The reaction to points dropped yesterday was not on the same level as the disappointment after we similarly rescued a point against Hibs late on the game or went out of the League Cup last week, this one was expected by all and did no more than provide further confirmation of where we are.
This run of two wins in 12 games will eventually end, but by then it will be too late – possibly too late to see off Hearts in the Scottish Cup Final. In 11 games between now and February, only two are outside Glasgow, short journeys to Hamilton and Paisley, and we have no international fixtures to contend with, but as St Johnstone, Ross County and others have established, that is no comfort.
St Johnstone’s goal was unlike our most in our recent glut. The defence was briefly in position before breaking into a moment’s disorganisation, Frimpong rushed forward, leaving May unattended, Kane reacted while his marker, Bitton, looked the other way. Neither Celtic player demonstrated defensive instincts.
Not that the defence is to blame. The volume of good chances was insufficient to convince anyone a Celtic goal was coming and those that came were missed by our once-prized asset. The equaliser had more than a touch of good fortune about it. Whatever ails Celtic, it is not limited to the back line.
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GEEBEE1978
I also fear for the cup final. It must be written in the script that Craig Gordon will save the two shots we get on target. Okay, maybe I took that too far.
Cornelius on 7th December 2020 10:25 pm
RIMTIMTIM on 7TH DECEMBER 2020 8:19 PM
Ref your point about Bolingoli’s treatment.
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You made some good points in that post mate. Made me think of things a little differently re: Bolingoli.
BILLYBHOY1967 on 7TH DECEMBER 2020 10:49 PM
I’m of the mind that in the short-term (until summer) anybody would be better than what we have right now – literally anyone.
For the reasons you’ve given, I think even a different approach, a different voice on the training ground, or even that new manager “bounce” has to be better than sleepwalking towards handing Sevco a treble.
HEADTHEBALL on 7TH DECEMBER 2020 10:51 PM
A couple of wonder saves from Gordon and a blunder from Barkas? I think this blog would melt the internet….
Sid
“If that was aimed at me, that’s not how the justice system works, the onus is on you to prove my guilt, not me to prove my innocence.”
It was not aimed at you.
I cannot recall who said what last December and in previous early season stumbles but I KNOW, there were many, and it is fairly easy to look them up if you are so inclined.
If you happen t be one of the few to whom it does not apply and this is the first year you have foretold doom, then congratulations, you are in that small exempt pool.
It wasn’t a group of nervous fans who thought timidly we might not win. It was a large group of people who confidently stated that Sevco would drop NO points unless we took them off them and many of them forecast that we were incapable of doing so. In previous seasons, both Hearts and Aberdeen were presented as strong rivals likely to see us fall behind them, in October and November forecasts. These are nothing new.
You were right this time, and I take you at your word that this is the forst time you have ever dared to predict our failure.
However, in the exhnage of posts which demonstrated that you did, indeed, predict this, you state that I was over reliant on expecting last year’s scenario to play out again, whereas you “knew” that this current decline was terminal.
I would argue that quite simply, if our results of last season offer NO predictive value in how this season will go, then it should equally apply that early season form and results offers no greater reliability that they will be repeated in the middle third or the final third of the season.
I am off to watch a fillum now- will catch replies later
AIPPLE on 7TH DECEMBER 2020 10:52 PM
I did post on a Facebook group at the time whether people would be so keen to sack a player had it been Eddie, Brown or another of our first-team “assets” rather than a player we were actively looking to punt.
GEEBEE1978
I’ll admit I got caught up in the hysteria about him. Not proud of it and glad to see other views in the cold light of day.
Two phrases leapt out at me reading the statement:
‘Equally important is to continue to operate according to our Club’s values.’
I instantly thought that must allude to another club not operating according to values – so I hope our board has good info on Der Hun’s implosion (tho even then, we could still get overtaken by a Hibs or Aberdeen)
The next phrase was:
‘Neil has the support of the players and staff at the Club.’
If JK or SB or others were really unhappy w Neil and his methods, I reckon they’d have squawked by now. Speculators say JK and Lenny dont see eye-to-eye but this would be a perfect time for disgruntled players or coaches to put the boot into the manager. Maybe we’re more united football-wise then we fear!
And finally, this bit: ‘…progress will be reviewed in the new year.’
What if there is no progress? Wouldn’t it have been wiser to say ‘the situation’ or ‘our position’ will be removed.
Anyway, I agree with some of youz that something else is afoot here that we just don’t know about. I don’t believe this board and owner are total dummies and – despite managers offering themselves to us (there will have been plenty) they feel NFL et al will still get us the big prize rather than Sevco.
Not to win 10, would be like maiming yourself to try helping out a fatally wounded companion; insane!
