Celtic faced a familiar problem yesterday. Hearts packed the midfield, which sat close to their defensive line, making it difficult for Celtic to get through, over or wide. Their best chance in the first half actually came from a Hearts corner kick, one of the few occasions the visitors ventured forward.
Sure, we need to beat Rangers, but dealing with the challenge of teams sitting tight and packing midfield will be key to winning the SPL, and that starts at Perth on Sunday. St Johnstone will not be in confident mood after their 0-3 pasting at home yesterday, so you can expect them to sit three central midfielders in front of the defence.
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Breaking news …Scottish refs association announce that from now on Brother Murray will Now be known by his Indian name ” Calum three eyes” ..and now the the the weather dark and gloomy over govan way …goodnight
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LENNON SAYS BROWN SHOULDN’T BE IN A SWEAT..
Neil Lennon has argued Scott Brown was verbally abused by visiting players
CELTIC boss Neil Lennon has argued Scott Brown has NO case to answer as the midfielder sweats on an SFA rap.
Captain Brown had to be escorted up the tunnel by team-mate Georgios Samaras at the end of the 1-0 home win over Hearts following a furious row with Jamie Hamill.
Hearts first-team coach Gary Locke also ended up in a shouting match with James Forrest in front of the dug-outs after a controversial end to the encounter.
Lennon insists Brown was verbally abused by visiting players in the lead-up to Jambos midfielder Eggert Jonsson seeing an 88th minute penalty saved by Fraser Forster.
And it looked very much as though there could be some ‘afters’ in the tunnel as the players finally left the field.
SFA chiefs will study ref Calum Murray’s official match report closely over the next 48 hours.
It was a bit of verbal sparring as much as anything else
Neil Lennon has argued Scott Brown was verbally abused by visiting players
If Murray is happy that the incident does not merit further investigation then it is unlikely SFA compliance office Vincent Lunny will step in and take the matter further – although if evidence of an unseen tunnel bust-up comes to light that will change the authorities stance.
Celtic and Brown may need to wait until tomorrow before discovering if the player has got off “Scott-free”.
When asked if he expected repercussions, Lennon said: “I didn’t see what happened and there might have been a bit of pushing or whatever, but I shouldn’t think so. There is not a lot to write about there.
“It was a bit of verbal sparring as much as anything else. I do know things were said to Scott as the penalty was awarded and he was just giving a little bit back. It was nothing more than that.”
Lennon was delighted with the battling spirit shown by his side, though, and is pleased with the overall attitude of his men as they reamin four points shy of leaders Rangers.
He said: “We had three draws this time last year and it could have happened again on Saturday, so maybe there is an improvement in the mentality.
“You can’t always expect the players to win 5-0 or 6-0 and we just needed some energy and drive in the second half.
“I felt we got that from Forrest and Brown and thought Samaras came onto a good game in the second half as well.
“It is another clean sheet, so I am absolutely delighted.”
Summa
PS..Sammi Wins the Day Again..:O)
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Wee Question to the Blog..
Jellylegs..This ‘Prolific’ Scorer as He is Always Called..I think he has Scored 11 in the SPL..How many are Penalty’s..? 5 or 6..?
Summa
Celtic and Brown may need to wait until tomorrow before discovering if the player has got off “Scott-free”
Why not “Hearts and Hamill”???
5 pens jelavic has scored in last 4 or 5 games and they have been getting pens since naysmith has been injured so maybe we should get this wee interesting stat out in the open.
Just back about 2 hours ago from Tenerife. 7 days of constant eating and drinking and a feeling that I was living in a different world have ended by watching the highlights of yesterdays game. Why did Hearts get a penalty? Why is Scott Brown being hounded by the panto press for shaking hands loudly with one of Hearts amateurs?
hen1rik
That is interesting.
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Just read some of the earlier posts, So young Forrest had a quite day for maybe the first time this season and it’s time to get him out of the team.
I wish I was going to Italy on Thursday because I think we have a decent chance of going through. James Forrest on form would go a long way to seeing us get that elusive away win.
