Given a choice, you would rather a rival pitch up to play you with a lame duck manager who has clearly lost the dressing room, than sack him and allow players and coaches an opportunity to disavow some of his more glaring errors. Rene Weiler took Anderlecht to the Belgian title in May, his first season at the club. But, when he was sacked yesterday, they sat ninth in the Jupiler table with just two wins and eight goals in seven games.
They have a cup game away to lower league Westerlo tomorrow, the third consecutive away game in a series of four, before Celtic come to town in eight days. The Anderlecht board’s hope is that they can remain in the cup, then pick up a win against Waasland-Beverent (seventh, but on the same points as Anderlecht), in an attempt to stabilise the club before the crucial Champions League game with Celtic.
By any measure, Anderlecht have been rubbish this season, but they will employ the weapon all rubbish teams have, that of an embattled underdog who is capable of raising standards by exception. Their performance at the Allianz Arena last week, where 10-men gave Bayern Munich some nervous moments, is an indication of what we are likely to face next week.
The game in Brussels is not only our most important game of the next week, it’s the most important game between now and December, when Anderlecht visit Celtic Park. Despite their historical-comparative rubbish status, Anderlecht are better than any team we will face in Scotland. Notwithstanding that, our objective has to be a win in Brussels.
I was there at Hampden when Paul Wilson scored twice as we won the Scottish Cup against Old Airdrie in 1975. Paul was an exciting player during an era when our star was fading. We enjoyed the thrill of seeing a breakthrough, flamboyant, talent emerge. I still recall that header against Spain which seemed to affirm Paul as the genuine article.
The four years after nine-in-a-row finished was an era of decline. Kenny Dalglish carried the team to an extent we have never really acknowledged as a club, or a support. But Jock Stein’s period of pre-eminence was long gone before Paul Wilson and his contemporaries made their mark. Paul moved on in 1978 to little fanfare, as Celtic finished fifth and Stein was asked to leave the dugout.
On his death yesterday, he was noted as a trailblazing player of Asian descent in British football at a time when inclusivity was not a term society was familiar with. He was that, but for me, he was a young and powerful Celtic striker who put the ball in the net with ease.
Win tickets for Ibrox
Our raffle to win two tickets to the Celtic end at Ibrox for Saturday’s game ends at midnight TONIGHT!! If like me, you’re stuck without a ticket, this is your chance. Celtic sponsor and all-round good guys, Intelligent Car Leasing, provided the tickets to support our work with Mary’s Meals.
As you will know by now, over 3,000 children in Malawi and Liberia eat a school meal each day because of money raised by CQN’ers. This improves lives in a profound way.
To enter the raffle, answer this question:
Which Belgian team will Celtic face in this season’s Champions League?
Please donate a minimum of £5 to this MyDonate page. Then forward your confirmation email with your answer in the SUBJECT LINE to celticquicknews@gmail.com . Winner will be informed early tomorrow, so make sure you include adequate contact information.
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NEW CQN PODCAST OUT NOW, BEHIND THE SCENES AT HAMILTON v CELTIC WITH BT SPORT AND AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS SUTTON – LISTEN BELOW
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Thomson is there to stop the game at every opportunity, it’s what he does.
I’ve always felt a bit uneasy with minute’s silences. Not through any lack of respect or recognition for the player in question, but the actual criteria for having one. Players come and go at Celtic and every other club. Some will rack up 500 games in a career, glittering or modest. Some leave after a season. Many will achieve over 100 games for a club, winning trophies and caps in the process. Only a minority will be given a one minute’s silence on their passing, more will merit a black arm band and all will receive a message of condolence from the club. However it’s the somewhat random and subjective nature of these decisions that doesn’t sit right. While totally understanding how unfeasible it is to practically kick-off every game in the UK with this mark of respect many weeks throughout the season, I cant help thinking a sensitive and poignant issue has not been properly addressed.
Twenty years ago I stood for three different minute’s silences for Jim Baxter. One at Parkhead, one at Ibrox and one at (I think) Rugby Park. Yes it was the way the fixtures landed and enough said for now about SFA demands etc. Rangers ‘great’ Baxter (and he was a classy player for two or three seasons but no Rivera, Charlton or Beckenbauer) played 150 times for RFC 1872 , scoring 19 goals. The late Paul Wilson made 129 appearances for Celtic, scoring 30 goals.
