Do you remember the Green and Whitewash season? In 2003-04 Celtic dominated the league. After drawing their opening game away to Dunfermline they won their next 25 consecutive league games, beating every team in the league home and away. Across all competitions, they beat Rangers five times in four league and a Scottish Cup meeting.
This was as dominant as a team could get but there were vulnerabilities. Not only was Henrik Larsson out of contract, much of that team were in the twilight of their careers. Paul Lambert, Neil Lennon, Alan Thompson and Chris Sutton would never command the same on-field fear again.
The team that completed nine league wins in a row on Wednesday night could not be more different from the 03-04 vintage in one important aspect; only four are older than 23-years-old and none of them are veterans: Brown, 26, Samaras, 26, Mulgrew, 25 and Ledley, 24.
With an average age of just over 22 years this team will continue to improve for years; we can see evidence of progress. James Forrest has made a huge step up in form from last season. Victor Wanyama is almost unrecognisable from the player who arrived in the summer. Big Fraser, 23, still young for a keeper, inspires a lot more confidence than he did last season, and the baby of the team, Adam Matthews, is a scarcely believable 19-years-old. He’s so new to this environment you have to wonder if even the lad’s father knew he had a performance like Wednesday night’s in him.
Ki, 22, Stokes, 23, Izaguirre, 25, Kelvin Wilson, 26 and Mikael Lustig, 25 all fit the same profile. They are a squad full of improving players with the appetite you only get when your career is in front of you.
Rangers, and the rest, should be very afraid. Wednesday night might be as close as they get to the coattails of the young Celts.
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TET
This fallacy that Henrik got a testimonial really needs to be buried and burnt in a fire fuelled by a tabloid inferno.
Henrik Larsson and Celtic agreed a wage. Celtic needed to recoup the expenditure. We had a ‘farewell’ game against Seville. Celtic took the money. Henrik got none of that. That was the contract. There was no Testimonial. If no one had come to the game, Henrik would have noticed no difference in his bank account.
Hail Hail
Estadio
I thought this was worth a tenner.
1 Newcastle Liverpool v Newcastle
(Full Time Result) 30/12/2011 None 11/2 To Run
2 Bristol City Southampton v Bristol City
(Full Time Result) 30/12/2011 None 7/1 To Run
3 Huddersfield Huddersfield v Carlisle
(Full Time Result) 30/12/2011 None 8/11 To Run
4 Cheltenham Cheltenham v Rotherham
(Full Time Result) 30/12/2011 None 1/1 To Run
5 Crawley Town Crawley Town v Barnet
(Full Time Result) 30/12/2011 None 1/3 To Run
Multiples
Bet Type No of Bets Unit Stake Stake To Win Returns
5 Folds 1 10.00 10.00 2385.13
Total Stake: 10.00 Total Returns: 0.00
Bet slip ‘To Win’ values exclude stake, and are subject to maximum payouts as detailed in our rules.
10.00 0.00
ET
When wee fergus was at Celtic he spent more (net) to put a team on the park than the big spending Minty .
Celtic payed money and kept players till they got little or no return (see MON ).
I think when MON left the board realised they could not finance the club with stability using this approach (Brian Quinn may have advised as t turbulent times ahead ).
IMO they set out to change the strategy under GS by bringing in JP (who I think was involved with the Hibs/Mwell youngsters .although could be wrong ) ,thus going for good young talent with a possible sell on value to finance success on the park .
We may now be beginning to see this policy coming to fruition .Ragers should have downsized to pay their taxes ,instead it looks like they spent money they did not have just to stop us enjoying the GOD a lot of people on here predicted .
The board could do nothing to stop ragers doing this ,all they could do was to believe they were taking the correct path for our club and running it properly .
When the FTT verdict is announced and if it goes against ragers and we see our young team progressing as they seem to be and attracting interest from other clubs in richer leagues ,then our board may finally be vindicated in their approach (rather than pilloried for their prudence ).