As the quip goes, it’s a good time for me to let my faith remain bigger than my fears. HH
HEADTHEBALL
The way this season is going I can see Gordon winning the cup for Hearts by coming up for an injury time corner!
James Forrest,
You state :-
“It is inconcievable that the manager of any other top tier side would have survived this.”
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Ok , tell me any club going for a national cup final ( Forget the historic quad treble ) who have sacked their manager prior to the game. ?
Many of us did not want Neil Lennon as manager, especially after the professionalism of BR. He is not equipped for the modern managerial game, but rule me out for breaking out the pitchforks.
I am one of the > 80k who went to Seville after the barron years. I am proud of our team although we slipped up in the GK department. However i am more proud that there was not one single arrest despite the complete and utter disappointment.
Do you think that would be the case now. ?
Something inside so strong. How many on here joined in ?
HH to all.
Cornelius boli did get a raw deal and Celtic kicked him into touch. Edouard, Ntcham, Jullien watched his treatment versus treatment of others. They didn’t like it and it was the moment they checked out. Lawwell as usual was driven by cash and forced him out.
At the heart of very bad story is our illustrious CEO. Lennon is gone in name only. He has been told I am pretty certain —— one call would confirm it but I can be bothered making it.
The main culprit is Lawwell. Mr Moneyball himself added a twist to game —— how to fleece the club while you are it.
Celtic need new leadership. Fresh , vibrant and ambitious leadership steeped in strong business principles and governance. Celtic need a new board with experience and depth to help manoeuvre the club forward. The current old decrepit board reminds me of Breshsnev at .Kremlin square overseeing outdated , oversized non functioning operation roll by.
The rebuild will take years as Lawwell has driven a huge wedge between the support and board/senior staff. All trust in those who run the club has evaporated. Lawwell is hated by many fans as evident on several message boards.
There is no recovery for Lawwell. The man who destroyed the club from within due to his personal greed.
Once again as I do my “home from work reading some opinions hours” I see parallels with stuff going on in our own Celtic-sphere. New words and phrases for what’s going on. New ways to describe performances that are essentially the same yet very different as each one passes, bringing something embarrassing to an end…. I could go on but we have to examine – with good thought and chat on here – what the end game is and the harm some language can do.
HH!
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On the evening of September 11, 1980, my mom was approached by a neighbor who held rank in the Turkish military. He told her to stock up on bread and rice. “Oh, another coup,” she immediately groaned. The neighbor was aghast—he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone what was coming. But my mom, of course, had immediately understood what his advice must have meant. Turkey is the land of coups; this was neither the first nor the last coup it would face.
Over three decades later, I walked up to a counter in Antalya Airport to tell a disbelieving airline employee that our flight would shortly be canceled because the tanks being reported in the streets of Istanbul meant that a coup attempt was under way.* It must be a military exercise, she shrugged. Some routine transport of troops, perhaps? If so, I asked her, where is the prime minister? Why isn’t he on TV to tell us that? Another woman approached the counter. “This must be your first,” she said to the young woman behind the counter, who was still shaking her head. “It’s my fourth.”
I told the airline employee that we were not getting on that plane, destined for the Istanbul airport, which I knew would be a primary target. The other woman and I nodded at each other, becoming an immediate coup pod. I went out to secure transportation for us—this airport was not going to be safe either—while she and my 7-year-old son went to retrieve our luggage. “His first too,” I said to her.
In political science, the term coup refers to the illegitimate overthrow of a sitting government—usually through violence or the threat of violence. The technical term for attempting to stay in power illegitimately—such as after losing an election—is self-coup or autocoup, sometimes autogolpe.
Much debate has ensued about what exactly to call whatever Trump is attempting right now, and about how worried we should be. It’s true, the whole thing seems ludicrous—the incoherent lawsuits, the late-night champagne given to official election canvassers in Trump hotels, the tweets riddled with grammatical errors and weird capitalization. Trump has been broadly acknowledged as “norm shattering” and some have argued that this is just more of his usual bluster, while others have pointed out terminological issues with calling his endeavors a coup. Coup may not quite capture what we’re witnessing in the United States right now, but there’s also a danger here: Punditry can tend to focus too much on decorum and terminology, like the overachieving students so many of us once were, conflating the ridiculous with the unserious. The incoherence and incompetence of the attempt do not change its nature, however, nor do those traits allow us to dismiss it or ignore it until it finally fails on account of that incompetence.
Part of the problem is that we haven’t developed linguistic precision to put a name to it all—not just to what’s been happening since November, but to the processes within which it’s embedded. That’s dangerous, because language is a tool of survival. The Inuit have many words for snow—because their experience demands that kind of exactness. (The claim had been disputed, but the latest research affirms it.) “These people need to know whether ice is fit to walk on or whether you will sink through it. It’s a matter of life or death,” the linguist Willem DeReuse told New Scientist.
