Ten years ago this morning we were celebrating what appeared to be the importance of a Momo Sylla goal two minutes from time to give Celtic a 3-1 first leg lead against FC Basel in the Champions League play-off round.
The previous season Celtic defeated a formidable sounding Ajax team at the same stage so when they were drawn against the Swiss team confidence was high. Two weeks later our record of poor results away from home in Europe’s top competition was further cemented as Basel gained an away goal advantage.
That failure worked out well for Martin O’Neill’s team who dropped to the Uefa Cup and progressed all the way to the Seville final but Neil Lennon will be aware that Helsingborgs carry no less a reputational threat to Celtic than Basel did a decade ago. Basel were not a better team than Celtic but a slow start to both games, and a missed penalty, cost us entry to the Champions League. We will need to be better prepared next week.
Paul Larkin’s latest book, Albert, Dougie and Win, is available to purchase from Lulu. The three-in-one book covers the days and events surrounding Celtic’s 1986 league win in From Albert, with Love, the SFA’s 2010 challenges in Dougie, Dougie, and the men who stopped 10 in Wim’s Tims. Fascinating stories written by one of the very best Celtic authors.
Remember to give me a shout if you would like to write an article for CQN Magazine, articles@cqnmagazine.co.uk.
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Akbhoy67-welcome!
Unfortunately we will need to sell Ki as he has less than 2 years left on his contract- which is unfortunate because I think this Bhoy is going to be the biggest star of them all.
Talking of odious characters – I see Phil the German is back in hospital.
Celtic v Inter Milan in Lisbon: The re-match
By Andrew Southwick:
Stag weekends are usually messy affairs – a weekend of debauchery followed by hangovers and a lingering fear of incriminating photos emerging.
However one group of enterprising Celtic fans went for something a bit different.
When Martin MacRury announced he was getting married, he decided to follow the trail set by the Lisbon Lions. However, this was to be no normal pilgrimage to Lisbon; Martin and his mates decided to put the European Cup on the line and win it for the second time.
Airline strikes, access to the pitch, turning the clock back to 1967 and even the Stone Roses stood in their way, but somehow in 2012 Celtic once again took on Inter Milan in Lisbon, on the same turf Jock Stein’s immortals wrote their name into history, and with old big ears herself once more sat at the side of the pitch waiting for the winner.
Martin takes up the story: “I’ve always had a fascination with the Lisbon Lions, pretty much like every Celtic fan. I always had it in the back of my head that if I ever got married – me, my dad and my two brothers would go to the Estadio Nacional for a visit.
“I mentioned it to a few others, and very quickly it turned into a healthy group of us going. We were looking at a few websites and some were saying that you could get access to the stadium and others were saying you couldn’t. I had an old pal who now lives in Lisbon, so I asked him if he’d be able to check it out and ask on our behalf.
“He asked, and they actually said they were still amazed all these years later at the amount of Celtic fans who come over to visit. They said it’d be fine, we’d just arrange dates.”
With access to the ground sorted, the lads thought they may as well chance their arm and ask about the possibility of getting a kick about on the pitch. They were amazed when their cheeky plea got the thumbs up. Given the amazing opportunity to recreate the most famous 90 minutes in the club’s history, they got to work in making the game as authentic as possible.
“Obviously getting eleven Celtic fans to come across was the easy part,” continued Martin. “The tricky part was getting eleven people willing to play for Inter Milan.
“My dad, he’s 73, but he’s actually still quite fit. He only gave up playing football about six or seven years ago. So I said to him did he want to play. Obviously he couldn’t go whole heartedly but he was part of the team and played the 90 minutes.
“It was great for him. He actually got married in August 1967 so he was putting money aside for that and couldn’t make it over for the final, so it was the first trip for him too.”
Some of the lads line-up before the match
Anton Gallagher was one friend who jumped at the chance to don the Hoops in Lisbon, and he helped put the plans in place.
Anton continues the story: “We had a bunch of mates who were non-Celtic fans, so we were asking if they’d be up for being Inter Milan. So we had an Everton fan, a Man Utd fan, a couple of Rangers fans, a St Johnstone fan, a Kilmarnock fan – just loads of different clubs represented. But they were all good, game lads.
