Before the weekend I argued against the early return of Cameron Carter-Vickers against Motherwell on Sunday. Cameron’s injured hamstring has hampered the player throughout the season and the best remediation for a hamstring is rest. Returning to action before it is absolutely necessary is a risk.
My thoughts on when “absolutely necessary” is has moved since. One central defender will not change the way the team plays, he will not stop a cross coming into the box or be at the back post to stop a header, but Celtic are in desperate need of incremental gains. As well as performing traditional defensive duties very well, he is comfortable in possession and can help transition the ball forward.
He would also be a confidence boost to players and fans alike. Let’s hope we see him on Sunday.
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SFTB 👍
Disorganised teams always look unfit.
Organised teams always look unfit when against better players who are similarly well organised.
Footballtruismcfc
AIPPLE on 21ST FEBRUARY 2024 12:05 PM
Happy Wednesday all!
Heading to Lisbon for first time this May.
******************
Managed to do the Celtic Hajj last May…the Estadio was exactly as I had imagined it to be.
The city, itself, is beautiful and well worth exploring.
As for Sannies/Gutties, I’m with Big Jimmy…sannies is Glaswegian while gutties is presumably derived from some out-of-town nomenclature system…
Reggie
You sum up how I see Celtic now and I suspect/hope other supporters think and feel the same.
You wrote
we know from their actions and the nepotism that is prevalent throughout the club that they are lying to the support. No amount of smug comments can mask that
and Im glad to see lies other than the ones to small shareholders at an AGM get included in the lies category.
It’s good to see Celtic supporters waken up to the truth.
Celtic lost their connection to the Christian ethos that led to its creation and are paying the price of ignoring that a house divided cannot stand.
And here we are again after a brief respite.
Sannies, sand shoes, had cloth uppers and rubber soles. They could be black or white, lace up or slip on (elasticated). sometimes also referred to as plimsoles or gym shoes, although the 70/80s fashions for Dunlop Green Flash and (blue) deck shoes (sailor sannies) also fitted the description.
Gutties were any sort of trainer that you might kick about in day to day. Generally, as a point of distinction, gutties were good for playing football. Sannies weren’t.
Sannies could – by extension – be considered a subset of gutties, but gutties were never ‘sannies’.
VennCSC
I think BR probably will persist with Scales which is why I wont have much sympathy for him should he lose his job in the summer.
Others will need to be accountable of course but BR can’t persist playing a non footballing CB in Scales every week and continue to lament our slow build up and inability to play out through a press.
If he doesn’t change that then he will pay a price for that. As others will need to pay a price for their mistakes.
Often wondered by Iwata hasn’t had more minutes. Bernardo isn’t up to it on a consistent basis and I don’t even know what’s happened to Holm.
article from the Herald re cash pile
Something’s wrong at Celtic when bulging bank balance is cause for embarrassment
Celtic chairman Peter Lawwell has received more criticism for the club’s recruitment than current chief executive Michael Nicholson. (Image: PA)
Something’s wrong at Celtic when bulging bank balance is cause for embarrassment
Graeme McGarry
3 hours ago
It is a strange thing when the prospect of a company releasing a healthy financial report has the potential to make their board squirm with embarrassment.
For Celtic though, the revelation to their supporter base over how much they have tucked away in the bank has the same sort of rage-inducing potential as the recent British Gas results did for the general public.
The Celtic AGM back in November of last year seems a long time ago now. As many who were present on the day remarked, the boasting from the board back then over the £72m they had stashed in their bulging biscuit tin might well come back to haunt them. And so it has proved.
Even then, the executives seemed oblivious that crowing about their cash reserves might provoke questions from supporters over why they weren’t seeing more of that money on the pitch on a matchday.
Now, after yet another disastrous transfer window and the ceding of top spot in the Premiership to Rangers at the weekend, they find themselves in the awkward position of trying to find a way to put a positive spin on the fact the club is, er, absolutely minted.
READ MORE: Celtic urged to ban The Green Brigade for ‘End Zionism’ banner
Among the boos and the groans in Celtic Park’s Main Stand on Saturday could be overheard gossip about the potential scale of the Celtic bank balance when the imminent interim financial results drop.
Could it be £90m? Even £100m? Rest assured, those speculating about that accumulation of wealth were not doing so with a mind to pat the Celtic board on the back for their frugality. Rather, it was to highlight the insanity of squirreling so much money away when they were witnessing their side visibly wilt under pressure from Kilmarnock.
