This midweek has gone just about perfectly. Yesterday I asked that we pick a team to win the game, but play Griffiths, Armstrong, Roberts, McGregor, Izaguirre and Gamboa. All played, as did Christie and Henderson. And we recorded a remarkable 0-4 away win.
Meanwhile, in the land of the also-rans, our four nearest ‘challengers’ all dropped points. It’s still early days, but this league’s turning into a procession. Embarrassingly so, for some.
After opening the scoring within three minutes it wasn’t the most fluid of performances from Celtic, but an incredible eight outfield changes will result in a lack of familiarity. What the outfield players lacked, Craig Gordon more than made up for. He made three excellent saves, extending his run of fine performances since returning to the team against Kilmarnock last month.
Will the biggest impact Dorus de Vries has at Celtic be on the form of Craig Gordon? Don’t bet against it.
The Scottish Premiership table is in one of those bizarre states, where the (game-in-hand adjusted) gap between first and second is larger than that between second and second bottom. The transformation which has taken place in a team already five-in-a-row champions is remarkable, eclipsed in recent history only by the turnaround which took place in 2000.
Last night I read a lot of pennies dropping; specifically there was an acceptance that there was a significant financial gap between Celtic and the newly promoted Championship winners. There are a couple of worthwhile observations to make on this issue:
The financial gap which funded this season’s business is a fraction of what it will be next year, when Celtic will have banked circa £50m more than any other Scottish club. That will be around twice the gap they went into the last transfer window with.
Whatever you think about Mark Warburton’s claims that he’s closing the on-field gap, the structural deficit gap is becoming oceanic.
I again read people digging Dave King up about a perceived lack of his promised overinvestment. What’s going on at Ibrox right now IS overinvestment. The signings of Barton, Senderos, Kranjcar, Rossiter, Gilks, Hill, Hodson and Garner were designed to give them the advantage they needed over a team they eliminated from the Scottish Cup last season.
The accounts when published in 2018 will prove this. Or I should say if published. Not every team survives long enough to publish accounts, lest we forget.
For them, winning the league is evidently not going to happen, but if this week’s results teach us anything, it’s that the European qualification places (second and third) are wide open. For a team spending more than their direct rivals combined, that should be an achievable target.
The real problems come when the overinvestment has to stop and budget is cut.
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Stars
They are an efin shambles of a club, it’s pure magic so it is, agent Barton has them where he wants them and they can’t do a thing about it.
I said earlier that I very much doubt he will sign a keep it shut clause, why would he ?
HH
TET
Brilliant! Wish I had come up with that :)))
Warble for Wigan
Sitting in the Ross County supporters club in Dingwall. They hate Sevco more than us is their mantra.
They love the Celts. They said last night was magic wi nae trouble. They are fearing the huns hitting Dingwall soon.
Celtic have received a number of emails from Celtic supporters who were in the vicinity when the young boy was hit with the bottle. Apparently the catalyst for the incident was 30-40 Rangers casuals coming down the street singing the BB.
TET
Is he swapping the Loafers (brown brogue style) for Hiking Boots?
HT
Thanks for the ticket last night.
Good game. Loved it C.
Kolon Celt
Good Evening Sir, if you are about just to let you know that Myself, Kickinthenakas and Johan Murdoch will be in the Pullman Hotel Cologne arriving Monday, if you are about, would be good to meet up for a beer or three
The best thing since sliced bread is soon to be toast it appears.
So much pleasure here but the way he says five, as if it is the last word being sucked from his punctured oxygen mask …
https://twitter.com/VLR/status/791580716802908161
DD
You’re welcome my friend. Noticed a tweet from the polis up there commending both sets of supporters for their behaviour.
DD / HT
Brilliant night last night in Dingwall.
Me and the wee fella always make a point of chatting with the locals to try to give a good impression of the Hoops fans (we are occasionally let down by one or two drunk numpties, of course).
Always find the people in Dingwall to be really nice – my favourite away trip, and grateful to BT for the help getting tickets.
Thought the atmosphere was brilliant. Some of the play was scintillating – pace, accuracy of passing, pressing – and Stuart Armstrong was an absolute treat to watch.
Wee shout out to Ross County – they had the clearer chances, I thought, up until around 3/4 of the way through the game, despite our dominant possession. 4-0 didn’t reflect the game, but happy to get the scoreline.
HH
BGFC
*****Does anyone have two spare for Aberdeen?????******
*** SPACES FOR NEW COUPONEERS! ***
At the start of this season a few of the ole couponeers decided they’d like to take a break. So we’re wondering whether anyone fancies joining up with me, Awalkacrosstherooftops, Lennybhoy, Pogmanthonyahun and the newly joined The Exiled Tim.
