In the early years of our re-emergence as a ‘proper’ football team under Martin O’Neill, Celtic were patronised by the suggestion that they ‘don’t play friendlies’, largely as a result of Martin’s ability to win games against teams from south of the border.
That comment is seldom aired these days, as for many years, Celtic have stretched their muscles in friendlies without worrying too much about the score. Gordon Strachan’s teams would lose the meaningless games with regularity but would largely win the important qualifiers which followed. So much so I’d probably feel uncomfortable watching Celtic apply themselves too much when it didn’t matter.
We will get a good measure of how match fitness needs to improve ahead of Champions League qualifiers in two weeks when we face Ukrainian aide, Sevastopol, tonight. Ukrainian football is one of the most sought-after properties in the game at the moment; the Russians have been making amorous overtures to the entire league, as they hope to build a super-league by joining up with the Ukrainians. I’m sure Celtic officials will have an active interest in the subject ahead of the game.
No injuries, please, you can forget about the score.
Delighted to hear Roy Keane is coming up for the Celtic Charity #19 game for Stiliyan Petrov’s Foundation on 8 September. Stan played with some timeless Celtic heroes (Roy’s 13 games doesn’t give him enough material to qualify for this accolade) in his seven years at the club; my money is on the event selling out (ticket details at bottom of page) as they are confirmed one at a time……
[calameo code=000390171b241bb2703f4 lang=en page=132 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
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fourgreenfields
00:44 on 4 July, 2013
Sitting sipping cider on holiday in Donegal , what’s the latest with the zombies ?
HH
&&&
They’re fecked, and it’s all your fault!!!
bt,
Geeze yer vote and. I’ll ask what they intend doing about it, :o)))) if I get caught up in my petty survival conditions then it means they’re copulatid maybe, many took my honesty as weak, stupid huns
So no timterthoughts on 19 Arizona insurance share reducers fae yesterday?
rascar capac
00:47 on 4 July, 2013
Crushed nuts
At the risk of giving too much information…
Another benefit of cutting out sugar is the cage doesn’t smell at all
££££££
And where’s the fun in that?!.!
‘crushed nuts?’ ‘naw, layringitis!’
I’ll take the blame for their demise no problem , has their bus broke down yet ?
HH
Crushed nuts
Aye, ah know!
Can’t compete with my brothers chemical warfare these days.
Sir Walter of Cardigan’s lost American cousin?
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/4995516/Texas-teacher-dons-same-outfit-in-school-photo-for-40-YEARS.html
Mags 0049
?
Night, night
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NhjSzjoU7OQ
Margaret, stop fishing.
Starry, just do what your doctor told you and stop clogging the blog with sweetie wife stuff.
Night all.
for those expecting bdo to sort things out, they did not come out in a good light via the red sky admin here in belfast.
thomthethim
00:58 on 4 July, 2013
ok. Stopped. Naebody then :) ?
catch a fish….. teach a man tae fish….sounds fishy
Dup involved in all of this debacle, salmon and former club comes to mind.
Mags
You always catch us.
We just pretend you don’t.
proves politicians do/ can influence socalled independant bodies.
was interested in season ticket sales for 2013/14 so decided to do a rough calculating via interactive screen on celtic website, dropped sections not used (away end) and several rows from the top tier stands ranging from 6 to 3 rows depending on sales so far. I think we have sold more than 50,000 season tickets so far and with another 2 weeks before the first euro game we might just see a few thousand/ hundred added to that figure. (maybe the reason celtic were keen to switch euro game i.e. more time to sell more season tickets).
surely a clear message to the board that if the price is right the punters will pay. onwards and upwards.
always good to see our young bhoys getting a chance, hope its the beginning of things to come this season
hail hail
Well in retrospect too many Ukrainian secrets of a dyslexic induced nature. To me its still all a bit nuclear.
I am not going to react to that.
Stephbhoy
Great news on the season book front.
I think our celtic guardians will probably always be from an advantaged position, and that their link to the majority of Celtic fans will be through a forum like this.
So Stephbhoy, take a bow and keep it up.
