The Scotsman did an interesting article today on the fact that recent attendances at Celtic Park have fallen well short of the circa 46,000 paid for tickets, the majority of which are season tickets. It touches on several issues.
Suggestions that a league in which Celtic inevitably process to the title is less attractive to the spectating public than a league with a competitive challenge is not a surprise. It would be bizarre otherwise.
Still, many Celtic fans continue to support the club for a whole variety of reasons: we want to see it prosper, we enjoy going to games with our family and friends, and, unsurprisingly, we enjoy watching football.
Anyone who doubted that attendances would soften after Rangers were liquidated should have widened their survey sample. For most of us, this was a welcome change. The joys of beating Rangers were undeniable, but most of us have a deeper relationship with Celtic.
The Scotsman predict that in the event there was never a “team called Rangers in the top flight” Celtic would endure some serious downsizing. If we remained within the confines of Scottish league football this is undeniably true. So what? There would be little competition, less income, fewer signings and more promotion from the youth team.
In this scenario there would inevitably be fewer Champions League nights too, but in the big scheme of things, would we want it any other way? Of course not. Celtic will be there, in sunshine or in shadow, playing football and paying their bills. I’d sign up for this right now.
There is, of course, the question of how welcome our continued presence in Scottish football would be with the prospect of not just winning 10-in-a-row, which I hear our favourite Sevconian, Ally McCoist, is now discussing as a possibility, but the realisation that 10 would soon become 20, or 30-in-a-row.
All Celtic can do is continue to win football matches, pay their bills and see off all challengers. The game here is irrevocably broken; the consequences of this will continue to emerge in the months and years to come. All we know for sure is that Celtic will prevail, no matter which scenario plays out.
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Margaret McGill
Stick a fork in it will ya? :)
I know soup is a pretty liquid subject for a stand up test..:)
Petec,
How else would you explain a non secular anti Christian agenda?
You started it…..please explain great elder of Zion.
ryecatcher
01:45 on 31 December, 2013
Petec,
How else would you explain a non secular anti Christian agenda?
You started it…..please explain great elder of Zion.
___________________________________________
I started what exactly?
Petec,
Perhaps misinterpreted your assertion about Hollywood?
The Sinner Bob, who is wan of the best ever Role Models.
Survival
Aff tae bed….will wake up as a Tim in the morning.
IfgodsparesmeCSC
ryecatcher
01:49 on 31 December, 2013
Petec,
Perhaps misinterpreted your assertion about Hollywood?
___________________________________________________
Glasgow Celtic and it’s SUPPORT is Mon u Mental.
God Bless Bro
ok catch you guys later. Where’s SFTB, heaven67 and steamringsupreme when you need them?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOCaYEV3jDc
Margaret McGill
02:01 on 31 December, 2013
ok catch you guys later. Where’s SFTB, heaven67 and steamringsupreme when you need them?
————————————–
Probably Sleeping.
HH an NN.
I’m hooked on the 8 ball pool on the net now…keep away from it.
“Paradise”, the song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3RprhVjLxU
long long time since ive darkened the door here. and yes i did darken it. can anyone shed light on the news on BBC this morning?
after 6 months of negotiations, regarding the fleg and marches issue. SF are ok with the proposals but the DUP are not??
what was the proposals, and what does it mean?
thank you,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYpgsPB-Bkw
oh it works, lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-cfyTs6neM
maybe this does too
Hamish Imlach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lotnXbJP9Gg
cant find the best version ive seen, so heres the next best
Scottish football does not need to recover.
For recovery suggests a returning to the way it was before.
That is NOT what is required.
It needs to be renewed and totally cleansed from the rampant corruption which permeates every level of the game.
The attendances are a direct result of entertainment value alone.
Nothing whatsoever to do with Sevco.
The argument has often been put forward that competition is what is required.
Not so. Entertainment is what is required.
Teams can be very competitive but fail to entertain.
I recall a few years ago, going to watch the local team here in Perth, Perth Glory (a wonderful misnomer if ever there was one) when they last won the title.
They were competitive and won games.
