For the second time this season against Kilmarnock, the first half offered Celtic promise as well as a lead at the interval. Celtic’s pace of play and directness had the visitors on the backfoot until the break. The left wing played an important part of the story. Luis Palma and Greg Taylor are by far Celtic’s most competent retainers of possession on the left and made sure we were able to quickly attack Killie down that flank.
Luis put in a couple of poor crosses just before the break, and with options on the bench, Brendan Rodgers hooked the Honduran for Yang. An attempt to aid our attacking efforts would later undermine our ability to progress play up-field. The rot did not really set in until Taylor, on his first game back from injury, was replaced after an hour.
Daizen Maeda is not known for holding play up, however he gets up and down the park and tracks back better than anyone in the game. But seven minutes after our left flank’s defensive and ball holding abilities were weakened, Maeda made way for Nicolas Kuhn. Kuhn is a crosser of the ball (though poorly on this occasion), not a defensive-minded player. You can be sure, “Tracks back” does not feature on his bio.
Yet again, Joe Hart was called upon to make several saves (more than his counterpart in the Kilmarnock goal). The defence played well; Tony Ralston and Liam Scales in particular, but in the second half we were without a gameplan to move play forward.
The above debacle set the scene for Kilmarnock’s deserved draw. Celtic could have got away with the win, just as they did recently home to Ross County, or at Hibs, but it would have been a win despite what happened at crucial times on the field.
We are now behind a team in the league, which lost several first-team players in the summer without transfer fees, who then signed players that overwhelmingly disappointed, some of whom have already been offloaded, and who sacked their manager during an injury crisis which saw them slip well off the pace.
What do they have that we don’t? They didn’t have a good transfer window, they didn’t have a season without injuries, they didn’t start with a manager who knew what he was doing. Midseason, they added organisational ability and here we are!
Newco remain in Europe and could find this undermines them in the league, but only if we are able to apply our own pressure, which means winning football games. We need a robust and functioning gameplan for Sunday, or we risk dropping points yet again to Motherwell and removing any pressure on our title rivals.
Soon Cameron Carter-Vickers will return, and we can hope Reo Hatate gives us the last couple of months of the season. On their own, this does not feel like it will be enough to push us over the line.
247 Comments- Pages:
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SID on 19TH FEBRUARY 2024 7:03 PM
That list of players is very demoralising and goes a very long way to explaining the fall off we’ve seen.
It’ll be interesting to see how many more windows we persist with this recruitment team, how many millions and how many trophies is our CEO prepared to lose so that he doesn’t have to sack the chairman’s son ?
Kinglubo
The league is fixed I tell you
– – ——-
I think it’s now apparent to most, this past decade or so, just how corrupt the game now is in Scotland and just how much Celtic are involved in the shenanigans.
Previously, it was corrupted to assist one team, now the corruption is there to serve two.
The Res 12 stuff nails it firmly at the door of our Boardroom.
We are very much in and Old Firm relationship.
Auldheid on 19th February 2024 9:09 pm
I signed up to the CST a fair while back, correspondence have been thin on the ground from them for quite a while. Good to hear that they are working away in the background.
The Head of Recruitment is moving on to a far bigger job,don’t you know…….
Everton equalize through Corner – Scorer is 6″4 . Min requirement for us next season
Celtic win the league for 11 of the past 12 years.
The league is s fixed.
And Celtic plc want rangers to win it.
Dearie me and an added my goodness
Auldheid.
Superb .
G Feardom
My personal experience is that their leadership is untrustworthy.
My professional relationship is that as constituted they are not fit for the purpose of mounting serious challenges on current issues.
Hence my thoughts on restructuring to cease being a cause of division.
Perhaps 3 years after giving me personal reasons to mistrust things have changed given loss of members like myself after a resolution they voted for was sanitised by CST leadership putting their claim of being a democratic organisation in jeopardy.
Star above the crest.
