In days of yore Celtic would rattle nine goals past the Finnish champions on European Cup duty. That was never going to be on the cards last night but there remains a clear gap in quality between the teams. HJK Helsinki are no better than Hearts, but were clearly sharper.
The tie remains very much in the balance, a ‘Big Dan moment’, similar to what happened away to Sion last season, and the odds would stack heavily against Celtic progressing, and although HJK didn’t impress much, neither did Utrecht, who lost 2-0 at Celtic Park two years ago before wiping the floor with a disorganised Celtic a week later.
I have a few concerns.
Last season it worried me how dependent we had become on Charlie Mulgrew to create goals. His delivery from the left back position, not to mention his runs to the back post, were significant in Celtic overcoming the early season deficit.
Today we are a few central defenders lighter, if not any worse off in that department, but without Charlie galloping down the wing we are immeasurably less potent. Emilio is an able left back, but his performances are several degrees below his Player of the Year form and he is categorically not a goal creator. A double jeopardy is that when Emilio is behind Georgios Samaras on the left, instead of the more defensively minded Joe Ledley, we seem to have a real weak point.
If we are to start with a lone striker and five in the middle next week we’ll need Charlie on the left. This will stiffen up our weak spot and give HJK more to worry about.
The video moment for the players to study must surely be Georgios Samaras cross for the first Celtic goal. In case you missed it, the cross evaded the first defender. In this respect it was quite stunning and contrasted markedly to what was going on across on the right wing for most of the evening.
Early Player of the Year tip: Adam Matthews. Usain Bolt must be relieved our man is not a sprinter almost as much as Victor Wanyama is relieved he’s a footballer.
Our three raffles end at 19:10 TONIGHT! For the sum of only £1 you stand a chance of winning a painting of Henrik Larsson mid goal celebration, Scott Brown inventing the Broony or a print of our manager in his playing days.
It has never been easier or cheaper to contribute to the concept of what our club is all about, go buy a ticket.
Martin Chambers of the Ecuador Trust was in touch this morning. He said, “If you are able to help, the money will be used to fund the Soup Kitchen that we run each day feeding 150 of the poorest children in the shanty town – kids who would otherwise go hungry. Hope to hear from you soon” (he means you).
Feeding kids who would otherwise go hungry. Where have you heard that idea before?
The four beneficiaries are; The Haven, Cancer Respite Centre, Blantyre, Oscar Knox Neuroblastoma Appeal, Martin Chambers Ecuador Trust and Aberdour Primary School Parents Association.
For £1 you can win:
A celebrating Henrik Larsson painting.
A painting of Scott Brown in classic pose.
A Neil Lennon print.
What are you waiting on, do it now, there are only a few hours left! And after you have clicked on ‘buy a ticket’, DON’T FORGET TO PAY, as some people have. Just like social taxes, paying for your raffle ticket is NOT optional!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deebKNI-dTE&feature=fvwrel
Canamalar,
Gonnae no. Burd’s been doin that to me all week.
Anyway, only trying to help. Makes sense to me. My terms were favourable ;)
BRTH @ 21.31
Interesting post, good insight regarding what you feel about the club and those that run it.
However while I commend the depth and scale of your analysis I do believe you are far too uncritical of the guys – DD / his chairman / PL – who call the shots.
Lennoxtown is a failure.
Great site for an academy, poor set-up for a training ground.
You suggest that we seem to be playing a long game regarding development opportunities but to my mind we are spreading our very limited capital resources far too thinly.
We should have used the money at Barrowfield and made a start on the Celtic Triangle development. We need to focus on the ground and it’s environs and not take flyers at the lost end of East Dumbartonshire / Stirlingshire.
We need to make the most of the CG and the opportunities it will bring. If we are in a Mexican stand off with GCC over who will put their hand in their pocket then we are wasting valuable time.
Please remind me – how good is PL at negotiating?
We need to get started on this – Better a JV and some real action than a grass and trees job with 2 months to go. We are now so far behind the various schemes on the other side of London Road that it hurts.
Your thoughts on the Irish Raj are charitable in the extreme.
He made an erse of himself in 2004/05 when he bad mouthed the support and cancelled the much needed rights issue. When he bowed to the inevitable he needed to move the Stock Exchange listing to put the money in and not trigger a full on takeover. The whole episode was forced in the extreme and left a bad taste in the mouth that his subsequent actions have not been able to remove.
As for the intentions of the Irish Raj?
Well he is into arbitrage and he loves profit.
The long game is the EPL and when that happens he will cash in.
Just my thoughts but I do not believe the undying love hypothesis.
Regarding the new TV deal – I for one just don’t get it.
I still don’t know the full story but BT have missed out on a huge play.
