Brown can rise to the occasion

Is everyone actually working?

yes?

Paul67,

backing Skoosh. Thought it was only me that was allowed to do that. :o)

MWD

Moombeams, I've always said there is a lot more to him than we have seen.

Oh dear - we're now having to rely on someone who has hardly kicked a ball since the end of last season - desperate or what ? From last thread...

I'd suggest the low crowd (what was it ?) is partly due to it being holiday season, but also due to the lack of excitement generated by our signings so far. Still no creative midfield player, still no out and out goalscorer, still the same old gash at Centre back. Thankfully we've addressed the left back position though...

I was at Wembley and was full of hope for the season ahead after watching how we played Spurs off the park. I even had visions of Willo Flood being our playmaker for the year ahead ! However two games later, two defeats, and I now feel as despondant as I did at the end of last season. The problem for us is we will probably be on a downer before the league even starts. I have no real hope of going to Moscow and winning, so I'm expecting us to be out of the CL before we've even kicked a ball in anger in domestic football. Oh how we laughed at the Huns when that happened to them eh ! Once again it all comes down to lack of proper investment in the only thing that matters - the team on the park.

Paul67,

I would play one-up on Wednesday (don't know who), keep it tight, hopefully they will get nervous the longer the game progresses and then who knows?

Kit- I hope your bhoy gets better soon.

Henrik's Sombrero
Better watch out,bud,you might be branded a malcontent.
Like many among us,you bleed green and white but express concern at the current direction of the club.
Nothing wrong with a few honest questions,you might think.
Wait till the happy-clappers start ganging up on you!

While I don't think Donati has set the heather on fire, I don't think Scott Brown is the answer either. I thougth he spent to much time on Saturday getting involved with any Sundeerland player who went near him. Daft. Maybe the last 30 minutes, if we're utterly desperate. Crosas for me.

By the bye, is the gemme on Wednesday and on TV?

Chill Henriks Sombrero, early days mate. The team that beat spurs is still there. Don't let a less than inspiring pre-season friendly against less than inspiring EPL cannon-fodder skew your view.

Like everyone else I have been underwhelmed by all but one or two of Scott Brown's performances, here's hoping Mowbray and Peter can turn him into the player we hoped he could be. I say unleash him if he is fit. Along with Crosas and N'Guemo in a 5 man midfield, the 2 wide men of, Maloney and McCourt ? feeding Fortune.

"Fortune favours the brave"....yeh, I know, that was poor

live long and propser.

Think it's too early for Broonie, except maybe as an impact sub. Crosas for me too.

Watching Arsenal yesterday, what marvellous individual skill, passing ability , clinical finishing and terrific teamwork. Entertainment in spades.

It was wonderful to see then handing out such a comprehensive football lesson to those bigots from across the river but most of them never seemed to realise it was happening to them.There they were right to the end, chanting and singing their dreadful bigoted and sectarian rubbish and bouncing about like a parade of truly ugly Mr. Blobbies completely ignorant of the footballing humiliation being handed out to their team of journeymen.What about Miller's shocking miss near the end. Honestly, if we had been given a multiple choice questionaire just before he pulled the trigger I'm confident 99% of us would have gone for # 1 - Screws shot well wide of the far post?

We would at least have booed our lot off the park.?!

Timoot.

Paul67

Scott Brown couldn't trap a medicine ball.

Hail Hail

Aiden - heard it all before mate - doesn't bother me in the slightest. Over 20 years a season ticket holder gives me as much right to an opinion as anyone else on here. I don't see myself as a mineshafter or a happy clapper, I prefer to see myself as an individual voicing my own opinion. I've praised Mr lawell et al when I've felt they earned it, and I'll decry them when I feel they've 'earned' that right too.

I'm afraid that Skoosh just doesn't have the game intelligence IMO to swing the game our way.
Playing such an important game before our season has even started is wrong - summer football for me.

Tiny Tim, have you cheered up any?

Crosas, Brown and N'Guemo for me with Maloney on the bench. Fortune and McDonald up front. We need to keep the ball and therefore I think 2 holding midfielders with Brown charging through the middle (probably like a headless chicken, I know) should hopefully cause them some problems.

If we can score first we have a chance. They score first and I fear the heads will go down and it will be all over.

Sorry Paul 67 - Can't agree

While Scott has bags of energy, his recent lack of touch and composure surely don't make him ideal for a team that plays possession football. Have to agree with a previous poster that very often he spends his time running around clattering into people. Crosas for me.

Hail Hail

No. No. Thrice no.

Playing Brown would be up there on the all time list of Celtic's Suicidal Selections.

He was dreadful at the end of last season. I see nothing to suggest he will change. Doesn't mean he won't, but we can't rely on miracles.

By the way, bit of an unkind comment about Massimo, Paul, considering he hardly got a game last season!

Don't press the panic button and release the berserker just yet. I think we have some skillful players who are more match fit and can get the job done. If not, that's life, and we move on, but evryone deserves a fair chance.

I like the sound of 4-2-3-1.

I would play Killen as the lone striker, but if you must, Tony, give Fortune another go and let us see how he handles the job of lone striker. 4-4-2 is way too rigid and predictable, as we saw last Wed.

Team for me would be:

------------Boruc--------------
Caddis--Caldwell--Loovens--Fox
-------------------------------
------N'Guemo--Crosas----------
-----------Brown---------------
--McGeady----------------------
-------------------Maloney-----
----------Fortune--------------

Possibly switch Caddis for Hinkel if only for experience but Caddis is one of the only players at the club who can cross the ball. Loovens in for O'Dea mainly due to experience.

Maloney just off the main striker with McGeady wide right (but not too wide!)

There's no need to go gun-ho in Moscow, if we have the players who can break quickly then that would be enough for me. Formations like this are key on the midfielders getting right up the pitch and supporting the lone striker. N'Guemo and Crosas would be there to protect the defence and Maloney, McGeady and Brown could all support the attack (with one of the fullbacks).

We would need to know what formation we are playing before knowing the line up.

I have a feeling that Scott Brown may well start on the bench. He won't play a full game and we may well need him towards the end of 90 minutes.

Paul,

While I agree with your sentiments, Scott Brown didn't look on form on Saturday.

If we play both McGeady and Maloney which is a hugh possibilty (and correct IMO) then Donati is not the central midfielder for the job on Wednesday.

As you indicate we are not over-run by choice in this department, and Kojo thinks we should take a punt on Caddis - a risk I know but the bhoy has an engine and that's just what we need.

That said seeing how Scott performs & replacing him with Crosas if he tires will for me be better than starting with Massimo.

I don't think it would be a good idea for Skoosh to start this match either. He clearly isn't match fit yet and the lack of sharpness, if reflected in his tackling, could see him sitting on a very early yellow card.

I'd start Crosas with N'Guemo. The young Spaniard may just get a split second more time to pick his passes and could dominate in the middle. Stick Samaras up front with McDonald. Out of all the strikers the Aussie is still the most likely to hit the net in the penalty box when we need it most. Samaras has looked as good as any of the others in his last two appearances and if played similar to his role against Spurs he would drop back more and help bridge the gap between central midfield and attack.

my team for wed. has the following
stipulations.
my worry is up front as im
not convinced any of our
strikers have what it takes.
we need a midfield who can control
the play when we get the ball and
nguemo and crosas can provide that
with brown being his usual pain in the
grass (without loosing the heid)
if mcgeadys not performing replace him
with maloney.
if samaras/fortune are not doing enough
replace with mcdonald
outside of that this is what i think is our
strongest side we could put out.

boruc

hinkel
fox
caldwell
loovens

nguemo
crosas
brown

mcgeady

fortune
samaras

We are being led 0-1 down into the second leg of the 3rd preliminary round of the CL by a manager who's only previous experience of European football was via one UeFA Cup Qualifier and where after a goal-less draw at home the side he managed lost 5-1 away to the European giants Dnipro. I fail to see where any confidemce that we can turn this round is coming from. It is too much to expect. I don't expect it - nor should anyone else.

I'd like to see much more concentration and action rather than debate on just how we move ourselves out of the confines of the SPL because without that we should be resigned to more of the same.This is where the Board is really failing us. We need some inventive decisive action and we need it now.

Tony Mowbray is talking of 2/3 transfer windows to get the team he wants. He's also talking of being understanding that he may not have the funds he needs. That he may need to sell before he can buy. That's not good enough.

It is highly unlikely Paul, given Scott's absence of training and match time, that he'll have a great deal to offer the team on wednesday.

He ran very hard for an hour on saturday, but there's more to the game that that, and it'll take him a week or two yet.

The player mentioned at the end of the last thread, Keisuke Honda, is now wanted by PSV according to the Dutch press.

He 'enjoyed the best of his football last season in the early rounds of the Cooperative Insurance Cup'.

Not the most effusive of testimonials for wee Minimo.

Kit, scary about your son, my wife had something similar 2 years ago, the staff in the hospital were wonderfull.

regarding your long post about the evil one, I think he was reincarnated years later and was called adolf. Would they stick a statue of adolf outside the houses of parliment then ?.

when's the draw for the next qualifying round of CL as i expect to see us in it.

If there's to be a battle, then Scott Brown for me every time.

DBBIA:

Cheers mate, the work have given me the week off, so whatever, we’ll have some fun.

Digressing and carried over from the previous thread:

I’m still trying to write something in rebuttal of that FF Hun and all his bile anti-Celtic and Catholicism. No matter which point I try and shoot down, whether it is u-boats in the Liffey, or no real Irish VC’s, I am led down roots of literal history that do not do his (assuming he is male and human) crown of convenience, much credit at all. The following is, but a tiny example of the british evil that pollutes ever such a vicious history. And I am not anti-English, nor ‘anti’ any religion, but for some people to wonder why there are some in Erin (and Scotland too) who do not hold the English crown dear, well! read your unrevised history books, and you will wonder no more.

The 14th August should be a date of note in both the Irish, and the Jacobite Scottish, calendars. I wear a poppy for those who fought fascism, who’ll wear a symbol in remembrance of those whose lives propped up revolting imperialisms.

On 14 August 1652, Cromwell began his Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland, ordering that the Irish were to be transported overseas, starting with 12,000 Irish prisoners sold to Barbados. The infamous “Connaught or Hell” proclamation was issued on 1 May 1654, where all Irish were ordered to be removed from their lands and relocated west of the Shannon or be transported to the West Indies. Those who have been to County Clare, a land of barren rock will understand what an impossible position such an order placed the Irish. A local sheep owner claimed that Clare had the tallest sheep in the world, standing some 7 feet at the withers, because in order to live, there was so little food, they had to graze at 40 miles per hour. With no place to go and stay alive, the Irish were slow to respond. This was an embarrassing problem as Cromwell had financed his Irish expeditions through business investors, who were promised Irish estates as dividends, and his soldiers were promised freehold land in exchange for their services. To speed up the relocation process, a reinforcing law was passed on 26 June 1657 stating: “Those who fail to transplant themselves into Connaught or Co. Clare within six months… Shall be attained of high treason… are to be sent into America or some other parts beyond the seas… those banished who return are to suffer the pains of death as felons by virtue of this act, without benefit of Clergy.”

Although it was not a crime to kill any Irish, and soldiers were encouraged to do so, the slave trade proved too profitable to kill off the source of the product. Privateers and chartered shippers sent gangs out with quotas to fill, and in their zest as they scoured the countryside, they inadvertently kidnapped a number of English too. On March 25, 1659, a petition of 72 Englishmen was received in London, claiming they were illegally “now in slavery in the Barbados”' . The petition also claimed that "7,000-8,000 Scots taken prisoner at the battle of Worcester in 1651 were sold to the British plantations in the New World,” and that “200 Frenchmen had been kidnapped, concealed and sold in Barbados for 900 pounds of cotton each.”.

Subsequently some 52,000 Irish, mostly women and sturdy boys and girls, were sold to Barbados and Virginia alone. Another 30,000 Irish men and women were taken prisoners and ordered transported and sold as slaves. In 1656, Cromwell’s Council of State ordered that 1000 Irish girls and 1000 Irish boys be rounded up and taken to Jamaica to be sold as slaves to English planters. As horrendous as these numbers sound, it only reflects a small part of the evil program, as most of the slaving activity was not recorded. There were no tears shed amongst the Irish when Cromwell died in 1660.

Stop cheering at the back.

Now see that Cromwell, he was a real ‘Hun’.

Paul67 - I think we may see a wee formation change on Wednesday. 4231 with a midfield 5 of Crosas and N'Guemo with Brown, Maloney and McGeady behind a lone striker which will probably be Fortune as he is the best we have at holding the ball up. I noticed on Saturday that Mowbray had Scott playing very far up the park, in fact before he came off in the second half he was almost in the strikers role.

I know it was a typical pre-season game but I came away with 2 main concerns.

1) BTM obviously asked the starting 11 to give him something to think about for Wednesday night. Not one of them grasped that chance. Danny Fox I thought looked solid but the midfield in particular was poor.

2) The Aiden conundrum. I brought my father in law to the game (a mackem) and he was looking forward to having a look at Aiden and his quote after seeing him for what 30mins? "What is the point in all the dribbling if he can't find a man with a final pass". It is not something I could argue with. Several times Aiden was in a position to cross or lay off for a midfielder only to have a dreadful final ball or just be ran into the corner after taking one touch too many. In fact I dont think he found a hooped shirt with any pass that would be expected to create a chance for a teammate. He is the main creative force. He needs to up his game.

Your thoughts?

KIT

a very interesting post on the previuos thread ...almost unbelievable ...Rule Brittania indeed

hope junoir improves ...kid in hospital is no fun for anyone

btw ...to whom was the rebuttal addressed ..have i missed something

DBBIA

public holiday in DG9 today ...couldn`t timed it better for the cricket

talk about De Clerembeau...and we have Dick Byrne spying on me on Sat :¬))

Rogue

1) Aye

2) Yip

Caddis will never be a right back, got plenty of talent but not at defending.

In the games so far, theres been very little in the way of improvement on last seasons team, same formation, roughly the same players and the same purile home performances. N'guemo looked good but limited so far in creative pursuits (maybe its the tactics), i like lots of people am hoping that fox is indeed better than naylor, his crossing and passing certainly are. Fortune, well lets wait and see...

I suspect thats our player recruitment over, another false dawn?

I do like, however, Mowbrays bravado, no doubt he'll need time before we see any shoots of recovery.

i like the look of the japanese player, a good engine, never breaks down and a good resale value

gets coat and leaves

kitalba, i hope your son gets better soon.

Kit,

I had no idea about Cromwell. Sounds like the sort of story I'd like to read more about. Thanks.

derbyshirebhoy

blind faith and a general optimistic outlook ..also we have much better players than Hibs had

you`re correct ...the state of the squad and the lack of transfer funds available is simply not good enough

Kit after your commenst about Mr cromwell, i just popped downstairs where my wife and her monther are discussing names for the soon to born sydneytim junior.

she said "what about ollie or oliver"

hence i about turned and walked up the stairs again muttering " no way"

derbyshirebhoy

"Tony Mowbray is talking of 2/3 transfer windows to get the team he wants. He's also talking of being understanding that he may not have the funds he needs. That he may need to sell before he can buy. That's not good enough."

The same could be said for every single manager in the world. Even Man City!

You can't build a team in one window, for a start it wouldn't be building it would be replacing. We live in a restricted world, we can't go and spend tens or hundreds of millions on player, we don't have an oil-baron as our owner and some would say thank God.

We need to sell simply because our squad is bloated with players we don't need who are very average. If we can do this it might allow us to bring in one or two quality players. What is wrong with this?

PF Ayr

"blind faith and a general optimistic outlook"

Sadly I would agree that's about all we have going for us.

SydneyTim,

The draw for the playoffs for the CL is on the 7th August.

chris sutton is a legend thanks bring on arsenal, they had an easy game against the huns, but we will be different

To all who replied to my post on friday evening regarding an itallian restaurant many thanks. Went with the clique recommendation and plumped for La Lanterna. Phenomenal! And Mrs Gogo was one very happy camper too.

Thanks again

Hail Hail
Gogo

I don't yet believe that Tony knows who his best team is. We all know there is no chance in hell that the PLC will allow him to spend the cash that would bring him closer to a starting 11 that is more of his making and that it will take him possibly another 3 transfer windows to get a decent percentage of his own bhoys in. That is something, whether we agree with it or not, we will all have to live with or moan about.

For now I just hope Tony has the vision to pick a team from what is essentially Gordon Strachan's team and get them playing the way Gordon Strachan always wanted them to play but very rarely manage to coach the best out off.

I for one, like all of you, will be going into this game with a mixture of hope and trepidation. From what we saw on Wednesday night our opponents are not exactly Dynamo and although having lost 1 we should have scored 3 or more goals. They were pretty strong and well coached as a team but 15 games into their season we still managed to create 3 or 4 decent chances and a couple of half chances into the bargain.

Part of me thinks there is every likelyhood that we will see the same old Celtic away Euro performance. At the same time though there is a bigger part of me that believes this will be the turning point in our away European form. I reckon we will win 2-1 over the 90 mins but would be happy with a 1-0 to take it into extra time. I cannot however see us not losing a goal.

C'mon the Hoops.

Hail Hail

MWD

I keep hearing this rubbish about, BTM not having had experience in europe.

he played against man u, arsenal, chelsea and liverpool twice each last season. Thats 8 games against some of the best teams in europe.

secondly, the only manager that I can think of that had any real experience behind him when it comes to europe that i can recall in our entire history is the good Dr Joe. AND LOOK WHERE THAT LEFT HIM....

So can you guys just stop harping on about pointless matters. You sound like the Daily Ranger. Anyone want to point out that we have never recovered a tie after losing the first game at home?
Our poor scoring record away from home? Our even worse defensive record away from home?

Dinamo are not a great team. They are a hard working team. They are an efficient team. But they are not a top side. If we had taken half of our chances last wed we would have won by 4 or 5.

some days it just aint your night. But we were not outplayed, or the manager outsmarted (as has been suggested). T

the dinamo players were so exhausted that they didnt even look at eachother in the dressing room. They sat staring at the floor. Asolutely exhausted. It wasnt untill the manager had finished wallowing in his glory with the media that he cam in and told them off, asking if someone had died.

How do I know that? who said that? the goal scorer KORKORIN. Does that ound like a tem that sat back and decided to take it easy? They didnt SIT back, they were FORCED back, pinned in for most of the game.

WE ARE THE BETTER TEAM.
We just need to go out and prove it.

Keep the Faith.

UFB!

Skippy

RL

1.. Saturday the entire midfield was garbage McCourt looked way of the pace and his pasing was woeful/Flood charged about but his passing was as good as McCourt`s/Mizuno looked like a wee bhoy playing in the big team /Brown typical energy and tenacity , his passing was as bad as the others ...i was really disappointed in the standard of play ..bloody awful imo

2.AMcG was shocking on Saturday as bad as i have seen him play for some time

the whole experience wasn`t very inspiring

as for your makem in law ..for the money his team cost i wasn`t overly impressed with them and despite our inadequacies we should have drawn the game ..missing that sitter at the end

GOGO

glad you enjoyed it ...

i was in myself on Saturday ..magic as always

Where is La Lanterna ?

Dinamo won 2-0 away to bottom club FK Khimki at the weekend.

Derbyshirebhoy

I hear what you are saying regarding TM's european experience as a manager.However,most of the players in that squad have decent european experience and shouldn't let the task overwhelm them.We beat Spartak,who were every bit as good as Dynamo with virtually the same players.

Have faith my friend.

HS

the bottom of hope st ..opposite the station

depending on your age ...next to bonkers ..any help ??

PF Ayr - I agree with you Re Sunderland. I have seen them a few times and whilst it seems Bruce has got them playing a more fluid game for me we made them look better than they are first half. Second half when we started to approach our actual first team you could see we upped the tempo and were the better side. My father in law agreed with me when I said that.

Aiden was dreadful on Saturday, I thought he was at his self indulgent worst when he came on.

I thought one positive outcome from the first half is how well Loovens handled Kenwyne Jones. He won't play against any bigger and more physical players than him this year and handled him (quote from the father in law) "as well as any of the EPL centre halves do". Big Glenn did well I thought. Also a peach of a strike from Crosas....

The team I'd pick for Wed:

Boruc

Hinkel
Caldwell
Loovens
Fox

N'Guemo
Crosas
Donati

Maloney
Fortune
McGeady

Paul's mention of Paul Hartley is a reminder that we have lost another experience player we lost in the summer. Alongwith Jan and Naka but have done nothing to replace them.

Saturday was a complete waste of time. I couldn't understand the logic of the late substitions other than to keep the score down.