Other blog
Peter Lawell is a Celtic fan
By all means criticise his way of working etc
But i can confirm he is a Celtic fan and probably like yourself played football in Eastwood like you would have as a kid.
He is a Celtic man
HH
.
BURNLEY78 on 19TH FEBRUARY 2024 2:50 PM
Saint Stivs
Re next chair person
Great question.
Who ?
Chris MACKAY
With a full overhaul of Board and Ne(o)ds
HH
THE STAR ABOVE THE CREST on 19TH FEBRUARY 2024 3:04 PM
The next Chairperson should be a Celtic supporter.
Like the current one Star
As stated above He is a Celtic man
But your right is to critique him,but dont question whether he is a Celtic man
HH
If it was just about money then we would not see girona above Athletico Madrid and Barca or Leverkusen above Bayern or even Napoli winning the scudetto last season.
An dun
The Sid list is utter shite. Totally incorrect.
Believe it if it suits your personal crusade of course.
Classic Trump shite. Repeat the lie loudly and often. Like Peter Lawwell isn’t a Celtic fan.
Celtic Mac
ECA under umbrella of UEFA. Apologies. You are correct. I am kinda correct also.
The secrecy and treating the fans as fools is coming back to bite this arrogant and complacent board, they are so out of touch with the support. All this plus the mismanagement of the recruitment process is causing mistrust never seen since the early 1990’s.
God knows where the club goes from here, from a position of strength they have managed to take the richest, best supported football club in Scotland to crisis level. Unbelievable !
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 19TH FEBRUARY 2024 6:16 PM
I wonder if, rather than bonusing our recruitment team on the profit generated from sales of players they recruited, we bonused them on Champions League results, we’d see a different approach to player acquisition.
Wise suggestion TBB,i thoughtclast summer we would step out and add CL experience to our squad,alas not so,whether it be coming here to Scotland or richer pickings in England
HH
An Dun
I know it wouldn’t suit you to check the facts but really. The Sid list is ridiculous garbage.
Notthebus
I think McKay did the JJ and GG deals plus the McCarthy one before he was checked.
I think that Kyogo was Ange and not sure re Abada and Sfarfelt. CCV was after McKay was gone and was a loan initially and Jotta also a loan initially.
O Riley Hatate Maeda were all January window long after McKay was gone.
20 years of dominance and we have become a crisis club in 60 days. Whilst not even losing a game in 2 months including beating our nearest rivals.
Superscoreboard / Dauly Record and BBC could not have imagined this in its wildest dreams.
B78
So Mckay never signed anyone , yet later its nothing to do with Lawwell it’s the CEO Nicholson. All the crap players just coincidentally happened under Mark and Peter Lawwell, pure coincidence and nothing to do with them. I’ve noticed you’ll try and throw Nicholson under the bus to protect Lawwell. You’re the one full of shit and none of it will matter because both Lawwells will be gone.
P67 thinks it’s a crisis. Read his blog.
Yappy chewawawa.
You hopeless at that blogging thing
Clubs strengthen before the new season i think we can say that we didn’t.
I have no idea BR took the job and we might never know but i would hold on to him until the end of the season.
IMO.
Auldheid
I know your work is highly informative.
As you know imo r12 i think was doomed as soon as it was long grassed at its first agm.
Dermot does not take any dissent in any of his dealings in the corporate work,
His interview at the Dunhill golf tournament
‘Great club with great traditions’ was pointing out Celtic as a clubs direction of travel.
From that first agm continuation of our business model was prime and somewhere along that line trfc would re-enter the league.
This they did in 2016 after serving their new club 3 year european ban,the longer r12 went on the more the pointers proved the long grass had done its job,the nimmo smith consultancy starting with an answer(no title stripping) and obfuscating back is just an example of doing business here.
