Like Oliver, can we have some more

too right

Steins a legend

If your source turns out to be correct then I may come to the decision that this board ain't worth backing anymore.

If this PLC once again decide not to back the manager then ,in my opinion, they are deciding that the SPL and the prize of direct entry to the CL is not important for our club. If that turns out to be the case then it is time for them to go. If they are not willing to go into a little bit (say £5 million) of manageable debt to purchase the striker, that a blind man knows we require, in order to give us a fighting chance then they can pack their bags. If we do not buy a striker whether or not we sell our best player/s ("assets" - as they like to call them) then the accusation of collusion with the hun becomes ever more tempting to lay at their feet.

DD, PL and Reid should heed the warning that was given by a section of the support yesterday. I believe a majority of the support agree with the Green Brgiaids Tifo yesterday.

It may be that there is an underlying distrust of how the manager will spend the money. If this is the case then they should sack TM otherwise they must back him. It is as simple as that.

MWD

Hello Jobo!

striker please!

Too slow

hail!hail!

Jinkysboy

Just home in the last hour. Am shattered tired, bed early tonight me thinks!

How i Old Mrs Jinks today?

Hail Hail

Roccobhoy

Aye we need a striker, one that scores goals please.

Again, just thinking of the striker situation. For most of our games we are playing teams who get a lot of men behind the ball and the penalty area can have a lot of defenders. Therefore we either need somebody who is tall and brilliant in the air and then we need to play Niall McGinn more because he is the best crosser of a ball in our squad. The other option is to get somebody with quick feet and quick reactions to snap up the kind of chances when the ball ricochets around the box. A couple of balls fell very quickly towards Fortne yesterday in the box and the ball was past him before he got his feet set. Samaras is also slow in this kind of situation. I would even think of playing McGinn up front as he is quick around the box and I don't think the Fortune Samaras partnership works as they do a lot of their work outside the box and when they have laid the ball off they don't bust a gut to get into the danger area for the resulting cross.

harry fathersham

Furiously checking back the Blog to see what you posted on Friday, but stopped myself
because I already know that you foresaw the banana skin called Falkirk, that most of us thought
would have been easily smitten.

Hail Hail

Paul, a striker is paramount, but so is a settled eleven. I don't think we will see either until the end of the month.

gsu

From the previous thread.

Unsurprisingly the blog isn't a happy place at the moment, we seem to have a real soft spine which as everyone is aware is a real problem for a team looking to win things.

I have never felt so lacklustre in my support of our great club, I have a real malaise with the way things are going. I don't, unfortunately, see TM as being the man to turn things round. In my honest opinion he was th wrong man for the job. I base that statement on his time as a manager with both Hibs and West Brom. His outlook seems to be football for football's sake and not foe winnings sake. His teams have always played neat football but when the chips are down they don't win.

I am thoroughly depressed with our side at the moment and I don't see things pcking up greatly. Does anyone honestly see TM as being a great motivator when the chips are down? I am at a point now where I don't know whether I would like him to go or whether he deserves longer, i am not an advocate of sacking a manager so early into his contract but I honestly can't see any signs that he's going to turn things round.

I hate myself for even writing this on our blog but I need to get ot off my chest among fellow Celts.

Depressed, that is all.

ViniBhoy

On what evidence do you base Jos Hooiveldt as being a leader? He was unknown to most people 10 days ago. He has been at about 5 different clubs in the last 5 years. I hope he plays as well as he talks.

As for your point about not getting a better manager than TM. The amount you are determined to pay will determine the quality of manager you will get. The Owen Coyle business was a case of exceptional circumstances. He had taken a team from the Championship into the Premier League and quite rightly wanted to see how well he would do in the EPL. Celtic unfortunately have established a reputation for trawling in the bargain basement markets for players and managers.

I posted some time ago that I felt that over a period of time - say 3 seasons - we should establish a squad of around six £6million pound players. A few established pros who know the game and supplement it with good quality youngsters brought in from other countries as well as Scotland. I still stick by that.
However, I counted Artur Boruc and Aiden McGeady at that time as two of my £6 million players. Since then I feel Artur has gone rapidly downhill. He made a wonderful save yesterday to keep us in the game when it was 0-1, but he no longer commands his area the way he used to and looks shaky on many occasions when coming for cross balls. Aiden McGeady definitely has it. He was woeful yesterday but has perhaps been paying too much attention to his own publicity. Perhaps he was unsettled, had his head turned by the reported £8million bid by Big Eck or was it £14m as reported on here.

Tony Mowbray will never do for Celtic. We are heading towards a John Barnes scenario. If there is any slip up aginst Morton on Tuesday, he will be gone on Wednesday.

He has only himself to blame. He has tinkered with the team since he arrived. He has blamed individuals publicly and made ridiculous comments about needing to bring in 10 new players. He has failed to timeously condemn bad referees who have cost Celtic dearly and he has made bewildering substitutions on occasions too numerous to mention and did so again yesterday when he took off Crosas and Hinkle. He has seemingly been obsessed with wholesale change of player personnel. How many times did we read about WBA only having 2 of the 34 players he inherited by the time he left the Club?

Of the players that Gordon Strachan left, we didn't need to buy 10 new players to win this league. We needed more like 6. A proven goalscorer, a commanding midfielder, a creative midfielder, 2 commanding, dominant centre backs and a left back.

In August, Tony Mowbray ignored the need to buy a proven goalscorer. He spent the lion's share of his transfer kitty on a forward who rarely scores goals. He ignored the need for a creative midfielder. He did bring in Landry NGuemo (whom I like) and he ignored the need for two beasts at the back. Some might argue that he ignored the need for a left back by bringing in Danny Fox.

Tony Mowbray has been more concerned with getting his team on the park rather than the need to gather in points and secure the league. He will see the season as being successful if he can bring in his own team, no matter if he loses the League. Some of these guys are interested in Celtic only during their time as manager whereas we as supporters have a lifelong interest that that continues year upon year, no matter who is in charge and we want to win the League every season. I am not unrealistic. I did not expect to win the League during Rangers 9IAR because of the financial gulf that existed between the two clubs. However, I do not accept us failing to win the League against opponents who are financially crippled while we keep our money in the bank.

I regret renewing my season ticket for this season. I have missed several games this season. People who know me are astonished given my past record and the love I have for this Club. I believe that by buying my ticket I contributed to the Board's complacancy. I will definitely not renew my season ticket next season. The Celtic Board are slow learners. Sometimes you have to hit them right between the eyes.

we need a striker, but more importantly we need a penalty box striker to work off of fortune and slot away some of these chances we are making.

The squad is not better than it was at the end of last season. A striker has to be top of the list to bring in over the next two weeks.

Progress has been made, but more is required. And quickly.

"The key upside is that the league is not over yet, which is a poor upside."

Mathematically true. But with goal difference taken into account it is difficult to envisage us overhauling the deficit this season. We certainly won't do it if we keep giving the opposition a goal (or two) of a start. Hopefully big Jos will help us tighten things up at the back - but he needs another quality centre half alongside him (and that's something we don't have right now).

With regard to strikers...

Can anyone enlighten me how we have come to the position of only having 3 strikers (2 of whom are not...ahem...'natural finishers') despite being the richest club in the country (by a country mile) and having the largest wage bill?

Anyone?

rocco

Glad your home safe. Hope the night was more satisfying than the day

My maw is on the mend but still 83 so wont be playing left back on tuesday..... maybe saturday...

The board would be completely irresponsible if they gave this manager more money to spend.

How much do you have to spend to be able to beat Falkirk?

SadiesBhoy 4.03

Great post,

There are many, many more fans feeling the same way.

Ithink everyone will agree the season so far has been a bit of a disaster.Out of Europe out of CIS Cup nine points behind the worst huns team in many a long day in the SPL.So how can it get anymore desperate by sacking this manager.

Lubo

Either they back him or they sack him.

2 choices.

If they do neither then they are 100% to blame!

MWD

Paul67

Sorry but I think TM was left with one of the worst squads of players we have had in years.

Many players not even up to SPL standad never mind Celtic.

TM is struggling as he didn't address tha problems in defence and attack.
He needs the financial support from the board.This "we tried to sign ZYZ" becomes tiresome to the extent I have stopped believing it.
If TM has identified a goalscorer, why isn't he here?

TM isn't stupid, he won't have asked for Messi,it would players around our price range.
More than 2 weeks into the window not having a reliable and better striker in place is negligent. It could have cost us points already.

The striker issue should have been a done deal before Jan 1st.

timjim

IF we sack Mowbray ( dont this he is ona rolling yearly contract) it would cost us money we obviously dont have. And who would you think we could bring in. All the boards premier candidates were approacked in the summer and only BTM was really interested,

So could things get worse - new manager - same players - probably no idea of the SPL and how the huns get all the breaks..

It could get very much worse I fear

Keep the faith with BTM I say

Jinkysboy

Glad to hear ur Mam is on the mend. Yes I had good night.

Your Mam could not do any worse than Naylor at Left Back. I'll speak to you through the week.

Hail Hail

Roccobhoy

Moonbeams
I agree but if they back him I fear that will be the wrong decision

The issue is do the board want to back anton mor

if so do it

if not sack him

we will find out soon enough whats going on.

so far in this window he has had no backing as we have sold before we can buy.

hail hail

nakamura-san

Surely you must know we don't need to do anything to win the league.Rangers are rubbish.

Just sit back and wait for Rangers to fall apart.Oh wait, we tried that one last season and it didn't work.

Sorry just lapsed into my Lawwell persona there!

Complacency I think.

Moonbeams wet dream

I believe the board has already given him enough financial backing, while the teams we are competing against have all spent nothing. There is not a single reason to believe things will change under this manager. Time for option 2 in my opinion.

See this total garbage about it "not being his team yet".

How many managers in world football get to sign their own team right away? Answer: 0%

How many managers in a new job are expected to improve upon their predeccesors or at the very least maintain a level of form with the same squad? Answer: 100%

We have went drastically backwards. The team has no fight, no guts, no shape and no passion. No matter the personnel the manager should be able to instill in them shape and fight. If there was a shape and some fight in the team, some sort of sign they care as much as we do about the results, they would get far less flack. This malaise comes from having an inanimate loser in the dugout.

People have been using the PLG thing as some sort of scare tactic by comparing anyone who is critical at the moment with THEM however this highlights an interesting fact. The fact being what a good manager can do for a club. If Murray (who for all his bluster and madness at least had the cajones to admit he made a mistake and rectify it) had sacked PLG earlier and got the man with no surname in then they would have run us far closer that year. He picked up the exact same team that were getting destroyed, were shapeless and toothless (sound familiar?). He organised them, played to their strengths, got them beliveing in themselves and each other. That is what a good manager does. The same players then looked like new signings because of it.

Mowbray is not a good manager. He is not even a decent manager.

I know I will now get the same snore worthy, lazy posting comebacks about "well who do we get instead". So don't even bother asking me this but I will say it again. I am not paid hundreds of thousands of pounds per annum to come up with that name but if the man who is, cannot find somebody in the whole of the football world who can come here and can at least instill a fighting spirit, a togetherness, organisation or at least some sort of pigging shape in what should be a regular CL side then Desmond is asleep at the wheel because that is a disgraceful situation and if it is the case the CEO should be shown the door immediatly.

Alot would be forgiven if people thought the team even cared. The malaise is spreading. The manager thinks it is "fine" to draw at home against the bottom side as we were playing his favoured lovely triangles 40 yards from goal with 4 wingers on the pitch. He is not too concerned about a 9 point gap in mid January. This attitude permeates to the team, it then permeates to the fans. The problem being it is the fans who will break first...and boy can we break things if we turn our minds to it. Bringing down Ivory towers is our speciality....

But what would I know? Im a plastic Tim after all.....

Oliver?

Hmmmmm

"Please sir can we have some....one."

Paul67:

Are you being subtle are you hintin that a striker deal could be imminent?

Keep the Faith!

Hail Hail!

jinkysboy
I take your point and it scares me

Paul67:

Oliver...reference to Giroud?

Keep the Faith!

Hail Hail!

The worst decision would be to do nothing.

The best option at this time is to back TM. Any other decision loses us the league. Backing the manager gives us a fighting chance.

Sacking him gives us no chance of winning the league although at least they would be holding their hands up and admitting their mistake.

Not sacking him and not backing him proves to me that they are incompetant.

MWD

Kojo (last thread):

Starting with... Mr.Wilson, Mr. Scott Brown, Mr. McManus.. a guy who is an old man, at Twenty Seven!,Mr. Naylor, is also a Persona Non Grata,of course....

I would keep Brown for the time being but the others most definitely I agree!

Heartened with your optimism regarding full back and striker! And I note your request to excise the reference to Norwegian!

If as you hope as do I, we get rid of Mick we are left with any two from:

Loovens, JOS, O'Dea and Josh, that scares me very much and you would have to say TM will go with Loovens and Jos as his first picks!

The young CH Rogne (excuse the spelling) currently on trial would seem inexperienced, we need players that can hit the ground running!

Do you not think we require a CH as well, especially after yesterday, O'Dea will not do?

Keep the Faith!

Hail Hail!

WE really are in the CRAP

WE DESPERATELY NEED A STRIKER IT REALLY IS AS SIMPLE AS THAT

EN

Was that Sammy with a shave and haircut. All too familiar "near things" and the trademark holding of the head after blowing another chance and looking to the heavens

Kojo (last thread):

Starting with... Mr.Wilson, Mr. Scott Brown, Mr. McManus.. a guy who is an old man, at Twenty Seven!,Mr. Naylor, is also a Persona Non Grata,of course....

I would keep Brown for the time being but the others most definitely I agree!

Heartened with your optimism regarding full back and striker! And I note your request to excise the reference to Norwegian!

If as you hope as do I, we get rid of Mick we are left with any two from:

Loovens, JOS, O'Dea and Josh, that scares me very much and you would have to say TM will go with Loovens and Jos as his first picks!

The young CH Rogne (excuse the spelling) currently on trial would seem inexperienced, we need players that can hit the ground running!

Do you not think we require a CH as well, especially after yesterday, O'Dea will not do?

Keep the Faith!

Hail Hail!

Dirty Harry
Problem Solved Then

Today I have received 5 texts from Hun persuasion stating that Mowbray must stay.

I even had one claiming that if he does stay then they really could get 10inarow.

Stupid I know, but these Huns actually believe the SPL is theirs for the taking, not because they are any good but because TM has a collection of footballers but no team and he is never going to be good/strong enough to stand up to Watty and the establishment. They know it. We know it.

TM is not a winner, neither Peter Grant. Who is Venus?

The board made the wrong choice in the summer.

Lambert and Lennon for me as soon as possible.

Yesterday when Jackie Mac was warming up at half time I wondered what he would make of what has become of his club. People like him, Lennon, Lambert and the Seville squad are required at Celtic Park. People who know what it is like to play for a winning Celtic team.

EC67

TimJim how is it solved ?

Despite its repeated denials, the Celtic Board, individually and collectively harbour no ambitions beyond the achievement of the genteel soccer poverty that marked the majority of the Kelly/White regime’s years.
Yesterday’s contributor who complained of the drum being denied entry to the Falkirk game can rest easy. Only an astonishing about turn in the Board’s thinking can stave off the day, when drastically falling attendances will see Desmond, Lawell and Reid out on the London Road entreating drums and flutes, even those belting out the currently politically incorrect ‘Ould Numbers’ to ‘please, please, pretty please’ come on in.

By Moonbeams wet dream on January 17, 2010 4:20 PM

Sacking Mowbray now would not necessarily lose us the league. If we have someone to come in and get the best out of what we currently have (with the possible addition of a new striker)then we should be good enough to win it. The manager is the main problem, the players are not responding to him and his management team and he is tactically niave. He believes in a utopian ideal of how football should be played but his is a flawed strategy which has failed throughout his managerial career.

Clashcitybhoy 3:39 PM

New thread but Thanks for your response.
I've reread your original post and can see what you mean.

It is one of the difficulties of this kind of communication that it's easy to read things in a different way than that in which they were written.

So, my apologies.

But if I can still make a general point.

It's clear that there are different opinions on how Celtic are faring at the moment.
And, as will always be the case at such times, the Manager will be the focus for any discontent.
However, it can be very easy to 'say' things on a forum such as this that you would never contemplate saying in person.

This is a tricky time and, for what it's worth, I think we'll see it through.

But I really do not like the tone of some of the contributions at the moment.

To read some of the casually thrown comments on here about, of all people, Tony Mombray quite frankly makes my blood boil.

IThoughtWeWereBetterThanThatCSC

Dirty Harry
By signing a stricker as you pointed out

Paul67

The phrase

"Notwithstanding the considerable talent already in the Celtic squad, which is deeper, more valuable and talented than any other in the country, it appears, like Oliver, we need more"

This lays the blame firmly at the door of the manager - he is not getting as much out of his team as his rival - Walter Smith.

The fact is that this statement clearly suggests we should be top, by virtue of having a better team.

There are two solutions

1 - Acquire a manager equal to that of your rival and he will surely, with better resources, come out on top
2 - Give your current manager, at a financial cost, such a greater level of resources it compensates for his inferiority to his rival manager.

You appear to be advocating the latter.

It is the only solution at present as any managerial changes are unthinkable. However, the question may well be asked if Walter Smith was Celtic manager and Tony was Rangers manager would we be 9 points behind.........................

Sir Paul..

You are correct,pal.

We have a Surfeit of Talent..

Howevahhh

What we really require,is to bring in, a rear fine Jig Saw Player.

We need a man,who has the talent to put together,in record time, of course!..all of the Pieces that came with the Box!

Mr.Mowbray, has all of the Pieces scattered around the Table, but
is having the most extreme difficulty of separating the Blue Sky, bits, from the Placid Sea,bits..

It's a bit of a Lady Dog, tae see the difference between them..Ah hiv the
same trouble Masel!!

Again..

What we also need... is to hire the Talents of a Professional
Motivator..

They tell me that Tony Robbins, is available.

He costs the proverbial,of course,but he is well worth the expense!

This Celtic Eleven at this time are in the Dumps!

Job, wiz the life and soul of the Party,in comparison, to that
miserable lot, that I saw, Troop off the Park, at Parkheid oan the Clyde, after yesterday's Manic Depressive TEAM PERFORMANCE.

Howevahhhhhhhh...

Mebbe, we should send fur PollyAnna, instead of my other recommendos!

A wee bit of her legendary attitude wid,perhaps..

wid be the very catalyst that could get... The Great Celtic Marching and Victory Bandwagon..

A Rolling.. Wance Mair!

Fur..

Ye ..

Gotta Hiv Heart...all ye really Need is Heart..

When yer Luck is Batting , Zero..

Pick yer Chin..

Up frae the Floor...!!

Mister, Ye kin be a Hero( Are ye gettin' any o' this,Mr.Mowbray?)

It kin Open , Any Dooor..

fur.

Ye Gotta hiv Heart!!!!!

Maks sense tae me!

Kojo.

If I hear the manager use the phrase "we didn't win the football match but..............." one more time, I will explode. Especially when it's applied to games against the likes of Falkirk. We can't afford any more "buts" or it will be Tony's "butt" getting kicked out the door.

Antsman
Very good point I hate to admit it but Smith is a good manager

Can someone please explain to me how Lee Naylor ever got a job as a professional footballer never mind a celtic one?

He is one of the worst defenders I have seen at celtic and thats saying something, the guy cannae cross a ball like.

Jimtim

While I thought last season our football was just rubbish with very few chances created - this season I am actually enjoying our play more in concept. Unfortunately a few key positions / Players are letting us down with what tennis would describe as unforced errors. Critically at the back and up front - letting in 1 goal for every 2 strikes against us while scoromg one for every 5 we hit the target with tells a strange story.

Combine that with the usual catalogue of dodgy decisions against us and for that other mob and most have again come at critical times in matches. I recall levein saying after the draw with Utd that was a penalty against them in the dying minutes and now May has stated the same. Sure there was another admission as well as all the TV eveidence of the Rankers matches and decisions.

So all said I have more belief in the direction we are going - just give us another 2 defenders and a clinical striker of at least SPL standard and the leagues still within our grasp.

I know the board have told BTM its pretty much sell before you buy so I think that means to fund the above its Brown or Mcgeady and as Skoosh is out of the ocassion it will have to be Aidem.

I feel for the SPL McGinn is ample down the reight side and IF that wee waster Malonet gets his act together we are covered if Aiden goes

Sack Tony - and then what given the sell to buy clause..

Just my tuppence worth for what its worth ( about 1 new penny I think)

Paul67

Have you any update on a new striker?

I cannot see Tony allowing Killen to leave, Sheridan to go out on loan & Hutchinson to continue to stay out on loan when McDonald is out for 4/5 weeks without a striker being lined up.

"Mombray"?
And obviously doesn't do great things for my spelling either!

Estadio Nacional,

Yesterday we did play 4-3-1-2, but it didn't work. The full backs were not effective in providing the width and McGeady had a poor game. The formation should really be made for him - so many have pleased for him to be played in a central role.

