A decade on from Basel

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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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  1. History is written by the victors. I wouldn’t believe a word that any Tory minister or Chilean ‘intelligence’ officer trys to spin us to justify the actions of that lot in the 80’s.

     

    And as far as this being a Celtic blog….is it not possible that events outside of Celtic Park affect what goes on inside it?

     

    No one lives in a bubble any more and I will not deny that my political beliefs affect my perceptions….and that includes my perspective on Celtic. I’m in alignment with the thinking of The Green Brigade and if anyone doesn’t like that,then so be it.

     

    It won’t stop me from telling it like it is…..for good or bad. Lived my whole life like that,and at times it’s rubbed some up the wrong way. But there ye go.

     

    As Popeye says,” I yam what I yam.”

     

    PeoplePleasingIsJustDownrightStupid CSC

  2. jimtim00:50 on 16 August, 2012

     

    Rangers will not die until the life support machine that is the SFA is switched off.. They and they alone are keeping this stinking club alive . and you can take that to the bank . But whats worse is they are getting away with it . .

     

    >>>>>>>>>>>

     

    The way they’re behaving you’d think they were just begging for someone to flip the switch. They’re acting suicidally…..and all to keep the giant orange ball in the air. And if Ogilvie moves into Uefa and Longmuir gets to wield more power,either in the spl or the sfa,then the game in Scotland might as well get itself sponsored by Orangina.

     

    HH!

  3. Margaret McGill on

    I don’t bless them

     

    Farewell to this land’s cheerless marshes

     

    Hemmed in like a boar between archers

     

    Her very Lowness with a head in a sling

     

    I’m truly sorry – but it sounds like a wonderful thing

     

     

     

    And so, I checked all the registered historical facts

     

    And I was shocked into shame to discover

     

    How I’m the 18th pale descendant

     

    Of some old queen or other

     

    Oh, has the world changed, or have I changed ?

     

    I swear to God

     

    I swear : I never even knew what drugs were

     

    Oh …

     

    So, I broke into the palace

     

    With a sponge and a rusty spanner

     

    She said : “Eh, I know you, and you cannot sing”

     

    I said : “That’s nothing – you should hear me play piano”

     

    We can go for a walk where it’s quiet and dry

     

    And talk about precious things

     

    But when you’re tied to your Mother’s apron

     

    No-one talks about castration

     

    We can go for a walk where it’s quiet and dry

     

    And talk about precious things

     

    Like love and law and poverty

     

    Oh, these are the things that kill me

     

    We can go for a walk where it’s quiet and dry

     

    And talk about precious things

     

    But the rain that flattens my hair …

     

    Oh, these are the things that kill me

     

    All their lies about make-up and long hair, are still there

     

    Past the Pub who saps your body

     

    And the church who’ll snatch your money

     

    The Queen is dead, boys

     

    And it’s so lonely on a limb

     

    Past the Pub that wrecks your body

     

    And the church – all they want is your money

     

    The Queen is dead, boys

     

    And it’s so lonely on a limb

     

    Life is very long, when you’re lonely

     

    Life is very long, when you’re lonely

     

    Life is very long, when you’re lonely

     

    Life is very long, when you’re lonely

  4. miki67 –

     

     

    I enjoy the fact that CQN includes a fair amount of social and political debate, and like you, my political beliefs affect my perceptions. I also like to think that Celtic is open to all political persuasions, but reading extreme right-wing views from Celtic supporters on CQN or elsewhere does not sit comfortably with me, which I readily admit is down to my own personal bias.

     

     

    C’est la vie.

  5. tom mclaughlin

     

    >>>>>>>>>>>>

     

    I can handle reasoned debate, impassioned debate, furious debate. But what really gets me going is the direct knowledge and experience of the far and not-so-far right and how they,given the opportunity and the right circumstances, will deliberately hospitalise someone in order to prove their ‘political’ credentials.

     

    I am not referring to anything that ever happened to me, but what I witnessed as a political activist in the 80’s right here in the UKplc.

     

    The right like to dress up their rhetoric in tones of reason,but they’re really all witch burners at heart and as greedy as they come. And most of them couldn’t tell you where the terms ‘right’ and ‘left’,in the political sense,come from.

     

    If,in this life,this world,the only person that matters is oneself and your only duty is to enrich yourself and pass on your spare largesse to those you deem ‘deserving’ then, in a spiritual sense, you are bereft. And so you leave yourself open to the kind of thought that makes cruelty in the name of acquiring capital,okay.

