One of the positions we discussed strengthening during January was that of goalkeeper. Since the return to action after the winter break, Joe Hart has probably contributed to Celtic picking up more points than at any time during his stay here. He made memorable saves against Ross County and Hibs and contributed significantly in other games, including Kilmarnock.
Legend has it that busy keepers perform better than idle ones, as their focus keeps them sharp, so Joe could be enjoying time in the zone. Despite this run of form, Joe has developed a tendency to punch high balls, followed by tens of thousands shouting, “Catch it!” – no undesirable outcome occurred.
Confidence is infections, as is its absence. Defenders lose it when attackers cut through the midfield. Keepers need confidence in their defence to be anywhere near their best. Joe has seen it all and is probably better experienced to deal with our recent issues than a new recruit to the club.
He is also a serial winner who may be on the cusp or retirement. We need big voices in the dressing room to carry us through the coming months. It was maybe fortuitous he remains first choice for now.
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timbhoy, are you happy with the barrowfield progress ?
you will be able to go watch the teams without going to aidrie, someth9ing to look forward to ?
A MAN was cleared today of holding an offensive banner at a Rangers and Aberdeen match.
ggggggg , 35, was alleged to have committed the offence at Ibrox Stadium on October 29, 2022.
The Gers hosted foes Aberdeen in a match that the Glasgow side won 4-1.
Court papers stated Ross conducted himself in a disorderly manner at the match.
It was claimed he displayed a banner which bore an offensive sectarian slogan.
Ross, of Aberdeen, was further stated to have committed breach of the peace.
Ross – who wore a red and white striped tie in the dock – pleaded not guilty.
CCTV shown to the trial Glasgow Sheriff Court displayed that the white and red banner said: “Kill All Huns.”
Sheriff Gerard Considine said: “The banner in itself constitutes breach of the peace by what is written on it.
“The matter is whether or not Mr Ross knew what was written on the banner at the point he took hold of a side of it.
“My viewing of the CCTV does show him in possession of part of the banner with people behind him to his left.
“From my view, the people to his right were already in possession of the banner.
“Nothing from the CCTV shows me that he knew them so I have to consider if I can draw an inference that he knew what was on the banner.
“While I accept he stepped back a row under the banner, he didn’t appear to be holding it or wasn’t shown on CCTV.
“He did gesture to the Rangers fans in that direction after the banner had been taken down.
“He was not responsible for taking down the banner.
“I find a reasonable doubt after Mr Ross’ evidence and I find the charge not guilty.”
Chairbhoy @ 3.15
Sevcophobia I like that and definitely – Mea Culpa – walk a mile in my moccasins
An ‘eye for a player’ has different connotations, I’m sure Brendan does, but more likely ‘his market’ is tapped a lot more than Ange’s. You’ll not see Ange looking for diamonds in the east, he bought in the Tottenham market where he gets his wingers at £45M! a pop
An ‘eye for a player’ Brendan, working in the shadows of Parkhead revealed ‘responsibility’ for Marvin Compper and did I not read that BR has run into troubled waters with ‘his signings’ at Liverpool and Leicester?
Speaking of locally, why did Brendan prefer Idah when Celtic supporters expectations were for at least a Miovski? someone is not telling the truth when you get a non scoring striker instead of one that scores, unless it was it a white flag.
Passed the stadium this morning on the way to the Forge ( as you do ) and the wife ( got to love wives ) said why is the ticket office a Portakabin, and as for puddles, don’t mention puddles.
HH
From reading some comments posted since Joe’s retirement was announced ….
… might be worthwhile clarifying that he is retiring at the end of this season, not tomorrow.
SAINT STIVS
Nice side step by the Judge 👍
Joe has kept us in the game – we are poor at the moment but the league isn’t completely gone by any manner or means
I hope the first team will have first call on the Barrowfield facility if weather conditions make lennoxtown unsuitable at any time.
Otherwise the money would be better spent getting the first team training facilities up to a standard where it can be used in all conditions.
gghs –
can you ever recall celtic first team training being cancelled because of bad weather ?
when its depp snow the biggest challenge is getting up the road to lennoxtown.
‘Say It Aint So Joe’
And so it begins. . . . . .
