When Craig Gordon pitched up at Celtic in 2014, two years after his last appearance as a footballer and five years since serious injury first blighted his career, I’m sure the keeper’s closest friends didn’t believe he would play 200 games in less than four years – let’s remember, he couldn’t get a gig at Newco under Ally McCoist.
Now is he a regular international and a treble winner with more league medals than exist in the locker rooms of every player in the league outside of Celtic. It would have been more appropriate to celebrate his 100th Celtic clean sheet on his 200th appearance with a win last night, but there was little the keeper could do about that.
This is a great story. Well done, Craig, and congratulations also to Stevie Woods for his insight and development work.
It would be wrong to characterise all of our six home league draws this season as performances against packed defences, Newco and Hibs both drew while pressing the game, but visiting teams have an effective strategy to pursue at Celtic Park: defend deeply and you are in with a chance.
Doing what Dundee, St Johnstone (twice) and Kilmarnock have done at Celtic Park this season is not easy, if it was we would have done it in Paris, but it provides us with a timely reminder of how much work is required to finish off the season with a Scottish Cup.
259 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- »
This was a real woman from a real hellish time in the 40s who gave love and hope in a way that happened. Even today she is inspirational.
GEAROID1998 on 5TH APRIL 2018 7:16 PM
Rowley Birkin@7.10
That’s a lot of standing-).
Gordon or Bain as 1st choice keeper …..discuss.
HH
Bain for me
JTT
I am just along the road from Clydebank’s The Holy City. :)
DD, Clydebank. Can’t begin to imagine what it was like to be at receiving end. My mum was from Carfin, my dad Shotts. They both said they could hear the noise of aircraft above sometimes. But now we know sometimes they were heading for Clydebank. Must have been an nightmare.
DD are you still up?
Ok. I love Celtic. I love Ireland. But I love Scotland in a way. My folks made Scotland great. Maybe didn’t get all the credit for it but its true none the less. you all know that it is true. Why we were hated is undoubted. But it is a problem for them now.
I wouldn’t say we are in the ascendancy but it is different from 30 years ago. We are at least equal. I have never had a problem. Although I have an IQ of 128.
See these idiots at Ibrox and elsewhere who are horrible? 90 minute bigots I think. Cowards in every other parts of their lives. I’m gay and would face down them in any normal situation. 90 minute hardmen with cowards around them. Like that Ross County Captain. Davies. He’s finished. Coward.
Nae nightshift? HH bhoys and ghirls
https://t.co/YOJAeOlXKW?ssr=true
Ray Wilkins The Man
Seems LG in talks for a new contract….
WILLIEFERNIE
Thanks for a good night last night it was a pleasure to meet you and your good lady C , that’s a great set up you’ve got there in Rosie O’ Gradys keep up the good work in OZ !!
PARK ROAD 67 Great to catch up with a fellow Celt.Safe travels and hope to meet you and E again in the near future. HH.
Good morning, friends and a Big Happy Friday to you all.
Oh and Happy New Tax Year ;-)
I see Starry P.. Makes a great point about Celtic being rated 47th while FC Basel are 18th. Then I think, wait a minute is Starry ripping the pish.
How did FC Basel get to 18th it’s no like they come from a bigger league with vastly superior finances or have the advantage of the unfair national ceding coefficients, as often used to justify our lack of European progress. In fact with just over half our crowd capacity they turn over roughly the same which leads me to only one conclusion, we are not the well run club we are told.
BR supposedly attracted EPL class players but can’t get the to perform consistently. So I’m thinking Starry might have actually offered an argument that ne’er scrutiny does not stand up, worse it opens up the Plc and their strategy over the last 10 years to question, that FC Basel do not have the “EPL class players” BR has attracted how do they continue to out perform us, financially and on the park are you saying BR is not good enough to manage in Switzerland :)
Ne’er is under even
Happy sugar tax day.
Sweet.
MWD
PS Henrik and Kevin Bridges on Soccer AM RAmorra.
RIP Eric Bristow……..
############
Morning Tims
H.H
I’ve just seen “Romani ite domun” written in the dust on the back of a Dutch vegetable wholesaler lorry outside my work.
Stay weird, Suffolk.
By the way, how come we still aren’t arguing about Celtic’s Gender Pay Gap Report?
*domum!
Now write it out a hundred times…
Davidopoulos
That’s a fairly irrelevant post
Actually if I was being impolite I might just say
SUFFOLKING WHAT
What is the Stars
You’ve got Norfolking clue, pal…
;)
DAVIDOPOULOS on 6TH APRIL 2018 8:10 AM
By the way, how come we still aren’t arguing about Celtic’s Gender Pay Gap Report?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I take it that’s tongue n cheek. How many female players are in our top earning 28 first team pool.?
The figures will reflect this.
The gender pay gap is only valid in like for like circumstances .
I am totally in favour of gender equality as anybody who has frequented this site will know. But common sense and physical differences must be entered into the equation.
