The margin between great success and disastrous failure at this level can be paper thin. Celtic failed to make the most of a 28th minute corner kick and within 30 seconds, Cluj opened the scoring. Lewis Morgan missed a challenge in the 70 yards from goal and the inch-perfect through ball got beyond Boli Bolingoli for Mario Rondon to score.
We have seen many Celtic teams wilt after losing a goal away in Europe, but James Forrest made sure the same would not happen on this occasion.
Within nine minutes of the opener, Forrest played a give-and-go with the impressive Hatem Abd Elhamed, collected the return pass and shot, the ball clipping the inside of the post on its way into the net. This passage of play turned the tie in Celtic’s direction.
While there is a high expectation Celtic will progress to the playoff round, our chances are no more than they were when we secured the same result away to Maribor in 2014. There is work to do on Tuesday. In particular, the nature of the Cluj goal is of concern.
Apart from one dreadfully defended corner, Celtic restricted Cluj to few genuine chances, but they were able to punish us on the break. This will be the basis of their game plan next week. Soak up as much pressure as possible and overload on our flanks when we are forward. It does teams no harm to have a simple game plan. We will need to be at our best.
More on Kieran Tierney later. There will be chat like: “This is how football works and has done so for decades. It’s why many players come to Celtic. They come and go, our job is to understand how the sport works and to be good at it….”
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Kt statement,,,
” This is coming from the bottom of my heart! I don’t know how to even begin to put the last 15 years of my life into words… what you as fans have given me and my family I cannot repay you in any way possible and for that I am sorry. From the age of 7 I was lucky enough to play for the club I love and will continue to love till the day I die no matter what happens.
Every single second of my Celtic career was a dream and I gave my all every single time I stepped onto that pitch, it’s honestly the least I could do for everyone involved at the club. There is to many people to thank individually so I don’t even know where to begin.
Every single coach and staff member who has helped me on my way to getting where I am today I am so grateful for all the hours help you put into me making me a better player and a better person. My team mates have been the best I could possibly have asked for what a bunch of legends man who I’ll be supporting untill the end. Where can I start with the fans? I tried my best to represent you every time I went onto that pitch. The relationship we had together and the memories we created and history we made was incredible.. I will cherish every single second of it. I hope we can continue to have a relationship although I understand that will be never for some people which is heartbreaking for me but I understand the emotions surrounding this situation.
It has been the hardest day or two of my life and I really appreciate every single message of support from you all. This was not easy in any way shape or form. To end id like to mention the special relationship I had with the ultras who I have grown up with from BHOYS and Green Brigade.. the atmosphere yous create to help the team is massive and it helped me so much over the last few years.
I thank u so much for these times together what we have achieved as a club the last few years isn’t possible without you and all the fans. This is not nearly enough of what I am feeling but I literally cannot put into words with the emotion I’m feeling towards you all but I hope I showed you every game that I was lucky enough to play. God bless
Gordybhoy64 on 8th August 2019 11:13PM
Sorry about that. Yes, I grew up in Lennox Drive.
I often thought we should have gone for Glenn Kamara when he was at Dundee.
I never thought he would be a starter for us (we had ntcham doing well, plus brown, mcgregor, hendo etc) BUT… i thought he would be a very good squad player for SPL games etc. Huns are getting good performances out of him – he seems to be improving and will really contribute for them this season i fear.
Guyfawkes,
no bother,i was born in Abbeylands,
thought i remembered you saying you didnt get to many games,
my ST was available last week and you were one of the guys
i thought was local and might have used it.
Ntcham is a tremendous player. Time for us to get the best out of him. Training; coaching; developing.
Get it right and he will stay and repay the investment or else he will move on and repay the investment.
Get it wrong and some other club will benefit.
GuyFawkes
Wish I knew you were in Horse and Barge. Would love a blether with you. Love your commitment to our youth teams. I am a Dalmuir infiltrator fae Knightswood. Give me a shout when you are next in please.
Sad news about KT. Not so much about losing a player with the abundance of talent that he obviously has , but more because it further destroys the link between the player and the supporter. At the ripe old age of twenty-two he has already lived the dream and wants to move on. Bollocks. The money was too good too turn down. There, I’ve said it for you, Don’t sugar coat it, don’t give me the shite about the Premier league in England. I’ve been to the Emirates, where you can hear every single sweetie wrapper being unfurled and then put into the correct jacket/trouser pocket for recycling at a later date. Be honest, you’ve not lived the dream. You’ve lived your version of the dream. Right now, at this very moment, I don’t think I could love Jamsie Forrset any more.