Morrissey the 23rd
01:31 on 4 July, 2013
let’s not fallout!
stephbhoy ,
Great news if correct. The board should be shouting this from the rooftops.
Gather a bit of momentum…the SMSM will always talk us down.
BMCUW
I know that you couldn’t name the original poster of the Lisbon final whistle photo, but just thought I’d mention that I went along to the local Target today & got four 5″ x 7″ prints of it. One is already framed and in the old Huddle Room upstairs.
The others are for my sons and for a friend who’s a mega Tim.
Just to say thanks again for posting the link.
A belter of a picture.
HH
Rascar Capac
01:31 on 4 July, 2013
Great post! Love you man.
I’ll let you get back to you fission. I’m going to bed
So sad that some posters think it’s about them and not Celtic :O(.
Night Bhoys.
Just watched Jabba and the pieman’s interview. Ghuys and ghirls I think it’s time to stop rippin the pash, pointing out cheating and lying and generally having a kick at Sevco cause Ally says that it only motivates him to try harder.
Oh my sides!
HH
.
Av Goat a Empty..
【ツ】
Summa of PartyAtOutnack01’sHooseCSC
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Oops..
OutBack01
Fred C. Dobbs
01:46 on 4 July, 2013
I’m all years?
.
@terrychristian: A lot of activity on my time-line from people who used to support Rangers , are they Sevco fans nowadays – I cant keep up with modernisation
Is he a Hoop..?
Summa of TheWordCSC
.
The Rangers have invited The Army to First League game Next season..
Ally McCoist denies Rumors of a Military Coo..
Summa of HighlandCoupeDeTèrèCSC
Happy 4th July to all of our US Tims. Hope you have a great family day.
Cape Cod CSC
001 Bhoy:
Terry Christian says he is a Man. Utd. supporter.
The following borrowed from fourfourtwo.com
Andy Murray
Great British tennis hope Andy Murray talks to FFT back in September 2009 about the Hibees and how he could have been a footballer.
Andy Murray laughs. He knew the question was coming: did he really say he’d support “anyone but England” at the World Cup? “I think anybody who really knows the story of what happened knows it was all a joke,” he explains. “Knowing full well they hadn’t qualified, a journalist [Des Kelly of the Daily Mail] asked me if I’d be supporting Scotland in the 2006 World Cup. He started laughing, so I said: ‘I’ll support anyone but England.’ It was just a joke, but all of a sudden it turned into some big national debate. I ended up learning quite a lot from such a small thing.”
Indeed, it wasn’t until 2008’s Wimbledon, when Henman Hill was renamed Murray Mound in his honour, that the British public took the country’s best tennis player since Fred Perry to their hearts. And it was Murray’s footwork as well as his racquetwork that caught the eye, as he treated Centre Court to some keepy-uppies with a tennis ball during a break in play in his Second Round match against Belgium’s Xavier Malisse.
As it turns out, the world No.3 has football in his genes. His grandfather, Roy Erskine, played a handful of games for Hibernian in the 1950s, behind the club’s ‘Famous Five’ forward line. “My whole family support Hibs because of my grandfather,” says Murray, born in Glasgow, but famously brought up in Dunblane. “By the time I was born he’d had a couple of hip replacements so I didn’t get to see him play. Me and my brother [ex-Wimbledon doubles champion, Jamie] started going to Hibs games when we were 13 or 14.
“Most of my friends are Rangers or Celtic fans. There have never been such high expectations at Hibs, I guess, so at least we don’t feel like we’re being let down. They’ve always got new young players coming through, and have done relatively well, considering – we’ve been on some good cup runs in recent times, like winning the League Cup in 2007.”
Around the time he became an Easter Road regular, Murray attracted the interest of the Ibrox giants and admits he was tempted. “When you’re 13 or 14, playing tennis is tough because it’s a very individual sport and there’s more pressure to perform, so football allowed me to spend time with my schoolfriends and have fun. I did go through the odd phase where I’d take football more seriously, but when it came down to making a decision to pick one over the other, I had to choose tennis because at that age I knew I was going to be top three or four in Europe, whereas in football you don’t really know.”
