It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what was different from last night’s performance to our previous outing against Ross County, and so many this season. Kris Commons was on from the start, but our tone of play was different, even as Kris limped on the side-lines during the opening minutes.
How that tone was set is worth examining. Celtic were denied an opportunity to train on Kilmarnock’s new artificial pitch, in a move demonstrating the hosts legendary welcome and sportsmanship, but when Ronny Deila spoke pre-match he made his position clear, “The pitch is great”.
One of my pet hates is hearing a player or manager establish a reason for failure before kick-off. Record your complaints about the pitch, or even being denied the chance to become accustomed to it, and you’re subliminally setting yourself up for a fall. It didn’t matter if a pitch is great or not, the manager and players have minutes to convince themselves it’s good enough for them to put on a show. Nothing got in the way of Celtic’s can-do attitude yesterday.
Kris was phenomenal. He got a hat-trick at Rugby Park last season and deserved no less this time, only the crossbar, twice, and some fine goalkeeping denied him. In a team short of goals, his focus on the target is unceasing. There were important Champions League games when he didn’t make the team under Neil Lennon, and there will be occasions when the game doesn’t suit him, but he’s the required fulcrum against a packed SPFL defence.
We’ve touched on this theme a couple of times but it doesn’t seem to be getting traction. For two years shareholders now newco Rangers have been advised to step aside, or as now, sell control for £18m, in the best interests of the club. No deal will be done until the best interests of the controlling shareholders are considered, any approach which doesn’t recognise this is no more than a distraction.
Newco have four directors, two non-execs, who do not work in the business on a daily basis, and two executives, who do. The latter, chief executive Derek Llambias, and yesterday’s appointment of Barry Leach as financial director, both came from the Sports Direct stable. They are the men working on fixing the funding gap. It is inconceivable they will overlook the interests of investors.
On 27th of this month newco will face an SFA disciplinary hearing over an alleged breach of a written agreement not to allow Ashley influence at the club, in place before they appointed two former Sports Direct staff to the board. I would be very surprised if the Sports Direct owner didn’t have the club’s short-term funding and his long-term security secured prior to that date.
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call them Legislation Warsaw. But very apt!
Be silly
Be honest
Be kind
Above to JIMMYNOTPAUL from previous article
Remember kids – a troll is for life, not just for Christmas.
BMCUW.
Brilliant.
I couldn’t have done that if I tried.
Maybe predictive text is more clever than I thought.
antipodean red
Don’t think anyone’s gettin upset, just trying to keep the fud right, with the anti Celtic support pish he comes away with.
Whilst sponging endlessly from his gullible brother.
BMCUW
\o/
PAUL67
I only saw nine minutes of highlights from the game,but KC seemed to be back to his best.
No idea how he failed to score but by ‘eck it wasn’t for the lack of effort.
I was very impressed by that line-up. Imaginative,and seemed to pretty much click.
I’m in a happyclapping mood after that!
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPYYYYY NEW YEAR!!! CQN
HAIL HAIL THE CELTS ARE HERE……
Emilio Izzaquire…. Celtic love you more than than you will know….. Oh oh oh oh…
Hail Hail… In Ronny we trust x
JIMMYNOTPAUL
It’s certainly more clever than me-must be,it frequently makes me look like a right choob!
Not a hat I need any help in that regard…
BOGNORBHOY
Cheers,mate. Massive cheat due to c&p. All’s fair in love and war and the chance at a podium.
Congrats on your hat-trick yesterday. Doubt that’s been done before.
NZB – Beelin’ and greetin’ Troll Heids,
Love the moniker.
Now the more paranoid troll hunters among us will be right on at least one occasion.
HH to you.
Ashley will keep Rangers poor and in need of loans until his hearing is out of the way, what can the SFA afford to do when the club are at a precipice and living day to day.
Commons maybe the Fulcrum as you say, however 2 strikers would maybe give the same return, especially against packed defences,playing where he does denies a striker a place, push him wider and play a striking partnership.
Strange he is the main talking point last night, Henderson was the star for me, but hes not out of contract!!
Bmcuw…. I’m going to try and make the Belfast Hootananny… Be afraid…. Be very afraid! Hail Hail bro
Bloody predictive text,and in that post of all posts. And I read it first too!
