Auchinleck Talbot are a sixth-tier club, so I didn’t want to mention this after Sunday’s game, but the passing at Kilmarnock was so much crisper than I have seen from Celtic this season. The observation was discarded as I assumed it was because the opposition were unable to press Celtic players out of their comfort zone.
We started the same way last night. The minutes before the opening goal were characterised by pass-and-move routines from Celtic that we scarcely saw throughout 2025. Bologna pressed but the man in possession was always comfortable and had options. That panicked feeling when we were pressed that the ball would inevitably go all the way back to Kasper Schmeichel, then possession would be lost, never materialised.
The calamitous opening goal Bologna conceded resulted in Celtic pressing an Italian home side out of their comfort zone. Cheaply given but thoroughly appreciated.
Racial stereotypes are best avoided, but is it safe to say Japanese players are just too honourable? A minute after Reo Hatate’s opener, Daizen Maeda was clean through 40 yards out when he was bundled from behind. Daizen is made of sturdy stuff, so was able to continue; if it was me, I’d have collapsed like a proverbial sack of potatoes. Had Daizen fallen, a red card would have followed.
Daizen stayed on his feet, Yang latched onto his pass and came close to adding a second goal with a shot the keeper only just got a hand to. A goalscoring chance was not denied, so the referee was unable to act.
Small incidents can change the flow of football games. On receiving a ball out of defence, Reo Hatate tried to hold the ball in, but it ran through him, allowing Bologna to open an attack and put Celtic under sustained pressure for the first time. The same thing happened 10 minutes later, when Reo was bundled to the ground, again Bologna were able to press Celtic for several minutes.
The two yellow cards Reo received soon thereafter were inexplicable for an experienced player. They should be a learning experience for the whole squad.
With Bologna still trying to figure out how to react to their one man advantage, Daizen forced a corner from a long ball into the right channel. Kieran Tierney has been written off by a few of us. His return has not delivered the same form he last enjoyed in green and white. Perhaps another appraisal is due.
A decision at Lennoxtown to have Kieran take corners from the Celtic right proved inspired. KT’s delivery was excellent and Arne Engels proved he can get on the end of deliveries. Auston Trusty was dominant throughout the game but no more so five minutes from the break, when he knocked this set-piece over the line.
The second half is so difficult to assess from a tactical point of view. Celtic had a two goal lead to defend, away in Italy, with 10 men, so doing so as deeply as they did was understandable. Martin pulled the full backs inside, Out of possession, Daizen dropped into the traditional left back spot.
There was a six-man back line with Yang, Engels and McGregor 10-15 yards in front. The relentless series of crosses and passing in front of the Celtic box inevitably led to a goal. Whatever the plan was at halftime, an early change in shape may have been more effective.
I have seen chat that Kasper Schmeichel could have done better at each Bologna goal, but I disagree. The first was from point-blank range and he was unsighted at the second. More than that, he pulled off saves I have yet to see from Viljami Sinisalo. The big Dane still has a part to play.
The match stats tell one story: Bologna 36 attempts, Celtic 8. Not all attempts are equal, though. All of Celtic’s were from inside the penalty box and four of those were inside the six-yard box. Bologna were hitting shots from 30 yards. Their two goals only slightly under-delivered on an expected goals of 2.46.
The prospect of playing 18 minutes plus added time after the equaliser was daunting, but Bologna had fired their bolt. Celtic’s defenders dominated the game from that moment on.
I don’t want to touch on a negative after such a good performance, but Colby Donovan, Anthony Ralston, Liam Scales, Auston Trusty and Kieran Tiernay have all looked poor this season. Each betrayed by a system which left them exposed. See what happens when a management team who can structure a midfield and defence are in charge? They were all excellent, Liam and Auston in particular. Even the recently maligned Anthony, who was calm personified in possession. Honda Civics they are not. It’s all about the system.
