Saturday’s win over Dundee Untied was as close to a perfect afternoon for the champions as we could hope for. Remarkably, we picked up no injuries, despite some tasty challenges from United players. Arne Engels in particular was targeted. The absence of Paulo Bernardo leaves us light in the middle of the park, especially during this period of two games a week.
Adam Idah continued his scoring form, that’s five goals in six games since Kyogo left. Prior to then, neither Adam not Kyogo were scoring with any regularity. Kyogo took 13 games to score his last five goals for Celtic and Adam’s fallow patch was even longer.
This is a small sample size and we cannot rush to conclusions, but the slight change in Celtic’s attacking options looks to be more effective. Could it be that defenders had figured out how to mark Kyogo?
Tomorrow’s opponents, Bayern Munich, earned a hard-fought point away to second placed Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday evening. The result was celebrated like a win by Bayern players, who were fortunate not to concede on several occasions, including when Jeremie Frimpong hit the crossbar.
Munich are not quietly confidence of winning the Bundesliga and progressing into the next round of the Champions League. They are eight points ahead in the league with 12 games remaining and they have won 17 and drawn four since their last home defeat in the Champions League.
That came at the hands of PSG in an empty stadium during the Covid season. You need to go back six years to their last home defeat in front of fans in Europe. So they are due another one, right?
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Jean Luc Bosman and freedom of contract has a sin to answer for, so does John Collins who was the first Scottish player to take advantage of it when he signed for Monaco.
Celtic got hee haw, and of course Greg Taylor (whether you like him or not) is perfectly free to make his own decisions where he plays and how much he earns.
It remains to be seen whether there’s only one Kieran Tierney.
That wee guy bervokic saying we irish and scots have crazy hate for jewish people blows my mind, I don’t think I have ever known a Jewish person, likely cause it would be the last thing on my mind. I do however have a deep disliking of regimes that try to exterminate other people based on their race, culture, sexuality, nationality etc then play the victim card when called out.
mncelt on 17th February 2025 3:43 pm
I hope we see Schlupp and Jota in from the start on Wednesday
———-
I felt the same but I’m not sure Schlupp is ‘ready’ for this game.
He reads the game v well and is strong, but I think BR will favour GT as he really ‘knows the role’.
If everyone stayed, we’d have a surplus of Left Backs w Schlupp, Taylor, Tierney and young Matthew Anderson (who looks promising) returning from Austria. Not sure if Schlupp would be interested being an alternate to KT as he’d just have swapped the Palace bench for the Parkhead bench.
Bigbhoy,
You are just making that post on GT up from rubbish reported in the Tabloids.Greg does not want to leave,unless BR is telling lies.You have no idea what Gregs” Healthy wage” is.
“Coaches from other teams have targeted him as a weakness”. Apart from the normal odd goal,they have not been too successful.Most of the goals we lose are mistakes through the middle,and AJ has been guilty a few times.
Bayer’s second goal had nothing to do with Taylor,unless you think BR wanted him marking one of the worlds great headers of the ball.CHs job.Lost him.You forgot about him signing a pre- contract.Think that was the Record.
KT had options in the top flight of England, Germany and italy. Taylor will get nowhere near a top 5 league. I think we are getting the better deal on this one.
Bada
He’s played centrally for us, I’m with Brendan not the Japanese boss, Daizen does his most effective job coming inside from wide left, where he’s not strictly an orthodox winger in the first place.
QUADROPHENIAN re: swapping benches
Who wouldn’t make the swap?
I hear you though. First few impressions make me thing he might hang around, learn how we play and be at least a regular from the bench.
Stebhoy,
I agree with you.The problem is,if you ask an Israeli ,like Berkowic his opinion,you know the answer you will get.Not newsworthy,but our rags happy to get at us.
Atrocities going on everywhere,Africa,China,Ukraine,Syria.Bad world.
BSR,
There has been a gradual shift from BR regards him.Before,most of his time on the left was not productive enough.Bad decisions,terrible crossing,not skillfull enough to beat his man unless by speed.Not as often as you would think.Look where he scores most of his goals from,between the posts.Yes he comes in from the left,but now he is coming from the right side,through the middle,playing give and goes in the box.
He has the freedom to do this,not hampered by the touchline.Sometimes,he looked like a diddy out there.Jota thrives on it.Any CHs would be terrified of him running at them,playing on their shoulder.As I said,he was a prolific striker when Ange brought him.Its not new to him.
If bids come in for him,don’t think it will be as a winger.
