Early in the summer I said that to re-sign Kelechi Ineanacho would be an admission of failure that we were unable to scout a player better than one who was unable to compete for 90 minutes last term.
Then we were told the manager wanted him, while hearing that it was difficult to recruit players to Scotland (which is true). Kelechi was invited back, presumably because those privy to inside info on our recruitment plans believed he was better than our alternatives.
Celtic had an option to retain the player for next season, allowed it to lapse, provided Kelechi’s agent with a ‘Player in demand’ opportunity and saw him sign for Turkish side Bursaspor. Meanwhile, there is not a whisper from Celtic. Genuine incredulity among the fans is unanswered, I can only assume because explaining would not make things more palatable.
We will speak more about the direction of the club before the start of the season, but there is plenty to be alarmed about.
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You good?
The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are.
The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it’s very brightly colored, and it’s very loud, and it’s fun for a while.
Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, “Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?”
And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, “Hey, don’t worry; don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.”
And we … kill those people.
“Shut him up! I’ve got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up!
Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family.
This has to be real.” It’s just a ride.
But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that?
And let the demons run amok …
But it doesn’t matter, because it’s just a ride.
And we can change it any time we want.
It’s only a choice.
No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money.
Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love.
The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off.
The eyes of love instead see all of us as one.
Here’s what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride.
Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.”
The Big Push – Praise You ( Fatboy Slim Cover )
https://www.youtub
BRRB
Capt beef curtains sucked
You got something better?
Jamiroquai – Seven Days In Sunny June
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRSH-egVyzk&list=RDEMjo2Cg3TOYCTGOKFCSrVMNA&start_radio=1
Frank Zappa
Transylvania Boogie.
https://youtu.be/ZqZBCjsKlDI?si=CeB_PjC3HBxEr-CQ
The Doors | Riders on the Storm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJZTgynPGT8&list=RDEMzLj7r-UoUfcHL-Z9KbYCuw&index=11
Fabulous guitarist. Night night Chris, I’m knackered. 🙄
Krieger was
Get some rest before you have to prowl the manor….
Anyone else??
😂😂
Mumford and Sons – White Blank Page (live)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbaL2bnQcSo&list=RDMM&index=23
all good – but now to bed – 7’s at 9 – HH
Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL-nv-7TIws&list=RDMM&index=23
The Stone Roses – Waterfall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NrLBlw9WZE&list=RDMM&index=25
A Great Big World – “Say Something”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVgixOjGhVU&list=RDMM&index=27
Glenowen on 18th July 2026 2:26 pm
Personally, I’d never criticise anyone going to watch Celtic.
FSR – for any post re this, would be helpful to add a disclaimer,”Celtic are nowhere close to being in breach of current regulations and are better placed than most comparable teams, both within Scotland and throughout Europe”
=============
That is a useful suggestion and I added it and strengthened it to the FSR explanation on line. I suggest if mentioning FSR on here the link is provided. Cheers.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SEk-z4Zrss6f0sJn-Cs8qhtaEzPLDUob/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=107947982974245186134&rtpof=true&sd=true
Death In Vegas – Dirge T in the Park 1999
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-dqd5Q18EQ&list=RDMM&index=27
clunks on 19th July 2026 12:42 am
Love it. I’ve started to right a book telling how I came to that same conclusion and what helped me get there.
Current Title is Divorced from Reality.
Black Velvet Alannah Myles performs at Montreux Jazz Festival 1999.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_pO9qOySdg&list=RDMM&index=27
Rage Against The Machine – Know Your Enemy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAPfNPIvWkM
Happy Mondays – Loose Fit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfF4k6TxFno&list=RDMM&index=27
Ahhhh, the wee hours of the morning when I largely have this dear blog to myself….
While consumed by The Open, midseason baseball, the Tour de France, some Rugby, the Cricket and the most excellent game of the WC between France and England, I took my eye off the Celtic fitba world, though I did manage to endure the highlights of the Boro game….
Oh, where to start….
First up, from the last article….
THE BLOGGER FORMERLY KNOWN AS GM on 18TH JULY 2026 11:23 AM
Heaven help Chairboy & Chums if we have another successful season.
Their heids will explode 😂
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Blogga, you do yourself a disservice with these trite and predictable posts. As a man of reasonably obvious intellect, I’d rather enjoy your insight and and challenge to the opinions of others, as opposed to your schoolboy sarcasm and disrespect of fellow Celts who express something with which you disagree.
