 Monday, July 30, 2007
Boruc, Murray and the Celtic Park ticket system
Mark Brown has performed well in preseason games, and looks like a shrewd bit of business, but the potential loss of Artur Boruc for the Champions League qualifiers is a concern. Teams never seem to defend in their usual manner when a new goalkeeper is in place. Boruc’s experience and confidence will be a big miss. The third qualifying round gets underway in fifteen days and there will be few teams in Friday’s draw who will give cause for too much optimism. I was delighted to read what passes for confidence at Ibrox these days. The BBC reported David Murray discussing his teams title hopes, "What we can't have is the gap there was last season. "Obviously we'd prefer to win it, but I think every Rangers supporter wants to see us compete. “Obviously we’d prefer to win it, but…!” Surely this is not surrender? Not in July? There can be few things more frustrating to a football fan that presenting his ticket at the turnstile before a match to read, “Ticket not valid” on the machine. This happened to me and around 1500 others yesterday. Celtic went to Plan B as kick off approached, and I gained entry around 15 minutes before kick off. I contacted the ticket office this morning and manager, John Paul Taylor, said he was “really sorry for everyone who had to endure another frustrating afternoon. “Everyone with any kind of input is working flat out to see how best we can resolve the issues as quickly as possible. “We believe we’ve identified the problem and it will be corrected for next weekend. I know the league flag being unfurled is not the rarest of experiences at Celtic Park these days, but I would advise arriving extra early on Sunday, just in case issues persist.
345 Comments:
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Surely that would be No Surrender Paul.
He must have missed out a word.
Poor David
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I agree about Boruc, Paul, but David Marshall has already shown this decade that a goalie can make a name for himself in this kind of situation.
I hope Mark Brown does just that, and that the gloss lasts a bit longer than it did for poor Davie M.
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No surrender, in July too!! Sir David is getting a bit tetchy, methinks.
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Viscount Murray tells porkies.
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Thats another[unforeseen]change from the team that greeted the return of the Championship flag with a 4-1 drubbing of the Ayrshire Agriculturals.
I think at most there will be 5 survivors in the starting line-up,assuming SN isn't too tired:
Mcmanus,Wilson,Mcgeady,Nakamura,and Zurawski.
Hanif-come to the Charity 5s.It might be a bit cold for chinos
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Paul, you say: "but the potential loss of Artur Boruc for the Champions League qualifiers is a concern. Teams never seem to defend in their usual manner when a new goalkeeper is in place."
Surely a blessing in disguise then, if the performances against YBB, MLS and NU are anything to go by?!!!
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Spot on Paul
Get there early on Sunday for the Killie game
I too was "locked oot"
at least we now know if it fails again, the police will take the decision to override the system and use stewards.
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I like Moonbeam mental murray.
Or should I say I like the role he plays in our Celtic supporting lives - that of chief baddie.
He's perfect for it.
He's rightwing ( provided scab lorries during the miners strike )
He's ego centric and therefore puts his foot in it.
He loved rubbing our noses in it in the 90s ( "For every fiver...")
And, long term, he's pretty rubbish at his job.
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Absolutely nothing to do with anything and probably of no interest to anyone, but the wee mention of 'Council estates' on the previous thread pushed my memory into overdrive. (I just hope that Helen Rafferty doesn't read this)
The dust just wouldn’t disperse. It hung in the windless air blocking my nostrils, burning my eyes and clouding the resultant tears which stung all the way down my cheeks until with an alkaline burst of saltiness they rolled over my lips and tingled the taste buds on my tongue.
My Father, larger and stronger to me than any giant in the fairy-tales that he still read to me every night as I drifted off to the land of heroic dreams where Helen Rafferty was the damsel in distress and I was the green and white clad armoured knight, looked down at me.
I remember him reaching into his lapel pocket on his jacket, pulling out a handkerchief and dampening it a working man’s spit.
He wiped my eyes and the world became clear again.
But the world had changed.
All that was left now of 49 Long Row, the tied house that we had been brought up in, played in ate in, slept in and learned everything that was important in life in, was a pile of rubble, a mound of memories, and a heap of laughter, tears, love and long dark nights walking to the outside toilet with a couple of pages of the Coatbridge and Airdrie advertiser, hoping that Jimmy or Maggie hadn’t decided to sleep in ours.
I was 4 years old and we were moving up in the world.
We were getting our very own house on a brand spanking, shining, clean, bedroom-tae-yersel, inside toilet, outside garden, own-gate, tarmac’d electric lit road Council Estate.
I didn’t know then, but for as long as we had been a family, every confrontation wae the bosses, every visit to the works store, every minute of every day, every back stretching second taken to relieve the back breaking strain, was watched by the bosses spies, logged by the bosses, and thrown back in the faces of the men with the reminder that a tied house was tied to the job, access to the works store was tied to the job, your divi number was tied to the job, your life was tied to the job.
