No one would have enjoyed hearing the score come through from Alicante last night as Spain crushed World Cup finalists Croatia 6-0. By any normal measure, there should never be six goals between these sides, but team dynamics are more than just players and tactics. Croatia exhausted every ounce of emotional energy at the World Cup.
Every clichéd action must have taken place as they overcame yet another opponent on the way to the final in Moscow. After the dam burst against France, how do you recapture that belief that you are invincible?
There are parallels with Celtic last season. With an invincible treble bagged, Celtic broke their own Scottish record for an undefeated run of games, but soon thereafter capitulated at Tynecastle. Defeats from Kilmarnock, Hibs and Aberdeen followed. The players could still raise their game, specifically to find fresh ways to humiliate Newco, but whatever it took to allowed them to reach remarkable levels every single game was gone.
Just as Celtic recorded another treble, Croatia will recover; the defeat to Spain was an aberration, but the formula for pushing players to the limit every game is elusive. Celtic will comfortably win 8-in-a-row, but a challenge for the next phase of Brendan Rodgers reign will be to repeatedly find the same sharpness, from the same players, with the same message. That will take more than “Here we go again!”
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THE JUNGLE USED TO HAVE THE BEST PIES IN THEM BIG WOODEN TRAYS, USED TO ALWAYS GET 2. GREEDY BASSA THAT I AM.HH.
100 TROPHYIES
Welcome HH !!
bournesouprecipe
And all their lackeys!
And flunkies too!
Silly silly Steve Clarke.
You should have said that every decision for years has gone against your team. Then you wouldn’t be in any trouble at all!
Ebouie Kouassi was an unused substitute on 2nd September. I remain hopeful. Oh, and good evening, friends.
Fenella Fielding, gone but not forgotten. Enough to make you start smoking:
https://youtu.be/36m2jLl0Me4
In Stanley bar with DD. Good company and 3 quid for a Guinness. ?
G2/3Full
Before this season started, I said that because (i) their desperation, and (ii) us continually taking it on the chin, the cheating this year would be even more than in the past ….
however, even I didn’t expect that it would be as overt or egregious as it has been ….
ZIGGY
RIP wee Fenella
CELTIC MAC
?
My friends in Celtic
Let’s see what Fairhurst Consultants come up with before castigating the independent review.
Of course they are getting paid, everyone gets paid .Police, HSE, Consultants etc etc. Ultimately anybody getting paid is accountable to somebody.
For those mentioning the HSE. In my opinion even the HSE are not truely independent. That is only a personal view having ” dealings” with them for years.
Celtic should be congratulated for their prompt actions. Ensuring that this crushing can never happen again is the number 1 priority, especially for parents.
HH.
GLASSTWOTHIRDS
Brilliant.
Got to love Seethin Gerrard CSC
GREENPINATA
One poster slaughtered ‘the bored’ before big Ollie had scored the winner.
PARK ROAD 67,
Thanks for the welcome to the blog.
Hail hail,
C’mon the hoops,
???
Celtic By Numbers
Great work. You obviously have a knack for this stuff but I admit I scroll to the conclusion to avoid headaches.
Celtic Mac
What criminal offence would any police officer have committed – including the match commander?
That’s the only reason you would caution anyone – if you reasonably suspected that they were guilty of a criminal offence.
The club are the responsible body for the safety of supporters in and around the stadium.
Under the old (Hillsborough) system there was confusion caused by shared decision making and uncertain chain of command. Now, the club’s have overall control via their stadium manager (or whatever name they allocate to him/her).
The Safety at Sports Ground legislation requires the police to be a permanent delegate to the Safety Team, which is itself run completely by the local authority. This forum, chaired by Glasgow City Council, determines what the requirements are for every football match at that stadium.
The Safety Team decide on what will happen (after consultation).
The club via the Stadium Manager is required to impose & enforce the requirements.
The police have a role outside the stadium but a very limited role inside, where club security/stewards are the frontline.
Either (a) the Safety Team requirements were flawed, or (b) they were not applied properly.
We know that changes were made to crowd movements – and that those changes led to the safety of supporters being put at risk in the Janefield Street tunnel.
If it’s (a) the Safety Team is at fault & in turn whatever advice they got from whatever source is implicated.
If it’s (b) then the club are at fault & the Stadium Manager is ultimately where the buck stops for that.
If it’s (a) the Safety Team’s integrity has been impugned since they promulgated “requirements” intended to safeguard suporters but that did the exact opposite. Vote of no confidence in the Chair perhaps & also a big question mark over the relationship between the Council & Club & Police.
If it’s (b) the club, then the club’s safety management is not fit for purpose and changes should be made within that side of things. Big question mark too over the relationship between different functions within the club.
As for the police, if they had no speciifed crowd safety role in Janefield Street other than general public order prevention etc, then they can only respond to what develops. They may have been slow to guage the scale of the issue, but that is not a crime. Nor is not being very good at actually solving the problem once they got there.
If the Police had a specific safety role in that area – to ensure the safe passage of all supporters etc as laid out in the Orders for the match then the Police will have questions to answer.
In the shadow of Hillsborough & Duckenfield’s mendacity it might seem that Match Commanders are criminally liable – but unless they do a Duckenfield – they’re not.
I agree that an independent review paid for by the club cannot be completely independent, but when the collective spotlight is on you, it’s surprising how thorough you can be.
