Went out for a pint with John Kennedy and Stevie Woods last night, but it all ended in tears when we went to a club and the bouncer wouldn’t let me in with trainers.
We’re all in a good mood again today after the series of matches with dundee united came to a close with another Hopps win, this time by 3-0, but manager Ronny Deila has promised that Celtic will try in the second half of matches as well from now on.
The game was done and dusted by half time, with goals from Gary Mackay Steven, John Guidetti and a cheeky back heel from Jason Denaayer.
Guidetti raised a few eyebrows with his celebration-or lack of it-and many are asking if he’s in a huff, or just biding his time until he moves on.
Many more couldn’t give a toss.
After the game, Deila confirmed he’s looking ahead to next season, and with no more domestic football until april 3, he’s going to use the break to have a look at a couple of players.
‘We will bring in players but I think we will bring in younger players to build the next generation behind the current one.
‘If we are going to fight with the best clubs in Europe for the best 22-year-olds, then you can forget it. No chance. The only chance we have to get a world-class player is to go to 16/17-year-olds and say: “You will train with the first team”.
‘That’s our chance to get a player in. We have to find some very big talents that can be the best ones.
We have to think younger and give them the chance to get in the squad and train with the best ones.
‘Ajax get it because they have an unbelievable reputation — and we have to build, over the years, a reputation. That if you come to Celtic, you see what is happening, you get sold to the big clubs and you get a good development.’
Martin Odegaard’s name keeps cropping up, sometimes linked as a loan signing, but also used as an example of Deilas ability to develop and encourage youngsters;
‘There are players there, maybe not at Odegaard level, but close, With a good development, they can be past Odegaard if he makes the wrong decisions and we make the right ones.’
Not now, but maybe sometime in the next couple of years, Odegaard will wear the hoops. Unless he cements a place in the Real Madrid side very soon, which lets be honest, is unlikely.
Away from transfer talk, and the boss is happy with yesterdays efforts;
“It was one of the games where you feel that you have total control from the start to the end,” said the Norwegian.
The first-half performance was good and we didn’t push as hard as we could have in the second half.
“It has been a terrific week, good results and we are now in a very good situation going into the matches which come after the international break.
“Some players can get some rest, which is good, some have to go with the international team. But I think it is good for everybody to get some days away from each other and also get ready for a very exciting end to the season.”
It does promise to be rather good, doesn’t it ? With twenty golascorers this season, the multi pronged attack is working, not only are the strikers scoring, but there is space being created for others.
Even Beram Kayal might have scored for this team.
One other thing, and perhaps its just the general feel good factor this morning, but Virgil van Dijk has been talking about his relationship with Jason Denaayer;
“Jason now talks very well off the pitch – and quite a lot!
“From day one I’ve chatted quite a lot with him. I’ve helped him out as much as I can.
“Jason’s a young boy who came over with his father. He didn’t know anyone. But he’s a great lad.
“Jason was quiet in the beginning. I’ve helped him but he has also helped me.
“We’re both learning things. You need to know each other and we’re much better together now than we were before.”
“You get to know each other’s weaknesses and the strong points too. Our partnership is getting better every week.
“We socialise a lot and with other players. But the team spirit within the group is very good. Last year was the same but this season it’s especially good.
“We’re in a good place right now, with winning the League Cup last week, reaching the Scottish Cup semis and also being top of the league.
“What we’ve improved on most is pressing high up the pitch. If we lose the ball then straight away we’re winning it again.
“That’s what we trained on the whole six months before we had the winter break. It’s showing right now.
“We’ve started to score goals and the clean sheets help as well. It gives confidence to everyone. Everything is falling into place.”
We’ve all more or less accepted the Dutchman will move on. After reading this , I’m not so sure, although thats probably more in hope than expectation, although it did seem to startle the journalist who wrote the article;
Van Dijk has been linked with a move to the English Premier League and if he leaves this summer he wants to sign off by helping the Hoops claim a historic Treble.
“I really want to win the Treble. I want to write history, like everyone in the dressing room. We have a really good chance.
“If we are up for it and go for it 100 per cent, we can win everything from now on.
