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Celtic Diary Tuesday September 30: MacGregor Old Enough To Handle Pressure ?

Ronny Deila has put his faith in Calum MacGregor to come up with the goods again in Thursdays Europa League clash with Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb.

” Callum is important for Thursday, yes. To play at Celtic you have to be mentally strong, and he has that.

“He is a fantastic football player who I love working with. He’s played well and now he has some days to recover for the game against Zagreb.

“Young players come in and do well, then the expectation arrives and sometimes it drops a little bit. But he has to work himself out of it and get up again. ” 

 MacGregor revealed the secret of his success working under the new manager wasn’t down to just hard work and application;

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Deila continued, claiming his plans for Thursday were well under way;

We’ve played three matches now in six days and it’s been tough for all the players when we’ve changed so much, but I’m happy now that we have got through the games and got the points.

“It makes us ready for the game on Thursday. We need to have a couple of days’ rest, and then we’re going to prepare well for this next game.” 

MacGregor has been a revelation this season, but as with all young players, he needs a rest. Its worrying enough in itself that he is suddenly become a key player during a time when he should be slowly and meticulously learning his trade, and unfortunately for him at this stage, opponents will now see him as a key player, and it will be more difficult for him to progress at a steady pace.

Including MacGregor for this game, as it appears clear that this is Ronnys intention, means that he’s likely to go with two in the middle again, unless Kris Commons is unfit-he’s torn a muscle in his arse apparently, and I don’t even want to know how-when there becomes an extra place available.

Thats if the boss was going to use Commons. His European appearances have been limited this term.

Looking ahead to the game, Robert Prosinecki, former Dinamo player and one of the best players to emerge from Croatia, warned his old club not to take Celtic lightly;

‘I keep reading stories in Croatia that Celtic are weak these days just because of what happened against Legia Warsaw and because Maribor beat them,’ 

‘They are not – and Dinamo don’t have the same standard as team as when we last played Celtic.

Its a good job he hasn’t seen any of our league games.

The Prosinecki most of us remember viewed football as an interruption to his attempt to break the world nicotine ingestion record,as like a few other players, he regarded smoking as an essential part of his fitness regime;

 

The Croatian has experience of Celtic Park on a European night, and reminded Zagreb that it is an intimidating place…

‘If Celtic’s stadium is close to being full, it will be a very, very tough night for Dinamo.

‘Celtic took a point in Austria against Salzburg and they know if they can win, this will be a key outcome for them. It will almost guarantee their qualification.’ 

 Well, thats where we come in. If you can get there, get there. We need to spook them from the stands, because frankly, there isn’t a lot to scare them on the pitch.

We lost 1-0 in Glasgow. We were the better team and missed two great chances, but in football the better team doesn’t always win.

‘But after that game we were very confident of beating them and we were spectacular in Zagreb.

‘We justified our self-confidence and absolutely overran them. The Maksimir Stadium was full and the atmosphere was incredible. It was a great night. 

If I remember rightly, it was Prosinecki himself who was outstanding in that game, and I’m fairly sure he never left the centre circle all night. Although that could be a myth. Have a look at what he did when he got in our half…

Robert Prosinecki v celtic

‘The final stats were 24 shots to three in our favour. We were a really good team.

“But it’s hard to win at Celtic Park and Dinamo had better not underestimate the Scots. They must not think this will be easy. However, if they can come away from Glasgow undefeated, they have a great chance of remaining in Europe after Christmas for the first time.’

 Three points is a neccessity from home games in these group games, and failure to get three on Thursday will make it three defeats in a row at home, and virtually impossible to gain any credibility whatsoever to the claim of Fortress Parkhead. I can understand Prosineckis caution, but its also easy to understand why Zagreb may be a little more than optimistic.

 Meanwhile, Aleksandr Tonev will wait until October 30 to find out if he’s a racist, as Bulgaria have an international on the 29th and the SFA have decided to wait until after that game. They didn’t explain exactly what Tonevs involvement with the game was, but its understood he’s having a few friends round for a couple of beers and watching it on the telly.

 Virgil van Dijk , the alleged subject of racial abuse at St. Mirren at the weekend will have his claims investigated by the police. The police investigating racism ?

 Remember that time they arrested a guy for walking in the street and not putting his hood up when it started raining ?

Or that bloke who crossed the road before the green man lit up ?

