With one week before Champions League qualification gets underway, Celtic play their third and final warm-up game against Swiss’ St Gallen tonight. Three games is not sufficient to get players anywhere near peak fitness, but next week’s opponents, Sarajevo, have played only twice since their season ended in May, their final game, a defeat on Sunday.
While we may be well below peak condition, at least we should be better prepared than the other guys.
There is always some trepidation when an unknown helicopters in to buy a football club, but most Hibs fans will be happy that Rod Petrie has been emptied out of the club today as he and Sir Tom Farmer sold their shares to a Peruvian – surely the only man from Peru called Ronald Gordon.
Hibs were the last club to win a trophy before the Celtic monopoly began. They are now debt free, have a suitable stadium and competent backroom team. They are also not Hearts, so have a great deal going for them.
What is not clear is why a Peruvian has bought into Scottish football or what he intends to do with Hibernian. Putting a challenge into Celtic will be difficult, but if he can work the South American market successfully, Hibs could be in the mix for the celebrated Best of the Rest title. Which would be fun to watch.
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Players like Edouard and McGregor need to play within a passing style .
Ball in to feet. Controlled play.
Aimless long balls do them zero favours
The only thing that I am supprised about, is that people are supprised at the state of the team. I’m afraid that it’s not going to end well
I didn’t even see the game
Usual pre season fare tonight.
What’s more worrying is the lack of activity in the transfer front in the positions we need, one can only hope we are working tirelessly in the back ground.
Anyway I have been quite surprised by the quality of some of the woman’s World Cup games.
I think there is some good football on show in my opinion of course.
D. :)
Most pre season friendlies are exactly like today’s. Standard fare which will have no bearing on the season ahead.
THE HANDS CANT HIT WHAT THE EYES CANT SEE on 2ND JULY 2019 9:34 PM
@ CELTIC40ME on 2ND JULY 2019 9:27 PM
Sorry to butt in here,
:))
Of course it’s valid to judge yourself against the teams you play against in the same league, in the same country with the same pool of local talent and the same potential fan base, the same tv deals and the same potential worldwide exposure.
i didnt even see the game , but i am worried.
where is the old buzz buzz buzzer
St Tams
‘I didnt even see the game’
?
Or is it all about Ajax again?
No I didn’t. But reading back on comments, just confirms what I said when we won the treble treble. Neil Lennon is not the man for the job
A pre season game is about one thing and one thing only and that is to build fitness. The performance or the result does not really matter.
However if people here are determined to discuss performance, may I say the one Celtic team played 2 separate teams this evening in very warm conditions. We were better than the team we played firs, had chances & missed penalty.
We struggled against team we played in second half mainly due to fact they only had to play for 45 minutes against our Bhoys playing 90. We went down to 10 for last 12 minutes and despite fact that we were clearly ehausted we weren’t beaten.
Good evening all,
Just a quick visit to say, we have the spine of the treble, treble winners, additions to this squad will only make us stronger. Makes sense to me. I’m sure stevie g would be foaming at the mouth wi that squad. Who tf do you support. I know who I do. HH offski.
Napoli are interested in KT…
Corky- i agree,and these games probably better not being on Tv,but the lack of creativity from MF was obvious. HH
Can’t read too much into the performance tonight but Hayes and Ralston should, at best, be squad players. If we think we can have a successful season with these two in the team…….. However, young Mr Johnston, star in the making.
Bada, When you are tired it’s not only your legs suffer, your brain does as well. I’m not saying we are a well oiled machine, I’m just saying you can’t make judgments based on pre season games.
Have the female England fans been behaving themselves or have they been fighting with Lyon’s policewomen?
I reckon Auchinleck Talbot Ladies could have sorted out both the Eng and USA teams…
Auchinleck…where men are men…and women just look like men…
Apologies to any Auchinleckies present…I will now tender my resignation…
Corky- agree,they have pushed the pre season training hard,in mad heat,strange to stick a bounce game in this morning, but NL trying to get minutes into the guys.HH
@ CELTIC40ME on 2ND JULY 2019 9:46 PM
Do Man U judge themselves against Bournemouth? Juventus against Bologna? Barca against Levante?
A duopoly has been in place in Scotland for the last 20+ years and, as Kevin Bridges put it, “it was a two horse race and one of the horses died”.