However the numbers seen close what we have not what we wished for.
If we are to take a hit in the new flatter split then I hope we have managed to work an angle on other details to off-set our loss.
However we are not in a great position.
All we have to sell in the conventional sense is our away games and that is something we do not own.
Regarding what we do own – home games.
UK excl Scotland – may have some mileage.
Europe – Limited outside the RoI?
Even here the pull of the EPL / Anglo loving middle class will hurt us.
Global – We are currently only selling to ourselves.
All of this needs a platform, tech is our friend but when?
It all comes down to my basic point and PL’s biggest weakness.
We need growth, we need visibility, we need to expand our base.
Turning the club into a £40mill T/O institution is not a good first step.
Consequently PL – you know it makes sense – please move on.
Finally we the support are not a Keynesian stimulus to the rest of EU football. Your comments are both patronising and wrong in the extreme. Everything comes from the support, the club came from the support and it belongs to the support. Normal business rules do not apply no matter the thought behind recent well argued posts may have tried to suggest.
This season the support will put £30mill directly into the club.
This season the Irish Raj, the board and PL will take out money.
They will not put money in and they have not done anything in the past 6 years.
The last 10 years is £500mill direct from the fans – £20mill direct from DD.
And that only tells half the story as he and PL et al have done well in wages and dividends going the other way – out of the club.
They are now an expense, we are still the providers.
We need change, we need new direction and we need a new vision.
hehe…Aye as wee Kermy says,..
” It’s not easy…bein Green. “
You now the best laugh in the world
see even after all my bitter fenian stuff
and three years denying myself on the grounds I hate huns.
When the flag is being unfurled
I will likely be standing in a church on Skye
genuinly lamenting a life long friend
(a hun I have never let in my house BTW:o)
Alan McAskill RIP
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire on 2 August, 2012 at 23:51 said:
mag7
your no in glasgow then eh
every hun is still a hun and arguing
tonight I was told there was not one world beater in any of the trophy winning teams, no ronaldo or rooney or even messi’s, so what happebned on the pitch was honourable ffs.
In the dolphin ffs
tims telling me, aye thats right its all about the supporters.
As long as a tim talls me that I know education in Scotland has failed
you are mixing wth the wrong tims if they are telling you that…….
ff type huns will never admit defeat, no surrender after all….but the normal everyday hun in the street knows the truth……the hard core will aways protest but it’s all bluster
Although I bet it’s much more difficult bein Charlie Green…!
KTF
Canamalar,
my condolences at the death of your friend,
may he Rest In Peace
canamalar/paddy gallagher
Condolences on your losses gents.
madmitch,
I think your name is kelly, but I buy into every word, pity the kelly’s lost their way.
Celtic needs to be of the Celtic I agree 100%
I have to agree that canamalar does have a point, which hadn’t occurred to me until he raised it.
Peter Lawwell is not a member of the SPL board, so why was he travelling to London with Neil Doncaster to assist in negotiations over an SPL/SKY TV deal?
His presence at those meetings can only mean one thing – he was there to give certain assurances on behalf of Celtic plc. What those assurances might be, we can only surmise, but it wouldn’t take a great leap of faith to harbour suspicions that it involved the short to long term future of the game in Scotland vis-a-vis Sevco.
I think we should be told.
mag7
“you are mixing with the wrong tims if they are telling you that…….”
not at all, I’m mixing with the best,
fanatics who will stand and shout in your face
will only lift their hand to defend themselves
that’ll do for me
Good evening CQN
Not been on much, Canamalar apologies but I have missed Much of what has happened on here in recent weeks – have you handed your ST back?
hh
bjmac
MadMitch
I agree with a lot of what you say. I don’t know you at all but can I suggest something. A wee analogy first. Brendan Rogers got the Liverpool job by doing his homework. He submitted prior to interview a 180 page document on Liverpool FC as a team, a squad, a club; on where he saw the positives and the negatives; on what he could bring to the job; on what he would need to get the job done.
I read an awful lot of what’s wrong with Celtic as a club, but there’s nothing I read about what we’re going to do about it. We can debate about Izaguirre, and Tommy Joad’s tour de force defence of him tonight, but we wake up, smell the coffee and realise that we don’t have influence on the team and despite what some of us may think, NL isn’t going to read me and think ‘y’know what, Bloke’s got a point, I need to play Scott wide’. What if we do though on the future of the club? What if, amongst 50-odd thousand fans there’s a load of people who know about business, but who don’t handshake as investors and at a corporate level. Maybe what we have to do is the Brendan Rogers approach. Maybe the CST or the CAS do this, but a better business plan, a proper proposal, a more fantastic future for the club. Maybe this is more possible with a smaller club – I know small clubs in this sport and others that have welcomed this approach – but I can’t help but think there’s talent out there not being exploited, a word I use in its positive form.
