The 4-0 defeat we received at the hands of Utrecht aside, Celtic’s form on Dutch soil has been decent. Ajax recorded a narrow 1-0 win in the Champions League in 2013. When the teams met in the following year’s Europa League, the home side scored late to secure a draw against 10-man Celtic.
Our two visits prior to that were historically famous wins. Goals from Bobby Petta, Didier Agathe and Chris Sutton saw Celtic win 1-3; enough for them to reach the Champions League group stage for the first time in the club’s history.
A late goal from George McCluskey after a Charlie Nicholas opener saw Celtic win 1-2 and progress in the 1982-83 European Cup. This game is historically famous because we had so few significant European wins in the 80s and 90s – if you lived through these times, you will still cherish that game.
Johan Cruyff was subbed late in that 1982 game, still masterful, if a few years past his prime. He was in his full pomp when he led Ajax to a 3-0 quarterfinal victory on their way to winning their first European Cup in 1971. That game came 10 months after Feyenoord became the first Dutch team to win the trophy, beating Celtic in the final.
Dutch football arrived with a bang in 1969. Ajax lost the European Cup Final that year to Milan, the last time the trophy did not go to the Netherlands until 1974. Just four years before that Ajax-Milan final, Celtic met Dutch opponents for the first time in competitive football. Go Ahead Deventer lost 0-6 to Celtic in their Cup Winners’ Cup first leg.
The other two Dutch teams in European football also exited Europe in the first round, Utrecht losing 7-1 to Barcelona and Feyenoord losing 5-0 to Real Madrid. This came two years after Luxembourg eliminated Netherlands from the European Championships. Dutch football was a shambles in the mid-60s, but with an innovative philosophy, it ruled Europe within five years. Everything we are seeing right now at Celtic is the result of an innovative philosophy, great things can be achieved by great coaches.
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I would like to add my name to those expressing their admiration of the way Ange handles the media.
He tells it as it is, on all aspects, whether they be on the pitch, or, off the pitch, issues.
He is in no doubt that we are in the building process and subtlety pushes his message that we need more players.
I like the ‘cut of his jib’
:)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Breaking news Daily rancid ,,,,,,,,,
Ragers get ahead of their covid crisis
By fast tracking their tests for sunday and results are back
All negative .
A spokesman from the belfast lab stated
You have got to admire the professionalism of ragers as they had a contingency for this exact scenario and submitted their samples 2 weeks ago and post dated them
Sandy Bryson said it looks like ragers were the only club smart enough to make the use of rule 1690
J.LEAGUE Official EN
@J_League_En
·
20h
Top with upwards arrow above SCORERS! Fire He may be at
@CelticFC
now but
@Kyogo_Furuhashi
still leads the MEIJI YASUDA J1 LEAGUE goalscoring chart.
Bar chart Who do you think will be the goal Crown by the season’s end?
https://twitter.com/J_League_En/status/1430272924108296195/photo/1
IniquitousIV- not the worst shout re a LB
The Rangers have ‘launched an internal investigation ‘ into the positive Covid allegations…
Dont know if anyone has noticed we have a game tomorrow, just saying like.
We play 30 + games a season in the league, ange has had 2 months to try to fix the shambles and 3 league games. Calm down.
Also sevco unfurling the league title flag against us 4 games into the season shows how small time they actually are. Sevco like their fans are holding on to bygone empire with the rest of the world looking at them and seeing the sad irrelevance of the cause, people.
Not a NAT but how anyone can use he introduction of furlongs and vaccinations to demonstrate how scotland needs the uk missed the point that an independent scotland ike many small countries could they introduced such measures. As an aside the uk government has overseen a shambles in terms of people death and serious I’ll people, higher than most countries of similar standing. The success of the vaccination is a narritive the tories focussed on while dismissing all the other issues.
HH
Don’t you just live AP’s pressers, the SMSM attempt to change the narrative that The Rangers are a super dooper organisation by simply doing the right thing, they never had an option.
Maybe they do have a desire to be inclusive
worth a watch mybe, just for the historical contexts.
allways sad when a football club expires,
or maybe not in some cases,
——————–
Andy Mitchell
@AndyMitchMedia
·
5h
Tonight at 9pm on
@bbcalba
the story of Third Lanark:
https://bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09qc907
(and on BBC iPlayer afterwards). Includes a few pearls of wisdom from myself.
ps, if stephen mcgowan was PLs placeman for stories, he doesnt half talk a lot of shite on clyde now.
you wouldnt employ him in an business.
