You remember Celtic manager, Gordon Stachan, third manager in our history to win three-in-a-row? Took us to the Champions League knock out stages for the first time, did much of this while comparative economics were moving against us, remember him? Is he the same Gordon Strachan who has transformed the Scotland national team’s results?
Gordon is unequivocally a successful manager but his Scotland team is performing far better than I thought possible when he took over what looked like a poisoned chalice. The most stunning fact of his record there is that they have not conceded a goal in three successive away games. Gordon’s Celtic covered 15 months, across two championship winning seasons, without keeping a single clean sheet away from home, no matter how lowly or distressed the opponent. Even good, experienced, managers learn, especially from their earlier troubles.
Jock Stein is viewed mostly through the prism of 1967 but during his final season as Celtic manager, 1977-78, the sentiment among many in the support was decidedly downbeat. Rangers (remember them, played in blue, I think?) would win their third title in four seasons, with two trebles thrown in for good measure. Celtic finished fifth in the league, Jock’s judgement was widely called into question.
At the time Leeds United were a top club in England and after Celtic sacked Jock they moved to secure him. Leeds had no doubts as to his abilities. A little over a month later the SFA offered him the Scotland job, which he took and excelled at, twice succeeding in World Cup qualifying campaigns. His talents were without question but stood in sharp contrast to how many in the support viewed him a few years earlier.
I don’t know if Jock was a better manager in 1982 and beyond than he was in 1978 but there’s a decent chance his football education didn’t stop when the trophies dried up at Celtic. Gordon Strachan is, like Jock was until the end, a student of the game. Neil Lennon is too, he is also receiving some of the reviews his illustrious predecessors would recognise. Gordon was an excellent Celtic manager but he’s better now, perhaps as a result of life’s experiences along the way.
It’ll be really interesting to see how Euro qualifiers reflect on the comparative progress of Gordon and Martin O’Neill, who for my money was a better manager than Mourinho when the latter deployed some of the best players in the world against Celtic in Seville, and needed to deploy every underhand trick in the book to come out on top.
I was blown away by the stunning contributions to our Mary’s Meals campaign yesterday. First in was an incredible £200 + £50 gift aid donation, followed by others, large and small, every one appreciated. Ignore those who would tell you society is dead. You can get involved here.
Seville, The Celtic Movement, launches this month.
“Porto were favourites and would go on to prove how good a team they were by winning the Champions League 12 months later. Their players would demonstrate their prowess across the world for the next decade. They had fabulous talent, so much so, that they should have aspired to better than the gamesmanship used during their run to the UEFA Cup and Champions League wins.”
Order yours below:
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Bbj scored the only goal against the jambos on his birthday
Here’s the pictures from 1977 cup final
Doyle and Burns…unused subs, would love to have been sat beside THEM 2 in the dugout. 2 of the biggest Celtic fans of all time.
Hail Hail
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/1977-05-07%3A+Celtic+1-0+Rangers%2C+Scottish+Cup+Final+-+Pictures
There is a funny wee story in the match report about that game. In the team line up Paul Wilson is seen wearing the number 14 shorts and had to replace them with the correct number 10 shorts at half time.
.
Boabby..
I Notice You like that Word..Semantics..
What does it Actually Mean..?
Summa
Ps..Referring to Sammi should it Not be Semantikos..see Eurochamps67..lol
leftclicktic We are all Neil Lennon….
Are you bidding on anything / going to bid on anything ?
Weeminger
You are wasting your time using wage inflstion to make your point to ST.
He has heard it all before how the money that bought a pound of steak mince, 3 years later buys beef mince.
You will know why I spoke in mince terms as it is a common language for ST.
maestro-number8
Just keeping my eye on it just now sir
Thought I had won a watch the 1st night I clicked on it everything was going for a fiver:))
there is some great wee pictures on it.
As much as Martin ONeil was a great manager for Celtic he left Gordon Strachan a lot of problems such as players like Sutton and Thompson who probable did not like Strachan,s style of management or the fact Celtic had to downsize from the big contracts and big buys of the O’Neill era .I seem to remember Sutton withdrawing from a game at Inverness mid morning much to Strachans surprise and annoyance.GS was not everybodys cup of tea but he never has a bad word for Celtic and had the team punching well above their weight.
Dont really see the point in posters trying to compare MON and WGS.Both done wonders for us,in difficult circumstances.MON trying to overcome a rampant hun,and WGS trying to compete while cutting costs dramatically.Both legends.Lenny if he gets us into the CL this year again,will join that pair.His financial contribution alone to the club,will be hard to beat.
The cups,although not important,in the great scheme of things,are his only let down.As Muttley used to tell us”Medals.Medals Medals”.Plenty of time to put that right.
I agree with DD point about how well the club is being run,financially,and his estimation of PL in this instance.I disagree with him about the relationship between the club and the fans.Head in the sand.Obviously totally oblivious to the fans complaints.Ivory towers and what have you.
