History will record that season 2012-13 was more successful for Celtic than season 2013-14 but the champions’ league performances this season have been comparable only to those of season 2003-04, when the club completed a 25 game winning streak.
With seven games to go we have already collected five points more than the team which reached the knock out stages of the Champions League last season, and this season we have had a worthy competitor for second place, who are favourites to complete the domestic treble of League Cup, Scottish Cup and Best of the Rest titles.
Kris Commons, Virgil van Dijk and Fraser Forster have correctly gained enormous plaudits throughout the season but the story of Celtic’s success is more nuanced. We don’t just have a great keeper and a great central defender, we have a central defensive partnership which is better than either of the two partnerships I watched in the Manchester derby on Tuesday night.
In other times the story of our season would be the injuries at right back, but the standard of cover there, with Lustig, Matthews and Fisher, is such that no one really noticed.
The strikers didn’t really get going until Leigh Griffiths arrived in January, and much of our player investment over the summer missed the target. This had consequences on the autumn, when we came up short of last season’s (over) achievements in the Champions League, but we have a plentiful squad of players, including Forster, Lustig, Matthews, Izaguirre, Ambrose, van Dijk, Brown, Johansen and Commons who are more than capable at Champions League level, with others knocking at the door.
Congratulations to Neil, his technical team, the many who work to keep the ship pointing in the right direction, some behind the scenes and some front of house, and to each of the players who left their mark in the history books.
On the equivalent day six years ago, we recorded that Gordon Strachan had joined Willie Maley and Jock Stein as the only Celtic managers to have won three consecutive titles. Neil Lennon’s name is now added to that list.
With all this championship coverage, did the phrase ‘Good day to bury bad news’ slip into anyone’s mind? “There is a reasonable expectation that the Company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence”.
You know when your chairman tells you he has a reasonable expectation the company will continue in existence that there’s nothing to worry about. All the doubters have been put in their place.
Seville – The Celtic Movement, is out now:
[calameo code=0003901710a55b5798f06 lang=en page=52 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
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thebhoyfromoz
Fever Tree ?
theboyfromoz 19.01
I think it was called Fever Tree
BMCUW
Cheers bud!
The next round’s on you!
I meant me!
HH!!
bognorbhoy oscar in my thoughts
19:06 on 27 March, 2014
thebhoyfromoz
Fever Tree?
A quick check on google reveals thstvyou are correct.
Thanks for that.
CQN better than adkjeeves.com
thebhoyfromoz
Someone was giving Old tim advice on a water that is sold in tescos.
could be this
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/#/grocery-categories/soda_and_tonic_water_in_tesco.html(I think)
Though I’m probably a million miles off track AGAIN!!!!! :))
billy bhoy 05
Nae worries.
KTF.
HH the champions!!
adkjeeves
Fat fingers, askjeeves obviously
Justafan
I think we can gain more coefficient points on an EL run and therefore would help cement a group stage automatic place….I agree with you in an ideal scenario in the CL, but I would rather have another Seville than a Juve home and away…..a run in the EL past Christmas would be great for players and supporters alike.
Kikinthenakas
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/#/grocery-categories/soda_and_tonic_water_in_tesco.html
I’ve tried Fevertree Tonic Water in my gin but have to say I could detect no noticeable difference from other brands. Mind you, it may have been overpowered by the full gill measures….
Hope this works, it’s brilliant. Sorry if been posted before…….
@3rdEyeNot: Celtic fan takes a tumble during their 5-1 win at Partick Thistle last night! https://t.co/pmOZctaY2o
Weefra HH supporting and praying for Wee Oscar.
Came across this on twitter.—————————————————-
McGrory stands tall among game’s giants
Pele, Puskas, McGrory, Muller. For the majority of readers, and certainly those outside Scotland, one name in this quartet might be considered a little less illustrious than the others. As it is, and while Jimmy McGrory is undoubtedly the least-known of these goalscoring greats, the Celtic legend nonetheless stands proudly alongside Pele et al in the list of football’s ten most prolific marksmen.
A staggering tally of 550 goals from just 547 competitive appearances ensures his place amid such legendary company and, when it comes to league goals, only six players in the history of the game have managed more. Muller isn’t among them, nor indeed are any of his fellow countrymen, with McGrory’s colossal haul still a record in the United Kingdom, 171 higher than that of England’s all-time leading scorer, the Everton great Dixie Dean.
