Optimism among the Celtic support is tangible right now. For much of last year the league title remained in the balance, but today, despite being promised a more taxing season, we’re miles ahead. You can get odds of over 40-1 on second favourites to win the title; the definition of No Contest.
As I noted yesterday, the transformation goes deeper than the heroics of Scott Sinclair and Moussa Dembele, neither of whom were material in the level of performance shown against Barcelona.
Achievements are often subject to reassessment at a later date and Celtic’s progress or otherwise over the last two years fall into this category.
A year ago, with a faltering Craig, Emilio, Efe, Dedryk, Stuart, Gary, James and others, we looked miles away from being a Champions League team. It turns out, we have a squad full of Champions League players.
Youth development hit the jackpot with Kieran Tierney, while John Park’s swansong signings, Erik Sviatchenko and Moussa Dembele, saw a return to form for our recently departed chief scout.
Money isn’t everything. Since 2004 it’s been clear on CQN that many Celtic fans have no interest in the game’s finances, all they are interested in is seeing an improving team on the park, but for the rest of us, the financial consequence of simply getting to the group stage this season is enormous. It makes accession to the same level next season so much more achievable.
None of that matters right now as we have the first cup final of the season coming up on Sunday. The litany of underachievement in this tournament stretches back to Jock Stein, who qualified for ever League Cup final during his 13 years in charge of Celtic, but after winning the first five, contrived to lose seven of the next eight.
I’ve seen a lot worse teams than Aberdeen knock us out of the League Cup, I hope nothing is taken for granted in the dressing room.
I’ve no idea what happened at the Newco AGM this morning but you’ll remember we discussed here the wisdom of launching a hostile takeover bid while a company is being driven into the sea by boycotts? More precisely, Newco was driven into the arms of the lender of last resort – Sports Direct. Sports Direct provided the cash that kept the lights on and picked up various rights and properties in compensation.
Offering a lender a shop at a rental of £1 per year for a decade seems harsh, but if the alternative is administration, there isn’t really an alternative. We didn’t know what the quid-pro-quo was for Ashley at the time, but we knew there had to be one.
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Auldheid
You asked a few days ago bout this quote? What did it mean?
‘…Chris Jack: “King says business plan completely independent from funding plan.”
NCG.nooklubgobbledigook.:-)
Black is white, up is down
Left is right, and wrong is too
DCKs all jittering eye redefining
English.
HH
StumpedCsCc
Team from the guy on twitter who normally gets it right m, according to Celticminded.
Gordon,
Lustig, Jozo, Erik, Izzy, Brown, armstrong,
rogic, forrest, roberts, dembele
ERNIE LYNCH on 27TH NOVEMBER 2016 10:02 AM
;)))
FIRST LC final 1978 v deadco Wiggy2 Shuggy 1 : > (
LAST LC final Ross County last season : > (
NEXT LC final )
Me and no2 son picked up in < hr
1st pint approx 11:30
ps I know Sunday but some pubs have 11 oclock Sunday licence
Thums up thingy
Does anyone know of a Celtic supporters club or bar that will be showing the game today in Bucharest?
SMSM’s obession with ‘player budget’ and ‘resources’ has developed and matured since Rangers died and Sevco began the ‘journey’ . It’s a pity for them they hadn’t been attentive to Rangers budget and how they did it, or they might have intervened and saved them from extinction.
They are almost accusatory when going over Celtic’s ‘massive advantage’ and resigned to Celtic winning before a ball is kicked, how dare you Celtic , buying better players than everybody else, and bringing in an EPL manager to boot.
Scott Sinclair likely to miss todays game has been a talisman since Tynecastle on the opening day, his goal threat will be a big minus for us, and I hope BR reshuffles the front men to include Leigh Griffiths to compensate.
It’s one or the other for me between James Forrest and Patrick Roberts as neither have Sinclairs ability to find the space to shoot as accurately. Calum MacGregor deserves a starting jersey for his industry and he offer something different to the other wide men.
We should be fine at the back where Sviatchenko and Lustig have like most of our squad just gotten better under BR.
Hoping for the Centurians CSC
JC2
Ross County was the semi final
Brother Walfrid, John Glass et al should be looking down on Hampden today with some pride as their wonderful creation-Celtic Football Club-attempts to win its 100th honestly won major honour. It’s ironic to me that it’s the League Cup as we have only won it 15 times and it usually signals the end of a treble dream for the season. We certainly have a mixed relationship with it but it’s a trophy I hold dear for numerous reasons.