Time will tell who was right and who was wrong but winning the league this year would be the least NEIL LENNON deserves .
hail hail
jeezuz,
we get ahead for the first time in ages and we get another generation of domination type claim.
the fans get totally pissed off when folk from peter grant to big sammi these days spout off in the old media.
looks like we need the old media even less than we thought.
amazed
Estadio,
You see to know better than me and have stated quite vociferously that Henrik did not get any money from that game. … However, I thought that game was part of his wages? i.e. Celtic agreed the deal with him in 2003/4 and part of it was a one off match that would guarantee him £1m.
Or was it part of his contract that Celtic would pay him x per week and that the Seville game would recoup some of that cash making it sensible?
Think you have answered this already but I get annoyed as you do with folk suggesting Henrik should have donated the fee from the gate to charity. If it was aprt if his awage he is entitled to do as he wishes with it.
Newcastle take the lead.
Jobo
A poor Liverpool side 0 A poor Newcastle side 1
Without Suarez they are a brutal side
i`d sell kayal if a decent offer came in
for one reason only …he`s very injury prone
he`s had three/four reasonably lengthy absences thus far in his CFC career and he`s only been with us 18 mths
good player but little use on the treatment table
Liverpool equalise through our old friend bellamy.
Jobo
Nobody else concerned about the plethora of Celtic minded managers that are in a sticky wicket down in the EPL and the championship and we are two days away from the window opening ???
Hail Hail
PFAyr
He´s here at a bad time.
HAil Hail
Awe_Naw
Are you concerned? Who gives a frrinstance for those duds?
Estadio says:
30 December, 2011 at 20:06
Well said
I was at henke’s farewell game and was more than gled to pay to give the KOK a good send off (hell I was greetin )The bhoy was a true proffesional in every sense of the word .
Oh how the LL loved telling us the only suitors were a mid table spanish club .The rest is history
hail hail
PF ayr –
Had those injuries been to do with his hamstring, calf, etc I’d understand your viewpoint better. This latest injury was the result of a 50/50 challenge. I’d guess that whichever of our team had been involved in that particular challenge the same injury may well have happened?
Jobo
According to Gianluca Di Marzio, QPR are about to complete the signing of Federico Macheda from Man Utd on loan.
I guess Warnock might have been telling the truth when he said there was no interest expressed from his end in Nikica Jelavic.
Perhaps he’ll be kind enough to fax an offer through nevertheless, just to keep up appearances of course.
Estadio
I was of the understanding that he benefited from the game, as you say if no one turned up it would have been a different story.
Testimonial was the wrong word, I don’t have the inteligence to work out what the right word to use is, so please forgive my ignorance.
I noticed you used the word farewell, perhaps that is a better word, but for numpties like me, the end was the same, testimonial, farewell, benefit, they all amount to the same thing, it was part of the reason he stayed for a final season.
As the game was well attended, his bank account was boosted.
This is in no way a slight on him, and if you or anybody else thinks that, you are way off the mark.
Mullet and Co says:
30 December, 2011 at 20:10
Celtic agreed to pay Henrik a wage he was happy with.
In return he agreed to take part in a ‘testimonial’ that Celtic got the money for.
I suppose you could say he only got the wage because Celtic got the money from the testimonial game, so in effect he got the money from the game, but I don’t think that’s how people would generally understand a testimonial.
Apart from anything else he would have been taxed on the money as it was a contractual payment.
Mullett…
I Don’t know better than you. We agree.
Brian Quinn has said that Henrik agreed to the game. That was his agreement with Celtic. He was paid £44.000 a week basic. Celtic and him did well financially. That is not to detract from his absolute emotional attachment to Celtic.
Mind you it was worth it to see that combination of determination, skill and sheer bravery on the acre of green.
And that comes from someone who doesn’t rate Ghod in the top 7 of the best Celtic footballers I’ve witnessed weaving a tapestry of magic on the green baize of paradise.
Hail hail
Estadio
spikeysauldman says:
30 December, 2011 at 20:09
I don’t know if your GOD point is aimed at me but I have not said we will have a GOD ,I only put a theory forward as to why we may not have seen more trophys in the recent PASSED
hail hail
Another…
http://i42.tinypic.com/35k35mh.jpg
THE EXILED TIM says:
30 December, 2011 at 20:20
It wouldn’t have made any difference financially to Henke if no one had turned up at the game. He didn’t get the gate money, Celtic did. It was the Club’s way of financing his wages.
