I’d a look at the fixture list preseason and didn’t expect we’d be top of the table so early, having played only three games with 10 teams having played four, and two of those games coming against our nearest challengers from last season.
But we stepped up to the task. The earlier win at Tynecastle and beating Aberdeen 4-1 on Saturday has issued a warning to all. Bookmakers are offering Celtic’s title odds of between 2/9 and 1/7, and have created a separate ‘Betting without Celtic’ competition. One of Brendan’s jobs will be to remind players that they need to earn the points every time the whistle goes. Defeats come quickly to teams operating at 95%.
Not that we had it all our own way on Saturday. Aberdeen disrupted our rhythm and passing in the middle part of the game. You can see how Brendan has changed the way we use the ball in possession, but there’s still a bit of work to do for it to become more natural looking.
The goals were outstanding. Leigh Griffiths’ effort would be immortalised in song, if one of the Barcelona players due to visit Celtic Park soon had managed it. Tom Rogic’s technique is of particular importance.
Celtic face a lot of packed defences; having someone able to reliably hit an unstoppable shot from around 22 yards changes how a defence will shape up to play us. This is a player Leeds United thought they could buy for £1m recently.
I was pleased to see Dorus de Vries make his debut. He had little to do, and could do nothing about the Aberdeen goal, but if he’s to be relied upon in any of the important games ahead he needed an outing as a Celtic player.
It was equally important Erik Sviatchenko came through 90 minutes with Kolo Toure. The defence is set for some almighty challenges ahead, and will need to face them with little common game-time to allow partnerships to be cemented.
There’s a degree of trepidation for the Champions League task ahead, but pretenders to our domestic dominance beware: evidence mounts that this is a good Celtic team – one which will continue to improve for some time to come.
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Top Ten?
COYBIG
Hail Hail
Hail Hail !
Chip from half way line
The leader of the pack
Just bought tickets for the Champions League games for my kids and myself. I love Celtic that much that I worked overtime on Saturday night after the sheep game.
Great – if tired-looking – win on Saturday.
Here is my latest. About an epic silence from STV… https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2016/08/28/tumbleweed-and-stv/
From previous. A Tale of Woe and Glory thanks to Mouldmaster.
29TH AUGUST 2016 12:06 PM
GERRYFAETHEBRIG on 29TH AUGUST 2016 11:15 AM
The mouldmaster was always sorer on a red ash park, not sure why, but seemed a lot more painful
Vfr800a8
Reading your last post I immediately crossed my legs, painfull memories.
===%%%====
With apologies to longer term posters who have heard my tale of woe and glory, there are another two elements to add to the mould master pain menu.
The “ball” itself, red blaes of course plus temperatures hovering around freezing and the gonads.
One day back around 68 all four aligned in a Saturday morning game up Barmulloch way on a red blaes pitch.
The “ball” was hoofed up the right wing and was pursued by our winger and their full back. Sensing the winger might just get there first I moved in from the left wing to pick up any cross.
My judgement was wrong (and consequences painfu)l in that their full back reached the “ball” first and bloodred it across goal away from our winger.
Well it would have gone across goal had my gonads not intercepted and the “ball” (no – the “ball” – singular) dropped at my feet, which had gone along with my legs into stagger forward and fall down mode.
As luck would have it the cold kept the pain of first impact at bay long enough for me to realise I had staggered past the keeper and,although at a narrow angle, the goal was at my mercy.
My striker instinct took over and I toe poked the ball over the line to score.
I carried on with my forward stagger off the park in the uphill direction of the toilets, by this time in more pain than a same club believer reading the UEFA letter, in order to first find where the gonads had gone, then inspect the damage.
After about 15 mins I was able to return to the field of play to accolades from my team mates and sympathy from the ref, who did not book me for going off without permission. Who says refs aren’t human?
I scored quite a lot of goals as an amateur but for some reason I remember that one most.
Lescott must have family in Athens…..
Auldheid
I felt your pain reading that but also delighted you scored !
MWD
Cristian Gamboa “a pacy right back with both attacking and defensive capabilities”
Thought that was Saidy Janko?
Hope the Scotland medical team decides it better for LG to rest his hamstring and leave him back in Glasgow.
Watched Sevco on tv against Killie (highlights?), their central defence is as slow as me and I’m seeing specialist soon about replacement knee.
HH
Interesting comment re operating at 95%. I thought based on our 2nd half display at the weekend we were operating well below our optimum level, hard to put a figure on it but say around 70%. Although understandable with the midweek exertions in mind.