We need to shed about 6 hangers on and get in two 30somethings with good experience at a good level (non SPL).

lubo1977 but where does any goals come from, not one recognised goal scorer in your team, Maloney for Mcdonald and we would agree :)

RL

i was really impressed with Jones ...a real handful and took his goal well...which was scored after GL had gone off ...GL had been fairly tight all day

Scene: Dressing room, Ibrox Stadium, 45 mins before Kick Off.

Sally: Boss, just saw the Celtic line up. They're playing Caddis at right back.

Wally: Magic! Neilly, Laughy, Whitty, Boydy, Mendezy, C'mere.

Generally; Murmurs of 'Aye Boss'

Wally: Right guys. Here's the script. They've got Caddis at right back. Neilly, you throw the ball to Whitty. Got it?

Neilly: Aye Boss.

Wally: Whitty, you bang it long and high across the park to the Laughy.

Whitty: How long Boss?

Wally: Very long Whitty.

Whitty: How high Boss?

Wally: Very high Whitty. Very high. Got it?

Whitty: Aye Boss. Long and high across the park to Laughy.

Wally: Good. Right Laughy, you're a foot taller than that wee boy Caddis. He'll take you on the ground, so just win it the air and knock it down towards the edge of the box. Got it?

Laughy: Aye Boss. Nod it towards the box. Got it.

Wally: Boydy, Mendezy, listen up. Laughy's no that good with the headers, so we don't know where it'll go, but it'll be bouncing around the edge of the box somewhere. Just make the run and one of you'll get the chance. It'll work a treat.

All: OK Boss

Mendezy: But Boss, what happens if the Celtic defence clears it?

Wally: Don't worry about that boys, just get it back out to Whitty, to bang in again, long and high to Laughy. Where's it going Whitty?

Whitty: Long and high Boss. Long and high.

Walt: Right. That's us. On yeh go.

Sally: How d'you do that Boss. They tactics? I'd never have come up that. Pure tictacticastical Boss. But. What happens if Laughy disnae get any joy?

Wally: Don't worry about that Sally, we've got big Elbows on the bench.

Had a look at the stats for the game against Dynamo.

We had 44 crosses to their 6.

I would settle for that this week...the goals will come if we provide the ammnunition.

I would start with Skippy up front on his own...he's played there before against better teams and scored crucial goals.

Not sure about the midfield yet.

PF Ayr - yep, Bonkers, there's a name from the past ! Not been in it for years and its called something else now I think. Hope St just round the corner from where I work so will be trying La Lanterna out soon !

lubo at 11.03

thats along the lines i was thinking.....maybe bring in samaras for either aiden or maloney....either way if we go with a midfield 3 of crosas, nguemo and donati, then we should have impact players of a decent quality to bring on...if fortune staring is a given, then we need 2 to support him from a cast of aiden, shaun, skippy, samaras and scott brown.....that gives us 3 impact players as subs if we need them regardless of which 2 start

a midfield 3 of nguemo crosas and donati is key to us winning in my view

Kitalba
every time I am in London and walk past Cromwell's statue outside the Houses of Parliament I make a point of giving it the good old V sign. Petty, yes, but boy does it makes me feel better knowing what crimes he commited against our forefathers. To paraphrase Shane McGowan, may Cromwell "burn in hell tonight".
HH
CTTC

Skippy 10.50

Last Thursady night I posted something very similar about the Dynamo players and their expressions of relief, when decisions went with them late in the game on Wenesday night.

No way on this earth did any Dynamo player expect to win that match away from home.

I am with you in that we have a fantastic opportunity to go through to the next round, and expect us to do so.

The life of a football manager can be very fickle take TM for example. I get the feeling if he surprises us all and Celtic win in Moscow he will have a Heroic image among the fans.However, as is more likely we get knocked out of the CL before the season starts many Celtic fans will be questioning his ability to take us forward.TM is asking for patience and talking of two or three transfer windows before he can field his own team I for one am willing to give him that but Im not so certain about the majority of Celtic fans. May your day be Blessed.

Don't know if anyone has sat down and watched the first leg again? Celtic had 4 clear cut chances to score and a few half chances that could have gone our way aswell. Dynamo had two scoring one.
We had the majority of play but no luck and no one aggrssive enough to say this is mine im going to score here.
I didnt get to the game and had the misfortune of listening to Radio Clyde. How anyone can form an objective opinion listening to that mince I odn't know, but we've been there and done that. Having listened to the radio and read the papers since I thought we were playing the same as last season - the tippy tappy sideways turgid stuff. I didn't see that when I watched it with my oen eyes. The football wasn't great. There were te same individual failings but collectively the ball was being moved forward at every opportunity with the aim of scoring goals.
The first 20 mins were dreadful. We may have lost the tie with some poor defending and our ability to deliver a final ball in this period was non existant.
However, there is still hope. Fortune still has plenty of time to click, Nguemo is the best central midfielder we have had in 3 years, and we've got a left back!
Don't belive the hype.

Father Tim, I think we're all prepared to give big Tony our support in building his own team. The frustration will come if we don't see the board support him financially in the transfer market.

When is k/off on Wednesday? Is it 17.00?

1:45 am here so take 9 hrs away from that

Program starts on BBC2 at 4:45pm for a 5pm K.O.

hee is a wee reminder of the last time we played russians, man what a night this was....

KEEP THE FAITH!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xg34lUIysk

Skippy

We have played one competitive match and lost, due to awful defending by Hinkel/Caldwell take your pick, and then went on to dominate the majority of the game. This is such a calamity that already some are questioning our manager's ability. Get a grip people we have played some great football and some woeful football on other days but one loss does not define our whole season to come. We are capable of winning on wednesday, whether we actually do or not is in the lap of the gods. This is sport afterall no match is a foregone conclusion.

As I go on holiday this Thursday to the Island of Hippocrates birth (the father of medicine) I decided to purchase my holiday reading material yesterday. After some humming and hawing and about an hour or two I finally decide on 'Great Hatred, Little Room' Making Peace in Northern Ireland by Jonathan Powell former Downing Street chief of staff.

Anyone read it?

MWD

THE LEFT BACK

Would you or anyone let me know where or how i can see that re run of the first leg?

PF Ayr - According to my father in law the problem with Jones is he apparently only plays when he wants to play. You get no consistency from him at all. When he fancies it he is as good as anyone however he doesn't often fancy it and his lazy style on the pitch is infuriating.

Father Tim

TM is under pressure from some because of the disaster of last season

for me if the board don`t give TM some decent cash to spend then it will be their fault ..just as it was last season although WGS with his daft selections was somewhat culpable at times

TM has inherited a mediocre /disspirited squad ...i had originally thought that if we brought in a decent LB and Striker that it may have been enough ...i have to say that i have not been overly impressed with any of our new signings , other than N`Guemo

if you`re not given good money to spend it`s hard to get good players in

Andy Reid showed how to deliver a ball on Saturday. If Aiden could add that to his running we'd have a player.

Anyone know why McCourt seems unable to reach the required level of fitness?

If Koki was a Scottish player he'd have been released or loaned out (IMO)

MWD

Only one book ..you only going away for a couple of days

Father Tim....

all managers are under scrutiny at all times...it's the nature of the game. Tony will be given time by the support, because i think we collectively realize we have a good guy here, we also realize he has quite a bit to rectify to get us where we feel we should be.

The people under real pressure this year are the CEO and the board generally. So far they are making a better fist of things than they did last year. They however need to realize that they can't provide half hearted support. If there are players the manager wants in and they are gettable, then we need to get them in this year and preferably in this window. I would much rather we front load the spend in year 1 of Tony's tenure to give him a chance to hit the ground running

hi ghuys

can someone please tell me what time the new ESPN show airs today?

all i know is that it begins today,no idea where or when!

hail hail

On Cromwell.

Morrisey.

Irish blood, English Heart.

Irish blood, English heart, this I'm made of
There is no-one on earth I'm afraid of
And no regime can buy or sell me

I've been dreaming of a time when
To be English is not to be baneful
To be standing by the flag not feeling
Shameful, racist or partial

Irish blood, English heart, this I'm made of
There is no-one on earth I'm afraid of
And I will die with both my hands untied

I've been dreaming of a time when
The English are sick to death of Labour
And Tories, and spit upon the name of Oliver Cromwell
And denounce this royal line that still salute him
And will salute him forever

MWD

under 19 stars with a future

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/under19-stars-with-a-big-future-1765722.html

'Great hatred, little Room', sounds like the presentation ceremony in Barcelona when Greigy was handed the ECWC in the dressing room dunny.

Sat at home with an ear infection from hell, man i have had less that 4 hours kip this weekend. Terrible.

I think the back 5 pick themselves.

I would go for a 4-5-1

M/F of:-

Maloney Crosas Landry Donati McGeady

Fortune

PF Ayr

Just the one book for 7 nights. Mini MWD will take up most if not all of my time during this period. :o) Last year on Lake Garda I only managed 1 book in 10 days due to his constant play needs. Not that I am one to complain about that. They are only young once and I want to enjoy every minute I can.

MWD

Rogue Leader

What's so frustrating with Aiden is that its entirely down to decision making. His game intelligence is what lets him down. THe technique is not in question, but despite playing hundreds of hours of pro football he's learned nothing.
Its never too late, but he needs to be more humble and accept that quick feet or not his contribution must be more consistent.
I think this year has to be his last for us if he can't change it up.

How often do you see him offer a 1-2 or even participate in a 1-2? He rarely overlaps and offers support to other attackers. He almost never keeps it simple. Not only would using these options increase the effectiveness of his normal game - defenders will be less sure that he's off on a run - but when he's not on form he can still be an effective team-mate and more importantly give himself the space and confidence to build into a game.
Too often he starts poorly and gets worse - getting bogged down in increasingly elaborate dribbling.

What i'm saying is that i don't think he needs to be taught how to pass a ball properly or taken back to skills school - he just needs to add some fairly basic things to his game. The more simple stuff he can add to his game the more effective the elaborate stuff will become. This, however, is entirely down to his own willingness to submit to learning the basics.
At least, unlike the likes of Riordan, he has a good work ethic. We should at least give him credit for that i suppose.

For my part, i'm not willing to worry about the performance of a reserve team in pre-season.

DBBIA

:o)

did you get my reciept?

MWD

Naka pleyed a starring part in a 3 0 win as Espanol opened their new 40,000 seater stadium against Liverpool. Can't help thinking he'd have loved to play under TM.

Worth googling Valencia's new stadium which will be in use for 2010/2011 season. It looks amazing (70,000+ seater)

Let me ask this of you.

When in Gordon Strachan's early days we signed Boruc Zurawski and Nakamura did it feel good? Did we feel hopeful? Did we see them on the park and think these will improve the team? Did we think these are what we've been missing? A goalkeeper a playmaker and a goalscorer. More please Gordon I thought.

Contrast please with Tony Mowbray's first signings. Are we all convinced. Re 'NGuemo a defensive midfielder.I am but question if we needed one. Re Fox a left back. I am and by God we needed one. Re Fortune as a goalscorer I'm not and by God we need one. Will there be any others? Who Knows? Sell before we buy? Waiting on Wednesday's result? Who knows?

Not got the same buzz about these early days. Why not? Who knows?

I think Aiden is great but as thick as two shorts planks. TM should buy him a DVD of JOhn Robertson / Alan Thompson and say - "son watch these and copy"

Beat the man and then cross, not beat the man and mince about and then beat him again etc

Derbyshire Bhoy.....'waiting on Wednesdays result'. The sound of that sentence fills me with dread. If this is indeed the case then our Chief Exec and board are finished in my eyes.

ibleedgreenandwhite

not wanting to be one of the other ignorant t.....s :-)

if you are on virgin media

529 - espn
530 - espn HD
531 - espn america
533- espn classic

hail hail

Mooners- yes, cheers for that.

I've ordered 'Selling your Father's Bones' from Amazon; the writer retraces the flight of the Nez Perces under Chief Joseph from the US Cavalry in an attempt to make a new home for themselves in Canada.

Chief Joseph is one of my all-time heroes so I'm hoping the book does him justice.

via_nirone - I agree with you to an extent. You are 100% correct regarding his decision making. He too often makes the wrong one or takes one touch too many. What frustrates me too is people regularly double up on Aiden, now normally in a team when that happens the attacking side take advantage of the space left to score. We do not. I think this has alot to do with the reasons you give. I also agree it is just pre season however he seems to have picked up where he left off last year, as have alot of others!

One thing I don't agree with you his about his basic game. I think Aiden needs to work alot on his crossing and shooting. He misses the target far too often and his crossing leaves alot to be desired at times.

For a winger and the creative fulcrum of the side I think it is right for us to start to expect alot more from Aiden. He has to step up this year, show consistency and an end product. In fact I would go as far as to say he has until January as if he has another full season this year like last year we will be lucky to get £3m for him come next summer.

It is time to start showing your talent Aiden...start the come back in Moscow and shut us all up!

Australia 117-2. Now 4 runs ahead.

Derbyshire- FWIW I think the manager with the best start [statistically] was Hoopslegend John 4-2-2-2 Barnes. Mr Stein had some terrible resuls when he came, including a 6-2 defeat by Falkirk.

Through no fault of Tony's we're in a bit of a hole and it may take a bit of time to get out of it.

The Aberdeen game will tell us more about where we are.

An honest tim - "I think Aiden is great but as thick as two shorts planks"

I don't like saying that but I too have heard this is a real problem with Aiden.

Mr Mc Geady is an impostor.

Reckoned by some to be a supreme talent. Constantly forgiven cossetted and petted on the basis that some day he will be the key to unlocking defences both in the SPL and Europe.

I've seen comments like

" He is our greatest talent, and one of these days he is going to show it."

That comment for me says it all. One of these days isn't good enough. Mc Geady is 23. At 22 Jimmy Johnstone was playing in the European Cup Final and then went on to tease and destroy Real Madrid in the Bernabeau the following week. The final wasn't one of Jimmy's best performances but no-one had any doubt about his ability. The difference with Jimmy was it was only now and then he didn't show it.

For now and maybe for evermore Mc Geady is an imposter. He does not deliver. This season I want Tony Mowbray to play him where Mc Geady thinks he's best. If he isn't able to show it then I'd like to see him sold. It does intrigue me that despite his profile and adoration by sections of the Celtic support I don't see anyone offering a bid we couldn't turn down.

DBBIA - Have you read 'Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee' ? All about the genocide carried out on American native Indians by the settlers. Has a whole chapter about the flight of the Nez Perces. Also covers the horrors faced by just about every other tribe too. Harrowing book.

I am sure the coaching staff on all 3 managers he has played under all bow to his technical skill, but his passing, crossing and goals ratio is murder.

Never like to slag anyone off but the lad is either daft as a brush or not listening, if it is the latter - lets punt him to some daft EPL team for 10 Million

HS

if you believe that the result from Wed`s game will have no bearing on the funds being made available then you are deluding yourself

we are constantly advised that we budget for uefa cup/europa cup football ..yet when we are in the CL there is no extra spend ...you can be damn sure that non CL participation with used as an excuse for no more spending

their parsimony cost us the league last season their continued parsimony may cost us again

given the savings on wages with the departures this season together with our good financial position the transfer spending thus far has been unacceptable

stand up for the balance sheet

It seems a few of us on this board have concerns about the CEO and the Board letting TM down by not investing enough in the transfer market.I will say that if this is truly what happens there is very little we the supporters can do about ( if Im wrong in this assumption Id happily listen to a constructive plan to change there attitude ). However,I dont think throwing money at it is the only answer we must move on the under performers and utilise promising youngsters.We have players at Parkhead who were suppossed future stars but have not fulfilled there promise and yet we keep thinking they will come good.To name just two McGheadie and S.Brown come to mind. May your day be Blessed.

derbyshirebhoy i do agree with your comments about Mcgeady, i did say the " He is our greatest talent, and one of these days he is going to show it." but if he does not show it this year, then time to punt him. we can get a damm good player for 8-10m in eastern europe

When Aiden is on the ball boxed in, and has two or more defenders around him which is pretty regular, he should have a pre arranged destination for his out ball to be aimed at, where his team mates should be ready to go for it. For example, waist high to the penalty spot area, or whatever, where we can try to get on it or onto any deflection or muffed clearance.

Playmaker.

I run about like a headless chicken,
bet you can't guess my name,
my passing is something atrocious,
football, is never my game.

It was best when I was suspended,
some maintain, I never did play,
my second touch is always a tackle,
Four million wasted, they say.

I'm always up for some hassle,
easy to wind up, like a clock,
yellow cards, fill up my locker,
hard man, built like a rock.

Now they all think I'm the answer,
a messiah to bring them a goal,
quick to forget, my pedigree,
blind to a fault, so I'm told.

Serenity

DBBIA

I take your point and I'm not sure that my concern is actually with the new manager but more so with those who fund him.

PF Ayr - We're singing from the same hymn sheet. I'm simply saying it would be the last straw for me after the farces of the last year. Doubtless though we'll be fed the same crap about living within our means and being a steady ship.

Kitalba

On musing on Ollie Cromwell I found myself wondering if he were with us today just what team would he play for and in what position. I quickly tired of such a silly notion about a great English hero and reflected on my own thoughts when passing his effigy outside The Mother of All Parliaments. These are similar to what happened to dear old Nelson in O'Connell Street and to affection for Guido Fawkes who just failed to bag the lot.

Best wishes

Henrik's S- yes, I read it at school. That's when I first heard about Chief Joseph.

I think it was one of the first books to bring attention to the way the Americans treated the native population.

Dinamo's last 6 home games -

Premier Liga (6)8,923 Dinamo 0-1 Krylia Sovetov

Premier Liga (8)8,000 Dinamo 1-2 CSKA

Kubok (sf)6,068 Dinamo 2-2 CSKA

Premier Liga (10)11,160 Dinamo 1-0 Zenit

Premier Liga (12)6,223 Dinamo 1-1 Kuban

Premier Liga (14)6,117 Dinamo 2-1 Spartak Nalchik

Don't keep many clean sheets, do they...?

Sidney Tim

Absolutely. I reckon we could get one more effective for half of that. Big big season for Aiden.

Reading some comments of saturday's game regarding Paddy or Mizuno made me think that games like this one do no favor to players that are not in the first team.

I cannot help thinking that Mizuno would do much much better with Nguemo, (fit) Brown and Maloney by his sides and with McDonald and Fortune up front.

Now we've had a player that played 90 minutes twice in a proper game in two years - all this in a squad and shape that Celtic will (I suspect) never use.

So I usually have problems when managers field a team that is to no use for anything or anybody. As a player you know that you have a start because the big guns might have a rest - you wouldn't be bursting with confidence, would you? Yet you are expected to absolutely shine for about 60 minutes in a team that never played together before against a much better opposition. Tough if not impossible task.

That's why I don't read much from these games. I would judge McCourt or Mizuno only in games when 90 minutes would count for something.

And to be brutally honest and if I had to make decisions on the basis of Sunderland game - from what I've seen Mizuno did more to merit a start in Moscow than McGeady.

But that's just me.

Greetings from Slovenia bhoys..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnjxQRKmhUk

Well it cheered me up !

bhoybhoywalter on August 3, 2009 11:35 AM

Worth googling Valencia's new stadium which will be in use for 2010/2011 season. It looks amazing (70,000+ seater)

- yep it's a beauty, like a lot of new spanish architecture recently. if you or anyone's interested, google bilbao airport. brilliantly designed, it has no signs in the building, the layout is so good you don't need them to know where to go.

derbyshirebhoy yes big season for him, but we have to play him until we have someone new. Did super sally not say he was relieved to see Mcgeady on the bench at ibrox replaced by maloney

PF Ayr

The spend so far has been decent....for a start. If that is all we spend, then i would agree we have learned nothing from last year

I would also think that the CEO should not survive if we do not make at least 2 more significant purchases. We need a striker and a centre half. We need that without selling any of our best players. I am hopeful that the board and the CEO will have learned from last year and kick on and support the manager fully and reenergize the support with exciting signings

If we subsequently sell quite a number of the squad fillers, then thats fine by me. In fact i would welcome that, as a number of them are highly unlikely to have successful careers at Celtic Park

Come on Bhoys!!!!!!!!!
I cant believe some of the pessimism on here.
We should have won the 1st game about 4-1 possibly more.

We will created chances on Wednesday and if we can just put a couple of them away we will go through.

I'd play
----------Boruc------------
Hinkel Caldwell Loovens Fox
------NGuemo---Crosas------

McGeady-------------Maloney

-------Fortune Skippy------

I'd bring on Brown and Samaras/Killen if we're still struggling to score.

Keep the faith.

Wee Red

I think you make a good point. Granted my view is generally from the sofa and I can't see the full picture but I cannot understand why when Aiden invarably draws two defenders to him we never seem alert enough to use the space he's created. I desperately hope there is a solution to tha and that our new coaches can find it.

