It takes years before you can properly judge the impact of winning any league title. For me, although 1998 feels most precious, 2001 was far more significant in its impact, that title changed the world. After this league title win, secured at Tannadice last night, Celtic fans look ahead with a confidence that we might just be onto something special.
A year ago, everything went wrong, a timely reminder that football will never be without sporting risk. The response, however, has been nothing short of spectacular. Oh, Howe we waited for the appointment of a new manager. At the time I wrote that Eddie Howe was the best English manager in the game, someone who had consistently overachieved and who was very capable of restoring Celtic to the top. As the wait for his decision continued to an uncomfortable level, two chief executives, one outgoing, one incoming, shuffled furtively around each other.
It took Howe, himself, to put us out of our misery. Plan B had been agreed, even if one or two never thought it would get to that stage. Ange Postecoglou wanted the job from the moment he knew it was available and made his intentions clear to the club. He watched what happened as all three trophies slipped away and knew this was the club and that was his time to take control.
On getting an offer from Celtic, Ange had to complete some business in Japan, then isolate for two weeks in a London hotel, watching videos and immersed in videoconferences, before finally flying to Scotland and meeting those he would be working with in person for the first time.
Eddie Howe’s reason for not taking the job was that he didn’t think it possible to achieve what was necessary without taking his backroom team with him. Ange brought no backroom team, he worked with those already here, who, it turned out, were not actually the problem all along.
An early priority was to sort out the playing squad. Captain, Scott Brown, retired at the end of the previous campaign, but several of the remaining top performers were refusing to extend soon-expiring contracts and wanted away.
The men who didn’t do the 10 were still able to attract sufficient money to seed the pot for a rebuild. Odsonne Edouard and Ryan Christie stayed until the close of the window, but disruption was such that Kristoffer Ajer was offloaded between Champions League games against Midtjylland.
By the end of September, league form saw three wins, three defeats and one draw, and were still without an away win in domestic football since February. If you based your expectations for the season on results until that point, you would have been significantly wrong.
Celtic won 24 of the next 27 games, drawing two and losing only away at Bayer Leverkusen, who scored twice in the final 8 minutes to deny Celtic a win. Livingston and St Mirren successfully shut up shop to take a point, every other team Celtic played in that run were beaten. Our Europa League group stage ended with three wins from four games and the League Cup was secured in a memorable win over Hibs at Hampden.
It is tempting to interpret the story of our season as being transformed by a spectacular January transfer window. We did have a spectacular transfer window, but the winning routine was well established before this. Ange’s system was by then embedded and paying significant dividends.
Saturday, 29 January, was the day the penny dropped for even the casual observer that Celtic had their name on this title. Newco were a goal ahead at Ross County in the 96th minute but could not hold on for the win. Celtic, who kicked off later, were drawing when they went down to 10 men against Dundee United. Liel Abada’s 89th minute winner thundered across the land. If Celtic won their next game, against Newco, they would go top of the league!
That run of 27 games ended against a team of preseason Norwegians. Those Conference League games aside, Celtic swept all before them, only a draw at Easter Road marked the copybook on a march to the title that was effectively secured when a win at Ibrox put the club six points clear with six to play. We knew the league title was coming home.
After that game at Ibrox, I thought the final winning margin would be in excess of 10 points. It turns out, Newco had more in the tank than I credited them with. Not only did we win a league with a new manager, new chief exec, an horrendous start and a significant squad overhaul, we did it against a team fortified by the kind of strength you only get after a £100m overspend. Celtic, it seems, are doomed to compete against sides who will play fast and loose with their very existence, gamblers to the bitter end.
In January 2005, when Martin O’Neill’s Celtic team were shrinking before our eyes, I wrote that we were in a Generation of Domination that started with Martin’s arrival in 2000. 17 years later our forward prospects are as good as they were then. Enjoy and appreciate these special years.
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AN TEARMANN on 12TH MAY 2022 1:59 PM
Ha! I’m amazed you remembered that post – especially as due to alcohol intake that day I have no memory posting it:-)
Hope you’re well, pal.