And also, the very real prospect that they would effectively hand tens of millions more in revenue across the city by squandering the automatic place in next season’s expanded Champions League.
With the greatest of respect to Anthony Ralston, Liam Scales, Stephen Welsh and Greg Taylor, had you said last summer that would be a Celtic starting backline at any point other than in a friendly – barring an injury crisis – you would have been laughed at.
Well, no one at Celtic is laughing now. Yes, Alistair Johnston and Cameron Carter-Vickers, the most important cog in their defence, were missing. But it is in this area of the team where the failings of Celtic’s signing policy, when it doesn’t pay off, are most starkly laid bare.
When Taylor, himself just back from a spell out, tired towards the end of the Kilmarnock game, it was Alexandro Bernabei who came on, and was ultimately caught out for the late Killie equaliser. A player who cost £3.5m or thereabouts, but who has made little to no impact in his time here so far, and it seems has no future at the club either.
Two other signings drafted in to replace the departed Carl Starfelt last summer in a similar price range, Maik Nawrocki and Gustaf Lagerbielke, are also not trusted to start matches ahead of the likes of Welsh and Scales.
No offence to those lads, who are solid enough citizens to have around the squad, but are either of them really good enough to be starting for Celtic on a weekly basis? Given how frail they looked defensively on Saturday, it would appear not.
Further up the pitch, the policy of stockpiling project players over pushing the boat out for certain starters was on display at almost comic levels in the wide areas.
Daizen Maeda played on the right and did next to nothing, Luis Palma played on the left and was hooked at half time, Yang came on to little effect at the break and Nick Kuhn showed up so poorly when he entered the action you now have pundits questioning if he would get a game for Kilmarnock.
Guess which price bracket most of these guys fell into? Kuhn might go on and do well for Celtic in the long run once he finds his feet, but this team needed players in January who could come in and make an immediate impact in the title race. Quality players, as Brendan Rodgers and captain Callum McGregor both stressed. Finished articles.
Even the presence of the one signing who has come in and looked decent in Adam Idah necessitates a disruption of the one part of Celtic’s team that really seemed to be functioning well, their midfield. With Idah and Kyogo Furuhashi taking turns to drop into the area where Paulo Bernardo – now kicking his heels on the bench – was playing with such promise either side of the winter break, the impressive triumvirate of the Portuguese, Matt O’Riley and McGregor has been dismantled.
O’Riley and McGregor are Celtic’s best available players at present. But even they have looked a little off it in recent weeks. Whether that is down to the unfamiliar make-up of the midfield trio, or in O’Riley’s case, the rejected bid from Atletico Madrid in January, nobody really knows.
READ MORE: Crisis meeting called as Celtic lose their fear factor
All we do know for sure is that Celtic have now self-sabotaged an area of their side that did indeed look a cut above the opposition as they attempt to accommodate Idah’s arrival and breathe new life into Kyogo.
Rodgers must take his fair share of responsibility for all of this, but all of these woes can be traced back to the fact that the recruitment has lacked ambition, and in January, has failed to improve the team.
Privately, Celtic are somewhat bemused by the vitriol being aimed at chairman and former chief executive Peter Lawwell over that, given he now has no part to play in the signing of players. Well, apart from his son being the head of recruitment.
What agency that gives him in that area, only they know, but the perception of that dynasty has already led to the fans making up their minds on who is to blame.
And speaking of unhelpful perceptions, news of £90m or thereabouts sitting in the coffers while fans watch a sprinkling of relatively ordinary players throw away the Premiership title is a doozy.
Even if Celtic do manage to negotiate a path to defend their crown from here, that shouldn’t be looked upon as vindication of their methods. Either way, this season of rancour and ropey recruitment has shown that there should be some soul-searching in the summer over the structure and direction of the club.
ITSABOUTTIM on 21ST FEBRUARY 2024 1:47 PM
I would argue that most Celtic supporters did not want him back and will never forgive him for what he did to us. He will stubbornly continue down the same path he has trodden since our first league match against Ross County. We all know where this is going and I’m sure he does as well…….
MCPHAIL BHOY re: Lisbon, sannies and gutties
Thanks for that! Was going to ask if that was still a thing, cheers.