In Turkish, we do have many different words for different types of coups, because our experience similarly demands it. For example, coups that are attempted through threatening letters from the military are called memorandum coups. A 2007 attempt is commonly referred to as the “e-coup” because the threatening letter from the military was first posted on the internet. (The one before that, in 1997, is often referred to as a “postmodern” or “soft” coup.) We know the difference between military coups that start from the top and follow the military chain of command and those that do not. The term autogolpe comes from the Spanish partly because there have been so many such attempts in Latin America.
The U.S. president is trying to steal the election, and, crucially, his party either tacitly approves or is pretending not to see it. This is a particularly dangerous combination, and makes it much more than just typical Trumpian bluster or norm shattering.
Maybe in other languages, from places with more experience with this particular type of power grab, we’d be better able to discuss the subtleties of this effort, to distinguish the postelection intervention from the Election Day injustices, to separate the legal but frivolous from the outright lawless, and to understand why his party’s reaction—lack of reaction—is not just about wanting to conclude an embarrassing presidency with minimal fanfare. But in English, only one widely understood word captures what Donald Trump is trying to do, even though his acts do not meet its technical definition. Trump is attempting to stage some kind of coup, one that is embedded in a broader and ongoing power grab.
And if that’s hard to recognize, this might be your first.
On Tuesday, Gabriel Sterling, the Republican who serves as Georgia’s voting-system implementation manager, appeared at a press conference. Voice shaking, he talked about how the home of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger—his boss—had been targeted after the president once again baselessly claimed that there was massive voter fraud in Georgia and called Raffensperger “an enemy of the people.” Sterling called on the president and the state’s two Republicans senators to condemn threats of violence against election workers.
That scene itself was unsettling. But when, just a few hours later, Trump retweeted Sterling’s plea with a shrug and a reassertion of his desire to steal the election, the situation turned profoundly frightening. “Rigged Election,” the president wrote. “Show signatures and envelopes. Expose the massive voter fraud in Georgia. What is Secretary of State and @BrianKempGA afraid of. They know what we’ll find!!!”
With just a few notable exceptions, Republican officials have met Trump’s lies with a combination of tacit approval, pretending not to notice them, or forbearance. In a recent survey, an alarming 222 Republicans in the House and the Senate—88 percent—refused to acknowledge that Joe Biden won the presidency. Another two insisted Trump won. A few more have started speaking out, but what has finally taxed their patience seems to be anxiety that Trump’s antics may cost them an upcoming election for two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia—an instrumental concern about continuing to exercise power, rather than a substantive worry about the attempted election theft itself. (It should be noted that there have been conservative voices who have responded with the appropriate fury, but that few are elected officials or leaders of the GOP.)
After Sterling spoke in Georgia, a local TV station asked the two Republican senators running for election in the January runoff for comment. But instead of offering straightforward denunciations, both issued perfunctory condemnations and then used the opportunity to continue to fan doubts about the process. “Senator [David] Perdue condemns violence of any kind, against anybody. Period,” his campaign said. “We won’t apologize for addressing the obvious issues with the way our state conducts its elections.” The other senator’s campaign took a similar line. “Like many officials, as someone who has been the subject of threats, of course Senator [Kelly] Loeffler condemns violence of any kind. How ridiculous to even suggest otherwise. We also condemn inaction and lack of accountability in our election system process—and won’t apologize for calling it out.”
What is it that the Republican leadership is hoping will pass without too much comment, solved by the ticking down of the transition clock?
Let’s run through it—and this is not even all of it. Every day adds more.
The president has repeatedly and baselessly claimed that the election was stolen from him, and continues to do so daily. He is, effectively, charging that election officers around the country are involved in a dangerous conspiracy and that the incoming president is the leader of this illegal attempt.
The president and his key allies have repeatedly called for Republican state legislators to steal the election for him by appointing new electors who will support him instead of backing the winner of the state’s electoral votes.
The president, who has the power to appoint judges for lifetime appointments, and who has appointed nearly a third of federal judges on the crucial circuit-court level in the United States—more than any other president in recent history at this point in their presidency—has asked the courts to throw out valid votes wholesale, especially in cities with minority voters.
Right after the election, a legal adviser to the president stated on national television: “We’re waiting for the United States Supreme Court—of which the president has nominated three justices—to step in and do something. And hopefully Amy Coney Barrett will come through.”
The president’s high-profile allies are holding rallies where supporters are chanting “Lock him up!,” calling for the imprisonment of Georgia’s Republican governor, who is opposing his attempts to steal the election. (Georgia conducted two thorough recounts of the votes and found that the margin by which Trump lost the election holds.)