In terms of CL expectations we will have a better idea of where we stand come Thursday morning. Our current right back and central midfield will be ruthlessly exposed at the highest level. We have the opportunity to take a major step forward as a team with a couple of good purchases.
I hate International breaks.
Only good thing about them is hoping that some of “Rangers” international stars might pick up an injury before the Glasgow Derby…………… Oh, wait a minute….. :))
Repost from last article
Jordan Rossiter:
Valued at £8M, Rangers got him for £250K based on cross-border youth transfers, and it looks like one of the canniest quarters of a million spent in some time. Drawing comparisons with both Barry Ferguson and Steven Gerrard, Rossiter has slotted in absolutely impeccably, reading the game brilliantly, rarely wasting a pass, and working hard to close opponents down. Not to mention quite happily tackling too. In Rangers’ currently underwhelming midfield, he has been an absolute stand out. 9/
A deluded Ibrox Noise now trying vainly to bump Rossiter into the dizzy heights of that other “Superstar”,sorry I forget his name,like everyone else on the planet,that left for Brentford.
8 million,!!!!!!!!!!.No one else interested in the boy.
Deluded,stupid,gullible.
Division 5 in England.Shove it.With the route to the CL riches even more within our grasp,why would we waste time down there.If we invest right,we should qualify each year.That would be around 200 million thrown away in the pursuit of the EPL.Who would want to come to us playing in Div 5,4,3,2?.We would be on a slippery slope,with no getting back up.
Hunderbirds are Gone on 29th August 2016 12:27 pm
They have a money spinning friendly against Linfield at the weekend I believe.
On the don’t feed the troll article
I think it’s been clear for some time that there has been a concerted effort to undermine issues like Res 12 and LNC
Whether or not Rangers are paying any PR company to orchestrate this , I have no idea. What is clear though is that if some aren’t being paid , then they have an awful lot of time on their hands.
How our community deals with it is a challenge. On Twitter I either block or mute . That doesn’t stop the serious trolls entirely as they just invent multiple user names. In the long run though most trip themselves up.
I’d endorse the article not to feed the trolls. They are not here for genuine debate. There are decent Rangers fans who are open about their position and who I’m more than happy to debate with
However if your starting premise is to try and fool me about which club you support , then you are wasting everybody’s time
If the Division 5 thing in England is a goer I would be up for it. We could enter a ‘B team’ made up of our Colts supplemented by a few experienced heads to climb the English league structure. Once we get to a decent level, say League 1 or Championship we could move the first XI down to give us the best chance of qualifying for the EPL and put the B team into the Scottish league. It would provide us with a great opportunity to develop our young players alongside the long term goal to access the English TV riches and ultimately compete for European silverware again.
top 20
BARRYBHOY on 29TH AUGUST 2016 12:39 PM
The biggie.
No Hampden cabal.
A wee bit of self publicity.
http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/dont-feed-the-trolls-emeraldbee/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+co%2FIRuC+%28Celtic+Quick+News%29
totally agree paul – very good start to the season and still improvement to come – do need another signing though
With the first ever visit of Sevco to Paradise fast approaching I have reluctantly concluded that the custodians of Celtic will NOT make any reference to the ” same club myth” and will welcome the new club into Celtic Park as a continuation of the old, now deceased entity.
They will not use the term, “old firm” but in choosing to charge 7000 bigots £50 a pop to invade our home to subject our support to unrelenting sectarian abuse, the board have made their choice.
Better to have £350,000 and few wrecked seats than stand up for the truth.
You see, you can’t charge £50 to watch a new 4 year old club, can you?
£33 to watch us play Barca or Citeh, so you can’t call out the pretendy gers can you, not when you charge £50?
I pay £600 for my season ticket to support Celtic. I have done for years, whether there was a team from Govan in our league or not.
I reckon Celtic PLC have calculated that they can afford to lose about 1166 season ticket holders, like me, as long as they charge 7000 sectarian bigots £50 a pop twice a year to cover the cost.
I hope I am wrong but business is business.
Big decision time for ole Eurochamps.
Paul67
No more signing mibbees or outright mistakes please, Brendan Rodgers should be dealing with incoming calls trimming away previous fails that were stupidly bought cart blanche in a failing regime.
We are inundated with offers aren’t we?
As ever
BARCABHOY @12.34 pm
Really good post, sir. Could it be that the paymaster is a Knight of the Realm?