Nimmo smith was never re looked at, even when HMRC won all its cases and appeals against.Our major shareholder did not want it,and Peter done his bidding until some 8 or 9 years later it was defeated by shareholders 99.5% to 0.5% (approx)
Celtic as a company can barely handle a resolution for a disabled section,Dermot as 44% s/h hasa majority and dint want any corporate linkage to the deidyins,their demise is wholly owned by them,Dermots 44% is a majority as their are 22% share purchased in 95 that have not been updated and serviced so by the rules their vote defaults to the PLC board hence those massive majorities against r12 when it was finally voted on.
I would urge every shareholder to update their shares and default their voting rights to the Celtic Trust,settinv up alternate groups only serves Dermots divide and rule strategy.
Make the 5% target and things will start to change.
HH
Tim Horton
I would too
And like MoN i would back him,
I dont think BR got that regardless of the public pronouncements.
We will see what happens
HH
An Tearman.
I don’t subscribe to the view Res12 was long grassed.
Celtic were going to vote against it and that would have been the end of it.
No LNS uncovering, no evidence fraud had been committed in 2011 and no change in the previous understanding that the Celtic Board, far from being behind supporters as regards disliking/hating RFC, were in fact in cahoots with them. That has probably been the biggest factor of all.
What happened was PL was told that if Celtic voted against Res12 then the CF material, that he was well aware because it has been provided to him, would be made public and PL would then have had to answer to shareholders for ignoring the material.
Blackmail.
That concentrated minds for next day a suggestion coming from MN that Res12 be adjourned was made.
It was accepted because the adjournment kept Res12 on the AGM agenda but more important gave requisitioners the authority to seek answers from SFA and when answers were unsatisfactory the right to approach UEFA with unexpected bonus of Traverso’s new club reply.
Far from PL kicking Res12 into the long grass, he gave it a life beyond anyone’s imagining when Res12 was created.
He never took account of the intelligence or persistance of the requisitioners, he being the smartest guy in the room.
Thanks for the opportunity to clarify one of the many meanings given to Res12.
Had PL spoken to my son he would have been told to give in on the basis he did not know what he was up against. (For Dessybhoy)
The same folk and their little poor wee me violins all broken up about Res12 and all of the bandwidth that was used to try and impart it as a worthwhile idea what are they like?
The poor dears.
The PLC are kings because Resolution dumbfks make them kings.
No Resolution will take off if you are governed by a lying, crooked, pro old firm executive, and they are financially vouched for yearly by 60,000 lazy entitled spoiled empty heads.
If Lawwell has a soulless empty head then of course he is a Celtic fan.
If 60,000 soulless empty heads are Celtic fans then Lawwell is a stick on Celtic fan…probably the greatest Celtic fan ever lol
The only medicine for empty heads will come via a hun trophy haul and with real Celtic fans like Lawwell pulling the strings whilst wearing their “Make The Old Firm Great Again” t-shirts then Celtic are on the way to getting better…probably losing thousands of spoilt university snowflake middle class chav yuppie happy clappers along the way.
Which is always a good thing. Empty the park you empty heads ffs!
PS How anybody can propose Resolutions whilst quietly and sneakily going along with the 2016 PLC £49 ticket trick, is the measure of a double agent who is looking more and more and more and more and more like a controlled opposition plant(just like Celtic blogs) who sees one slippery crime, £49 ticket deception, as a good crime so it must NEVER be mentioned, but the other Res12 borefest slippery crime as a bad crime and must never stop being mentioned. 👀️
Good morning all from a windy a d wet 9 degree Garngad.
Big Jimmy good to see you on yesterday.
BRRB same to you, hope to see you both on March 1st.
D. :)
Good Morning Celts – Grand Day To Be A Tim
Very interesting reading back, from sound comment, to flights of fancy…
The agenda and schism in plain sight, yet many good insightful posts and factual points.
Not going to get overly involved, yet maybe just a heads up for the one who loves “facts”.
BURNLEY78 @ 11:20 PM,
“20 years of dominance and we have become a crisis club in 60 days. Whilst not even losing a game in 2 months including beating our nearest rivals.”
