I assume none of us knew Stuart Armstrong has been playing with a hernia problem? Stuart’s form has been below that of last season, but whereas others carrying an injury would raise the white flag, he’s made himself available to the manager.
Much was, therefore, said and written about him which was grossly unfair. As we know, footballers are not machines, even brilliant ones.
I know I’m not alone in being irritated by “the greatest league in the world” guff we so often have to endure, in particular from the (England and Wales) Premier League main broadcaster, Sky Sports. It was brought to my attention this morning that European Champions, Real Madrid, are three points closer to relegation than the top of the table.
Juventus are the only non-La Liga team to reach a Champions League final in the last four seasons, having done so twice. Even in current form, Real are one of the most dangerous teams in the history of the game, but the technical brilliance of La Liga is such that any vulnerabilities are exposed.
If only we were part of that guff to the south, but the game there is as relevant to football as pantomime is to the theatre (Oh yes it is). The game’s brilliance resides in Spain.
NEW CQN PODCAST OUT NOW FEATURING TOMMY SHERIDAN
A Celtic State of Mind presents its 30th instalment of insightful discussion around the culture of Celtic Football Club, the city of Glasgow, and fans of the reigning treble-winning Scottish champions.
Kevin Graham is joined by Scotty Alcroft to interview Scottish pro-independence politician, Tommy Sheridan, at The Penalty Spot in Glasgow.
The interview took place as part of A Celtic State of Mind’s first live event – Five-a-sides at The Penalty Spot – and, as such, there is some background noise (including mobile interference – apologies) from the audience.
The other voice you may hear throughout this episode is that of former Celtic striker, Frank McGarvey, who is a friend of Tommy’s, and who was also interviewed separately that day for a future show.
You are sure to enjoy Tommy’s eclectic input, as he discusses everything from Catalan independence to Coolio, with a constant undercurrent of that thing called Celtic.
Order Jim Craig’s new Lisbon Lion Diary – Right Back to 67 from CQNBookstore.co.uk and you will receive a signed copy from the man himself plus a FREE copy of That Season in Paradise – Ten Months of Celtic Heaven signed by fellow Lisbon Lion Bertie Auld! Simply order Jim Craig – Right Back to 67 and the second book will be sent automatically. Stocks are running very low so hurry!
356 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- »
I see our ‘friends’ Sky are lining the huns coffers again by televising their game against Fraseburgh. Outside of the Celtic game surely the ties of the round are the Lanarkshire Derby of Motherwell v Hamilton or the potential banana skin that is Aberdeen v St Mirren?
Oh while I’m on, in reply to Tony Donnelly’s scandalous denigration of Lisa Hague I’d like to point out that Kris Common’s good lady (along with him) does some absolutely sterling work with the parents of stillborn babies. Being, along with my wife, the parent of a stillborn daughter I would respectfully ask you to wind your neck in and actually do some research instead of commenting on hearsay.
POGMATHONYAHUN AKA LAIRD OF THE SMILES. well said,sad though that some posters agreed with him.hh.
Pog,
You would have thought they had learned their lesson when showing “the journey” no one out of the klan was interested in watching that dross.
The reports of various reputable media outlets into the contract for Alexis Sanchez if he signs for Man U are simultaneously staggering and unsurprising.
£27 million gross per year
£14 million net.
£20 million signing on fee.
Including other costs, £180 million over 4.5 years.
The EPL clubs- especially those not ‘blessed’ with a bottomless middle eastern or Russian pit, are stupidly handing over all of their Sky/BT/BBC money to these already grossly overpaid players. And the players and agents cannot believe their luck.
The players are making ever more exorbitant demands and, rather than operating like any other business, the clubs simply roll over.
If a big club has, say, 10 players, on contracts similar to Sanchez you can see how they can quickly waste a very large proportion of their revenue, if not all of it, on these disloyal passing visitors.
