The most difficult period of the league campaign came in February. We came from behind to secure a draw at Aberdeen. That was followed by a bizarre game at Easter Road. An early Adam Idah penalty put Celtic in control before we conceded an equaliser on the hour and were then shredded by Hibernian until a second Idah penalty kick in added time secured the win.
Next league game was home to Kilmarnock, when the visitors left with a point after a 92nd minute equaliser. For me, that was the darkest moment. The seven-point cushion we had built up earlier in the season was gone, replaced by what would be a two-point deficit when Newco played their game in hand.
You want to believe Celtic will win the league, but I left Celtic Park that day with a feeling of dread. This was not ‘the 10’, defined by history, but it was a league title which would have significant impact on the future, and our trajectory was dreadful. I prepared myself for what felt like the inevitable.
That was 14 games ago. A defeat at Tynecastle under controversial circumstances, a penalty kick progression in the Scottish Cup semi-final, and a drew at Ibrox were the only blemishes on an impeccable record since.
If Kilmarnock at home was the nadir, the draw at Ibrox was the pivotal determinant in the outcome of the title. Newco went into the game with the hopes of winning and moving five points ahead.
Celtic dominated the first half but were ahead courtesy of two bizarre goals. Daizen Maeda blocked a clearance 25 yards from goal which whizzed in the net, then Connor Goldson conceded a penalty for hitting the ball with his arm – bizarre, as Connor is never penalised for that!
We were ahead, but not through methods which we could replicate. 10 minutes into the second half Newco briefly thought they had drawn level, before VAR intervened for a foul on Tomoki Iwata 70 yards from goal. Celtic were rattled and had that goal stood, the outcome of the season may have been different. VAR, for all its problems, is necessary for these moments.
Celtic left Ibrox with the draw they needed to keep the title in their own hands. Newco celebrated a late equaliser as though it was a winner, seemingly not understanding their best chance to take the title had just slipped through their fingers.
The remainder of our league campaign was more comfortable than you are likely to remember. Dundee gave us a challenging 15 minutes. Newco did the same for a similar period, but neither was able to test Joe Hart, never mind beat him during these periods, as Celtic defended a narrow lead. Those games aside, we scored 11 goals without conceding before the title was secured at Rugby Park on Wednesday.
Looking back, this title was closer than it could or should have been. Newco were so poor at one stage, they sacked their manager, yet we were drawn back into a battle after it appeared to be won.
There was a really telling point about where we are as a club after fulltime on Saturday. Historically, the presentation stage was setup facing the South Stand. This time, we had two stages and a second trophy lift for those in the North Stand.
When you win so often, you get to fine-tune everything about the process. You know what winning looks like, you prepare for it confidently and you look for marginal improvements. Celtic is a league winning machine, from going to Ibrox and getting the result, to giving all fans a chance to see the trophy being lifted and a thousand actions in between.
That is why we are champions today; that is what the challengers are up against. They spent more on player wages than us to compensate for the deficit in professionalism in all areas. Their plans for the season could have worked out, but it fell short, which will have harsh consequences. More on that another time.
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teams from same country cannot be drawn against each other, that i think means we have 50% chance of a german , english and spanish team.
https://x.com/CelticFC/status/1792593630592688154
CALL ME GERRY on 20TH MAY 2024 6:50 PM
Congratulations to you and your family.
HH
https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/37628341/champions-league-revamp-how-competition-work
Big Jimmy at 1.38 – a nice shout out for Melbourne Mick .
And here’s one for South of Tunis –
https://youtu.be/gpxmSUJNF_I?feature=shared
And yes , I know , Portofino isn’t South of Tunis
He does like to control the narrative does Brendan. A very useful skill to have as a football manager
Evening all.
A brilliant song with a fantastic sentiment.
Matt Monro – Born Free
https://youtu.be/VE-BYbkHWI8?si=5UVTWrWvPMOzfIPB
HH
Especially a manager of the big two in Scotland
CALL ME GERRY on 20TH MAY 2024 6:50 PM
Congratulations mate
singers, eh
Try Peggy |Lee
KINGubO
.
Belmont Brian & Clunks
Thank you 👍👍
HH
Regarding our prospects of winning the league as the season progressed, I was most worried when we dropped points after Xmas and Sevco had the mathematical chance of going top IF they won their games in hand.
