“Go out and prove you are worthy of the jersey ”
Probably not the exact words Deila used just before kick off yesterday in Inverness, but they would have been along those lines. Nobody really took him up on it, and the game would have shown the new manager what most of us had suspected all along.
The squad isn’t as strong as it should be, and this season either we have got worse, or the other sides are getting better.
The truth is probably somewhere in between, but its worth noting that Inverness didn’t look like a team who are lucky to be at the top of the league, they were organised, strong and were a much better passing side than in previous years, and it would have taken a full strength side to beat them. They raised their game, we lowered ours, and were unlucky to lose.
The result doesn’t matter. The conclusions drawn by the management will be quite far reaching , however.
Thats not to say that there will be a fire sale at Celtic, but when enquiries are made about certain players and their availability, the club will listen for a wee bit longer before putting the phone down.
It looks like the end of the road for Teemu Pukki. It looks like the end of the road for Amido Balde, Leigh Griffiths and Dylan McGeouch may not feature again either. The remaining Twardzik still has a way to go before he is ready to be Izzys understudy, and Lukasz Zaluska will be ringing Anders Lindegaard to see if theres any truth in the rumours he’s coming north.
Efe Ambrose looked more comfortable on the right, but theres already a lot of competition for that berth, and the introduction of Jason Deneyaar makes his place in the centre less than certain, and Kris Commons looked like he was trying too hard, and his shoulders slumped a couple of inches every time something didn’t quite comke off for him.
Overall, the passing was dreadful, the composure non -existant, and creativity was just something that happens to other teams.
The defeat, which came about when Eoghan O’Connell found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and the ball hit him and ended up in the net, means Inverness are now four points ahead of Celtic, and the league table has a strange look about it..
PREMIERSHIP TABLE
| POS | TEAM | PLD | GD | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Inverness CT | 4 | 5 | 10 | |
| 2 |  |
Hamilton Accies | 4 | 2 | 9 |
| 3 | |
Dundee United | 4 | 0 | 9 |
| 4 | |
Kilmarnock | 4 | 1 | 7 |
| 5 |  |
Celtic | 3 | 7 | 6 |
| 6 | |
Dundee | 4 | 1 | 6 |
| 7 | |
St Johnstone | 4 | -2 | 6 |
| 8 | |
Partick Thistle | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| 9 | |
Aberdeen | 3 | -2 | 3 |
| 10 | |
Motherwell | 4 | -4 | 3 |
| 11 | St Mirren | 3 | -4 | 0 | |
| 12 | Ross County | 4 | -7 | 0 | |
Well, if we wanted competition, we’ve got it. Its great for the game, and it means we need to raise our game as well. Nothing is guaranteed in football, and we need to get focussed very, very quickly.
Ronny Deila spoke after the game, and he made a lot of sense;
“You could say that the gamble backfired but we will see on Tuesday whether we regret it or not.”
Asked if a win will make it a worthwhile sacrifice, he said: “Of course – but I still didn’t want to lose this match.
“In the first half we had the biggest chances. But we weren’t effective enough and in the second half it was quite even.
“It was 1-1 in chances and they scored. Inverness played well and we have to congratulate them.
“I learned a lot though – every match you get new answers.
“Maybe it was too many new players at the same time and we didn’t get the performance that we wanted. Now we have to focus on Tuesday night.”
He’s showing a determination not to take any chances whatsoever before Tuesday second leg against Maribor. Had he played his first picks yesterday, and someone had picked up a knock, he would have been slaughtered for it.
However, he isn’t going to put all the players left out straight back into the team, which in itself is a nice wee bit of mind games ahead of the Maribor clash..
“Of course some of them are going to be involved. We don’t have so many players we can switch the whole team.
“But it’s important to watch this game back and see where people stand.”
Efe Ambrose , who had a good game yesterday, was a little more honest;
“The manager should be angry. We never gave it our all. The last 20 minutes was not us, because we lost hope, conceding that goal.
“I don’t think it was too big a risk, changing everybody. Anyone who comes on for Celtic has to be ready to play.