A hat,ffs. Not that,then?
Ah well.
Just listened to John Kennedy on SSN, big man speaks very well. I hope he is around the club for a long time…
Just watched the BBC highights and I noted that in almost all cases no player took more than 3 touches of the ball. Usually while still moving forward (rather than standing wondering what to do) ie collect/touch for space/pass or shoot.
To me it looks like we’ve being doing work on reading the game when off the ball, as the decision making seems a lot faster.
LARSSONSE7EN
That will be brilliant if you can make it,mate. I really look forward to it.
And to you explaining to my Dad just how good that meal was at Cinq Sentis.
If you have trouble booking a flight there,I believe ferries are still running from Troon,45 mins from Glasgow Central. You won’t be the only CQNer on it.
Paul67,
I only saw the 1st half of the game last night (was playing 7s at 9pm so…) but what i did see greatly pleased me.
KC much more like himself, young Henderson very much involved, the ball being played around at pace and often very precisely, closing down at pace, good timing of pass and runs etc. Should have been at least 4-0 at HT.
My only complaints are that KC should have scored 1st goal and we should have won by a larger margin….
If only because i bet KC 1st scorer and Celtic -2!
Overrall a much better perfomance. 1st half at least.
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
jimmynotpaul
12:10 on 6 January, 2015
I will try again. Does anyone know yet why Kris Commons didn’t travel with the rest of the squad for the winter break.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Possibly because he made it quite clear some months ago that he was moving to play for Neil and I would, therefore, suggest CELTIC might not benefit from him being with them on the trip …. I also think that, despite the media shoite, that’s why he hasn’t been in the team lately …..don’t get me wrong, would love him to stay, but what do you do when he wants to join Neil …!!
Didn’t see the game last night. Unaware of the score, I switched on the car radio at 9.58pm and listened to the post match chat on shortbread.
The talk was of Celtic’s problems scoring. Must be a major worry for Deila. Scepovic unconvincing, Stokes played wide left, Guidetti, a loan signing, now misfiring. No goals from midfield. etc etc
As the conversation moved onto Kilmarnock, I was pretty sure we had a 0-0 draw at best, and I’d be looking forward to some heavy duty mine-shafting on the blog.
Then the analysis switched to Kilmarnock. The talk was about how they failed to show up in the first half, how the second half was only marginally better, how their manager would be disappointed with the lack of fight in his team. Why didn’t they stand up to Celtic etc etc
By this point I’m bewildered. The Kilmarnock analysis was negative, strongly so. Surely Celtic had pumped them? But then, the Celtic analysis was negative too, problems scoring goals and what not.
It was only when Ronny was interviewed that the score emerged – a 2-0 win for Celtic – a convincing victory, featuring perhaps the best first half performance of the season.
Seems the pundits expected more of each team, or something.
There. Glad I got that off my chest.
Very noticeable in recent games and particularly last night how most of our players when receiving the ball looked to take two touches at the most, control-pass-move wherever possible.
Keeps everyone on their toes and easy on the eye.
Hopefully the start of a something which will benefit us in the big Euro games, particularly away from home, where we have been conceding possession cheaply far too often for as long as I can remember.
HH
Joe Filippis Haircut
10:14 on
6 January, 2015
67Heaven. The rules for the huns are different for them than everyone else in Scottish football they are being held by the hand every inch of the way any other club would have been booted out by now.The sad thing is they will return eventually in some form or other but many good fans will have been driven away from the game by then as they will have no interest in propping up corrupt Scottish football.H.H.
Maybe us good fans (from all clubs) could try one last time to let the suits know what they could have if they treated cheating clubs “without fear or favour” or actually abided by their own rules.
We should dedicate 2 consecutive weekends (so nearly every team has a home game) wherby all fans who have been staying away due to the corruption do the opposite of boycotting and turn up at their teams home game that weekend and protest in the stadium.
If we were to normally have 30,000 at a game and 45,000 turned up the suits would surely realise they are losing 15,000 nearly every home game because Scottish football is being run for one team only.
If all clubs fans participated then even a rise of a couple of hundred fans at lower league games would register with the suits.
Everyone is moaning about the fact the game is corrupt but only a few fans are trying to do something about it and even they are sometimes slagged off on here but at least they are doing something.