Derbyshire- I share your worries regarding the Bureau de Biscuit , but there's always someone worse off.

I was reading yeaterday that after NUFC shamefully sacked Sir Bobby Robson in 2004 they were offered a young coach and player.

They of course in their wisdom appointed the Beast but turned down JMourinho and his wee pal Deco.

Australia 136-2.

"And to be brutally honest and if I had to make decisions on the basis of Sunderland game - from what I've seen Mizuno did more to merit a start in Moscow than McGeady."

- i'd agree with that. not just from the sunderland game but the whole pre-season. better crosser and seems to play more of a team game but the thing mizuno lacks is a bit of self-confidence. wacthing at wembley whenever he got the ball we were wanting him to have a go and take on hutton but he often cut back to look for a safer pass. he did have one run where he beat a few opponents before being fouled and showed lovely close control, running directly rather than doing what aiden does.

Australia 137-3. Watson c Prior b Anderson 53.

Awe_Naw 12:00 PM

They will certainly never forget it. Fabulous video!

MWD

" Great Hatred, Little Room" by Jonathan Powell

I read it about 5 months ago, a good "read" on a big weighty topic. Powell comes over as a very human, bright operator who often had as much professional contempt for his own boss as he did for Paisley, Adams et al.
I found it very absorbing, well written and balanced, if anything I wanted a bit more "dirt" on the main characters but it does offer good insight from a historical point of view.

(On reading it you may wish to also consider "Sinn Fein and the Politics of Left Republicanism" by Eoin O' Broin)though this is a much more academic work and not one for the sun -lounger.
I found it gave excellent context for the Sf perspective.

Bankiebhoy1soontobeNYCbhoy

barcabhoy One of the problems we have is we have to many average players who will never be good enough for the first team.Another problem is no one is willing to take them off our hand as they are earning to much.The CEO is in a very strong position as the Board operates as a closed shop and as supporters how can we change that?Also on the McGheadie debate without being uncharitable he will not improve this season as in his head he is a star. May your day be Blessed.

Lay off Koki. The boy has talent but like Naka its wasted in a wide position. He also has pace unlike most of the rest of our team. We should be using those attributes but as always it needs games.

BWAAAAAA!!!! The fannies!

They of course in their wisdom appointed the Beast but turned down JMourinho and his wee pal Deco

harry fathersham

Don't know if he was trying to get in, or out of the Sunderland game

p.s thanks for the Mallorca link

hail hail

As I said yesterday.

This is a big ask for Dynamo. They have never been in this position before.They will feel the pressure.
We have been here before, most of these players have been here before and won through, por cierto.

Big fan of scott brown but dont think he should play.
We need to hold the ball keep possession, not his strong point, if it comes to chasing the game when its stretched last half hour then throw him on and go for it.
All this about a manager with european experience.
Did MON have any european experience b4 joining us (other than an ill fated pre season in malaga when cvollymore set off fire extnguisher)
I remember us getting a chasing from an average bordeux side first season but he ended up with a not bad euro record didnt he?
And as for coventry and southampton, they played a lot in europe didnt they but again WGs ended with a half decent record in europe (forgetting brattislava)
Let us not use lack of experience as a stick to beat tony with.
There are too many ups and downs on this site and not enough level thinking.
We beat spurs in a meaningless friendly and everyone thinks we are great.
We get beat by sunderland in a meaningless friendly and we are doomed.
PRe season is for experimenting and getting fitness.
Didnt MON lose every pre seasn game one year and we won league by 20 points?

And as for the really quick and viccious judgement on MAF, it actually disgusts me. I will argue with any person on here who doesnt think he is a better player than Kenny effing miller.
Kenny miller is an atrociaous player not fit to wear the hoops. Yet for a long time came in for no criticism.
Why? My opinion is that there are a lot of celtic fans who like to think they are better than others and didnt want to slate him for fear they would get accused of being bigots and only cos he used to play for rangers. In fact he should have been slated beacuse he was crap. Yet he was applauded, consoled, gee-ed up given the oh unlucky son another miss,keep plugging away.
I did all this as i do to every player during a game as i see no benefit in deriding players during the 90 and breaking their confidence. So it was commendable.
However why is the same luxury not afforded to players such as MAF, maybe he should have had a stint at rangers first.

PF ayr:

I'm plodding away with my wee, ‘what does a – hun – mean to me’ composition. It has been started and binned more times than I care to remember. It all started when I got a few e-mails sent me a while back, regarding what was being said against us by some from the side that does not love us too much.

Malceye, actually posted some of the bile on here about six weeks ago. I think he was right to do so, but I wouldn’t. That is not to say I think he was wrong in doing so, I actually was glad when he did, it is just… I personally did not want to do it.

It is all about the Pope: the Vatican: the sins of the Catholic clergy: the Irish: the Catholics: the Taigs: the anti-Semitic, pro-facist, pro-hitler, pro-franco, traits of the Celtic support in general and in particular, and a lot more bile aside. I am spoilt for choice in tearing it apart. Sometimes it is quite funny what you dig up and sometimes it turns your stomach. But I want to do it right; Real right.

The guy who wrote it is a bigot of the highest order, but in writing it - and defending it - he is perpetuating hate and bigotry and I will tear each and every point apart, word by word, sentence by sentence, point by revolting point.

He is a tube of the most obtuse order and society, any society, would be cleaner without his agitation or presence, but there are junior tubes that gorge on his bile; they know no better. So what I do eventually say, I want it to be one hundred percent accurate and I don’t want any ramifications - of the crown sort - in doing so.

That is where I will eventually need your help and thanks for sending thru’ your e-mail. I’ll e-mail through the links to what caused my nausea.

Celtic_to_the_core:

He is not the only one who fuels hells fire. There are not many who were worse, but there were many who were his equal.

Sydney Tim:

They are winding you up... aren't they?

Guys - quick question for Virgin Media Subscribers in London/douwn south.

BBC alba? - can we get it? if not what other options are available? if any?

Many thanks in advance

"And as for the really quick and viccious judgement on MAF, it actually disgusts me"

- same here. some have already decided he's a dud, with ideas like putting killen up front on his own on wednesday. that would be a disaster.

Fortune will be a class act, he was unlucky not to get a hattrick last Wed.
NGuemo will be superb as will Fox.

We just need to clear the driftwood, and then spend in Jan.

barcabhoy

i agree entirely that what has be achieved to date is a decent start

however i have no confidence in the new players that we clearly require being brought in

TM is already talking "boardspeak"...sell before i can buy /2-3 transfer windows before i can get my own team in

when you consider the above together with the complete silence on any additional signings this window

i think we have cause for concern
remember they have previous for this ..look at the last couple of seasons

MAF is no dud he will be a great player for Celtic he works the channels well holds the ball well and plays with his back to goal.Any slim chance we have on winning on Wednesday depends on him playing.One of the problems we have is picking the correct partner for him Id go with Samaras. May your day be Blessed.

dean_moriarty

well there you go. the question is how can he build his confidence when he knows he is in a team of players that will never get a start when it will come down to point chasing in the league.

His first start against Falkirk showed quite a lot. A safe passer with good pace and with vision that got him a lovely goal in the end. He was quieter at Ibrox but still contributed his share in one of our last away wins last season.

Even against Sunderland - he would be through was he not chopped down and unlike many others at least made some disturbance in the away penalty box.

Killen???? That guy is mince!!

Fortune will be not as prolific as the big man (god speed pal!) but will be as important in my view.

PF Ayr - I'd imagine that TM is thinking of at least 7-8 players that he needs to bring in. If they're all of the level we hope them to be that's got to be spending in the region of around £30M. I'm in no way surprised he's talking about it taking 2-3 windows and possibly needing to sell before he can buy.

I'm amazed anybody is.

Balti pie and steak bake for lunch.. Get in!!!

My ear is still recking!

scotlands shame, Kenny Miller is a good footballer. He's not a terribly good striker, but he is very far from mince.

"Rubbing my eyes"

;-)

When the world refuses to march to the beat of our individual drums it is human nature to want to find someone or something to blame, rather than get in step with the beat until it changes. Thus it is the Boards fault we do not spend enough to support the manager regardless of circumstances.

My impression is that as a support we are in denial about the value our money can buy. We treat explanations emanating from Celtic about the cost of value with scepticism at best,disdain at worst.
I therefore present the case re the cost of value for money from Mark McGee.
He said "I spoke to Mick McCarthy this morning about a player who would do Aberdeen.
He is not a top player and will not get a game in the EPL. In fact he only had one game in the Championship for Wolves but he is on £12k a week"

I had to laugh at John Hillcoat complaining that players in lower leagues could no longer command£500 a week and would have to go part time. Then you have Andy Walker advocate of squeezing out the best deal possible if a club was daft enough to offer daft money,suggesting licensing might be a good thing!
Chickens are coming home to roost big time and the only thing protecting footballers from the consequenses of their own greed and foolishness is the length of the foolish contracts handed out by foolish clubs.
The thing is the clock is ticking and these contracts will end and eventually the market will right itself.
Celtic just have to sit it out, which explains why we are in no hurry to deal with Gary Caldw

Bury my heart at wounded knee
by Dee Brown the most truthfull account imo of the genocide of the native American indan ever written

First published in 1970, this extraordinary book changed the way people thought about the original inhabitants of America. Beginning with the Long Walk of the Navajos in 1860 and ending 30 years later with the massacre of Sioux men, women, and children at Wounded Knee in South Dakota, it tells how the American Indians lost their land and lives to a dynamically expanding white society. During these three decades, America's population doubled from 31 million to 62 million. Again and again, promises made to the Indians fell victim to the ruthlessness and greed of settlers pushing westward to make new lives. The Indians were herded off their ancestral lands into ever-shrinking reservations, and were starved and killed if they resisted. It is a truism that "history is written by the victors"; for the first time, this book described the opening of the West from the Indians' viewpoint. Accustomed to stereotypes of Indians as red savages, many white people were shocked to read the reasoned eloquence of Indian leaders and learn of the bravery with which they and their peoples endured suffering. With meticulous research and in measured language overlaying brutal narrative, Dee Brown focused attention on a national disgrace.

what about something like this?

mcgeady just off fortune, absolved of defensive responsiblity, not out wide due to his woeful crossing. similar to the position in the CIS cup final though would probably fare even better with fortune ahead of him rather than skippy.

maloney on the left where he's been our biggest attacking threat.
mizuno on the right where can just whip crosses in, something he's very good at.

------crosas n'guemo
mizuno mcgeady maloney
----------fortune

bournesouprecipe

De nada.

He looks like trap number 3 or he spilled his teeth.

I personally feel like a closet claustrophonic stuck in the turnstiles.

Hail hail

Pinner_bhoy

BBC Alba can be viwed on http://zattoo.com/ as posted recently in this blog. Sorry can't recall who posted this link but my thanks to whoever it was. I signed up for Zattoo and watched the Celtic Sunderland game and it was in reasonably high quality. Please note that thsy do not show games illegally they merely provide a platform for viewing different terrestial broadcasters live on the internet.

weeminger

if you believe that Celtic will spend £30 mill in the next 2-3 transfer windows thn you are a great deal more optimistic than me

imo there is not a snowball`s chance in hell of us ever spending that amount of money ..not unless we got about £20m in from sales

derbyshireboy

You make it sound like a personla attack on Koki -It's not. I simply don't feel that physically he can cope at the top level. The way the Dinamo central midfielders were jumping into tackles last Wednesday and given that he seems (to me) to lack confidence -he would (imo) get destroted in central midfield.
Comparing anyone's ability to cross a ball with that of Aiden will be flattering! (imho)

dean_moriarty

that's surely one of the options that would be worth considering. i still think we'll go 4-4-2 with nguemo, donati, mcgeady and maloney and with mcdonald and fortune up front.

Team For Wednesday

Boruc
Hinkel Caldwell Loovens Naylor

Donati N´Guemo Crosas Brown Fox

Mac Donald

By oneantonrogan on August 3, 2009 12:30 PM
scotlands shame, Kenny Miller is a good footballer. He's not a terribly good striker, but he is very far from mince

What position does he play? "not a terribly good striker"
Think you have answered my point. he worenumber 9 played up front but never scored. As a team player fantastic, as a striker - mince.
why then after 1 game not scorin is MAF being panned despite clearly being a better footballer (altho he doesnt run about like a headless chicken) and im sure time will tell he will have a better strike rate.
yet after 1 game he is being destroyed by some fans.
all i am saying is cut him the same slack afforded to miller as he wii prove a better buy.

Teamspirit - many thanks

I Reckon we will win 2-1 (McGeady, Fortune)

That will be us out on the away goals rule ;-(

I find it absurd that some on here are suggesting Killen should play up front on his own on Wednesday.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but this is just ridiculous! Personally I would even have Sheridan ahead of him and I've not seen him play in months!

Killen has done well in pre season against defenders who lack sharpness (a la Caldwell) but last week he came on and mis controlled while banging into the keeper at every opportunity!!

This guy is not good enough for Celtic and not good enough for the Champions League that is for sure.

Unbelievably, he is actually slower and a worse player than JVH which is almost impossible!

PF ayr:

What do you think about this? No answer required and before anybody goes to the URL’s you may find them offensive if not repulsive.

Not linked deliberately. Your choice to go there.

http://www.vanguardbears.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=184&Itemid=26

http://www.vanguardbears.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=182&Itemid=26

http://www.vanguardbears.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=178&Itemid=26

http://www.vanguardbears.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=154&Itemid=26

Cant see BTM playing Scott Brown from start. I dont think SB has the composure required for this game. 20mins fom end of game I could see him making an impact box to box and keeping them on back foot and playing a part in a goal.
Any thoughts on a Season 08/09 Review Paul? Might be an opportune time after Wednesday nights game? Feel as if the feel good from Wembley Cup has dissipated somewhat.And is it just me or can Britney Spiers in the Times not mention BTM without including "tired ; jaded ; exhausted ; angry at pre-season travelling etc"???

An honest tim

Don't think so - Kafflik schools

Hail Hail

An Honest Tim - Out on away Goals?

2-1 win for us in Moscow would put us through on Away Goals.

ie our 2 in Moscow to their 1 in glasgow.

lets hope we can argue about it for real as the game finishes on Wednesday

1-0 already then a 2-1 away defeat would be us out..

A wee bit sick and tired of the 'Brown is god' thing...

Neither is Brown world class or (for exampple) Donati complete rubbish as some fans keep suggesting

Brown is a player for me who flatters to deceive - a lot of running Yes, a lot of huffing and puffing but like a few celtic midfielders - his final product, a cross, a shot, a through ball needs a lot of work.

I dont understand why some fans think he should be an instant pick on Wednesday regardless of the form of other players currently holding the jersey. Yes he offers us an aggressive driving force in the middle of the park (when 100% fit) but he gives the ball away a lot and his temperament is still questionable. He doesnt win games on his own and when did he last score a last minute winner for us when we really needed it? I suggest its the halo effect - ie he can do no wrong just because he has bags of energy however guys like crosas and donati get abuse just because they play a more considered game.

Browns goal scoring record is still poor for someone of his over-hyped talent (approx 1 in 10 games at the moment).

He played in most of the champions league games last season and I dont remember him single handedly winning us a game?

OK during the CIS cup final he played well and looked dangerous but again, his final shot was invariably off target.

Im sure he will play a large part for celtic this season (as will many others) but pls can we stop referring to him like he's Kaka!!

Hail Hail

PF Ayr - I did caveat that by saying that if the players were of the level we hope. I don't expect every signing we make in the next 3 windows to have us whooping with delight.

The point remains valid, even if the total spend was going to be closer to £20M. It's still not something we could even contemplate for a single without selling first.

the lad from hearts would be better, the u21 english one....

scotland shame

The point being made about lack of European experienc is don't expect too much - this time. You're quite right about MON and WGS and their lack of experience. It showed in the beginning. Tony Mowbray is at the beginning - hence don't expect too much.

i think we should play the players that we have, and that are doing well.

boruc
hinkel caldwell loovens fox
(i would have played odea, but had a mare on sat)

nguemo and crosas holding
(cosas is a better player, and more dig than donati)

caddis maloney mcgeady
caddis is the best crosser of the ball in the whole team, and not great at defending. maloney is a more direct player and better striker of the ball the aiden

Fortune
not scored yet, but he made the ball stick and they just couldnt get the ball off of him (just needs support from the middle), goals will come

so in summary

------------boruc----------
hinkel caldwell loovens fox
-----nguemo and crosas------
caddis ----maloney--- mcgeady
-----------Fortune----------

that team will win.

also leaving us with brown to come on when they tire, and skippy sami n kiwi all on the bench.

im very confident.

MON THE HOOPS!!!

an honest tim see below

By Pinner_bhoy on August 3, 2009 12:41 PM
Teamspirit - many thanks

I Reckon we will win 2-1 (McGeady, Fortune)

therefore the tie would end 2 all
moscow have 1 goal at parkhead we have 2 in moscow so we win on away goals!
capiche?

Has anyone played Torrance Park Golf Course between Newhouse & Newarthill. Apparently it opened to the public this weekend & i was wondering what its like?

skippy - i am with you on that team

ss - gotcha now!

scotlands shame

Fortune is neither a playmaker nor a natural goal scorer both of which we lack. He may well be a star for us and I hope he is but he was a strange first buy.

guys a good story for you

I spent the weekend in Amsterdam for me stag do,

We visited the red light district as you do. We popped in to a bar for a game of pool. The place was full of dutch and germans.

As we were leaving I recognised the tune that was playing. It was walk on but in Italian I think.

I started singing it and one person joined in and then all hell broke lose,

pretty much the whole pub and dozens outside as walk on spread like wildfire,

picture it as walk on is being sung by dozens maybe over one hundred folk throughout the red light district.

This was followed up by Celtic Celtic,

what a surreal moment that will live with me forever, we are everywhere in this green and white world.

the red light district is now the green and white district.

hows your boabys helmet?

:-)

bhoybhoy walter

He certainly did ok against Falkirk who are not the gentlest of folk and his finish at pace through the middle was Lennoxesque. Of course he'd always need a Naka to make the chances.

PF ayr, my own seat is in 143 but now & again I get the use of a better seat in 102. I thought about coming over to say hello at half-time but didn't want to alarm Miss PF ayr.

Awe Naw, that wedding video was superb. With regard to our trip to Moscow on Wednesday it would seem that the cold war truly is over;

Red Army Choir - Happy Together

An honest tim

the bolox you chunter is relentless

derbyshirebhoy, thanks for the reply, i agree with you dont expect too much too soon.
However the players have experience of europe, ngeumo and MAF have played in France (MAF the premiership)and after all it is a one off game, anything can happen, personally deep down if i thought about it i dont think we will go through but come kick off will wipe this from my mind.

I am not naive, after last season there was a malaise at the club, we have a lot of deadwood to get rid off, we might not have a huge amount of money to spend, even less assuming we go out on wed.
HOWEVER, we have a new manager, a new broom sweeps clean, i like the look and sound of him, i am optimistic that not only will we enjoy domestic success this season but games will be enjoyable to watch.
Yes i think this season europe may be by us but not the end of the world as MON proved in his early days.
Would you have sacrificed the league for beating Bordeaux?
I was really down most of lst season culminating in a huge disappointment in May, however i see optimistic signs this year, while a million miles form the finished product i choose to be optimistic.
There will be games we dont perform, what i would like to see this year is perspective from the fans, one win doesnt make us great one defeat doesnt mean we should sack the manager (not aimed at you derby just a general comment on the mindset of the celtic faithful as a whole).
It seems to me that when we lose a game now every player and his ability is disected, the manager lineup, subs bench, timing of subs torn apart.
I for one remember some atrocious games from MON side, the trick he had was we never had 2 in a row from him, which is what we need this year, more consistency.

pf ayr, thanks pal.

Ben Hutchison has played in the Premiership, doesn't make him the answer either (where is he, by the way? I reckon he's under the filled-in camera pit in front of the Jock Stein stand.

TrevorJordacheCSC

(by the way, scotlands shame, I didn't put the number 9 jersey on Kenny Miller, it's not my fault that he's continuously mistaken for a penalty box striker by all and sundry. He's got running, power, control and ability, even if he couldn't hit a coo's bum with a ukelele. I liked him.)

Skippy, thats a hobbiton midfield if ever I've seen one...

agree again derbyshirebhoy he wouldnt have been my first signing but he is here now and i happen to like what i see from him.
He wont be prolific but he should chip in, I think he needs someone scoring up with him, again skippy frustrats me at times but is a potential 30 goal a season man.
hopefully big tony has more of a clue about his forward line than we do as like you I am unsure the best lineup.
It does seem like a lot of money for a striker who is not prolific but going rate these days seems to be if you can tie your lace then worth £2m to start with.

