Celtic surrendered another two points to fall further behind in the championship race, drawing 0-0 at home against Hibernian. It was a unorganised looking performance from the home team who gave Graham Stack little to do in the Hibernian goal.
Gary Hooper squandered Celtic’s only gilt-edged chance of the game when, after playing a one-two with Anthony Stokes, he struck the outside of the post with Ki available for the square pass. Anthony Stokes had earlier tested Stack, who failed to hold the ball but did enough to clear.
When the same teams met on Wednesday James Forrest transformed the game when he drifted inside but he spent most of today’s game adrift on the right wing. On two occasions he cut inside with purpose, once testing Stack with a blistering shot from 22 yards and later when a 25 yard pile-drive struck the crossbar, but Hibs were content to limit Celtic to such speculative efforts.
Neil Lennon was justified in his criticism of his front pairing of Stokes and Hooper today but Celtic were equally clueless in midfield. There appeared to be no cohesion and there was certainly not a productive match plan.
Motherwell’s away win in Inverness gives the Lanarkshire side a three point lead, having played a game more, going into next week’s crucial game against Celtic at Fir Park. Manager-less St Johnstone dropped three points at home this afternoon, leaving them four points behind Celtic in the fight for the last Europa League place.
This is where we are people, scrapping between Motherwell and St Johnstone. Get used to it.
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lionroars67 says:
30 October, 2011 at 11:35
‘A genuine shout at the board to enquire with Strathclydes finest for an explanation of those scenes at Celtic park yesterday’
Plod are doing what the SNP government want them to do.
Any Celtic supporter who votes for that lot wants their head examined.
Ernie
Crap.
Hail hail
Estadio
Kayal33
The baw has a slow puncture and if they just try and reflate it instead of getting a new baw I’m finished with Scottish football and its back to the Juniors.
Celtic are in a very strong position to dictate what measures need to be adopted to restore the games integrity, I just hope they have the baws to do it.
The outcome of the tax case will be key and I would not expect anything to be said by the club until then.
Painful as this period is for us just now it will be nothing as the pain of havings its gonads grabbed IF Celtic take the lead. They would be derelict to the support AND shareholders if they do so.
An EGM would be one way of shareholders demanding why we did not take the lead and protect our club and what vision they have for a future in a corrupt league.
Tiny Tim – I think you might have misread me. I wouldn’t have Roy Keane anywhere near the Celtic job. My feeling is that i wouldnt put it past Dermot Desmond to get him & he bankrolls a kitty of £20M as he did when he got Martin O’Neill
I’d be happy for DD to offer a soft loan to the club for that amount but only to the right candidate. If the club did the appropriate groundwork they could easily unearth examples of managers who tick the criteria of being successful within a small budget. We should’ve went for Stale Solbakken instead of Mowbray and we had to get Lambert or Owen Coyle whilst they were showing promise in the championship. The second these guys get a team into the premiership we have no chance of bringing them to CP
I’d be interested to hear your view on what we should do as i like reading your posts
Ernie Lynch……..you and I don’t always agree, but IF Celtic vote in favour of rankers getting back into the SPL, that will that for me, also……I won’t stop supporting Celtic, but, AFTER WHAT WE HAVE BEEN SUBJECTED TO OVER THE PAST 3 YEARS, I would be looking to support a ‘NEW BOARD’ call………..I am, however, confident it won’t come to that………..there is no way any Celtic Board would even contemplate THAT..!!
TT
Did you get successfully measured for your suit?
Special occasion?
Hail Hail
Estadio
Estadio says:
30 October, 2011 at 11:50
You don’t see a connection between the actions of the police and the actions of the SNP governement?
Maybe you think it’s a price worth paying?
Freedumb right enough.
CELTIC BOARD……..REMEMBER ‘THE COFFIN’…..!!!
ABK – anybody but Keane
We have to back NL and that’s that. We’re without our best player, who made the difference in so many games last season. He’ll be back soon.
On the plus side, it looks like tjey have lost their best player and they’ll struggle without him, no question.
It’s imperative we beat Motherwell.
And we will!
Cheer up!
We if he wasn’t ,it went over my head (;-)
TT
If I was not 200 miles away I would be in Sharkeys by 12.00
I promise to stop sending the begging letters.
