Defensive experiments will pay dividends

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Playing Adam Matthews and Emilio Izaguirre as wing-backs with Kelvin Wilson, Charlie Mulgrew and Mikael Lustig as a back three looked a bit clumsy and didn’t last the 90 minutes but that was to be expected.  New defensive formations are not supposed to operate as smoothly as familiar systems.

I’m far from certain three at the back is a good idea, or if we have the correct personnel for this formation, but Neil Lennon should persist with the experiment.  We will not learn and grow if we don’t take chances, which was one of our abiding frustrations under both Martin O’Neill and Gordon Strachan.

No experiments on Tuesday, of course!

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822 Comments

  1. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    Steinreignedsupreme

     

    10:51 on

     

    20 August, 2012

     

     

     

    Yup you must have

     

     

    HAil HAil

  2. Dobbo for future reference:

     

     

    To add ITV1 HD in STV or UTV regions you need to do this.

     

    Press “Services” on the remote control (or from the Guide go to “Options” on the top menu).

     

    Press the down arrow, and then scroll across to “Add Channels”.

     

    Press “Select” or the down arrow, to highlight the frequency.

     

    Using the number pad on the remote, enter the following frequency: 10.832

     

    Press the down arrow, and use the left or right arrow to change the Polarisation from V to H.

     

    Check that the Symbol Rate is 22.0 and that the FEC is 5/6, and adjust if necessary.

     

    Press the yellow button to Find Channels.

     

    Once it has finished scanning, find & highlight one of the channels “ITV1 HD” (there should be two of them) and press the yellow button to store it, and then press Select to continue.

     

    You can now view ITV HD by going to “Other Channels” within Services/Options (it’s next to “Add Channels”) & pressing Select to reveal channel ITV1 HD & then pressing Select again to view it.

     

    HH

  3. Steinreignedsupreme on

    Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo 10:53 on 20 August, 2012:

     

     

    Should I feel let down?

  4. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    ibleedgreenandwhite1

     

     

    Are you joiking ?????????

     

     

    A possible 20 million pound transfer intake ?

     

     

    What doom and gloom mate with the possibility of us filling our coffers.

     

     

    I`m almost coming in my pants at the thought of it.

     

     

    Sell Sell Sell Sell

     

     

    Maybe if we ask Swansea really nicely they can arrange a friendly for us with Cardiff and we can get back onto the Peter Lawwell hire Celtic out for a friendly player car boot sale

     

     

    Celtic FC mighty Swansea`s hing oot – rent a hole slapper … taking line ups for ginger bottles Ching

     

     

    Hail Hail

  5. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    Steinreignedsupreme

     

     

    Depends on how sexually submissive you are ?

     

     

    Are you ?

     

     

    HAil Hail

  6. Awe Naw

     

     

    Ipswich were bidding for Kelvin Wilson recently- it was reported as only £250k and was turned down. I’d see no difficulty in obtaining a fee for Lustig, a regular Swedish internationalist.

     

     

    Blackman, Ibrahim and Bangura are different matters. The first two were bad boy Bosmans, a punt that does not cost us much but might profit us if either reforms and shows their football talent.

     

     

    Bangura is a strange one. He seems to be trying his hardest but it has been hard to discern what his qualities are as yet. To be fair to him, he has been injured too much to get a regular run of appearances this year. I’d give him a few more months but, at the moment, signs of his being a good buy are very thin.

  7. Steinreignedsupreme on

    Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon 10:59 on 20 August, 2012

     

     

    “According to their “logic” the club and the company are seperate. So all of those small shareholders never owned shares in the club anyway!”

     

     

    Makes you wonder why they bothered with the Red Card to Liquidation protest in March.

     

     

    The Huns don’t do logic.

  8. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    setting free the bears

     

    11:03 on

     

    20 August, 2012

     

    Awe Naw

     

     

    Ipswich were bidding for Kelvin Wilson recently- it was reported as only £250k and was turned down. I’d see no difficulty in obtaining a fee for Lustig, a regular Swedish internationalist.

     

     

    Blackman, Ibrahim and Bangura are different matters. The first two were bad boy Bosmans, a punt that does not cost us much but might profit us if either reforms and shows their football talent.

     

     

    Bangura is a strange one. He seems to be trying his hardest but it has been hard to discern what his qualities are as yet. To be fair to him, he has been injured too much to get a regular run of appearances this year. I’d give him a few more months but, at the moment, signs of his being a good buy are very thin.=RASMUSSEN

  9. Weeminger@10.42,

     

    what are you doing putting a sensible post on the blog,

     

    dont you know we need to sign half a team to keep some

     

    people happy.