“I had seen in the shops some green and white long sleeved t-shirts that looked like the classic hoops top. So we got everyone’s sizes and bought eleven of them, and then bought white shorts and socks from a website which was also selling plain black and blue strips like the Inter one.
“So we then got the numbers put on the shorts like the classic Lisbon strips, and the Scudetto for the Inter team and got the wee star and that for them.”
With teams sorted, they had to make sure that one extra special guest could come on the trip too.
Anton continued: “After a good weekend of online betting a few good bets came in, so we went on Ebay and there was a life size replica of the European Cup for £250, so Martin bought it.
“It was sat in the living room table. Martin comes in, then his Mrs came in and seen it, his brother then his dad. They were all just sat round the table looking at it, no-one talking, just bemused and amazed by the size of this thing.
“Then it was a case of ‘How are we going to get that across to Lisbon?’ So we phoned the airline, and it worked out cheaper and probably safer to just buy a seat for it on the plane, so it was sat next to us. There were a few funny moments getting it through customs.
“We were flying from Manchester, and we met the Stone Roses at the airport, so that was a funny moment too.”
If meeting the music legends had brightened their trip, it was hearing from a Celtic icon that put the icing on the cake.
Martin said: “I wrote to a few of the Lisbon Lions telling them what we were doing. I got a good luck card from Stevie Chalmers wishing us all the best.”
From top left: Dad Donald, brother Kevin, brother Donald M, and Martin
All seemed to be going to plan for the group, until disaster struck with just a week to go when the Portuguese airline they were flying with called a strike, throwing their plans into turmoil.
Martin said “I didn’t talk about it in the lead-up because I was too scared of jinxing it. Then a week before, the airline lined up a strike for that weekend. We were supposed to be flying out on the Friday, so half of us – the ones that could get extra time off work – flew out on the Wednesday because the strike started on Thursday, and the rest of them hung fire and toughed it out.
“Thankfully they announced as we were flying out that the strike was off, so we knew then the rest were going to make it. That would have scuppered us if half the team had been stuck at home. I had cousins coming down from the Western Isles and they had already shelled out a fortune getting from there to Manchester, so there was no way they could have booked another flight.”
Match-day arrived in Lisbon with the lads still unconvinced the game would actually take place at the famous ground, but found their hosts were good to their word.
“We were a wee bit in limbo,” said Anton. “We were worried that maybe they were putting us on a pitch nearby or something instead, and we’re thinking ‘Are we going to be on the actual pitch?’ There was still that element of doubt.
“The stadium hasn’t changed a bit, it’s perfect. We were in the changing rooms, and then you go into a really dark tunnel and walk out into the light, it’s a dead dramatic look.
“The pitch was a wee bit bumpy, but they put the nets and all that up for us and it was just brilliant. Our friend’s wife took a video of the game and their friend was taking photos.”
It was perhaps fitting that the match was to be as dramatic as the trip. With all the effort gone in to organising the 90 minutes, they now had to recreate history and win the game.
“The first half we’d missed a few chances, they’d taken theirs, and we were 2-0 down,” said Anton.
“Second half we went on the attack but they countered us and we were 3-0 down. So we were really down at this point.”
Martin added: “The fact that we were all Celtic fans, our minds were racing a wee bit. We couldn’t play our normal football because we were thinking about where we were playing. Every now and again when the ball went out of play you were just admiring the stadium.”
With club pride at stake, and the weight of history on their shoulders, it was time for the Hoops to step up their game, and they didn’t disappoint. One of Martin’s best men led the comeback to make it 1-3, and then the chances began to come their way.
Anton said: “Martin had a chance one on one with the ‘keeper, and he blew it over the bar. Then we got a penalty, and he blew that over the bar as well! But it was retaken because there was a bit of infringement in the box from the Inter players, and he scored.
“Then we got another penalty and I scored it to equalise, so we’re at 3-3. And then with the last kick of the ball, genuinely, the groom himself scored the winner, so we legitimately got our hands on the cup.
