Though perhaps a more poignant question should be why was it allowed to go so wrong so quickly ?
There is a lot of blame around this morning, all aimed in different directions.
The reason for that is that everyone, from the players to the coaches through to the management and the boardroom are to blame.
All of whom have not been doing their job of late, which culminated in a Champions League exit to a side that were workmanlike, but professional.
Simply, they knew how to beat us.
All they had to do was watch a couple of videos from last season and this one.
When their manager told them what to do, they went out and did it.
AEK Athens were up against a side who concede daft goals. They were up against a side where the midfield lacks guile and creativity. And they were up against a side who have three outstanding strikers who bizarrely only get to play together when the team is losing…
They just let us get on with it, and waited for us to give them a chance.
Everyone will have their own scapegoat. Usually they decide that before a game, and wait until he does something wrong, which allows them to point triumphantly and announce that they had told us so.
For the first Greek goal last night, that would have been those that like to tell us Mikael Lustig is done. This is the Mikael Lustig who performs admirably in the Swedish set up, and somehow manages to avoid being told he’s “done.”..
And yet, have a look at this picture..
Eight Celtic players in the box. One AEK, and a couple “hovering”, and not one Celtic player is looking at any of them. Not one is considering covering the only area the player in possession can realistically even try to play the ball.
Fair enough, you block the cross, you stop the goal, but if you don;t, you should be relatively confident that someone else is picking up the other forwards…
So at best , its a hopeful cut back…
and still no one is even looking at the goalscorer…
Thats when its time to start asking questions of the coaches.
Such as
“Why don’t you collect your stuff on the way out “?
And the second goal ?
The guy didn’t even have to jump to head home. And it was the proverbial “second ball “.
Celtic didn’t win the first one either..
Dedryck Boyata has come in for some stick after he downed tools when his move to another club was denied.
He , too, had he played, would have been a scapegoat, and its more than likely he would have made a mistake or two.
Perhaps, however, having been involved with another coaching set up, the one that took third place in the World cup,he’s decided that he doesn’t want to be involved at Celtic because he’s sick of taking the flak for other peoples mistakes…
It would certainly have been a factor.
And that might be a factor as our other “top” players ponder another wet and windy winter in Glasgow when Spanish or Italian sides come chapping at the door this month.
A winter without champions League football…
The midfield are not exempt from criticism, they should help out the defence, and the attack.
Its even simpler at Celtic as the shape of the team is neatly divided into two lines, one of two to help at the back, and one of three to help the forwards.
In actual fact, the midfield, when not in possession, resembles a fox hunt with everyone charging around trying to get the ball….
And when they have it, they pass it gently to each other, until the opposition defence gets tired of this and allows them to play it where it will do the least damage.
Or where they can simply crowd out a forward when the final pass is played.
No guile, no invention, just a set pattern..
Then we have the forwards. On paper, the strongest forward line in many, many years.
On the pitch, they seem to need an awful lot of chances to make one count…
Anyway, in his infinite wisdom, the manager chooses to field one of the three at a time. Unless we happen to be losing,. then he pops another one on.
Without considering that if he had used two to start with, we might not actually be losing.
Which brings me to the manager, and his stubborn refusal to face the reality that his system has, after two years, been sussed by opponents.
Even Craig Levein has masterminded two victories against it in recent months, and he’s never going to be, even by the wildest stretches of the most fervent imagination, a top class manager.
Then, realising that this season is merely a continuation of the rot that had set in last year, he decides to blame, publicly, the board , for not concluding the deals that he wanted.
Publicly.
So the players then see that he’s not happy, and he’s not happy because he can’t get the deals done to replace them.
A spectacular example of bad man management which he had to rectify by assuring them with what he called a “stabilising ” meeting.
Except, it won’t have stabilised them.
Far from it, in fact.
Rodgers criticised the board for not providing the funds for him to strengthen the team, and yet its a bit late to strengthen for a campaign when its already underway..
That should have been done in January, and guess what ?
Rodgers thought it was… after that window, he said; ( thanks to The Mire CSC for reminding us of this.. )
On Hendry he said…
And it was Rodgers who went out o f his way to secure Marvin Comperr..
Which in turn, brings us to Lee Congerton, Rodgers’s partner in crime when it comes to recruitment..
Last night, only two of Rodgers own signings started the game.
After two years, he felt that only two of his own signings were up to the job last night…
Little wonder the board are reluctant to buy any players that this set up recommends …but I’ll come back to that.