I assume we have been working on this in training, and it could work. But only if Aiden plays well. And Samaras plays up front. And the full backs put decent balls into the box.

When the first sub was made (McGinn for Crosas) we moved back to a 4-4-2. In theory this gave more width ad we did have sustained pressure, but the balls into the box from wide were still poor.

(BTW, who are the Yadda brothers you have at CB??)

A striker, yes, a moocher, yes, a poacher of course, but a fallacy to think that if we get one, all will be well. Will he play up front with Fortune who doesn't score? Will he play in front of Crosas and N'Guemo who don't score? Will he play in the middle while wide players either side do not score often? More? More of the same more like.

All this stuff about Mowbray not having his own team and needing 3 windows is ridiculous.

Of the Martin O'neill team which beat rangers 6-2, how many were 'his' team and not inherited from john barnes?

Had spare ticket so took wife to game yesterday . She loved the view from upper tier of Jock Stein stand. After 10 minutes she said "who are those two , they're hopeless ". i am not making this up. I said "that's Naylor and McManus". And she knows nothing about football - or maybe she does. Anyway, I posted jokingly on Friday re back four and was gobsmacked when I found our twin pillars were playing as I thought in a nightmare scenario. New problem is ; how many midfielders do we need ? Crosas and Nguemo are starting to gel. So where does the excellent Ki fit in ? What about Broonie when he is fit ? and Maloney ? or Zhi ? or McGready ? - not a spellling mistake ? or the Derry men ? and now an Aussie is coming on trial and youll never guess his position.

I think everyone is in agreement that we need a man who stays in the box and scores goals but the formation/team instructions dont appear to help that cause.

Ive been puzzled at the team formation most of the season which has mostly been the ground breaking 'O' formation.

Most common had been

------------Boruc

Hinkel, Yadda, Yadda, Fox

--------Crosas,Nguemo---------

Robson---->>>GAP

-------McDonald, Samaras

'O' as theres a big hole in the middle, been wondering about it since the Moscow home game, that hole draws players in to it, usually forwards leaving no one in a forward position. I guess McGeady and the man on the right are asked to come in to the gap but that hardly ever comes to anything and when they go central the forwards go wide and take their place.

Yesterday I thought we started with

----------Ki,Crosas------------

ZZ------>>>------

Fortuné>>>------------

Even more of a hole in the middle and nobody in a central attacking role, the forwards prefer to wander, are they told they have a free role?

Yesterday Id have told Samaras to stay on the last defender as an out and out striker and if he doesnt do that he will be taken off, at one point he had the ball in our half and was behind Crosas in the middle of the park as we were attacking. Not so fussed about Fortuné going out of the box as he isnt a goal scorer. Even when we are attacking no one seems in a rush to get into the box.

Its been suggested we went 4-3-1-2 yesterday and i think we might have went

---------ZZ,Ki,Crosas----------

-----------McGeady-------------

Fortuné-----------------Samaras

At all times theres not a forward hanging on beside the last defender and in the box as the two pygmachophobia sufferers up front were elsewhere. Even when McDonald plays he ends up outside the box chasing balls into that hole.

My ideal formation would be

------------Boruc

Hinkel, Yadda, Yadda, Fox

--Ball winning strong experienced Captain

McGeady----------------McGinn/McCourt

-----------No.10--------------

----Big fella, Wee moocher-----

(Hope a moocher wasnt just a G72 thing.

Moocher - A school playground footballer who due to the lack of offside rules stood beside the opposition goalkeeper waiting to tap it in when the ball got close to the goal, even stealing goals from other folks shots. Often disliked but had a great scoring record.)

Yesterday this would have been a more suitable tune for the team to run out to rather than The Celtic Song.

New run tune.

I would like to remind all the Walter Smith fans that he is a chequebook manager who is still living off a 25 - 30 million pound spend since returning to his job.

He knows how to make an organised hard to beat team who are given carte blanche to kick their way to titles unlike any other team in the league.

His Everton experience and his one season at Man U where they finished 4th are hardly ringing endorsements.

His Scotland overall record is not that hot either because when he has to come out of his own half, invariably his teams are found wanting.

That being said, he has more than enough to get the better of Tony Mowbray and his clueless approach.

We are 9 points behind to a team of Journeymen and thugs because we have a manager who did not recognise he needed some more robust players to allow the talented players to play and a stirker who can score goals.

And all this from a position of financial strength where we could have dispelled the Myth of Smith and really rammed it home to that mob about him being a Chequebook manager and they bought 9iar with money they didn't have.

They have a debt at 31 million and Smith himself is responsible for the majority of theat money BUT I am fed up with us obsessing about their debts. OUr problems lie closer to home.

antsman

walter smith would bring just the sort of football we were trying to escape from. if people really are advocating bringing in a manager who wins ugly then they have very short memories.

i'm not saying we shouldnt be looking at tony mowbrays time in charge with a critical eye - there were times yesterday when the team were defending like a bunch of ten year olds - but the job he was given, which was not only to win but to win in an attractive manner, was never going to be easy. the squad was full of average footballers who seemed disinterested and demotivated. i think half a season is too short a time in which to judge him.

it may be that his refusal to compromise his principles end up with him getting the tin tack, but at least everyone who was complaining about the entertainment under wgs can sgay that something was tried to remedy it.

Lubomiraculous

who would we get in if we sacked anton mor?

I fear as you do he is not the man for the job but he has no strikers and a sieve like back four.

yes he did sign fortune but i would have hoped the board would have backed him in this window.

For my part, if we did have to sack him and i fear he is now 1 defeat away from the fans ditching him, I would go for david hay with lambert as his assistant.

Hail Hail

Moocher: also called goalhanger - or sometimes that wee *!?@**. They were usually wee for some reason!

Don't think I have been this depressed about the club in a very long time, and I've been following the team for 45 years. The Huns are on their knees, can barely put a fit squad on the park and yet we are nine points behind, having won only 12 out of our last 18 games ,including two draws against the bottom team at home.

There is no way this team can win the league. TM's story is that we are all over teams but can't score. The stats tell a different story. Yesterday we had five shots on target and they had four. There keeper made two saves and our's one. In other words, we "dominate" teams in the middle of the field with nice passing and Aiden running all over the place, but in the final third, where it really counts, we are no better then Falkirk or any other SPL team. Since TM has not correctly diagnosed the problem, how can he possibly fix it. This is fast becoming a train wreck.

And where exactly does Samaras play? if he is a striker why in the hell is he picking the ball up in the centre circle. He and Aiden are like kids in a playground. No system, no teamwork. The future looks bleak.

Please,please tell me I am wrong

Even allowing for the probability that three out of the back four would not normally be first choices and the absence through transfers, injuries and other commitments, yesterday's performance was totally unacceptable.

To put a team of professional footballers out on the field that lacked balance, cohesion,leadership, a plan and most of all, heart, is a capital offence.

Celtic yesterday resembled a team that was cobbled together to play a benefit match.

If you accept that even though they had never met each other in their lives before, a group of professional players should be able to find a rhythm during the ninety minutes.

That yesterday's team didn't, suggests to me that there is a malaise amongst the playing staff that any further signings won't cure.

We need a unifying force in the dressing room and it is becoming apparent that the Tony Mowbray team is not it.

We could even be in a John Barnes situation.

And another thing. Whoever allowed Falkirk to play in a pale blue strip were not considering the television audience. It was like watching in black and white.

Ian 58,
No offence taken.

I still stand by the comment that an experienced head could potentially help Tony.
One of the underlying problems at Celtic (amongst others !) is a lack of knowledge about our core business - FOOTBALL !

Having a seen it , done it, character around the club would be beneficial ...IMHO !!

Those formations I posted have players missing on the left, McGeady in the first one, McGeady and Samaras in the second, dont know what happened. Thanks to the mod who deleted the first attempt.

Gordon_J

4-3-1-2 is a weird one for the players we have, I like the idea of McGeady in the middle but not sure about the three behind him who Id say were central players. Also I think that encourages the forwars to go wide.
Im not sure what formation we ended up with during the panic/lets go winger daft stage of the game.

The Yadda Yadda brothers operate in the department I dont have the energy to post any more about.

EN

As I posted on the last thread

From his interview on celticfc.net
Samaras made it quite clear he is being told by Tony Mowbray to play out wide

What we need...
A manager who can motivate his players.
A belief in the manager from the players.
A team spirit.
A belief that football is a simple game and not some great puzzle where players are used out of position before a substitution means that half the team move round.
A sense of purpose on and off the field.

Maybe we are close to it all clicking into place but does anyone really buy this 'some week we're going to someone a hiding' nonsense? So what if we put 6 or 7 past some poor team. It will only get us three points before going back to not being able to beat the team bottom of the league.

If there is one thing that does my head in is the call for the manager to be a 'real Cellic man'. Get in Lennon, Lambert, McNamara, Hay, Larsson, Auld, Archdeacon, McGuigan etc etc etc.

We are in the mess we are in because we turned to a 'real Cellic man' in Tony Mowbray with Peter grant beside him. Someone who 'knows what the club is all about, traditions of the club, one of the Celtic family' etc.

The criteria for a good manager should be all about the skills to do the job, i couldn't care less who he has played for or supported when he was 12 years old.

As Paul 67 says Celtic squad, which is deeper, more valuable and talented than any other in the country

Then why is it not winning games, winning the league?

We all know the answer.

how many times does it have to be said that this board our so called custodians will and i repeat will not spend what is needed and if they do one of our better performers will have to go to balance the books,i mean how many more seasons will it take for even the most ardent board supporter to realize that this lot are determined to to keep the books right no matter what,the top of our club is rotten at the moment thats why the team and us our suffering.

all I can say is thank God this is the worst Rangers team in years and that we've got much better playrs and more of them. I'd hate to see how far behind we'd be if that wasn't the case!

Maybe not lazy journalism but certainly lazy blogging to keep up with the myth of how much better the Celtic players are than those at Rangers. Its clearly not the case or they wouldn't have won 2 of the 3 trophies last year and favourites to win 2 of the 3 this year at this stage.

I'm no great fan of Mowbray but to continually underestimate Rangers, who as we know have not bought any players for 18 months is just ridiculous. We've not spent fortunes but have spent a few bob and to be 9 points behind (albeit 1 game in hand) following appalling performances in Europe and the League Cup is unacceptable and a disgrace in my book. so rather than glibly claim we're better than them surely it is more pertinent to question how poor the players and manager at Celtic appear to be.

By monthetic on January 17, 2010 4:35 PM
All this stuff about Mowbray not having his own team and needing 3 windows is ridiculous.

Of the Martin O'neill team which beat rangers 6-2, how many were 'his' team and not inherited from john barnes?

Very true, however he did inherit a fair bit of quality of player to work with.

Mjallby, Larsson, Lambert, Moravcik,Stubbs, McNamara, Berkovic, Stephane Mahe. Also had guys like an experienced Tommy Johnston, Tom Boyd when required as well.

Would say difference in quality there mate.

Celtic need two centre halves. Midfield of Ki and N'Guemo has potential. They need two strikers nows to complete a soine where you build your team from.

Guy's like N'Guemo who we have seen and hopefully Hooiveld are players that battle and can drive teams and lead them when required. We need quite a few more in the defense area and forward department.

As someone posted earlier get Davie Hay back. Been sayng that for ages. No disrespect but if we are revamping and looking for scouts he should be part of it.

I'm glad we are looking after JK, but if he can asked to be part of it, surley somebody with the experience and dedication like David can be as well?

Don't forget a right back & left back.

Typical Celtic - the priority is always the flair player, the attacking midfielder, the team who entertains.

Well these types of teams need fast, athletic full backs - Hinkel is the worst international defender ever to wear the shirt - seriously , when does he ever stop a cross coming into the box. Fox/Naylor are the same.

Until we stregnthen these positions Celtic will leak goals galore , drop point galore and surrender title after title.

Message to TM - Can you please ask players to do the basics! Get samaras to attack the box - get mcgeady to pass the ball and stop taking on all the responsibility.

we wont win the league this season - Do you honestly see the refs allowing this to happen - they will always get bailed out of games like we had yesterday.

lots of points but i'm still fuming about our unprofessional performance yesterday.

hail hail

How many people think McGeady had a poor game yesterday?

Didn't anyone else notice that he had 4 players around him at times & no real help from either fullback nor striker/winger.

Yes he wasted certain opportunities but if 4 players are around him surely others have an abundance of space & rise to the call rather than simply relying on one idividual!! we are a one-trick pony at times

Also, I wasn't entirely happy weith the substitutions yesterday with 4 wingers on the park at the smae time but the ball was hoofed from back to front so what happens - they are inneffective.

Also, you cannot wholly rely on 2 players from Ireland who cost around 100,000 for both. Somketimes I think the support are blinkered on how nmuch ability McCourt has - he reminds me of Brian McLaughlan!

What we need is the kind of player all of the fans like a player like henrik larsson, lubo moravchik, pierre van hoijdonk etc. This will bring the fan support back and this player would preferably be a striker,

Paul am I reading into your article a little too much.....

We need s striker

We were trying to get a certain Oliver Giroud

Your article cleverly combines both the words striker and Oliver.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm

celtic4orme

This more attractive football has been a myth so far.

How many games has it actually happened in, beyond 5 minute spells - not many. Even in the recent old firm there were still alot of long punts.

I am not suggesting we get a Walter style manager, but in terms of performance as a manager he is the only benchmark for Tony just now and Tony does not compare well despite as Paul67 notes having superior resources.

Rangers are scoring for fun and their goal difference reflects that - they can't be that boring and score so many more goals than us. They have scored 10 more goals and conceded 7 less. Does that not sound like where we want to be - scoring alot of goals and having a defence who does not leak goals........

Rangers have also only lost one game in 20 - it was not to us either.

I agree Paul67, I was thinking about the article you wrote about statistically getting 2 winning managers on the trot was unlikely,
I suppose the statistics are bighting us in the buttocks now as what is the chance of getting 3 winning managers on the trot.

Keep the faith, no towels in the ring just yet

MTT

Herodotus

Celtic squad, which is deeper, more valuable and talented than any other in the country.

we are not winning games because it is not true entirely true.

We may have the largest and most well paid squad but it is not the most talented. Take out Aiden and we are in there with the huns and hibs.

We lack any decent strikers apart from skippy and as for our defence apart from hinkle the rest are rank rotten.

I do agree we should be doing better.

I worry Anton mor has lost the dressing room and i fear he will be away soon.

Hail Hail

Oh aye as much as i like Aiden, if a 14 million pound offer comes in, then it's a no brainer for me. Accept and re invest all into the team and buy possibly 4 quality players and the board will not have spent the bydget they had planned for the sqaud.Everybody happy and the board made a profit. We got players like Niall, Shaun and buy someone like Stilic or whoever that could replace him IMO.

Can I just ask one question?

Actually that is 2 questions.

Who would be sad to see Tony Mowbray go? And more importantly, Why?

Monthetic

You are missing the point completely.
We need a WINNING Celtic man, someone who knows what it is like to be successful at Celtic.

Mowbray and Grant were not successful Celtic men, they do not have the nous/skill/experience to be successful Celtic management.

I also think that Shaun Maloney's performances should be judged quite critically because he played with a Celtic team that had all the attributes we are currently missing, so should know what is required.

EC67

paul67

A striker this week, a central defence last week, - what about next week?

Always the myth that Celtic have the better players, just like we always had the better
players under WGS but somehow at the same time Tony Mowbray was left an inferior squad
- something doesn't add up.

3.8 million of the budget, for Marc Antoine,

Please Mr Lawell, Fortune doesn't score enough, so can we buy another one?

Watch this space

Hail Hail

Damo

Agree on McGeady, I looked a round a few times and there was no players making space for him. Some players expect him to beat the four players in front of him and lay it off to them.

'Help him' and 'somebody get in the box' (with add ons) were the most popular tactical shouts yesterday.

EN

WGS

Do you actually believe that this board would reinvest the money they would get for aiden?

Balance Sheet fodder

Hail Hail

I wonder what financial backing any manager would get from our board at present.

That's a separate issue from what Tony Mowbray could or could not do with that backing.

Things have changed since Mr Quinn left.

I worry that the board are the very essence of Buridan's Ass - unsure between two choices so make none.

Act. For the very act itself will mean something.

What worries me deeply is (For all our concentration on Rangers' finances) that we have, foolishly or otherwise, assisted their financial plight for the better. By various forms of inaction we have removed the need for difficult decisions across the water.

Our threat, as it has stood last season, and stands this season (For all our financial plumage and stability) can only have Lloyds TSB happily okaying player retention across the water - what fool would sell Kris Boyd when his retention could gaurantee 10+ million into the debt. Ally that to a debt write off (Which is more than likely my friends) and we have a club which becomes attractive to the 20m type purchaser - I mean all you need to do is go toe to toe with Celtic - and recently, post their recent glory days of Larsson et al, that hasn't been too hard.

If or when that debt gets written off Murray's ego driven business plan stops looking so bad - and if their streak continues, he'll be lauded by some as the architect of it and welcomed back to the steps of the marble staircase.

But what will happen in life will happen. There is cause and effect. Ebb and flow. There are some things you can affect and some you can't. Whatever happens I'll learn to deal with it. But there is one wee tiny thing that grates - I heard some talk of a fightback.

Has that notion yet to be embraced?

It is time to act.

Let's not be Buridan's ass - lost between two bales of hay. Crippled by the application of a logic which serves no purpose.

I know in my heart we are not a club nor a support who take first place for granted, but I pray to God we aren't a club who are happy with second place.

It's time to act.

By WGS on January 17, 2010 4:53 PM

Aiden is the Board's insurance policy when we fail to get into CL next season. Transfer fee will not be re-invested but used in the continuing quest for zero debt.

Folks,

I am not sure if I am now in the minority, but I still genuinely believe Tony Mowbray will be a very good and successful manager for Celtic, if he gets the chance.

He has done some whacky things and made strange substitutions, there are two aspects of what he has done which I understand; Firstly he was finding out about the players at his disposal and secondly he is trying to fit square pegs into round holes - the players he inherited are woefully short of being Celtic class.

I am sure if you were able to ask him privately, he will tell you he was shocked at what he inherited.

Strachan signed them because they had aspects of their game, which fitted into aspects of his own game plans.

They dont for Tony, so he hasnt been able to get as much success out of them.

As soon as Mowbray gets what Strachan had all the way throughout his time up until the last 2 months of his tenure, is luck.

So far we have been woefully short of anything that even resembles luck.

I like the fact that when Falkirk took off the big (man of the match) lump of a striker and replaced him with a defender, that Mowbray took off a defender and replaced him with an attacking player.

This is exactly what we all cried and screamed for Strachan to do and what he never ever did.

I like the football he is trying to get across. Watch Celtic when the ball goes out of play for a throw in in the first 10-15 minutes of any game - watch a player run to get the ball. Again something we cried and screamed about under Strachan, was the 'its ok we still have loads of time to score' mentality, often meaning we only turned up for the last 7 minutes of a game.

I like the players he has brought in so far (bar Fox who aint good enough), however at the moment they are each components of a team that hasnt been built yet. Take Fortune for example. At the moment we are all wondering what the hell is he doing here!? With the right strike partner however, we could be all sitting here saying we have one hell of an asset on our hands.

I think the bottom line is that I trust Tony Mowbray and I trust his vision.

Honestly, he is 110% right when he says that this same team is going to absolutely hammer someone! All we need is a tiny bit of luck.

Keep the faith bhoys and girls!

WGS

I said this time last year that Aiden should have been sold after his bust up and Stilic brought in.

Now while I accept that Aiden has been by far and away our best player this season and our most exciting player in the last 2 months ultimately anything over 10 million for player in Scotland must be accepted.

We are not going to win the championship in my opinion with this squad AND manager. Something's gotta give.

My dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,friend..Lenny Bhoy @ 4.22.

Ye suggest that we need anithe strong C.B.

Correct, as Wan and wan..mak..Two, pally!

Howevahhhhh..

Ah didnae Mention that we also needed, anither C.B.

as

That went,withoot saying!

So..

Ah didnae Say it!

And

We soitenly are negotiating fur anither C.B.

as Per oor New Handy Dandy Policy..

Of

A building those TWIN TOWERS, that I hiv bin promoting,as they ur so Essential fur instilling Piece of Mind,as we wull be pleased
immensely tae see them looming in the Center of the Midfield.

As the very sight of them..

Discourages the Opposition...and sends chills doon thur Spines,
when the get a Gander at Oor Spine!

Only Six fit Three-ers and over, are the Ghaps that fill me with
glee!

McManus, is too Wee... So, is Loovens!

We goat the Foist Twin and noo we are efter a Second wan.

And

While Ah am oan the Subject..

Howdya like young Mr. Thompson, in his Debut game?

Ah thocht he wiz Swellegant...

Luvved his Attitude..and as ye know..

It is awe aboot Attitude and Altitude, that maks a Bonny C.B.

And.. Master Thompsosn has baith,in Abbondanza!