It featured on the front of a Celtic LP that I played the life out of in my Granda’s house, Bobby Murdoch is holding the trophy after a 6-2 win over Hibs.
http://image.wikifoundry.com/image/1/LljR7rU6sXX_TlmizwMxxA103054/GW353H698.
I grew up listening to tales of 1957 and 7-1 was still painted on the rear of some garages near our flat when I was growing up-the memories! That was an exceptional result but in League cup tradition we also have Partick Thistle and Raith Rovers, enough said.
There have been some personal highlights: seeing my dad’s broad smile as a Kenny Dalglish led Celtic defeated Aberdeen 2-0 at Hampden. We were in the posh seats and his smile will remain with me forever. Defeating the now defunct Rangers club 2-1 as we got soaked to the skin in the Celtic end in 1982 and didn’t give a jot. They exacted revenge on numerous occasions especially it seemed during the Skol branding era when Davie Symme played central midfield for them. Defeating Dundee Utd at Ibrox on the 30th November 1997 in a cavalier style and belting out Roll with it.
Defeating Kilmarnock 3-0 on the first leg of a rare treble was tempered with the death on the morning of the game of Willie Gorman our bus founder. RIP Willie Bhoy. Lots of tears and eventually some laughter that night as the stories and beer flowed.
The League Cup has certainly been a mixed bag but somehow despite everything it will be a fitting 100th trophy. Do it in style Celtic.
YNWA
GARY67
Someone actually read my post
Wooohoooo
I think I have had so many disappointments in this tournament over the years especially at Hampdump they all merge into a single Hazy nightmare
Brendan is going to start clearing that Haze today
JC2
Know what you mean, seems everyone has beaten us at Hampden in the last 5-6 years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yef8O6vD1Co
Celtic 3-0 Dundee Utd
HH
If anyone’s near F3, row BB (‘mon the Bobo!) from about 2.30 onwards, do say hello! I’m in the ‘going for 55’ seat!
https://youtu.be/zkSUfNJyHZ8
CELTIC 2-1 Rangers now defunct
1982 League Cup Final and those cavernous Hampden goals
HH
TONTINE TIM on 26TH NOVEMBER 2016 11:53 PM.
Was reading back on last nights block and thinking to myself, why do I bother? Then I came across your oasis of a post in a desert of wilderness, Fantastic read mate and what a memory you have.
H.H.
I see the Aquinas clique has been outed. Her’es a wee question for them:
On Twin Earth, a brain in a vat is at the wheel of a runaway trolley. There are only two options that the brain can take: the right side of the fork in the track or the left side of the fork. There is no way in sight of derailing or stopping the trolley and the brain is aware of this, for the brain knows trolleys. The brain is causally hooked up to the trolley such that the brain can determine the course which the trolley will take.
On the right side of the track there is a single railroad worker, Jones, who will definitely be killed if the brain steers the trolley to the right. If the railman on the right lives, he will go on to kill five men for the sake of killing them, but in doing so will inadvertently save the lives of thirty orphans (one of the five men he will kill is planning to destroy a bridge that the orphans’ bus will be crossing later that night). One of the orphans that will be killed would have grown up to become a tyrant who would make good utilitarian men do bad things. Another of the orphans would grow up to become G.E.M. Anscombe, while a third would invent the pop-top can.
If the brain in the vat chooses the left side of the track, the trolley will definitely hit and kill a railman on the left side of the track, “Leftie” and will hit and destroy ten beating hearts on the track that could (and would) have been transplanted into ten patients in the local hospital that will die without donor hearts. These are the only hearts available, and the brain is aware of this, for the brain knows hearts. If the railman on the left side of the track lives, he too will kill five men, in fact the same five that the railman on the right would kill. However, “Leftie” will kill the five as an unintended consequence of saving ten men: he will inadvertently kill the five men rushing the ten hearts to the local hospital for transplantation. A further result of “Leftie’s” act would be that the busload of orphans will be spared. Among the five men killed by “Leftie” are both the man responsible for putting the brain at the controls of the trolley, and the author of this example. If the ten hearts and “Leftie” are killed by the trolley, the ten prospective heart-transplant patients will die and their kidneys will be used to save the lives of twenty kidney-transplant patients, one of whom will grow up to cure cancer, and one of whom will grow up to be Hitler. There are other kidneys and dialysis machines available, however the brain does not know kidneys, and this is not a factor.