Sure, there were injuries, but how many of those injured last night, and indeed during the campaign so far, picked up those injuries during a first team game ?
A remarkably low, and worrying percentage.
So we could conclude that not only are the coaches not up to the task tactically, their fitness programme is detrimental to er, the players fitness.
When the wrath of the fans is vented over the next few days, it will mostly be aimed at our board.
Of course, they should shoulder the blame, and yet when planning for this campaign, remember what rodgers said about them.
Its only now that he has turned on them, in the full knowledge that he’s made an arse of it, not them.
But they have taken their eye off the ball, presumably because its been focused on their bonuses.
We’ve new lights, £4m worth of new lights, which suggests that they may have got their priorities a little mixed up. Still, they’ll look good at that rugby final we’re due to host soon, and in all honesty, the chaps on the board are more your rugby type anyway…
Perhaps instead of buying new lights, we’d have been better selling all the old ones, and then opposing teams wouldn’t be able to see how poor the team is.
The board have allowed a sum in the region of £40m to slip through their fingers.
Their job is not to decide which players we buy.
Thats the managers job.
If he has concluded the guys he first thought were up to the job weren’t, then they must back him with replacements, and the funds for those replacements.
If they don’t, then it is a sign that the working relationship has broken down, and someone has to go.
Directors should not be allowed to judge players. They have to trust the manager to do that.
If the manager is big enough to admit he has got it wrong, then they have to support him.
Its only when he keeps getting it wrong, its time for change.
Rodgers record, domestically at least, means he deserves to be backed by the board.
They didn’t do that, and frankly there’s little sign that they intend to do that.
Their next meeting won’t be about speculating to accumulate, it will be about filling that £40m hole in the accounts.
In conclusion, this last month has been an almighty fuck up.
There’s no one person to blame, everyone has played their part in this farce.
On Saturday, Celtic face Partick Thistle in the League cup, and they will be optimistic that they can spring a surprise.
Anything less than one hundred per cent on the field, with one hundred per cent from the stands, will allow the media, who have a massive Stop The Ten campaign already under way, with full backing from the SFA , to drag the support apart.
They are enjoying this.
We. on the other hand have picked our scapegoats, and we will stick to them.
But there isn’t a scapegoat as such, there is more that same old Celtic feeling.
That feeling of not building from strength, that complacency that comes with six domestic trophies out of six. Perhaps even an admission that European success is beyond a club of our means, but its a great source of extra income.
From the board room to the support, to an extent, there is a feeling that Celtic have found their level.
Well, thats bollocks.
Frankly, we have lost the drive required to maintain progress at any level, we have little desire to improve whether thats on the pitch and off it, and that mojo, or Eye Of The Tiger, needs to be rediscovered very quickly before we forget how to.
You see, when one is happy with his lot, some bastard will come along and take it away from you. Normally when you’re not looking, or having an afternoon kip.
But if you keep moving , and keep coming up new ideas, he will never catch you.
And Celtic need to get moving again, and we need to get moving again right now.
Aye, theres a reason a shark keeps moving!
It was all a bit schoolbhoy last night, Coaching and in game decision making of the defence was embarrassing, especially for the goals, the ball is ‘circulated’ too slowly which is an issue not just in European games, the game for me was screaming out to start 3-5-2 but as Dembele hadn’t played for a while maybe he wasn’t up for 90 mins but changes should have been made at halftime or just after.
can’t argue with much of this.
Ralph for what it’s worth (and there is no point in crying over spilled milk) I think that the board are to blame. Taking simple first team numbers into account (I exclude Christie and Scott Allan from this) we are weaker. We have lost Roberts and Armstrong and neither have been replaced. We have a gross spend of £1million this year. That is pish, plain and simple. We got £7mil for Armstrong, £1 mil for Erik and spent £9mil
On French Eddy. £1mil on a team to challenge for the Champions League qualification, is that where we are?
I am raging about last night, Boyata should never be allowed near the place again. The guy is an absolute disgrace, deluded by mediocre performances against the two worst teams in the World Cup and a game against England’s B team. Get him tae fuck!!!
We need investment and we need it now, otherwise we are in danger of letting the tribute act catch us and that would be unforgivable.
Absolute garbage, we’ve a net profit of £10m+ on transfers.
Armstrong, VVD2, Erik = 7+9+1 = £17m
Eddy = £4-5m (this may rise but it’s what we’ve paid)
On top of the tens of millions we have in the bank, there’s plenty of wiggle room for serious investment so we can improve in Europe.
