It was nice to read of the Rotherham United and Ipswich Town fans doing a touching tribute to Barry Elliot aka Barry Chuckle at the weekends game.
On the 73rd minute, half the fans shouted “To ME!” and the other half shouted “To YOU!” in the style of the brothers act.
A truly lovely touch.
Sadly, Celtic has its own version of that going on and it isnt touching, funny or welcome.
At present, we seem to have Brendan saying “Peter..To You!” and passing him a list of targets for signing.
Peter then exclaims “To Me?” and the signings subsequently fall by the wayside and everyone groans in despair bar the laughing media and opposition fans.
Im aware folk will be reading this and already be sighing and suggesting any or all of the following:
- How do you know whats going on?
- Why do you believe the Scottish Press?
- There’s still time for signings!
The answer to the above is
- I dont
- I dont
- I know but dont care
The reason I am so angry and disappointed is we have been down this road before. Many many times.
Different managers, different Board members, same old outcome.
Every time we have a position of strength, every time we have money in the bank, every time we have opportunity to press home an advantage.
We fuck it up.
Pure and simple.
The way i currently see it?
We’ve fucked it, yet again.
To quote Donald Arsefelt..lets consider the known knowns –
- We knew Brendan Rodgers had asked for Quality signings.
- We knew the World Cup was coming, which reduces the chances of truly great signings. Fair enough but we arent in that market, we are in the market for players who didnt make the World Cup so that excuse is gone.
- We knew some of our players would be going to the World Cup..all defenders…an area we knew needed strengthening.
- We knew the Champions League qualifiers were going to be early and more demanding this season.
- We knew Scott Brown had an injury. We knew Dembele had an injury.
- We knew we had money in the bank and funds available. Everybody including selling clubs knew this of course. We knew they knew this.
So what did we do this summer?
- We sold Stuart Armstrong to Southampton generating millions in profit.
- We lost 2 of our seasoned defenders to their teams being in final play off stages of World Cup
- We started our Champions League campaign with a Right back who we wouldn’t even consider for a full season last year.
- We decided to change tactics to play 2 up front. Then promptly suffered another injury to our injury prone star striker.
- We lost our new winger to injury.
- We have our “best” defender now refusing to play as wants to exit following 3 decent World Cup group performances.
- We brought back a 32 years old as a free back up for our over used left back.
- We bid low for John McGinn. We refused to meet asking price in initial talks and then openly tried to play the blackmail\long emotional game. We then cried wolf when Aston Villa dared to come in 3 weeks later and sign the attacking forceful midfielder who had played 100 times for Hibs, winning 2 major honours and 9 Scotland caps.
- We see all attention before CL home tie being devoted to the clumsy pursuit of John McGinn.
- While Celtic face AEK Athens, McGinn signs for Villa.
- We let in a stupid goal against a team playing their first game of the season.
- Despite being down to 10 men, Athens easily hold out Celtic for a 1-1 draw, handing advantage to the Greek side.
- Athens goal comes when our World Cup returning right back failed to block a cut back and our midfielder turned centre half couldnt clear a ball up the park.
- The same midfielder turned centre half now banned for return leg forcing Jozo and Hendry to be a new untried pairing in key game.
- Manager spends all week talking about differences with the Board and has to deny that he was issuing ultimatums.
- Celtic travel to Tynecastle, a ground notorious for combative football and a hard place to play. Manager picks a skeleton side and his tactics duly baffle players and support.
- Defensive pairing of Jozo and Hendry given game time at Tynecastle. Not one player in a Celtic jersey turns up in a truly shameful display as Celtic lose 1-0.
- 1 hour after Celtic failed to turn up at Tynecastle, McGinn capped his Villa debut with a vital assist.
- Celtic travel to play in Athens to play in 30 degree heat needing to score more goals than Athens, a team lauded for its defensive qualities.
- Up front it seems Celtic will have to rush back Moussa Dembele in attack
Now I have seen folk saying after that Hearts performance, or lack off, “Its just one game..we shall be fine”.
Im sorry but I dont want to think losing to Hearts is okay or “its just an off day!”.