No job and you were finished.
One minute, you were a working man, scraping by on the pittance that they gave you, but feeding and clothing the wife and weans, and biting yer tongue a thousand times a day at injustice and naked sectarian hatred, and the next minute ye were nothing, but another man standing at ‘the fountain waitin’ for something to turn up’.
But my Dad had done it.
This man with the coal ingrained scars of righteous battles etched on his face, the burning brands of cowardly threats feeding his will, and the roar of the unstoppable tide of real dignity had done it.
He had taken on and battered the bowler hats, he had scorched the backsides of the brown pinstripe suits, and he had stood with hearts, souls and arms linked with every creed, colour, caste and class of welder, smith, engineer, miner, labourer, and bargeman.
He had led everyman who had been trodden upon, spat upon, degraded, and ridiculed from the world of neo-slavery into the cul-de-sac of confrontation and crushed the walls which confined their hopes, ambitions and families to the treadmill of fodder for the coal and steel barons.
The tied houses were gone, the tied store was gone, the daily demeaning, cap doffing, forelock tugging ‘know-your-place’ submission was gone.
Real men and women had said enough.
An age of giants had said enough.
A rebellious call of anger echoed round the boiler rooms, the cooling towers, the blast furnaces and the deep dark deadly mines as every man stood as one and affirmed ‘Enough’.
These people who had survived the worst that the black evil of fascism could throw at them, who had fought not for some mythical supremacy of ‘king’ but for what they knew was just, who had returned from the battlefields or emerged from the pits, who had been ground down again and sent back to their ‘proper’ station, had had ‘Enough’!
And now they would realise the society, the community and the morality that so many millions had sacrificed their lives for.
We turned away, my Dad and me, and I remember waiting at the bus-stop in Gartsherrie as the rumbling crash of house after house filled the sky with debris and what was to my dad, probably the beautiful music of humanity achieved.
We sat on the bus, me by the window stretching as always to try and be all-grown-up so that the clippie would ask for my Dad to pay two fares.
They swapped a conspiring wink and he pretended that he had paid for me. He handed me the tickets for safekeeping
He knew how to make me feel big and good.
But he knew even more.
He knew how to make a future for me and my children from the rubble of ancient excess.
As we passed under the bridge by the old tied public baths, he half glanced over his shoulder but stopped and dabbed his hankie on his own eye.
He must have had something in it.
I think a lot about my Dad and every time it comes back to that bus journey and getting out at Renfrew Street and entering the world of the Old Monkland Council Estate.
ME?
I loved Council Estates and I still remember our divi number (we got to keep that)– 23550!
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morning cqn'rs
paul67
i'm new, and hope you don't mind but have just learned how to cut and paste so brought me CL league qualies list forward to your new thread.
i'm sorry to hear about the ticket aggro yesterday
it worries me for next week, when all the holders
will be at the game. I'll have a word with JPT the next time i meet him.
given celtic's pre season form, or lack of and the list of potential opponents below, feeling confident for the draw on friday - anyone
Sparta Praha Cze 37.851
Fenerbahçe Tur 36.791
AEK Athens Gre 36.415
Dinamo Bucuresti Rom 34.255
Slavia Praha ** Cze 32.851
Rosenborg BK ** Nor 31.509
Spartak Moscow Rus 27.920
Red Star Belgrade ** Srb 19.256
FC København ** Den 19.129
Toulouse FC Fra 17.706
Dinamo Zagreb * Cro 17.533
Racing Genk ** Bel 15.594
DVSC Debrecen ** Hun 11.675
FC Zürich Sui 9.869
FC Salzburg ** Aut 9.104
BATE Borisov * Bls 1.540
hail hail
yoggiessanies
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Steven Whittaker on paper looks like the kind of full-back we need. Tall, comfortable in posession, good going forward, the right age and Scottish. However, the second half (he played well in the first, attacking us) of the 2-2 game at Easter Road cruelly exposed his weaknesses - a confident Aiden McGeady ran him ragged in the second half, setting up the first for Evander and scoring the second. For the first, he left Whittaker for dead from a standing start in a sprint to the by-line - Whittaker gave up - and for the second, some have bemoaned Aiden for predictably drifting inside to shoot. Well he did it in this game and scored - Whittaker can't find him that predictable. Unreasonable perhaps to judge the guy on one game, but he didn't seem up to it.
I reserve the right to come on here in seven days and praise the guy and his defensive and attacking attributes if he signs for us.
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hanif...i agree he's the perfect pantomime villain, he also makes claims which are incredibly easy to pick holes in, tells lies which are easy to spot and has a classic bullies profile, which results in him running away from the fight when he gets a bloddy nose...
...maybe we could get tony roper or gerard kelly to play him at the kings this festive season...