If we don’t then we can kiss goodbye to champs league and our manager.
We should avoid kneejerk board supporting articles like this (all summer Rodgers identified targets that Lawwell failed to procure).
That’s the story not nonsense from January.
All we had to do was buy three solid defenders & we would have been fine….we didn’t & are paying the consequence of that.
RB – Calum Paterson
CD – Jason Denayer
CD – Scott McKenna
LB – Kieran Tierney
That defence would be sound enough.
Compare how Lustig done with how McKenna and Paterson done against Mexico.
Celtic don’t play Mexico…….bandero
Lustig was one of the best players on the pitch. McKenna and Paterson (Hendry too) were destroyed and made to look like utter garbage.
So fucking what? In the words of Jeff Lebowski ” What the fuck are you talking about “?
They aren’t good enough. “You’re out of your element”.
The same Lustig that someone on here has said for years is weak in central positions but still gets put in them anyways. What’s next, Griff in goal and Gordon up front?
Sign Fabian Johnson for £4m, sell Tierney for £30m and we’ll be stronger.
You certainly would’ve to have ‘no brain’ to believe that. 😉
When you can’t tell if a post is sarcastic or serious…
I would try and watch a game but it’s been that long since he started one.
This isn’t your usual knee-jerk reaction to a loss, it’s more like a full-body convulsion! You make it sound like we’re in a death spiral that we are unable to get out of. Anybody can ride a wave of success, but the real test of our mettle is how we handle adversity. I believe this will be an important pivotal point of our season and if we let Brendan and his squad (suitably reinforced) deal with it we will come out of it much stronger all round. You could cheer yourself up by checking flights to Baku for May 29! In the meantime go and lie down in a darkened room and apply cold compresses to your fevered brow at regular intervals.
Everything said above is also how I see it.
Take a deep breath, then continued to support the club we love…too late for scapegoats.
4-4-2 for a while?
Gordon
Lustig/Simunovic/Ajer/Tierney
Forrest/Brown/Ntcham/Sinclair
Dembele/Edouard or Griff
No CalMac seems harsh but I can understand.
If Rogic is fit, Rogic starts.
Simples.
I would also suggest we could do worse than see how Scott Bain is for distributing the ball, Gordon just makes me sigh these days.
Desi,
I agree on Bain….time he got a shot. I think Gordon is a better shot stopper but his distribution is poor…worse, it is predictable.
There is also a problem with throw-ins…..we usually lose the ball immediately.
Keeper distribution, set pieces including throw-ins should be fixable. It is a coaching issue.
Rebus
🙂
RALPH
BR is like any other football manager. He realises that you have to replace to progress. He heads abudget,and it should not be for a beancounter to question how that is spent,nor to refuse to sanction it.
Brian Clough and Kenny Dalglish brought provincial clubs from the depths to the heights. They didn’t win the title with the players who had won them promotion,because they would not have been good enough.
Try standing still when you’re winning a race,see what happens. Have a crack at shooting yourself in the foot anaw.
Clusterfuck.
What is galling is that we’re reading the same excuses, the same blame game that we’ve had over the last two seasons after bad results. The only difference is that it’s just at the start of the season. That is unforgivable. I don’t know who to blame, there are so many targets but someone is and the fans deserve better. Yes we had the unveateavle run, the double treble but that’s over. You build on that. We haven’t and that is unforbiveable. Someone has to take the blame and ACT.
Are you Jonathan Ross?
Not forgetting the “stab in the back merchant” Boyata, he lets his team mates down, the manager and the support, I hope his career goes tumbling to the depths, treacherous bastard that he is.
Boyata reminds me of the driver for Vito Corleone (Paulie) who threw a sickie the day of the planned hit on the Godfather. Not wishing the full Clemenza treatment but Boyata must be history at Celtic. And Celtic should make it known through the grapevine that it’s not going to be dealing with Liechtensteiner clients again.
Idont see the games any longer,after following the. bhoys for seventy years I cant be bothered watching this tippy tappy shite.you pass to me and i,ll pass to him,when we get to the 18 yard line,thats when we get our goalie involved so we pass back to him .
The reason I write this is because I read the texts mainly cqn.and bbc and they tell you that the forwards just cant score.One game against St Jonstone recently 28 shots on target final score
1-1.Ball posessioni is just a meaningless load of
bollocks.
Nary a mention of Broonie,s misdemeanor anywhere,but used to get that dirty bastard off the charge.
That tippy tappy shite just brought you back to back trebles ya silly auld cunt.