Incidentally, I cannot enthusiastically support any culture, doctrine or state that doesn’t treat females equality.
HH.
Greenpinata,
Yer right, and that’s why they should no longer be given separate toilets, they bleated and squealed for equality, now they can work and look after the kids do the housework and vote, I think they were a bit silly demanding all that equality but then that’s up to them eh :)
Greenpinata
It was tongue in cheek…but as we are on the subject I think the report was reflected reasonably well on Celtic at the comparable levels. As you say, the upper quartile can’t really be compared because of the nature of our business.
. Sweet heart of Jesus, fount of love and mercy,
today we come, thy blessing to implore;
O touch our hearts, so cold and so ungrateful,
and make them, Lord, thine own for evermore.
Chorus:
Sweet heart of Jesus, we implore,
O make us love thee more and more.
2. Sweet heart of Jesus, make us know and love thee,
unfold to us the treasures of thy grace;
that so our hearts, from things of earth uplifted,
may long alone to gaze upon thy face.
3. Sweet heart of Jesus, make us pure and gentle,
and teach us how to do thy blessed will;
to follow close the print of thy dear footsteps,
and when we fall – sweet heart, oh, love us still.
4. Sweet heart of Jesus, bless all hearts that love thee,
and may thine own heart ever blessed be,
bless us, dear Lord, and bless the friends we cherish,
and keep us true to Mary and to thee.
Things that might be heavier than Ian Maxwell’s in-tray?
Colossus at Rhodes?
Great Pyramid at Giza?
SFA President’s heart handing Scottish Cup to Broony?
WIts scrunched up betting slips….;-)
Word of The Day (For DD and the Nolly!)
Peregrinate /ˈpɛrɪɡrɪˌneɪt/
verb
1. to travel or journey, especially to walk on foot.
2. to travel or walk over; traverse.
3. to travel or wander about from place to place; voyage
4. to travel through (a place)
adjective
5. an obsolete word for foreign
Derived Forms
peregrinator, noun
Word Origin and History for peregrinate
v.
1590s, from Latin peregrinatus, past participle of peregrinari “to travel abroad, be alien,” figuratively “to wander, roam, travel about,” from peregrinus “foreign” (see peregrine ).
KTF
Last day in OZ I would just like to say on behalf of E and I a big thank you to Melbourne Mick and Willie Fernie for the hospitality down under !!
VFR
My favourite bird the Peregrine Falcon !
VFR.
You’ll never peregrinate alone.
HH.
Johnny Peregrinator no more ?
weareallthesamecsc
canamalar
Basel operate a similar strategy to Celtic. They are obviously doing something better. Here are 2 journos attempting to explain it. I have added a 3rd viewpoint of my own:-
1) There is a long-term plan at Basel and a heavy focus on forming players who can be sold on for profit to bigger leagues. The Swiss club are an attractive proposition to talent youths, they can pay well and offer a grounding in European football. The likes of Xherdan Shaqiri, Granit Xhaka, Ivan Rakitić and Mohamed Salah have all come through at Basel, as the production line continues to manufacture the stars of the future.
“You need a very good scouting, which Basel have and they key is to choose the right player for the right position. They never bring foreigners in to take the place of Swiss players, they always have the mixture of young and experienced.
“The Swiss league is a good place to develop young players, it is fantastic to have those who are close to making the big step to the big leagues, England, Germany, Spain and for this the Swiss league is very good. The players can have a nice lifestyle in Switzerland, too. If you play in Basel, you have everything you need; you’re in a very professional club and they are very focused on developing you in the right way and are happy to receive the money for a player when they’re sold.”
Star players helped Basel maintain momentum as they finally reached the last-16 of the Champions League in 2011-12, progressing from a group which Manchester United failed to qualify from. A team including Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka beat Bayern Munich 1-0 at home in the first leg before being defeated 7-0 in Germany but it was a huge step for the Swiss club.
Read more
Everything you need to know for FC Basel vs Manchester City
“It became written that we would win the league and it changed naturally that we would go to the Champions League and play some fantastic games against the big clubs and we would beat them. We kept going on this road and Basel never lost control and needed to buy expensive new players, they always brought in new, young players from their own academy and then sold them for a lot of money. With this direction, they always had the right people in the right place and this was great work that they laid the foundations to early.” (Will Unwin : Independent)
2) This site gives these 3 main reasons. Written a few years ago, it also cites a 4th- Continuity of Manager as they gave Christian Gross 10 years to build the club after he was sacked by Spurs. However, they have employed 6 different managers since Gross left in 2009 so that factor no longer seems to be important.