     

    There are some who post on this blog that dont appear to get

     

    any enjoyment out of supporting Celtic,makes me wonder why they bother

  10. Steinreignedsupreme

     

     

    I owe you an apology from the other day when we were discussing Scotland’s newest 4th tier international footballer

     

     

    It seems this individual has been telling all and sundry in Auld Reekie that he is on £7k a week. I was led to believe this was the case, you begged to differ saying his wage was much lower than that

     

     

    You were indeed correct. He is on a basic £2k a week with £5k appearance money. Having received his 2nd yellow card in successive league games on Saturday, it’s only a matter of time before he is getting the £2k wage for a few weeks

     

     

    I am also led to believe this is the same pay structure for all the recent recruits although the amounts will differ i.e Kyle, £1k basic, £2k appearance etc

  11. See when KI goes for around £8 million

     

    Is PL due a cut as we were reliably informed on here that KI

     

    was a PL signing to sell strips.

  12. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    When you walk to the bank

     

    Hold your head up high,

     

    And don’t be afraid of the current balance,

     

    At the end of a season, there’s a golden handshaje,

     

    And the sweet silver song of Paul Brennan

     

     

    Walk on through the lies

     

    Walk on through the spin,

     

    Though your dreams be tossed and exploited…

     

     

    Walk on, walk on, with hope in your bank balance,

     

    And you’ll always have a bank book,

     

    You’ll always have a bank book

     

     

    Walk on, walk on, with your bank book

     

    And you’ll always have a few pennies,

     

    You’ll always have a few pennies….

     

     

    Bruva Wilfrid …… take it away ………………

  13. Weeminger

     

     

    My next-door neighbour is a Newcastle fan and a very nice lad. We were chatting about this very subject last night. He is interested in the situation that has developed in Scottish football and knew nothing of Mike Ashley’s alleged interest in Sevco.

     

     

    He didn’t think much of Mr Ashley but said he thought the business model of buying cheap and paying low wages (in comparative terms) was working. He said: “Even Ba only cost £9 million.”

     

     

    It’s a different world.

  14. Snake Plissken on

    It seems very clear that Ki wants to go and it suits Celtic to sell.

     

     

    If there is a bidding war and Celtic get a fair whack for him as well as CL money there will be some kind of outlay on the team.

     

     

    We don’t need too much, just two players. Even a season long loan once EPL squads are announced (so long as it isn’t Dobbie or Vaughan) will do in one position.

     

     

    There is still a possibility of getting rid of the remaining dead wood from the team.

     

     

    people are banging on about losing 10 players from the squad which while true is a false economy. Those players were costing Celtic a lot of money for doing next to nothing through injury or inability. Not replacing them is a good thing.

     

     

    Celtic at the moment are doing the right thing.

     

     

    We will still have a strong squad for domestic football and we will have an adventure in Europe.

     

     

    I would like an experienced centre half and a striker in. If we cannot beat Helsingborgs with our current squad of players then we don’t deserve to be in the CL anyway and signing 2 players at 5M quid each would have guaranteed nothing and then you could be stuck with two expensive players who were no good when it mattered and when you needed them to bed in with other players they didn’t have sufficient time.

     

     

    All this catter-walling about money ad expenditure is not what we need. we need everyone focused for tomorrow.

     

     

    IF Celtic were going to buy it should be done by the 1st of July or at the end of the window.

     

    There is no sense in bringing in someone in between.

  15. I really believe that SydneyTim would love Celtic to get humped tomorrow just so he could say he was right and that the CEO should be sacked!

     

     

    Never ever a positive thing to say about the team.

     

     

    SffS

  16. Celtic_First 11:09 on 20 August, 2012

     

     

    As I said we all know that the tv money is the difference. I just hadn’t seen it in the context of the difference to our pockets/wallets before. I’d love it if we were able to talk in terms of players costing ‘only’ £9M but by the same token, at £1500/season I wouldn’t be able to afford to go.

  17. If Ki was so keen to move on why could this not have been done during the Olympics giving us time to look again at the squad balance and strengthen where needed.

  18. Awe Naw,

     

    is it the fact that we will more than likely sell Ki,or that Swansea

     

    may be the buyers that bothers you most.

  19. Steinreignedsupreme on

    Ten Men Won The League 11:06 on 20 August, 2012

     

     

    The parallel universe created by the Scottish media has always served them well in fooling the Huns. They buy into the dream every time.

     

     

    The Huns are the most gullible supporters in the country by some considerable distance – as we have seen time and time again, anyone with a brass neck and a pair of brown brogues will take them to the cleaners.

  20. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    gordybhoy64

     

     

    It does not bother me.

     

     

    The quicker we can sell him to and the most we can get for him and from the smallest club is what rings my bell. It makes me proud to be a Celtic fan. Ibrahimi will slot in without any problems whatsoever. I do wish we had kept Rasmussen at least for this game. If he had scored maybe we would have lost only 1million instead of the 1.5million.

