It feels like rock bottom this morning and, as far as Europe is concerned, it probably is. The ties against Legia were our worst performances in Europe. Neuchâtel has a horrible 90 minutes, Artmedia was a 20 minute collapse, and we beat Utrecht comfortably at home, but this was abject over two games.
There are unfathomables, for example, it’s hard to know why a defence which was so solid last season is suddenly inert, but it will surprise no one we didn’t make Champions League football this season. The day Neil Lennon left I suggested it would be a huge ask and it’s proven to be.
We are less than two years since the high point of recent seasons, finishing ahead of Benfica and Spartak Moscow in the Champions League, but the decline can be traced slightly further back than that.
We had an 18 month purple patch of player recruitment, starting when Fraser Forster, Gary Hooper and Emilio Izaguirre arrived in summer 2010, continuing with the arrival of Wilson and Wanyama, and ending with Mikael Lustig’s signing in January 2012. We were bringing players in for a few million who were Champions League calibre.
Since Lustig, the strategy hasn’t changed, but despite signing a raft of players, for much the same money, only van Dijk has improved the team. Most are, at best, misfits or squad fillers. Things started to go wrong with the bizarre signings of Miku and Lassad in late August 2012 and ramped up last summer with the arrival of Boerrigter, Pukki, Balde and Biton. There are more, of course. Some, like Griffiths and Johansen are hitting the modest levels expected of them, but we’ve been missing the target at an alarming rate.
Ronny Deila has so far brought in a six month loaner. He’s working pretty much with the squad Neil Lennon scraped into the Champions League with last season. He’ll now know what you and I knew about the squad months ago. Most importantly, he needs backing from the club as well as the support.
He has to refresh the squad, try to clear out the deadwood, and perhaps accept that one or two of our reliable performers in recent seasons are beyond their peak. It’s critically important that whatever has been going wrong since Lustig’s arrival is put right. Stop haemorrhaging millions of players who cannot command a starting place and start finding value.
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Reported comments from Legia chairman suggest there will be no appeal
No obvious grounds for one apart from “we didny know”.
Ignorance no defence
Sorry for the Legia fans and especially our friend zybscek, we don’t deserve this but hey
We’ve been shafted by Scottish officialdom often enough
Celtic reinstated to Champions League
Celtic have been reinstated to the Champions League after Legia Warsaw were kicked out of the competition for fielding an ineligible player.
Legia won the third qualifying round tie 6-1 on aggregate but brought on Bartosz Bereszynski in the second leg, while he was supposed to be suspended.
As a result Celtic were handed a 3-0 ‘walkover’ win for the second leg, taking them through on away goals.
Legia won the first leg 4-1 and the second 2-0.
braw awfy braw
No doubt any neutrals will be hoping we get pumped in our next game and they’ll probably be right but, what the hell, it was a UEFA official who flagged it up, not us.
I wonder if PL will realise that he’s used up the last of his nine lives here and bolster the team for the 3rd round?
Auldheid
Come on fella. You’re just being a wee bit NegAnon2 there fella :)
Champions Route
Salzburg(AUT)
Steaua(ROU)
APOEL(CYP)
Celtic(SCO)
BATE(BLR)
Ludogorets(BUL)
Maribor(SVN)
Slovan Bratislava(SVK)
Malmö(SWE)
AaB(DEN)
Bring on the Slovan Bratislava
actually we will not be playing anything special because we are seeded!…..this just gets better and better…a golden opportunity now to qualify!
Jesus
While this is great news it wont do us any good unless we sack the manager immedialtely,appoint a proper manager and but 4 or 5 decent players
otherwise we will be humped again
RONNY OUT
lazydynamite
10:21 on 8 August, 2014
Post of the day ….. Bottom line…….. HH
Hope we make the most of this chance.
UFH def at work.
Surely we cant blow it now.
HH
pure,dead, brilliant ……hahahahahaha running roond the couch and no in mya heid …..braw
Am embarrassed by this.
Legia mullered us fair and square. I am old fashioned in that I believe football should be won and lost on a football pitch not a room full of suits.
We are still a bad team.
However every cloud has a silver lining and I welcome the extra revenue that progression in the CL brings our club. Hopefully it is invested in the playing staff.