Ernie
I was going to write you a reasoned answer arguing my stance…but to be honest I can’t be bothered with tossers like you. I suggest you get a rectal thermometer and check the temperature of what goes for your brains, then pull the flush handle. You and the world will be better of for it.
If however you wish to discuss further in an adult fashion, then like most on here you know where I will be drinking very shortly.
Hail Hail
Estadio
ernie lynch
‘A genuine shout at the board to enquire with Strathclydes finest for an explanation of those scenes at Celtic park yesterday’
Plod are doing what the SNP government want them to do.
Any Celtic supporter who votes for that lot wants their head examined.
Aye and all the Celtic fans who voted for Labour in Glasgow Council elections, who done nothing about a sectarian policy down Govan way, being played out in the public, for years and years and years por cierto.
ernie lynch says:
30 October, 2011 at 11:57
30 years of right wing free market tory governments at Westminster.
You continue to campaign for them Ernie
Estadio
What about tonight or are you in Sharkeys all day-
That ending made me smile but tne sad thing is that there is a way of addressing those questions that could end the current turmoil and take us forward as a club and a business.
All that is needed is the wilingness in the club to recognise that the time to address those issues has come.
Estadio says:
30 October, 2011 at 12:02
With Xmas fast approaching I suggest you ask Santa to bring you a copy of Scotland In Eclipse by Andrew Dewar Gibb, a founder member, first chairman and leading intellectual of the SNP.
When you’ve read that come back and talk to me about the SNP.
Until then save your breathe to cool your porridge.
Vargas 11.20
PL told us at the AGM the policy will not change it is based on youth develpoment to produce as he calls it Champions League players scouting and sports science, the guy in charge of the academy is a former Motherwell player Chris McCart I havent got a clue what the souting set up is and sports science appears only to have produced players who cannot cope with the physical nature of football here are injured for lengthy periods of time and have various fitness stamina levels, he sees no reason to change this we are heading nowhere with this strategy but it will be pursued untill DD changes it.
lionroars67 says:
30 October, 2011 at 12:05
‘Any notion that an independent Scotland would be a left wing country is delusional nonsense.’
Jim Mather, retired SNP MSP and cabinet member.
What exactly did the police do yesterday at CP?
Were there arrests and what was the reasoning behind their actions?
Auldheid
Going for a curer now, but give me a time when you can be there and I will make sure I am in.
Text or call me on 07539523054 (that’s from memory so I hope it’s right). Happy to batter a few ideas off the wall.
hail Hail
Estadio
Por Cierto says:
30 October, 2011 at 12:03
Can you explain to me what powers Glasgow Corporation had to deal with the huns sectarian signing policy?
Was that not the remit of the SCOTTISH FA?
Boys i need yer help here I’m having a debate with my hun m8.
He’s saying the company name is RFC holdings that’s the registered company with companies house not rangers football club it’s RFC holdings that changes the name not the club..
Is this guy for real or wit..
ernie lynch says:
30 October, 2011 at 12:08
Westminster governments are decided by the right wing press barons who pander to an electorate which has no interest in Scotland and Europe
A rigged first the post system allied with no constitution and you end up with 30 years of warmongering and boom/bust right wing economics, which has now gone truly bust
You know what Ernie Scotland taking its own decisions for me, good or bad that’s the principle i believe in.
I’m freaking out today. The board are going to act taking the points deduction into account- they are going to do that- sweet jesus where do we go now
I will ask the question I posed last night –
Has there ever been a time when players have complained to the CEO about the coaching on offer at a football club?
The questions would include concerns about:
Skills training
Tactics
Conditioning.
Has this ever happened at a football club?
Lionsroar
Thanks.
i did misread the post.