Financial Fair Play is a joke and serves the big clubs well. It keeps aspirational mid table clubs in their place.
There is little benefit trickling down to the fans from the TV money largesse.
Who knows? When Amazon enters the next round of bidding, the budget may get even bigger than the current exorbitant deal. What can be said with some certainty is that this will only lead to demands for more, more, more from players and agents.
Why should an ordinary fan, who has made financial sacrifices to get their hands on an expensive ticket, maybe has gotten up early to travel to a match or has travelled from overseas, perhaps has brought kids to the gate at huge expense, really give a monkeys about Alexis Sanchez or his EPL ilk? Do those players care about the fans or their commitment to the club (which long pre-dates the players’ arrival)? Of course they don’t care. How could they? They are living life in a different dimension, never mind planet.
The seemingly unsatisfiable greed in the EPL will be it’s downfall. This will be the result of both simple economics and fans’ detachment. Someone once said that football is nothing without the fans. If that is true, the EPL juggernaut is on track for a destination called Nothing.
BIG PACKY on 18TH JANUARY 2018 4:14 PM
POGMATHONYAHUN AKA LAIRD OF THE SMILES. well said,sad though that some posters agreed with him.hh.
—————————————————————————
Sad indeed.
Clogher Celt
“( I also believe that if Pearse and Connolly had led a Brigade of Happy Clappers in 1916 we’d still have a Union Jack flying over the GPO ;) ) ”
If the mineshafters had not boycotted, those that turned up would not have made the journey to the GPO because they would be complaining about the quality of the rifles and pointing out that the British Army ironed their uniforms better.
It is possible to have appreciated Kris Commons as a player and, along with Lisa, as a charitable person whilst simultaneously losing respect for him as a pundit.
JJ
Pitch fork alert.
Thanks Sean
HOT SMOKED
I like yer style!
Celtarella, be careful if you want to talk about dead babies in the context of Kris Commons is Lisa Hague. I would not let anyone come here and mock and be flippant about a bereavement of yours. Comment deleted.
Maybe our injuries will prove fortuitous for Kouassi and Ajer giving them a long run in the team?
Are we very unlucky with injuries or is our training regime needing addressed?
KT benefitted from injury and suspension to others and we were the recipients of great fortune to what seemed at the time a catastrophe .
Can some of our youngsters now take advantage?
Chairbhoy 3.49
Yup Scott Pecks work had same effect on me.
Have you read The People of the Lie?
I had ages back but came across the book recently.
Difficult not the think Peck was describing The Peepul and attitudes not confined to just the governance of football but government and media generally.
Paul67
Auldheid and hebcelt were having a discussion which included the topic of original sin.
I was alluding to my kafflik schools education on Limbo and original sin. Nothing else.
Just like Big Jimmy yesterday and his horsey insecurities Im not sure what you are talking about here. I cannot possibly be held responsible for the conceptual difficulties of others now can I. Or am I being held to a higher standard of English comprehension here?
An apology would not go amiss. Thanks.
Starry Plough
If I had any, I am sure I would like it , too :-))
Cheerio for now.
JJ
EXCATHDRA44
Good post. Huns are tooling up with their loan signings to kick everyone off the park in the second part of the season. Operation “Stop the Ten” is underway probably being masterminded by Walter Smith who is pushing Murty’s buttons.
Time we gave Broony some help out there to match the thuggery which is about to unfold.
#mcginn
Celtarella- not my argument, but it didn’t read well mate HH
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 18TH JANUARY 2018 4:43 PM
Thanks for the unsolicited response:)
If the Happy Clappers Brigade had been on the scene with Pearse, Connolly,Collins and Clarke in Easter 1916…
The GPO would still fly the Union Jack.
It would still be crammed with petitions and the newspapers of William Martin Murphy would have been quite happy to accept money for obscure articles.
The Happy Clappers Brigade T Shirt would be a great seller though.