This remains Celtic’s worst season in five, but the club which wins more games and trophies than any other in world football is edging back on track. That will confound those who spend their emotional energy trying to convince friends, readers and media colleagues that Celtic are a badly run football club. God help them if the result on Sunday goes against their world view. It’s so much easier just to complain than to self-reflect.
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The pro board faction no matter what, are certainly having a go at the critics of the same board, very noticeable from the usual suspects to silence any criticism.
I have no issue with MN personally, I’ve never met the guy so how would I know. What I do know is that is is no better a Celtic supporter than me or the thousands of STH and others who support the team and frankly I find the suggested that he is a little insulting.
What he absolutely is not however is very good at his job and most certainly vastly overpaid. It is difficult to see how any commentary on the last 12 months at Celtic could come to any other conclusion. Don’t condone the language however if you are in his position with the shit show of an organisation around you and you are the CEO and you think it’s the best use of your time to take family and friends on a fully funded jolly up it again shows a huge lack of judgement which he is becoming famous for.
I’ve no idea who the bloke was that spoke to him and sang the songs and no idea if he is part of a group or organisation and neither does anyone commenting on here so let’s not pigeon hole him and talk down other groups.
The people that give the most are the ones with least to give and that applies to most football supporters. If average Joe Celtic supporter who literally gives heart and soul to Celtic bumps into MN and he feels, with good reason and hard evidence all around, that he is doing a shit job and is no worth his enormous salary and seems to have zero accountability for the position his team is in what do you expect is gonna happen? Not only should MN have been in his office negotiating with players, agents, clubs for badly needed players but no off to Bologna he goes on a private plane no doubt with 5 star hotel no doubt once again failing to read the room and prioritise what is import to Celtic and its real supporters. Sorry MN and sensitive ones in the group but you cannot expect perfect behaviour from those you continue to let down and who you continually ignore. Happy to take the salary and all the freebies but not the stick when you make an absolute arse of it – that sounds about right.
Our need is great and we go into Sunday with one new player, on loan, who may or may not be any good. Everyone agrees that we need 3/4/5 guaranteed starters, most likely loans, but quality straight into starting eleven types in key positions where we are light and in game changing positions – we have one and we don’t know how he will work out. How do you explain this, how is it possible that when we know the prize, we know the timelines, we have the finance, how is it that we can have all the required info but we still cannot manage to do it? Is it deliberate, cause it’s beginning to look that way? Is it middle finger to the great unwashed because they have a bit too much to say cause it’s beginning to look a bit like that or is it because the exec is completely incompetent cause it most certainly looks like that.
CELTIC MAC on 24TH JANUARY 2026 8:52 AM
moisey17
Whatever next?
A Celtic supporting CEO of Celtic Football Club supporting Celtic Football Club in Bologna…..
Dearie dearie me
——————————-
And that is the priority ATM is it? Go have a jolly up with your wife, at the club’s expense obviously, or get on top of your job at one of the most critical times of the year? Tell how would his presence in Bologna affect the team or the club? Please enlighten us?
Having said that he has little effect in anything he does really…..
Moisey
Celtic have brought in two players in this window and both are likely to play vs Hearts.
I know that we are all trying to put the Nancy debacle out of our minds, but we did bring in a much needed right back on loan.
Saturday 24th January and not signed any first team ready fit and ready to go replacements absolutely unacceptable and don’t be fooled by those trying to defend it.
I would think that the longer term prognosis on Jota, Iheanacho and Engels will determine transfer business in the coming week.
Top priority – a right sided attacker. I suspect that Celtic may prefer a loan but might buy to fullfill. I would be surprised and disappointed if we did nothing.
Second priority – a defensive midfielder who can win and use the ball. Becomes a necessity if Engels is sold in this window.
Third priority – another striker. Not likely to happen in my opinion unless Iheanacho is crocked for the rest of the season.
If we cannot recruit adequate replacements for our first team what chance have we of recruiting a manager for next season.
This will be Reo and Daizen Kasper’s final few months and thr side also needs to upgrade the defence & frontline.
