Real and Atletico Madrid have met twice in the Champions League final (2014, 2016), once in the semi-final (2017) and once in the quarters (2015). Atletico’s only win over those games was effectively a dead rubber, as they went into the 2017 semi-final second leg 3-0 down.
The teams meet again tonight at the Bernabeu in the round of 16 first leg. Atletico sit a point behind Barcelona in second place in La Liga, two points ahead of Real and are unbeaten in the last 8 matches against their more illustrious rivals.
I find it difficult to praise their manager, Diego Simeone. There is nothing likeable about the man, but personality aside, he is remarkably effective. One point about Atletico’s season in particular is worth highlighting. Antoine Griezmann (33) has played more minutes than any other outfield Atletico player this season, and he has only played 80% of the time.
Simeone shares the load around, protects key players from burnout and utilises the resultant space in the team to develop fringe players. Many components go into any side who sit about Real Madrid in La Liga this deep into the season, but few can be more important than this one.
Celtic have rotated more this season than any I recall, although Callum McGregor’s historic low of playing 87% of our games is due to injury (and not being forced to play through an injury).
Atletico compete against the biggest two clubs in world football; Celtic are resourced well above anyone in Scotland. Scope for us to rest and rotate should be higher than anyone in Europe. It is a metric we should measure.
We might look at the Due Diligence concept later in the week. At first glance, it appears as poorly understood in Scottish football circles as insolvencey rules were in early 2012.
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Happy Wednesday eve!
16 days until spring. Act accordingly.
BRRB , what time did we say we were meeting to do the run around Strathclyde park ? 🤪
Aipple, steer clear of the Shipbank shipwrecks on your next visit .
They are a rum lot 🤪
FRED COLON
Aye, indeed. I’ve seen photos.
Looking in from the outside, I don’t think things have moved on from Ange saying a few years back that starts had to be earned at Celtic, they wouldn’t just be handed out.
That limits rotation, limits development, but also infuses a must win and highly competitive attitude in the squad.
Yes indeed.
I wonder if we’ll see that awkward moment when ‘agreed in principle’ meets due diligence.
Paul67
That awkward moment when Rainjurz are in the same sentence as due diligence.
Celtic are resourced well above anyone in Scotland. Scope for us to rest and rotate should be higher than anyone in Europe. It is a metric we should measure.
—-
I find it difficult to reconcile this comment with your rage at a 3-3 draw at dens park which seen us 13/14 points clear.
The fact is, we must win every game and trophy. Scope for rotation is limited. Celtic operate on demands that very few if any other club in Europe experience.
👆💥
Has there been any direct quotes or TV interviews by this ‘takeover’ group ? ……….I am firmly in the jackanory camp.
truelies CSC
Who did Ange Posticoglu develop in his era?
Take your time CSC
THEBHOYFROMU.N.C.L.E re: direct quotes
Nope, no quotes just tabloid bluster.
Roll up roll up……erza season tickets.
WEDNESDAY 4TH
Fr Murphy was in tonight. I have not felt too bad today, although I notice the energy beginning to drain. But it is quite early yet. I got showered today and had my hair cut, which made me feel quite good. Ten years younger, the boys joke, but I feel twenty years older, the inevitable consequence of eight years of torture and imprisonment.
I am abreast with the news and view with utter disgust and anger the Reagan/Thatcher plot. It seems quite clear that they intend to counteract Russian expansionism with imperialist expansionism, to protect their vital interests they say.
What they mean is they covet other nations’ resources. They want to steal what they haven’t got and to do so (as the future may unfortunately prove) they will murder oppressed people and deny them their sovereignty as nations. No doubt Mr Haughey will toe the line in Ireland when Thatcher so demands.
Noticed a rarity today: jam with the tea, and by the way the Screws are glaring at the food. They seem more in need of it than my good self.
Aipple- this bit could have been written today….
**What they mean is they covet other nations’ resources. They want to steal what they haven’t got and to do so (as the future may unfortunately prove) they will murder oppressed people and deny them their sovereignty as nations. No doubt Mr Haughey will toe the line in Ireland when Thatcher so demands.**
History forever repeating itself!!!