Celtics very belated opposition to the act,for whatever reason ,is still welcome.No publicity is bad.If they followed it up with a more pro active response to the problems the fans are facing at the actual games,it would go a long way to healing the rifts that have been festering.Auldheid has faith in JPT,we will see.
‘Celtic will beat Everton and Liverpool to the signature of a 13-year-old goalkeeper only days after he made his debut for Hamilton Under-20s.
Joshua Rae, who is 6ft 1in, played the final six minutes of Monday’s 3-1 win over Partick Thistle’s second string.’
6ft 1in at 13? What’s he going to be like when he grows up?
LiviBhoy @ 11:54
Agreed, we should draw the chat to a close.
But I still strongly disagree on a number of points.
Common sense says if we’d kept the spine of our time this CL, we’d have gone further, and made more money (not just the estimated amount, but more because of who we are).
Dropping ST prices by £100 means nothing to me. It was about appeasing an element of the support while the rest were being, and were about to be, victimised. Sugar in the arsenic.
Finally, I’ll keep it brief. I was 100% behind Fergus. Mainly because he was honest. And after the 5 years, he proved it. He also lead the fight for the club against malignant bollockses such as the MSM and the footballing authorities, as any major shareholder should.
Blind loyalty to this board is going to undo us, and goes against what the Fergus McCann and Hun Obliviion eras taught us
Anyhoos. I’ll let you have the last say on this :))
Great chat, though, and much appreciated.
leftclicktic We are all Neil Lennon ….
Indeed there is. Wish it didn’t run for nearly 4 weeks though !
Will have a glance at it every so often too.
Hail Hail
Richie.
if your back from Spain and not working, I’ll be in the Blane Valley around 15.30pm today if you fancy a wee drink.
Auldheid
13:14 on
7 March, 2014
I know. I can’t help myself.
Auldheid @ 12:17,
Thanks for that reply – in particular as I know you take your time on these things and are a great credit to CQN.
But maybe I didn’t make one of my ealier points clear.
Why do we assume as Celtic supporters that any player who leaves, did so for selfish reasons?
And so, how many players wanted to stay, but realised their transfer fee was of far more value to their wage negotiators than their own playing ability. This is why we start every season with total instability, and it’s only thanks to Lenny’s abilities that we manage to turn this around each season by New Year. And as such, we are throwing away progress in Europe to make the guaranteed pound.
How about banking what we have just now, and giving the current squad a chance for a couple of years? Is that such a crazy flamin idea???? And would it not also help us progress as a team playing in the manager’s style(s)?
Well, we all know that won’t happen, as FF is gone in the summer ( and I’m thankful that we had him for longer than others).
And I find it totally baffling that fholk can’t see this.
Well, until some more shakey qualifiers for the CL……
Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung who has been jailed for six years for money laundering is the former chairman of ‘Hong Kong Rangers Football Club’.
Of course he was….
We have a few places available for CQTEN which is now one week away.
If you want to order some tickets please email david@cqnmagazine.com
Meanwhile here’s another wee quote from the new CQN Book, SEVILLE – The Celtic Movement. This is what was happening in New Zealand on that night in May 2003…
“Once the game was underway all the previous weeks concerns were forgotten and I could concentrate on the game like everyone else. At half time I reflected with Scott Young who had driven the 130 kilometres up from Hamilton that morning. The journey was for a large part through the fog alongside the Waikato River but he was determined not to miss this game. Like a few others he was born in New Zealand but had Scottish parents and his grandfather, a miner, had known Jock Stein. He was as steeped in Celtic as someone from the Gorbals.
Not long into the second half of course Celtic scored, Henrik Larsson’s header equalising Porto’s first half counter. The hall erupted. I watched Sean dance animatedly with sheer delight on his face. At that moment any regrets I still had about not actually getting to Seville vanished. I would not have wanted to have missed the chance to celebrate with my own, as well as, the Celtic family.”
MON was better than Strachan.
TT
Any official news on Nir Biton?
JJ
maestro-number8
12:58 on 7 March, 2014
Still surprised we got that penalty…………even though it was a stonewaller!!
Chris Sutton was WELL worth £6M.
But I’d only pay £750,000 for him now, and expect him to sell for £10M.
Such is our support of Celtic 21C – The Board Game © Monopoly (not a reference to the absence of zombies btw !).
Can anyone here see any reason why Celtic can’t go on to win TEN IN A ROW!
As its the only thing that the DEAD Rangers had in common with us I think it is fair to assume that the Sevco Zombie Tribute Act will go into meltdown if we were on nine and going for a tenth. Possible referee corruption. Huns backing Motherwell, Aberdeen anyone to stop it happening!