I want Celtic to be ruthless. I want to see folk like the the thuggish Steven Naismith shamed into submission. I want to see folk like Craig Levein being laughed at.
I want Celtic to be on top of their game in every game.
I want the players up for the challenge of competition both from opponents and from quality team mates.
I want a Director of Scouting getting his finger out and ensuring signings are identified months in advance and interest made known.
I want a Manager confident he is being backed and asking for real quality not just hopeful punts.
I want a Board concentrating on the football side fort and foremost, not lights, not hotels, not penny pinching when money is available and being generated by the team, manager and lets not forget, us the fans!
So there we go, basically i think its been another preseason of total fuck-uppery. We are worse off squad wise and really need to steady the ship before we head into Autumn.
While the Board and management arent ensuring all success in all areas, then we clearly have problems.
We now have Celtic travelling to Athens on a wing and a prayer.
Many folk are still optimistic. I for one am not. I hope i am wrong but this whole shambolic summer has really made us look disjointed from top to bottom.
I havent seen much of Celtic this season to suggest we can go there and get the result needed. Sure we had a decent 20 minutes against AEK at home but I haven’t forgotten how bad we can get away from home, especially when inder pressure. Brendan has to rally his troops and pick the perfect tactics.
Our best hope..and that says it all that Im considering “hope”…is that Athens sit back and keep it tight. Our best hope may have been a set piece but we have no Boyata to get on the end of those high balls so may have to hop for a direct free kick.
We are where we are and can only move forward.
Whatever way it goes Tuesday, theres a lot of folk at Celtic who need to look at themselves and ask are they doing everything they can to ensure success, from Principal Shareholders, The Board, Scouts, Management team, Players, Squad players. Time for them to start pulling and pushing in the same direction.
I dont see what else us fans can do, we have backed the side every step of the way, where we lead, others now must follow.
DESIMOND
Wow. And aye.
Very succinctly put Desi.
We were bullied on Saturday plain and simple , by a team of thugs and journeymen who will no doubt go missing again for the next 11 games.
Ive seen this movie too may times before , I think its about time for a new CEO and change of direction ?
Agree with all of this. When oh fucking when are the board going to wake up?
Great piece Ralph. I was there Saturday and am still peeved regarding that performance although I did think Hayes was very good despite being assaulted several times in the 60 minutes he was on. Sinclair was showing flashes of old as he had done when coming on against AEK as he was trying to go past players and I also believe Hendry had one of his best performances for us.
I’ve no idea what our tactics were as it looked like the players had been picked and told game plan was to do whatever the hell they wanted confusing Gordon know end as he’d either hold onto ball for far too long or just pass it up to their goalkeeper.
Hearts are a bunch of cloggers whose sole aim appeared to be to injure and maim. The lanky prick up front should have been off within 10 minutes having had 3 dangerous sliding tackles. Naismith having seen the SFA overturn the red for another wanker the previous week decide to add that to his game and got away with it twice.
Beaton showing levels of ineptitude associated with grade 1 referees.
But we can moan and complain that they aren’t a football team. However, they played to their limited strengths and we as fans know Tynecastle is a battle, the atmosphere there is vile and we have to be on our game all the time.
I’m hopeful for tomorrow for two reasons:
1. The players despite this being only 2 league games and 5 Euro qualifiers in take it as a wake up call that they can’t sit back and have to fight on all fronts.
2. Under Rodgers they’ve always raised there game when it matters.
Despite Saturday’s result I refuse to be overtaken by negativity so early in the season.
We are all pissed off about losing McGinn who I doubt we may now ever see in the Hoops as there was a player who actually looks and plays like Broony’s natural successor. A player whose work ethic is everything Brendan wants.
McGinn is gone, we have to move on.
Let’s focus on tomorrow and keep the faith.
Hail Hail.
MAKE THAT THE AGENDA FOR THE NEXT MEETING BETWEEN THE BOARD AND BRENDAN. WELL SAID
I agree with many of the things that you want. Do you know what I want? to be able to access the site without fecking resource limit reached popping up every time.
Back to footballing matters
Can we beat AEK? Yes, but it’s going to be tough and extremely difficult but if I’m honest with myself we’ll just fall short.