If the malevolent former poster is Kill Ultra, I have some sympathy for the pal (Papa Joe 55 ???) who stuck up for him in the beginning as way way back the pal had contributed some good posts. Unless, of course, …… HH
MACJAY1 FOR NEIL LENNON on 29TH AUGUST 2016 12:47 PM
Agreed.
We would get a fair crack of the whip south of the border.
Having said that, if Celtic had been treated fairly in Scotland over the generations the Club probably wouldn’t have retained its identity to the extent that it has.
AN TEACH SOLAIS on 29TH AUGUST 2016 12:50 PM
And there’s your problem.
They say that the most effective way to wage biological warfare is to sow the seed of doubt.
ERNIE LYNCH
Too true.
Hopefully in this technological age the truth will out and the bigots exposed. Eternal vigilance is the keyword, IMO. Hail, Hail
They do tend to be a little bit economical with the truth I agree.
http://thecelticblog.com/2016/08/blogs/another-ibrox-lie-is-exposed-as-lescott-signs-for-aek-athens/The
EUROCHAMPS67
Keep the ole engine running in your car if you’re still going in, to see what it says on the programme.
Go to England in a minute, division 5 or not.
Let the Huns and their acolytes die a death up here; no Celtic, no ‘Old Firm’ TV deals to lubricate their ducts down Hampden way.
So Mark Warburton lies, likely at the demand of Dave King as he is a contracted employee, We all jump up and down in hilarity.
So we have an employee contracted to a club saying something that is not true, that everyone knows is not true, because he is contracted.
Wouldn’t happen at Celtic with contracted employees or those who sign secretive agreements to keep their pay offs now would it?
MWD
Not convinced that the English would let us play a reserve team in Div 5,while our top team plays in Scotland.
As I said earlier,if that is not the case and they want our full team in Div 5,just who could we attract to play for us.Would the crowds turn out for 4 years watching very poor quality.No CL money,No big sponsorship money.
A lot of thinking has to go into this ,if offered.For me its a no.Would be great to get rid of the “Cabal”,but it looks like a path fraught with danger to me.
I agree Paul, every player must give 100% no matter who they are playing, anything less will contribute to a loss, every team in our domestic league play us as if it’s a cup final, they want our scalp on they’r belts we will have the odd game with tired legs in Europe that I get, but in our domestic league no one should live with us IMO, but then again there’s the r………… Ach Wee all know about that.
Sandman
I believe the L5 L5 stuff is being reported as including Sevco moving to L5 with us as reported by L5.
MWD
good article emeraldbee
AULDHEID on 29TH AUGUST 2016 12:17 PM
From previous. A Tale of Woe and Glory thanks to Mouldmaster.
29TH AUGUST 2016 12:06 PM
GERRYFAETHEBRIG on 29TH AUGUST 2016 11:15 AM
The mouldmaster was always sorer on a red ash park, not sure why, but seemed a lot more painful
Vfr800a8
Reading your last post I immediately crossed my legs, painfull memories.
===%%%====
With apologies to longer term posters who have heard my tale of woe and glory, there are another two elements to add to the mould master pain menu.
The “ball” itself, red blaes of course plus temperatures hovering around freezing and the gonads.
One day back around 68 all four aligned in a Saturday morning game up Barmulloch way on a red blaes pitch.
The “ball” was hoofed up the right wing and was pursued by our winger and their full back. Sensing the winger might just get there first I moved in from the left wing to pick up any cross.
My judgement was wrong (and consequences painfu)l in that their full back reached the “ball” first and bloodred it across goal away from our winger.
Well it would have gone across goal had my gonads not intercepted and the “ball” (no – the “ball” – singular) dropped at my feet, which had gone along with my legs into stagger forward and fall down mode.
As luck would have it the cold kept the pain of first impact at bay long enough for me to realise I had staggered past the keeper and,although at a narrow angle, the goal was at my mercy.
My striker instinct took over and I toe poked the ball over the line to score.
I carried on with my forward stagger off the park in the uphill direction of the toilets, by this time in more pain than a same club believer reading the UEFA letter, in order to first find where the gonads had gone, then inspect the damage.
After about 15 mins I was able to return to the field of play to accolades from my team mates and sympathy from the ref, who did not book me for going off without permission. Who says refs aren’t human?
I scored quite a lot of goals as an amateur but for some reason I remember that one most.
_______________________________
Brilliant. I am literally laughing out loud at work!
KTF