Football still plays a big part in his career – though not in the way he would like. “I’ve had to wear an ankle brace for the last four years when I play, as a result of a football injury,” he explains. “I played for two different teams, striker for one, left-midfield for another, but I didn’t have a great left foot so I had to cut inside. I had to stop playing because an opponent stood on my left ankle as I was crossing the ball.”
It hasn’t stopped the Scot playing though; football’s been incorporated into his pre-match warm-up. Murray and his coaching staff have to control a tennis ball in each of the four service boxes, with inevitable forfeits for the loser. “If there’s space we try and get some games of football going on tour with whoever fancies it – Hamburg has an indoor pitch, Indian Wells has a huge grass area – but there aren’t too many takers because nobody wants to get injured. A lot of the French guys play well, the South Americans too, and Rafa Nadal is pretty good, although his uncle [Miguel Angel Nadal, known as ‘The Beast’] used to play for Spain and Barcelona! Rafa’s a Real Madrid fan, though – we talk about football a lot.
“I lived in Spain for four years and my coach there had a season ticket for Barça despite being a Real Madrid fan, which was weird,” he continues. “He’d go to every match and sit there quietly, hating it every time they scored! I saw some great matches, like AC Milan and Celtic in the Champions League, and as an attacking player I really enjoyed watching Iniesta, Deco, Messi and Ronaldinho.”
But when it comes to big rivalries, give him Hibs-Hearts over Madrid-Barça any day. “I haven’t been to an Edinburgh derby, but I hear the atmosphere’s amazing,” he says. “Hopefully I’ll get the chance one day when I move back to Scotland.” If he wins Wimbledon before he retires, not even England’s football fans would begrudge him that.
Best moment
“As a Hibs fan, probably the best match I have watched them play was in 2001 against [AEK] Athens in the UEFA Cup, at home. The atmosphere was electric.”
Worst moment
“I wouldn’t know, but there’s been a lot over the years!”
All-time hero
“Franck Sauzee without a doubt. He is our ‘Le God’.”
Dream signing
“Lionel Messi is my favourite of the lot.”
Would you force your kids to support Hibs?
“I wouldn’t make them – I’d try and edge them that way, but I wouldn’t force them to.”
ralphwaldoellison remembers als victims jimmy jonstone & john cushley
Re your post at 0135,the photo is indeed a belter.
As soon as 3 have restored my b/band signal enough to have my laptop working again,that’s my new screensaver!
Tempted to print a few out and post to various friends,but I’d get done for hate crime nowadays….
My mates and I used to have some belting craic-now,we’d all get lifted inside five minutes.
Although a friend did recently send me a very viable alternative as a screensaver-which would defo cause ructions back home…..
HH mate…echo that! Enjoy the holiday NATIMS!
TC45
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Sargassosea
03:21 on 4 July, 2013
Happy 4th July to all of our US Tims. Hope you have a great family day.
Cape Cod CSC
An extract from Sport and the Contestation of Ethnic Identity: Football and Irishness in Scotland by Joseph M. Bradley
Celtic’s appearance at the UEFA Cup Final in Seville in 2003 provoked numerous
letters and comment in the print media in Scotland. Almost all press commentary on
Celtic and their fans’ journey and presence in Seville was favourable. But, characteristically, reference to a context of Celtic being the club of the Irish in
Scotland and of the Irish diaspora beyond was virtually excluded from the relevant
discourses.
In communicative discourses, omission can be as important as inclusion. This omission also links with the marginalisation of the Irishness of the Irish diaspora in Scotland, as noted at the conference at the University of Stirling.
Such discourses can also be considered dominant in Scotland because they are preeminent, all-encompassing and recurrent in the Scottish print media threading
editorials, letters pages, popular articles and news columns. In a letter to a Scottish
broadsheet (Scotland on Sunday, 2 August 1998) an observer stated that:
. . . Celtic is a Scottish club playing in Scotland and whilst their heritage should be
acknowledged, this over emphasis on Irishness is at best an embarrassment and at
worst an excuse for bigotry and violence.