Anton Gallagher nets the penalty to level the scores at 3-3
“We were able to go up and climb into the area where Billy McNeil got the trophy, it was just brilliant. All the lads loved it; even the Inter boys who aren’t Celtic fans thought it was a great experience as well.”
Martin said: “My cousin burst forward, squared the ball across to me, and I managed to squeeze it in from a tight angle. To get the chance to score at that stadium, then score the winner, was just brilliant, and then obviously going up to lift the cup afterwards.
“It was very surreal. For me to go over with my dad and two brothers and see the stadium was a dream come true. To get the chance to play on the pitch and recreate it all it was just very surreal and unbelievable.
“We were so lucky my pal over there got speaking to the right person, and he was so willing to do it. I think it was just an opportunity of a lifetime, and once you’ve got that chance you’re not gonna miss it.”
http://www.theawayend.net/articles/features/1251-celtic-v-inter-milan-in-lisbon-the-re-match
Chico Green wanting his cake and eating it again,he said the DU bill was to be paid on behalf of the old huns by the SPL, not Sevco.Still they want their very dubious history,but not the debt.This will be another court case,going by the governing incompetents recent history,they might just win it.
goldstar
thanks fae welcome
yes Ki will go on to great things but i’d def keep him till at least the Jan window, a few good performances in europe before then and he’ll add a couple million to his value?
akbhoy67
Thatcher or Paisley?
Who will be first I wonder?!
HH!!
For anyone worried about the condition of HR Prince Phillip rest easy, he was taken by ambulance from Balmoral and not by helicopter. It’s not that serious…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YYLbj03nMg
Thatcher would have got away with it too, if it wasn’t for those pesky kids.
Politically her biggest mistake was the poll tax, a tax so universally hated it caused some of the worst rioting central London has ever seen. The fallout created “poll tax martyrs” who refused to pay and were willing to go to prison to oppose the tax.
But Thatcher knew how to deal with martyrs, she had plenty of experience there. So she ruled that the shortfall of those not paying would be added to the bills of those who would pay, seeking of course to turn public opinion against the martyrs and create hatred and division amongst the nation she represented.
It didn’t work.
Re the Thatcher/Falklands/Malvinas debate, cast your memories back to the Doctor David Kelly of the 80s, Hilda Murrell.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/mar/20/who-killed-hilda-murrell
HH
Steinreignedsupreme
17:01 on 15 August, 2012
Phil the Greek as well…………..
I’ve taught all my Slovak pals “We’re having a party when (insert your own evil person/football club) dies”.
Does that make me a bad person?
Not when they’re knocking it for folk/Politcians/Football teams they don’t like.
akbhoy67
Are you Dave Leggatt?
Welcome and enjoy.
I hadn’t heard about Phil the Greek.
Hope it’s nothing serious.
HH!!
Dontbrattbakkinanger 16:56 on 15 August, 2012
Thanks for that Dontbrattbakkinanger I have copied for a read later.
Cheers
TDB
!!Bada Bing!!
17:02 on 15 August, 2012
Chico Green wanting his cake and eating it again,he said the DU bill was to be paid on behalf of the old huns by the SPL, not Sevco.Still they want their very dubious history,but not the debt.This will be another court case,going by the governing incompetents recent history,they might just win it.
—————————————————–
I understood Sevco paying the football debts was part of the agreement with The SFA to give them a licence yet it’s being paid by Oldco. I thought that prize money would have gone to D&P to pay all creditors.
I wish someone would ask the right questions as we badly need some answers.
Prince Philip may be wrong about somethings but he’s right about the ole wind turbines.
Just back from work and I have been reading some of today’s posts.
Thatcher, fascists, Durrant don’t care for any of them.
Thindimebhoy- it’s very revealing; it also shows despite the setbacks they will have faced[ much, much worse than anything today] how enterprising the Irish diaspora was, and how much htey wanted to better their lives, and the lives of their children.
Shortbread saying the SPL have not paid clubs TV monies due at the start of the month .
