There was an unusual reaction at full time last night. Some attempted to boo, but the applause from the majority in the crowd soon drowned them out. Not all defeats are the same, this one came after one of our best performances of the season, against an undoubtedly better team.
It was important to qualify for the knockout stages of the Europa League. Bereft of domestic competition, Celtic need to test their abilities against top teams, they need to be stretched, forced to defend for long periods, parts of the game which simply never happen in Scotland.
It’s also important to see tangible signs of improvement. Those four weeks of summer, which saw defeats twice to Legia, to Maribor and Inverness, were signs of a team in crisis. They cost us Champions League football, and revenue, but finishing our Europa League group in second place behind Salzburg is the top end of where we expected to be three months ago.
I’m not happy with this morning’s line that we qualified thanks to the result in Romania; we qualified because we collected eight points from our opening four games, including a highly respectable draw in Salzburg. Win, lose or draw last night, the qualification work had been done. We can now start planning for the second half of the season.
Those three months since the summer crisis passed with only one defeat, an ultimately costless, if embarrassing, reversal at home to Hamilton. We can afford a similar episode on the next three months, but not this Sunday. The visit to Tynecastle is our most important game in the next two months, considerably more so than last night’s.
Commons and Forrest return to full fitness will be closer, while it would be good to see Denayer and Lustig available again.
It was kind of Rangers International to publish their accounts as a pick-me-up for us when we got home last night. More tomorrow, if we have time.
Shocked and stunned at the news Roy Keane has chucked it at Aston Villa. No way did I ever see his appointment as assistant to Paul Lambert looking like a pointless distraction so quickly. Next time we appoint a manager, cut the lines to Barbados and keep Martin’s mobile engaged!
Pre-orders are being accepted for the 2015 CQN Annual, which will be posted week commencing 8 December. Get your orders in now…
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HT
Agree about Callum.
He is not a right winger and he has been in a run of indifferent form. I am amazed he has not been rested.
To give the boy credit, however, he is brave and does not hide when he is receiving crowd abuse. I just wish he would stop trying to flick the ball over a defender and run on to it. There is a difference between being brave and being foolhardy.
SFTB
You must play to your players strengths.
RD is not doing that.
TT
roberttressell/jamesgang
Yes the Barca victory at Parkhead and the Barca humping in the Nou Camp were the polar opposites of our recent highs and lows.
I’m not just referring to tge 2-1 win over Barca. Over recent years we’d built up a formidable reputation at Parkhead, that was based on numerous performances and results which had the biggest and best in Europe praying that they avoided the name Celtic in any draw.
Where’s that reputation now?
Barca..,
Understood but if it’s going to be our get out of jail card then we need to be making it more of a science than art.
We get the same drivel every year that we can not compete with the EPL and other big leagues, yet the same goes form most leagues in Europe. For whatever reason that appears to be enough for many Celtic supporters to accept a 1 in 10 hit rate with new signings, most decent teams from east Europe are still well within our budget range and produce excellent players, players we can well afford and I believe would jump at a chance to play for Celtic, for not much more money than they are currently on.
This strategy is ignored as it may improve the standard of football we are watching and that would not fit in with the current expectation management, which IMO is to make the Scottish league more competitive by us getting worse, not other teams getting better.
bada bing
Dont disagree… RD’s team is still not moving nearly enough… but, sadly, is doing more in that regards than our team did the last few years….
Super Sutton
Good news and very welcome
p.s. His pessimistic side was “pleased” to hear we lost (we’re sh1te, says he) but that particular rug was pulled from under him when said we’d qualified for the last 32.
Last laugh to me.
On another front Salzburg are not a great side.
They will not get to the EL semi finals.
TT
Breaking News
Red Bull Salzburg to be investigated by UEFA for using stimulants.
Cheer up Bhoys it’s the weekend. Onwards and upwards. Let’s smash the Jambo’s on Sunday.
LB
Tiny Tim
Neil Lennon played to the players strengths.
It got us so far and no further. We were all asking for something different to be tried.
