Erik Sviatchenko made an instant impact on Celtic’s defensive performances when he arrived in January 2016, six months after the departure of Virgil van Dijk and Jason Denayer. He was our top central defender for the remainder of Ronny Deila’s tenure and for the first six months of Brendan Rodgers’ time.
Then came a game at Ibrox on Hogmanay 2016. Celtic were rattled for much of the opening period and Erik looked most out of sorts. His assured touch was replaced by a need to get rid of the ball early. Fortunately things turned out well that day but I wondered if the manager’s faith in the defender was shaken. Some of us doubted his temperament.
The season just ended started badly for Erik as he picked up an injury early in the Champions League qualification rounds. A loan for former club, Midtjylland, confirmed where he was in Brendan’s plans.
Midtjylland returned most of the money we paid for him and the player is in an environment, and at a level, which suits him. It takes a lot to be a Celtic player, more than just ability or experience elsewhere.
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Tony Rome- agree, i have been critical for saying heehaw on numerous matters, keep a wee note of their deluded statemens, powder dry for now HH
DELIASMITH on 29TH MAY 2018 7:39 PM
All fair points but we both have different tipping points I guess.
Blog sites are a treadmill – once you start you are obliged to keeop it running otherwise there can be a tendency for it to run out of steam. Paul’s model here is – in my opinion – about as good as you’ll get.
Paul can leave an article up for 2 days as he does now & again, and the blog trundles on it’s merry way.
For me JJ’s blog articles were/all all negative unless he talks about the success of his site.
I’m sure he’s a survivor but I’m less an admirer of his literacy – due to some of the other issues you raised.
HH
We have all read the statement from Sevco and laughed at the sheer ludicrously of it. It is mind boggling. The words themselves are meaningless in the grand scheme of things when you exclude the target audience, the dumbest supporters in world football, and Comedy Dave knows this. So the real question is what is going on in the background which has prompted these two recent attacks on the Governing bodies? Clearly Dave is trying to set the Agenda, trying to drum it into the minds of thems that the SFA/SPFL are Celtic leaning and have it in for them. Bearing in mind this is barrel scraping stuff, you have to wonder if bad, even very bad news is imminent.
DD, hello, hope you are well.
I was once friends with a guy with the surname Laughlan. He told me his grandfather came over from the North and decided to change his name from McLaughlan because it sounded too Catholic. How sad is that? My friend on the other hand, and his wife, were beautiful people.
Just sitting here thinking
First game next season against Sevco will be at Celtic Park
Hopefully we give their fans, same ticket allocation as we give other SPFL teams
Unfortunately media now have a stick to beat us with though
First team to cut the Sevco allocation
Oh wait
Hibs ?
JIMMYNOTPAUL on 29TH MAY 2018 7:13 PM
The loss was/is hard to bear, but the suddenness & unexpectedness…jeez…
I was lucky enough to have called Franny at his brother’s house in North Wales 10 days or so beforehand.
When I realized where he was and that his brother was with him, I told him I would leave him to spoend time with his brother & ended the call.
10 minutes later he called me back and we blethered for an hour about all the usual stuff.
I miss him still.
HH
He made me feel special
Norriem: re your IPad
I had the same problem with this site over a year ago and no longer access this site on it.
However, I’m having the same problem now with some other sites so either the IPad has some form of virus or it’s just too old (5yo), imo.
MCPHAIL BHOY ~ Delaneys
Hope you don’t mind me butting in…..
Years back when I was in Ireland I heard a radio prog on RTE I think about Irish folks who were living in Argentina, in the sticks, anyways, they had been there for yonks, some were third and fourth generations and going by their accents you could tell where their familys came from, Meath, Roscommon, Sligo etc, none of them had ever been to the big city let alone left Argentina, it was facinating so it was.
HH
Young Neil Young
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJBq1lq4Sb0&list=RDmJBq1lq4Sb0&start_radio=1
JTT53
My surname should be Karpowicz. My Polish grandad changed his name for the sake of his children’s chances of surviving in post war Scotland. He fought for Britain against the nazis and experienced anti Polish racism in Glasgow post war. Very sad.
The Exiled Tim, one of Argentina’s centre backs at the 1986 world cup had the surname Brown.
I watched the final in Heraghty’s . The commentator mentioned Brown’s grandfather was Irish. We all wanted an Argentina win even more after that announcement .
Almore,
Very unlikely to be a virus on your iPad.
Not really familiar with the OS that Apple use, but it is some kind of closed system. Sure someone with more technical knowledge will come along and explain it all in layman’s terms so eejits like you and me can understand. ?
The iPad i use is at least as old as yours, and if operated with Jabascript disabled, I have no problems whatsoever accessing CQN.