KIT

a bigotted attack on Catholicism which hs nothing to do with CFC

Polemic balderdash from a myopic , but potentially dangerous , eejit

in my experience there is little point in debating with these types as they are invariably unable or unwillingly to accept alternative view points

as my father always says ...the orange bigots are frightened

fear of the power of the Catholic church fuels theirbigotry

Australia 172-4 at lunch on the 5th day.

Paddy McCourt -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp86G4YzZHw

When he is given a proper run of games.

i liked him too oneantonrogan but under no circumstances does he have control or passing ability.
he makes great runs works hard and gets into good goalscoring positions, if he had ability he would be world class i would argue so that is one thing we need to agree to disagree on, he has no ability, that was the problem with him.
Personally i quite liked him too, doesnt mean to say he should have played for us.
my point has been lost tho as i dont want this to be a criticism of miller, my point was i think he is of inferior ability to MAF yet miller was given fantastic backing from the support (quite justifiably in my opinion as nothing better than seeing a player giving his all for the team, the main reason he always got backing from me) and MAF does not enjoy a fraction of this backing despite only playing 1 competitive game.
Miller had some great games for us (benfica at home especially) and i dont want to tarnish that but lets not dress it up that he had control or ability, in fact control was worse part of his game, my main point is that new players should receive the same backing that miller got, thats all.

scotland's shame

"what i would like to see this year is perspective from the fans"
After the trend of the past four years that may be a forlorn hope but we can both hope that on Wednesday night and the end of the season that we'll be smiling.

Just not fit enough - another Lee Trundle

My Hun Buddy has rest assured me that the fall out between Sally and the young shrek is all down to money and how Rangers are trying to facilitate a fleck flitting.

Seemingly Mr & Mrs Fleck dont own their hoose and Sir Minty´s secretly suited & booted financial hatchet men have taken a liking to Mr & Mrs Flecks hoose ...which is owned by Sir Minty .. and they want it back.

... they can keep it if wee Shrek agrees to a 500k transfer that will rise to 5M quid from a championship club if he eventually becomes the first Rangers player to walk on the moon.

Wee Fleck doesn´t fancy it unless Kris Boyd agrees to go with him. Seemingly they have become dead close .... .since Fonzerelli Ferguson departed.

Hail Hail

MAF has been given a bit of criticism on here, as has everyone else, it's a bit early to say he's been singled out for abuse by the support as a whole. Imagine we'd had the internet when Stuart Slater (who I also liked) or Martin Hayes (who I didn't) was around!

Dongal resident

there can be no doubting McCourts ability

however are we supposed to accomodate his inability to get himself match fit by allowing him a run in our team to see if he can make it

games such as Saturday are his opportunity to force his way into the team ..he failed miserably

never have i seen such a persistant clamour for the inclusion of a player who doesn`t even have the good grace to attain an acceptable level of match fitness

Kit- the links you posted [which I glanced at but didn't read] are a good example of the Second Law of Blogdynamics- never let your prejudices be diluted by the facts.

Barcabhoy et al -- Next steps for the club.

Interesting discussion generated over the past few days.
I would like to see a membership driven football club.
My thoughts are we give DD and his concert party the stadium and a rent based on football success while the football club is owned and run by the membership.

Over 18 season ticket holders are automatically members while others can join the club to take part in the running of it.

As always many issues would need to be resolved.
However I think it would be better than PL trying to interpret DD's instructions as relayed by JR for BTM.

Main point is our management could do so much better.

On the subject of specifics:

No to £50mill rights issue, I don't think the appetite or indeed money is available.
No to commercial propery fund, we do not have the management resources to fully engage this area of business.

Yes to "Celtic Village" / CG inspired refurb / expansion of the South Stand.

I think the stadium / club / area could support another hotel, housing, office accommodation / leisure facillities aimed at the sports fan, better retail and avisitors centre / museum.

This is based on the lure / name of the club and the CG work going on across the road. The next step for me would be better transport links to the city centre.

The Bus Rapid Transit / BRT scheme aka "Fastlink" is all focussed to the city centre from the west. We should be pushing for it to be extended out to the east to support CP / NIA / Velodrome.

Cheap and cheerful, fancy buses (Wright in NI will be happy) with fancy bus stops plus as much road changes as the money will support.

I will leave talk of trains / trams in the disused tunnel under London Road for another time.

Main thing is if we can link CP to the city centre then a lot of new developments become easier.

Hotel / mid market / £50+ per room will get used during the week.
Multi storey car park would attract commuters of the M74 extension. We use it for games at £10 a pop?
Office space becomes attractive, if "Skypark" / "Citypark" can do it then there is hope. Add in the new motorway and the EERR and the car based would be happy.
Leisure Space should be on the agenda, why should we need to walk to the Merchant City for a decent boozer?
Reserves stadium -- Crownpoint or the CG training track?
Flats -- 60 built into the corners of the new South Stand would get the financial party started.
£250K each for 80m2 of living space?

Consequently I think we should keep thoughts on property development to closer to home.

Dubaibhoy - i never knew that you needed height to play the game.

i dont want our hobbits to be doin the spade work, just holding position to block off spaces, keeping it tight when we are defending and bursting at REAL pace when we have it.

and all of those attacking midfielders can do that with abundance.

Skippy

I am sure Monster munch is away to either Wolves or Brummie.
They need to bring in 5 million...

teamspirit 12:35 PM

Thanks for re posting this link. I was on to the beeb this morning to see if the game was on the red button down here in engurland, it wasn't. I only hope I can use it on .5meg broadband?

Donegal resident,

He took this one well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX_sSK1zPKU&NR=1

/Bishop B

In my opinion anyone who says Fortune is not good enough is down right thick,

No one can tell how good a plyer will be until he plays a fair amount of matches,

Write the man off at your peril or is this just another stick to beat the board with?

come back to us 10 games into the season and apologise to your fellow fans for heaping pressure on a guy who needs our support.

best fans in the world? we dont care if we win lose or draw?

Faithful through and through? keep the faith?

nae bother pal

PF AYR
Match fitness comes from playing games. Hardly one player played well on Saturday and I include the so called first teamers that came on after an hour. McCourt has never even started one competitive game. If it's not to be for him then so be it but the number of people writing Paddy off without him being given any chance is unbelieveable.

MWD - i bought 'great hatred' too - about 6 months ago.

Its a fantastic insight into the peace process.
written by Powell who you discover is on the ulster unionist side by ancestry.
I couldnt put it down.

There's a difference between not being match fit and simply not being fit. McCourt fits into the second category. He has undoubted talent but if he can't last 90 minutes then he's never going to make it at any (decent) team. The fact that he seems to struggle WITHOUT doing any defensive work is even more worrying.

why are some waiting till january till we spend again, get real, the first team needs addressing and needs addressing now....or does everyone just realise thats the extent of the boards ambition, and before everybody starts, they may want the same as us but they want someone to buy it with magic beans...

Donegal resident

McCourt has simply not done enough , often enough to be considered for an extended run in the Celtic team

Malone

i agree entirely

seems to be a latter day Andy Ritchie ....

Paul67 -- Back to football.

Don't agree with you on SB.
We need to get LN'G used playing with MC.
SB would be too much of a gamble if we play 4-4-2.

My biggest disappointment this season has been the coninuation of the 4-4-2 formation involving both SM and AMcG.
We cant afford both at this present time.

I fear we are currently in a sort of limbo at the mement.
Everything is waiting on the question of Euro football.
Double failure and all hell will break loose.

We are still the disfunctional team we were last season.
BTM needs time which we haven't got to sort things out.

AB = Maybe a luxury we can't afford, even if he sorts out his head.
SB = Has not done enough in 2 yrs to justify either his reputation or his cost. Too much the poor quality salt and sauce TG for my liking.
SMcD = Quality has come to the fore but the team player thing needs work.
AMcG = Fan dancer of the highest order.

The fact that all our Big 4 have questagainst them mean we have work to do.
Defensive issues mean that BTM does not have his troubles to seek.

AH = £1.7mill imposter at the moment.
GC = £7K player chancing his arm.
SMcM = In the doldrums again.

If that wasn't enough BTM then needs to work on the squad, too many projects / punts / part-timers clogging up the training ground.

Consequently I do not envy his workload.
However something needs to be done.

Por Cierto

Just noticed your response to my question last night on commercialising University research expertise.

My question is; What are the internal challenges and barriers that the universities must overcome before they can truly commercialise their research expertise?

Any and all comments welcome.

TBB

The Battered Bunnet - one of the biggest is that any commercially funded research is automatically tainted to show results in favour of the funders. Or if the research is carried out independently but subsequently sold on to commercial enterprises that the results were skewed in order to attract buyers. It's an argument I've come across many times. Many (most?) do not understand the peer review process.

Hello again Paul.

Missed the Moscow games because of family holiday, but got the gist from friends etc that we were caught cold by a decent team half way through their season.

Still all to play for in Moscow, however.

I see Donati is being mentioned in dispatches again. Whilst he is undoubtedly a talented footballer, I'm afraid he seems to lack the heart for the physical battle that all players in the SPL need. I know that makes us sound like a bunch of hammer-throwers, but sadly that is the reality of life on the edge of the football world.

Caught some of the Huns game yesterday- well and truly spanked by what looked like the Arsenal youth team. Weir was down a couple of times- I reckon they will have real defensive problems if they rely on him during their CL campaign.

However, they are actually not a bad team going forward, and I can see them steamrollering SPL cannonfodder. We will need to do likewise: do we have the players?

disgruntled again, has it occurred to you that people might be familiar with MAF's previous employment before pulling on the Hoops? If we signed, ooh, I don't know, Kirk Broadfoot tomorrow, I'd be quite happy to call him a clown and unfit to wear the jersey without having to see him. It wouldn't be a kneejerk reaction.

(I'm reserving judgment on him, for what's it worth, having not paid him much attention before)

Barca

Noticed the link you posted to the Times article on the value of English football clubs.

Southampton went for £13M? Geez. A snip! Terrific stadium, Grade A youth development system, a catchment area with only one competitor within 70 miles, brand new training ground and a direct (if difficult) route to the premiership.

Superimpose the Celtic business model, generate operational synergies, and for an investment well within Celtic's current debt facility, you could generate a huge long term impact.

It could work you know!

Disgruntled Again

I boldly admit that I soitenly qualify as Being Thick, according to your considered requirements.

For

I do not believe that Mr.Fortune, is the Player that we need in order to solve our Goal Scoring Dearth.

The sole purpose of acquiring a Striker,in the first Place,is because of the urgent need to score more goals.

That is the end all and the be all and the whole purpose of the decision to obtain a Striker, in the first place.

It is nonsense, when one considers the Benefits that Mr.Fortune, supposedly promises to us.

Weeminger

Thanks. Investigator bias is a long recognised issue, and one that ought to be diligently managed out.

I'm thinking more in terms of the culture and behaviour of the institutions, their policies and practices.

Any thoughts?

Donati

Should possibly play on Wednesday in a 5 man midfield and then unless we plan on playing a 5 man midfield in the SPL should be sold back to Italy.

I think he has the talent but it will never work in the SPL in a 4-4-2, especially with attacking wingers.

Been away for the past month so apologies if I go over old debates.
At game on Saturday, I know it was mainly second string but, I found it hard to figure what the game plan was. BTM didn't seem to be issueing any advice, only Peter the pointer now and again gesticulating. Was it 4-5-1, 4-2-3-1?, I couldn't tell and we made them look good. Maybe we could consider the odd shot at goal like them. Player wise, Broony did not appear ready for 90minutes and was at his niggly worst. Flood and McCourt are just not good enough, Paddy's fitness is shocking. Fox should exclude Naylor ever again donning the hoops and Donati and Mizuno are too lightweight. McGeady was extremely poor when he came on and appeared to have an attitude problem. Maybe he believes he is better than he is and having seen off one manager, a la Barry(8),could become counter productive for us. Never saw Fortune but we still need a striker with pace and a replacement for Naka.

Vargas - Torrance Park owned by Minty so no EC67 visits there.

The Battered Bunnet

In regards to univeristies, what is the perceived culture and policies at the moment,and by whom are these perceived,politicians, proffesors,institutions etc?

TBB - I've been out of the research area for song long that I'm not totally up to speed with it but in terms of Scotland, Edinburgh seemed to be the first to really get it going, the prime example being Wolfson Microelectronics, I also think they were quite early on the commercial viability of wave power with the Salter duck. I was at Glasgow and in the early 90s they still seemed to be doing the research purely for academic reasons.

I think there was a bit of a view that doing things for the commerciality of it was all a bit 'new university' and it should all be done for the greater good. I would assume that's all changing now.

PF ayr:

Bigotry in all its obscenity, but I want to answer it, and I want my answer to do justice to those, regardless of allegiance, affiliation, or religion, who just want to live a normal life. Who do not want their children indoctrinated with… hate.

DBBIA:

It is not very nice reading I know; a lot, sorry, the vast majority of it, is just hate for hates sake. I want to write a template that categorically dismisses those sorry myths.
Even if it takes months.

The more I try, the more embroiled I become and the more complex my simple disaccreditation becomes too.

Each point that dick cites is a labyrinth of establishment accepted falsehoods. He (assuming it is a he) cannot be allowed to continue and get away with it, and point by point, I ‘will’ take it to task.

But for the moment, who cares about them.

Ramie is just off the phone, Martin has got his spirit back and apparently he was full of it today. He had back his smile and he had back his Celtic nonchalance. Unfortunately, his good spirits belied his true condition. 34.5 degrees of a temperature is not good. I’m no doctor, but even as a layman that would ring alarm bells with me.

But the hospital staff are okay with it and so is Martin too. The guy really is a soldier, only he just does not know it. So I’ll abide with those who know better and move on.

I don’t know who paid for it, whether it was the bhoys from Singapore, or the bhoys back in Glasgow, or the bhoys from Sydney, who cares really, because, well… who cares, but Carolyn took the gamble and put a wee bit of luxury for Martin in front of the bland structural necessities required to see Martin home for good.

Carolyn went out and bought a big screen TV for Martin and I don’t know who it was who actually paid for it but it was without doubt, one of you. Martin does not know about it yet but he is going to get the whole weekend at home this weekend and he has plenty of the ‘Tic’ on video and DVD to catch up on.

There is quite a lot happening to remodel his house happening too.

He also has a special bottle of Vodka, all the way from a friend in Poland who now and again is known to post on CQN, to have and enjoy.

He also has a dinner to aid him in his bid to get home for Christmas – this year – coming up next weekend. I wanted to go, I should go, but I can’t and I don’t know who is missing out the most, me or him.

Anyway, aside, a lot of good Scottish guys from Perth W.A., who are friends of Martin’s couldn’t make it either, they are all back in the best country wasting life in playing golf of all things. They did however donate the tickets they had paid for to the staff of the hospital that is – only for the moment – looking after Martin.

Show me a tight Scotsman and I’ll show you an impostor.

Martin especially wanted a few of those who are caring for him to be there on the night, but some of the carers and nurses are not exactly flush. Martin no longer has the ability to generate an income but Martin being Martin and a solid Glaswegian to boot, he bought the tickets for them… booze too, he wants to say thank you the Glasgow way.

For those of you that don’t know Martin… that’s Martin.

TEST MATCH SPECIAL

stumbling to a draw

England`s bowlers don`t look like getting sufficient wickets quick enough

Aussie batsmen aren`t scoring quick enough to spark a run chase

they`d be as well as packing up just now and goin` for a beer

PFAyr- there is a long way to go. Another man down will expose the Australian tail, especially if Clarke loses his wicket.

This is still the Ashes; the most intense rivalry in world sport.

Fortune is being judged on how many minutes on the field?
A guy adapting to a new environment/.teamates and a team that is still trying to find its personnel and system.
I dont know if he will be a successful buy or not but would like to see him in a couple of full games with a settled side before he is judged.
Thought TM was smart not using him on saturday to circumvent the probably already written laptop loyal's negative attack's to undermine his confidence.

fan a tic

you may be correct re Fortun`e ...and not playing

i was quite surprised that he didn`t make an appearance

are there any of our number writing him off....i`ve not been overly impressed but that`s a long way from writing him off

Madmitch

I dont often rely on popular songs/tunes etc to make a point, but for you I will make an exception, all together now.... " Are you Rangers in Disguise ? Are you ......."

If you even think your a Celtic fan you need help, never have I seen such a depressing critique of so many Celtic players before the league season has even started, Only one game of note has been played to date, in which, Hinkel, Donatti, McGeady and Maloney were all close to the top of their form, but for the profligacy of all of our strikers the tie would have been done and dusted

We may not win on Wednesday, but much better Celtic teams than this one have failed to win away in the CL now for half a generation. If you ask anyone who watched the game on Wednesday if we are capable of scoring in Moscow, most I believe would say yes.

Either way, its way to early to be contemplating a trip to Switzerland, there is hope, ability and determination in this squad, and, at last we have a manger prepared to change tactics once in a while

Everything may not be rosy, but it aint a bed of thorns either

Ming

Dontbrattbackinanger

"This is still the Ashes; the most intense rivalry in world sport."

Thats a bit of a statement ,por cierto, justify please :+).

I think the umpire should book Flintoff for that dive a couple of overs back...

Australia will be happy with the draw, and staying one down with three to play. A drawn series sees them retain the Ashes. Moreover, this afternoon is massive in series-terms, that's why it's slow and cagey. Aus all out for 100 more sees Eng on a run-chase of 200... Pretty defensive captaincy from Strauss though, ten overs til the new ball so all or nothing, but makes little sense to keep bowling Flintoff just now. Field's not attacking enough.

Kerry giving Dublin a bit of a hammering early on.

Ard Macha

PC

Ashes:- convicts versus gaurds playing rounders under any other name

M

ExiledBhoy

Hinkel`s defending last Wed was dreadful ....do you consider that as close to him being on top form

imo ....if that`s as good as he gets then we need a RB ...btw...i consider that he can play much better than he did last week

For me the midfield (defence takes care of itself, barring the O'Dea debate) should have 5 men in it.
McGeady and Maloney supplementing Fortune up front with Brown asked to bomb on at every opportunity. I would ask him to be a forward thinking midfield player and leave the box to box stuff for 4-4-2 games in the SPL. Crosas and N'Guemo (whom I really like the look of) playing anchor, giving Fox and Hinkel licence to get forward.

However, I am not the manager. He knows more about this stuff than me but I would like to see us play to our strengths - and just to totally contradict my own team selection by saying he might have an eye on the lack of goalscoring threat from McGeady and Brown. Maloney has an eye for a goal but we need these guys to step up to the plate and start bulging the net, hitting the onion bag and rippling the rigging, regularly.

Why is it always Gary Caldwell that feels the need to open his mouth and rally the troops.

As far as I am concerned he was culpable in Lisbon against Benfica where he had a shocker.

He did score the winner for Aalborg.

He along with Hinkel were caught napping on Wednesday.

He has yet to take the step up.... along with Maloney, Mc Geady, Mc Manus,Brown ... etc. etc.

YulBrynnerCSC

eurochamps67

Good to hear from you, glad you made the game on Saturday ( or maybe not ) was still away myself, and can't comment with eye witnessy precision. Butttttttttttttttttt from the comments on here etc it wasn't pretty, same with the Dynamo game. TM says he's not one to shout or rave and rant at the players during the game so we'll wait and see on the advice and guidance thing, he seems laid back and it's disappointing following the Wembley tourno where "breath of fresh air" "playing out of their skins" type comments evaporated. You have hit on my big worry though "What system are we supposed to be playing?" I agree with all your player assessments sadly TM is still in a learning process the fans have already gone through, and come out the other end. Willo god bless him was the WGS's last desperate wee manism transfer bungle. Paddy McCourt now in year two, of his get fit regime, doesn't look good, does it? Can't blame WGS for that one PL signing by all accounts. Looking forward to seeing Danny Fox but won't hold my breadth for Portsmouth buying LN. Another worry was the size of the crowd especially since it was on the season book. Skippy will score if he gets the service, as will MAF

Hail Hail

Hail Hail

Georgieghoy

If you are about, could you flick me an e-mail mate.

Por cierto- over a hundred years of intense rivalry between the' mother country' and the 'upstart colonials'.

Each series consisting of up to 30 days of competition.

No quarter asked or given.

And then when it's done or dusted they all go for a beer.

Exiledbhoy

I fear you are wearing rose tinted glasses.

My comments did not relate solely to the DM game.
I want the team to suceed but I fear we are not up to speed yet.

There will be big changes this season.
Only time will tell how things will turn out.

I fear few people would support your positive view of AH / MD / AMcG.