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We SHOULD be able to beat any of those teams, especially if we hope to make progress from the group stages. However I would be worried if we drew about half of them.
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whittaker is destined for ibrox, where i'm sure they'll play him as a right sided midfielder , not at the back.....
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We will be seeded and therefore favourites to go through whoever we draw. I hope the first leg is away and we can finish the job at home. I'm sure quite a few of the sides listed would not fancy a trip to Celtic Park given our home record in Europe of late.
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Clyde report Whittaker likely to sign for the darnel this week.
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Estadio, you're better than William McIlvanney at his best, which is very good.
Does the Slabbery Woman know about Helen Rafferty?
She comes on CQN when you're off Artexing the toilet ceiling you know.
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Pure unadulterated CLASS, Pure CLASS
Applause Applause Applause
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Bloke109 - it was Miller who skinned him for the first goal in the 2-2 game, not McGeady.
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An article from Tom Bowers, scourge of Maxwell and others.
Sold out
Provides one or two good reasons, and one or two debatable ones, to be grateful we’re not in the EPL.
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Estadio
The Class and the Applause are all yours
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Yoggie, I would only regard Copenhagen and Toulouse with any real concern, although Fenerbahce, Rosenborg (well into their domestic season already), Spartak Moscow and Sparta Prague could prove a stern test were we anything short of our best.
Think positive though. We have enough in the tank to overcome all of these teams and take our place alongside Europe's elite once again. Another performance like the one against Parma, with nothing conceded at the back, midfield dominance, and just a little more bite (and luck!) up front, anbd we should progress comfortably enough.
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barcabhoy,
I spontaneously boo ever time I see him.
By the way, the next campaign to expose the huns should focus on the flute band versions of their songs.
It's as if they're saying - we're untouchable, these songs are non-sectarian, whilst nudging the supporters and hinting that they know what they want.
rFC don't endorse sectarianism, but y'know....
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Kitalba (from the last thread)
aahhhh red star - nostalgia indeed, but would aiden
be able to do a jinky, even if he was troubled by the same fear of flying as the great wee man?
hail hail
yogissannies
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Hanif Uno Dahistri
He's behind you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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yogissannies
I think that on our day we could overturn any of those teams.
The problem is, will it be our day.
As always the support will have a massive say in the outcome.
It's not really my place to say so yogi, but in the absence of your host and more senior posters than I,
Welcome to the worlds, greatest, longest, most colourful and most diversified debate.
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McFlurry's bitterness banned me/us from watching my/our team at Megiddo and I still despise him for that more than anything.
WasabsentGemmell
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BigChips, good point.
Estadio, inspiring and captivating as usual.
Welcome yoggiessannies. The tension mounts ahead of Friday.
I was speaking to a Rangers fan this morning. I suggested I might take the day off on Wednesday and blog all day if they lose tomorrow night.
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BigChipSuk
you picked out the plums alright
i would hate fenerbache or copenhagen, and i'm concerned we might try and run with the continuing perilous full back situation, beyond this game.
From where i sit Lee Naylor is bordering on a nervous breakdown, trying to get his game right and as for Mark Wilson, sorry he won't do for my Celtic.
Hail Hail
Yogiessannies
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Right the E-Tims Rumour Mill is all made-up rubbish, of course, but it said a wee while ago that England cricket captain Michael Vaughan was a big Celtic man, having married an Irish girl and got caught up in all things Celtic by her brothers.
Fair play to the man, he's just notched up his 5000th test-match run, which is quite good, apparently.
Come on India.
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Bloke 109 - i'm glad you've brought this up about Whittaker at Hibs. The guy is similar to our Mark Wilson - good coming forward
, but sketchy in his defensive cover.
Us signing the the likes of him & Naismith would be senseless. We already have an abundance of players who on paper make us look as if we have depth to our squad, but in reality few have shown that they can make a position their own.
What we critically need is uncompromising players in key positions. A Rottweiler at right back would help, though i think Ian Ferguson has retired.....
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Estadio-it sounds like your dad was cut from the same cloth as Jock Stein,and so many others.
The same Jock who wasn't averse to a bit of direct action when he thought the Support,or a section of it,was letting down the Club.His Club.Our Club.
Was it not one of the Kellys[Michael?]who told a previous group of malcontents to go back to their'peripheral estates'?
I read the long piece ont the last thread,about the Celtic Ultras.I have no doubt that they are sincere in their beliefs but I worry that they will attract all kinds of trash that think Ultras=violence;that no amount of'mission statements'from the CUs will be able to re-educate.
As supporters our influence at the club is limited.As supporters our ifluence on the Club's good name is infinite.