TT
Some years ago, before WGS left I wrote on here that the club had caught a cold, well I misread the symptoms, the cold developed into flu like symptoms, then pneumonia, we’re now in the intensive care ward, right next to Rangers who are on life support. The club is rotten from the top and needs radical surgery, the time for tinkering is over. The current custodian’s policy for the club is flawed and they need to be removed by a fans take over. Only when the fans own the club can we truly influence the direction we take. I turn up at AGMs safe in the knowledge my vote means absolutely nothing, Mr. Desmond is the only vote worth having. Someone indicated last night a fans takeover would cost £18m, by my simple calculations this is £300 a head for 60,000 people, would it be worth it? If we as a fans collective own the club we can set objectives and write a constitution along the lines of a percentage of the turnover to charity, maximum percentage of turnover debt ratio and a firmly stated objective to get out of the SPL. I don’t have the business acumen or energy to drive this forward but if anyone is up for a Celts for change type organisation they can have my £300 or multiples of. We can laugh at Rangers all we like but if we continue with our current policy we move to life support within two years. Neil Lennon is not the real problem at Celtic, the issues are we above his level of influence.
TinyTim says:
30 October, 2011 at 12:24
No problem TT, we all do it
its obvious niel needs help,maybe an auld heid at the training ground/trackside,but most importantly from the boardroom.
Ernie
Chill! You’ll make yourself ill with your pathological hatred of the SNP.
Should they hold an independence referendum, make sure you’ve got a defibrillator available, just in case the outcome isn’t to your liking.
JC
lionroars67 says:
30 October, 2011 at 12:21
I don’t want to be too insulting, we’ve all got enough on our plates already, but that’s just incoherent nonsense.
Mad itch. If you’ve got something to say then say it. If you’ve got some solid news to put onthe blog then do it.
ernie lynch says:
30 October, 2011 at 12:27
Well its all about opinions Ernie
I thought Estadio summed yours up well earlier
JohnnyClash says:
30 October, 2011 at 12:27
If Salmond thought he’d any chance of getting a yes vote the referendum would have been held by now.
The Scottish people don’t want to leave the UK.
The SNP know that, hence the delay and obfuscation.
Hence the proposed two question referendum.
In the meantime they are devoting their energies to having a go at us.
That’s not a coincidence and it’s not unexpected. It’s in their DNA.
lionroars67 says:
30 October, 2011 at 12:21
ernie lynch says:
30 October, 2011 at 12:08
Westminster governments are decided by the right wing press barons who pander to an electorate which has no interest in Scotland and Europe
A rigged first the post system allied with no constitution and you end up with 30 years of warmongering and boom/bust right wing economics, which has now gone truly bust
You know what Ernie Scotland taking its own decisions for me, good or bad that’s the principle i believe in
————————————————————————————————————————————————–
Since the mid 70’s there has been a deliberate policy across the globe but driven by Right wingers in the US to give us exactly what you describe. That control of the media in that time has been a prime target for those driving the agenda is no mistake.
The democracy we have is a sham. Take this little part of Ireland I live in. We have some form of self determination. but on the big issues, funding and so on, Westminster is calling the shots. I envy Scotland’s ability to say no to Westminster on occasion.
I think a real independent Scottish Labour Party in an independent Scotland might actually get back to being a part OF Labour rather than one named Labour. In fact I think the SNP might just hoist itself on it’s own independence petard if it ever gets it’s way (and I hope it does achieve independence. Without New Labour calling the shots (or New Labour Lite as I regard Millibands merry band down south) I think the Scottish Labour Party could revert to type and be true to itself again in a way I think it never can in England where I think a genuine alternative Labour organisation has to be built from the ground up.
Sorry for butting in……………. ErnieLynch – I don’t think you have to support the SNP to see merit in Independence.
Lionr … @ 12.21
Thank you for taking my mind off the football.
Your analysis is tripe.
Specifically regarding Scotland we do not have the depth of civic institutions and political capital to make a success of independence.
Our print media is at death’s door.
We buy more English papers than ever.
The voice of the DMa / Forger’s Gazette grows ever louder in Scotland.
We cannot organise a football league or a fair refereeing environment.
Our courts and legal system are an international joke.
Specifically on the SNP –
Two small fish looking for a puddle.
They are a personality cult and little else.
Too many hate England more than they love Scotland.
They only have neo-conservative economics to work on.
They have plans to be like the RoI – a tax haven sucking the life blood put of the UK and Europe.
Consequently no thanks.
