Between February and October this year Celtic did not win a league game away from home. This contributed to the demise last season and losing the opening three away from home has given this season a competitive look it would not otherwise have.
The title will be decided by whoever can get the job done on the road. Since defeats at Hearts, Newco and Livingston, Celtic have won a remarkable 10 of 11 away games, only a draw at St Mirren spoiled the run.
Our direct title challengers have not won an away league game in over two months, remarkable in its own way – resulting in them squandering a six-point lead, as they now look ominously across the city. Only three teams in the Premiership have waited longer for a win on the road.
This stuff is not easy. On the back of those 10 wins, you would think it impossible for Celtic to go more than seven months without an away win (inc. summer), but with just a few elements missing, stubborn defences on their own pitch seem impregnable.
We have five away games left, two of them over the next two weekends. If we make it 12 wins in 13 at the Plastic Pasta Pitch on 6 March, you will not get a bet on Celtic winning the title.
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Looks like it’s all kicking off. When do Scotland play Ukraine, end of March?
Terrifying stuff.
Hibs away then St Mirren at home vs them facing Murderwell and St J. Every game a big one now.
CELTIC40ME on 22ND FEBRUARY 2022 11:37 AM
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I think Montgomery is a great prospect and has gone on loan to develop , not written off. LB is a funny position right now. Boli gone and Monty on loan. Ange must be happy to use Taylor/Juranovic due to Ralston being available on the right. Scales will likely only play due to injuries now (small cup games are gone)
AIPPLE on 22ND FEBRUARY 2022 12:04 PM
Looks like it’s all kicking off. When do Scotland play Ukraine, end of March?
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yes 24 March. If they don’t turn up due to travel restrictions it will be a 3- 0 to us. Harsh but Denmark benefitted in 92 from the Yugoslav conflict
There was outrage when Raith Rovers signed Goodwillie. Why did no-
one at Cowdenbeath object to racist Ross?
ANOTHER four million shares have been issued in Rangers’ holding company – at a cost of £1m.
The latest transaction in the shares of Rangers International Football Club PLC went through yesterday and was communicated on Companies House today.
Another week, another share issue, comedy Klub…..
79caps- Donald Finlay is the Chairman there……..
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The next two weekends are as huge as they seem.
If we drop points, there will still be a battle; if we don’t, the Ibrox game will be fun!
CONEYBHOY on 22ND FEBRUARY 2022 12:10 PM
I don’t think Celtic have written anyone off, as fans we’re too quick to do it though
We’ll drop points soon, I think 4 from Hibs and Livi away would be good enough.
If we can get Kyogo on the pitch for both it will make a big difference.
Stuff livi
11 League games left. 3 points ahead. 2 games against the Huns
There is all to play for.
Close contest
!!BADA BING!! on 22ND FEBRUARY 2022 12:17 PM
ANOTHER four million shares have been issued in Rangers’ holding company – at a cost of £1m.
The latest transaction in the shares of Rangers International Football Club PLC went through yesterday and was communicated on Companies House today.
Another week, another share issue, comedy Klub…..
——
That’s extraordinary considering the money they reportedly took in for Slippy and Paterson.
We’re so close. As P67 says, two away wins in the fortnight ahead will leave us as big favourites. Give it everything, Celtic.
We will need to be on top form to win our upcoming games, starting with Easter Road, one thing about Hibs is they will have a go at us especially in Leith, Livi wont it will be a tight 4 5 1, one game at a time though and we need to go to a snowy Bodo in the Arctic Circle beforehand.
Nothing is a given in this league, home or away. Reference last two home games versus Dundee clubs.
The Easter Road pitch is in a shocking state, that adds to the challenge.
Not to worried about Livi away, comfortable 2-0 win, both goals from corners (has to happen some time).
Is there any chance that the SFA at the request of clubs here ask UEFA to sanction Russian Clubs and sponsors in view of the aggression of Putin and by extension Russia against Ukraine, remove them from European competitions and send their funding back, remove them from further competition until Russia removes their threats to Ukraine or anyone else? Governments need to get involved if they wont do it.
Over to Holyrood and Westminster do it if FA’s wont.
CONEYBHOY on 22ND FEBRUARY 2022 12:13 PM
Cheers for that, harsh indeed, yes.
!!BADA BING!! on 22ND FEBRUARY 2022 12:17 PM
ANOTHER four million shares have been issued in Rangers’ holding company – at a cost of £1m.
The latest transaction in the shares of Rangers International Football Club PLC went through yesterday and was communicated on Companies House today.
Another week, another share issue, comedy Klub…..