There’ no official financial commitment involved. We all pick one team each week then put on the accumulator. I wasn’t in at the start but joined 3 or 4 years ago and I’m pretty sure we’ve only won twice (maybe even once!). The actual bet placed by each individual is entirely up them – so some of us might stick on a quid, others a fiver, etc.
We discussed in the past about trying to get some sort of agreement on what we do on the odd occassion that we win (for example promising to donate say 10% of the winnings to an agreed charity) but in reality we never followed that through so what each individual does is entirely up to them.
So there’s no actual financial commitment from you. The only commitment is to agree to pick 1 team each week.
If interested just email me at jobobaldie@yahoo.co.uk . We’re only looking for 3. If I receive interest from significantly more then perhaps the otehrs can form a 2nd clique, I mean coupneer-team ;-)
Big Georges
I agree R I thought some of our passing at pace and movement in the first half was excellent.
I really enjoyed watching Paddy last night. Aye sometimes his final product could have been better but his trickery and touch was worth the admission money alone in my opinion!
HT
Sitting wi Ally who runs the County Tavern, he assured me that Celtic supporters are the highest spending, best behaved club that visit Dingwall. They are fearing the Manchester wreckers on their first visit up here.
HT,
I witnessed the tail end of it. Around 2 i left the asda car park to walk to the main stand, this took me past the bookies as the junction of the montford.
On way up police vans, and horses were screaming up the road.
At the junction, i witnessed about 30 zombies, in full antagonistic attack even when surrounded by polis they were lashing out at celtic supporters. None of who were not reacting by the way, giving it as good.
The police horses were actually in peoples gardens.
The mob was getting moved on up the road away from the celtic support.
Now the cover story on Rangers Media is , one bus broke down somewhere between toryglen and rutherglen (curtis avenue ?) . Another bus was involved in a bump. But then both gorups on the busses decided to walk up the road past the pub.
Some are openly boasting about chasing celtic fans into the pub. Others are saying the kid got hit by the bottle after the main group of men had passed (or ran at ) the pub.
Seriously, if my supporters bus had broke down near vicky road crossing, you wouldnt have got me off the bis into the hordes with my kid, expecially not in colours.
the whole thing, once again , stinks.
Im not defending the eejit who throw the bottle and hit the wee laddie. But when your daddy walks you down the road with him and all his pals knowingly through were Opposition fans enter or make way to stadium as advertised and advised by police then as his daddy you hold responsibility for your actions putting your son in danger. To then goad opposition fans, singing sectarian songs and making slashing throat actions, shouting c’mon to the opposition fans then you should have your son taken from you and put into care for his future safety.
I hope they catch the eejit who throw the bottle but action should also be taken against the parent of boy.
It also seems there is now a concerted effort by certain supporters clubs to cause trouble by driving buses to games on routes they should not be taking as advised by the police. At our home game a bus load of Huns drove directly along London Road passing main entrance alongside road works dropping along at away entrance. All the while the windows were being hammered from the inside while they, the Huns sang the Billy boys. Celtic fans in the main thankfully almost to a man woman and child were laughing at them. Think it was pity.
MWD
Roberts or Forrest for the Pittodrie game? Paddy for me every time.
Throw = threw
But you know that.
MWD
St Stivs
You’ll have a clearer understanding of what happened than me as I was 30,000 feet somewhere over France (probably!) at the time.
Throwing a bottle is the act of a shitebag, that’s not the actions of a man. Cowards throw bottles. However, what you’re saying is what I’ve been told has been related to Celtic through a number of emails.
It was a deliberate action by the animals to promote a reaction.
BGFC
Great night in Dingwall. There will be spares in Aberdeen wi you and the wee man’s name on. Good luck amigo.
http://d3pnhqsyxmeo7b.cloudfront.net/monthly_2016_10/IMG_2020.JPG.3b21ca67b98ce540468779787a9ca6af.JPG
OG RAFFERTY
Thanks for that. Loved the “Senderas” bit. Fair cheered me up. Now to watch The Fall.
HH
What a chance for Celtic to go 10 points clear of Aberdeen on Saturday , with a game in hand
Come on you bhoys in green
Worbo for Wigan , thought my pants would never dry
Is The Bread Man Walking The Green Mile?
:@-))
MWD
ps, where that picture was taken , 30 meteres up the road right across from the entrance to hampden car park , there was a house with a celtic flag in the garden, all ok.
on the way out, i noticed a window was now broken.