Quadro
Don’t know about Schlupp,he may want to stay on.BR has said,there are around 60 games.Covering for KT,midfield,he will get games.Probably the money,needd a bit of a reduction,but he has made plenty,and you know what playing for Celtic does to playersl..
Goodnight all.
I just cant see beyond Brendan selecting Idah up front, Maeda on wing then Jota switch at ‘x’ minutes with Idah off and Maeda through middle again.
Turkeybhoy
Lots of bad stuff always going on no doubt but we are seeing the extent of Israelis genocide right in front of our eyes and the western world is condoning and supporting it, in words, money and weapons. At the same time western governments are taking the moral high ground when it comes to Russia and China etc..
Berkovic has history of spreading hate so not surprised and to be honest our media love a ‘bad’ celtic story but it is actually a good celtic story. Supporters of celtic against oppressive regimes, murder and genocide.
Any criticism of israil is described as anti-semitism as if both are one in the same thing when it is very clear they are not the same thing at all. Always hear folk talking about isreal’s right to exist but rarely do people talk about Palestine’s right to exist.
Aipple
Correct, it’s what Brendan does or thinks.
Turkeybhoy
The difficulty is the term ‘winger’. Daizen Maeda isn’t and never has been a winger at Celtic, it’s just a term. Wingers are old fashioned, it changed many moons ago, and virtually all wide players play onto their ‘good foot’ coming in off the wide area. Jota the very same, scored from wide left into a central area – shoots goal, far post. Rarely will a wide player go to the byline and cross.
Maeda is the classic ‘wide striker’ and crossing a ball for someone else isn’t his forte. Heard them all, – touch like an elephant? – second touch is a tackle? – couldn’t trap a medicine ball, blah, blah and other cliches – but start the bidding at £15M if we were selling.
NITOL CSC
I like GT
hes been a very good player for celtic domestically
I hope he stays
absolutely pish in europe repeatedly
turkeybhoy – you need to change your name to Syriabhoy or DamascusBhoy
not long ago, you thought Daizen was pish, now hes our very own Harry Kane and BR cant see it
I love Daizen btw
btw
our very own chief Israeli cheerleader is up in Scotland on Saturday
folk will meet in George Square at 12.30pm leaving for the SEC at 1.00pm
Starmer’s dad really was a tool maker
never again is happening now
never again voting for the bought and paid for
BigBhoy
I agree with you totally re Greg Taylor. It’s simple, if we want to make progress in Europe we need a better left back. He has been a good servant and has worked hard, however, as you say teams target him and that speaks for itself. In the League Vup Final, he caused the first two goals with misplaced passes and then lost the ball in midfield in the incident where 4 Rangers players went through on goal with only CCV to stop them. Last week he also passed the ball out of play on a number of occasions in the first half. Put simply, the left back position has been a problem since Kieran left and it hasn’t been addressed until now with the return of KT, alas too late for this season’s CL.
AIPPLE on 17TH FEBRUARY 2025 11:09 PM
I just cant see beyond Brendan selecting Idah up front, Maeda on wing then Jota switch at ‘x’ minutes with Idah off and Maeda through middle again.
——-
Agreed, we looked quite solid the last game so why change it?
Re Taylor –
Ive been a fan pretty much from the off and I think the grief he has got over the yearshas been way OTT.
The odds are stacked that Kieran Tierney will continue with his injury problems at Parkhead. Stastictics tell us that.
Subsequently we need a decent left back as a replacement when the inevitable occurs.
However, I can be wrong. I initally didn’t want Craig Gordon because of his injury record. A great signing and one i am glad to be wrong about.
HH.
Aipple on 17th February 2025 10:30 pm
QUADROPHENIAN re: swapping benches
Who wouldn’t make the swap?
——–
It’s not from Palace to Celtic that’s the issue. Not all players see the move from EPL and London to SPFL and Glasgow as a step up; sure, we know we’re special but the EPL is the biggest stages in club football.
Turkeybhoy; the above point also addresses what you said about moving from EPL to Scotland.
Meanwhile in OZ, gutter media pull stunts like ‘OperationJew’ (that’s what the editorial dossier called it!!)
https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/02/17/daily-telegraph-cairo-takeaway-scandal-timeline/
No paywall here:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/14/news-corp-team-confronted-after-alleged-attempt-to-provoke-staff-at-sydney-middle-eastern-restaurant-ntwnfb
quadro
its straight out of the zionist playbook
there have a been a few in the uk including this pr1ck
https://novaramedia.com/2024/04/22/did-an-israel-lobbyist-confect-an-antisemitism-story-about-a-palestine-demo/
and then there were these clowns
https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2024/08/18/56387/we_never_made_reginald_d_hunter_be_antisemitic
SPIKEYS
What a grim subterfuge to – among goals – divert attention away from the ongoing carnage in the west bank etc
History will look back and remember this generation’s crimes as shame personified.