Does anyone think that jellylegs will go to the EPL and bag loads of goals against the potential relegation candidates let alone against the dire clubs that yearly inhabit the mid table slots?
Anybody paying more than £2 million should be referred to HMRC.
The Battered Bunnet says:
30 December, 2011 at 20:20
Just seen a tweet saying Jellylegs has changed his agent to Patrick Moore ,an unknown bid from an unknown universe etc
hail hail
fergus
I don’t have a problem with the jam tomorrow policy if it works, and it seems to be coming to fruition, been long enough mind you.
If we sell on one this season, not a bother, my fear is they will cash in on more than one.
Looking back to that first half at Rugby Park
who would have thought we would be sitting top of the league going into 2012.
We’ve got there through some great and gutsy performances
and the superb backing of the best supporters in the world
Not to mention the inevitable collapse of our main challengers.
Long may our league winning form continue.
We could be witness to something very special this season.
Happy New Year to one and all.
20.38
should read past ……DOH
hail hail ;-)
TET-did u bet Liverpool at 0-1?
Rstadio
Seven Better??
I can see Jinky, Bobby M, and Kenny having claims to be in Henrik’s sphere.
After that Paul McStay, Tam Gemmell, Booby L and George Connolly have a shout.
Are your seven different?
Rstadio is obviously Estadio when my keyboard is not pished.
My keyboard does not do Freudian slips.
Booby L is Bobby L. I should just give up.
And one for the subversive T-shirts…
http://i43.tinypic.com/smbndu.jpg
SFTB –
I’ve been thinking about that too and will offer the following (not my opinion, but what I think Estadio ight be thinking…)
Jinky
Kenny
Jimmy McGrory
John Thomson
Buzz Bomb
Danny McGrain
J(B)obo Baldie
Jobo
I dont particularly want it to happen but I feel we could sell two players in the window if the moneys right.Mathews ( we have Wilson, Cha,and Lustig) for cover but we must take no less than 5 Million for him the other player I believe we can afford to sell is Ki as we have plenty of midfield cover but we should take no less than 8 Million for him.I also think Commons ,Rasmussen,Loovens,McGinn,Odea and Murphy could all be sold and some of the money used to bring in a quality striker and a quality centre back that Lennie wants.H.H.
THE EXILED TIM says:
30 December, 2011 at 20:27
I am sure we all want the same thing SUCCESS ,how we get it is the secret .Getting the balance right is the hard part .
One thing is for sure winning is a major ingredient to striking a balance
but as you know us bhoys are easily pleased
hail hail
I can’t believe we are top of the league, it hasn’t sunk in, it’ll only sink in if we beat Dunfermline. Interesting afternoon ahead for Alistair McCoist against St Mirren.
fergus slayed the blues says:
30 December, 2011 at 20:09
The strategy that Celtic adopted was always going to be long termish. Tactical errors in terms of buys and managerial appointments were made, but on both counts the custodians seem to have learned from their mistakes. I have never seen so many talented young players in a team for a long time and Lenny is a rock to build on.
That Rangers chose a different short term path using dubious means made Celtic’s road a much more difficult one to travel than it might have been otherwise. I hope the support can begin to see that sometimes patience is indeed a virtue.
We are entering an exciting time when the club and support can become more united in structural terms than we have ever been. The foundations continue to be laid and capacity built.
They need to be because the challenges facing the support when it is easier to watch a match at home or in a pub on TV, or PC, IPad or Iphone, cheaply or for next to nothing is to make sure the cost of the quality of what is watched is shared across the support as a whole.
Bada
No, I still fancy Newcastle, that was just a fun bet, if it comes up well and good
My bet for the day is Cheltenham @ evens
SFTB
You mere wean in swaddling.
George C had the potential to be there but a player had to have a a bit of longevity, a certain disdain for correctness and the DNA to stick a middle finger up at society.
Charlie Nick at his best was magic, Charlie Tully ( My dad says so!), Bertie Auld as he found a pass that wasn’t guarded by injuns and then comes Henrik!
(I also believe that Aiden could still have been there)
Hail hail
Estadio