Last summer there was plenty of chatter around Gaetan Coucke. The KV Mechelen goalkeeper was entering the final year of his contract and teams were trying to take him away from Belgium. One of those sides was Celtic, although a deal between the clubs never materialised. However, with the news that Joe Hart is set to retire, and that Coucke is yet to sign a new deal with Mechelen, is a move in the summer now back on the cards?
https://getfootballnewsbene.com/could-kv-mechelens-goalkeeper-be-celtics-choice-to-replace-retiring-joe-hart/
well played big Joe. Been great for the club and don’t underestimate the power of personality in the dressing room. This timely announcement may be a catalyst to drive the team onto success this season – the players love and respect him that much, to give him a great send off.
Babasonicos
Thanks for the links.
It’s good for me to get my horizons widened. On first listen I am taking more easily to Idles rather than King Gizzard but I’ve only had 10 minutes of each so far.
Keep linking
BSR –
because I am really boring, and with too much time on my hands, i decided to download the Financial comparison report for 2023 from uefa.
being even more boring, their analysis and graphics are quite excellent so i did some of the old Finace Ratios comparisons that i was taught.
Sure Celtic are in rude health on profits, but appear in only one other chart – commercial revenues of 54m
euros placing them 20th. .
Whisper it, but the often heard mantra that Celtic supporters “fund” the plc more than any other revenue stream is beginning to dilute some, the sponsorships, the multi media, the access to CL participation , it is becoming closer to 50%/50%
with one caveat, the lure of merchandising, it is not exclusively bought by people who attend matches, offcourse this is where the global appeal actually comes in.
what did stand out for me on the charts, the rise of SPURS , ARSENAL and WEST HAM,
New stadiums, increased capacities, huge match day spending per person, and in particular for Spurs, diversification of the venue to become truelly multi purpose.
they do now look and behave like american franchises.
one other stand out, brighton, net profits of 130m euros.
we dont need to move to england per se.
what we want to do is move to london, north west quarter, 8 million people within an hours transit.
that was a meander.
and another buyt the buy, the finincial report makes it quite clear, sustainable NON LOSS making finances will be the bedrock of the european model going forward.
An Tearman
At the end of the previous blog I responded to your mistaken beliefs about Res12 which discredits the shareholders who supported it with their hard cash to pay for the legal fees.
I’ll not copy responses here but this link will take readers to my first response
https://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/incremental-gains-required/comment-page-6/#comment-3899977
and my second response further down addresses your misunderstanding/misrepresentation of what Res12 sought.
To set the narrative being peddled (against small shareholders NOT Res12/me but the very folk the CST wish to join up) straight I said I would provide a link to the Res12 Archive with the heading wait for it — CLOSURE of Resolution12.
Here it is and I invite anyone to challenge the narrative set out by yourself and other misinformed responders that Res12 was long grassed by Celtic and so came to nought.
https://res12.uk/part-6-closure-of-resolution-12-to-celtic-agms-2013-to-2022/#:~:text=The%20Meanings%20Applied%20to%20Celtic%20Announcement.&text=The%20manner%20in%20which%20Resolution,revised%20to%20prevent%20a%20repeat.
The offer of reimbursement of legal costs came from MN who came up with the adjournment proposal in 2013 but donating it to The Foundation required the agreement of the shareholders who had funded the legal costs. That process took a bit of time, mainly for scheduling reasons and whilst the funding shareholders were disappointed that football justice had not been delivered BY Celtic, they nevertheless thought that the offer from MN to a suggestion made to him by shareholders was in the spirit of the Celtic way.
If folk with a longer attention span than 10 lines on a mobile want a bit of fun they might want to read the attempts of a hun to discredit Res12 (imagine being in that company) over the years from 2013 then it is at this link as the link in the Closure article is not working.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CMYvhbFGqhVPOXYwOz1c-7MxRkPz62rZ/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=107947982974245186134&rtpof=true&sd=true
Have fun.
I’ll be retiring now having put the false narrative to bed.
i just noticed in the european club finance report highlights press release, one of the backgrounds for the COUNTRY KPIS is Jocks statue holding the big cup with a bluse skied background, superb, i wonder who if anyone influenced that ?
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 22ND FEBRUARY 2024 2:25 PM
The “Joe Hart punches rather than catches” example is as good as any.
The fans at Celtic Park are making the players nervous.
Calum was clearly impacted during the last 20.
As were the back four.