Rotation is practised by Celtic regularly, sometimes it works well and there is no drop in level but other times it is clear that it’s not working. Usually it seems to be the result of rustiness of the fringe players
The regular use of all 5 substitutes is also a form of rotation and we do that most games
We will shortly win the title and then we will see increased rotation with the need to ensure the fitness of our squad for the cup final
Onwards to another treble
Hoople
Got it in 3!
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Regarding player rotation, I firmlybbelieve McGregor should be on the bench for most of the remaining league guys. Rather build a replacement to cover if he gets injured than have to have someone start cold.
Likewise, we should give Sinsalo a few starts. Casper is world class, but we need to see if his replacement is up to the job.
On a different note, well done to Brendan and staff for raising Yangs standards up this season.
Looks like I am typing with my thumbs 🙄
Art of War re: history repeating
I thought the same as I read through this morning.
aye me to.
theBHOYfromU.N.C.L.E @ 12:39 pm
Roll up roll up……erza season tickets.
——-
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Meanwhile in other totally unrelated news ..
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_sucker_born_every_minute
Agree with leader Paul.
Nothing fancy required to get this started.
We play 60 matches a season.
Each match lasts roughly 100 minutes.
Referees and VAR permitting we anticipate 11 guys on the field at any given time.
60 ganes x 100 mins x 11 players = 66,000 minutes capacity required a season
Across 22 players an average of 3,000 minutes per player.
Set an upper limit – say 4,000 or 4,500 minutes. Our superstars don’t play a minute more.
Set a lower limit – say 1,500 or 2,000 minutes. Our squad players don’t play a minute less. If they ain’t good enough to contribute those minutes to a standard that delivers silverware, sell them for cash and invest in someone who is.
Simplistic of course but illustrative.
Here’s how it could look
BUILD IT!
It has been asked who did Ange Postecoglou develop in his era? I think it is fair to say that both Liel Abada and Matt O’Riley fell into the project category and developed well under Ange.
Build it …. and they will leave early.
In respect of due diligence….
I know navigating James Forrest blog can be a off putting but his analysis of the 3 factors 49ers will have to consider including the risk to profit Celtic pose is worth a read.
https://thecelticblog.com/2025/03/articles-and-features/ungrateful-peepul-ibrox-investors/comment-page-1/#comment-403925
I commented as follows
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The ingratitude of The Peepul is staggering. Any investor would do well to consider that.
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Yesterday, I watched an outstanding podcast featuring the Celtic Exchange and David Low.
0:14
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2:21
Butland: We need to be hurt by this
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Now, I love David. I think he’s one of the real superstars of Celtic social media—a big personality, a big player at the club at one point, and a guy who cares passionately about us.
He brings a level of expertise to any discussion regarding the club, especially on the financial side.
Most Read on The Celtic Blog
Too many agents want players to leave Celtic, regardless of what it costs them.
The ingratitude of The Peepul is staggering. Any investor would do well to consider that.
McGarry’s Daily Mail article is pitiful. Celtic fans have been saying it all for months.
One of the comments he made in the podcast was about how the Celtic board has disrespected the shareholders and the paying customers. They take out without putting in, and I couldn’t agree more with that.
But I don’t know a single Celtic fan who genuinely focuses on that aspect of it. I agree completely with him on the disrespect. I agree that these guys don’t contribute anything financially—that’s left to the rest of us.
But then, I’ve never wanted them to put their hands in their pockets.
You have to love how excited the mainstream media gets, and how excited the Ibrox fans get, at the prospect of billionaire owners.
We’ve had a billionaire as our largest shareholder for more than 20 years now, and that man has never once put his own hands in his pocket to fund this club. I don’t resent that. I’m proud that everything this club has was built by the supporters. I’m proud that we run on a break-even basis and that we don’t spend money we don’t bring in ourselves.
But I know football, and I know football fans. If Dermot Desmond was bankrolling Celtic, he’d be even more appreciated than he is now. And a lot of fans do appreciate Dermot’s contribution to this club.
