Celtic were at their irresistible best in the League Cup semifinal when they thrashed Aberdeen 6-0 last month. There was an air of expectation among fans who travelled south to Hampden that they would beat Celtic and win the cup. That confidence was based on the result between the sides at Celtic Park only two weeks prior to their meeting at Hampden, when Aberdeen came from 2-0 down to draw the game.
Defeat by St Mirren and draws at Hibs and Hearts have very much readjusted Aberdeen’s hopes for the season. Winning a trophy and having a crack at the title have been replaced by a desire to hold onto second place. Even that aspiration would be put under pressure if they fail to take anything at home to the champions tonight.
Before the teams met at Hampden we discussed how that was the first time this season Aberdeen had to play three games against top flight opposition within a week. Their midweek game (a win over Newco) drained the legs of whatever energy had pushed them through previous encounters.
They did not have another three game week until their St Mirren-Hibs-Hearts run, which not only drained the legs but sapped seven points from their league campaign. The game at Tynecastle was three days ago but will feel like yesterday to the Aberdeen players’ legs.
Celtic, on the other hand, are setup for games every three or four days. They have the muscle memory and fitness levels only available to athletes who are tested regularly at this aspect of the game. We should grow stronger as the game gets into the latter stages.
Aberdeen’s regular keeper, Dimitar Mitov, was injured against Hearts and was replaced by former Celtic youth, Ross Doohan (26), who last made a start at East Kilbride in July. Doohan’s 45 minutes against Hearts on Sunday was his second appearance in top flight football. Tonight will be a test for the keeper who Brendan Rodgers will remember from his first time at Celtic.
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Boom!!!!
Broadsword calling Danny boy
Broadsword calling Danny boy
BRRB top of the pops on match day. A fine sign.
Morning y’all – Mon the hoops tonight.
Will be in Aberdeen visiting family, two weeks today 🥶
Can’t wait.
Aipple
Hope I’ll be celebrating at 10pm tonight. 👍
I can’t see any of the guys who started on Saturday, starting tonight, will be a very strong bench if required
Aberdeen 0 Celtic 5
It was good to see us starting so well on Saturday, it’s not always been the case recently, although against worse opposition than tonight we’ve always had plenty of quality to win comfortably in the end. But I’d like to see us score early and remind them of what happened last time we played them.
Saturday was a good time to rest some of our best players. A home game against Hibs at the weekend is another chance ahead of Zagreb during the week, and a win tonight would probably put an end to any title aspirations Aberdeen have, so I’d play our champions league team from the start knowing that we have in-form players on the bench.
Amazing that our most successful player of the season’s name is so miss spelt
by many on here! His surname is Kühn or Kuehn if you want to omit the umlaut.
It is never Khun.
GERRYBHOY on 4TH DECEMBER 2024 12:31 PM
My keyboard doesn’t have an omelette on it .
The William Hill Premiership match v Motherwell on Thursday, December 26 (Kick-off 3pm) will go on general sale from 10am on Thursday, December 5.
Then the next day, Friday, December 6 will see tickets available for Celtic v St Johnstone on Saturday, December 29 (KO 3pm).
GLENDALYSTONSILS on 4TH DECEMBER 2024 12:
My keyboard doesn’t have an omelette on it .
Glendaly – feeling your pain, my keyboard only has Tacos 🌮
Andrew Dallas on VAR
Glendalystonsils @ 12:35
Re “Kühn”
My keyboard doesn’t have an omelette on it .
——
GDT – Lol.
GERRYBHOY
With the umlaut his name is Kühn. Without the umlaut it is Kuhn. No idea where you’re getting Kuehn from.
Re Kuhn spelling ,I’m just glad that there’s no t on the end of it……umlat or not !!
Couple of points off the back of Paul’s leader yesterday and subsequent responses.
Adam Idah is likely … net … the most expensive player in the squad.
– fee UP TO £9.5m (if reports believed)
– guess c. £6.5m in employment costs over 5 years
– no anticipated resale value.
My instinctive response?
So what?
We employ a mix and pay for a mix.
£16m over 5 years is £3.2m per year.
