We’re close enough to the English psyche to intimately understand their hopes and fears ahead of a tournament like the World Cup, but the M74 provides enough space for those of us based within a short distance of Celtic Park to have the kind of perspective that’s not possible for most fans immersed in the moment.
For long enough, England, along with Spain and France, were the perennial underachievers of European international football, which was dominated by “skilful” Italians and “efficient” Germans, while even the Dutch and Czechs have managed vastly more major final appearances than England.
France, then Spain, got the monkey off their backs, but England still relive their regular tournament nightmare, although this time it looks likely they will bow out before troubling any of their players in a penalty kick competition.
So cut England open and what bleeds out? After the game last night Danny Murphy on BBC Radio 5Live tried to offer objective resistance to the idea that England lacked passion from a tidal wave of calls, asking “Where is the Terry Butcher with a blood soaked bandage around his head?”, “Where is the crying Gascoigne?”
Fans often confuse sporting defeat with a lack of will to win. This notion was expressed last August when Celtic lost to Shakhter Karagandy, aided and abetted by an ITV commentator who proposed the notion during live broadcast. I’m pretty sure upwards of 95% of us have played the game at some level, but time seems to remove the memories of what it’s like to be losing in a team sport, and importantly, just how difficult it can be to reverse momentum.
Suggesting professional footballers don’t try during some of the most important games of their season is an embarrassing failure to think from another’s perspective.
Listening to the radio last night and again this morning, there was no dispute to the claim that what England needed was a manager who could lose his temper in the dressing room.
Even Murphy didn’t feel comfortable enough to take on the nation on this one, instead assuring listeners that Roy Hodgson was capable of losing his temper. This was mean to be supportive. It was surely viewed as such by many. This morning, Kevin Phillips trotted out the hoary old “lacked passion” line.
Is there any other field of human endeavour where losing control of your emotions is viewed as an attribute? Football managers exist in a highly competitive, technically exacting environment. At the top level they have to communicate subtle instructions to highly skilled professionals who have heard it all before from lippy managers. By the 30th rant they are all immune and it’s highly unlikely that intimidation led to an increase in performance first time out.
Despite this, managers are supposed to demonstrate a primitive human weakness to an audience who can often scarcely tell the difference between a football match and a pantomime.
We have to be different. We have to be cleverer; let the rest satisfy their need for an alpha-male role model – because make no mistake about it – this is what they’re really craving, while Celtic show uncompromising adherence to getting the best people for the job. On a side, note, can you imagine what appointing Roy Keane would have said about our strategy?
Roy Hodgson has done enough in the game to prove he’s a good manager but he’s more Euro-sophisticate than an archetypal alpha-male. Best of luck to him.
The Celtic Graves Society are having a fundraising raffle to generate funds. 50% will go towards their excellent work and 50% will go to the Northern Ireland Childrens’ Hospice, who looked after Wee Oscar recently. For the cost of a £5 raffle ticket, you can win a singed boot from Scott Brown or from Virgil van Dijk.
To buy your ticket go to Paypal and send £5 to donate@celticgraves.com
Don’t worry if you don’t have a Paypal account, you can still work through Paypal with a debit or credit card. Please add the phrase “Boots Raffle” to the Paypal subject line, and they have asked if you could alert them to which site you picked the message up from, so “CQN” will do.
Good luck
Visit the CQN Bookstore to get Tommy Gemmell to sign your personal copy of his book, All the Best.
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Can anyone help with a link to the BBC radio show with the Brazilian bhoy Luan meeting Neil Lennon?
Thanks in advance.
HH
RWE
No. Apparently he’s some bhoy from the Southside of Glasgow who works for Formula 1 – changing tyres or some such – but who likes to spend his holidays cheering on Anyone but Foreign and giving out old Celtic tops to poor folks who live in rainforests.
traditionalist88
I don’t frequent their sites, but I would love hear any from some on here who pop into theirs now and again. I would imagine their going apoplectic at the mo. :-)))))
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
RWE
Rioskorrie was on during the week giving us the sad story of how through work he has been moved from Rio to China for the month of June.