I wouldn’t be too optimistic of a result for van Dijk on this one.

Celtics other alleged racist, the all singing , all dancing Leigh Griffiths, well, until he spots a camera that is, which rules him out of making the x-factor finals, doesn’t know when to stay off twitter.

Hibernian striker Jason Cummings was over the moon last night when he sent the green half of Edinburgh-and probably the green half of Glasgow as well-into raptures of delight with his two goals in Hibs 3-1 win over Second Rangers at Ibrox.

Cummings said he had “the touch of an angel ” , to which Griffiths, who has been known to be a bit of a sulk, replied;

“Touch like an angel… Jesus f****** Christ. Do a normal interview, get in changing room and celebrate. #billybigtime.” 

You’d think Griffiths would have other things on his mind… like getting back into the Celtic line up so he can win his loan move to Hibernian.

Anyone else think theres something a bit odd about how they reward goalscorers at that club ?

Anyway, I set myself a challenge yesterday. I tried to cram twenty journalists into a Mini Cooper. It wasn’t easy, but by putting Ally McCoist into the car, the problem was solved when they all crawled up his arse.

And with his mighty Second Rangers being well and truly beaten last night, and at least two of his players looking like they could be upon assault charges, the MSM swung into action to take the heat off the rookie manager, who is still fairly new to full time competition on a regular basis. Those who watched the game last night will remember this message on the screen at full time….

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McCoist blamed defender Billy Moshni for causing the collapse of his team, apparently he had told Hibs publicly that they had no chance of winning the league, and that, not the fact that Second Rangers are shite, is why they got beat.

McCoist, who always looks firmly in control

 

said that Moshni needs

 to be careful what we say post-match as much as pre-match.

“I am fully appreciative that reporters have a job to do but I don’t think we should be making it easy for you. Through naivety he did that.

“The level of goal we lost is as poor as I’ve seen us conceding. We started the game brightly and then dear me. 

“The keeper kicks the ball up the pitch and we lose a goal – that’s just not on. The second goal was poor and the third was a comedy of errors.

“You can’t lose self-belief in your team and we will work at it. We won’t accept the defensive frailties.” 

Self belief in your team ? Of that there is no doubt.

“Coming in 3-0 down at half-time left us needing a minor miracle to recover.

“We shot ourselves in the foot. The defending was unacceptable but then we huffed and puffed without being anything like good enough to give ourselves a chance.

“It’s very disappointing to lose at home to our nearest rivals and that has been mentioned.

“It’s a marathon in the league and we have lost at home to what most people would regard to be our biggest rivals for automatic promotion so it’s concerning.

“It’s something we need to look at.” 

 Ach, he just needs more time and more money.

 Interesting , though, to compare the treatment of Ronny Deila to that of Ally McCoist.

 Deila can at least claim to have a plan, and knows what he wants from his players. He’s been here only a few months and some are prepared to sit and wait to see how he gets on. Thats not my own opinion, but its one i respect, because these decisions made in haste can sometimes be regretted.

 McCoist has had four years , and has shown time and time again that he has absolutely no idea what he is doing, except helping the spivs to flog season books.

 Yet the press stay off his back. and lets be honest, its wide enough to accommodate quite a few of them.

 If the football is making you feel a wee bit down, do what I’m going to do this afternoon. Find a disabled parking space, park there, and wait for a few minutes. Soon, loads of people will cheer you up by telling you that you’re fine and theres nothing wrong with you.

 Jimmy Quinn was the one legged footballer behind Jimmy Johnstone in yesterdays photos.

 Johnstone would have been 70 today

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 Our thoughts and prayers are also with the family and friends of Hugh Doherty, a former Celt from the immediate post war years, who has passed away at the age of 93.

 He made four appearances in the hoops, before moving to Blackpool, where injury cut short his career, and he moved back to Ireland.

 Today, a trickier one, from Retro Celt, which illustrates the difference between footballers today, and footballers in 1973, when this game was played.

 These days, the players wouldn’t even risk driving to the ground, let alone playing on it. So, who are the teams, and what was the score ?

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Martyn Tyrrell
9 years ago

A guess is celtic v Dundee United and 4-1

jpm 88
9 years ago

That’s Kenny v Dundee Utd , can only guess the score – 1-1?

Admin
9 years ago

I like it:

Ronnie or Ally
A fresh European long term outlook or a blood and snotters ‘next games the only game’ outlook?