RD is challenging the players to get better. They look like they are failing to do so. Is it the brave move to cut your losses and revert to a traditional British style or is it braver to stick to your principles and live or die by your vision?
syd negakev
17:12 on 28 November, 2014Craig’s new look is interesting – like some sort of demented Ronan Keating.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-30242028
looks a bit like the shite English actor Ian Ogilvie
SFTB @ 1644
hahaha I did wonder about that given your answer to me.
i might not have phrased that as well as I meant to.
When I said “had YOU said to my 22 year old self…punch etc…” it was you plural, i.e. anyone who had the temerity for suggesting that I could be apathetic about Celtic, in any way shape or form, such was the part the Team played in my life at that age. It was not intended to be aimed at you directly my good friend.
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
TT
Salzburg are not a great side but they have the best attack we have faced this season.
Maribor were a poorer team overall than either Legia or Salzburg but they still managed 3 CL draws.
Salzburg are unlikely Europa winners but I think they can get to the quarters and take their chances from there.
Canalmar,
To illustrate the risk involved in signing players. Here’s a list of players Barca have signed since I became a member . It doesn’t include free signings like Van Bommel or Ezquerro who weren’t good enough. However every player on the list failed to meet expectations and would have been deemed a poor signing
Alfonso € 16,000,000
Gerard € 22,000,000
Rochemback € 9,000,000
Geovanni € 21,000,000
Christanval € 15,000,000
Quaresma € 6,250,000
Edmilson € 10,000,000
Gudjonson € 12,000,000
Milito € 21,000,000
Caceres € 16,500,000
Hleb € 12,000,000
Henrique € 10,000,000
Keirrison € 16,000,000
Chyrgynsky € 25,000,000
Alex Song € 19,000,000
Thats a total of € 230,750,000 spent on players in just over a decade, who in Barca terms flopped. There is no doubt they all had talent, they played at a world class club, and many of them played at a time Barca were arguably the greatest team of all time.
Yet they flopped.
Signing players is a high risk business. Spending huge amounts doesn’t necessarily guarantee success, as the above list demonstrates
sftb @17:16
You put the question well. Now, what is the answer? :)
TTT
Cheers.
The ambiguities of the English ( or is it North British, must ask MWD) language.
Craigy boys 1st day at the “hate factory”
I wonder if some of those welcoming him were at court today :))))
Phil MacGiollaBhain@Pmacgiollabhain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL3a2LHEqqw …
Cheered like a returning hero from the Punic Wars….
Will these or this, trial be held behind closed doors, or open to the public, any one know?
The gang of five I mean, sorry.
Tinytim,
There’s a hutch of teams that have pumped us that got nowhere near the semis of a euro tourney….. And some we’ve beaten who have.
mike in totonto
I missed out the last line where I admit that I don’t know.
I gave up on Tony Mowbray because he was too accepting of weak performances (and honest mistakes).
By temperament, I favour the pragmatic football provided by WGS and Neil. I think it suits our players but is very limiting.
But the support in general wanted a change. RD is providing that change. Unless it is a disaster (so far CL is the only comp from which we are eliminated) I suspect he will stay longer.
A treble, starting with a LC win and a defeat of a dead club will probably buy enough time from both the critical, supportive and fickle wing of the support.
Now a crime to lie to David Murray?
A certain ‘not the nine o clock news’ sketch springs to mind.
Hail hail
leftclicktic
17:21 on
28 November, 2014
Craigy boys 1st day at the “hate factory”
I wonder if some of those welcoming him were at court today :))))
Phil MacGiollaBhain@Pmacgiollabhain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL3a2LHEqqw …
Cheered like a returning hero from the Punic Wars….
So true
HH
Supersutton
Brilliant news!
SFTB
I’m not advocating sacking Ronny I’m just completely disillusioned in what he’s doing. I don’t blame McGregor, I think he’s being very poorly managed.
Mike in Toronto
This is just my opinion. We’ve been shite this season. We’ve had two good performances; Dundee Utd at home and Ross County away.
On both days we were good but the opposition were also poor.
We lack creativity, we lack a footballer who can link play and score. For 3 months last season Commons carried that Celtic team. He’s our most potent threat and our best player.
In my opinion he should be playing every week.
Richard the Lionheart was alleged to have said that he would sell London if he could only find a buyer.
I would sell half the Celtic team if we could only find a buyer.