(If we know what a good player looks like .)
And the thought of legions of deidco fans banging their heads off the wall and foaming at the mouth brightens up this rather wet Friday !!!
Peter Lawell should donate his win bonus and we can buy zyro
Major let off. This really ought to galvanise us in to organising the team better first of all – that means reverting to a hard to beat formation away from home while we go out and get the three or four first team players needed.
Enjoy the moment fholks.
Cannot understand why der hun is getting so annoyed and upset about a matter, that has got fk all to do with them.
Mind yer own zombie business and yer heads won’t explode with anger and rage.
Simple as that.
Btw all the new posters from the other night seemed to have disappeared.
Chortle chortle chortle.
:D
Brth
And co-efficient points ! :-)
We get 2m just for participating in the CL Playoff round before any ticket revenue.
HH
67Heaven … I am Neil Lennon ….The angels are with Wee Oscar in Heaven.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors
10:19 on
8 August, 2014
I remember Denmark got into the European Nations Cup by default and won it.
Cannae believe it
macjay1 for Neil Lennon 05:38
Mr Graham added: “It’s interesting they are spending so much time and money attempting to win the Big Tax Case but when asked by shareholders, fans, even MPs about even an internal inquiry into where the Rangers tax information came from, HMRC completely blank them.
“They are spending an awful lot of taxpayers’ money on lawyers in pursuing this but yet won’t answer questions about where [the leaks] came from.”
———————————————————————-
Now that is REALLY strange. haven’t they been telling everyone for years that “it was all in the accounts”? Hmmmmm……..
Peter Lawells a genius, give him a raise!:-)
Now that we are back in,its time for these fekin Prima Donnas who play for us to buckle down and do what they are paid for.No time for this”Dont like the new manager”crap.How many out in the real world like their boss?.
We have a few games before the next round.Get some momentum.
Ronny,forget your fantasy football tactics,time for that later.Get a cohesive unit playing together on the field.Play players in their proper positions.We can all see it.FFS,why cant you?.
What is the Stars…
and within those couple of weeks he will turn the team into European cup winners I assume? You lot are ten a penny! Utter rubbish being spouted.
well done to “whats in the stars” for finding the dark line in the silver cloud!
Yas belter! Got to make the most of this now.
Shame for Legia, hope they do well in Europa.
Well done to the Swiss match delegate who picked up on the issue and reported it to UEFA. They should be seconded to the SFA.
With 35 minutes to the draw starts our possible opponents are as follows,
LudogoretsLudogorets(BUL)
MariborMaribor(SVN)
Slovan BratislavaSlovan Bratislava(SVK)
MalmöMalmö(SWE)
AaBAaB(DEN)
http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2015/draws/index.html
Sir Kojo…
You Hiv Mail…
Happy days are here again,
the skies above are green again,
let’s sing à song of cheer again,
happy days are here again.
Just stepped out the shower………………… think I’ve had a ‘Bobby Ewing’ moment!
Having watched Wednesday’s fiasco chose not to comment – plenty on CQN covered all the salient points of these 2 disappointing 2nd Round ties.
Rules are rules (SMSM please note) – the integrity of any competition should not be compromised no matter the indiscretion.
My commiserations to Mr. Z – your team’s performance did not disgrace you. I do not think for one minute that Legia set out to cheat/ break rules – an unfortunate financial administrative disaster!
H!H!
Celtic FC back in Champions League.
HH
Somebody better tell Celtic…
We should seriously look at doing something for Legia though. Maybe something as fans?
Henning Berg perfectly suited to be next TRFC manager. Good results against CFC and uses ineligible players
Let’s hope we don’t sell players and instead buy some to strengthen the squad – otherwise Champs League will be a money earner but further reputation damage will ensue. The brand can’t keep taking 6-1 pumpings whether its against Barca, in friendlies or on aggregate.
The Green Man
Glad to see you surfaced fella. Was worried about your half-empty look on things overnight :)
I was never in doubt. The rules were massively clear cut.
Bring it on.
From twitter, apologies if already posted:
“And they gave us paragraph 12, subsection a)……….”
So do I get my money as I bet them to win in extra time..