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

WGS

I agree that MON did inherit a lot of quality from Barnes but he was up against a lot more quality than we are getting left behind now.That rangers team had Klos, van Bronkhurst, Reyna and God knows what they would have done to our current team. Mowbray inherited a team that narrowly lost the league and had won the previous 3 titles. We have gone backwards.

Mowbray's most important credentials for the job seem to have been starting the Huddle, and being a popular ex-Celt. If he hadn't played for us would he have been in demand? What other team would have touched him after he got West Brom relegated with his 'no defending' tactics. Certainly not a Premiership or even a decent Championship side. The ex-Celt thing blinded people to his weaknesses which were very obvious at west brom and hibs.

I think the board were scared that season tickets would not be renewed if a non 'Celtic minded' manager was chosen. Coyle and Mowbray were chosen on this basis which is stupid. We are now in a mess behind an average rangers team and i fear the 'generation of domination' will be the huns if mowbray is there long enough

The Observer article below, spells out the slow realsation in England of the threat from Platini's CFC, which involves Brian Quinn, the man behind our fiscal policy.

Well worth a read, especially foe anyone who thinks that we should follow the debt road.

www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/jan/17/premier-league-owners

Does anyone else think that they come away from having watched a game in the pub with a distorted opinion of the game, if they have sat next to someone who was vocally critical and moaning from about 10 minutes onwards!?

eurochamps67

A winning Celtic manager? You'd give the job to Larsson or Sutton over say Hodgson or Hiddink

Afternoon Lhads

Kojo

Young Josh looked very very slow for a young bhoy.

Love

Look at the players people; I know Smith spent a fortune 18 months ago but he spent it well on mostly effective players; discounting lafferty obviously.

I would say they've a better keeper than us; he makes more saves than Boruc. Their bakc 4 is definitely better than ours. Up front they're better; jibes about how poor Boyd is and calling Miller misser don't hide the facts of considerably more goals scored. Midfield's probably the hardest to call but Davis and Mendes when fit are proven EPL players are Crosas and N'Guemo better. I think with McGeady and Maloney we're better wide but overall I fear we're not better.

admittedly when the signings from 18 months ago start to come to the end of their contracts rangers will almost certainly buy cheaper options on lower wages but that's no good to Celtic in the short term because I fear the league may be beyond us unless there is a dramatic turnaround which is obviously possibly but doesn't appear likely at this stage.

I find it astonsishing we are saying we need a forward; i agree we do but all 3 we have have been bought by the club over the last couple of years yet do not appear up to it; what makes anyone think Mowbray will buy a better one this time. Fortune is the 2nd most expensive player in the country after Brown yet is doing it at this stage. I know it took Hartson 11 games to score his first goal then away he went. I do not see this happening with Fortune. Admittedly the goals from the rest of the park is a disgrace; we need to have people to score if forwards don't; every decent team has this; we don't. The £14m man; has he ever scored even 10 in a season; Maloney is the only one I see being able to chip in with a decent number and must get back in the team once fit.

thomthethim

i dont know your background but if you have ever been involved in business did you ever have investment capital to achieve well thought out goals?

No one is advocating crazy spending.

Investment to achieve CL is what we are after.

We have seen players sold to fund players in. Sensible move if combined with sensible investment. This can be sustainable debt if part of a well thought out plan.

We do not seem to have a plan based on sensible investment only balance sheet preservation.

We have lost over 20k fans and all that is not down to the recession.

Also when the recovery comes will we expect 20k on top of the attendance.

The board have to back or sack the manager.

I respect Anton mor and hope he does well but i do hope he grows a set and if he is shafted by this board walks away with his dignity intact.

Hail Hail

Kojo:

Yes, I agree with you about young Thompson, what particulary pleased me was that he was a no messing sort, if in doubt he booted it out! He certainly is one for the future!

I thank you for clarifying the CB position, I sould have known that I did not state the obvious that we need another Tower at the back!

I know you still like Ollie, do you think Paul was alluding to him in this blog, usually you can speak for Paul??

Keep the Faith!

Hail Hail!

heatleader : I was thinking the same thing myself. I thought we had seen the last of Naylor and I was bamboozled to see he was playing yesterday. The fact that Danny Fox was injured is no excuse. Is Mark Wilson still at the club? Or is he injured too? I think your wife is spot on with regards to McManus too. However the fact that Stephen has been known to notch the odd goal exempts him from total criticism for me. Naylor has scored one goal in his life and yet it is he who got to take a crucial free kick just before half time. Maybe he carries some weight in the dressing room but Tony Mowbray needs to assert himself a bit more.

As for the goal Celtic conceded, who was there to give O'Dea a hand on the left hand side of defence? In the footage I have seen of the goal there is no sign of Naylor. Naylor is just not energetic enough for me. And is woefully one footed. I will not condemn our captain yet though because I also think he is a good Celtic lad and that still means a lot to me.

I don't think a club of Celtic's importance should be governed by short term results. However I am aware that this is practically impossible at a club like Celtic where the supporters take for granted that we will beat Falkirk, especially at home. It took Barcelona many years and even more millions to get their team to win every cup in contention, like us in '67 but without the millions. Watching them play Seville last night showed how you can succeed if you are true to your own traditions, with a few of those millions as well. It is not only how much Celtic spend but how well they invest the club's money. A striker? Yes, but Riordan might have done and we let him go a while back. I would rather see this group of players burst a gut to get the goals, working on ways of breaking down defences and then buy someone in the close season, hopefully having been lined up before, to put the cherry on the cake.
Unashamedly happyclapper.

I don't think a lack of money from the board is the main problem Did Eddie May not inherit a worse team than Tony Mowbray? Has eddie May not recieved a lot less cash from his board. We have dropped 4 points to Falkirk this season

A very good article from vital celtic well worth ar ead and apolgies as im poor at links.

Celtic need to change - from the top down
Rather than wallow in the aftermath of Celtic's pathetic display during the 1-1 draw with Falkirk at Parkhead yesterday, I'm told it's more therapeutic to engage in a controlled rant.

Sadly, the current situation is not too surprising. There has been an attempt by those controlling the finances at Celtic to achieve success on a limited budget and the effects of the downsizing of past few seasons are now being seen. By not adequately planning for the future in the past, Celtic have created many problems for the present. But are there any quick fix solutions?

Celtic, for all intents and purposes, it controlled by one man - billionaire Dermot Desmond, who runs the club through chief executive Peter Lawwell, who in turn exerts a level of influence on Tony Mowbray. None of that is controversial and is broadly how any company is structured, the main question relates to how much power is delegated by those at the top to those at the bottom.

Those who reacted to yesterday's draw with Falkirk by demanding Mowbray's head should perhaps ask themselves whether his replacement would be able to shake the structure up and change things. Gordon Strachan didn't manage to, but Martin O'Neill did. It has even been suggested the latter scared those higher up the power ladder, which is perhaps why he was given so much control over contracts, for example.

But do any managers exist out there who could force a change in the system? Sure, many may be attracted to Celtic's history, reputation and values but would they be tempted to join a club where the squad isn't strengthened enough to beat some of the weakest teams in the league? Last January's transfer window, when a few half-decent signings would have secured the title but only Willo Flood was signed, will be remembered for a long time.

Whatever the power structure within the club, Mowbray can't get away without criticism. He looks passionless on the touchline and it's as though the players have lost the ability to play under him. He's a nice guy but would he be able to do the job even if he had a near-unlimited transfer budget? The jury is still out and, without wanting to be a Strachan-revisionist, the current boss has yet to show he's any better than the previous one.

There's little chance of him being moved on any time soon, though - as long as the club's finances continue to look healthy. Running a business, in this case Celtic Football Club, from the top downwards requires a good few "yes men" and it's unlikely somebody who liked to use the word "no" would get near the manager's office. Perhaps that's being harsh on Mowbray, and there are (wholly unconfirmed) rumours he has threatened to resign twice, but if the shoe fits...

To conclude, what's actually needed at the club? Better players? Yes. The likes of Lee Naylor should not still be at the club, let alone starting matches on a Saturday afternoon. But acquiring better players means having a manager who can convince the chief executive to release the funds, which in turn requires a chief executive who can go to the board and make the case, which in turn requires a board who won't pander to the wishes of one member...which in turn means that one member needs to re-evaluate his ways.

Will better players help improve Celtic's situation? In the short-term, probably. But in the long-term? Dermot Desmond needs to take a hard look at the club and decide what he wants out of it and change his approach before the downsizing of Celtic enters a terminal decline. If not, it won't be too many years until Celtic are little more than 'the Hibs of Glasgow'.

Time to change, Celtic - from the top down, not the bottom up

Hail Hail

All this debt talk... we aren't in debt, we pay the highest wages, have the biggest squad, and are going to lose the league to a financially (and morally) bankrupt team two years in a row. And when this happens, for I can't see any Celtic mounting a serious, consistent challenge, we all know that the crowds will plummet and this will give TFOD a real chance to get back on their feet. Disgraceful mismanagement

TSoAL @ 5.07pm

My recollection is that Thompson was skinned once yesterday - by Showumni who, despite a frame that makes him look lumbering, is extremely quick.

Moving on from the falkirk game is now a must win game against Morton.
Get the season back on track Celtic with a 5-0 or 6-0 victory.
C'MON CELTIC

P27

By monthetic,

Good point, i would say the falkirk guys have more to benefit from getting results with bonuses etc.. They are probably on £500 a week so they need there bonusses.

Our big headed players get rewarded hansomely no matter who they perform.

Decent result or no they are rewarded. Mentality of some of our players is that they have made it and when the going gets tough and need to step up to the plate, they can't. They are no bothered about it, as they get there excellent wages at the end of the day.

Monthetic

No not at all. I would love a Hiddink or Hodgson. What I am advocating is that the manager has to know what it takes to be a winner at Celtic. MON and Wim were not previously Celtic men but they knew what it took to become a winning Celtic manager.
Sutton, Larsson are unproven as managers but know what it takes to have success at Celtic.
Lambert is proving quite successful as a manager and knows what it takes to be successful at Celtic.

Mowbray and Grant were never a success as managers or as Celtic players so they IMHO have little chance of success this time round as Celtic management. They are simply not good enough.

EC67

An interesting point I took from Mowbrays interviews yesterday.

On countless occasions, he stated his dislike of playing 2 left sided centre halves. Assuming Hooiveld is a first pick this would mean O'Dea and Mick are not going to feature. Hopefully one or both of them are shown the door and we see a new CB and have big Glenn as reserve.

KrakowBhoy on January 17, 2010 4:54 PM

Have to agree. Time for him to go. Anyone who thinks changing in january doesnt work, or someone new cant get more out of what is there chelsea last jan

I believe the board think Kevin Kyle is the answer.Slan

pol1888,

Ever wondered why two left footed centre backs is apparently a no no, but two right footed ones is never seen as a problem?

I have, and I've never found the answer.

FANADPATRIOT - If Kyle is the answer

I'd dread to think what was the question.

WGS

Yes they do not care at all. People like Stephen McManus who is on £20k a week doesn't give a monkeys about Celtic, only his bank account. He is getting embarrased by Falkirk players.
Shocking
P27

FANADPATRIOT

I believe the board think Kevin Kyle is the answer.Slan

if so, is the question "what lumbering carthorse can we get in at 11.59 on the last day of the transfer window and still save money"

Hail Hail

that article from vital celtic is 100 percent right i feel the same way only they put it better than me,mr desmond is our problem he wont budge and our chief ex is benefitting from his policy, now i ask you if you our making loads of money on bonuses like our chief ex would you change policy?until mr desmond changes his way or goes we our in for disappointment for a long time to come.

pol1888

All 4 central defenders are left sided, Loovens prefers playing there as well even though he's right footed. As Loovens can also play right side he will be the most likely to be kept as back up to a new partnership............hopefully!!

Just been reading the tail end of the last article and all the Davie Hay talk,somebody mentioned a stat that Davie won one title in four,thats not impressive but at the time I believe Dasvie was up against Alex Ferguson and I believe Jim MacLean to name a few,your not telling me we have quality anywhere near that in the SPL at the moment.

I would not trust Mr Demotivator with the money to get me a loaf from Tam Campbell's shop.

Guys, wise up.

To give Mr Demotivator more money, given his record to date would be madness.

Keep the money and give it to the new manager to spend before it is too late.

SOAL

I actually thought big Thompson did ok.

He seems to be an old school centre half - just clear your lines by either knocking it out of play or kicking it up the park as opposed to trying to be fancy & taking someone on or trying a spectacular 50 yard pass

any road bike dudes out there.i'm putting together a winter bike and need some "bits and bobs"

Gordon J @ 5:25

I've never understood why manager's see two left footed CB's as a problem. It just doesn't make any sense as you say. Especially with BTM who had Robson playing on the right hand side when he had no right foot and McGeady on the left who is a naturally right sided player. I've no problem with this as lots of managers do it but when the coach says its not ideal for the Centre backs, you have to wonder.

Hi there,

just wondering who's all going to cappeilow on tuesday cause i'm
going with my wee sister wee brother mum and dad celtic end if you see henrik larsson king of kings flag thats the one who posted
this comment. i live in greenock not to much travelling for us 5.
HaHa you guys have all got to travel but maybe not some of u guys.

Aidan Tolan Age 8

Bradford Bhoy

I repeat.

SHould TM go, Davie Hay is the only choice to steady the ship if nothing else.

Tuesday is D-Day

If we lose that game he must go and will.

From previous

Landry's doo on January 17, 2010 12:17 PM

Can't believe the stick Mowbray is getting. I think some on here have been hanging around the huns too much, and starting to sound like them.
If your gonna blame anyone blame the Board for not keeping their eye on the ball over the past few years, or for their silence. The players aren’t performing and too many who should never have wore the hoops have overstayed their welcome . And yes, the support, believe me as much as I understand the frustrations, believe it or not, are not helping one iota through venting their dismay at the p#sh being served up. But, what can you do about that?
Why am a sticking up for Mowbray?
He's in the middle of all this sh1t and he’s trying his best to give us what he thinks we want, entertaining football that outclasses the opposition that earns the just rewards . he stands alone between all these groups of individuals, (players not fit for the jersey, balance-sheet obsessed Board, irate fans raising the roof at Parkhead with slabbering impatience, some who from day 1 made their stance by claiming he's not good enough,) and not only them, he's up against the establishment (Media/SFA/MIB). And we wonder why he's scunnered on the touchline? The man's hands are tied. He’s inherited a team of spineless imposters who showed their colours in the last few games of last season. I thought most of us agreed on that fact, and Mowbray’s charged for not inspiring this bunch? They’re playing for the hoops and getting paid handsomely for it, and if that’s not enough then what can you do? No doubt Mowbray told them as much and hence why they have no respect for him. And if that is the case, is that Mowbray’s fault? The Board have let him down, the media are waiting to pounce, the fans are quick to pounce, and his players aren't doing the business. And throughout his time in charge, they aren’t being allowed to play through blatantly questionable refereeing. Is this all Mowbray’s fault?
Some are using the 9points difference for their case, omitting the fact that it’s a possible 6point gap. And ok, of course we shouldn't be 9points behind at this stage and we wouldn’t be, but for blatant one-sidedness by those who are IN CHARGE of the game, the Huns would be 10 pts less and we'd be 10 points to the better. That's where we SHOULD BE. Yet again, we're denied a penalty yesterday, and from what I remember, two shouts for handball in the box too. Umpteen 'minor' decisions going against us for 90 mins. Our players are geting shirts pulled, we’ve got slide tackles endangering our players, we're getting out-jumped because we're being fouled……. and the ref misses it. Big Josh comes on and because he's getting the better of the big yin, the ref has a word with him. We're up against it from the start to finish and don't let our mediocrity blind you to it. And if it wasn't for shocking refereeing in the first half of this season, Mowbray's team would be sitting top, despite our deficiencies, that whilst playing some neat stuff.
It is not making excuses for where we are it's just a way of judging Mowbray with PERSPECTIVE.
The huns haven't been running away with it this season. Bar the ridiculous scorelines in some of their games before the derby, which we all know were farcical, they had scraped through games and relied on help from their friends. Thats why we're 6pts behind.
DON'T LET THE HUNS MAKE YOU THINK ITS OVER.....ITS NOT OVER
And as for Mowbray's subs, from what I saw yesterday ZZ had a better game than Crosas, who had the worst game I've seen him play since the last time he didn't have NGuemo beside him. I like the wee man but he was lost yesterday, and at one point somehow lost possession outside the box that led to a Falkirk shot go by the post by inches. Didn't see many mistakes by ZZ, who set up umpteen chances.
Another stick being used to beat Mowbray is Hinkel coming off, well maybe he was injured. Yet I don’t know how many have questioned this decision, and don’t know the facts. But, seem convinced that they know better.

My intention is to offer perspective, not to deliberately be devil’s advocate, and I’m not going to spend all night arguing about it because there’s too many who have made their mind up about Mowbray.

Just ask yourself…

What would Paul McStay, Tommy Burns, Danny McGrain say about the situation?
What would Charlie Nicholas, Davie Provan, Andy Walker say about the situation?

Back the manager, Back the team.
It's the only way forward if we're gonna win this thing.
Hail Hail

My dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,friend..The Spirit of Arthur Lee.

Pal.. when ye say that Master Thompson is rather unswift of foot..

ye are in agreement with whit a loaat of ithers,oan here, hiv said...from what I
gather.

Howevahhhhhhhh... Ah am NO wan o' Them!

I am sure that you have fallen into the same error,into which the ithers hiv fallen.

Fur..

Those opinions that were formed during Master Thompson's, wrongly
perceived,in my opinion, inability to over take the Falkirk Gigantic..well Giant.. when both He and the Young Master Thompson were engaged in a Foot race, down the Right Wing..

This particular Falkirk Player, who formerly Played for Leeds United,
is a very Fast Runner..and is extremely quick for such Big Man.

Yet, I noticed that Josh kept pace with him, and managed to effectively stifle the Big Man's Attempted Cross,very neatly at the crucial Time.

And gave away a corner,in the process.

I see no reason to read into this duel between these two Giants,anything other than, the Celtic Youngster, played his opponent,expertly like an experienced Angler.. and at that most important part of the duel..

Reeled in his Opponent, by thwarting his final Cross.

Na..

Ye hiv it wrang..

Young Mr. Thompson,is not slow of foot at all.

He is,though..

Extremely Swift of Thought!

If ye hiv Chan 67 at yer disposal..

Do whit Ah did..

Watch that particular Duel doon the Right.. oan Re-Run.

The Youngster handled that danger,extremely well.

And that tells me,that we hiv a winnah, in this young guy..

In fact..

I would play him, again, in my Team... in the next game.. And from the start.

Kojo
yer pal..who likes ye a loat.

Gordon_J

I think when those CB's are McManus and O'Dea you need not look further!

Gary67

Yes, if we don't sign another CB it has to be Jos and Glenn.

Have waited a day to get a bit of perspective and have not read back to be influenced.
An awful lot of changes in the side, it almost felt like an extednded pre season game. I almost felt as if TM has been told this season is to change to the style of football, dont worry about the trophies.

I like O'dea and thought yesterday would be a big chance for him, unfortunately he was very poor at the goal, though both he and Mick appeared to be fouled, particularly Mick, Darren could have shown more strength in his part.
I thought the referee allowed Falkirk to barge unhindered and blew his whistle at any tackle from Celtic, the Hinkel one in particular was a joke. We looked lightweight yet we were having soft fouls given against us.

That said, we look unstructured, lightweight and the substitutions were a bit out of the Tango tactics at Dunfermline when they were chasing the game. Fortune and Samaras are not a partnership.

oh, this apparent board tactic of staying just ahead of tfod, history tells us this does not work, they will get decisions to make up the difference. As MON said, we need to be far better to win anything.

Patrick27

What makes you think Mick is on 20k a week?? I'll have what your drinking

You would think Dermot could spare us a few bob. Wonder if he had money on a draw!

BILLIONAIRE investor Dermot Desmond has been linked with a near 4 per cent stake in €1.5bn-valued British bookmaker Ladbrokes.

Last week, Ladbrokes chief executive Chris Bell stepped down after nine years at the helm. His departure came after investors expressed dissatisfaction with the company's management. It is thought Mr Desmond and other investors, including Davy Stockbrokers Private Clients and JP Morgan, had been particularly unhappy with the performance of the company. Sources close to the bookmaker indicated that Mr Bell had always planned to retire in his mid-50s.

Mr Desmond has long been linked with Ladbrokes. At one stage it was suggested that the bookie had been looking to buy the financier's stake in Chronicle Bookmakers but this was dismissed.

Mr Desmond's betting exchange Betdaq has also been subject to speculation regarding a tie-up with the British corporation. Last week, Ladbrokes said that it was unaware of Mr Desmond's stake, although market sources indicated that it may be held through a number of funds.

It has been suggested that Mr Desmond may hold up to 3.9 per cent of Ladbrokes, which could be worth close to €65m. Shares have risen nearly 20 per cent in the last three months.