Now, B78 knows many of those we are discussing, maybe a friend, an associate or someone he’s rubbed shoulders with…
So, if he is batting for a “side” or individual, fair play to him, he’s every right to do so.
Yet as a wiser man than I once said…
“facts are chiels that winna ding, and downa be disputed”
So, the Big Pedro revolution and the twenty year myth.
Firstly my point recently made on CQN – what I described as having your cake and eating it…
PL is responsible for twenty years of Domination.
PL has nothing to do with whats currently going on at Celtic
So a wee disconnect, let’s see if we can illuminate.
Of course since 2004, Peter Lawwell was our CEO (promoted from Chief Operating chap).
He was CEO for an amazing (in many aspects of the word) years.
So my bugbear with the twenty years of Domination…
The early years of the ninties – ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, (as another wiser man than I once said) for Celtic Glasgow
So without going over it all again, let’s just say if you know your history (as a…) we seen a turbulent decade.
The new millennium see’s the toils of Fergus and the gang bearing fruit and a new era emerges with the appointmentof MO’N as manager…
2000/01 Celtic
2001/02 Celtic
2002/03 Rangers
2003/04 Celtic
PL becomes CEO
2004/05 Rangers
2005/06 Celtic
2006/07 Celtic
2007/08 Celtic
2008/09 Rangers
2009/10 Rangers
2010/11 Rangers
2011/12 Celtic
Rangers died
2012/13 Celtic
2013/14 Celtic
2014/15 Celtic
2015/16 Celtic
2016/17 Celtic
2017/18 Celtic
2018/19 Celtic
2019/20 Celtic
2020/21 R2ngers
Dominic McKay becomes CEO
2021/22 Celtic
2022/23 Celtic
2023/24 TBD
Now, for me those are fair breakdowns of the Scottish League Champions this century.
You will notice that the main reason for Celtic dominating the League wins table is that Rangers died in 2012.
In the PL era…
Before Rangers die, the spoils are shared, before the PL era we win 3 out of 4.
After the PL era we’ve won 2 out of 3 with the 3rd yet to be determined.
So my point is, it was the bravery, the ingenuity, the hard work and the cash up front in the ninties, (when will we see, their likes again, (as a…)) where great Celts planted the seeds of our 21st Century Domination.
No one person can lay claim to this (although there is obviously one main ninties leader and who is still (kinda) here, that has been around since the ninties).
We’ve had the better of it, no doubts, with the title going went back and forth, between Parkhead and Ibrox, with only the demise of Rangers having a significant impact.
Peter Lawwell was a strong CEO, he had a super power as a financial controller.
How well all that worked out for Celtic in the short, medium and long terms will be vehemently discussed.
That “dialogue” will really kick off big time NOW.
Yet can we park the twenty years nonsense please.
Have A Great Day
Aff Oot
Hail Hail
My friends in Celtic,
Our support are not happy. There is no arguing the fact that most of our support are unsettled.
Are we being the best we can be. ? The answer must he a resounding no. This is not entitlement, it is merely acknowledging the fact that as a club we should be doing much better ( On and off the park )
I wanted BR back as I thought he was the best fit manager for the job. I still do with reservations. Football is an entertainment, we are not entertaining.
Football is a results driven sport we are not achieving optimum performance and results.
Our fans put a lot into the club, it is due to many fans sacrifice, sweat and tears that we are in the advantageous financial position we find ourselves.
For the record, our ST’s are not cheap, our European packages are not cheap ( Children’s prices were outrageous) and the culinary delights in the stadium is extortionate and generally poor fare.
Additionally outwith the clubs control , travel is now much more expensive. Arguably our fans travel much greater distances to attend home games.
Subsequently in my opinion our fans in vast numbers are doing their bit and honouring their part of the football deal.
What use is massive financial advantage if its not used to the benefit of the team and club. Most sensible supporters realise club security is vital, but we also recognise that prudent spending is necessary.
