For the avoidance of doubt, etims has not merged with any other website, it will continue to be free at the point of entry, and there will be no adverts on the pages.
However, as some of you have noted a more positive slant on events, there will be no compromising on content,
If we think something is being done well, we will say so.
Otherwise, when things are going badly, and we like to think we’re not shy of offering criticism when it’s due, that criticism will not have any credibility.
We will therefore say what we think.
And right now, I think we’re getting the band back together.
There’s a new right back on the books, Croatian international Josip Juranovic, brought in from Legia Warsaw. Personal terms haven’t been agreed yet, but he’s been told he can have some, and thats good enough for him.
Liam Scales, the outstanding defender at Shamrock Rovers will join in due course, which means Celtic will have four central defenders to choose from. And Nir Biton, giving us a total of four.
Incidentally, as Hector Bandido pointed out on our recent podcast, did anyone else notice Ange brought biton on in midfield the other night ?
Perhaps he sees him as back up there.
Whats interesting and exciting is that the players already there are seen as back up, and the new players are the starters….a paradigm shift in policy.
It looks like plan A, which was to get the team winning, is working.
We’ve heard something about plan B, but aren’t in a position to confirm or deny it, but if it’s true, then it’s a massive leap forward in another part of the business, for which credit will be due to Dom McKay.
And again, as I said when the fan media became the hot topic, we’re not remotely interested in taking part.
From a personal point of view, there’s a deep mistrust of the current board, and there’s a long way to go before I’ll even consider chucking my lot in with them again.
You’ll remember when they asked for the smoking gun on Resolution 12, and promptly poured water on it and hid it under the bed….
Anyhoo, the Europa League play off is tonight, and Glasgow Celtic Glasgow face Alkmaar Zaanstreek Alkmaar.
They’re called AZ, and our man in the Netherlands knows a little about them…. (from yesterdays replies )
Alkmaar is my local Eredivisie team, though my preference is to go to Telstar in the Eerste Divisie, mainly due to the horror of exiting the parking at the Alkmaar stadium, and playing at quarter to nine on a Saturday night.
My take on the tie has changed dramatically. 2 weeks ago I was shitting myself and preparing for months of getting the piss taken. AZ had a good preseason winning against Torino and Real Sociedad despite losing Stengs, Boadu and later on Bizot. Now Wijndal is injured, Larsson is suspended and Koopmeiners is in similar transfer place to Eddy. That’s the list of their best players from last season. On paper much weaker than last year. They’ve recruited as usual in Scandinavia and cherry-picking lesser Eredivisie teams. Celtic fans would call them ‘projects’ except for Pavlidis, 22 goals for Willem II last season. Their manager thinks it’s a good idea to play a midfielder at left back, replacing the injured Wijndal. He might change this for Wednesday playing the ‘invisible’ James Forrest.
As a team they are always very good with the ball and their aim is to have the ball most of the time. Good in the transition where they will look to move the ball forward very quickly. High press when they lose the ball but this is also their weakness. Their players are defensively less strong than for instance at Ajax and PSV which is why they finish 3rd or 4th most years. The team holds its structure and has good routine. They’ve played this way for years, have high player turnover but new players fit in quickly as they are scouted for this type of football.
Celtic will need to go out and win the game with positive football. If they let AZ play, they will. Very capable of the the classic European sucker punch that puts us out of Europe every year.
If you’re planning to visit, Alkmaar is a lovely wee town – old city centre, canals, bars – also an easy train ride from Amsterdam. My AZ friends are sick that they don’t get the chance to visit Paradise, are as nervous as me about the game but really looking forward to it. They were surprised by how well Scotland played against the Netherlands in the pre-Euros friendly.
From the sound of that, tonight’s game should be a cracker, and we should be pleased with any positive result.
Echoing the thoughts of alkmaarbhoy, a few weeks ago we wouldn’t have even thought we’d be in the play offs, and now we are, and we can look ahead with if not confidence, certainly optimism,
Or we could just moan that we should have already had these players in, that the board are a bunch of self serving tory bastards.
Enjoy it, and don’t forget , things are getting better, and , as they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Then again, it might have been if Ange was on the job.
Elsewhere, bears are fighting with other bears as they realise that not all of the money they raise goes where they want it to….