It’s a benchmark that will now surely stand forever, as indeed will two other McGrory milestones: 63 goals in one season (1927/28) and eight in a single game, Celtic’s 9-1 win over Dunfermline Athletic in January 1928. The ball with which he achieved the latter feat is now on display at the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park, while the great man himself has a well-deserved place in the Scottish Football Association’s Hall of Fame.
Snubbing Arsenal, snubbed by Scotland
Though he measured in at just 5ft 6ins, no more than average for the time, this supreme predator’s great strength was his unrivalled ability in the air. Broad-shouldered and brave, McGrory – who passed away 28 years ago today – was also blessed with an extraordinary leap, earning him the nickname ‘The Mermaid’. Indeed, headers accounted for almost a third of his goals, with journalist Hughie Taylor writing of the “tingling feeling” of watching the striker “hover hawk-like, then twist that powerful neck, and flick the ball as fiercely as most players could kick it.”
Team-mate Johnny Paton also had vivid memories of these impressive physical attributes. “Jimmy was all strength and muscle, and he had a great bull neck,” said the former Celtic and Chelsea forward. “If he had been a boxer, you couldn’t have knocked him out. He was the hardest header of a ball I ever saw – along with Tommy Lawton at Chelsea – and had a great shot in his right boot.”
Yet, for all these attributes, McGrory started out his career playing at inside-right and inside-left before Celtic, in this third season with the club, finally decided to experiment with him as their central spearhead. The results were the stuff of legend, with McGrory’s final tally over double those of his closest rivals in the club’s all-time scoring list, Bobby Lennox and Henrik Larsson.
If he had been a boxer, you couldn’t have knocked him out. He was the hardest header of a ball I ever saw.
Team-mate Johnny Paton on Jimmy McGrory
“My mind was set on scoring goals,” the great man himself told The Observer in 1971. “I got into positions from which I could head or shoot. When the ball did come, I did not have to waste any time. I hit it. I see players trying to control and manoeuvre the ball when it comes to them, then looking up to see what they are going to do with it. They waste so much time.”
Despite their talisman’s Herculean efforts, Celtic somehow contrived to remain in Rangers’ shadow throughout the 1920s and ‘30s, winning the league just twice during McGrory’s goal-laden 15-year career. In hindsight, perhaps this lack of success can be attributed to the same dearth of ambition that led to the Bhoys attempting to offload their prize asset to Arsenal when he was at the peak of his powers.
So devoted was McGrory to Celtic that the club’s board even went to the extreme of luring him under false pretences to London, where a meeting had been arranged with the Gunners’ renowned manager, Herbert Chapman. However, despite the prospect of becoming Britain’s highest-paid player, and his own unhappiness at the conduct of the Celtic board, McGrory snubbed Arsenal to continue a love affair that would endure for many years and decades to come. “McGrory of Arsenal just never sounded as good as McGrory of Celtic,” he would later remark.
His mother and father had been poor Irish immigrants, specifically the kind of people Celtic had been founded to help, and his love for, and loyalty to, the club – his club – remained absolute. Many believe that it cost him greater recognition at international level, with a paltry haul of seven caps attributed to perceived anti-Celtic sentiments among the Scotland selectors of that era. Nonetheless, on the few occasions he did pull on the dark blue jersey, McGrory succeeded in replicating his club form, famously scoring twice in a 2-1 win over England in front of over 134,000 fans at Hampden.
Moving into management
That was in 1933, and within four years he had moved into the dugout, learning his trade at Kilmarnock before inevitably returning to Celtic in 1945 to begin a 20-year reign. However, McGrory the manager was very different to McGrory the player, with his dynamic, forceful style on the park belying an affable and gentlemanly demeanour off it.
As Billy McNeill, the club’s European Cup-winning skipper, recalled: “He was always Mr. McGrory to me – and to all the other players. A lovely man with a pipe. Always smartly dressed in a collar and tie, it was hard to tell he was such a dynamo of a player in his day. But then a player changes as soon as he runs on to the park. He didn’t just love Celtic – he was Celtic.”
With team selection controlled by the club’s then chairman, he struggled to revive Celtic’s fortunes and contemplated resigning within three years of taking charge as the team narrowly avoided relegation. There were triumphs though, most notably victory in the 1953 Coronation Cup – a competition contested by four English and four Scottish sides – and in a famous 7-1 trouncing of Old Firm rivals Rangers in the 1957 League Cup final.
