I am not an encouraging person to speak to ahead of a Champions Legue game against a side from one of the big leagues. The exertions of playing in the EPL is a couple of levels above what we experience in the Shires of Scotland. Add into the mix the suspension of Daizen Maeda and the worry about Cameron Carter-Vickers, and you are justified in feeling some trepidation.
There is no doubt there were reasons to sell Kyogo on Monday, not least of all getting Jota in the building on the same day. However, selling your talisman two days before a Champions League game sets your stall out: We are not taking the trip to Birmingham seriously. Brendan Rodgers’ first job today is to shift that mentality.
Aston Villa are motivated with the likelihood of a top eight finish if they win. Celtic actually anticipate a more difficult playoff opponent if they win. I do not expect that outcome.
The game is important nonetheless. It is a rare occasion when we face a team from England, our nearest and most lucrative sales market. To fail there would hurt brand Celtic, to perform well, if not win, would do the opposite. Mostly, I look forward to the playoff round draw.
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Arsenal bid £60 million for Watkins…should probably still start
The Fruit Shop in Cambuslang Main St was getting renovated. During the work, builders found a dead rat that was said to be 100 years old!
Apparently they knew it this age because there was a date stuck to its arse.
Big Jimmy 👍
Maybe Maeda getting a red vs Atletico counts against him this time?
BSR 🤣
From the Herald
A group has launched a campaign to have Celtic legend Tommy Burns canonised in the Catholic Church.
Chris McLaughlin, Philip Church and Robert Docherty have been working in the background gathering evidence to present to the Bishop of Paisley, Bishop John Keenan, to persuade him to open an official cause for canonisation with the Pope.
Their efforts have been ongoing and already had the blessing of the Burns family prior to Tommy’s wife Rosemary unexpectedly passing away last year.
Their next aim is to persuade the Bishop to officially open the investigation, at which point those in charge of the Catholic Church in Rome will get involved and look into whether he should be made a saint.
If the attempt was successful, he would become just the second Scottish saint since the reformation and the first footballer in the world to be canonised.
The group started the work to prove their case on the back of an appeal from a friend of Mr Burns, Father Robert Farrell. The priest has consistently said since he should be a saint since his passing from cancer in 2008.
Tommy Burns
Tommy Burns (Image: SNS)
Canon Law means five years must pass from the death of a person before a cause for canonisation can begin and the group are keen to get it moving as quickly as possible.
Mr McLaughlin appeared on the Diocese of Paisley podcast, which tells stories and interviews people about the Catholic Church in the area.
He stated his belief that the former Celtic and Kilmarnock manager should be made a saint and provided details on what they have to do to get the canonisation completed.
Speaking on the podcast, He said: “He signed for Celtic at the age of 17 in 1973 and debuted in the first team a couple of years later and had a successful career in football and then in coaching and management.
“None of that, in itself, makes you a saint. What he’s also known for is a life of extraordinary sanctity and holiness which basically anybody who knew him seems to be able to talk about at some length. He was a daily mass goes, he prayed a great deal, his religion meant a great deal to him and he put it into action in a concrete way.
“He went out of his way to help many people and do extraordinary acts of kindness all through his life. One of the reasons this got started was myself and two friends knew a priest who was very close to him and right from the minute Tommy died he had been talking about how this man is a saint and how people had to seriously think about taking it forward.
“Long story short, he managed to convince one of my friends who convinced me and now we’re working on it.
“Tommy knew a great many priest. There were two in particular I also know and there was a priest called Father Robert Farrell, and right from the early days insisted Tommy was a saint. There is a moratorium on opening causes for sainthood for five years after someone dies. For the immediate five years it generally isn’t dealt with.
AIPPLE on 29TH JANUARY 2025 3:07 PM
It’s the Lunar New Year and now the year of the snake.
