Glasgow arms race failure, thanking Sir David

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KR Reykjavík recorded a 0-2 win in the Icelandic Cup on Sunday and have one more league game, against bottom club Thor on Thursday, before facing Celtic on Champions League duty a week today.

Celtic have a game this evening against LSK Linz before facing a famous name from our past, Dukla Prague, on Friday.  While the world will be coming through a World Cup climb down Celtic will be facing a committed team in the mid-Atlantic.  There is no room for complacency.

Next week’s qualifier has all the potential to cause a fright.  Ronny Deila will by now know all about Gordon Strachan’s competitive start at Celtic, which cast a shadow he never completely shook off, so it is absolutely critical the manager gets us playing the way he wants us tonight.

Ross McCormack’s route from Murray Park reject at 19 eight years ago to a player Fulham have just bid £11m for is worthy of consideration.  It’s easy for us to point to how Rangers ruined young talented footballers but the stark truth is that for well over a decade Celtic had vastly better youth talent that Rangers but failed to graduate anything like as many as we should have.

McCormack had to go to Motherwell, a club well experienced at nurturing talent, to build his career, but he would have fared no better at Celtic.  Having no space for youth is one of the many unhealthy consequences of having two massive clubs engaged in a football arms race.  Our game was destined to destroy talent.

Fortunately, the man who loaned his name to Murray Park ensured that arms race would end in spectacular fashion, when he sold his club’s assets and liabilities to a liquidation specialist for £1.  In a perverse sort of way, Scottish football should thank him.

Thank you to everyone who supported CQN’s efforts for Glasgow the Caring City and The Cookie Jar Foundation, especially the reader who paid an incredible £530 for the signed European Cup canvas.  You are all a credit to our club.

Best wishes to Argentina tomorrow, I hope the overcome Netherlands for the memory of the first worldwide football hero they gave the game, Alfredo Di Stefano.

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1,245 Comments

  1. Travellerbhoy on

    Sorry my fhriends

     

    Got distracted

     

    The police came to me

     

    For no other reason than I’m a traveller

     

    Threatened to do me for anything

     

    Lucky they were decent

     

    A 58 year old sergeant who had seen it all

     

    And the nicest one of all who took my phone

     

    He had to ask for the unlock code

     

    1967

     

    Which took him to the because screen

     

    If you know your history

     

    Showing the Lisbon lions

     

    He smiled

     

    Threatened me with a few things

     

    Thanks

     

    Inspector Donnelly

     

    Said Hail Hail as they left

     

    He turned and smiled

     

    Magic

  2. England are in a difficult position I feel. They have some decent players, but they are so highly paid from a young age that you can’t help feeling they lack a certain hunger for the game by the time they are in their early twenties.

     

     

    They also suffer from the SuperStar syndrome, which heaps pressure on people like Rooney instead of concentrating on what makes a team.

     

     

    They still seem to be miles behind the rest when it comes to tactics. They are a very predictable team – look how the Germans passed and moved last night and compare that to England’s rigid, plodding style.

     

     

    Twenty years ago you would have fancied England to beat Germany maybe once every three or four attempts, and be competitive against them always. Now, they’d be hammered (and so might Scotland if we aren’t careful!).

     

     

    That the national team’s decline almost exactly coincides with the advent of the EPL leaves their media cheerleaders (including, sadly, the BBC) in a difficult position.

  3. Big Georges Fan Club - Hail, Hail, Wee Oscar on

    Hello this is WEE BGFC. Saw the game yesterday but we couldn’t get a link until a minute into the second half and we didn’t know that it was 2-1 to linz so when pukki scored his second we thought it was 1-0 to us. We thought that the final score was 4-0 but then I went on the Celtic website and it said it was 5-2. Anyway from what I’d seen we played quite well and we still hammered them when wee Liam got sent off. I have confidence in Ronny.

     

     

    Hail Hail

     

    WEE BGFC

  4. Big Georges Fan Club - Hail, Hail, Wee Oscar on

    Hello this is WEE BGFC. I also like the style of play that he has got us into.

     

     

    Hail Hail

     

    WEE BGFC

  5. weet weet weet(GBWO) on

    moonbeams wd. wee oscar’s our bhoy and kano’s our mhan.

     

     

    10:48 on 9 July, 2014

     

    Beauticians and Massage Parlours across the county join together to offer couples a World Cup special his & her Brazilian package. :)

     

     

    Please don’t let me have to explain that one now guys!

     

     

    MWD says AYE

     

     

    Please explain ;))))

     

     

    HH

  6. Moonbeams WD. Wee Oscar’s our Bhoy and Kano’s our mhan.

     

    10:48 on

     

    9 July, 2014

     

    Beauticians and Massage Parlours across the county join together to offer couples a World Cup special his & her Brazilian package. :)

     

     

    Please don’t let me have to explain that one now guys!

     

     

    MWD says AYE.

     

     

     

     

     

    MWD.

     

    What is a Brazilian Massage package.

  7. FourGreenFields on

    @CelticFCSLO: When tickets arrive any groups/families not seated together for Murrayfield should contact TO where options to resolve will be provided

  8. Thanks to the poster for the masonic tv link(jawei) to yesterday evening’s game. There were a few positives and a few negatives from the game but overall the management team must be quite happy with the results and attitude especially from some of the younger players given previous pre-season tour results.

     

    It also looks like zonal marking is still in vogue at Lennoxtown going by the defending at some early corners, hopefully that will be sorted out before the CL Qualies. Looking forward to the coming season and a different style of football.