Mr Desmond's associates, John Magnier and JP McManus, are also thought to have cast their eye over the FTSE-listed company, with strong suggestions that they had been trading shares in 2007. Sources have indicated that Davy stockbrokers' private clients own a 1 per cent stake in the bookmaker.

It is thought that investors in the bookmaker were furious at its heavily discounted €310m rights issue last October. The rights issue shocked the markets, especially as it came just two months after chief executive Chris Bell had indicated he was not seeking to raise money to cut the company's €1.1bn debt.

Mr Desmond's forays on to the stock market are hugely significant. Market sources have said that Mr Desmond may also have been active in buying ABN Amro shares, making a fortune during the €70bn takeover battle in 2007. He is also said to have traded in giant search engine Google's shares.

His IIU operation also invested in major corporate debt deals, including a $1.6bn Intel Junior Subordinated Convertible Debenture issued in 2007. The outfit invested in a $575m issue from US property firm Duke Realty and an $1.15bn loan note issue by the world's biggest gold-mining firm Newmount.

Mr Desmond's deals on the Irish stock market have become legendary for their contrarian stance and timing. Early last year, the Sunday Independent revealed that he had begun to buy shares in Irish banks when they were trading close to an all-time low. He bought almost 1 per cent of Bank of Ireland and a slightly smaller stake in AIB. Several months later, the billionaire sold making a massive profit.

Mr Desmond has also banked vast profits from the sale of a 22 per cent stake in Greencore in 2006, as well as from investments in Golden Vale and Baltimore Technologies. And he is a shareholder in travel software firm Datalex.

Mr Desmond has also a diverse bunch of investments ranging from a near 20 per cent stake in a diamond-mining project in Canada, held by Toronto-listed Mountain Province Diamond, as well as a 26 per cent in paypal rival Neovia. The businessman also held a 10 per cent chunk of Nasdaq-listed convict-tagging firm Remote MDX, before selling out for a huge profit.

- Nick Webb

Sunday Independent

Hail Hail

What if the Board's game plan is for the Huns to win the league?

When I heard wee Strachan had gone I was very happy.When I heard the contenders to take his place my first choice for the job was Coyle then Martinez followed by a tossup between Levien and Mowbray.To say I was not too elated when TM was appointed is a under statement.On the other hand I had not been overly excited about the others anyway.So I decided as most fair thinking fans would do was to back the new boss.I now find myself in the middle of January unable to find anything positive to say about his ability to manage a football team.I however can honestly say I am not sorry that Stachan left because I am sure it would be just as bad under him.The main reason for our situation lies at the feet of the board.

porridgeandbananas

Do you reckon the game will get the go-ahead, I noticed the Morton game was off yesterday?

Owen Coyle's debut wrecked

2-0 Arsenal

Shame that.

Ian58 @ 4:27 pm

You know what makes my blood boil? The crematorium!

Paul67

Was your Oliver reference in reference to Oliver Giroud?

Has that been resurrected?

Ernie Lynch 5:39pm

Thanks, Ive been trying to put the pc away for a a couple of hours now, you have just convinced me.

Dinner time.

Ayrtic:

I don't know what Mick is on but he can't be far off £20k as Captain!

Have you any news that you can share with us regarding our pursuits of a striker and CH?

Weekend of for you or are you night-shift?

Keep the Faith!

Hail Hail!

hang the dj

I've just seen my bhoy has posted there! Unless there is a huge amount of rain I would say the game is certain to go ahead. The temperature today was about 8C and forecast to stay that way until Tuesday.

Kojo

Totally agree with that, the bhoy stifled the big man and displayed more confidence and ability than the rest of that defence put the gether. Yet some will still find something to moan about him.

Timjim

Correct.

Krakow

I'll say this,what were having to put up with now Id gladly have Davie Hay's experience instead up to the end of the season.

porridgeandbananas

Cheers

Might take a wee half day at work & head to some Greenock public house for a refreshment before the game

porridgeandbananas,

His posts contain a lot of sense too!

My dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,friend... Lenny Bhoy

I cannot speak for Sir Paul..

Although, I do admit that we seem to share the Same Mirror, during
our Morning Shave!

Not,in Physicality,of course,but in Spirit!

And it is during that early chore, that Most men do
their maist Profound Thinking!

If ye dinnae believe,me..

Next time ye hiv a Shave..

Pay attention tae whit ye ur Thinking..and ye wull
realize that Ah am right!

By the way...

Ah hiv not given up oan Olly,

But,,

In doing such,that actually means... very little... in the great scheme of things.

No gien up, disnae really mean much.

Diz it?

Kojo.
yer pal..who likes ye aloater.

Lennybhoy

He is captain by default. I can almost guarantee he is nowhere near 20k . A guesstimate would be 10k which is still far to generous as it is.

Weekend off , happy days apart from yesterday. Hoping to have some positive news around tuesday or wednesday, but you never know ....

Ayrtic

Remember he signed a new deal under Strachan? At that point he was playing well and was made Celtic captain and Scotland captain. Thats why he's on £20k a week. Why did Gary Caldwell say that other players were getting more than him? Because his pal Mick was on the big money and was playing worse than Caldwell.

Hail Hail

P27

Does the word slow mean the bhoy had a bad game.

Thought so

HTDJ

Stick to Handball

Afternoon bhoys!

had to take a break form here earlier..had to do some work, shocking that huh?

Does anyone know if the deal for the boy at Rapid is defo dead?..or are we playing a waiting game here?

Something struck me earlier, when we bought MAF, both Tony and PG said he was not an out and out striker! He was mainly bought to help create goals for the midfield. So the question is.. why haven't we bought a player that can score form midfield?

WGM

PS..I still think Pedersen would do wonders up here!

Patrick27 @ 5.26pm

Stephen McManus doesn't care about Celtic? Doubtful you have anything whatsoever to back that one up.

He's on £20k a week? I suppose that's possible, but its unlikely given that he's come up through the ranks and got his best contract post-2005. I'd have a guess at nearer half that, but its just a guess. You speak it as fact.

At the match yesterday, I didn't see McManus make any glaring errors. I saw him fouled in the build-up to the first goal. He was then berated by many around me who can't tell the difference between him and O'Dea from the far end of the pitch. He then struggled on with an injury while Thompson did a ridiculously extended warm-up. Before he came off, he aggravated his injury in probably the best tackle that we saw from a Celtic player yesterday. When he limped off, the crowd was lukewarm at best towards him - this was Celtic's captain, carrying an injury into the game and further injured during it: absolutely pathetic treatment.

McManus was never going to be the greatest defender in the world, but he was a half-decent one until he started carrying injuries a couple of years ago. He's shown that he's not really forceful enough as a skipper (although he's probably the best option in the current squad - damned with faint praise, I know). Unfortunately, he now has even less pace than he started out with, and his best days will already be behind him. The crap that he's had to put up with from the fans is the last 2 years has been an absolute disgrace. I've seen him make mistakes, I've seen him play poorly, I've seen him frustrated at his own flaws and that of his left-back (see the sending-off v Hearts), but I've never seen him not caring or not trying.

"Shocking"? Guff.

Shocking accusations about McManus on here. Give the bhoy a break!

Patrick27

Yes, he signed a new deal, but I believe he doubled his wages at that point going from about 5k to 10k. Yes , he was Scotland captain, but he wont be for long. The players Caldwell compared himself to were not Mick. I reckon he'd be talking about Brown, Artur and Aiden

fourstonecoppi @ 5:33 ,

what are you looking for ? I cycle to/fro work and am in the process of getting a new bike myself.

Sannabhoy (2wheelsbetterthan4 csc)

Ard Macha's story says it all about theose that run our Club. The man brings a 5year old across the Irish Sea to surprise him with his name up on the scoreboard only to be let down. Absolutely shocking, but not surprising.

Never mind the neglect of the footballing personnel, we get silence on the issues that concern us regarding the direction of the Club, the review panel case, the refereeing to name a few, we get overpriced for Season Tickets, and other matches not included with it, we get charged for channel67 which should be free, the facilities at the ground are a joke, queing 20 mins for a overpriced f'n soggy cauld pie, nae TV's to show ye what yer missin, the toilets are in competition wi the 'worst toilet in Scotland' in Trainspotting, access in and out the ground is a joke..... and the rest.

And yet we got billionaires,....BILLIONAIRES in charge of our Club, who treat us this way.

My anger is directed at them and tose who pull the jersey on and don't give their all.

Not Mowbray.

Hail Hail

Eustace P Merryweather on January 17, 2010 5:11 PM

No, I don't have a business background, but if I did, it wouldn't have been in football. Therefore I am not qualified to give an informed view of debt levels.

Working on the assumption that you read the link that I posted @5.03, you would have seen that the penny is starting to drop down south. There are other complementary articles in the same edition.

The fact that Brian Quinn is involved in the UEFA committee, leads me to believe that Celtic have a sensible plan, for our environment, as he drew up the plan.

I suspect that there are people who have a pathological dislike for the PLC model. therefore, would never see any good coming from it. My evidence of this is based on the undeserved abuse from the stands for Fergus and Brian, both incidents occurring in what should have been happy Celtic occasions.

Ayrtic:

Happy days indeed, apart from yesterday! Bumped into a mate yesterday who was also at the game works Kirkintilloch Beat, he was much the same!

Hope your not night-shift Tuesday & Wednesday, would not want you to miss the opportunity to share your news with us, if indeed there is any to share, are you?

Hopefully you will have some for sharing!

As ever...

Keep the Faith!

Hail Hail!

Westmuir Kev

All footballers are in it for the money, lets be honest here. I do see your point about him caring, he does care about Celtic but is simply not good enough. Anyway, why are we even saying we didn't see McManus make any glaring errors. He shouldn't make any glaring errors!!! He's a professional footballer!!!
And his sending off against Hearts was a disgrace! He wasted a couple of minutes of precious stoppage time that the referee was never going to add on again and got himself suspended. He should be setting an example as Celtic captain.

Hail Hail

P27

MON did indeed inherit some quality he was also given some decent money to spend and there were no transfer windows then (if im wrong then shoot me now) so he could gradually improve his team, mid season purchase of thomson and lennon, he could also to his eternal credit fire up the team, something BTM lacks.....

The board tend to stick to their plans so i expect BTM to still be in charge, in fact if were still trying to recruit players i would guess he definately is in charge.

As for Thomson, he looks cumbersome and when he was facing his own goal he punted it out, however when he was facing the right way i thought he was very neat and tidy. He did look off the pace but he had the savvy to cut down the angle and make a half decent block, imho big JFK looked pretty ropey in his first 4 first team games until he found the pace against Partick Thistle and from then on the rest is history (unfortunately for all concerned). McManus has been living off JFK ever since they were the reserve teams CB. Indeed he did have the reputation of being a thoroughly decent chap until he signed his new deal and apparently from staff at Celtic Park he thinks he's a big time charlie.

When we sign this striker were is he gonna play, in midfield, left wing i honestly dont know and neither does Mowbray.

If the Board back him this transfer window then so do we, we cant have a hope of winning this wretched league without us all contributing. I dont rate him but until he's replaced, whenever that may be then he has my grudging support.

Lets be honest if he can turn it around and start putting teams away is that not how Celtic should play or are my 43 years deluding me.

Lennybhoy

I'm backshift so may be morning news only! This is a bit useless ase most things happen in the afternoon. I'll just need to try and remember my login and I can use the old iphone!

Do you frequent a beat??!!

Eustace,

To carry on from my last post, which I submitted prematurely, I gave my view as to where I think the team is at the moment here:

thomthethimAuthor Profile Page on January 17, 2010 4:43 PM

I do not think that more money alone ,at this stage, would do any good.

Tony dismantled a faulty team, but I'm afraid he doesn't appear to know how to put it together again. That to me is a fatal flaw, coupled with the apparent rift in the dressing room.

Anyway, I'm away to watch Landry.

Ayrtic:

Meant to say, yes he is Captain by default and GS should do the honourable thing and take his Captain to Middlesborough as well!!

Keep the Faith!

Hail Hail!

Patrick27
You are correct the reason Gary Caldwell gave for wanting a rise in his pay was to be the same as other players £19000 was quoted.I can,t remember Mcmanus name actually being mentioned,I might be wrong

Ayrtic

But like LennyBhoy said as celtic captain he would be getting the big money. He doesn't deserve it but he would be getting it.

Hail Hail

P27

sannabhoy

want to get rid of downtube levers on road bike and convert to sti
possibly in the market for a set of wheels

been on e-bay.but stupid money and bidding.

Ah, we're all Huns now.

Sooo many rattles getting thrown out of prams, it's like traipsing through mothercare after a nuclear war.

A lot of knee-jerk reaction on here and people who seem to revel in misery.

Just like the Huns did with Le Guen. Not content to give him time to turn their philosophy into a stylish footballing one from winning ugly.

He was hounded by the impatient and ignorant. Sadly, always the most vocal.

Now there's many among us determined to tage TM with the 'our Le Guen' label. Stomp, stomp, stomp go the frustrated feet, we want change. Petted lips 'til we get our way.

Not so.

Get a grip.

If you can, disengage yourself from that creeping Hun mentality built on years of domination.

We don't have any divine right to suddenly become a swashbuckling force overnight from the stale leftovers of WGS' regime.

Nor in six months. This is football; reality. Like osmosis, like evolution, change is gradual until one day the blend settles and the results can be seen.

Tony Mowbray deserves his season.

He will be judged on that. Ultimately. It does not matter where we are at right now, whether the team is up and down like an Ayrshire lass's drawers - all that matters is the eventual outcome.

If he fails, he may well go - he may well deserve to go.

But that's for then - for May.

For now, you back the team, EVERY time. Save your squawks and tantrums, part-time supporters - the players can well do without it.

Anything less than patience and goodwill towards the Hoops and the management team separates you form those lobotomised sacks of bile and hate in Royal Blue only by the colour of your hooped jersey.

Sandman

Can't agree more, apart from the Ayrshire lassies bit! My wife's fae Ayrshire like my goodself !!

timjim

I don't think any names were mentioned regarding caldwell's pay rise. I could be wrong too but McManus would be getting around £20k a week.

P27

Patrick27

I disagree. You don't select a captain purely on his wage which you seem to suggest. Without revealing sources, I can only state again, he is not getting 20k a week

Whatever McManus is on its too much anyway!!!!

antsman

i'm probably not the right person to judge on something like this, i see good defending to be just as much of the beautiful game as skilful midfield play or good finishing. so actually i don think we are playing better football. but, yesterday apart, i think our attacking play has been much quicker, more direct and more attractive than under wgs.

shame we cant get the basics right like turning chances into goals and stopping easy goals. a sniper and a rock at the back and we'll be right.

"""Highlights"" if they can called that.
Shame they missed the Big talking points on their impartial editing.

1. fortune pulled down in box with a few minute to go....
2. artur being booked for handball outside box to give falkirk a very late 19 yard free kick. when he was well inside the box when he dropped the ball from his hands...

The hun refs/linesen are trying to be clever. We are not stupid.

Ayrtic

If you say so. I meant, however, that when he was made captain his new contract would have been about £20k a week.

P27

Sandman
Good rant now can you give us any positive aspects of Tony Mowbrays management ability so far this season.

BBC I meant to say. Highlights online.

Ayrtic:

Used to as a Civvy, a senior post working very closely with Div. Cmmdr. at 'Q', attached to HQ in town. However, did not like the politics, hard for a Civvy to be accepted in the particular role I did, so jumped ship.

Now work as an Investigator for a very large Local Authority since end of 2007 and I love it!

I keep in touch with mates (some civvies but mostly job)!

Where is your Beat, old 'E' per chance?

Make sure you remember you login and iphone or I'll need to sit up until about 23:00 - 0:00 waiting for you to get in...lol!

Keep the Faith!

Hail Hail!

fourstonecoppi ,

I had to google some of that which shows 1 of 2 things.

1. I'm a cycling illiterate/novice.
2. You're a cycling nut.

I'm going for 1 !!

I've just been used to the standard thumb-shift although this time round I'm probably looking at sti and my first set of drops - thinking of a Cyclo-cross type or a standard hybrid and I've been abusing my poor old ridgeback.

Fortunately , my company are allowing me to use the Ride2Work scheme which gives you a bike at approx 50% off .

Be interested to see your options/thoughts. will you be doing the Glas-Edi run this year . I's like to hook upwith MWD etc on that one although might bring Sannabhoy jnr out for a spin.

Sannabhoy

BBJ coming on 5 live.

Morton game only doubt would be flooding.. I spoke ot my Morton supporting mate today and said to him if they came at us and scored first I woulod think the would be in with a chance as we are not playing well. He said they are not even good enough to score.

Why am i worried about going to the 3rd worst team in the first division.

I repeat.

Who would be sad to see TM leave this week and what are your reasons?

No takers the first time.

Patrick27

Let's agree to disagree mate and leave it at that. The main thing I suppose is that we agree whatever he is on is too much

KrakowBhoy
Don,t think you will get any takers

playing against a team fighting relegation.... an opportunity to improve the goal difference, add 3 points and pile on the pressure

playing a team who have a much smaller budget, who have a new(ish) manager and have been in turmoil for most of the season....

a really good manager would have ensured all 3 points were secured.....that must be true...all the "experts " on here told us as much....

in which case why did aston villa only draw with financially crippled relegation strugglers west ham

owen coyle may or may not be a success with bolton, but his much vaunted managerial skills didn't do any better against Arsenal than TM did.....and Arsenal didn't need to cheat to beat Bolton

Managers need time....teams need to develop.....6 months is no time at all to judge the manager.....the guys who are screaming for change are not likely to give any successor any time either....so why don't we do an athletico madrid...a new manager on average every 7 months.....and then win nothing, but the guys screaming for blood get a fix every 28 games

Ayrtic:

Just saw your post, Ayrshire, 'U' Div. or you work outwith?

Keep the Faith!

Hail Hail!

Lennybhoy

Negative, I work reasonably close to Mordor without being Govan. I'll never say where for obvious reasons ;)

Just watched the highlights on the bbc. They show a couple of half hearted claims for a pen, but fail to show THE main Fortune claim which looked a stonewaller at the game!

Hmmmmm

The squad is allegedly the best in the country by a number of measures? Depth, talent, value... On one kind of paper this is certainly the case, but the team above us on another peice of paper (the SPL table) has scored more goals, lost fewer and have more points. Curiously, they are often perceived as being the poorest representatives of their club in a long time. This doesn't add up.

Celtic are under-performing and this is the responsibility of the manager and his assistants. Its not quite yet 'time to go' for Tony Mowbray, but his team must begin to perform to their potential sooner rather than later. The home record this season would not have seemed possible in the very recent past.

If Celtic do not win the league this year, that is the time to change the regime and not before. To change manager now (to whom?) would not help the cause.

Bury your head in the Sandman.

I will always support Celtic........... but when it is glaringly obvious that TM is not the man for the job, I will support Celtic by pointing out that the board's choice is wrong.
No point it allowing the situation to go unchecked as the only beneficeries then are the Huns!

EC67

I am really feeling downbeat about things. We have a fractured team, a fractured support and a board that has no trust from the fans. There are no quick fixes here. The lack of investment in the previous 2 windows is almost criminal. Still got that feeling that CQN wont be a happy place on the 1st of Feb. Will probably get the usual excuses of things falling through at the last minute etc. Hope im proved wrong. We could do with a few people to help bring unity to a disfunctional unhappy family

Hail Hail

Patrick 27

On the "glaring errors" point, I didn't make clear that I'm annoyed at the general criticism of his performance yesterday (from many) when I didn't see him do anything to merit that criticism. And, you're right, a professional at this level shouldn't be making them (if Caldwell, for instance, had learned to stop making them post-Benfica I'd have been a lot more disappointed at his departure...but he never really learned and undid some good work as a result).

The sending-off was an embarrassment, but I felt then and still do that there was a bigger picture - frustration that Fox, on Mowbray's orders, had left only McManus, whose pace has gone, to cover the right winger again. Remember, this was around the time Mowbray was happy to blame the players publically (and make no comment on his own tactical errors). Pure conjecture on my part obviously, maybe I'm reading far, far too much into it, maybe he just thought "Duh, think I'll kick Andy Driver". As for wasting time - Driver was in behind him and either heading for goal or the corner flag.

Overall, I just think that he gets far more grief than he's due, and I'm still beeling at the lack of applause he got from the fans yesterday - I've never seen that for an injured Celtic player before, no matter how badly they've played.

Sandman

You may be right, but isn't the question concerning us all at the moment not so black and white? Isn't the question whether it is right to gamble on us failing to win the league this year? That gamble resting on Tony's shoulders and the club's policy on transfers during the jan window.

I don't think the comparison with PLG is quite correct either. These are extreme times where "on paper" we should be trouncing the huns but clearly on the field of play we are not.

The consternation we are all feeling now, in my opinion is because there is enough doubt each side of the pro/ antiTtony lobby to stick or twist.

I'm as unsure as anyone but I do think the Club should mitigate these current circumstances by signing a first team recognised striker. If the Board are unsure as to tony's long term tenure
then make any signing a short term loan if possible.