Minute’s silence for Paul Wilson on Saturday? I doubt it. One at our next home game? There should be but who can tell?
Murty’s sevco gave us by a distance the hardest sevco game of last season. After watching them on Sunday and listening to his latest ramblings I think anyone would do a better job on Sunday than Pedro
I watched them on Friday, not Sunday. Once was enough
HUNDERBIRDS ARE GONE on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2017 12:09 PM
Wrote mine without reading your superior contribution.
Lights out , alarm on in Oz.
And we’re playing them on Saturday. I give up
You had me going with that headline, Paul. Was expecting an article about Neil McCann :-)
Yorkbhoy
Yes buddy they were all over us. scary!
Brendan talks a lot about being brave in possession and passing thro’ the high press ( not that lot:-)
I detect there is still a level of slackness in domestic games that is exposed in big games
Fix home standards and bring it to CL, this season must see that improvement
MARRAKESH EXPRESS on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2017 1:48 PM
The minute’s silence debacle is a protestant affair, Catholics applaud. Celebrate life.
Ave Ave
Paul67 et al
So sad to read about Paul Wilson’s passing. Sadder still that he was not in fact the ‘trailblazer’ you claim him to be. Sadly, decades later that has proved not to be the case. At that point Jock was light years in front of the fans, of us. Paul faced racism not only from opposing fans, but also from Celtic supporters collectively and individually, his colour and background another weapon for many on the terraces, some of whom have not gone away. A terrific player, a brave man, physically more than a match for his team mates and his opponents, and who at his best, in his favoured position a fantastic forward. A privilege to have seen him at his best.
When I say Paul was not a trailblazer, the proof is out there on the pitch the length and and bread of these Isles, where, and I would be glad to be proved wrong, not one footballer of a similar background has made it to the top these past forty years, in fact not even into a professional team in Great Britain. A great loss to Celtic Football Club. Condolences to his family.
Requiescat in Pace Paul
MARRAKESH EXPRESS on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2017 1:48 PM
I know exactly what you mean.
The whole thing is in danger of becoming a charade.
Good to catch up with all you Mornington Tims again.
I will be back down again in Feb for a wedding, hopefully will be able to stretch it out till St Paddys day.
President Paddy was talking about a special event for that time.
Should be back in Qld before kick off on Sat.
Here’s to another gubbing of the DEID mob.
HAIL HAIL
S Abu at 1.25
“They’re not one of us anymore when they represent the filth.”
One of your more reprehensible comments may I suggest.
IMO the reason this blog is dying on it’s arse is because of the proliferation of posters assailing the blog with bigoted, biased , narrow minded viewpoints repeated ad nauseam, taking absolutely no account of any possible alternative opinion.
I know I shouldn’t bother but whatever your prejudices, one should be open to alternatives; a closed mind will remain empty.
The blog used to be a vehicle for discussion, (notwithstanding the admirable charity works), not a mouthpiece for prejorative, definitive, ill thought through,statements. Fact!
Eurochamps67
IwasonlykiddingwiththefactattheendthereCSC
Neuer out till January…..
!BADABING!
Can we play Bayern during visiting hours?
HUNDERBIRDS ARE GONE on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2017 12:09 PM
&
Jobo Balde
I think we have the beginnings of a support group….
I used to be OCD but found the cure is to keep things in their place in an orderly fashion and check every few minutes that they are in orderly fashion solved my problem.
MWD
Saltires
I watched the Celtic PSG youth game and something that caught my eye with PSG was their passing. It was very crisp direct and with power and the players, mostly controlled it quickly. Sometimes our passing at the back is slow and telegraphed so teams can react. I thought the passing from the back from the Celtic youths was better at times than the first team.
SIONNACH ABU on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2017 1:56 PM
MARRAKESH EXPRESS on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2017 1:48 PM
The minute’s silence debacle is a protestant affair, Catholics applaud. Celebrate life.
Ave Ave
The problem is that in the OTT society we live in, there are minutes silence etc. at every fiddlers fart.
As for silence versus applause. The latter is a device to cover up for numpties who can be relied on to break a minutes silence.
Yorkbhoy-a bugbear of mine is slow passing,and not passing into space ahead of a player to run on to….