“Now we will be at Celtic Park against Maribor with all the fans. I don’t think they can stop us.”
The absence of Virgil van Dijk has got them all excited down on Tyneside;
Celtic suffered their first defeat of the season yesterday as they went down 1-0 at Inverness, and it’s interesting and been pointed out to us by one of our readers – that Newcastle target Virgil van Dijk wasn’t in the squad.
And when you think that Neil Warnock told Robbie Savage and Darren Fletcheron BT Sport yesterday, that Alan Pardew had told him that Newcastle’s tenth signing would be announced today – that’s kind of interesting.
There was news a couple of days ago that van Dijk had been affected by his being linked with a number of Premier League clubs this summer – including Newcastle and Southampton – and he could well have been rested because of that, and he would be ready for Wednesday night’s important game against the Slovenian side.
But of course if his signing for Newcastle is imminent, as Warnock said yesterday, he would not have played yesterday.
This could be a case of putting two and two together and getting five of course – but at the very least it’s interesting.
And when you are a Newcastle United fan, you are always on the lookout for something that’s interesting, to make life worthwhile.
Similar, of course, to fans of Second Rangers, who are always desperate for good news, or “moonbeams ” , as they used to be known when they were kept in the dark and fed on bullshit by their old club and its pets in the media. Some things, it seems, never change.
Matthew Lindsay, who astonishingly earns a living writing about football, is a self confessed Inverness fan, and you would have thought he would have been delighted with his sides win yesterday. After all, theres nothing wrong with a little bias when you support a team…
Matthew LindsayA colleague has just compared Darren McGregor’s first goal for Rangers against Dumbarton at Ibrox this afternoon to . . . .
Carlos Alfuckinberto? Lol. It’s all about Tuesday night.
Onwards and upwards
Bertie Auld at Birmingham.
Filip Twardzik is not a left back. Good player though, but some way off the first team. Johansen not a left back either. Need competition for Izzy, plus a creative midfielder, physical striker and centre half.
Bigger fish to fry this Tuesday and any way, Inverness have proved to be our most awkward obstacle these past few years and better Celtic sides have also had hard times there, most notably when they beat us and cost us the league. Not ready to press the panic button yet and I suspect we will still win the league comfortably. Maribor is what matters and hopefully a packed CP (less me cos I can’t bloody well make it, work and family are so unfair) will see us through.
Delias record 5 competitive games won 1 lost 3 drawn 1,simply not celtic class,chelsea got rid of their tinkerman and he was a decent manager ,delia,s a tool,and no matter the result on tueday should be sent back to the land of the whale killers,
A lot of people paid a lot of money to go to the game and they didn,t pay to watch a reserve side,with players out of position and the whole defence dropped when he,s already buggered up our tightness of last season,and to play Zaluska who should have caught that cross or left it alone after it passed the striker was ridiculous,gordon cant be knackered after 2 games
and playing commons probably means he was not going to be picked on tuesday ,this git will ruin our club
Get rid asap along with pirate pete
You are the diddy
Get a life , RD is only in the door and needs time , but i get the impression no matter who we have at the helm you would moan , as for your snide comments about where he comes from just sums you up , no place for bampots like you at celtic
Delias A DIDDY FROM A DIDDY TEAM PLAYED 5 LOST 3 WON 1 DRAWN 1 NOT CELTIC CLASS
GET RID ASAP
Fck me Dickhead, do you never give up….?
who was the manager when we played Reykjavic – we won both games.
we also beat St Johnstone & Dundee Utd – which game was Diela not in charge?
but then I wouldn’t expect someone who doesn’t support Celtic to know this.
away back to the FF site
Like Neil Lennon and Gordon Strachan before him Ronnie Deila has found out that while there is depth in the Celtic squad there is no strength in depth. Quite simply the back-up players cannot be trusted to fill in when some of the first team squad need rested or, like yesterday, protected. A lot of deadwood needs to be moved on on or, in the case of Griffiths, played in a position where he can do what he does best – score goals. Meanwhile we await the arrival of two new signings, one of whom appears to be the much-needed big front man. Let’s hope they are not injured like Tonev or, like Holmbert Frigjonsson, another “project” signing who appears to have been cast to the exterior darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Meant to add. I have the awful feeling that even if we do go through on Tuesday big Virgil may not be here much longer. Similarly with Commons whose “new deal” has dragged on longer than the Hundred Years War.