What should unite us all is that no way should that mob be allowed to win this league without every single one of us doing their best to secure victory.

What price one point better than them, come (what) May?

Artyic

Ok mate, i agree with your final comment though!!!

Hail Hail

P27

Fred C. Dobbs on January 17, 2010 6:25 PM

HUNbelievable? isnt it....

EN, Twists...

Any thoughts for Cameroon v Zambia ?

It's just shy of 5-1 for Cameroon (-2.5 goals).

fleagle1888 (in Cameroon)

Barcabhoy, you have salient points throughout, with special reference to Athletico Madrid, Quige Sanchez Flores took over when they were in the bottom 3, when asked if he needed to bring in players in January he declined, said, and i paraphrase that they had more quality in the squad than the majority of teams in La Liga, correct me if im wrong but he seems to have done quite well, from that i gather is that a manager can make a difference even with the same players, as we most definately have a better squad than most if not all of the SPL

Get the Dortmund manager in don`t know his name but radio rental enough to turn things around.

To all those concerned about us doing as the huns did by getting rid of Le Guen as the huns did - we should be so lucky - remind me who the current champions and league leaders are.....actually on second thoughts forget it.

I was just reading some of the comments about yesterday and the refereeing. While 2 major decisions went against us, as ever, what I thought had a more serious bearing on the game was the small decisions the ref did and didn't make, like the amount of times he allowed the Falkirk players to bodycheck a Celtic player who was breaking through or the times without number he gave fouls to Falkirk which, if anything, should have gone the other way. I was sitting about 19 yards from where Hinkle made a perfectly good challenge and was deemed to have fouled the player, who was "writhing in agony" and then got up when the foul was given, totally untroubled. When are we going to have a captain and a manager who raise their voices about the weekly injustices we suffer. Personally, this season is the worst I can remember and it has always been bad.

Patrick & Ayrtic,

Caldwell was seemingly comparing his offer to that of loovens. In his defence he was captain and regular international, in the other hand i very much doubt he'd be a regular international if he was dutch! If Loovens is on around 20K a week i think he was well within his rights to expect the same, anyone would in any other workplace. He couldn't keep his mouth shut though and for that reason i'm glad to see the back of him, seemed to be leaving with some dignity when interviewed which surprised me, he then showed his true colours the next day.

I cannot believe the number posting on here that we'd have won yesterday if he was playing, absolute nonsence, how many times was everyone on here shouting for his head after another howler. O'Dea is another example, when he went on loan some on here had him down as the next Baresi, he couldn't even get a game for a team struggling in the championship, though that seems to be our standard of player these days.

Yesterday was another example of why i can't see us winning the league, every game we play we need 6 or 7 (sometimes 10 or 11) decent chances to score a goal, the hun only need 1. Hope i'm wrong.

However bad the situation seems Tony Mowbray deserves at least until the end of the season.

Ayrtic:

I absolutely understand your reasons for not saying where!

Know a couple of people in your area but mainly my mates are in 'E', 'K', 'N' & 'Q' and at HQ. I also work with an ex job man from your generally area, he was very close to Mordor!

Take care my good Bhoy...I wait with baited breath in the hope you post on Tuesday or Wednesday!

Keep the Faith!

Hail Hail!

i thought O'Dea was on at the "ref" all during the game.

Donald Muir is probably the worst official, well its a toss up between him and Francis Andrews, at Celtic Park this season.

How galvanising it would be if someone at Celtic just came and out and said this is not on, the pressure on Dallas and his Brotherhood may ensure a fair crack of the whip.

choco5
What has TM done to deserve to be kept on until the end of the season

I was told that McDonald would be away before the Morton game and that we would bring in a replacement.

Is it co-incidence that we haven't brought in another striker because McDonald is injured and therefore can't be sold?

One in one out? Acting like cheapskates again?

timjim

Still no takers.

The answer is he has done absolutely hee haw as celtic manager other than get an away win in Europe.

chico5

Could be the case

Arytic

So your "sources" are at work then! Your coding doesn't fool me LennyBhoy!!!!!!!!!!!

Hail Hail

P27

Would you take the Cameroon defence................

Fleagle

Just seen your post...given the current score, I would say..leave it:-))

Patrick27

?? Elaborate a wee bit, you've lost me.

Patrick27

If you mean I work with my source, guess again. My source is as close to the club as it gets

Just watched the highlights on the BBC from yesterdays game and I'm surprised at them leaving out Fortunes penalty claim. From where I was sat in the Jock Stein upper it looked a stonewaller!!

Not that I'm paranoid......

Damo @4.50,

While I agree in part with what you say of Aiden McGeady getting little or no help from any Celtic player when he had 2 or 3 players (I don't think there were often 4) marking him, there were plenty of occasions when he was running across the park when he could have laid it off to Samaras or our Korean lad but he didn't. He tried to take on too many and then the one time in the game when he played Fortune through, he chose the wrong option. He had a poor game yesterday, unfortunately.

Paul67

I was saving my comments for a more detailed post on the fortunes of the club but the thrust of your argument is so off target that I need to put an alternative forward.

Defence, defence, defence.
All our issues stem from our shambolic defence.

AB = Has to go, PL's greed in the summer of 2008 will cost us £8mill. AB is now a caricature of himself, a balloon living on past glories.

This issue has been bubbling away over the past 2 years and nothing was done about it apart from playing nickels and dimes with DU over LZ 12 months ago.

The back 4 is enough to make a grown man weep.

AH = Defensively poor, we could do with his forward threat if the other 3 were on top of their game and helped him out.

However the "other 3" cannot do their own jobs never mind look after a lightweight RB.

DoD + SMcM on current form must have been the wort CB pair at CP since the early 90's and the wishbone sisters.

The goal was straight out of central casting, SMcM beaten to a punt up the field, the flick on leading to a shoulder to shoulder foot race that DoD always loses, finished off by AB playing best man falls to a shimmy from a rank amateur.

That leaves LN and the worst performance off all.
Impersonating a professional football player having a nervous breakdown in front of 45K punters.

He actualy out muscled the ex Leeds CF a couple of times but that in no way makes up for the woeful attempts he made to cross a ball.

No amount of money up front will be able to make up for the current defence.

We are weak at every position.
Sort out the defence and we can move forward with some confidence.

One new CB is not enough.
Chickens coming home to roost are now being spotted at full squadron strength.

DD's reputation is on the line.
JR's credibility is on the line.
PL's taxi should be well on its way.
BTM's ability is on the line.

Failure and 3 out of 4 should be out the door.

cfc

why are you surprised?

allgreen
Correct I know was as popular as a union jack but he was our best CB. What do they do sell him. OK Iam not saying they should not have sold him but the replacement they sign is not match fit so back comes Daren ODea Reading reject... Good Forward Planning

I can't believe how many people are ready to ship O'Dea for one mistake when he hasn't played in months!!!

Marc Antoine Fortune on the other hand - £4M - I understand he's not been brought in as a finisher but I'd expect a centre back to have put away the countless chances he had.

allgreen
Missed out the name Caldwell on my post to you

parkheadcumsalford, totally agree, I have not looked at earlier posts since the game, to see what the general feeling was, but I stated much the same earlier about falkirk barging and the Hinkel tackle. We need to let them know they are being watched and will be held accountable.

cfc

The Hun coven at the BBC in Glasgow is well known and long lasting.
Not surprised at the ommision.

Tells me it must have been a stonewaller.
If there was any doubt it would have been shown and highlighted to show that we got our collective knickers in a twist for nothing.

Apologies if this has been posted earlier but had a chuckle to myself when scanning the BBC web-site this afternoon, and came across some stuff on Norwich's 5-0 win yesterday:

"Lambert irritated the home support by jumping in the air and pumping his fist in a manner reminiscent of Martin O'Neill every time Norwich scored. Given that he had five attempts to hone his celebration, he was really rather polished by the final whistle.

I thought that he over-stepped the mark when he responded to a volley of "easy, easy" by egging on the away supporters, raising his hands in the air to the rhythm of their chants".

.....now THAT'S what I call passion in a manager.

Second attempt think Ive done enough moaning for one day

allgreen
Correct Caldwell I know was as popular as a union jack but he was our best CB. What do they do sell him. OK Iam not saying they should not have sold him but the replacement they sign is not match fit so back comes Daren ODea Reading reject... Good Forward Planning

if anyone thinks the board gave anton mor £4m for a striker in the summer they are swallowing lawells spin hook line and sinker.

Fortune cost around £1.4 million, with add ons it will rise to nearly £3.8m after 3 years.

Somehow i think he may be away before that happens.

This board have given Anton mor peanuts and it shows.

Hail Hail

timjim

I will have a go.

The team is creating multiple chances, many many more than we have been used to.His brand of football is certainly more entertaining than the previous manager.

He seems to be making some good buys with a few of his signings looking like improving the team.His signings so far have been imaginitive.

He is an honest, respectfull individual who certainly doesnt seem like he is cracking under the pressure.

He has started to move out the deadwod that has cloged up the squad.

He has stated that we need more quality particlularly at the back and up front and I think we have to wait till the end of the window before we can take stock.

We are in a transitional period. He deserves to be given at least until the the end of the season

He must be given time to mould his squad.

He deserves at leadt this window and a

jaztim,

I remember the time we played Aberdeen and STV showed a disallowed Aberdeen goal from every angle possible, they then said the ref had cost the Dons points, yet in the same game they never even bothered to show this even ONCE!!! And Andy Walker was fronting the show.

timjim

Problem is that the clubs who were after McDonald might have someone else by the time he is fit.

His style doesn't fit into TM plans, he's looking for mobility up front.

Although it's world cup year McDonald's (as well as half the team)motivation has been an issue. McDonald of 2 years ago would be better than the current version.

Your right about O'dea, sheffield Bhoy, I had a wee dig at him myself, mainly because I rate him and thought it was a big chance for him. It was one mistake and he actually composed himself quite well after it. Unfortunately, the cb position currently seems jinxed and causing us points with one less game to play to make up the deficit.

Eustace

What is your source for saying £1.4m for Fortune?

By Patrick27 on January 17, 2010 6:44 PM

You could not be further from the truth my dear Bhoy!

I have not got the fogiest of Ayrtic's true identity. I only know him from posting on here! What I do know is his source is impeccable and he is always on the money!

Keep the Faith!

Hail Hail!

Bloke on a bus!

Suffice to say person who told me knows all about it.

Thankfully its been on here loads of times so i know hes right.

Also said we sell before we buy.

Hey presto what happens.

Hail Hail

Paul67 has been banging on about our vastly superior financial resources.
But it just doesnt add up!

Have a quick look at the incoming players wages compared with the outgoing - since Strachan's last game in charge up to Mowbray's squad as of yesterday............

By a quick calculation I have us as spending £3MILLION a year less on player wages under Mowbray compared to Strachan.

Having finished 2nd to Rangers, our CEO has proceeded to downsize the team wages by £3MILLION per annum!!!

The effect of this can be seen on the park and will be witnessed at the end of the season as the blue hordes dance and march jubilantly at ibrox.

Would even Paul67 argue our CEO should get a bonus this year??

notthebus
I agree with your 3rd point

timjim,

I just think he deserves the chance to turn things round if nothing else. How many would have sacked Strachan before the turn around in the Tommy Burns year (all be it we'd never have won that league had they not had the uefa cup run, in the same way vice versa 2003) and how many huns would've sacked 'walter' after we won at ibrox last christmas? I don't fancy our chances but the league isn't quite over just yet.

Someone mentioned the change Hiddink had at Chelsea last Jan but with all the respect in the world i don't see us attracting that calibre of manager or surely we'd have done so in the first place.

Can't believe many are still rabbling about this world class striker on his way either, if this was a realistic opportunity why isn't he here now? he obviously isn't getting a game wherever he is. It's up there with the Eidur Gudjohnson rumour that raised its ugly head every transfer window for about 3 years, in fact maybe its him! I expect the boards annual excuse of the deals falling through at the last minute because .......... offered a better deal. (Fill in the blank with any from West Ham, Burnley, Bolton, Carlisle etc etc)

This is what we are missing this season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXTGn-DEDBA

mcgrory-for-arsenal

Would even Paul67 argue our CEO should get a bonus this year??

I think you know the answer to that one!

Hail Hail

The BBC highlights are interesting indeed, there isnt the first minute chance from Samaras and by showing the 2 handballs they're trying to act conscientiously, much in the same way that we get some free kicks where they cant do any damage in an attempt to say we got some 50/50 decisions. If that had been any other team it would have been shown, but then BBC Scotland is still one of the Bastions of sectarian scotland (allegedly) (source a former TV executive).

The best laugh from the laptop loyal is that they thought and wrote about it that ZZ passed for Gorgeous Georges goal....

I dont trust any "news" outlet or anyone from the 4th State, even Glen Gibbons and of course Brittany.

Its amazing that collusion and conspiracy is prevelant in every continent and country on the planet, except Scotland, funny that.....

sannabhoy
i'm just a fair weather roadie now, who goes out with a few mates at the weekend. used to be mad for it when i was younger but more weather pending now
i know heehaw about the mechanics of the thingys.
i use a great wee bike shop in pollokshaws road called "willy bain" a fine fellow and a good mechanic. you could talk to him
depends what you want your bike for ie road offroad comuting etc.

twists n turns:

I know, I shouldn't of been, it's the norm, it's the same with the hand ball in the box from Falkirk, the entire park was calling for a penalty and well look at the one the huns got v Hamilton last weekend. The guy was on the deck trying to get his arm out the road. Penalty. It's a joke. Hun with a whistle is a 100% accurate description of the ref (cannae mind his first name) Muir yesterday. I was in costa the day reading Sunday Hun and Muir got 7/10 for his performance! Whit?!?!

Unreal, I know Celtic were poor yesterday, the huns are rubbish but always get a life line from the refs. Always. Does ma nut in.

madmitch:

Never mind the BBC being rife with huns, the footballing officials in Scotland are rotten to the core!!

As well as a striker we desperately need a right footed central defender....couldn't believe Hooiveld joins McManus, Loovens & O'Dea in the left footer ranks......

choco5
I really hope if he is with us for the rest of the season(he probally will be, I don,t expect this board to make the right decision )he proves me wrong.Iam not holding my breath

For those who attended the match yesterday. It seemed very quiet watching the game on the telly. I am not the only one who knows that if the supporters that attend the game get behind the team then it can go a long way, especially in a 1-1 game,, Just curious to know what the atmosphere was like in person.

gsu

About this time of the season for the last few seasons, we have been calling for the dismissal of our manager. As was said at the time, be careful what you wish for.....Our manager should be given this season at least. I hope he starts to show that he has the passion the support has.

Leabrannagh,

A meeting of minds. Personally, I have felt since the Falkirk game that ended 3-3 that we were not going to win the SPL this season, because the refs were not going to give us anything in part because we let them get away with cheating us. We need our manager and whoever is captain to DEMAND a fair playing field. To me, this is a major issue and, believe me, I have plenty of years of bad refereeing experience to call upon.

been a lot of comments about how impatient a lot of us are being regarding TB but thats indicative
of recent trend regarding managers.

In the last 13 years a new celtic or orc manager has either won the title or been binned in first season.

Someone earlier mentioned give TB two years, will NEVER happen

Look at the facts:

97:98 - Wim Jansen takes over wins league cup, celtic win first new year derby for 10 years, stops 10 in a row (God bless him!)

98:99 - Little General Arrives wins league - Dr Jo leaves at end of first season - but gave us the 5-1 game and lubo so can be forgiven

99:00 - Barnes arrives and is gone by January

2000:01 - Mon arrives and wins treble, thumps orcs 6-2 in debut derby game

02:03 - mcleish arrives wins treble in first full season

05:06 - WGS arrives wins league cup and league title

06:07 - Le-guen gone by january, orcs floundering in league and out of both cups

07:08 Cardihun loses league in last 10 mins (sweet sweet day!)despite huge help from sfa. This was his first full season back, saved by fact he won 2 cups and got to uefa cup final and they had no other option really,

09:10 - Jury out on TB but all first year bosses were either flying high and heaing t title in january or heading towards exit/had one foot in the exit door by this time.

Any guesses where TB stands at moment?

Lets hope he proves me wrong (would never be so good to admit to being wrong) but i wont holdmy breath

GSU, it was rather quiet but there were pockets of fans trying to get behind the team in the last ten minutes, from both ends of the ground, whatever happened to the Jungle roar....

Of the 14 Celtic players who took part in the 6-2 demolition derby Martin O'Neill signed 2. Of that 14, 9 played against Rangers at Ibrox 5 months earlier and lost 4-0.

Of the 2 teams who have drawn with Falkirk this season Tony Mowbray has added 4/5 players to the team. Last season we put 11 goals past Falkirk in 3 wins.

Tony Mowbray inherited a team that was more than capable of beating Falkirk, the fact he was unable to says more about his management ability than the quality of the players he inherited. Ironically of the Celtic team which beat Falkirk 4-0 in the League Cup, not one Tony Mowbray signing played.

We are going backwards as a club, from the top down, time for Messrs Reid, Lawwell and Desmond to get the finger out or get tae..........

greensideup

Parkhead was really quiet yesterday, well in the first half anyways, kinda picked up in the second half and the more desperate we got the louder the ground became. Regardless of the noise levels inside parkhead, Celtic should be thumping bottom of the table Falkirk. Still can't believe we drew the 3-3 at Falkirk stadium. They are Celtic's bogey team at the moment....

Well I think I will sign of for the night.What will next week bring
Will TM still be manager next week at this time???Will our new super dupper stricker be signed???Will our other new CB be with us.???? Will McGeady be in Brummie ???? WE shall see we shall see
Good Night and Hail Hail

Oh One other thing WILL WE WIN A GAME

cfc_1888

Practically the only team in the lague who are not our bogey team are Aberdeen.

It goes much deeper than bogey teams.

Falkirk are a shower and I hope either they or their vile Killi counterparts go down so next season we caqn play a team with an intelligent and sensetive support like........... Dundee.

Oh well.

As long as one of the carrot crunchin, cousin datin mob go down it may well be our only solace in this current league campaign.

KrakowBhoy

I know they are a shower, I live in Falkirk and know all too well about them! Basically huns with out the bus/train fair to go to Ibrox!

Go tell the Spartim and cfc_1888,

thanks for the responses.

After the game yesterday I was talking to my cousin and were reminicsing about Fortress Parkhead and how teams used to brick it when coming to Celtic Park. The crowd played a big part in the games we used to win 3-0, 4-1, 5-2 etc.

And before any mentions it, I am not blaming the crowd for points dropped, but if we expect the board the manager or the players to do their job, we can help them by getting the Roar(Spartim) back.

Just a thought

gsu

cfc_1888

I feel sorry for you.

--------------boruc----------------
-hinkel---mcmanus---odea---naylor--
--crosas-----ki---zhi-----mcgeady--
--------fortune-----samaras--------

VERSUS
--------------boruc----------------
-hinkel---LOOVENS---CALDWELL---FOX--
-ROBSON---crosas---NGUEMO----mcgeady
--------fortune-----samaras--------

IT AINT ROCKET SCIENCE,

no shape, no communication, no consistency, no goals.

at work listening to the radio,when i heard ""naylor to thompson to zhi to ki to mcginn to mccourt.

6 players who havent played for ages !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what chance are ye giving yerself BTM.

ROCKET SCIENCE IT IS NOT, OR MATHS FOR THAT MATTER

GSU @ 7.15

You are spot on.
Given our depth of squad, salary levels (in the SPHell) & the quality that you would think results from those, we need to be putting bottom six teams away. I'm amazed that we can't do that. We should be able to KEEP the ball instead of long punts that give possesion away. What are the coaches doing at the training ground??
Hail Hail...... GFG

greensideup:

I was talking about the exact same thing to the guy next to me at Parkhead yesterday, teams used to be intimidated when they came to play at Celtic park. We had Big bobo, Tommo, Sutton - players with presence who took no prisoners and to get a team like Falkirk trying to give us a game at parkhead? It's all a bit powder puff, no grit in the Celtic team at the moment.

How rubbish is this dancing on ice at the moment? That's the last time the wife gets the remote!

I see Cameroon are losing again, could mean an early return for N'Guemo.

Does anyone know if he's playing?

chico he's on the bench and tbh o'dea or mcmanus would get a game at cb

Go tell the spartim,

That's good, at least proves the scottish press were way off the mark reporting his injury, shocker that is.

Hopfully the old Zambia hold out and he'll ba back soon.

Hopefully Algeria get a result the morra and the hun will be away til the end.

On another note, regardless of manager change or not, i think our best hope of winning the league will be if they sell boyd! Miller, Novo or Laugherty will not replace his goals.

Does anyone know about the Kevin Kyle rumour that was mentioned on here awhile back.

I believe he is out of contract this summer, would it not make sense to try and get him in. Sammi and Fortune were pushed around a bit yesterday, and given Kyle's size 6'3" I think, does it not make sense to get him, given his experience and dig.

gsu

GSU does he play CB

Which Zambian-born player scored a hat-trick against Scotland?