During the period surrounding the match in Seville, this style of reporting on Celtic
was also demonstrated by a popular football commentator in Scotland’s best-selling
tabloid newspaper, the Daily Record. On the eve of Celtic’s match in Spain the
columnist contested Celtic and its supporters’ Irishness and wrote:
Celtic, a Scottish team whether some of their fans are willing to admit it or
not . . . Celtic ARE Scottish so they belong to more than the supporters who follow
them week in, week out. . . . This is Scotland against Portugal . . . right now Celtic,
albeit unwittingly, are flying our flag . . .
Amongst other things, this columnist and others deny Celtic and the fans’ desire to
be seen as Irish, esteem their Irishness and publicly display Irish symbolism. In this
light, such discourses, which are numerous and widespread within Scottish sports
journalism, can be viewed as part of an assimilationist (as opposed to integrationist)
approach to those who have different identities and cultural expressions in Scotland.
Through such discourses, the club and its support are constantly being divorced from and denied the relevance of their Irish roots, heritage and identity.
Around the time of the UEFA final, various newspapers carried letters that demonstrated the contentiousness of Celtic and the supporters’ Irishness in Scotland.
The Daily Record view cited above was a popular one and some letter writers reflected this:
I was absolutely appalled and disgusted when watching the UEFA Cup Final. I am
sure I am not the only non-Celtic supporter who was urged to ‘get behind’ the Scottish team. How many Scottish flags were in the stadium? I counted one but maybe I couldn’t see the others due to the sea of Irish Republican flags on display. Isn’t it about time that people like this decided which nationality they are?
I could have sworn the UEFA Cup Final in Seville was between teams from Scotland and Portugal, but judging by the flags in the stadium I think it was actually Ireland against Portugal; there were more American, Canadian, or Australian flags than
Scottish. How do you expect neutral football fans to support their Scottish team when the fans make it very clear that they have no loyalty to Scotland and where their true allegiance lies? I can’t imagine what the rest of the world thought as they watched this disgraceful sight which was attended by some of our politicians who supposedly abhor this type of behaviour. This was not a good reflection on our culture and a bad night for Scottish sport.
Another supporter’s letter to a Sunday broadsheet denied Celtic’s Irishness, stressing that the club should end such manifestations.
Celtic should remind their fans that they are a Scottish club. They should stop flying the tricolour on their stand and consider restoring it only when their fans waving the Scottish Saltire outnumber those waving the tricolour.
A different Sunday broadsheet added to the ideology that views Celtic supporters’
Irishness with hostility, complaining that Celtic’s identity ‘still contains a large Irish
component’.
Another Scottish broadsheet sports journalist offered a similar view. Decrying the renditions of Celtic and Irish folk songs played by live bands before some matches, he believes the fans should be left to their own devices:
‘. . . especially coming from the musical equivalent of Darby McGill [O’Gill?] and the Little People with their ‘‘Have a Potato’’ style of hokey Irishness’.17 Yet another journalist referred to the diaspora in Scotland as the ‘pseudo-Irish’ who support Celtic as well as their penchant for ‘diddly-dee music’.
The widespread nature of this hostility in Scottish culture is further demonstrated in a News of the World newspaper column that again reflected on the Celtic fans’ ethnic identity. For this sports columnist, Celtic Park was full of:
Plastic Irishmen and women who drink in plastic Irish pubs and don’t know their
Athenry from their Antrim when it comes to Irish history or politics. . . . Celtic
must stop . . . flashing their Irishness . . . if Celtic are so keen to flaunt their
Irishness perhaps they could do us all a favour and relocate to Dublin.
.
Astor..
Re; Murray..
He is a Scotsman through and through..
Liverpudlians have a Saying.. “We are Not English.. We are Scouse”..
West of Scotland in the Majority Tell us they are British or Irish.. It’s a Sad Fact..
I have heard it Being asked Re; Murray is He Celtic or Rangers.. I’m glad he is Neither.. He is a Scotsman .. Like Baird..Fleming..Burns et al..
On a Lighter Note: My Wee Ghirl 7Yrs. Has a Vocabulary beyond her Years it Astounds me at Times..
But she is Just another 7Yr. Old when she Tells people she is Half Scottish.. Half Australian.. And Half Irish..:-)
Maybe Andy is Half Scottish .. Half British..
Summa of EscossèCSC