Who do you propose we bring in when we sack Delia then deadclub sorry deadhead, salary mcoist, cardigan smith?
Ha, ha, I see deadhead is still trying to pretend she is one of us. She is bealing ‘cos we are still in Europe and her team is dead which I suppose is where her moniker comes from. What’s the matter hen, is it just that you don’t have a team to support anymore?
Well bhoys, I am one of us/youse and nothing deid/heid about me. Deila is no diddy. It doesn’t matter how many games we lose as long as we win the League. It would also be nice to get a double or treble and do better in Europe. Losing one match per season is not the end all and be all. Poor Tommy Burns learned that the hard way. Deila has already done a few good things Lennon and Strachan didn’t do. It was good to see our youth on the pitch, learning the hard way. It was good to see early substitutions and no teacher’s pets. Deila and his team are working through a few things. Let’s all give it laldy on Tuesday night. C’mon Ronny. C’mon the Hoops.
I see that there is a fairly new team called The Rangers/Sevco who are progressing in their first few years of existence. We are only 48 championships ahead of them and they have yet to win a Scottish or League Cup. Deid? That was a team called Rangers (1872-2012) R.I.P.
Tuesday is the name of the game.The league will take care of itself.Passion on and off the park should blow Maribor away !
After United win,big Virgil said, “I want to play Champions League football “.He’s going nowhere,this season,least of all Newcastle.He is a class player,we should enjoy,while he’s
here.As next summer he will be off.
HE should enjoy while he’s here!
Too many changes but it was worth a go though I never like to see the hoops getting beat. Hopefully the end will justify the means and we get into the champions league.
Who cares if we are not that good enough just to see the stadium going nuts on champions league nights is all that we want. Bring it on hail hail
MON THE HOOPS!
I can see the same procedure as a few years ago, when we qualified for the Champs league. Miller was quickly punted to Derby, so Virgil/Somebody else will be heading for the exit door.Hopefully we will have got into the group stages by then.We better get used to it buoys as we ain’t going to win the big cup AGAIN. To win our own league,maybe a cup and a wee rattle with the big boys, seems to be the ambition.
What I can’t understand is the signing policy.It looks like a Serb is going to be arriving fae portugal- well the last one was a diddy from that part of the world.We could have signed Johnny Russel and Stephen May for a fraction of the prices and still kept the money going round in Scotland.These were proven SPL scorers. What more do we want or need? If we have a good season, what will happen when all these loan players go back home?
Totally agree. We have missed a lot of good affordable Scottish players (young ones) Russell, May and others should have been in the Hoops. Deila could develop them a bit for Europe and/or to sell on if we have to. Henderson,Fisher, McGeoch, McGregor need match time as well. I have a good feeling about tomorrow night…
Big Sammy must be pulling his flowing locks out.
6 years the whipping bhoy at Celtic from the moan Brigade and the Summer he decides to move on he leaves behind a squad full of lightwieghts,shirkers and imposters.
Twardzik was brutal he looked clueless.
Pukki is a poor mans Stokes has been since the day he was signed.
Boerrigter is ,was and always will be injury prone and whoever sanctioned that move needs their balls wrapped.
Balde never was and never will be Celtic class yet another waste of money.
The answer to the Striking problems Alfred Finnbogason was passed by at the thought of spending £6m in the Summer the £6m plus blown on the 3 muppets above would have covered that cost.
Alot has been said about the wonderful Scouting department at Celtic yet no cunt noticed an International class Fullback/Wingback move to Borrusia on a FREE several months ago.
Fabian Johnson ffs US International with 7 years experiece in the Bundes.