What do they expect ?
With the taxman shouting cos he wants his dough, and Dave King after his, something has to give when your club/company is losing a couple of million quid a week.
Will Mike Ashley just seize the assets …?
Its probably the best they could hope for…..
Even if there are some still standing staunchly by banging the drum and whistling the flute in support….
How Alashkert rose from the ashes to earn dream Europa League date with Rangers
RANGERS will return to the familiar territory of the Europa League on Thursday evening but there is a degree of stepping into the unknown.
The defeat to Malmo that ended their Champions League dreams has come at a cost financially and the challenge now is to limit the damage by embarking on another prolonged run in the competition that has given Steven Gerrard some of his most important and exciting moments as manager.
Gerrard’s side are no strangers to these qualifying round ties and the challenge of Alashkert is one which Rangers are expected to overcome relatively comfortably.
“Princess Diana had barely escaped one previous attempt from Phil the Greek and MI5…”
Today….
Caption: Castore is proud to present our Graeme Murty Memorial shirt
¡¡ ʇᴉ ǝʌol ʇsnɾ ɐɥɔʇuop ‘loɹʇuoɔ ʎʇᴉlɐnb ǝɹoʇsɐƆ
Caption comp – Murty: shite, they’ve put the sevco badge on upside down again
Inspired by jozos tackle on miller
Caption : Rangers try and jump on the Australian Market after Celtic sign Ange!
BTW…
“Whilst Rangers is one of the oldest and most traditional clubs in the world, that won basically every single trophy there is since the beginning of the organised sport,”
Thats quite a claim indeed…or should i say, thats made up pish indeed.
That’s some going for Scotland’s youngest club/company/thing my ringmy.
“We’ve heard something about plan B, but aren’t in a position to confirm or deny it, but if it’s true, then it’s a massive leap forward in another part of the business,”
Nothing worse than a tease. Spit it out. We don’t care how pish it is.
Caption: More signs of distress at Ibrox ‘club’
Caption: Australian Sevco kit revealed
The board still in place & we are to be all happy clappy because we are signing Shamrock Rovers players?
He’s a decent player to be honest. When are we going out out?
Not all of us.
The Legia player seems to be valued substantially less (£2.5m v £5m) than others we were supposedly after. Whether this genuinely reflects the difference in their relative abilities, the concern is always there that the Board are again taking the cheap option after the pressure is eased after the feelgood factor is restored following victories over Galacticos Dundee, Jubbly and Hearts.
The similar downgrading from a £7m striker target to a £3.5m is also par for the course.
If a substantial number of fans think that being thoroughly pissed off at being scandalously unprepared for Midgetland by our repeat offending Board is “moaning” then we deserve all we get and will continue to get.
Lessons unlearned (repeat ad nauseum).
Bitton a central defender.
Do me a favour.
I wouldn’t give this clown a game of 5s at Pitz
These calls may be recorded:
Yer no listening pal, I don’t want a replacement coz the sponsors upside doon, I want my money back coz it’s fvkin mingin.
Caption: No xaption needed
Caption … ffs
Where did the weird 5 stars go? Was on their third kit last season. Then again who gives a….
They might be charging a fiver a star … one means more
We have the European Cup plus 50 leagues.
“He’s been told he can have some….” PMSL
Caption ..
Set your limits and lower your standards…I
Mug fan on phone …Listen mate the writing is upside down …
Customer service guy …ahhh congratulations sir you’ve got one of the 55 special edition shirts …
Mug fan …. Aw fantastic man , I’ll wear it with pride
Tonight on the SMSM coordinated campaign, we discuss the transfer of Callum McGregor to Crystal Palace FC.
Caption:
sevco`s new waffle mould.
Caption – “The only way is up” in Sevco’s topsy turvy world.
Caption
First Bus new seat covers used for adverts.
Looking forward to the tie tonight, if we play anything close to Hertz should be class, but we tire after seventy minutes. As for Sevco, who gives a flying duck? Let their journo fans write garbage as they do a Titanic!
Caption – In a last ditch attempt in attracting new friends down under to counter the restoration of Rogic and the amazing attack-minded fitba now being overseen by miserable bastard Ange, the geniuses from sevco are proud to dispay this little number along with attempts to beat off several bids from Real Madrid for their very best players. HH!
