Celtic v Ross County, Live updates
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- RODGERS CURSE ON IBROX RIVALS
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Good morning from a bright ‘n breezy n yorks. I’m off to mass.
DAVID66 on 12TH SEPTEMBER 2021 8:27 AM
“Ps the more I listen to Ange the more I like what I’m hearing.
Straight talking and passionate…me like.”
Couldn’t agree more. Since his 1st interview, he has always come over as a straightforward and honest individual, nothing to hide, not like some others who continually obfuscate and are never put under scrutiny for it, por cierto
Great interview by Ange!
Doesn’t come across as feeling isolated to me.
C’MON THE ANGE!!
Por cierto
Good morning sir.
Where was that interview by big Ange
Left hand side of this page!
Left = right ffs
Big AP’s way of handling scoddland’s finest is reassuringly impressive……
A very assured performance by the Big Fella.
HH.
Philbhoy
Re post last night. Hope your friend is ok.
BURNLEY78
Appreciate that.
Take care.
BANKIEBHOY1
Agreed . It’s almost as if Ange knew before he came here , how the sleekit hacks operate . He has the measure of them .
GlenD……
Yep. The more I hear the more I like.
His focus and determination reassures me and I’m guessing is a very compelling influence on the team.
It won’t stop the sleekit meeja, but it will frustrate them….which is always good.
HH.
One for ernie to ponder:
Ange Postecoglou:
” …. but at no stage has the board, or anyone else at the club, got in the way of me doing anything.”
Does that mean DD is not quite so dictatorial as many assume ( quite naturally, I suppose) or has he agreed with everything Ange has done so far?
David66
Enjoy your vicarious joy with your grandson.
I still enjoy going watch my kids do sport and tget are in late 20s. I can’t wait to have grandkids.
I confess I posted yesterday that I thought Ange might leave.
Reading shite opinions on here and on other blogs, I formed that opinion.
Very heartened by Ange’s presser.
Very heartened indeed.
No fears at all now.
C’MON THE CELTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am waiting for the first `don`t get your Cameron`s in a twist` reponse to an irate poster :-)
PS I am with all those who have been impressed by Ange in his dealings with the Media. Calm , strong and seems to be aware of their underhand methods.
An T
The point of the anti immigrants crossed my mind last night too. My English Nat step bro with be totally conflicted with this.
Petec 3.41am
A glimmer of hope of this is true. Scary when the Tory back bench become a moral compass mind you.. !
That last bit was a joke btw
On the game itself…………
Thanks Stivs for the highlights, ( Hope GG is okay btw, didn’t see his usual commentary yesterday)
Re CCV……….A Big Unit – who will come in handy this season, I thought Starfelt had a decent game too.
Progress-and-Momentum CSC
It’s only one game but it looks like big Cam is there to stay. Strong, quick, good on the ball, passing good. Looks like a proper centre back, in the modern game. I also thought Starfelt had a decent game. Glad to see Ajeti score, though we missed Kyogo’s movement. Hoping for a professional performance in one of the best cities in the world, Seville.
The difference of the coverage of Celtics 3-0 win and Rangers 2-1 win is quite staggering.
Rangers show the stuff of champions whilst Celtic stutter.
6 months ago we might have lost that game yesterday. 9 months ago we did to the same opposition.
Livingston next week is the test. Hopefully a few rested with a day off this week and a win there and we really will know where we are.
In Ange we trust.
Montgomery has surely done enough to get a run at left back?
He has done little wrong when called on. In fact he has contributed quite a bit.
ROBERTTRESSELL on 12TH SEPTEMBER 2021 9:41 AM
I think come towards the end of the season, Montgomery might well be first choice.
HOT SMOKED on 12TH SEPTEMBER 2021 9:19 AM
One for ernie to ponder:
Ange Postecoglou:
” …. but at no stage has the board, or anyone else at the club, got in the way of me doing anything.”
Does that mean DD is not quite so dictatorial as many assume ( quite naturally, I suppose) or has he agreed with everything Ange has done so far?
###
It means that Ange isn’t daft.
And that he wasn’t insisting on signing Messi.
BURNLEY78 on 12TH SEPTEMBER 2021 9:35 AM
The difference of the coverage of Celtics 3-0 win and Rangers 2-1 win is quite staggering
____
It’s innate in the arseholes to talk us down and Sevco up. Constant propaganda. It must be 20 years or more since I last bought a newspaper. Nowadays there are also some excellent fans media writers who offer a more professional view, that is well balanced.
Didn’t manage to catch the game yesterday, but happy to see that Ange continues to manage CalMac. 4 mins after we score and he is subbed off. Sensible stuff given the volume of games we have and a refreshing change from our previous approach to player management.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-58341335
BURNLEY78
I see that PHILBHOY showed you where the interview was, cheers, por cierto.
