When Celtic make their trip to the ‘neat little town they call Belfast’ (I’ve been off radar recently, assume it’s still described thus) they will have no reason to believe they are ready for a game of football which could determine the success or failure of the coming season. Instead the players will share a degree of anxiousness.
Cliftonville rank about as low as is possible to get in European competition but they will be better than the Arbroath team which left Glasgow with a draw last season against a Celtic team who were motoring at the time.
We have some concerning history against the Irish. Celtic’s first ever Champions League qualifier was against St Patrick’s Athletic in 1998. The visitors left Celtic Park with a 0-0 draw before Celtic won 0-2 in Ireland. In the 1979-80 European Cup Dundalk gave us a fright. Celtic won the first leg 3-2, at home, but had to endure a nervous second half in Dundalk as the home side searched, in vain as it turned out, for the goal which would allow them to win the tie on away goals.
Anything less than 100% on Wednesday will see Celtic walk a tightrope………
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Patrick27
The word from Spain is that Falcao is only at Monaco for a season at most, as a transfer “directly” from Athletico to Real is not the done thing..
paolosboots – i am blaming old age mate,even tho im younger than most of the CQN crew…but sure they are all Irish blood,so we can take the credit for their ability to handle the drink better than us!:p
Patrick– Was thinkin about him just today and thought he’d been taken. Im sure it would have been looked at if Neil wanted him.
The Singing Detective Demands The Resignation Of Campbell Ogilvie
01:06 on
17 July, 2013
Don`t know if you caught this before,but Obama`s generosity in providing green cards to 11 million “illegals” will probably provide the Democrats with the same number of votes.
Just happenstance.
No light on the horizon.
PAOLOSBOOTS
Have a heart,ffs.
The additives in Ulster Fry-and I love the stuff-would give him an even worse headache than he’s gonna have anyway!
Delighted it went well for all concerned.
Macjay its a tough balancing act but i think some solid signings in the £3-4m bracket would enhance our chances as mentioned earlier Austin & Toure would cost £6m combined so same as hooper transfer and better chance of one or both succeeding given their stats.
BMCUW, there has to be a forfit for losing on their own turf!!!
PAOLOSBOOTS
Poor lad had just done a nightshift then spent a coupla hours sending texts and mails to ensure everyone had the correct contact details.
Cut the big girls blouse some slack….
Bould Bhoys
Just reading some Aiden articles, and how Peter told him how the door for a return is always open. Here is hoping!
paolosboots
Aye, Austin would fit in just fine, almost direct Hooper replacement?
True about Lenny and Aiden, but Aiden has matured since then plus Lenny was coach in 07/08, Aidens best season, so I’d hope they were over it! I’m not a huge Forrest fan, but he does come up with moments of magic sometimes! If (a big if) he stays injury free, he’ll be a very good asset for us
BMCUW – Fair enough only this once though…..
jeez
Oh, wink wink nudge nudge then! Plus not a bad year out of La Liga financially either ;)
Patrick27 good points, we are in the position where all players are for sale except Foster according to Lenny, so silly money for likes of forest, kayal or izzy i don’t think will be turned down. I think they all fall into the Ki category, except all of these have not come back better players after long term injury, harsh but true imo!
Goodnight all
16 roads, naw. I got home on sunday and got straight back to keeping the oil flowing in the pipe I’m afraid……………..
What do you mean I woulda been like a king, ffs bud I’m drinking a kings dram right now:-)
I would have loved to have been at the game for tomorrow but timing and other events didn’t give me much of a chance.
Tri Coloured Ribbons has proposed a get together on your island in December and I’ve said to count me in. You can show me around, I obviously don’t want to see an orc as theres more than enough of them here.
Hail Hail Bruv and have a great time tomorrow. I’ll be watching the game in the company of young ACGR and we’ll look resplendent in our Celtic onesie’s. I might need to cut off the arms and legs in this hot weather and make into halfsie’s though.
We Are Celtic
paolosboots
Would accept £10m plus for any player in the squad, even £8m plus.
This year is where Kayal can become £10m man again, Izzy likewise and Forrest achieves his potential!
Patrick27, I like your thinking but on a selfish note I’d like to hang onto some of the players who’ve played against the original hun for the next time we zombie version. It would be unfair to expect broonie to rip the pish oota them on his own.
