As another calendar year of following Celtic draws to a close, it presents the perfect opportunity to look back on a strange year for our club.

Following on from a League Cup win over Rangers in December 2024, Celtic went toe-to-toe with Bayern Munich and were literally seconds away from taking them to extra time in Germany. Sadly, it wasn’t to be; a 94th minute equaliser from Alphonso Davies on the night was enough to see Bayern through.

Still, it was a great performance and until that point, our season was going superbly. We were playing some phenomenal football and despite a meek performance in the New Year derby which led to a 3-0 loss, we looked like we might be progressing on the European stage at the very least.

How wrong I was to think that. To say the wheels came off would be an understatement.

In the remaining 15 games of the season, across all competitions, Celtic won 9 of them. On paper, that’s still decent. Importantly, in those 15 fixtures, Celtic still won the title and progressed to the final of the Scottish Cup. But context is important.

A 2-1 loss away to Hibs four days after our aggregate defeat to Bayern, a 3-2 loss at home to a Rangers side managed by Barry Ferguson, who had previously been sacked by Clyde and Alloa Athletic, a 1-0 loss away to St. Johnstone who at the time were at the bottom of the table, and draws at Ibrox against Rangers and at home to St. Mirren were topped off by losing to Aberdeen on penalties in the Scottish Cup final after going ahead in the first half.

It was a dreadful end to the 2024/25 season, but what was more worrying was the performances. Simply put, the players didn’t look like they could be arsed. Brendan Rodgers didn’t either and it was clear he was failing to motivate the team for big games. The football we were playing was predictable at best. I went into the summer worried, and I’m sure many other Celtic fans did too.

Another underwhelming transfer window rolled on through summer. Then, in late August, came disaster; Celtic were knocked out of the Champions League by Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan. Celtic failed to score in 210 minutes of play against the Kazakh side, and once again, were dumped out of Europe’s premiere competition via a penalty shootout.

Brendan Rodgers, as he has been wont to do throughout his career, refused to take much responsibility and continuously cited the club’s failure to invest in the playing squad as the key factor of our poor form.

I’m a big believer in the concept ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’. This has been indicative of Celtic at board and senior management level for close to 20 years now, and was certainly shown to be the case against Kairat Almaty. It was another case of negligent management.

However, Celtic supporters have been at war with the board over their conservative transfer policy for decades. This is nothing new.

I firmly believe that we had enough in the squad to defeat Kairat, and Brendan Rodgers shifting blame away from himself was a reflection that he was working his ticket. His football had become stale and negative and he had no answers to the growing issues plaguing his style of play.

A draw away to Rangers in one of the worst Old Firms in history was followed by last minute winners against Kilmarnock and Motherwell in the league. Hardly convincing. A 4-0 thumping of Partick Thistle in the League Cup done little to ease the worries of supporters. We also drew away to Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade then pathetically went 2-0 down at home to Braga in the Europa League.

Then, shit started to hit the fan. Celtic lost 2-0 away at Dundee against one of the worst sides the Scottish Premiership will likely ever see. Hearts, enjoying a fantastic run thanks to the analytical intervention of Tony Bloom, were 5 points clear at the top of the table. Our next league match was against Hearts at Tynecastle.

Celtic dispatched Sturm Graz 2-1 at Celtic Park beforehand. The response to going 1-0 down and subsequent goals in the second half were to be commended. To be fair, I did feel like we had turned a corner. Maybe Rodgers wasn’t done after all.

But, at Tynecastle, Celtic collapsed. We went 1-0 down early on thanks to a Dane Murray own goal, but equalised shortly after. In the second half, Hearts took the lead again early on then won a penalty and buried the tie there and then. The final score was 3-1.

Again, it wasn’t the defeat which hurt the most or caused the bulk of my anger and anxiety – it was the manner of the defeats. We were shooting ourselves in the foot constantly and shipping goals all over the park. Cards on the table, we just weren’t a good side.

At this point, we were 8 points off of Hearts with no sign of turning it around. We were in a bad way.

The next day, Brendan Rodgers resigned. No one expected it, and the news shook Scottish football. Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney were appointed on an interim basis. Dermot Desmond, Celtic’s despotic largest shareholder, issued his own statement calling out Rodgers and his behaviour, particularly in media interviews. It was utterly chaotic.

To the credit of our interim management team, things have looked significantly better, with the exception of an awful away performance in Europe against FC Midtjylland. The points gap to Hearts has been reduced to 7, with Celtic having a game in hand, having dispatched Rangers 3-1 after extra time in the League Cup Semi-Final.

At the time of writing, it looks increasingly likely that Wilfried Nancy will be the new Celtic manager. Fan protests continue and the club are in serious need of an overhaul where infrastructure and staff is concerned.

Never a dull moment. Following Celtic in 2025 has been a rollercoaster. Despite the obvious successes, there was a general feeling that something wasn’t quite right and unfortunately that malaise bled into the beginning of the 2025/26 season. We seem to be on the right track now, but time will tell.

2025 has also been the year I decided to give film photography a proper go. I’ve had an on and off relationship with photography for a number of years, but film appeals to me for a number of reasons. While yes, there is still a huge learning curve, there’s a lot less faff than there is with digital cameras.

I’ve had great fun with it so far. While I’ve still got a lot to learn, I’ve honed my skills by going to football fixtures up and down the country to snap some photos. Since I go to Celtic more or less every other weekend, the majority of these photos have been from Celtic games.

I don’t expect to be back at Celtic Park with my camera until the new year while I practice shooting elsewhere, so I figured this was a better time than any to show off some of the photos I’ve taken this year.

Beginning in January and ending in October, here’s Celtic in 2025 on 35mm film.

You can see the rest of my film photos on my Instagram photography account, @_bryceshoots.