I wanted a home draw but while Hibs deservedly beat Celtic in December, the fortunes of both teams have moved in opposite directions since then. We know the challenge at Easter Road and should be prepared for it.
News that the three teams competing for second spot in the league are also competing for the same place in the semi-finals is welcome. We knew they would take points off each other in recent weeks, and they did. They will weaken each other’s title challenge with the focus which will inevitably fall on these cup games.
The one concern I have is that this game against Hibs will be our second visit to Edinburgh that week; we are at Tynecastle the previous Wednesday, scene of another defeat this season. Before then, we are at Kilmarnock and face Valencia twice. It is a good job we have players returning from injury.
220 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- »
CHAIRBHOY on 12TH FEBRUARY 2019 8:24 PM
There’s a heap of projection and supposition there
If Brendan hadn’t told him to leave he would still have been a Celtic player come 1st September.
FAN-A-TIC
I saw AEK at Celtic Park and in Champions League terms its a matter of debate what ‘average team’ means, a draw at CP saw EuroChamps67 and me, exit with thousands of others, no doubt, concluding we were out in Athens.
They were superbly organised and parked their bus to good effect to the extent they made us look ‘averager’ They took full advantage of our poor pre season which included that tie. AEK collapsed in the group states but so might we, if history is a witness regardless of signing a new CB instead of Boyata we’d still have gotten our annual pummellings.
Its been done to death about preparation, old hat indeed, and is only getting discussed because the board bashers are back on to whinge, about the interim reports, and are sharpening their keyboards for the tough schedule starting with the Valencia game.
With respect, Brendan Rodgers getting coaching bashed is as daft as is board bashing, as all boards and football coaches make perceived mistakes, and everybody knows there are better coaches and CEO’s on the internet?
We should have signed a Full Back last summer and we don’t do replacing players before we know who’s staying and getting paid £1M per year.
Hail Hail
THE EXILED TIM on 12TH FEBRUARY 2019 8:33 PM
I’m not too fussed about who we’ve signed and whether they’ve been a success or not, I’m much more interested in how the team plays and winning on the pitch.
We’re in a great place again, I’ll enjoy that instead of concentrating on our failures in the transfer market
…………..
Kentucky Fried Chicken.
;)
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 12TH FEBRUARY 2019 8:30 PM
Thanks, means a lot from the resident broken record. Give us a shout when we ‘take on some debt’ in the summer ???
Brendan Rodgers is in charge of football matters
Peter Lawwell is in charge of financial matters.
When football is successful its because of Brendan Rodgers
When football is not successful its because of Peter Lawwell
When Finance is good is because of Brendan Rodgers
When finance is bad its because of Peter Lawwell
Does none of the million whingers get fed up with this tripe
The Clubs policy is unchanged. Everything is reinvested back into the club.
As a PLC then profits which are retained would lead to an ordinary share holder receiving a dividend. There has never been a dividend paid and nor will there be. We will be unlikely to pay any tax either
Money has been spent on the Stadium the pitch, the Lights and on Lennoxtown. In future Barrowfield and the Hotel Museum around the stadium will be invested in.
The squad at 34 plus 5 on loan is massive and need to be paid. Given that each match we can use a max of 14 players that means 21 unused players. The salary for the 21 unused players will be between £10 and £15M.
What happened to the Dembele money? We spent it in 18months on unused players in the stand
Financial results just demonstrate that celtic are spending well within thier means with the selling of players used to boost income when needed. This is not a bad thing so long as celtic trade well.
We know there is money in the bank so with that and the significant money saved on wages (11 players leaving at end of season) We should be able to pick up a first choice rightback and centreback without breaking the bank.
We operate a system that encourages younger players to come, make a name for themselves then move on. It is still the case that our squad has many valuable assets, but its not fair to say we simply sell to balance the books.
HH
DAVID17 on 12TH FEBRUARY 2019 8:46 PM
Lets not take on any debt right now, eh.
C40M
Again you are missing the point, you said we have money in the bank because of our strategy, I pointed out that is wrong and you waffle on about something else, fine, carry on, but you are wrong, that’s all I am saying.
CELTIC40ME @ 8:36 PM,
That is not the case, there is not projection or supposition there at all.
