There should be no expectation that Jota can make a substantial difference to Celtic’s play over the next two months. Notwithstanding that, news that he could return to match training this week is enormously encouraging.
Wingers are the most commonly used substitute in modern football. Conventional wisdom is that they can change a game by matching against a tired defender late in the game. It might be a while before we see Jota in a starting line-up, but he is more than capable to changing a game, even if used sparingly.
Yang is currently on the bench for South Korea U23s in their final competitive match of this international break. He should return fully fit for Celtic’s next game at Motherwell. That will lift one area of the team and hopefully give Jota time to build stamina at an appropriate pace.
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HH
Egypt boss Hossam Hassan has revealed that Celtic star Haissem Hassan has had to pull out of the Egypt squad due to injury and requires “intensive treatment”.
I assume he is therefore back in Glasgow?
Not another for the treatment table.
Jota was the best player in the Celtic team when he left to go to Saudi, what he will be like now after his ACL possibly 2 is anyones guess, fitness and conditioning at Celtic as many have commented on is poor. So Balikwisha Tounekti and now Hassan are no use for one reason or another, scouting eh , so necessary as is who is doing it.
Jota obviously needs eased back in over several weeks and we don’t know if Hassam is out for a couple of weeks or a couple of months. Perhaps that will be enough for MoN to “experiment” with a 352 or a 442 formation for a while? I really don’t want to think about playing the likes of Benfica with a 433 set up with our current options.
Unfortunately it happens to the best of them, but hopefully Jota can join this list:
Xavi Hernández – Tore his ACL in December 2005 while playing for Barcelona. He made a rapid recovery in under five months to feature at the 2006 World Cup. Following his return, he anchored Barcelona’s most dominant era, winning three Champions League titles and leading Spain to back-to-back European Championships (2008, 2012) and the 2010 World Cup.
Ruud van Nistelrooy – Ruptured his ACL in April 2000, which postponed his dream move from PSV Eindhoven to Manchester United by a full year. Once he arrived at Old Trafford in 2001, he showed no lingering effects, scoring 150 goals in 219 games for United before continuing his elite goalscoring form at Real Madrid.
Alan Shearer – Snapping his right ACL during his debut season at Blackburn Rovers in 1992. He bounced back the following season to score 31 goals in 40 games, went on to lead Blackburn to the Premier League title in 1995, and remains the Premier League’s all-time leading goalscorer (260 goals).
Virgil van Dijk – Suffered a high-profile ACL injury in October 2020 during the Merseyside derby, ruling him out for nearly ten months. Upon his return to Liverpool, he reclaimed his spot as one of the preeminent central defenders in world football, winning multiple domestic trophies and maintaining elite performance levels.
Robert Pires – Tore his ACL in March 2002 after a season where he won the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year award. He returned to remain an integral figure in Arsenal’s legendary “Invincibles” team during the 2003–04 season.
Francesco Totti – Tore his ACL in April 2008 playing for Roma. Despite being in the later stage of his career, he returned within four months and continued playing at the top level for Roma until his retirement in 2017.
Roy Keane – Suffered a season-ending ACL injury in September 1997. He returned as Manchester United’s captain to lead them to the historic 1998–99 Treble (Premier League, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League).
Zlatan Ibrahimović – Ruptured his ACL in April 2017 while playing for Manchester United at age 35. After surgery and rehab, he made a successful return, eventually moving to AC Milan where he helped lead them to the Serie A title in 2021–22.
Some players lost a fraction of their peak explosive pace following an ACL tear, but successfully modified their playing style to maintain elite careers:
Roberto Baggio: Ruptured his ACL at age 18 before his major move to Fiorentina. He went on to win the 1993 Ballon d’Or and star for Juventus, AC Milan, and Italy.
Alessandro Del Piero: Injured his ACL in 1998. He adapted from a rapid, direct attacker into a deeper, playmaking forward and won the 2006 World Cup with Italy.
The Blogger – interesting examples. I don’t think any of them were out for as Long as Jota has been, almost 18 months and still a bit to go.