—————————————-
BIG JIMMY
Better than Pele! Good mhan.
—————————–
TOSB
Gutties in the ‘nauld area.
SFTB
Fancy managing the team for the run in?
The only change I would make is start James Forrest not because he is likely to set the heather on fire but because he is more technically gifted than the other choices and knows what is at stake.
On your other hobby horse (says me with one that is defying the knackers yard) I’ve long admired your attempts at bringing balance to discussions, often at the risk of being labled before the bottle is even opened to find out what is inside.
You must get fed up at times as I do about being misrepresented.
The thing is we all want Celtic to survive and prosper but as long as we tell ourselves (as I do) that we are doing the right thing , that enables us to justify doing the wrong thing.
The thing about being trapped in time is that when reality emerges as it will always do (otherwise it’s not reality) it is very painful and difficult to accept, so we resist it.
Labling individuals and their motives rather than checking the contents of what they say is the first and easiest line if defense.
Reading and absorbing comments requires effort and not many are prepared to make it.
Which leads to – why bother?
Reality will sort it out eventually.
TBB
If sannies are a subset of gutties and gutties are a kind of trainer.
Are gutties a subset of trainers or are trainers a subset of gutties?
Plato and Aristotle used to discuss this down the oul Taverna every Friday Night until Socrates showed them how to play football, even with a 40 a day smoking habit.
Auldheid
Is reality gonna sort out the important issues?
Is it sannies or gutties or 👟 trainers?😀
Settingfreethebears Your team selection for Sundays v Motherwell,in my opinion doesn’t look a winning one ,my selections especially in midfield and on the wings,McGregor,Iwata,Holm,I would also have Vatta in the squad he can play either on the wing or as striker,Nawrocki needs to be playing in defence,mind it’s just my selections.
Timbhoy
I’d honestly have no problem with either Iwata or Holm but, maybe not both as starters. Rocco Vata has been in the last few squads but only got a brief pitch appearance as a squad member.
Making too many changes is an issue too as it disrupts our coached pattern of play.
If we play CCV and he breaks down BR will get criticism.
If we don’t play CCV and lose, BR will get criticism.
The only way he doesn’t is if we win and it is not a fluke result that we won.
SFTB / Chairbhoy
I find it hard to separate 2004/12 from 2012/24 in terms of achievement.
To do so is to denigrate and lessen the trophies garnered in the latter period.
What we did in the former period paced the way for the latter. We rightsized the business by growing topline from commercial / match day and sponsorship plus regular CL performance whilst controlling costs in an environment where we had a glass ceiling we could not realistically burst through. In the 04/12 period we did win 6 of 10 leagues and took 3 of the 4 lost to the last day. We also reached last 16 in Europe twice beating Man U and Milan. We did this against an unsustainable opponent and from a market with very little Tv revenue. It allowed us to go on to win 11 from 12 leagues in the next 12 seasons. We took the medicine and managed the business mindful of the pitfalls we saw our rivals step into.
Anyone who thinks the early 2012/16 years were opportunity missed need only remember a world where we had no competition domestically and an unattractive playing environment. Realistically who would come here who had any real ambition. Realistically what chance a decent run in Europe when you have zero competition domestically. Jist look at our rivals domestically and how they fared in Europe at this time. Of course the board needed to be wise to top line risks also. Match day and sponsorships / commercials held up reasonably but the prognosis was not good.
The period from 2016 until now has been extraordinary. The return of a rangers franchise saw us win 5 trebles and 17 trophies out of 21.
Astonishing by any measure.
AULDHEID on 21ST FEBRUARY 2024 2:03 PM
a house divided cannot stand
======
I can’t remember such a disconnect between the board and the fans since the Jansen resignation.
I see 3 ways out of this mess this season.
1. From nowhere the team finds a run of swashbuckling form and the issues that got us here fade into the background and simmer away until the same mistakes are made again.
2. A resignation from Peter Lawwell, deservedly or otherwise, as the fall guy to placate the support, with an acknowledgement of mistakes made and a commitment to a root and branch review of every department, of every position, from CEO to Manager to scouting to youth development to find the best people for the job. Followed by a humble request for the support to unite behind the team home and away until the end of the season. The manager has to then find 11 men in that dressing room with the stomach for the fight who can will themselves back into contention.
3. The huns throw it away. I don’t watch them so I don’t know if they are riding their luck. But they are very much in the driving seat.