FT
MARTIM1980
Some articles publishing odds for league next season already…….
Have us at 4/5
Old firm fc 10/11.
So slight favourites
Those odds make Old Firm FC slight favourites.
See the Sevco Chief Exec is asking for their fans to “show respect” for the city and the people of Seville……. comedy gold right enough
SAINT STIVS on 12TH MAY 2022 4:27 PM
In any group of celtic supporters, there are those who celebrate success.
And there might be one who uses the success to start worrying about tomorrow.
###
If those two categories are mutually exclusive, which is doubtfull, I hope that that those who are in a position to influence things are in the latter category.
MARTIM1980
Ignore that last comment of mine.
I need to go and take a nap after the exertions of last night. Frazzled my brain.
AN TEARMANN on 12TH MAY 2022 4:22 PM
Delaney Donkey rip Garry Postecoglou
https://twitter.com/antearmann1967/status/1524761787664670720?s=19
=======================
Thanks for that AT – ahhhh….marvelous memories of simple, fifteen minute conversations around about the country – GD smoking a doobie at half time at Killie / a pint (along with WITS of this parish, if my memory doesn’t fail me – which it might) in Middletons in Easter Road before Hibs, etc., etc.
What a smile / what a man.
A real loss.
HH
BGFC and WeeBGFC
The last time Celtic were at home to Motherwell in our final league game, Leigh Griffiths was out through injury and we were devoid of recognised strikers. Keevins said – I don’t know where the goals are going to come from.
Celtic 7 Motherwell 0
Kieran Tierney (21)
Tom Rogic (26)
Mikael Lustig (28)
Stuart Armstrong (50)
Patrick Roberts (55)
Ryan Christie (59)
Jack Aitchison (75)
TOM MCLAUGHLIN on 12TH MAY 2022 4:39 PM
MARTIM1980
Ignore that last comment of mine.
I need to go and take a nap after the exertions of last night. Frazzled my brain
—–
No worries is was Glasgow live so could easily be wrong 😂🤣
Broonie Fleetwood Head Coach, best of luck to him
Onenight
I imagine the sevco high command need to issue some sort of plea for fans to behave.
This will form their defence when things turn ugly
God help the people of that beautiful city
Bada
I wish broonie nothing but success in whatever he does in life except if he ever comes up against us in the future. 😉
UNCLE JIMMY on 12TH MAY 2022 4:58 PM
Onenight
I imagine the sevco high command need to issue some sort of plea for fans to behave.
This will form their defence when things turn ugly
————
or when the uglies turn uglier
do you know a …………..
UNCLE JIMMY on 12TH MAY 2022 4:58 PM
100%.
Watched the interview with him, made some interesting comments when asked about a possible beam back to Ibrox. Stated that those who would be able to facilitate such an event would all be in Seville…….great customer service there….
SAINT STIVS on 12TH MAY 2022 5:02 PM
Nope! LOL
DAVID17 on 12TH MAY 2022 12:40 PM
Fergus McCann took control of the club in 1994, promising to rebuild the club. He left in 1999 having delivered on his promise. But crucially, what is either misunderstood or often ignored, or both, is that he didn’t just rebuild the club, he built a club that was structurally bigger than any other club in Scotland. If you do research, all available evidence from the past 25 years will lead you back to this point. It’s surely not a coincidence that Minty introduced his EBT scheme in 1999.
•••••••••••••••••••••
FM’s first action was to crack the club crest off of the ‘Rebel Consortiums’ heids wrecking any hope of a Celtic fc that would propel its way forward with a new board and engage with his then Celtic manager, Lou Macari, instead of stooping to immature games, Wee Man Syndrom, feet stamping, fingers in his ears, shouting “MY BAT – MY BALL” type of games, ego tripping, forcing the ‘RC’ to withhold their investments as FM’s plan was bizzare, for example – sacking Lou Macari and replacing him with a manager whom the ‘RC’ correctly deemed to be “not ready for Celtic managerial level – yet” the ‘RC’ judgement was accurate, as FM’s choice as manager ensured Rangers FC the next 3 titles in a row, including equalling Jock Stein’s record 9 in a row, gone because of FM’s conceit of himself and his failure to try to form a working relationship with, Lou Macari, and helping LM to replace the Celtic players who formed a dressing room clique which colluded to “put down the tools” to get LM sacked, players like, Bonner, Boyd, Grant, McStay, Nicholas, etc, etc, all of these players cheated Celtic supporters to get rid of LM, and instead of helping LM to replace these untrustworthy losers, FM sacked LM, and retained these named cheating players who went on to continue losing for the next 3 years, so much for FM being a wee shrewd business man, and his deceit in stitching up tens of thousands of Celtic supporters with the lie that they would be in control of their club, is this not out of the Craig Whyte Ticketus trap??
