I know Ronny Deila was delighted Dedryck Boyata pitched up at Glasgow Airport last night. He’s a player the manager has known about for some time and one who was not on the Man City available list when we secured the loan deal for Jason Denayer a year ago.
The mechanics of the deal are interesting. It’s quite possible it wouldn’t have happened at all without the success Jason enjoyed in Glasgow. A year ago Jason was a complete unknown, below the pecking order than Dedryck, but we gave him a platform and now he’s a full Belgian international. The pitch we put to Dedryck was along the lines of “Look what Jason achieved here”. If we’d singed Dedryck instead of Jason a year ago, Jason would still be an unknown and Dedryck would be a Belgian international.
Assuming no late hiccups, Ronny will know his central defensive pairing for the Champions League qualifiers is sorted, allowing him to concentrate on other areas.
There are no guarantees in football, least of all with Champions League qualification, where we have three awkward knock-out rounds, but we’re starting the summer from a good place.
There’s so much to discuss about yesterdays’ Fir Park hilarity, the consequences of which will be profound. More on this later in the week, but a few points on Motherwell. For a team with such glaring shortcomings they deserved the scale of their victory. Barraclough took a squad who finished 11th in the league into two challenging games and out-thought his opponent.
However, if Celtic fans behaved the way Motherwell fans behaved yesterday your Government would be all over it by now. I’ve seen flares thrown onto pitches, I’ve seen pitch invasions (although I don’t remember seeing one congregating in front of opposition fans), but I’ve never seen a player smacked in the face and leg by a spectator’s flag, and I’ve never seen anything close to this entire repertoire from fans at a single game.
Who knows what the score would have been had Newco faced the team who finished 10th in the Premiership! Their attempt to emulate Grenta in winning three successive promotions always sounded like a tall order. They came close, but they’re no Gretna. Not. Nearly. As. Good.
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Cowiebhoy-good luck mate.HH
Neganon, you are most definitely in the Roasters clique:-)
Lennybhoy
22:46
Great post, well said!!
HH
The only emails I get are from ACGR pretending to wash his hair. Although what the goat, the sheep and the pig are doing in those positions I’ll never know!
hi CRC,I’m still around. did my knee in on a Munro at the end of October .Went to Portugal for the winter and to to recover, got back 1st May. Been out a few time since on the bike 25/30 miles and doing a fair bit of walking it will take a bit of time to get fit.
I have an android box so have watched all the games and lurked on the blog so I’m up to date with the news. still up on cloud 9 after yesterday. As been said on C Q N before you would really need to have a heart of stone not to laugh. H. H. fantim
As far as the cultural exchange goes in George Square goes, I’m all for it.
Let them slither out of their holes and stick a public face on who and what they really represent.
Let the public see them at their bigoted and loathefull best, then make up their own minds.
The times are a changing and they will be an extinct species soon enough.
san diego bhoy
22:56 on 1 June, 2015
Thanks mate, The Battered Bunnet’s posts amuse me at times as well.
doc
22:58 on 1 June, 2015
We are two peas in a pod, Roasters FC member…:)
hamiltontim
23:00 on 1 June, 2015
I would never make a good Politician, too honest…:)
You would make a fantastic Politician if given the opportunity to be one. You would break the mould, an honest guy fighting for what they believe in…keep up the good fight mate…you are one those who tell it as it is. Fighting the good fight and to hell with the consequences.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Neganon2
COME ON OVER TO MY PLACE! By……canny remember. But yer welcome. KTF.
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
from KDS
A Man City Blogger http://inesteemedkompany.blogspot.co.uk/ @EsteemedKompany has sent me some thoughts on Boyata.
Here you go.
Doesn’t sound brilliant but we have had some success in the past at resurrecting the careers of struggling players so hopefully he is another.