Bloke_109

Robbie Earnshaw?

Go tell the Spartim,

striker but he would be in addition to the goal scoring striker we are after, and should not cost too much either.

gsu

GSU,

I don't have the stats but i'd guess his goal to chances ratio is far higher than the 2 you mention as well.

He'd be worth a shout considering the money that'd be involved.

Don't fancy the natives taking to keen to it all the same, especially with most holding out for this world class striker.

BodomBhoy

Quick on the buzzer, well in. Would score for fun in the SPL, but not advocating him as a signing...

Dear Ghod,
You know we have been very good & very patient.
I know we have had a lot of success in the last few years.

Would it be asking too much to let us have a bit more, please.
No, We are not being ungrateful. Of course not.

All we want is a Jimmy Greaves to lead our attack & possibly, if it is not too much trouble,.. a Franz Beckenbauer to marshal our defence.
Of course we are grateful for what we have already been given.
How could You doubt that ?

I know you will look kindly on our modest requests.
You know better than anybody that WE are the Greatest Fans in The World.

Thanks, Ghod.

Couple of things struck me yesterday.

1. What would Hooiveldt have said if he had been asked in his interview at half time yesterday "what do you think your chances are of forcing your way into the side at centre back?"

2. Does Tony Mowbray decide on his substitutions based on the old sweep for the first goal method of drawing numbers oot of a tammy?
It is the only explanation I can see for some of the changes he makes.

ggh

Kevin Kyle is not a first choice but given we play in the SPL and rough and tumble is needed, he would do a job.

200,000 gets him and with a mobile striker and a big lump we might just get more joy.

Right now we need something.

I think Tony Mowbray is a better manager than many people on here are supporters.
Cheerio.
JJ

If we did get Kyle, and lets be honest he may have burnt his bridges with Killies chairman,hed need to be in addition to RVN or similar, if WGS had any savvy he should have went for him for Middlesborough before Killen, thankfully he didnt

KrakowBhoy :

Is Kevin Kyle the mobile striker or the big lump? :)

ggh

By thomthethim on January 17, 2010 5:03 PM

Note the similarity of this from the Guardian article:

The time is drawing to a close when the Premier League can convincingly maintain their laissez-faire approach to the national sport, in which the clubs, cherished by fans for generations, are simply commercial companies, available to buy and sell by anybody without a fraud conviction, from anywhere, with whatever plan.

with this from The Ivo Belet Report on the Future of Professional Football in Europe:

"Whereas football plays an important social and educational role, and is an efficient instrument for social inclusion and multicultural dialogue,"

These show that what was said a couple of years ago by Belet is now being said in the wider public forum because the EPL model is proof that it is wrong for football.

There is a definite sea change underway that will lead to a change in the current conditions that are at the root of all the discussions of the direction Celtic have had to take.

We have been blaming the boardf for bad weather rather than being realistic about adapting to it.

I loved a Billy Connoly quote:
"There is no bad weather , only the wrong clothing"

Krakowbhoy,

If that's the case, I say get him in now

nothingtoloseCSC

gsu

greensideup

it is a story that refuses to go away.

however he is a donkey and we should be after better

That said i would not be surprised if he or stokes is purchased

Hail Hail

Big Mick was gash yesterday but that's not a big surprise given his lack of matches recently and low confidence levels. Freezing Bobo out & punting him was a mistake. ....Aye I know, ..old history but it is typical of how we have "managed" our assets in rtecent seasons.....GFG

GREENSIDEUP

We are needing someone like kyle,someone to ruff the other teams back line up..

The players we have just now coudnt ruffle up a crisp packet!!

Gone are the days when a player looked at one of our bhoys the wrong way,the team would o been on top o him.. SAD days indeed.

hail hail
BFT

Stokes shouldnt be allowed anywhere near Celtic Park unless of course he is playing with Hibs....

Surely we can aim higher than Kyle...

arytic or paul67, will we be signing more than 1 ? and is rvn a goer?

beaumontbhoy

The papers this morning were linking RVN with a £5 million move to Galatasaray, But I couldn't find out if that was the fee or the players deal.

Mackyboy

-------------boruc----------------
-hinkel---LOOVENS---CALDWELL---FOX--
-ROBSON---crosas---NGUEMO----mcgeady
--------fortune-----samaras--------

So should he have played an ill Loovens, an injured Fox and N'Guemo's secret twin who isn't away at the African Nations Cup?

Guys, Kevin Kyle? Get a grip. Killen is better than him and he wasn't even good enough for our reserves.

nakamura-san

sense at last.

Hail Hail

wgs/ krakobhoy

there's rumour on kds of a defender signing for us early in the week

the name Jelen was mentioned , a polish defender

any info on the player?

Mazy

JungleJim @ 7.57

Appreciate your support of the manager but a result like yesterday's, at home, against the bottom of the SPL table team is NOT acceptable for The Glasgow Celtic at any time. ...GFG

Kyle and Skippy in the SPL may be more effective than the two outside the box guys.

Of Course TM using this pairing?

for a man who was a no nonsense defender our coach appears clueless in organising a defence.
pragmatically if you set up a defence not to lose a goal you wont lose the game, none of the lineups tried gives me any confidence of getting a clean sheet from the goalkeeper out.
it isnt hard to do even with players of limited ability who can be coached in how and where they should be, how to close down etc.
i fear for the rest of the season and in truth i fear for us on tuesday , on a heavy pitch against a wee team in their cup final against this sorry lot we put out can anyone say with any confidence we can keep a clean sheet.
a manager who doesnt inspire players, has no tactics,doesnt know his best team means the league has gone, the experiment has failed and we need to draw a line in the sand for his tenure and go for a coach who can turn things around , see the faults address them quickly and get us sorted

RVN - £5m for a 2 and a half year deal, no fee involved, works out around £55k a week, even for 6 months i think we could recoup that with increased attendances, merchandising, letters alone must be about £40 a go

Bugger, 2-1 to Cameroon.

The wee man might be away for a while yet.

I know it's hardly enough alone to merit a game but seemingly Kyle is a big Celtic man which would help when facing the hun.

Eustace and Spartim,

see BFT's comments. I am not suggesting for one minute that Kyle be signed as a first choice striker, merely an addition to the team as a no nonsense get in your face type that we need.

I believe the signing of Big Jos, is a key one for the back, because he seems this type of player. I also believe that you need these type of player sprinkled throughout our squad. They do not have to start games, but be able to come in when needed.

gsu

Go tell the Spartim on January 17, 2010 8:09 PM
RVN - £5m for a 2 and a half year deal, no fee involved, works out around £55k a week, even for 6 months i think we could recoup that with increased attendances, merchandising, letters alone must be about £40 a go"

with his injury record it will work out more like £220k per game

Maisy Dribble,

Jelen is a striker with Auxerre, player of the year last eason for both club and country. Has a dispute withhis club at the mo and has only played a handful of ames for them.

The defender is a different player, no name given yet.

maisy dribble

Ireneusz Jelen is a striker not defender.
He had gentleman agreement with Auxerre. He was going to change the club.

greensideup

I am not suggesting for one minute that Kyle be signed as a first choice striker, merely an addition to the team as a no nonsense get in your face type that we need.

Im with you on the need for a hard target man but we can do better.

Personally i would sell sammy as we have enough wingers.

It seems we have to sell before we buy so im not expecting a decent striker unless skippy can be ushered back fit from germany and onto a plane to teeside airport.

I do think anton wants kyle but the suits may be bricking it to agree.

Hail Hail

Can we get JVOH back from Hull? At least he scored when he was fit...

Im not saying its a goer or that given his injuries we should go for him, but these little snippets dont stop you dreaming....

Oh dear, the Kevin Kyle rumours once more rears its ugly head.

Errrm but did we not just let go of a Kevin Kyle doppleganger in big Killen, that most supporters were more than happy to see out the door?

Remember when he scored more than Kyle has in his half season at Hibs?????

As I said before, the day Celtic NEED a Kevin Kyle is the saddest day of my Celtic supporting life.....and to see other Celtic fans, if not quite advocating signing him but accepting it, then that says it all for us, the team and the Club as a whole.

Mission Downsize Accomplished!

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

PS - Sorry PF, but deep down you know that's true as well mate.

chico5

I'm a big Celtic fan and I'm fairly sure you don't want me lining up against Rangers :-)

Maisy Dribble

They may mean this guy but he is a striker come winger. Ireneusz Jelen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireneusz_Jele%C5%84

Vikings look like joining the Colts and the Saints as seeded teams making it through to the final games in their conferences. The Favre story would be awesome if he made it all the way butthe dome in New Orleans is a big ask.

I hope the Jets upset the odds down in San diego later but I cannot see it somehow.....

As for Celtic...... after a day of Cricket, Rugby, NFL, Premiership and Spanish Soccer I would like to say I am feeling more positve about it all.....

Eustace, for a minute there I thought there had been a 'Life on Mars' style time-warp and we were back in the early 90s.

Macari's not back in charge, is he?

ANYONE
Lets say if BTM dont make it as a celtic manager, who would you have as the boss???
And lets be honest we are not going to get the top managers(yes we should be looking at that kind)but it aint going to happen, not from this board anyway..

My shout would be paul lambert and neil lennon, i know i know not enough experiance but just have a hunch they would do a write good job for us..

theyhavethexfactor

HAIL HAIL
BFT

zbyszek/bambi

thanks for that

never heard of the player TBH,

anyways ,hope the defender is Ottesen though, he looks the part

cheers lads

Mazy

TTT,

Killen and Kyle, apples and oranges.

gsu

nakamura-san

no but we will soon see the same size of crowds if the board dont do something positive that does not involve either 14 year old slovaks or trialists from the league of ireland.

Hail Hail

For anyone who missed by John on the 5 live tonight its worth a lsiten if for nothing else that n to raise awarenes of what he went through and why he left it so long.

The JOHN HARTSON FOUNDATION @CHECKEMLADS.COM

Burnley78 have you tried to cover the games with the NFL Game Center (american spelling)murder

maisy dribble

No chance for signing Jelen. He will stay in France. PSG?

Cameroon came very close to exiting the ACoN there thought Paul Le Guen was trying to help us out again, a very poor Cameroon team won 3-2 v Zambia.

Nguemo didnt play.

By Eustace P Merryweather on January 17, 2010 8:21 PM
nakamura-san

no but we will soon see the same size of crowds if the board dont do something positive that does not involve either 14 year old slovaks or trialists from the league of ireland.

Hail Hail

Agreed. Sad but true.

Hail hail.

Rigobert Song, he is appalling and i should know ive been watching rank rotten CB for 5 years now

Burleysfrontteeth

While i want anton mor to be a success if we lose the league to the huns he walks with lawell.

i would then want David hay for a year with lambert as his assistant and appointed heir.

Hail Hail

Despite acquiring Fortune, Fox, Thompson, Nguemo, Zhi and Zaluska, before the recent addition of Ki Sung and Hooiveld, all while our rivals remain impotent, we are nine points behind

Yet you want to let the man who bought all those players and made us a worse team spend more money?

It's clear to me from yesterday that Tony Mowbray allowed key players to leave. Players with the resolve and determination you see in Championship winners. Barry Robson and Gary Caldwell should never have been allowed out the door without ready recruitments available. There wasn't a ball winner in front of what passes for our back four yesterday and it really showed.

Why not sell Robson at the end of January once N'Guemo was back and Brown was fit, or even better not let him leave at all? Why not keep Caldwell for another two weeks until Hooiveld was ready to play? Why allow Killen to leave and Sheridan to move again on loan with Skippy on the treatment table - does Mowbray really think he can take a squad with only two strikers (and I use that term advisedly) in it into a crucial SPL tie?

I have tried to support the manager (as I did Gordon Strachan when all around were calling for his head) but anyone who thinks he's taking this team anywhere except backwards is deluding themselves.

Of course we can point to an excellent controlled performance against Rangers, but then do we really want to be another SPL team who raises their game against the Huns but under-performs in the bread and butter ties?

To allow Tony Mowbray to continue to sign the wrong players is to take Celtic down a road it will take years to recover from. If he fills the required striker position with (the strongly rumoured) John Utaka then I'll lose what little faith I have left.

Evening all.

The biggest thing that cracks me up about Lawwell/the board is the hypocrisy. They want £4M-£5M for McDonald, knowing he is not good enough, but would never spend that on a player coming in. Pure hypocrisy.

The other thing that annoys me is what is the long term business plan? On the face of it it appears to be to be debt free, have a great balance sheet but a sh!te team going nowhere. With dwindling attendances, disillusioned support and an SPL that is rapidly losing any credibility.

Utaka is Fortune mark 2. Fortunately he's on £80k a week so there's no chance of us signing him.

Did BTM not say that we were a club that didnt need to sell its players................ so we'll be buying a striker while skippy is unfit....

The GB got it spot on yesterday and with hindsight it looks to be an act of incompetance that will hurt us even more than we expected.PL is quick to remind us that we can't compete with the wages in England and this is obvious.Our ace was that we could give players the oppurtunity to win honours and play at the highest level in the champions league.Now comes the time we are desperate for some class how can we expect to attract the type of player we so badly need - one look at the table and our failure to even qualify from poor Europa league group (never mind failure to qaulify for Chamions league)cannot be an incentive to the level of player we so badly need.I still believe that the league is not over but we continue to throw it away.I expect though that our level this transfer window will be mediocre players (but hopefully good enough for the SPhell) if we buy at all.To sell first team players without replacements (and to sign someone injured to replace somoeone who was fit) is yet another sign of incompetence (if not downright arrogance).Our problem right now is that PL has too much power and it is hurting us big time.To whom is he answerable if not the supporters and shareholders ? In the summer we expected a class manager but PL could only manage to secure someone who had just got his team relegated,says it all really.

nakamura-san
Glad to hear it, though I can't see a man described last week as the biggest flop in the Premier League commanding that salary again wherever he goes.

cody, me neither. But even at half that we would be walking away.

EUSTACE P MERRYWEATHER

Very good shout..

But BTM mite be out of a job after tue nite

Anyone grumbling about Kevin Kyle would do well to remember that Kevin Kyle knows how to score against SPL defences, which is sort of what we're needing right now. For a couple of hundred grand, I'd take that for now. Why is a guy from the French second division going to be automatically be better? Why so down on guys who can do what it takes in the SPL? That's the level we're playing at, and the level we need to start scoring and winning at. FOR NOW. It's a short term solution, a reasonably cheap one. Win the league, guarantee the CL money and games, and you can start building. But you've got to have the carrot to dangle at the players you want.

That lad that played up front for Falkirk yesterday that they signed from Leeds looks like he could cause a few SPL defences some bother. Why can we never find one of them?

Burnley'78,

Can't see past the two top seeds this year - Colts and Saints.

But it's great to see #4 still producing at 40.

Haven't read any of the blog, but has TM explained why he took man of the match Crosas off yesterday?
Many of the folk around me were incensed when Crosas came off and quite rightly.

Darren O'Dea - the new Caldwell? I.e a goal of a start to the opposition.
Aiden McGeady was very poor yesterday.
Final ball letr us down on a great number of occasions.
Our midfield was waltz through on a number of occasions because of Landry N'Guemo's absence. Should that be Zhi's job?

On the plus side - Ki looks like a find and Zhi and bargain. Can't fault the players for work rate or effort, but that wee bit of quality/composure in front of goal and we would have won comfortably yesterday.

Very disappointed yesterday.

I was hoping to be on theie coattails by now, but we're still in it.

GET THE DEFENCE FIXED NOW.

TLV

Good evening all.

First log on after yesterday's disaapointment so apologies if any of this has been covered already. I'll try to be brief.

Given the apparant strengths, both financially and player-wise, of each of the 2 main Glagsow teams it is pretty hard to accept that we are 9 points adrift. But regardless of how we ever got into this position, to my rather simple mind the question is 'right, what must we NOW do to win the league'.

Let's start with our first choice 11. Personally, I'm reasonably happy with 9 of our 11. Assuming we're talking 4-4-2 then my view is -

Goalie - Boruc or Zaluska - at the moment, not an area we need to concentrate on

At The Back - Whilst I don't think that ANY of our defenders are that fantastic, in terms of an SPL winning side I'd say Hinkel, Loovens and probably McManus are OK. If Hooifeld can walk the walk like he can talk the talk then I'd have him in place of Mick. Left back remains our problem area. Fox and Naylor are equally not good. O'Dea left back might be a better option. Ysterday showed that he's certainly not a right back!! SIGNING REQUIRED!

Engine Room - In terms of numbers we are not short here. For SPL games where invariably we're looking to win I'd certainly go with any 2 from Nguemo, Crosas and Ki in the middle with, again any 2 from McGeady, McGinn and Zhi on the wings / supporting the forwards. I'dlove to find a role for Paddy but given our present position I just can't see it. Prsonally, not too concerned about the return of Brown.

Points win Prizes, Goals win Points - For me this is the make or break position. I see a lot of positives from both Fortune and Samaras. For big Sammi in particular I feel that he regularly becomes the whipping boy for the fans, often undeserved in my view. I know he comes a bit deep more that I'd like him to. But he always tries to keep possession, play the right pass, etc. So, overall, I'd say that 1 out of these 2 should feature alongside not a forward but a STRIKER. I want someone who doesn't stray outside the 2 penalty box lines either side of the goal and generally doesn't chase back more than 35 yards. Stay up fornt and in the middle. Score goals. Win games!!

A lot of the above may be the wine talking. But in summary I don't think that we are that far away from being a decent team.

Finally - will we win the SPL? Well, we're 9 behind now. Providing we win our game in hand and take 4 out of the 6 points from the last 2 derbies we;'d then be 3 behind. I don't think that they will win every game. With half the season to go I think it's reasonable to predict that they might lose 1 and draw 2, meaning they drop 7 points. So I think that we can only afford to drop 3 more points if we want to be champions again. Or drop 4 but start scoring a barrowload of goals! Surely that is do-able?

And finally, finally....(AND THIS IS MY MAIN POINT!)
Although one of my first thoughts when i woke this morning concerned our current leagus position, I asked myself "if I had my time over again, would I rather support us or them?" I think you know the answer.

Jobo.

Yesterday was disappointing and has been well summarized by many,for me the most worrying aspects are the lack of a leader or a Celtic man on the park and the total mis management of our youth development process.We had two Scots in the team and I include Aiden,he was born here no matter where he plays his international football,we need some players who understand what this is all about,the battle against the establishment like the Lions,Davie Hay,Roy Aitken,TB,wee Murdo (get well soon)Paul McStay,even in the bad old day of my youth ,Bobby Evans,Sean Fallon the list is endless,we have to many nice players no Tims in the team.Yesterday we needed a left back was there no one in the reserves or u/19s instead of Lee Naylor,we needed a striker same comment,what is going on,irrespective of who the manager is,we have invested a lot of cash in youth development with little return and that is a club management issue.Losing this league will consign us to years of mediocrity and it will be a long hard road back.Changing a team in mid season,nine points behind (OK a game in hand)is a huge challenge,failure will mean the end of TM and a season ticket take up collapse for next season.

Hail Hail

oneantonrogan

Yes we have no strikers bar skippy and things are getting a bit desperate but the fact remains Kyle is bottom six spl standard.

We must win the league and at least avoid total shame in europe.

Kyle i would accept if we were the huns, skint.

Against any have decent centre halfs he looks what he is a huddie with the ability to score the odd goal.

He may be a big lad with heart and a tim but if the board and Anton mor try that one on us i expect trouble.

Burleysfrontteeth

If celtic fail to defeat one of the worst teams in div 1, then i would expect Anton mor to walk. However we are bad but not that bad yet.

Hail Hail

The Lenten Visitor - Crosas did take a knock to the heel that he seemed to be feeling, so whether it was a precautionary measure, I don't know, I haven't heard or read anything but it's the only thing I can think of.

Aparently tomorrow is "Dark' Monday' officially the most depressing day of the year.

In what looks like another gig for the benefit of Celtic supporters Bobby McFerin is playing the Glasgow Concery Hall tomorrow night. Much like the Billy Connolly gigs set up after the first derby game of the season.

The McFerin gig is part of the Celtic Connections festival thats just started in town.

It is hoped the services of Kevin Bridges, Frankie Boyle, Mogwai, Spiteri et al are not required for a gig in May....

Dont worry.............

notthebus at 6:54 PM

You might be right about big Tony. But all I can see is a guy who is really unhappy in his job.

For all the criticism of the team, and there are a couple of duds in there, we should still be winning this league out of sight.

oneantonrogan,

Chris Killen - 16 goals in 25 appearances for Hibs. 2 goals in 26 for Celtic.

It's one thing to score in the SPL when playing for one of the smaller clubs because the opposition play a fairly open game and try to attack.

When playing Celtic a lot of them go 10 across the back and shut up shop to try and get a point. Suddenly guys that looked like good strikers can't buy a goal, because they don't have the space. Or in Killen's case, the space or the pace.