There's a lady next door has got her cat stuck in a tree.I'll get my scarf;~)
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celtic First
to be fair to Etims, they predicted months before anyone got a sniff that Tommy G and JVOH would sign
and also that Scott Brown wud DEF sign
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Sorry Bhoys I have been out of the loop for a few days and was wondering what was the score on Donati
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paul67
the welcome to your fine blog, is appreciated, looking forward to the draw, who ever we get
kitalba
thank you for the welcome to this fine platform,
of course you're right we could and probably will,
but team 3 is not yet a team and these qualifiers are tricky games for wgs's and his unformed units (artemedia) LOL
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Awenaw-I hope the score on Donati is he's going to be 25% of the best midfield quartet in Scotland,and maybe the UK.Do you mean Capone?
He might be on the same flight back from the US that Kris Boyd was on,the one that's still in a holding pattern over the Bermuda Triangle.
WorriedGambler-is it too early for you to enquire which part of'the best wee country in the World'is dreading the weekend?
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Estadio
I could smell the smell and taste the dust of old buildings demolished.
And sense the giant shade that is a father to be proud of.
Celtic_First
Just off now to watch some cricket. India has quite a nice flag.
On the subject of Whittaker, he was one I had in mind when I posted recently that there's no point in signing someone who is no better than we've got, just because he's available.
Put it another way for Sir David, we can't afford to sign him because he's not an improvement on what we've got. You have him.
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Estadio,
Beautiful
Hail Hail
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Andrew - you're dead right.
Vargas - re Whittaker, I think we have bigger and better fish to fry. And those fish will probably have Champions League experience. Whittaker is raw, but at 23, I'm not sure he can be nurtured into real quality - £1.8m? PL has done the job upping the transfer ante within Scotland.
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Remarkable stuff Estadio
Quite remarkable!
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Paul, a bad result for rangers tomorrow is not worth a day off work. Wait till the second leg, when they are out, and then have the weekend off.
I predict that Saturdays fun filled family day at Ibrox will be their last big game of the season.
The rags
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DBBIA
too many speckled hen´s trhes elast few days. Yes I meant Capone whom I was impressed with btw ...that´s why I´m asking
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TheRags-definitely the day to visit Mordorrrrrrrrrr-when the Orcs are on their travels!
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'The Times' online today have a couple of well written articles writted by G.Spiers regarding PLG, Murray, Sebo, MON and others.
It makes for some interesting reading.
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Dbbia – My good lady and I had the misfortune of being on a train to Glasgow from Leeds early Saturday morning. It was a rather uncomfortable journey. I have a problem with having to tell the truth. So when one pleasant gentleman in a Chelsea top with a rangers top on underneath asked who I supported. I replied, “I am a Celtic season ticket holder.” Thankfully his kids were playing up so he went back to beating them.
the rags
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Theragswe, a bold prediction, but not beyond reason.
Ciara’s Dad, I read The TimesOnline articles on Rangers, Mr Spiers sure knows how to present a Walter Smith quote.
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Awenaw-he's not listed as a plater at the'feeshul site.It doesn't mention if he's been released from his trial period,either
What to look for is a headline in the bogpapers along the lines of'Sloppy Celts allow new Del Piero to slip through their fingers'
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TheRAGS-A year ago I had a similar experience.I got into Central for the Carlisle train and I could see 3 of the whitiest,trashiest pieces of white trash carrying a bigger Union Jack than the Ark Royal.
So I makes my way quietly onto the train,finds a table all to myself,only to be joined by...and any hopes I had that they were going to get off at Motherwell quickly evaporated.
Like yourself I tried to put them on the path of righteousness but to no avail.
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Deliasmith, I did not sympathise with the article from The Observer.
The suggestion is that the FA and/or the government should have been active to stop foreign ownership of English clubs. This is fanciful and beyond the reach of the law.
The reason given is that foreign ownership will not administer the clubs for the benefit of the national team, or grass roots football. When was the last time such a scenario occurred?
English clubs have been buying-in cheap, foreign, talent for decades. In the 1980s Liverpool won the FA Cup without a Englishman in the team, and this article itself mentions Arsenal’s (under English control) recent teams without an Englishman.
The argument then got a bit circular:
… foreign owners are only in it for the glory and money… they might end up playing before half empty grounds....
Presumably with less glory and money.
There might well be a reason to object to all these wealthy foreigners without a history in the game buying clubs, and every journo in the country will wrack his brains trying to thing of it, but I don’t think this article has done so.
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A wee question for Paul and others in the transfer 'know' (and it genuinely isn't loaded).
We were told that WGS and PL had 5 named targets identified for each required position earlier in the season - my question for the panel is, how many of those identified targets did we actually get?
...and are new names like Mendy, N'Daw, Naismith etc. 'off list' because we couldn't get what we wanted?
I would have thought that of transfers conducted so far:
1. Scott Brown - definitely 'on list'
2. Chris Killen - definitely 'off list'
3. Scott McDonald - possibly 'on list'
4. Massimo Donati - maybes aye, maybes naw.
Just wondered whether (as suspected) EPL inflation is causing us some problems.