In Munich.
Park the bus and carry out a Maeda mugging.
If you go Tippy Tappy….lol
bournesouprecipe on 17th February 2025 10:21 pm
Jean Luc Bosman and freedom of contract has a sin to answer for, so does John Collins who was the first Scottish player to take advantage of it when he signed for Monaco.
Celtic got hee haw
BooooooooHoooooooooo lol
Celtic got hee haw in John Collins case because vastly inexperienced manager, Tommy Burns RIP, allowed himself to be used as a salesman, by Fergus McCann, who wanted players out the door to raise money, as Fergus’s real face was exposed to “The Rebel Consortium” on March 4th.
TRC did not like the way in which FM changed his mind on the way the club would be sold back to fans, [ 30 years later and the fans are still not getting their club] lol this time with the agreed ‘fixed’ shareholders price removed, after the cameras had stopped rolling.
Oh aye!
Principled TRC members like Gerald Wizefeld, Brian Dempsey, and others, decided that as the road ahead looked unsure now since FM shockingly revealed his glib contempt for fans, so real TRC guys kept their principles, integrity, and their ready to go £7 million investment [ a lot of money back in 1994 ] would now not be in trusted hands under FM leadership of the new Celtic board.
TRC Wanted to see if the club could get the best from Manager Lou Macari, decently backed and not car-boot sale level of players like Wayne Biggins etc.
TRC guys were impressed by what Lou Macari’s intentions were with attempts to play tight at the back with Colin Calderwood as centre half, and Liverpool striker, Ronny Rosenthal as a lone runner up front, like Macari did at Ibrox with Simon Donnelly.
And John Collins was to be made skipper with the auld and worn oot Maestro playing in front of CC as a front sweeper, like Andreas Pirlo.
Only for bold Macari to find that he wasn’t managing Celtic Legends, but an entitled, back stabbing clique.
Fergus knew he wouldn’t have got bullying Macari so was he behind the players putting the tools down and get their pal in as manager?
Where’s Jessica Fletcher? Taggart? Columbo? Beltrami? Anybody?
It wasn’t John Collins fault that TRC sussed FM out as a cheap glib fraud, forcing non mug TRC rebels to politely decline their investments into the hands of an untrustworthy liar, like FM, leaving the manager short of funds.
The flip side of this is that the manager, TB, chose to get rid of 2 Celtic Tigerish midfielders, both of whom had refused to join a dressing room sabotage division, or clique, who all decided to down tools to get rid of previous manager Lou Macari.
John Collins and Pat McGinley, both refused to be sneaky, deceptive, Hunlike, call it what you will, to be cheats to get a manager sacked who didn’t engage in the teachers pet approach.
Lou Macari said in virtually every post match interview –
“I HAVE PLAYER’S IN THIS DRESSING ROOM WHO HAVEN’T WON A SINGLE TROPHY FOR CELTIC SUPPORTERS IN THE PAST 6 YEARS.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEIR MAIN CONCERN IS? [ Pay Rises ]
THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE TO ME.
I ASK THE PLAYERS WHERE THEY THINK THE MONEY IS COMING FROM AND ITS AS IF THEY CAN’T GRASP THE PRECARIOUS CONDITION THAT WE ARE IN.
WE NEED MONEY. I DON’T CARE HOW WE GET IT, WE JUST NEED IT AS SOON AS YESTERDAY.”
Straight after this interview on Radio Clyde SSB 1993, former Celtic player, Davie Provan, said to Paul Cooney –
“THIS IS A SCANDAL PAUL. THE PLAYERS ARE TRYING TO GET LOU MACARI THE SACK. THERE…I SAID IT.
THEY DON’T LIKE LOU’S UPFRONT AND IN YOUR FACE STYLE OF MANAGEMENT.
TOUGH!
NO MATTER HOW GOOD YOU ARE AS A PLAYER, THE MANAGER HAS TO BE LISTENED TO AND IF THERE IS ANY CONFUSION AS TO WHAT LM WANTS, THEN YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH THAT – FACE TO FACE.