If he and our directors weren’t very good at bringing in cash but were funding the club out of their own pockets, my respect for them would be through the roof. That might sound paradoxical, and if you give me one of the two scenarios, I take this one all day, every day. But if we were in desperate straits, and these guys were keeping the lights on, how could you not appreciate that?
And that’s what amazes me most about the attitudes of our rival supporters—their gross ingratitude, their utter selfishness. That selfishness is reflected in a lot of the mainstream media coverage that the club across the city gets.
The people who’ve kept the lights on, who’ve made sure there were transfer funds available to every manager over there—are they appreciated for it? No, they’re not. And nothing speaks more about that support and its sense of entitlement, a sense of entitlement shared by some in the media, than that does.
I think it’s disgusting—the level of abuse and hatred now being aimed at the people who have made sure that club can even function. I don’t think they are great leaders. I don’t think they are great strategists. I don’t think they are very competent. But I’ve levelled some of those same charges at our own board of directors. The difference is we’re winning, and they’re not.
But one charge I won’t lay against our directors is incompetence, because they are very, very competent men within their sphere of knowledge. They are in a different league to the guys over at Ibrox. And they are not zealots. They are not in thrall to the lunatic fringe. Not that we have a lunatic fringe in the way the Ibrox club has, but you know what I mean. They run this club in a very professional manner.
So yeah, the Ibrox board has made mistakes our board wouldn’t have made. They have made decisions our board wouldn’t have made. Their decision to overfund certain managers has proved catastrophic for the club as a whole. But without those contributions, where would that club be?
That ungrateful, permanently enraged Ibrox support thinks second place is bad? Take last year’s £17 million of losses out of that playing squad, and they’d be lucky to be sitting in fourth place this year. Take the millions spent the year before, which contributed to their debt, out of the playing squad, and they’d be a mid-table team trying to stay in the top six and qualify for Europe.
I’ve said this before, and I cannot emphasise this point enough—if their club is forced to spend only what it earns, they are in more trouble than they are in right now. They’re in a deeper hole than they are in right now. They’re in a worse footballing place than they are in right now.
One of the things David talked about on the podcast was what he called the “two cheque strategy,” common in American business when a takeover is in play. I’ll describe it exactly as he did:
The guy leading the takeover writes one big cheque to get the deal done. He then hires some MBA accountancy type to run the whole operation, and his remit is very simple—don’t give me any reason to have to write another big cheque. Run this on a break-even basis and, ideally, in profitability, but make sure that what’s already been spent doesn’t have to be spent again. Don’t make me sign that second cheque.
There are Ibrox websites talking about how they now have the money to sign Vaclav Cerny for £8 million in the summer. That’s the level of fantastical nonsense some of them are peddling. You have people like Keith Jackson pushing, like a drug, the idea that the manager is going to get a fortune to spend. These people live in a parallel reality. None of that is going to happen.
Nothing is going to change over there. And even if everything changes, nothing will. This is still a club whose supporters are permanently locked into a cycle of spending money they don’t have. And if this takeover doesn’t happen—or even if it does, and the club is run on a break-even basis—it won’t be long before they’re screaming from the rafters at the new board and looking for someone else to give them a handout of free money.
They talk endlessly about copying Celtic, but they have no intention of doing so and no interest in trying to emulate us.
They are permanently on the lookout for a sugar daddy—that’s all they focus on. If the new board isn’t coming in to splash the cash, then what’s the point of having them? If these people aren’t willing to put their hands in their pockets and fund the next great Ibrox playing squad, then why even bother selling in the first place? They simply don’t understand that this is not how it’s going to work.
If I were involved in that takeover, I’d be looking at three key things. The first is the strength of our potential rival, and in this case, that’s Celtic—whose strength is immense. We currently have more money in the bank than it will cost these people to mount their takeover bid.
In other words, if someone out there is looking to buy the Ibrox club, Celtic could do it with the surplus we have in the bank right now.
The structural advantage of 10,000 more seats is one they aren’t going to close, except at the cost of tens of millions of pounds, which just about makes it not worth their while. That’s a task that will take years and would require them to decant to Hampden while the work gets done—costing them even more money.