Or is it just too premature to think about such things?
auldheid and weeminger
telling us how much better wgs was
what was Celtics coefficient when wgs arrived
what was Celtics coefficient when wgs left
since both MON and wgs spent similar amounts of money
the question is
is/was it better to sign 15 players (mon) or 40 players (wgs)
everyone will have their own opinion
just for info and relating to your oft repeated inflation theory
how much would NFL need to spend nowadays over 5 years to equal the amount that wgs spent
BRTH and others regarding the hospice
at a terrible time in your life there is not a better place for your loved ones to be
(if that is any comfort)
SUMMA
semantics
sɪˈmantɪks/
noun
1.
the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. The two main areas are logical semantics, concerned with matters such as sense and reference and presupposition and implication, and lexical semantics, concerned with the analysis of word meanings and relations between them.
FFM – I’m the only conspiracy theorist in the village)
I think you have made your points well. It’s a debate heard in pubs and CSC’s up and down the country. My view is I can’t believe the board do anything that would harm the club or the fans. I would hope this is the case or I would be a lost cause.
LB
Loved this description frmo the Bairds auction:
THE BAIRDS BAR CHRIS SUTTON BROKEN MIRROR this mirror hung above the gantry at the Baird`s Bar for many years. In season 2003/04 when Chris Sutton scored the winning goal in the 89th minute in an Old Firm league game, James (hairy face) Mullen jumped up in elation only to “header“ the mirror sending it to the floor and causing hairy face injury.
No bids yet!
FFM – I’m the only conspiracy theorist in the village)
Chris Sutton would be on upwards of £100k a week if he were a Chelsea player now.
LB
.
winning captains
13:36 on
7 March, 2014
We have a few places available for CQTEN which is now one week away.
..
WC..Canny Help Maself..
I Would have thought with 138,976 and a Half CQN’ers You could sell a Couple of Hundred Tickets..;-)
Summa of Semantics.Com.CQNCSC
Tallybhoy @ 12:23
Who’s this Willie Maley you talk about?
He gave us James McGrory and Paul McStay…..but did he sell them for quickly for immediate proft? :))
Nir Biton news???
Auldheid
Swiftly side stepping the issue of dance partners….:)))
I totally appreciate where your coming from on all of this, I think anyone would.
Trying to unite a broad church of fans is hard enough without then trying to seek consensus with a PLC. Verging on impossible if you ask me but I’m more cynical than serene.
There is the niggling doubt in many peoples minds though that this is a two way street with very little coming from the PLC. Of course the reasons for that are many and varied and that has to be considered. I think the steps taken so far are to be welcomed but if the gap between the fans and the PLC has been reduced so far then I have two questions.
If the ‘opposition forces’, i.e. the Disgruntled fans v The PLC were starting off 50 paces away from each other, how big is the gap now?
And who has taken the most steps towards the middle?
If trust is built up through dancing then both partners have to be on the dance floor
FWIW,I looked forward to WGS taking over from Martin,I thought it was as good a choice as any.
What I didn’t like was his style of football,nor his treatment of certain players-established or not,if yer face didnae fit,GTF.
Ask Thommo. Sutton. Mulgrew. Balde. As an example. While others who kowtowed were amply rewarded,yes,with medals. And I don’t dispute his success.
What I do dispute is that he did this in an era of austerity. He put the wage bill higher than it had ever been.
I have no problem with comparisons,but when certain details are omitted then they are indeed odious.
Oh,as an aside,Gordon won’t be giving a monkeys what most of us think.
Because,as he famously said,we didnae play the game and therefore aren’t entitled to an opinion.
iBhoy……………. that’s brilliant that one !
prestonpans bhoys dam justice for the 5……..agreed. A penalty, against them, in a cup final, to win the Double ! Wow !
TT
Agreed
I’m Neil Lennon (tamrabam)
13:44 on
7 March, 2014
I made absolutely no comment, on whether one was better than the other.
Are you saying that it’s not meaningless to compare two flat figures without context?
I’d say that MON was perhaps a bit of a soothsayer and saw the way transfers were going, so getting his spend front loaded was a very sharp move.
Summa of Semantics @ 2:59
.
Boabby..
I Notice You like that Word..Semantics..
What does it Actually Mean..?
—-
It’s completely different from the word “pedantic”, I’ll have you know. Pedantics teach semantics. That’s it.
FFM – I’m the only conspiracy theorist in the village)
James McGrory and Paul McStay were two players who would have been sold. No doubt about it. Both had been touted by the club to other clubs. Both should have been at the club longer.
These two players did not want to leave.
LB
Finally just seen Leigh`s goals from the weekend on decent quality vision .
Tell you what.
Sometimes there is a nexus between worker and workplace.
Forget the goals.
Leigh looks like the right fit for us.
O.K.,early days, but I feel there are positive signs that Leigh may just be the man we have been waiting for.
I see his goals,but more importantly I see his joy.
weeminger
MON was allowed to spend big money on individual players. I doubt any manager would refuse to do so if the players he wanted were available!
LB