DON’T SULK THEN DROP BREADCRUMB CLUES BEHIND THE MANAGERS BACK.
THAT IS WHAT IS GOING ON HERE. THESE PLAYERS WANT LM OUT.
AND THAT IS A GREAT SHAME.
LM IS TRYING SOMETHING DIFFERENT PLAYING MORE DIRECT, WHICH IS LM’s WAY.
PLAYERS EITHER SHAPE UP, OR SHIP OUT, BUT JOHN COLLINS IS CELTIC’s ONLY SELLABLE ASSET.
IF THAT HAPPENS, THEN YOU LOSE THE QUALITY OF COLLINS WHICH WOULD WEAKEN CELTIC, AND LM’s HAND EVEN FURTHER.
I WON’T SINGLE PLAYERS OUT BUT WHAT I WILL SAY IS, JOHN COLLINS AND PAT MCGINLEY, ARE PLAYING OUT OF THEIR SKINS FOR LOU MACARI.”
So who was trying to get LM the sack?
Everybody apart from JC and PM by the looks of Davie Provan’s breadcrumb trails…hmmmm.
The rules were that clubs would no longer be able to treat players like cattle at a market, John Collins rebuffed Tommy Burns attempts to sell him to Middlesborough, and Derby County.
Rumours at the time claimed that Collins said to TB –
“WOULD YOU GIVE UP YOUR DREAM OF PLAYING FOR THE CELTIC FANS, TO GO TO DERBY OR MIDDLESBOROUGH? NO. YOU WOULDN’T. SO I WILL CERTAINLY NOT EITHER.”
And a year later John Collins was free from the Celtic cold house, and was playing in the CL Semi Final with Monaco. Whilst the Celtic backstabbers were looking like a pile of pish without classy John Collins to take the bad look off of them.
Whilst the Parkhead dressing room clique who put the tools down to get rid of wily streetwise Luigi, were on their way to gifting the next 3 SPL titles to the HUNS, including a Hun 9 in a row, as well as getting Tommy Burns sacked as well.
Only this time the clique didny put the tools down, but displayed that for the absence of John Collins, that for John Collins 6 years at Celtic [ a One man team? ] he was a brilliant player, and savvy enough not to allow himself to be sucked into cliques full of losers, or be bullied by new manager’s or sneaky fly man Fergus, who made an absolute arse of himself, walking up and down the streets of Monaco, FOR WEEKS FFS, in full full view of the travelling Hun media circus laughing their arses off at him, looking for the [ in his opinion ] £1 million severance fee from the new Bosman rules for John Collins but, as Monaco is a tax haven, wee Fergus got mugged back. lol
As others have Posted BAYERN v CELTIC is on PRIME TV Tonight. I believe that CELTIC TV are ALSO providing PPV Coverage ?
HIBS v CELTIC on Saturday is on PREMIER SPORTS…KO 12.30pm
HH.
Mon the Hoops.
D. :)
Good Morning Fholks – Grand Day To Schlupp A Bavarian Brew…
AIPPLE @ 11:09 PM,
“I just cant see beyond Brendan selecting Idah up front, Maeda on wing then Jota switch at ‘x’ minutes with Idah off and Maeda through middle again.”
BOURNESOUPRECIPE @ 11:25 PM
Aipple
Correct, it’s what Brendan does or thinks.
Turkeybhoy
The difficulty is the term ‘winger’. Daizen Maeda isn’t and never has been a winger at Celtic, it’s just a term. Wingers are old fashioned, it changed many moons ago, and virtually all wide players play onto their ‘good foot’ coming in off the wide area. Jota the very same, scored from wide left into a central area – shoots goal, far post. Rarely will a wide player go to the byline and cross.
Maeda is the classic ‘wide striker’ and crossing a ball for someone else isn’t his forte. Heard them all, – touch like an elephant? – second touch is a tackle? – couldn’t trap a medicine ball, blah, blah and other cliches – but start the bidding at £15M if we were selling.”
Got to agree with Aipple and BSR, the “Celtic winger” at the end of the first quarter of the 21st Century is by no means a straight forward description.
Back in the day, the lord of the wing would have been selected by Jock Stein due to his mercurial talents.
You could have had….
Inside Left – Bobby Lennox
Outside Right – Jimmy Johnstone
Centre Forward – Joe McGoals
Yet, now we have a “front three”, and that will ultimately be down to Brendan Rodgers.
As the lead states…
Attacking change looks more effective.