Yet the crowds continued to dwindle throughout the season despite their success.
That was purely down to their being thoroughly boring to watch.
Football has many competing distractions/events vying for the fans time & money.
Unlike the old days where perhaps football was the only entertainment available (except the pub). Fans loyalty is growing thinner and thinner and cannot be solely relied upon.
Provide exciting, entertaining football, a spectacle which fans wouldn’t want to miss.
Do that and the fans will come flooding back.
If the event is boring, don’t expect the fans to turn up.
That goes for both teams.
You can only play against the teams who come and have a go, if teams turn up and park the bus it’s Celtics fault, naaaa, am not buying that, we had the top scorers in the league you could say, the boy from St. Johnstone, and the lad from ICT, none of them got a sniff against us, why? Cause they played up front on there own, that’s the kind of tactics we play against every week, plus scrap parks, to continue on this journey of slagging a winning team is beyond me, honestly the Hun attitude in here gets more annoying by the day, the so called “watch this team, they are playing the best football in Scotland at the moment” (Dundee Untd.) have been humped, and yes I mean humped in there last two games, so don’t give me any of your, awe we need the Huns back, that’s not on, I am happy as a pig in sheet with winning, it’s what I go to support Celtic for, to see them winning, and if I don’t as some in here say see the bigger picture then that’s fine by me, it’s all the usual suspects too, anti PL. BOARD, NEIL LENNON, not one positive thing to say about the team, NOT ONE, Celtic supporters phhhffft, aye right, and for the lurking Huns reading this, GIRUY.
tonyd67,
Can ye no sleep?
AR
A was in my kip at 9pm, and up with the first sparrows fart ;)
Delaneys Dunky
01:10 on
31 December, 2013
MacJay
I was a Corpus Christi boy guild player. St Peter’s and us were the best teams of my era. St Pauls were poor after I transferred to CC. :)))
Scored the winner for “the Paul “against “the Peter” on a balmy Summer`s midweek eventide in Victoria Park.
Amazing how these totally irrelevant events stick in one`s mind and assume huge importance.As time goes on ,the goal becomes more glorious.
In actual fact, I intercepted a back pass. :-(
This earlier from Subterranean –
Well-said, Chris.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
We are being assailed with an incredible amount of negative propaganda about falling attendances and imminent Armageddon all because a club cheated and is currently in liquidation with a successor entity making friends in the lower leagues. I have absolutely no problem with Celtic dominating domestic football in Scotland for the foreseeable future. There are still milestones to be passed and honours to be earned in proper sporting competition.
However, it is more than likely that there will be further restructuring of European club football in the near future and it should be Celtic’s aim to continue to participate in European club football at the highest possible level. This is the very real upside of the unrivalled spectacle of a competitive Celtic playing to full houses on the main European football stage.
In the event that any such reorganisation takes place then the possibility of Scotland, indeed Glasgow, providing any more than a single candidate club is unlikely. This prospect will be causing fear and anxiety among the Scottish football establishment and mainstream sports media, especially given the parlous state of a Rangers footballing entity. Be assured that if the roles were reversed then Celtic would be buried in the blink of a steely, blue eye.
Celtic need to remain focussed on a positive future and the very real prospect of being Scotland’s sole representative at the highest level of European football. Standing still or slipping backwards to meet and compete with a new Rangers entity in a backwater league is no strategy at all.
Let’s keep winning.
Bankiebhoy
I totally agree with you, this winning thing works for me, others? I can’t explain the ” I hope Celtic loss a game and stop chasing this win record ” lol, I mean just look back at what I just posted there, it’s astonishing, it just doesent look, or sound right, I do not get it, in all my years of supporting Celtic I have never heard anything so daft in all my life, thems are not in the league, by there own hand and cheating, not paying bills, or tax, a corrupt SFA/SPL are the cause of this, nothing to do with us, Huns died and that’s it, let’s move on, those that miss them and still call the Rangers, good, so be it, I have a brain I know they died and will never be back, they can’t, they are in liquidation, look that word up in a dictionary, if you have not got it into your head yet that they died, along with the lurking Huns, some in here do not get that, they want, PL,NL,AND ALL THE BOARDS HEAD ON A SPIKE, Celtic supporters? You should be ashamed of your selfs, want to play the Tommy Burns way? Want to go to Seville, and win nothing? Want to loss the last game of the season against Motherwell? I remember that feeling, and it wasn’t very nice, careful what you wish for, and for the lurking Huns , GIRUY.
