None of us are particularly focussed on Tynecastle tonight, so you can imagine how players who have worked for and with Brendan Rodgers for over two years are feeling right now. They have all the excuses in the world for a reversal, but they have to find it in themselves to put all off-field distractions aside and beat Hearts.
Brendan, Chris Davies and Kolo Toure have left the building. Neil Lennon has been away less than five years but he worked with few who are likely to feature tonight. The most important element of consistency we have is Scott Brown. He has seen it all in his 12 years at Celtic and worked hand in glove with Neil during the latter’s four years as manager.
Yesterday I gave Brendan credit for his honesty, but something rankled in his later comments at Leicester, “I’ll give my life to make the supporters proud of their club.” No, you won’t, Brendan. It’s just a gig. If Tottenham come calling you’ll be off. We all know this, so be straight with the people of Leicester.
212 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 27TH FEBRUARY 2019 5:37 PM
If a picture spoke a thousand words……..
Feels like our biggest game of the season.
Main focus, finish with 11 players on the pitch.
Scott Brown, their looking to get you sent off, please be aware.
I’ve been worried about our away form all season and on the occasions we have dropped points we have came second best physically, so a team would be picked with that in mind.
Therefore I personally would go with Hayes instead of Sinclair and Burke instead of Forrest.
Bain
Toljan Boyata Jozo Tierney
Brown Ajer
Burke Henderson Hayes
Edouard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVZ5dbNl-f8&feature=youtu.be
If you’re feeling down then this’ll cheer you up.
Like he’s never been away.
Neil Lennon back at Celtic
Fool time whistle
Thanks for that share. Moment with Broony and Lenny is special… Broony called him gaffer too I’m sure I heard.??
One real positive is how quickly the feel good factor has returned. There’s no doubt the next 2 games will be extremely tough.
However, with 2 wins, we are well placed for the run in.
Important that we support Neil and don’t use him as a poster boy to wind up the nasties.
He deserves more than that.
3 points today please.
FOOL TIME WHISTLE on 27TH FEBRUARY 2019 5:43 PM
//////////
Thank you for sharing that.
All the best to all Tims tonight.
Hopefully, Neil Lennon can finish the ten that he started.
LARSSONSE7EN
Yes he did – called him Gaffer, as did the wee man at the directors car park at the ground.
HH
Whew… fool time whistle
I thought I was tripping through a parallel time zone… I’d watched a 6 minute video and replied to it within 1 minute…???
Had to scroll back… ?
It’s getting closer…. come on the Hoops. ????
Good evening CQN from a nervous but excited Garngad
COYBIG
NFL – the most important thing is the club.
Get some fire in the Bellies Neil tonight and let’s break a few Hearts.
D. :)
hi bhoys, nervous as a kitten, but should not be,, we have the best man in the hotseat tonight, in lenny we trust.COYBIG,hh.
Neil’s Presser
Sorry if this has been posted already, just saw comments about stats etc
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47376512
Good Evening.
So Brendan Rodgers has gone to a club that he is prepared to give his life for and in so doing he advised the fans of Leicester City FC that (a) he was in no rush to leave Celtic but (b) he had taken the club as far as he couldin his opinion.
As paul has said in his leader, the first part of his statement is empty rhetoric. However sub clause (a) is a straightforward lie while part (b) is absolutely correct.
What is interesting is if you analyse these three statements in reverse order.
There is no doubt that BR has taken Celtic as far as he can. A 100% record in domestic competition cannot be beaten. It may well be repeated but it will not be bettered and given that the League Cup is already in the Trophy Room all that lies ahead is a repetition of what has been achieved before. With an eight point lead in the league you would have to say that Celtic are strong favourites for the league again, and we are nearing the business end of the Scottish Cup with every reason to be positive about returning to Hampden and emerging victorious.
However, a slip up in the league or a failure to retain the twice won cup would undoubtedly see a slipping of the Rodgers Halo in and around the East end of Glasgow.
The fact that a treble treble has never been even thought of before, let alone achieved, should have been enough incentive for a real Celtic man to pull out all the stops to achieve this as such an achievement would have placed him among the Celtic Gods.
If he had won the league but not the cup he would still have been a Celtic legend but his reputation elsehwere may not have been quite so intact.
If there was a slip in both league and cup, then again he would still be regarded as having achieved something special at Celtic Park but the reputation would have been tarnished both in the east end and elsewhere — especially given his history of “slip ups” at Liverpool.
League failure may only have been a small risk — but it was a risk all the same.
So, having come this far what is the ambitious stock phrase manager to do?
