Despite a good result at Easter Road, Celtic were unable to put any distance between themselves and nearest challengers, Aberdeen, who matched their two-goal win at home to St Mirren.
It took less than three minutes for Nicolas Kuhn to open the scoring against Hibernian with a peach of a goal. Kyogo’s shot was spilled by Bursik in the Hibs goal, James Forrest was first to react and smashed the ball low across the face of goal. The ever-alert Kuhn was on his toes and slid the ball into the empty net at the far post.
Callum McGregor doubled the advantage with what will surely be goal of the month in 19 minutes with a thunderous shot from 26 yards. The main surprise by halftime was that Celtic’s advantage was not greater. Hibs only consolation was that they were facing Celtic, not Dundee.
The second half was largely a different story. Poor distribution by both central defenders, and on one occasion by Kasper Schmeichel, and a drop-off in movement in the middle of the park, allowed Hibs some time on the ball inside the Celtic half. They threatened and (if they were any better) could have narrowed the gap, but Celtic always had a few gears to move up.
It is early days but the three-in-a-row champions are already looking imperious.
244 Comments- Pages:
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Chairbhoy
Re sycophancy
Unless of course you mean folk who don’t get off on spending their week trying to criticise anyone in authority at Celtic are sycophants.
A player gets a hat-trick when they score three goals in one game, but the use of the term actually didn’t start on the football pitch. The phrase came from cricket, and was used when a bowler took three wickets from three consecutive balls. The club would give the bowler a hat to celebrate this achievement.
What happened to the Bosun Lawal money?
Chairbhoy
“The Majority shareholding in Norwich moving from Smith and Wynn Jones to Attanasio had no material difference on player sales (maybe player recruitment, we’ll have to see).”
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I made a comment last night that this might have affected the deal, Not an assertionas yours above is, just raising a possibility that Norwich had other things taking up time that may have delayed the process. I have no inside info on the Norwich personalities or whether it did or did not that was why my suggestion was a diffident one.
Now how can you possibly be so confident in your assertion. The only evidence you offer is that they conducted other transfers before the change in majority shareholding and have concluded that they could have easily transferred Adam earlier, therefore, QED, it’s Celtic’s fault again.
Now- without knowing anything about the relative personalities of the outgoing majority shareholders and the incoming ones, I can consider that they may have had different views on the value of keeping or selling Adam even though 2 players were sold earlier in the window. Perhaps, they were players they were willing to seller who they had promised agents they would sell but having refused to set a buying fee when they agreed to loan Adam to Celtic, they had no such inclination to sell Adam. I can also consider that there was a new incoming manager to please and the old shareholder majority may have made a commitment to him or the new majority shareholder had done so or, and here”s another possibility, the new manager had been completed his player evaluation and felt the transfer fee agreed now was a good deal for Norwich and he preferred to have the funds for his recruitment rather than retain Adam. (Since the deal was announced the most common reaction I have seen from the impatient fans calling out Celtic has been them going from “just pay them the money” to “No that much!- he’s not worth that!”.
If I can imagine these possibilities, then why can you so confidently assert that had no impact? You may have an opinion that they are unlikely or improbable but instead you asserted that “it had no material difference” How can you possibly know that?
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As for your real question
“An TEARMANN, SFTBS…
You always state you aren’t Board apologists, don’t you?
So tell me please, why are you flying this kite?”
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I’ll let An Tearmann answer for himself but I’m not jumping to respond to this. I consider. it a cheeky question for 2 reasons- 1) You don’t get to question my Celtic credentials & 2) I have stated too many times why I feel we waste too much energy on an imagined war between Board Suits and fitba men. I have stated too many times that Peter Lawwell and others should have lost their jobs for lying to the support about Res.12 and their passive response to the events of 2012.
Board Apologist? Behave Yourself! I meet and mix with people on here; they know me and I say the same things in public that I say on here. Most of my friends on here disagree with me but they know I’m genuine and consistent.
That’s the equivalent of me calling you a hunfiltrator cause you spend so much time criticising the club. It would be a petulant childish call – a “When did you stop beating your wife?” type of question
If Idah deal confirmed we’re making progress.
