I got my haircut today. Sitting, waiting in line, usual habits were cast aside and I picked up a newspaper; what an alarming read. Neil Lennon was quoted as saying, “I’m not big on tactics. It’s about the players and they have to go out onto the pitch and apply that.”
I couldn’t disagree more. It’s all about the tactics. Players need to be sufficiently fit, fast and fearless but all the talent in the world can be ripped asunder if it’s not tactically well organised. I had been watching Celtic tactics closely for 20 years before Martin O’Neill arrived. Back in 2000, watching Celtic was like going to school. My eyes were opened to how a defence is organised, how to stage an attack that fits your strikers and how to buy with a playing strategy in mind.
We had seen plenty great players since our last great team: McStay, McClair, McGrain, McAvennie, Burns, Nicholas. We’d seen courage and directness: the Bear, MacLeod and Provan, and cameos from Moravcik and Larsson, but we were forever found out, a plucky team who would flatter to deceive. Celtic would regularly dominate Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen – who understood too well the importance of tactics – and lose 1-0, and we went 30 years without beating a team from a major European league.
Martin O’Neill clearly demonstrated that successful football teams are all about tactics, not the players, nor courage, not even an aggregate ocean of skill.
>90% of football games are won and lost before kick-off.
As for the on-going orgy that is dominating front pages (good grief). Get used to it. As I’ve said many times, positions are absolutely entrenched when it comes to the songs debate. Neil Lennon and Ian Bankier are in for a disappointment if they think they, or any of the rest of us, can “self-police” those who object to being inhibited from singing about the IRA. I’ve encouraged this so often I’m not going to waste my your time with it anymore.
Celtic are set for an extended period when its reputation will suffer, there is no avoiding this. Unfortunately, not everyone listens. My great sympathies go to the £X per hour Celtic stewards who have to put themselves in the front line of this confrontation.
If I can offer any advice on a related subject… Songs and banners affect individuals, who will often be selected randomly for exclusion. Lateral movement in the stands, which happened last weekend, will get an entire section of the stadium closed by Health & Safety. If this creeps back into Celtic Park there is a real risk of council action. I’m pretty sure Michael Davitt didn’t place the sod on Celtic Park before bouncing left to right and back again. It’s not a key part of our heritage, don’t pick fights you’re going to lose.
CQN Magazine, issue 5, will be out soon. After 4 issues online and shipping single copies from Magcloud in the US, we’ve ordered a print run locally. You can order now with credit/debit card or Paypal and buy direct from the UK for only £5 by clicking on the link below.
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henr1k –
here, let me help you…
Just For You!
Jobo
Right ok I apologise but yes it is frustrating, all I ask for is fairness and it ain’t happening and we shouldn’t be letting this happen because our silence is shocking on this.
They have been struggling for weeks now and they are getting a helping hand and it ain’t right.
Jobo Baldie says:
18 December, 2011 at 11:42
henr1k –
here, let me help you…
Just For You!
Jobo
share
LoL
With Referees the route cause of their poor standards is with-in their training to do their jobs.
A wee exploration of Henriks religion point- if its not religion what is it that binds the SFA, the referees and the forces of darkness together?
Awk Henrik,your grand rising lasted 5 minutes,What are you sayin sorry for?its how you feel..
Scottish refereeing has been blighted by croneyism for years and years, the main culprit was sitting in the stand at Ibrox yesterday.
How else would Collum get to the top?
Jobo….brilliant! genuinely laughed out loud…Mrs M now looking at me with that look..HH
Stairheedrammy
Hate.
hen1rik……almost 100% of CQN would agree with your point that the SFA , and the referees they employ show a definite bias towards the Huns which reeks of corruption.
But best to leave religion out of it , after all its the orcs who are unable to separate religion from everything else in life.
And fear.
hen1rik
If you are just having one of those days then fair enough,,,best to leave the religion stuff out of it though,leave that to the cave-dweller’s!!
KTF M8!!
Hail hail
Jobo- very funny indeed.
We love everyone,We just dont like ourselves..
What time do the alll loving guys in green and white hoops kick off today..??
Ok point taken I shouldn’t have brought religion into it.
I feel strong about this and it gets under my skin.
All I ask for in this country is fairness towards our club and if there is fairness then if we lose title yes it would hurt but not as bad as honest mistakes happening in their favour every year.
Honest mistakes cost points and it ain’t right.
Barca are something else they really are,,,the Celtic are my first,my last,my everything,,,but i do love watching Barca :D
Hail hail
Good Morning to the Celtic Family from a Frosty Central Scotland..Well it is a lovely day for a game of football but Saint Johnstone away will not be an easy match. We will need to pay well in order to come away with three points 1-2 to the Hoops and continue to pressure the poundland mob.H.H.
hen1rik says:
18 December, 2011 at 11:55
On this point,,,,then yes i agree 100%!!!
Hail hail
Right I’m off to do some gardening as Jobo advised or will I just whack my nut with it ha ha.
I can just see all the CQN posters say out loud do it whack yer nut lol.
Certainly religious bigotry will be part of the referee bias.
The hatred is so deeply ingrained into the psyche they probably dont even need to plot behind the scenes.
Sabotaging Celtic is second nature to the majority of scottish football officials + 95% of the Scottish media + the police +…………..