Resource Limited, sick trying to post a comment, have you no one on board with some IT skills?
Spot on Ralph – Typical of Celtic to shoot ourselves in the foot. No one came out of this episode having enhanced their reputation.
So we lost out on £42 million?
Answer me this. Based on our past accumulations from the last two CL campaigns, who would have benefited from these earnings?
The fans? Not on your life!
The playing squad? Well, with £60 million earned in the last two CL campaigns, I think it’s clear to see that sweet FA of that was invested in the squad and I don’t need to go into detail on that.
The simple fact is that that £42 million would have gone to the same place as the £60 million before it, the biscuit tin. It would not have been spent.
So why are we lamenting the loss of £42 million that would never have been spent in the first place?
Why are we lamenting the fat bonuses the directors would have received if we had qualified?
And finally, why are we lamenting the loss of 5, 6 and 7 goal hidings against the top contenders for the CL?
Because that is exactly what we would have been facing. And that would be because the £42 million would remain in the biscuit tin. Based on cuurrent form, we’d have been lucky if we had seen £5 million of it spent.
It’s clear this board is never going to spend big to take us where we need to be. The old saying ‘You need to speculate to accumulate’ is lost on them.
Instead, we just go around in this vicious circle, living and hoping that we’ll see the board spend big, but knowing deep down they never will and that we’ll always be subject to that same old feeling 5 minutes into a European tie of conceding a ridiculously stupid soft goal, because we just don’t have a defence capable of competing at that level.
It’s like a sort of footballing Ground hog day and it feels like Celtic are going to be stuck in it forever more unless the board changes their mentality.
See what Fan power did in ’94? Maybe it’s time fan power brought about the changes needed once again……
you hit the nail on the head in a nutshell
ffs ralph yool have the panty wetters going tae thur doctors for anty d s talkn yon rugged wae
No McGinn no Brendan next season that’s gospelfrom the mans own lips
Charlie,
A good player but getting on a bit.
Rebus
not sure if he would get a work permit. He was in the WC2018 squad but did not play….does that count?
I recall BR congratulating him after the game at Parkhead, and Ogu’s comments about loving to play in our stadium, but it is a long shot.
Rebus
Flinker , if you are not watching , I. don’t see why I should read your comments especially as u use BBC texts as one. Of your sources .
Our problems are vast & no one person or department are to blame . BR is too predictable with his formation & basically if he changes first 11 ,he has to change the player coming in style to fit . Our defensive centre midfield spend too much time trying to support attack &scan not defend when req’d . They were nowhere when AEK scored in CP & were sleeping at first goal last night .
However despite signing bad players & despite dithering over deals by P L , we were unlucky that our 3 very good strikers were all not match fit for either AEK ‘s games . Every team would struggle whilst missing 3 strikers
One lesson that needs learned is that we start slowly in both halves and are vunerable in the first period of both – let’s get the players sprinting on to the park and not ambling on sooking their kia ora
How I see it;
Who changed the Champions League to the “financially Rich League”.
For the champions of any country to go through four qualifiers to get into the “financially Rich League” the rubbers ducks at Eufa.
The most telling thing for me is.. AEK had two attempts at goal and scored, despite Celtic having six players in our penalty box.
There was no quality defensive signings brought in.. none, despite a right back who cannot defend, a centre-half who you cannot rely on (Jozo) a centre-back who has downed tools and a centre-back who has been converted from the mid field.
Who are our defensive coaches and what do they do, Toure, Kennedy?
AEK Athens over two legs, defended as a team and attacked as a team, our midfielders cannot defend, they are alright going forward but they are rubbish at defending, who coaches them to ball watch?
No CEO should have any say on any signings, that should be the managers job alone, our CEO is great at the financial aspect of bringing in money, hopeless, absolutely hopeless at football governance and utter garbage like his fellow board members at bringing in players. Whatever happened to the “any money we earn will be put back into the team” clearly, clearly this is just not happening, the support deserves better, much, much better.
Rodgers and his scouting team, if its his scouts that are bringing in the likes of Benuye, Commper, Boyata, Gamboa, etc. etc. for every one Dembelle there is ten new players unfit to wear our treasured hoops.
To play this game of pass the parcel from the manager to the board in front of a gleeful media, is a pure disgrace, you never, never give your opponents an opportunity to GLOAT. Have a meeting and get it sorted its amateurish.
Mike,
Well said!
Great comments
Thanks macca….:)
spice might help Jozo!