You could do better (and that is coming from someone who hears this daily from all of those around him).
I’ll move on to the “Fiasco” at Celtic and then address some of my fellow blogger comments.
For those that don’t remember, I’ve got full blown “sack the board” credentials (more on that later), but I’m not disposed to criticize the Kelechi Iheanacho deal as some might expect. I actually think that the club did its business correctly, but lost the publicity battle and failed to kill the story with a “we already moved on” response.
To start with let’s remember who we are discussing here; a player who had moments of greatness in the EPL, and previously as an international with a fine Nigeria team, but was struggling for fitness and form, when we signed him as a free agent after the 2025 summer transfer window closed. He is also a player described by our host as the most talented footballer in the SPFL (or something similar), and a guy for whom I personally have a lot of respect – even when not getting playing time at Celtic, he was one of the most animated on the sideline, and never sulked or pouted in front of the fans. A very good player, and professional, with a good attitude and who made some crucial contributions that few others could have provided.
So we had a 1-year option, and we let it expire. Why? Because he played only about 10% or the total possible minutes in the season.
My guess is that we told him how popular he was, how much we’d like to keep him, but the price tag was just too high given the amount of minutes he contributed in the season past. We gave him an outline of what made sense for the club, but were never going to meet his desired terms.
We may also have been fresh off packaging a deal for the soon to be 33-yo AOC, and we likely included a level of performance based compensation which was the only way that made sense, and tried something similar with Kelechi.
He and his agent likely responded politely and suggested that they wanted to test the market to see if they could do better.
More recently, contact was reestablished and we tried to negotiate a deal that would work for both parties.
Ultimately, we were too far apart and at the same time interest started to develop in another market which was always going to deliver him a better deal. They may have even give us a look at that deal to see if we could get close, because he probably wanted to stay.
We likely parted on good terms, wished him well, and congratulated him (and his agent) on getting the terms that are being reported (3-years at £XXk per week?).
Incidentally, I would agree that resigning Kelechi would have been a poor decision (on the terms likely required), and an admission that our recruitment function was truly broken.
Failing to kill this story is where the real story begins….
THE EXILED TIM on 18TH JULY 2026 12:18 PM
So Sarrachi saying that he and his agent did everything they could to return to the club, they obviously didn’t try hard enough.
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The position which we appeared to have covered best last season was LB. We had KT as a free who took a while to get up to speed, but eventually started to look like his old self. Then we had this Scratchy from Boca Jnrs, who was an excellent back up. In fact, I would contend that at times Scratchy was the better of the two. In addition, for moments where more attacking qualities were not so critical we had the Ginger Baresi who could slide over and do a job.
Point being, if that was the single area of the pitch where we arguably had the least concern, why would we not be bringing back Scratchy? Even if he was a little more pricey than we would like (just for cover), the upside of a known entity, a reliable performer and guy that wants to be here should more than offset!
There are moments where the easy answers are staring you in the face. Just take them!
Now we are going to be back in the market looking, or perhaps we were always considering bringing back Greg Taylor. Fine, do it, and then you kill the story with a “MON prefers……” quote.
TICTASTIC on 18TH JULY 2026 12:46 PM
Would Martin quit……For his own sake….I honestly do….But he must know the situation, and is happy enough to go along with it for the cash…so I’m going to be a wee bit of a off here…..
Does that make Martin part of the problem…
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I was always concerned that MON could be swept along by the sentiment that surrounded the end to last season, but he is no fool. He took seriously the offer of 1-year, and the time that he was afforded to reach his decision. My new concern is that while he made his decision and committed to DD that he is the right guy, he has indeed now become part of the problem. First, I hate that he might in anyway taint his legacy, and I worry that he will progressively find it difficult to maintain his own position, increasingly being drawn into spouting the “company line”.
The minutes from the meeting with the AICSC presented a small fracture in this. His view of the desperate need for transfers was in stark contrast to the mealy mouthed words of Nicholson, but I wonder if we might see MON getting “on message” as the next few weeks play out.
LIONROARS67 on 18TH JULY 2026 12:51 PM
……
What Celtic did then was pretty much the NORM for most football clubs, both elite and non-elite ones chasing promotion: they used debt, investor funding, or both in an effort to move up a level. They had AMBITION.
________________
“Debt and investor funding” are not in the current Celtic lexicon. I’m not advocating for either, but I’d just like to see the club run as if it were not scared of raising capital.