And they cant say when these payments will be made.
Seems like the SPL are skint!
ayrshirtim 17:12 on 15 August, 2012:
“Phil the Greek as well…………..”
The Second World War and its atrocities were very fresh in the mind when Phil arrived in the UK without an arse in his trousers as a potential husband for Lizzie.
For obvious reasons, although not well broadcast, he was given ‘Greek’ status by the British establishment. Neither of his two sisters were invited to the wedding by the way, as that might have led to awkward questions from member of the public.
Phil is very much the Germans German although he may have spent time on holiday in Greece.
A decade on from Basel
WOW!
I can still feel the carpet burn I got when Sutton curled a shot just wide of the post in the last minute. I sank to my knees and put my head in my hands.
My wife and daughter were sniggering and I looked up ready to go off on one – and realised that they were laughing because MON was doing EXACTLY the same thing at the side of the pitch!
I had to see the funny side as painful as it was.
Here’s hoping for no skint knees over the next week or so!
Billy Bhoy
ItaliaBhoy
15:40 on
15 August, 2012
Kilbowie kelt I profoundly disagree and I suggest you really need to look a bit harder if you cannot see the difference between Thatchers government and that of Galtieri. We are incredibly lucky in this country never to have experienced life under a military dictatorship. Believe me, you will know the difference when you see it.
————
I take it you never had the joy of living in good old Norn Iron
Auld Neil Lennon heid
14:49 on
15 August, 2012
wonkyradar
13:05 on
15 August, 2012
If Christ had stayed dead he would be spinning in his grave at the corruption of his message.
BTW have you read anything on the Suffis and the development of the Ennegram?
Personally I think the Enneagram is a modern invention that distills a considerable degree of the psychological knowledge revealed by modern Science- its attraction is that it does so in a simplistic and easy to follow visual context. I doubt its “ancient qualifications” despite what some modern practitioners claim about its Sufi roots. The earliest record of anything resembling the enneagram seems to be the Platonic Typology in the great mans Theory of Forms. There are parallels in the Judaic Mystical system of the Kabbalah and also in the diagrams of traditional Hermeticism, as in the hexagram and pentagram.
But the earliest evidence of the modern enneagram must have its origins in the work George Ilych Gurdjieff from Georgia. He was half Armenian, half Greek, and was a seminarian for some years as a young boy; by age 13, he left the seminary in pursuit of the occult. He became heavily involved in the occult and the pursuit of it, travelling around the Mediterranean, Egypt, India, Tibet, until he came across a group of Sufis who lived in Central Asia.
For various reasons, most of us Enneagram writers have been guilty of promoting the The Fourth Way enneagram is a figure published in 1947 in In Search of the Miraculous by P.D. Ouspensky, and an integral part of the so-called Fourth Way esoteric system associated with George Gurdjieff. The term “enneagram” derives from two Greek words, ennea (nine) and grammos (something written or drawn).Whereas there are valid traditions that use the plain symbol of the Enneagram (the Gurdjieff Work for example), it has not yet been shown that any tradition, including that of the Sufis, was the sole origin of the Enneagram personality material as we now know it. While the symbol itself has been traced to ancient times, most of the associated language, ideas, and descriptions are contemporary and are based on the types as presented by Oscar Ichazo. Confusion has arisen by blurring the distinction between the ancient Enneagram symbol and the modern psychological applications that have subsequently been developed.
Enneagram as an ancient Sufi system. No doubt at one time we were all sincere in believing that the Enneagram teachings came from the Sufis, as the early folk lore surrounding the early Enneagram had it. Emphasizing its alleged Sufi roots lent the system a certain cachet and air of mystery. It also gave the Enneagram something of the weight of authority and the believability of being part of a tradition teaching.
Nine Personality Types
1. The Perfectionist 2. The Caregiver 3. The Achiever 4. The Artist: 5. The Observer:
6. The Team Player 7. The Optimist 8. The Competitor 9. The Peacemaker.
He learned the Enneagram from them. Originally, the Enneagram had been used in Central Asia for fortune telling through numerology, hence the importance of the decimal points.