A quick scan of my utterings before I hit post revealed a very apt typo, so I’m going to leave it there ?
TET
I love you butting in K. Accents are magic. I have a cousin in Leeds who was born there, but speaks with a Glesca accent like his mum and dad. Stephen is also a bigger Celtic fan than Leeds United fan.
HH
DD, my mother was from Carfin. A lovely wee woman used to call in my grannie’s house that we all affectionately knew as Nellie the Pole. Her name was Smith. I think many were encouraged to change their names by officials. Changed days thank God.
Dallas
I remember him, Jose Brown, no a bad player either, I knew he was from Irish stock.
HH
The first Scottish team to wear the green, first to cut the huns tickets.
Are we a global club, or are we no more than a parochial brand, playing tit for tat games to make the huns important?
Tickets cut!
Player signing announcement delayed to clash with a hun announcement!
And on……
Folk worrying that John McGinn might not be good enough for Europe.
Well, if JMcG is pish in Europe, he’ll fit right in to Brendan’s team, right?
…….Oot.
Zzzzzzzzzz
Delaney’s, Billy Smith was a real character and was a great pal of Arthur Haggerty of Wullie Molloy fame.
I ‘m sure Billy ‘s other footballing nephew was Austin McCann who scored Hearts winner against us in 2003 which played a huge part in us not winning the league that season but not as much as the Huns’ EBT scam.
Delaneys
That’s amazing, weans normally speak like their school mates, fair play to Stephen, got his priorities right :-)
HH
Dallas
My grandad from Sligo was Thomas Delaney. His namesake the Danish/American player, intrigues me. My grandad left Sligo for New York, before sailing to Glasgow and settling. Makes me wonder. Hahaha
DD
Re popular Donegal names ,yesterday I spoke to three John O’Donnells the youngest one was a nephew of the other two, but the older two were not directly related. I also have an uncle and three cousins of that name and a cousin Sean O’Donnell as well. I would like to see John McGinn at Celtic Park as I think the effort he puts in every game is something that will help and motivate those around him.HH
Both banned by the BBC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqrAPOZxgzU&start_radio=1&list=RDyqrAPOZxgzU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KQ6Wmbi5ig&start_radio=1&list=RD8KQ6Wmbi5ig
DD, if you don’t mind me asking, what does Karpowicz mean? Like a lot of surnames, does it relate to a place or a trade?
https://twitter.com/19jhodgkiss/status/1001547889645162498?s=08
MD scoring tonight…..some guys a few months back would have taken £5mil for him……
Bateen Bhoy: that’s interesting. Will investigate further so.
There are lots of Irish descendents in Argentina. There is even a strong Welsh speaking community in the Patagonia region.
Delaney’s, it would be interesting to find out Thomas Delaney’s background and how he ended up being a Danish interational. He plays for Werder Bremen now in their lovely green strip.
Your pride in your roots is fantastic.
ALMORE
Great read. In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin
Dallas
https://youtu.be/zHDH6yRr3L0
JTT53
The name is a Polish Jewish name. I believe my family converted to Catholicism. Karp is fish I think. Family were Gdansk by Baltic Sea.
Charlie Mulgrew making it public he as gone vegan to prolong his career .
I assume the is not the norm for professional players to follow such a diet.
Thomas Joseph Delaney
His great grandfather emigrated from Ireland to America (famine ?)
His grandfather was born in America. Ended up in Denmark (U S army?)
Delaneys father born in Denmark
Thomas Joseph Delaney born in Denmark. He didn’t even know he had an Irish name until he played a game Dublin and was questioned by Irish journalists. He always presumed it was an American name.
SOUKOUS on 29TH MAY 2018 10:33 PM
ALMORE
Great read. In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin
———————————————————————-
In Patagonia is a great book. Made me want to pack my bags and get the first train from Coatbridge Sunnyside to Argentina…
Another great (though literature) – Labyrinths by Borges – magic realism/mentalism – will be confirmed by Davidopoulos of this parish…
DD
so, by my count, this makes you a jewish, catholic, polish, scottish, rastafarian ….
as we say, Celtic – a club open to all…. just didn’t think we’d find all in one fan!
:)
It’s good fun to laugh at the Hun but I find recent developments in Scotland pretty sinister.
We are now seeing media stories which are essentially saying anyone with any link to Celtic should not be employed by the sfa of SPFL? It’s not just the daily record either.bbc faithfully reported as well.
At its least this is lining up to intimidate the sfa and SPFL. At its worst it’s the begiinnning of the Hun dictating Scottish football again.