The president personally called the two Republican canvassers in Wayne County, Michigan, and then both signed affidavits attempting to rescind their certification of the vote in that state. They had earlier tried to block certification of votes from Detroit, providing a glimpse of what could happen if a more competent president tried to steal an election.
The president has amplified messages that call for people to “fight back hard” against the allegedly stolen election.
The president’s election lawyer said that “the entire election, frankly, in all the swing states, should be overturned, and the legislatures should make sure that the electors are selected for Trump.” She has since been dismissed from his team, but he has not publicly repudiated her statements, and she continues to make similar statements.
Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser—a powerful post—who was just pardoned by Trump, has amplified calls for the president to suspend the Constitution and hold another election (an exercise presumably to be repeated until he wins).
The president summarily fired Christopher Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Department of Homeland Security, because he vouched that the election was not stolen.
Joseph diGenova, a lawyer for the Trump campaign, said that Krebs should be “taken out at dawn and shot.” (DiGenova later said that the statement had been “made in jest.”)
Before the election, the president pressured the attorney general to investigate his opponent and his son, after being impeached for pressuring a foreign state to announce its own investigation into his opponent’s son.
The president also fired the chief of the Pentagon, along with other top officials. These dismissals remain unexplained, but Trump was reportedly infuriated at the defense secretary’s opposition to using active-duty military troops against protesters in U.S. cities—portending what he might have liked to do, even though his incompetence has meant that he hasn’t found a way.
What makes this moment deeply alarming—and makes Republicans’ overwhelming silence and tacit approval deeply dangerous, rather than merely an attempt to run out the clock on the president’s clownish behavior—is that Trump’s attempt to steal this election builds on a process that has already entrenched minority rule around the country.
In North Carolina, where I live, only three of the state’s 13 representatives in the House were Democrats after the 2014 congressional election, despite Democrats getting 44 percent of the vote. In 2016, the Democratic Party’s vote share in the state increased to 47 percent, but still only three representatives were Democrats. In 2018, Democrats won an even larger share of the vote—48.3 percent—but still had only three representatives. In 2019, North Carolina’s blatantly gerrymandered district maps were finally struck down by the Supreme Court. And so, this year, the Democrats managed a meager increase in representation—five representatives out of 13—despite again receiving 48 percent of the vote.
Who draws these grossly unfair maps, which are typical of others across the country? The state legislatures, which themselves are often elected using maps that reflect unrepresentative gerrymandering. In North Carolina in 2016, for example, the Republicans won a veto-proof supermajority in the state House of Representatives—obtaining more than two thirds of the seats—despite winning just 52 percent of the vote. Statewide races cannot be similarly gerrymandered, though, and that year, North Carolina voters elected a Democratic governor and attorney general. In response, the lame-duck legislature rushed to take away key powers from those offices. They succeeded. The general assembly then used its veto-proof majority to override 23 of Governor Roy Cooper’s 28 vetoes in the first three years of his term, rendering one of his key remaining powers effectively useless.
In Wisconsin in 2018, Republicans won a near-veto-proof supermajority in the state legislature with a minority of the votes in the state. That same year, Republican Governor Scott Walker lost his bid for reelection, and Republican candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general were also defeated—again, statewide offices resist gerrymandering. After the loss, the Wisconsin state legislature followed the same playbook as the GOP in North Carolina, rushing, in a lame-duck session, to take away crucial powers previously exercised by Walker. The lawsuits filed by Democrats were rejected by the Republican-dominated state supreme court.
When voters try to contest gerrymanders or power grabs, many of the cases end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, where lifetime appointments are made by the president but approved by the Senate. The Senate is so lopsided right now that 26 states containing just 17 percent of the U.S. population elect a majority of senators—the smallest that proportion has ever been. That’s the people in the smallest 26 states. The Republican Party’s Senate majority in recent years has rested on its strength in these rural states. Barack Obama couldn’t even get a Senate hearing for his last nominee to the Supreme Court.
Today, the United States has a House filled with gerrymandered districts, a Senate dramatically tilted toward rural states, some state legislatures controlled by electoral minorities or slim majorities who get to exercise power as if they were overwhelming, and a Supreme Court with three justices appointed by a president who lost the popular vote. Is it any wonder that Trump thinks he can defy the results of the election and cling to power despite losing an election? Or that his party does not stand up for the will of voters?
In 1852, karl marx famously modifiedHegel’s observation that historical occurrences tend to repeat by adding that they may occur the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. Marx was mocking Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte who had just seized power in a coup (or, in the interest of technical precision, an autogolpe), declaring himself emperor. Louis-Napoléon did indeed seem like a figure worth ridicule, but the well-heeled members of ruling classes often confuse lack of propriety for weakness.
