I love Paris, the food, the sights, the people, the atmosphere of the place. So it came as a surprise when I watched Messi and Neymar booed by their own PSG fans after their elimination from the Champions League. The greatest of all time and a talented show pony, both the toast of the city recently, as persona non grata. How can it be?
The short version of events is that PSG were eliminated because neither did enough running around against Real Madrid to prevent their elimination. This is a bit unfair. A shark is a shark. If you swim with one, you should know how it will behave.
When it comes to energy, Messi, for all his exalted status, is more Charlie Nicholas than Frank McGarvey. His Brazilian protégée, Neymar, was always going to behave like his master. Maybe Messi’s game would be hampered, if he put in the hard miles, I doubt he ever found out.
I also doubt Leo has seen the best of Paris: the Tower, Montmartre, Sacre Coeur. No matter how long he stays, he will remain an unknown recluse, inevitably leaving behind fans who wonder what they were initially thinking. Still, booing your own after a defeat? It’s not a good look. A PSG decline, without the prize they really want, seems inevitable.
It hurt when Bodo/Glimt taught us a lesson home and away last month. Having already eliminated AZ Alkmaar from one European competition this season, we would feel hopeful of doing so again, if we faced them in the Conference League, instead of Bogo/Glimt.
There are compensations, primarily our hunt for the league title. Instead of journeys to Netherlands, all the focus at Lennoxtown this week is on facing Ross County at Celtic Park on Saturday. It has been a while since we were this confident.
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Hoopla
Hits the post….ooooohhhhh
Messi…greatest of all time….noo there’s a debate ;-))
H.H.
St Stivs
Don’t let the barstewarts get you down.
Haste ye backCSC
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Yeah – Europe is a complete waste of time. That Lisbon thingy has always been an over-hyped fuss about nothing. We shouldn’t even bother taking part from now on.
I don’t think Messi and C. Ronaldo are lazy players because they don’t join in with defensive duties or closing down like Daizen Maeda does.
They are still the players that teammates give the ball to when they want to break down packed defences. They do the hard miles, even if they run fewer of them during a game, in the final third.
They did not reach this level in the game because they were lazy.
They were not noticeably disdainful of their team mates as Ibrahamovic, Cantona and Viduka were.
Messi and C. Ronaldo have been consistently impactful in games; that is why they are greats.
I agree with you about Neymar however, he is a proper show pony
I never feel easy when we are confident.
I don’t know, it just never sits right.
We always compete as if it’s a fair game with a straight bat and we all know thems have dutched the game in thur favour.
I won’t relax until. it is all over.
I still doubt we’ll be allowed to win it.
Revisionist history on Messi – he has always done as instructed by his coach.
When managers asked him to press off the ball he did so.
Poor article in that respect.
I stand with Big `jimmy and St. Stiv’s.
My continued participation remains conditional.
The Blog will easily survive without me but the slow death will continue if we continue to suck the joy out of Celtic supporting and, as with the Green Brigade and wall-to-wall Rebs, we will have wall-to-wall moaning and a hard hearted right wing version of Celtic values
Bankiebhoy
I agree. I don’t feel good when we are feeling good about things and maybe get too relaxed.
I doubt Ange will be seeing it the way we do. He will be focused and driven and ruthless.
I hope
SFTB
Surely you can’t be anything other than bored fed up with the non supporting away song book we are subjected to ?
I watched about 10% of the support at Tannadice who hardly even watched the football for more than half the game as the were so focused on the Board and the Utd fans responding to their crap.
It is more than 1% of our following for sure.
BRRB…where u at? Deffo not the Scotia
H.H.
Is flouncing not the antithesis of the Celtic spirit?
BURNLEY78 on 17TH MARCH 2022 12:32 PM
So you were watching supporters who weren’t watching the game but were watching other supporters?
Was anyone watching you?
Was anyone watching the game?
And what the hell is going on with P&O?
Ernie
Protestants and Orangemen ?
ernie
Only if you insist on calling it flouncing.
I am another who never feels confident. I grew up watching us win nothing. So, it is ingrained, I suppose. We have always had to beat the opposition plus the officials. That won’t change any time soon.
ernie
Putin & Oligarchs?
Interesting development — news management / print media.
The last couple of days has seen a story in the Scum about the different stats for the clubs playing in the SPL.
Penalties — for and against
Red cards — for and against
As you would expect our friends in Govan are out on their own regarding the benefits they have gained from Ludge MIB.
The news management is that the figures are provided for the last 5 years rather than a focus on last season — where from memory the Ludge MIB influence was huge — which shows the advantage to be there but not as extreme as a more limited analysis would find.
Consequently it would appear as if good work has been done on the TFOD2.1 advantage due to Ludge MIB sensibilities and the forced / partial / slanted manner in which they officiate SPL games.
Just a case that the media have ignored the focused report and have cast the net wider and publicised these less damming statistics.
The last month has seen a sea change in the refereeing SPL games.
To me that would suggest that the Ludge MIB got sloppy and their bias was too extreme to stand any level of scrutiny.
Ludge MIB / TFOD2.1 booster club — Plan B.