Rebus
An alternative to his usual horse tranquilizers i suppose…..
The truth is that it doesn’t really matter wether replacements can be bought for 5,6 7 or 8 million these players are demanding 50-60k wages per week!! our wage structure doesn’t allow us to buy these players. Mcginn signed for Villa on 25k per week plus signing on fee plus bonuses which would probably take him up to the equivelent of 40k per week(includes lump sum siging on fee spread over contract). Celtic can’t manage this or there would be disention amongst all the other players. At the moment we can’t seem to change our approach to the game. AEK set themselves in and watched us play the passing game across the field. There was and is no genuine pace in our team meaning we can’t move the ball quickly forward to take advantage of Griffs pace to get behind defenders as we are still playing across our back 3 or 4. AEK merely auted till the chinks appeared in our defending and took full advantage. WE currently buy players with the rationale to improve them when we need proven players in defense immediately. There doesn’t appear to be any light on the horizon and we are in great danger of losing this league which would be a travesty
Questions have to be asked of Lee Congerton, John Kennedy and the board.
The fuckwits in the Scottish media along with the Huns and others think we’re done. It’s time to get on a war footing with the lot of them and show that we’re taking no shit. We need to stand unified from bottom to top. Excuse the pun, but we need to get all Spartan on the rest of the teams in a footballing sense. Enough is enough,
For me our season starts on Saturday
Noel,
Have you seen the film ‘300’? Gerard Butler…..i’m a body double for him.
🙂
I hesitate to write this when emotions are ruling reason, but I feel compelled to do so. I started supporting Celtic in the early sixties…..cannot remember the first game but my first clear memories are of seeing players like Paddy Turner, Frank Haffey and John McNamee. Around this time I realised that following Celtic would bring pain as well as joy……the away defeat to MTK Budapest (4-0) after our home victory of 3-0 in the European Cup Winners Cup.
I stood through the outrages of the Athletic Madrid game at Celtic Park and the injustice of losing the tie. Even when money was tight, I rarely missed a game in those days.
In 1981 I emigrated to Canada and eagerly listened to short wave radio, read the scant reports in Canadian newspapers on Celtic games, and every Sunday phone call home would ask about the team.
Since these early days, money has dominated the beautiful game to a greater extent. Clubs have become businesses and top players have become super stars. Paradoxically, it is easier to follow your team as the money grabbers have taken an interest in the game. I subscribe to CelticTV and various blogs.
Against all of this backdrop is the contrast with the state of the club today. I find I am now faced with an important decision, namely whether to continue to support the club as it applies a strategy designed to maintain mediocrity but reasonable financial health. Problems on the park, I can live with……poor defenders, horizontal football, no set piece lore, and a goalkeeper who gives the ball to the opposition. BR shoulders some responsibility for these. However, when the CEO plays funny b**gers with transfer negotiations and is involved in ego wars with the manager, I question whether I want to finance this. In essence, I am at the point where I am disgusted, not that we were beaten by AEK, but that we are once again on a path to be less than we can be.
I think BR is now realising this and both he and I are at the tipping point of whether this is our last season with the club.
Rebus
Completely understand what you’re feeling Rebus , we wish and will our club forward with all our being – but if the people at the top DD in particular (haven’t heard his name mentioned much) don’t have any intention of trying to make that forward motion then all our wishing and willing is futile .
Regarding the current problem ,DD brought BR in and is basically PL’s boss .
Perhaps if he was more hands on he’d have seen this BR v PL coming and been able to nip it in the bud .
I heard alarm bells ringing when I read a CQN article from before the AEK ties ; the one telling us of league wins for a generation – IRRELEVANT TO WHO THE MANAGER WAS – and all because of the strong foundations that had been built –
That read like a PR spin on behalf of Lawwell ( maybe Jabba’s not the only one with a ” pet stenographer “).
I feared that article was paving the way for ” life without Rodgers” .
This rammy is NOT about BR not being backed , it’s about them agreeing to his player purchases but “failing” to get them over the line (sabotage ? )
Those backing Lawwell ( it does seem to have broken into 2 factions/camps now ) should roll their minds back to HIS experiment of 2014/16 , the CL debacles ( 60 m lost ) the sevco humiliation , the half empty stadium and THAT Green Brigade banner . Seriously think he could have pulled in his big recent dafabet sponsorship on the back of that ??
DD is the boss and needs to act like one , not some distant disinterested absentee landlord .
Give your employees a clear remit and make sure they stick to within the boundaries of that remit.