I’ve been off the blog since yesterday for two reasons – I had a party to host and was cooking for it AND I just couldn’t face the inevitable
fall out. I am sick of this feeling and sick and tired of watching what we saw yesterday and watching the filth win with a rookie manager who is playing with someone else’s team is something I cannot palate. Whatever happens to them will happen. We cannot affect it and it looks like they will get a minimal punishment – if that happens i am doing something else with my weekends as the game is 100% bent in Scotland – a protection racket by any other name.
Leaving them aside we should be focusing more on OUR problems.
We have an inexperienced manager and a team not performing as they can.
We have a board who will not borrow money to put a stronger team on the park so this is life in the slow lane.
We also have a major question over the custodians of the club in this sense – what is the plan for the next few years?
I hope this offers some analysis. A way forward is not something I can see unfortunately.
Neil Lennon
Neil Lennon is in fact a shadow of the man he was earlier this year, he appears to have lost the drive and determination he had. Now there can be a number of factors involved in this – none more than the animal who attacked him getting off with a slap on the wrist. Aside from that his players are not giving performances that they once did – you cannot have a side who perform brilliantly one minute and they appallingly for more matches than they play well without something not being right. Celtic have better players than any side in the league and those players have proved they are more than a match for those Rangers players who are lauded as so good – yet they are playing like strangers and hoping one or two players pull us through.
Something has gone on between Commons and Lenny – it seems obvious based on the twitter nonsense, Neil’s comments after the Hearts game and the fact that Hooper and Commons can swan off to Spain for a holiday when we were facing the animals in the league two weeks later shows either a lack of respect for the manager or a manager making very poor decisions to allow two of his better players to go on a jolly. There is also the fitness issue with both players. If Hooper is saying I am fine to play but turning out performances like that then who is the boss? Now before anyone comes on and tells me I don’t know what I’m talking about just remember the tweets were real and then backtracked on by the player and the manager made comments showing his displeasure with Commons at Tynecastle. I did not dream this up, there is a relationship problem there for those who wish to look properly for it but it is a relationship problem which is bad for the team as Commons was the catalyst for our great run of form earlier this year – 13 goals from midfield in half a season – astounding. Lenny also had a go at him for missing the penalty against St Johnstone (perhaps not in a direct way but the “I’m sick of us missing penalties” thing resonates as the manager is having a go in public at players). Neil Lennon also said I hoped the transfer window would close as some players had had their heads turned. All of this when you put it together suggests division in the camp. I could be completely wrong but I think there are a number of players not playing for this manager or playing when it suits them (like the other night). You can bet your boots that all of the following are with Lenny – Forster, Wilson, Mulgrew, Mathews, K.Wilson, Ledley, Forrest and possibly Hooper as he always gets to play. The others I am not sure about and that is not enough for a team to be together.
As for Neil’s game plan and tactics here is how Celtic usually play:
4-4-2
Forster
A Right back who bombs on
A left back who bombs on or tries to minus Izzy
2 centre halves who play like strangers and who he chops and changes far too often even without injury
Midfield of Forrest who is expected to do everything – now teams are doubling up on him at every chance
Kayal who has not kicked a ball this season
Ki Who scores the odd great goal but who hides and disappears in too many matches when the big boys put the boot in
Ledley who gives perhaps the most consistent performances – quiet but effective.
Hooper – not playing well but never dropped
Stokes – who is playing better that Hooper
Subs – Any number of defenders plus Paddy McCourt who gets to come on to turn a game when we are not winning – the last throw of the dice. And then there is Samaras who gets a similar treatment occasionally.
Too many of those players know they are first picks every week unless you are a defender – that is not good as it can create apathy. That might be the problem but I doubt it.
That simply isn’t good enough. Celtic play against 4-5-1 every game and have to face up to teams filled with journeymen who kick us off the park. You need to be strong enough to take this away from the other teams and our team is playing lightweight stuff as our ball winner Kayal is not winning the ball. With 5 in there against 4 our team get outnumbered and without control in there we have no way of dominating on many occasions. If our midfield are crowded out they lose the ball too often and then minus the tackling the opposition have a run in on goal with our fullback up the other end and two centre halves left carrying the can – this is evident in most games. This is not good for us and Neil must take the blame for this. He hardly ever goes 5 across the middle in hard away matches and he doesn’t seem to want to. Minus Commons we have no balance on the left hand side. Ledley is better in the middle with Kayal and Brown’s drive and energy is gone from the right. Now I accept some of this is down to injury but some of it isn’t. Either way the balance of the side is affected badly.