Give us some ridiculous decisions to blunt our specific criticism and get the SPL 10 fired up against 2 supposed MIB favourites rather than 1.
Worth a watching.
PARKHEADCUMSALFORD on 17TH MARCH 2022 12:49 PM
I mentioned something similar the other day. If we were playing Brechin Away I would wonder if there was going to be an upset! Fort William, however, would be different. I would be confident of a victory…..if we were at Home.
P&O staff told by their union to remain on board ship, wherever they are docked, for fear of being barred from getting back on board. Looks like the shipping line has been sold from beneath them.
Hot Smoked
They’d wipe the smile of our faces when they got out the Shinty sticks
Fields
What happened to TUPE
All P&O staff made redundant.
P&O is owned by the state of Dubai.
https://www.ft.com/content/7a661f48-ccd8-462a-ad2e-cc3f41345b8f#comments-anchor
St Stivs
You and I have never really agreed on much, but at the end of the day we are all Celtic supporters and have an opinion.
Hope you have a break and decide to come back.
Reading back from last night, a couple of things.
SAINT STIVS, don’t let the beggars win! In my opinion the blowhards, loudmouths and multi-monickers are on here for one purpose only, to disrupt the bog at least and if possible ruin it. If you and posters like you, that add interest and positivity, leave the site then they win. Personally I never, ever engage with them, just scrolling by, and if more or most of us did the same they would realise they are wasting their time and might give up. But while they get any replies at all they will wallow in it. So please reconsider and keep on adding to the blog.
I also noticed MODERATOR 1888 announcing his/her presence. More power to them, but I was disappointed by one thing they said, namely he/she was not going to bother with the multi-monickers. Surely in this tech-savvy age it would be easy to spot posters using this abusive technique (and it IS abusive). He/she outlined the regular ‘rules’ we should abide by – why not add another rule, namely no posting under more than one name/title/monicker. That won’t entirely tackle the problem, but would reduce it considerably.
ERNIE LYNCH on 17TH MARCH 2022 12:57 PM
I can’t access it – the FT link is a paywall. So what happened to P&O?
‘P&O Ferries has suspended all services and ordered its ships back to port ahead of an announcement on the company’s future, sparking disruption on busy cross-Channel routes linking the UK and France.
The ferry company was directing passengers and freight to rival services on Thursday, but said in a statement: “P&O Ferries is not going into liquidation.”
The RMT union said it had instructed crew to stay on board the ferries and was concerned that British crew could be replaced by “foreign labour”.
The company said: “We have asked all ships to come alongside, in preparation for a company announcement. Until then, services from P&O will not be running and we are advising travellers of alternative arrangements.”
In a message to staff seen by the Financial Times the ferry operator said services had been suspended ahead of an announcement from its owner, DP World, “which will secure the long-term viability of P&O Ferries”.
The announcement concerned the company’s future structure, according to a person familiar with the matter. A second person said that the statement was expected to be about jobs.
P&O Ferries operates on the busy passenger and freight Dover to Calais route, as well as services between the British mainland and Ireland, Northern Ireland and Holland.
Passengers at Dover and Calais with bookings on Thursday morning sailings were being told to head to rival DFDS to travel.
DP World, a Dubai-based container and logistics group, bought P&O Ferries for £322mn in 2019, and fired 1,100 workers in spring 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic struck.
The company faced criticism from unions and politicians in the UK for pushing ahead with a planned $330mn dividend payout as it laid off staff and took government funding to keep freight services running.’
It looks like P&O have taken advantage of a loophole in legislation to sack their entire staff and replace them with (cheaper) agency staff. I guess TUPE won’t apply due to P&O being under foreign ownership – don’t have the full picture yet. But according to The Guardian website, buses of replacement staff were held outside of Dover and other ports ready to move onto the ships immediately.
Maybe P&O should be owned by the UK state rather than by Dubai state.
ERNIE LYNCH on 17TH MARCH 2022 1:05 PM
Thanks Ernie.
Shocking for all those employees and families concerned.
Ernie Lynch – yep, but a bit late now, sadly.
If the P&O staff stand together and refuse to leave the ships they’ll be able to cripple the employer’s plans.
There’s no way there’s currently enough suitable agency staff available to man all the ferries. P&O are relying on existing staff transferring to the agency.
Bit bit bit bit – didn’t we take back control?
PO staff will be hung out to dry – won’t take long for a trail to a Tory fundrr to emerge.
There also seems to be Russian funding involved somewhere in the ownership of P&O.
Messi the GOAT ? Don’t agree with P67 on that one. I’m with the people of Argentina on this one, Diego Maradona, born with the greatest ever God given talent to grace a football pitch. Even on the scabbiest of 1980’s pitches, with Claudio Gentile on “man marking” duty.
I can’t help but feel that the two games against the Ibrox outfit will determine the destination of the title. We take four or six points, we win the league with at least a game to spare. We take three or no points, then it goes to the last day. Can’t see the other 10 clubs taking anything from us or them.
Confident isn’t the word I would use. Cautiously optimistic perhaps. Ask me again at 2pm on Sunday 3rd April.