Finally , I have to say I can’t believe BR didn’t get this all nailed down clearly before signing on ; my info was that PL and his ” interfering ” was well known in English footballing circles .
Nokia once had a 56% world market share. In a very short timr they slipped to under 10%. One of their former directors used football as an analogy. He said everyday they went out and played and got so used to winning they got complacent. Then one day they went out to play an americsn football team and they got slaughtered. There opponents were playing american football rules and nobody told nokia.
If you stand still sooner or later a dog will come slong snd piss all over you
Rebus interesting you mention Paddy Turner, he left Celtic for Glentoran, we thought oh a player from a big team like Celticche’ll be brilliant here, average Irish League player. Our appalling finishing last week at Celtic Park cost us this tie. If we had won 4-1 as we should have Athens would have been a breeze. Why oh why, apart from childish ent, does anyone care what firt of driveway Peter Lawwell has, what is the majority shareholders opinion of how he performs as a CEO, how come when we list he suddenly is the Director of Football, organises trsining dictates tactics, I think Ralph had a better hand in it. The Board spent £9 m on Odsonne, £4m on Ntcham, God know how much on Paddy, £2m on Eric, £5m at least on Kouassi and Boyata, £2.5 m on Sinclair add in Hendry, the winger who appeared and disappeared last season, Armstrong and GMS, Morgan there must be nearly £30 m shelled out in a pub league over 3 years, spend is not the problem. 5 weeks ago we had 2 young centre halves, Jozo and a centre half returning from the World Cup how do you persuade a really top notch defender to choose to come here. The recruitment has been poor but don’t waste people’s time with wittering in about those not directly involved in the football side of Celtic. I like the pitch, the Celtic way, the hotel may be an income stream, the lights not so much.
BJF,
I have never mentioned the heated driveway. IMHO people can spend their money as they wish.
I am a shareholder of the club and I agree that PL is a financially prudent executive. It is when he interferes with the football side that the problems arise. It would be interesting to see why most shareholders invest in the club. Is it for emotional reasons or is it for the usual financial objectives? As someone on another blog said, how would you feel if the hospital accountant took your tonsils out?
Does PL interfere or not? I think the evidence from the MCGinn issue shows that he does. Imagine car production where the CEO holds off on buying tires because he can get a better deal(maybe) in one month, three months time! It is dysfunctional to the organisation, an it is happening now at the club.
PS I knew that Turner went to Glentoran.
Rebus
Oops “Childish envy and sort of driveway.”
All the players are in position to stop the goal.So why blame Kennedy Toure etc.
None had the brains or the courage to act.
That’s the difference.
They can’t think ahead always on the back foot and slow to react. It happened at Celtic park also and against Hearts. It’s the players fault nothing to do with Kennedy or Toure they weren’t playing.
No courage what so ever. It is the players who are weak not the coaching staff.
You can only coach how to set up when they have the ball.That part of it was fine. But for everyone to switch off well thats just ludicrous.
The players we have arent good enough simple as that for European football. The europa league i would happily forfeit this season. The squad needs to regroup focus and concentrate on a treble. Brendan has to play players consistently get your best 11 on the park every game, if one is injured bring the next guy in.
The best 11 we have in my opinion in whatever formation you like.
Gordon
Lustig Jozo Ajer Tierney
Forrest Brown McGregor Sinclair
Edouard and Dembele.
Play them every week if one is injured bring in the guy next in the position if he does well keep him in there till he fucks up or gets injured.
Fuckin easy stop with the changes of 5 or 6 players. Get them focussed. HH
If Rogic is fit, Rogic plays.
You don’t sign a guy on a 5 year deal to it on the bench.
Agree. Rogic is our best player right now.
Rogic is an impact player not 90 minutes as he has proved time and time again.
What are Kennedy’s and Toure’s roles as coaches then at Lennoxtoun then? are they not part of the coaching staff? You would expect the Celtic players to be well drilled to face various defensive scenarios.
AEK especially at Celtic park were a well drilled unit able to react to the Celtic attacks, to close down players as well as space, that has nothing to do with courage, it was team discipline. It is my belief that Celtic are so used to attacking the teams in the SPFL, that they don’t know how to defend properly, that they are not fully tested. What happened to the high pressing game that was introduced early in Rodgers career and was so effective, it was a significant tactic that we employed against the likes of Manchester City and the German team, the players were good enough then, so I don’t buy into this not good enough shite, instead we watch this side to side shuffle which is utterly depressing. We have some great players, some are not so good, but in Europe our midfielders and defenders go Tonto, running around like headless chickens, who takes responsibility for that?