Joe punches the ball – that’s his approach to managing risk formed over two decades of learning.
Get over it.
I’ll repeat – the fans at Celtic Park are making the players nervous.
Whether we are entitled to groan
Whether is it up to the players to calm our fears?
Neither relevant in this current malaise.
The reality is the players need us to encourage them to the hilt.
In a race of tiny margins it could make a huge difference.
Over to us all.
PS – The Green Brigade could do worse than putting their prearranged song schedule in the cupboard for a few months … and going more spontaneous
____
Absolutely. This is the first real title fight, since Rangers were a club. Many of our fans have never experienced this. As much as it’s a shit-show of our own making, we have to hang on in. Somehow win the next three games, would be massive. Huns will start having extra European games soon and as much as I wish we did too, it could benefit us. Make no mistake, if they start to drop points their fans are even worse than us at panicking and getting to the players. Remember back to when Clemente just started, there was plenty ready to get on his back. The ref/var went a long way on helping him in the Hearts game, which they should have drawn rather than win. All we can do now is encourage and drag the team to three points in every game. BTW, when this season is over we need to mobilise (easier to do than in the 90s) and force through some serious changes.
The new facilities at Barrowfield are to be welcomed and I am sure will prove popular with players and fans alike. I certainly will be happy to go to see matches at this venue.
Why we ever went to Airdrie is a mystery. There is hardly a more bitter wee team in the country. There treatment of Danny McGrain was a disgrace and their Chairman’s role in the Sevco debacle should not be forgotten.
I will be glad when the teams cease playing at Airdrie
Saint Stivs @ 4.50
Interesting post.
Goodly news and the Adidas Celtic bedrock sponsorship, remains the most lucrative in the history of Scottish football though it tends to get lost in the sea of Celtic cynicism.
London voted to stay in Europe, they’re fairly taking it out on the Brexiteers, by displaying their financial muscle.
Testing
Yet another Celtic player hounded out of the club by internet bampots.
St Sivs
As you say with the snow.
However I have heard comments over the years that there was an issue about the indoor pitch not being big enough when they didn’t want to train outside for whatever reason.
I’m assuming (maybe wrongly) that Barrowfield will have a full sized indoor pitch. It would make sense that the first team had first dibs on the Barrowfield facility if the manager and coaches wanted to use it.
HH
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on ages ago….
The EU sounds like the place to be eh?
All of your taxes being used to genocide 30,000 women and children….so far.
https://x.com/ClareDalyMEP/status/1760692993806463125?s=20
oot.
ST Stives Hopefully I will go to Barrowfield when it’s completed see the B Team and the Girls team to ,surely facilities for tea coffee will be made available,as for Lennoxtown I read that a new indoor pitch was being built
The one major thing missing in this team is real CONFIDENCE, that’s all.
It would also help if the team played with all guns firing, something we wont see with Brendans way of playing
Nuff said
kinglubo
Betis …. .. ooot.
Guys,
FYI, there are still tickets available for next Wednesday’s game against Dundee.
So, if you want to go then you can go.
HH.
●Answers start with letter’s C-E-L-T-I-C● Pass away 5 minutes●
1)Scorer of first goal by a Celtic player in European competition?..C
2)Scored in 90/ 91 Scottish League Cup Final?………………………………..E.
3)Replaced Valgaeren in 2003 UEFA c up Final ?………………………………L
4)70 games for Celtic 1995/98?………………………………………………………..T
5)Debut vs Hibs,career halted due to injury against Alloa Athletic…I
6) Part of the ‘quality street gang’,died February 2022?………………….C
No fannying about the back in the Roma/Feynoord game
6 David Cattenach
5 Ideguchi
4. Andy Thom
1. John Colraine
2 Paul Elliott
3Ulrich Laurssen?
With apologies to David Cattenach if I have got that wrong
Gary,,,,,5/6
Not John Colrain.
Bobby Carroll ?
1. Bobby Carrol
Yes Bobby Carroll.
Gary.,and CELT 55.
Bobby came to Ireland,signed for Coleraine never played a game.
Thanks again BhoyJoe.
I enjoy the wee quizzes.
If there’s a waiting list for season tickets,then why is there tickets available for the Dundee game next Wednesday.
I see Qarabag went through in the Europa. Would be a nice long trip to Baku, for the huns (if they got them).