We know Brendan wanted to keep Dembele
We know he wanted to extend Dembele’s contract
We know that due to the unprofessional way things were handled BR was put in a very difficult position and reluctantly agreed to Dembele going…
Brendan Rodgers wanted to keep Dembele on an extended contract… that’s a fact.
Hail Hail
Who would win between, the Downing Street Tories, or the Kerrydale Street Tories ?
HH
CELTIC40ME on 12TH FEBRUARY 2019 8:52 PM
DAVID17 on 12TH FEBRUARY 2019 8:46 PM
Lets not take on any debt right now, eh.
———
Would need to spend the £37m first and the rest that’s been hidden away.
Serious question if anyone knows, was the Dembele money paid up front in full? And do the accounts reflect that, or if the payments are staggered will those part payments show in future financial periods?
BOURNESOUPRECIPE
They were superbly organised and parked their bus to good effect to the extent they made us look ‘averager’
This superbly organized team played in the group stages without recording a single point.
They played 6 won 0 and lost 6 scoring 2 and conceding 13.
Admittedly their opponents were of a higher calibre .
Bayern Munich,Ajax and Benfica.
Why is suggesting poor coaching also contributed to this Brendan bashing or daft?
Regarding our failed/flawed financial strategy..
Why dont those who have worked out a better strategy simply email the club/Lawwell/Desmond and point out the error of their ways and give them a break down of how they could make Celtic Great Again
Before Christmas I wrote to Scott Sinclair and told him to stop pulling out of 50/50 tackles,to start beating his man and scoring goals again.
And guess what, it worked
CHAIRBHOY on 12TH FEBRUARY 2019 8:56 PM
It Looked to me like Brendan wanted to keep him then realized keeping him wasn’t the best option for the group. He made his decision quickly
I don’t think there’s any evidence that, ultimately, pressure from above had any bearing on his decision
_CFC_?✊ on 12TH FEBRUARY 2019 8:56 PM
Who would win between, the Downing Street Tories, or the Kerrydale Street Tories ?
===================================================================
Both.
Stars
Why the need for the sarky comments ?
It’s a blog FFS.
I get that you disagree with what I and others are saying, I disagree with your stance, at least I try and point things out without the need for the dismissing comments, I thot you were better than that, it seems not.
HH
Salaries/ players / squad bonus money will be drastically reduced this year, as a direct result of no champions league money
I’m no accountant,but, does the accounts not say we paid tax on profits ?
And the accounts run through to end of Dec
Why quote numerous loan deals and 2 signings made in Jan 19 ???
I’m in the camp we should have invested in our defence last summer to help us get into the champions league
Again a but
We need to be reducing squad size to add / increase quality – so a bit of work required in turning this around
STEPHBHOY
We operate a system that encourages younger players to come, make a name for themselves then move on. It is still the case that our squad has many valuable assets, but its not fair to say we simply sell to balance the books.
HH
Previous seasons evidence might refute your assumption.
I guess what happens next season will make the reality clear.
Irony?……………..that reminds me I’ve a stack of irony to get done………before I finish off that wee KFC ( again)
I quite believe BR wanted to have Dembelee signed on an extended contract but unfortunately Dembelee did not want to sign. BTW Celtic were still in the UCL when Dembelee left.
IMHO the reason we lost to AEK was our inability to beat them at Celtic Park. They were down to 10 men for most of the second half and our attack was woeful.
Our defence in both games was not brilliant but the attack was worse.
FAN-A-TIC
Like I said when we played them they were superbly organised, what happened to them
home or away in the group stages is no concern of mine, because it happens to us, and
better.
Just a personal thing not my bag the ole internet based coaching skills verse Brendan Rodgers,
he is after all in situ, and a better coach I don’t think we’ve had.
IMHO csc
Walking the dog now……… oops sorry
THE EXILED TIM on 12TH FEBRUARY 2019 9:09 PM
Mate.
The constant repetitive whinge gets tedious.
Particularly in the face of the current state of the Celtic FC nation.
PARADOX on 12TH FEBRUARY 2019 9:16 PM
BTW Celtic were still in the UCL when Dembelee left.
We were knocked out by mid August, Dembele left on the 31st
Bournesouprecipe
Petty internet coaching skills jibe was silly.
Or should i say daft?
Bourne.