a) Balancing finance and flair – For the first time since 2004, the last 16 of the Champions League this year contained no teams from Holland, Scotland, Scandinavia, the Ukraine or Greece. No Ajax or PSV, no Celtic or Rangers, No Shaktar and no Olympiacos – but Basel made it. This feat was not just the result of good organisation on the pitch, but also in the boardroom. The Axpo Super League unsurprisingly offers comparatively little financial support in the form of TV revenue, meaning that in 2010 almost half of the club’s income came directly from supporters. The necessity of keeping those fans coming through the gates was one factor in the selection of first Fink and then Vogel – managers the chairman rightly believed would not only bring success, but do so playing entertaining football. Of course, this system is reliant on assembling a group of talented players without spending big, which leads on nicely to the next point.
b) Youth development – FC Basel have unquestionably built up the best youth development system in Switzerland and are reaping the rewards. Seven of the starters against Bayern were either born in the local area, came through the youth set-up or featured for the club at youth level, with two more (Valentin Stocker and Philipp Degen) coming off the bench. Leverkusen’s Eren Derdiyok and Gökhan İnler of Napoli are two more Basel products who have performed in this season’s Champions League.
c) Transfer policy – As big fish in a small pond, Basel have mastered the art of the selling club. This point is of course closely tied to the aforementioned youth system. By flogging the players they have developed to richer clubs and sensibly reinvesting the profits, they have been able to further make up for the lack of funds coming in from television companies. However, they have also proved adept at increasing the value of players who do cost them a transfer fee. One example of this is Matías Delgado: brought over from his native Argentina in 2003 for €1.5 million, he was sold to Besiktas for €5.5 million, having fired the team to two league titles in three years with a goal every two games. Then there is Samuel Inkoom – bought as a 19-year-old for €540,000, he was moved on to Juande Ramos’s FC Dnipro in the Ukraine for ten times that amount 18 months later. It is part of the nature of football that a club the size of Basel can’t hold on to their best players forever, and a deal to take their current hottest talent, Xherdan Shaqiri, to their conquerors Bayern Munich this summer had already been agreed before the teams met. While boss Vogel and the fans will be sorry to see the playmaker go, history suggests that the fee, believed to be around €10 million, will be put to good use. (The Daisy Cutter football blog)
3) My own viewpoint is Competitive Environment. I believe it is very important for young players to challenge themselves against better players in an environment where lots of opponents can threaten you if you are not at your best. That’s why Andy Murray left for Spain at a young age- to be able to get better coaching, better conditions to train and practice and to enter an academy with other good youngsters whose strengths helped him to raise his game.
Switzerland is in the centre of Western Europe. Basel is on the border with France and Germany, ideally placed for youth teams to travel and play against the best that those larger countries can offer.
Overall, if we are citing Basel’s success as an example to emulate, we are advocating a Peter Lawwell approach (often cited as Moneyball) which depends on rearing your own, cautious purchases in the transfer market and being willing to sell your stars when they are at peak value. They may be doing it better than us but they are employing a similar strategy to us and one that is much derided on here by the Viv Nicholson Tendency.
It still does not stop them from losing 5:0 at home to Barca and 7:0 away to Munivh in the past 10 years in European competition
SFTB
Not to mention the tax burden for club and players.
Incidentally, as the new Scottish tax rates take effect from today. Our players will be the highest taxed in the UK.
HH.
I should have highlighted that it took them till 2012 to reach the last 16 of CL and we had already had acieved that distinction twice. To be fair to them , they had reached Group Stage 2 in the 2002.3 season and lost out on GD to Juve in getting through to the quarter-finals so that should count as 1.
If we count that, they have got to the Round of 16 on 3 occasions, the same as us but, in the past 10 years they have been consistent CL Group Stage visiters and have made Europa League quarters and semis too.
Got to go now
Just a wee note to say that Basel lie 16 points behind in the title race in the Swiss Super League. Have they suffered on the domestic front as a result of European success this season? Fair enough, the Swiss Super League has a CL qualifier slot for the runners up, however their domestic form would be enough to get a Celtic manager the sack.
P.S. They are second behind some wee laddies from Bern. Embarrassing…
That Gordon v Bain debate.fairly set the heather blazing-)).
Anyway I think Bain has been great since he came in, sooooo I would give him a wee run in the team.
Get Lee signed up BB.
No better player at waving a tricolour -)))
Ps
Thanks dd, tet and bb.
Re the comparisons to FC Basel…
I think the current health of the respective national teams is a factor to be considered.
The Swiss national team are in rude health. Had a wee google.Based on current world rankings they are above France, Italy, Croatia and England.
Scotland’s team is a wee bit disordered in comparison ( slight understatement I know ) and is ranked just above Iran , DR Congo and Egypt.
I think it’s reflective of the continuing omnishambles in Hampden and it’s detrimental effect on our game . IMO of course.
HH
Ps
Wasn’t being precious above for the avoidance of doubt
Bain was doing exceptionally well until he couldn’t play against his parent club. I think Gordon has been an excellent signing. Blessed to have two very good keepers. De Vries never looked comfortable imho.
So….who’s our no1. I’m conflicted.
HH
Pps
RC
Great to see you on the other night. Keep working on those two RG roasters.
HH