—————–
https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1430513527186468864/ESz27suT?format=jpg&name=small
as a wee aside,
I thought the Jim Sillars interview with Bernard Ponsonby on tv last night was quite excellent.
what made the union aligned hard lined labour representive join the snp,
really interesting.
clever clever man.
McGowan is a rabbler.
Reports are that James Forrest and James McCarthy have not travelled to the Netherlands.
Bada, what’s occurring?
Is Kolasinac not KTs back up?.Good player.
Saint Stivs,
So thats who it is talking sh!t on Clyde.
First time I’ve heard him, not impressed at all.
I am very suspicious about the MSM especially the SMSM.
TURKEYBHOY.
Yes, he is back up and not happy about it. A full Bosnian international, he is strongly rumored to be leaving the Emirates by August 31. I just think we should offer him an option.
I see he is playing center back today with Tavares at left back. Even more versatile than I thought.
Seems Kent was isolating, by playing golf in Bridge of Allan today….
Ah well….that will be 27000 walks in September
BB- McGowan is like the guy in the pub in The Fast Show ,who says something, gets shot down, then says the opposite under duress.
SAINT STIVS on 25TH AUGUST 2021 12:16 PM
Dumbarton Harp.
*cheers for this Mrs TT’s uncle and grampa both played for the Harp although most probably her uncle could have played around the time of this photo.
We were led tae believe her grampa also played for St Mirren but as it turned out after I searched through Google it was Abercorn he played for.
They were Paisley rivals’ tae the Buddies founded in 1877 and were also founder members of the SFL in 1890. They like a lot of clubs had various grounds in the area but had to forsake their lease on their New Ralston ground which was ended at the behest of the local town council.
This was ostensibly in order to build an Ice Rink, which did not happen for another four years. It was long accused that St Mirren had used their connections with Paisley Town Council to kill off their rivals.
Around 2,000 spectators witnessed the last game that Abercorn played, which resulted in an 8–2 victory for Vale of Leven. Abercorn retained membership of the SFA until 29 March 1922, when they were disbarred for failing to secure their own private home ground.
Effectively though the club were defunct in 1920 when it played its last game, although an annual Abercorn Football Club dinner was still held in the town until 1939 just before the outbreak of WW II.
The craft has a lot tae answer for.
BADA BING
Word is Kent didn’t have covid but apparently somebody banjoed him in Glasgow city centre at the weekend
Gerrintaethum Celtic. Give AZ hell!
PR67- let me know if i need to Crowdfund….ta
Arsenal paid £30 million for Ramsdale,hes about 5 foot 10,and has as much presence as Barky
TonyRome: Glad you and your good lhady enjoyed yourselves.
We’ll meet again.
I appreciate this piece is from Tom English, I feel it is a an interesting read regarding Broony.
Scott Brown may have a new life in Aberdeen but some things are exactly as they were – his capacity to draw steam from the ears of opposing managers being one of them.
Only a few weeks ago, Breidablik boss Oskar Thorvaldsson almost spontaneously combusted while denouncing Brown as an “acclaimed bully” on the pitch. It would not be a surprise if, at some point, Brown puts the words in a frame and hangs it on his locker at Pittodrie.
At the weekend, it was Hearts manager Robbie Neilson’s turn to take umbrage with the Aberdeen captain and coach.
Brown is 36 and still looks like he loves a battle as much as he did when he was 10 years younger and 10 yards faster. This is a man who is embracing change, but who’s retained the same kind of devilment and will to win that brought him trophies in great clusters in nearly a decade and a half at Celtic .
On Thursday, another scrap. The second leg of the European Conference play-offs against Qarabag. A goal down and all to play for. A £3m-4m game. The stakes are high with this one.
No Scottish player has played in Europe as many times as Brown. From Atletico in Madrid to Zenit in St Petersburg he’s appeared in more than 130 of these ties in 32 different countries across a span of 18 years.
As you run through the names of the great players he’s gone up against – Xavi, Iniesta and Pirlo; Neymar, Messi and Ronaldo – he nods his head and takes aim. “Yeah, I enjoyed playing against them all,” he says, deadpan. “Not getting a kick of the ball for 90 minutes was absolutely amazing.”
The self-mocking humour never fails to hit the target. For an hour we’d been talking about his old life with Celtic and how it ended and his new life with Aberdeen and how it’s started, but we’ve gone off on a side road with this stuff and it’s an enjoyable detour.
He talks about one of the times he faced the great Iniesta. “The best I ever played against,” he says. “He just turned and ran at me and I panicked. I thought the only way to stop him was to bring him down – and I ended up bringing him down quite a lot.
“Pirlo was 34 when I played against him. He couldn’t run but, boy, could he move his hips. Nobody could take the ball off him. Incredible.”