     

    However, saying all that just annoys some people.

     

    So,yeah….c’est la vie, c’est la guerre.

     

    HH!

  6. Margaret McGill on

    GCT

     

    Me too. It has been quite astonishing to read some of the polemic statements from some Celtic supporters on CQN this last week or so. Beggars belief in this day and age. I keep having to pinch myself if I am missing something. I never ever thought that Celtic supporters would ever have to JUSTIFY their distaste for Torys.

  7. Sixteen roads to Golgotha on

    Surely Catholics/Christians have been,and still are,the most persecuted of all the peoples on this earth?

     

     

    There is no getting away from that fact,no matter what way you look at it.

  8. Margaret –

     

     

    I still smile when I remember a trip to Tynecastel as a wee bhoy in the mid-sixties.

     

     

    My father very rarely swore in front of me and my brothers, even at the fitba.

     

     

    At this particular game, some Hearts fans were throwing pies and sundry other mince at us.

     

     

    My father was outraged.

     

     

    He stood up to the Jambos and shouted, “Yer nothing but a shower a . . . a . . . a . . .”

     

     

    He’s gonnae swear, I told myself. Ma da’s gonnae swear.

     

     

    Eventually he completed his plaintiff cry – ” . . . bliddy tories!”

     

     

    ~)

  9. Margaret McGill on

    Tom McLaughlin

     

     

    03:33 on 16 August, 2012

     

     

    I heard about your father. He was legend in our parts!

  10. macjay1 for Neil Lennon on

    Aaaaah,lads.

     

    Celtic Football Club.

     

    All inclusive,unless ,of course, you`re a Tory.

  11. Sixteen roads to Golgotha on

    I will always admire Fidel Castro and John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

     

     

    Che Guevara and Maggie Thatcher? – Hitler and Stalin? – Lowlifes of the highest order.

     

     

    There is no black or white with me,i don’t see it as a contradiction in terms.

     

     

    And another thing – democracy just means the majority rules,that doesn’t mean it’s right.

     

     

    No fascist,no Communist – working class only,always the ones that get pashed on,that do the fighting and the dying.

     

     

    No Communists can claim the working class,they done even worse damage to us than Capitalism even did,only Communists are more hypocritical.

  12. Margaret McGill on

    yeah thats right you reached unthank on the 3rd day of the 10th month of the 1956th solar year of the Nazarene calendar…but the question remains ..what day were you delivered in human form?

  13. Sixteen roads to Golgotha on

    Margaret McGill – I am here,and you are there.

     

     

    Still agitating and dictating Margaret McGill.

     

     

    Hitler will never be dead whilst you are alive.

     

     

    Think about it.

  14. Margaret McGill on

    Sixteen roads to Golgotha

     

    03:48 on 16 August, 2012

     

     

    Did you get a “D” in English? and an A in gaelscoileanna ?

  15. Margaret McGill on

    Sixteen roads to Golgotha

     

     

    Just for you…….

     

     

    Hail hail

     

    The Celts are here

     

    What the hell do we care now…. foritza…

     

     

    We seek the Celts

     

    We Hail the Celts

     

    We seek the Celts

     

    we Hail the Celts

     

    We Seek the Celts

     

    We Hail the Celts

     

    We Seek the Celts

     

    We hail the Celts

     

    Seek

     

    Hail

     

    Seek Hail

     

    Seek Hail

     

    Seek Hail

     

    Seek Hail

     

    Seek Heil

     

    Seek Heil

     

    Zieg Hiel

     

    Zieg Hiel

     

     

    Hand oot in red hand of ulster like fashion

     

    Come on.

     

    Join in.

  16. Sixteen roads to Golgotha on

    You are the best of them all Margaret McGill,nobody does the sweeping generalisations and stereotypes quite like you do.

     

     

    Everything is beautiful,you are never in the wrong.It’s your way or no way – your agenda is the only agenda.

  17. Margaret McGill on

    Nah

     

    Tom McLaughlin

     

    Ernie Lynch

     

    Rascar capac

     

    Vic Ajax

     

    Canamalar

     

    FFM

     

     

    have made me change my mind

     

    convince me

  18. Sixteen roads to Golgotha on

    You are cracking me up here McGill.

     

     

    Say want you want on CQN,it doesn’t matter.

     

     

    All that you are is a hypocrite,hypocrite numero uno in fact.

  19. Sixteen roads to Golgotha on

    PMSL

     

     

    Terrible,terrible song that is.