The Sufis picked it up and used it as a symbol of the 9 stages of enlightenment: You move from your “ego” into your essence. What do they mean by essence? Your essence is that same being within you that has the same image as God. So your inner being has the same divine nature as God has. So it’s a very pantheistic and monist system. But it’s through very rigorous cleansing yourself of your ego and getting into your essence.
Nothing of personality types. Nothing. None of his students described personality types. People like Piotto Dimetri Ouspensky, a mathematician who worked with him, and worked a lot with the mathematics, and the planets and the colours and notes. All that stuff is in their books, but nothing on personalities.
But much of the modern Enneagram First of all you have Don Riso, an ex-Jesuit, also, Oscar Ichazo, and Claudio Naranjo. These are the key characters that shaped the modern Enneagram. So George Gurdjieff brought the symbol to the West around 1900, and Oscar Ichazo was the first to synthesize the symbol with elements of the teachings about the types. He was the first to identify the core qualities of each of the nine types, and his work was expanded on by the psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo who also introduced the panel method for gathering information about the types. Naranjo”s work, in turn, has been expanded on by Don Riso and Russ Hudson who added many new elements to the early Enneagram systemmost notably the lengthy systematic descriptions of the nine types, as well as the nine internal Levels of Development, the “inner logic” of each type.
All Occult Structures are psychic “machines” for releasing blocked up potentials and for harnessing spiritual capacities beyond the every day ken of the ego-self- Tarot, Numerology magic, alchemy, extra-sensory perception, astrology, spiritualism, and Palmistry or chiromancy are all designed to tap into dormant invisible forces within us all. These “machines” are impotent without the fuel of faith. The practitioner and the receiver have to both believe in the veracity of the technique being used- we moderns are so conditioned by skepticism that we are frustrate the operation of all these “machines”- that is why we have to constantly update all these operational fictions in order to get passed the contaminating force of doubt. The modern Enneagram has managed to do this successfully like other operational fictions did in the past, but once it is analysed to death, questions and eventually doubted it will become as obsolete or ineffective as others it succeeded.
Auld heid: if your interested in the Enneagram then J.G. Bennett “Making a New World”(who studied directly under Gurdjieff) in the best book for doing so.
Green agreed to pay all football debts as a condition of being granted a license ….. Now we are being told that the SPL had agreed to pay Utd ….. What the hell is going on …. ??
Are we starting to ‘see’ what has been going on behind closed doors …??
Akbhoy67- always the risk when holding on to a player. The HG was worth £8m+ after his brilliant performances in Euro2008 but loss of form and a shortening contract meant he was eventually sold for buttons.
If we get offered anything north of £8m for Ki we need to cash in- I think he is worth far more though.
HH
If the Laws of the game, and the financial rules had been adhered to, sevco would not have received a license ……..
Canamalar
Just read back.
See you got in before me
SuperSutton
“time stamp – menu – refresh”…….OMG!
you’ve just extended my CQN day by about 2 hours!!
Thank You!
Hell, I might even fit in some work,now!
Billy Bhoy
ayrshirtim-More bungling between the huns and the Mother Ship,you think clarity would appear soon,but it’s very much the opposite.It won’t take long for Green to run rings round them either.Regan,Doncaster etc look worse by the day.
to me it reads the spl have kept all money due to huns fc in admin . and it was not passed to duff and duffer…. if that is the case then well done as it seems der hun at least got nothing for l;ast year ……….. but if part of that was to pay dutd 31 grand .its chickenfeed and to me it looks like the spl board are in the wrong .
they got it right by keeping any money but green had to sign off that and as part of that he asked them to settle a 31 grand debt surley utd must have been party to that ..its all very strange
My dear,dear,dear,friend.. Jock Tamson
Hiya, pal?
How’s Tricks?
Sorry tae disillusion ye, and Twenty five Ither, fellow Subscribers..
But..
Na..
CELTIC DINNAE NEED ANITHER C.B.!
We are awe up tae speed in THAT particular Dept.