If this consultant fails to do a good job, then their reputation in their own industry is worthless.
Club’s first job is to find out what went wrong & this is as decent a first step as they could make.
Last thing we need is for fans to feel that it’s all a pointless exercise & be discouraged from contacting the dedicated email to give their account of what happened.
There were thousands down there so there should be a similar number of emails – if we care at all about safety in the future.
Personally, it seems that the late walk up by Celtic fans was overlooked or under-estimated and that may have been a vital factor.
It’s all very well to look at total number of seats versus the timeframe from the ground opens and assume that those supporters will all pass through the bottleneck at a given rate.
First rule of safety – assume the worst and aim to prevent it.
I wonder what new crowd movement arrangements will be in place for their home game against us.
100TROPHYIES
Welcome aboard. Sounds like the Celtic show is worth a look. A fair few of you,inc JIMTHETIM53,have referenced it.
HH
BIGRAILROADBLUES
Enjoy The Stanley. Cheap Guinness and great company is a winning combination every time.
greenpinata
You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows…
exceptineastkilbridecsc
Mike in Toronto
It really is getting beyond silly. It’s like Only An Excuse in real life!
Bournesouprecipe
Maybe Steve C hasn’t seen all the Killie games going back years. Unlike Stevie G who of course HAS seen all the Sevco games.
Who would win in a fight between Sentinel Celts and Sentimental Celts?
fool time whistle
I am of the opinion that they could be guilty of a dereliction of duty. In Scotland that could be under Common Law or Legislation. Willful neglect of duty or neglect of duty, the latter under the Police (Scotland ) Act.
Disorder, cause of threat to life etc.
Or, they could get off Scot free.
My friends in Celtic,
Haven’t heard a negative review of Celtic, the musical @ the pavilion.
It seems everybody going has had a great time. It also reaches out to a branch of the Celtic family who don’t necessary go to games.
Only a handful of clubs in these Islands could pull off such a show for such a length of time.
Celtic a club of culture.
HH to all, and especially to out theatre culture vultures.
HH
100TROPHYIES
A big mad warm welcome my friend.
HH.
Being a sucker for Westerns I just caught the film “The Ballad of Lefty Brown” on Sky.
A big co-star role for Celtic supporting Tommy Flanagan but the best scenes are stolen by Bill Pullman.
Well filmed and acted but the storyline creaks a little bit.
Bigrailroadblues, not too many Guiness, you remember our Govanhill weather report mañana
Enjoy
HH
D. :)
fool time whistle
For all my criticism of Celtic, they did not and do not control London Road, its’ junction of Springfield Road or Dalriada Street. PoliceScotland prevented Celtic supporters accessing the stadium from these routes, as part of new access arrangements agreed with Celtic FC, leading to crowd pressure elsewhere, namely Janefield Street.
Not rocket science really, increase the density of the crowd beyond the previously safe levels crushing ensues.
D66 and Bobby. I’m being led astray. ?
‘Celtic should look to sign the experienced winger Bakary Sako on a free transfer’.
NopeMeNeither CSC
A shame that fud Laffatme getting called out on social media tonight…..
CELTIC MAC
Lets cut to the chase here, and head off the enquiry at the pass.
I blame Sevco CSC
Bada Bing what’s the deal on social media about Laffatme???
Not been sent anything and not on Twitter/ Bookface etc
D. :)
D66- proclaiming a year off gambling (which is good), a girl responded on Twitter if he had been faithful for the last year…
Awe naw – you’ll be sent to mental on sentimental celts – cummenzeebachbitte
Bakary sako
O kaks baary ?
bournesouprecipe
You might have a prima facie case there!
Glass @6:44
I did laugh when I saw that Kilmarnock are their manager were pulled up for that. I have no sympathy for these clubs, it’s up to them to shout from the hill tops about why they are treated differently than the Hun.
Empty the park.
Give control of the club to rebellious Celtic supporters.
Give your season ticket money to the rebellious supporters, in the same way that you would give your season ticket money to the PLC Board, to conform to the demands of the daily running of the club, your club.
The club, your club, would then be, directed, protected, driven, and the greatness of, the club, your club, would stand a better chance of being realized, beyond parochial boundaries.
Rebellious leaders would not put either, the supporter’s of the club, your club, at the back of the bus, nor would they ask the players, or supporters of the club, your club, to comprise their personal safety at ibrokes under the present, agreed circumstances.
No longer would a Celtic manager be ordered to sign a confidentiality clause, or be ordered to wear a mibbery muzzle, or, be flung under a bus for having the cheek to prove that his team was being cheated by the MIBs.
No longer would two 2 years of a CL money pot, be allowed to disappear up a lumb without any believable reason as to why, and the only challenge to the PLC executives who could be bothered to be arsed, attending the AGM, only to be grilled about….”why the pie’s wurny warm enough?”….types of pishy, toothless, back ae the bus types of questions, from shareholders who are still on the outside of the club, your club…… looking in, despite the false promises from Fergus McCann, that when he left the club, your club, you would be in control of the club, your club.
How much would Dermot’s shareholding be worth, if the park was empty ?
When somebody kicks you,…..kick them back, or just roll over and be kicked some more.
How many trophies have been stripped today ?
Aye.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
dreadful about lungeatme BD