Our two loan signings on the final day of the transfer window, Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers, have been crucial to the (presumptive) outcome of the league title, the latter more so than the former; Cameron could easily have won Player of the Year. Despite this, it is Jota who is the more important to secure on a permanent deal.
Having watched Newco suffocate our midfield twice in a month and Bodo/Glimt do the same earlier in the year, to the extent that we struggled to build periods of possession, never mind attacks, we need to answer the question, why was this?
When our central defenders have the ball, they face options of either trying to find a full back or Callum McGregor, or hope that someone further up field is in space. Those options were snuffed out by Newco, causing a nervousness as players took possession with an opponent breathing down his neck.
What would Kristoffer do?
Kristoffer Ajer would step forward with the ball, drawing opponents off their markers and immediately creating space. He could then play a short pass or, if he was not challenged, continue a run through the middle.
It is reasonable to claim Celtic have the best two central defenders in the league, even the previously maligned Carl Starfelt is a model of solidity. The problem is, neither can carry the ball forward as effectively as Kris Ajer. We need at least one central defender with this attribute, preferably two.
Ange Postecoglou is not going to change the way we play. Next season you will see our central defenders in possession looking at man-marked team-mates. We either address an identifiable problem, or we are in for more of the same.
The first job of a defender is to defend, and we all remember the shambles of last season, even with Kris, but despite my fondness for Cameron and Carl in this respect, we need a rethink.
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TIMHORTON
My source was BBC so you may well be right
HH
CC 12.01am
Europa league winners ..
go straight into the CL as pot 1 seeds … the matter of any league standings
Mon the Frankfurt 🇩🇪
CADDINGTON – If that’s right it’s been a dream season for the money men of Scotch fitba.
Business-wise they couldnt have dreamt both clubs would be so financially cosseted for next year.
Just when you thought they were drawing their next, last breaths… [sighs]
GFTB @1208
I did say I might be wrong and I obviously was.
I was around when EF beat them 12-4 o aggregate in Europe so something similar in terms of goals would indeed be a treat.
As an earlier poster said, we bested them this season and they still reached a European championship final. Says a lot about the quality of the other teams.
Hail Hail
Stay Safe
Cheer up folks.
Always look on the bright side of life.
Things could be worse.
You could be one of the electorate in Sunderland West !
🤦🤭
Night all.
CC 12.20am
I think it’s a new a thing .. I was unaware of the straight into the top seed thing … I do think it makes the Europa a lot more attractive to teams in the “big” leagues … just gutted it might help the Huns
Anyway … Saturday = 3pts … priority 🍀
We define our season not the Huns
My friends in Celtic,
What do you think of this. Shamelessly copied from another site.
It’s food for thought.
“Jealousy and bitterness is not a good look. The bottom line is that they have achieved something that we haven’t even come remotely close to in the 19 years since we were in Seville and they are now one game away from being in Pot One of the Champions League group stages.
Rather than being jealous, rather than being bitter, perhaps we would be better reflecting on how they have managed to reach a European final and we haven’t. Have they had an easy ride throughout the tournament? NO. Have they been lucky throughout the tournament? NO. Do they have better players than us? NO. Have they had a financial advantage that we haven’t? DEFINITELY NOT. So what have they got that has enabled them to do what we couldn’t and where have we gone wrong?
Before anybody rolls out the standard “it’s the board’s fault for not investing in the team” mantra, just remember that Rangers have not had money to invest but still managed to reach a European final.
We have had a fantastic season, far better than we had any right to expect and we are on the verge of regaining our title of Champions with a quality squad full of potential. Winning the league is fantastic but the European arena is where teams are judged, it’s where our worldwide reputation was cemented, but the harsh fact is that in recent years we have fallen well short of what we should be achieving in Europe.
The jealousy and bitterness that is being displayed on most Celtic pages tonight is not because they have reached a European final but because we haven’t. It could have been us but it wasn’t, it should have been us but wasn’t, that’s what really hurts. “
GREENPINATA on 6TH MAY 2022 2:24 AM
My friends in Celtic,
What do you think of this…
——————–
I think it’s a considered and mature reflection on a great achievement for THEMS [and the rep of Scottish football] and source of irritation/concern for all true CELTS including our coaches, players and execs.
It should stop some of our more bitter and jealous reactions and fuel a better assault on Euro prizes.
That said, it doesn’t totally inhibit my churlishness so… Ich bin Fan von Eintracht Frankfurt ;)
GREENPINATA on 6TH MAY 2022 2:24 AM
————————–
Thank you for posting that – can I add just one thing that is not mentioned? A guy called Ross Wilson, their recruitment manager. I think he is the difference. He is the one that has recruited the majority of these players on a shoestring-budget – with the notable exception of Morelos, Kent & Tavernier. He seems to uncover players that always come in and do a job, e.g Sakala, Kent, Hagi, Balagun, Roofe, Aribo, Lundstrum…..etc. Let’s hope that Mark Lawwell can do likewise for us.