The picture shows they are well drilled what it doesn’t show is that none had brains to make the decisions that would easily have stopped the goal. They are gutless and clueless in there.
Nothing to do with the coaching staff all to do with the mentality and football brain of the players in defense. You mention man city the best defender we had that night gone big Eric.
Fall guy for trying to cover up the clowns to the left of him and jokers to the right.
The high press starts from the front.
what the picture shows is all the players are ball watching, only one player shielding the opposition player from the danger area. The three other players closest to the AEK player still ball watching, the two Celtic players nearest the player (Ntcham and McGregor) and then Tierney furthest away. Tierney is the only one who makes any attempt to stop the opposition player, Ntcham and McGregor do nothing and Sumonovic is once again posted missing, doing nothing. If you cannot coach “do not ball watch, face the opposition, then we have no chance in Europe none.
Exactly!
Peter Lawwell = Celtic compromised.
Have been saying it for years and will always maintain it. I decided to give my ST up due to him and his boardroom oligarch and will look forward to the day when I can once again apply to become a satisfied patron. However, i will only do so when that grabbing fat gleeful looking smug self agrandising cunt has been ignominiously marched from our club.
Considering now it’s a fully sanctioned all out open season on our players, do you think the heated driveway is going to atempt any influence in reversing this in any way, or even mildly influence? Naw, no chance. Considering the injuries we do pick up and inevitably will again this campaign, surely strengthening the team in all aspects should be paramount?
I personally don’t give a fuck about Europe, as the board has turned it in to an annual fuckin circus act, where each successive set of players and managers have to jump through ever more demanding obstacles, with limited resource, based on a coefficient from a country that would rather we all weren’t here at all. And all for the lick at a mean paymasters boot, so as to bathe in the jetisoned spray of a perceived bountiful waterfall, designed to pour only for a select few. Fuck it and fuck them.
What we are seeing is the same uncensored gluttony, spilling from an unchecked and unhindered boardroom, that are only concentrated on manifesting our Club in their favour, time after time. They don’t give a fuck.
I have witnessed something special in the past 2 seasons, which has eminated from a man that I firmly believe loves the Club, manager and supporter.
His frustrations are real. For all to see. Understood. He has the full backing of his playing and coaching staff. He is an ambassador for the club and always conducts himself with utmost dignity and all in respect of the club.
How many board room members can you willingly categorise in the same manner?
I know this is an old story but is it not time that Celtic supporters associations were represented on the Board. Certainly, on the PLC but, perhaps, also on the Holding company as well.
Is it such a strange phenom. to have customers represented on a company board?
Rebus
Bad preparation (airing things in public)…bad performances and a bad result eminently preventable. Sorry but it is January that would have laid the groundwork for last night but the ‘treble ‘ talk means that CL goes on the back burner. We knew this was coming. This will be forgotten come a victory on 2nd. September…and there is the tragedy. We could also meet some very difficult teams next in the Europa so it could get worse.Said it on here with others for long enough, not good enough !
Thistle on Saturday will launch it as soon as so we need to really start well, maintain it and finish it as soon as possible then dismantle Hamilton…time to fix it.
It won’t be forgotten…..
Iam so looking forward to hunric boyata getting his right up the shitter
he sat there nursing his sore toenail watching his team mates getting bummed and thinking, oh well I need an extra grand
Agreed!
Were3 you always FredDDobbs or were you once FredCDobbs? Just curious.
Rebus
A lot of people questioned cunto huno boyata’s defensive qualaties but I dont think anyone would argue against him being a top cunt
Jimmybee, good post. I agree totally with your “best 11” idea. We need our best 11 to gel and get used to each other.
BR has no idea what a defence is..,
Johan would be an inspired choice. Lots of experience and heart of a lion. JFK was rightly looked after by the club but he only realy played top flight for a season or so before his injury and is clearly out of his depth. Suggest an ambassador role would be more appropriate and we bring in a coach with experience. Big Jan ( or even big Roy) would be most welcome.
Rebus , I heard that the club knew a week earlier that McGinn wouldn’t be coming because Petrie and Demster were determined not to let him go to a potential rival. From Hibs perspective they were right. It was up to him, sit tight and come next summer or take his career elsewhere.
( BTW appreciate you didn’t mention the driveway.) He would not have been guaranteed a starting place yet.