Going backwards to a “pragmatic” Celtic side “playing to their strengths” is not what I want to see. Change was desired by many, so we are trying to change. However, changing is very hard (have you ever tried changing?) and it will probably take well into next year before things look better (if the change is successful). If it isn’t a success by the end of the season then you have real cause whinge.
But here’s a question; what do you if we win the league but you still thinking the football is crap? Sack the manager?
Modern Norwegian diddies are rubbish.
supersutton
How’s your Faither in Law at corners?
Taking them, attacking them, defending them?
1 out of 3 might be enough to get him a spot!
HamiltonTim
Agreed. Paradise I’d no fortress right now. But it wasn’t when Morton came to visit! And others!
Mike in Toronto
I thought saltsburg were really tidy. No44 a class act.
They looked in the 1st half like they were the home team. Loads of time on the ball and closing us down so quickly.
Defending for the 2nd goal was motzart kugel – ie baws!
HH jamesgang
SFTB,
I concur.
And apologies as I did not make that distiction clear.
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
If Salzburg needed five goals last night they’d have had them before half-time. And without mercy.
The only reason we got a sniff was due to them taking the foot off the pedal becasue they’d already qualified. And even then, only because of gritty psyches like Broon’s dragging us back at them through sheer force of will and effort.
Not through fitness – for they ran around us like velociraptors picking off Brontosaurus.
Not through tactics or guile – for we couldn’t get the bloody ball until they decided they’d done enough with it.
So, progress?
Not that I can see.
Strategy? Dynamism? System? Discipline? Fortitude?
Absent.
Previous managers have identified our strengths as a team, and also our limitations, playing to them and within them. This RD approach is theoretical, desgined to fit a hypothetical model – fit only for a black/white board/computer simulation.
It takes no account of individuals’ attributes within the squad available. It demands players fit the system unconditionally and without compromise. It is what it is – theory. It fails practical tests because there’s no adjustment for the variables of physical reality.
Ronnie’s a consultant with ideas which shine only on paper. He needs more practical experience of higher-standard football then the Norwegian league. He should be getting that as an assistant at some club, not as main man at Celtic.
Celtic shouldn’t be getting used to test a nice guy’s failing threories.
Celtic needs somebody who has practical experience of succes sand failure and knows how to apply method to reality.
Waste of time and tax payers money, trying to convict Craig Whyte.
For what?
Why not pursue the one’s who gave Murray the £50million to squander?
Poor wee Rainjurs went to the wall and the establishment aren’t happy.
Such a corrupt , Masonic controlled jurisdiction.
HH.
justafan
16:36 on
28 November, 2014
Jeeze…
Saying this quietly…
some of Jinky’s corners were awful!
HH
That’s like saying Leonardo Da Vinci was rotten at knitting >)
Mike in toronto.
Flat track bully.
I think it is a cricketing term .Somebody who looks good on a flat pitch with no bounce / spin etc. Use of track rather than pitch suggests it might be of Australian origin.
HT,
who are this Strasbourg mob you referred to in your posts?
Watch much French fitba in your spare time?
Tha Minx is some lassie to put up with that
;-)
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
Pedantic CSC
!!bada bing!!
17:18 on 28 November, 2014
syd negakev
How about this one?
http://s626.photobucket.com/user/RobertCarlyleOBE/media/ravenous/Rav_still017.jpg.html
One is a story about, “You are who you eat. Captain John Boyd’s promotion stations him at an isolated fort in the Sierra Nevadas, where he joins a bizarre group of misfits.
The situation takes a violent turn, however, with the arrival of the lone survivor of an ill-fated expedition that ended in murder and cannibalism.”
The other is a filum starring bobby Carlyle!
HH jamesgang
TTT,
I noticed that too bit didn’t want a cyber slap for two digs at him :))
SFTB
as usual, a fair and balanced answer.
For me, if I have to choose (although I hope I no longer have to), the romantic idea of glorious failure seems more, somehow, Celtic to me.
More seriously, Celtic is for me a bit of an escape …. a little film I enjoy is called My Favourite Year, where Peter O’toole plays Alan Swann – an Errol Flynn type character, who is idolized by a young lad, Stone, played by Mark Lynn Baker, but has feet of clay … in a pivotal scene (which I wont give away if you havent seen the film…. you should, it is funny and sweet) …. Stone explains why Swann has to be more like the characters he plays on screen …
Alan Swann: Stone… I’m afraid. I’m afraid. That’s why I couldn’t get out of the car to see my Tess, my child.