Ironically, it is not remotely needed for the purpose of building a CL ready squad, as we can do that from the proceeds of normal operations.
Additional capital would really only be needed if we had a series of projects tied to growth strategy that expanded beyond football operations, such as the mooted hotel and museum initiatives.
I’m okay with the club choosing not to use borrowed money to fund football ambition – just use the money that the support either directly or indirectly already contribute.
QUADROPHENIAN on 18TH JULY 2026 2:09 PM
When read ‘Fiasco At Celtic’, my heart leapt thinking it could be an undiscovered Italian striker… Marco Fiasco. Or a nuggety midfield general from Latin America, Arsenio Fiasco.
_________________________
Your faux incredulity is priceless. 😂
We already have Camilo Duran, how many more exotic latin players do you think we need?
Staying in this century, but it set me thinking about some old favorites; Enrico Anoni, Massimo Donati, Miku, Junihno, and, oh for a Paolo Di Canio!
But, truth is, Fiasco is much more likely!
DENIABHOY on 18TH JULY 2026 3:59 PM
…………….. Last summer, on July 19th, there were 49,000 for the game against Newcastle which we won 4-1.
__________________________
Most of our fans are still in the USA for the World Cup. 🤣
It feels unkind, but I have to say that Boro instead of Newcastle kinda sets the tone.
TANGBHOY on 18TH JULY 2026 4:33 PM
……………..The club is a joke. A mess. A laughing stock run by incompetent men.
________________________________
Yes, but we won a double and we have a new 3rd strip.
None of us want to be right about how badly the club is being run, but it’s starting to become unavoidably obvious. It’ll be no fun watching the current clusterfuck implode completely, but it will be better than watching the current incumbents surviving to do it again next year.
AN DÚN on 18TH JULY 2026 5:09 PM
I welcome the penny dropping. The scenes today at CP should have our CEO being emptied.
These are a vital few weeks ahead of us and MN simply isn’t capable of handling it.
_________________________
Agree, but the reluctance of the board to address systemic failures makes it difficult to assess what level of trauma will finally cause them to address the obvious.
The big question is “will they give him enough rope to fail conclusively, or empty him before more, perhaps critical, harm is caused.
THE BLOGGER FORMERLY KNOWN AS GM on 18TH JULY 2026 5:28 PM
Oh dear, obviously there’s a few who are disappointed that Celtic weren’t thrashed today in a meaningless pre-season friendly.
_________________________
Blogga, I’m with ONENIGHTINLISBON and just “want the best for Celtic, to be world class in everything we do”. Don’t worry, your man Nicholson is already picking apart the game to fine tune his negotiating process.
AN TEARMANN, not that I need to be standing up for him, but just as ONIL says, the “walking away” thing is unnecessary. I’d prefer you engage maturely and offer some views on what you are seeing at the club that gives you cause for optimism. I’m worried, so I could use a little help.
BURNLEY78 on 18TH JULY 2026 6:35 PM
Last I heard Celtic has virtually the same squad as contributed to winning the double last season.
_________________________
It’s not as if there is zero to be positive about, and I’ll acknowledge that there are players returning while in truth none of the loanees who departed are a great loss.
I think that there is some bigger picture stuff which remains a significantly greater concern, and the lack of transfer business ahead of the UCL playoff tie is probably a reasonable point of focus for those of us who can remember what happened last year.
For what it is worth, I personally wouldn’t trust our board with running the local thrift shop, but, given where we are at, I’m just hoping that they can give MON a half decent chance in the annual UEFA CL playoff roulette event.
Ideally, that would be with new permanent signings and not guys who want away, but we’ll see.
Then we can address more structural stuff during the course of the season while at least hovering up the UCL money to help.
Hopefully we come up just short of the complete “self-destruct”, but just like last year, even if we triumph harm has been done to our reputation and the underlying business. We are a paper tiger.
Good Morning Celts – Grand Day To Be A Tim,
BRRB @ 9:40 pm,
“He wasn’t bad old chap. But when I didn’t fall out into the Isis I was an Olympian. Drinker.”
:))))))
Could well believe it…
Had a poigniant event around the Isis at the start of the week – the funeral of my mother in law (I call her that, though I’ve been divorced the whole of the 21st Century).