TERJE VIGEN on 8TH AUGUST 2019 11:37 PM
I have sometimes thought we could say the same about Kouassi. I am sure the guy has something, and i fear another club might benefit from him while we miss out.
As you say: Training, Coaching, Developing
Gordybhoy64 on 8th August 2019 11:27PM
This was very good of you. I’m a season ticket holder in 143.
I travel to daytime away games and don’t have the chance to buy a spare as often now as I used to be able. It’s my thing not to give Celtic my name and address to watch a football game.
Oops, I’ve just joined the ranks of the pathetic.
LUXCELT on 8TH AUGUST 2019 @ 11:39 PM
Agreed about Kouassi. He’s been unfortunate. Still time to impress. His first target needs to be to impress in training. Not easy.
Ambition in the young is a good thing.
As we celebrate academic success in some , perhaps we should celebrate sporting success in others.
KT
A shining light.
Not born to blush unseen in the desert air of the SPL.
Guyfawkes,
no bother,didnt think you had a ST,
D9- Football has changed ,money always wins,to expect KT to stay for another 6-8 seasons is unrealistic IMO,for a lot of reasons, you will know them too.its sad to see him go,but i wish him all the best,as you probably do.He is too good for Scottish football, and needs to test himself at a much higher level, he will be back.HH
good luck to young kt. i am not upset at him leaving , a bundle of money and a great league imo.
i was upset when collins(bobby), auld and crerand left must be a age thing plus away for 5o years.
again all the best kt.
The one thing that stops me questioning Kieran leaving us is the treatment he got in this Country.
My head says get out while you can son…you don’t want to hear what my heart says.
Officials were happy to see the Bhoy savaged.
A sad day indeed.
Hail Hail.
Delaneys Dunky on 8th Aug 2019 11:37PM
No worries. I only looked to watch it because we started 5 up.
Family think that’s to do with the heart attack I worked through in 2016. In truth, I haven’t eliminated from my head Brendan’s embarrassing tactics in Europe yet.
BB
That statement from KT is possibly the most cringey pish I have ever read. His brains are all in his feet I think. I fear for him in that London. Wish him good luck though.
Andy Carroll….’ Ive started running outside…..’, his stats for salary to games played, must be astronomical
excuses from peter lawell fans “of course we cant spend all the dembele money plus the rodgers comp, do you want us to be bankrupt like sevo bla bla”
ok you had that excuse for the missing 16M ( 28m brought in 12 spent =16m)
so the 25m brought into must be spent now for the CL play off
we must have a list of players out there and the English window is shut, no excuses
Bada, I Know what you mean. But it is a sad day when I will remember some players of limited ability, such as Graeme Sinclair, more fondly than some of our more recent players. KT was a shining light. We believed in him. He was one of us. If KT doesn’t give us more than four years in the first team, who will? Still, I wish the boy all the best and more than ever hope that the pernicious bubble that is the EPL bursts very, very soon.
GuyFawkes
Hope your heart problems are made easier by Celtic performances this season. Post when you are next in Horse and Barge and we can chat. God bless
Maybe it’s an age thing but Kieran’s transfer doesn’t come close to losing Kenny Dalglish in ’77.
Kenny went for the equivalent of £2.7m in today’s money.
I know which one is the better player.
Have nothing but good wishes for KT.
I get it 100% that he is joining the PL AND a big club in the PL
BUT
That statement is a pile of mince.
If you love us that much son what are you doing buying an Oyster card for London.?
I wish I could earn over a million pound a year playing for the only club I ever wanted to play for.
He needs to concentrate on the job in hand and forget all about Scottish football and Celtic F.C.
Shame because he will be missed but we wish him well and move on.
We have a bit of work to do in the market in the next few weeks.
If it gets done properly and things don’t work out as we hoped this season then I will forgive the MAJOR POWERS at Celtic Park.
However if we scrimp and scrape a cheap signing or another useless loan spell I along with many others will be ready for heads to roll.
Get the signings in NOW
D9- it’s all very frustrating ,we need to plan for McGregor going next season, but we won’t….
Kt is gone and he should be held in high regard given his contribution over the past 5 years. we got many good years from him and Celtic have brought in 25 million to boot so have been well rewarded.
We have a few young players from the academy pushing hard to get in the first team and i am sure they will aspire to follow in kt’s footsteps. I am also sure celtic will hope for similiar success.
Celtic need to create a pathway so our kids of today are stars of tomorrow and go for the highest possible price to the biggest and richest leagues. Some who fall just short for the big money moves will stick around for longer.