Caption: New from Ronco! The Alfie Morelos Memorial Shirt. Relive those happy memories of red cards, diving and cheating on the wife. Crafted in violet, the colour traditionally used in masses to remember the dead, this is an ingenious reminder of a dodgy transfer that just isn’t happening. In pop-up stores and Facebook market now. RRP £1888.
Caption: In a tribute to one of their celebrity fans sevco release a limited edition Mussolini jersey.
Sevco and Castore, unsuccessfully, try to hit the Australian market.
Caption: When you howl at the moon and your strips upside doon, that’s Castore!
Caption: The dodgiest transfer since Boumsong.
Caption: For God’s sake wilhelmina, I asked for an upside down cake for my birthday, not an upside down kit!
Nice “Burning Sky” reference…
Greyheid. Has it for me.
What I am pleased about is Etims goes into my inbox again after 2 years. Don’t know what’s different but I like that. Tonight will be a challenge but Ange is up for it and so are we.
Agreed but lets see if it keeps up.
Enjoy the game, hopefully keep the momentum going.
Right on a lot of positivity and they looked a good side despite the players they have lost. Our lad over there warned us about them. Bet the papers knock them down because we won. Tell me anyone agree this is the best football Celtic have played since …..
Your average sevc@nt is illiterate, so it wont make any difference whether the writing on “ra tap” is upside down or indeed in the Cyrillic alphabet. Completely over their dumbass heads.
Phannies!
Ralston and welsh magic
Agreed. Tony Ralston (a reincarnation of Roy Aitken at RB for us) was MOTM for me. Overall, a great result and solid professional performance for the most part but still got a huge job to do over in the Netherlands as AZ look a very handy young team.
It’s gonna be a nail-biter next week…first goal will decide the way the game goes. Going into it with a 2 goal lead would have been a pipe dream last season, but this is the real Celtic now.
AZ Almaar are better than any other team in the Scottish league, but we matched them and beat them tonight so we should clean up the Scottish trophies this season.
Meanwhile in Hill”Billy” land things have taken an unexpected turn for the worse as the Champions League windfall turned out to be just a fart in the wind and the walking dead are stumbling around trying to avoid the Grim Reaper.
Imagine the irony…you win your first title then go bust while over the border in the civilized part of Glasgow your hated rivals go from strength to strength.
God’s a Tim, a Japanese Tim.
I really think ralston will go on to play for Scotland. He is a fucking warhorse with pace and mongrel in him.
The Bhoys are back in town.
Starfelt is getting better no doubt though he gets nutmeged at times. They’re quite dangerous but not that great. They rely on power but a bit clueless at times. Think we will sneak it.
Iancelt sorry can’t reply directly to you for voting nonsense. I think the main step forward tonight was a clean sheet and a real sense of a senior pro at the back in Hart. We’re three or four short of an ideal 11 but in Ralston in particular has flourished and I’m as optimistic as I’ve been in a fair few years that we have a team going somewhere.
Good result from the Bhoys.
Greg Taylor needs to own his mistakes, not repeat them.
Caption…
Underhanded financial dealings, imperfectly registered players, engrained structural racism, religious bigotry, Castore showcase its contribution to the Staunch Traditions of the Ibrox Club(s), (sic) by demonstrating its commitment to the highest standards expected of the ‘Quintessential British Club(s)’ with the unveiling of its new High Tech Tapps.
NB. Production difficulties resulting in sub standard merchandise have been attributed to sabotage by Thum Kaffliks in the EU post Brexshit regulated distribution chain. The EU High Heid Yins state, as translated,
“ Nae Effin refunds aloud as pear the new financial set up.
Singed,
Monsignor Lawwell Mac Giolla Bhain.
On behalf of the EU Vatican Glesga Cooncil Celtic Coalition & Club 1888.
GITRFUY.
Good result & performance from the men in green last night, still too slack in possession & distribution from the defenders at times but that will improve should we sign proper defenders.
What i would like to do though is heap praise on Tony Ralston, i don’t really rate Tony as a first pick but o tell you what, for effort & dig take a bow son.
Keep it up Tony.
Agreed