I can never decide with Boyata whether he should be great or truly terrible. He’s such an indecisive character. There’s been the odd occasion where he’s looked like Vincent Kompany, yet on others he’s been more Jean-Alain Boumsong. There’s a common train of thought amongst City fans that we maybe perhaps actually ruined him a little by effectively offering him up as a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter when he was just a kid. He just experienced too much too soon.
Back in the 2010/2011 season we went through a little bit of an injury crisis. We struggled for numbers and he was thrown in at the deep end and he started a few games against lesser opposition. A FC Timişoara here, and a Middlesborough there, and in general he played well. Nervy, but he was tough and solid. He was clearly a unit and natural defender, and it was intriguing. He was after all one of our own – he was a member of our FA Youth Cup winning team in 2008. The fans wanted him to do well, as they do with any youth academy product. He then came up against Chelsea and yet again he shone in the face of potential adversity, more than matching a then peerless Drogba. It was increasingly exciting stuff. It’s fair to say we as fans, and Mancini, got a little carried away. Did we have our own potential mini Kompany here? It felt that way.
But it was short-lived, sadly. He started again the following week against Arsenal with more experienced defenders left on the bench and his world turned quickly upside down. A red card five minutes in after being horribly exposed by a dodgy defensive line saw his brief stint in the first team come to an abrupt end. He never really recovered after that. He looked hesitant, tetchy and likely to fall to pieces at any moment. There was the odd decent moment as a sub or as a starter in a cup game, but in general he was relegated to the reserves and the two loan spells at a relegation threatened Bolton and Twente were disappointing overall. I think it’s fair to say that if he wasn’t homegrown he wouldn’t have been offered the new contract that he signed a year ago either – he’d fallen quite far and he was only there to make up the numbers. In hindsight maybe he should have been nurtured a little more, gradually bringing him through. Its such a risky position, centre-back, and a cruel one at the best of times. Never mind for a new kid trying to make his name in such a high-pressured environment.
There was potential there and maybe there still is. He’s never really ever had a true run of games. He’s older now too at 24, and the few times he’s played for City recently he does admittedly looks a little more at ease with life. Those nerves have disappeared to an extent, though he still looks a little rusty. But there’s the caveat that he’s barely played and the standards at City are high. He’s not great on the ball, he’s no Denayer, put it that way (but how many are?), but he’s certainly not woeful – as you’d expect from anyone who’s spent years training in a squad that’s built around possession football. He has a decent turn of pace and there’s a good size to him, and he’s not too bad in the air either. He might just enjoy being a regular and he might just settle into life and mature into a proper tough bastard of a defender. If he gets that meanness to his game, Terry-like, then he could still do very well.
He’s never really had a true crack at it. Maybe a move to Celtic, a grand club with a great fanbase and a competitive physical environment, will wake him up and turn him into something approaching a reliable rock. It’s possible. Definitely. Stranger things have happened. Or he could just be the nervy dawdling Boyata that we’ve grown accustomed to. I hope not. I genuinely like him for some reason. Maybe I just have a soft spot for him as he seems a likeable character, or maybe my affections are more built around the old ‘supporting the underdog’ mentality. Either way, I do hope he succeeds at Celtic as he does deserve it. It is possible.
If not, at least he still has probably the best song in football
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAvChkfpY4A
Goodnight.
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
neganon2
You are part of the clique…CQN Clique…
onemalloy
23:10 on 1 June, 2015
Cheers mate, see you next season.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
A chance to sign up for the Battered Bunnet’s Personal Investing Advice clique is one I’d be enthusiastic joining.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
23:04 on
1 June, 2015
COWIEBHOY
And a toasters clique.
—————————————–
Well said my man –
Feck the Roasters! GIRUYs!!
‘Mon the Toasters!
UTLT!
Lennybhoy
Very kind words ma pal but really I just like being a pest!
Fan tim
23:10 on
1 June, 2015
Delighted to hear from you. I hope you are looking after your good lhady?