     

     

    First time ive ever heard it,and it will def be the last.

     

     

    Too many cowards McGill – like Che Guevara.

  20. Sixteen roads to Golgotha on

    Margaret McGill – I don’t care if he was Irish or not – he was a bad apple McGill – he placed innocent people against the wall and executed them.

     

     

    That’s fair enough,that was his path of choice,but then when it was his turn,and the shoe was on the other foot – he cried like a baby,pleaded for his life,and offered to inform on his own comrades.

     

     

    Fair is fair.

     

     

    As i have already stated before – Castro is a person i admire,and i also wiill – but not that Che thing,he was a coward.

  21. Sixteen roads to Golgotha on

    Margaret McGill – No reason whatsoever.

     

     

    Typical.

     

     

    I used to wear a Che t-shirt when i was a kid.

     

     

    I loved that Christy Moore song,and a still do to be honest with ya.

     

     

    But then ya start to read,and question things.

     

     

    Franco = bad,Commies = good.

     

     

    Che = good,poor victims = bad.

     

     

    Propaganda.

     

     

    And this is in the West,the land of capitalism ffs!!

  22. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    Just popped in again.

     

     

    Seems it’s blinkin’ Valentine’s Day already.

     

     

    Jee-zoh,that was a long shift-think I need ma cot…….

  23. Sixteen roads to Golgotha on

    And then we had a genuine hero – JFK – this man said that enough is enough,took a stand,and faced them down…even the bold Castro shat his trunks and took twenty steps back ffs.

     

     

    Yet instead of lauding the great JFK – they only went and murdered him!! – Why murder the man whom faced down the most evil of evils – Communism?

     

     

    Communism eh? That most dodgy of all ideologies,if ever there was one – the ideology that claims to be be the saviour of the working class – yet ultimately seeks to enslave the working class.Capitalism does the same,but capitalism does what it says on the tin.

     

     

    Communism really needs to be questioned,and why is it always Catholics/Christians that are the first targets?

     

     

    Who started this Communism caper? What is their agenda?

     

     

    All that you have to do is look at these champagne socialists,the corrupt unions,the union men that turn into the worst bossmen.

     

     

    AnimalFarmCSC.

  24. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    SIXTEEN ROADS

     

     

    There is nothing intrinsically wrong with Communism.

     

     

    On paper,it is Utopian and idealistic.

     

     

    However,it is never operated that way. Possibly because of the violence generally required to install it as a form of government.

     

     

    Once the genie of violence is out of the bottle,it is doomed to failure.

  25. Sorry to read some comments on here regarding the hunger strike of 81.

     

     

    10 young men lay down there lives to try and change a filthy system , it didn’t work and I’m sure after first few died the rest knew their fate. They didn’t budge because they wanted better for there comrades.

     

     

    There’s an inner thing in ever man

     

    Do you know this thing my friend

  26. Sixteen roads to Golgotha on

    BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS – I know mate,it looks good on paper – but it doesn’t work in practise – maybe that is because of human nature,the greed thing.

     

     

    But there is no denying this – Communism has been a blight on humanity,a terrible evil,particularly for the peasants,Christians and working class folk.

     

     

    Also – it is supposed to be anti-religion – but how come the people that were responsible for it,were deeply religious,and were of a certain religious persuasion?

  27. West Wales Celt on

    16 roads:

     

    Capitalism is the dominant economic system. It would have us believe that our best hope is to put our faith in competition, base our economic organisation on dog-eat-dog greed. The result is astonishing disparities of wealth in the west and perpetual grinding poverty and intermittent famine in the world’s poorest continent. This is a shameful failure in human terms and an indictment of any who claim it to be the best we can hope for.

     

     

    The biggest failing in the corruption and the oppressive, brittle civil society experienced in communist states lies in the succour that has offered to capitalism and it’s TINA champions…

  28. Sixteen roads to Golgotha on

    Tom McLaughlin – never heard of Francis Gay,but i shall google it in a wee minute just to make sure i am not that person.

     

     

    I have a lot of respect for the poor aboriginal people,now there’s a story of exploitation if ever there was one.

  29. Sixteen roads to Golgotha on

    West Wales Celt – I am not defending capitalism either mate,it is all exploitation,i do realise that.

     

     

    I have already stated that the working class are the ones whom ultimately suffer,and the poor that get bleed dry.

     

     

    The lesser of two evils as far as i am concerned,that’s all.