Lads I have checked past results on bbcsport and most of their goals come from jelly legs and naysmith so if wee keep in touch and if jelly is sold then the games a bogey for them.
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Henrik1..
Just Checked..Scored 5 Pens out of 12 Goals..(4 Pens since Naismith got injured)..That is 7 Goals in 18 Games.. Prolific My Erchie..
My Dad thinks He is a Prolific Misser..
Summa
I’ll be honest I would put brown out right and commons if fit out left and give them 2 a rest because for me Sunday is more important than Thursday.
Get ki in middle and give kayal a rest and try bangura because I’m going to be honest here I want this league.
If we did go through which I doubt we probably would I don’t think we will go far and as I said I want this league badly.
Right lads god bless and peace out.
I watched the game today- missed it because of travelling yesterday. Bit of a disjointed performance but a very welcome 3 points.
On the penalty, I thought at first he gave it for Vic leading with the elbow. If it was for hand ball then it was an error on the part of the ref. The direction the ball went in after the contact could only have been effected by the attackers head.
Don’t feed the monkey
Pity Hen1rik is away to bed. I agree that the League is must-win.
So here’s a team for Thursday
Forster
Cha Dan Wilson Twardzik
Brown Ki McGeogh Mulgrew
McCourt
Bangura
Never going to happen but one thing for sure is they wouldn’t be expecting it :)
Wayne Rooney sometimes takes a fair bit of stick on here.
I’d just like to remind the haters the lad’s a Celtic fan and tonight I was given this link to one of Rooney’s own favourite moments in football when he played double one-twos with a hero of his to lay on a goal of sheer, utter class…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuOSGVrZy30&feature=related
God bless them both.
G’night.
Celtic 3 Man Utd 0 1966/67
http://youtu.be/tndwcWB5PdQ
Buenas dias Serge……2 bottles of tinto and a cupla haufs doon ma neck:) cannae feel the flu symptoms anymare.
I didnae get ma Christmas dinner wish but I’m doing a Christmas eve lunch at a nice Italian place, not the best but decent and the kids are on board.
aff tae ma kip shortly, well maybe wan mare hauf;)
slainte
tony
Torontony
Hi Mate, That’s good news. Do the kids leave for their Grandmas on xmas morning? Hope so will good for you to spend the morning with them.
Your not getting rid of that Flu eh? That’s a few weeks now.
I’ve had a mighty 5 hours sleep so think i’ll just lock the office door & sleep :-)
Got the official end of contract letter yesterday so im gonna spend a few days at the beach before i leave. Jobs finished & looking forward to 6 weeks in the cold.
I’m taking the woman to the Dundee United game on the 14th Jan, Day before we leave for Cape Verde.
Serge, HH
Serge – Aye, Mass Christmas morning then we exchange gifts etc….took my son Liam for a fish supper Friday and we had a good mano e mano chat:)
Not sure what i’ll do for Christmas day but i have enough mates around bonnie Toronto:)
all good and i’m healthy, what more do i want?
slainte
tony
Torontony
That’s great mate delighted for you. Had a good talk to my Father on Friday night. He’s talking about getting another Racehorse, a foal this time, so we might be going down to Ulverston in the Lake District to have a look, Be good to spend some proper time with him for a change.
Do you remember a player Drew Jarvie? Glasgow Man, Played for a few Teams when he was younger, Not sure which though.
Serge, HH
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A Look back in Tim.. Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes..
(Courtesy NTV 2001)..
Quinn denies board are tin men
The Ghost of Christmas Past paid a belated visit to Celtic Park at the end of the year in the spectral shape of our old nemesis, the infamous Biscuit Tin. To the sound of a clanking chain made up of old padlocks, dusty wallets and looted piggy banks, the Biscuit Tin mentality, we were assured by the papers, was alive and well and firmly reinstated in its old place at the head of the Parkhead boardroom.