According to Chat GPT, While elite players with access to round-the-clock medical care can often begin modified team training within 6 to 7 months, medical consensus strongly cautions against entering full competitive matches before the 9-month mark. Returning earlier than 9 months is linked to a nearly 7-fold increase in the rate of secondary graft ruptures or complementary knee injuries. Additionally, while a player may be cleared to play within this timeframe, it typically takes 12 to 18 months for a footballer to fully regain their pre-injury form and baseline performance levels.
From what has been reported, Jota suffered a few setbacks along the recovery path. This may have been because he had played very little football in the preceding 1-2 seasons. Entering a strenuous rehab process with a low baseline of game sharpness compounded the difficulty of his physical ramp-up.
Here’s hoping . . .
“The 32% slide in our share price over the last 3-months is reflective of just how poorly the club is being run”
———————–
GEDINTE
back to this, as stated before, I do like to see your insights into share price and the possible outomes, I take it you worked in that sector somehow.
The bit that peaked my interest again, and I paraphrase so correct me if I am wrong, There are so little volume in share sales that minor conditions mean share price is affected in an unnatural way compared to bigger companies.
We are not a normal plc, in as much as we dont pay dividends on good financial performence beyond the select few with those preferrential category of share ownership – Notably DD and TA.
So I struggle with speculative commentary that Desmond would be forced to sell because the price is getting lower, and might want to cash in, he will still be in profit to the original price, by many multiples. The bloggers like to tell us how the soon to be triple billionaire will behave because he is greedy, and vindictavie, and will eventually sell out to someone “worser” just because.
What if the opposite is true ?
What if the 32% decrease in price makes it attractive to just go on a buying spree, here minions, hoover up ever share we can, I am taking this into my own personal ownership, and damn those non-interested non voting pesky shareholders ever question me.
Ah la – Ashley or Glazers or now Rdcliffe.
You know he could.
I look forward to the share ownership update in the Annual report.
Who bought LTs sold off shares ? We know it wasnt any current owner, because it would have triggered an announcement, but what if it is a proper ally of DD.
A relative or aligned person buying up their own.
Deniabhoy – yep, all we can do is hope for the best.
Parades commission give go ahead for orange walk.Expect Garvaghy residents to appeal this.
Daniel Arzani former Celtic loanee got an ACL injury in his first game for Celtic at Dens , 7 years later having battled his way back via Australia scored a belter for Ferencvaros in Parkhead last week.
back to this
————–
An Tearmann on 24th September 2026 4:53 pm
St.Stivs/anyone?
Name them ?
https://x.com/Highland__paddy/status/2103003399885136318
HH
Back L-R: Cook, McGonagale, Thomson (J); Middle L-R: Geatons, Scarff, Wilson, Thomson (A), Front L-R: McGrory, Napier, McStay (J), Thomson (R).
From the Celticwiki and the Celtic in the 30s books.
This is the 1931 Scottish Cup Winning team. Must have been taken sometime after April 31 and departure for the USA Tour. Spine tingling to think John will only live another 5 months.
Speculation on my part – they are probably at the North east corner of the ground, and the “Hayshed” is getting built after the pavilion fire of 1929.
The opposite side of the park, saw the Grant stand being demolished in 1929, and the new stand being built with a realignment of the players facilities onto kerrydale.
It is a great team picture, their togetherness jumps off the page.
For some other context, the original Rangers won 4 in a row that season, with Motherwell winning it in 1932, for all those Celtic legends together, they won less medals than Callum and James.
South Korea U-23’s still have a semi final and possible final to play over the next week. Yang played 90 mins in their first game but has remained on the bench for the last 2 games.
Ten Men Won the League – maybe we should be scouting the player(s) that are keeping him on the bench :)
Man City found guilty of all but 1 of breaking the financial rules of the PL, Rio Ferdinand posted that he is due another winners medal. Contrast what happened here, will be very interseting in the sanctions. This also has a massive impact on UEFA competitions.
all but 1 of the charges.
A few years back the New York Times Company bought ‘The Athletic’. As a result the NYT stopped doing any sports coverage itself, barring news headlines, which is a shame since it is one of the great publications of any age, even though it failed to follow up on a story that later forced President Nixon to resign in 1974. All Watergate under the bridge now. ‘The Athletic’ gained credence though, and benefits from being part of the group. Today it broke the story, followed by BBC et al, that Manchester City have been found guilty of, I think. the majority of the 115 charges (2009-2018) levied against them by the EPL via an Independent Tribunal. No sanctions have been proposed at this point. I hear comparisons of Juventus being made, and misinformed talk of Rangers FC being ‘relegated’, in the BBC of course, and it will be interesting to say the least how the SPL/FA etc deal with the consequences. Not sure how it will affect the Celtic PLC share at this point.