We need to move beyond the fan attitude of wanting all the players to suceed. It does nothing for the team or the players concerned

We need big changes to get things moving.
Wed night = There is hope.

Conventional wisdom would probably have us keep it tight early but I'd like to see us attack from the outset - we don't have to come out all guns blazing, just play in their half with a bit of guile. I don't think we're at our best when we let teams come at us.

Awe_Naw, I hear Young Shrek is a bit hacked off at the RFC PR machines blatant underhand attempts to paint him black but is adamant he aint going anywhere he dont want to go. Also heard Bourgherra has been told he is for the off and Sir Minty is happy for him to market himself to any would be suitors but whatever happens he has been told he must leave?? Mmmmmm troubled times methinks for the boys in blue though dont see any Cracked Crests anywhere? Maybe I should start looking for them and start reading the Scottish Press?

Dontbrattbackinanger

"And then when it's done or dusted they all go for a beer."

Even in cricket its all about drink! lol

DBBIA - Cricket isnt even a real sport so it cant be:

"This is still the Ashes; the most intense rivalry in world sport."

it is a match that is payed over days, when 2 teams can have COMPLETELY different scores...

and STILL end up a draw!

and i have heard all the usual rubish, "if it isnt a sport just come down the nets and i will throw a ball at you at xx ph, then we will see"

i could throw a house brick at someone pretty damn hard too, but that doesnt ake is a sport either!

any game that is played in all white, and you re still all white when you come off is a HOBBY not a sport!

haha

Skippy

Fan a tic

Mr. Fortune, has the type of C.V. that would soitenly discourage many a manager,of a Team who is Thirsting for a Prolific GOALSCORER, to even contemplate his pursuit.

That is the Crux of the Reason for my displeasure with the Action of Mr. Mowbray, who by going ahead and acquiring this Fellow, is acting in a very cavalier fashion,in spending our precious funds, on a Player, who has a very long History of Never ever being a Prolific Goal Getter.

We, Celtic, need a Scorer of Goals.

Period.

Not a very complicated Task, to set before our New Manager.

"Go, guy...and get us a Goal Scorer!"

Yet... what did Mr.Mowbray go ahead and do, in order to fulfill this task?

I see that I shall never be able to convince the doubters that Mr. Mowbray, definitely disappointed ,in the way which he has set about finding a solution to our dire problem.

I have seen Mr. Fortune in action a couple of times...

And...

I have not been convinced that Mr.Fortune shall suddenly morph into a Jimmy McGrory..no matter how long we allow him to settle in.

And..

That is the The Type of Player that I wanted to See in a Celtic Joisey..

Another .. Jimmy McGrory.

It seems that that Mother Nature, is Fresh out of Jimmy McGrory's, however.

So..

I would have settled instead for at least a Player who had a Suitable C.V. in the Goal Getting Dept.

Too much to ask?

Apparently.

.

Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on August 3, 2009 2:37 PM
I agree and am getting tired of the rousing speeches from a player who I wish was as good a player as he thinks he is.......

Madmitch - "We need to move beyond the fan attitude of wanting all the players to suceed"

What a strange thing to say. So we are to move away from positive support to negative support? They are all rubbish until they prove otherwise in other words.

Mind you that does sound like something you would advocate...

What does Strauss the England cricket captain actually do apart from look the part with his collar rolled up and his Oakley/Ray Bans?

Never seems to do anyhthing.

In fact he has just dropped a catch as I type.

Mmmm

madmitch

i wouldn`t be so certain of big changes

i think they`re needed but i`m not sure that they will be facilitated

Eurochamps 67 - Aye & don't eat Turkish Delight either - they tried to kill the pope....

Bloke109- one of the more dpressing things about the home tie was that -yet again- we conceded a daft goal before the last notes of the CL theme had died away.

I will be very, very pleased if we get to halftime on Wednesday without conceding.

Bloke 109

One down with two to play no?

To play devil's advocate, we just didn't give a monkey's on Saturday. It was a new formation with second-string players. A similar team played against Spurs when there were places up for grabs against Dinamo. While the Wembley Cup made a bundle of sense - cash in the bank, a tourney on our doorstep, decent-ish oppositon - the game on Saturday was just plain daft, and free on the season book or not, was never going to be a classic. The mighty box-office draw that is near-relegated Sunderland indeed.

As I say, devil's advocate, just trying to find a flicker in the gloom. The gloom says we're losing the winning habit at home and have a very ordinary squad of players, most of whom should be punted and pretty much all of whom were rotten on Saturday.

Meanwhile, back at the cricket :-)

Skippy,

and I stand to be corrected on this, and if anyone can get the exact dates I'll be impressed

top three Sporting attendances in Scottish History

1. Celtic .v. Leeds European cup
2. Us .v. TFOD Scottish League
3. Ferguslie .v. Kelburne - Cricket ( between the wars )

Ming

Not meaning to sound negative or anything but does anyone have a list of the possible teams that we could meet in the Europa League if the tie on Wednesday doesn't go our way?

Been looking on UEFA but it's not very clear.

/Bishop B

http://www.useyourlocal.com/home/

ExiledBhoy on August 3, 2009 2:53 PM

The highest domestic attendance for a Scottish or UK fixture is Celtic v Aberdeen for the 1937(ish) Scottish Cup final, so TFOD are 3rd at best.

Bloke109
Agree hope Tony surprises us and goes for it.
It's all or nothing with a win we go through,lose we enter the Europa.
I want us to be a team that learns to defend from the front particularly as our defense is so vulnerable.
Barcelona's defense are great in attacking sense but not so great defensively.They don't see this as an issue as they press teams much higher upfield

ExiledBhoy- the Celtic v Aberdeen CSF in 1938 was 130,000+.

Except in the Desmond White household, where they reckoned it was 26,000.

RL

I mist admit to being somewaht confused by that statemnt

i can only assume that what was being referred to was blind optimism in inferior players ..

awe naw

GC should concentrate on his own form ...he strikes me as conceited ..as for the reputed £20k a week ..away and chase yourself

The Battered Bunnet

I work for a company that manufacturers scientific instrumentation, over 50% of our turnover is from university researchers.

My opinion is that there are a couple of factors at work regarding universities and commercialisation of research effort. First, there are a significant % of folk within uni's that are not used to real world economics - they believe their research is worth more than it really is!! Some of the fantastic figures they expect for what is basically a non field-tested experiment are incredible. Secondly, a lot of prof's etc create spin-out companies and basically use the research within their dept's to enhance the possibilities of their own enterprise. This means that the uni is never really in control of fully exploiting research.

I hope this helps.

Rogueleader

Cheap shot as usual.

I want MD to suceed, I want him to finally be the player he has always promised for the last 10 years.

However it is now or never.
We can't go on waiting on the transformation.

The fan in me wants the fairy story to have a happy ending.
Quality, late developing MF finally finds salvation in the East End of Glasgow.

However do we put the player ahead of the team?
He fills a jersey and only plays half the time.

We need more from him and more from SB.
We need MC to grow up.

I fear we are starting to look like a re-write of the Wizard of Oz with all the players in our squad that are looking for some life changing transformation.

DundeePerth

You're right Dunders :-)

ExiledBhoy - What does that prove?

i know thousands of england fans, and the REAL cricket fans dont actually attend the games. Why? Cos those in attedance are there just to get drunk and have a laugh, not actually paying much attention to what is happening on the field.

the amount of people that turned up to see the pope all those years ago was fairly massive....
the amount of people attending something does not make it a sport!

Skippy

IshallNEVERbeCONVINCEcosIMaSTUBBORTgitCSC

Juan Too Many - that ties in a little with a discussion we've just been having in our office regarding intellectual property, given that we do a lot of work at home (some of it for fun), how much of the code we write can be considered ours and how much belongs to the company. Further to that is it possible to 'un-know' something once you've done it, should you move on.

sorry i should have said:

the amount of people that turned up to see the pope in scotland all those years ago was fairly massive....

Skippy

Dontbrattbackinanger

"This is still the Ashes; the most intense rivalry in world sport."

How can it be, when one team wins 90% of the time?? It's like the Ryder Cup before Britain joined up with the rest of europe.

And how can something that drags on and on for 8 hours a day over about two months be considered "intense"??

Cricket is just slightly less dull than watching grass grow.

DBBIA

UNCULTURED WRETCHES :¬))))

Juan Too Many

Good man. My experience is that the researchers are motivated by discovery, and that such discovery creates a research career, not a profit.

Consequently, the incentive to engage in further research is to further themselves and their reputation - which is a fine and good thing - but in the main, the economic impact of their work is the furthest thing from their mind.

Question is; Does University policy support this or undermine it?

I think we will get beaten easily on Wednesday by at least two clear goals. I have not seen anything special yet from Tony Mowbrays Celtic and I dont expect to see anything exceptional for at least four months and hopefully by then we will still be in the Europa league. Celtic haven´t managed an away win in CL football since we beat Ajax in Amsterdam over 8 years ago but that was with MON´s team that had actually first won the SPL. We are not anywhere near that and I haven´t seen a Celtic team even capable of such a result for at least 48 months now. Even if were to get passed Dinamo .. which I will state here and now if we do it will be a flukey undeserved result. Nothing that we can build on as the next team we will be paired up against in the next round will knock us out of the CL for certainty. If that were not to happen then Tony Mowbary will be managing Man U by next summer.

Tony Mowbary is not a defensive minded coach and although I hope he manages to improve us in that area being a former member of the sieve. Fox´s and Zaluska recent acquisition looks like we are moving in the right direction. I dont think Caldwell or Mc Manus are the long term answers in fact I think they have proven that they are not and hope that Loovens and O´Dea are.

While any European success is an added bonus we really need to get back to being able to muster more than one shot a game against SPL opposition. Being able to retain possession within the first two thirds of the field against SPL opposition. Being difficult to beat at corners against SPL opposition. Providing more variety for the forwards against SPL opposition. Having a settled team. The only reason we dont is that we are in denial about the quality of our squad.

While a won On ´Wednesday would be good lets shake of this cloak of denial stand up in public and state the table does not lie. Rangers are better than us by 4 points. Therefore we are not very good and certainly not good enough.

Long, Long, Long, long way to go. I hope the faithful keep the faith with Tony Mowbary and give him the season that he needs to sort a few things out.

HAil HAil

madmitch - hardly a cheap shot. I just asked you to explain a very puzzling statement for a football fan to make.

Kojo
Perhaps Tony did not sign Fortune to be the new McGrory?
Whilst our strikers last year struggled the service they received was woeful.Our chances created was bordering on zero.
Maybe Fortune was signed to help increase the chances created ratio?I to would love a Jimmy McGrory but based on past performances of our scouts i'm not to optimistic as were more likely to get new Wayne Biggins.

fan-a-tic August 3, 2009 3:10 PM,

I think we are far more likely to see long ball football as a cheap solution to our ills.

Hail Hail

How can it be, when one team wins 90% of the time?

Well, when the team doing the losing is England..

I think this is a pretty close series, between two evenly matched teams.

Going into thenext Test Australia have found an opener in Watson, and there are signs that Johnston is getting his mojo back.

Of course, they still believe in zonal marking ;~0

Can I be the first to start the sweepstake for how long it will be on Wednesday before the commentator announces 'a goal for Moscow doesn't really change things you know, Celtic need two...'

It's true right enough :-)

AweNaw

Not much a pragmatist can disagree with in your post, but was our last away victory in CL not the 4-0 over MTK Hungaria August 13, 2003? I agree with most of your points, but see no reason why we can't win Wednesday, but down to the fact that it's two avergae-looking teams where anything can happen.

Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo

"Even if were to get passed Dinamo .. which I will state here and now if we do it will be a flukey undeserved result."

Unbeleivable! por cierto.......!!!

Skippy,
if you can get a housebrick to swing at 90mph, you'll make a fortune in twenty20............

Bloke_109,

I stand corrected. Scrub 8 years and make it 6.

As Andy Gray would say it´s a big ask for a manager who has very little European success and even less time to take Celtic all the way through to the CL.

HAil HAil

Paul,

Very quiet on the transfer front. Is this all down to the Moscow game or are you aware of any dealings going on in the background?

Is the perceived lack of activity down to the fact the budget wont be set in stone until we know for certain if champions league football is coming our way? Seemed to be quite steady until Fox signed then nothing from Wembley tournament till now?

If the team want it enough, its their for the takin on Wed.

Por Cierto,

If you want to live your life believing that Celtics back up against the wall performances is going to take us all the way to POST CL xmas football then that for me is even more unbelievable.

We need to swallow a bitter pill and accept a few truths if we want to move on.... not something Dermot Desmond or Peter Lawwell are big on so we can hardly expect it from the rest of the club.

HAil HAil

My dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,friend.. Fan a Tic

If what ye say is true.. and I have not reason to doubt your conclusion..

Which is...

That, Mr. Mowbray , is approaching the extreme paucity that we are suffering from in the Goals For, Column..By acquiring an ENABLER.. rather than an ACHIEVER.

Then

In that respect, I heartily agree with your conclusion.

Although, I was hoping the Mr. Mowbray was more of a Direct and to the Point type.

Unfortunately, It appears to me, more and more, when I see how things are unfolding,even at this very nascent period of Mr. Mowbray's Celtic Managerial Incumbency, that Mr. Mowbray is not acting, at all, like the man that I had hoped he would be.

Kojo.
yer pal...who likes ye aloater

AweNaw - would you say that Dinamo were classier than most SPL team? Because if last week was any indication of how we'll look in a competitive game we'll definitely be seeing more than one shot on goal.

Awe Naw
You may be right.
The Killen tactic on wednesday seemed to suggest so.
Still optimistic on Mowbary.Hope he gets the boards support but less optimistic on that.
Defensive front i think O'dea and Loovens are a better solution than Caldwell/ McManus.
GC and SMcM are both squad players at best and i feel a little sorry for McManus who is a trier but gets it in the neck from while the equally poor Caldwell is lauded.

AweNaw - forgot to say I think we can win on Wed (and deservedly not by a fluke) but I agree I can't see us getting further in the competition. However at least we'd get to see us struggle against a decent team on the way to the Europa Cup instead of struggling against a mediocre team on the way to the Europa Cup.

Awe_Naw - "Even if were to get passed Dinamo .. which I will state here and now if we do it will be a flukey undeserved result"

Whilst we were not at our best Wednesday we certainly created enough chances to win the tie, nevermind the match. I think you are being unreasonably harsh there Awe_Naw

weeminger,

I would say that Dinamo have equaled Barcas record so they are no mugs. They are no Barca but they are better than anything in the SPL. Our appalling defence allowed Dinamo to sit in and therefore I think if Dinamo hadn´t scored so early we wouldn´t have seen so many chances created by us.

50,000 ruskies will make sure that they are well up for Wednesday night.

HAil HAil

By Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo August 3, 2009 3:26 PM

Por Cierto,

If you want to live your life believing that Celtics back up against the wall performances is going to take us all the way to POST CL xmas football then that for me is even more unbelievable.

We need to swallow a bitter pill and accept a few truths if we want to move on.... not something Dermot Desmond or Peter Lawwell are big on so we can hardly expect it from the rest of the club.

HAil HAil

When did I ever make that statement, to go from any Celtic win on wedneday is a complete fluke, to then invent that I believe we will get past xmas in the CL, is nothing short of a complete fabrication in order to justify your comment re Wedneday's result.

Lets get back to what you typed:-

"Even if were to get passed Dinamo .. which I will state here and now if we do it will be a flukey undeserved result."

What kind of comment is that!

Now just explain the comment, dont wander off into next years CL after xmas.

Dont include the board or the CEO either as they wont be playing on Wednesday....

Not a nice place to be either. Russia is a dump.

ok boys I dont want to upset anyone. I just think the continual misplaced optimism gives those in suits that have been doing their job so poorly some respite.

I hope we manage it. I hope we scrape into in. I fear we will be scraping into the Europa league ..which is fine but its unimportant. Whats important is progress under Tony Mowbary.

so until tomorrow .....

Play the boys in the cups this year

Hail Hail

Just clocked that this has been posted on the huddleboard:

INTERVIEW: ADRIAN FILBY
Today
As commercial director of Celtic Football Club, Adrian Filby needs to keep ahead of the game. Richard Goslan meets the man for whom net profit is as important as netting the ball…

by Richard Goslan

Most people in business are fortunate enough to get a chance to relax at the weekend, switch off from the stresses of the working week and indulge themselves in a relaxing round of golf, a walk in the countryside or maybe a trip to see their favourite football team.

If that’s the case for you, spare a thought for Adrian Filby. As commercial director of Celtic Football Club, not only is he on the go all week, but at the weekend, this CA takes his seat in the stand to put himself at the mercy of footballing fate.

“It can be a nightmare,” he admits. “There are not many jobs where you can have the best week of your life, and you’re still in the hands of someone else for 90 minutes on a Saturday. It’s totally unpredictable and it doesn’t matter how much planning you put in.”

And where other fans only see numbers on the players’ shirts, Filby imagines them cascading down a spreadsheet as the game unfolds.

“I do see numbers in front of my eyes,” he says. “For example, when we went a goal down early on against Dundee in the [fourth round of the] Scottish Cup back in January, instead of thinking ‘we’ll get this back’, you’re thinking ‘if we go out here, the club can’t get that money back’, so you’re relying on the guys and thankfully that day they pulled through. But your initial reaction is ‘where does this leave us commercially and the impact on my job on Monday?’”

With events on the pitch outwith his control, Filby says it’s his job to make sure that he’s fulfilling his brief as commercial director to help contribute as much as he can to the club’s on-field success.

That means looking at all of Celtic’s different revenue streams, including the merchandise sales from the club’s 15 stores across Scotland and Ireland, sponsorship deals, corporate hospitality and marketing.

“You can only hope your little part in the grand scheme of things is doing its bit to make sure that the football has the best chance of success,” he says. “That’s what we can influence – making sure the club is earning every penny it can from wherever it can earn it, so that the board can reinvest that in the first team.

“That’s where you get a virtuous circle: if we do well, we can reinvest it in the team, and then if the team does well, that makes it easier for us to do well, and on we go.”

From its origins as a club formed in 1888 to alleviate poverty in Glasgow’s east end and to help integrate the Irish community into the city, Celtic is now a global brand, with revenues in the six months to 31 December last year of almost £47m.

Merchandising revenues were up in that period by 6.4 per cent to £10.89m, and Filby is determined to exploit international opportunities to further increase that figure.

“We’ve appointed an international development director, Jason Hughes, and his remit is to develop the Celtic brand globally,” says Filby. “You can see the potential with our pre-season trip to Australia – the demand there is huge. We get constant requests to go to the US, we’ve got big followings in Japan through Shunsuke Nakamura and Koki Mizuno, in Poland through Artur Boruc and now Lukasz Zaluska, and we’ve been strong in Holland for a while because of Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.

“The brand itself is phenomenally strong and the board has taken a view that we need to look at that and do what we can to maximise it.”

Celtic is also fortunate in having a loyalty factor which most businesses can only dream about in the current economic climate. Eddie Thompson, the Dundee United chairman who died from cancer last year, once said: “You can change your wife, your house, your car, but you can never change your team.”

And in the approach to the new season, Filby is encouraged that the downturn is not having a noticeable effect on revenues.

“The concern in the current marketplace is that you could be a long way off the numbers with season ticket sales, but we’re broadly in line and last year was a record for the number of season tickets, with 54,000 sold,” he says. “We want to keep that going and we’re on track, so that’s pleasing. Maybe football is one of the last things to go – we’re lucky in that regard.”

Celtic’s loyal fan base is one of the reasons the club is in relatively sound financial shape, certainly compared with other teams in the UK.

“To be a largely debt-free club and enjoy such success, in the current environment, is something the board here should be congratulated for,” says Filby. “You have to operate within budgets, and look for opportunities within those budgets.

“Gone are the days of being able to sign a player on [English] Premiership wages, that’s out of our league now. But if you can look at getting other players under the Bosman ruling [on a free transfer], bringing in young players who are going to develop, then you can still put a pretty strong team out.

“Last season we were six minutes away from beating Manchester United in the Champions League, and they recently sold a player for £80m! So there’s a bit of a differential there, but we still drew with them 1-1 here.”

Filby also says his CA background has stood him in good stead in his current position.

“My CA training gave me an understanding of detail, plus the business acumen to understand a deal, and that’s important in football because there is always an angle. Being a CA also gives you a degree of confidence in yourself. I view it as a general business qualification which moulds you into an all-rounder.”

Ask Filby about the approaching season, and his ambitions are clear.

“We need to keep winning the league, keep winning as many cups as possible, and keep progressing in Europe,” he says.