You decide

🙂
(this was neamt to be a happy face!!…feckin wordpress!)

9 years ago

Well it’s definitely Celtic and I think it’s Dundee Utd…..no idea of the score.

Morto
9 years ago

Okay, so Ronny is better than Ally but is that really who we want to measure our manager against?
There aren’t many managers in Scotland who aren’t better than Ally.
Let’s see how things progress – or don’t – and then decide if Ronny is any good or not.

Chris
9 years ago

WTF…every day we here we want the youngsters to play to contribute and to step up and stake their place then we get this
“MacGregor has been a revelation this season, but as with all young players, he needs a rest. Its worrying enough in itself that he is suddenly become a key player during a time when he should be slowly and meticulously learning his trade, and unfortunately for him at this stage, opponents will now see him as a key player, and it will be more difficult for him to progress at a steady pace”….hasn’t he been on loan learning his trade isn’t it because of this that he is back staking a claim for a place and becoming a key player for us!?…why does he need a rest he’s young fit and should be able to deal with it…When the McStay’s and Charlie Nicks of this world first started out they didnae need a bloody rest and I never heard anyone shouting that they needed one…If McGregor does not play on Thursday you would be the first one shouting for the managers head…seems to me as if you have a definite agenda against the manager and the more comments like this one seems to prove it

Gerry
9 years ago
Reply to  Chris

Saying he needs a rest is the nice way of saying he needs dropped. He had a bright start, but hasn’t kicked a ball in the last few games. So I’ll flat out say it, he needs dropped.
I don’t see the players in training but if McGregor is showing up better than the rest all week and turning in the non-existent rubbish he did on Saturday, then I really do have concerns with the current crop of players and their collective attitude.
Whether that’s the managers fault or not has already been discussed on ths forum, but if a professional player throws his toys out rather than roll up his sleeves then he’s not for me.

Chris
9 years ago
Reply to  Gerry

Gerry agree he didn’t play well at the weekend but that’s a lot different from what the original article was hinting at…effectively the original article was telling us MacGregor cant be looked at as a key player my challenge is why not? if he has learned his trade on loan, come into the side and played very well in the majority of games including scoring goals in Europe away from home, then why cant he be considered a key player…for me the article was having a go at the manager using Macgregor as a pretty cheap shot…as I say in most people’s eyes MacGregor would start this Thursday especially as we are home and if he doesn’t then this site would be first in the queue to have a go.

Steveo
9 years ago

Yeah defo Dundee Utd – 3-3 December 73 – dunno if it’s a poor picture but looks like a dark haired king Kenny!!! Ah back in the days when football was proper football!!

deadhead67
9 years ago

Go hibees and big stubsy

bigbhoy76
9 years ago

Totally agree with chris about mcgregor and yoir comments. ‘Its unfortunate for mcgregor that opponents now see him as a key player’ that is some statement. Itd be more unfortunate if they thought he was garbage. I’d expect to see a comment like that in the msm

Nick
9 years ago

So if we bring youth players through succesfully it’s a worry that we have to rely on them, but if we don’t bring youth players through you would say our youth policy is crap. Typical tabloid response.

deadhead67
9 years ago

Still think Henderson is being hard done to,he was the player thought too good to go on loan was a revelation and a much better player than Mcgreggor yet cant even get a place on the bench ahead of rubbish like berget, with the stadium half empty on thurs our 12th man will be missing,this is all the boards fault with lack of investment,the standard of play is now worse than it was before O,NEIL arrived.

Tommy
9 years ago

Dundee Utd. 3-3 game.

bigbhoy76
9 years ago

In comparing henderson and mcgregor, the fact that mcgregor has a full year playing first team football at a decent level puts him way ahead of henderson who is still very raw. Mcgregor has been able to develop and make his most of his mistakes away from the pressure of celtic.

