But pressure is mounting on the 1994 finalists Salzburg too, as their coach Adolf Hutter has overseen three straight defeats with club owner and energy drink magnate Dietrich Mateschitz looking for a return on his investment. They lost their previous manager Roger Schmidt and star player Senegal’s Sadio Mane to Southampton in the summer. Both Celtic and Salzburg however are expected to qualify from Group D.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Brown tried to make us feel better about the Europa League as well, by mentioning the 2003 final against Seville;<\/p>\n We are disappointed that we didn’t get into the Champions League.<\/em><\/p>\n “We have to go out there and show we are a good team and we can play against these teams home and away.<\/em><\/p>\n “Seville was a huge day for the club. There were around 100,000 Celtic fans there.<\/em><\/p>\n “It would be great to do that again but we’re not going to get too far ahead of ourselves. We have to take it game by game and see how we do.<\/em><\/p>\n “We would love to bring memories like that back again but we have to take it one game at a time and do as well as we can in the group.<\/em><\/p>\n “We’ve got a big squad now, with new wingers and a couple of new strikers in. They are looking good in training so hopefully they can take that into games.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Right, he does know that Guidetti is ineligible ? More important, just to be on the safe side, someone tell manager Ronny Deila. UEFA are unlikely to bend the rules again \u00a0for us this season, otherwise people might start to think they are a wee bit corrupt. Once a year is more than enough, just to give the conspiracy theorists something to moan about.<\/p>\n Brown continued;<\/p>\n \u00a0It’s just been getting used to the new shape and new players. Now the transfer window is closed, that’s our squad settled. We’ve got no excuses now.<\/em><\/p>\n “We have to try to push on now and start playing the football we know we can play. We did really well against Aberdeen and those three points were a boost.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been trying to push myself as much as possible and test the boundaries but my hamstring is feeling as good as it has ever felt so long may that continue.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt was a relief to come through the first training session, let alone the first game. Now I\u2019ll take it as it comes on Thursday. I feel good just now and that\u2019s three days after the game.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Having Brown back is a massive boost, he drives the other players on, and as long as he doesn’t get too enthusiastic, he will be invaluable out in Austria, where reallistically we should get a result. My only concern is \u00a0that other teams are getting used to our shape before we do.<\/p>\n Former striker Chris Sutton reckons Celtic should prioritise the Europa League. He told anyone who would listen yesterday that;<\/p>\n \u2018Celtic, for me, should prioritise this Europa League campaign,\u2019<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span> Er, not too many more. We’re fourth at the moment, and lets be honest, we don’t deserve to be any higher.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2018They would get a real shot in the arm from performing well in this competition. The Europa League has a totally new dimension now with the winners going straight into the Champions League. Why can\u2019t it be Celtic?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Thats a very good point. Going straight into the UCL as Europa winners would provide a kick start to our season next year, \u00a0give a helping hand to the old co-efficient, and try to bring the national game up a few levels. The sooner we lose these fraught, early starts the better.<\/p>\n \u2018Things change quickly in football. There is a bit of doom and gloom about the Champions League but that\u2019s gone now. Celtic could win the treble and could go on a good run in the Europa League and go on and win it.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018They have top players like Kris Commons and Scott Brown coming back and players who can grow. Celtic have good raw attributes \u2013 they just need to pull it all together.\u2019\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Sutton was promoting the live coverage of the game by BT Sports, and was as straightforward and honest off the pitch as he was on it.<\/p>\n \u2018There are things I haven\u2019t understood about the Europa League and the mentality of clubs in England. They play the youth team and get knocked out. It doesn\u2019t make any sense to me.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018I think Celtic should really go for this campaign because they have everything to gain.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018The first two games in this group stage are absolutely crucial. Salzburg have lost their last three, but that\u2019s dangerous going into this because they have chucked a lot of money at their side and we all might think Celtic should go there and win, but it doesn\u2019t work like that.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018That might work against Celtic. But they can go there with confidence. The main thing is: \u201cDon\u2019t lose the game.\u201d\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n \nAs Sutton says, theres no reason why we shouldn’t aim to be there or thereabouts when the trophy is being handed out, but it will take hard work, maybe some luck, and more importantly, a little more flexibility in style.<\/p>\n \u00a0And less rhetoric.<\/p>\n Though the fact we know where we will be playing for the next few months means we can plan a proper campaign, and to be fair to Ronny , he does like to plan things.<\/p>\n One game at a time here, because I think one thing we can agree one is that the team that faces Salzburg tomorrow will be much removed from the line up come the knock out stages. Between now and then, some will come in, and some will go. One thing the bold Ronny has proved so far is that he is indeed bold when it comes to chopping players who aren’t performing.<\/p>\n \u00a0Even Jo Inge Berget, who many thought was his blue eyed boy has been pushed down the pecking order, simply for not coming up to the required standard, and not, as many thought, for breaking the concentration of his team mates by having a ridiculous haircut.<\/p>\n Alekasandr Tonev faces a nervous few days, as the SFA could take up to two weeks to get \u00a0the evidence they need to find him guilty of racially abusing Shay Logan, the Aberdeen defender who sounds a bit like Shay Long, but is spelt differently.<\/p>\n So far, there doesn’t appear to be any evidence against the Bulgarian, who really needs to get his mum back living with him if this is the sort of nonsense he gets up to when she lets him out on his own. Otherwise, it looks as though there isn’t really a case to answer. These days, had anything actually happened, the video or audio would have been all over the internet.<\/p>\n \u00a0Evening Times columist Davie Hay agrees.<\/p>\n What it boils down to at the moment is one player saying something was said and the other player saying it wasn’t said.<\/em><\/p>\n What will the outcome be? I don’t know. Was something said? I don’t know.<\/em><\/p>\n Time will tell what happens in this situation and what the true version of events was.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Now, if mobile phones and multi camera tv coverage was around in 1974, when Hay had a disagreement with an Atletico Madrid player in the tunnel after\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>game, then I would gladly pay to see that….<\/p>\n \u00a0Over and Over again.<\/p>\n \u00a0Now , heres a picture I’d never seen before. It appeared on twitter -courtesy of Lisbon Lion-a few days ago, and you might struggle to identify the game its taken from…<\/p>\n \u00a0The referendum takes place tomorrow, just in case you weren’t aware. Each of you will vote as you see fit, thats what democracy is all about.<\/p>\n \u00a0But beware the spin from politicians and from the international business community.<\/p>\n \u00a0For instance, BP are now saying that the attitude of residents in the Gulf of Mexico has softened towards them, claiming that their clean up crews , after the huge oil spillage a while back, \u00a0are helping the local economies.<\/p>\n \u00a0If thats the case a big thank you to \u00a0Al Qaeda for creating all those jobs in airport security.<\/p>\n \n \n \n \n <\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Scott Brown, Celtics livewire captain should take his place in the middle of the park tomorrow tea time against Red Bull Salzburg. Our own proverbial…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/sutton-and-brown.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-1ts","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5672,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670\/revisions\/5672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u2018They can afford to drop points in the league, lose games and still win the league because they are far and away the best team in Scotland.
\n<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n![\"Embedded](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/BxekBbxCEAEfW52.jpg:large\")
<\/p>\n