Assume that the brain’s choice, whatever it turns out to be, will serve as an example to other brains-in-vats and so the effects of his decision will be amplified. Also assume that if the brain chooses the right side of the fork, an unjust war free of war crimes will ensue, while if the brain chooses the left fork, a just war fraught with war crimes will result. Furthermore, there is an intermittently active Cartesian demon deceiving the brain in such a manner that the brain is never sure if it is being deceived.
QUESTION: What should the brain do?
Noticed the back of that so called newspaper The Sunday Mail today. Some Dons player talking of “Stopping The treble”. Sums up all that is wrong about this football backwater some of us live in. Surely he should be concentrating on his side winning some elusive silverware not on stopping Celtic winning a treble?
C’mon the hoops, ensure they return to sheepland empty handed!
Woohoo, got CQN back.
It’s been unreadable for the past few days being swamped by littlewoods adverts.
Got techy advice from Ole Bournesouprecipe, added the Adblocker thingy and all’s well again in Eurochampsville.
Question is though, how did the adverts get to dominate the blog so intrusively?
3-1 to the Champions. Rogic, Armstrong, Griff. M.O.M. Broonie
Eurochamps67
TBB
Vote tory and not give a fu(K
OLDTIM67, BMCUWP
Saw you pair were talking about me behind my back yesterday :D
OT67, thanks for taking the ticket, much appreciated, BMCUWP has my email address should you ever need it, hope the BV stocks up on cucumbers for your December do! Enjoy the game today lads.
HH
Roy C.
82 LC final was one of my favs, Pretty sure I went on the Charlie Nick bus that day. When he scored the first it was chaos, that was of course way before he turned into the tube he is now.
H.H
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 27TH NOVEMBER 2016 10:22 AM
SMSM’s obession with ‘player budget’ and ‘resources’ has developed and matured since Rangers died and Sevco began the ‘journey’ . It’s a pity for them they hadn’t been attentive to Rangers budget and how they did it, or they might have intervened and saved them from extinction.
They are almost accusatory when going over Celtic’s ‘massive advantage’ and resigned to Celtic winning before a ball is kicked, how dare you Celtic , buying better players than everybody else, and bringing in an EPL manager to boot
——-
Remember though, signing better and better players and paying huge wages to attract them to a club DOES NOT give a sporting advantage.
I am confused as to why the press think this is the case.
Eurochamps
Brown was exceptional midweek, he like a few others are playing their best football under Brendan.
I know Moussa, Sinclair and others have grabbed a few of the headlines, but Broonie has provided so much now he is 100% fit.
50 Shades of Green
Great day pal and the rain just didn’t seem to matter. Two great goals.
HH
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 27TH NOVEMBER 2016 10:47 AM
That scenario presupposes that the brain is free to make choices.
I’m not sure that presumption still holds good.
What’sthe story with the adverts down the side of the screen, the cut out some of the comments.
Very annoying development
The Battered Bunnet,
Can’t believe that I treated that story as an exam question, jotting down notes, hoping to arrive at an answer, only to discover that there isn’t one! Ma heid hurts.
Cup final Sunday doesn’t kick in until Leftclicktic posts “let the people sing” link
Stringer
Does sporting advantage only occur when financial superiority is ligitimately obtained?
AskSMSM csc
Celts up for the Cup
Another call for Bucharest bar to watch the game in?
Anyone, what is the alleged content of this Aberdeen banner,does anyone know for sure ?
If offensive then surely the cops/stewards will take it off them, and arrests made as with blow up dolls…….but sadly not the case with the destruction of toilets ?
Odd that ?
Big Cup Winners
Broony has had 2 maybe 3 seasons not at his best the rest have been magici
ScottBrownCSC
bournesouprecipe
Agree that McGregor offers something ‘different’, but I’ll take skill over industry when it comes to wide men. Roberts was outstanding in his one and only appearance at Hampden, and Forrest has been consistently good in front of Izaguirre.
Having said that, until he’s sold or loaned out, I’ll place Commons ahead of either – on the right or behind the striker. Dropping him was idiotic.
Good luck to Celtic and all Celts today, I’m expecting us to be positive and energetic. Heading to Hampden by train and Shanks’ pony soon for a family party. 100 and counting!
Ever onward to (Brendan’s first) victory.
FidelCastroaforeverhero
TBB,
All the Brain has to do is ” Brake” / ” Stop” ?
I’d rather be a Moderator than a Hun !
TBB
Smoke a Hamlet?
Ernie
You are CQN’s very own Cartesian Demon.
Art of War,
Hope the wedding went great, you hungover ? Lol.
NATNOW, how’s your wee dug ?
HH