>>>>>>>>>
Xin Nian Kuai Le, Gong Xi Fa Cai, Mon the Hoops!
i was saying from the dortmund game, this being a league table there was every chance our final position could be determined by goal difference.
we start in 18th, we could overtake several teams on points, but we could also slip to 23rd with a bad high scoring loss.
be pragmatic celtic, please please please dont get pumped.
The referee for Villa v Celtic is Clement Turpin, the love child of Phillipe Clement and Dick Turpin. Let’s hope we’re not robbed tonight.
(Sorry!)
SLIPPY G and BEALIN packin bags. Fun oot again.
Saint Stivs, given that we have to win tonight AND hope for SEVEN other results to go our way, we should realistically forget 8th place. As such, we should probably be more focused on who we will face next than on how high we finish. The financial reward for drawing a beatable next opponent (and beating them) is greater than finishing a couple of places higher then losing the play-off.
BigChipsUK on 29th January 2025 6:04 pm
I agree, who we get next will change several times tonight as other teams start scoring.
the old results simulator at UEFA, i messed about, if we win 1-0, and every other game is drawn we go 8th place.
i am away to get a lottery ticket i feel lucky.
BOONDOCK SAINT on 29TH JANUARY 2025 5:38 PM
Wee Ron, Really liked your post. I think we have become so used to success and spoiled that any little setback, even a draw, brings out the ire in some folks. It’s almost as if we have become entitled when that is something we should never be as Celtic fans. The Club and its support has never had this period of unprecedented success, even during the original 9 n a row, we weren’t winning doubles and trebles. Players are not being given a chance by some fans. We expect every player to come in and it the ground running, and forget where they have come from, leaving their families, or their country/environments for the first time ever. Its time we started appreciating what we have in front of us and enjoy these times as much as possible as we know that it will not always be like this.
*this is something that perplexes me and NOT just on this site but others as it often comes from NOT just immigrants but others that have relocated down south for example or even into Europe.
Now I’ve emigrated twice, and to family as well and I have often said you have to be young to do that as you don’t really know what you are doing, its initially all the excitement of moving away, even though I came to a country pretty much founded by Scots, it was still a struggle at times, so how must these young foreign players where English is NOT there first language feel, especially where the Scottish tongue is more like Swahili than they imagined, so those who have moved away should understand that more than the indigenous Scots or Irish do.
A hard shift tonight Celtic
Play for us and each other
Support each other as ateam
Go to work and God bless the men in hoops
Go to work Celtic
HH
Fed up
Evening all,
I really hope we see a similar performance from Calum McGregor tonight as we got against Young Boys. His first half was a genuine 10 out of 10 performance. Most observers recognise his qualities but I’d love him to get a goal tonight.
I think he has been stifled a bit by being so good at the deeper MF position recently. He has so much going forward, great striker of the ball, change of pace etc but we need his intelligence and guile to take the ball from the CBs. Great he has 7 goals already this season, he’s clearly capable from distance.
TJ
An T 6.18
I would love it if we got a result tonight.
We beat Leeds we beat Liverpool we beat Blackburn and we beat Man U.
We were not expected to win any of them.
With hope in our hearts.
CELTIC: Schmeichel, Johnston, Trusty, Scales, Taylor, McGregor, Hatate, Engels, Kuhn, Idah, Yang.
Subs: Sinisalo, Bain, Palma, McCowan, Nawrocki, Bernardo, Montgomery, Murray, Cummings, Ralston
Gerard binned in Saudi.
I would have had Palma instead of Yang.Palma proven at this level,Yang,not even proven at SpFL level.Man down for me.Why BR persists,beyond me.
Hope he has a stormer.
Deniabhoy, odds on replacing Clement by the end of the season?
So as it stands it is
Bayern or Real Madrid with first leg at home
How many times with this change tonight ?
live updates up
B78,
Both will win.
B78, 67. Or 78.
TB
If it was Palma you would have wanted Yang
HH
bliddy camoflague strip, dearie me.