Run Sammy Run
9 years ago

Seeing them play in snow made me think of something, fog! Whatever happened to fog? When was the last time you saw a decent fog?
I remember going to a midweek game in 84 when it was so foggy you couldn’t see the other end of the ground. We were in the Celtic end and couldn’t see the goal at the other end of the park. Whenever a goal was scored one end had to pass the word round the stadium to let the folks at the other end know who had scored. They were the days, when the answer to atrocious weather was to just get the orange ball out and get on with it.

jpm 88
9 years ago
Reply to  Run Sammy Run

Don’t you remember the game against Hibs when we were 0-2 down , until the fog( what a 12th man) came to the rescue. The ref called a halt to the game, and I think we drew the replay 1-1.

holy sea
9 years ago

Ralph,
Totally agree re McGregor.Many posters are missing the point.What you are saying,
is Deila is RELYING on him to be our INSPIRATION.
Yes,McGregor has been a revelation,this season.His form has shaded, in the past 3 games.He needs experienced players to show their maturity,and take on the responsibility,that has been on his shoulders,since the very first game of the season.
The way I see your excellent diary,you do not have an agenda against RD( or Ronny,
if it makes posters happier ) but call it as you see it.Your honest,and forthright with your opinions.I share your fears about Deila.
Is any fan,confident enough,to predict what team RD will put out on Thursday ?
For me,if Wakaso doesn’t start on the left,where he can use his pace,more effectively,then I will be worried.Stokes is more effective,in an inside-left role.
We all want Ronny to get it right,but if it goes tits-up,then the board’s plan will be more important than Ronnie’s. Hail Hail

bigbhoy76
9 years ago

I dont think that delia is relying on mcgregor, only in the sense that he is playing him every week having confidence in him. His form has dipped but i am happy to see the manager have complete confidence in him. The best way to learn is to play first team games.

Read etims everyday and somtimes agree and disagree but the mcgregor comments are baffling me.

BrianF
9 years ago

McGregor has shaded it a bit, the game to rest him was Motherwell and or St.Mirren.

I like Henderson but Bigbhoy 76 was spot on McGregor has had a season of first team football in a tough, though not quality, league under his belt.

Please stop trying to get Ally the sack, i think if given one or two more years he will prove to be the best club Mnaager the world ha sever seen, he certainly retains my total confidence in how he does his job, any one can have a few bad results,let him get on with what he is doing.

deadhead67
9 years ago

Notts county is a very poor level henderson miles better than mcgreggor

bigbhoy76
9 years ago

Notts county may or may not be a poor level but he has a full season of playing against other professionals. Henderson may yet prove to be a better player than mcgregor. Playing for notts county for a season is a higher level than henderson is regularly exposed to.

yestim
9 years ago

McGregor has been poor for the past couple of weeks, whether this has to do with age, lack of experience or just tiredness, who knows. He is shooting from all over the final third of the park when he should have his head up looking for the pass, ask Scepovic, he looked scunnered with him a couple of games back.

bigbhoy76
9 years ago

Yestim i would agree that he can be too eager to shoot, especially when there are players on a far better position.

Iain McAllister
9 years ago

McGregor = greedy McGready
But he does have a pop at the onion bag instead of trying to walk it in like most of our forwards.A couple of times in games there has been a better option to pass than shoot.

Admin
9 years ago

Loving the glesgae celtic banter here..a support that argues together stays together.

Shame Marko fecked off with a petted lip or he could have been in there giving his tuppence worth.

Stevie
9 years ago

What’s the chances of Scepovic and Griffiths up front on Thursday?

Stop laughing at the back.

Honest Hoops
9 years ago
Reply to  Stevie

You started it….ha,ha

yestim
9 years ago

The good thing with RD, Stevie, is you could well be right because he does keep you guessing. I have it on good authority that RD and JC pick panini players cards out of an old biscuit tin (presumably because nobody is allowed to eat biscuit anymore) as their team selection process. If they pull a doubler you get picked but subbed at their earliest convenience. A rumour I know, but if it goes round a couple of forums Keech Jangle Jangle, will publish it the Daily Rancid as true, from a reliable source.

Honest Hoops
9 years ago

I still cant stop laughing at the gers demise last night….and fat sally blames a player….the media says Hibs put a stop to 9 games in a row unbeaten run….one word.. Alloa??

Lets all laugh at Sally…

Hail,Hail

Monti
9 years ago

Just my humble opinion but I think Macgregor has gone off the boil and I feel a game or two on the bench wouldn’t do him any harm!
HH!

Where is James Forrest?

bondibrian
9 years ago

Christ that picture on the gemm in the snow reminds me of Wrangler jacker, soaking wet feet in gutties, skinner jeans and Tic scarf wrapped aroond the wrist!! Jesus: they were the days, eh.

Anyway…balmy spring day here in sunny Sydney: 28 degrees!!

MON THE CELTS!!!

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