Back when the Stones were good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd6ReC55O9M
MacJay
Coming from you that is a feckin joke.
Exiled
Being serious for a moment
Sorry if I hurt your feelings, that wasn’t my intention,I know you’re passionate about the boards flaws or perceived flaws, passionate and in fairness consistently so.
Personally I cant get too excited or upset about matters over which i have no control and i find some of the board bashing very silly.
I would love to see us splash cash and buy Benkovic and Toljan for example.But is that realistic ? And if it doesn’t happen is it because Pedro wants to keep cash for his bonus and his heated driveway?
Celtic do spend a very large amount of money on players,squad wages,transfer fees.
As has been alluded too we probably have too many squad player’s.
Brendan wants quality over quantity. Fair enough, so do I
The team is doing nicely,still in Europe with a serious chance of an historic treble treble.
But Lawwell must go
THE EXILED TIM on 12TH FEBRUARY 2019 9:31 PM
MacJay
Coming from you that is a feckin joke.
=====================================================
Correct .
:-)
C40ME – too true. My apologies.
Who would win between, The Wolf of Wall Street, or The Wolf of Kerrydale Street ?
Askin for a friend.
HH
CELTIC40ME @ 9:06 PM,
Isn’t that supposition;))
Look, I’ve made the point several times and just making it again… there is systemic failure in our player recruitmant side. It is not professional and it is not fit for purpose…
It has got to affect the players, it was intimated that there was a split in the dressing room, well of course that has to be dealt with.
But by not being professional in the market we only make matters worse. It’s not only the immediate impact, it’s the law of unintended consequences.
Dembele, N’tcham and Edouard were tight, that seemed good for them and good for the team. Since Dembele went the other two’s contribution this Season hasn’t been a patch on last Season.
Now that could be coincidence or it could be an unintended consequence of the unprofessional way we conducted our business.
I take a holistic look at things, it’s the way I think.
But for me, if we just had gone for a few quality players, did some squad management sell the players that need to be sold, then reduce the quantity of fringe players and focus on resigning our performing players then it’s all good.
We went into the summer transfer window with a squad worth over £120M. We could have sold £25M worth of players bought £30M worth of players and still had a squad worth £120M.
We would have had little to do this January, other than housekeeping and be in a great position to to give UCL Qualification our best shot this summer.
As it happens we have knocked 25% off our squad value. Any gains we made by getting Moussa and his extended contract off the wage bill will be gobbled up by the the fees and wages on our loanees.
And in reality to replace them and bolster certain positions we need to spend £30M in June.
Thing is have we got that money without selling a prized asset. Do we need European money and to sell players just to survive, because that’s what this accounts are saying.
Although the Dembele money we would have made a loss…
That’s despite the sales of Armstrong and co and getting the Van Dyck money and the UEL money.
The thing is, there was supposed to be a summit to sort this out late last year… nothing is sorted that I can see.
I’m going to enjoy the Valencia game and enjoy the talents we have for the next four months, then I’m hoping our PLC have seen the light.
Hail Hail
DAVID17 on 12TH FEBRUARY 2019 9:00 PM
Serious question if anyone knows, was the Dembele money paid up front in full?
Extremely unlikely
And do the accounts reflect that, or if the payments are staggered will those part payments show in future financial periods?
Cash balances reflect what is in the bank accounts, so until the money is in our accounts it won’t be included in the accounts
The accounts reflect the profit from sale of dembele to lyon, the sale price, less the price paid and any amortisation over the course of his contract. The profit is included, in full, in the profit and loss statement
The cash position is what it is, you could try and guess that it will be better in the next full accounts but it would be a guess.
CHAIRBHOY on 12TH FEBRUARY 2019 9:44 PM
CELTIC40ME @ 9:06 PM,
Isn’t that supposition;))
No, its not supposition
FAN-A-TIC
Sorry if I hurt your feelings, I meant no offence of course, I endorse all football chat on CQN
coaching board bashing whatever.
I gave up with coaching stuff during Tony Mowbray’s reign because I knew it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference how poorly I judged him as a coach, my brother gave up his season ticket on the basis of his appointment.
Somewhat more drastic than posting about coaching on the Blog, you’ll agree
We are lucky to have Brendan, as a manager and a man IMHO.