We have lost our talismanic striker, brought back Jota on the wing, and all of a sudden our front three combinations have blossomed into a veritable cornucopia of options.
It was a very interesting read back and the conventional wisdom says, we now have two options up front.
Start with…
Maeda….Idah….Kuhn
Then switch to…
Jota…..Meada….Yang
Quite effective at Celtic Park last Wednesday, yet not quite effective enough, as playing against one of the World’s great football clubs, we ran out second best.
Of course another option would have been start with…
Jota….Maeda….Kuhn
Then switch to…
Maeda….Idah….Yang
Some think “the boss” got it all wrong, and the reason – to make the Celtic Board look bad, BR went with option #1, when option #2 would guarantee a historic victory at Celtic Park!?
The wisest amongst us, are not too sure.
One things for sure, as was stated in BR’s presser – BR&CO are well aware of the options and are keeping their cards close to their chest.
So let me, as is my wont, throw a wee spanner in the works.
Celtic 6 0 Dundee
Start with…
Jota…Idah…Maeda
Celtic 5 0 Raith Rovers
Then switch to…
Kuhn…Maeda…Yang
Was it a coincidence that Arne played one of his best games for us with Daizen in front of him?
Then of course we have…
Celtic 3 0 Dundee United
“Saturday’s win over Dundee Untied was as close to a perfect afternoon for the champions as we could hope for…” – P67
Was it a coincidence that Jota looked so good with Schlupp behind him?
So, left field…
………………….Schmeichel
AJ…………CCV……..Trusty…………Schlupp
Engels…………..CalMac……………Hatate
Maeda……………Idah………………….Jota
Of course, the team that started the game at Celtic Park last Wednesday are favourite to start again at the Allianz Arena tonight, yet don’t forget what BR said about Daizen…
…“If you’ve done any depth of analysis of this player before he arrived from Yokohama, you can see he’s a striker, you see he’s a goalscorer, wherever he plays along the front line.
Most would say a futile quest we are on tonight, but it’s not without options and it is far from hopeless.
COYBIG
Hail Hail
Good morning CQN
Game day.
Let’s give it a cracking and see what happens.
A glimmer of hope.
Interesting chat about left back position.
Greg has qualities I admire.
Kieran is a starting left sided defender for Scotland.
Greg isn’t.
Guy who picks the team was once Greg’s club manager, so knows all about him.
If Kieran stays fit, I think it is reasonable to assume he is an upgrade.
I’d be surprised if Jeffrey stays beyond his loan spell.
Even if the two ex EPL left backs take huge wage cuts, we’d be spending at probably £50-60k per week in wages in that one position.
4 – 4 – 2 is the approach in every game, home or away.
If there are not 2 strikers in the opposition box at all times then you are not watching a Celtic team.
How about “We are Celtic, We fear no Foe, Come ahead.”
Big McLeish as Motherwell then Hibs manager got his players to all stand in a motionless straight line on the half way line psyching Celtic out as we were doing the huddle, Peaky Blinders style in 2 games at Parkhead I think both games ended 0-0 which were excellent results for big Eck.
If you don’t look the part….
Unless I’ve missed something we are a full week on from the Scottish Cup draw and we still don’t know when the matches will be played. Really poor treatment of the fans of all clubs involved who have to arrange buses, flights, hotels etc
Big Jimmy and others
The game tonight is also coming up for me on Premier Sports, just in Ireland?
The Bayern vlog on YouTube has been viewed over 300k times.
For anyone who’s not seen it, a German fan filmed the YNWA and CL anthem. He was blown away and said it beats anything including Dortmund. Catch the sub title translation version.
This club and support are our friends. I spoke to a couple in the Merchant City and they were very knowledgeable about Celtic, 67 etc., and how only TV money and lack of competition holds us back.
https://www.celticnewsnow.com/hoople/
I have 2 guesses left to get the first and third letters…
MH
Got it in 6
Realistically I don’t think we have a hope in hell of a result tonight , if we do then by god I will rejoice in it . We are playing some grand football under Brendan but we still have a lot to play for yet before the treble is secured , we are watching a very good celtic team and Hopefully in the summer we aim to be a notch or two better still as more quality becomes available . With regards the Mibs and var cheats surely no Celt expects Willie collum to clean up all the problems ,he was one of the problems , the main cast Willie was in with are still in situ .
MAJESTIC HARTSON @ 8:56 AM,
https://www.celticnewsnow.com/hoople/
I have
Got it in three…
More luck than judgement;)
Hail Hail