Mad Mitch, others? Over to you. It might work, it might not. But with creative ideas, different thinking, it may not all be practical, it may be too expensive, it may be baloney, it may be worthy of investigation, it may save us money, it may be wildly out of sync with what we are and where we are. It may be that the internet bampots have more to offer.
MadMitch on 2 August, 2012 at 23:58 said:
crackin post
fully agree
Tom McLauglin
Peter Lawwell was part of the broadcasting negotiating steering group which also included ND and Aberdeen’s Duncan Fraser and Inverness Caledonian Thistle chairman Kenny Cameron. Those last two were not there. We could of course also think that PL was there to ensure Celtic retained our share, and was batting for us, but that doesn’t suit.
Madmitch
Good post, and thanks for clarifying that DD has put in more than he’s taken out and paid PL’s wages into the bargain.
£500m in and still loss making over the period. Makes you think doesn’t it.
bjmac,
thinking about it, read back and tell me I’m wrong
Bloke109,
I asked 2 simple questions , I think we all want answers too.
1. are Celtic FC Ltd, tied into the duration of the contract
2. are ther any conditions which include any remnants\newclub
Paul67 is the only connection I have\trust to ask\answer
I will know by his response, as we all know :o)
Canamalar
You need to do what is right for you and what you feel comfortable with. I do believe you are premature in even thinking about it based on speculation. I also believe you continually look for a negative slant on anything the current board do or don’t do, however to an extent, I can understand that due to their past performance and broken promises. However your recent track record of pre-judging what they will do and why isn’t great either.
All I would suggest is to get your questions answered to make a fully informed decision, nobody could possibly criticise your decision then, indeed it could only be commended you are willing to take such a stance.
hh
bjmac
weeminger
Do you think Dermot would cash in if we went to a British League or something along those lines?
I think we are now going to start entering the most difficult financial times ever and we have still to actually feel it’s pain away from football and other entertainments. The can that has been getting kicked down the road is definitely running out of road soon.
When this next big crash happens and it will happen very soon IMO, Celtic will be in the best possible health compared to just about every other UK club (possible exception of Arsenal). No-one knows if the next wave of this depression is going to be this year or in 2 years time so I have absolutely no problems (even if it is does mean current stagnation on the field) about Celtic being extra careful with our pennies. Speculating to accumulate is a very valid argument but it is my view an even bigger crash than 2008 could happen next week or it may indeed take a year or so.
I don’t think Dermot would cash in but I wouldn’t bet on that and I like a flutter. ;)
bjmac,
so you dont agree with me, whats new:o)
I have trust problems
especially with corporations
ok, I might be a tad judgemental.
But I have been for a while,
and you must admit, this blog has straddled the demise of capitalism. Like the huns, they are telling us, ‘its not our fault, the market cant live without us’, ha ha ha
The capitalists and anarchists are worried we might have tumbled them.
After all the good work they’ve done, not a chance :o)
hail hail
MadMitch
I wasn’t goading you with my diatribe, I was cajoling you :-)
On your tv deal points. I don’t think you’re going to get answers on the first point. There has to be commercial confidentiality around Celtic’s duration in the contract – we can’t let things be known that we’re in for a year if there’s a league going to take us in 2013. And I’m afraid I wouldn’t expect transparency on the other point either – again, it’s commercial confidentiality. There will be some coverage of Newco in Division 3, we know that and from a commercial perspective, objectively, you can understand that as there’s an audience. You might not agree with it, and I don’t, but you can understand it. In sum though, we need to stop thinking of PL as CEO of half of the ‘Old Firm’. He serves Celtic’s interestes first. I disagree with a lot of what he does, but I don’t doubt that fact.
As a PS. We wonder about thems influence in the media. Their current press officer used to be sport producer at Clyde while one of the directors of media #house is a former editor of Sunday Mail.
PPS. We’ve spoken on here about the financial difficulties of RL side Bradford Bulls. The latest on them announced today? That Superleague have bid for them. The actual league they play in wants to buy them – not for the long-term natch. We can only imagine.