The trouble is the english think they have a world class team full of world class players,even though they have been trying to play it down this time,their defence is very average the centre halves are decent league players not great or world class
every time they show a match with other teams on it,they always come out with the nothing to worry us from that team,shame they even qualify for tournaments
One year on from this article, and the ethnic cleansing continues unabated:
http://nypost.com/2013/06/02/middle-east-genocide/
The guy in the Scotland top who is on the BBC website Mark McConville is a cousin of my cousins wife.
I am claiming him as a family member. Good on that Bhoy!
LB
RWE
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0218hs4
16 Roads
From your linked article :-
“Islam was a religion spread by war. It was only a “religion of peace” where it had conquered. True, Islam sometimes proved more tolerant of minorities than Europeans, but that was at the zenith of the faith’s power. ”
I think this is too serious a subject to be treated as satire. That sentence sees logic twisted and tortured all over the place.
Someone should tell the writer that the Young Turks, responsible for the Armenian Genocide, were turning Turkey into a secular and modern state. They would be amongst the first victims of any Taliban/ Isis/ Boko Haram takeover, before they got round to the Christians.
I’m aff oot
rwe
This link worked for me…….. About 51 mins in.
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/5lfd/5lfd_20140619-1519a.mp3
HH
The author of that linked article about Islam being a religion of War, also wrote:-
“The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. To those ends, we will do a fair amount of killing.”
Sounds like a Mission of Peace, eh?
sftb
chilling (as in frightening) not chillin’
I thought you were aff oot
darwinsbeautifulidea
Agree with that, England have the old Tim Henman syndrome! ‘This year lads!’
Any progress England make in the world cup or the euros papers over the cracks in English football and allows them if they progress to blow smoke up each others arses and give each other a pat on the back about how good the prem is and the English players are, the prem is killing English youth, yes they have decent players but nothing exceptional.
I dont understand why England and their fans cant be like Scotland for example and accept what they have and not that I’m slagging off Scotland but any progress made is a bonus and not go to a World Cup and reckon they can win it, when they have no chance!
While it is nice to debate world football the most important thing for our team is to have no more “AGM balance sheet transfers”
Keep at the this is most important
JohnnyClash & Clinko
Thanks. Sorry to hear that after all that time there he gets moved in time for the WC.
China look out, Rio’s coming.
HH
Robert88
I dont understand why England and their fans cant be like Scotland for example and accept what they have and not that I’m slagging off Scotland but any progress made is a bonus and not go to a World Cup and reckon they can win it, when they have no chance!
Every England fan I talked to thought the best they could do was just qualify second from the group..
yorkbhoy:
You must know more conservative England fans.
Whitedoghunch & Lymmbhoy
Thank you both very much.
Was trying to explain it to Mrs RWE this morning as i forgot to save it when I viewed it.
HH
So what?
The armed forces of the United States are not a religion.
I missed your retort the other day, a league table of genocide, or whatever?
Mao, Stalin and Hitler did not do their murdering in name of any religion, on the contrary.
Now how about you address the facts that were written in the article, instead of doing your usual – “ah but the author said once said this, that or the other. ”
Slainte.
Will England ever win an international tournament after the last, and only, one 48 years ago?
Not in, the remainder of, my lifetime I suspect.
HH!!
cadizzy-
going oot was delayed due to phone call and person arriving later than expected
16 Roads
My usual- what I did- was to point out the hypocricies and the faulty historical analogy in his writings.
I said that he was a pot calling out a kettle.
I said that he was one eyed – only viewing it as an atrocity or a matter of concern if Christians were the victims.
I did not do whataboutery on what he once said. I pointed out that he (now) espouses the self-same violence, aggression and proselytising that he sees in his enemy. He just does it in the name of another Being than them.