AN TEARMANN on 12TH SEPTEMBER 2021 3:03 AM
Yes it’s odd that the support for people who are competing as individuals, and not as representatives of a country, is so divided along such lines, particularly given the diverse national origins of both participants.
Countries are not averse to jumping onto the “diverse national origins” of any person if they think it will lead to free branding, especially free international branding, por cierto.
AN TEARMANN on 12TH SEPTEMBER 2021 3:03 AM
And of course it could be seen as an endorsement of the CEO, who sadly has now had to stand down. Due to personal reasons.
I was passed by a crackin’ wee green motor on the M80 yesterday – registration number L1SBN
Vaccination passports not to be taken forward as an option in England, interesting….
Quite interesting interview with Mark Viduka.
make of it what you will
——————–
Drive north out of the Croatian capital Zagreb, where the roads are steep and winding, the forestry thick and population ever thinning, and just beyond the striking, blue-roofed church of St.Mirko, hidden in the hills, is a coffee shop.
Tracking down the owner has been difficult, primarily because he does not want to be found.
But for those who knew him when he made headlines in the Premier League, this hilltop retreat is exactly the sort of sanctuary in which you’d one day hoped to find Mark Viduka, the scorer of 269 goals during a career that took in Celtic, Leeds, Middlesbrough and Newcastle.
He never did court the limelight. This is his first newspaper interview since retiring in 2009. For while Viduka loved the game, he loathed the politics and falsity. ‘All the b****ks’ he calls it.
But there was, he believes, a misconception about him. It is true. Many expect to meet a brooding, intense, distant soul. In reality, he is, as I put it to him, ‘a laid-back, unassuming, Aussie bloke’.
‘Exactly,’ says the 45-year-old, espresso in hand, Zagreb in the distance over his shoulder.
‘Why is that misunderstood about me? I still feel it today. The amount of people I meet who say, “You’re not what I expected”. I often wonder, “Why?”.
‘I wasn’t obsessed with fame, at all. I didn’t like it. I still don’t. I wasn’t obsessed with money, that came as a by-product.
‘You’ve seen what football is like, a lot of a**e-lickers and climbers, dishonest people who try to shaft you. But I always tried to stay true to myself.
‘Maybe that’s why there is this negative perception, because I didn’t conform. I was born and raised in Australia but my parents were Croatian. I have that Aussie tolerance but I also have my Croatian side, I’ll stand my ground if I believe in something. It’s about being honest with yourself.
‘A lot of players suck up to fans, coaches, journalists, and everyone loves them. But what sort of people are they when you remove all the b******t? Are they good people or just playing the game?’
Our conversation detours to Joey Barton, his ex-Newcastle team-mate. Viduka, for the record, sees the good in him.
But there was an incident at Anfield in 2009 that captures Viduka’s principles. Barton had been sent off for a lunge on Xabi Alonso, later admitting he was exacting revenge. Newcastle lost 3-0 and, in the dressing-room, Barton and manager Alan Shearer clashed. Barton said, ’You’re a s*** manger with s*** tactics’. Only one Newcastle player intervened.Joey Barton shouted at Alan Shearer after he got sent off during a 3-0 defeat by
d and told Barton to ‘take’ the criticism from Shearer
‘I thought Joey was in the wrong, way in the wrong. He got sent off for no reason and Alan had a go at him. Joey went back and, that’s Joey, he kept going.
‘I said to him, “Joey, shut the f*** up and sit down, take it”. He was out of order, and he knew it. So he sat down.’
Viduka’s existence now is far removed from such tension. His only cause to play peacemaker is between his three teenage sons.
So why here? Why not his native Melbourne? Or Middlesbrough? He smiles.
‘I left Australia to sign for Croatia Zagreb aged 19 and fell in love with the lifestyle. And we’d always wanted to run a cafe, for fun really, one where everyone was welcome. So here we are.
‘Listen, my missus does all the work, I just sit here and drink coffee!’
Former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic is among the regulars at Non Plus Ultra, meaning No Higher Point.
‘A good guy,’ says Viduka. ‘You know what else we have? The manager of UB40 runs a local brewery. We’ve got his beer, it’s lovely, try it.’
Absolutely. Cheers! Life is good here.
But that tranquility was shattered, quite literally, on a Sunday morning in March of last year, when an earthquake of magnitude 5.5 hit Zagreb. Remarkably, only one person died.
‘It was as if someone picked up the house and shook it,’ says Viduka. ‘The scariest thing I’ve ever experienced. We were lucky it happened at 6.20am and during lockdown, because no one was on the streets. I dread to think how much worse it could have been.