In 1964, McGrory also led an audacious, if ultimately unsuccessful, bid to bring Alfredo Di Stefano to Celtic Park, and he went on to work as the club’s public relations officer until his retirement. When he died, on this day in 1982, it prompted an outpouring of genuine sadness as Scotland mourned one of football’s true gentlemen, and the beautiful game lost one of its greatest-ever strikers.
http://www.fifa.com/world-match-centre/news/newsid/131/992/8/index.html
Just received a meal bill for 16.90 –
Sftb,
I mentioned something similar the other night. I feel uneasy making comment against anyone who is praising one of our own. A few days ago our back 5 was better than Reals and barcas.
That said, the PARTNERSHIP that efe and VVD has is a bit special imo.
EKBhoy
Hmmm… You weren’t eating “Eggs Benedict” th
Sherlock CSC
setting free the bears supports Res. 12 & Oscar Knox
18:50 on
27 March, 2014
kikinthenakas
I think an exciting Europa run would be possible but winning it is a tall order. After all, we did not manage that in 2003. There were a couple of close run things on the way to the final. Vigo was a qualification on away goals, Stuttgart was 5:4 on aggregate and we were one goal away from going out.
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Naw we wurny…..Stuttgart had to score 2….so there!
I sometimes wonder about how people would perceive big efe if he had missed the juve game.
On the morning of the game I couldn’t imaging facing the Italians without him. Reading blogs, I wasn’t alone.
But I’m sure on the morning of the game I could spell imagine. Doh.
EKBhoy
19:21 on
27 March, 2014
Just received a meal bill for 16.90 –
————————————-
Don’t worry ..tip will bring it up to £17.00…hope helpful.
VP
VG :)
Big Effe must be our most improved player this season.Do you think Virgil is helping him or do you like me think that Effe is helping Virgil
voguepunter @19.34 hrs,EKBhoy
19:21 on
27 March, 2014
Just received a meal bill for 16.90 –
————————————-
Don’t worry ..tip will bring it up to £17.00…hope helpful.
What’s the weather like in Aberdeen :-)
HH.
VP
Yes the tip strategy was the way out … I always add a spurious test row to spreadsheets with 1690 lines . On the other hand any time trying to get to 19.67 at the petrol pump invariably fails by the odd penny
eddieinkirkmichael
A lovely post on Jimmy McGory
SFTB 17.23
As always the voice of absolute common sense.
A great post.
TT
I have to disagree with ya’s on Efe. I think he got poor concentration levels, the worst header of the ball I have ever seen in the CB position & a poor positional player. We lost to Morton in the League Cup & Aberdeen twice. Efe was culpable in all those defeats, not to mention the 6-0 drubbing in the Nou Camp.
PleaseRefrainFromPersonalAttacksCSC
weefrathetim
19:15 on 27 March, 2014
Lovely forward roll.
Get that guy on the park at halftime this Saturday to show us how to do it.
Evening Timland from a cool hun free mountain valley.
Geordie Munro
I never said our back five was better than either Barca’s or Real’s, I repeat again, and every time you say that, I will repeat again >}
HH
Geordie Munro
That would be the partnership,that lost 6 to Barca ,3 to Milan ,2 to Ajax.
When tested they were well found out.
In the SPL they face one striker most matches and look like world beaters.
I like both players ,they are very comfy on the ball.
Bobo,Vega ,Varga,Valharen,Mjalby ,were all much better defenders.
Pity they didn’t have big Fraser Forster behind them.
We would have won the UEFA cup.
TT
Tiny Tim.
What type of whiskey do you drink?
The fat lady is signing championees.
Hail hail
One of the most esteemed posters on this blog, BMCUW, is often unfairly portrayed as à serial ‘last train misser’.
This is patently unfair!
Whilst in my company, he has only ever missed one ‘last train to Kilwinning.’ …and this was due to the fact that he took a wrong turn after leaving the pub and arriving at Troon station just as the train was departing.
Could happen to anybody!
Give the ghuy a break!
HH the champions!!
djynwa67
19:52 on 27 March, 2014
Is it not time for your bed…?
ekbhoy
19:21 on 27 March, 2014
Just received a meal bill for 16.90 –
Pity it’s not at a football match then you could have had them under the OB bill;-)
Tallybhoy at 18.31.
Maybe you didnt notice the lol at the bottom of my post.
Everything is cool. I have no issues with your posts.
I will try and not be a smart alec again.
djynwa…
All about opinions but at the Aberdeen game I think the culpability was all VVDs
who said the ‘reasonable expectations of continuing ‘ bit ?
Is that your refutation of my opinion? Nice constructive argument you set out there. did your mother wipe your little bum with sandpaper instead baby wipes after you your recent bowel movements?
sipsini
18:51 on 27 March, 2014
It was ME…..40 years ago….hahahahahahaha……..that was HILARIOUS