Do we need to sign players? by fuck we do
Do we need to sort out the alleged rift between BR and PL? immediately.
There needs to be something done to instill confidence back to the players, I suspect the non footballing matters are affecting them.
I was on the hordes filthy sites and they think we’re done and that they’ll get a result at CP on the 2nd. They also think that King was right and we’re imploding due to all that’s going down.
I just want to say, we’ve heard all this for years from William and I doubt we’ll be doing lacking by them, and who cares but they’re confident they’ll put us in our place. Let’s see ya manky bastards.
Phew! Agree with much of what you say Desi, but beg to differ on a couple of points …
“hope…is that Athens sit back and keep it tight. “Our best hope may have been a set piece”..
IMHO our best hope is that AEK – urged on by their fans – think the tie is already over – and underestimate us by pushing forward for a killer goal & getting lazy/cocky at the back. Sure, we’ll need tons of luck, but the pace & power of Eddy & Moussa gives us some hope.
Also. Yeah, sure there have been some – long overdue- small signs of improvement in our set-pieces, but that’s not much considering how piss poor & predictable we’ve been for the last 2 seasons. Whether it’s Boyata or Hendry, or whoever, the delivery needs to be much, much better to pose any threat at all against a well organised defence like AEK.
TBH I’d be quite happy to be proved wrong if we get through – I’d take a freak own goal, a dubious penalty or a rebound off Paul The Tim’s bald patch if we got through, but what we need to hope for most is HUGE slice of jammy bastardness.
Excellent piece,Desi.
Spot on,with fuck-uppery.
Our motto for CL qualifying this year,’fail to prepare,prepare to fail.’
All self-inflicted !
We,the fans,should be pissed off the most.We give every £ we can afford,in the hope of seeing better players,and pulsating Champions League nights,in Paradise !
We play our part,can every department of the football club say the same ?
As for Swinecastle,agreed,totally disgraceful.
Players,well paid,in a comfort zone,not hungry enough to burst a gut !
Post in the wilderness !
Like most of our players on Saturday !
Mines too.
Here’s a couple of signings that can be brought to Etims Diary, a couple of tech folk that can sort out the continuous issues with accessing and posting on the site. Excellent site but you end up beseeched by problems trying to get on.
In short,excellent piece,Desi.
For fuck-uppery = Self-inflicted !
Cheers.
People talk about we should have bought McGinn as Brown’s eventual replacement, fair enough but our manager has said more than once that Kuoasi was Brown’s replacement.
As soon as the last window closed with Celtic signing Compper Hendry Mosunda on a long term loan & Bain. B R was very gushing in praise of P L and Board they had got him every target , he couldn’t be happier .
What changed Brendan , did he realised he signed a load of shoite in January & was trying to shift the goal posts . We don’t know but what we do know is as a life long Celtic supporter he couldn’t be surprised at PL dithering over completing buys & also he knew that that by going public he would bring an almighty media storm against Celtic that could even affect first team players .
That’s the bit I cannot understand , no matter how much right BR has on his side
Going Public Was Wrong
I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING THAT YOU WROTE THERE DESI.
COULD YOU NOT REPRINT IT AS THE AGENDA FOR THE NEXT MEETING BETWEEN THE BOARD AND BRENDAN.
While there has been some poor decision making somewhere along the line, the piece today is far too negative and pessimistic. AEK are entirely beatable. Very well organized at the back and that’s their game. They are beatable. The Hearts game was poor and there are many contributing factors and we lost. We will lose every now and again – shock horror! The Board and Brendan do need to clear the air and get on the same page, DD ought to sort that out and he will. Finding good players at the right price seems difficult ask Jose Murinho at Man Utd. That said there are plenty of places to look outside of the bottom half of the EPL and the awful Championship. Board over to you 2-3 quality signings in the next three weeks please and punt Boyata immediately. Get 9 million for him and spend it on a replacement who wants to play for us.
Can I just say, I like Alpaca’s. No sure about the back to back ones though.
I’m more of a look back in Angora man myself.