Alex McLeish on standby to confirm that Man City won all those titles ‘on the pitch’…….
We had a sham inquiry under Nimmo Smith with its terms of reference defined by the SFA, so under no circumstances was it independent or in depth to what the dead club did.
SAINT STIVS on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2026 2:27 PM
I believe that I was careful to state how financial pressure alone will never be sufficient to turn Desmond into a motivated seller. Equally, fan protests of the sort that we’ve seen are easily ignored, so it would take more than just a few thousand waving signs and chanting unkind words. However, he is not immune to pressure. I don’t know him, but the picture painted is of a strong-willed prideful individual, and one is led to believe, extremely egotistical. The very public mass boycott of home games would cause him significant embarrassment. I’m sure that he would very much like to avoid those conversations with his peers at the golf club(s), yacht club, and in the owner paddocks of race tracks.
It’s worth mentioning a comparison being made by another contributor, “56” I believe, about the Glazier family at Manchester Utd. By all measures, Celtic are fortunate to be subject to Desmond’s reign as opposed to that lot. There is nothing to suggest Desmond is involved with Celtic only for the money, as I’m sure that he could easily deploy his capital elsewhere to greater financial effect. For that reason, I’ve also stated that for many years he was exactly what Celtic needed; a passive billionaire investor who backed the club financially, and kept away all predatory actors. I simply believe that he should have done some things differently, and it should be plain as day that what we have become is a poor version of what was possible.
Also, and just to be clear, he will not be buying any more shares. Quite simply, he has no need to do so. Since the outset, the other significant shareholders are clearly “aligned” with him, as they allow him to effectively run the club as if he were the “owner”. Moreover, with the share issue back in 2005 Celtic solicited and received explicit approval from independent, non-conflicted shareholders and clearance from the Takeover Panel, and received a Rule 9 waiver exempting him from making him a mandatory offer to acquire full ownership. This can be undone at anytime, through a simple corporate action and application to the authorities, and in a flash he would become the 100% owner. That is also not what he wants, but if ever there were a time to exercise that strategy, it would be when the share price was depressed.
Conversely, the CSL, CST and CSTHA groups could be taking advantage of the current price and buying available shares. They would be getting almost 50% more for their money than they were 3-months ago. Accumulating a small position is not without merit, and at 5% they get a voice (of sorts), but it would only ever last as long as Dermot had the patience to listen to them.
Incidentally, we are a more “normal” Plc than you may realize. There are many companies who have a structure which comprises multiple significant shareholders, and no majority shareholder. It is referred to as diffuse or dispersed ownership structure, and is an effective way to exert coalition based control whereby block holders have incentive to form relationships to carry votes or establish authority. Certainly, Desmond has the whip hand at Celtic, though there is little evidence he even needs to use it.
As for the list of “datapoints” that I somewhat casually offered as an explanation for the 32% slide in the stock price, they are not only factual, but they are also an absolute driver of sentiment, and can trigger the most base and fundamental human behavior, emotion. Almost 1 million shares have been sold in that 3-month period, all small shareholdings, and while it is impossible to know the motivation of any single seller, you can most likely take your pick from the last 5 of the six most basic emotions; happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, or disgust. The point being, that while our friend BLOGGA sulks because there isn’t a reasonable alternative explanation, I’m willing to bet that this is causation, not just correlation.
#wakeupandsmellthecloverCSC
Without getting into the blame game we all love to argue I think most are agreed our club is a mess from top to bottom.
Maybe Jota is this season’s saviour?
dessybhoy
Whoops! Freudian slip back there!
EPL/FA authorities.
Hope the City scandal brings the RFC/Murray/MIH/SPL/SFA farrago back into the limelight…..
GreenPinata HH
Antearmann is a virus of lies and deflections and blatantly doubles down on his lies about why Glasgow, Dublin, London, Paris, Berlin, every city in the Western World, are now unsafe for white Women, Children, and any Men who show that they fear these scumbags.