“It’s going to be difficult but I’m confident we have the quality and the players to win it.”
Personal awards are not important to me. Yes, they are a reward for a good season but I would be happier to get the Treble.
“If I was rewarded with a Player of the Year award it would be nice. But if I wasn’t to get it then I couldn’t be disappointed. It’s all about the team.”
He’s not sounding like the typical Dutchman here, seeking only personal rewards on and off the field.
Has Deila worked his magic on him off the field ?
The possibility of a sixteen team league next season is getting closer as the Second Rangers entity gets further away from being promoted to the existing one.
One of their more realistic supporters tells us how he feels as the reality of their situation sinks in
Reality is also beginning to sink in amongst the MSM, now that it’s become apparent that the new board isn’t in any position to wave wads of wonga at the problems, in the way that the original club did.
Aidan Smith, writng in the Scotsman , is among the first to call for a bigger league;
Scotland needs a bigger top league
Remember, the old big league was removed after Celtic won it nine times in a row. The new smaller one appears to be on the way out because Second Rangers aren’t good enough to play in it.
The opening paragraph tells us how far the MSM are from reality, and how they still can’t understand the basic sporting premise of the best teams are at the top.
IT’S very near now, the end of this Championship, a league like no other in the story of Scottish football. Never again, you think, will three of our most famous institutions find themselves playing outwith the top flight. Today Hibernian and Rangers take part in a contest which the Premiership cannot match for intrigue, with both desperate to achieve promotion and return with runaway leaders Hearts to where they rightfully belong.
Unlike the two Edinburgh clubs, who assessed their situation, and dealt with it accordingly, the Ibrox club have just moaned a lot , hoping some sort of Fairy godmother will hear their cries.
the fallen Glasgow giants would seem to need a ticket back to the Premiership at the first available opportunity to restore credibility and a good name after the wrongdoing and mismanagement. The Ibrox club, like Hearts, have taken their punishment and supped their medicine. Now Rangers want to rev up that old coal lorry which once delivered the Cup Winners’ Cup to the boardroom for another grand procession, returning the team to all the grounds they once visited as part of their entitlement, with Celtic Park naturally the top destination.
I suppose financial mismanagement doesn’t come more mismanged than liquidation.
Not quite sure how he thinks that they’ve taken their punishment and supped their medicine.
One of the ways to get people to listen to your opinions, and perhaps even change their own way of thinking because of them, is to cite credible sources.
Smith, however, doesn’t seem to understand that, if his choice of source is anything to go by;
But Barry Ferguson has just yanked on the handbrake. “Another season in the Championship for Rangers won’t be the disaster people are predicting,” he wrote in his always-readable newspaper column the other day.
Always readable ?
I suppose thats one way of describing it.
The hurt is obvious, as is the fear of another season away from the top table while the other clubs get stronger.
Already we have seen Aberdeen, Dundee United and Inverness improve. Hibernian and Hearts will make up a strong and competitive top six next year, which means that the Ibrox franchise is becoming insignificant. ( hurrah ! )
In fact, Hearts must be daming their luck for forcing them to play Celtic early in both Cups this season, because they would have given anyone else a real test.
They deserve praise for how they dealt with their financial issues, and will be welcomed back. And I like going to Tynecastle.
It’s a great stadium, and the atmosphere is usually fantastic.
Same with Easter Road.
The press aren’t finished yet, and we hear they are going on the road to spread the word;
All of that, LL tour apart, should allow a stronger hand in negotiations over an improved tv deal for Scottish football.
When Sky are forced back to the table when they realise no-one wants to pay for the obscenity that is the EPL anymore.
The collection of articles last week has seen discussion take place on several other forums already.
Not Kerrydale Street yet, but theres hope that after the next committee meeting the embargo will be lifted. despite their reluctance to discuss the same issue in consecutive months, but is appearing elsewhere.
Do your bit.
Instigate discussion on any forum you can get onto. Including lower tier English clubs, or even , if you live abroad, on foreign sites.
Their game is suffering too.
Fight the good fight, and keep fighting it.