He could talk about the victory over Messi’s Barcelona at Celtic Park, but he doesn’t. Sometimes the pain of defeat is more acute than the joy of victory.
And there’s his penchant for laughing at himself to factor in, too. So he tells a story about the 7-0 loss at Camp Nou on Brendan Rodgers’ watch in 2016 (a hat-trick and two assists for Messi, a goal and four assists for Neymar) and the recollection of his fury at half-time.
“I was never one to run and get a strip from other players. ‘Please, sir, can we swap shirts?’ I’ve never done it. I wouldn’t speak to them in the tunnel, I wouldn’t help them up off the floor if I fouled them, I wouldn’t speak to them after the game. That was my way of getting through. No respect,” he explains.
“That time in Barcelona it was four or five at half-time (it was only 2-0 but it was an onslaught) and some of the lads were sprinting up the tunnel to try and get Messi’s strip and I was losing my head. Why would you want to get somebody’s strip who’s just ripped you a new one? I’m looking at them. ‘Messi, Messi, please, strip, strip…’ I went in and lost the plot. At the end of the game, they did the exact same.
“All those great players I played against and I never asked for a strip even though deep down I probably wanted to. Until they came looking for my strip I wasn’t going looking for theirs and I never saw Messi running down the tunnel after me going. ‘Broony, Broony, can I swap strips with you please?'”
He laughs when he thinks about the names his young boys are going to call him when they discover in later life that the family cupboard is bare and there’s not a single shirt from any of the immortals he’s faced in football.
‘I felt, slowly, I was overstaying my welcome’
Aberdeen have not won in three, having done so in their previous four. Following the painful League Cup exit to Raith Rovers, Thursday night is a very big deal to Aberdeen’s new coaching team – Stephen Glass, Alan Russell, Henry Apaloo and Brown.
The move north was a surprise. He chatted with Rodgers – an enduring influence – last summer about it. His encouraging words weren’t the clincher, but they were another layer of validation of a decision he was beginning to make in his own head. A player-coach role at Aberdeen? “Jump in, Broony. The hard work starts now,” Rodgers told him.
So Broony jumped – and here he is in the boardroom at Pittodrie, recalling fondly a simple footballing life at Celtic when he’d be out of the training ground at one and two in the afternoon.
They call him The Hybrid around here. Part footballer, part coach, but leaving Celtic is the starting point. He’s heard it a million times, but it’s still odd seeing him in red, not green.
“I’d been there a long time and you don’t want things to get too stale,” he says. “You don’t want to overstay your welcome and I felt like that was slowly happening. I didn’t want that to be the way I finished.
“I was on the bench and I was always thinking what else I could be doing. My wee brain works overtime now and then. It takes a lot, but it does. I saw [chief executive] Peter [Lawwell] leaving and I saw Lenny [manager Neil Lennon] leaving – two people I’ve a lot of love for – and I didn’t want to be the one who stayed. I was always looking over my shoulder thinking what else could I do.”
He had options beyond Celtic. Retirement was one. Go travel, see the world, relax. Then coronavirus hit and a carefree trek around the globe was off the table.
A return to Hibs was another. “I could have went back to where it all started for me, but a lot of people there remember what you were like when you were 17, 18, 19,” he explains. “I was hyperactive, I had a red mohawk. Could bomb up and down the pitch. Fit as a fiddle.”
In his head, going back would have put him at risk of being compared to his first incarnation at Easter Road and he wanted something different. Something very different as it turned out.
“When Stephen asked if I’d be interested I thought, ‘dunno. There’s a lot of Aberdeen fans that don’t like me’,” he recalls. “I don’t know how many times I’ve played at Pittodrie for Hibs and Celtic [24 times] but I used to get out as quickly as I could. I never had a holiday up here. Never had a night out or a dinner or anything.”
Of all his visits to Pittodrie, one stands out above all others – the day in 2018 when he got emptied by young Aberdeen striker Sam Cosgrove and responded with a little dance. The memory of it brings a smile.
“I took a bad touch and he’s just lunged at me, nowhere near the ball, smashed me and then I got the ball smacked off the back of my head from whatshisname… [Shay] Logan… or whatever he was,” Brown recalls. “He smacked the ball off the back of my head and did a runner as he usually does.
“All the crowd were cheering, so I got back up. ‘Here we go again, nice and fresh’. It’s just something I do. I get hit and I get up and go again. I enjoy the fight.
“I’ve had some good ones here. I had one with Barry Robson. Fighting and scrapping and then after the game the two of us were high-fiving. Niall McGinn got me sent off here once. I still bring that up with him.”
