After a bad defeat, would you rather a difficult game against a Champions League team at Celtic Park, or an awkward visit to a Premiership side playing 10 men behind the ball? Neither seems a great prospect, but in a tight league race, the latter is definitely not a desired option.
A big performance and result against a big opponent in a game with only money and coefficient points up for grabs is what this Celtic side needs right now. Our best result of the season so far – the win at Ibrox – came after an insipid home draw to bottom of the table St Johnstone. After that match, a patchwork squad found a cause which united them.
Give a team a cause and results will follow. I would rather a team with a hunted look to them than one with a sense of their own brilliance, especially this early in the season. We cannot be confident of taking anything tomorrow night, but we can be sure we will see fight from Celtic.
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Happy Wednesday eve all!
Ooo roo Aipple !
Morning QUADROPHENIAN.
Nippy here this morning,
Paul… ‘fight’ is not one of the qualities that ozzes from this Celtic side.
The two guys that give us a bit of fight, in fact, are equally chastised for being suspect/too slow/late with passes – aka Liam and Nat. Who else is one of our palpable fighters? Mibby CCV ? All of them in one part of the park.
Bit baffling that we save or summon fight after our riches were embarrassed by a journeyman side – why not just ‘get the heids right’ for a tie against the customary cluggers on a plastic park?
Anyways, it’s Celtic – still rooting (coughs) for ’em. HH
Oozes not ozzes ffs.
Here – dahnunda – Aipple, we’ve had a 33-deg day with stunning lightning storms passing right overhead.
WEATHERMEN CSC
For this Thread shouldnt the word/description in the Title ” HUNTED”, be replaced with ” HAUNTED” ?
I am feeling rather ” HAUNTED” since Sundays dismal result and 2nd half showing against Killie.
I dont believe that I am alone in that ” Feeling” ?
I am hoping and praying for the REAL Celtic to turn up on Wednesday…and more importantly this Saturday v Hertz.
HH
I don’t see the same pressure being on tomorrow night as there will be on every league game until the break. That may help us.
Feyenoord are not world beaters. 10 points off PSV and 2 wins to their name in the group, both at home.
It’s a sad reflection on us that the match means nothing in terms of progression.
A win would be a huge boost to morale.
At some point though, that left side or Hart will be exposed, however. If Killie can target our left side, you bet Feyenoord can as well. The corners will be watched from behind the sofa.
A case of rinse and repeat I’m afraid.
I am expecting signs of fight from the squad against Feyenoord tomorrow. This team owes the manager and the fans a sustained effort at the very least. It doesn’t matter who plays, they need to at least work hard.
The manager has to use all his influence to motivate the team. This is why he is paid big money. A decent performance will take us a big way to holding on to our lead in the league.
QUADROPHENIAN re: weathermen CSC
Just in from dog walk. Frost here but nice and still.
I see Joey Barton continues to find new ways to be an absolute *****
Well I would actually rather have a Champions League game with something at stake!
I said before the PSV-Sevco tie that if Sevco went out there would be no significant business (ie incomings) at Celtic.
With the draw we got we could be going into this game with 3 or 4 points and with the opportunity of knockout football in the new year if different choices had been made.
Never mind though – looks like we might have a good old old firm title race which is soooooooo much better!
You can have all the fight in the world .
Which we don’t have .
But if you put Pat Clinton into a fight ,he will come out second against Frank Bruno .
TT
Aipple 12.34
I won’t give him the oxygen that he requires to be relevant by mentioning his name.
He’s not so daft .
Create controversy and attract attention .
Rinse and repeat .
TT
TINYTIM re: starve of the oxygen..
I hear you.
Morning all from a chilly Texas.
Quad – we had 33 yesterday too but on the F scale.
I’m with big Jimmy at 12:34 – I assume initially that ‘hunted’ was a typo.
Hope we get some our our best players back soon.
TEXASTIM
Never knew Texas got that brisk.