I’ve read a lot about how these people will invest in all this infrastructure. They haven’t done it at Leeds so far, and the idea that they’re going to do it the way the 49ers have allegedly spent money on infrastructure in the U.S. betrays an appalling lack of understanding of how things work over there.
I don’t know what work has been done on the 49ers’ stadium. What I do know is that when that stuff happens in the States, the state itself usually ends up paying a large chunk of the cost. John Oliver, the English-born comedian who hosts the HBO smash hit Last Week Tonight, did an episode on stadiums a couple of years back, and it’s mind-blowing how much public money goes toward major sports franchise infrastructure. It’s the government that builds the infrastructure over there—not the clubs.
And I can assure everyone that the Scottish Parliament is not putting its hands into our pockets to pay for any renovations to Ibrox. Not a chance in hell. So, if these people really are going to invest heavily in that kind of infrastructure project, they’re going to have to do it in a way that has never been done in the U.S.
All these mega sponsorship deals that the 49ers allegedly have? They’re actually negotiated by the NFL itself, which is the sole body responsible for bringing in sponsorship and ad revenue, which is then divided between the teams.
Sure, there may be some opportunity for crossover promotion, but I’m telling you now, nobody is going to go to the 49ers’ stadium in a newly minted Ibrox kit—not when they have their own merchandise to buy. And especially not when that club’s in competition with an English Premier League side like Leeds. All of this is just nonsensical.
In the meantime, their own club’s directors—the guys who are currently there—get pilloried. They get abuse, they get hate poured on them every week now. And all these guys have done is keep the club alive all these years.
Yet the Ibrox fans still haven’t twigged that these guys are so sick of it now that they’ll sell up to anybody who offers them money for their shares. “Let this be someone else’s problem”—that’s the prevailing attitude. Dave King called it “investor fatigue.” I call it just being sick to death of the scorn and fury poured upon them because they don’t have deeper pockets.
Like I said about a week ago when this story first broke—if the Ibrox fans are waiting for someone else to do the due diligence for them, nobody will. The SFA waved these guys in through the gates without even knowing who they are, without knowing their plan, without knowing what strategy they intend to follow.
And that is shameful enough. But the media are even worse.
The excitement is palpable, imaginations are running riot. These people are very good at spending other folks’ money. And although nobody in this alleged consortium has uttered a single word in public, you have people like Keith Jackson running around making promises on their behalf.
If I were them, I would consider the two things other things on my list of three key considerations. I would consider the media environment here, and I would be worried about that. But more than that, I would consider the fanbase and its ultra-unrealistic level of expectation. I would consider their culture. I would consider their hatred and their ingratitude. Because who needs that in their lives?
And yes, these people might not care—living at a great remove from all this in their walled mansions and gated communities. They may not give a damn about the foot-stamping frustrations and fury of The Peepul. But they need to consider what happens to their investment if they can’t deliver.
If I were these guys, I would be very, very careful. And I would seriously be considering other options. David Low thinks they will be, and I agree with him. But I must admit—I’m pretty keen to see this go ahead. If for no other reason than so I can see Keith Jackson and others calling for these people’s heads within 12 months and being shocked when it all plays out exactly the way some of us have said it will.
As I keep saying—that club’s supporters deserve everything they get.
And there are so many potential downsides to this scenario that I want to see them end up with every last one of them.
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James Forrest
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8 comments
Kevcelt59
says:
March 4, 2025 at 10:09 am
Was actually surprised myself, how on social media, altough granted, there are a lot exercising caution, there are so many of them willing tae jump right in with both feet. Even makin extravagant predictions of how much money being made available and tellin us all that we ‘re ‘runnin scared’ and that our time’s at an end. Ffs, they really have nae idea. None of this ‘level headed’ shit for them.
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TonyB
says:
March 4, 2025 at 10:39 am
The Damned United and The Damned. How very apt.
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Thegoodghuy
says:
March 4, 2025 at 11:19 am
I don’t blame them, because I was the exact same as them in the 90’s. Every season I kept hoping it would get better, I kept wanting someone to come in to change it, that was my childhood. My mum and dad would buy us our Celtic tops every season, and every season I’d just want it to get better, I remember it only too well. I had my heroes like big Paul Elliot, John collins, Paul mcstay, but they had too many good players. I understand were they are coming from , oh I know it only too well.