Going to Ibrox, I felt we needed 4pts from the two remaining Glasgow derbies. A win at Ibrox would have been massive, but I was content with the draw knowing we had them at home to come. Our manager certainly knows how to win these games 😁
Brendan deserves many plaudits for our championship win though I don’t expect P67 to sing his praises. He seems entrenched in his views on BR unfortunately.
HH
If rangers had won the league this year and they could have – and that would have meant a massive financial shot in the arm for them- which would have put us on par with them or made them much more competitive – does this mean that the only difference between us and thems is CL money?
or have they been borrowing money they don’t have in the hope of CL money but beneath it all the infrastructure isn’t there to maintain a challenge without borrowing to gamble on CL money!!!
Don’t understand money or organisations and am getting a bit confused wrt mixed messages.
Greenpinata
“Another so called conspiracy theory found to be true decades later. The blood scandal of those deliberately infected.”
———————————-
I think you’ve tried this line on me before with the Post Office Scandal or Thalidomide but it just shows you’ve not been listening to what I have said from the start. All that follows this is stuff I’ve said before.
I believe in conspiracies. There are definitely conspiracies. The rich openly conspire to steal as much as they can. They buy up Newspapers and TV & Radio Stations to make sure their work is not openly exposed. They love to distract us with manufactured scandals from showbiz, TV or Sport to prevent us bothering our “pretty wee heads” with understanding how money works. And conspiracy theories play right into that.
I am glad that the professional and political bodies that took part and conspired to hide truth from the public in the Contaminated Blood Scandal, the Post Office Scandal, and The Thalidomide Affair will be prosecuted, and that compensation, however scandalously late it is will be paid to those who merit it.
I hope the same outcome happens for the Celtic Boys Club Historical Child Abuse, for the PPF Contracts Scandal, the USA Fentanyl Scandal, and for the countless other times that officials and politicians have conspired to delay the truth getting out or delay the timescale of payments so that most recipients are dead, just to save money. Every failed bureaucrat, politician or Board member who sacrificed their conscience to their employer rather than the public they served deserves to be sacked in these circumstances.
I hope Andrew Wakefield gets prosecuted for his MMR falsified data that got conspiracy theorists chasing a chimera that was invented entirely by him and not replicated anywhere. I hope the obscure US research scientist Judy Mikovits, author of “Plague”- an anti-vaxx best seller, who similarly produced false data to stay in a well paid job gets her comeuppance someday too. As should the people at Boeing who covered up data that showed safety was compromised and the Diesel car manufacturers who pochled their particulates data. I hope they get what they deserve. But remember Ernest Saunders escaped his full sentence and Trump is not yet in jail.
Every one of those conspiracies were exposed by dedicated public campaigners and, crucially, fellow scientists and doctors, with an occasional whistle blowing public servant or company employee providing crucial information to blow the conspiracy apart. Conspiracies, to be successful, require a tight cooperative group of co-conspirators. That rarely happens in Science and Medicine but it did with Thalidomide and again with Fentanyl and for even longer with contaminated blood, provided by profit-motivated private companies who were incentivised by money not to look too closely at the character and risks of who was supplying their blood, during an AIDS epidemic ( a time where epidemics were not automatically denounced as fake news by the brain dead)
But- here’s the kicker- and this should be familiar to you.
Just because there are conspiracies does not mean that all conspiracy theories need to be given consideration. If you do not give them consideration, that could be the sign of a closed mind and a dogmatic viewpoint. If you give everything from the Thalidomide scandal to the Flat Earth Theory equal weight, you will be joining the gullible who are so open minded they swallow anything they’re told and will bear the imprint of the last person they spoke to.
We all need some filters to evaluate the truth of every theory we are given. The best tools we have for that are science and evidence. If you only believe something because the people you like believe it, then you are biased and bigoted with no evaluative method. The SIFT method for spotting disinformation helps too.
S- Stop & think for a minute- don’t swallow it as fact, do not pass it on as fact just cos you like what it tells you and want to believe it’s true
I- Investigate the source- Do they have a track record of truth telling and evidence gathering before firing off. Is the source respected?, does the individual have a level of expertise in the subject? Does the organisation providing the info have a purpose? Is it tied to a political viewpoint? Would you still trust this source if it was telling you something that you disagreed with?
F- Find better coverage- what else is being said about the topic? Are there contrary views? How reliable are the contrary views? what do the neutral fact checking sites say?