Old Firm for you right there eh lol.
Where’s Phil Mac’s book book about shifty McCann leaving the club to his shifty pal DD??
Or, PM’s book about DD/PL £49 Old Firm, Same Club, same price ticket trap of 2012/2016 ie DD/PL viewed Sevco/Rangers as the same club, if not why did DD/PL agree to the £49 ticket trap in 2016, on Rangers return to top flight, disguised by the arrival of BR street parties, 7,000 Celtic season ticket holders in December 2016 paid £49 for Old Firm tickets which by their very price, suggested that Celtic PLC had gone along with the same club lie, and so did 7,000 Celtic season ticket holders, mugged, by the Celtic pro Old Firm PLC.
Then these 7,000 Celric supporters after being unaware of being mugged, or couldn’t care less as it was all about their enjoyment regardless of the damage to Celtic FC’s integrity, probably forever, these 7,000 £49 ticket purchasing supporters gustily sang…..
“YOU’RE NOT RANGERS ANYMORE”….
Celtic supporters souled out for £49 playing DD/PL’s Same Club toxic deceit.
CELTIC FC’S INTEGRITY IS HOLED UP IN “THAT” TICKET TRAP IN 2016.
Yes it is.
STUCK IN A MOMENT THAT THEY MUST MOVE OUT OF.
But to do that, Celtic supporters have to effect regime change at the executive level of the club, running Celtic fc out of season ticket monies, player sales money, SO, remove the toxic executive and replace them with Celtic supporters.
How can Hearts and other clubs be run by their supporters but Celtic can’t??
No buy out of executives – starved and dragged out, then go back to THAT toxic moment in December 2016 and REVRSE that protocol and new Celtic board announces….
“WE AS A CLUB AND SUPPORT WERE DUPED BY OUR PREVIOUS EXECUTIVE WHO TOXIFIED CELTIC FC WITH THEIR, DUPLICITY, AND THEIR BRAZEN, DECEIT, AND COWARDICE, IN NOT STANDING UP TO CORRUPTION, AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, PROTECTING CELTIC FC’S INTEGRITY, AND THAT OF SCOTTISH FOOTBALL.
WE ARE A NEW CELTIC EXECUTIVE WHO WILL DETOXIFY THE CLUB FOR OUR SUPPORTERS AND THE GAME IN GENERAL.”
Celtic fc and supporters have brassed it out since 2016 denying their stupidity.
It looks like the Same Club liars live on both sides of the street!!!
Imagine that.
Where’s Phil Mac’s book to set , that, chapter straight??
….as any remaining remnants of Celtic fc’s integrity was trashed into the floor in the Ibrox Broomloan Road in December 2016, the game is over…the rebels have gone since 1994.
Back to FM, yeah sacking Lou Macari because he wasn’t puppet material which proved to be hunlike entitled arrogance from FM, and cost the club 3 years of much needed CL money to help with the rebuild, so much for FM being a shrewd wee business man, bull in a China shop more like.
So the ‘RC’ smelt a rat, kept their integrity intact, AND, their proposed investments wonga, as FM removed his mask and the ‘RC’ didn’t like what they saw, so they retained their integrity like the honourable men and women that they were, and left FM to his own toxic devices.