When we get over thiscandvwebeill could we make a dent in tthe Europa League, will it be a seminal moment like losing to Sevco and players will come in, we are in 4 trophies still, 8 in a row feels good but will It be enough.
Where are you getting that info from, Peter’s Pet In The Know bloggers?
If it was then I wouldn’t be listening to them, as they got it spectacularly wrong on Tierney, McGinn and most other things.
If you really think Petrie/Dempsey would’ve turned down more money from us then you’re completely delusional.
They are mere functionaries and serve at the owners whim and if they did that then they be out out faster than
Where did it all go wrong so quickly? Get a life guys! We do not have a divine right to be in the Champions League! By August 14th we had played six gruelling fixtures to qualify for a final play-off round to reach a competition we should rightfully be in without play-offs! The system failed us! Don’t jump on the bandwagon created by the media! We are above that!
fuckoff
????
??????
The system failed us?? WTF? The system was well known. The Board failed us by failing to invest.
Msm lapping up all the negativity surrounding us at the moment, from andy wankler to gordon strachan to kris commons to stan petrov to john hartson all having dig. This is the ploy to make Brendan walk to be honest id rather we kept our pride than get hammered by the corrupted elites for 40mil. A season in the europa league will stead us better than another year of beatings.
In our current state are you confident that we won’t have “another year of beatings” in the Europa League?
I’d rather take a 1 0 win over sheriff tiraspoll than a 7 1 humiliating defeat against psg.
PISH
What I mean is that we could be in a group with Seville, Legia and Spartak and unless we get our shit together PDQ then wins may be as thin gruel as the Champs League.
I’d take that, forget Madrid and Munich, it’s a Europa League last 64 tie against Ajax.
Far easier than finishing in top 2 of EL Group to get to last 32, plus loads more money.
Unfortunately that’s in the category, as Jim Bowen was wont to say, “let’s look at what you could’ve won”.
Need to buy her a drink first……
The Cha, I may be delusional in thinking Petrie and Demster won’t do us a favour no matter whether we matched or paid a bit more for McGinn or you maybe delusional in not realising just what lengths non Celtic people will go to hurt us. An interesting dilemma if Scott Allan is fought by Hibs do we do them a favour to get him off the wage bill. I take Una’s point, we can do well in the Europa League, but isn’t it interesting how many people and which people are trying to put the knife in, who wants to pay them to say it and how much ammunition Celtic fans give the media to allegedly back it up at present. John m White must love reading Celtic blogs today.
Scott Allen or Christie or any of our players – should be a business rather than a personal decision. If Hibs offer the most to buy or offer the best option for a loan then of course we should deal. Unusually I suspect I’m on the same page as the suits on this one!
The media mean fuck all to me, if I see a problem then I’ll agitate to address it.
The only ones anguishing about the media seem to be pro-Board but is this to shut down debate or are they feart they can’t ignore the media like grown ups do?
Not got a fuckin clue who John m White is but, as I say, I don’t hang on the media’s every word and they don’t influence my actions.
What’s happening to the title stripping?
They’re still trying to find nimmo
Sounds a bit fishy to me…..
nae chance. Fix was in long time ago. Move on Timmy!!!
Jim White can’t type that without getting edgy!
Try again w/o wee swearies!
Scott Allen or Christie or any of our players – should be a business rather than a personal decision. If Hibs offer the most to buy or offer the best option for a loan then of course we should deal. Unusually I suspect I’m on the same page as the suits on this one!
The media mean nothing to me, if I see a problem then I’ll agitate to address it.
The only ones anguishing about the media seem to be pro-Board but is this to shut down debate or are they feart they can’t ignore the media like grown ups do?
Not got a clue who John m White is but, as I say, I don’t hang on the media’s every word and they don’t influence my actions.
Weered,
Evening m8.
I wasn’t expecting a good result before kick off, however the longer the game went on, the more i was convinced the great escape was on.
Very big 🙂
DIO SIA CON I GENOVESI 🙁
Weered,
The most galling thing about being knocked out of the CL, is that it was to a very average side, organised but they did enough.
Defending is an art in itself, we need guys who are prepared to take the ball square in the puss & defend like their lives depend on it.
Heads up Bhoys, let’s regroup & go again!
Earth to Monti, Earth to Monti, Come in Sun, Come in Sun, your partner Aiden has been on, repeat your partner Aiden’s been on, he’s asking if you could pick up some Zinc cream, repeat Zinc cream, he’s got a nasty rash, repeat he’s got a nasty rash, please go into Boots, do you copy, do you copy.