The answer is to take no risks with your personal standing at all and so you run. Run as fast as you can while your stock away from Celtic Park is as high as it is going to be. Run and stop for no one. Not for the players you have coached and certainly improved, not for the fans who have chanted your name and applauded almost every move, not for the board who backed you to start with but rightly had concerns about certain aspects of your transfer vision, and certainly not for the owners and shareholders who backed you with cash and for whom you have undoubtedly been very good in financial terms. So good, that had you announced you were leaving after a three year stint they would not have stood in your way especially if you continued to deliver success and allowed them to plan for the future,
But no, having reached the conclusion that he had taken the club as far as he himself was prepared to envision and risk Brendan Rodgers ran.
Whatsmore, unlike others, I believe Brendan Rodgers not only ran but he actually fought his way out of the Celtic Park door to a club that is an absolutely perfect fit for him.
With no disrespect to Leicester it is a club which presents little risk for Rodgers, delivers a cracking pay day and puts him in the market for a bigger and ricjer job as long as he doesn’t get found out tactically. The decision to go there in particular is as cold and calculated as can be and if I were advising BR and had his apparent singular mindest in mind I would have encouraged him to go.
Why? Because of the following:
1. It is a club with an owner and a fanbase who do not realistically expect to win a league despite the miracle performed by the tinker man a couple of years ago. Therefore success is being better than other also rans. That is not the standard at Celtic albeit in a lesser league.
2. Success in a cup means a good cup run which might mean a semi final or final or even an outside chance of winning at Wembley on the day on a knock out one off basis. Such ambition does not spell success at Celtic.
3. Most inportantly, European Football for Leicester is a goal in intself, no matter what the level, and in reality there is little chance that he will be exposed year in year out in Europe as he was at Celtic Park. And yes it is in Europe where Brendan Rodgers was exposed as a manager who either could not or would not change his tactics to achieve success or even leave his team in with a puncher’s chance of success against richer and better equipped opponents.
Another year of deploying the same tactics in Europe and falling short would result in the Rodgers European level reputation being further tarnished.
In Salzburg I was told that, under Brendan, Celtic were viewed abroad as an automatic 3 points at home and a good chance of at least one point at Celtic Park. That has never been the case under previous managers who made Celtic Park a fortress.
Further, any examination of tactics will show that in European games we allowed opponents to face the ball and our goal for almost 90 minutes in every game. Whether they pressed or not, whether they counter attacked or not, we allowed better Europeans to face forward and never turned them.
Jock Stein used to talk about making an opposing team turn by either running at them and past them a la Jimmy Johnstone and Bobby Lennox or by passing through them (if you could) or by passing over them and behind them (so taking out their midfieldand forcing them to turn) with your fast forward men running forward and on to the ball. If the opposing team has been turned and have their back to your goal then they cannot score against you from that position. If you are running forward and heading towards their goal you are looking to score while they are not and cannot.
Even Jack Charlton, as manager of The Republic of Ireland, and with many players who were less skillful than those of the opposing team, turned the opposition constantly by at times playing the ball into “The channels” and allowing his players to battle in the opposition half.
But that was not the Brendan way and it was never going to be his way despite his tactics resulting in regular defeats some of which were heavy and which came to be expected within European Football.
By leaving now, Brendan allows the myth to continue that such defeats are just a symptom of where Celtic is in the European pecking order as opposed to allowing room for the notion that such results are more to do with Rodgers and his coaching abilities as opposed to the potential that lies within the club to win in European Ties provided the right tactics are applied.
At the end of the day Brendan Rodgers is a quitter. He is someone who looks to build his own legend and his reputation which he will not risk for whichever club employs him and whatever players play under him.
There is no doubt that he is a very good coach and that he has the ability to make young players play better and to establish themselves in top class football.
I have no doubt that in the summer he will look north in an attempt to bolster his new club, although he may find that some at Leicester simply view players within the SPFL as inferior beings who they need not bother with given the money they have available to them in the transfer market.
When it comes to inferior beings, whether of the football variety or otherwise, Brendan Rodgers may just be in a league of his own.
Meanwhile, Celtic will always be Celtic – prepared to play our best, try our best and give of our best both off and on the park no matter who the opposition might be.
I have every confidence that now that Brendan has chosen to move on as fast as Usain Bolt, we can move on, enhance our squad and be successful both at home and in the European theatre.
It is in CELTIC we trust!
HH
BRTH
Any team news yet??
D. :)
CONEYBHOY
Thought this was hilarious.
