Two years ago, current Inverness manager, John Hughes, was guest of honour at the CQN Golf Day. For around two hours during the meal he spoke privately to me about John Collins.
Hughes worked alongside Collins at Livingston and regarded our new assistant manager as the most insightful, tactically aware and innovative person he’d met in the game. According to Hughes, Collins could see things hidden to others, including himself. He could spot weaknesses in opposition teams and make telling observations about his own players and formations.
When recruiting anyone to the management team we want to hear endorsements like this. Most of the CQN demographic are old enough to remember times when managers’ and assistants’ most important attribute was their ability to bang his first on a table and yell “Get stuck right intae them” with a legendary level of authority.
This model of the desirable manager is still valued by British clubs, it’s a superstition which has been fed by famous and successful table bangers like Sir Alex Ferguson, but Ferguson’s Fist was not the source of his magic touch. More than anything else, Ferguson’s successful longevity was his insistence on appointing insightful, tactically aware innovators as assistants, who were often more switched-on than he was.
I wanted a student of the game as manager but I also want another strong tactical head as assistant. The last thing a manager actually needs as his assistant is his pal, or someone who is good at shouting, or even someone to be a buffer between him and the players. Whoever puts the cones out at Lennoxtown, like the Scottish physio at Chelsea, can be the players’ pal, cum-go-between, cum-nag.
One of football’s many inefficiencies is the managerial structure. Unlike other industries, the responsibility and wage gaps between the man with the top job and his assistant are huge. There is no reason for this, in fact, it’s mad. You always need a hierarchy but the no. 2 should have duties, responsibilities and pay only a fraction less than his immediate superior. The huge disparities in authority which are common do not give you a functioning team, at best you have a less efficient autocracy.
As we’ve said for years, guru managers don’t exist, but good, properly constituted, management teams do.
Those in the management team, responsible for spending millions of pounds of our money each year, of making tactical decisions against the best teams in Europe, need to be oracles of the game. Anything less and we’re indulging in one of football’s glaring and costly inefficiencies.
John Collins fits the profile. He also doesn’t suffer fools, with strong ideas on training, fitness, laxity, drinking, diet and off-field behaviour. For Celtic, all of this is necessary. Footballers are elite athletes but there is enormous variation in how dedicated they are to their personal development. This doesn’t exist in elite participants in sports like athletics, where you don’t get near the podium without a puritanical level of commitment to your development, and to your coach’s instructions.
You can also forget any concerns about Scott Brown. The Scott Brown of 2014, who as Neil Lennon’s captain was responsible for imposing misdemeanor fines on players, is more like John Collins than he is like the Scott Brown of 2007.
Over the last seven years we have built the sports science, medical, technical analysis and scouting capacity, all of which are particularly impressive, but the management team has always had a homespun feel about it. In 10 years of CQN I’ve never backed a Celtic management appointment, but with the appointment of Ronny Deila and John Collins we have a new type of management team. There are no guarantees of immediate success in any walk of life, and Champions League qualification this season will still be exposed to the vagaries of sport, but I’m delighted we finally have what looks like a properly constituted team in the dug out.
Visit the CQN Bookstore to get Tommy Gemmell to sign your personal copy of his book, All the Best.
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Gordybhoy64
Injury and suspension problems for Uruguay.
Hope they can overcome them.
checkiny obviously means checking oops
Charlie,Charlie!
Charlie,Charlie!
Original tunes! :;
PF –
I’m sure he is………as is Mo…….. and Pet Navan,
however, they now ply their trade in a different medium and perform largely according
to the received wisdom of their employers imo………..
Sky – Ol’Firrum, EPL it is( no cure), ARSENAL
Shortie – Aye-ready ranjurs, embdybutceltic
HH.