FM then brought in Wim Jansen as manager to stop a hun 10 in a row which would’ve probably sent Celtic fc into the wilderness for a very long time, so thankfully for us, WJ refused as well to be FM’s puppet and WJ just dragged us over the line to prevent the hun 10 in a row and what would’ve probably been a hun monkey on Celtic’s back from which the club would probably never have recovered from in our lifetime.
So if there’s no honest recollection of FM’s time at Celtic then where to we look for honesty??
Celtic without integrity is a horrible concept.
Would it be dishonest to say that Ange dragged us over the line last night at Tannadice, despite his vast outlay on team building in comparison to Dundee Utd’s rather youngish team, who did what we seem to be incapable of doing, ball over the top and shoot on sight of goals??
How difficult is that to deliver from the vast experience that Ange has??
Last night was nervy and Ange took us to the promised land.
Well done to Ange, I still think Ange will be handed his ass in CL because he’s incapable of being cynical in his approach when necessary, very like BR who was also handed his ass+ but, very unlike GVB who won the SCSF dogfight winner gets one hand on a trophy by playing ugly like a hun backed by lenient mibbery.
I find it very difficult to offer congratulations to a Celtic fc that has been and still is toxic to the core with the Same Club lie duplicity since 2012, deceitfully mugging innocent Celtic season ticket holders in December 2016 with a sleekit £49 ticket trap, but for Celtic season ticket holders to get mugged in such a way basically and accurately conveys that Celtic season ticket holders aren’t very switched on, OR, worse than that, maybe Celtic season ticket holders don’t have any integrity EITHER just like the PLC??
Well financing such toxic corruption doesn’t show Celtic season ticket holders up in as moral a light as they think that’s how they portray themselves and that’s the way it looks to the outside world, out of the wee legendary era created by supporters with pish dripping off of their trousers…
“THE BEST FANS IN THE WORLD” we were called by almost everyone OUTSIDE OF SCOTLAND.
TBFITW would’ve removed the boardroom door from its hinges and physically removed a clique of offshore Irish grifters who were toxifying Celtic fc with Old Firm corruption and Same Club ticket traps.
Nowadays if you even switch a light onto this corrupt PLC sellout, your immediately branded as a troll, hun, vermin, racist scum, suffering from mental health issues, now is not the time, etc, etc.
Yet despite the toxic executive corruption this 35,000 EXTRA supporters that FM has added to the attendance figures and the clubs financial well being, but at what cost??
FOOTBALL WITHOUT FANS IS NOTHING.
CELTIC WITHOUT INTEGRITY IS UGLY.
CELTIC COLLUDING WITH THE SAME CLUB LIE NEEDS AN EXORCIST.
But when supporters are just as lame as the PLC and these supporters have lived on their knees financially backing these Irish grifters since 2012, where’s the integrity??
Who really died in 2012??
In my view Celtic’s integrity was brutalised by FM in 1994, why do you think the ‘Rebel Consortium’ bolted in 1994 after FM got his hands on the deeds??
FM shafted Celtic supporters by fooling them that their club would be going to them, but it went to the Irish grifters instead, and Celtic have been possessed by greed, conceit, deceit, entitlement, and toxicity ever since.
Ange is just the latest puppet to buy the PLC some more time to conceal their toxicity for another season, probably, until he’s approached by a suitor, or till he is found out by GVB.
I hope for Ange’s sake that the ball rolls for him, but for supporters who back financially then suck up the consequences of a toxic PLC, then I don’t have the words for that.
Our scouting department is rubbish, so much for Lawwels bhoy has extensive contacts, seriously how cant Hearts sign upcoming England International Billy Windsor and he isnt even on our radar
https://i2-prod.dailyrecord.co.uk/incoming/article26947365.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_JS266005551.jpg
I agree the best time to complain about Celtics lack of strategic intent is the morning after their 10th Championship in 11 seasons.
No wonder they got such a hot reception in the car park last night ………..
booo boooo
Rainjurz already hold the world record for the number of arrests at a beam back.
Bada Bing
Re: Brown
What are the odds on the local paper having ‘Fleetwood Mac’ as a tagline?