Adolphe Thiers, a leading figure in the biggest political party that had backed Louis-Napoléon for the presidency in 1848, had persuaded his colleagues to support his candidacy, calling him a “moron” who’d be easy to lead by the nose—“un crétin que l’on mènera.” Louis-Napoléon had already organized two failed coup attempts so inept that they were described as “beyond comedy.” When Bonaparte won the election, though, he had other ideas about how manageable he was. In 1851, failing to change the laws that prevented him from staying in power, he organized his third coup d’état, which was successful. Napoleon III reigned as emperor until 1870, remaking France in the process.
What starts as farce may end as tragedy, a lesson that pundits should already have learned from their sneering dismissal of Trump when he first announced his presidential candidacy. Yes, the Trump campaign’s lawsuits are pinnacles of incompetence, too incoherent and embarrassing to go anywhere legally. The legislators who have been openly pressured by Trump don’t seem willing to abide the crassness of his attempt. States are certifying their election results one by one, and the General Services Administration―the agency that oversees presidential transitions—has started the process of handing the government over to President-elect Joe Biden. If things proceed in their ordinary course, the Electoral College will soon vote, and then Biden will take office.
But ignoring a near catastrophe that was averted by the buffoonish, half-hearted efforts of its would-be perpetrator invites a real catastrophe brought on by someone more competent and ambitious. President Trump had already established a playbook for contesting elections in 2016 by casting doubt on the election process before he won, and insisting that he only lost the popular vote due to fraud. Now he’s establishing a playbook for stealing elections by mobilizing executive, judicial, and legislative power to support the attempt. And worse, much worse, the playbook is being implicitly endorsed by the silence of some leading Republicans, and vocally endorsed by others, even as minority rule becomes increasingly entrenched in the American electoral system.
It’s not enough to count on our institutions to resist such onslaughts. Our institutions do not operate via magic. They do not gain their power from names, buildings, desks, or even rules. Institutions rely on people collectively agreeing to act in a certain way. Human laws do not simply exert their power like the inexorable pull of gravity. Once people decide that the rules are different, the rules aredifferent. The rules for electoral legitimacy have been under sustained assault, and they’re changing right before our eyes.
We’re being tested, and we’re failing. The next attempt to steal an election may involve a closer election and smarter lawsuits. Imagine the same playbook executed with better decorum, a president exerting pressure that is less crass and issuing tweets that are more polite. If most Republican officials are failing to police this ham-handed attempt at a power grab, how many would resist a smoother, less grossly embarrassing effort?
Adding to the crisis is that many of the 74 million people who voted for Trump now believe that the election was outright stolen. They believe that they were robbed of the right to vote. How many of these supporters will be tempted to carry Trump’s claims about being cheated out of an election victory to their logical conclusion? Meanwhile, millions of people around the country are repeatedly experiencing that being a majority is not enough to win elections, or even if one does win, not always enough to be able to govern.
When Biden takes the presidential oath in January, many will write articles scolding those who expressed concern about a coup as worrywarts, or as people misusing terminology. But ignoring near misses is how people and societies get in real trouble the next time, and although the academic objections to the terminology aren’t incorrect, the problem is about much more than getting the exact term right.
Alarmism is problematic when it’s sensationalist. Alarmism is essential when conditions make it appropriate.
The boy who cried wolf is a familiar parable. But what of the boy who saw an approaching wolf scared off by a thunderstorm and decided that he didn’t need to worry about wolves, instead of readying himself for its return? Fortune favors the prepared; catastrophe awaits those who confuse luck with strength.
In Turkey, the leader of the 1980 coup, the one that my mom had been warned about, was Kenan Evren. He was a military-academy classmate of many who had taken part in a particularly incompetent coup attempt in the early ’60s that failed spectacularly—its missteps included tanks being accidentally sent to a neighborhood in Ankara at the wrong time. But the coup Evren led many years later was anything but farcical: Hundreds of thousands were detained, and more than 100 were tortured to death. A new, restrictive constitution was enacted, under repressive conditions. The failure of multiple attempted coups in the ’60s was not a reason to dismiss the risk of a subsequent coup—but a warning that such an effort might well succeed in more competent hands. Indeed, there was a “memorandum coup” in 1971, which resulted in a change of government after the military issued threats, and the full military takeover in 1980.
So, yes, the word coup may not technically capture what we’re seeing, but as Pablo Picasso said: “Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand.” People are using the term because it captures the sense and the spirit of the moment—its zeitgeist, its underlying truth.