Yogissannies - I fancy that Catherine 'Zeta' Jones after she's seen off the currant buns.
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I would normally want Rangers to be humiliated in Europe, but I am hoping they pick up two victories over Zeta, a one goal win in one leg of the third round, and a crushing humiliation in the other, resulting in a swift boot to the UEFA Cup where they are eventually humbled in the last 16 by a diddy team.
My reasoning? The Scottish co-efficient. Unless Aberdeen and Dunfermline can go on an unlikely run, we will be relying on Rangers to help us drag the co-efficient kicking and screaming so that as champions of Scotland, we can gain automatic entry into the Champions League.
Get well soon Artur, and for that reason I hope we get the home leg first, as Artur away from home may be the difference in the tie.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/scotland/article2163613.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/scotland/article2163562.ece
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/scotland/article2163568.ece
Spiers article from the Sunday Times
- Paul Le Guen, Enigma: Trauma and Turmoil Inside Rangers, by Graham Spiers, is published by Mainstream on August 2.
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Back when Rangers qualified for the CL groups I had the misfortune to be travelling south on a train the day they played in Manchester.
But my misfortune was not as bad as that of a lovely young lady working for Virgin trains who happened to be black. The worst racist abuse I have ever heard was directed towards her from a group of drunken (at 9am) dignity fc supporters.
I called the police who told me that they already had four complaints. About 8 of them were escorted off the train at the next stop.
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Alex McLeish, Le Guen’s predecessor at Ibrox, respects McGuinness and enjoyed working with him, but, nonetheless, he offered a revealing insight about why the doctor fell foul of Le Guen.
“I used to speak to Ian McGuinness all the time - he was a character behind the scenes at Rangers,” McLeish said. “Even when I was there as a manager, I sensed he used to speak a lot to the players and, probably not always favourably, about me. But when I was leaving Rangers, what I did say to Ian about Paul Le Guen coming was, ‘Look, maybe you have to be careful. Maybe you can’t be the big cheese around here any more . . . You’ll have to give Paul his place and take a step back.’ But whether Ian took that advice or not, I really don’t know.”
AND THIS GUYS MANAGING SCOTLAND !!!
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Hamps-Like you I have a low threshold for thinking good thoughts about K Z-J.
Let's hope her bhoys can do the biz tomorrow night.
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Dbbia -"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. I was a darnelist on a train and you guided me to Celtic Park.”
The rags
Blasphemy CSC
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Paul67
Don’t be taken in by DM's 'but' comment. When MON arrived at Celtic park he was very quick to praise Rangers and say that they were the benchmark we should be aspiring to. As we both know this was designed to keep the pressure on them and off us. Both WS and DM have made similar remarks over the last week or so, i.e. Celtic are the title favourites and their primary target is simply to compete because we have a far bigger squad that’s settled and so on. A load of old tosh and be prepared for a whole load more, just remember its tactical and designed to keep them pressure free.
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Стахановец ,
I hope rangers hit the UEFA cup. Stuff the Co-eF , I would prefer them to play games in europe up until christmas. Traditionally they have struggled playing games on the back of european jaunts whilst we havent so long may it continue.
Their squad will be stretched and clubs like Hearts or Hibs maybe Aberdeen could take advantage and keep making frequent scalps off Rfc.
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Hamptontim, I don’t recall the comment you refer to, but I would assume that all our early signings were on whatever early list existed.
I am sure that lists are not closed once they are completed, if a new option arrives he would be considered. This does not necessarily make him a second choice.
Itz, Martin O’Neill said “Rangers were the benchmark”, but he was crystal clear that his aim was to overcome that benchmark, not to close the gap on it. I have never before heard a Celtic or Rangers manager or director publicly aim at anything lower.
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DBBIA
Every cause for optimism with the lovely Catherine - remember how that 'Victoria Zitkov' Beckham did us a wee turn a few years ago?
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YES!and if they couldn't handle a wee skelf like VB how are they going to manage a real woman like K Z-J!
She's the one.
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"Obviously we’d prefer to win it, but" is a phrase with which i will take a pinch of salt in equal measure to the one i took for Martin O'Neill's "rangers are the benchmark"
Don't believe the hype.
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OH-and don't tell all the G83ers on CQN but it seems that Catherine[with a C]went to school in Dumbarton...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southwest/halloffame/showbiz/catherinezetajones.shtml
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Fron last thread
GL2 (10.26) - Greenock Club
Yes - does it still exist or should I get in touch to pay up?
Ta
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DBBIA
The G83 Bhoys went to school in Dumbarton as well! G83 being more naturally inclined towards the Follow Followers!
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Sir Minty's slipping
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TMC-It's funny,none of them have mentioned being at school with C Z-J.You think that they'd remember it.