We don’t have time for incremental gains. We need monumental action.
I wish Rod Stewart and some of his tim mates would buy out DD, now that would work for me, not gonna happen though sadly
ABoutatim from earlier, agree mate spot on
KINGLuBO
SFTB / Chairbhoy
Against a rival with the ‘bounce’ of progressing up and a salivating desperate fan base starved of the oxygen of success. A rival who gets every benefit going from officials and media it is quite incredible that Celtic manned up and didn’t just deal with the challenge but smashed it.
Sure the other had a decent European run and got lucky selling a few but with no visibility to their commercials it is hard to see what is happening g there but all I hear is a massive risk in terms of the bets currently placed by them and the dice are being thrown regularly with new patsies sought to keep it going.
5 trebles in 7 years and we are a shambles according to some. Oh dear. 17 trophies out of 21. Wow. Where is that bettered in the world ?
This is not the time for turning up in a pair of sandshoes…
No, as Wallace* used to say nows the time and nows the hour…
For fixed bayonets!
*jocknotwilliamcsc
Trainers for me……
Worth noting that significantly enhanced contracts weee given to supposed key players who had just been part of a treble winning team.
Hatate Kyogo CCV McGregor Maeda Abada and others.
Frustrating none of the above have played to potential this season
MON came to Celtic when the huns already had a £100 million pound squad installed and ready to go.
MON sold Viduka and replaced him with Sutton.
MON also bought Joos, Lenny, Thommo, Didier and won a treble.
MON continued to tool up the next season as well like a real manager would have done.
MON got us to our first European final in 33 years.
MON led the campaign to recruit Brendan.2
MON then said he could never do what Brendan done and go back to Celtic as manager?!?!
Its obvious that B.2 is working to a PLC script….
Throw the league but look oblivious whilst doing so….and he is doing it with aplomb.
Thing is…MON must also have known about this script…surely?
Its written all over Neil Lennon’s face that a script is being played out and mental gymnastics are being utilised to mask all knowledge of this script…he NL would know about scripts after all he NL and Broony played out a PLC script to throw the 10 in a row title under a bus.
To help Rangers oot.
And they all walked away after playing out their scripts…laughing all the way to the bank with their stuffed PLC brown envelopes.
Just ask Derry`s Shane Duffy “The crazy goings on behind the scenes…” Eye 👁️
Of course cheap shot Auldheid will come out with his tin foil hat junk…because he reads the bible but deviates from it when it suits eh?
Its about class.
Working class vs the rich scumbags.
Celtic fans have been usurped by rich scumbags who run Celtic to suit their own needs.
Celtic supporter base used to be known for having a fair number of firebrands, cage rattlers, take no shyte agitators, rebellious upstarts, malcontents……..all of them would be smeared as trolls and not real Celtic fans, tin foil hat looneys etc, etc, by the majority of the present 2024 fan base which sucks the PLC boards arse.
If you 60,000 were real then the PLC would have been sacked for playing their part in fcking up Scottish football in 2012.
A real and well intentioned and honourable PLC board would have insisted that the Rangers fans were not recipients of any EBT scam money and therefore they should not be the ones who are punished for the financial mismanagement of RFC by David Murray and his board.
How would we feel if the PLC mismanaged our finances and spoofed you all with fake balance sheets etc…then Celtic ran out of time and died?
Celtic with working class, street wise, savvy, well tuned in, etc, Mr Stein in charge of Celtic in 2012 would have forced his way into the Rangers issue from a point of view that….
“Celtic fans could be next to suffer the loss of their club if we don’t amend the structures of all Scottish clubs board rooms…NO fans should lose their clubs because of “iffy” directors.”
But….we now have a Celtic were Mr Stein wouldn’t be allowed within 100+ miles of the Celtic dugout.
Just think about that.
We now have Celtic fans who “rightly” condemn the mass genocide of innocent Palestinians by the Zionist controlled Western countries and Israel.
But…on the other hand…these same Celtic fans wanted other Celtic fans who refused to bow and take dodgy vaxxines from Zionist controlled drug companies in US, UK, EU, Ire, etc.
These 2024 Tims wanted to throw out of society and straight into prison…. anybody who stood their ground and refused to comply with these mass genocidal monsters.
Eye they did….👀️
PS Nobody who wears a tinfoil hat dies suddenly from climate change. 👀️
Father Matthew Despard CSC
oot.
