One of the most difficult aspects about resurrecting the Diary this year has been to try and retain it’s personality and dare I say uniqueness among the many offerings on the interweb.
Remaining ad free was crucial, at least it’s readable compared to a lot of the stuff out there.
I thought retaining it’s reputation for getting things wrong and /or making stuff up would be more difficult, but then Celtic went to Ibrox yesterday, and pretty much everything in yesterdays piece failed to stand up under examination.
So I don;t have to worry about anyone thinking we’re not the real diary.
Celtic clearly held their new year party on Wednesday night, and it looked like they were still suffering the after effects as “rangers ” outfought, out thought and outplayed the hoops so clinically that one Celtic supporter showed his frustration by flinging a coin at Arne Engels whilst he lined up to take a corner kick.
There, look, I’ve saved you all the bother of buying the Daily Record to see their interpretation of events.
Although given the result, it was probably a “rangers ” fan making a takeover bid for the club, in cold hard cash, having seen that they might still win the league and gain access to Champions League money.
I don’t need to go over the game, you all saw it.
And now that I’ve stopped screaming, we can look at the bigger picture.
Yes, we remain eleven points clear at this stage of the season. Which is as good as we could have hoped for.
And yes, it’s possible the intimidating atmosphere and subliminal threat of crowd violence if Celtic had won was in the back of players minds…
After all, “rangers ” won convincingly and Arne Engels was hit by a missile, and both Reo Hatate and Nicolas Kuhn were more or less assaulted during the game, so one does beging to wonder what would have happened had Celtic taken the early lead they so nearly got….
The issue is, and those of you who listen to our podcasts will recognise this particular moan, Celtic cannot handle teams who press them.
Kasper Schmeichel has conceded three goals in three out of four games against “rangers “, who whilst limited in talent seem to turn on the enthusiasm against Celtic or European sides.
Hard work always beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard….or smart.
Celtic have a problem when teams go at us. Falkirk in the League Cup showed that, but they weren’t at the level of fitness required to keep it up.
Bruges showed that, and they got the reward when Cameron Carthorse Vickers showed us why he couldn’t get a game for Stoke City.
Dortmund ran over the top of us because the defence pass to each other instead of moving the ball to the midfield.
And nothing has changed since then.
Phillipe Clement is a professional manager, and although he might not be top tier, he sussed us out yesterday, It took a few games to get there, but he’s worked it out.
We’re not as good as we think we are becuase there is no leadership on the park in the McNeill/ Aitken/Brown mould that can override the managers instructions and take the game by the proverbial scruff of the neck.
If Kyogo Fuhruhashi isn’t getting the breaks, our plan B is to replace him with Adam Idah, who cost nine million pounds entirely on the basis that the ball bounced off his leg in a cup final.
Meanwhile, on loan Johnny Kenny is scoring freely in the Europa Conference League for Shamrock Rovers….
Daniel Cummings is scoring regularly for the B team, not yet attracting the same headlines as a young Charlie Nicholas did when he was about to burst on the scene. By the way, we hear that Cummings doesn;t talk anywhere near as much shite as Nicholas did or does, which is another bonus.
Manager Brendan Rodgers has a style he’s drilled into the players. What he hasn’t done is encouraged individuality and responsibility.
Maybe it is a wee bit of complacency creeping in, maybe the fear of a collapse is completely unfounded,
But every time we put in a performance like yesterday, it gives opponents an idea of what to do against us.
The result yesterday had been coming for a while.
How we respond is important. Spending £26m on three players, none of which started yesterday , tells me that Brendan should have someone else in charge of purchasing…. and no doubt someone on the board will have pointed this out to him.
Frankly, I’ll be surprised if we change anything….and if we keep doing the same thing, we’ll get the same results.
There are rumours that Manchester United want Brendan Rodgers at the end of the season. It can’t be true, as he usually jumps ship as soon as someone asks.
He’s in his comfort zone at Celtic, being paid obscenely well to finish first in a one horse race. And occasionally get a good result in Europe.
There was a lot wrong with yesterday’s performance, it’s what we do about it that counts.
Yesterday, we had this….
Ralph Malph
See…I told you, they fall apart if you hassle them
Today…
Police release picture of man suspected of eating Ally McCoist.
I thought that WAS fat Sally
Spot on ! Rodgers has no plan B , so he better waken up soon & get some physicality into this team, instead of tippy tappy, sideways & backwards cowards that didn’t win one 50/50 ball !
Plan A seems to be working very well though. One domestic defeat and one
Of the trophies already in the bag. 11 points clear. Still a good chance to progress in Europe. We are going to lose some games we are going to lose the odd game ( one in twenty ) against Sevco. Yes I would have loved more effort and steel but it didn’t happen.
I’ve said all along that BR’s obsession with passing the ball sideways across our own goal was a disaster waiting to happen – it has with CCV and it did again yesterday. Get the ball forward ffs!!!