We have pals from Houston and Lubbock; must get over there one day.
Wrap up HH
“We won’t just bring in players for the sake of it .If they aren’t of the quality of player that we require then we won’t be making signings.
It’s not my department,but I do know that the recruitment team tried very hard to bring in several players of the required standard.
But ,teams don’t want to part with good players at this time of year .
It’s always very difficult at this time of year .”
01/02/24
What are the chances of this statement being made at the end of the Jan window ?
After a few Nat Phillips standard of loanees are brought in .
TT
Our match day gang will all be at the game tomorrow night.
Tough night ahead. Looking forward to it.
Our home CL performances this season have been decent to good.
But it’s all about the outcome.
A team who are utterly gutless suddenly magic up fight.
Look forward to seeing that.
Two games in four days followed by a relative rest (7 days) between games.
I’d love to think we have just enough physical, mental, emotional and psychological energy to push ourselves to the limit against Feyenoord and Hearts ….
Then get some rest.
Then push like hell until we drop in four games across 11 days.
Then collapse in a heap for the first part of the break.
Refresh, then go again.
Anyone know if Celtic have plans for a winter break camp?
Thought I’d heard we weren’t going away anywhere this year?
Paul67
They ran like hunted hares 👍
QUADROPHENIAN on 12TH DECEMBER 2023 1:03 PM
TEXASTIM
Never knew Texas got that brisk.
>>>>>>>>
I have seen it as low as -10C and more frequently in recent years; always an outlier, though.
Winters are superb in TX, like the best Spring you can remember in Scotland. Unfortunately the Summers are so miserable, the trade off isn’t worth it.
Weather Channel CSC
Does anyone have any knowledge on Michael Antonio of West Ham ?
Is he finis he’d or does he still have it ?
I recall that pre season friendly where he bulldozed us at CP a few years ago .
He is a free agent in the summer ,aged 33.
Eric Dier aged 29 ,in the same boat .
TT
Yes, looking forward to the game tomorrow night, real chance for the players to step up.
“A big performance and result against a big opponent in a game with only money and coefficient points up for grabs is what this Celtic side needs right now. Our best result of the season so far – the win at Ibrox – came after an insipid home draw to bottom of the table St Johnstone. After that match, a patchwork squad found a cause which united them.”
Yes, the fact is we only go into the UCL for money.
Even if you don’t get any points, you get a big load of cash as Sevco Rangers proved last season.
We went into the UCL group stage very unprepared this season, with a side even weaker than the team that failed last season.
We didn’t have to qualify this year, we had a whole load of cash in the bank.
So the usual excuses don’t fly, there simply isn’t an appetite in our Boardroom or Executive to compete in the UCL, when we would not get a return on investment.*
CQN was interesting on the morning of our game with Sevco, not many were very happy with the team.
My thinking was who were fholks expecting us to play?
The injuries have left us threadbare, we depend so much on players like Meada, Hatate and CCV that when they are missing the impact is huge.
Hopefully CCV will be back to strengthen the back four and we see a good strong display from our midfield.
A result tomorrow will be a huge bonus.
*Of course a professionally run football club could find a way to monetise their UCL participation, our staid Board are not though.
Hail Hail
Morning all.
Woke up Saturday morning and watched the game and as upset as I was at our performance, mother nature put life into perspective. Our town had two tornadoes come through at midnight ish and it brought a lot of destruction to many people’s houses and streets. One of my fellow teachers had their house demolished by a tree coming smack dab through the middle and missing his baby’s crib by only a few feet. they are now in the process of finding a rental home. Many people will be getting in touch with their insurance companies who will hit them with some bullcrap way of not covering their losses. So after the game was over, yes I was upset with the performance and the disappearance of some players in the 2nd half, but it happens. We are not in a crisis as some pundits are saying. We cannot always be so many points in front. We keep saying that other teams need to be more competitive, well Killie have beaten us twice and the huns once, so they are doing what they can to move up the table. I believe our players are good enough, but I also believe that anyone can beat anyone on any given day. I have always liked the look of Danny Armstrong at Kilmarnock, and he always gives us a hard time. I remember back in the old days that if the first team got beat on the weekend, all of us knew that we were going to get hammered on the auld red ash track around the field, or run up and down queens park in the centre of the city, even if the reserve teams were winning. The game has evolved a lot over the last 30 years and we have been pretty spoiled with the success we have had in the 2000s. Yes players can come in for criticism, but no matter who puts on that jersey, they deserve our support, especially if they are coming off of a bad week or few games.