‘We ran outside, in our pyjamas, and it started snowing. We had to sit in the car for hours, terrified of aftershocks. You realise how weak we are compared to nature.’
An army veteran from the Croatian War of Independence shuffles into the cafe. Viduka says hello. When he first arrived here in 1995, it was during the final months of the conflict. Franjo Tudjman – president of the country and Croatia Zagreb – had persuaded him to sign.
He can smile about one or two memories of that period now, but the horror of the hostility remains, especially as extended family were killed.
‘My mates would take the p*** during training when the fighter aircrafts were above and I was jumping out of my skin. I was a kid, it was scary.
‘I was walking towards the city one morning and the air-raid siren sounded. In thirty seconds, everyone disappeared. Even the tram driver jumped out and ran somewhere.
‘It was just me in the middle of the street, no idea what to do. I just started legging it back to my hotel and ran to my room on the 16th floor!’
Come 1998, Viduka was escaping Zagreb for different reasons, caught in the vicious crossfire of domestic politics given his association with Tudjman. He signed for Celtic but, infamously, fled to Melbourne just days after arriving in Glasgow.
‘A lot of people labelled me, and maybe that’s where the perception comes from. But I went through hell here in Zagreb. I told Celtic, “I’m mentally f*****. I need a break. I don’t want to come and hide and take the money”. I was honest with myself and with them. But it backfires.’
Viduka returned a couple of months later.
‘I worked my a**e off at Celtic. The club was in turmoil but I was top scorer and player of the year. I really left my heart there. I refuse to accept it when someone says otherwise.’
And so to Leeds for £6million in 2000. For a man who wilfully shuns the spotlight, Viduka was about to take centre stage.
Viduka first moved to Croatia in 1995 in the middle of the Croatian War of Independence
Drinks poured, terrace seats assembled, let the show begin. Thanks to YouTube and a laptop, we are back in November of 2000. It is Leeds versus Liverpool at Elland Road.
First, Viduka has something to say.
‘It was the early Saturday kick-off so we stayed in a hotel. It was also Bonfire Night. So it’s 1am and my phone starts ringing, it’s my missus. “I’m scared, the dog is barking”.
‘I tell her, “Don’t worry, it’s probably just from the fireworks”. Then she rings at 3am. “The dog is still barking”. I’m seriously p***ed off now. “If I have a shocker tomorrow, I’m gonna f***ing kill you!”. So yeah, I never thought it would end up the way it did.’
We press play. Sami Hyypia heads Liverpool in front and Christian Ziege doubles the lead. Viduka doesn’t say a word as the ball then runs to him in the penalty area and he wedges the most glorious chip over Sander Westerveld.
We press pause. Well?
‘It feels like it isn’t me. It’s weird.’
Finally, he elaborates. ‘You know what happens, you practice so many times, it’s instinct. There is no thought process, really. It’s everything you’ve spent your life working towards. If you were to stop and think about it, you would never try a chip like that.’
Play. Gary Kelly breaks down the right and crosses to the near post, where Viduka flashes a header into the top corner.
‘Rewind that,’ he says. The screen freezes with Viduka airborne on the angle of the six-yard area.
‘From that position, it’s so difficult.’ He whips his hand across his forehead, simulating the ball glancing off it. ‘That’s the only way to score from there. It could go anywhere. That day, it was perfect.’
Vladimir Smicer makes it 3-2 Liverpool on the hour. Then, Olivier Dacourt plays Viduka in on goal. Cue Martin Tyler: ‘Mark Viduka… still Viduka… still! Brilliant!’
A customer in the cafe looks over, but Viduka is lost in another world. ‘I probably should have hit it straight away, I complicated it.’ It must be said, there are more ill-fated complications than a Cruyff turn and nutmegging Jamie Carragher on the goal-line.
So how did that feel, a first Premier League hat-trick?
‘I was bloody over the moon. But you have to go for the win. That’s the type of team we were. We didn’t know how to sit back and be happy with a point.’
Two minutes later and Viduka is clear after Dacourt skews a shot into his path. Westerveld rushes to meet him but, again, Viduka dinks beyond him. He is mobbed by white shirts.
‘It’s scary how similar it is to the first goal. In football, your first touch is everything. When I was a kid at AIS (Australian Institute of Sport), I turned my bed against my wall and played one touch above it, all different angles. I would do it for hours, the guy next to me never slept!
‘So you see that first touch, that’s the reason. I got the ball out of my feet and then… it’s pure instinct, again.’
The goal, we realise, was offside. ‘Yeah, I’d be off celebrating today and it would be called back, wouldn’t it?’
