Frosty atmosphere at Celtic as Mark Venus admits fans were right to boo team

THE snow has all but cleared from the Campsie Hills behind the Celtic training centre, but if the thaw will allow their Active Nation Scottish Cup fourth-round tie against Morton to finally go ahead at Cappielow tonight, conditions remained decidedly frosty at Lennoxtown yesterday.

• Assistant manager Mark Venus admitted Celtic's performance against Falkirk on Saturday was not good enough. Picture: SNS

These are testing times for Tony Mowbray and his coaching staff. Fresh from Saturday's 1-1 draw at home to Falkirk, which saw them slip nine points behind Rangers, Celtic suffered another blow when it was revealed Ki Sung-Yueng will be out for the rest of the month with an ankle injury.

The South Korean midfielder's debut against Falkirk was one of the few encouraging aspects for Celtic supporters on a day when Mowbray's team took their tally of dropped points for the campaign to 19 in as many games and were jeered from the field at full-time.

Assistant manager Mark Venus, who was delegated media duties by Mowbray ahead of tonight's potentially hazardous assignment in Greenock, admitted he would have joined the chorus of disapproval had he been in the stands.

"If you draw with the bottom of the league team at home, I'd be booing as well," said Venus.

During a fractious 20-minute session with reporters, for which he had little enthusiasm, Venus contrived to be both illuminating and unhelpful in equal measure.

While Celtic fans fulminate over the club's failure to take advantage of Rangers' financial crisis, Venus cast doubt on the level of resources available to reshape the squad. He offered the view Gary Caldwell has advanced his career by moving from Celtic to Wigan Athletic and insisted the fee paid to recruit Jos Hooiveld from AIK Stockholm was considerably less than the 1.9million reported. As for Celtic being linked with a loan move for Arsenal defender Philippe Senderos, Venus stated the Swiss international's name is not one which has been discussed by the management team.

"I haven't talked with the manager about Senderos," said Venus. "But then every footballer we sign, I don't talk with him. So it's a name put on the back of a paper which I don't know basically." Asked if Mowbray does not seek his opinions on potential new signings, Venus replied: "He does, yeah, but not all the time. I don't speak with him about every name in the paper. I haven't spoken about Senderos to him. Listen, I think we have got lists of footballers. I'm not sure whether he (Senderos] was on it or not."

It was then put to Venus that it may have made more sense for Celtic to retain Caldwell's services until the end of the season.

"The bottom line is that the manager makes decisions," he said. "Gary Caldwell has gone, what do you want me to say? I wish him all the best, he has been an excellent pro for Celtic. I had him at Hibernian, his career has gone forward. I feel a sense of satisfaction that he has gone to a Premier League club and his career is still moving forward."

With Hooiveld ineligible for tonight's tie and lacking in match fitness, the calf injury suffered by captain Stephen McManus on Saturday has further stretched Celtic's defensive resources. It was an increasingly rare start for McManus, whose long-term future appears in doubt, with the acquisition of a left-footed stopper in Hooiveld. Not necessarily, according to Venus, and certainly not because of the Hooiveld fee.

"No, it isn't fair to assume that Hooiveld will be first choice," he said. "How much is the kind of money paid for him? 2million? I don't see that, I think you've got the figures wrong. Nowhere near it. I think you are a million miles off it. You should ask the club how much he signed for.

"The bottom line is Stephen McManus is captain of Celtic. He has got to hold his place down in the team, perform well and keep his jersey. That's what happens at big clubs and I hope he does it."

Having already tasted elimination from the Champions League, Europa League and Co-operative Insurance Cup this season, Celtic simply cannot contemplate Scottish Cup defeat against First Division opposition tonight. Venus was certainly in no mood to recognise the familiar analogy of the tie representing a potential banana skin for Mowbray's men.

"I don't know what a banana skin is," he said. "I think it's something that's left after you have a banana, isn't it?"