I was always optimistic (rather than confident) we’d get deals for him and Bernardo done.
Now we have. Good.
As for the “are we stronger than last season” question?
Depends if one is comparing the squad now with the start of last season or the end of it.
If the start of 23/24 …. in terms of fitness, cohesion, understanding of Brendan’s philosophy … we’re way ahead.
If the end of 23/24 … in terms of numbers and named players …. we’re just about the same.
To the above, I’d make two observations about last season’s performance
1. We played Champions League near the start
2. We played our best football toward the end
For those reasons I’m quite hopeful for the season … but I recognise why folks is frustrated at the time taken to acieve named player parity with end of 23/24.
More still to do.
PS – little bit of niggle and argument on here today which is one of the good days?
Can’t wait to read the blog after our first defeat.
🫂
My father, who introduced me to the love affair that is Celtic, saw Celtic win the League three times in his first twenty-seven years of supporting Celtic.
Good morning all from the Brazen Head. Time for a celebration. 👍🍻
BURNLEY78 @ 11:21 AM,
Not all comments have to make sense you know, sometimes we just rib each other..:)
I’m sure you know a lot more about these things than I do, so if you read up on the transference of the major shareholding in Norwich City, you will see it’s far from a straightforward structure.
It certainly wasn’t as if the Club was being “sold” either an error or a misrepresentation
https://www.canaries.co.uk/content/club-statement-group-led-by-mark-attanasio-acquires-minority-club-shareholding
“Attanasio’s group have acquired shares from a variety of holders, which includes long-serving club director Michael Foulger’s holding.
Attanasio has also joined the club’s board of directors, effective immediately.
Foulger, who joined the club alongside current joint majority shareholders Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones in 1996, will vacate his seat on the board at the end of the season, having agreed to oversee a transition period over the coming months. Following this, Foulger will take up a new role of honorary vice president.”
The way I read it Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones are still on the Board and still majority shareholders during the transition.
The idea that the transition held up Idah transfer but never held up Gabriel Sara’s transfer to Galatasary seems nonsensical to me.
Much more likely is how it actually looks…
Celtic came in at the beginning of the window and made an offer for Adam to Norwich.
They rejected it, it wasn’t enough and they had appointed a new manager.
Celtic came back in last week with a much improved offer along the lines that Norwich were looking for…
The deal was hammered out during the ensuing week and we are now dotting i’s and crossing t’s
No more complicated than that…
Hail Hail
SFtBs @ 11:30 AM
Well with all due respect I think it was quite clear that I was commenting on…
…AN TEARMANN @ 12:40 AM,
“SFTB
I would say NCFC being sold today would have a big impact on the timing of the deal,i didnt know that when typing my answer to Malone Bhoy.”
Please read my response to BURNLEY78
– CHAIRBHOY @ 11:40 AM… on the matter…
Hail Hail
dearie me
Back to Basics
“Can’t wait to read the blog after our first defeat.”
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It’s so predictable. Those who predicted doom for the pre-season tour, moved on to predicting doom for our start to the league and are now awaiting doom in the league Cup next week.
Whenever our first draw or loss occurs, and it will, there will be a surge of posts with an “I told you this would happen” narrative.
I expect, based on all previous results, domestic success and European struggles again this season. If I am wrong on the first prediction I will be surprised and shocked but it’s always a possibility. If I am wrong about the second, I will be pleased and impressed but I’ll probably still make the same prediction for season 2025/26.
A trend is a trend. There may be singular variations but, without structural changes, this is our future. But, of course we can still get better. We can win the league by wider margins and run the risk of boring us with easy success and we can win a few more than we usually do but we’re not getting to a CL quarter-final any time soon, I feel.
Aff oot
Deary you.
Chairbhoy
If it was clear that you were commenting on An Tearmann’s post alone- why did you include me in your response and why try to tar us both with a Board-apologist tag?
Seems you were doing more than you claim.
Catch your reply later
We should use the £100 million to bribe the refs in the CL and see if we can reach the quarter-finals.
We need luck in the CL, anyone know how much that costs and where we can order it from? :O)
We’re apparently signing this guy according to that link earlier…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renato_Tapia