     

     

    HAil HAil

  21. Snake Plissken on

    dessybhoy

     

     

    It is because of the Olympics that Ki is subject of bids.

     

     

    EPL sides cannot see much further than the end of their nose when it comes to players and as the tournament was in London and he played against team GB, they all had a look at him first hand.

     

     

    I doubt these bids would have been forthcoming if he had not been there.

     

     

    I know agents try to move people on but by the same token the Olympics must have helped.

     

     

    Celtic should have sold Boruc after Euro 2008 when his stock was extremely high. We could have got 10M for him no problem after his displays. Instead we waited, he lost form and gained weight and we go 1M for him.

     

     

    Strike while the Iron is hot.

  22. Awe_Naw

     

     

    Blackmann, Ibrahim, Wilson, Bangura, Lustig

     

     

    None of them have did anything to promote themselves from Bosman to fee commanding other than having signed contracts.

     

     

    Kelvin Wilson’s reported bid was probably rejected on the basis of how few we’ve become at CB, and the decision not to try and replace the aborted Fojut signing in this window.

  23. Tony Watt reminds me of Stevie Chalmers.

     

     

    We desperately need a hard, route one, centre half; Desperately.If we don’t get one we will suffer. All season long on the park and on the blogs… we will suffer.

     

     

    Before I bought a striker, I’d buy a midfielder with guile who passed the ball forward at every opportunity. Stikers can’t score from 40 yards out. I also think that Ki is charlatan. Sell him, take the money and find a Lubo.

     

     

    I also think that Mikael Lustig is a player and had a bloody good game against Ross County considering he covered his walk-a-bout wing half/winger/fullback/whatever.

  24. Seven fishes. Of course that is not true

     

     

    Just hate spin mate

     

    Facts are we have no center halfs and only one goalscorers

     

     

    We have know that for 12 months or more

     

     

    On Saturday we done our best given the circumstances.

     

    Our best player commons scored

     

     

    The circumstances are Neil has been let Down

     

    He did indeed say we can now look at bringing someone in after the finish game

     

     

    That is now not the case

     

     

    Just tell the truth

     

    We have enough of laptop loyals giving spin over 10 years

     

    We don’t need our club and people who speak for our club giving spin

  25. Awe naw,

     

    cheers for the reply,i hope Ki goes to a better team than Swansea

     

    as i think he will do well in the Premiership,as Mjallby says this

     

    morning they are expecting other bids,but i have to say i cant see us

     

    getting any more than £7 million for him

  26. Awe Naw

     

     

    I am assuming that you feel Bangura will turn out to be another Rasmussen.

     

     

    It was not a mistake to sell/ get rid of Rasmussen. He failed at Celtic, Mainz and in Turkey. I was surprised we got money for him.

     

     

    If Peter Lawwell gets money for Rasmussen and Kelvin Wilson, will he not have earned his bonus from that money alone (did someone not say he was getting around 500k bonus?). If he sells Daryl Murphy too, we get another 2 to 300k and are in profit.

     

     

    Only, if you forget what we paid in the first place for him, mind.

     

     

    That is the problem with speculate to accumulate. When we do so and make the mistake of buying duds, we want to have another go before we have paid off our mistakes. You do not have to buy players in the £6m to £10m bracket to get into problems. Continual buying of duds at the £1m to £3m range will get you there too if you buy too many of them.

     

     

    Thankfully, alongside our bad buys, we have had great luck with the Bosmanss of Ledley, Matthews and Mulgrew, with the projects of McCourt and Twardzik, with the jersey sellers like Ki, with the youth development costs of Forrest, McGeoch and Watt, with the mid-level buys of Wanyama, Izzaguire, Sammi and Rogne, and with the larger amounts spent on Kayal and Hooper.

     

     

    There’s good news too if you look for it.

  27. This is what Neil actually said

     

     

    “Now we’ve got a wee bit of European football we might be able to bring one or two in to augment what we’ve got already,” said Lennon.

     

     

    But hey why let the facts get in the way of a crap post…

  28. The constant whingeing from the same sad posters has become tedious.

     

    There is surely some other target they could focus on occasionally, or some other activity from which they could derive an odd wee bit of pleasure.

  29. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    Glen Loovens cost 2.5m

     

    Rasmussen cost Celtic 1.5m

     

    Ki cost celtic 2.1m

     

     

    Total 6.1

     

     

    Selling KI for 6m means a loss of 100K

  30. Snake Plissken on

    Aw naw

     

     

    You forgot to add the money we got for Rasmussen’s sale and that figure only works if Ki goes for 6M. He might go for more.