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Johnny Green
says:
March 4, 2025 at 11:20 am
At least you can take comfort James in the fact you know, that these dire warnings you are forecasting for the Huns Takeover, will be completely dismissed and ignored. Indeed it will be judged as a Fenian scaremongering tactic and will further convince them to go ahead with it.
Keep up the good work.
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Brattbakk
says:
March 4, 2025 at 11:36 am
You have to laugh at the excitement over being able to afford Cerny. Spend £8m to keep the same team? Fair enough, he’s been their best player this season after an awful start but it’s hardly scary for us. Who knows how this takeover will pan out if it even happens, but the most remote of all outcomes is the one the zombies think is inevitable, where money is no object and they disappear into the distance.
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Johnny Green
says:
March 4, 2025 at 12:01 pm
They have already disappeared into the distance BB, they are nowhere to be seen in our rearview mirror.
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Auldheid
says:
March 4, 2025 at 2:00 pm
Absolutely spot on James.
R2ngers could be run at a profit but it would not be Rangers as much of their support see them.
Due diligence should look at the 3 points you raise and if it is clear Celtic intend to be regular participants in the CL by spending up to the 70% of their football earnings, of which CL income contributes hugely to compared to our other football income streams then R2ngers will be competing against the other clubs with decent sized support for a EL place.
Without EL money making a worthwhile profit will be very very difficult.
Jackson is part of a putting lipstick on a pig operation.
THEBHOYFROMU.N.C.L.E 👍
Apologies for the copy over picking up the blog itself but my comment is at the end.
It is high body time P67 put his IT knowledge into allowing an edit facility.
It’s a reason I rarely post. Pain in the neck
Looking forward to the game tonight. Atleti are a different team to the one we used to watch, the games against us came while Simeone was changing the way they played, now they are much more attack and possession-minded. They do, as Paul says rotate heavily, and people are saying that they have two very decent stating elevens in the squad. They have outstanding stats for goals in the last ten minutes, they invariably finish games strongly because of the subs Simeone can bring on.
They had a very highly rated sporting director who moved on in January and who now looks likely to go to Arsenal. Rumour is that he fell out with Simeone who got his own man in, despite them having previously had a great working relationship. Very good signings and a winning squad even when selling their best players.
Atleti is Simeone and vice-versa, understandable with him being a world class coach who has shown total loyalty to his club over 14 years although paying him more than any other coach in the world helps. Its not something Celtic should ever look to copy, at least not until we become an end destination for coaches and players, and as recent experience has shown us. Planning Club vision and strategy belongs to those who will be around for all the ups and downs of any cycle
Bloody
I rest my case.
No edit facility is lazy blog management.
Matt O’Riley started well at Celtic then his form nosedived is season 2, there were regular posters on here that couldn’t see a player never mind a £25M one. It wasn’t till BR return that MOR fully blossomed and turned goal scorer.
As for Liel Abada he was never a regular starter under either manager and probably found his true level in MLS.
Abada was much better than MLS, his goalscoring record for a 19 and 20 year old was exceptional. Important goals as well, with both feet and his head. Also plenty of assists. Chairbhoy himself called him one of our best players who we couldn’t afford to sell ahead of one of the transfer windows
His development stalled, probably for a few reasons, but he was clearly unhappy. Unlike Matt who, from what he himself said, enjoyed working with Brendan more than Ange. It does happen.
bournesouprecipe on 4th March 2025 2:51 pm
I like to think I have a reasonable eye for a player although it might be argued I should never have let you leave Boydstone Rovers but apart from your comment about the inability to spot a player , it is remarkable how much memory distorts the opinions offered..
See human beings? Wit ur we like?
Also a bit harsh on Abada to talk about him not being a starter when he was in completion with Jota and Maeda for a place, and was 19 and 20.
Makes his goals and assists stats even more impressive – he managed nearly a goal or an assist per 90 minutes player min the spl