The ether stole ma “meet the ”
oops!!!
a ceiler gonof rust
Haha so true, keep Kayal for elbows and obvs Chaz and the Greek Ghod aren’t going anywhere!
1 player sold a season for me!
.
Courtesy The Irish Times..
Celtic short at the back for what should be a friendly encounter with Cliftonville
Efe Ambrose rushed back for Champions League qualifier
Celtic manager Neil Lennon: “We have a great relationship with Cliftonville but once the whistle blows we will try to win the game.”
Celtic’s defensive injury crisis ahead of their Champions League qualifier against Cliftonville at Solitude tonight has led to an early recall to action for Efe Ambrose.
The Nigeria defender was given extra time off following the Confederations Cup. However, with defenders Adam Matthews, Charlie Mulgrew and Virgil van Dijk injured, plus Steven Mouyokolo signed but not available until the second leg next week, manager Neil Lennon has called upon the services of Ambrose earlier than expected.
“Efe Ambrose is in contention,” said the Northern Irishman, who has also seen Victor Wanyama leave for Southampton. “He looks great, he looks in good condition. These guys play almost 12 months a year. He has had a couple of weeks off.
“He had a heavy schedule with the Confederations Cup, had a holiday, did a little bit of training in Nigeria and then joined us yesterday and he looks fine. It probably would have been ideal for him to do a little bit of conditioning work but looking at him yesterday he looks in fine fettle.”
Midfielder Joe Ledley and striker Gary Hooper are also out with injuries with the latter expected by Lennon to leave the Scottish champions in the next week.
Norwich were reported to have put a deadline of yesterday on their €4.6m bid for the 25-year-old Englishman while QPR boss Harry Redknapp indicated the club were not close to bringing Hooper to Loftus Road, albeit he is a player firmly on their radar.
Lennon said: “There are a couple of clubs interested and talks are ongoing but there is no confirmation on anything yet. I expect it to go ahead. I don’t know what club or what price but I would expect it to be concluded over the next week or two.”
He also denied reports that he is interested in former Barcelona player Javier Saviola.
Having beaten Barcelona in last season’s competition, Lennon concedes that a shock defeat to the Northern Irish champions cannot be ruled out.
“Anything can happen in football. It is a dangerous game and it is one we are not taking lightly. We will have to be at our best. I know it is early and I know some of the players won’t be at their best but we will have to play very well to get a result tomorrow.
“Cliftonville will be highly motivated but the Champions League is so important to us as well. The difficulty is it comes so early. It is our first competitive game, we have only been back two and a half weeks and some players less than that, so it is a big ask.”
The friendship and cultural similarities between both clubs and their respective fans means there should be little animosity at the north Belfast ground which has had its capacity increased to around 5,000 but Lennon does not want the night to become too friendly.
“We have a great relationship with Cliftonville but once the whistle blows we will try to win the game,” he said.
“The atmosphere should be great, as long as it doesn’t turn into a party-type atmosphere and the players get caught up with that. We are here to do a job and try to win the game or try to take some sort of result back to Glasgow next week.”
Summa
.
Neil Lennon: ‘Early European start harsh on Celtic’
CELTIC manager Neil Lennon has called on Uefa to reassess their regulations which leave the Scottish champions standing over a European trapdoor tonight.
Just four months after mixing it with the Champions League elite, Celtic find themselves facing a second qualifying round tie against Cliftonville in Northern Ireland.
Ahead of tonight’s first leg in Belfast, Lennon admits he is concerned at the prospect of Celtic slipping up at a stage of the tournament which offers no parachute into the Europa League for the losers. On the past two occasions Scottish clubs have had to enter the Champions League in this round, calamity has struck. Lennon was part of the Celtic side shocked by Slovakian side Artmedia Bratislava in 2005, then Rangers were eliminated by Kaunas in Lithuania three years later.
Scotland’s crumbling Uefa co-efficient ranking, which determines which stage of the competition clubs begin their campaign, has left Celtic with three qualifying ties to negotiate this season if they are to repeat last year’s achievement of making it to the lucrative and prestigious group phase.
Lennon believes Uefa should consider amending their rules to accommodate any team which reaches the last 16 of the Champions League, as his squad did last season. “I think it has to be looked at,” said Lennon. “I don’t think it’s fair, considering the season we had and the amount of games we played. To come back into it so early, we could be out of Europe altogether by next week.
