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:
[calameo code=0003901714cb03d5d5808 lang=en page=114 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
1,097 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- »
BRTH….
Totally agree with your kind words on Jack McGinn.
Lovely bloke and history will judge him better than his employers at the time.
Your most telling observation was that he made mistakes but wasn’t responsible for these.
Will do BRHT.
I’m figuring RFC 1872 might have taken that many, but can you imagine the carnage pre and post match. The very sight of chapels and holy statues everywhere, combined with heat and bevvy? I think the game have cancelled by Uefa beforehand. The worst fans in Europe cannot be trusted, as Manchester would bear out.
I’d say perhaps only the Kop, Dortmund, Marseilles and maybe Spurs or Arsenal could have matched those numbers.
Teams like AC Bayern Juve or Man Utd have the support but a Uefa final is not as big a deal for them
hen1rik
10:31 on 8 March, 2014
I found that a liite hard to read so for others with eyes like mine :)))
EasyJambo – thanks for the payment dates. Clearly payments went from Oldco within 5 years prior to the insolvency. So i need to look at the “connected” party defintion. BDO will be all over this.
But we live in interesting times.
Socrates says (among other things).
When someone tells you something ask(among other things):-
Why me?
Why now?
Why this person telling me?
So why today (after months of silence) does Mr Green appear with a story? What purpose does that story serve?
Why now? What has happened that requires that intervention now?
Something has happened. Dave King’s intervention would be my bet.
—————-
Ps I met a sevconion this morning who was claiming King is going to go down a legal route that will try and put into question all the spivs claims (I know I know).
Cowiebhoy
Congratulations to all involved and welcome to the celtic family Ruby.
JFH
may you and yours be granted the strength you need at this sad time.
BRTH
Thank you for what you bring to this place :))
You have a gift with words that creates mental pictures and allows me to feel what you are writing,If that makes any sense:)).
Till tomorrow all, a full day at a family wedding (family wondering how I will cope with CQN withdrawals)
MARRAKESH EXPRESS
Do you need some sleeping pills,bud?
I hear The Brazen sells some superb ones by the pint!
Phew! That Sydney derby was something else!
All the hot headed players must end up in Australia! :-) The ref was pretty good though.
Wonderful stadium,great atmosphere, bumpy pitch and plenty of hard tackling.
Is it like that every week?
Iain.. no.. sometimes its better :)
Read High Keevins this morning: “Come to think about it, if it hadn’t been for Desmond then O’Neill might have stayed at Leicester and Guus Hiddink could have been Celtic manager.”
Surely he meant Artur Jorge?
Robcfc 11,
the only thing is that the ball players have to leave the pitch injured and I include Tom Rogic from a game I watched about 4 weeks ago. Serves them right, of course! :-)
Its usually allowed to be a proper game where its still a contact sport.. theefa obviously havent told the refs down there yet that its now a sport fir big jessies….
“Lets compare balance sheets in a year”
Charles Green 2012
bmcuw
Yep, I’ll be the guy sleeping at the bar mate.
Robcfc, too right! :-)
Been reading back the last few pages has been very enjoyable to see the posts regards Seville it reads like almost a homage which if you think about it,that’s what it actually was
eddieinkirkmichael
The Sauchie v Camelon game was called off about 45 mins ago.
I hate to see players fall down as if shot and was delighted when tony pulis slated a crystal palace player last weekend when he dived.
BSR
Think he was talking about his own balance sheet!
Kikinthenakas
Gil Heron
nakas
Indeed – and not the 500,000,000 worldwide.
Oldtim
got me there, mrs bt doesn’t agree with you btw….8)
I did not read it properly first time….
afoot …
BigYinMilan @ 11.04
” Athletico Madrid will hammer Celtic ” *even though I can’t name a single player in their squad *
.
Talking about Seville..
Who else Fell asleep at Halftime..
Then when We All left The Celtic Club for the After Party 7am EST..(IN MA PUB..!!).
Did their ‘Best Pal” stick on a Yellow Stick it note on My Forehead for the Taxi (That l was in Myself) Driver..With My Home Address 25 Kilometers away..
Who else had that Seville experience..?
Ehhh..?
Summa.
“Dallas Cowboys ……………… I have the letter in my jacket”
Charles Green 2013
John O’Neil
10:26 on 8 March, 2014
Good morning everybody.
BRHT has inadvertently brought me to the keyboard. Yesterday, I was looking through old cuttings from Celtic Views which span 40 years or so. What a delight it was. Some nuggets of Celtic related trivia emerged; as did the fact that the Celtic View was not afraid to discuss spicy topics from time to time. Here are a few selections from what I read. Hopefully it is interesting:
Did you know that there is a picture of a very young Paul McStay with Pele? Pele is holding a Celtic top. It was taken in America.
Did you know that Celtic have a connection with Sherlock Holmes? You may research that.
