Craig Levein has taken lulling opponents into a false sense of security to a new level in recent months. The only win they have had since March was against Championship Inverness in the Scottish Cup semi-final.
A draw against Hibs their only point from the last 21 available in the league. By any conceivable measure, they are in the worst form of any club in Scotland. After winning their opening five games, Levein was feted for his wisdom and general ability to restore “natural order”.
That must seem a lifetime ago to their supporters, who fancy themselves as the third force in the land, but have to contend with second in the capital and sixth overall. They remained top of the league until November, when the wheels came off, initially in the league, and then at Murrayfield, when a transformational performance from Ryan Christie set the scene for Saturday’s treble.
Over a 45 minute period, Celtic found their golden touch and Hearts realised their place in the food chain.
Despite this, the champions have work to do to win on Saturday. They have already lost to Hearts this season and lost heavily last term. The first half at Murrayfield, played without Christie, who will also miss Saturday’s final, was sobering, as we struggled to create a chance worthy of the name. Just as Aberdeen did in the Scottish Cup semi-final Hearts will turn the final into a physical battle. This is all they have in the locker. We need to be prepared.
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Hail hail
Jon James the blogger saying that Moyes will be confirmed as manager on Monday.
Given the current rumours regarding the next manager — do we have two separate streams in play?
Stream 1: NL deserves the job, understands the club with a partial, slanted and forced selection of his career highlights to back it up being put out by a selection of interweb stalwarts.
Stream 2: Big name / EPL friendly candidate — RB was the first discussed but now we are onto others.
Lots of talk about rounds of golf and all roads leading to Barbados.
Is this as basic / simplistic as it seems — Conflict in Paradise / PL vs DD?
Surely the last three years shows that investment in the coaching staff pays dividends.
If PL cannot work that out or his ego means that he does not want to work with a star name then the flea is wagging the tail that is wagging the dog.
Not a great fan of DD but at least he can see the big picture and the way forward towards a growth agenda.
Big EPL friendly name / gold start coach offers more support to this season’s huge rumour — working our way towards the EPL.
If (as I think Bada Bing! said last night) Celtic have requested a police presence next Monday at the stadium, if this is linked to the potential appointment of David Moyes, I can fully understand that one……..
DM — Big name / if all else fails candidate.
At least we only have 4 days to wait to find out if someone’s chain is being pulled.
Robinbhoy
I think the Board will need 24 hour Police protection, if that is indeed the case. ill wait till then to be underwhelmed.
Move along the bus
http://www.celticfc.net/news/16211?utm_source=cfc_email&utm_medium=hero&utm_content=hea_2505&utm_campaign=bus-route&g4id=3
If it’s Davie Moyes I will probably cry.
Hope they kept the covers for the top of the stand..
sheeesh…
PTT says the Moyes thing is ‘bullsh1t’
JJ seems certain.
Who knows.
HH
If its Moyes………………………………………………………………nah i wont let it spoil my weekend, hope it doesnt affect the teams morale like it would/is mine
Probably will be Moyes.
Feck knows hes honed his interview skills over the last few years.
Would’ve had him below Lennon in the pecking order.
HH
Paul67
It’ll be all hands on deck on Saturday, last minute winners like Rogic will do for me.
TRADITIONALIST88 on 23RD MAY 2019 12:40 PM
PTT says the Moyes thing is ‘bullsh1t’
JJ seems certain.
Who knows.
HH
___
They are all guessing.
They don’t know anything.
Modern sport is rubbish.
This absolute nonsense:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/magazine/soccer-data-liverpool.html
Obviously Brendan Rodgers was attempting to implement similar at Celtic, however it’s ruined football in my opinion.
Never watched a second of those CL semi-final games because it seems fake nowadays.
HH. ?
Moyes would be an unfashionable appointment after failures at Manchester United, Real Sociedad and Sunderland. I’d point out that each of these clubs are basket cases in their own respective way and his successors have also been sacked.