The funeral at All Saints Church, then after the burial, the wake over Marlow Bridge at the Compleat Angler…
Sad times for the family – a devasted daughter…:(
Lucky Cody @ 9:46 pm,
An interesting insight, must say that when you see how money and power can corrupt something quite special it is a sad state of affairs.
Now we have a faction outside the tent p¡$$¡#g in – it isn’t going to help matters – but maybe we were well beyond that anyway!?
Gednite…
Some excellent insights as always.
On the Kelechi, Marcelo thing, it seems you may be missing the elephant in the room…
Like last year, we have a manager that is giving us updates on recruitment, like last year he seems to be giving us his wonts and version of events – like last year the Board and Executive are doing their own thing regardless of the “football departments” wishes – like last year our manager is looking like a mug…
MO’N clearly stated he’d been talking to Micheal Nicholson, he clearly stated he wanted Kelechi and Marcelo in and that talks were well advanced.
That’s the point isn’t it?
It seems MO’N had visions of changing games, maybe around the infamous hour mark – by bringing on an effective left wing back and highly effective impact centre forward – Giamoukis anyone!?
Whether paying what we’d have to for an impact centre forward or a back up left fullback, wingback, was worth it is debatable.
What is not debatable is the fact that the manager wanted them and thought they were coming in.
The narrative now is that Sarrachi was never coming and they hadn’t heard from Kelechi’s agent in weeks…
Although they thought they had a deal.
Now, tell me? How does a Lawyer ever think he has a deal before he has a watertight deal?
The first thing they learn at lawyer kindergarten is that a verbal agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s written on… Yes!?
Someone is at it – and it’s happened to too many managers, players, agents, other clubs to give the benefit of the doubt to the scallywags (good description Auldheid) who run our PLC.
Hail Hail
Good Morning CQN
Yesterday I spent a very pleasant afternoon in the company of fine Celtic men/ole CQNers
As we know Oasis are planning huge concerts at Celtic Park, the events circuit can be very profitable for football clubs, Spurs £60m is from the 16 events the stadium hosts every …
That £60m is from the 16 events the stadium hosts every year. But Haringey council have increased the stadium to host 30 events now.
Allegedly Celtic have been offered a deal in of stadium events, clearly the main stand needs upgrading sadly apparently we turned the offer down, the deal in which money to be invested in upgrading facilities was included
Yesterday there was total agreement in that Celtics present paralysis in progressing the whole club forward lay at Dermot’s door or wherever Dermot lays his Panama hat as he has numerous doors, Michael Nicholson is completely subservient to Dermot and MN like PL has to authorise all expenditure for the club, it is apprentice to all of us as we know below MN in a company with revenue of 140 million there are very few heads of departments, for example allegedly stadium tour guides were running low on lanyards for the stadium tour passes, the request for new passes is sitting on MN desk, if the individual who runs the tour guides doesn’t have the authority to order lanyards……………..Getting deals for a manager and his staff took over a month to finalise, they where all in-house deals
https://youtu.be/aXjT574rUtk
MO’N yesterday (Link above) says with a little bit of luck we should have some players in next week
MO’N clearly thought a deal for Ian Archer was done and was waiting for him to show up at Lennonxtown, sadly he was duped as Ian Archer left for pastures new, MON was then placed in that awkward glare of the media that Celtic managers find themselves in where upon they are left defending the club, “the owner” and the CEO, over transfer business, Fridays presser will be interesting if expected business this week doesn’t materialise……..
Yesterday approx 90% of season ticket holders gave the Middlesborough match a miss myself included, it was an obvious opportunity to send a message, it clearly was sent overwhelmingly
In previous years we have had a pre season game and a European qualifier on the season ticket these are now removed aligned with an increase in season ticket prices the value of our season ticket has been significantly reduced
Dissatisfaction amongst the support in how the club is operating is rising considerably (CQN apart) hopefully DD and MN will be having some conversation today on the immediate future in supporting (A) The manager and (B) Uniting the club, I make no comment on those who attended yesterday
aff oot whatever is your thing have a good day mine is oot walking
A and B seriously required but past behaviours of both say to me that is wishful thinking.
DESSYBHOY on 19TH JULY 2026 7:24 AM
A and B seriously required but past behaviours of both say to me that is wishful thinking.
Allegedly 3 weeks ago when the Middelsborough match was on the agenda, the CEO was informed of the rising unhappiness within the fanbase and that Middelsborough were not a suitable opponent for obvious reasons
def aff oot