Now, how about you answer those points that I wrote, rather than dismissing them as a historical irrelevance? (whilst defending an article that references the Crusades and the Young Turks).
If there is ever going to be joint bi-partisan action against the totalitarians of the world, be they communist, Islamist or the right wing gun and stockade enthusiasts, then we are not going to unite and line up behind the likes of Dr. Strangelove and Curtis Le May. Let Obama and Clinton deal with that crowd. I will wait till I hear the voice of grown up discussion.
I enjoyed England’s defeat last night, I love to
see oor neighbours getting beat,but I have to
say that I love watching English fitba, always
have done, even before SKY corrupted the game
doon south, as I posted last night.
English fitba reaping whit the EPL has sown
Greece won the Euros.
Sometimes the stars click into place to line up nicely and it is your year.
I think England will win a major tournament before Celtic win another European trophy.
Sheldon: At my age do you know how I’m statistically most likely to die?
Leonard: At the hands of your room mate?
Sheldon: An accident.
Leonard: That’s how I’m going to make it look.
MWD says AYE
Nurse: *Lifts up towel* What is this?
Howard: It’s a robot arm.
Nurse: Where’s the rest of the robot?
Howard: I only built the arm.
Nurse: Because that’s all you needed, right?
MWD says AYE
Howard: Sheldon, you remember the first few weeks we were looking for magnetic monopoles and not finding anything, and you were acting like an obnoxious, giant dictator?
Raj: I thought we were going to be gentle with him.
Howard: That’s why I added the ‘-tator’.
MWD says AYE
Clown Lineker with an Italian t-shirt on, come on the Costa’s!
Strange how some see the appointment of a guy who is a fitness fanatic,who says his job is to make players better,sky high standards of discipline,diet,coaching a problem.A true professional,who made the best of his ability through sheer hard work.Maybe Mike Bassett would suit some better.
http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fa_news.cfm?page=2986&newsID=13442&newsCategoryID=1
Scottish FA members approve Club Licensing resolutions
Wednesday, 18 June 2014
The members of the Scottish FA today agreed that any clubs seeking full membership are required to satisfy at least entry level Club Licensing criteria. In addition, from the start of season 2016/17, all existing members are required to maintain their Club License in order to retain their full membership of the Scottish FA.
This reflects the work that the Scottish FA has undertaken in recent years through the Club Licensing system to improve standards across the game.
National Club Licensing operates a Gold, Silver, Bronze and Entry level system. Clubs are granted an overall award reflecting the lowest level that the club achieves in the four sections of criteria (Ground, First Team Football, Youth Team Football, Legal, Admin, Finance and Codes of Practice).
Among the other significant resolutions at today’s 2014 Scottish FA General Meetings, the Professional Game Board will be offered a second seat on the Scottish FA Executive Board, reflecting the impact which the professional game has in generating revenues for Scottish football.
A resolution designed to reduce the length of service required in official Scottish FA positions for potential candidates as office bearers was not approved.
A resolution to require all participants in the Scottish Cup to have a full license was not approved. Members spoke of the fairy tale nature of the cup competition, and the importance of participation in th Cup for both fans and the sustainability of clubs across the country.
A further 35 resolutions were passed by the 87 members present at the General Meetings at Heriot Watt University, which will be the site of the new National Performance Centre for Sport, due to open in summer 2016.
Scottish FA Chief Executive, Stewart Regan, said: “It’s significant that Scottish FA members have recognised the importance of Club Licensing criteria, and the need to grow and subsequently maintain standards, which will benefit all stakeholders in the game, including supporters, broadcasters and sponsors.
“We recognise the role that the professional game plays in generating revenue for Scottish football and it is understandable that more influence is sought on the Scottish FA Executive Board. We look forward to welcoming a new board director at the start of next season.