Scales and Hatate couldn’t pass urine in a straight line and I’m not so sure Trusty is any better. In fact, none of our expensive new signings seem worth the money to me. Idah in particular is a complete dud, I doubt we’d get a couple of million for him if we could sell him at all.
Bernardo, I quite like but he, Calmac and Kuhn aren’t up for the physical side of things which is always needed against Sevco. What else? Oh yes, the Japanese bhoys have had their day, none of them are performing consistently just the odd glimpse of genius then back to mediocrity. I wouldn’t really mind if we found buyers for all three (Hatate at least ffs!).
PS Great to see the Dairy has reopened after such a long gap. Pity it coincided with the Hoops getting ‘creamed’.
You could’ve milked that one for all it’s worth but then it would likely have degenerated into udder nonsense.
1st, Happy New Year! 2nd, I can’t live if living is without you, even if you, same as everybody else except for the sevco fans who think they now have the League sown up, occasionally get it slightly wrong, ouch!, 3rd I have never seen such an uninterested shower in hoops, ever! Kuhn looked like his agent is keeping him informed of Real Madrid’s interest, (sorry, sarcasm) Scales earned 0 of 10 and that is me being generous, same as Hatate who I booed off, is he unhappy, and if so why? He has been crap for ages now. Bernardo is gifted but no Broonie, no fight, and like everyone else except for Callum, Maeda, AJ and CV, not bothered, the League is still ours if we want it, Greg looked rather niffed as he was hooked, KT on way back and he knows? Yes by the way if he can stay on his feet injury free for more than 3 quarters of the season, otherwise leave him down south much as I loved him, Kyogo no service but a nice finish, shame, but on to Sunday. Did Sky beg us to throw it or lose sponsorship? Maybe not, but it ain’t over till the fat lady sings and after ’70 San Siro and the 10 going the same way as yesterday, we do have history beyond glory, we can shoot ourselves in the foot at times. Forget it, raise it and greater days ahead. COYBIG!
McGregor was woeful, easily as bad as the rest of the mid field, and if he solely gets all the plaudits for a win, he at least needs to share the blame for such an abject performance.
AJ was a waste of a jersey, like most of the team, including Maeda. CCV was also well off it, but marginally better than the dross around him.
Yes Jim. Just mentioning they were all terrible, but these were trying in my view, McG is always surrounded so needs help. He will only slow down from here. KT seems on way, maybe that will give us some bite, f he stays fit. HH!
Clement has sussed Brendan out, which is no great surprise since he’s played exactly the same way against him every game.
So that’s now 9 goals in 3 games the zombies have put past us and still CCV can’t find an out-ball as his captain’s too busy pointing elsewhere.
More suspicious minds than mine are claiming the match was thrown to keep Clement in post, and Ibrox full, but I think it was the beer tent outside Ibrox that did it, filling the zombie hordes with not only a bellyflopper full of Dutch courage but allowing their sectarian bigotry an extra level of vociferous hatred, with Scales and Idah coming under particular fire, if you catch my drift.
Sadly, Trusty’s not very trusty under fire either, looking like a deer caught in the headlights too often, and Yang just seems to look very busy without ever doing anything.
So I don’t believe they threw the match but I do believe that GCC allowing the Huns to pile into a 3 o’clock kick off viciously maroculous was a deliberate policy led by Police Scotland who, it must be remembered, were the guys who had previously ordered these games to be played with a 12 o’clock kick off, precisely to avoid such a scenario.
Lets face it, if you were a footballer would you like to spend an hour and a half of your life being told by 50,000 UDA men that you’re gonna get yer legs blown off?
And that’s about the best excuse I can come up with, though it’s a zinger.
Happy New Year to all at ETims.
Caption…..
Reminds me of that old song….
There’s an awful lot of Greggs in Brazil
Caption: Celtic’s new head of sports science gears up the troops for the big match at Ibrox
Let me fix a problem most seem to be having.
Like the cup final McGregor was a complete waste of a jersey, and if rot goes from the head down this at least needs to be said, instead of taking turns blaming other parts of the team( all woeful), in some attempt to excuse him.
The “I told you so “ crew out in force today.
Team wins… team gets beaten.
Three points gone… ( I get the manner was alarming) but maybe some players reading their own press.
Boot their arse to go again.
Caption…
“ Man gets extra head to talk twice as much shite “
Espanyol occasionally beat Barcelona. Everton occasionally beat Liverpool Fulham occasionally beat Arsenal – you get the point. Move on keep playing and winning and we will meet again at Celtic Park soon enough
I’m starvin..
11 points clear…
12 with GD..
A lot of panty wetting ffs..HH NOO..☘☘
We’ve struggled against them outside of Celtic Park, for a few years now including in Ange’s time, so it’s not just a Rodgers/Clement issue, but usually have enough quality to prevail.