Och you wont believe this,
I missed the 5pm deadline for renewal, thats me gubbed for next season, whats a bhoy to do,
TOM MCLAUGHLIN on 12TH MAY 2022 3:22 PM
A month ago CQN was in paranoia overdrive because the SPFL had given us a trip to Dingwall for our first post-split fixture, allegedly maximising the chances of us slipping up before facing Rangers at Celtic Park.
I argued that if that was the SPFL’s intention, then surely we would be heading to Tannadice instead of Dingwall.
Ross County 0 Celtic 2
Dundee United 1 Celtic 1
How silly do the conspiracy nuts feel today?
I am one of the conspiracy nuts who believed the post split fixtures were not chosen at random and far from feeling silly today ,I feel champion .
I am still a conspiracy nut and will remain one as long as celtic fc play in Scottish football .
Funnily enough my paranoia got worse when the head of the SFA had to resign because he was found to have bottom drawered a strikers registration papers regarding a transfer to celtic .
After the SFA having I believe two internal investigations into celtic’s concerns ,they found no wrongdoing .
Luckily at that time we had a wee fella in charge that knew when he smelt S***E and refused to accept their internal findings .
IIRC a certain Mr Sandy Bryson was in charge of player registrations at the time and was due to give evidence the day after the big cheese .apparently the SFA lawyers defecated their breeks at the thought and the rest is history ,
Funnily enough Mr S Bryson would find himself involved in another player registration controversy some years later and came up with his very own interpretation of the rules ,which turned out to be very fortunate for a certain club .
Maybe they SFA lawyers were right to keep him off the stand all those years ago .
So I am envious of yourself that you believe we have a level playing field here in Scotland .
paranoid CSC
HH
TOM MCLAUGHLIN on 12TH MAY 2022 3:22 PM
A month ago CQN was in paranoia overdrive because the SPFL had given us a trip to Dingwall for our first post-split fixture, allegedly maximising the chances of us slipping up before facing Rangers at Celtic Park.
I argued that if that was the SPFL’s intention, then surely we would be heading to Tannadice instead of Dingwall.
Ross County 0 Celtic 2
Dundee United 1 Celtic 1
How silly do the conspiracy nuts feel today?
————————————————————
If the fixtures were reversed, whereby we had played at Tannadice 1st, and then Dingwall last night…I suspect we would have won away to D’utd and drew at Ross Co (knowing a draw was enough). 😁
Beam back is so 20th century.
BSR
Kind of gutted that your ‘clinch the Cinch’ slogan is over. Really enjoyed that over the last few weeks👍
In 2003 i lived in England and went to Seville so didn’t know what happened in Glasgow. Were there big screens etc or dud folk go to the pub or ‘bag of cans’ in the house?
That awkward moment when you’d swear ‘thems’ had a reputation of violence and mayhem
Coneybhoy
Cinch clinched
What A Day This Has Been
What A Rare Mood I’m In
Why It’s Almost Like Being In Love ……….that is with Ange and his Celtic squad after clinching the title last night against all the odds. No hopers in the early part of the season unknown and unheralded manager Ange- come to think off it there are lots of managers in the EPL that I’ve never heard of either- gave us all in these tough times a season to remember.
Manager Of The Year, League and Cup double, and European football after Christmasa a fairytale come through for our wonderful Wizard Of Oz.
Let’s not forget our backroom team either. Hope Dermot D is ordering the cases of stout to celebrate with the lads.
Bigbhoy @ ages ago
The point being he has the biggest medal haul behind only three all time Celts. I wouldn’t bet against him staying at Celtic and adding to his haul.
No bad for a wee coward etc etc etc etc
BSR
😄
We Never Stop. DRINKING
:)))))))))))))))
HH
We were never paranoid enough.
What a TicTastic time to be a Celtic fan….
All you hunterlopers on here…..it must be cold in our shadow….Hail Hail to ALL Celtic fans around the World…..We’ve did it AGAIN….
James Forrest new deal till 2025
Great news on the Ayrshire Superstar. My favourite player until McGregor came along. Sorry James
ST renewal deadline extended till Tuesday 17th May at 5pm.
James signs an extension to 2025.
hURRAH