Maybe she was a late developer;)
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deliasmith
I read the article yesterday (and a couple of others linked to it in the newspaper) and the figures for foreign involvement - at either player or board level - is incredible.
There was also an article about how Abramovich wanted to buy Barcelona or Real, obviously he couldn't, not with the supporters owning the clubs.
If it continues the way it is going, the 2nd Tier will be the most attractive real football.
I actually shuddered at some of the quotes from these new chairman, about how committed they are to the 'franchise' and how they want to grow their 'franchise'.
The supporters are so desperate for some form of success - which is primarily getting into Europe - that they will accept anyone who says they have money. Obviously Maxwell is a generation ago!!
At some point, it will collapse.
I have yet to watch an American sport which creates the atmosphere, passion or commitment that is generated by a soccer match.
Football is different and a lot of money has been spent to achieve a return, they all can't produce the type of return needed.
It will be interesting to see what happens at either Christmas or the end of the season when 12/15 foreign owners are desperately trying to work out why they don't have one of the Euro places or a piece of silverware.
3rd Round of the FA Cup should be very interesting, sorry Mr Chairman, I do realise that we have just been dumped out of the FA Cup by Bury at home, but thats the romance of the Cup.
WGS was on 5 Live on Saturday morning,incidently just after Gus Hiddink was subjected to the most blatant tapping up for the England job, by David Davies, that I have ever heard.
The old subject of us joining the EPL came up and he dismissed it straight away saying the money men were getting stronger and a 2/3 European League was more highly likely.
I am reading another of Tom Bowers books, just finishing chapter 2, all about a chairman who had bought a football team, used offshore companies with anonymous shareholders and directors, liquidated the holding company, transferred assets and contracts into other companies - identifying the paper trail was a nightmare.
The man was Ken Bates and the club Chelsea. History repeats itself!!
On a brighter note,I read Murray's comments yesterday, twice!!
I couldn't believe the guy, I laughed out aloud at the sheer audacity of him having a pop at Celtic for the transfer dealings...
It appears that we now know how much he will pay young Scots. They are also discriminating against Scottish players, I'm sure that Faubert and Pizzaro almost signed for slightly more money.
In the article I saw, he only ever mentioned restrictions and wage constraints for Scottish players. I am sure Skoosh would have been delighted to be earning 50% of Sebbbboooo's wage
Keeping the traditions of discrimintaion, in some form, can't be easy for them
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our friends at randalstown are reporting
naka in contract extension talks
good news for timmites, but the bbc will be sharpening pencils for the negatives, if naka
hedges his bets, sometime roundabout the eve of a crucial game - methinks?
hail hail
yoggiessannies
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dbbia
Obviously given her advancing years, CZJ would have attended Notre Damn whilst the (in)famous St Pat's housed the likes of EDB, the Godfather and so on.
It was post amalgamation OLSP for me and the likes of Fergus Tiernan, Zander Diamond, Nickie Conroy and Jim O'Brien.
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Ardoch - spot on.
When MON was interviewed after the Demolition Derby game on Sky (wished I'd kept the recording) he came across as panic stricken rather than triumphant and tried to play everything down. Perhaps posters with a better memory that me can recall in a bot more detail. At the time I remember thinking he was like that because his "Rangers are the benchmark" cover had been well and truly blown - we were now the title favourites.
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TMC-in which case you may know some of the Bratts.
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tmc and dbbia
I think you two are at the wind up.
She went to Dumbarton School in Swansea.
tmc Are going tonight?
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I always assumed Martin's "benchmark" quote was a wee bit of tactical mind games.
Isn't there a famous story about him getting the players together at the start of the season and saying he was going to lie to the press and tell them he only hoped to close the gap before going round them all individually and saying "We will win this league. Do you believe that?"
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I always assume DBBIA is at the wind-up + I left OLSP in 1998!
Can't make it tonight EDB, have a pre-arranged game near your place tonight! Are you meeting Estadio in Dumbarton East's most welcoming boozer?
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edb
Wherever she went to school, it was long after you and I were out of short trousers.
Mind you, if Michael Douglas can do it.....
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tmc
That would be a resounding No.
We're meeting in the Harp Club unless he stands me up!
PJBhoynyc is coming along as well.
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EDB-But OLSP is the school she really wanted to go to,ever since she was a young girl in Swansea,babysitting for Mrs Hartson's wee bhoyo;~)
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Rammybhoy,
I am not so sure that the foreign ownership armada in the EPL will collapse because of lack of trophies.
With a guaranteed £30 Million in telly money, buying a 'second tier' EPL team and just creaming off the cash must look like an attractive prospect to some well financed investors.
The big spectre that these people will actually fear is relegation - that would wipe out the income stream almost overnight and is something that can't happen in a US closed shop franchise system. I would expect pressure to restructure leagues to avoid this possibility.