As we looked on in bewilderment at this unexpected manifestation of the latest crisis to afflict the Hoops we could only wonder what had happened to scupper our ship which, until then, had appeared to be sailing on sublimely through the calmest of oceans. The answer was an interview with Celtic Chairman Brian Quinn which appeared in the Celtic View’s “Massive 112 page Christmas Special” (December 19th 2001).
“Supporters have often asked how the Celtic plc board works, what it discusses and how it takes its decisions”, gushed the View, before subjecting the Chairman to the third degree. With the desk lamp firmly shining in his eyes and the sweating heavies ready to beat him to a pulp if he failed to talk, Quinn was given a severe grilling by the View’s resident Jeremy Paxman, having to field such probing questions as “How often does the Celtic board meet?” and “Does Martin O’Neill attend board meetings?”
With the Chairman singing like the proverbial canary Paxman slipped in a couple of curve balls. The one which had the hacks dusting off the “Celtic in Crisis” stories was, “How much money is available to Martin O’Neill to buy new players?”
Quinn’s reply was, on the face of it, honest, realistic and fairly bland. “We have recently indicated that the amounts available to strengthen the football division further this season are likely to be limited. Nevertheless, the board will listen and consider any request that Martin might make and give it consideration (sic)”.
He didn’t say that there was no money available for new players should the manager feel it necessary to strengthen the team. Nor did he emulate a former Celtic Chairman, who once allegedly told Davie Hay during his stint in the hot seat that if he wanted to buy players he would have to buy them with his own money – possibly a stronger indication that your club is facing an imminent cash flow crisis than anything contained in Brian Quinn’s statement.
Perhaps he should have said that although the club’s finances were presently being run prudently, if OFM wanted £12 million tomorrow to rescue a player who was currently cavorting around Blackpool beach with kiddies on his back, we would pawn the silver to get the cash to buy him then sit back and cross our fingers. “No Chairman in full possession of his faculties would say such a thing and hope to get away with it”, I hear you protest. “He would be rightly slaughtered in the papers for years to come”. And you’d be right, unless the Chairman in question happened to be D. Murray, Gauleiter of the Death Star.
The “Celtic are skint” theme was predictably taken up with gusto by the hacks. Indeed it was subsequently embellished to the point that the Daily Express felt moved to use the word “paupers” and Celtic in the same context because of the amount of debt the club are servicing at the moment.
By January 2nd we were approaching meltdown. Sky’s reporter David Tanner cornered Martin O’Neill after the 4:0 away win at Tannadice – a result which, incidentally, restored Celtic’s 13 point advantage at the top of the Premier League – and opened his post-match interview with the mind-boggling question, “How much of a split is there between you and the board because they won’t give you desperately needed funds?”
O’Neill fielded this particular piece of mischief with ease, but he might have asked Mr. Tanner to expand on where exactly the funds are most desperately needed to be spent. Which area of the team which is 13 points clear at the top of the league and not facing any imminent European crunch fixtures desperately needs new players?
Which isn’t to suggest that strengthening the team is not necessarily a good idea. Merely that, given the circumstances, there would appear to be little evidence of desperation. Of course if we were facing a situation where the departure lounge was populated with an orderly queue of players waiting to leave, pausing only to bid a fond farewell to a collection of hopeless cases professing their willingness to see out their careers at the clubit might be a different story.
Another cudgel was taken up in the Sunday Mail by Gordon Waddell (December 30th 2001). Waddell has taken over the Mail’s opinion column vacated by ex-Ranter In Chief Hugh “Bonkers” Keevins. This page was once famously offered to Kenny Dalglish in the middle of Kenny’s Bairds Bar phase by editor George Cheyne with a challenge to produce “850 words of thought-provoking prose”. Kenny declined the offer, which was a shame since it might well have been the first time ever 850 words of thought-provoking prose had appeared on this particular page. Instead, we’re subjected to the usual 850 words which reads like a stream of semiconscious drivel. “You’d think Brian Quinn and his cronies… would speculate to allow O’Neill to accumulate… maybe they’re sitting too far away from the action to hear the rumble from the stands”, he dribbled, under a headline which pleaded “Give Martin cash before it’s too late”.