The front two are lauded as our best combination but are they really? Why is Stokes never tried with Samaras? Every other combination is so why not that one? Why is Hooper un-dropable? He certainly is playing like a man who could be dropped. what about Stokes and Bangura? Samaras and Tony Watt? Lenny has a blind spot with Hooper. If Samaras had played as badly as Hooper in the last few weeks what would people say? Exactly. Not only does the manager have a blind spot, it appears the fans may have also. Neil has now publicly blamed the Strikers for yesterday – again this is unwise. Neil is now washing his linen in public and we know that is not a good thing.
So Neil Lennon is continuing to make the same mistakes over and over and this is affecting preformances – pick you best 11 and go with it barring injury – that was when there was consistency, you changed it at Ibrox last year and we didn’t win, you did it at Inverness and we blew the title and you’ve done it in almost every match this season (injuries aside). The one thing the Fat quiz show captain knows is consistency of selection gives consistency of performance. No he has lost ratface that might start to change but he still has another 4 key players there and who play every week. Effective but not pretty but it works and until Celtic get that type of performance, garbage like yesterday will be the norm. That is Neil Lennon’s fault whether he got all the players he wanted in the summer or not.
With Neil Lennon there is too much emotion and many posters are blinded to his flaws as a manager or to calls for him to leave or be sacked. NONE of us want to see Neil Lennon sacked but sadly if you haven’t got it, you need to leave for your own good – mutual consent, leaving because you’ve had enough of the bigots – fine but don’t drag this out if the players won’t play the way you want or for you or whatever. You cannot get the best out of them anymore? Step aside Neil. We’ll understand especially if it is for your family. Living with a panic button in your house is something I don’t ever wish to countenance but it must be a strain. I don’t want to see you end up like Mowbray or Barnes – you don’t deserve that.
If you can’t do this anymore Neil, don’t wait until you suffer some dreadful result and get “sacked in the morning”.
I don’t believe you can turn around this season. The evidence of my own eyes tells me the title is gone. You might in fact should win the league cup and you could win the Scottish cup too but the title is slipping away by the week and it is the grind of the league that is important because that is what we watch most.
There is no point in saying wait until January – that’s two months away and what will the difference be then?
Think about it Neil before it is taken out of your hands because they’ll sack you to hide behind their failures.
The squad
Firstly it is too big and filled with players leftover from old regimes who Celtic cannot shift. Neil must go to some of these guys and ask them to play – sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. Zaluszka, Loovens, Rogne all come into this category – Loovens especially should be sold in January if anyone is stupid enough to want him – one good game in 20 is not a Celtic player.
Secondly, until we get rid of all the deadwood, we’ll see this repeated over and over – players picking up wages for doing nothing and turning out occasionally for whoever the manager is. When Martin ONeill came in he gutted the place of players who were useless but he got things out of players he inherited consistently and made them better players or more consistent players than they had been. Rafael, Berkovic, Burchill, Riseth, Gould and Viduka ALL gone within a year whether they liked it or not. I would reserve judgement of Gould as he was a decent keeper for us. He had to keep Tebilly but eventually he was booted out as well.
Well look at the players out of contract come June:
Zaluszka
Majstorovic
Loovens
Brown
McCourt
And possibly M.Wilson, McGinn and Cha also out of contract.
And of course Forster goes back to Newcastle.
Celtic have EIGHT, yes, EIGHT players out on loan – Hooiveld, Rasmussen, Murphy, Juarez, McGinn, ODea, J.Thompson and Richie Towell. Again this is too much and all because we cannot sell these guys or they are previous managerial mistakes.
This leaves Celtic with the following issues:
No Goalkeeper at the club other than Dominic Cervi who wasn’t much to watch in the Summer. Celtic will require at least one keeper.