Rogne,is a Wonderfull Prospect..and is Growing intae the Part, like a Daffodil..in May.
Darling Charlie, is .. well. .. Everybuddy, knows How Ah admire.. the Darlin’ Bhoy!
Wilson,is a capable Back-up..
and.. Victor..is always a Handy Guy tae hiv aroon.
If Celtic, went oot .. and took yer advice.. and Tried tae Find a World Class C.B. in the Fifty Cents and under.. BargainBin.. as hiz bin suggested .. we wid only end up, wi anither Lodger tae feed at the Dining Room Table…wan who we wid end up supporting, him and his family, fur the Length of his Contract…without gettin’ a return fur oor oot-lay.
Bargain Players are As scarce as Snake’s Fur.
Sure, ye noo and again.. wull hit is lucky.. but, ye wull hivtae kiss.. an awful loat o’ Toads..afore ye wull find that Prince Charmin’
Furgetttaboot.. the C.B. position..
That’s no where oor trouble lies..
OOr Trouble. lies. in oor Lack of Hivin. a Striker, who kin Use his Heid .. fur things.ither than preventing his Ears fae Bangin’ the Gether~
We need a Striker who is in Possession o’ whit is known tae the cognoscenti.. as..
hivin’… “Fitba’ INTELLIGENCE”.
Naebuddy, we hiv, presently, among our Merry Band o’ Strikers, his THAT precious Commodity.
The Last Striker ,we hid.. who did Hiv IT..in Spades,Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds..
wiz..
Well.. Ah wullnae Tell ye.. Ye wull hivtae figger That oot, fur Yersel!
But, Here is wee Hint. anyway..
He wiz Married.. hid a Kid..and Hid Nae Visible Tattoos!
(Ah jist Hate tae see . Tattoos.. oan a Celtic Player.. Ah jist Dae.. fur right away.. if he his wan..that tells me… that He Disnae Hae… a Soupcon o’.” Native Intelligence”.. which is jist as Bad.. as No Hivin.. any…”Fitba’ Intelligence”)
Noo ye know.
Kojo
yer pal.. who likes ye, already.
Still, Laughin’
goldstar10-Agree,anyone playing in the SPL has an optimum price and Ki’s looks like being met.Will be interesting to see if Arsenal sell Song to Barca.
and why did he only ask for them to pay off utd ..its worth a question ?
Bada bing- Arsenal sell Song to Barca and we sell Ki for a song to Arsenal?
By not demanding the money from the Spl ,are Dumb and Dumber
not guilty of dereliction of duty.
This action elevates one set of creditors over another.
Maybe its only coincidence that Sevco get to play football
if the football debts are cleared .
All other debts seem to be irrelevant
BOB
and why did he only ask for them to pay off utd ..its worth a question ?
—————————————————————
at a guess, all the clubs were asked by the press, only dundee united responded.
what i don’t get is…
does anyone remember last week shuggie green saying he’d handed over a cheque for fifty grand to cover their scottish football debts to the SFA the week before? even though he wasn’t obliged to?
first of all, eh? fifty grand???
second, where did that money go? did he keep the receipt?
third, anybody else’s cranium hurt at the notion agent green would give anyone involved in scottish football fifty grand he didn’t need to?
jeez, they didnae even pay fur their papers.
Following the news that Mr Windsor/Hanover/Popodopoulus was taken to hospital, and the in depth analysis/pre-mortem given by Nicholas Witchell, I immediately texted Radio 4 and Radio Scotland as follows:
“Ma pal’s mammy, aged 91 but doesn’t look it – was taken in to hospital this afternoon. The details are not known but it is not felt to be an emergency or a recurrence of the episode with the voidka and cabnnabis that she succumbed to over Christmas, as she was driven the 4 miles to the in-patients bundled in the shopping basket of her next door neighbours mobility scooter. As official spokesman, a la Nicholas Witchell, I am available to give a full statement. Just give me a call…..The Gorbals awaits the latest news”
So far they haven’t called me back!
hail hail
Estadio
akbhoy67
Welcome aboard
HAIL HAIL