We have to consider success relative to clubs of a similar size (which means looking outwith our borders). Comparing ourselves to clubs with a tenth of our turnover is meaningless. It would take a huge amount to be going wrong (and frankly, a huge amount of negligence) for anyone in Scotland to overtake us (and I include the new iteration of Rangers).
P.s we can still do a lot more to emulate Ajax.
These are pre season warm up matches
Play time and fitness aims.
Not strategy
I wouldn’t and don’t pay to attend any warm up/friendly games.
Experienced players and management who have been through this dozens and dozens of times.
Apparently others think otherwise.
Takes all sorts I suppose
HH
Neveralone- I’m usually very calm,but we shall see this place explode if we lose next Tuesday, specially after the last few weeks HH
I thought the mood was too relaxed after 2 (or more) meaningless pre-season friendly wins.
Thankfully we scraped an away draw with 10 men against a mid-table Swiss side, so we have created a safe moaning space. Even those who did not watch the game know it was rubbish and Lennon must go!
Save the bullets for any stumble against Sarajevo or Shkendija/Nomme Kalju, and if we get past them- we will have 2 scary ties in Qualifying rounds 3 and 4 to lend weight to your belief in our uselessness.
Watched Tonight’s game on a dodgy stream, and here goes with a few thoughts
First, over past 10 years our team at end of season always looks a lot stronger than at start, and leaves you thinking “what if”. Last season if we had Benko in sooner and Boyata hadn’t downed tools we would have been in CL. So my request to our board is to do our business early and almost have an end July transfer deadline. If you are not recruited or the big offer hasn’t arrived by then too bad, you are not coming or going.
Second, I will stand corrected, but often good results in pre-season coincide with a poor start eg last year, or the Mowbray season when we won the Wembley Cup. St Gallen Imho are probably at a level somewhere between the teams we will meet in 2nd and 3rd rounds of CL qualifiers, and right now I would take 0:0 in all our away qualifiers and look to win at CP.
BTW the fact our fixtures against Sarajevo is reversed and we play them at CP, when we have had more games could be important.
We have only ever played one Q1 round in the CL before.
That was last year against Alashkert- we won 3:0 home and away.
One match is not enough to base any expectations of how the Sarajevo tie will go but I guess we can take some comfort in being odds on favourites.
Bada Bing is right – there will be an explosion of anger if we lose the tie.
But there will also be an explosion of boredom if, as expected, we win…… and that is part of our problem
Mbombo signing tomorrow
I miss the old Celtic A v Celtic B pre-season friendlies…whilst chewing on my macaroon bar…
I don’t know how ready he is…
But I would be tempted to play Luca Connell at left back in next weeks tie
Wee Bobby…..
My first ever game at Celtic Park around 1962 was the probable v possibles (or was it whites against greens?)
In any event a hugely excited wee boy!
HH
Awe_Naw_No_How_Are_We_No_Ajax_Oan_The_Night_Anaw_Noo?
THE HANDS CANT HIT WHAT THE EYES CANT SEE on 2ND JULY 2019 10:19 PM
@ CELTIC40ME on 2ND JULY 2019 9:46 PM
Do Man U judge themselves against Bournemouth? Juventus against Bologna? Barca against Levante?
Thank you for making the most obvious point/ of course they don’t, they judge themselves against their nearest rivals in their national league. Man united judge themselves against City
Why would you judge our success against clubs operating in completely different markets when we have one on our doorstep that plays in the same league, competes for the same honours, has access to exactly the same revenues as us, the same fan base as us and a 50,000 capacity stadium that’s sold out for most games. And who cheat to try and make the playing field less level to catch us A lot.
You didn’t have a basic understanding of Ajax’s model and finances, I don’t think it’s a valid exercise to start comparing us with other European clubs without knowing all the complex differences.
Mind when ‘thems’ had a friendly Rainjurz v Rainjurz
One team for Europe one team for the SPHell CSC
How did that work out again?
Neveralone…and entry was always a silver collection…minimum 6d unless we could find two silver thrupennies…
Such charitable beginnings…
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 2ND JULY 2019 10:57 PM
Awe_Naw_No_How_Are_We_No_Ajax_Oan_The_Night_Anaw_Noo?
Hopefully not
Gootmin seems useful
BHOYLO83 on 2ND JULY 2019 11:04 PM
Gootmin seems useful
Not without a visa he’s no. Hope we can get that sorted soon.
st Stivs……………..
I had to go find it.
;)
:))))))))))))
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