One RB – Mathews
Centre halves – K.Wilson, ODea back from a loan, Hooiveld back from a loan, Thompson back from a loan, Rogne and Charlie Mulgrew
ONE Left back – Izzaguirre
Midfielders – Kayal, Ki, Ledley, Forrest, Commons, Wanyama, Juarez back from a loan
Strikers – Hooper, Stokes, Samaras, Murphy back from a loan, Bangura, Rasmussen back from a loan
22 players plus youth team and of the 22, 6 of them are unfancied by the manager based on the loans and another 2 were not signed by him but get a game when it suits. So really Neil has 14 of his own players left come June and another 2 who are getting a game but are leftovers from Mowbray or Lawwell or whoever signed them and Bangura who some believe was not signed by Neil Lennon.
Now that my friends is one HUGE mess and if you think about the money going to all the players who will be loaned out again or allowed to move on either in January or in June you get an idea of the problem that Neil Lennon faces or if he has a replacement the same thing will start all over again.
Think back to the 90’s. For years managers would be sacked and then a whole turnaround of squad took place usually to balance books or pay debt – many good players were sold on and inferior ones brought in – Coyne and Creaney spring to mind with (insert bad player here) in to replace them. The only managers who actually got Celtic playing as a team other than Billy McNeill were Tommy Burns and Wim Jansen. Tommy had help. Great help from Davie Hay who knows a player when he sees one and Tommy did no bad with a few signings – Yogi Hughes and Jackie McNamara weren’t too shabby. Wim Jansen was an experienced man who knew different markets and brought in Larsson. He put Stubbs and Rieper together, he got Mahe in as a consistent left back and Murdo’s influence brought in Jackson, Burley and other players came to the fore. That my friends is management. He got the best out of Annoni – Laudrup never kicked a ball again in games against them when Annoni marked him and laudrup for the first time in Scotland faced an opponent who simply said your fun ends here son, I’ll actually mark you as opposed to stand and watch you. Donnelly and McNamara were huge that season for Celtic and then there was the great Phil ODonnell. McNamara and ODonnell are real Celtic men. Lambert, Burley and Donnelly didn’t grow up as Celtic fans but became legends, Jackson was very unlucky with his illness but still scored that vital second at Pittodrie that year and of course we had Tommy Boyd who had been there and done it all and seen the filth cheat their way to cups they couldn’t afford. A team that had many good Celtic men in it and many other Scots who knew the significance of that season and of Celtic as a club and what needed to be done. Gould and Stubbs quickly became important players as did Henrik. These guys cared and it showed.
How many of the current Celtic team would get into either Tommy Burns’ or Wim Jansen’s teams? Very few. Never mind Martin ONeill, he had winners and Celtic men in the team and we all know how much they loved winning. This current team do not have one player as good as Paul Lambert never mind Larsson or even Jackie McNamara. That is staggering. Even in the bad times we had Paul McStay, Collins, Boyd and Packie Bonner. Now we have Charlie Mulgrew and Mark Wilson. That is where we are my friends.
The squad is a mess and it looks like a long time before that conundrum is solved regardless of who the manager is.
The Custodians
we all know the score here – downsizing, spend little or nothing, Lawwell is the unnamed director of football who runs everything at the club at one man’s behest who never appears at the club’s AGMs etc etc.
We know this and anyone who defends ANY of their policies needs to now reassess. You cannot get bums on seats with a failing team. it is not solely down to economics that is the excuse, it is down to people being unwilling to pay to watch dross week in and week out. People are more and more disgruntled with the team, with the lack of investment and with the lack of a forward plan visible to all is really why the numbers are dropping. Yes a recession plays a big part for some people but not all of the empty seats are down to a recession. Face up to it and then you’ll see where this board are dragging Celtic.
Real questions should be asked of this board:
1. Why was the utmost not done in the summer to provide Neil Lennon with – a goalkeeper who is not a loan and who is dependable (Forster had a good game yesterday – he was the only one and I am in no way his biggest fan), an experienced centre half who inspires confidence and calmness in defence and a big strong target man striker to give Celtic something different than they currently have?
No more excuses Lawwell, no more we cannot compete with the EPL when you do your shopping across the globe and not from there in the hope of finding a gem and selling him on. You saw us fall short this year and you gave Neil Lennon 2 bosmans, a loan keeper, a Kenyan Kid and a player the manager allegedly never even saw play. If all of that is true you should be hounded out of Celtic park and never allowed to darken our door again.
