It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what was different from last night’s performance to our previous outing against Ross County, and so many this season. Kris Commons was on from the start, but our tone of play was different, even as Kris limped on the side-lines during the opening minutes.
How that tone was set is worth examining. Celtic were denied an opportunity to train on Kilmarnock’s new artificial pitch, in a move demonstrating the hosts legendary welcome and sportsmanship, but when Ronny Deila spoke pre-match he made his position clear, “The pitch is great”.
One of my pet hates is hearing a player or manager establish a reason for failure before kick-off. Record your complaints about the pitch, or even being denied the chance to become accustomed to it, and you’re subliminally setting yourself up for a fall. It didn’t matter if a pitch is great or not, the manager and players have minutes to convince themselves it’s good enough for them to put on a show. Nothing got in the way of Celtic’s can-do attitude yesterday.
Kris was phenomenal. He got a hat-trick at Rugby Park last season and deserved no less this time, only the crossbar, twice, and some fine goalkeeping denied him. In a team short of goals, his focus on the target is unceasing. There were important Champions League games when he didn’t make the team under Neil Lennon, and there will be occasions when the game doesn’t suit him, but he’s the required fulcrum against a packed SPFL defence.
We’ve touched on this theme a couple of times but it doesn’t seem to be getting traction. For two years shareholders now newco Rangers have been advised to step aside, or as now, sell control for £18m, in the best interests of the club. No deal will be done until the best interests of the controlling shareholders are considered, any approach which doesn’t recognise this is no more than a distraction.
Newco have four directors, two non-execs, who do not work in the business on a daily basis, and two executives, who do. The latter, chief executive Derek Llambias, and yesterday’s appointment of Barry Leach as financial director, both came from the Sports Direct stable. They are the men working on fixing the funding gap. It is inconceivable they will overlook the interests of investors.
On 27th of this month newco will face an SFA disciplinary hearing over an alleged breach of a written agreement not to allow Ashley influence at the club, in place before they appointed two former Sports Direct staff to the board. I would be very surprised if the Sports Direct owner didn’t have the club’s short-term funding and his long-term security secured prior to that date.
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mickbhoy1888 notthebus
Thanks for the info and sorry to hear that.
not like media to twist and be a bit sensationalist bout things.
play
jimbob71 is praying with wee Oscar
14:58 on
6 January, 2015
Tickets and fans.
I gave my season ticket up last year, work, family etc commitments but get to games when I can.
Now my wife went into the ticket office on 22nd December to get me a ticket for a match as a Christmas present, all very well and good I hear you say.
Well on opening present on Christmas morning, my ticket is for 10th January 2015 against St Johnstone………
She asked for advice on which ticket to get, wanted to make sure it was a Saturday and this is what was recommended to her!
Very strange don’t you think?! She is rather annoyed!!
I’m sure your not pleased either
HH
Tigertim,
Notthebus said ‘sustained’
mickbhoy1888,
I’m not keen on games against lower league opposition mate. :-)
Missing fans
I live in perth australia.. only made 2/3 games a season. Bhoys I would have went over with from ireland.. 1 is here and 1 is in canada.
Local csc has a good size membership I think.. anything from 40 to 100 +members there for matches anytime iv been in.
I know there is clubs in melbourne and sydney aswel. The search for work has taken alot of fans. No doubt about that.
The standard Is obviously a major factor aswel… day trips from ireland were always abit easier knowing you will see lubo larsson petrov lambert etc
Now we get a fans favourite he is punted when the first good offer comes in .
Rentatroll sending in their back shift I see.
notthebus
But your point was about lack of competition, we have more competition than Bayern do regardless of their place in world football. Wouldn’t their fans just turn up for games vs. Barca or Real in that case?!
HH
dena29
No I’m not. I was getting a whole Saturday out of it! Pre-match & post match drinks too!!
jimbob71 is praying with wee Oscar
15:18 on
6 January, 2015
dena29
No I’m not. I was getting a whole Saturday out of it! Pre-match & post match drinks too!!
O dear hope the alternative is as lucrative :-)))
HH
Jeez this ac milan team are poor.
Obviously cause there in my treble
tigertim @1512,
you make a valid argument there to notthebus’ statement.
However, do you honestly think we wont win the league and by by at least 9-12 points this season?
I do.
I’d suggest a lot of Celtic supporters do also. OK the 9-12 points part, maybe not so many now at this time of the season, but at the start of the season?
Im a bit like notthebus. I actually gave up my season ticket this season for the first time since The Jungle’s Last Stand. For a number of reasons, but the lack of competition definitely had an impact on my thinking.
Im sure there are many like me and notthebus in that regard. Whilst I dont agree with NTB that it is the only reason, im fairly sure it will have played a not insignificant part.
As a matter of interest, is there anyone here who doesnt believe we will win the League?
And by at least 6-9points? (as opposed to my initial 9-12 pts which i do still believe incidentally).
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
jimbob71 is praying with wee Oscar
14:58 on 6 January, 2015
Just be grateful it wisnae for the 27th Dec against Ross Co:)))))
Joking aside
Shambles in the TO with that .
leftclictic :-)
tigertim
Are you suggesting to date there is a realistic competitor capable of challenging Celtic on a regular sustainable basis?
. If so . be good enough to name them please
jimbob,
like you we had a great time thanks. Favourite time of year for me.
Hope you get lucky when speaking to the TO. esp given its not just the game that you are “booked” in for :-)
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
Token..
