Norwegian football journos I speak to all praise Kristoffer Ajer (17) in the highest terms. The 6’5” midfielder became the youngest captain in Norwegian topflight history when he wore the armband of Start as a 16-year-old last April. He’s a strong and mature individual, apparently.
Despite having made only 36 career starts, Celtic have watched him repeatedly, on top of the loan period he spent at Lennoxtown last month, so they know the player they are getting. The information I hear of him is all positive, but he’ll be learning the game for years, and for the remainder of the year he’ll learn what it’s like to be a Celtic player, something he’ll have little inclination of at the moment.
I like this strategy of recruiting and deploying talent of this age, a policy which has been missing for around 40 years, and has contributed to a similar period of underachievement in producing prodigious talent. It feels right for us.
Welcome to Celtic, Kristoffer.
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When the plethora of penalties ` awarded` to Sevco was mentioned the other day, someone said that we were fourth in the top league. Does anyone have stats for penalties awarded in our division?
JJ
i hate spelling errors….
you mix up two letters and your post is urined….
Neganon
“SFTB you are simply making increasingly desperate excuses for a terrible terrible performance by our board.”
And you failed to address a singe one of these “excuses”. I do you the courtesy of believing that you advance your own views and not those of the Daily Record, on here. Please allow me and others the same courtesy.
Mr. Pastry
Not one person overnight had made a pro-Indy or a pro-SNP statement. You brought this divisive issue onto the blog today- why??
Politics is a legitimate subject and I do not seek to censor anyone but If you raise these subjects out of the blue, we are just gonna be subjected to a barrage of pro-Nat and Pro-Indy posts using your post as justification. When you go OTT like this, I cannot escape the notion that this is what you are after.
Aff into work now.
Thank God for Fergus Mc Cann.
I do.
Thank God indeed for Fergus McCann, and, too, such men as Brian Quinn.
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES 12 & OSCAR KNOX 12.50
Excellent analysis.
Jjhs@8.34
Someone had posted as you say re penalties.
Didn’t gave a league table for the TOP league although obviously had access to it as stated we had 5 penalties this year (4th in SPFL,I think they posted)
Huns obviously outstripping opposition in their league with 12 closest to them was 3.
HH
Jjhs@8.34 again
That could be us with 4 pens and 5th in our league. Twas one or the other
Still HH
Gearoid 1998
Thanks. Fourth in our League was what was posted. I wasn`t aware it had revealed our number of penalties.
The Sevco numbers really are , erm, surprising 0:-)
JJ
Yep
If you haven’t been watching Scottish football for this last century
Thought they might have treated a new team a bit differently though.
HH
Right, with only 54 hours until KO , time to start selection.
What I think Ronny will go with:
Gordon;
Lustig Boyata Svietchenko Tierney;
GMS Brown Bitton Johansen Armstrong
Griffiths.
…..and I nominate GMS to take the penalties we are bound to be given!
Good Morning…
Good positive post last night from…
DRAMBOWIECELT @ 12:15 AM,
“@Neg….Reality is a bitch…(you say)12.10am
It does not in any way shape or form have to be.
Believe H.H
That’s my theme for today…
It doesn’t have to be… BELIEVE
Hail Hail
It’s not just the penalties they get . It’s the bookings to other teams players . The sending off of other teams players . Wonder what the betting is for Dundee,s most influential player to get sent off against Dumbarton someone will go . Another thing regards the sneaky question thrown in to our new young signing ,no one at celtic should speak to the laptop loyal , but if they do the clubs lawyer should be present . Look at the aftermath of the Irish question thrown in during the new balance Unvailing . I’m afraid to say we’ve let them go too far .
Note the penalty discussion…
In the referees and Sevco’s defense…
Surely if you are the top team in the league you are creating more chances, most likely getting into the box more, more likely to have frustrated defenders trying to stop your players…
Ergo… More penalties awarded, simples;)
Hail Hail
Honestly, I am not obsessed with these penalties BUT
20 Waghorn (Sevco)
13 Baird (Falkirk)
13 Cummings (Hibernian)
So, if someone else took THEIR penalties , would that person, providing he scored, be above the amazing Waggie in the charts and would Waggie be fourth and, therefore, not worthy of the mention he received on the National News a week or so back?
JJ
Chairbhoy
Why are Celtic fourth?
JJ
Chairbhoy
Also, Hibs, by the same logic, should have had 10 or 11 pens. They have had three.AND KILMARNOCK HAD MORE POSSESSION BUT ONE PENALTY FEWER ( ALTHOUGH THEY DID HAVE A GOOD CALIM!).
JJ
Sorry, pressed the Caps key inadvertently!
…..and maybe they do have a good Calim but I meant` claim` !!
JUNGLE JIM HOT SMOKED @ 9:26 AM,
“Why are Celtic fourth?”
Ah! Good point…
It could be that they are at the cheating again;)
Hail Hail
Maidin mhaith
Tá mé ag Cnoc an Anfa fa choinne cruinniú.
Árd Macha
Chairbhoy: “It could be that they are at the cheating again;)
I prefer that conclusion 0:-)
JJ
jimtim,
What sneaky question was this?
Árd Macha
Maidin mhaith to you , too ( and that is a pure guess that it means Good morning!),
Ard Macha
He was asked , basically, how he would feel if Ronny were to be sacked!!!
JJ
JUNGLE JIM HOT SMOKED @ 9:29 AM,
Those statistics speak volumes.