Kyle I imagine would be similar.

There are too many Ghuys on here stuck in the Captivity of Negativity. (To use a quote from Prison Break) Things are moving forward, players coming IN & going OUT. That’s progress. There are definite improvements in our play. It takes time to Gel.

Look at MAN City, (to quote Wiki) During the summer of 2009 the club took transfer spending to an unprecedented level, with an outlay of over £100 million on players Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Kolo Touré, Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tévez and Joleon Lescott. Nothing too shabby there.

They bumped their manager Mark Hughes, bringing in the Heavy Weight Manager Roberto Mancini, (Wiki…Fiorentina, Lazio, Internazionale, Despite being sacked and out of a job he ironically was named Serie A’s top coach for the previous season in September 2008.) Nothing too shabby there.

After 4 wins in a row they lost to Everton 2 – 0 & their forum seems to say “we had an off day”. Who was at fault? Mark Hughes? The players? Roberto Mancini?
Man C are sitting 5th and Everton 10th
If things start going south for them, who do they blame?

My point is..nothing is ever perfect, even when big money is spent.

So let’s take it on the chin, and get behind TM and the team. Don’t get stuck in the Captivity of Negativity. And Damo, you make a good point about Aiden….” if 4 players are around him surely others have an abundance of space & should rise to the call”. Cmon Bhoys you can do this. As Bob the builder says “Yes we can”.

I’m with you Eyes wide open, Stay Positive.

PS, re the Man City, Robhino substitution, one post said…Quoting Robhino..
"I'm very happy about the interest that Barcelona have in me, playing in the Nou Camp it is much easier to be the best player in the world than at City,"

I'll tell you what, there is an easyjet flight leaving 11.30am tomorrow from Liverpool. Stay in a hotel (on me) and I will pick you up and drive you to the airport. You are not even the best player in Manchester you dreamer. Please get the hell out of my club because you're taking the #iss now.

2nd PS
Seems there was a Brawl at the Newry v Larne Cup match, causing the match to be abandoned.

The No8 looks well offside at the moment the head is kicked in!
Wonder if the No 8 will get a Prison Break?
http://www.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=159125&sid=66763899bfb2634fb1388cd8cbcc7f94

Hail Hail

Lord give me strength. All this talk of Kyle being the man to lead our front line....
...this is a club who, in my time of attending matches, have had strikers of the ilk of, Nicholas, McClair, Judas, MacAvennie, Larsson et al...but somehow Kevin Kyle is the cure to our woes!!!!

I need a lie down.

Mr X

as someone very rightly said

When kyle signs the downsizing is complete

Hail Hail

Kevin Kyle is the modern day Scottish equivelant of Wayne Biggins

Eustace P Merryweather,

Agree with you 100% on Kyle. He only scores against the small teams. We need someone who can score, week in, week out, against any team in the league. Kyle hasn't proven he can do that.

Hamilton
St Mirren
St Johnstone
Falkirk
ICT

He's your man. But he hasn't scored against us, them, Hertz, Hibs, Dundee Utd or Motherwell.

Make of that what you will. Part of the reason of course is that Kilmarnock are at the same level as the first group of teams in ability but struggle against the second group thus limiting his chances. But surely he's had chances against all the teams in the second group. And yet he has no goals to show for it.

I'm not convinced on him. A sidewards step if ever I saw one.

weeminger

Thanks for that.

Maybe we will be glad to see Brown back at some point soon? Will be interesting to see how that one pans out. Fingers crossed he regains the form he had when he first joined us.

TLV

the amount of times yesterday where crosses didnt beat the 1st man was criminal, and in the final 3rd the decision making was really poor. I would just like to know what the players are doing at training every day. surely they must practice crossing and finishing. jeeezo Celtic, all season i've watched you batter teams without the final product. a wee bit more practice in training please.

oh and another centre half, this Stilic fella and Robbie Keane would be nice

imdreamingofabettertomorrow.csc

An honest tim...

Go away. No one wants you here.

Mr X,

You could get a job with the daily record my friend.

Show me one quote on here where anyone has said "Kevin Kyle is a cure to our woes"

Everyone who has said anything positive about it seems to agree he wouldn't be the long term answer or first choice but could perhaps give something thats badly missing at the moment.

Several of Chris Killen's 26 appearances were about 5 minutes long, weren't they? I'm not WANTING us to sign Kevin Kyle, be serious, but I'd still be more confident about him being on the end of a ball into the box than either Sami or MAF right now. That's assuming we start putting balls back into the box again. Kris Boyd is bottom six SPL standard, as the quality of the teams he manages to score against shows (and the one he came from), but let's be honest, if he wasn't a torn-faced Ranker, you'd kill for someone like him in your forward line right now.

As I keep pointing out for the hard of thinking, this doesn't mean I want to sign either of them. But everyone else gets one from time to time. Our main striker came from, oh aye, that's right, Motherwell. Someone who can get on the end of a ball and turn some of these 3935894 chances into a goal. That'd do for me, whether we sign him from Real Madrid or Raith Rovers.

Jobo,

I love your optimism that we can still win the league, we can't............ it's a lost cause. Your right, they wont win every game (in fact they were very lucky yesterday) but we wont either no matter who we sign. Beacuse.............. and I have said this many times, Mr Mowbray thinks you can come to scotland and play football, MON taught us you can't, you need big guys up the spine of your team, you need hard men in fact you need nasty people in key positions.

Tony doesn't play the game that way, he's Mr nice guy as a person and nice guys don't win in football. look at the succesfull managers nasty people every one of them.

chico5

Ok, I'll quote you on Kyle - "he wouldn't be the long term answer or first choice but could perhaps give something thats badly missing at the moment".

We need a quality striker, a poacher, with pace. Not some fourth rate striker plodding along at Kilmarnock FFS. There's enough players at the club who are taking a wage and are not even good enough for the squad never mind the first eleven.

Aim high and we might succeed. Aim low and we will surely fail.

By larsson4me "players coming IN & going OUT. That’s progress."

Uh, doesn't it depend on the players? If we shipped a team full of league winners for a team full of SPL journeymen would that still be progress? Transfers for the sake of transfers isn't progress. Of course teams need frequent refreshing but buying strikers who don't strike and midfielders who don't tackle and left backs who don't seem to know what left backs even do isn't progress.

My negativity isn't based on a propensity to see the worst in everything but on what I'm actually seeing wearing Celtic jerseys running about like lost weans.

An honest Tim

You can go to bed

By the way, I should point out that I like Sami, mostly. He took his goal well yesterday. But the way he plays, whether by accident or design, at the behest of the boss or off his own bat, doesn't make him the kind of poacher we need right now. MAF is the same. It's like having two Kenny Millers without a Kris Boyd.

Margaret McGill,

Can't see any problem with the content - but the link does stretch the page which causes problems for people using mobile devices. Perhaps if you us the link creator to produce a shorter link? Or post without it?

By oneantonrogan on January 17, 2010 8:55 PM

I share your frustration. ;)

Jobo Baldie on January 17, 2010 8:39 PM

Concur with most of your thoughts, particularly with a CF staying predominatly in the middle.

I suspect over the longer term, BTM achilles heel will be the balance of the team, we will end up with too many fitba' players who want to hold on to the ball for too long rather than ship it off to a team mate quickly and then take up a sensible position for a return.

The current personnel are good enough to win the league (a goal poacher better than Skippy being the exception!), the fundamenatal question is can BTM get the balance right....jury out at the moment!

The power of pray will be required for the league this year.

Arytic

sorry for not replying earlier. Now I am very confused. Do you work at Celtic??? Are you friends with a player or shareholder???
What I meant before is that your Sources are from people at work.
Mmmm, this is a real mind puzzler...

Hail Hail

P27

Rumour on Mon The Hoops that we've bid £1.5m for Phillipe Senderos from Arsenal, out of contract in summer.

Concusive proof that the free kick awarded to Falkirk right at the end of the game yesterday was not a free kick.

Free Kick?

Very rare you see free kicks awarded for that even when a player does leave the box with the ball in his hand.

Strange that.

oneantonrogan,

I couldn't give two hoots where a player is signed from either. But Kevin Kyle is playing in our own back yard and hasn't scored against anyone in the top half of the table after a full year in this league. Skippy did it against everyone and anyone while he was at Motherwell.

Is Kevin Kyle going to score goals for us? He's only hit the net once in his last 10 league matches. What's the point in signing a player to do a job if the signs point to the possibility that he isn't going to be up to that job?

Aren't we trying to trim the squad of 'deadwood'? Wouldn't there be a pretty reasonable chance of him becoming another deadwood statistic by the end of the season? If we're going to look closer to home for a player to get us through the next 6mths then I'd prefer it to be Stokes. He has the midas touch so far this season.

An honest tim, I'd take either of our ex-Derry City players over the guys we signed from Chelsea or Real Madrid in recent years :-) Now run along, you must have to be up for school in the morning.

"Clearly, European progression is key in enabling the Club to achieve its financial objectives."
Petr T Lawwell 14th August 2009.

Follow the money

http://www.iii.co.uk/

(-> search Celtic PLC -> Thanks Gordon_J for the link heads up.
Beggining to think you lot were sexist!)

Can someone explain to me why Celtic plc shares rise the less likely it is that Celtic win the league?
Are LLoyds buying celtic shares?

Thanks
Crystal McGill

Patrick27

What's puzzling you?

Ayrtic is always bang on with his news about signing's before anyone else know's, what does it matter where the news comes from

Apparently we have bid 1.5 million for Senderos tonight

Does anyone know the criteria for qualification in the african cup if 2 teams are level on points.

If Algeria draw tomorrow and Mali win they'd both have 4 points. Mali would have a better goal difference but Algeria beat Mali in the head to head.

Just wondering who'd then go through, hopefully Algeria as Boughera would be away longer, plus i've backed them at 28/1.

CSIAL, aye, I'd rather take Stokes an' all (assuming we aren't looking beyond the SPL). But I'm just trying to play devil's advocate against the doom-mongers, try to spin something positive about the idea of actually signing an actual centre forward when we have none (Sami and MAF do not play centrally, and Sami doesn't even really play forward!). I'd rather give Mark McGowan a shot (stop sniggering cody, if you're still reading, a year is a long time in opinion-changing!) than sign Kyle, to be honest.

EN

Im just in and seen the Cameroon score.

Did they say if Landry injured or just benched.

Hopefully the later.

Old Mali did me proud ,-(

Im onto Egypt as winners now. Ha.

The rise in Celtic's share price has pretty much matched the rise in most of the big markets over the last six months so I don't think there's anything unusual about it.

Margaret McGill,

Us? sexist?? Never. We could do with a few more posters of the stndard of our regular female contributors.

And your question on the share price? Haven't a clue!

Everton and Getafe were linked with Senderos last week. Aged 24, Arsena then AC Milan on loan last season.

Not the old heid I was after but Id take him. A few blunders in the EPL if I remeber right.

stop sniggering cody, if you're still reading

You could at least get the boy's name right!

We're far to frugal a club to be throwing money on duds like stokes, he's not the answer couldnt cut it at Championship level, next we'll be looking to get big Dion off the tele and into the team....

EKBhoy; 9.01

Re the current personnel being good enough to win the league with the addition of a goal poacher, I'm not so sure that its just down to balance. It doesnt seem to matter which central defensive pair we play, one of them always seems to be instrumental in giving away a goal, and like Saturday we too often give the opposition a goal of a start. I hope and pray that Hooiveld will help but he will need an equally good partner. Maybe Thomson will do that job but it is a lot of pressure on a young lad. We still need a CB and a goalscorer IMO.

Having looked at this here is another one for the anomaly of decisions going for and against that the BBC decided not to cover.

Poor as we are we are not being allowed to do anything in the league.

http://footballsfootball.com/WeknowSFA/bbc-blatantly-biased-celtic/

should be in the news tomorrow

oneantonrogan,

I presume you mean Paul McGowan?

Mind you, Shane McGowan would be a good addition to our forward line.

After yesterdays performance, I just can't help thinking that, in the same way McLeish is widely regarded as "lucky", TM seems to be naturally "unlucky".

Stupid, I know. But the longer this goes on, the more the evidence piles up.

When will we see the ball bounce off someone's bahooky and go into the net for us? Or for us to break up the park and score when their defender falls on his? Or squeezing in a 1-0 win after a period of sustained pressure from the other side? (Admittedly an unlikely scenario in the SPL.)

Maybe all this talk of new forwards, and better, bigger center halves is all a waste of time. Maybe someone just needs to send Tony some lucky white heather.

Ach well, I suppose supporting this team was never meant to be easy.

cody, whoops, aye, can you tell I've been at the drink?

yay for us sensible female contributors who know about stuff!

Gordon J, he's used to hitting bars, so maybe not as potent as we require

Estadio Nacional

Thanks for posting that picture. Not even close, but it didn't have to be.

Francis Andrews, as posted yesterday, was desperate to be the new Andy Davis. Yesterday, it didn't quite work out, although he will be happy with his day’s work and with the result.

I hope he’s used up all his hunpowder for the season.

But if you see his name on the list of officials for one of our games, or one of theirs, expect the worst.

I'd be surprised if we were to sign Senderos given TM's comments about 2 left sided centre halfs

Notoneofthepeepil

suppose you are right I wish arytic was as good as predicting scores, we would all make a fortune at ladbrokes on CQN

anyway I'm off

Hail Hail

P27

EN

Good work getting that freezeframe of the Boruc 'handball'

Scottish Football-Rotten to the Core.

It's a disgrace.

Hail Hail

When we look at certain areas to blame we are missing the point.
Our shape and system are not going to produce goals.
To cover for clearly deficient central defenders our centre mids play really deep and offer no support to our forwards.
Our 2 forwards yesterday have talent but neither is a front line leader.Both tend to drift wide and stay deep.
Our defenders are the best ballwatchers in the league.On numerous occasions yesterday as they came down our right side and had guys going to our backpost our 2 central defenders fixated on ball carrier on flanks and Naylor strolled back leisurely .A better opponent would have punished us for this,
We play lots of pretty football in non effective areas,
We look like a reactive rather than proactive team.
On many occasions we are caught standing in both defensive and offensive zones causing us to lose goals and miss chances.
We need to start moving as a 10 man unit.
A central defender to start controlling our backline would be a big start.
On the plus side Ki looked quality his delivery is excellent and hopefully our players will gain the confidence to attack positives zones to take advantage of this.
Young Thomson while raw did something our central defenders haven't done in years in that he attacked the ball.For that alone he should retain his place.
On the criticism of Boruc i thought he was fine yesterday and made a great save to keep us from going 2 down.I think he has been poor for us this season but yesterday he was good.

Estadio Nacional on January 17, 2010 9:16 PM

Senderos? We haven't a baldy!!

Boom! Boom!

Ayrtic

please tell me you are not Hugh Keevins.

Close to Mordor but not Govan persay. Must be the Beeb or STV?

MWD

Gordon J

I agree with you I reckon the local support in the Louisianna dome will be too much for the best number 4 since Bobby Murdoch.

I used to love watching him hold together the Packers on those freezing nights in Wisconsin (only ever saw it live once though !. I doesn't seem quite the same seeing him in a dome in Minnesota.....would be a fantastic story though.

I am going over this week to the US and looking to take in an NBA game (Denver Nuggets v LA Clippers) at the Pepsicenter which is owned by the family who are trying to buy our Arsenal. They own both the Avalanche Ice hockey franchise and the Nuggets.

I had hoped the Broncos might have been in contention next weekend but they blew up midseason after being 8 and 0 at one point. The thought of the white charger on the pitch after every score by a team wearing orange white and blue is not one which make me inclined to really get behind the local team anyway. I just hope it doesn't catch on over here following the Bronco's wembley visit this week........

Go tell the Spartim

No I have just been watching on Sky. I hope the game at Qualcom Park is more of a contest than the other 3 have been. The last time I was in that stadium the Buccs won their outrageously one sided superbowl against old Jerry Rice's Raiders.....all prior to the Glazer's bid for global dominance.

Whilst a striker is needed we really lack a leader on the park.

A striker will bring an end product to our play that has been missing over the last few months.

A leader on the park will bring DRIVE, CHARISMA & POWER to our play that has been sadly missing over the last 18 months.

Listening to the new bhoy Jos he seems to have these qualities which i believe will sort out our defensive deficiencies.

But we are crying out for a LEADER both in central midfield and attack.

Build the spine of the team so it has DRIVE, CHARISMA & POWER and the rest of the team cannot help but be inspired. The nearly men like Danny Fox, Hinkel & Crosas will become inspired and drive the team on.

Fix the spine.................fix the team

So we needed 3 parts initially this window to fix the team, we've got one CB and we need another and a striker, and they both need to be fit right now....

A new CB, cause Jos still wont be ready, he might feature against Hibs i suspect, is desperately needed for Tuesdays game, we cant afford to be knocked out at this stage...

i can see why the Vienna player didnt move, Napoli signed one of their strikers already...why are we always so slow out of the transfer blocks.....

Bureacracy (?) caused Ki to miss the huns game just what are we waiting for with the other signings

Bhoydell @ 8.57 -

Disagree and don't understand your comment that we won't win the league "no matter who we sign". There are 2 factors that will determine who will win the league - how many points we pick up and how many points they will drop. We only have 2 more games against them. So even if we signed Messi, Torres and Rooney that won't have any effect on their games apart from the 2 Glasgow Derbies. But it WILL have an effect on how many points we will pick up from our own games. So a couple more decent signings might enhance our chances of picking up close to maximum points from our remaining league games. And as for the other side of the coin, if they lose any of their first team squad (and I think they only have about 18!) then this can only help our chances.

EKBhoy @ 9.01 - if the power of prayer is all that it will take then I'll do my part! Being an EK Bhoy myself I'll personally take care of the St Leondard's portion. You can have the rest!

Jobo

Go tell the Spartim, anyone signed before Tuesday won't be eligible for the Morton game, they'd have had to have been signed before the original date the game was scheduled for.

EN
Was not surprised when linesman gave that as in first half he gave every decision against us whe n the evidence was contrary,

sheffieldbhoy:

sorry, my english writing skills are pretty poor, dont know how i passed an o grade in it.

i totally understand that fox, nguemo and loovens couldnt play. i was merely posting the team against rangers who played so well against the team against falkirk.

the point i was trying to make, but ill make it a lot clearer is this

BTM knew that by selling caldwell and robson, and nguemo being away, that he would have to make 3 changes to the team that played so well the previous week.
he couldnt foresee loovens situ, but he might have known about fox, which leaves a manager having to make 4 changes.

he gambled on it being falkirk at home imo. and it backfired sensationally.

taking the money for caldwell and robson looks good business sense, but in a football sense it now looks a horrendous mistake.
the transfer market is open for 2 weeks yet, so why not keep them until 2 days before ???
scott brown may then be fit, nguemo may then be back, the asian newbhoys could have settled a bit more. i goes on and on.
robson gave us a grit and determination that others responded too, he even created chances,
and dont forget all our play started from caldwell, we now have no CB who can pass a ball, so our style has had to change, and change in a radical way.

football is a simple game, our two best ever managers realised this and played more or less the same team most of the time.

BTM, has given himself a bit more rope imo. or if the 2 players were sold before he could buy in, then the boys upstairs really need brain surgery. all for the sake of how much ???

shows me how far we have fallen, and how the biscuit tin really is back.

By Landry's doo on January 17, 2010 5:34 PM

Great post. Having a go at a Celtic manager has almost become a sport in its own right.

Last season I argued that there was no point changing the manager without the policies he works under changing. I said a change of manager was like changing the label on a bottle but not the content.

This year we have a new manager who is at least trying to change the content and has already provided something more frothy and palatable.

The policies are not going to change to the degree where we can buy higher quality content and until the conditions that shape the policies change any Celtic Manager is constrained by them.

Those conditions however are changing, but until then it is just daft to expect another change of manager to produce a different result in terms of the quality improvement we all want to see.

We are turning into a very ungrateful support, that busy looking at what is missing we miss what we have and what we are.

In that respect I posted this on KDS tonight:

The days of Sugar Daddy clubs are drawing to a close and Rangers are a Sugar Daddy club whose Sugar Daddy days have ended. No more £18M post Kaunas gambles with the bank's money to beat us to a title.

In days to come and as the Celtic History is written, the linkage to the MIH money, that itself came from bank money MIH can no longer pay back, will emerge, folk will come to realise that unless the Rangers debt is paid IN FULL, the trophies and titles Rangers bought by it are discredited.

At least when Celtic went into debt to get to Seville and enjoy MoN's triumphs WE PAID FOR IT. When Celtic asked us to buy shares to help service the debt WE DID. Never forget that when the hun crows at you, Tell them on banners high. AT LEAST WE PAID OUR WAY. We paid our way and whilst we were paying our way you cheating huns bought another title.

Dinky Diamond 9:15pm

Not sure about Nguemo, he looked ok before he went off in the first game, didnt come on tonight though. Played well in fort game.

