Celtic join Barcelona, Milan and Ajax in the Champions League’s only group of former champions.
We beat Barcelona and Milan the last time we played each of them, and eliminated Ajax from the same competition last time we met 12 years ago. This is an incredibly difficult group, but it is the job we wanted this time yesterday.
Now we must get ready for the task ahead. Prepare properly and fear no one.
There will be a ticket scramble, among those who didn’t renew their season tickets………..
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I know Ambrose is a football player and a good one, at that. I don’t want to sound racist but anyone who know Africa will understand what I mean when I say he is an African footballer. They naturally love to overelaborate. Effe gets himself into difficulties but he is a footballer.
Yorkboy
Dont get started on our referees. Thats TET’s job. :)
But yes it is a concern and is a reason why dribblers have to have Jinky courage. The batterings the wee man took!
Re the dribblers. Efe does attract players to him when he moves forward. So does Sammi when he tries to beat a man. JF does not really dribble – it’s perhaps not his forte – he uses pace, and so playing the ball to his feet means something different to playing the ball to Sammi’s feet.
I saw the whole of Jinky’s career at Celtic, and one of the great things he did was terrify the opposition into putting two players on him. This meant that when he did not play well (which was perhaps more often than we remember, although I do regard him as a great, great player), he still had two players on him, making a LOT of space for others. If we simply keep possession, then we do not make the opposition commit themselves, so running at defences – or running into space – is vitally important. The possession we play now is often playing safe, rather than asking the opposition to make space for us to exploit.
On the subject of dribbling, apparently for Italia 90 there was a move to call the official mascot “Dribbly”. That it was eventually called “Ciao” was something of a near miss.
Tallybhoy
Many thanks for your advice on accessing the Elsingbord game when I was in Italy. Unfortunately that channel wasn’t available. Drank limoncello and watched the athletics instead. Not sure I missed anything, mind.
Sorry to hear of the death of Seamus Heaney, a literary giant.
Hamiltontim
I know you cannot judge from youtube but he does look useful.
we can now look forward to the champions league group stage for the second year in succession.
it appears we will be adding at least 2 players to the squad before the transfer window shuts. hopefully we signed sammy, ledley, stokes, commons and efa on longer contracts thereafter.
we should have a settled squad for at least the next 3 years and that will hopefully improve our chances of getting into the C/L group stages year on year. this seasons participation was massive. well done bhoys
HH
The Rangers group of clubs must surely hold a world record for tax evasion.
We have, of course, the long running EBT case currently pending a decision at appeal, in which 107 individual employees of the club, from Player to Chairman, benefited from a tax free split to the tune of £48M over 10 years .
We have the smaller DOS case, implemented by then RFC Director and now SFA President RC Ogilvie, in which 3 players unlawfully benefited to the tune of £2.8M tax free.
We have former RFC director and wannabee Sevcovian Dave King, this week accepting a plea bargain on 41 tax evasion charges in exchange for a £44M fine.
And we have current Sevconian shareholder Sandy Easdale, now the largest Sevconian in Sevconia, the odd one out on account of actually having spent time in prison for VAT fraud. Silly boy.
And that’s just what we know about.
World leading performance like this should be recognised.
As a first time poster on the CQN forum I would like to say well done to Celtic FC for their decision to freeze the CL match packages. My wee lad is overjoyed at the prospect of getting away from his 3 sisters to watch Messi, Neymar, Ballotelli, Robinho et al. The walk through Larkhall on Wednesday night with his Celtic top, scarf and hat will be repeated many times this season.
As a regular follower of Celtic abroad I am disappointed to find that that people can feel “disappointed” at the draw we have been given. Had Karagandy been drawn in this section they would have swapped their eye teeth for a crack at Barca, Milan and Ajax. It sure beats going to Airdrie, Fife and Stranraer.