Papajoe
I have watched John McGinn playing with my nephew since they were about 10. John and Christopher always stood out a mile from their peers. Both have beautiful left feet. Christopher is more two footed like Lewis Morgan. His Godfather would say that. ?
Soukous/Natknow: Cheers. Will check that out. Having studied Welsh in college Argentina, and Patagonia in particular, have always been on my bucket list.
Oíche mhaith.
MIT
I have a mind open to everything. I need to learn to separate the wheat from the chaff.
YNWA
Neganon- there is a new sheriff in town, and the huns reverting to desperation, aided by the Laptop Loyal.BBC Scotland needs cleaned out asap.
MIKE IN TORONTO @ 8:34 & 8:41 PM,
1. for administrative decisions, you leave yourself open to challenge not just in cases of actual bias, but if there is a reasonable apprehension of bias (which is much broader). Why even risk it? It is not like he seems to have a wealth of experience in football …
Well a couple of things here, firstly the perception of conflict of interest. This happens in many walks of life and often happens to successful people with fingers in many pies. That’s why there are processes in place to deal with it.
It is why say an MP who is a Director of a Power Company, if invited to sit on an energy committee in the House of Commons MUST declare an interest. It doesn’t bar her from taking up the post but it allows any potential conflict of interest to be looked at and the situation noted and ensures as far a practically possible all is above board.
As for his experience in Football (I get your busy doing real stuff:) I covered this in my post. MMcL took up his post as SPFL Chairman, before he took up his role as NED in INM. While his Football knowledge/credentials could be questioned he was no doubt brought in for other (lacking in the SPFL) skill sets.
His Media connections and knowledge are a huge boost to Scottish Football whose performance in this important market has been nothing short of pitiful.
His Executive Management Experience likewise, I would suggest you get a list of Scottish Football Execs over the last two decades, their experience and performance in this regard has been nothing short of woeful.
Hopefully the SPFL has a wealth of experience in Football, but where MMcL wealth of experience comes from is in the areas Scottish Football is sadly lacking. And can I reiterate, he was SPFL Chairman before he took up his media role in Ireland.
2. The sense i am getting is ‘hey … they did it to us, so why cant we do it to them/tehy had their people, why cant we have ours?’ … understandable, but, if the purpose is really to clean up the game, not the way forward ….
I’m not at all sure where this comes from. My sense is that the Scottish Football Governing bodies has been awash with placemen and Blazers for the boys… in fact it has been infamous for it for… well… ever…
Not only has this disenfranchised many a Clubs, supporters and other stakeholders, including the Celtic family (with the exception of The Token Tim) it has also lead to huge partiality and incompetence in the Managing and Officiating in Scottish Football.
This has to change, it’s the 21st Century and Scottish Football is in the 19th. Great for tradition, less so for efficiency and achievement.
It is my opinion that far from replacing Rangers placemen and sympathetic Blazers with the Celtic equivalent, it’s about getting quality impartial people on Board that can do a job that has been sadly lacking. If you can point me to something different please do but I’d be very, very surprised if you could.
I would certainly not be persuaded by anti Celtic propaganda in the SMSM… a small example of how they tried to blacken MacLennan by insinuation…
“Record Sport can reveal MacLennan has been appointed as non-executive chairman of Dublin based Independent News and Media PLC – an Irish media giant which is part owned by Desmond and his long-term associate Denis O’Brien.
News of his role at INM comes just days after Rangers chairman Dave King demanded a top-level SFA probe and the immediate suspension of director Gary Hughes…
Now this was in today’s Rag… 29-May-2018
It was supposed to give the impression of the intrepid Record Reporter uncovering shady goings on by the UFH.
This is how it was reported by RTE some three months earlier… 07-March-2018
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2018/0307/945720-inm-announce-murdoch-maclennan-as-new-chairman/
Now you know that this information was in the public domain and well known but you give the impression of supporting the first part of DCK’s paragraph…
It is equally important that any conflicts of interest, or even the perception of such, whereby positions within the Scottish football authorities could be undermined, or abused, must be aggressively rooted out of our game.
The SPFL, therefore, must immediately suspend its Chairman…”
Yet there WAS fully disclosured in accordance to what is right and proper and by you giving credence to the first part of the paragraph it also gives credence to the adjoining idiotic rant…
aggressively rooted out… suspension…
What absolute nonsense.
MiT, you have often called for the Celtic Board to stand up and not be cowed by the Rangers underhand manoeuvres, intimidation and corruption…
But surely if Desmond Dermot &/or Denis O’Brien vetoed Mr MacLennan’s appointment as a NED in the media Company, a role that he seems very well qualified to perform because of how it would look to the Ibroxians, this is exactly what they’d be doing…
To me, they don’t seem to be those sort of gentlemen.
Hail Hail