For years, this was the preserve of the Scottish Jorginho – Barry Ferguson – who broke 2,100 passes without an assist for two seasons in a row.
Thats no what the mssm telt us.
He was often described as a midfield virtuoso and genius.
Fek me, BRTH just killed Brendan…..then dissected him…..before cremating his professional reputation.
SurgicalStrikeCSC
??????
??
CELTIC: Bain; Toljan, Boyata, Ajer, Tierney; Brown, Bitton, Forrest, Henderson, Sinclair; Burke.
Subs: Gordon, Lustig, Hendry, Hayes, Weah, Johnston, Edouard
The Big Mhan NOT an alleged born and bred Celtic supporter once said “Cups are not won by individuals, but by men in a team who put their club before personal prestige.” This from a mhan that on leaving the park when playing for Albion Rovers used tae ask how the boys got on the day, not the bhoys I hasten to add.
When the word broke on Monday night he was leaving there was a lot of disbelief on here and then yesterday when it became official the PL haters were in their glory, actually reveling in a Celtic trauma.
However, not other Celtic sites felt the same, the word roger hunt was in competition with rat tae describe him, in fact there was a poll that indicated 9% partial legend and 91% cee u next Thursday, now these are not PL lovers, in fact some had a go at him as well but the now defrocked blessed brendan has upset the support like I’ve not seen since a wee striker who made the sign of the cross against deidco on being ejected fae the field double crossed (nae pun intended) us and actually signed for a team that despises and prohibits that act of faith.
Yesterday having been out most of the day I came home tae watch an EPL game, I had previously chose Huddersfield/Wolves as I particularly like both working class clubs, but chose tae view Leicester, a club I also actually like, instead.
The site of the European failure manager walking round the park at the beginning with his blue, possibly new club, tie was gut wrenching and then when they scored and was seen in the stands with that big phony grin clapping was enough for the channel tae be changed.
In the cold light of the day, actually it was 4:00 am on a snowy morning, I had some quiet time tae analyse what had actually happened, a lot of different stories out there BTW.
Before MON came here from ironically middle of the road Leicester he already had accumulated a Football League First Division play-offs victory and 2 Football League Cups as well as 8 Premier League Manager of the Year awards, he was a winner.
BR had 1 Football League Championship play-off victory that was it until he came to us and then reversed MON’s route by going backwards.
Now we all know the alleged Celtic fan won a slew of honours with us but let’s be honest that was in a one horse race. His European record is diabolical and a huge embarrassment to a once proud club.
Now I was in management for years and I’m well aware of KPI’s and all the perks that can come with achieving them, I also know the detriment of not.
naesurname was one of the most successful hun managers of all time, 7 titles, 3 SC and LCs but he failed miserably at the trophy bader coveted most, the Big Cup, in his 6 years in charge he spent over £50m, of OPM, on transfer fees, more than any other club in the uk over the same period.
On their way tae a crooked tiat they spent another £13m on eight new players. However they were ousted out of both European tournaments in the opening rounds, by lowly Gothenburg and Strasbourg respectively so in October of that year it was announced he would leave deidco at the end of the season. As a result they lost the league tae us on the final day and then a week later the icing on the cake the SC tae the calvinists at Parkheid.
So what’s not tae say that part of the worst performing European manager we have ever had KPI was progress in Europe, after more dismal showings could he have been told that his jaiket was on a shoogly peg and he jumped before he was pushed.
Finally for all you iscarriot lovers out there he tried tae gut our backroom staff including coaches, sports scientists and data analysis as he left, thankfully good Celtic mhen like Stevie Woods and big JFK told him tae GTF. Celtic mhan my Irish language.
LIVE UPDATES UP
Tonight we’ll miss the nimbleness in tackle of McGregor and Christie. So what will the Brown and Bitton combination bring? I don’t know but can’t wait to see.
The bench is a bit longer get on midfielders should any of them get injured. But Ajer could move in there if required.
Eddie and Timo to come on and make telling contributions is all I’m going to predict.
Good evening, friends.
Not focused on tonight? Spent most of my day here in San Agustin (Gran Cansria) focusing on how best to catch the game when dinners booked for 7.30! So it’ll be phone off and no social media from then till 11 when I catch the game on catch up on a special site I subscribe too! Only downside is Mali g sure I stay awake till 1am so just on my first beer now!
We are 2 wins away from a Treble Treble. HH
BROGAN ROGAN TREVINO AND HOGAN, a masterclass sir I doff my hat, everything you said there must and will ring a bell with every celtic supporter worldwide, when you take time to analyse it as you have, mr Rodgers is a fraud, hh and god bless.