I have my own opinions on the rights and wrongs of the club’s “strategy” but feel that we will exit this transfer window with a squad capable of doing the domestic treble and pushing for second place in our CL section, albeit if we sign a striker to compliment the capture of Pukki and Biton. Unlike some I am more accepting of the pros and cons of the debate as there is merit in both and I’m now excited at the season ahead. The “gamble” has paid off, I felt we were correct to take the money for 3 players that fully intended to leave but also accept that its easier said than done to deliver transfer targets with the close of the transfer window fast approaching. I may have been singing a different song if we hadn’t qualified on Wednesday night but If my gran had baws she would be my grandad.
connaire12
Hope you are well!
O.G.Rafferty
I never had the pleasure of meeting the man but he always came across on radio and tv as a very warm and charming man. A huge loss to this country and the literary world.
Marti
Doctor Whatfor
Thought it was the Liverpool game?!
The Elfsborg game wasn’t covered here. Both games against the sleep slaughterers were ‘tho.
Hope you had a pleasant stay in Italia and enjoyed the limoncello. Have a bottle chilling in the fridge.
Saluti!
HH!!
Marti Sandino, 12:03
I had the good fortune to have him write a few lines of his poetry, as a dedication to me, on the inside of the book we worked on.
Something I will cherish even more so now
Tallybhoy
Jeezoh! You’re absolutely right. It was the Liverpool game. Darned limoncello!!!
JP
12:02 on
30 August, 2013
As a first time poster on the CQN forum
==
Welcome and are you a Hun?
HH
The Wood Road
Resurfced, never widened,
The verges grassy as when
Bill Pickiering lay with his gun
Under the summer hedge
Nightwatching, in uniform –
Special militiaman.
Moonlight on rifle barrels,
on thewindscree of a van
Roadblocking the road,
The rest of his staunch patrol
In profile, sentry-loyal,
Harassing Mulhollandstown.
Or me in broad daylight
on top of a cartload
of turf built trig and tight,
Looked up to, looking down,
Allowed the reins like an adult
As the old cart rocked and rollicked.
Then that Augusy day I walked it
to the hunger striker’s wake,
Across a silent yard,
In past a watching crowd
To where the guarded corpse
And a guard of honour stared.
Or the stain at the end of the lane
Where the child on her bike was hit
By a speed-merchant from nowhere
Hard-rounding the corner,
A back wheel spinning in sunshine,
A headlamp in smithereens.
Film it in sepia,
Drip-paint it in blood,
The wood Road as is and was,
Resurfaced, never widened,
The milk-churn deck and the sign
For the bus-stop overgrown.
From Human Chain, S. Heaney: a sad day.
Oglach.
A tim from Larkhall is a good man by me and I know a few…
Welcome jp…
JP – welcome! You a currant….?! :-)
TBB – I think a star on their illustrious jerseys for each tax dodge is called for!
T4
Doctor Whatfor
The old limoncello goes down a treat! Pace yerself!
Kevin Boateng signed for Schalke. Fee about €10 million, apparently.
HH!!
A Sto mo chroi
First of all you were talking about not trusting the CelticView and my basic point was that there is no trust and you helped make that case.
Now that does not mean the lack of trust is one sided, quite the reverse. There is mistrust on both sides and both sides have to put their prejudgements on hold if we are to get better communication.
As to your second point you have the advantage on me of knowing something I do not but I also know something you do not. (Sounding two like two Rumsfields in a sack here).
So I have my reasons for saying nothing just as you have, one being that there are a few more rings in the SFA onion to be peeled.
I
From the official site…….
CELTIC are delighted to announce that Nir Biton has signed for the club on a four-year deal.
——–
Welcome to the Celtic family Nir, may your stay be long and full of silverware
OldTim
If you let me take you to Mass I’ll let you take me to the Corinthian :-)
Auldheid
Haven’t looked mate. As we know Youtube can be rather unreliable.
Welcome to Paradise, Nir, I’m sure that game on Wednesday would have blown you away.