I prefer the sheep, they look good, your grass gets trimmed FOC and you can use the wool to look like you starred in ” the Good Life”, ahh those were the days my friend when grass meant grass and Cha meant a style of dance. Cha Cha Cha. 😉
Mike,
You would be Felicity Kendal…..a nice looking arse!
And you would be the pipe smoking, shite talking Ricard Briars, all the while trying to stick your hands inside my knickers.
I even like Lammas, no sure who’s been at the red paint though, I thought I would say that just because I could and it was a test.
I usually like a reasoned argument but I cannot argue with what you say in your piece,
On McGinn, it was my understanding that an agreement was in place to sign him, but I must be honest the thought of dealing with Petrie, was yeuch, in the last year of his contract I thought the price we offered was low but that is what you do in any negotiating, offer low first and I would have thought with someone who professed to be a Celtic man that a delay until January was a gamble worth taking, I was wrong and I was not alone, it backfired.
On Boyata. An agent who professes to be professional turns up unannounced without a prior appointment 24 hours before a game is in my book not acting professionally, the least you would expect would be a diary appointment. IMO because of the miscalculation with McGinn, Rodgers intransigence meant that we have missed out on selling Boyata for a great transfer. Lawwell although he has brought in according to Phil a great sponsorship deal with Dafabet
should have absolutely no say in players coming in or out of the club, Rodgers is paid a huge salary for that and his success or lack of it should be down to him alone. A great piece I enjoyed it a lot. COYBI Athens.
s
Of course you negotiate, its what business is all about, you always negotiate to get the best deal for the business, always.
If you run our club you negotiate, then the other club agrees to it or walks away, its called doing business.
Lawwell is many things but is he a hypocrite, I have no idea, you seem to think that because you state something its a fact, your wrong, its an opinion and you like everybody else knows nothing about the facts, after 35 years starting and running my own business while you were serving your queen and country, I think that I know more about business than you. There is a business model at Celtic for bringing in new players, like other clubs sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. but its complicated much more than you or I know, like wages on offer, terms, or if the player is guaranteed game time, circumstances can change even after a player agrees to come to a club, it has happened many many times before, players sometimes change their mind even on the way to see a club, its what happens and I have a feeling that this is what happened with McGinn. So that is my opinion and I never judge a situation without knowing the full facts or the circumstances in any business without knowing all the facts, the rest is just purely guesswork.
Look a the wonderful stadium, fantastic lighting and an upcoming museum and hotel, wha more could one ask for.
That shows the mentality of a club, that has brought in Puki, Scepovic, Balde, Comper.
People criticise ex managers, but they have operated with one hand tied behind their backs
The greatest club in the world, lead by a shower of donkeys.
Totally agree Desi,
We cannot allow the pro Lawwell funded “influencers” to continue to sweep sweep this under the carpet, as it affects the long term stability and growth of the team.
Our defence, especially centrally, has been deficient for 3 years (none fit for last year’s qualifiers and luck of the draw saw us get through but we’ve known that this year’s its far harder).
The only “solutions” were sticking plaster young projects and veterans that have all predictably failed.
What happened to our much vaunted strategy whereby we have 3/5/7 targets for each position? So we lost McGinn well just go out and get the next guy, who’s only a wafer thin lesser ability.
Yeah, doesn’t exist but that one will still be shamelessly bragged about in the good times when it’s not tested.
All of the “great” commercial deals we do are predicated on how well the team perform, it doesn’t happen the other way round.
We’ve banked £15-20m in transfers this summer alone on top of tens of millions in the bank, as well as those commercial deals so the money is easily there.
If we don’t seriously back our manager then we’ll lose him, get someone substantially less, be serial European failures and lose tens of thousands of fans and tens of millions in revenue.
It’s not rocket science or perhaps it is; the science of putting a rocket up the arses of those who live of the fat of what the manager and players create and contribute the square root of…you know the rest.