AT, is not alone as he is just one of many millions who’s personal weakness has led to them being socially engineered by media, politicians, etc and ultimately being used as a tool, just like during Covid Vaccine Genocide Plandemic to throw his own people who look and speak like him, under the bus, then continue to arrogantly think that they are the good guys.
I hope that nothing happens to your family GP, or AT’s family, or anyone elses innocent family members.
No amount of grassing, snitching, or any other flavor of cancel culture, will make Glasgow or anywhere else any safer.
I won’t be able to respond to any replies as my moniker will be deleted after this post.
Good luck.
dessybhoy
Wasn’t the Nimmo inquiry commissioned by the SPL?
Think the SFA part of things ended when they concluded that they were not ‘competent’* to deal with the scandal.
*in a jurisdiction sense
EM r u kevj 👀
It was an SFA inquiry and Nimmo Smith was appointed to give it an independent look I suppose, no laughing now.
Nimmo smith was a consultant.
Had the end decision made then worked back
With what can only be described as an exercise in duality,it was a shame
HH
Good evening
Representatives of the Celtic Fans Collective met with Celtic Football Club on Tuesday the 22nd of September at Celtic Park.
Representing Celtic FC at the meeting were:
§ George Campbell
§ John-Paul Taylor
§ Jennifer McGrath
The Celtic Fans Collective was represented by:
§ Alison Docherty
§ Paul Quigley
We structured the meeting around:
1. How the meeting was arranged
2. The Collective’s wider criticisms of the Club
3. The critique of Celtic Connect
4. The Collective’s alternative proposal
5. A timeline for further engagement
The meeting followed a commitment from Brian Wilson that Celtic would engage with the Collective. In anticipation of that discussion, the Collective undertook detailed work on a proposed Fan Advisory Board and sought to arrange a meeting from June onwards.
Instead, Celtic published its Celtic Connect consultation online without discussion. It was promoted with little fanfare and the Club appeared reluctant to issue reminders to supporters. For a consultation intended to improve engagement, remarkably little effort seemed to be made to encourage engagement. A meeting was eventually offered the day after the defeat at Ibrox.
We placed Celtic Connect within the wider context of a culture supporters increasingly associate with compliance, nepotism and a lack of transparency. We also raised the Club’s failure to learn from last season’s mistakes, both on and off the park, and the growing disconnection many supporters feel from those running Celtic. The Club acknowledges that communication and engagement must improve, but its approach to Celtic Connect has done little to demonstrate that it has understood the problem.
Our central criticism of the Celtic Connect proposal is that a body cannot credibly represent supporters if the club appoints each supporter representative and retains significant control over its leadership and agenda.
We explained that this position is supported by:
§ The 2021 Fan-Led Review of Football Governance, which warned that club control over appointments and agendas can weaken supporter engagement.
§ Football Supporters’ Association guidance, which rejects clubs hand-picking the people intended to represent and scrutinise them.
§ Established supporter-engagement models across Scotland, England and mainland Europe, which demonstrate workable alternatives involving supporter elections, nominations by recognised fan organisations, independent oversight of selection and representation based on meaningful supporter constituencies.
§ University of Glasgow research involving 7,791 Celtic supporters, which found substantial support for a representative and institutionally protected Fan Advisory Board.
Our wider criticism was that Celtic Connect reflects many of the problems it is supposed to address. The Club would control the selection of every supporter representative, without clear published criteria explaining how applicants would be assessed or chosen, while retaining considerable influence over the chair and agenda. Most representation would be organised according to where supporters sit rather than how the support is actually constituted, with insufficient consideration given to its diverse needs, experiences and demographics. The model also offers no guaranteed voice for established supporter organisations and lacks clear institutional protections against the Club changing or withdrawing it. This risks creating a managed consultation forum rather than an independent body capable of representing supporters, raising difficult issues and holding the Club to account.
We then presented the Collective’s alternative model. This would give representatives a genuine mandate through supporter nominations and democratic elections. It would also provide greater protection over representation, chairing,
agenda-setting, transparency and accountability.