TIMALOY29 on 23RD MAY 2019 1:07 PM
Moyes would be an unfashionable appointment after failures at Manchester United, Real Sociedad and Sunderland. I’d point out that each of these clubs are basket cases in their own respective way and his successors have also been sacked.
=======
Bolton are a basket case. Man Utd have the highest wage bill in the EPL.
As for Sociedad and Sunderland objectives would have been discussed and agreed at the outset, and clearly they weren’t met.
Lets see what the weekend and Monday bring.
HH
MADMITCH on 23RD MAY 2019 12:33 PM
Is this as basic / simplistic as it seems — Conflict in Paradise / PL vs DD?
If PL cannot work that out or his ego means that he does not want to work with a star name then the flea is wagging the tail that is wagging the dog.
Not a great fan of DD but at least he can see the big picture and the way forward towards a growth agenda.
Big EPL friendly name / gold start coach offers more support to this season’s huge rumour — working our way towards the EPL.
____
Very wide of the mark. PL works for DD and implements his wishes.
There is no conflict here. There is a vacancy and there will be a process and multiple candidates. Neil Lennon is a strong contender. PL said that publicly. Neil Lennon speaks to DD often.
The final decision will be made by DD. PL will speak to some candidates and discuss contractual issues but it’s not his call. You are right when you say DD see’s the big picture and that’s why it’s his call.
TRADITIONALIST88 on 23RD MAY 2019 1:13 PM
“Bolton are a basket case. Man Utd have the highest wage bill in the EPL.”
____
Man United are a basket case because of ownership. Absent owners who don’t care much beyond commercial deals. They have taken hundreds of millions out of that club. I don’t think there will be success at that club without complete structural change. They appointed an A list manager in Mourinho but the problems remained.
____
“As for Sociedad and Sunderland objectives would have been discussed and agreed at the outset, and clearly they weren’t met.”
___
Nor were they by his successor. Or the one after that. Or the one after that. Maybe if clubs keep sacking managers on a bi-annual basis there is something deeper at play?
He’s not my choice but if Moyes arrives at Celtic it will be the best situation he’s arrived in since Everton.
Up until 2 days ago John James was guaranteeing us all that Lenny was getting the job, until a “source who has never let him down” told him it was Moyes. He doesn’t know.
But lets hope not anyway.
DROOPY MCCOOL on 23RD MAY 2019 1:31 PM
Up until 2 days ago John James was guaranteeing us all that Lenny was getting the job, until a “source who has never let him down” told him it was Moyes. He doesn’t know.
But lets hope not anyway.
___
Add to that JJ telling us its likely to be AVB yesterday.
forget all this hearsay and gossip for later we have a trophy to win , 100% concentration on the matter at hand and all rest can be dealt with later.
One name I haven’t seem mentioned regarding the appointment of the new manager is Alex Ferguson. Not in terms of him taking the role, but in terms of his advice regarding potential candidates.
If I was DD and I was looking at managers from the EPL then I’d certainly have contacted Ferguson to get his opinion.
Ferguson was part of the decision making that took Moyes to Man Utd and ultimately defended his appointment as manager. He clearly thinks highly of Moyes.
Maybe once the new manager is in place we’ll find out that the candidate was highly regarded by Ferguson.
Hail Hail
Ron67 – spot on!
T29 @ 1.16
I fear you live in a very simplistic world where ego is not in any way prominent.
We have chapter and verse regarding previous managerial appointments where different people were pushing different candidates right up to the last minute.
Plus we have the 2016 BR data point to engage with.
As was noted at the time PL did not look at all happy when BR arrived.
They did not turn out to be a match made in heaven.
Things changes as they often do at CP after two years with BR making his ultimately doomed move towards a more lucrative future and then everything changed.
Will history repeat itself?
Will PL be found sitting next to a Grade A name with a face like fizz?
Or will he actively encourage an interweb / astroturf campaign to go back to the future and make his job easier by delivering a new manager who is a known entity?
We live in a very complex world.
Starting with the fact that DD seems to call the shots without owning or controlling the club.