Guess you were aware I was playing a reverse Devils Advocate. But if the figures quoted above are accurate, there can be little excuses, in statistics you can have outliers, but the numbers we are looking at beggar belief.
Especially when examining the actual game footage*… Soft penalties for them, disallowed stone wallers for there opposition and us.
In a way this is a positive thing, insofar as if this is what’s required to get them up, they will struggle hugely in the premiership.
Of course the problem being, what if the cheating carries on in this scale next season – we have seen with the pillioring of WillieCollum this week, the SMSM will support it, I can’t see how we stop it.
Guess we’ll have to go back to Jock’s old strategy that we used against Rangers…
Be much better than them.
Hail Hail
*Would such anomalies not be investigated by other Countries Associations?
The only card left in the pack – The VicTIM Card.
Pathetic!
Does anyone remember who or, what Celtic FC is supposed to be ?
The Club of, the underdogs of society.
Now, in the present day…it’s the club of the snobs and, the smug.
Celtic FC has gone full cycle….
….and, it aint coming back, any time soon.
The died-huns will huff and, they’ll puff and they’ll bloooooooooow
Celtic’s house of cards down…..watch this space…….
……zzzzzzzzz…….
Chairbhoy
The only part of your post that I take a wee exception to is: what if the cheating carries on in this scale next season `. What if? What if? There is no if about it!! 0:-)
* Of course they would (re anomalies). Also, the Media in other countries would,I suspect, at least mention it.
JJ
Kev
“it’s the club of the snobs and, the smug.”
Do you mean those of us who go to the games?
JJ
Chairboy
It really does beggar belief. Surprised there has been no investigation by the SMSM as the disparity in the number of Waghorns awarded certainly requires some sort of investigation…..surely. Maybe even the scrutiny afforded to Mr Collums decisions on Monday evensong. Breath held.
HH Timmites
Marrakesh Express
Where was that documentary on, the one about Clough and Forest? Would be interested in seeing it,
Cheers
HH
The penalty count for Sevco is damning. Supporters of all Scottish Clubs should be instrumental in highlighting the Statistics.
If a Scottish Soccer website was opened simply tracking the number of penalties awarded for and against every team & listing them in a League Table format. Then let every supporter highlight the statistics in Social media and radio phone ins.
The Masonic cartel will at least get the message, “We are watching you” & we will highlight every penalty.
It may not solve the problem but it will put doubts in their mind.
What irritates me most about the furore against Collum is that there is at least a case to be made that it WAS a penalty.
Cheerio for now,
JJ
Re.statistics for each club for penalties, yellow and red cards per foul etc.and by which referee, where would these figures be available for scrutiny?
I have had a quick look online but nothing is coming up.
Here’s the highlights link from Rugby Park on Tuesday evening.
Play you are the ref with the two penalty incidents…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/scotland/35594435
Ok SFTB. Taking each of your points in turn.
On making money being the sole goal of Celtic.
Your point about selling the stadium etc is rather silly. Those assets are employed to make money year after year . That’s the way a business works. So it’s a spurious point to show they aren’t there to make the money. Buying and selling players is of course normal. But what is not normal is buying players only for what you might be able to make when you sell them and not to build a team, our approach is self evident. We simply buy midfielder after midfielder and do not balance the team. That’s because we are using Moneyball. The team isn’t important only the potential resale value of the player. This can be further seen because we do not balance the team in any way with experience etc etc. The field of play is simply a shop window. As for DD and his dividends. I agree that this isn’t his reason for investing. His reason for investing is simply to sell Celtic at some point for a profit (hopefully if we get to the EPL). Until then his view is we are frozen. No risks, no need to stretch ourselves. Just keep paying my divs. If he loved Celtic so much he could have at least supported the divs reinvestment scheme. But no. As you say he could lose it down the sofa. But he still wants it.nas for football results they only matter in so far as enough to keep supporters buying season tickets.
On goal congruence. It is an age old accusation that if we dare try and improve the supporters demand will lead to a Hun like liquidation. I don’t see anyone asking for that. Goal congruence should be about trying to improve the tam and results. As above that’s incidental to the board while its central to supporters. The fact that the board don’t really care means we are divided and not goal congruent. No one is asking for stupid spending. It’s laziness to suggest otherwise.
It’s also laziness to continually trot out the old can’t compete with the EPL excuse. Of course we can’t and we aren’t asking. But should we not be able to compete with the likes of Malmö who, we have a massive resource differential that the EPL has over us. So Malmö can compete with us but we can’t compete with the EPL? Errrr do you want your cake and eat it.
We have massively and disastrously underperformed. The boards so called strategy far from being safe is incredibly risky. They are throwing away our supporters, our reputation and our chances to build a sustainable competetive advantage. It’s actually scandalous.
You my friend are making increasingly weak excuses for them.
Just played you are the ref.
Waghorn’s shirt was tugged back slightly but he flings himself forward and Madden immediately awards a penalty. Doubtful at best.
The denied Killie penalty however was a stonewaller, the player being clearly broght down by the sevco defender.
There was also a case for a red card in this instance.
The referee was to my mind blatantly partial in favourv of sevco.
This cheating is going on all the time and we need to be doing all we can to highlight and shame the individuals concerned.
winning captains on 18th February 2016 10:35 am
Waghorn-Pen was a similar penalty given against Efe at Hampden v RC. Very slight touch and the attacking player takes a tumble. Not a penalty for me but can understand why its given.
Killie penalty claim not a penalty IMO, Kiernan muscles him off the ball, shoulder to shoulder. McGennis looking for it rather than concentrating on sticking the ball in the net like he should have done.