And just in case you have forgotten the number, it’s
0344 261 0244
Yesterdays picture was a flashback to the 1966 ties with Nantes, and the Flying Flea is on form.
Where is this, and when was the picture taken ?
Celtic park 1930’s?
Celtic park…In the 40’s.
1) Sky t.v. is being cancelled in the Monti household first thing Monday morning.
2) I want John Guidetti to leave at the end of the season.
3) Does anyone feel Celtic are lacking a major striker?
I like Griffiths but not sure if he can become the ‘ main man ‘ up front, like a McaVennie or a Henrik.
Would really like us to get Hooper back, he had the lot.
Meant to add, Stokes, Guidetti and Scepovic aren’t the answer.
Monti in answer to the above^
1 Excellent stuff Bye Sky
2 So do I there is no i in Team
3 Yes I do we have done since Hooper left.
Not that I would want him back though I think once he decided the EPL was where his heart lay then it was game over.
Norwich incidentally are still in with a good shout for promotion.
For me the answer lay at Heerenveen in a certain Mr Finnbogason.
He is exactly what we need to lead our line.
He has played as a loan Striker at several sides is a very good target man and comfortable in the air.
Sur ehis move to Spain has not worked out but there were several factors involved in that.
He got injured twice and the previous Manager had him as 2nd choice striker on arrival.
He’s a natural finisher and worth every penny of the £6m we should have spent on him.
Would Moyes deal?
I don’t know perhaps a loan with a view to a move might tempt them to part with him as I believe he could do the business in Scotland and Europe.
If not him then we need to be targeting someone like him for Europe.
I don’t think any of the current Strikers we have on the Books are good enough at the top level.
We need to spend on quality though in this position no more “works in progress or journeymen looking at us as a stepping stone after 10 minutes like Guidetti.
Cheers Charlie,
Regarding my points about Hooper…he just guarantees you goals Charlie, at home and in Europe.
As you say, it’s time to push the boat out for a few top players…Lawwell will get his money back if we qualify for the Champions league groups!
Finboggason is wasting away in Spain hardly plays and has scored only 3 goals . 2m would get him in and in our league he would be the main man.
Free sky tv. Go to Google and download http://www.live tv app.tv then download mx player….picture perfect….can you post if this link works as I can get others…HH
Mornin’
Had a great day with my wee brother and his two sons who travelled up from England for the game.
I had told them to bring warm jaikets ‘cos CP can be cold in March…DOH !!
My wee brother was also speechless when Bobby Lennox came over to talk to us…along with Dixie.
Wisnae the best game in the world…but they loved the whole package..Great day.
‘Mon the Hibees…( Not often ah say that…)
HH
Ralph
This is the first Celtic Park I remember with no covers on either of the terracings. I was a wee mite when my father first took me (Saturday 3pm – always!!!!) in the forties – post war, of course. I was usually too occupied fighting Huns to be distracted by football up to 1945. I could be slightly out but I am fairly sure it was like this into the fifties before they semi-covered the Celtic end. The tenements practically encircled the traditional away end and on busy days you could be queued into the path up the close because the gates were so near the buildings. Of course, the graveyard runs down behind the Hayshed on Janefield Street (notice cars drove down there then) and the railway (still used in those days) running behind the Celtic end. London Road and the main entrance did not change for quite a long time and I guess it would not have been difficult to imagine how it looked in the old days until a couple of years back. I guess it changed completely once the old school was demolished and the Celtic Way was installed. You can just make out the media box in the centre of the stand roof as I described in my post a month or so back. It was a precarious bit of structure so it was. I would not have been a happy journalist up there in those days but how I could enjoy seeing most of the present day ones quivering in it for a couple of hours each Saturday or whatever day now. It was not exactly the tropics in that area either as anyone who sat at the back of the old stand could tell you. The drafts that permeated the stand were colder than a Sevco fart – I was fortunate to only experience it a few times. I searched for this kind of photo when I did my article for ETims but could not find one without the roofs. So, thanks for the memories vague though they are.