Rooney goal,55 seconds v QPR
Heading off from El Peurto de Glasgow to Perth for the match in 20 mins. How are the roads this morning, nticed a poster saying earlier that there was an inch of snow 2 miles north of Perth.
Hail Hail
Top of the morning to you all from sunny Fife. The day is fine, clear but cold so imagine Perth is pretty much the same. No cameras make me nervous as I remember the pen that Brines didn’t see when the cameras were there. Must win today and end the week on a high note after the over-reaction by the Scottish press to a tiny fan problem in Undine. To me the events were nothing to shout about.
It wasn’t always the case that our press reacted so hysterically to our fans behaviour abroad on Uefa business, while ignoring the Hun hoards. I am old enough to remember when some Scottish journalists told it as they saw it. They could write then as well. Here is what it was like for the younger posters:-
The Scotsman, Friday, May23, 1969
ANIMALS OF OUR FOOTBALL JUNGLE
NOT so long ago, we were talking of football animals from another continent and sneering about moats and wire fences to keep them in their compounds; then, suddenly, at Newcastle there was the need for the moat or a fence and the realisation that here in Britain there was a football jungle.
There should have been no surprise, for the frenzied extremists who have attached themselves to the Rangers Football Club have grown in numbers, in arrogance, and in ferocity—and they seemed to be all in Newcastle.
The road to St James Park from the station was an ominous journey for those who could read the signs. From the pubs along the way spilled frenzied drunken supporters. In their hands were clasped the clear-glass beer bottles with the patent heavy brew peculiar to the area.
MOB LAW
Policemen patently not used to such characters were pushed aside with contempt and seemed terrified to exert any authority, and so mob law was established.
In St James Park there was a like situation. The trouble area was easily identified, yet the police left it almost uncontrolled. Glasgow police would have been quickly in among them I and arrested a score or so just to show who was the boss. There were ample wild characters misbehaving sufficiently before play began to warrant multiple arrests.
In the final break-in, the police tried pathetically to coax the roused invaders back on to the terracing, and it was not until they were hurt and bulled that they got into the mood to be sufficiently tough to get results.
HEAVY PRICE
I have been under fire in a football riot in Montevideo, caught up in a night of terror and hate in Cologne, worried in the wild Prater Stadium in Vienna, but never so sickened as I was in Newcastle; It was hard to stomach the pseudo-front of religion and the wild singing of Ulster party songs that was the front for unbridled disorder.
The hooligans who invaded the field did so flying the Union Jack and the Lion Rampant of Scotland, and the air reeked with hypocrisy and ignorance, sacrilege and arro¬gance. Rangers are indeed paying a heavy price for the traditional religious policy of the club; and the worst is yet to come, for the extremists who have attached themselves to the club grow in numbers and in viciousness,
NO JOKE
And then after the match there was the walk back to the hotel and, for the first time; fear. Drunks prowled the streets in packs hunting for trouble, and suddenly I remembered that often I am mistaken for Jock Stein. Usually that is fun, but in that scene of havoc such a mistaken identity would have been no joke.
And then in the hotel there was the usual telephone call to report home and my wife, who had watched television, asked: “Where are you?” “In the hotel,” I said, “Stay there!” she ordered; and I did.
John Raffferty
………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Now that was something to shout about!
EK Bhoys, the game is live in the Stewartfield Farm,Dunrobin Drive EK
hen1rick …I don’t think we’ll ever achieve fairness and a level playing field , unfortunately to win titles we need to be so far ahead of the Huns that even the MIB’s can’t make a difference.
I think Tommy Burns Thursday was truly a one off occasion , as when the title comes down to the last game or 2 it’s not just the MIBs we need to fear…..amazing how this piss poor Huns team were able to score 4 and 5 every match in last seasons run in
Chasing yesterday’s losses with a “surely these will win” bet –
Man U, Liverpool, Man C and, of course, Us.
Good start from Man U.
Jobo
The key to referee bias is in their psychological makeup.
They like rules, respect and established authority.
Hence the bias in favour of the dominant culture of Scottish football and the quintessential establishment Scottish club.
It shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone.
Someone posted yesterday that game was on live BBC Alba sky 168.is that correct? thanks HH
ernie lynch says:
18 December, 2011 at 12:08
The key to referee bias is in their psychological makeup.
They like rules, respect and established authority.
Hence the bias in favour of the dominant culture of Scottish football and the quintessential establishment Scottish club.
It shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone.
…………………………………………………….
Referees being human are partial to money as well Ernie.
!!Bada Bing!! –
so what channel is that then?
Jobo
Messi…..again
johann murdoch –
The full game is on Alba but from 5.30pm. You’d need to stay off CQN if you don’t want to know the result beforehand.
Jobo
Jobo Baldie says:
18 December, 2011 at 12:10
freeview ch 8
virgin ch 110
sky ch 168
hail hail
Madra rua
have you tried incontinence pants?
U
I can just see all the CQN posters cringe next Saturday if more honest mistakes come their way, Aw naw we need to listen to this hen1rik going off on 1 lol.
And there was me half regretting a post I made in the pub on Friday,seems I wasn’t far wrong.
fergus, thanks for that but !!Bada Bing!! suggested there’s a live option?
Jobo
The way Messi skips over the keeper is so majestic – he’s absolutely without equal on Planet Earth. His first goal was sublime too, a deft dink that our own Henrik might have taught him how to do on the practice grounds all those years ago :)