Don’t worry some day soon the promised Judicial Review will have the Foreigner heading home:)
(Maybe Pearse was right about sticking to the Gaelic Code too and avoiding the foreign game..)
Duty Calls
timebarcsc
Clogher Celt @ 3.20
“The question mark after Clogher Celt. ”
Sorry to put you to so much trouble but it was genuinely a typo and I only saw it after it was posted. I did not, even then, read it as a questioning of your credentials as a Celt- that is not part of my argument.
“As a minor point I think your inclusion of a line about wife beating is unhelpful and undermines your case. ”
I don’t agree- I believe it was highly relevant to my case. The point is not about the wife beating- it could easily have asked “When did you stop telling lies? Neither wife beating or lying are accusations being laid against you. The comparison that was being drawn was with the closed nature of your original question about dealing with a Sevco title winning team in the next 2 years. The point is that there is no satisfactory way to answer such a closed question since it embeds a presumption that you cannot accept i.e. that you were, at one point, a wife beater, or that you believe Rangers will win ethe title in 2018 or 2019. The wife beater question, as it was framed, is a fairly common example of this kind of question (logical fallacy-loaded question. Google it and see!
“They failed us.
They didn’t try.
They perhaps colluded and possibly even deceived us.”
I am glad you added “perhaps” to the 3rd statement. It should have been included in the 2nd statement too. And the first statement shouuld end with “me” not “us”.
“The demise of Rangers presented the opportunity to start to erase the stain of sectarianism and bigotry from the administration of Scottish Football. ”
I think you expect too much there. The opportunity to begin to eradicate sectarian thinking and bigotry is ever with us- let it begin with me and you rather than waiting for others to take the lead. Setting the demise of Rangers as a pre-condition to start is like expecting the closure of Catholic schools to solve sectarianism. There woulkd still be people of Catholic faith and many of them would be resentful at what was seen as a hostile act. Similarly, there would still have been bluenoses following an Ibrox club, even a version starting from scratch. Those hoping for the end of Rangers fans with the end of the club were always going to be disappointed- I merely hoped that they would be treated impartially in the same way as their precedents, Third Lanark, Clydebank, Airdrieonians and Gretna, all of whom have successor clubs attracting old fans of their originals.
“You have been clearly thinking about how you will deal with Sevco winning the SPFL for a while.”
Nope! I don’t spend a lot of time worrying over improbabilities. It is just that I have experienced them winning leagues before and I somehow managed to survive and thrive after those calamities.
“it will be a tough gig for many, especially those who bought ‘The Generation of Domination’ soundbite.”
It will be moderately tough but the one thing it will not do is reduce Generation of Domination to a soundbite. Since our league win in 2000/2001 we have won the league 12 times (soon to be 13). We lost 5 times to them, the last being in 2011. That’s close to a generation. That’s close to domination. It will continue to grow in our favour so long as we keep our structural advantages. We both know it will end sometime- neither of us knows when and neither of us will know if it will happen before we are satisfied that a domination has been achieved or that a generation has passed. It could, after all, be an SNP generation.
“To be honest some of your arguments read like justifications and rationalisations attending irrespective of the tragic reality.”
I will let others and history be the judge of that but the tragic reality is we have not lost a league since 2011. Some tragedy.
“If they (the Plc) had lost the League at any stage since the death of Oldco it would have been a catastrophe. ”
The team and manager won us our leagues. The plc contributed to that but, to be honest, we have never ever applauded a plc or an owner for league victory. Only if you believe that the plc is leaving the manager hamstrung and, therefore, a league loss is likely soon, do you have cause for concern. Could you really not cope with the loss of a league? How did you cope in the past?
“On my trips home I can still look the Sevconian in the eye”
I see them every day and have never thought about being troubled at looking them in the eye- even the ugly ones- I mean, every one of them.
Paul67
You got it all wrong. I think an apology is in order. Thank you.
What kind of music do pirates like?
Arrr n B.