Surely we are not that bored yet that we are talking transfers already? There is a quarter of a season left by the end of which God knows who where and when anything will be happening. I am more than content to wallow in the last few results which are up there with the best in the last few seasons. And as for the hacks with the blues, it might be worth pointing out we have had two exceptionally exciting weeks of football even if the games were all against the same team. I am not so sure the same could be said for playing second division opposition even once. Perfectly happy to do without, thank you.
H H
Pensionerbhoy,
What were they selling in the food outlets in the stadium in the 40’s and was it still dear as fuck? Lol
Free sky tv need android device. Download http://www.live tv app.tv then download mx player….picture perfect….could you post if this works as can get others…get all to cancel sky
Ralph
“were colder than a Sevco fart – I was fortunate to only experience it a few times.” I should have pointed out I meant the stand. I have definitely come across more than a few of the farts in my day.
H H
I still miss the Jungle!
As I do Monti. Although the chances of a drunk taking a single fish on your leg are a lot less these days.
Seriously though – those were the best of times my friend. Bouncing up and down with can in hand.
I remember towards the very end, some temp seats were put in – how awful was that?!
I like the idea of a campaign for all the Celtic support worldwide to cancel their sky subscription, however, at this moment a lot of us only get to see Celtic via sky , so, in order for us not to cut off our noses , why not wait until the season ends. Pick a date mid season when this could really make an impact on their figures, who knows , more Scottish supporters may join the protest and we may get a reaction before the start of next season.
Fantastic first half from the Lhads. Everything that we expect from the Bhoys these days in terms of pressing, movement, passing and shooting. GMS’s stike was a sight to see. Glad dirty united were punished for that hack just before half-time.
Ralph’s 7-0 would have been on the cards if we hadn’t taken our foot off the gas at half time. I was surprised to read that our Siberian apprentice striker was on for 20 minutes yesterday – I didnae even notice his presence.
As for the lower tier – with it all in the balance, and you need a dodgy decision (as predicted) : Who do they call???
Step up MIB Willie Collum – the only man in the world with eyes in the back of his saw-dust heed.
Tribute act play anti-football, as per the Book of Cardigan, and let the Gollum take care of the rest.
After his antics on Saturday, I’d tell Guidetti to pack his bags and head back to Manchester – I never want to see him wearing the hoops again.
I always thought he was over rated.
Now is the time to give Scepovic an extended run in the team. Play him regularly until the end of the season and if he doesn’t cut it, ship him out (along with Wakaso,Boerrigter & Tonev
I don’t think Guidetti is right in the head myself.
To me he’s another Bendtner in the making ie the greatest striker in the world in his own head but the reality is very much different.
He’s got skill and few nice tricks in training but in games to me he’s very easy to read and defend if you stick close to him.
He’s not mobile enough for this side we need a target man who is is the move pulllind defenders from their positions and Guidetti is not that type of Striker.
He may well develop into this type of player once and if he screws the nut.
Scepovic does make the right runs has done since his arrival and I think if the delivery is better to him he will produce goals.
He reminds me of Jelavic when we were after him before Rangers a real handful in the air and a constant pain to defenders.
I think Ronny will be true to his word and give him his shot.
All that aside though we do need to spend on a quality ready to go Striker.
Totally agree!
I thought our players played the perfect game on Sunday.
They played the Deila System to perfection in the first half got deserved lead and in the second took the foot of the gas and maintained a lead.
Sure we all wanted a battering in the second half but I think they showed a great deal of common sense by not keeping the tempo as it was.
We have had a lot of Football these past few weeks the system has been deployed to great success against a very tricky team in United.
But it has proved to be successful.
No point in running your players into the ground once you know the other side is beaten makes much more sense to ease up and take it easy.
This International break is well timed for us it gives guys like Mulgrew and Matthews time to get back up to speed and also an opportunity for others to relax a bit.
We will need as many fit and raring to go as we can muster to get this treble over the line and if we keep the tempo going and sustain it for full games I don’t anyone can live with it over 90 minutes.
The strikers though have to start taking their chances when they come this will take the pressure of the guys behind who up till now have stepped up to the plate chipping in with goals.