“We were delighted to host this year’s meetings at Heriot Watt University, which will be the site of the new National Performance Centre for Sport, and give members an update on the progress of the Centre.”
The National Performance Centre for Sport, which will host all Scotland National Teams, the Scottish FA Performance Department and incorporate multi-sport involvement including rugby, volleyball, athletics, badminton, basketball, cricket, fencing, handball, hockey, netball, shinty and squash.
It will feature a replica of the Hampden pitch, a 500-seater indoor football stadium, two rugby pitches, three tennis courts and a nine-court sports hall on top of sports science and medical facilities. The £30 million NPC will be jointly funded by the Scottish Government, Edinburgh City Council and Heriot Watt University, and is is due to open in summer 2016.
Lol Pmsl lol !
Desperation is a man called Lineker !!
What a bumper presenting a show with Italian kit on !!
Mon the Costa Rica and the Chile !!
Dontbrattbakkinanger
Greece had a game plan. They were not influenced by their media or anyone else. They were a hard working fit side who played almost the same 11 for years. They were more like a club side. England chop and change their side too much. They don’t have a game plan. Every manager they get changes the team way too much.
They all have a different philosophy on football. If England are ever to win anything again they would have to rip up the whole system and start again bottom to top. They won’t though because they must qualify for every tournament. That is their major problem. It is getting to the stage for them that it would be better to miss a tournament and have a fresh batch of players who the majority had never experienced failure but they won;t because they have to qualify or the manager is crucified by SSN! Stuart Pearce was spot on last year after he walked away from the under 21 job. His team had a great chance to win the Euro’s. Hodgson was allowed to take his better players from him for friendlies. Rather than allow them to collectively become winners and grow as a team at that level and make the step up in a group like club sides do the heart was ripped from the team and Pearce had no chance to win the tournament. If you take a look at most of the top teams in world football they will have a clutch who have won a major international honour at youth level together. This breeds a winning mentality and a collective confidence as a group. When they make the step up they take that with them and it rubs off on the senior players.
It does not always make a difference but England for all their cash, facilities and money along with their fine players are failing to makr the best of what they have because they will not put a long term plan in place.
If they can offer SAF enough money and he is wiling to take it on he would sort England out and get them a relative success by that I mean Semi finals regularly and then luck comes into the equation. They are close to beeing a very good side and they know it but they need a strong head in there to actually take them to the next level. I don;t see them ever having one. The last great England manager was Robson and I don;t see another one anytime soon.
LB
setting free the bears supports res. 12 & oscar knox
13:33 on 20 June, 2014
MY view on the BBC debate – good or bad or just poison within Scotland?
::::::
First class post regardless of minor error
Will Celtic ever win an international tournament after the last, and only, one 47 years ago?
Not in, the remainder of, my lifetime I suspect.
HH!!
Rye Bevan
“I love watching English fitba,”
So do many of those who slag it off it every opportunity.
Go figure.
I reckon Celtic have a much chance of anyone of winning the Europa League. It’s just unfortunate that qualifying is either through 2nd in the league or failure in the CL. The 2nd teir tournement in Europe is winnable. If we are in the same position in the future as we were at the semi final stage in Seville we will be better prepared for that final because we don’t have as big a challenge in the league.
LB
I’m not a betting man but why after having defended badly and lost two games why would anyone fancy England to beat Costa Rica, there’s no logic in that at all.
I think Costa Rica will beat them and they will come home with zip!
Geordie Munro
People who slag English fitba are jealous of the money in their game nothing else. People did not slag the EPL when we were able to compete in the transfer market for their players. It was an endorsement of their talent if they had played there and had moderate success (Sutton, Hartson, Lennon, Bellamy, etc).
I don;t watch a lot of English fitba but I do quite enjoy some of the bigger games.
LB
A win for Costa Rica tonight will mean farewell to Engerland. So at the risk of upsetting the wife c’mon the Costa Rica.
Hail! Hail! PMTYH