Are all the Celtic blogs using the same ad agency as cqn to make money. All are unreadable om mobile
meanwhile the wee kid is getting lots of praise for his pictures in the rangers dressing room last night, as some comment “that looks like the UVF scarf” (orange and purple) sold outside the ground.
wait till joey finds out.
Magic :-)
@GazDUFC
Joey Barton…first player ever to sign a 2 year rolling suspension.
HT- as SS was saying ditto, i had turned onto Aikenhead Rd from Curtis Av , about 100 yards from the main entrance to Hampden, heard the hun hordes, on the other side of the road , about 50 handed.One of the vermin tried to run across at us and a polis on a horse got him by the collar.I surmised that the song ‘you’re not Rankers anymore…’ is not a favourite of theirs…:)) Agree with the points MWD made about incident.I hope they get the idiots who were throwing bottles HH
Celtic Trust post.
The Open Meeting which was held in St Roch’s Chapel Hall on Monday night was attended by around 100-130 people from across a range of supporter types ie independent travellers, unaffiliated buses and representatives of a number of Celtic supporters’ organisations.
The meeting was primarily arranged to discuss proposed changes to away ticket arrangements but other matters came up as the meeting progressed.
A number of factual matters were confirmed by the Chair and by the Celtic FC SLO who was in attendance. These were that no decision has been made on any changes but that changes were under consideration; there has been a change to the SPFL/SFA Code of Conduct this season which requires clubs to take steps to identify supporters who breach the rules and to take action against them; no fines have been issued to Celtic in relation to away games this season by any body.
There was a good debate with a large number of contributions. During the debate a number of speakers raised issues regarding the Ticket Office and a strong degree is dissatisfaction was expressed. Following the debate, it was agreed that the Trust would seek clarification on a number of issues and would also express the view of the meeting to Celtic FC on a number of matters. These are as follows:
Matters for Clarification:
What is the precise detail of the proposals being discussed?
What is the motivation behind any change?
What consultation will take place with the supporters prior to a decision being made?
Why are there different criteria for European tickets for independents as opposed to those travelling on transport organised by Celtic FC?
On what basis do match delegates make decisions to give unsatisfactory ratings to Celtic for the behaviour of away support ie what guidelines are used?
Views of the meeting:
It was the unanimous view of the meeting that the current system is fair. There are opportunities for new travellers to obtain tickets for less popular games and thereby build up over time their chances of obtaining tickets for more popular games.
It was strongly expressed during the meeting that there are significant problems with the Ticket Office in a number of respects including:
Communications: failing to answer calls; failing to return calls; admitting they don’t respond to voicemails
Ticketing arrangements: making unannounced and unexplained changes to long-standing ticketing arrangements and thereby causing maximum inconvenience
Generally; poor customer service and making life more difficult for individuals and those running supporters’ buses.
A pre-arranged meeting has already been held and we now have some information:
The precise details of the proposals and the consultation with supporters will take place via the Fans Forum – proposed by the Celtic Trust – if it is agreed at the Celtic PLC AGM. We expect it to be agreed given it has the support of the PLC Board. This means that nothing will happen before February 2017.
In terms of all other matter we expect to receive written clarification in due course and we will either arrange a further Open Meeting if it seems necessary or post the information on our website.
If the identity of the individual who threw the bottle is unknown , then his club allegiance ,assuming he has one , is also unknown and should not be assumed.
evening all
wondering where would be my best bet to pick up a spare ticket v aberdeen, outside the ground or a pub before hand?
if its the latter then is the Tilted Wig still a Celtic friendly bar.?
thanks
Was interesting to find out last night during the Ross game that we have never lost when Muir is the ref!!!
aberdeen hearts and st j in line for a euro position – massive incentive for them this year
st j have P T
hearts have ict next
Speyside
End of graveyard wall before turning up to the turnstiles.
Anyone able to help?
Might be in Forfar on Saturday.
Any Celtic friendly pubs?
HH
HAMILTONTIM on 27TH OCTOBER 2016 9:29 PM
Speyside
End of graveyard wall before turning up to the turnstiles.
thanks for the advice, are there usually plenty available there? (was fearing it might be quite hard due to the feelgood factor atm)
MACJAY1 FOR NEIL LENNON on 27TH OCTOBER 2016 9:19 PM
If the identity of the individual who threw the bottle is unknown , then his club allegiance ,assuming he has one , is also unknown and should not be assumed.
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That’ll be a first for the Scottish press. More kangaroos holding court here than at your bit…