Any thoughts that Celtic would be taking tonights game less than seriously were dispelled by the manager when he showed how much Celtic meant to him, and reminded us what it means to us.
We have to do what we do in our world. We will never be able to do this here.
“That is why people will think it is wrong in football. It is modern football in every format.
“But Celtic have something a lot of clubs don’t have – a rich history, a support and a fanbase a lot of clubs don’t have.
“It is the big challenge we have but it is a challenge we are progressing on.
“Speak about PSG in 20 years’ time. This is the formation now of a club that has investment and clearly want to be winners. Can they sustain that over time?
“If you are talking big, iconic clubs and for me a big club has history, support, fanbase and all that. Celtic has all that but we don’t have anywhere near the finances of a club like PSG.”
“You can’t buy history, it is winning trophies, winning titles.
Here, if you think about PSG, you look and it is arguably the most exciting front three in world football.
“But to back that up you have to win trophies and sustain that success over many games. Then you get the kids and people supporting you because that is what naturally happens in any sport.
“Los Angeles Lakers were popular because they were winning. Liverpool, a big support all over the world because they won five European Cups.
Fair enough, he started to labour the point a bit, but what a point to make.
And although its fine to tell PSG they can’t buy what we have, we could at least have listened to their offer..
In fact, we should listen to any offers for anything…and indeed, maybe we have…
Money can’t buy you love, respect or history, and its why no matter what happens tonight , we’ll still be Celtic .
But there’s no harm in having a few quid extra in the bank, for a rainy day.
Will he spring a bit of a surprise tonight and go 3-5-2 ? Or even 5-3-2 ?
There may be a clue here… with both Griffiths and Dembele fit, maybe they’ll both start…
It is perfect,”
“We wouldn’t want it any other way.
“When you are a manager you need that competition, two players who have different qualities.
“I know if I play one I will get a certain type of game than when I play the other but what I can get from both is goals.
“Leigh has shown his qualities in the Champions League qualification already and away in Anderlecht when he scored his goal (in the 3-0 win).
“Moussa showed it last season and will want to show it this season as well so both players are very important.
“I have a young player on loan from Paris St Germain who has hardly featured, Odsonne Edouard, which is unfortunate for him because he has been working very hard and very well in training but – because of the performance level of the two other players – it has been difficult for him.”
No one has cored against PSG yet in this seasons UCL, but the last time someone did they fell apart and lost six goals. Granted that was Barcelona, but if that shocked the French side into disarray, imagine what would happen if Celtic scored first. They’d freeze.
Of course, any kind of good result in Paris would be as much of a bonus as it is unlikely, but a good performance will keep us feeling that we are making progress.
This is only our second run in the tournament under Rodgers, and so far we’ve faced four of the top six teams on the continent. We may be miles behind them in qulity, but we need to learn we can more than match them in spirit.
A little more aggression, and a little less respect would be all I ask…
Only Tony Ralston is missing from the squad who travelled to the French capital, which makes this the strongest Celtic have been thus far.
It might well be closer than many think.
Brazilian winger Neymar offered an olive branch to the Celtic support, who have removed him from their christmas card list..
“It is a question I am asked if I have a problem with Celtic and there is no problem. We had a game where it was intense, but that was many years ago now.
“I am used to being on the end of some rough treatment. All I can do is trust the referees to do their job.
“For me, this game is nothing personal, it’s just business. Just a chance to get three points.
“It is always good to win big as we did in Scotland, but the most important thing is we get the win.
“We have a 100 per cent record in the Champions League this season in what is a very strong group and against Celtic we want that record to continue.”
Personally, I hope he sets fire to his danglies in his hotel room and the maid outs them out with a shovel.
Elsewhere, and the John James site has published an extract from Craig whytes new book, called True Blue Treachery.
According to the Evening times, in what looks like a massive publicity stunt for the book, Whyte is furious.
The Sun has jumped on the bandwagon as well, with a few titbits from the book, but in actual fact, thus far, there’s nothing we didn’t already know.
However, it does make interesting reading, not for the content, but for the fact its out there.
It could be a very important part of the jigsaw that when completed will lead to the cleansing of Scottish football.
Even if its just a rehash of the Charlotte Fakeover tapes and other information that was scattered around the interweb its still important that its been collected and put out to the public.
Thats if that is the case. Reading between the lines one wonders if the whole stunt has been arranged to try and secure a publisher, bearing in mind the lack of establishment enthusiasm for getting to anything remotely resembling the truth about Whytes Ibrox tenure.
And the events before and after.
As ever, JJ bemoans lack of contributions to his site, and kind of spoils the effect with another of his appeals for donations, which in turn affects his credibility a little.
Surely he would have negotiated a cut from the book sales ?
But that may be a little churlish on my part.
Although all of what I’ve seen so far has been out there in some shape or form previously, this book is important in that it gathers it and puts it out in someones name.
Which could well blow the lid off all the guilty men -from Ibrox to the SFa to the SPFL and the media clowns who ignored it when it was happening.
I’d go so far as to say , that if it exosts and if it is accurate, it could be the most important book in scottish football history.
And as a bonus, it will really piss the fat controller off, as he’s apparently working on his own version of events.
Which, of course, he can’t publish while he’s still taking their shilling.
Elsewhere, and this makes me worried, a survey of Scottish police officers has revealed that just under two thirds of them want guns… ( From the Scotsman)
A major survey of more than 4,200 officers carried out by the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) found that 64 per cent were in favour of such a move in the wake of recent terrorist attacks.
At this point, it should have been asked which particular terrorist attacks Police Scotland had faced.
It also showed that around an eighth of officers believe their existing protective equipment – which includes batons, handcuffs and body armour – is “ineffective” against criminals.
Thats probably because they can’t follow the intstructions.
The routine arming of police gained the most support among younger officers, who are more likely to be working in response roles, with 73 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds backing the change.
One police officer is reported as saying he wants “one like what he has got on his playstation so he can sort the perps and their hoes out “
These idiots should be nowhere near a police uniform, let alone guns.
After a weekend where supporters buses were stalked in case one of their passengers had a can of beer or two by a force which left a young couple dying in a ditch some time back because they couldn’t be arsed looking for them, then its clear that under no circumstances should they be given weapons.
In fact, the very desire to have a gun to offset their feelings of being unsafe means that we have a seriosu problem within our police force, and I’d be calling for an inquiry as to why they are looking for an easy way out instead of looking to improve their own capability to do the job.
Can you imagine the carnage with inexperienced and less than confident officers carrying guns at a football match ?
The police lowered their entrance requirements a few years ago, abd for personal reasons, I went on their assessment course. Apart from having a few blots on my record, I passed all the tests.
They turned me down, and quite rightly so.
But the initial tests were laughably easy, and I was astonished to see that around half a dozen failed even those.
The standard of candidate wasn’t high, myself included, both mentally and physically, and the low pay and poor conditions was probably a factor.
Thats where improvements need to be made.
Not by giving these daft bastards a gun.
Yesterdays picture..
One winner…
Caption: ‘ Get the Bricks out now ‘
and one mentioned in despatches…
Caption…….
Somewhere inside Murray park, chief (snigger) transfer maker and shaker is scalded by old cross eyes himself on a conference call from S.Africa and it went something like this. ‘ I said sell some of these PRICKS’
Today…