OldTim67 little package enroute to you with New Year greetings. Celtarella Aldheidd and I had no such discussion, he made a comment about a post I made – end off. If you still insist please produce evidence of said discussion
Barney67
why are the called pirates
cause they arrrrrrrrr
CELTARELLA, you can allude to whatever you like, but you wrote about dead babies while Kris Commons and Lisa Hague were being discussed.
Oops Auldheid
hebcelt on 18th January 2018 5:29 pm Paul67 on 18th January 2018 5:29 pm
“which provoked my thinking, the author M Scott Peck a trained psychiatrist puts forward the thought/idea that the original sin of the bible was not concupiscence but laziness.
Scott’ s interpretation of Genesis was that the warning not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a metaphor for not allowing inexperienced uninformed judgement to get in the way of the reality of paradise as in The Garden of Eden not Celtic Park :)
“
GENE
That was the one that started it all off.
I take all the blame.last one.
What does a pirate do to declutter his ship?
He has a yarrrd sale.
Barney67
didn’t read back – silly rrrrrse
Paul67
No apology then? Even though I am right and you are wrong?
https://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/footballer-machines-greatest-league-guff/comment-page-2/#comment-3181045
” I am Peter Lawwell and Kill men by the hundreds, and consume the English with fireballs from my eyes and bolts of lightning from my arse.”
Seems to be a perception PL/Celtic/ Board that drives some of the criticism.
My post to Mike in Toronto about the 5 Way was intended to separate the reality from the perception.
What we are talking about is changing a culture from one based on deceit to one based on ethics and integrity.
No easy task but a burden Celtic are asked to bear because of a perception that at our core we are an ethical club that acts with integrity. ” More than a club”.
A perception that attracts support and so ironically, or is it naturally, has a commercial value?
How many other Scottish clubs are held in that light by their support?
To whom much is given much is expected.
Fifty shades of green, wind up merchants —- trolls—- or just plain nuts.??? Or maybe all 3 . everybody on the blog has an opinion mate whether they agree with you or not, think you owe the blog an apology.
Paul 67
S̶t̶u̶a̶r̶t̶ ̶A̶r̶m̶s̶t̶r̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶o̶v̶e̶
Stuart Armstrong is playing like he wants a hernia operation
Good evening, friends. Everyone behaving I hope and looking forward to just 2 more sleeps… ;-)
AULDHEID
As ever,your efforts are greatly appreciated as we hopefully near an end game for Res 12. That will hopefully introduce transparency and a genuine belief in fairness across the board in Scottish football.
One minor point is where you ask why Celtic fans seem to expect more from their club than other fans do.
Perhaps it’s because so many of us not only have a lifelong investment of the heart,but are also shareholders with a financial investment. Or maybe it’s a historic thing,where we knew our board treated us with contempt,so are rightly suspicious when such a perception rears its ugly head again.
In short,the transparency demanded of the SFA wouldn’t go amiss at Celtic FC either.
Was It a hernia problem that Broonie was labouring under a couple of seasons ago?
He saw medical specialists while some on here advised he visit a knacker’s yard instead.
Given the large number of midfielders we have surely SA should have been sent for surgery ASAP post diagnosis? It’s not as though the all too brief summer break allows time for rehab.
While on the subject of midfielders, I never thought Henderson looked out of place or let us down. His scoop pass for JG’s equaliser versus Inter was sublime. I hope young Christie is afforded more pitch time to make his case.
HH jamesgang
SFTB,
Thanks for taking the time to reply at 5.18pm.
As a Celt I completely accept your clarifications.
Having a clear conscience is such a wonderful thing ;).
Having read through the discussion and in particular your replies I am quite happy to let the matter rest.
Hail Hail
Speaking of the Union Jack, the majority of the tourist trade to the ROI comes from accross the water yet i have yet to see a hotel in the Republic that flies the Union Jack in the forecourt with the flags of other nations. I wonder why?