MOONBEAMSWD on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2017 2:49 PM
I used to be OCD but found the cure is to keep things in their place in an orderly fashion and check every few minutes that they are in orderly fashion solved my problem.
####
So why are you referring to it as OCD, rather than CDO?
We’re on BT tomorrow night
Tonight’s match between the jags and johnny sevco will be shown before our match
Or at least the highlights will .
I’m all for applause rather than the silence ,as you said,quonno,because some people can’t do
This simple act.
I’m sure I’ve noticed a pattern where silence will be the token of respect of choice ,depending
On who’s fans rep is on the line.
Or a meringue?
From the Scotsman
0
HAVE YOUR SAY
The Scottish Football Association has revealed it has changed the rules so no retrospective action can be taken against players and coaches for ‘gestures and actions’.
The news comes as it was confirmed Rangers midfielder Josh Windass, who allegedly made an obscene gesture to Partick Thistle fans on Friday night, won’t face action by the SFA Compliance Officer.
There had been speculation that Windass would be banned for Saturday’s Old Firm game after he reacted to supporters who would not return the ball for a Rangers throw-in.
However, it has emerged that, after the involvement of PFA Scotland and the Coaches and Managers Association, rule 200 – which covers retrospective action for on-field offences – was amended to remove gestures and actions towards the crowd.
An SFA spokesman said: “The only cause for retrospective action now is for violent conduct, serious foul play or spitting missed by the match officials.”
There was the possibility that Tony McGlennan, the compliance officer, could have used rule 202 which covers “excessive misconduct” if he wished to cite Windass but he decided it was not merited.
Had he done so, he would have been greeted with stern resistance from Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha who feels McGlennan’s hands were tied as he did not act when the Hibernian manager Neil Lennon gestured at Ibrox on 12 August.
Similarly, Kyle Lafferty seemed to make an offensive gesture at the Celtic fans a week earlier and the compliance officer did not get involved.
Caixinha said: “As long as they are current with the decisions they make. He should have the same punishment as others who did the same thing before him.
“If it’s like that, we need to accept it, but, if it isn’t, then I won’t accept it.
“‘If there is something decided before and you have a similar situation after, the decision needs to be the same. I am not a lawyer, but I know it is like this.
“First of all, I don’t know what he did. But if he did something, of course he needs to understand he cannot do that. That is something between me and him.
“But punishment from the SFA is another thing. I’m talking about jurisprudence. And I’m talking about the relationship between a coach and player. That is another thing.
“I don’t want my players to behave like that. I want them to be focused on the game because it is inside the pitch where you can change the course of things, not in the stand.”
Yotkbhoy and Saltires, further to your posts about our passing and that of both teams in the youth match last Tuesday.
Our youth’s second goal last week came after a twenty plus passing move involving our young guns and was a delight to see.
Our passing does have to improve especially in Europe and hopefully this is one area the emphasis is on at training.
There seems to be a feeling on here that newco might lose tonight – can’t see it myself as they should have been out of site at halftime.
I see still nothing on the developing story from a few weeks ago – ah well – obviously dead duck
School run beckons
WEET WEET WEET
That’s the first time the bold Pedro has talked sensibly. I think he might be in danger of being a decent sort.
Has that Scotman article been “awenawed’?
So a player or other member of team staff can perform various ‘gestures’ of degrees of obscenity without any comeback? I assume that is if the area doesn’t take action at the time.
The SFA’s keenness to remove retrospection is a very interesting behaviour – bygones are indeed bygones – I wonder if this is to bolster the much more serious ‘raking over old coals’ issue.
A person looking from a certain angle my interpret these moves as a clear attempt to remove any rules which Sevco or their Golem break – nothing happened the rule doesn’t exist!
Very Orwellian – aka to the ever changing rules on the wall of the Barn in Animal Farm with SDM as Napoleon
A wee story from long ago.
Never in all my years have I seen such gentlemanly conduct from opposing players than when we played Leeds at Elland Road , in the European Cup semi final.
My mate and I drove down and were among a load of Leeds fans, who I have to say, were fantastic, one of whom swapped scarves with me after the game.
The conduct I refer to was when Jinky was tormenting and I mean really extracting the urine from Madely, Cooper and Hunter. At one point, having run round Terry Cooper about ten times, Cooper stood and applauded the wee man, a memory I love to recall/.
Big George C scored in 6 mins, what a game.