We are Celtic supporters, faithful through and through, and that means the good and the bad.
Sorry for the long post my fellow tims.
Hope everyone is safe and well
Sean
Daizen Maeda and CCV both in training think Brendan will go,
………………………Hart…………………………….
Johnston …….CCV………Scales……..Taylor
…..O’Riley……..Iwata…….McGregor ……
……Forrest……Kyogo………Palma……
Too soon for Daizen who would be a shoe in, but bigger games coming up.
* Bernardo for Iwata ☝️
TT @ 2:07pm re Michail Antonio.
Interesting wildcard but he’s done.
Always liked him.
Have watched his career with interest.
Fully fit and focused he’s unplayable.
Can’t keep fit.
If you’re unfit you lose sharpness & coordination and gain pounds.
I always feel the impact of that is more noticeable with naturally big, heavy men.
By contrast you get the Alf Tupper types who never look like anything but razor sharp whippets regardless of their true fitness levels
Boondock Saint @ 2:22pm
Nice one.
Chairbhoy – no issue with criticism of a board who are aware of an unprecedented positive cash position.
I’d love to know what their plans for that cash are … but it might be sensitive.
That said surely as a group of fans we can acknowledge the impact on our Champions League campaign of 50% of our starting outfield being injured?
Other than a handful of top CL participants I don’t see any other team/squad being able to mitigate this without performances and results being impacted.
To be clear – if we’d been fully fit and sharp I reckon we would have been borderline competitive only …. 5 to 7 points max from that group with a good chance of Europa League parachute.
BOURNESOUPRECIPE @ 2:23 PM,
Think CCV, Meada and Bernardo will get the nod tomorrow and make a huge difference to the performance.
Hail Hail
BOONDOCK SAINT
Puts everything into perspective….being watching in Toronto.
Anyone….why has Vata not had a chance with all our injuries and lack of scoring……is it because he has not signed a contract.
Chairbhoy
Cb-CQN was interesting on the morning of our game with Sevco, not many were very happy with the team.
AT-Yup the johnny the painters had us beat,doomgloom/highrise building of choice picked/telly set with windae open ready to go oot,place riddled with hun trolls…how did that turn out?
Chairbhoy- Who are these place men you talk of?
Monikers please,otherwise your inventing an enemy amid our own(common on both sides of your theory) instead debating out
CB-Yes, the fact is we only go into the UCL for money.
AT Thank god for it,would you prefer we didnt?
Until there is across europe financial law&penalties ffp or now fsr with rigid sanction and penalties,uniform across europe the game will be what it is corrupt and bent as one of eufa’s doorhandles.
The game has been “hunned” out,the CL full of names to big to fail,built on debt like each of our group opponents and as the tourney goes on til its historical deeper pocket vs similar in a final.Champions league of fraud, corruption and disparity
Hope all good
HH
Hatate back training with 1st team as well
Vata wants too much money for a player of his age and experience, and refused to go out on loan
Boondock Saint 2.22
Thats real perspective buddy
Take care
HH
Bada Bing
Re Vata- was there a change of agent in summer?
HH
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 12TH DECEMBER 2023 1:44 PM
Anyone know if Celtic have plans for a winter break camp?
Thought I’d heard we weren’t going away anywhere this year?
no winter training camp ,sure BR said better for the players to be at home with their families .