Since a couple of flat performances against Sion in the qualifying round, Celtic have reserved some of their most organised performances of the season for the Europa League, despite the lack of a victory. Honourable defeat in Madrid followed by more-than-credible draws against Udinese and Rennes suggest there is more to this Celtic team that we see in the SPL.
It’s hard to look forward to the second half of the season and the potential for knock out football in the Europa League but if Celtic get their act together, a win tonight could go a long way towards restoring the reputation of the club, and a few players.
How Neil Lennon responds to yet more injury absentees is difficult to imagine. I’m not expecting fluency from a makeshift defence and midfield, although Celtic Flourished in the Glasgow derby in similar circumstances on 2 January this year, but I’m hoping to see Gary Hooper and Anthony Stokes look more like a partnership. We need both players on form and enjoying their work if any progress is to be made.
Busy day ahead but the Hearts situation is possibly worth a discussion this afternoon. The scenario changes by the day at Ibrox but that conversation will need to wait.
468 Comments- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- ...
- 13
- »
Hail Hail To The Battered Bunnet (thumbsup)
They’ll be fireworks on Saturday…..
Return of Hooper-Stokes man-love required
Which one is Heath and which is Jake? (thumbsup)
philvisreturns says:
3 November, 2011 at 12:02
Quit any time,eh?
Philvis @12.03
You just took something beautiful and sullied it. You can’t play football wearing cowboy hats.
Bad boy!
U
voguepunter – I can quit anytime I want.
I just choose not to. (thumbsup)
Mon the Hoops!
!!Bada Bing!! says:
3 November, 2011 at 12:02
They’ll be fireworks on Saturday…..
Think of the overtime ,big man.
Kevin wants the return of the ‘Jungle’ ASAP!
Gonna stop being so depressive man! Im trying to work myself up for tonights game and your spoiling my mood :-)
ulysses mcghee – You just took something beautiful and sullied it. You can’t play football wearing cowboy hats.
O RLY?
What about this ladies’ man:
http://www.signspecialist.com/decals/mascot2/images/Cowboy%20Soccer.jpg (thumbsup)
Who said?
“I couldn’t tell you who is in the Celtic team anymore. I have taken no interest in Celtic or how they are doing since I retired from sports journalism”.
Well?
OK…clues
1. It was about 2 months ago
2. It was in Sharkeys
Well done…It was Gerry McNee (note – the refernce to Sports Journalism was all his and betrays the hallucinogenic nature of bending so far backwards that you can taste your breakfast on its way out.)
This is also the man (again I use that term loosely) who described the Celtic supporters in Seville as ‘….A stampeding herd of Wildebeeste ……..’!
Hail hail
Estadio
Cant agree Paul67, they can have their man-love on the bench tonight, my team below:
Forster
Cha Dan Loovens Matthews
Wanyama Kayal
Forrest McCourt Commons
Sammi (YES Sammi)
Phil
Ah – The Merchant City Movember Mascot
Fashion comes and goes…
U
Hooper looks disinterested Stokes tries but lacks the composure to be a top class player.
But for the spl when they are in tune they can be formidable.
Europe is a side show fir park for me is the more important game
To be honest i would play sammy up front on his own
Can’t do any harm
Sunday is the day
Hail Hail
celtic *o* lennon, I see where you are coming from. You know me and Commons, would have Paddy in too.
Hoopers habit of throwing his arms in the air at every nudge, tackle or missed pass really rips ma knitting, get OAN wi it man.
Just posted as last blog closed…..
The Durrant / Simpson tackle
Don’t you remember it wasn’t s tackle but a “horrendous tackle” as if the two words were one….it was stated thus in every single report or time it was mentioned.
Can anyone else help if my minds is playing tricks or not but as I recall on the day of the incident itself it was barely mentioned on radio as other than the player looking to have taken a bad one. In those days Sportscene / Scotsport was on a Saturday night. Again it was shown and got barely a mention in post match discussion. In the Sunday rags more or less the same.