Our focus should not be a debate about the proper terminology. Instead, we should react to the frightening substance of what we’re facing, even if we also believe that the crassness and the incompetence of this attempt may well doom it this time. If the Republican Party, itself entrenching minority rule on many levels, won’t stand up to Trump’s attempt to steal an election through lying and intimidation with the fury the situation demands; if the Democratic Party’s leadership remains solely focused on preparing for the presidency of Joe Biden rather than talking openly about what’s happening; and if ordinary citizens feel bewildered and disempowered, we may settle the terminological debate in the worst possible way: by accruing enough experience with illegitimate power grabs to evolve a more fine-grained vocabulary.
Act like this is your first coup, if you want to be sure that it’s also your last.
lucky cody on 7th December 2020 11:15 pm
The rebuild will take years as Lawwell has driven a huge wedge between the support and board/senior staff.
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In all fairness the rebuild will not take years mate.
ERNIE LYNCH on 7TH DECEMBER 2020 6:06 PM
” Hard core supporters ” are supporters who will support in the bad times as well as the good times.
Your attempts to demonise faithful and dedicated Celtic supporters is in very poor taste and is insulting to many who ” Keep the faith” despite many personal sacrifices.
Over and over YNWA.
Came across a post of mine from 2009
Some things never change .
By jimtim on February 22, 2009 5:28 PM
hi paul.
all the laughing has stopped now .imagine sitting in second place to a SKINT rangers team like that. this is not just this season, many of us have seen this coming. our side has been filled with very average players. under a manager who imho has not got a clue.( tiny tim and i, have had pelters for years now as we spotted it way back )i can count on my two hands the team playing the celtic way over the past 3 seasons .yes we have won the league on those 3 occasions, but our club have been heading in a downward spiral over that period . it has been pointed out on here that our team is too wee, not hard enough .we are continually being pushed around. imagine .lee mcculloch playing as midfield enforcer against us last week, says it all for me .i have told you before .and nodoubt many posters will have witnessed it also , big johan having a run at mcculloch, one wet and windy wednesday night at motherwell .(4 goal larsson that night) and that was enough for him, he was so far out johans way he was almost playing in hamilton. now he is a midfield enforcer. look at our last 4/5 games there is always someone in the opposition team wanting to have a go at our players. you cant have class like naka .without someone wanting to hurt him.that wee man needs to look round and know protection is at hand for him. as it stands today on 2 occasions we have been 7 points clear, and both times let it go. they wont let us of the hook. so what will happen .for me , i hope wgs goes with our thanks for 3iar. i also want the board to appoint a TOP NOTCH MANAGER, the boat should be pushed out to secure that man . after all who is the top man with man u .RONALDO. ROONEY. BERBATOV . no its alex ferguson,no question about that. pl should have people scouting europe to get the best available,do that and once again our club will be a force again. but whatever is decided ,a right good clearout is required.
What if DD has decided to sell up and a takeover is at an advanced stage. If an egm is needed and shareholders required to vote for change. Would PL & Co feel that the current state of affairs almost guarantees shareholders voting through any buyout. Apologies if this scenario has already been suggested but I’m struggling to fathom out what is going on. I’ve supported Celtic all my life and at 62 the current situation is the most baffling I can recall. I just hope things work out to benefit Celtic and not for the benefit of those only interested in money.
Thanks everyone for all your contributions as I read your comments daily but rarely post. Exceptional times indeed.
HH
gc 58 on 7th December 2020 11:34 pm
Thanks everyone for all your contributions as I read your comments daily but rarely post. Exceptional times indeed.
HH
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Post more often good sir.
Bit of late night positivity. This crisis can be a genuine turning point for Celtic in the long term. Our DNA is to respond positively together to force change. We have a club that is structurally sound but morally and culturally vacuous at present. The soul of the club has been suppressed. The fences were a real shock and a wake up to many of us. They were an affront and one which I personally will not take lying down.
I think we have a ready made vehicle in the CST to become a popular movement for long term change. I think we have the ideas and the will as a collective to pursue that change.
We could pull the rabbit out of the hat end still do the yen but if the painful loss of a league to a financially unsound zombie club happens, I suspect the pain will be put to good use and the clamour for real change will grow a the louder.
The winds of renewal are blowing. Bring it on.
DD IS NOT ABOUT TO SELL OUT.
Wullie Haughey is not about to take over.
It’s all just wild speculation.
IMHO
TT
SFTB – was going to post in detail but yours at 9:57pm tonight said everything I wanted to and more.
Respect.
Terrible statement. Selfish. Failed to consider the needs of others.
Click baiters had lined up a nice line in manipulating Celtic fans’ emotions by speculating on our next manager.
What will they do now?
(They’ll find another angle. The market is there)
Hail hail
Keep The Faith
Lawwell should not be allowed to squander any more money, in the January Window.
I have said for months they win the league and you will see changes because s/t will drop by about 20%.
What a strange statement and past few months something is going on.