AULDHEID
keep the posts coming, sensational stuff. Can you not buy Celtic out, or at least get a seat on the board, and add some sense to these people
Great stuff
KINGLuBO
As I went home on Thursday night as drunk as drunk can be
I saw two sannies beneath the bed where where my old sannies should be
Well, I called me wife and I said to her, “Will you kindly tell to me”
“Who owns them sannies beneath the bed where my old sannies should be?”
You know the rest ☘️
Can we have a sporting realignment like Bayern?
Test
So , UEFA name Celtic as one of the most profitable clubs in Europe.
What satisfaction.
TRAINERS –
As soon as I could afford it, or more precisly my mam and granny provi checks – the Adi Dasler became my choices, tangos to sambas and settling on gazzelles by the early 80s.
I could never afford them as football boots, i got stuck with patricks but to this day my trainers i only wear gazelles, the coloured versions being nice for the holisdays.
i was informed yesterday though by my now 21 year old daughter that now i am “retired” cutting about in gazelles with a variety of boca10 celtic t-shirts just doesnt work anymore, and i need to dress age appropriate as gazzelles are a young persons choice now.
so thats me told.
having said that, i got a pair of all black gazelles which my daughter refers to as my dress shoes.
ha.
AI Data model is coming , as Brighton top league.
Woohoo.
KINGLUBO
That would be Sir Rod Stewart.
Sir Rod Stewart has branded Boris Johnson a “lying f****** public schoolboy” as he threw his weight behind Labour ahead of the upcoming general election.
The rock legend and long-time Tory voter confirmed a change of tune, in which he said Sir Keir Starmer “deserves a crack” at running the country.
Politics Live: Sir Rod Stewart says Labour ‘deserve a crack’ at power
“Keir Starmer and Labour deserve a crack at it,” he told The Times.
“If there was anyone else we could vote for, maybe, but they should be given a shot. I live here (in the UK) now. I didn’t used to and I see what the Conservatives get up to.”
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW THIS ADVERT
The Maggie May hitmaker, 79, said that he used to like former prime minister Boris Johnson because he was “a good figurehead”.
“But he turned out to be a lying f****** public schoolboy. He got found out and things haven’t been much better since,” he continued.
“How many prime ministers have we had that haven’t been voted for? What’s all that about?”
A spokesman for Mr Johnson declined to comment.
Advertisement
Sir Rod first aired his disillusionment with the Tories in January last year when he called in to a live Sky News phone-in and offered to donate money for medical scans after hearing stories from people about treatment ordeals on the NHS.
SAINT STIVS re: Sir Rod Stewart
Cheers for that!
still wouldnt want him as Chairman.
my question the other day was who do people want as chairman, it got few responses.
The president of the Irish Republic, a statesman and sharp of mind we would need clear objectives and goals that dont include hoarding cash though.
CELTIC MAC on 21ST FEBRUARY 2024 3:12 PM
No, as Wallace* used to say nows the time and nows the hour…For fixed bayonets!
*jocknotwilliamcsc
Oh aye didnae take you for a hunterloper haha
AULDHEID on 21ST FEBRUARY 2024 2:24 PM
SFTB
The only change I would make is start James Forrest not because he is likely to set the heather on fire but because he is more technically gifted than the other choices and knows what is at stake.
*around 12 or so year ago we went intae half time 3 down at kilmasonic, as Lenny said after the game at half time he expected tae get his P45, this game had seen us at a very low ebb, allowing a fragmented and unworthy deidco side to take the league and in effect get a potential financial windfall via Champions League qualification to keep them going in what was then a financially hazardous time due to their illegal EBT scheme.
On reflection, this game is now possibly seen as a turning point, and sparked life back into Celtic which heralded a turnaround that won Celtic the league and on a bigger scale, this game can be seen as the beginning of the challenge for what was to become another honest NIAR.
We had quite a decent side out that day including Fraser Foster, big Wanyama, our Welsh duo Adam Matthews and Joe Ledley as well as Davie Ki, but what transpired was 3 players grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck, a young James Forrest, the once dumped Charlie Mulgrew as well as another that turned us down for lowly Sunderland the once derided Anthony Stokes as they knew what it took and what it meant tae the club, so NOT too bad an idea, in fact might be the spark that ignites us.