{"id":7505,"date":"2015-07-24T09:05:45","date_gmt":"2015-07-24T08:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=7505"},"modified":"2015-07-24T09:05:45","modified_gmt":"2015-07-24T08:05:45","slug":"hope-over-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=7505","title":{"rendered":"Hope Over Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

Broadsword has had a look at the state of play at the beginning of season 2015-16, and shares his thoughts with us<\/em><\/p>\n

This time last year was a bit strange. One year on, a fourth \u00a0consecutive title and the league cup in the bag, settled squad and the possibility of the CL group stage is a very real one. So, what, in my inebriated opinion, are the hopes for the season ahead?<\/p>\n

1. Champions League- with a difference<\/p>\n

I don’t know a single Celtic fan who doesn’t hope to be in the group stages of the Champions League. Unless they are some kind of Thursday night fetish weirdo who has a penchant for Sunday league games starting at 8.23am. Nah, there’s none of them, so I think in a ‘stating the fecking obvious’ award entry we all want to be in the group stages of the Champions League. However, I want it to be a bit different, if we make it.<\/p>\n

Barcelona, Shaktar Donetsk and Benfica. Three teams we have richly enjoyed beating at Celtic Park, three teams I really don’t want to play again, because, sometimes a change is good.\u00a0 Aye, if we were drawn with any of them I’d be more than happy as it meant we had made it this year but I’d love to see us play Real Madrid in a competitive match. A pumping could very much be on the cards but getting to mix it up a bit, in terms of ‘glamour’ opposition, is one of the attractions of this tournament. I wouldn’t be expecting us, as the Pot 4 team, to qualify from any group but would like to think that we could cause some degree of concern to more ‘established’ CL competitors.<\/p>\n

Post Crimbo European football would be a very pleasant bonus for me.<\/p>\n

2. Treble<\/p>\n

Short and sweet. All three domestic trophies are achievable. We\u2019ve got the players and the appetite to achieve this. It will not be easy but we are capable of doing it. So long as we continue to outspend other fans…
\n3. Fist pumpings<\/p>\n

Aye, I want plenty of fist pumpings. If we win, then Ronny dusts the knuckles. I hope Ronny gets to pump at every ground we play at\u2026<\/p>\n

4. Improving the squad<\/p>\n

I think Ronny has done a good job of this, one year in. I am hopeful that it continues. The transfer business, so far, has been decent in my view. Boyata was a necessity given Denayer\u2019s return to Man City and the very possible departure of Van Dijk. Another centre back would be nice, although there are options \u2013 personally, I don\u2019t mind Mulgrew in there. A left back would be just lovely, but I think we say that in every transfer window. If some of the younger players in the squad could make an impact upon the first team then I think we would all welcome that; a decent lead in the league could allow us to take the chance here but then again we might be scared by everyone on Radio Clyde tipping Aberdeen to win the league\u2026<\/p>\n

Overall, I think we are in decent nick. Compared to this time last year we seem to be more settled, the management and the players are more in tune with each other, the squad is better and there are some lovely curtains hanging outside the stadium. The major hope is for a good showing in the Champions League and a continuation of the \u2018outspending\u2019\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Broadsword has had a look at the state of play at the beginning of season 2015-16, and shares his thoughts with us This time last…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7506,"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\/2015\/07\/hope-over-fear-detail.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-1X3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7505"}],"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=7505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7507,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7505\/revisions\/7507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}