However on the Monday morning all hell let loose and suddenly Neil Simpson was the most vile man in football and the vendetta to chase him out of the country got into full swing.
I’m pretty sure the above was the case or is my old mind playing tricks with me.
So even then there was clearly a Ludge meeting to set the agenda and it was, as ever, always pro-them.
Ciao ———
3rd consecutive day of torrential rain ———— way down south.
Europa news —-
Udinese are likely to play their full strength team against Atletico in Madrid tonight . Guidolin , the Udinese Manager , repeats that small club /small city Udinese want to beat big team /big city Atletico.. —– ” We will go for the win ”
Amazingly there will be 1200 Udinese fans there —- How many were in Glasgow ?
An Udinese win would be a great result for Celtic -especially if Celtic beat Rennes… Rennes will field a much stronger line up than they did in France.
Bayern 3 – Napoli 2 ——- Great game !
Paul67 says:
3 November, 2011 at 12:15
I would keep it tight and play on the break Sammi the only front man who can win offensive headers and hold it up for the midfield runners. Tell wanyama and kayal not to stray too far forward and tell the full backs only one you attacking at any given time
Paul67
3-4-3 or 3-5-2 for tonight I hope.
I just pray that someone up above is setting us up for one of the most spectacular seasons ever after the doom and gloom of recent years.
Keep The Faith. HH
My worry if we play the Stokes/Hooper pairing tonight (or sunday for that matter) is we get the dreaded 2 winger 4-2-4 nonsense. Rennes would tear us a new one if we do that IMHO and murderwell would drive up and the down the sand kicking our 2 midfielders to bits
voguepunter says:
3 November, 2011 at 11:48
Is embdy gone tae the game the night?………………………….kin a get a lift er ,mister?
……….
I’ll ” Lift” ye son!
Officer dibble rfc
:>)
Sammi to the rescue,,,,,gie us peace man for gods sake!!!!!!!!!
Hail hail
From Previous….
LiviBhoy says:
3 November, 2011 at 11:50
———————————————————————————————-
You got me wrong.
I was reffering to the, out-pouring of grief from the LL ala Durrant.
Also, was it not Michael Watt that sneaky sally assaulted ?
Re: The ‘Durrant’ game…I seem to recall that there was only one journalist who, accurately accounted the events from that day, Gerry McNee!
McNee’s account of the events was, as ferocious against the huns as Simmie’s tackle was!
Gerry McNee Hunskelper Extraordinaire CSC.
share
Watchin’ the ole ‘Frozen Planet’ last night, got me thinkin’ that one of those ragin’ bull elephant seals is what we need to strengthen the ole sieve.
Four tons of muscle and blubber on the hoof, only one winner.
Especially if he thinks Kyle Lafferty is after his ho’s.
DBBIA/PermafrostCSC.
celtic *o* lennon says:
3 November, 2011 at 12:23,
Correct.
Árd Macha
Damn!!
A winding-up petition against Hearts was set to be dismissed at the Court of Session in Edinburgh on Thursday, but the Clydesdale Bank Premier League club’s financial troubles meant first-team players were still awaiting their overdue wages.
Papers were lodged on July 29 by the Advocate General for Scotland on behalf of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, with Hearts confirming on August 16 that they had paid the debt after being threatened with administration.
The case appeared on Thursday’s court proceedings, but it was set to be dismissed in a rubber-stamping exercise.
However, it is far from the end of the financial predicament of Hearts, who are over £30million in debt, with senior squad members awaiting wages which were due on October 16.
With no home fixture until the November 26 SPL clash with Inverness, it will be up to Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov to stump up the cash.
However, the Lithuanian businessman earlier this week expressed his reluctance to continue to plough money into the club.
The players met on Wednesday for an update on their wages, only to be informed funds are yet to be released and no date for payment was forthcoming.