Our old English teacher chose the works of Seamus Heaney for us to study more often than not and if he had his way it would have been every day!
HH
Auldheid
11:03 on
30 August, 2013
Formidable.
Hope the young shoulders are listening.
SSN glorying in the fact that EPL spending is around the £450M mark this summer and set to rise to near a half billion….that’s disgusting! It’s feckin obscene….
T4
blantyretim is praying for the knox family
11:47 on 30 August, 2013
Won’t know till Sunday till the site goes live but when it comes to Europe away you either fall into the ABC categories depending on your previous away travel. As an independent traveller investor season ticket holders probably have priority over any tickets not allocated to package deals
Celtic sign Israeli star, Nir Biton:
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/664996241?-10583:834
Two separate sections from Seamus’s poem in memory of his mother. Two gems that say more than the words within them carry:-
“Fear of affectation made her affect
Inadequacy whenever it came to
Pronouncing words ‘beyond her’. Bertold Brek.
She’d manage something hampered and askew
Every time, as if she might betray
The hampered and inadequate by too
Well-adjusted a vocabulary.
With more challenge than pride, she’d tell me, ‘You
Know all them things.’ So I governed my tongue
In front of her, a genuinely well-
Adjusted adequate betrayal
Of what I knew better. I’d naw and aye
And decently relapse into the wrong
Grammar which kept us allied and at bay.”
“In the last minutes he said more to her
Almost than in their whole life together.
‘You’ll be in New Row on Monday night
And I’ll come up for you and you’ll be glad
When I walk in the door . . . Isn’t that right?’
His head was bent down to her propped-up head.
She could not hear but we were overjoyed.
He called her good and girl. Then she was dead,
The searching for a pulsebeat was abandoned
And we all knew one thing by being there.
The space we stood around had been emptied
Into us to keep, it penetrated
Clearances that suddenly stood open.
High cries were felled and a pure change happened.
I thought of walking round and round a space
Utterly empty, utterly a source
Where the decked chestnut tree had lost its place
In our front hedge above the wallflowers.
The white chips jumped and jumped and skited high.
I heard the hatchet’s differentiated
Accurate cut, the crack, the sigh
And collapse of what luxuriated
Through the shocked tips and wreckage of it all.
Deep-planted and long gone, my coeval
Chestnut from a jam jar in a hole,
Its heft and hush became a bright nowhere,
A soul ramifying and forever
Silent, beyond silence listened for. ”
RIP Seamus Heaney
Ambrose showed the other night he can play the Wanyama role. Distribution was good and he has decent positional sense. He is not a CB but was excellent the other night.
He will not be able to do what Victor does but he would be a real asset in there.
Lustig and VVD at CB for me. Lustig looks a future captain.
LB
Christy Moore on the late great Seamus Heaney!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_ULb6MBIME
A few on twitter moaning about the SFA and the transfer window.
I honestly don’t know why others bother about the SFA anymore they will do what they like and there’s nothing we can do about it.#FACT
Think we might still be in for Finbogasson. Contrary to reports Cardiff have not bid, but Van Basten says lots of interest, and they have just signed a striker.
HH
gsu
Seamus Heaney RIP.
A true literary giant.
HH!!
Oglach
11:35 on
30 August, 2013
Seamus Heaney RIP.
One of my father’s prized possessions was a copy of door into the dark. Even had another copy of it with him in the Kesh.
“Requiem for the Croppies”,
———————
thanks for posting that, I listened often to the Four Green Fields clip with Tommy Mackem reciting that very poem, and I didnt have a clue where it came from.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d30rpdvtiA
Auldheid,
Yer being obtuse and the only reason I can see is you are not practicing what you are preaching, supporting double standards and trying to obscure it.
I could be completely wide of the mark here, but I have a feeling that Alfie Finnbogason could be on his way to CP.
Please!
We badly need a goalscorer.
HH!!
R.I.P. Seamus your words have have seen me grow from boy to man…