“The pro funded Lawwell influences to sweep sweep this under the carpet”, in the most published daily updates from the MSSM generating pish stained so called news twice a day, what brush’s were used to hide this “news”. There is no doubt that player targets have been missed and that the first team squad have suffered because of that, at the moment. But we are not party to any negotiations so we do not know all the facts. Despite missing these player targets the club has never, never before been in such a healthy state. Now like you I want the club to fully support the manager and let HIM get on with bringing in the players he wants. But don’t confuse the team with the club. Once again you highlight the defence, but the team lost 25 goals in the SPFL last year, exactly the same as the previous Invincible year. That to me tells its own story and that story is this.. YOU ONLY WIN GAMES BY SCORING GOALS and our goals scored last year, no where matched the goals scored in the Invincible year. Highlighted by the team on Saturday.. 10 attempts at goal and zero scored.
I totally agree with you in that we must fully back the manager, he is reported to receive a salary well in excess of £2 mill. why pay him that amount and not give him the resources to do his job properly, but within reason, we are after all still in the SPFL not the P.L. we have to cut our cloth accordingly. The ground projects are part of improvements at the club, they should though be stand alone projects and not interfere with the team, they are the most important factor, the team.
Fantastic article!
I too believe that we will struggle in Athens.
If we do go out, I’m of the opinion that it’s best to exit the Europa League also.
I have no interest in catch up football on a Sunday.
I would rather the players had a free week to concentrate on winning at the weekend and delivering a third Treble.
As fans we won’t see any of the money generated from being in that competition as the PLC board are not interested in investing it into the team.
I was excited about the hotel and the museum etc, now I don’t give a ****!
Looking through several Celtic websites, it’s a constant the defence getting slaughtered, seeing as they haven’t conceded more than one in a competitive game this season(3 clean sheets, let in one 4 times), maybe the forward’s need to take a good look at themselves!!
Ehh – we failed to score at Hearts and scored one against AEK I think the Forwards need to do better
Agree with this – cannot defend your way to wins you have to score
Yup Desi, that sums it up v well indeed. As you say, just as we are getting it right we f*ck it up. Lowell’s fault. Again!
Great post BTW Desi!!
Fantastic article!
I too believe that we will struggle in Athens.
If we do go out, I’m of the opinion that it’s best to exit the Europa League also.
I have no interest in catch up football on a Sunday.
I would rather the players had a free week to concentrate on winning at the weekend and delivering a third Treble.
As fans we won’t see any of the money generated from being in that competition as the PLC board are not interested in investing it into the team.
I was excited about the hotel and the museum etc, now I don’t give a ****!
What’s happened as happened. McGinn has by all accounts had a fine debut. It was against Wigan ffs. I don’t give a fuck how many good games he has im simply only interested in the players we have. Who knows maybe Henderson Christie or Allan would have done better on Saturday its in the past now forget it.
So we know the manager wanted players they haven’t been delivered our squad is weaker than what it was last season and probably the weakest it has been for some time.
But we have hope in our heart.The game actually suits us tomorrow. We have to win or at least match their score. No need for Brendan to be indecisive on tactics just go for it man.
No use playing a back 4 go 3 at the back.
Gordon
Lustig Jozo Tierney
Forrest Brown Ntcham McGregor Sinclair.
Edouard Dembele.
Let’s get at them bhoys.
Couldn’t agree more with this write so much so I don’t have to rattle my own brain with frustration. It is what it is for now. Maybe lawell has a mental illness akin to Ebenezer scrooge.hope the ghosts in that particular novel come and visit him before the window shuts
Pretty much agree with most of that but want to be positive about tomorrow, finally being shown on BT Sports. I accept against Hearts the AEK game may have been playing on people’s minds, it certainly was on BR’s given his line up. Bottom line Armstrong, whom some posters didn’t appreciate, and Paddy were injured for a good part of last season but anyway have not been replaced If Boyata has an attitude/ contractproblem that should have been properly identified and a replacement for him put firmly in the pipeline.
Looks like Eddie has picked up a knock in training and is struggling for the game.
Edouard picks up a knock in training doubtful for the game.
Jimmy, he sat out training no indication yet he will miss game, to be assessed tomorrow.
Cheers for the info m8 hope to God hes good to play.
Might be a Godsend !
He was marked out the game,last week.
Can see Hunskelper starting.