Cannot believe we are in this position on the eve of the biggest game of the season.
The summer will be to be late if we lose tomorrow.
Financial ramifications will also enhance the sqaud downsizing.
70 odd million in the bank and regression and lack of ambition os deeply saddening.
Sack The Board…
They have NO SHAME…
They are all JOSEF FRITZELS puppets dancing to his tune for a wage they wouldn’t earn elsewhere and have been shown up in matter of months by the Sevco and the diets who in this window as soon as they smelt a chance signed full time ready to go players it is not difficult.
Moisey17 9.24
And that is the priority ATM is it? Go have a jolly up with your wife, at the club’s expense obviously, or get on top of your job at one of the most critical times of the year? Tell how would his presence in Bologna affect the team or the club? Please enlighten us?
Having said that he has little effect in anything he does really.
=======≈=====≈=========≈===========
Moisey it has been commonplace that Celtic board members represent the club at board level.
It has been done since Celtic played in Europe.
Especially meeting representatives of a club we have not played so far in any official tie.of course he does not have any impact on the team,but he does represent Celtic at board level.
HH
moisey17@9.24
“Having said that he has little effect in anything he does really”
Apart from the effect his going to Bologna to support Celtic FC has had on you that is….
The Michael Nicholson “I was only following orders” CSC………
tim malone will tell@9.23
Not counting bring back Stephen Welsh from Motherwell.
Think I’m alone on here thinking that Welsh has the makings of a half decent defensive midfielder playing in front of two centre backs. Doubt that is the rational for bringing him back but could be an option…
Anyways that makes three additional players to date…..
Good article by host—- BUT !
Last paragraph with the usual agenda no surprise.
We are a badly run football club from:
– Desmonds interference
– Subservient Board with most well by sell by date
– CEO – joke
– No ambition , strategy,
– hoarding cash for no apparent reason
– lack of player trading and planning. Maeda..
– shambolic recruitment
– incestous appointments from top to bottom (Mark Lawwell & the Mute)
– treating fans as the enemy. Collusion ensuring young fans run risk of criminal records
– stadium needs upgraded — hearts did it — Mute gives up before the conversation
– CBC long game to save a few shekels. Lack of the moral courage to do the right thing and take the financial hit. ( we acted like the Ibrox based clubs who never face up to their wrongdoings ).
Celtic to go from where we were, to this season is never about one individual as the merry gang on here convince themselves and the hard of thinking crew nod vehemently.
It is systemic failure of our club coupled with professional leaders at our rivals getting to grips with their clubs. They will improve beyond recognition in the seasons to come. Even now Sevco have a consultant football director who has been pulling the strings for them in transfer window. They will continue to build the structure and commercial outcomes. Sevco will look at Leeds Adidas deal and play the game…
We are dependent on MON to salvage the season and if we can get the players ; fans in (united) in we have every chance.
At this moment we are still dependent on one man (MON) as the system and structure is not there. We should be planning and executing now to build this structure systemically so we are ready for next season.
This will not happen for 2 reasons. Board and Execs don’t know what good looks like and have neither the appetite nor capability to effect the change. Secondly we have Desmond calling the shots; he doesn’t tend to run companies he is a strategic financier and leaves running the companies to the others and so he is not the right guy to set Celtic up for success. Unfortunately he is the fountain of all knowledge at Celtic and the structural failure ultimately sits with him. He will never look in the mirror.
We are at a pivotal moment for this season and more importantly seasons to come. There is every chance MON pulls off this season and we rest on our laurels and lose the long game (default position for our self preservation society with their snouts in the trough).
You can’t defend the indefensible.
onenightinlisbon on 24th January 2026 10:32 am
The Michael Nicholson “I was only following orders” CSC.
===================
Come on ONIL,Do you think that was alright behaviour?
You do or dont
Would you like me to do that to you if you were out and about with your good lady? What would you do?
Its feral and confirms what the board say bout toxic intimidation.
How we laughed at the hun,not laughing now are we.