Canamalar – I don’t agree by not telling you your wrong ;-)
We all judge, but there is a difference between judging and being judgemental. Capitalism has failed to a large extent, however its demise is not imminent or ever! Now if only the anarchists could get organised…
Canamalar, you are the exact same as each and every one of us – unique ;-)
Better get to bed, I’m with the clique at Aberdour tomorrow – you should come up and get your questions answered. For the record I do think you are wrong with your take on the TV deal, just my opinion though and I do accept that I have been wrong before, but that was in the 80s :-)
hh
bjmac
Thoroughly enjoyed this exposure in international waters,
I can paddle like a dolphin :o)
Wall Street Journal, me and a media house, who honestly thinks everyone reading, is buying his interpretation, like they’re all as dumb as me :oD)))))
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443931404577550832362966366.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments
really looking forward to his next reply, because as far as I know, Britain is still fighting a war overseas, and discal resources are being wasted investigating nonconformists, whats that all about.
bjmac on 3 August, 2012 at 01:52
I read this link earlier.
I decided to leave it all up to the Big Man a long time ago. I believe Celtic is a truly spiritual Club more than any other in the game of Football.
Even if we have to go through 20 years of dreadful European failure to get 1 pinnacle of Achievement. I’ll take that every time, as long as we are playing that Celtic Way.
The hun has been removed and I am looking forward to watching Excellent domestic football this season at Celtic Park. I hope the rest of the League now start to introduce talented players that they will all have in their systems now the THUGS have been removed.
We really can’t imagine how much Rangers has held back Every Club in Scotland until we get the footballers protected like they should be on the park.
I love Spanish football and one of the big things about their game over there is the incredible amount of bookings every game. There will be nearly 10 most games, usually consisting of a red or 2. They have all the flair players because they are protected.
Scottish football has been asphyxiated for far too long by the corrupt core at the centre of our game and there is absolutely No Doubt in my mind it will thrive again if it is allowed to breathe once more. Celtic will develop 10 times more this season without that scum to face this season and I’m sure the rest of the clubs will get progressively better when they start trusting their kids, their skillful players.
bjmac,
so, its no often I’m right, but I’m wrong again, no news is good news.
do you honestly think if the feudalists didnt keep all the guns we would still be feudalists.
Grow up, we live in anarchy because its the only environment capitalism can exist.
lack of order and crisis is opportunity, seems no so bad here, but imagine living in a country were real live pirates can come and sell you into slavery. No so small world when we have room to ignore, hands accross the globe my arse
Podcast rant from Tommy bhoy posted 25mins ago
http://glasgowradio.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/podcast-rant-from-idiot.html
The bould b`hoys….. Tá ár lá anois..!!!
I think it was Tuesday night I heard Tommy on RC. To be fair to Jim Delahunt, and he knew straight away who he was, he let Tommy talk for a good while, his guests may have sniggered but it was information that was being let into the public domain. I’m very happy if they snigger in that background whilst the man lays it out. ;)
How much credibility does a Radio Clyde pundit have these days anyway? LMAO
tbb,
cheers,
he needs a foil though
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire
The way he entitled it, I’m sure I could apply. :))
Real Fascism for you to listen to, that I listened to tonight.
entitled – Titled ;)
America the Corporation nation indeed.
The Constitution and Bill of Rights has been destroyed meticulously.
petec 0300
Ha…Aye they no doubt done the same when RTC appearred on the scene. Although in some cases I believe it was/is agenda–driven rather than disbelief or a head-in-the-sand rection. That approach has only assisted the Great Demise. The vast majority of these reporters are a disgrace to Journalism. More power to IBs keyboards, I say.
canamalar
True. The guys got some cajones…and obviously not easily intimidated. He knows full well the levels this con goes to and Im sure he knows how dangerous these cretins are. He’s taking on the lot of them regardless.
Some mhan.
The bould b`hoys….. Tá ár lá anois..!!!
I think it best to have an overall look.
When it comes to Hun Cheating the picture is MASSIVE.
I hate politics because the compartmentalization is systematically controlling us. They make philvis detest his Tory Party he respected and has James Forrest raging at Labour.
This is no accident. They are toying with minds and shackling a massive amount of people into chains Willingly, it is the only way they could succeed. Left and Right – as Kojo would say, Suckas.
And the New World Order is just a sham? The disinformation to discredit the information is a billion $ industry?
Madman petec.
Yeshua, Joshua, Jesus – It’s All Good despite what every disinfo site tries to say.
Bloke109 –
Thanks.
I stand corrected, although you could hardly accuse ME of having an anti-board agenda.
:~)
Tom McLaughlin
Hello m8,
Did you watch the game Wednesday?
How did you rate the players?
I thought I had a good seat for the Helsinki game but I could not read the tactics from one of the front rows (106), it was good for the wee man to watch them warm up and realise that Dumbarton are employing the same training methods. ;)
That has been rectified for Tomorrow as I’m up high where it looks like sensible soccer but I will be at least able to post a good analytical comment about the game. Really looking forward to it.
Elvis Presley – I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry ( Hawaii Rehearsal Concert )