Subterranean,
Excellent post
Good morning friends in Celtic.
Last day of 2013.
2014 will be a very good year for Celtic I believe.
We are witnessing the fabled Generation of Domination last known to us with the Lisbon Lions.
Then, in my youth, I took it for granted, even after attending Paradise since 1963. All those momentous occasions were just what we expected back then. Wee Jinky was even allowed to bring the Big Cup to my school for us weans to hold.
This time round, (even if the Big Cup is beyond us probably), don’t allow anyone to distract you from a NIAR like period.
We have had enough lean times, let’s rejoice in our well earned successful times.
HH
EC67
ReflectiveauldcodgersCSC
Good morning friends and a Big Happy Hogmany from a damp and heavy grey cloud covered East Kilbride.
Wee half day in work before an afternoon senior snooze then the big party as build up to the ole Glasgow Derby tomorrow. Form goes out the window on this one ;-)
Dear ryecatcher…
It is a great shame you seem to spend inordinate time in a place where the sun never shines
NEIL LENNON will hand Kris Commons a new contract to keep him at Celtic for the rest of his career.
The Hoops ace scored his 15th goal of the season at Inverness on Sunday and has six months left on his current deal.
But Lenny will activate a one-year option on Commons’ contract AND offer him an extension — with the prospect of a coaching role at the end of it.
He said: “Kris is only going to get better. He’s only 30 and we will get another two or three really good years out of him.
“That’s 15 for the season now and he’s been absolutely huge for me in the past couple of years — and he’s only going to get better.
“When you consider he’s not an out-and-out centre forward, it makes his contribution even more remarkable.
“Kris just brings a lot more to the game.
“He’s so intelligent and is technically a very gifted footballer.
Partner Lisa is settled in Glasgow with Kris
“He’s wonderful and in wonderful form. The goal at Inverness was brilliant and when you see Kris in those positions you are disappointed when he doesn’t score as he is that good at it.
“You always fancy him as he has dynamite in both feet. He’s a wonderful finisher and is having a hell of a season.”
Commons — a bargain £300,000 buy from Derby in January 2011 — has netted 48 goals for Celtic in just 99 starts.
The attacker is playing the best football of his career at Parkhead and is settled in Glasgow.
And Commons’ partner, Lisa Hague, told a Celtic fans’ website that he has NO interest in moving elsewhere.
She said: “I’d like to see Kris hang his boots up at Celtic.
“We are settled in Glasgow and it was lovely that Neil Lennon came out and said he hopes Kris will be a coach at Celtic.
“That would be amazing. We rent a property just now and it would be nice to set down some roots, stay in Glasgow and buy a house. It feels like home.
“We have invested money wisely and Kris is in a position where he can play for a team to win trophies and be in the Champions League.
“He can make those decisions, rather than having to be veered away by a bigger cheque.
“He loves Celtic.”
tonydonnelly67
07:36 on 31 December, 2013
Yes, they are no longer Rangers but you’re kidding yourself if you think their won’t be an entity masquerading themselves as Rangers & soon corrupting the top flight of Scottish football once again. We may be top dogs just now but for how long? If you don’t think Sevco, Rangers or whatever they wish to call themselves won’t be afforded every possible hand up then you’re sadly mistaken. Until our game is cleansed for top to bottom then we haven’t got a game in this country. People want to know why we have supporter apathy? Not being entertained might be a small part of it but by far it’s about wanting to watch sport in a fair environment. What we have been and will be again watching in the very near future is not worth paying for.
HH!
GLENN ROEDER has told his one-time Newcastle prodigy Fraser Forster: You CAN be the Bhoy for Brazil.
SunSport revealed last week that the Celtic keeper may have to QUIT Parkhead if he is to save his World Cup dream.