T- Trace the claim to its original context. You may have gotten it from a social media pal who doesn’t do SIFT or a Troll who doesn’t care if it’s evidenced or not, or a bot site designed to spread disinformation and chaos.
Using Science, Evidence gathering, Fact checking and the SIFT method is no guarantee that you will arrive immediately at the right deduction but you don’t have to take a side straightaway. You can stand firm on the things you have evidence for, you can stand firmly against things that evidence has debunked but you can take a neutral stance on issues where evidence has yet to fully emerge.
Such as the Contaminated Blood Scandal until recently.
Conspiracies occur because we cut back on the regulations we set up to prevent them arising. After every bank crash we put in tight regulations in order to prevent the same thing happening again. We have the right to do so because we bailed them out after they parked their brains and made stupid decisions because they were bribed big money to be stupid. Within a year or two of imposing such restrictions, Industry and right wing politicians start to argue that we have too many regulations and profit, which benefits us all, is being stifled. So we de-regulate and we fuel the next part of the boom-bust cycle.
If anyone is still wedded to the coke addled conspiracy theories of Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, or the less harmful David Icke, then hell mend you. They’ve already been found out. There is no New World Order, Worldwide Jewish Conspiracy, Stolen Trump Election, or Fake Actors in Public Shooting tragedies,
There are holes in the JFK assassination theory, but almost all of the Moon Landing conspiracy theories have since been disproven umpteen times and Flat Earth is schoolchild level nonsense.
A wee P.S. of not much importance. One of the Racing club guys, Alfio Basile, who was sent off against us applied this century to be manager of a team in Spain called Flat Earth FC, because he agreed with the views of the chairman who had re-named his club as that. Mad argy bassas are very prone to conspiracy theories; they just elected one of them
JACKIEMAC on 20TH MAY 2024 7:53 PM
If rangers had won the league this year and they could have – and that would have meant a massive financial shot in the arm for them- which would have put us on par with them or made them much more competitive – does this mean that the only difference between us and thems is CL money?
or have they been borrowing money they don’t have in the hope of CL money but beneath it all the infrastructure isn’t there to maintain a challenge without borrowing to gamble on CL money!!!
Don’t understand money or organisations and am getting a bit confused wrt mixed messages.
===========
The muthafuckas have made a loss every year (maybe bar 1??) since they phoenixed
This year, they needed to win the league
They need the $$$ to rebuild (again lol)
The fact that they aint in it, yet, as they could get in from qualifiers, is huge
They need the $$$ so bad
The FFP is breathing down their necks like hector from the last time they went bust
The FFP is the important statement (ask Newcastle, Everton, Notts forrest and soon to be Man City)
The boat is creaking with the waves that are running over their sides
I believe its will just take one or two more waves before they sink, again
THEORIGINALSADIESBHOY…….. fair comment higher caliber teams in C L.
It dizny matter how many mountains…endless mountains of evidence, presented by the great CANAMALAR on CQN, or the Sentinel Celts voice of the unheard, THE LION`S ROAR, who rattled the cage so hard on Sentinel Celts that honest BMCW said he had left his phone at work for the weekend by mistake, eye as ye do lol, so he BMCW couldn`t reply to TLR`s posts all weekend or he would have sorted out this pest TLR`s!
Maybe SFTB should have made a Sentinel Celts appearance to, ahem, put TLR`s correct about all of the 150% correct evidence that he kindly posted to inform his fellow Tims so that they wouldn`t be taken down by these Big Pharma Zio Genocide poison injections?
On the contrary, I wonder if SFTB or honest BMCW will put their hands up and apologise for demanding that ALL whistle blowers must be banned when the death toll becomes more clear?
Like fk they will.
They even told us that this Doctor was a nutcase as well! 👀️
https://x.com/iluminatibot/status/1792361039084060814
…oot.
A wee P.S. of not much importance. One of the Racing club guys, Alfio Basile, who was sent off against us applied this century to be manager of a team in Spain called Flat Earth FC,
a big big big football club, they have supporters all around the globe
Thanks clunks
so – they are running out of money/ on thin ice
however we have money in celtic plc account or access to sensible debt channels
( and the club is experienced at operating in the spfhell environment).
think I’ve got it.
Jackiemac
I got no idea mate
But looking at it from a wide lens???
Smells like 2012
SAINT STIVS on 20TH MAY 2024 7:09 PM
https://www.espn.co.uk/football/story/_/id/37628341/champions-league-revamp-how-competition-work
—————
Excellent breakdown SS.