Yes folks, the Martin O’Neill for Old Trafford chestnut was trotted out again in the spurious context of Quinn’s statement. It seems that no matter how many times the manager says that he is going to see out his contract the hacks will interpret this as some kind of Orwellian Doublespeak. He says he’s staying so he must be going. Likewise with Quinn – he says they’ve got some money so they must have no money – and David Murray – he says they’ve no money so they must be ready to spend a fortune.
Once the word was out that money was once again an issue inside Parkhead the bloodhounds began sniffing around the Celtic accounts. Meanwhile, there was another financial story concerning the second best team in Glasgow which was being given slightly less of a profile in the tabloids. Commenting on the amount of debt Rangers are in David Murray dismissed the figure of £51 million and retorted that the real figure was £21 million, most of which was as a result of paying for Auchenhowie, aka Xanadu. “Off the field we are in a tremendous position”, said Murray.
“You can see that last year’s net debt stood at £9 million, so they have burnt about £40 million on cash in the last year”, said a spokesman for Price Waterhouse Coopers, the accountant which produces the annual report into the SPL clubs’ finances. “He is being a little bit selective.” The fact that the figure of £51 million was printed in the Rangers financial statement also seems to have escaped major scrutiny.
Presumably then, Murray’s club will be in an even more “tremendous” position should sponsors NTL go belly-up as well. Rangers owe them £15 million (what do you mean you thought they had been given £30 million by NTL? Whoever gave you that idea??) which would almost certainly be called in by the liquidators if the company collapses.
So much for the relative crises faced by each half of the Old Firm. You don’t have to be John Maynard Keynes to work out whose bank manager will be able to nod off without the help of industrial strength sedatives.
The other can of worms opened by Quinn in his Celtic View interview came in response to the question “What happened to the £22.5 million raised by the share issue in the summer?”
Quinn’s reply was as follows: “… the uses to which the £22.5 million is put can be tracked by calculating what we are spending this year compared with what we could have afforded to spend had that sum not been available. As indicated in the prospectus for the new share issue, the bulk of additional spending is on the football division.”
All well and good – if you can follow Brian’s boardspeak – but at the time the prospectus was issued Ian MacLeod and the rest of the suits were trying to drum up support for the latest share issue by committing the board to two things; further investment in the squad and funds for a new training facility. By which we here at NTV Mansions understood new players and a new training ground.
How many investors were tempted into buying shares by feeling that they were doing their bit to fund these things? How many would have still invested had the promise been to make do with the embarrassment that is Barrowfield for a few more years and improve the contracts of the players that are at Parkhead already?
As at mid-January 2002 OFM has spent something like £5 million net in the transfer market. So what happened to the rest of the £22.5 million? We’ll probably have to wait for the interim accounts next month for the definitive answer – or at least a more intelligible one than that given above.
All of which leaves Martin O’Neill sitting with all the aces with regard to his contract extension negotiations which are due to commence at the end of the season, even if he doesn’t win the treble again. He has never hidden the fact that he knew exactly what kind of fiscal restraints he would be working under when he took the job at Celtic Park, but he has also been making the kind of noises recently that suggest he’s perfectly well aware of what a strong position he’s in.
The Chairman responded that, “It is part of his job to do what he can to raise awareness of his situation”, a reply which suggested that if there wasn’t a full blown rift then at least there was a polite burp between them. He went on to say, “Of course part of our responsibility is to support the manager as far as possible… but people should understand that the two elements, getting the football side and the business side right are quite difficult to reconcile.”
It will be interesting to see how much of a reconciliation has been achieved by the summer when the season ticket money is in and progress in the Champions League depending on buying a few players that are better than the ones we already have.
As for talk of a crisis, here’s two words to think about should the thought ever cross your mind again; Kevin Kelly.
Summa
Serge – Drew Jarvie played for Aberdeen i think???? he was a good player from what i can remember…a good solid pro….a horse a horse my kingdom for a horse:)
The Green Bay Packers win again:0) I love the Pack!!!!!