     

    Everoptimistic CSC

     

    HH

  9. Well, here’s a bar promotion that went wrong:

     

     

    Bar owners around the country have a torrid time every four years trying to make their watering hole the go-to place to watch the World Cup. The Roisin Dubh in Galway had an enterprising idea to get punters in the door for the Germany v Brazil semi final last night.

     

     

    “Come watch the World Cup Semi Final tonight in the back. Bottles of Brahma will be €4, pints of Erdinger will be €4. And for any goal scored, the price will drop by 50 cents for that country’s beer.”

     

     

    As you probably already know, this backfired a little bit as Germany managed to slot seven passed Julio Cesar. Unsurprisingly, the barmen in the Roisin Dubh were run off their feet trying to fill an unprecedented amount of orders for Erdinger at the low low price of 50c a pint.

  10. FourGreenFields.

     

     

    What time will you be in Edinburgh on the day of the game 22nd July,Could meet up for a drink somewhere,

  11. FourGreenFields.

     

     

    That mail you received from the ticket office,sounds like they have cocked it up in some way,and want to resolve any problems they have made.

  12. FourGreenFields on

    oldtim67

     

     

    Not sure of plans for that game yet , it does sound like they have made a mess of it .

     

    Bhoys I know tried to pick up a group of tickets for their supporters bus so they would all be together but were told no .

     

    The ticket office were going to group people together just as at Celtic Park , not sure that’s worked .

  13. Geordie Munro on

    Oldtim

     

     

    I’m not sure it’s a cock up.

     

     

    How are the ticket office know that the brother munro and mini munro who sit in the row in front of me are my family members?

  14. Hrvatski Jim on

    hebcelt

     

    21:50 on

     

    8 July, 2014

     

    Hvratski Jim just caught your post from earlier, I think you’ll be helping you German friend home tonight!!Looking for some advice, my bhoy is flying out to Split on Friday.3 day music festival.Then 10 of them chartering a yacht going to the island of Hvar, any advice on things to do places to visit and most importantly what to drink, beers etc. Appreciate you’re out for a few tonight, if you could reply maybe tomorrow. Many thanks Hail Hail Hebcelt

     

     

    ————————————————————-

     

    Good morning Hebcelt.

     

     

    I have not been down to that area – we stay up in the Istria area – so cannot offer any local knowledge.

     

     

    They will have a great time – everyone seems to love sailing the Adriatic. Lots of celebrity spotting around Hvar.

     

     

    Karlovacko and Ozujsko are both good beers.

     

     

    Wines – local wine for us is a Malvasia grape which is a good standard table wine but not a fine wine.

     

     

    Food is good quality and value – loads of choice.

     

     

    Hope they have a great time.

  15. Oldtim MWD

     

     

    Please don’t let me have to explain that one now guys!

     

     

    MWD says AYE.

     

     

    MWD.

     

    What is a Brazilian Massage package.

     

     

     

    That’s where you only get a semi and there is no happy ending…

  16. Geordie Munro.

     

     

    Does your Brother & mini Monro sit beside you at Celtic Park, if they do, you should get ticket’s that should be similar to where you sit at Celtic Park, but as I said with the e-mail to FGF, To me it looks like they are trying to rectify a mistake or two that they have made

  17. Watching some videos and looking at some pics of Gaza the past hour, amazing this is allowed in this day and age.

     

     

    Wheres the help from “our troops” ? Wheres the threats from america… Absolutely sickening.

     

     

    And to think we vote in same governments and line pockets of same powerful media moguls who censor the media.

     

     

    Life is fake and reality is chosen by those who have the power.

     

     

    Anyone know if aid is being allowed into Gaza at the moment ? The attack on aid goin in last time shows the isreali army can get away with whatever they want.

  18. Geordie Munro on

    OT67

     

     

    Aye they sit in front.

     

     

    Sorry. I wasn’t very clear. I think they way they are doing it is the best way. Roughly where you sit at Celtic park.

     

     

    Of course there will be a few mistakes. Maybe more to do with friends who sit close to each other and one being on automatic ticket scheme and one not.

     

     

    One getting ticket early and one not.

  19. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    PROUDBHOY

     

     

    I concur. There are clearly faults on both sides-intransigence being uppermost-but what is happening over there is disgraceful.

     

     

    As is the case in much of The Middle East,and has been for decades,or centuries.

     

     

    Might is right. Like it or lump it. Innocent people suffer and those in power cement their position.

  20. Geordie Munro.

     

     

    The tickets will be shipped out any day now,and I expect to be sitting next to who I sit next at Celtic Park,but It’s a big job to get it exactly right,it was when FGFs put the mail on the blog made my wee suspicious mind go into overdrive and think of Cockup right away,Maybe everythings fine and dandy.

  21. @CelticFCSLO we have tried our best to keep those seated together at CP the same at Murrayfield. (a)

  22. bobby murdoch’s curled-up winklepickers

     

     

     

     

    Its sad buddy, kids screaming as their fathers dragged away, parents going through rubble as their homes are flatened.

     

     

    Seems like alot of protests happening , one in Derry tonight. I think these protests should be happening outside bbc offices demanding fair reporting on whats happening .

     

     

    The governements are a disgrace, irish one espcially sickens me but then they allowed their own people in the north to go through some awful times.

     

     

    If this was 1936 we would have the international brigades heading for palestine.

  23. FF does not dominate his area nor does he look secure on cross balls; ERGO not yet world class.