We needed four quality players according to our manager. Quality over quantity as our current model is not working. We never came remotely close to that
I do not believe promises and guarantees to BR have been fulfilled
HH.
Everyone of our board should be sacked “fail to prepare, prepare to fail” and all that.
Gross misconduct as our players are the most inferior for years.
Liewell never won us anything he has cost us with failures to get into CL time and time again, we are like a thurghbred horse that has had its 2 front legs tied together and sevco are donkeys that cannot believe their luck.
With £72-92 million in the bank I know for a fact any of us would do better than our board.
Invest, win the League, get into CL and get cash.
Rinse and repeat until we are in a position squad wise in say 4 years to then challenge to get through to next 16.
Simples but the key in my/our plan would be honesty.
D. :)
thumbs up for chairboy and that’s without discussing europe, our prep (lack of) for europe, the planned and inevitable contingencies/consequences.
you could also toss in 2 euro finals for the huns since pl became chairman…
DAVID66 on 20TH FEBRUARY 2024 5:55 AM
Good morning all from a windy a d wet 9 degree Garngad.
Big Jimmy good to see you on yesterday.
BRRB same to you, hope to see you both on March 1st.
………………
Cheers mate, and I will see you next Friday 1st March all being well.
I havent been out anywhere since my DA’s Funeral over Two weeks ago, so Ive had NO Beers since FEB. 3rd.
I must try and get out for some Beers later this week ?
I hope that you and the Family are all okay.
HH Mate.
Chairbhoy nails it .
There’s your breakfast.
Anyone who thinks PL and DD are not Old Firm fans hasn’t been watching this past decade .
I’ll say it again, the game in Scotland is corrupt. It just depends on how corrupt most think it is, but Our club is certainly involved.
This should come as a relief to the knuckle crushing board members at Celtic Park. They wont have to hide their love for deid team anymore, we are all brothers.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/vatican-cardinal-calls-for-permanent-catholic-freemason-dialogue-at-historic-joint-event/?utm_source=daily-catholic-2024-02-20&utm_medium=email
Christorey
Nothing you post has anything to do with Celtic fans,far less Celtic,your post,thankfully deleted the other night, was an update of nazi germanys t’internet of antijewish hate and has no place on a Celtic site.hillybilly rubbish,a bogey man must be to blame,in your case the jew,Sad
By the law of averages Ross County, Patrick, Hamilton and Livingston would have won some of the leagues over the past twenty years.
However, thanks to the outstanding work of our great board we have been able to fight off their brave challenges while also managing to win a single leg of a knockout European tie. Absolute heroes……..
Morning,all.
The 1970s comedy “Soap” famously left us all confused at the end of each episode,but at least we were too busy laughing to notice. The soap opera at Celtic Park is leaving us similarly confused,but while everyone else will be in stitches at events,there is nothing but anger from the target audience-that’s us,the fans.
The anger is easily explained. We are watching a team which won the treble last season throw it all away in a manner not dissimilar to the one we saw in 20/21. Yes,we lost three core players from that side and obviously we lost the manager as well,but the money was available to source replacements,while the manager was replaced with the man who won us 7/7 trophies while he was here the last time.
So what has gone wrong? And are we even close to figuring out why? After all,the core of that side was still there. There was,as I’ve said,money available to a manager who knew his way around the transfer markets both at home and abroad. And with a record £60m on offer via the newly-revamped Champions League,we had every reason to go for it and every advantage possible. We even had our sole rival across the city imploding after themselves going all in on a summer transfer spending spree which endangered their very future!
Not to mention a seven point lead over them at one time.
The last three months have been disastrous on the pitch,ever since we conceded a last minute equaliser against Motherwell at the end of November. It was as though a light went out in the players and the manager,as we contrived to drop points consistently. From 35/39 points then,we are now now 62/78. Or,to put it another way…
From our first 13 matches,we took 35 points. In the 13 since,we have taken 23.