Cheers for posting!
A few bits in there i wasn’t aware of.
Brendan has praised Adam on multiple occasions, so just a case of getting the deal over the line. Paulo has come onto a game and must be signed ; initially he couldn’t get the hang of being tackled before the ball arrived and was too cautious; for me he is now much more aggressive and is more direct , no brainer. Young Odin needs to bulk up and also needs to remember that he has a responsibility when we do not have possession. Would be good to loan to the sheep for a season.
Still hoping that we tank the Huns on Saturday, possible as they’re back four is in a state of flux and we sort of let them off the hook in a few games.
HH
Good evening all from the Victoria Bar. BEER at last!!!!
EK boy
Holm to the sheep, is a great idea
Get him game time, toughen him up and let him see how far he has to travel to get in our team
I had high hopes for the bhoy, but he has fallen off a cliff after his ECL red card
Needs a fresh start, whilst still having a connectio to our club
See Scales & Christie as examples (sure there are more but……still celebrating)
Ajer at killie is another good example of loans to scoddish clubs
CLUNKS on 20TH MAY 2024 9:08 PM
EK boy
Holm to the sheep, is a great idea
……
He was ill for a while but pre Christmas came on and cleverly played in big Oh for a late winner against St Mirren ….. forgot to mention not sure big Oh has a future with us but it would suit everyone if he was loaned out , again the sheep would be a reasonable option , given their rebuilt
HH
EKBHOY
A few of our players – Oh, Yang, Kwon and holm, rocki and lager lager could do with following the Ajer/Christie/ Scales route by taking a step back to take a step forward
Infact Callum McGregor did the same at Notts County if memory serves
Just off the football topic….and into music favourites I give you
Sarah Vaughan,Keely Smith and Jo Stafford.Males Vic Damone,Eddie Fisher and Pat Boone.
😀 https://youtube.com/watch?v=tzMwhEyywMo&si=lqYG6n2oGlZKoOnr 😀
SFTB,
Many thanks for your comprehensivre answer. I know its a subject you are interested in.
You mention science. It is always a good strategy. But what if the establishment does not follow the science but tries to tell a gullable non scientific population that they are. Eg.
“If we are no longer “following the science,” what are we following?
BMJ 2022; 377 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o930 (Published 07 April 2022)
Cite this as: BMJ 2022;377:o930
Article
Metrics
Responses
Martin McKee, professor of European Public Health
Author affiliations
British ministers have now abandoned any pretence that they are “following the science” on covid-19. In their minutes from 10 February 2022.”
More much more will unravel in the following decades.
My view on establishment control has not changed.
As for the ” moon landings” . You state that almost all of the so called conspiracy theories have been dismissed.
Dismissed by whom ? The American establishment who are always squeeky clean ? They have not even convinced millions of American citizens, never mind the rest of the world. Especially the younger US population who are more technological savvy.
However here are times when my blind faith rule my thought process when science states otherwise, especially with my belief in religion.
But that is for another day.
Many others may not agree, but I also believe that diversity is what makes CQN stand out from the crowd. It has always been thus.
Cheers and HH.
THE BLOGGER FORMERLY KNOWN AS GM
Brilliant video…
Well played Brendan Rodgers, you have won this doubter over
With aplomb
SFTBs,
Must get a bit disheartening to write that fantastic post,then minutes later,the Blog Monkey comes on and throws his Banana skin at you.The amount of eejits out there is truly frightening.
CLUNKS on 20TH MAY 2024 9:21 PM
EKBHOY
…
I’d keep Yang at the Holy ground he suits our style and unlikely he’d fit into any other side , big Maik is a stay , big Gus face isn’t fitting , lack of recovery pace will be the issue which is really bad for us wanting to press the game , so big fella to be sold
HH
Meanwhile The Evening Times,Hun monkey,alleged reporter,is advocating riot police,should be used to baton charge the celebrating Celtic fans,for dropping litter,whilst saying the Orange Marches should not be compared .
Mathew Lindsey should never darken our doors again.
A Cafe in Trongate seemingly lost “Thousands” due to the crowds ???????Really ?,nobody was hungry?.A Cafe that hates “Busy”, but makes” thousands”on a Saturday afternoon.
FFS,were do they dig these shit stories up.
TURKEYBHOY
Not like the hun establishment to miss an opportunity to get it right up us??
Falling readership requires bigger headlines etc etc