2. What is your plan for Celtic for the next five years?
These are things I believe should be asked and addressed. It is no good going summer to summer switching player and manager after player and manager in the hope you win. That is not helpful and it gives no indication of what we can look forward to. Stop being reactive and start being more proactive.
Being reactive has done all of the following:
Lost us 3 leagues and probably a 4th as well
Given a financial shot in the arm to our only rivals keeping them alive when they tried to kill us in the 90’s.
Stopped managers getting players they wanted because you thought Rangers were going down – Strachan can complain most here in my opinion in the Summer 08 and January 09 when he was putting them to the sword.
Caused us maximum embarrassment and pain when it was all so unnecessary.
This is why we are angry and still you let it happen. Do you want to destroy all of your fan base? Are you really that short sighted? That is how it appears to me anyway.
The fans
The best and only good thing about the club right now sadly. It is becoming harder and harder to watch this train wreck year after year and I don’t enjoy watching Celtic at the moment because of disappointment. I am sick of being disappointed so my message is:
Management, players, board – this is not good enough for Celtic and some of you need to move on with your careers elsewhere or give us something fresh and dynamic with passion or you are going to lose more than just a few games.
viewfaethewindae says:
30 October, 2011 at 12:25
Some years ago, before WGS left I wrote on here that the club had caught a cold, well I misread the symptoms, the cold developed into flu like symptoms, then pneumonia, we’re now in the intensive care ward, right next to Rangers who are on life support. The club is rotten from the top and needs radical surgery, the time for tinkering is over. The current custodian’s policy for the club is flawed and they need to be removed by a fans take over. Only when the fans own the club can we truly influence the direction we take. I turn up at AGMs safe in the knowledge my vote means absolutely nothing, Mr. Desmond is the only vote worth having. Someone indicated last night a fans takeover would cost £18m, by my simple calculations this is £300 a head for 60,000 people, would it be worth it? If we as a fans collective own the club we can set objectives and write a constitution along the lines of a percentage of the turnover to charity, maximum percentage of turnover debt ratio and a firmly stated objective to get out of the SPL. I don’t have the business acumen or energy to drive this forward but if anyone is up for a Celts for change type organisation they can have my £300 or multiples of. We can laugh at Rangers all we like but if we continue with our current policy we move to life support within two years. Neil Lennon is not the real problem at Celtic, the issues are we above his level of influence.
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–
How did they work out the costings?
If it is feasible then count me in.
However we need to have the model in place before the bid comes in. How would the club be run? Are you thinking a Barca style democracy? Do we get to elect a board? Do that board get a certain guaranteed length of time in order to see through projects? What permanent full time staff should we have to ensure that elected boards and presidents and ongoing projects like youth development get the support they need?
It is a desirable goal which needs much thought put in to it.
First some caveats. I didn’t watch the whole game, so I’ve obviously missed lots of elements. However, I’m afraid that I don’t see much in the way of tactical nous coming from our dugout. Here are some random thought on yesterday’s game:
(1) After the game, the manager criticized our front two by implication, without naming names! That’s bad enough from a man-management point of view, but if that was the case why was his first decisive action during the game to take off our entire central midfield? Our ENTIRE central midfield! So we completely change the players without substantially changing the structure (and thereby presenting little additional threat to Hibs). And then blame a different part of the team.
(2) It’s obvious that NL thinks that Paddy is our get out of jail card. As soon as I see him coming on with half an hour to go, I know that we have lost the plot. So do the opposition. Paddy is always a last throw of the dice. Potentially, one of the the great things about Paddy is that by drawing defenders to him, he can create space for others. This needs to be coached.
(3) I’ve got time for Samaras, but he’s not a natural goalscorer. We stick him on with 7 mins to go, play him up front, and then punt him high balls. Remember this for future games, if we play Samaras instead of Hooper, he will be played as a target man. That’s what we do. He is not a target man. Just because you are big doesn’t mean you should be playing up front (unless you are big Dan, of course!).
(4) We played a different central defensive pairing for the third time in three games. OK, yesterday it worked, but how are players expected to develop the instinct to work as a defensive unit if we are continually changing? Much of defence is being able to rely on others; you don’t build that by chopping and changing.
There are lots of other things, but these are the things which are on my mind at the moment.
Prozac, please!