There were some terrific pictures, articles etc. A fine picture of Jock Stein and Billy McNeill meeting Eamon de Valera for example. What a man Stein was. A man who transcended the petty bitterness which affects our people too often. There was a lovely tribute to Cyril Horne who stood up for Celtic in the days when we were hard done by bigots. One learned about the man, his generosity for example. One article was about Celtic’s first Polish player, Konrad Kapler. I wasn’t aware that he preceded Charlie Tully. Well, that is what the article says. There was a picture of GAA’s Pat Spillane with Marc Rieper. Did you know that Pat used to wear Stevie Chalmers’ boots? There were articles about Celtic’s relationship with politics. I wasn’t aware that Celtic cancelled a proposed game with Dynamo Tbillsi because of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. However, I cannot find solid info about it. The topic was discussed by a letter writer to the View – he was happy that Celtic didn’t play the game.
That brings me to the letter writers. Common themes throughout the decades included the bias of the Sunday Mail, the bias of the ref huns, the bias of the general media, a lot of anger towards Gerry McNee etc. Most of all, the the most prevalent theme was passion. During the great Stein years and throughout the miserable times, Celtic supporters wrote with such passion and love for the club. They weren’t shy to berate fellow supporters for the times when elements indulged in moronic behaviour but vitriol was usually reserved for more deserving targets. Nothing shone through more than the love for Celtic.
A wee mention for the media. One Daily Record article printed a picture of a child killer wearing a Celtic top. The Retard’s response? ‘Some Celtic fans were upset, but we are not in the business of censoring the news.’ They were of course b*stards in those days also. No surprise to older readers I guess.
Returning to Stein, he is a constant reminder that an open mind can do more good for Celtic than a mind which refuses to acknowledge that times have moved on. Celtic were treated abysmally in those days, It is my belief that times have changed. It would be helpful if some elements of the Celtic support acknowledged that reality. We are now number one in the country and have more or less moved into the establishment. A degree of humility will ensure that we don’t abuse that position.
Have a good day everybody,
_______________________________________________
A Great post, hopefully the humility is instilled in all of us. I sincerely hope that Dundee Utd and Aberdeen can become a force again and I’d not be down if both those teams won the SPFL before this decade is out. It would mean we have real genuine fitba back in Scotland, in remarkable Time, despite the destruction the Rangers of old brought upon this Land.
Marrakesh Express
Liverpool and Man U and others have been in euro finals others and not taken anything like the fans we took to Seville. In fact as there ever been a football game anywhere club or international that has had such a number of fans travelling such a distance?
Did the Huns claim 250k fans in Manchester?
Makes you wonder how many we would have taken.Probably would have matched the total population of Greater Manchester,but we don’t know this for sure.
Anyway,I so happened to be working in Manchester on the night before,night after,and night of the game where the Orcs pitifully attempted to bore Zenit to sleep.I was staying in Deansgate and it was even more frightening than it looked on the news.I think half of East Belfast were contaminating the restaurant I had dinner in on the night before the match.
Some of the things I witnessed by sub humans from the country of my birth will live with me for a very long time.
For the first time in my life I was embarrassed by my accent , when ordering breakfast the morning after the game.I nearly apologised.
The Orcs are so different from Celtic fans…..Glad their team is dead now!!
Guys
Has anyone been to the rock lobster in the merchant city
Having lunch in there today
Is it ok
HH
Condolences to Joe Fillipis Haircut
John O’Neill,
You mention Cyril Horne. My Dad’s supporters club often invited Cyril to their annual dinner dance. They had great regard for him as he was about the only journalist (apart from Hugh McIlvanney and John Rafferty) who gave us any credit.
I think you overplay our position. We are still basically persona non grata in the higher echelons of the Establishment. The SMSM are still craving the return of the deid team and you can bet you bottom dollar that if and when they do, the ole honest mistakes will be worse than ever.
I feel our best hope lies in the new technologies BRTH was talking of yesterday.
Parkheadcumsalford…..,,
Bang on post,mate.
Celtic will NEVER be accepted as the establishment club in a bigoted little backwater.
Would rather we stayed outside the tent and pashed into it anyway.
UTLR
weet weet weet(gbwo)
11:35 on 8 March, 2014
It’s rotten mate, stick to a Big Mac quality ;-) HH
Manchester doesnt count because it is just a couple of hours drive down the road.
Can anyone think of a game that had a comparable number of fans that went too Seville.
Eddieinkirkmicheal, pity the games aff. Which team Camelon or Sauchie??? HH
Condolences with Joe Fillipis Haircut and family
Nearly sausage time
Bamboo,
The question I asked was how many Celtic would have taken to Manchester.
I reckon at least double the amount that the Orcs did.
I have never felt so sorry for cops as I did in May 2008, at the Manchester bigotfest.
It was truly nauseating to observe the behaviour of grown adults in blue or orange tops.
Ok change of plan Irvine Meadow v Auchinleck Talbot
hun skelper
At least yi didnae say”don’t eat the fish” ; )
HH