Bang on the money with the surface, it was more like watching a five aside game and I’d say all down to the surface.
Suggested any club that has a match abandon due to pitch problems with the weather, should be required to instal a similar surface to ensure the game goes ahead when scheduled.
Also nice to see football played on a level playing field even if it’s synthetic.
A £33M going concern value based on corporate law fraud.
excathedra44
15:11 on
6 January, 2015
traditionalist88
14:42 on
6 January, 2015
Heard the semi final ballot is this week but not sure how reliable that is
HH
===========================================
Picking up Hamilton tickets this morning,TO did say they expected offers to be out next week.They were not sure of allocation as yet.
====
Cheers
HH
We have just submitted the Statement from Celtic Supporters advertisement to The Sunday Herald. The text has been worked on pretty extensively over the past week or so and many thanks to Auldheid, BRTH, James Forrest and Paul for their assistance and advice. We think we have pretty much nailed this and it also looks great, having been designed by the hugely talented Cartuja.
For Celts living outwith Scotland we are going to organise some copies of the 25th January Sunday Herald and you will shortly be able to pre-order from Cqnbookstore.com if you wish, with any surplus going to the nominated CQN charity.
We are working with numerous other sites and they will all post the contents of the advertisement on 25th January to give us as big a collective voice as possible. We are also working on getting this into the UK media and we will even provide a news release to the SMSM which they may or may not ignore.
We would like as many supporters as possible to share on social media on 25th January.
Thanks again to everyone who contributed to make this initiative possible.
notthebus
15:07 on 6 January, 2015
traditionalist88
Silly comparison
Bayern Munich are the third biggest club in the world.
———-
Just 2 behind us then :-)
TTT 15.22
I believe that we are not a dead cert to win the league.
I believe that it is 52/ 48 in our favour .
TT
notthebus
15:29 on
6 January, 2015
tigertim
Are you suggesting to date there is a realistic competitor capable of challenging Celtic on a regular sustainable basis?
=====
Well it looks more likely than the predictions of Armageddon and us having the league title being sewn up by September, doesn’t it!
HH
The Token Tim 15:22 on 6 January, 2015
I believe we will win the league, in spite of Ronnie rather than because of him.
6 – 9 points rather than 12.
We are inconsistent and have a manager who constantly tinkers with players but not formation.
Others have now sussed how we play and can negate bad capitalise on mistakes.
We are one bad pass away from a problem.
The centre halfs, any pairing, are so far apart they cannot see each other.
We play with wingbacks and wingers, restricting our movement in the centre of the park and leaving gaps in behind.
We never play with 2 up front, yet we are supposed to have no competition.
We play 40/50 passes without going anywhere.
Our defending at set plays is amateurish.
Better stop there or I will be accused of being a troll.
winning captains et al
Thank you for your dedication to our cause look forward to reading it
HH
Notthebus,
“The lack of serious competition is killing the Scottish game and until we have a realistic sustainable challenge, this will continue,”
What do you suggest ?
Winning captains
Good work from you and the bhoys.
Thank you
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire 15:35 on 6 January, 2015
We could always “manipulate the leagues”, been suggested before by WGS.
I dont know how moving 3 championship teams into a league above adds to competition but the Scotland manager seems to think it would!!
Tony Watt signs for Charlton.
winning captains
15:31 on 6 January, 2015
Will the advert be carried by any official Celtic FC publications
GOOGYBHOY
Eh?
Tony Watt let loose in the bright lights of London?
Hmmmm,I doubt this will end well.
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire
The Scottish game is broken beyond repair. I suggest we make all efforts and pull all resources in effecting change in the game to allow us to leave the confines of current set up.
googybhoy ♥ celtic
Was pointed out to me that Charlton & Tonys team are owned by the same Guy, lots of traffic of players between the two clubs.
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is on the brink of finalising an 18-month deal to join Los Angeles Galaxy
Someone shared a reply from Doncaster last night which appeared to re-write the law of the land.
I didn’t notice any contradictory replies, did I miss this?
Any chance whoever it was could repost please?
P
TT @ 1533
52/48? Seriously?
Jeezo, even by your notoriously pessimistic outlook that is a bit harsh …IMO of course my friend!
For me its 95/5 at worst! I know we are still far from the finished article and performances have been very inconsistent, but i have no doubts come mid-end March we will begin to stretch our lead at the top and win it with 3 games to go at least.
Fancy a wee wager? :-)
I’ll say we will win by 9pts or more.
£25 to a charity of the winners choice?
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
Tigertim..,
How would bringing up hibs, hearts, and falkirk help create competition for us ?
Notthebus appears to be annoyed because there is an acceptable solution to all our problems and we just don’t seem to see it or something, no ?
BMCUW
For London?
the long wait is over@ 14 36.
Yes- the Moggi case revealed that the preferred tactic was to negatively influence the results of teams who were seen to be a threat to Rube. The media were then used to cover things up by airbrushing “honest mistakes ” from history eg tv pundits would ignore the stonewall penalty that inter didnt get v Bari whilst devoting 5 minutes to the offside goal scored by Parma v Rube in a game Rube won 3 – 1. A web of conspiracy acting in the interest of one club.
winning captains
15:31 on 6 January, 2015 .
##################
A huge well done to you and the other ghuys involved . Also delighted you are trying to get this out beyond this country . I would also urge any of the Bhoys who are on the forums of English football clubs to get the message out there .