What was surprising yesterday was we struggled for virtually the whole of the 90m and created next to nothing outside the 1st 2mins and Kyogo’s offie.
Kuhn didn’t look fit, so has he been rushed back due to the unpalatable alternatives of Yang and Palma? If so, get him fully fit for the Champs League games at the end of the month.
TBF The forearm smash in the mush plus kick for good measure didn’t help. Yeah, only a Yellow, only in Scotland.
Johnston also didn’t have a good game either. Too much playing plus injuries catching up with him?
Maeda was also poor but feeding him, with his back to goal, in tight spaces doesn’t work due to his lack of ball control. In behind is where he does his devastating best work.
I share the concerns re McGregor and, I fear, we’re witnessing a slow decline ala Brown that needs to be addressed to keep us at the top. I think his goal-scoring earlier in the season was masking this decline.
Top teams don’t keep older players around for longer, simply for them to get more medals, if they’re not playing at the same top level then they are ruthlessly cut.
His passing under pressure was poor and recovery pace non-existent.
The likes of Engels, Bernardo and McCowan may step up to fill the void in the future but that doesn’t help us at the moment.
Yesterday won’t stop us strolling the league but, if we’ve ambitions of doing better in Europe, then this should concentrate minds.
Of course, if we’re just comfortably numb with just being better than the Huns, then its ‘as you were’.
BTW Schmeichel has faced them 3 times, a clean sheet in a 3-0 romp, League Cup Final and yesterday. So 6 goals lost but 9 goals going back to penultimate visit there, another 3-3 but we’ve also scored 9, played 2 away, only 1 at home and won the trophy in the other.
Forbye, the 2 games against them, we’ve kept clean sheets in the last 7 games, so are the oppo that bad and we have structural problems or do we simply need tweaking here and there?
Caption “Scunnered”
Click to pop up to readable size, if you want.
The diary continues to be excellent. It doesn’t have to be accurate, it wouldn’t be the diary if it was always right or even occasionally right. Not the point of the diary. It is to start a few debates.
I think we do have leaders on the park, Kasper. CCV and Callum. The first two did well yesterday, the mid field was very poor. We lacked an enforcer and the midfield were bullied by a more committed Glasgow Espanyol. We need a tough midfielder in the Aiken mould.
Caption
“If it looks like Alan Brazil it is probably a fat balding bam.”
The thing is Ralph’s diary yesterday was in line with most Tims expectations of the match. That’s the trouble – we’re really not as good as a lot of the support believe and this result has been coming down the track for weeks. BR needs to get things sorted before the YB game or our optimism about Europe might prove to be likewise, as misjudged as a Hatate pass.
I agree not as good as we think but
“better than all the rest.” Some are too harsh on Rodgers, 1 trophy in the bag, top of the league, still in Europe. I remember the 1990s.
Need to use the transfer window to toughen up the team, we have plenty of skill, we need a bit of muscle.
I wonder what Monti would say.
3 going on 6. Saw the signs of weakness during the Zagreb game. Recycling the ball slowly at the back, giving the ball to hatate who gets his passes cut out. Not handling the press. Ball again going to hatate to play through it and hatate playing the wrong ball. Scales the hammer thrower with errant passes and generally passive play otherwise. Kyogo isolated. Young boys will beat us if this keeps up
For those not going to the game, its going to be available as a PPV Event.
Personally, I think £12.99 is exorbitant (you could’ve watched the League Cup Final plus plenty of other footy for a month for that cost).
A £5 would seem a reasonable cost for a run of the mill league game but what do I know.
Not sure what to expect tomorrow, a bit flat or excitement at KT return?
I just hope that if he’s coming back, it’s done quickly rather than being dragged out, which we have a bad habit of.
Well would you look at that. Sevco drops points again and we win 3-0. 1 point off as you were the day before the derby and goal difference restored. Funny old game.
Gawain git faaccked Mate. It’s who we are mate. It’s who we are
It’ll still take a good wee while for most of us to get last Thursday’s horror show out of our systems so it’ll be important to put things right again when we meet that mob again at CP in mid-March.
Yesterday was sort of back to business as usual with a fairly routine win coming from a generally competent performance played at a decent tempo for the most part and where we were always in command (St Mirren didn’t offer too much tbh). There was a fair balance between positive bursts of creativity and slack passing. CCV’s excessive confidence nearly cost us a goal on one occasion as he fiddled about in his own area with the ball and I’d like to see much more from Adam Idah up front but there were also highly notable improvements shown by several players such as Johnston and Hatate when he came on in the 2nd half. Vital to take maximum points from the next three league fixtures, the hardest of which will be away to Ross County on Saturday. The highlanders are hitting new heights atm and they usually give us a tough game in Dingwall regardless of form.
Delusions? Waiting for MCCoists next bit of wisdom.
Yet again the media build them up and they fail again. Celtic looked lost at Ipox, possibly the bile and hatred affected the players, also their own safety