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Was I not on last week offering Sevco shares in their millions, no takers, who’s sorry now? The chance to own shares in Sevco doesn’t come along every week you know. It turns out it’s every two weeks.
Get your Sevco shares, 5 for a pound!
Dessyboy. Reckon Russia, and all Russian clubs will be banned from UEFA/FIFA competitions forthwith, surely a given. Ukraine and their clubs will most likely have membership suspended or play all matches away from home.
We’re way further ahead than I ever thought or hoped we would be…………..
I’m expecting an important intervention in the outcomes from the brithers in black……………
I’ve neither hope nor expectation that we’ll win it…………..I’m just happy and satisfied that we have Big AP in situ……………
The Future Is Bright.
AnTearmann …thoughts with you and yours…RIP Annie
thats a powerful name in many a family
NB
Dessybhoy, just imagining UEFA telling Gazprom to take their money back…
People are comparing chalk with cheese when lumping the situations of Andy Robertson, Moussa Dembele and Ben Doak with each other.
Celtic, along with every club in the planet have made misjudgements on players in Youth Development.
Andy Robertson and John Collins were released by Celtic, as was Shay Given. Sometimes these were the judgements of youth coaches (too small) and sometimes were in the families interest (easier travel for Collins) and sometimes it was the result of not considering youth development contracts early enough (Given & Leo Hjelde).
These were wrong judgements but no Celtic fans who saw Andy Robertson at Queens Park were shouting about this mistake and few were casting envious eyes when Hull bought him from Dundee United and were saying we should have bought him. The fact is we under estimated Andy Robertson’s ability and determination and potential. Aaron Hickey was different- he thought he could break into the hearts team quicker than he could at Celtic; he was right and it served his career well. Celtic probably wanted to keep him (they put a 30% sell on fee when they allowed him to go to Hearts) and definitely wanted to keep Hjelde but it was too late. They were reluctant conscripts and we could not keep them; they cannot be forced to sign.
Liam Morrison, Barry Hepburn and , now, Ben Doak, appear to be persuaded that they have enough talent to make it at a bigger club, and, if not, to enjoy better wages whilst failing to make it there. They won’t all make it – maybe none of the three will- at their current chosen clubs, but they will get other offers, some perhaps better than they would by staying at Celtic. For the same vagaries of player development, I am convinced that there is little chance that all 3 of them would develop well enough to get into the Celtic first team. We may look with envy at Aaron Hickey in a Bologna shirt but we would still slaughter him, as we do with Greg Taylor, for the many sub par performances that youth players will give as they struggle to establish in a first team.
We play the same game with English academies that they do with ours. Tobi Oluwayemi left a top EPL Academy to come here. Joey Dawson, Liam Shaw and Urogohide left behind good first team prospects with lower league English clubs to come here.
There was even a thread on Follow Follow 2 years ago complaining that 11 of their 27 top team squad came from “pampered”English academies and did not have the relentless winning attitude to cope with being at Sevco. They were talking of Kent, Aribo, Tavernier, Edmondson, Goldson, Ojo, Foderingham, Flanagan, Barker etc;
We have to live within the necessary restrictions of being next door to a big money league that can buy and sell our players. For every Andy Robertson there is a Ryan Gauld or an Islam Feruz to offer as a counter example.
If only it was so easy to tell the duds from the prospects as some on here believe as they bemoan “starlets” leaving who they were totally unaware of till they were tempted away.
If I was looking at our development squad just now, I’d be saying that the following players have a chance of making it at Celtic top team- Oluwayemi, Ben Summers, Rocco Data, Bosun Lawal, Owen Moffat, Ben Wylie and Joey Dawson. I can guarantee that no more than 3 from that list will ever establish at first team level and no more than 6 will get a meaningful first team run of games. I can also guarantee that someone I haven’t spotted will do better than this list and be the new Robertson or Collins.
As for getting no benefit from the Academy and shutting it down, I have decried this idea for years. I consider it a type of Fantasy Football manager thinking, in that we just buy players and let other clubs do the hard development work. If we dropped academies as a player cost saving measure, why would we imagine that every other club would keep theirs when they have less money than we do? Would the costs of all these transfer fees to buy in players not exceed the costs of running Lennoxtown? Would players developed at Inverness and Falkirk have the grounding, with top coaches and support staff, that we provide?
We need to see the flaws as well as the benefits in these radical steps.
With a first team squad containing 20 plus internationalists or U-21 internationalists, it is hard for 16 and 17year olds to get in and stay in. It is harder now than it ever was when foreign players were rare and exotic like Edvaldson and Dziekanowski. The Battered Bonnet demonstrated the long odds of becoming a first team footballer, longer odds on that than becoming a surgeon.