This would not need any organising on the day as people would turn up to watch their team playing as usual so all that is required is 2 consecutive weekends to be picked and then let the power of blogs, facebook etc do the rest.
larssonse7en & BMCUWP,
Re Hootenanny,
There’s still some seats available with Flybe from Glasgow to Belfast City – £50 odds return Saturday to Monday.
67 Heaven
Sometimes the truth is quite surprising:))
KRIS COMMONS did not travel with the Celtic squad to Spain this morning.
The midfielder has been given compassionate leave following the death of an uncle.
The Parkhead side flew out to Gran Canaria for their winter break that includes friendly matches against PSV Eindhoven on Saturday and Sparta Prague a week today.
Commons, whose contract talks have stalled, was the notable absentee when the players gathered at Glasgow Airport.
The 31-year-old was Man of the Match last night after making a surprise return in the 2-0 win over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.
However after the final whistle, the former Scotland star was told of the death of an uncle and was immediately given time off by the club to travel south to be with his family.
Speculation continues to surround Commons’ future as he enters the last six months of his contract and is now free to talk to other clubs.
Ronny Deila insists the Hoops want to keep the player and insisted negotiations are still ongoing.
“We’ll see, we’re working on it,” he said. “Talks go on.”
weeminger
great minds;)
HH
Bmcuw
Ha ha…. That meal is about the only thing I remember from that trip to Barcelona….. Amazing it was too Hail Hail amigo x
traditionalist88
12:39 on
6 January, 2015
I was about to say the same to you. :)
Commons ?
What exactly is there to work on?
Celtic either want him or they don’t. They know what he can offer and its a case of matching the players demands or telling him to go get his sel estimated worth elsewhere.
My guess is he’s a goner!
Dr m…. Great post and wonderful idea
Caltontongues – that need booked way way before the January pay roll… Which will be paid…. Unless I’m an employee of sevco… Ha ha…. hail hail troops KTF X
CALTONTONGUES
And waiting till Monday to fly back allows the chance to see The Australian Pink Floyd the night before.
Amazing band,they even have Pink Floyd’s stage and light show from on of their tours. And note-perfect.
I’m so tempted but there’s no way I would last a Saturday,Sunday,TAPF show and then catch my flight on the Monday. I’d be better simply applying for a cooncil hoose on The Murph,nae chance of getting home!
Btw…. Should it not be called a HOOPSenanny???
Bmcuw
That little snippet has almost sealed the deal!
DR M
You know,that is a fantastic idea.
Apart from anything else,it would be interesting to see how the MSM-always keen to promote our national game-reported it.
Do they promote the idea to get as many people as possible into our stadia,or do they tell their readers that Scottish football supporters are nothing but Rangers-haters?
I think they would tie themselves in knots over this.
Thought our performance was great last night. First half was one of the best from a Celtic team for quite some time.
I was hugely critical of Ronny after the Ross County game, but more of that and he’ll convince me!
Killie were poor, yes, but I loved our attacking attitude and confidence on the ball.
Re: the Huns. It was about this time in the original downfall (when everyone realised the doors were about to close forever) that mysterious international billionaires with severe doses of Rangersitis began to emerge. Cloud 9, Bill Ng…
I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the owner of the Fenian Sons (that’s their name, no?) has popped his ten gallon hat over the battlement at this moment. Someone, somewhere, is trying to convince the Hun hordes, their creditors, and possibly the football authorities, that all is well down Ibrox way. Moonbeams of success and wealth just there for the taking.
So, whatever you do, please buy our merchandise and don’t hit us with winding up orders.
Lets get something straight for some of our more fanciful,sometimes easily excited fans.Henderson was not MOTM
larssonse7en,
We’re on the 12.05 Going out and 17.25 returning (Good Recovery Time).
BMCUWP,
Going up to New Lodge on the Sunday, hence the Recovery Time :-)))
LARSSONSE7EN
It’s really only a dayoooot,as in Does emdy fancy a dayooooot?
But ACGR came up with the HOOTENANNY idea and provided a fleg to cast it in stone.
Said fleg is on a world tour at the moment,but it should be back for Belfast. It is a thing of beauty.
Does anyone know what happened to the results of that Celtic fan survey a while ago?