With Neil Lennon’s side out of Europe, England boss Roy Hodgson fears Forster won’t be tested enough in Scotland.
But Roeder — who took Forster to Newcastle — insists the big Geordie has done enough to book a squad slot.
He warned the Celtic star — who has kept six clean sheets in a row — not to jump at the first offer from down south in the January transfer window.
Roeder told SunSport: “I don’t think being at Celtic should be held against Fraser, it is not a negative at all. Staying there should not and will not hamper his chances of representing England at the World Cup finals. There’s no need at all for him to be restless at Celtic and to look for a panic move in January.
“Whether he plays in the English Premier League or the Scottish Premier League, Fraser is a top-class goalkeeper.
Forster is competing with Joe Hart for No1 spot
F\Focus
“He should bide his time and not rush into any rash decisions he might regret.
“England’s best goalkeeper is currently Joe Hart and Fraser is the No2 contender.
“Joe has had a big dip but he’s shown that form is temporary and class permanent.
“He is still our best keeper but I could easily make a case for Fraser, who is a genuine No2 to Joe. The way he has played in the Champions League has proved that he can play in any league in the world.
“But there is no need for him to jump ship in January and he is a very decent lad, so I can’t see him trying to leave and I can’t see him being unsettled by the transfer talk.
“Celtic is the perfect club for Fraser and the SPL was the perfect league to get his career going. Celtic have the support to rival any English club but the standard of play is not as high as the English Premier League across the board.
“I don’t think that Fraser playing in the SPL will have any negative effect on whether her gets to Brazil or not.”
Forster made his England debut in a 2-0 defeat by Chile at Wembley back in November — but was blameless for the goals. His form has been outstanding with six clean sheets on the spin in the league.
Roeder insists there should be no doubt over the Celtic ace’s credentials at the highest level. He said: “The Champions League is now at the same level as international football — although some people will take the view it is better and more important.
“Fraser did well in his England debut but he was let down by his defenders.
“He was exposed badly in that game. He did not get the protection he should have expected and had no chance with the goals. But Roy is a fair man and he would not have held the fact they were beaten by Chile against Fraser.
“Fraser has got the mentality to go all the way to the very top of the game.
“He has great support from his family and his dad is a judge so there’s no way he will got off the straight and narrow! Everything is in his favour. He is having a very good career but he’s still very much on the up.”
Roeder believes Forster will go to a GIANT of the European game when the time comes for him to quit Parkhead.
He expects that day to arrive in the summer — but predicted the keeper will go down as Neil Lennon’s best signing.
Roy Hodgson can count on Fraser in Brazil
N\News Group Newspapers Ltd
He said: “Celtic will struggle to keep him beyond the summer.
“At the end of the season other factors might come into play so he does move as offers may come in during the summer that are too good to turn down.
“That’s when Celtic may consider cashing him in for a big profit, spend the proceeds wisely and move on.
“Fraser has hardly put a foot wrong in Europe. He has come out of every game with his head held high.
“He excelled against Barcelona and Ajax and so the scouts at the very top clubs will be monitoring him.
“That is great for Celtic and great for Fraser. I say that because he now has a glowing reputation in the highest circles of European football. The way he performed in the Champions League means all the top clubs will have seen his performances in the competition over the last few seasons and they are bound to have been very impressed.
“There will be clubs that will try to buy Fraser in the future.
“It could well prove to be one of the shrewdest bits of business that Celtic have done in many a year.
“Neil Lennon got him for pennies, relatively speaking.
“He cost about £2million but Celtic could make a huge profit on him.
“Barcelona and Benfica have been linked with him in the past and the big boys from Spain and Italy could come calling again.
“It is getting tougher for Celtic to keep him. He is a goalkeeper whose name will be prominent in the scouting reports of all the top European clubs because of his performances in the Champions League.”
Morning all. Grey and wet down here.
I’m all for entertainment at football. As I have said a lot more than once on here, that really died the season we won the league at Love Street in the rain. Hearts made up for their football ability by running all day long and humping the ball up the park. They set the example that was copied by the rest. Then, Sounness arrived at things just went from bad to worse.