2020 eh? Gies the ten man eh, please?
Pandemic saw me have to work from home and use my attic space that used to be my Celtic watching relaxation room for the last 11 years become an office for 4 or so months. Something I hated but I had it so much easier than others, the active mothers and fathers, those alone, the unemployed and countless others.
The change in my days saw my still nameless dog (as I’ll be thrown off here!) lay at my feet or in my vicinity so it’s hard to complain but it actually inspired me to do some work around the attic, finish the half finished room where I no longer just retreat to watch the fitba and sneak a wee ciggy but into something more livable.
Beanbags, Banksy prints, carper tile and cooler. You know the drill. Anyway, I uncovered some boxes I hadn’t looked at for a few years. Funny the things you keep eh? Ma da sent one or two of these after I left that he would still buy at the games and mail across.
https://ibb.co/f9C61r6
https://ibb.co/g6RDnFY
I’ll never wake up a currant and that means I still smile each day before and after I read the fitba news and nod when I go through things I deemed worthy of bringing to the US in my suitcase. Keep the banter going guys, that is not over, far from it.
HH!
Aipple
Thanks for your feedback.
At the time I just thought he was a silly man, but it was NFL’s outraged interview that made me stop & review.
By the way you later post with all of those personal stories was very good.
Are these you own recollections or accounts from across the cybernet?
The North Carolina one about gerrymandering of districts was of particular interest to me. I live in the state & have been helping in small ways to draw attention to that here & raise awareness. I’m sure you’re aware of what happened in in the North Carolina 9th district in the 201 midterms – all part of the same corruption of democracy in the state.
Just in case, here’s a link
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2018/12/07/understanding-the-election-scandal-in-north-carolinas-9th-district/
Do you have the honour of having Mitch McConnell as one of your senators?
HH
LUCKY CODY on 7TH DECEMBER 2020 11:15 PM
It took a while for the impact of his atrocious treatment by his employer to register with me.
I was distracted by all the great victories & stunning performances on the pitch….
HH
Cornelius on 8th December 2020 12:24 am
Aipple
Thanks for your feedback…….
————————
A heck of lot I have to answer in your response. Bourbon poured, stick with me.
1. Not going to argue with that. Always wee signs of a bigger picture.
2. Those were not my words, apologies. I subscribe to a few magazines (you get great deals right now and at this time of year on print and web access) but my post was from one of the leaders today in The Atlantic. I can’t link them as, well, paywall for others.
3. I’m aware of what has been going on in NC, yes. Not just there but that is one of the high profile ones right now. We ditched all that in the old country, well at least so obviously, when they ditched the Rotten Boroughs – Black Adder citation needed – and what not.
4. Mitch, yes. Been on marches etc and that’s all I am going to say about that as the movie goes. He’s here until he passes but the voice is still loud and proud in resistance.
Signed up for this at the start of pandemic. https://www.triviagenius.com/
It’s neat, doesn’t seem to spam and gives a nice daily brain drill.
It has feck all to do with me, FYI, but you get a wee daily trivia question and can drill deeper to quiz if you want.
Stretch the grey matter!
Aipple
Firstly, I’m not a great bourbon drinker.
But then you’re where they make some of good stuff.
I still prefer modest single malts from my local ABC store – get a nice Speyside for $29.
Have you watched “Lawless” with Tom Hardy? Great performance from him & a good movie.
All about moonshine in Franklin County, Va.
I was on the Atlantic’s email list for a while & liked some of it but lost touch & never too a sub.
Was a great fan of Christopher Hitchens & his work at the Atlantic put me onto it.
I have Thom Tillis as one of my senators so I feel your pain.
Take Care
JAMES FORREST on 7TH DECEMBER 2020 6:05 PM
Don’t even THINK about it Celtic; keep this third rate liquidation denier the Hell away from Parkhead.
https://thecelticblog.com/2020/12/blogs/a-message-to-the-celtic-board-on-paul-lambert-an-approach-for-him-would-not-be-welcomed/
“Third rate liquidation denier” ?!?!
I don’t recall, Paul Lambert paying the Old Rangers price for a ticket, to see New Rangers vs Celtic, in 2016, do you?