The Ivory Coast and Egyptian FAs have been on the phone to me tonight with lucrative offers of employment as a witch doctor. They want me cast my powerfull black magic curses on their future opponents by betting them.

Im waiting on Napoli for two coupons, it will finish 0-0.

EN

EN,

I'm waiting on them for an Atletico/Bordeaux/Napoli treble.

I think it's oot the windae...

Jobo,

I think the point I am making, is made by Paul67. We already have the best players in the league. The issue is the tactics and the style of play, we wont win anything playing "nice" football with no steel, in Scotland. This mananger plays "nice football" so we will continue to be a soft touch.

I hope I'm so wrong but I doubt it.

Auldheid

Well said but do they have the intelligence or humility to admit the discreditation of those wins on the basis of money we didn't have.

When their own supporters groups are calling for bank boycotts and they can't tell the difference between an 18 million quid bid for the club which doesn't even clear a major portion of the debt WHICH THEIR CHEQUEBOOK MANAGER HAS PARTIALLY CREATED ON MURRAY AND THE OLD BANK'C SAY SO.

They still think referees are pro-Celtic after getting that farcial penalty last weekend.

By mackybhoy from the village on January 17, 2010 9:35 PM
Both Robson and Caldwell could have got injuries, risking the whole Jan window trading strategy. On balance over a longer period, there was little option imo of course.

Fan-a-tic 9:34

We have always had referee decisions go against us. It's an unsavoury fact of life!

In recent years we have had the quality and leadership on the park to begate the dodgy decisions.

In the last 10 years name 3 leaders we have had in

defence
midfield
attack

name one out of our current team that fits the bill in any position, not one in each area but one LEADER inour entire team.

If you follow my argument then you follow why we are 9 points behind against the WORST hun team in recent memory.

Look at it this way.

Namr one LEADER in the hun team. Its not too hard they have more than one.

That is why we trail and until we remedy this problem it is why we get comments fro TM that we played good we "just didn't win".

Have leaders....................WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By the way, don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but Francis Andrews was also the linesman who advised Craig Thompson to send Mick off for his tackle on Andy Driver in the CIS Cup game against Hearts earlier this season when Thompson had just issued a yellow. I thought I remembered the name from somewhere, but just remembered to google him just now.

Lurgan53 9:21pm

We are trying to expand our brand in the bald community. Read in the papers this morning that Peter Lawwell has realised the bald market is huge and is keen to expand our market share.

Special BaldCSC hats are being knitted by thousands of Vietnamese kids as we speak and should be available in the superstore by the end of the week, the club shop will of course email people when they arrive.

PL was heard to mention that the break through into the bald market will be our best result of the season if it comes off.

EN

I remember this from Kojo.

“Meanwhile,at another part of the Steamie...

Ah see the Tea Leaves,as usual... like Alyss..
Nevah Lie!
Guid olde Alyss, she Knows, ye Know!”

Most likely I’m putting 2+2=5, but in the last line is he saying Kyle is going to the Huns.Or am I clutching at straws?

G A - K K. ???

clunks67
Did not in any way blame him for our crap performance.
Just said i wasn't surprised as he did seem to favour one team everytime.
My earlier post at 9-21pm echoed your viewpoint about needing a leader.

Celtic_First,

haven't read back on today's posts so don't know if you have posted the Valdano anecdote yet or not.

If you have could you point me in the right direction please?

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

Talking of awful linesman, Valencia are back to the Valencia of old, hammering Villareal 4-1, going on 10-1, and Valencia have had 2 goals wrongly chopped of for offside.

Bhoydell -

we won't fall out here ( mainly due to the fact that I'm about to run away to bed!) but my reaction was to your post at 8.57 when you said that "we wont either no matter who we sign." That statement would suggest that there's no point in our club making any any more signings this month?

What I am saying is that we DO need to sign perhaps 2 more, straight into the team, guys' of whom 1 should be a goalscorer. And if it so happens that one of those 2 also has balls of steel (or maybe we already have that with Hooifeld?) then all the better.

Almost tempted to start a new link - great footballers that also had a hard side to them (the old 'hard but fair category) ....Daniel Fergus was certainly one and dare I say it King Henrik was also known to mix it when need be...Davie Hay would also make the short list along with Mark Hughes. Any more....

Jobo

By KrakowBhoy on January 17, 2010 9:43 PM

The truth thank God does not depend on their intelligence or humility.

We just need to keep repeating the idea that we not only paid our way, but they took advantage knowing their situation, so that even Ewan Cameron understands what not paying their debt really means.

Hope The Celtic Minded lads re focus their banners at the real enemy.

From Collins English Dictionary

http://www.collinslanguage.com/results.aspx?context=3&reversed=False&action=define&homonym=-1&text=leader

Leader

1. a person who rules, guides, or inspires others, head,

NAME ONE

There is not one person in the entire team that can be classified as this. Not one.......................

Auldheid @9.35,

Thanks for that post. I wish the support would realise the truth of what you are saying. Maybe it's just me or my generation. I'm inured to how we're treated. But to lash out at the manager (especially when no one offers a realistic alternative is, to me, just plain daft.

auldheid:

surely we didnt have to sell, "risking the whole jan strategy" ??

thats what i mean about the biscuit tin being back. if BTM couldnt buy before he sold, then that is a disgrace.

after all WGS bought millions of £s worth of mince. and he never sold much.

i think on the whole, the transfers were good for everyone, but by having to change 5 players into a team that arent exactly confident, i reckon its looking like the timing of the transfers were good for rangers too.

Any couponers on. Did we lose by 1 team yesterday and yet again a late goal

Been avoiding CQN - I'm so scunnered..but reading over the last few posts - I feel even more perplexed...

Our situation is SFA to do with referees, luck or SFA..

I'm begining to feel like a West Brom fan from last season - but I appreciate BTM is only part of the problem - The Board are culpable - and i hate to drag up steven Fletcher but it all goes back to last January.

However, folk like Lawwell need a strong manger to challenge him..I don't think BTM is looking like a strong Manger...then again if he was he may never have been appointed..

Root and branch stuff required...ROOT AND BRANCH!

Jodo,

What have these guys got in common

Sutton
Lenny
Thomson
Johan

Even WGS realised you need the hard men in your team.

The managers in recent times who think you can play football in Scotland include, Mowbray, Barnes, Le Guen

BTW I agree we need two more players BTW !

greenlion.

My understanding is that 1 game was 'void'. Of the remaining 7, 6 came up and only Blackpool let us down. They led 2 - 1 with 13 minutes to go but it ended up 2 - 2. I had permed all 8 plus any 7 from 8 so just managed to cover my stake.

My first week as a CQN couponer so happy with my personal 100% record.

But lost more after betting Celtic at minus 2 goals!!!

Jobo

EN

Do you think Valderammo would be a goer too?

Nifty hairstyle like.

oneantonrogan on January 17, 2010 9:45 PM

Cheers for pointing that out but I have to admit he deserved to walk for that one.

That didn't make his performance yesterday acceptable though. I sit at the complete opposite end of the ground from where the foul on Hinkel took place in the first half, right under his nose. I could see it was a freekick yet he gave a bykick. As for pulling Boruc up for the handball ( which pics have proved wasn't ) that beggared believe! I posted last night that you can watch every game of live football on sky on any given weekend and you will see a least half a dozen TIMes were a goalie still as his hand(s) on the ball outside the area when throwing or kicking and they will NEVER be pulled up.

Oh and as we all know once again we were denied a penalty late in the game which could have got us the 3 points.

Oh and once again complete and utter silence from our club.

I've said it before, maybe we should just all post our season book money to Mordor. Get their debt down to zero ASAP because the refs are going to make sure we have no chance of winning the league until their debt is gone.

I'm not stupid or paranoid.

Enough is enough.

It's TIMe to fight back.

Hail hail

Auldheid
Re 'risking the whole jan strategy'

Always interested in your views as they are well thought out my concern is we let go a fit defender and signed an unfit defender.

Do you think that's bad planning as we could have Hoiveld in 3 / 4 weeks ago, or was he not our first choice ?

Any thoughts

Bhoydell -

my final word on the subject.

Let's hope that Hooifeld has it! And if 2 more come in and have both skill and 'dig' then that'll do me.

Lat's face it - what choice do we have? We are Celtic supporters and even when this involves blind faith I can't think of any other alternative.

Goodnight all - weather forecast planned for 7.15am!

Jobo

I dont want to be controversial here but from my view at the front of 407 yesterday, Artur DID handle it outside the box. I have seen the foto link above, but my honest opinion is that the one that was penalised WAS outside. Sorry , not popular I know, and Im away to get my tin helmet

Do we know for a fact that the foto above is the one that was penalised?

As for, the view that tons of goalies do it and arent penalised, I agree.

I really wish Barry Robson was still there. We need a leader on and off the park

Not happy with team or manager at moment, but are we overreacting?

Win our game in hand (and that is currently a big IF), then down to 6 points. Not over by any means, but body language of management and players not looking great.

Unfortunately, unless we do a Caley on Tuesday, Mogga will get the season and perhaps next as well, so IMO we are stuck.

Anyway Lambert is quietly doing his trade well. Having beat Norwich 7-1, with his travelling Colchester team, he returned home to Colchester yesterday with his Norwich team and gubbed them 5-0 (also missing a pen!).

A future manager shaping up nicely, perhaps! Shame we do not have that tardis handy to jump forward 2 years and get Lambert and bring him back! Or is he ready for the challange now, should we come calling?

CRC

gl2,

It wis me. :-(

Not a good day all round really for me. Although EN did warn me before I got him from the game of the fate that was awaiting me.

Has anyone on here any idea of the team that BTM actually wants?

We seem to be picking up the odd player but I cannot see any structure to it all.

MAF = Better quality version of KM.
ZZ = Quality player out of contract, picked up to late for the EuL and then given very few games.
Ki = Played as a defensive MF yesterday, coming in cold for a game with more than its fair share of "Ninja" tackles, big ask all round.

One bright spot yesterday was NMcG, schoolboy error included.
He seemed the only one who looked like he was out of second gear.
Actually looked like he was putting in some effort.

Shipping both WF and BR looking like a mistake.
Squad looking very thing after a few injuries in key positions.

Need to get in some new FBs, both left and right.

If Loovens and new bloke cannot hack it then we have wasted £4mill plus on two nearly men and PL's taxi moment gets ever closer.

Yesterday's jaw dropping moment was the big lighthouse of a CF nearly take JT for pace around the outside. Scary or what, 16 stone ex Leeds journeyman shows an 18 year old skeleton what pace really is.

Fair play to JT for getting in a challenge but it was heart in the mouth stuff at the time.

Something is wrong at the club at the moment.

Where is the youth policy?
Who is coming through to force a game in a team that is struggling?

No fight, no heart, no leadership or football intelligence.

Danny Gall

Watch the youtube video in the link and ask yourself if it is in or out.

It is also what the linesman would have seen if he had been doing his job properly.

http://footballsfootball.com/WeknowSFA/bbc-blatantly-biased-celtic/

GL2,

Blackpool done us when they lost an 84th min equaliser.

Yet another bar scudded mate.

We seem to be wearing the same boots as our Strikers!

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

Danny Gall,

I have friends in 107. North Stand Lower. In between the halfway line and The Green Brigade. They said the same thing to me after the match.

Lurgan53 10:03pm

We have already exploted the crazy hair market and the latest stats for the past year show that our target demographic are loosing their hair at an alarming rate.

So for me Id guess we will pass on that one.

EN

The Token Tim

Sorry. Got dragged to Liverpool One to buy a new coat for the hardest-to-please twelve-year-old in the world.

I'll go and get the book now and post the story.

Thanks for the reminder.

KrakowBhoy

thanks for that

wow -its clearly inside, and its clearly the linesman's view. Shocking

Gordon J : re Shane McGowan, with those teeth he might be more at home in the Rankers team photo.

ggh

DG

AB was outside with his standing foot 6" over the line.
He danced about 1 yard inside the box before taking the kick.
Accident waiting to happen.

He had charged out of his goal with the ball in hand looking for a long throw to get us back up the park.

Nobody was in the clear so he stopped 1 yard inside the box and then started to dance about.

I was sitting in the North Stand in-line with the 18 yard line.

The JT vs ex Leeds lighthouse foot race had been all too visible.

There are loads of things needed to fix our problems.

We definitely need a LEADER, preferably in the midfield or second best - at the back.

We definitely need a box to box midfielder. WE ARE NOT SCORING GOALS FROM MIDFIELD. - This is always a serious handicap to any team.

The manager is making incomprehensible substitutions - He continually sacrifices a midfielder (Crosas for example) for say a forward - but in doing so he lets the other team into the game. This is unnecessary as a dominant midfield will stay dominant normally and it is much safer and value for the team to sacrifice a defender.
His subs really have been bizarre.

CRC

I posted this on previous post in reply to a post earlier in the day from PF Ayr.

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

PF Ayr @ 9:09

hard to argue with that.

Opened the Sunday Herald at the tables page this morning and that is when yesterdays (and this seasons woeful performances) really sunk in.

P PT
19 38

If the second half of the season mirrors the first we are looking at 76 pts. Only twice since the SPL's inception have we accumulated less than 80 pts and that was in seasons 98/99 & 99/00.

If Rangers Mirror the first half of their season they are looking at 88 pts (doubling their 44 pts as they stood at 19 games prior to gaining 3 yesterday).

With goal difference taken into account we will need 89 pts to win MINIMUM unless they implode which I cannot see happening.

So basically we need to win another 51 pts from our remaining 57 pts available.

Does anyone out their believe we will only drop 6 pts between now and the end of the season.

Without an implosion in Orcdome then I reckon on current form we are pretty much stuffed.

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

just thought it was worth a wee re-post in reply to you.

MWD

CSIAL as I said on Friday I was going for Blackpool but you had picked them first.....thank F' for that..... I think thats twice thats happened.

When you left me on Saturday Vmhan came over.

TTT we just need one to get over the line to return a profit. I was going to back Everton on Saturday as a single and backed out of it as I did not fancy Man City going there. Sums up my season backing. Im thinking of backing the huns and who ever we are playing every game until the end of the season it might bring us luck

Auldheid on January 17, 2010 9:35 PM

Agree with most of your posts so I appreciate the nod. After reading some of the bile last night something had to be said.

Ridiculous.

Hail Hail

Krakowbhoy,

I watched the BBC highlight on the link. It didn't show the incident. Unless I missed it but I'm sure it wasn't there.

Gordon J

My bhoy always posts much more sensibly than I do, though that is maybe not that hard!

I've got to say i'm still scunnered after yesterday. Both on and off the park we have big problems.

Firstly, I've sat in 111 since the away fans were moved to where they are now in 1996. Not once have I had to ever show my ticket after entering the stadium to get to my seat but this happened at half-time yesterday. Anyone going down the stairs yesterday had to produce their ticket to get back up to their seat, obviously in some sort of attempt to clamp down on the Green Brigade. I've stated on here in the past I was getting peeved off with the hangers on coming over to join in with the GB and causing problems but I've grown to accept it as in my opinion the benefits they bring to the area outweigh the down side. Just what is the big problem with guys trying to bring a bit of atmosphere and colour to Celtic Park. Yesterday the intent was clear from the stewards and Police to make things difficult. Their attempts also at trying to stamp out the rebel songs will just backfire as the more they try and stamp it our the more the songs will be sung. Why not give the Gb an area of the ground to themselves to bring the colour and atmosphere they create every week and without a problem. This may have been a problem with 53,000 season ticket holders but with attendances dropping a markedly as they have this shouldn't be too hard.

On the Park I've been thinking we have been improving a good bit over the past 6 weeks or so but I fear the failure to beat a second-string rangers side at home has dented our fragile confidence. To fail to beat the bottom of the table side for the second time this season is form that will ensure failure. I don't want to blame the shockingly biased officials for yesterdays result as we should be able to beat Falkirk come what may.

We are going to need to win maybe 10 or 12 games on the trot to win this League and right now I can't see this from the group of players we have. Rangers now are well set for this years treble, which would give them 5 trophies from the last 6. The people running the Club should begin to question either their strategy or their own competence (even both) if this situation occurs.

Maybe the pre-match display from the GB yesterday was too close to the bone for some on the board?

Paul67,

Your headline comments are either incorrect or are evidence that the manager is out of his depth. I happen to agree with you and also think that if you swapped the squads that the cardigan and Tony Mowbray currently have, then we would be a lot further behind than 9 points.

I also agree with many fellow supporters that Tony is a dead man walking. He has shown no evidence that he will be able to turn things around. In fact, he has shown plenty of evidence with his team selections and tactics to suggest the opposite. We need to get in a manager NOW who knows how to win and cannot accept losing.

Paul Lambert is a good shout and would do for me along with Lenny and Larsson as his assistants. Hey, maybe Lambo could talk Henrik into playing up front till the end of the season!!

ParkheadcumSalford,Auldheid,Landry's doo

Thanks for some sanity and rationality amongst a lot of the now expected but in my humble opinion misguided rants.
I don't need to repeat the criticism of the constraints placed on the teams success by the board,others can put it more eloquently than me.
We needed a completely new team even more than MON did in his first season,even with quality signings a team needs to gel and establish understandings.We ha

An experienced CL quality cd out of contract in summer!!
Van Buyten
An experienced hard tackling midfielder who can shoot out of contract in the summer!!
Hitzlsberger
An experienced poacher goalscorer dying for playing time not getting a game!!
Van Nistleroy

Makes sense all round SSM get it done!!!!!

chris sutton is a legend

107 is not the best place to see that. 109/108 is bang in line and from a few rows back you would see it clearly.

The wee stand linesman if he were in line properly would have seen it very clearly. The TV replay in the link I posted above is not even close.

Ball throw up inside the area before the ball is kicked ON the line and his foot ends up outside the box after it.

No Infringements.

The linesman saw something the anyone in line would not have seen.

I know this because I used to work at CP as a steward and trust me at 109/08 you see the line perfectly.

The worst part of it is the 18 yard line is there to confirm it as in and that linesman saw something that is either inexplicable by TV and in fact the truth of the situation

or

what he wanted to.

Andreas Hinkel is now questioning the officials in the Guardian.
the article focuses on Celtic fan's anger which is what we have been doing BUT at long last the questions are being raised but not by our manager. As a guy who was on the receiving end of a horrendous decision two weeks ago, maybe he has had enough.

Here is a bit from the article from Hinkel:

Andreas Hinkel blamed the men in black. "Some situations, again, were very strange for me," the Celtic defender said. "We had enough chances [to win] but it is strange for us that week after week we have some strange decisions against us. Maybe that is adding to what is happening at the moment. You always try to give your best as a player, then something happens; I think it is not just one situation; week after week it is happening."

Hinkel pinpointed the lead-up to Falkirk's goal, rather than the late penalty claim, as a case in point. Celtic's captain Stephen McManus was challenged, illegally Hinkel believes, by the Falkirk striker Enoch Showunmi before the ball broke to the scorer Carl Finnigan. Georgios Samaras restored parity but Celtic could not secure a winner against the Premier League's bottom side.

Krakowbhoy,

My humble apologies. I think I'm losing my mind. I went onto the BBC website and checked their highlights. No wonder there is no sign of it on there.

My apologies again. A shocking decision right enough. Mind you, after his non foul on Herr Hinkel in the first 5mins we didn't expect anything from him. He knows which side his bread is buttered on.

gl2,

Is he your pie supplier...?

Any chance you can ask him to bring one up for me at the next home game. ;-)

By Moonbeams wet dream on January 17, 2010 9:22 PM

Mordor = Castle Grey Skull, aka Ibrox!

Keep the Faith!

Hail Hail!

Witsel who broke Wasilewski's leg few months ago was sent today off after getting straight red card for shocking tackle into the knee of the opposite player. It was the game against same Anderlecht team.

A leader?
Soft Celtic team.
Lafferty should have been booked with red the other day for his tackle on Hinkel's leg. But... Playing against many other teams Lafferty would not have have such easy game he has had against Celtic.

Celtic need 11 leaders on the pitch.

Chris sutton is a legend

It is not the bbc highlights - they didn't show it, that was their point. Look at the bit from Ch67 from the youtube bit further down.

Why are we being linked with another defender when our main concern is to get a striker? What does the Norwegian full back Rogne bring? another work in progress? someone who will not be an automatic first team choice? We need a few experienced players who can walk right into the team and hit the ground running. Works in progress are no use to us right now, that project is failing, we have not seen any progress.

Hello My Fellow Tims.

I have been reading the RVN talk for a few days now and he certainly WOULDN'T come to play in the SPL, he is injury prone and to play in the SPL would be too rough a job for RVN, he wants to play competative football so he gets picked for the Dutch national team and any injury would almost dent his opportunities in doing so.

WHY NOT spend the cash we were talking about in bringing RVN to celtic on an out and out goal scorer that we badly need. TM has signed Fortun'e, Fox, Thompson, Nguemo, Zhi, Ki Sung and Hooiveld so I am positive if the board gave TM the cash he would spend it wisely and bring in players that would do a job for celtic and win back the league from that disgra