Having a Glenfarclas 105….robust stuff to say the least;)
slainte
tony
He plays the 5s on a Sat night, Think he must be in his late 50s now but still a great player and very fit. I think i sent you a pic last week. Heplays at the back and keeps things simple, luckily i was on his team this week, Along with Ged Brannan who played for Motherwell & Manchester City, & Karl Mackay who played for Caley so we dished out a beating & i scored 5 or 6 so the fitness is slowy getting better. Will need to hit the beach every morn when im home so im looking half normal for my hol haha.
A Glenfarclas 105 :-) It will be Clynelish in a few weeks, Gonna ask my Dad to sort that out this week so that you have it for New Year i hope.
It must be 11 or 12pm with you?
Serge, HH
The 105 is total bomb amigo…..no place for the faint hearted…11pm here and my kip is beckoning…..great tae hear yer easing into yer last few days, and i’ll be toasting you and yer family on the 28th….if we don’t win yer brother is getting his haw maws toed:)
slainte
tony
Torontony
Hopefully He will be that drunk He wont notice I’m gone from the Wedding for 2 hours. My other Bro is saying the same so no worries haha.
Serge. HH
Serge – only our rivers run feee, Christy;)
slainte
tony
Torontony
This is hard work this job! Downloaded a few games last night using Zamzar so I’m just about to watch Dunfermline 1 Celtic 8
The Majic Zurawski show!
Serge, HH
Marittimo president Carlos Pereira last night admitted that talks with Celtic over a deal for £3million-rated striker Baba Diawara are back on.
The Parkhead club were one of a number of top sides who watched the Portuguese league’s top scorer in action against Benfica on Sunday night.
And despite growing competition from Spain and Italy, the Scottish Cup holders still hope to conclude a January deal for the 23-year-old Senegalese goalscorer.
Celtic manager Neil Lennon watched Diawara in action before the close of the last transfer window, with work permit issues blamed for the breakdown of the move.
Despite the capture of Mohamed Bangura in a £2m deal, Lennon remains in the market for a new forward.
The Maritimo star has never been far from the top of a list also known to feature Huddersfield’s newly-capped Scotland international Jordan Rhodes.
I have spoken again with the Scots recently and we are ready to resume talks,’ said Maritimo chief Pereira on Sunday.
‘We failed to reach an agreement before, but anything is possible now. It’s a matter of sitting down and talking through our requirements.
‘This weekend, there were a lot of clubs — including Celtic — watching, not only Baba, but also other players from our team and some from Benfica.
‘We cannot rule out selling our best assets. If we did, we could run the risk of upsetting the players because of the huge leap in salary they could make by moving.
‘Baba is very mature and trusts me to do what is best for him and for Maritimo.’
Serge –
I think you’ll find that game in August 19666 was Celtic 4 Manchester United 1
Tom McLaughlin
Even better! Way before my time had never seen that footage before.
Serge
That clip of the the 1966 friendly against Man U had 3 goals missing. The actual score was 4-1 to Celtic . My memories of that game were of a jet-heeled Bobby Lennox leaving the ManU defenders in his wake time after time.
Also remember prior to kick-off , the visting fans making the mistake of being in the jungle. There was no real violence but they soon moved away.
The 4-1 win of Man U was the start of the momentous season in which we went on to win everything ……..including even the Glasgow Cup!!
Good morning friends from a currently dry and relatively mild looking East Kilbride.
Jobo
Good morning CQN from the late “fast” train to Glasgow.
Great 3 points on Saturday. There is now 6 Norwegian students supporting Glasgow’s Green & White, much to the chagrin of their peers at Armadale Academy.
Great 3 points
hh
bjmac
PS Great 3 points
Bamboo
Thanks, Would like to see the 90 minutes from that game but probably not possible.
A dark and cloudy, but not particularly cold morning here in North Ayrshire.
What about Rangers’ “song book” on Saturday?
Isn’t that, “Father’s Advice” rip-off intended to glorify a terrorist organisation?
I await the media outrage.
Does anyone know how to get rid of the Facebook thing on my blog name?