“This is the first season I’ll have started as commercial director, and I can’t wait. It’s good for the players to have a break, and for the fans, but not for me. I just want it to get going.”

http://scotzine.com/2009/08/03/are-the-scottish-fa-rangers-fc-gutless-in-stamping-out-sectarianism/

Couple of poor results and things are going down hill again, only saw half of the Moscow game the other night, but I was impressed by the fact that we contolled a large part of the game and put them under pressure. They scored an early goal and that was their objective, it worked. We can go there and get a result.

Regarding Aiden, "if he doesn't do it this year we should punt him", I and a lot of others said the same thing last year! Aiden bhoy if you don't lift that heid and look aroung and stop painting yourself into a corner your never going to make it.

Paddy McCourt, an absolute joy to watch when taking a man or two on, an old style dribbler to say the least, he will struggle with his fitness more than most but after the Sunderland game and all the travel the whole team is tired. If we have a fit Paddy we have a real gem there.

gsu

The Battered Bunnet

I agree that almost all researchers are motivated by new discoveries etc at the start of their careers but the volume of spin out companies means that compromised research being undertaken is fairly widespread.

I routinely speak with approx 100 researchers from UK and Ireland on a regular basis and I find it surprising the low number of 'pure' scientists you find. I am not doubting that the others have a clear mind with regard to separation of their research and goals of the spin-out but as weeminger rightly said, how can they 'unknow' the results.

Wouldn't it be great if you could form a company, be in control of guiding research themes at minimal cost to the company and then own the IP for exploitation ?

To answer your question, uni policy is obviously geared to driving as much turnover into the uni coffers. A medium class uni will have a t/o of £130m, a lot of which is via govt body funding and private funding. This means that research now is being driven to provide an end economic benefit - in this way uni policy is certainly moving away from 'pure' research as was.

Por Cierto,

If you cant read I cant help you. Your too stupid. My kind tip to you would be go back to school or get on some kind of Adult educational program or join the Celtic board

If you can read but you cant interpret what I have written. Then again your too stupid I cant help you. In fact I dont think anyone would be able to help ... go join Rangers on the terraces

AweNawInterpretingForTheNedsCSC

Hail Hail

Varga's Shampoo,

I have played the course several times, and they have severe problems with the drainage at it. They are supposed to have spent a great deal of money on it, but from what I have heard they have the same problems.

So much so that they are not opening for memberships next year and will carry on being pay as you play.

HP

Kojo

My dear man

such paucity of belief from a bliever is most inchoate, and maist unlike ye !

Mr Mowbary has only just played one game in anger, and whilst I understand that his team have yet to demonstrate the ability to produce the results indicated by the modus practica, however, there is no doubt that we are moving forward, after 4 long years of stagnation, that is progress

Mingus

Por Cierto,

Joshybhoy also didn´t manage to master the use of italics and highlighting. Can I suggest that you try and do that. Your posts look like a breakfast that a pig puked up.

HAil HAil

Pokertim

I cant get my head round the talk of further transfers being dependant on qualification for the next round of qualifiers. TM hinted at it a few weeks ago.

All signings TM needed should have been in place before last weeks game, the start of the season. Players that would give us a better chance of qualification and CL money, did we take the chance again (like last seasons SPL) hoping for an easier draw?

If we go out of the CL on Wednesday are we finished spending?

In almost two months we go to Ibrox in a game that will hammer home the harsh reality of last season, we need to put our mark down for this season in that game.

The squad we have today is a lot weeker than the last one that went to Ibrox.

Today we are hoping for a far from fit Scott Brown to play in Moscow, a man who when fully fit is far from being an effective threat from midfield.

EN

Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo 3.41pm

Your comments in that post says so much about you.

Mac - Excellent article. I've criticised the Ed on that site before for taking the 'sit on the fence' approach to sectarianism in this country, but that article is the best I've seen for a while.

MAF – Big Costa is never a 30 goal a season striker. More like 10 goals a season a la miller, hesselplank and hapless harald. Big Costa has something like 66 goals in his entire career. Averaging 1 goal every 4 or 5 games so far. I don’t know where we will play him but he is 100 per cent most definitely not the answer to our striking problems, and if he is not a striker then why have we paid another 4 million quid for yet another midfielder?? More mediocrity to sit on the bench ?
Last season we finished up with the lowest celtic goals tally in about a decade
Last season we need 4 wins out of the last four games to win the SPL. We couldn’t score in 3 of these last 4 games. Naka, hess, Hartley and bobo have since left us. Ask yourself have we strengthened this year compared to last year?

SB to save the day.
He cost us 4 million, we have also paid him a further two million in wages, he is now the 6 million quid man. He is into his 3rd season and Unfortunately I cant recall a single game where he has stood out.
If we are depending on Scotty to turn the tables in Moscow then its all over, If dirty looks and petty squabbles were worth points SB would have won us the league single handedly last season, alas…….. beam me up Scotty right enough.

1 man up front
If we are thinking of playing one man up front then we need a proven goal scorer who can take the one or two opportunities that we would normally see in a CL away game. A striker of this caliber is not available at CP now. Its not a game plan we cannot use.

Awe_Naw

"If you cant read I cant help you. Your too stupid. My kind tip to you would be go back to school or get on some kind of Adult educational program or join the Celtic board"

Bad Show Awe_Naw, you missed your apostrophe.

By GCC on August 3, 2009 3:38 PM
Very interesting article. Is is just me or was anyone else not in the least bit suprised that Celtic's "Commercial Director" is in fact a qualified Chartered Accountant? For the head of our Commercial Department should we not be looking for some form of Marketing / Brand qualification?

i have to agree with a number of posts re our pool of players
caddis - will never be a right back in british football
caldwell - once again costs us goal
mizuno - lightweight was constantly eased off ball
mccourt - a yard off both in pace and thought
flood - lightweight no real position for him
killen - will compete and challenge but no quality
samaras - wll let us down no heart

on wednesday we will have to play at least 3/4 players that are not good enough but until the ceo and board start giving the support the backing we deserve then nothing will change watched the huns on weekend and have to agree that given our pool they will steamroll us with there strength and physique not football and we still need 3 first teamers not any more pool players

Now today tomorrow and always - it only says that's his background, not what he's always done up to getting the Celtic job and it may be that he's a marketing specialist.

I could say I have a background in banking, or genetic research or advertising regulation and they would all be true. It doesn't alter the fact that I'm a software developer.

It's pretty slim basis for a dig at club/board.

It should be a guy who can get us sold to an Arab!!

Woo! Hoo!

Kaka in the hoops!

EN

Unfortunately, im not surprised by this. If the budget is dependant on champions league money then it amplifies the horrific decisions at board level in January. Week on week more fans are feeling like they are being fleeced.

And people are wondering why such a low attendance on Saturday.

Paul has been very quiet though....

Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo

Usually I am very opTIMistic about Celtic at the begining of the season, hey I still believe we were going to win 4 in a-row right up to half-time of the last game, but this is the first time in over 10 years I've felt uneasy at the begining of the season.

I don't know what it is, I have a nagging doubt at the back of head. Don't get me wrong I am not throwing my towel in or rushing out to back the huns at the bookies, but there is a small voice in my head that is saying something don't feel right about this team. Now to be truthful I not that taken in yet with the appointment of BTM but I am willing let the jury decide at the end of the season, something just screams BTM = Macari (it worries me that he paid £1.5 for Craig Beattie), I hope I am proved wrong and as a club we haven't taken a few steps backwards.

One of my biggest doubts is our team is void of any sort of leadership on the pitch, I am hoping Skoosh will step up to the plate but like others on here I am exasperated by his lack of ability to trap a ball or to get a shot on net (imho he is second to Aiden as for the least accurate shot). I love his energy but if he can't cut it for the first half of the season I say punt him.

As for Aiden I say sell him now before his stock goes further down still, ever since he won PoTY 2 seasons ago he has being playing like a poor man's Bobby Petta. He does not have a football brain, someone put him in the same company to Jimmy Johnstone they other day, obvious they had never seen the wee man live as I had the pleasure on countless times as I was 10 years old when the Lions were about.

My real doubt about the team is the Board, I can't see them spending out any more cash for players in this transfer window unless we sell a few players first and that is another reason to sell Aiden as we won't get too much for any other player except Artur, Skoosh maybe Hinkel.

On Hinkel, I don't know why so many are down on him lately as I thought he was our best player in the last half of the season and looked every part of a German Internationalist but hey its a game of opinions, I also see that the Ghod-like Caldwell once again is getting it from posters. Why is everyone so worried about our defence when in the last 4 or 5 competive games we played we haven't scored a goal that is our real problem, and it is the midfield who is the most guilty, get us someone who is a leader on the pitch and can score goals.

On Wednesday I would play
Boruc
Hinkel Caldwell Loovens Fox
Brown Donati N'Guemo Crosas Maloney
Samaras

While I will be willing the team on to hammer Dynamo on Wednesday another voice in my head (I know it's quite crowded in there I should evict some of them) is saying it would be better if we have a long run in the Europa Cup as that is our level at the moment and it would help our coefficiency for Europe.

I hope all my doubts are meaningless and are proved wrong but I can't help how I feel at this moment and that is I am worried for my team for this season, hopefuly the board can make my worries disappear by openning the biscuit tin and spending another 5-7 million but I am not holding my breath.

Hail! Hail!

100% pal.

The huns will romp this by at least 6 points.

Look how composed Mendes is compared to Skoosh, the lad looks like a ned from Calton.

BTW - do people really live in those kennels by the ground?

have to agree with a number of posts re our pool of players
caddis - will never be a right back in british football
caldwell - once again costs us goal
mizuno - lightweight was constantly eased off ball
mccourt - a yard off both in pace and thought
flood - lightweight no real position for him
killen - will compete and challenge but no quality
samaras - wll let us down no heart

on wednesday we will have to play at least 3/4 players that are not good enough but until the ceo and board start giving the support the backing we deserve then nothing will change watched the huns on weekend and have to agree that given our pool they will steamroll us with there strength and physique not football and we still need 3 first teamers not any more pool players

afternoon bhoys .

must agree to parts of tamrabams post. nearly everyone on here at some point have mentioned our need for a centre back .a classy midfielder with dig, and a centre forward who can hit the net. i do not think with our buys,that we have satisfied our needs. although i think maf will do a job for us, a decent partner for him should be sought, and without a question of doubt .a centre half is a must. i posted on here a few months ago that we would replace average players with average players ,and i think that is what has happened. and we still retain a lot of dead wood .that imho would struggle to get a place in lesser teams down south.

hail hail .
jimtim

shimmie - "watched the huns on weekend and have to agree that given our pool they will steamroll us with there strength and physique"

I too watched both of their games. I also watched our match with Sunderland and I am at a loss as to how you think that. They narrowly beat the side who finished 6th in the French League and then got pummelled by Arsenal. Our second string in the first half flattered the Mackems but had we played our full strength team we would have won that game comfortably. How you drew the conclusion above from those two games I don't know.

I was thinking the opposite and if the season started now I would be extremly confident of wrapping up the league quite quickly but it is all about opinions....

My dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,friend.. ExiledBhoy.

I always..and I say.. ALWAYS..

"Tell it like it Lays!"

When I espoused my stoic Belief in our Late ,and in my case,much Lamented, Navigator of our Celtic Fortunes..

I meant it.

I do not give up my Beliefs,once they are formed.. Easily.

I Believed in Mr.Strachan.. I was delighted witn Mr. Strachan.. and my belief and Delight in his ways, wer Vindicated .. by his allowing us to have Three Big, Wonderful and Joyful Celebrations.

To my dying day.. I still Blame the Celtic Team,alone and EN MASSE... for Giving up the ship..

When there are only a mere.. TWO WINS. standing between us and Supreme Victory in the League Race.. and our Players..

Were Unable to even Score a Lousy Single Goal..

Well... that explains why I Blame the Celtic Players for our horrendous let down.

Now, because of that alarming and most disappointing turn of events..I learned, rather quickly.. that Celtic, as a team..had a need,in extremis.. for a GOAL SCORER..

Well..are you now beginning to see.. where I am coming from, in regards for my mounting disdain.. for the entire ineffectiveness of Mr. Mowbray's
WEAK ATTEMPT to solve our very URGENT PROBLEM that lies, glaringly ,in our inability to score enough Goals?

Ya Betcha,pal..

Ah dinnae like Mr.Mowbray's attempt to solve this very serious Problem..

WAN LITTLE BIT!

Na..

I only place my Belief in where I can see that it is weel Warranted.

Mr. Mowbray, has not Warranted that Belief... so Far.

Mebbe, he never wull..

That remains tae be seen.

Maks sense tae me.

Kojo.
yer pal.. who likes ye a loat.

Huns at the wind up methinks.

Australia 293-4. Tea.

Awe NAw

Chill

Now Today

Depends on what he's done since he qualified. If he jumped straight into business, particularly sales, and has spent 20 years growing revenue, then the CA qual is helpful but insignificant to his acquired knowledge.

If he's spent his career in accountancy practice, one or two on here will be chasing him!

Who let the hun out?

An honest tim on August 3, 2009 4:18 PM

"Look how composed Mendes is compared to Skoosh, the lad looks like a ned from Calton."

Well, the Calton IS full of huns as you would know.

I am sure that Skippy with MAF will bring goals. Samaras with MAF may be just as good. Killen is not for me.

How about big Hutch, whats happened to him?

Fee Fi Foe Fum.....

I dont know actually, i drove through it the other day and it looked minging. Kids with no shoes on and all teh women sporting the panda look from their "man" as "he gets oot the jail"

Juan Too Many

"Wouldn't it be great if you could form a company, be in control of guiding research themes at minimal cost to the company and then own the IP for exploitation ?"

ITI Scotland has already done this, allbeit that it's a public company investing public money.

For any given private company though this is entirely possible by using collaborative research funding. The trick firstly is to be able to write funding proposals that win the money. No easy trick BTW.

If you've got that, then partnering with the most appropriate unis to deliver the research (paid for by grant) on appropriate terms should be manageable.

The tough bit then is picking the research themes to back. It's a numbers game in that respect.

Worth a thought.

By The Battered Bunnet on August 3, 2009 4:21 PM
I would have thought so!! If the point is that by inserting a CA into a commercial position and in effect reducing the management levels then fine but I am at a loss that a CA is heading up a Commercial Department particularly given that the position should be in revenue development and as such surely a Sales and Marketing / Brand background would be more beneficial?

I would think being a CA would have been 'must have' on the job description for a Commercial Director.

billhickscsc

An honest tim - "i drove through it the other day"

I am not sure peeking out of the porthole on the Reliance van counts as "driving"

HA HA! nice one.

I went through Easterhouse as well, being nosey..

You forget our lucky you are dont you, i cannot imagine being that sort of person who lives in these areas... Why they are allowed to keep pets and have kids is beyond me. Turds

I wonder if having a CA in the commercial dept. is a strategy to let him see the whole business operation before taking the next step up to the CEO level?
Purely conjecture of course, por cierto.

top three attendances,

Scotland v England 147,000
Celtic v Aberdeen 144,000 SCP final
Celtic V Leeds 136,000 ( i think )

As a previous poster said the SCP final was supposed to have attracted more fans unrecorded, as indeed the Auld Enemy game had. The estimate for Hampdens record attendance is 160,000 +

Pretty sure there are at least 10 or so other games that could usurp the Leeds game in the top three but not by much.

Interestingly, Hampden is second only to the Maracana in record attendances and holds the record for Club, international and international club in Europe and worldwide behind the ground in Rio.

Shame the ground is such a waste of space these days.

CP record 92k
Ibrox 118K (but only 28000 were identifiably human)
Murrayfield 104K
Wembley 124K ( i think )
And as far as i know the only other ground to accomodate more than 100K is some Rugby League ground in the north of England - Odsal?

Kojo, my instinct re Fortune are similar to your own, and i worry that TM will live to regret pushing the boat out to sign him. However, it would be unfair to second guess the reasons for signing him - he isn't a goalscorer and TM must have known this.
From what i've seen of him he's a decent player, with lots to contribute. I think its fair to say TM wants those contributions and hopes that another player(s) will contribute the volume of goals required with his assistance.

In general i think what we lack, isn't quality or even an abundance of ability - there are players of quality in our squad. We lack figureheads - inspirational players, and two would be enough, that our less confident (see Maloney) or overly arrogant (see McGeady) can look to for some help.

I recall Roy Keane saying after the 2006 League Cup final that he had told Shaun Maloney that it was in games like that that big players made their mark... cue a top performance and a very fine cup final goal. Who amongst out squad offers that experience and that perspective? By rights it should be Maloney and McGeady - they have lots experience - medals and CL experience and they're the ones who played with and grew up with Larsson and Sutton etc around.
Anyway, if they can't provide leadership and a focal point yet, it's that we need to add to the squad.

Some encouraging good news;

DOCTORS plan to begin chemotherapy for former international footballer John Hartson this week.

The ex-Arsenal and Celtic striker was transferred from a hospital critical care unit last night after progress in his treatment.

Hartson, 34, has been diagnosed with testicular cancer that has spread to his brain.

He was admitted to hospital in his home city of Swansea last month where he underwent emergency surgery and it was discovered the cancer had spread to his lungs.

In a statement, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University NHS Trust
said: "Following continued progress, John Hartson was transferred from the critical care unit at Morriston Hospital yesterday evening.

"He is now under the care of our cancer team at Singleton Hospital.

"If progress continues, we are planning to begin his chemotherapy treatment this week."

The trust appealed to fans not to phone or turn up at the hospital to enquire about his health.

His family last week revealed how the soccer star had been given a boost by messages of support from troops in Afghanistan and US Marines.

In a statement today, they said: "We would like to thank all the staff at Morriston for their help and support, as well as the ambulance staff who transferred John at the weekend.

"We are now focusing on helping John in the next stage of his treatment."

Get the disease smashed big man, all the very best. True legend.

Good news about John Hartson.

Still got a long,long way to go.

The need for an out and out goalscorer. I note that £14M + Premiership wages will get you a goal every 2.5 games.

Sounds encouraging re Big Bad John.............

An honest tim

Your most recent comment is offensive, even if it is an attempt at humour.

Usually I find that I can agree or disagree with posters on this site but can see their point of view and would be comfortable having a pint in their company. However your most recent commment is disgusting to me.

I would imagine that most contributors on this site have a relation coming from a poor area somewhere in their fairly recent family tree.

Please stick to the football and refrain from the insults.

ggh

via_nirone

Odsal is in my neck of the woods and Im sure has been rebuilt recently,I think the Bradford Bulls rugby club plays there,never been but the pubs near are good!

uselessinfocsc

Narrowboat Tim,

I kind of agree with you. Poor though the Huns are, they have a certain togetherness, physical strength, and pace that we lack. They also have options in attack, which effectively won them the league last year.

We are in transition, and do not yet look like a settled side. We also have a tough start to the league campaign (thank you, "computer"), and I can see us being a bit off the pace in the first quarter of the season.

That the Huns won the league last season was criminal. That they could do two in a row without strengthening at all in the close season, would be a sacking offence for someone, somewhere, at CP.

For me, a lot will depend on Europe. I tink the Europa League might actually be beneficial to us, in that we will likely pick up more coefficient points and not play as draining matches, and I think the Huns will really struggle to compete on two fronts in the autumn.

Weeminger

4.5m and reasonable wages would probably get a 22 year old celtic supporter from Cardiff City who'd bang in 20+ goals a season and who we should've got from Motherwell for sweeties if our scouts were any good at all.

DD

A DISHONEST HUN IN THE HOUSE ...AGAIN

I hope you are right Paul about Scott Brown being able to have a positive influence in the game against Dynamo and who knows mabey he will have. It just seems to me that as a support we are hoping for too much from this squad of players, certainly in terms of Champions League aspirations. Assuming we get horsed out of the CL and have mainly SPL football to follow, what are the chances do you think of Celtic reducing their prices for home games. I guess we know the answer to that one, nonetheless, £25 for SPL games is often a waste of money in my view as most of the home games are not very entertaining. As for season ticket holders, the club could always give them some sort of part refund if there is no CL football to look forward to. I may sound a bit flippant but I do not mean to be. I think Celtic have taken our support for granted for too long and I think we should get more back from the club for supporting Celtic. Of course in saying all that I really want us to get it together and pump the Russians on Wednesday.

Hail Hail

There is no need in this country to live on a "scheme", if money is that tight move to Stoke, Derby or Lincoln - houses for a couple of grand.

People in these places fall into one of the below :-

Alcholic - never a disease either!
Druggie
Criminal
Single parent - sterilise.

You see, its easy to be right - but hard to be tough.

