinisalo

And so, the POINTS earned by each player for the Hearts game are as follows -  
25 points: Tierney
22 points: McGregor
19 points: Trusty
16 points: Yang
14 points: Scales
12 points: Engels
11 points: Maeda
10 points: Hatate and Kenny
8 points: Schmeichel
6 points: McCowan, Nygren and Tounekti
1 point: Balikwisha, Bernardo, Donovan, Iheanacho, Murray, Ralston, Sinisalo

This is NOT an Official Celtic FC POTY Choice.

CELTIC FC PLAYER OF THE YEAR