Not where i would like us to be but that is the reality of today.
Plus PL is a second rate property bean counter.
My preference is somebody who’s worked at the elite level very recently. Like BR had.
We Might not be able to get Klopp or Guardiola but maybe somebody in the David Wagner mould.
I like to watch the NFL and they refer to something as a ‘coaching tree’. This refers to the links between Head Coaches and their assistants. You could refer to John Kennedy as being part of the Brendan Rodgers coaching tree..
The Jose Mourinho tree contains the likes of Steve Clarke, Brendan Rodgers and AVB. Maybe we should be trying to take on an assistant who has ambition.
Could the mods remove my last post please. Moyes did of course threaten to slap a female journalist and yes the video could be taken out of context.
MULLET AND CO 2 on 23RD MAY 2019 1:40 PM
———————-
Beat me to it – I think it was ‘slap’, and I do also think there was an element of ‘out of context’. I think the FA and Sky took much more offence than the journalist in question – I seem to recall she didn’t feel in any way threatened.
Nevertheless, a daft thing to say right enough, especially given the media focus – although probably not much worse than the folk in my office who ‘threaten’ me most days with comments like, “I’ll boot your hin’ end ya eejit” :-))
HH
BGFC
PeaveAndLoveToAllCSC
TIMALOY29 on 23RD MAY 2019 1:22 PM
You can try to convince yourself, Man Utd may be a lot of things, but a basket case they ain’t. The 2 managers who followed Mourinho did a whole lot better than Moyes, regardless of whether they eventually left.
And Moyes did not meet the agreed objectives in his subsequent roles. That his successors maybe didnt either is irrelevant, we are discussing the career and potential appointment of David Moyes as Celtic manager.
HH
Cannot be Moyes if Celtic are planning on having roads shut for crowds at an event on Monday the park.
A very well-done to all those posters who have identified who would be first on the team-sheet.
Your justification has arrived.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48380812
TRADITIONALIST88 on 23RD MAY 2019 2:04 PM
And Moyes did not meet the agreed objectives in his subsequent roles. That his successors maybe didnt either is irrelevant, we are discussing the career and potential appointment of David Moyes as Celtic manager.
____
That’s quite frankly rubbish.
It’s easy to set objectives. To give coaches the right assets and means required for success is another thing entirely. Both Real Sociedad and Sunderland have shown themselves to be lacking vision, any type of stability or effective governance.
Sometimes a succession of failed coaches is a symptom and not the root cause.
As for Manchester United, I think its fair to say Mourinho’s budget far outweighed that of Moyes’.
TIMALOY29 on 23RD MAY 2019 2:31 PM
Its easy to set objectives, you agree to the ones you think are realistic or you don’t sign up to the project because of the damage it will do to your reputation when you’re inevitably fired.
And look what happened.
‘As for Manchester United, I think its fair to say Mourinho’s budget far outweighed that of Moyes’.’
Rooney, Giggs, Hernandez, Nani, Van Persie, Ferdinand, Evra, De Gea, Smalling and Vidic were all there. And he signed Fellaini and Mata.
A better team than they have now!
And laughable to call them a basket case.
Bolton are a basket case.
HH
Interesting to see how failure is now getting competitive.
Better to have failed at the top end of the EPL than the bottom end of the Championship.
BBC online are running a vote for best new strip . We are languishing in relegation territory. I know not everyone is happy with it but get voting
With Conte going to Inter I’d hope we are looking at Laurent Blanc or Philip Cocu as either would be better than Moyes.
Hail Hail
BORGO67 on 23RD MAY 2019 2:43 PM
If it gets relegated can we replace it?
HH
A traffic bulletin doing the rounds on social media warning of big crowds at Celtic Park on Monday is FAKE, Glasgow City Council tells Football Scotland.
https://www.footballscotland.co.uk/
I’m in Zagreb on Saturday. Anyone (Hravtski Jim?) have any suggestions as to where i might see the game, preferably in Tim company?