“I think that is very, very harsh. I suppose they are the rules, the reality of it and you have to accept it, but baffling is a good word to use about it. I just think it’s really harsh to have to play an extra qualifier after reaching the last 16.
“We are the champions of our country, we reached the last 16 of the Champions League last season. Surely there should be some sort of dispensation for clubs who do well the previous season?
“Maybe it’s just me being selfish but I think it’s very, very harsh on us to be playing so early. I’m not going to be critical of other Scottish clubs and the co-efficient.
“I just don’t think it’s right that we’re playing a very important competitive game two weeks into our pre-season.”
Lennon’s sense of unease about tonight’s match at Cliftonville’s tiny Solitude ground has not been eased by an injury-disrupted preparation. Adam Matthews, Charlie Mulgrew, Virgil van Dijk, Joe Ledley and Gary Hooper were all not fit enough to make the short hop across the Irish Sea yesterday.
Hooper’s absence could be permanent, the striker the subject of increased transfer interest from QPR, who are rivalling Norwich City for his signature.
“The deal might fall through but in my mind I’m resigned to losing him,” said Lennon. “If the valuation is met and negotiations are agreed then I assume it will be done sooner rather than later.”
Following on from the record £12.5 million sale of midfielder Victor Wanyama to Southampton, it leaves Lennon urgently seeking suitable replacements if Celtic are to make another credible tilt at Champions League success.
“We have identified some players and we are trying to push the button on a couple,” he said. “It just depends on the agents I suppose. I’m not going to give any names away but we are looking seriously at the striker position now.
“We felt that if the team got a decent run going in Europe last year, you never know where it could take us. We are hoping for more this season, although we are losing two of our better players. If we get through this tie, then we’ll see if we can add to the squad in terms of quality.”
An unexpected member of the Celtic travelling party was defender Efe Ambrose, just 24 hours after his return from a close season break which was extended because of his involvement in Nigeria’s Confederations Cup campaign in Brazil.
Lennon had anticipated being without Ambrose’s services tonight but may now press him straight into action, given the injuries to Mulgrew and van Dijk and the unavailability of new French defender Steven Mouyokolo, whose signing was not completed in time.
The selection of Ambrose immediately after his return from Nigeria’s Africa Cup of Nations triumph in February this year backfired for Lennon when the defender was badly at fault in Celtic’s 3-0 home defeat in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie against Juventus.
“That’s not coming into my thinking at all,” insisted Lennon. “Efe trained with us for the first time yesterday and looked fine. Looking at him then, it wouldn’t be a gamble to play him here.”
Lennon, meanwhile, expressed his confidence that this evening’s match will pass off peacefully after several nights of parade-related rioting in Belfast.
“Preparations have gone well and it hasn’t had an impact on us at all,” he said. “We are hoping the night will be remembered for all the right reasons. There may be things happening in the background (in terms of extra security) that the police are working hard at. But for us it’s been a normal Champions League trip. We are being well looked after and so far it’s been seamless.”
Summa
ACGR – Always a legend mo chara.
Bobby M – Switch that feckin fone on the mara chief,for once in it’s life fs!
Goodnight and good luck to all Celtic supporters – We look after our own.
Shane long in final year of contract ?
Summa said lenny said ““The atmosphere should be great, as long as it doesn’t turn into a party-type atmosphere”………..
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, good luck with that one lenny, by the feed back coming in across the ether the party has already well and truly started.
.
The Scotsman..
Rangers: SFA to make no further Ibrox probe
THE SFA have told Rangers that the ruling body won’t be launching a further enquiry into last year’s takeover of the club by the consortium fronted by Charles Green.
Revelations of taped conversations between discredited former owner Craig Whyte with Green and business partner Imran Ahmad prompted then chairman Malcolm Murray to commission an independent investigation of that buy-out by law firm Pinsent Mason.
Although their report cleared Green (who stood down as chief executive in April) and Ahmad (removed as finance director at Ibrox the same month) SFA CEO Stewart Regan claimed in May that they may launch their own investigation. “We have asked a number of specific questions relating to what went on in the period leading up to liquidation and the period surrounding the transfer of membership,” he said. “There are some very specific questions we have asked that require some very specific answers. If we don’t get those answers, we reserve the right to further investigation.