I genuinely feared the vast telly money coming into the EPL and how it affects Celtic's chances of competing for players - and I still have those fears.
However, ironically the foreign investors might just help Celtic a little as I get the impression that they are more interested in taking money out of clubs rather than re-investing profits in players.
This might come as a big shock to many football fans who are used to their clubs leading a hand-to-mouth existence where revenues generated are ploughed straight back into the club. It might be a case of 'bewaring what you wish for' as the sugar daddy proceeds to try and steal all the sweeties.
Who knows where all of this will lead - but you definitely get the impression that footballs tectonic plates are rapidly shifting.
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EDB
That's a relief, I did suspect that was a windup last week as well! Look forward to a match report and Estadio's comments on the fare at the Strathclyde Homes Stadium tonight!
Is it an XI or a reserve game?
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EDB
Is that the Dumbarton Harp Celtic Social Club, 141-143 High St, and I presume that I will have no problems getting in as a non-member.
Anyway SW not currently speaking to me over this Helen Rafferty thing, so heading for a shower, glad rags on and into town.
See you tonight.
Hail Hail
Estadio
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Ok i can see managers saying bench mark & such stuff as a wee mind game to take the pressure off, but chairman Dave? Not his style. IMO his guard has slipped & his inferiority is showing.
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Setanta sport
Claiming we are interested in Andrew Cole...
Aw Naw please let this be transfer tittle tattle...
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Estadio
That's the very place. No problems as I'm a member.
What time do you want to make it? I'm just killing time this p.m.
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Setanta Sport
Claiming we are interested in Andrew Cole
Please let this be transfer nonsense..
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Hanif :- Two points, firstly I would highly recommend attending a CQN function, all the folk I met have been welcoming and friendly with a good football knowledge.
The second point concerns your post on the flute band version of songs, what songs is it you are objecting to? The only flute band songs I hear played over the P.A at Ibrox are Rangers songs not loyalist or orange ones, with Follow Follow being the most played tune.
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BillyStarks
Tiitle tattle or nonsense, I would be happy enough. Sure he's past his peak at 35, but he showed enough with Portsmouth last season to show that he could do a short-term job - in terms of experience and movement, if not with goals. And given that most speculation links us with defenders, a striker with his (Champions League) experience may not be the worst thing. More clinical than Kenny Miller, Ian Wright he is not.
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Over the last few months I’ve read on here a few times the calls for Celtic to take advantage of our financial superiority and ‘bury’ Rangers. While I agree with the sentiment I am a firm believer in the cyclical nature of football, accidents of history that throw the balance into chaos and twists of fate that can sometimes wrest control from the dominant force.
Following John Barnes’ dismissal we were in tatters. Rangers were spending and winning, Dick Advocaat and the ‘oranje’ bandwagon was utterly rampant and Rangers were ‘burying’ us. Ultimately of course they didn’t and I don’t honestly know what else they could have done to ‘bury’ us. They were doing what us football fans crave of our board and manager: Buying big; buying stars. Too big in fact given the opposition they faced, and ultimately their attempt to ‘bury’ us has seen them trip over the rubble and fall into their own hole. (Don’t get me started on diggers…)
When Martin O’Neill came along a tsunami of emotion and belief washed over the green and white half of Glasgow and Celtic returned to the challenge with an almighty roar. An irresistible force had been released and its momentum crashed through and scattered asunder the immovable object on 27th August 2000 with the 6-2 demolition of Rangers. This was not just a big result; There had been other great victories including a 5-1 in the recent past. This victory took the already mighty momentum and catapulted it into the stratosphere. This was for real, the giant was slain, and so it has proved. We, the supporters, had been downtrodden and despondent, but never, ever buried. We needed a leader, we got one. He marshalled the troops, gave us organisation, a belief and renewed our hope and spirit. The rest was pure momentum.
This new era was built on £20m and circumstance and that is the stark truth, it is not inconceivable for Celtic at some point to be on the reverse of such a scenario.
Rangers are close to where we were in early 2000 and I’m going to tell you of what I think is a real danger, and that is twofold. Momentum and fate.
Rangers supporters are hurting like never before. Every part of their permanently raging persona and Club is under scrutiny and attack, their preciously guarded dignified exterior ripped open to reveal a maggot infested rotten core for the world to see. It must hurt like hell. When Zsa Zsa departs the new owners will arrive with an initial war chest. It does not have to be massive when you throw in fate and I’ll give you and example. Say Rangers changed hands 3 months ago. Say Tommy Gravesen had not left Real Madrid in 2006. I doubt if there’s too many Celtic fans who would not have jumped at Tommy Gravesen’s signature ahead of Scott Brown’s. That would have been a massive swing of the pendulum. Jiri Jarosik would probably have featured higher on a shortlist of midfield targets. Circumstance has given us Scott Brown and thank God it was in our favour this time, the boy is an absolute diamond.