By weeminger on August 3, 2009 4:43 PM
The need for an out and out goalscorer. I note that £14M + Premiership wages will get you a goal every 2.5 games.

thats a fair point wee minger but the above said goalscorer will probably need to score vs chelsea manutd and liverpool etc

we only ask our CFs to score against the likes of stmirren, hamilton killie and well, teams whose turnover is less than 14 million
our 3 strikers cost (hess 3 million, skippy 0.5 sami 1.5 a total of
5 million quid in transfer fees and and about 50 grand a week in wages between the three of them)_

and last year our three strikers scored a glorious 30 odd goals between the three of them works out less than one goal a game between the three of them

hardly stirring stuff,im sure you will agree, but our efforts to correct that might need some strengthening

Has Joshybhoy returned?

'Odsal is famous for at one time holding the world record for the largest rugby football crowd of 102,569 at the replay of the 1954 Challenge Cup final between Warrington and Halifax on 5 May 1954.'

nicked from Wiki.

rogue leader

joshybhoy has returned???

NNNNnnnnnnnoooooooooo:((((((((((((((((((

hail hail

Madmitch 1.3o

Your estimate of £250k for a 80sq mtr flat is way,way, too optimistic.
Bellway are asking £94k for a two bed flat in Springfield road.

The class is oozing out of him,probably still on a high from all the singing yesterday.

My dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear..friend.. vira nirone.

I will make one further attempt to state my case, clearly.

Mr. Fortune's, Soccer Ability is the Type of Ability,for which..

We do not have any use.

I shall say that again..in anither way,if ye like.

We do not have any use,for that Type of Soccer Prowess, that is Possessed by Mr.Fortune.

My Godot.... when did it become fashionable to sign a Man for the Position of Being a Striker, for which he is PATENTLY UNSUITED..

But, nevertheless, go ahead,with CONFIDENCE.. and sign him,just the same.. based, on the HOPE that his mere presence shall lead to Goals coming from OTHER PLAYERS on th TEAM?

Plus the fact, for an outrageous sum.. based on what the Player has to offer.

And remember,pal. .the key woid in that earlier statement is,

HOPE!

Now that, in a nutshell, is Why I am so disappointed by the lack of .. what I call.. Mental Acuteness, on the Part of Mr. Mowbray.

And that tells me.. that maybe I should should pay attention to the emerging feeling , that Perhaps, Mr. Mowbray,is InCapable of getting a grip on the situation that we a facing.

So Far.. Mr.Mowbray's .. Perspicacity QUOTIENT..as I rate it..

Is not a very Impressive Figure, at all!

Kojo.
yer pal.. who likes ye a loat.

TT - what do you reckon you could get rent wise for that then? (The Bellway one)

By TinyTim on August 3, 2009 4:56 PM
Madmitch 1.3o

Your estimate of £250k for a 80sq mtr flat is way,way, too optimistic.
Bellway are asking £94k for a two bed flat in Springfield road

Interesting that the co efficient or lack of, seems to getting a good old airing this season in the trashoids especially none of which, I've read of course. The sooner we get out of the CL contention the better as far as I'm concerned, it didn't do Der Hun any harm last year, in fact it helped them win the league more than the band of masonic referrees. Euro nights are just an expensive distraction for Celtic fans, with no Seville in sight, I'd prefer Celtic concentrate on taking "a year out" to get the semblance of a team together, move on the usual suspects, freshen the squad further and blood some youngsters such as Ferry Conroy Caddis and McGinn

Even if we turned round the Dynamo tie, the next qualifier looks way out of our league at the moment, and if very lucky we would be into a strength and resource sapping League that would ultimately end in disappointment.

Get the basics right and return the flag to where it belongs, starting at Pittodrie.

Hail Hail

donegaldanny - it might. It might not. I was just hinting at two points really:

1) Had we been linked with Darren Bent, I'm not sure many of us would have been whooping that he was the striker to take us forward. Can you imagine the uproar if we had secured him for the 'cut-price' of £10M.

2) It seems that currently the only way we'll find ourselves with a guaranteed 20 goal a season man is if we can bring him through ourselves and in some respects I'd rather take the risk on one of our youngsters than spend a few million on a player from outside that might not be any better.

I glibly suggested the other day (forgetting that he'd played for THEM) that Trevor Francis was the root of our lack of top class players. I say that because as the first £1M transfer he could be seen as a turning point of players choosing to play for the money and not who they loved.

ItaliaBhoy

The Huns will get pumped in the CL but will still make about £10 million if we are not there, lets hope they finish last so not to get a free entrant into the Europa Cup for more money ( I still gather 3rd place in the CL league stage gets you in?).

We need better players in for toughness and goals.

Why were Rangers fans wearing "baby suits" at the Arsenal game?
I'm sure the answer is screamingly funny.

An Sean SeabacAuthor @ 1:43 PM

cheers. defo looks like a good read.

Here's the wee extract from the book that swayed my decision to buy for holiday.

===============================================================
There was still, however, another symbolic hurdle to overcome and that was a meeting with Sinn Féin in Downing Street. We put it off as long as we could but eventually we had to agree to see them on December 11. There was a huge sense of occasion and everyone in No 10, from the principal private secretary, the most senior civil servant, to the messengers who delivered the tea, had been talking about it for days beforehand. Some had said they would not talk to Adams and McGuinness, and others that they would not shake their hands as a matter of principle. Alastair had even sent me a memo proposing we put off the erection of the traditional Christmas tree outside the front door of No 10 which was due to happen that day. He did not think we wanted a picture of Adams and McGuinness in front of festive decorations.

When the day came, the banks of cameras outside Downing Street were even larger than on the day after the election. Mo [Mowlam, Blair's first Northern Ireland secretary] came into No 10 through the internal door from the Cabinet Office to avoid them. Sinn Féin arrived 10 minutes early with a big delegation and on Mo's advice we made them wait. It was with some trepidation that Tony and I together with Alastair, John Holmes and Mo hovered in the cabinet room in Downing Street waiting for Adams and McGuinness to be shown in with their delegation including Martin Ferris, a leading republican from the south and a convicted gun runner, Michelle Gildernew, Lucilita Bhreatnach, and Adams' two assistants, Siobhan O'Hanlon and Richard McAuley.

We waited on the prime minister's side of the cabinet table. Tony met them as they came through the door and shook their hands. Martin McGuinness came round to our side of the table to shake my hand, but I guided the others round to the opposite side.

A strong sense of the past hovered over the meeting. Before sitting down, McGuinness paused and observed: "So this is where all the damage was done."

We all froze, taken aback by this opening gambit, and I said: "Yes, the mortars landed in the garden behind you. The Gulf war cabinet on this side of the table, including my brother Charles, the prime minister's foreign affairs adviser, dived under the table, before retreating to the garden rooms below. The windows came in but no one was injured."

McGuinness looked hurt. "No, I meant this was where Michael Collins signed the treaty in 1921." We, with our shorter-term perspective, had been thinking of the IRA attack on Downing Street in 1991, while they, with their longer sense of historical grievance, had been thinking about the treaty of Irish independence signed with Lloyd George that had given rise to the Irish civil war.

===============================================================

MWD

dennis 47

there is probably some offensive bigoted reason

Weeminger

Thats only if we limit ourselves to getting players from England. Ross McCormack slipped through the massive holes in our seemingly tiny scouting network. If only he'd played for Hibs instead of Motherwell! :-)

We could still get him for around 4.5m i'd say. However there must be goalscorers outwith England that would be tempted by Celtic. We're told we can't compete with england yet we go and buy a guy who hasn't got a very good scoring record from an english side.

Theres no one in the SPL outwith them and us who could score many goals. England is too expensive, why haven't we widened the net??

DD

NT,

They have satanic good luck in Europe, the Huns. They qualified for the second stage with SEVEN points, having won only one game en route. Their UEFA run beggered belief. Five goals got them all the way to the final I think?

I'm hoping that this season, when they are probably at their weakest in recent history, they will get a real Group of Death. Regular 3/4 goal humpings will tire them out and drain their orcish morale.

Unfortunately I feel we might have reached something of an impasse in Europe ourselves. The fortitude of the MON and early WGS era seems to be gradually slipping away. We have effectively relied on our home record to keep us in contention, and if that even weakens a little we have no chance.

The Europa League will be a much more forgiving environment.

tamrabam - totally valid point but I do think that a good striker is an odd thing in that their instinct allows them to score at almost any level. All of MONs great strikers didn't lose their ability to score against top teams just because they were playing in the SPL week in week out.

On that basis it might be very hard to be the only team to identify a young striker of that ability. That said we might still win his signature over the lure of the big league if we did.

I once read an excellent interview with Pippo Inzaghi, where he talked abut how hard he worked at reading the game and getting into position, because he didn't really have any natural ability (I realise I'm contradicting myself slightly). I would love it if we could get somebody (ie Henrik) to come in and teach that to our younsters.

Ross McCormack is a massive Tim as well isnt he?

Why not chuck in a bid then?

Maybe they would like Killen, McManus and Heid for him!!!

Serenity @ 1.35

Just saw your email. The only way to find out the quality at .5 meg would be to try it. However I am confused - is the expecataion that this Wednesday's Moscow game will be live on BBC alba? I am not aware that this is the case.

dd

imagine how the huns are feeling ..they chased him out for nothin`

he was a tim tho` so they`re probably not that bothered

btw ..watching a re run of their game yesterday

they`re gettin` passed about like a porno mag in the bar L

Rumour on FF is McArthur of Hmailton has knocked them back as they offerred LESS wages than he is currently on!

The game is on BBC 2 at five i believe

Wednesday's game is on cooncil telly, BBC2 I think

RogueLeader

Are you Timfiltrating behind enemy lines?? :-)

PFayr

And imagine how they'd feel when he did a Hartson and scored in most OF games he played in! Quite apart from McCarthy I think McCormack will be a player of a generation as far as players from the SPL are concerned. He'll be the mainstay of the Scottish team for years if you ask me.

If we were going cut price, one season veteran, then Kevin Phillips would still score 20+ up here.

DD

ItaliaBhoy

I think our fortress cracked last Wednesday even our support was not at its best when booing the bhoys just before half-time. It might be better that we go out this round as there is some strong teams that we could meet up with next round, I would hate to draw Arsenal and then get hammered by them in 2 legs.

Saying that if BTM plays the right players and get away from the 4-4-2 formation with two wingers we might scrape by.

kojo @ tea time

Think your denigration of our manager is seriously at odds with your previous over endorsement of the ginger one,,,,, it's early days yet,,,,,, tho i do feel we are a weaker tram now than the the one that finished the season last year,,,,, any fault shouldn't be laid at moggas door but at that of our very own illuminati ,,,,,,,

rogue leader

my brother played against mcarthur at youth level,bigoted little hun,god only knows what he is like now.

if what you say is true,how bad is it for them that they cant even get real gers fans to sign for them:))

hail hail

donegaldanny - a European 'Darren Bent' would still set us back £8-10M, hence the figure. A price that a) wee can't afford and b) many on here would see as too much for a player of that level.

I happen to think that we couldn't get Ross McCormack for £4.5M now, because if we made a move, out would come the bigger cheque books and we'd be priced out of it. He may have had a one-season positive blip, much like Scott MacDonald seems to have had (according to some).

He has a good record at Cardiff but I don't think too many would have considered him a catch with his record at Motherwell. Then one of two things would have happened Gordon Strachan would have been castigated for letting him rot on the bench and /or limiting his opportunities, or he'd have been criticised for bringing in a youngster with a 1 in 4 record as a 1st pick.

Australia 346-5. North ct Anderson b Broad 96.

Folks,

I think the way we need to go, and dare I say it without the risk of humiliating myself and all the way back to the great-great-great grandparantage of my family, is almost using the John Barnes Theorm.

Using our full backs to provide (slight deviation from the theorm here) MOST of the width but having 3 in the middle of the park instead of 2, and the 1 up top at all times instead of 2.

I have studied the John Barnes Theorm in great detail for this task and my reasoning (now where it differs slightly is I have deviated from his subbeteo table and used people in the little stick mens place)

The Russians will set their stall and defend, with the classic counter attack as and when. We will therefore need to be creative in terms of creating space to create chances.

I want McGeady and Maloney BOTH in free roles, with Fortune up top. If Fortune see's or finds space in a channel, he goes and one of them moves into his position.

Maloney and McGeady dont have to be on different sides of the pitch, they can play together bouncing short passes off each other the way we thought Naka and Maloney were going to do before Maloney buggered off! They are the key to unlocking the defence, these two will turn up just about anywhere.

Brown plays slightly behind those two but in front of both Crosas and N'Guemo in the middle of the park, the first 2 sitting deep, which changes as and when necessary to one or none depending on where the full backs are.

I want the full backs to play almost as wingers.

This gives us protection against the counter attack, gives us bodies in advancing areas and gives us fluidity. It gives them problems defending (they will either have to man mark BOTH McGeady or Maloney or lose them, creating space for the likes of Brown to move into.

There you have it folks, if only John Barnes had this crop of players, Football Manager (it has since replaced Championship Manager) and CelticQuickNews, he would never have been sacked (no it wasnt coz u iz black!)

DD - Indeed. Was trying to find out about this babysuit thing and instead found the McArthur rumour and 5 threads about how the Billy Boys should be brought back and there was nothing wrong with the songs they sang at the Emirates. One bear was disappointed No Pope Of Rome didn't get an airing. Mind boggling....

weeminger on August 3, 2009 5:21 PM

Thats it then, Cillian Sheridan and Paul McGowan up front then...

Last one out put the lights off CSC

DD

Kojo,

Nobody ever signed Zidane for his goals per game record. Its not a crime for a manager to sign a player for their playmaking ability.

Whilst i think we should give him and TM a chance to prove us wrong, my instincts are that Fortune may prove to be no more than a, possibly, poor mans Kenny Miller. So essentially we agree.

The notion that TM arrived and thought the first thing Celtic need is a hard working non goal-scoring forward suggests that he either knows a lot more about football than we do or that his mental acuteness may be lacking, as you suggest.

I'm hoping the former.

this place is feckin deppressing:((

hail hail

Now Today Tomorrow and Always, The Battered Bunnet

Adrian Filby worked for Celtic a number of years ago before becoming Evenst Director at Daily Record/Sunday Mail.

donegaldanny@5.23 - not quite. As I said to Tamrabam, I'd love us to bring in somebody that worked at being a good striker rather than have the natural ability (although I said Henrik, I tend to think he worked alongside his ability) who could actually teach our players about movement and reading the game, and hopefully that would be the route to getting 20+/season out of guys from whom you might not expect it.

Agree ..... depressing content on here today.

Some of the comments beggar belief. I have only one message to send to the undercover Huns on this site:

Instead of being on here stirring the crap, you should still be out celebrating your "title win" from last year, you know, the one we handed you on a plate, the one you almost dropped right back in our lap.

You haven't had one to celebrate in a while, and I really thought you'd be savouring it a wee bit longer.

Because, you bigoted bunch of scum, it'll be your LAST in a long, long, long, long time.

Afraid? Of YOUR team? Give me a break!

I am willing to bet that Fortune and Sami strike up a pairing that gets 40 goals by the end of the season between them.

50 quid to charity - anyone up for it?

Tinytim

On the subject of flats, the £250K was for a flat with a view into CP

and we thought the SFA were full of mince,,,,,

fae todays guardian,,,,

Russian football fans have been told to drink whisky on their trip to Wales for next month's World Cup qualifier to ward off the swine flu virus, the head of the country's supporter association (VOB) said today.

"We urge our fans to drink a lot of Welsh whisky as a form of disinfection," the VOB president, Alexander Shprygin, said. "That should cure all symptoms of the disease."

Russia's health ministry has issued a public warning against travelling to Britain because of the spread of the H1N1 virus but Shprygin said he expected at least several hundred fans would go to Wales for the September qualifier in Cardiff.

"Health officials say this virus is very dangerous but being a fan myself I can tell you that for a real fan nothing is more important than the well-being of the team," said Shprygin, who also sits on the executive board of the Russian FA. "Russian fans don't fear anything or anybody so this virus will not stand in our way of supporting our team."

The Russian FA also said health issues should not prevent fans from travelling. "We don't want our team to be without any support for such an important match so we urge our fans to go to Wales despite the health warning," a spokesman said.

Germany lead Group Four with 16 points from six games, one ahead of Russia, with Wales in fourth place on nine points from seven matches.

james forrest

the season has nt even started yet,and people are throwing in the towel,i dont understand why it is so negative today??

hail hail

brendan

Jim Farry's leaving do.

SFA Swine Flew

By inkybhoy on August 3, 2009 5:27 PM
Thanks for that. A Commercial Director who is a CA and was Events Director for MGN? Think I preferred it when I thought he was just a CA!! Why on earth do we not have some commercially minded Brand Director / Marketing person in this position? Why does every management position need to be filled with an accountant?

Going through the motions at the cricket.

Brad Haddin, the Australian wicket-keeper, was ruled out of this test with a broken finger and was replaced by debutant Graham Manou. The Australian fans were unsure of his batting after the first innings when he looked uncomfortable and was out for eight. He came in this innings and one was heard to mutter: 'Awe Naw, No' Manou Oan Anaw Noo'.

Match drawn.

Jeezo - today has fair dragged - mind you, it has to be better than reading the chip wrappers from yesterday and today - it's been worthy of Pravda at it's creative peak:

"Fleck Sent Home In Disgrace" - a tactical masterstroke by the man with no surname in how to handle the hottest property in football. Oh aye lads - I sent him hame before he told Fatcoist to eff off

"Celtic Lose Again" - pre-season disaster as Celtic fall to a crushing defeat to Sunderland. We've had a shambolic pre-season apparently ? I've seen a new manager struggle to find out what his best team is but 1 defeat in pre-season, 1 competitive - is that a shambles ?

Today its reported in the Hootsmon that tfod losing to arsenal is part of the perfect pre-season for the glorious all conquering treble seeking sons of william as everything they will face in the spl will be worse than arsenal for getting gubbed is good for them.

tfod lose = learning experience
Celtic lose = humiliation for the penny pinching Irish

Before anyone starts getting the beach towels airborne and having a wake on the site - have a good look at the laptop loyal - the meeja are bricking it - BIG TIME - they know that tfod are in deep DEEP s**t. They KNOW that Anton Mor will have this team playing football that will rip the dross of the spl apart.

We MIGHT go out to Dinamo - you know what ? I couldnt give a monkeys. It's time we started to play again, to dominate teams again and tear teams apart at Parkhead. IF we go through - great. IF we go out and drop into the EL - great.

Chins up lads - and a right royal GIRFUY to all the im-posters.

evening bhoys and ghirls

whats been going on today? i see der hun had a good wee sing song yesterday was watching the game in my local hun shop the look on there wee faces as arsenal took the piss out of them was priceless but as well know tims me and my friend was asked to leave the place before half time

Now Today, InkyBhoy

I sent my CV into PL, but the reference Paul67 gave me wasn't up to snuff..

Is that weather-wummin on STV on work-experience from school?

New look Herald website now in Public beta

Looks like they have lifted the Guardian site lock stock and barrel.

Now Today

It was one of the most profitable parts of the Daily Record/Sunday Mail. Event and corporate sponsorship made money under him. He told me that when PL offered him the Celtic job, there was no way he could sasy no to it. He's a good guy.

An honest tim

would that be on top of the 25 McDonald will score?? my morgage is on that. :)

An honest tim

Today's Arithmetic lesson; 1+1=2

Bloke_109 5.51

Cracker.

That wee weather girl is the wife of Hibs player Jonathan Johansson, I think we might be getting old.

EN

EN

lol - either that or... nah, getting old it is. That, and a slow news day :-)

Bloke_109

Ive even got old man crabitness that only a load of goals in competitive football can cure.

EN

Mac1888

I heard TFS was again being sung with gusto. Glad to see attention is being drawn to it.

Posted this at the link to keep the pot simmering.

This article in February

http://www.etims.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2480&Itemid=29

makes a similar point. The attempts to address the issue are a sham and a shame. Not to act is to signal that the official battle against sectarianism/racism by football authorities in Scotland is itself a sham. Not acting will have consequences for the anti sectarian/racism policy that UEFA want local associations (like the SFA) to follow.

If TFS was sung at Wembley then chances are it will be sung in the CL home or away. Lets hope UEFA have been primed and warn Rangers that they must tell their fans it is unacceptable, what the consequences will be if it is heard and follow up with the action they threaten.

Auldheid

Any news on the SPL/SFA investigation into their racist singing at Celtic Park last August?

EN

Nice to see the Celtic squad travelling in dark suits and Celtic ties. Nae trackies in evidence. Excellent.

EN: I am getting old :-)

Mark Burchill signs for Kilmarnock.

Charity time guys , one of my friends father passed away recently and he is having a fundraising event as a way of thanks for all the help that he and his family recieved from all involved at the hospice.