It is no surprise that certain clubs always seem produce quality kids who are then sold for multimillions. kids and their parents will often go to clubs where they see a pathway to the first team and opportunity to fulfil their full potential.
I want Celtic to be seen as one of those elite development clubs for kids aged 10 to 23 year olds. If celtic do it right there is no reason celtic cant reach higher levels of competitiveness on the european stage.
Every high profile success we have tells young players we have something good to offer.
Can anyone, in all honesty. say that they would forgo a 5 year contract worth approx £20m? No, don’t think so. Will everyone please come to their senses, and get off KT’s case? I’m very sad that he’s gone, but I agree with Terje Vigen; I felt devastated when King Kenny left.
Had Tierney stayed for the 10 he would be 24, coming to the peak of his potential, a 10 in a row achiever and a Celtic Legend.
At 24.
He would be set to earn a 6 figure weekly wage than at Arsenal, and probably at a bigger club
Barca, Bayern, Milan, PSG, Celtic reserves.
I watched a movie last night. Black ‘47.
There was a sequence in it about “Taking the Soup.”
If the bowl fits, slurp from it.
Tim Horton
“was upset when collins(bobby), auld and crerand left must be a age thing plus away for 5o years.”
The difference is those three were pushed out the door.
Yes we just have to suck it up.
At least if you are a Leeds fan or a Sunderland fan you know that you have no hope in competing with the big boys with regards transfers and keeping your outstanding players.
However you also know that with a wee bit of luck you might only be one or two seasons away from being in the Premier League and paying your players a kings randsom in wages [see Aston Villa].
We at Celtic however have lost the geographical lottery.
Forever shackled to the small waters of Scotland.
Forever reduced to second rate signings hoping to bridge their careers to the big time.
And now it seems not even able to keep young outstanding players through our own acadamy happy who genuinely love the club.
When you take a step back and think about it the future is actually quite frightning.
The English Premier league has crushed our ambitions and hope.
We want to sign good players but if they get too good we have no hope of keeping them.
We want to produce good players but if they get too good we now it seems cannot keep them.
We want to play at the highest level but the greed of the clubs down south have forever barred us from their competition despite us ccoming from the same country with the same prime minister and the same passports and also paying the same sattelite tv subscription fees that fund the whole operation in the first place.
Yes tonight I am a bit pissed off with football.
Seeing that picture of KT in an Arsenal shirt did not make me feel good at all .
Good luck to KT. But won’t be watching him at Arsenal. EPL corporate borefest holds no interest.
At least we’ve got money to spend. Something like net £50M in the last 12 months, plus all those saved wages.
Looking forward to seeing what Man City youth prospects we bring in on loan now.
And Willie Fernie around the same time as wee Bobby .
Celtic need to get shifting pronto in the player market – we are financially dominant but I don’t see us demonstrating that force. What happened to the days we’d swoop in a buy players on the verge of signing for sevco – Brandan barker is a pacey direct player that will enhance their squad, we should have got him and sent a message to them in the process!
they will be a force this season and we don’t look solid at the moment!!
STEB.
Shore up the defence.
That`s all we need.
Bit of steel.
Hatchet man.
Affectionately known as uncompromising .
Ideally Irish :-)
Lenny knows what he`s up against.
We`ll be fine.
Jeez, there are some panty wetters on here tonight. We have drawn one game, away from home v an experienced European side, and won our other four games comfortably. Our only weakness on the park has been down our left hand side. Both Morgan and Bolingoli need some time to adapt to playing 1st team football for Celtic, a not uncommon event for newcomers. Hatem has hit the ground running, and he could become a stalwart.
Lenny has said that we will sign more players, so why don’t we trust him? We will need to perform to a higher level if we make it through to play Slavia Prague, but I feel the team can perform better than Wednesday night.
Ther’s not one player in the Newco side that I would have in our squad, and yet some are believing the MSM shoite that they’re going to seriously challenge us for the title. Come on, Bhoys, calm yourselves down to a frenzy. If we turn up in our games v them, we WIN. Fact.
So we get behind the team, and increase the chance that we do turn up. Simples!
So the sport has nothing to do with getting goals, just what happens in the board room and buying and selling, that’s how it works, here, and I thought that game was called monopoly which is a board game and no really a sport is it ?
Ain`t that the truth , Ger.
KT Shown the door, left backs are replaceable, £25M offeres are not, apparently. The Plc valued the cash greater than the player which I suppose is what their sport is all about.
Why would anyone stay after being told the club they love are no longer interested, spurned by a lover is what it must feel like eh.