Hail Hail
KINGLuBo
KingLubo,
In the DiStefano testimonial in 1967, the Real Madrid fans appreciated Jinky so much that they shouted Ole every time he danced passed one of their players.
HH
Pedro Delgado
Applause for a footballer in a footballing context may well be appropriate, especially in the absence of time since his playing days, say Paul Wilson being commemorated at Celtic versus Hibernian in a week or two, but do not ever mistake that, as some do, for anything to do with the Catholic Liturgy in this respect.
Yorkbhoy
Our passing at times is very predictable.
Ball retention has become the buzz word of modern football.
In Scotland we get away with this as our opponents sit off us.
In Europe their mantra is press the ball carrier and our predictability makes it easy to do.
Even with a good first touch it is difficult as it allows opponent to be right on top of player.
To often we make the pass directly where player is instead of passing into space for player to attack.
I think JF suffers for this as he often is pressed early when a ball into space in front of him would utilize his skills more.
The European top teams play a lot of diagonal passes in anticipation of a teammates run.
This occasionally will make passer look foolish as anticipated runner does not materialise but for a covering defender it creates difficulty as he has to vacate his set position and upsets his teams formation.
In the youth game last week they attacked the space with the ball and caused our defenders a multitude of confusion and problems.
Understandable as our youths are unfamiliar with this tactic domestically.
The young Celts did well in midfield and attack with lots of good movement and passing and had the bulk of play but our defense struggled every time they countered.
The SFA Compliance Officer, being the same chap who handled
1. Information indicating fraudulent/negligent behaviour by RFC that was provided by Celtic from share holders in 2014
2. Then even more information (as will be made public by end of the week ) in July 2015 from Res12 lawyers strengthening the case to investigate already provided the previous year.
unless he is limited to gathering the evidence that takes his own and SFA CEO Regan’s part in the matter all the way from March 2011 to June 2016 to put before an Investigation Panel, that includes or is led by UEFA, is not the chap who should be handling the case.
If Celtic allow anything but this to happen they will be most remiss in the pursuit of protecting their shareholders as well as spectacularly failing to make the SFA fully accountable and transparent given the hand they hold.
I cannot see that happening if the principles and argument that have been expressed when seeking an enquiry on the SFA’s handling of the issues arising from RFC’s use of ebts are stood by.
There are very serious issues at play here for both SFA and Celtic if all the information that is known before and after 2011 is not part of an investigation.
Is Pedro a nice guy? Has he landed in a job that appears on the face of it to have been a step up in wages and ‘prestige’ but it’s turned out to have been a sugar coated jobby? Sweet for a fleeting second but gone to complete poop once actually touched?
Or is he a Portuguese wide boy who knows he’s no good but is making good coin while the proverbial sun shines?
I can’t work it out.
I’m feeling some sympathy for him. But it feels wrong!
By the way put the mortgage on them getting through tonight. Can’t see them being allowed to lose before playing us at the weekend.
ROBERTTRESSEL@4.27pm
Nail on head, I hope he is here to take the coin. Good luck to him, he is the latest in a long line who have fleeced the gullible Orc hordes. Agree also on the game tonight.
Reflecting on what Regan said the other day I.e. ‘Not one single email’.(I don’t believe him btw)
Now given that we know Hibs and Sheep fans have a fair number of folk who want a review and Celtic must have many thousands:
Could the basic wording of an email not be shared and then individually sent to the SFA, I believe (I’m sure I remember from other disputes) that thousands of individual mails are more powerful than a single petition.
Copies to MSM would be as simple as a ‘cc’
Just thinking like!
Bada and Fan – a – tic,
I agree that running on to a pass is ideal but I believe, in the modern game, that is a luxury not afforded to players in most circumstances owing to the speed at which defenders are able to cut the ball off. Even in Scotland, most professional footballers are at a much, much higher level of fitness than they were in the 60`s, for instance.
Also, we are all affected by our own experiences and, at the level played by most of us, passing for a team-mate to run onto the ball was the obvious way to play. I think that still influences our views.
JJ
Jinkyredstar
Certainly, we need to do something.
JJ
Wee item on Moroccan tele-
Pundit claiming that Neymar has told PSG that Cavani has to go.A him or me thing .
Horrible brat has -PSG by the short and curlies -they are commited to paying Monaco all that Money no matter What.