Players could be sold when the winter transfer window opens in January to make up for the shortfall, but only if Hearts’ valuation of any player is met.
If we start with Samaras, I will head back to the pub before a ball is kicked…
Estadio ,
Gerry who?
Was he ‘The Voice of a Football’?
HH
from Previous….
hen1rik says:
3 November, 2011 at 11:58
True m8 but remember our support are powerful and will defo play a part if the huns think they can spend and cheat to titles and get off scot free.
——————————————————————————————————————-
They’ve already clocked-up 3 so far!
From Previous….
LiviBhoy says:
3 November, 2011 at 11:57
—————————————————————————————–
How many season-books will the board sell if there are no huns on the menu ?
share
ibleedgreenandwhite1 says:
3 November, 2011 at 12:23
I never said sammi the saviour, I don’t need him to score just hold up the ball and win offensive headers. When was the last time stokes or hooper won a header with their back to goal?
better sammy playing than losing hooper or stokes for sunday
Lesser of two evils
Hail Hail
Competitive Record v French Clubs
« Thread Started on Oct 20, 2011, 6:29am »
——————————————————————————–
30/11/1966 EC A Nantes W 3-1 McBride (24), Lennox (50), Chalmers (67) 25,000 HT 1-1
07/12/1966 EC H Nantes W 3-1 Johnstone (13), Chalmers (56), Lennox (78) 41,000 HT 1-1
18/09/1968 EC A St Etienne L 0-2 34,000 HT 0-2
02/10/1968 EC H St Etienne W 4-0 Gemmell (45 pen), Craig (59), Chalmers (67), McBride (87) 75,000
19/10/1995 ECWC A Paris St-Germain L 0-1 30,000 HT 0-0
02/11/1995 ECWC H Paris St-Germain L 0-3 34,573HT 0-2
21/10/1999 UC A Lyon L 0-1 35,000 HT 0-1, Larsson sustained a broken leg in the 12th minute
04/11/1999 UC H Lyon L 0-1 54,291 HT 0-1
26/10/2000 UC A Bordeaux D 1-1 Larsson (25 pen) 21,318 HT 1-1
09/11/2000 UC H Bordeaux L 1-2 AET Moravcik (54) 51,242 HT 0-0
30/09/2003 CL H Lyon W 2-0 Miller (70), Sutton (78) 58,027 – Thompson had a 40th minute penalty saved
10/12/2003 CL A Lyon L 2-3 Hartson (24), Sutton (75) 40,125 HT 1-1
20/10/2011 EL A Rennes D 1-1 Ledley (70) 21,825 – Cha conceded a 30th minute OG
P 13 W 4 D 2 L 7 F 17 A 17
« Last Edit: Oct 21, 2011, 11:38am by winningemmell »
The Samaras haters are up early today,dearie me.
From Previous…..
LiviBhoy says:
3 November, 2011 at 12:02
—————————————————————————————————————
I remember a game at ipox when, young Brian O’Neil was on the recieving end of, 3 Hately elbows on the nose in the 1st half in front of the Broomloan!
share
I wonder what cruel stroke of bad luck will afflict us tonight? Will Fraser Forster slip on a discarded banana skin just as he’s about to tip a shot over the bar?
Will a Samaras shot heading just into the top corner of the net be cruelly deflected onto the post as a Glasgow pigeon swoops in front of the goal?
Surely surely…this is our night?
(don’t call me Shirley)
ASonOfDan says:
3 November, 2011 at 12:26
If we start 4-2-4 a few folk may beat you to the pub ;-)
Kevin wants the return of the ‘Jungle’ ASAP! says:
3 November, 2011 at 12:28
From Previous….
LiviBhoy says:
3 November, 2011 at 11:57
—————————————————————————————–
‘How many season-books will the board sell if there are no huns on the menu ?’
More than they will if they collude with any move to let huns neco stay in the SPL.