Nothing more “oldfirm” that competing with them for toxicity.
HH
I made the point on here, before we went to Italy, that the starting eleven against Feyonoord were all fit and available to play against Bologna. (Plus Nygren, Tounetki, Murray & Ralston who all played a part in that victory). Inference being that maybe we could get some kind of a result with the same players, plus Kenny & Bernardo, Kellechi even. As it turned out Tounetki was the only change at the start of the game. Only mistake I made was actually thinking about and looking forward to the game itself, something many on here could not even bring themselves to do. They had other, different priorities. Tant Pis
An Tearmann on 24th January 2026 10:52 am
Absolutely not acceptable behaviour I agree and I do not condone it.
I also do not condone being a subservient lickspittle incapable of doing the decent thing.
But no, two wrongs etc….
Lucky Cody
– CBC long game to save a few shekels. Lack of the moral courage to do the right thing and take the financial hit. ( we acted like the Ibrox based clubs who never face up to their wrongdoings ).
====================================
You havent a clue,not even a hint of a clue.
You are so wrong that you are beyond hun comparison.
Is your dissent of board so shallow you weaponize something you have no clue of,looks like that.
Keep flailing
HH
One need always be wary of those whose convictions sway with the prevailing wind.
Indeed…
The prevailing wind coming from the Celtic boardroom stinks….
Happy St. Francis de Sales day! Ave Ave
Petition:
One Celtic. Back our Board, our Players, and Martin O’Neill.
https://c.org/Z2h9XxwJyx
ONIL
Absolutely not acceptable behaviour I agree and I do not condone it.
ONIL- that was enough.
I also do not condone being a subservient lickspittle incapable of doing the decent thing.
ONIL- Ah so you do condone it
But no, two wrongs etc….
ONIL- so you qualify by saying personal intimidation is ok due to the guys job.looks that way.2 wrongs etc nah come on man we are better than that.
HH
An Tearmann on 24th January 2026 11:12 am
Not at all.
Nicholson is a huge reason why Celtic are in the state we are in at present. He takes the big salary and says nothing. Remains silent at one of the most challenging times. His position is absolutely a legitimate target for discussion and debate amongst supporters. I am allowed to say I think he’s a subservient lickspittle am I not?
I am also allowed to express an opinion about the oligarch and his son who deny Celtic supporters of a say in how their club is run, surely?
Or maybe we should do as we were told by Lawwell at the AGM and just “behave”…..
An Tearmann,
I could post more on this sad topic but did not.
I will not point score on it and respect your claim.
I have hard facts and leave it that.
theoriginalsdiesbhoy@2.53
Apart from the fact that Jimmy Bell has been dead for nearly four years….
Maybe you were one of those “fantastic” those “great” supporters singing about that very fact?
Funny that his name should come so easily to mind….
Not good
Apart from that keep up the good work
………………
There you go with your slurs on fellow Celtic supporters again. I’m almost 75 and would never sing such songs. I know very well that he’s dead. He does spring easily to mind. To many Celtic supporters he represented everything that was bad about Rangers. Turning his back during the minutes silence for Jinky, refusing to lay out Judas’s kit because he was one of ‘them’, throwing Amoriso’s flip flops in the bin because they were green. He was a small minded bigot. Even if you choose not to, others will agree with my analogy. You’re trying to find fault with my post because I have called you out for constantly attacking fellow fans on here.
Your whole MO is to lump all the things that you don’t like together: well founded criticism of your beloved Board, criticism of individual players (which everyone does from time to time to time), anxieties during game time about performance and fears that we’ll lose the game and then accuse posters that they are guilty of ALL of these, ALL of the time.
You try to demonise your fellow Celtic fans. Shameful.
ONIL
Nicholson is a huge reason why Celtic are in the state we are in at present.But it is ok to intimidate him
He takes the big salary and says nothing.-that makes it ok to intimidate him-
Remains silent at one of the most challenging times-and that means its ok to intimidate him.