Yet the blame for this lies not only with the players and the manager. The vast majority lies as usual with the board,the Plc who control everything-including,it seems,the signing strategy. We have seen in the last twenty years how that strategy-brought out of cold storage recently after we genuinely thought it had been binned for eternity,has failed us at every turn. It depends on signing cheap and early,then selling for a profit.
It is a decent enough policy when it is implemented properly. We have seen it work at various clubs in the likes of The Netherlands and Portugal. We’ve even seen it closer up at clubs like Brighton and Brentford. But these clubs are not as rigid as ours,which seems to have a target price of £3m max and 23yo max. They will happily splash out much more for the right player,secure in the knowledge that they get it right far more often than they get it wrong. Our board,on the other hand,are risk-averse to anything adventurous,because they have a history of buggering it up at the lower end. Well,no surprise there then. Any shopper will tell you that to buy cheap is to buy-And buy-And buy. All the time hoping for the best,but not prepared to pay for it.
While it doesn’t take an Einstein to work out what might possibly be wrong with this strategy-especially given our very recent success when it was binned-Einstein himself famously summed it up with his own definition of insanity!
Yet,surely the risk-averse policy for a money-grabbing board like ours was the opposite of what they actually did? You want to make some big bucks from a signing policy? When there is a £60m carrot for success,you do what gets you that success-don’t you?
This is where the confusion comes in-and the laughter from everyone bar the Celtic support. We had an enormous financial advantage in the summer over those rivals,with around £40m to come from CL participation this season and over £70m sitting in the bank. Indeed,it is strongly rumoured that our mid-term financials are so “good” that the board are petrified to release them for fear of the inevitable backlash when we are suffering on the pitch.
There were the three vacant playing positions to be filled,along with perhaps a couple of upgrades or back-ups elsewhere. Probably £30m at the absolute most,and even that would have meant us breaking our own transfer record. Instead,the decision was made to splash out slightly less than that on a raft of signings-none of whom were ready to step up to the first team! And as a result,that £60m is seriously in doubt,as we now find ourselves lagging behind in the title race-to those same rivals who were in such disarray only a few months ago and who had already shot their bolt in the summer. Those same rivals who now look favourites to get their hands on the crock of gold,while we are left looking at a crock of shit.
Now,dropping £60m is bad enough in itself,but to hand it to our nearest rivals means a £120m turnaround in fortunes. And they won’t be able to believe their good fortune either-but nor will they bask in the glory of it. Last summer,our board celebrated their glorious balance sheet far more than they celebrated our glorious treble. This summer,their board will look at their balance sheet-and spend it!
They won’t sit around patting themselves on the back for a job well done,no sirree. They will look on it as a first step,one which gives them an opportunity to spend every penny they have on improving their playing staff to give them a decent chance of progress from the CL while absolutely burying us domestically.
Or,to again put it another way,exactly what we SHOULD have done last summer. And what ANY risk-averse board petrified of failure and loss of income would do. What it would not have done is to rehire a failed CEO as chairman to reimpose his own failed policies over the head of a disinterested and underqualified CEO. Although it is difficult to blame him for being disinterested,given that his predecessor was fired for discarding the old failed strategy,he is still responsible for his own spineless failure. But it is the board themselves and the major shareholder in particular who are to blame for bringing back that failed strategy along with its architect. One who is clearly breaching his non-executive position by filling a de facto executive role.
We know who is to blame for this shitshow of a season. But who will the board and their lackeys blame? Look no further than the dugout,and they will waste no time in replacing him with another lickspittle who will do their bidding,even as his own reputation is ground into the dust. The board,meanwhile,will hail their “prudence” for having the foresight to hoard all this cash just in case it ever came to pass that we failed to qualify for the CL,while still holding onto it all just in case it ever happens again!!! A self-fulfilling prophesy of doom if ever there was one.
Rinse and repeat while it is the fans themselves who are being rinsed? Well,it’s worked in the past,so why not? Get used to failure,because failing this season will herald the new normal.
Above article by BMCUWP