As much as I like there’s and his football brain there’s something that irks me deeply. He’s like a politician in the way he deflects issues and leaves everyone on the dark. I’m sure he had his reasons but it’s all rhetoric and even though there’s a hint he may be gone he had to stop playing the game and come out with what he means otherwise he just comes along like a yes man in fear of losing his job. Make no mistake of he does leave another he will leave for another position. He’s a club man not a fans man who wouldn’t be?
Maybe he’s just handling a very difficult situation very diplomatically while at the same time trying to win football games. Let’s screw the nut here for gods sake. He’s the best manager we’ve had since Big Jock.
Brendan Rodgers*
This spiel about feeling sorry for the rest of the players because boys isn’t playing wtf I don’t think many fans are bothered about it to be honest. He comes out with some bizarre comments it’s almost like he is making excuses and we’re out already. Maybe it’s just gamesmanship he’s a hard man to work out
Boyata *
So the daily ranger goes with McLeish warning Griff he has to play or will lose his place for Scotland really on the day of Celtics champions league game. FFS . Only in Scotland eh!
The start of this season has been the stuff of nightmares, sometimes you have to have fortitude, if players get injured there’s nothing that you can do about it, one things for sure they don’t do it on purpose. You just have to have belief in the players, they will do their best. If we get put out it will not be because they haven’t given their all We know that the MSSM are hoping we fail, they cannot wait to promote Sevco and will do all they canto help them, it was always so, but we will prevail. KTF.
Another report from a Scottish rag now its Ntcham to Porto it never ends this nonsense.
Every time a high profile game comes up for Celtic its all negative press.
Nothing new, same auld shite, fuck them, each and every one of them.
No coincidence I think. When will McLeish pay the tax he owes on EBTs?
Desi,
Quality!
I’m away to the Doc’s take my bonny blood and then three injections,
Nurse, Nurse come and see this…..
Dinnae get too close, you’ll take her eye oot…..
What we need tonight is Charlie Saiz, ‘ The wooden donkey of Troy ‘
Regardless of what happens at the back tonight, if they forwards don’t do the business, we’re out!! C’mon the hoops.
As the wee man said with a big grin on his face:
“I only have sex once a year…but TONIGHT’s the NIGHT!”
Our biggest problem last season and this is that we get lots of the ball and chances on goal but fail to score. Right now, scoring goals is our biggest problem, a much bigger concern than our defence. If we are pressed, we need to figure out a way to get the ball forward quickly, overlap, run into spaces (between the parked busses)and score. 2-1 tonight to the good guys and we’re through. It would be good to score within ten minutes so that Greece will really have to alter their game. McGregor/Edouard/Forrest/Rogic/Griffiths/Dembele are the guys to do this. Maybe, Griff, from a set piece or two?
Tierney can also surprise them.
C’mon the Celtic.
COYBIG
Hail, hail….
You forgot to mention that the millions in profit generated by the sale of Armstrong was spent on the permanent signing of Edouard.
I see Police in Westminster think there was a terrorist attack this morning, a police spokesman later confirmed that the actual facts surrounding this accident, were caused by the driver trying to change channel on his radio, after hearing Peter Lawwell insist ” we are world class in everything we do”.
I actually feel sick with tension about tonight, just want to head to a darkened room. 🙁
I’m sick to the back teeth of every board that’s been in place since I started going to Parkheid in 1980 as a celt,every single time we are on top we NEVER hammer in the last nails..First time was centenary season in 1988..fucked it up and it’s been the same every time we have been the Dominant force,for the life of me I cannot understand nor accept the same old dilly-dallying every season regarding new signings some years more urgent than others like this year when we have incredibly short numbers and options for our backline and with Griffiths and Dembele both constantly injured a new striker should also have been a priority to partner/rotate with Edouard ,forget how u keep Dembele and Griffiths happy with game time cos when they get 3 games on the trot they are fucked for the nxt ten.So tiresome that a can’t even be fucked anymore along with what is essentially a rigged game in this country that our Board seem absolutely fine with ..Only so long you can walk around with yer pants round yer ankles and a blind fold on carrying a bucket of fucking sand so I’m pulling ma trousers up and removing the blind fold and the bucket that’s carrying the sand will be emptied and then filled with my hard earned cash till major shakes take place. .
Kevin,
Well said, it is frustrating as fuck!