His position is absolutely a legitimate target for discussion and debate amongst supporters- i agree,intimidation has no place at Celtic.
I am allowed to say I think he’s a subservient lickspittle am I not?- of course you are,you are rational however your description of MN can lead to lesser minds stepping it up thus confirmation of intimidation allegations on social media for the globe to see.You may want rid of MN but do you not think these clips will be flying around headhunters offices? This is your environ.
I am also allowed to express an opinion about the oligarch and his son who deny Celtic supporters of a say in how their club is run, surely?
Your right to free speech is not encroached ONIL,
Say and pursue your change,use the brain,not what went on the other night,that was poor
HH
Or maybe we should do as we were told by Lawwell at the AGM and just “behave”…..
PARKHEADCUMSALFORD on 23RD JANUARY 2026 3:11 PM
TOSB,
You may well have a point about criticising those who come on to voice their opinion on how Celtic are run but most of them also attack (sometimes viciously) those who don’t share their opinion, particularly Paul67. Some do it morning noon and night.
By the way, SS, I still think that much of the time last season and early this season, the football was boring. The odd game might not have been but in general it was, imo.
……………….
You’ve got to be joking. Burnley 78, the Blogger formerly known as GM and Celtic Mac constantly attack posters on here for having the temerity to express their dissatisfaction with the Board that appointed Paul Tisdale, mucked up the summer transfer window, allowed a shareholder to use the official Celtic website to verbally abuse our former manager, allowed his son to verbally abuse fellow shareholders and Celtic fans at the AGM which they orchestrated and sabotaged, appointed Wilfried Nancy before three of the most important games of the season. The same man lost 12 points in 33 days and may well have cost us the League title.
How dare those fans look at this evidence and criticise our ‘world class’ Board. How dare they criticise Paul for constantly undermining Brendan Rodgers when he was in the job. He’s our second most successful manager in modern times.
Show me a man whose convictions are firm, not fashionable, and I’ll show you someone you can actually rely on.
The world is full of blustering spoofers.
An Tearmann on 24th January 2026 11:41 am
Unfortunately guys like Desmond see themselves as untouchable and unaccountable. This has to change for the good of Celtic.
Lucky Cody
Thanks.
HH
Anyone going to the scotch whisky festival today at SWG3 today swing by Sip Seekers and have a dram if you fancy. Some great bottles to try.
Every region and plenty variety. And good football chat.
https://youtu.be/pk43mUxHPkU?si=DjTmYl2RVdLXlnH4
Kelly Given on ACSOM
https://x.com/i/status/2015003194254905437
EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT. . . . . .
Asshole Attempts Redemption,
Hmmm……..I “attack posters”, do I?
If that means calling out lies, hypocrisy and abuse then I’m guilty as charged.
As I’ve said before, you and yer mates are fine using this forum to abuse the host, other people and Celtic employees, but the minute someone calls it out they get accused of “attacking” or “going after” the culprits.
Clearly you lot don’t do irony.
Out on the piss in Bologna days out from a crucial league game with a manager begging for reinforcements is not a good look.
Michael’s Friday should have seen him close out a new addition for Sunday instead of nursing a hangover.
THE BLOGGER FORMERLY KNOWN AS GM on 24TH JANUARY 2026 12:30 PM
Hmmm……..I “attack posters”, do I?
If that means calling out lies, hypocrisy and abuse then I’m guilty as charged.
As I’ve said before, you and yer mates are fine using this forum to abuse the host, other people and Celtic employees, but the minute someone calls it out they get accused of “attacking” or “going after” the culprits.
Clearly you lot don’t do irony.
…………………………….
Clearly your lot don’t do irony. At least I have the courage to address the person I’m criticising. Calls what out? Could it be incompetence? Could it be lack of ambition? Could it be their attitude towards the Celtic supporters?
You and your fellow travellers overlook all these things in your obsequious, sycophantic devotion to the Board. You should form your own group and hold your AGM in the nearest telephone kiosk to Celtic Park.