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 5TH MAY 2022 11:00
—–
More ‘playground’ stuff “nah nah nah nah nah nah”.
Look, you are an intelligent man, why not act like one and post accordingly – disagree till your heart’s content, I will always read your input – but for God’s sake stop the inane jibes – there are a good few others on here that can only manage crap – you are not one.
Good morning CQN
Loved the banner from Frankfurt, hope they take it to Seville
https://twitter.com/AwayDaysVideos/status/1522312111564726272?s=20&t=KYgiGCnBiAhchBpPRmd04g
Morning all from a rain soaked Garngad
How bad is that Europa league, where the Conference looks a stronger tournament.
How a team that pumps the ball from back to front (high ball) constantly can reach a final and negate the art of playing football should be embarrassing for the corrupt organisation that runs it. I really think that Europa competition was piss poor.
We have the big cup they want but they will never get that.
That Klub will never get any respect from me. A Klub for bigots, ran by Bigots, supported by bigots to every man, woman and child. Bigots one and all.
We move onto Hearts let’s pump them by 4 or 5.
Make our own history.
COYBIG
D :)
Inventive spectacular display in Rome
‘In Brittania everyone feared the name of the Romans!’.
https://youtu.be/xiUstoHoDVY
aff oot to Larkhall………………………that will be fun
The difference between the styles of Celtic and the rangers franchise it epitomised by the free kick which led to their goal.
2 years ago v Copenhagen we had a similar free kick in a similar place just after leveling the tie.
We passed it back and Broony lost possession leading to them scoring. The rangers hoofed it into the box and fought for the second ball with every muscle and it fell for them to score.
Even in the era of Ange we would probably still do what we did. They were more pragmatic and they won.
Win tomorrow and Celtic fans can enjoy a week of celebrations (as long as rangers beat Dundee utd) Celtic will have something to celebrate each match.
Glasgow can still be green and white for a week reflecting Celtics great football triumph. Hopefully we are assessing how we can balance our MO and grow to that next level.
Them and us in some situations is like Brazil 82 vs Italy 82 or maybe even Holland 78 v Argentina 78 or even older Holland 74 v Germany 74. Playing the beautiful game doesn’t always win. MON and GS at their best in Europe were not pretty to watch. Nor was Neil’s teams.
Brazil 70 and the dominant Barca type performances are not so common.
We finished 25 points behind sevco last year.
This year if all stays the same we finish 6 points in front. This does not tell the full picture.
It’s a 31 point swing.
31 points. That tells the story.
Putting that aside, if anyone cannot see that our board is holding us back and not at 1 with the supporters they should take their head out of the sand.
Let us see how they back Ange, after and if we secure CCV and Jota Ange should still get 20 million to spend.
That’s ambition.
But he wont get that as our board are corrupt Hun apologist’s that could not give a jot about our club or supporters.
D :)
Guys we finished 25 points behind sevco last year.
This year if all stays the same we finish 6 points in front. This does not tell the full picture.
It’s a 31 point swing.
31 points. That tells the story.
Putting that aside, if anyone cannot see that our board is holding us back and not at 1 with the supporters they should take their head out of the sand.
Let us see how they back Ange, after and if we secure CCV and Jota Ange should still get 20 million to spend.
That’s ambition.
But he wont get that as our board are corrupt Hun apologist’s that could not give a jot about our club or supporters.
D :)
DAVID66
£20m?
Stop getting your Celtic news from the Daily Record.
Tom – Never bought that Rag or read it.
Obviously you do. Why you would buy that or even read it astounds me.
Ok £25 million if that makes you happy.
D :)
M
Couldn’t give a monkeys about the huns.
Try not to think about them at all unless we are playing them.
My wee girl has covid so plenty to occupy my mind at the moment.
Cold symptoms and tiredness.
Mind you I think she is enjoying being waited on hand and foot!
GWS baby!
Philbhoy – Hope your girl gets better.
D :)
Thanks David66!
She is well enough to work from home, so not too bad!
HH
PHILBHOY
Hugs tae O from ML5. HH
PHILBHOY
Speedy recovery from covid for your daughter 👍
Thought for the day.
The huns getting to a European final.
Does that increase or decrease the chances of Celtic, as a member of The Old Firm, getting into the EPL?
I wonder how TGD is feeling this morning.
Thanks Ghuys!
I will pass on your good wishes!
HH
David 66
As Stivs keeps reminding people , it wasn’t a 31 points swing , every season we start equally at 0 points … 😜😜
——–
Don’t usually see the local old firmers down here but I bet I run into them today 😂🙉
JHB @ 6.05…please don’t drag this into a second day. That for sure is childish.