Now if we had a first team squad of 22 each of whom cost (net) £3.2m per annum to employ? …
… We’d have a problem in the shape of a £70m wage bill which did not include all the football operation (manager, coaches, recruitment, sports science, the kids).
But we don’t.
Adam is the financial outlier.
Cost of doing business.
Bernardo was cheaper than expected (Tick).
Arne’s fee was higher but will resell big (Tick).
Callum earns more but no transfer fee (Tick)
Second point …. using the Tick analogy again.
Have seen a few opinions over recent weeks that Lennon Miller “ticks all the boxes”
Genuine question.
What boxes does he tick and based on what evidence.
PS – happy to concede he ticks the
“Gets mentioned in the SMSM often with perceived value steadily rising because of a lazy assumption Celtic might sign a Celtic fan”
Box.
For those who like their comedy with a Celtic theme to it.
At Oran Mor on the 26th March, “Celtic Da’s” .
A play about two fans looking back on their memories following the team and how they feel now when they reach their early seventies.
Featuring Raymond Mearns.
TOM MCLAUGHLIN on 4TH DECEMBER 2024 1:33 PM
Ue is the anglicised version of ü. Grammatically its the accepted spelling of ü without the umlaut.
B2B- FWIW, I think summer is the optimum time to sell Hatate given his age, I would sign Lennon Miller in January to replace him as far as MF numbers go.
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 4TH DECEMBER 2024 1:36 PM
Theres space for both sorts of players in the recruitment strategy, there always has been.
I think people use the Summer of 2023 window to argue that with our present strategy we only look at signing development players, but thats not the case. We don’t sign generally older players but we don’t just sign development players. The team that beat Leipzig is full of players we signed for the longer term without looking to turn a profit on them.
Given that there’s no first pick eleven BR will revert to ,
Schmeichel
AJ
CCV
Trusty
Taylor
Engels
Calmac
Hatate
Kuhn
Kyogo
Maeda
Paulo Bernardo the most likely variable to start for Hatate or Engels. Expecting a very difficult game, taking my mind back to when Billy McNeil scored with a header in a 1-0 Wednesday night league win a long time ago.
Paul67s cynical remark apropos the price to Celtic of Adam Idah opens up the criticism, apropos in this case, and accredited to Oscar Wilde no less, that; “He knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing”….
It could, and almost certainly should, be described as ‘infra dig’, and not in the style of the Bonzos or Louis Balfour but more as used by Sir Walter Scott…..back in the day.
And not to be confused with the more commonly used phrase on here as popularised by BRRB….
“Infra drink”
I predict 2 nil to the good guys.
I definitely play Bernardo in place of Engels. arne is one for the future in my book, not quite ready
KINGLuBO
Celtic Mac 2.14
Good afternoon from the Victoria Bar.
I’m infra drink. 🤣
See this Club World Cup seems to be gathering pace….
Don’t know a great deal about it , was there an opportunity there for us or is it another money making excersize by FIFA
Advice please.
Two online articles long but on daily mail website.
Shall I cut and paste the content or just the links ?
Just if the article.
Supporters of the Liverpool and Manchester teams have got together to protest at ticket prices.
United no public sales to concessions for rest of season.
Spurs to reduce availability of senior tickets from next season.
Villa £97 a ticket public sales.
Arsenal even their ticket resales are ending up sold out then sold on at higher prices.
If Celtic don’t increase capacity they will get more demanding on pricing and attracting wealthier support
I am convinced of it.
Great chance for Brendan to play the team that will start in Zagreb.
That’s it folks.
Enjoy the game
SS,
Convinced,but are you also,unanimous in that.
Slocombe CSC
You can’t make an umlaut without breaking an ügg
Why hasn’t umlaut got an ümlaüt
Just can’t get un œuf
First versus second in under four hours and we are talking of eggs !
Are we becoming a wee bit complacent?
PS There is no egg pun there so don`t be scratching your head searching !!!
Bring on the dons and give them a sound thrashing Celtic!!!!
Hope Aberdeen don’t go into their defensive shell tonight , whatever happens I’d take a scrambled 1-0 win …
Mon the Hoops