‘Had Brendan not arrived, I’d have probably retired’
Gordon Strachan, Neil Lennon and Rodgers all had big parts to play in making Brown the force he was at Celtic, but you sense that it’s Rodgers that wowed him the most. It was the current Leicester City manager who explained to him how it needed to be as a coach.
Football had been his hobby. Now, it was his job. There’s a difference. Longer hours, more responsibility, more frustration. The two men talk pretty regularly. Why wouldn’t they? That’s a lot of knowledge he can tap into.
“Had Brendan not arrived at Celtic when he did, I’d have probably retired,” admits Brown. “The way Ronny [Deila] was and the way the football was going wasn’t great.
“Brendan was like a breath of fresh air. He asked me what was wrong with the club and I said we don’t work hard enough in training and the lads aren’t fit enough and he said, ‘well, that won’t be happening’.
“He got out all his notes from Swansea and Liverpool and showed me what he was going to do at Celtic. He went deep into it and I loved it. He took responsibility for everything. He had a vision of how he wanted us to play.”
It was an education that Brown has brought with him to Aberdeen. It’s all in notebooks. He wrote down every session. Late at night he’d remember things Rodgers had said – ‘This is not a Robbie Williams training session, we’re not here to entertain, we’re here to work’ – and so he started putting a pad at the side of his bed for when things came back to him.
“I wrote down Lenny’s stuff as well,” Brown says. “I forget things so I’m better writing it down. Gordon, Lenny, Brendan – there’s a lot of stuff.”
It’s impossible to know where all of this is going to take him but he sounds like a man who’s been re-energised by the challenge and by the young players around him at Aberdeen.
Lewis Ferguson is one of those. With talent, comes rumours of interest from elsewhere and that’s where the young midfielder – who earned a first Scotland call this week – is at right now. “He’ll go to a top club at some point because he’s a top player,” Brown says.
“He scores goals, he’s a strong, strong boy and a fit laddie as well and he wants to learn. He’s a 21-year old in a man’s body. Everybody wants a midfielder who scores goals. He’ll go eventually but it has to be the right deal for the club and the right place for him.”
Ferguson could do worse than listen to Brown, a man who’s still driven after all these years.
Rodgers used to say focus on the game in front of your face, a mantra he’s adopted. He doesn’t care about next week or next month or when he’s going back to Celtic Park or when he’s going to Ibrox. It’s all about Thursday in Europe and restoring momentum. It’s about bouncing back. It’s what Brown has done his entire career.
“A lot of people think at 36 you’re done,” he states. “A lot of people at Celtic probably thought I was done. Just one more time I want prove you all wrong.”
HH
Brian
The morras game is a fantastic barometer to see where we are at, I have no doubts we are heading in the right direction, fast 2.
AZ showed they were a dangerous team in attack with our CH’s exposed for pace – especially early doors. I also thought they had a very pacey backline that will not make things easy to get the goal (possibly 2 I feel we will need).
I am confident our Boss is working his Magic on all those buying into his way of doing things.
Cracking game in Donetsk. Shahktar were leading Monaco 1-0 from away leg, but Israeli striker Ben Yedder has scored 2 to have the French 2-1 ahead on aggregate. He then missed an absolute sitter while one on one with the keeper. This one is not over yet.
Watched some of the Zagreb – Tiraspol game. Sheriff look comfortable. I haven’t checked the roster, but it looks like there are very few Moldovans in the team. They look like reaching the Group stages, and I suspect some sugar daddy is paying their wages.
BB- thanks for the Broonie article
https://www.facebook.com/100001656884922/posts/4572512662813918/?sfnsn=scwspmo
Someone looking for help after a road traffic collision…
MADMITCH on 25TH AUGUST 2021 4:26 PM
SD @ 4.24
I am taking the long view.
SKY have always had a shine for our friends in Govan.
Now it seems to be a very moist love affair.
When did Old Monkey Glands flog them?
======================
Was it after Anthony(yon palestinian peaceenvoy and follower of Thatchers econ policy) was caught red handed going through a mid life crisis with Mrs Monkey Glands. Mr Monkey Glands not to happy..
So when he was a peace envoy we all spelled it incorrectly.hope your well Mitchell and your relatives health improves.
ToiKrossbitnoCumbiehaha
HH
Great read Belmontbrian. Didn’t Rodgers talk Broomy out of going to Australia or somewhere else. An interesting reflection on Ronnie Delia, who Rodgers has previously credited with ‘putting the foundations in place’.
BADA BING!! on 25TH AUGUST 2021
Someone looking for help after a road traffic collision…
—–
Sounds serious – I hope the child is OK.