Anyone who has a belief that we will see more than half a dozen youth players establish in the first team in a single decade, far less a single year, is starting with an expectation that will eld to failure. Yes, it can be done easily at a club like ICT, Cowdenbeath or Cove Rangers. Maybe even at clubs like Bolton and Sheffield Wednesday too but it does not happen at big clubs- nobody in the EPL or top half of the English Championship is doing this and it is rare to find a club in the Scottish top 6 where this applies- Dundee United probably cones closest, but what have they done since 1984?
Apparently, Uefa is almost certain to move this season’s Champions League final away from St Petersburg.
Wonder how the bidding works to land that tasty event at short notice ? Or is there an alternative venue already long since arranged.
Had a ball with the young fella at the Dundee match and like friends from Ireland, couldn’t seem to get out of Glasgow on Sunday evening boats or flight-wise…added to his adventure and missed a day of school yesterday as a result…
In the coming weeks, which will be the most important :
1. Our ability to plan against teams targeting our weakness at crosses? – Hart on line, lack of aggression and height.
2. Our ability to put teams away quicker and more clinically than recently ? – Kyogo back, Maeda finishing improving, GG on a roll and better shooting from our middies. Oh and a goal from a corner would be nice :)
Not sure my ole ticker can take our current way of winning…..
Good performance on Thursday but leaving enough in the legs for Sunday is really key for me.
HH
CL final in St Petersburg……..
I recognise that Kojo was not everyone’s favourite poster.
I recall commenting after he ” disappeared ” from the blog, who would take up the mantle of posting about our youth players.
The answer is nobody. In my opinion the blog as a whole is not so “educated” about our youth system.
HH.
Apologies for misnaming Rocco Vata and changing the gender of TBB’s head gear.
I’ll just be delighted with 3 points on Sunday, take each game as it comes!
Has Kyogo been spotted back in the gym or at training? Still in rehab? Is he attending the games as a spectator? Seems to be precious little information about his injury, his recovery and his expected return.
His short lived return from injury to the team on December 26th is now 8.5 weeks ago. Even if he gets back to training this month, I assume he will be a few weeks away from being ready for games.
Stating the obvious, but he would be one hell of an asset for the last few games, especially April 3rd at Ibrox.
Greenpinata
Rosy specs nostalgia there.
Kojo championed players like Adam Virgo and Stephen O’Donnell.
He regularly misnamed youth prospects, not via spell check as I just did, but by careless, misinformed research. Kojo gave no valuable insight into Celtic youth.
Can you remember anything he got right?
CB
I’m aware that money drives Uefa, however it should happen, who cares if clubs get less pay outs, Putin is a dictator who has changed the Russian constituition so he can stay in power for as long as he wants, hopefully the riches he has accumulated he is unable to spend or spend in a way he likes, I feel sorry for those who have trid to oppose him in Russia and the people of Russia who have had assets used to enrich friends, and now we see he is expanding Russia with his tooled up war machine.Disgraceful if UEFA do nothing on account of his actions.
DeniaBhoy- last i read,Kyogo is 3 weeks behind Turnbull fitness wise….
SFTB @ 1.24
AR leaving DU — lots of chat on CQN regarding his abilities.
Playing well with potential was the consensus.
Issue was more about his value given the transfer fee involved.
Too rich for the PL booster cub.
!!BADA BING!! on 22ND FEBRUARY 2022 1:39 PM
DeniaBhoy- last i read,Kyogo is 3 weeks behind Turnbull fitness wise….
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jesus, he must have been on the bevvy while out!😎
4 million new Sevco shares.
Quelle surprise.
Have they reached a billion shares issued yet?
Which director foots the latest £1m folly / increases his shareholding as a powerful demonstration of his commitment
(Delete as appropriate depending on your level of intelligence).
No idea.
But if I were to hazard a guess?
The director who sanctioned the back page busting Ramsay deal.
“You wanted him. You pay for him”
Youth players — if it all goes to plan they should get a run of games at 20 and be a starter at 22.
PMcS types — run of games at 17 leading to being a starter at 18 when the new season kicked off is very much an exception.
KT from.memory was similar.
The issue is providing a credible pathway from exiting the youths at 17/18 till making the active bench — spare if the starter is injured — at 20/21.
I think the B team is helping — just a case that the publicity for this group has diminished over the past 6 months.
Plus Airdrie is no place for quality football — B Team Stadium required ASAP.