Leeds won 4-3 and Viduka was thrust in front of the TV cameras, waving to his mother who was watching on her birthday in Melbourne.
But here is an admission.
‘I didn’t play that well. Some bad touches, poor hold-up play, that stays in your mind. I had four shots that day, scored four goals. How often does that happen?’
Viduka was top scorer in each of his four seasons at Leeds. But there is regret at how it ended – relegation following a fire sale of their best players.
‘We didn’t have a clue of the financial problems, but then the likes of Woody (Jonathan Woodgate) were sold. It was a disaster. I was sent off in my last game, and that was frustration.
‘The team wasn’t being run how it should be. After David O’Leary was sacked (in 2002), we lost that aura. There wasn’t the same discipline.
‘It wasn’t just Peter Reid (manager who Viduka fell out with), the whole club became lawless. If you have a squad worth millions, like ours, get a good coach. Someone who knows what he’s doing. Look at Marcelo Bielsa now. He has proved what a coach can achieve.’
out with manager Peter Reid and he described Leeds as ‘lawless’ before they were relegated in 2004
Three seasons at Boro – and a UEFA Cup final – were followed by two injury-hit years at Newcastle. Under Shearer – ‘a good bloke, honest, I liked him’ – the Magpies were relegated.
Viduka, at 33, retired.
‘Roy Hodgson wanted me at Fulham. We met in the Chelsea Harbour Hotel. “You’re gonna be my No.9, bring players in”.
‘I said, “Roy, I would love to be that guy for you, mate. But I can’t do it”. In my head I was there, on the end of the cross. In reality, I was a split-second late. I thought, “If I keep playing, I’m gonna look like a f***ing idiot”. I had to be honest with myself, and Roy. I didn’t want people to remember me as someone sticking around just for the money.’
Do you miss playing?
‘No. Everyone has their time. I’ve had mine. I’m fine with that. I enjoy the peace. I’m happy to be anonymous now.’
Viduka has found the perfect spot in that regard.
Coffee cups and craft ales cleared, we roll down the hill towards Zagreb in Viduka’s 4×4.
‘There’s Luka Modric’s house. He bought it off Zvonimir Boban.’
Quick question: is it true Modric is your cousin?
‘No, everyone says that. He’s related to my cousins through marriage. But we’re friends. A nice guy.’
Another: is it true your sister was in Neighbours?
‘Now that is true. Just a few episodes.’
That’s brilliant. We love Neighbours in England.
‘Don’t worry, as a kid I was obsessed with it too.’
Next: so what do you do with your spare time now?
‘Other than drink coffee? I play the guitar. My son, Oliver, is a drummer in a band. When one of his mates can’t make it, I jump in. We use our basement. The neighbours aren’t very happy about it! Me and the boys love Arctic Monkeys. The lyrics, man, genius.’
We pull up and Viduka scrolls through his phone. ‘I’ve got a video of me and my boy playing. Hold on, let me watch it first, I don’t know if it’s any good!’
There it is, Fake Tales of San Francisco, chord perfect. He shows me another of his son during his first live gig. Viduka was recording, the camera bopping to the beat of their Franz Ferdinand cover.
And that, you feel, is where this former superstar is happiest – a proud dad lost among a crowd.
Montgomery has that bit of physicality that Taylor lacks.he has pace and gets by his man.really like this lad
FRED
Tommy Gemmel used to have that car reg no.
Big Cammy looks like he came from the front row of the All Blacks, the type of defender we’ve not had for years
Vaccine passports — France vs England?
Interesting difference of focus regarding the next steps in combatting the pandemic.
BoJo is a complete buffoon and the herd immunity / flu angle is strong in too many of the UK / English medical establishment.
The great white hope seems to have been that the vaccine would save us and low and behold it has helped but it not the complete answer — more needs to be done and that is why the establishment is now having a nervous breakdown.
They want the focus to be on the state doing as little as possible with the individual being tasked with doing just about everything — vaccine would sort it all out but it hasn’t. It is the end of the beginning not the beginning of the end as someone once said about a piece of desert in North Africa.
Not Jacinda has been hopeless from day 1.
Vaccine passports — along with a lot of support / other stuff — seem like a good idea.
Unfortunately she does not have the bandwidth or the functioning management infrastructure to make it work. Ferry design is beyond her and her cronies so a full on pandemic scale public health campaign is way beyond her pay grade.
And then there is the jabs for 12/14’s and 15/17’s.
All based on a political construct / society that cannot manage the collection of litter in cities and large towns.
We do seem to be living in interesting times.
SAINT STIVS
Thanks for posting that Viduka interview.
Very interesting read.
Saint,
maybe at the time, we were not understanding of what he had been through in croatia, playing fotball in a war zone.