Benjy Stone: Alan Swann, afraid? The Defender of the Crown? Captain from Tortuga? The Last Knight of the Round Table?
Alan Swann: Those are movies, damn you! Look at me! I’m flesh and blood, life-size, no larger! I’m not that silly God-damned hero! I never was!
Benjy Stone: To *me* you were! Whoever you were in those movies, those silly goddamn heroes meant a lot to *me*! What does it matter if it was an illusion? It worked! So don’t tell me this is you life-size. I can’t use you life-size. I need Alan Swanns as big as I can get them! And let me tell you something: you couldn’t have convinced me the way you did unless somewhere in you you *had* that courage! Nobody’s that good an actor! You *are* that silly goddamn hero!
I, and dont think I am alone in this, need Celtic to be that silly gooddamn hero of my youth.
Watching the last year of GS’ tenure, or most of NFL’s teams, was often so tedious, I could feel my heart slowing down.
If football doesn’t make us old guys feel like kids anymore, then what purpose does it really serve?
Geordie Munro,
haha dont worry HT’s bark is worse than his bite…
Its Minx you should be worried about
:-)
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
ekbhoy
Yep Lenny had his flaws I’m not denying that for a minute.
Lenny focussed more on the abilities of individual players as opposed to tactics and formations.
More often than not it worked, 3 titles in a row is testament to that. Sometimes it didn’t. Playing only two midfielders at home against Aberdeen in the cup is evidence of that.
This season I think we’ve been ponderous and predictable. I’m watching the same passages of play repeatedly every game.
We’re lacking someone who can do something different, something imaginative, something creative.
We have few players who’re capable of that but for me the best of the few is Commons. And yes, I am taking into account his failings too mate.
Sir Paul
Ye ur Right.. psl…
Saw the game .last night.. Agree .. we played .
Good…no .. Well.. But.. Well… Good.
Ah am Happy as Larry.. that we qualified.. Great!
No Complaints.. frum this Balcony Seat.
Ah believe..as Ye well Know..in
The Auld Jesuit Saying..
“The End … Justifies the Means.”
Ah jist Luv.. the Jesuits..they ur Ma Kinda People.
(The Pope is a Jesuit..ed)
He is? Aj didnae Know That.. That’s jist Hunky Dee.
Howevah………(Here it Comes… ed)
Howevahhhhhhhhhh…
Ah still Maintain,That We Wull Nevah Achieve Lasting Success in Europe…
UNTIL. We DUMP.. the Present Mid Field Players..
except.. Steffi.. This Kid Has Potential. tae Make Us Proud.
n.. No Lasting Success in Europe. wull make us Very Unhappy.. n..
We wull Remain.. Povery Stricken.. because of Oor Geographical Location
deprived of a Steady Income.. fae the Euro League.
It is a Fundamental Fact… so.. Don’t argue..
We Need Tae Make Sure of a Steady European Income..
Broonie ,n Company hiv Jist No Goat the Skill or the Right Attitude..
tae tak oan.. Top Class Opponents..
Ah am Surprised that We gave Broony a New Contract.. but.. Hey… that’s Spilt beer..
But,, We wull Regret it..
Anyway.. Ronny, Knows Noo.. where oor Vulnerabilities Lie..
They ur awe ower the Team.. but..
We hiv Chronic Wan’s..
In the MID FIELD..
of course.. Stokesy,n The Hibs Supporter ur Pretty Nae Use.
when Facing Top European Actors.
As far as meeting Euro Opponents.. Furget It!
Face it…They Jist hivnae goat the Tools tae Make a Fist ,in Euro Competion.
Ronny,has his work to Do..
Of course . Afore Ye Fix Anything.. Ye goatta Find oot..
whit’s… well… NEEDING FIXED..
Right?
So Noo Ronny Knows..
Let’s see him.. well.. FIX IT..
N.. Ah am Confident that he Wull..
If He is Gien Time..
Nice Chatting.. Pal.. as Evah
Kojo
Happy..n Proud of the Celtic..