PFayr hope you held your nerve with your running on bet and kept faith with the Croats
Boogie man for zombies was Obv. Must be tired to miss him. Nite all
Ex rangers players at world cup (I may have missed 1 or 2 cause I wasn’t paying too much attention)
Bedoya
De Beasely
Bougerra
McKay
Jellavic
Sevco players at world cup
Nain.
There is hope for sevco though. In 1958, Clyde had 3 players at the world cup so teams at their level do have hope.
TCC
That must be a world record.
Huns are the world’s world record holders for Jack Shit.
gordybhoy64
00:45 on 19 June, 2014
He did as did I and the other 4 CQN Couponers.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Until we meet again…
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Good late evening Celts
Just listened to radio there
FIFA pulling up Brazil fans for homophobic chants after Mexico game
Croatia & Russia pulled up for racist banners.
*Iraq* asks U.S to consider air strikes . Worrying times.
HH
.
All the Aussie commentators have Turned into Brazilian commentators for Tim Cahill’s Goal..
As Usual Years behind..Peter Maguire did it Years ago..;-)
Summa of WonderGoalsCSC
DD world record excuse and whataboutery.
With a time of 9 minutes ,00; 09; 00 :-)
they hold the only record applicable for a140 y.o klub who went bust…and blame everyone but themselves.
HaHa
HH
It was a good goal Summa
If that were me the ball would be orbiting
:-)
HH
One day
One day shug had to go to hospital
He was injured
From the genitals
Qiuick cover up
And warning
Playing
Accident
Point taken
No further action
One day
Rose was injured
Accident
No further action
Liz was injured
No further action
So on and so on
I was injured
What happened?
Went along company llines
No further action
The best care home worker I ever met said NO
Tell your story
Result
High court trial Forfar
Guilty
Me star witness
Jail
One day
Heh Travellerbhoy keep on writing,hope all is ok with you.heading for the zzz’sm
Your one o us mhate
HH
Night Celtic
HH
an tearmann
Thank you my friend
Had a great night in glesga
My bhoy was dragged along to see Dolly Parton
Cos o his wife
Came back
Whistling “Jolene”
Then his phone was stolen
Nae probs
Fully insured
Hail Hail
Stood up
Stand up
Slap
Stood up
In court
Questioned to death
Nasty guy questioning me
Did?
Why?
When?
Who?
2 days
Ran for 5 mile after the verdict
Vindicated
Stood up
Stand up
Slap
Sorry if I go off on one now and again
Love to be here
Because
I remembered him cos of his name
The ones who’s names I can’t remember I remember by their smells
One got done
The rest got away with it
Probably done it again
How many life’s ruined like most of my siblings
Hate what I suffered
Love what I am
Celtic
Thank you my friends
For being here
Hail Hail
TRAVELLERBHOY
Guid wee chat there,bud. Always a pleasure.
Sorry my phone lost the signal as I cut through country lanes.
Call you on Sunday. HH.
Dunno if anyone has seen this? Enough for Jobo to move out,I reckon.
~~~~~~~~~~++~~~~~~~~~~
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thefootballlife
The Moment of (The Sons of) Struth
After getting money sort of committed to them through the withholding of season ticket sales, after banking on false idols, finally it seems as if Rangers fan groups have started to do what they should have done in the first place – set up a club in protest.
While this is by no means what will happen and is yet to be put to fans, the details that have been passed along the grapevine are as follows:
The success of a boycott of Rangers is now seen as unlikely. WIth 17,000 ST sales announced, there is the widely held belief that this will take the club to a share issue and through the rest of next season. As such, with the boycott no longer being an effective tactic, Rangers fan groups will now move to looking to purchase a club.
Based on the support they believe they have, they expect that in excess of 5,000 fans would follow any protest club however, due to the closed shop of the Scottish League system, that any move to do this would need to be by purchasing a current member club rather than setting a new club up from scratch.