Scott McDonald is another who I think will shine brightly, again circumstance meant he did not sign for Rangers in January. This has curtailed momentum on the south side. Can you imagine the wave of optimism and belief that would prevail had Scott Brown put in the kind of preseason for Rangers that he has for us? I would be worried.
What I do not worry about however is our ability to bounce back given our sustainable fiscal policy. This opportunity was denied the Rangers support by Zsa Zsa’s fiscal insanity.
So in conclusion to this tome I think that the focus is easy to lose as supporters. I lose it all the time in a dreamlike state of happiness every time I see the word ‘Celtic’, but to ‘bury’ Rangers cannot be our focus, it must be on simply being the best we can be. If we do that right we will be better than Rangers since we have a bigger, better, cleaner, more wholesome and downright righteous support and Club! The right scouts, the right coaching team, the right players, the right executives, the right medical team, the right merchandising arm, the right supporter relations, the right goals. The right aspirations. Shout ‘spend’ when you have logic and reason to back it up. That’s good. Shout at Aiden McGeady if you can demonstrate that it will be better for the Club. Plot a course with Rangers as the reason for it if you can articulate some kind of rationale, I’m all ears. This post is my marker as to why we should only ever try to be what we can be, and enjoy it while we are.
It is not Celtic’s job to ‘bury’ Rangers. It is our job to bear custody of the Club and pass it on shiny and pristine to our descendants. The by-product of that should by default fulfil all our dreams.
And Donati is pure class by the way.
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Bloke 109
He is 36 this year and we are rumoured to be offering a 2 year contract..IMO a mistake.
Ian Wright.Dion Dublin.
2nd Chance Charlie and Fat Frank , all show that older strikers very rarely work..
Lets hope we can get a decent striker in.
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Blantyre Kev
A really excellent post.
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Aternoon all.
Messages for EDB and BlantyreK
EDB - Lord muck states that he will be in Dumbarton at 17.30ish
BK. - That was brilliant (and he'll be fumin')
I’ll blinkin ‘Helen Rafferty’ him when he gets out of that shower!
It takes a flippin Celtic blog for a devoted woman such as myself with my housemaid’s knee, scurvy elbows, and elongated arms from carrying all that shopping over the years back from the barras and the pound shop, to find out where is mind has been wandering to all these years.
You just wait till he’s bending over cutting they toe-nails. I’m a dab hand and a dead-eye with the wetted corner of a flicked towel.
Anyway he is not getting to use the sweet smelling bathroom and is using the downstairs one at the moment since he hasn’t finished the artexin’.
In fact there are a hundred jobs round the house that are half finished and the season starts next week, although from his gallivantin so far I’m convinced it started earlier.
He has tried tae convince me that the support need a similar pre-season to the team. I am not convinced, especially as I had to sadly witness the return of the ‘breadwinner’ from a ‘friendly’ last night.
My God, what a sight!
‘Food! Wench!’ he called, tripped over the coffee table and did a Nacho-Novo onto the hearth and proceeded to snore, dribble and mumble for God knows how long.
I went to bed before he returned to the land of the living.
At 4am I ventured downstairs only to find him lying on the half finished patio with the doors wide open, the window agape and the uneaten chops, mash, and broccoli spears (that’s his nickname by the way for the ex-Herald journo) and gravy spread across the settee!
By the looks of the pattern it appeared that my gallant beau had tried to lick the suite clean.
Anyway as I resurrected him from wherever that sadly dysfunctional brain had gone, he burst into song and he is still singing it now ……in the shower!
‘Green white and Gold
Orange white and Green
The order doesn’t matter for the finest colours seen
The green grass of paradise and white for souls so clean
With Gold and even Orange, it’s just no tangerine!’
I don’t know what the tune is but I think it is the key of D since I vaguely detect a C sharp and F sharp or that could have just been an misdirected scrub with the loofah!
You know I think he does some of his best stuff in the shower, although he himself claims that his greatest moments of creativity are a testimony to the inspiration of the boudoir.
I do admit to having no complaints in that area since I have often complimented him on his artistic fitted units or sunken alcove lights.
Anyway.
I’m off shortly to Wales to see the girls.
The Lord of the manor is following down on Wednesday, having claimed that he has a long standing engagement in Dumbarton to watch the reserves.
Having said that, the devil that he is, announced yesterday that he is bringing two of the girls’ boys (he refuses to recognise the terms ‘grandsons’ or ‘Grandad’) back up on Thursday as THEY want to see the Celtic/Killie game on Sunday.
Their father is an Aston Villa fan and as is the wont with most families the offspring tend to follow in his footsteps.
Estadio is having none of that I can tell you! Especially now that MON, Shaun, Stan and briefly Didier and Chris went there.
“The girls’ follies (that’s his name for the lads) will see the error of their ways and follow |