Recent events may be suggesting that the Ibrox club and those connected to it may be having a ‘annus horribilis’, much like we had last season.
This, re Fraser Forster, from theathletic.com:
By Dan Sheldon Aug 25, 2021
Goalkeeper Alex McCarthy has signed a new three-year contract at Southampton, The Athletic can reveal.
McCarthy opened talks over a new deal earlier this year and an agreement has now been found between the player, who has cemented his place as Southampton’s No 1, and the St Mary’s side.
Manager Ralph Hasenhuttl has started the 31-year-old in the first two league games against Everton and Manchester United, in what is a clear sign of his thinking going forward, after the end of last season saw the Austrian rotate his goalkeepers on a weekly basis.
He wanted to give McCarthy and Fraser Forster, who both had 12 months remaining on their contracts at the time, an equal opportunity to show their credentials. And the former Reading and Crystal Palace keeper is the one who has been backed by Hasenhuttl to be his No 1 for the season ahead.
The Southampton manager stated last week that one of the two goalkeepers would stay and the other would go in the summer of 2022. And The Athletic has since learned that replacing Forster is going to be a top priority at the end of this campaign.
“We will definitely extend the contract of one of the two keepers, then the other one will leave,” Hasenhuttl revealed earlier this month. “I think that, in the future, we will look to sign a new goalkeeper.”
The club want to bring in a young goalkeeper who will become McCarthy’s understudy and, hopefully, soak up the advice shared by the experienced professional.
There is also the realisation that McCarthy, who won his sole England cap so far three years ago, will rise to the challenge once the new addition is brought in. He has shown in recent years that he doesn’t become flummoxed when the pressure is turned up, which is viewed as one of his biggest strengths.
It’s that composure and belief in his ability that helps him grow rather than shrink at the first sight of pressure.
When Angus Gunn joined from Manchester City in the summer of 2018, many thought it was the beginning of the end for McCarthy at Southampton. But he remained as the club’s starting keeper for much of that season and duly won the No 1 shirt back only a couple of months into the 2019-20 campaign. Gunn was sold to Norwich City two months ago.
McCarthy has remained as the club’s first-choice goalkeeper ever since, and impressed figures behind the scenes with his standout performances during the first half of the 2020-21 campaign, where he kept seven Premier League clean sheets before the year was out. This was second only to Aston Villa’s Emiliano Martinez, who had eight.
He then tested positive for COVID-19 after the West Ham match at the end of December and missed the famous win over reigning champions Liverpool a week later, with Forster starting in goal and keeping a clean sheet. The rest of the campaign turned out to be a disaster for the club, who won only four more Premier League matches and suffered a 9-0 thrashing at Manchester United in February.
Forster and McCarthy both struggled on the run-in, although not knowing whether they would be starting or sitting on the bench from game to game is a glaring mitigating factor.
Several clubs, aware that he was going into the final year of his contract, started showing an interest in McCarthy but he is settled and knows he has plenty more to offer, so was determined to extend his five-year stay at St Mary’s.
With Hasenhuttl’s confirmation that one goalkeeper will leave the club after this season unless there is a dramatic shift in strategy, this will be somewhat of a farewell tour for Forster. The 33-year-old joined from Celtic in 2014 and quickly established himself as one of the Premier League’s best shot-stoppers, helping Southampton side qualify finish sixth under Ronald Koeman and qualify for the Europa League.
He was dropped by Mauricio Pellegrino in December 2017 and didn’t return to the team until the end of the 2018-19 season. Forster was sent on loan back to Celtic for the 2019-20 campaign, where he helped them win a ninth consecutive Scottish title.
There were reports linking him with a permanent return to Celtic Park following his loan success but a deal couldn’t be struck as Southampton wanted a sale rather than another loan. The six-cap England international returned to St Mary’s and battled with McCarthy for the starting job. And he now looks set to end what will be an eight-year association with Southampton once this season draws to a close next May, paving the way for the club to search for his replacement.
After the Gunn move didn’t work out, the club will be keen to ensure they get their recruitment for this position right at the next time of asking.
¥
Toaty Trumper @ 9.26
You do talk some amount of Shit*.
Given your history of bag carrying for the Irish Raj — Old Monkey Glands is your type of guy.
Still waiting on your economics homework.
For an old school bean counter from the Tech that should be an easy gig.
Surely your pamphlets from your Socialist Vanguard days will get you started.
Homework — Critical analysis of Monetarism and why it was all *hite.
15 to go and Shakhtar equalize. That will set cat among the pigeons. End to end stuff.