I understand money is tight at the moment but this is a great cause and cancer is just knocking on too many doors these days and places like Newry Hospice is essential for the future and they rely on fundraisers to help raise 70% of the yearly budget as the government only gives the other 30%.

Please consider to give something no matter how little.

The site accepts paypal and all major credit and debit cards.

* Fundraising Event For Newry Hospice *

Thanks in advance guys.

bigjie.

By weeminger on August 3, 2009 5:21 PM

The idea that somehow Celtic can operate outside of economic reality and not suffer the consequences (like Newcastle for example) is perhaps one that we should be grateful that many supporters deny.

It is this reluctance to accept reality that keeps us coming back season after season hoping that this time it is going to be different.

I think it is going to be different in that we will win back the title, but that is not because suddenly our failings have been transcended and the caterpillar will become a butterfly, but that Rangers will be unable to field their best eleven often enough to gain the necessary number of winning points total.

That will do me for now, its not the reality I want, but its one I'll take.

Seems as if Peter Grant is optimistic about wednesdays game.

Grant Looks Ahead To Moscow.

Noticed on a website about free agents that Modeste M'Bami was on trial at Portsmouth.

Admitedly its a while since av seen him but he is built like the proverbial and can play as a forward goin midfielder,doesnt have a graet goal scoring record but has amassed plenty of experience playing for Sedan,PSG AND Marseille.

Maybe worth looking at.

Auldheid keep doling oot the sense,am guilty of forgetting where Celtic are in the scheme of things an moan about quality versus money spent,guys like you have made me appreciate that its not as easy now to sign a value for money player.

magherareagh

Any more predictions added to your list from yesterday mate? I think we need some sort of prize to entice more participants, any thoughts?

slow/no news days really do p*ss me off!

By Estadio Nacional on August 3, 2009 6:18 PM

I've heard nothing but I think continuing inaction on the part of the SPL/SFA in face of continuing flagrant defiance on the part of the Rangers support means something has got to give.

I always thought the UEFA card was likely to be the ace in the pack but UEFA have to be aware that the Rangers support appear hell bent on continuing with racist behaviour which, if not addressed, undermines UEFA's well publicised anti racist policy.

The best place for the question to come from is the same one that made TFS political in the first place and that is the Irish government. It is a matter of how seriously they now treat the matter.

Celtic should also be pressuring the SFA/SPL as their inaction also undermines the authority under which Celtic have acted to tackle sectarian anti racist behaviour.

This is from the Celtic web site home page

" UNACCEPTABLE CONDUCT AT CELTIC PARK AND AWAY FOOTBALL STADIA

New rules have been introduced by the SFA and SPL in connection with "Unacceptable Conduct" at football stadia. Then new rules form part of our Stadium Regulations. It is a condition of entry to stadia that the Stadium Regulations are followed.
Click here for the rules on unacceptable conduct"

It is only the common sense on the part of the majority of the Celtic support that prevents us thinking " Aye right" and ignoring the above statement.

Although not a lot appears to be happening no reason or excuse can be proffered by authority to prevent action being taken once pressure is finally exerted where it always should have been - on Rangers FC.

Madmitch 5.32

It'll be worth more ,without the view.(:-)).

Actually that is an interesting idea.

How much demand would there be for a flat at Celtic Park?

Downside would be the noise on matchdays ,and throughout the visiting week.

Upside would be free fitba.

If they were sound proofed ,so that you have the option of not having to listen to the fitba,and the windows were one way,but with the option of opening so that you are like any other spectator in a theatre balcony.

Then they would have some appeal.

Raising a mortgage may also be more problematic ,than raising one on a purely residential developement.

It would be best to spread the sizes and prices of the property with the more expensive ones ,possibly enjoying some other benefits around Celtic Park.

The more i think about this the most i am warming to it.

So .

Who would be willing to part with between £125k and £350k to invest ,and live in a luxury apartment within Celtic Park.

I do think that there is mileage in the idea .

I know an estate agent who would be willing to provide consultancy advice ,and then sell them.

He could also arrange the more problematic mortgages where required.

By Celtic Mac on August 3, 2009 6:10 PM

Arithmetic, nor Honesty with an attempt to bluff his way out of it.

An Honest Tim 5.00pm

It is not a very desireable residential area.
Rents would need to be attractive.

£500 to £600 per month would seem to be reasonable.

Commonwealth Games development may increase values in G40...

An Honest Tim.

There is currently a relatively new 2 bed flat just around the corner from Celtic Park in Burgher Street for £425 per month.

As i said rents would have to be very keen.

If you have a serious interest in a Bellway home.Let me know.I have excellent contacts with them.

By The Battered Bunnet on August 3, 2009 5:58 PM
Are you an accountant? If so you must be in with a chance of the several vacancies that currently exist. I have it on no authority whatsoever that Darren Fox is a qualified CA.

Roccobhoy

If you can get yourself to Kirkcaldy train station by 9am.

I can get you a lift up to Aberdeen.

Probably alredy been covered today but some promising news on BBJ's situation. Keep fighting big man!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8182050.stm

TT

i have sent a text to rocco..., he will give you a bell

BT

By TerryO'Neill on August 3, 2009 6:55 PM

I dont like the situation any more than any supporter and I keep looking for signs that change is on its way. That is why I quoted the Mark McGee statement about what you get for £12k a week ( a second rate player basically)

I also found the statements by Andy Walker and John Hillcoat very interesting in terms of them being ex professionals coming to terms with the new reality.

Hillcoat was bemoaning the fact that professionals playing outside the SPL would have to go part time as wages of £500 a week were no longer avaiable. £500 A WEEK for playing with Partick Thistle say! That is £2000 a month £24,000 a year. Not many young men earn that kind of money in "normal" 9 to 5 shifts.

Andy Walker's latest stance, that we should maybe consider licencing clubs to tie expenditure to income, is a full U turn on his previous position of - if clubs are daft enough to offer big money its not the players fault if they take it.

Maybe not but its somebody's fault that players failed to recognise the economic realities that govern the businesses that other workers earn their keep in. Maybe that should have been their own Trade Union, maybe it should have been their media buddies, but their noses were too near the same trough to look up and see the feed wagon leaving town. Or maybe a player should have been honest enough to put up his hand and say "I was a greedy b****. "

There are ONLY two things protecting players from the new reality.

1. The length of their existing daft contracts. With each passing season, more rich contracts are running out.

2. The number of clubs still willing to pay more for players than they can possibly earn from football.

There seems to be only three at present. Real MAD Rid, Chelsea and Man City. How long before the rest of football leaves them to play with their own ball in their own wee tournament and elects for a sustainable model that fits the business of football?

Life is self correcting by design, everything has consequences that affect the design of what comes along next.

Auldheid, Estadio Nacional the SPL/SFA would have to be in a similar postion to Rangers before they'll take action re sectarian/racist singing ie threat of punishment eg exclusion from a FIFA tournament for not applying FIFA's disciplinary code.

In the past few years at various times av corresponded with the SFA's mouthpiece..Wullie McDougall,Derek Kirkwood and more recently David Ogilvie.

They use metalanguage such as below from David Ogilvie 27 feb 09

"Thanks Terry for your e-mail.

We conduct much of our work in this area below the parapet. We have found this to be a much more effective form of governance in this area and it is policy which we will continue with."

Pure Guff,translated...this is what we tell guys like you but in reality we will do nothing.

Goin further back THREE YEARS 01/08/06 an this shows the face changes but the tune remains the same

"Hi Terry

I note the comments of your email message which will form part of the
overall debate on sectarianism which as you know is currently under
review by the Scottish Executive.

Article 55 and how it may be
implemented is part of this review.

It is expected that before the end
of this calendar year the Review Body will report their findings to the
First Minister.

Sectarianism has been a blight on Scottish Football for
far too long and it is only right that a carefully thought through
process to eradicate it from our game is considered and this is the main
thrust of the review body.

I have no doubt that you will see
announcements on the whole issue soon."

Derek Kirkwood
Security Advisor
Scottish F.A.

Help I'm being held hostage by a 4 year old and forced to watch "My friend rabbit" now she bringing out the big guns and am about to be subjected to "Johnny and the Sprites" brain melting, losing will to live. Need wine stat.

So McGeady's the new McManus.
Well, we've got to have someone to vilify.
And it's so much better if it's one of our own.
Never mind the poor crossing and the faulty decision making.
He's learning impaired.
Yes. That's it. He's retarded.
There's a want about him.
I think you've nailed it guys.

auldheid,
I cant see why the players are even in the loop for blame, its every mans right to get as much as is going, if the board of any club are willing to pay inflated wages then its the promised land, dick whittington's london, people cant be blamed for taking whats on offer, and money men dont pay out money like that unless they think they are getting am return, so either way, its the money men's fault, dont blame greedy player's.

canamalar

The players who accepted the wages also had a hand in inflating the wages with their demands. Using the threat of moving to another club who are prepared to meet their demands as a major bargaining tool in any negotiations. Agents have a lot of culpability as well. Fostering discontent and renegotiating already agreed deals 1 or 2 years in to maximise their own cut is a common ploy.

Dennis 47

Good point well made.

CQN DJ currently playing the sound of a nail being hit on the head by Dennis47, I wondered if someone would pass comment on it.

By TerryO'Neill on August 3, 2009 7:35 PM

Yup they have been bobbing and weaving for years.

What makes TFS more difficult to swerve is that

1. it is a matter of racism NOT sectarianism,
2 no legal doubt exists and so it is unlawful
3. UEFA have an anti racist policy that was trumpeted to all.
4. UEFA have some power/jurisdiction over the SPL/SFA and can ask what they are doing about TFS
5. UEFA can act if it is sung in the CL (or take preventative action to warn of the consequences of it being sung)
6. Continued inaction UNDERMINES Celtic's authority, the SPL/SFA's authority and UEFA's authoriy.
7. The Irish Government have asked the Scottish Government to act and still it continues to Scotland's embarrassment.

Either action takes place or the rule of law and civil decency is torn up.

The Narrowbhoat Tim August 3, 2009 4:16 PM,

A good post and I can agree with most of it. I think that the reason we have such a downer on the defence at the moment was 7 minutes is how long we lasted against Dinamo. It was unfortunate granted but tells us exactly where we are. Everything else is grasping at straws.

What TM is doing is acquiring good quality players when he can. When he is allowed too. Therefore he is being a pragmatist. The problem with this tried and tested way of going about our business has been done for years during the Kelly´s and the Whites.

Too many round pegs in square holes. Will the support wait until those square pegs have been found ... they have no option.

What I believe we are witnessing is the strength of Peter Lawwell´s persuasion techniques. While I do believe that it is necessary for TM to separate the wheat from the chaff I think that Peter Lawwell or whomever headed the recruitment of him convinced him that there are good players already here that just need their confidence rebuilt and to play in a system and for a manager that they believe in.

I think TM will come to the exact same conclusions as WGS did and that when the problems will start.

It´s last chance saloon for me cos if it does all go Lou Macari then there is no Fergus on the horizon.

We need to bite the bullet and invest in youth.

If TM does not win the SPL this year will he be here next year and then you really need to ask. What´s the point ? Where´s the vision ? You need to come to the conclusion that profit is more important than product.

Hail HAil

dennis 47

Well said, I was disgusted when I read those comments about Aiden today, so called Celtic fans that don't even know him, totally disgraceful.

By canamalar on August 3, 2009 7:47 PM

In a way you are right, it was not just down to the players, it was down to those running the clubs, who gave into pressure from their support,to pay over the odds for what the player could actually offer.

So it was the players' (and agents')fault for letting greed be their guide, it was the clubs fault for not standing up to their support, and it was the supports fault for pressuring the clubs to pay what was demanded to line the pockets of players who could not deliver the quality that they were being paid to deliver.

I think that is more accurate. We are ALL to blame.

As regards the SFA/SPL and the huns racist songs, they have already given us a sight of their reaction to any censure from UEFA/FIFA, Scotish Parliament i.e " We deplore it but Rangers are already doing all they possibly can and we can not ask them to do anymore its up to the Police and the Courts to take it further."

The Police will say "We have to balance upholding the law with the risk of escalating any situation when determining any action we take."

The Scotish Parliament will say "We are in the process of investigating the possibility of constituting a working group to define the parameters of the incidence of said behaviour and to codify a set of definitive bench marks to enable us to go forward using internationally recognised best practise with the intention of implementing a multiagency strategy for combatting this aspect of unacceptable social interaction, resources permitting."

UEFA will say "we can only act if they do it during one of our competitions and anyway it was only a bit of banter and part of their Scotish cultural heritage, just like the Red Hand Salute in Israel"

FIFA will say "not our problem see the SFA/SPL and ask them what they are doing."

The orcs will say "Why don't you...."

Auldheid and TerryO'Neill

Cheers I suspected nothing had been done about events almost a year ago.

EN

Dennis47....Bournwsupremacy......and it's started even earlier this season......the Real rangers phone in was dominated by criticising Celtic for not buying McCarthy/Thomsom .....and buying also rans in Nguemo/Fortune.....and some 'Celtic?' fans were on agreeing with them......you couldn't make it up...!!!

Auldheid......the Board let us down badly by even sitting down with 'them' on a possible TV deal......but it gets worse when you consider their inaction on TFS etc.....why are the Celtic Board sitting on this....it's clear to you, me etc what needs to be done, but it's as though they want to sweep it under the carpet..........ridiculous..!!

owen

Nice round-up of views, and we can of course rely on the Scottish media at large to report the incidents and press for action.

The Battered Bunnet

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, having to do some work got in the way !!

Yes, collaborative funding is a route we continually try. Out of last 5 we have been part of a consortium that has been funded once. So I know the TSB funding route but can say that on the other 4 failed bids the uni ended up asking us to fund a PhD student any. This is why I believe research within uni's is being compromised as they seem desperate for funding, no matter the source and no matter the outcome.

PS the funding we did receive will likely result in a superb end product for non-invasive realtime glucose monitoring in intensive care patients, so very worthwhile.

Bloke_109
Thanks for pointing out the one I missed

The media will say " It's all Artur Boruc's fault for having the temerity to be 1) A good Keeper, 2) A Catholic and 3) A good, Catholic, Keeper who plays for Celtic."

Awe Naw,

I posted this a few days ago. Can you help?

Technical help required.

I have a box that pops up on my screen which says RUNDLL.

Anyone got any idea how to get rid of it, as there seems to be no function that I can see that will chase it.

I think that it may be playing cat with my mouse.

Any, all help appreciated.

I was thinking back on my earlier posts while travelling home tonight. For the past few seasons I've thought that having a good squad is the way to go but I've changed my mind, it spreads the wage budget too thinly.

I think we should concentrate those wages on a 1st team (since we're often told it's not the fee but the wages that cause problems) and use youngsters as cover.

This has two advantages:

1)we get a team that we want to watch and can also make a reasonable fist of competing against teams from the big 4 leagues;

2)if a youngster has to come in as cover we get to see whether he's got it at 1st team level and they are happy because they know that they might actually make the break rather than just sitting on the bench until they're shipped off to some other SPL team or lower league English outfit.

By owen on August 3, 2009 8:27 PM

I understand your (and everyone's) scepticism but whilst UEFA can say

"we can only act if they do it during one of our competitions

they cannot say

" and anyway it was only a bit of banter and part of their Scotish cultural heritage, just like the Red Hand Salute in Israel"

It is not banter it is officially criminal racist behaviour and UEFA cannot swerve the issue, should it happen under their jurisdiction, on the grounds you suggested. They might find other ways to swerve it but not without damaging a policy that they have tied their flag to.

dennis47

disgraceful comments from some re McGeady

why do some have to do this

I wonder how a the following phone call to these phone-ins from a 'concerned Rangers supporter' would go down?

1. Why when Rangers have sold players this season have they not spent and are looking to sell even more? Celtic and even Dundee seem to be spending.

2. Im ashamed at the singing of sectarian and racist songs by Rangers supporters at the weekend, what are the club/SFA/UEFA doing about it?

3. Why cant we better the wages of Hamilton Accies player James McCarthy?

Im not very good at impressions...

I noticed the STV news section on the Arsenal game yesterday started with 'Rangers supporters stayed behind to applaud Arsenal when they got thier cup.' they even showed a clip of the two applauders. What a great support they are.

Ooh aye forgot my favourite.

When is work on the £700m super casino bingo dome stadium going to start?

By 67heaven on August 3, 2009 8:33 PM

I wait for an explanation that justifies their silence.

Before the next game at CP v Rangers is when an explanation will be required.

By weeminger on August 3, 2009 8:43 PM

You might have seen this before but if you can copy it and save to Excel you can have some fun playing around with the figures that are my own estimates of what we pay.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Aq2m3ggkEX2Rci02NjFwT0tlUTdkSWRNVGtDSlpFN0E&hl=en

Auldheid,
So auldheid, a guy tells you he can make you X2billion the money your on now, for doing the same job, what are you going to tell him?
On this,the players are scot free, like gnu's :o)

dennis 47

pf ayr

what comments where made about aiden??

i take it they were the usual hate filled type?

hail hail

weeminger

i have thought for some time that most of the squad players .. EG..Killen/Flood/Mccourt/etc

are no better than ..EG..Ferry/Conroy/Sheridan

so why pay for both

at this time we re in the situation of ..never mind the quality feel the width .....less width more quality

If Rangers Fans continue to sing TFS at away grounds,or at home. Dont Celtic then have a legal requirement to deny any of their fans entry to the stadium,by not issuing tickets to them,using the judgement, recently made,. That to do so they would be allowing a criminal offente to take place within their Stadium, and therefore put their Stadium Licence on the line.
Or is this a bit to far fetched.

Tiny Tim

My idea came from a need to re-build the South Stand without adding too many seats in the first instance but with room to grow if required.

There is a stadium in Beunos Aires / Boca Juniors / La Bombonera where the 4th side has the height of the others but not the depth.
That should be our model.

The South Stand has 13K seats currently while the North Stand has 26K.
If we rebuild the South to mirror the North we would have an extra 13K seats we could not sell.
Season ticket business model burst at stroke.

Therefore we need a big show off edifice of a South Stand with undercover vehicle access, bigger changing rooms and more social space.

If the new stand is to dominate the existing stands then it will have to be big / tall. Consequently that is where my thoughts on flats overlooking the pitch comes in.

60 @ £250K each = Serious money
120 @ £350K each = Kerching.

Dennis 47

People are saying nothing more about Mc Geady than they've been saying for years. The point is he's now 23 and there's more people saying it.

ThomthethimAuthor Profile Page on August 3, 2009 8:40 PM

If its happening regularly then ...

It sounds like spyware to me.

These are intrusive programs to force advertising or to gather information. They are unwanted and can be difficult to get rid of.
It sounds like its complaining and that why your getting the window.

.....or it could your AntiVirus software is possibly trying to automatically update some files and is having difficulties ?

Do you have Norton Internet security or something similar to clean up your computer from this kind of stuff? I could post you a step by step guide but you shouldn´t be modifying your registry unless you know what you are doing and that´s normally what you need to do. Hence why its better to have a clever program to do all this for you. I wouldn´t want you screwing up your computer and having to start from scratch again ?

Its worth investing some pounds in these programs.

Good Luck

Hail Hail

ibleed...

the usual deprecating comments about his ability/application etc

but this time..a suggestion that he was "as thick as two short planks"..others joined in to endorse this calumny

dreadful

derbyshirebhoy

That he isn't consistent at 23 is slightly different than 'he's thick'! That's about the level every debate seems to go to at times!

Auldheid - I feel that some of your figures might be a touch high but let's say they aren't, you could be looking an average of just under £40k/week for a first teamer.

gents

£250-£350K for a flat in Barrowfield .......hhmmmmmm

dennis 47/this mancraig

Apologies. misunderstood the point you were making

derbyshire bhoy

do you think that it is ok to refer to a celtic player as being"thick as two planks" because i certainly dont,it wasnt that long ago someone else on here referred to scott macdonald as a fat lazy wee bully,what happened to having a bit of respect for our players.

by all means we should make our points,but lets do it in the right way,not by insulting people!

hail hail

67heaven / Auldheid

With regard to TFS etc, we are repeatedly told by eminent pro Celtic minds that there is a due process currently still being undertaken. If you consider that TFS atrocity was first professionally challenged, after an airing at Celtic Park on 31/08/08 we are coming up for the first anniversity of that process.

I called for Celtic to ban the Rangers support under the terms of our own mission statement, which was clearly violated on 31/08/08 and again on 15/02/09. Celtic made a belated statement after the issue was maximised because a fan had the where with all to complain, to the Irish Parliament, otherwise we may have heard nothing from Celtic.

The clock is still ticking for the Rangers rascists regardless of anyone in the appeasing Media or Celtic's lack of a pair.

Hail Hail