HH
CRC
This Orangefest nonsense depresses me-thought Glasgow was progressing not marching
Goodnight Fra, glad to hear your more like yersel again F.
NATKNOW
CQN is all-inclusive. There’s a clique for everyone.
hugh bonkle fae dallas
23:01 on 1 June, 2015
Cheers mate only thing I remember from Salou last time I was there in July was gobshites from east belfast on the beach with flegs
So needed a friendly bar !
Night all
Toaster :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu4npGFBH7w
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
23:19 on
1 June, 2015
NATKNOW
CQN is all-inclusive. There’s a clique for everyone.
————————————————–
It accommodates us dude – must be true! :-)
Is it really called Orangefest?
In 2015?
This will not show them up to the masses, this will be a giant party.
Singing, bevvy, flags, anthems.
Why not even more next year?
Good night CQN…
Tom McLaughlin, in case your lurking, keep on posting, regardless if you do I will keep in touch.
Until we meet again…
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
NATKNOW
I think it merely tolerates us,tbh…
HT
Feeling great again. Looking so much forward to the new season when we can all meet up again. Apols again for my health probs, thankfully behind me now. Luv to H and the ghirls. You ghuys are special to us. Take care, the world is a wonderful place. :-))))
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
Excellent dudes. Away to bed all happy noo…..
Lennybhoy @ 22:46,
If you think there are no agendas or cliques on CQN you are very much mistaken.
Apart from a rather high-minded, utopian beginning. There have always being the cliques….
A decade ago was the in-crowd some of these guys CQN legends. Some of those deservedly so.
They had each other’s e-mail address, there was a debate going on on CQN and another undercurrent of e-mails where the clique would decide how to deal/respond to fholk.
Very nasty at times. They hunted in packs like wolves. It still goes on, but like trolling and opinion forming it tries to be a little more subtle and a bit less obvious – but it still goes on.
If you notice TMcL doesn’t correspond with me much, nor I him, we have a bit of history so I (we?) avoid it.
That said he is a fine contributor to this site and my heart goes out to him that the way he found out about the surreptitious e-mailers and clique judgemental super-posters was through a hurtful e-mail.
I know I’ve been the victim of this and care not a jot. But if someone showed me a e-mail, if I read it in black and white you know that could be something really different.
Karma? Let’s hope so eh!
Hail Hail
Fra, really busy of late with a host of stuff but mostly it keeps me out of bother which is always a positive!
Night pal and take care.
celticrollercoaster supporting shay,our bhoy wonder along the way
23:14 on 1 June, 2015
Great info.
All the points made in this blog have Ronny’s handiwork all over his signing. The recent video of Ronny giving his expose on his personal philosophy would back this up.
Could be a very exciting signing, once he has had some nurturing from Ronny, the two Johns and Jim.
Tom McLaughlin
Enjoy reading your posts.
Get back asap
HT
K as well! Doh. Lol. She knows she is loved in this household. :-)))
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
a ceiler gonof rust
22:55 on 1 June, 2015
Good grief the only email I’ve had was from sipsini inviting me to one of his gay toga parties.
————–
Where can one purchase a gay toga?
BT/HT
You ghuys are confusing this old git. We adore you all, without exeption. I really am needing ma cot. Talk tomorrow, and am so privileged to have you as fhriends. Luv you. KTF.
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
San Diego Bhoy
23:28 on
1 June, 2015
Really looking forward to next season and perhaps a decent wee run in Europe and maybe a treble as well.
HH
CRC
C R C hi .Mrs Fantim says hello and is in good health .We will both come and see you at corner when the season starts pass our best wishes on to Danny H.H. fantim
Keevins ” Mohsni has left the country and wont be back” Cough cough I think he will High if the polis want to speak to him!
You are rarely allowed to take yourself too seriously on here.
A healthy thing.
That’s what my clique tells me anyway.
Has there been any word from the SFA or the SPFL about the Brawl in the Park?
Or the Flare?
Anything?
At all?