Identified for this is East Kilbride and, while no serious discussions have yet taken place to buy the club, there is consensus that the funding is in place, that this would be a good club to get and that now is the time when fans would endorse this move before they become disenchanted with the anti-board sentiments. This is enhanced by the fact that East Kilbride are, in the grand scheme of things, a fairly new club and that there isn’t much attachment to them so would be little furore at them being taken over.
Due to previous links with East Kilbride and due to enjoying a fairly untarnished reputation of Rangersness, John Brown would be approached to take over a senior role within any set up.
Stumbling blocks seen are that East Kilbride doesn’t have a ground large enough to take the expected crowd so home games would have to be played in Glasgow (likely at Pollok’s ground) and that fans may prefer to have just an entirely new club, which is seen as problematic due to the lack of potential progression through the leagues. Overall, though, this is seen as the next step in the protest against the board and will likely cause some consternation among fans as it requires a large group of supporters to make a permanent break with the club in favour of what would be marketed as their rightful successor but it is believed that this could be done in time for the start of the 14/15 season.
It’s taken a long time for Rangers fans to get to the stage of open warfare against the mother club, but it’s here.
bobby murdoch’s curled-up winklepickers
An absolute pleasure my fhriend
A wee ghuy like mehjob nobbing wi the greats o cqn
NEVER
Just know the PEOPLE in the next room stole my bhoys phone
Certain
Just woke them up
How?
Banged my head against a metal wardrobe
TRAVELLERBHOY
Yer some man-how am I supposed to grab some kip wi that (really!) mental image rattling about my napper?
bobby murdoch’s curled-up winklepickers
Dinnae worry about that
We had to listen to the songbook
Mark and his missus bliss
Don’t want to again
But I feel a headered version of the Celtic song through the acoustics of a metal wardrobe would suffice
Hail Hail to you
And looking forward to any come backs
Sorry jobo
But looking absolutely gorgeous in glasgow
Although a bit cloudy
Nae mare weather reports fae me
Good morning everybody, one thing to say, come on Uruguay.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Good morning all from East Kilbride where it’s another bright dry warm start to the day. Off now to hopefully see that Croatia won last night.
BMCUW
05.26
Morning,
God forbid! I know it might stink of nimbyism, my wee town beeen going down hill since the years of my youth, but that would put the tin lid on it! ;)
EKOK
lilys
jobo baldie
06:29 on 19 June, 2014
You mean to say you didn’t watch…:)
Great effort by us all. Also bet Chile to beat Spain.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Just watching the Croatia game
Why would a player of Songs standing do that
Something stinks
HH
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
05:26 on 19 June, 2014
Dunno if anyone has seen this? Enough for Jobo to move out,I reckon.
~~~~~
=====================================
That’s one of the perfect scenarios in some ways. (Of course if you live beside Pollock’s ground you might not be so enthusiastic about them landing several thousand strong every other week)
Two struggling Rangers Branded Clubs? Better than one unified, strong resurgent tribute act, no matter how damaged that entity would also have been.
Like I keep saying to anyone who will listen – we won’t see a strong Rangers Branded club in our lifetime. They are fu………
BTW East Kilbriders – read the story – I don’t think they’d be playing in EK. It’s Pollock Junior’s Ground they are eying up. EK remains OK
Robert Tressell
07.44.
Let the Lord be praised!! ;)
lilys
Morning Celts, the sun is shining and there is the distinct possibility that England will join Spain on the plane, could be a good day..
Morning all.
Beautiful day down here. Oh, for a month or 2 of this.
Oh for another molnth or 2 of the World Cup. Great entertainment.
I hope England win tonight. Two reasons.
1. I have money placed on them winning. When it comes to betting, the head rules the heart.
2. I actually prefer them to be sent packing after a penalty shoot-out defeat, preferably to Argentina or Germany.
The sun is shining
RD & JC are sharpening the
tools as we speak and, Neil
and WGS and MO’N, are doing
a grand ole job of the punditry.
C’mon the Diego’s.
Hail Hail – Off oot to paint the fence, bye.