But Celtic will remain standing. Long may that continue.
Guten Morgen from a crisp and sunny Nordrhein Westfalen 3*C at present with a predicted high of 8*C.
I spent last Hogmanay in bed with Noro Virus and she wasn’t very nice to me, the wife wasn’t too happy either ;-). In fact it was the wife who gave it to me. 2013 was a strange year for me with several operations that kept me off work for a considerable time, so roll on 2014. The highlights of 2013 were the joy my family gives me and of course the Glasgow Celtic, with the CQN Couponeers successful 8 team accumulator wading in at the end.
I have bought some rockets to set off tonight, I’m sure there’ll be one or two on here tonight, only joking Bhoys :-). If the weather stays dry and calm I might even set off my
My Chinese sky lantern
OK, I know it looks like a giant condom.
pogmathonyahun aka laird of the smiles
From yesterday-you had gone by the time I read your post.
Aye,I know The Lamb well. Just off the big roundabout. It’s one of the few pubs in the town where I can park my van for a much-needed comfort break.
This usually involves sprinting to the toilet while shouting up a pint!
I know,that’s a self-defeating exercise,but heyho…
ellbhoy…
What do you mean by ‘cleansed from top to bottom’?
What do you expect to happen to confirm ‘…won’t be afforded every possible hand up then you’re sadly mistaken’?
bobby murdoch’s curled-up winklepickers ………fc not plc
Yes that’s the one. Is it still owned by the mad Bhoy? My mate was astounded, he’s a Toffee, when I told him that there was a Celtic friendly pub in his town and we could go there to watch the Celtic v huns last ever game. As it happens we watched it at his house and went to The Lamb later.
Morning all
Just heading to work so hopefully this won’t turn into too much of a self-indulgent epic
Personally 2013 has been pretty good, trips to Milan and Barcelona, a couple of Hootenannys, a new job I like and better health both physically and mentally have meant there is more on the credit side of my ledger than debt. Just a shame that at work I’ll now be sat opposite Ian and not the divine Kelly though I’ll admit the wee man does wear better nail varnish!
Not such a good year for the Celts though – we have a worse team than at this stage a year ago. The Juventus matches were bitter affairs but we learned little and contributed enormously to our defeats in the last three CL games. The League Cup brought two wretched defeats.
But we won a double and are currently not just well ahead but unbeaten in the league. We haven’t played well all that often – and I’m not just seeing the past through Rose tinted specs when I say our team is generally less entertaining than in the past. I miss the thrill of real competition but it’s not Celtic’s fault that Aberdeen and Dundee United have flopped as soon as they’ve threatened a challenge. I do not miss the Rangers of old and hope that the new version’s progress at least stalls this coming year. But I want us to be better. Cleverer against decent teams and a whole lot less stodgy against weaker ones.
But when I finish at 1 tomorrow I’m looking forward to a stroll to the Gallowgate and some friendly watering holes and , perhaps foolishly, expect to enjoy El Glassico in the afternoon.
Right off to work and Mon The Hoops
Jimbo67 supporting Oscar Knox
petec
01:28 on 31 December, 2013
Hollywood has an anti Christian agenda, if you watch films with that view, you are seeing a lot more than the sheople who watch the films from a secular point of Scooby doooo
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
But what if you just like watching films….?
justafan
08:56 on 31 December, 2013
The fact that Dougie Dougie has just been employed to oversee refereeing should tell you everything about the current state of our game. Personally I’d like to see some apologies from Rangers/Sevco, The SFA and the mainstream media, trophies handed back, plus Ogilvie, Regan, Doncaster & the of course the ‘real’ players behind Sevco being outed and removed once and for all. Then & only then we can begin to heal our game. Sadly I can’t see any of the above becoming a reality, our game is broken and there are no signs of it being repaired.
HHM
pogmathonyahun aka laird of the smiles
I was last in it in September,and he was still holding the fort.
Us Tims get everywhere,mate. Sometimes we even get invited back!
Unlike some types I could mention….