Don’t let the huns’ win upset us too much. We’ve still to get the job done tomorrow and thereafter.
You’ve met your match in sftb, someone who doesn’t just call you a fud but decisively contests your havering.
Fud! 👈 that’s my retort.
Couldn’t GAF, about the huns.
I only see them play when it’s against us .
As my old man used to say. If they were playing in the back garden, I would draw the curtains.
It doesn’t impact on us. So who cares.
PHILBHOY on 6TH MAY 2022 9:06 AM
…………
I wish your Lass all the best mate.
HH
Come on Celtic.lets batter the edinburgh huns tmrw.lets get the league won and get the party started.
HAIL HAIL🍀🍀
Thanks BIG JIMMY!
Hope you are good!
Off out!
In all honesty, I have thought all week that the Huns were ” CERTS” to go through last night.
So much so, that I had the Correct Score Bet of 3-1 to the Huns at Odds at 33/1.
Having said that, I have ALREADY Placed a Bet this morning on Eintracht to beat the Huns 3-2 in the Final at Odds of 25/1.
Sadly while an Eintracht VICTORY will please me greatly, a DEFEAT for the Huns will make it an absolute CERTAINTY that the Hun Hordes WILL Trash Seville….NO QUESTION !
I hope the Owners of Bars and Cafes etc turn their backs on the Huns support and let the rest of Europe know it.
Although, I believe the Huns will trash Seville ….no matter the Final score.
On that sad note….
FFS
Over £1200 return economy Seville.
Shaftthem.com
Think I paid between 500 or 600 for Seville in 2003
and that was a return flight with 4 nights at a hotel
using Hynds Travel
Helluva difference and hope they scum idiots get well
and truly taken for a ride
I hope Them getting to the final puts our usual “we can’t compete in Europe” cries to bed. While they’ve had a huge amount of luck, they’re in a final having despatched the reigning champions of Armenia, Denmark and Serbia, a Czech team who cuffed us 4-1 home and away last year, the 4th best Portuguese team and the second and fifth best teams in the German top flight.
We, by contrast, haven’t won a post group knock-out tie since Barcelona in 2004 – some 18 years ago!! In the intervening time, we’ve failed to qualify for any European group stage twice – Artmedia in 2005 and both Braga (CL) and Utrecht (EL) in 2010. We’ve also had the delights of technical reprieves against Sion and Legia Warsaw – soon followed by us wishing we hadn’t bothered as we got a solitary win against Rennes in the group stage first time, and fell to Maribor second time round.
Having qualified for a group stage on 14 occasions since 2004, we’ve got to a post-group knock-out phase on 8 occasions. We have won 1 of those games (Zenit at home), drawn 3 (Milan, Inter, and Copenhagen) and lost 12 (Milan, Barcelona x 2, Juventus x 2, Inter, Zenit, Valencia x 2, Copenhagen, and Bodo x 2). As mentioned, we haven’t won any of the ties on aggregate. No disgrace not beating Barcelona or the big three Italian teams. Not even winning a game against Copenhagen and Bodo was poor. Not least as Bodo disproved our previous excuses for poor qualifying performances – rebuilding the team, we’re in pre-season against teams mid-season, etc.
Prior to 2004, we hadn’t been in European football after Christmas for 23 years – while the football calendar means we’re unlikely to have such a barren run again anytime soon, we’re not far off it being 23 years since we won a post-group knock-out tie, and if it weren’t for Musonda’s wonder goal against Zenit, we’d be saying that about winning a post-group knock out game!
As if all that wasn’t bad enough, we’ve also had the delights of having made our Champions League group stage debut in 2001 and it taking us 11 years and 5 appearances in the CL group stages to get an away win – Operation CLAW and all that. And we had the no wins in the group stage of the Europa League in Ronnie’s second year.
In short, for a club that boast a proud record in Europe with a big cup to show for it, we’ve actually been pretty awful overall. We’ve basically had 4 spells of relative success:
1. 10 years between 1965 and 1975 (the Stein era),
2. 1979-80 season when McNeil took us to the European Cup quarter finals,
3. 2001-04 under Martin O’Neil and
4. 2006-08 with two CL last -16 qualifications under Strachan.
We’ve fallen into the lament that the game has changed, money means we can’t compete, the big guns are just too good. Over the past five years, we’ve won four (of 20) games against a team ranked higher than us in the coefficient- Lazio twice, RB Leipzig, and that Zenit game. We’ve lost 15 of those games. They have half that number this season alone (Dortmund and Leipzig).
However you cut it, we’ve underperformed and this needs to be a wake-up call for us. Paul67 recently suggested that our fundamentals were good but we’ve now lost the 10 in a row campaign and been eclipsed in Europe by a team that weren’t even in the Scottish top flight 7 years ago!