Celtic FC reps appeared to recognise that aspects of our proposal had merit. However, there was clear reluctance around democratic selection and whether elections were necessary. Some exchanges were challenging, but the meeting remained professional and the Collective position was presented robustly. We concluded by asking Celtic to commit to continued engagement with the Collective before finalising its model. George Campbell did not provide a firm commitment, but John-Paul Taylor agreed to provide a response to this quickly.
We will update members with any developments in due course.
Many thanks,
Lord Nimmo Smith chaired the SPL Independent Commission, covering SPL rules & regs.
He also chaired the SFA ‘Independent’ re SFA Articles of Association etc.
Two for the price of one…..
SAINT STIVS on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2026 2:27 PM
“The 32% slide in our share price over the last 3-months is reflective of just how poorly the club is being run”
Ignore him, hes talking rubbish
The share price is higher that it was a year ago. There was a big bump in the summer but it’s settled back to it’s usual price now.
SAINT STIVS on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2026 5:17 PM
Thank you for sharing this.
And, there in a nutshell is the perfect demonstration of how Celtic continues to fail even when they feel like they’re genuinely trying to do better.
Utter and absolute incompetence in all that they do.
If they were truly committed, this would have been an easy and much needed win for the club vis-a-vis the relationship with the support.
celtic40me on 25th September 2026 5:21 pm
SAINT STIVS on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2026 2:27 PM
“The 32% slide in our share price over the last 3-months is reflective of just how poorly the club is being run”
Ignore him, hes talking rubbish
———————
I cannot agree with you at all.
Informed opinion with relevent expertise is imho valuable.
You and I can then form our own opinions, and I do, but as others say often, two things can be true at the sametime.
From AI
Celtic plc’s (CCP) share price is down roughly 2.5% compared to exactly this time last year, currently trading at 170.60 GBX (pence).On 25 September 2025, the stock closed at 175.00 GBX, which is the exact same level it maintained for most of September 2026 until a minor dip in late September following the club’s annual financial results release
and as an alternative, using much more simplistic insights ………….
the share price was up during the summer as Celtic the club had potential access to the Champions league riches, which based on historical financial results would likely give a £30m plus profit
and returns to the “normal” range when they blow it and end up in the europa league.
see what I did there.
ask ai.
🗓 Historical Milestones (2021–2026)
2021–2022: Traded flat in a narrow band between 95p and 115p before climbing toward 137p mid-2022.
2023–2024: Steady appreciation driven by strong domestic football performance, Champions League revenue participation, and positive financial results, pushing past 170p–200p.
2025–2026: Reached a 52-week and multi-year peak near 254p–260p following solid full-year earnings and managerial stability under returning manager Martin O’Neill, before pulling back closer to 170p in late September 2026.
PeterLatchfordsBelly on 25th September 2026 4:22 pm
Without getting into the blame game we all love to argue I think most are agreed our club is a mess from top to bottom.
*not I, 14 out of 15 and one of the greatest recoveries that make 10 men won the League and Albert Kidd Day pale in significance ensure that we urnae, well IMHO, just happy too support the greatest club in the world who happen to play in a country that isnae that fond of us
“The 32% slide in our share price over the last 3-months is reflective of just how poorly the club is being run”.
Fun fact: Celtic’s shares price is pretty much back to where it was this time last year. But get this, during a season that was a complete shit-show off the pitch it rose by almost 53% between 24 September ‘25 and 17 June ‘26! Going by the logic above, this 53% rise surely demonstrates how superbly the club was being run?
Interestingly the shares had been in a tight 185p-200p trading range from late November ‘25 until late May this year when they went parabolic after Celtic secured an unlikely league and cup double, rising by over 30% in 22 trading sessions to peak at around 256p. As mentioned, they have now round-tripped and are back to where they were this time last year.
Beware false prophets, particularly those claiming to have held a ‘securities license’ because they should know a share price is basically the net present value (NPV) of the market’s best guess of a company’s future cash flow/earnings.
This time last year when the shares were trading c175p Celtic had been knocked out of the Champions League, playing Europa football, but still expected to dominate domestically. Fast forward a year, Celtic have been knocked out the Champions League, playing Europa football, but still expected to dominate domestically and the shares price is………………………175p!!
Magic, eh?