Celtic season ticket holding, Green Hun,Liquidation deniers, threw ALL liquidation, New club, Old club, Sevco, Rangers International, etc, claims under the bus in 2016. Celtic’s season ticket holding, Green Huns, paid £49, £50, £52, for tickets, all gleefully accepted, and much coveted, by a Celtic season ticket holding base, who didn’t give a flying monkeys, about, principles, cheating, morals, NONE of it mattered anymore, because the PLC recruited an expensive squirrel in, Brendan Rodgers whom Celtic supporters instantly fell head over heels in love with, which gave the PLC a license to ruthlessly exploit these, happy clapping zealots, by fixing ticket prices for upcoming Old Firm games, to the SAME prices that they were in 2012, ie: the SAME prices as Old Rangers, ie: the SAME club in Celtic PLC’s eyes, and these happy clapping zealots were climbing over themselves, to buy these SAME priced tickets, and then these happy clapping zealots, would go into Ibrox stadium and sing,
“YOUR NOT RANGERS ANYMORE”
…and this was after having paid, the same price to see the new Rangers, that these same happy clapping zealots, had paid for tickets to see the old Rangers. These happy clapping zealots, had just been “HAD”, by Celtic PLC board, Rangers PLC board, The Scottish Government, Police Scotland, the entirety of SMSM, and all other players innvolved in the cover up, of the corruption of David Murray.
I can’t see Paul Lambert standing in the Broomloan Road Stand, wearing a rainbow t-shirt, having just paid, £49, £50, £52, for an old Rangers priced ticket, chanting “YOUR NOT RANGERS ANYMORE” can you?
Bit of Fun ?
Those who know me are aware that I enjoy a Punt on the horses most Days.
My all time Favourite Trainer is Nicky Henderson over the jumps.
He has ONE Horse running today ( Tuesday) and its called….wait for it….” NEIL THE LEGEND” at Uttoxeter at 2.47. This Horse is 11/2 with Bet365 this morning.
To add more spice to the selection there is another Horse ( NOT Trained by Henderson) running Today at FONTWELL@ 1.35, and its called …wait for it again LOL…” CALL OFF THE DOGS”. Its Odds are 13/2 with Bet365.
I have backed both horses in Singles and an Each Way Double…and IF BOTH Horses win…its a return of around “54/1 plus” at the above odds.
Irrespective of the name of Mr Hendersons Horse, I would be backing it anyway, because I ALWAYS try to back ALL of his Horses every day for over 30 years.
Please dont shoot the messenger..its only a wee bit of fun in these dark times.
May Good Luck be spread between us , we could do with some just now LOL
HH.
Good morning cqn from a dark and wet Garngad
A good read back there guys, with some heartfelt posts.
How bad is it when you fear a Kilmasonic team coming to paradise on Sunday, of course by then it could be 2 wins in 13 games (Lille) has any Celtic manager ever had such a record?
I dread to think of ST sales next season if this season continues the way it has been going so far this season.
If ever we needed proof that our club is a play thing for a billionaire who has done jack shit for us over the years then this is it. Stubborn cnut.
Otherwise you would not watch your investment go down the swanky or if you cared anything for the club you would act. NOT NFL unfortunately Neil will only be remembered for being the manager who so gloriously failed to win the 10 if it comes to pass.
Neil does not deserve to be in charge for the cup final or any other game with a stat like 2 wins out of 12 games.
Sorry Neil.
D :)
Swanky??? Swanny
By the way what is the Swanny is it a river, I am sure it was in a song years ago.
D :)
DAVID66..
The SWANEE River or SUANEE River flows southwards from Georgia to Florida.
In 1851 the music composer Stephen Foster wrote a good song and it went along the lines of…” Way down upon the Swannee River…etc, etc”
I also THINK Al Jolson ( My Da’s favourite)…sang the song in the 1920’s/30’s, and maybe referred to it in other songs…but Im not absolutely sure ?
” We’ve been sold doon the Swannee”….was/is an old Glesga saying that I remember coming from Working Class men who felt that their Employers and/or Trade unions or Governments ? Also, it your Horse were beaten…You could hear the saying in Glesga Pubs…..” Ma Bets are doon the Swannee”.
I have used that phrase on many occasions.
The Celtic board have sold the Supporters ” Doon The SWANNEE…Big Time”.
LOL
HH.
That should have read…” Their Employers, Trade unions, Governments etc have let them down”.
DAVID66 on 8TH DECEMBER 2020 6:17 AM
There have been a few theories as to why Neil Lennon is still in a job. Some have talked about pay-offs, giving him the cup final etc, no suitable replacement etc….
I’m starting to wonder now if the board really do believe he can turn it around and if so, what matches have they been watching?
DAVID66….
OR…As I used to say TWICE…” My Marriage is Doon the Swannee” !
My wife has gone and left me….Gee but I feel blue…
HAHAHAHAHAHA….Gee but I feel Blue !
LOL
HH
Its very possible that Americans from say…er……America MAY have also used the phrase that they had been ” Sold down the Swannee”
I aint sure ?
HH
BIG JIMMY
Sold down river is a Yankee saying from when slaves
were sent dow river to be sold for better prices or to
work in the deep south , used that term a lot but
not so much nowadays . Hope all is well and the
denims fit ok this time . Stay safe and well you and
Rocky .