“The nature of the questions we have asked relate to the links between Green, Ahmad and Whyte, the details surrounding money that was lodged in Ahmad’s mother’s bank account and various conversations that allegedly took place.”
However, it emerged last night that the SFA have decided that there is no case for Green and Ahmad to answer. On the basis of the evidence they have seen from the Pinsent Mason findings, they have ruled that there is no requirement for the issue to be referred to compliance officer Vincent Lunny.
Summa
.
ACGR..
TinyTim and 16 Roads give Lenny his Wish..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFPLk5mJ1D4
Summa
.
Looks like The Green Brigade have found a Way round the Lateral Movement Ban..
A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences details how scientists in Switzerland have succeeded in using acoustic levitation to lift objects from the ground and make them move.
Acoustic levitation, otherwise known as acoustophoretic contactless transport and handling of matter in air, is science-talk for the ability to use sound waves to make things float about a room, maybe even crash into one another.
The scientific community has long been aware of the fact that one could use sound waves to move things.
..
Though might need some Tweaking to Stop Crashing into one another..;-)
Summa of DoingTheHuddleInTheSkyCSC
Summa, the whole division three section of the Scotsman website reads and looks like a perfectly timed hun tribute on the eve of Celtics next campaign of glory, deliberately designed to undermine Celtic.
Nah, I’ must be paranoid…………………………..again.
A Ceiler Gonof Rust
02:47 on 17 July, 2013
Summa, the whole division three section of the Scotsman website reads and looks like a perfectly timed hun tribute on the eve of Celtics next campaign of glory, deliberately designed to undermine Celtic.
________________________
Ah, If only we had another Mr Stein tae put them in the shadows again :)
HH
Heh, heh – Off oot.
We should play this loudly over the Paradise sound system this season.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE_1X4tU3oY
1. We deserve to regard ourselves as having some dignity, ffs that’s a given.!!
2. To prevent the huns using this in the coming years.
I’m surprised they’ve been thick enough not have picked up on this and named their ship ra walter, ra queenie or ra orange bstard.
Have they named their wee bus yet?
acgr
all a matter of taste, but not for me. cannae go deacon blue. seen them in the fixx afore the became successful and was astonished when they did.
ah hear the big bloo bus is called ted flush. bus ted flush
aye ok ah’ll get me coat :o)
I’m taken aback by the jitteriness of the Celtic support ahead of tomorrow’s game.
There is absolutely no reason why we should fear Cliftonville.
Respect yes. Fear no.
We are several planes above the Belfast side in all aspects.
We have players whose skills have been tempered and honed in the heat of CL games.
We have management with similar pedigrees.
We have the coaching, medical and support staff unmatched at Solitude.
By every measure we should be comfortable and confident.
Lets show some faith in our management, players and history.
I will be surprised and disappointed if we don’t have the tie securely in hand by the end of the first 90 minutes.
AGCR.
Good to hear your home safe and sound.
Tony was asking for your details to confirm your attendance at the golf day.
tonights game for us is all about attitude and application. if we come up short on either there will be calls for lennys heid oan here by 10pm. however i would still expect us to go thru over two legs. my concern is the qualifiers doon the line
Meeting oldtim Thursday pm in Glasgow.
Anyone and everyone invited..(excluding trolls and hunposters)
This will be oldtim first day out since cqn golf so it would be nice to see some new and familiar faces..
KTF.
Back to sleep…
Greenyin, I’ll haud yer hanger:-)
Here’s a wee ditty I first saw posted by a CQN’r who took himself and family off to Aus……………………………………., lucky bassa……………..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsOA-5H_L2g
Shady, if you lurk, stop it soon and get posting, tell us how the move went??
Listen to the last line bruv.
Hail Hail Celtic men an wummin.
enjoyed that.
years back when t’interweb was dial up ah used to post on the rivals site under the handle emerald express and pc mankymob. a couple of names i remember where snake plisken who i think posts on here, club57inthesun and the real tim shady. is this the same shady you speak of?
BT, no sweat bruv, tell T I’ll have a team but we want a tim e.g. yon butler dude to play with (nae dross mind) :-0), that bro of mine is a fussy wee fud.
In Belgium beers are far superior to their “cidre’s”……………………..even the French ones………………………
Stick to the belgie beirs BT, you will fly off your crutches if you drink ten Duvels its damn good stuff.