Celtic have played four games against Polish opposition, losing to Legia Warsaw and Wisla Crakow in 2006 friendlies, drawing thanks to a very late Kenny Dalglish goal against Wislaw, before losing the return game. We’re going to need to break new ground if we’re to reach the Champions League play-off round.
As I predicted, you can ignore the 1-1 draw with St Pat’s last week, Legia are a far better team than that result suggested and it now looks like they have thrown off their summer slumber.
Time to hit form, Celtic.
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Good afternoon all.
Just popped in again to say what a wonderful advert for our magnificent stadium last nights opening ceremony was. I was bursting with pride and had a wee tear in my eye when our Rod probably fulfilled his dream of playing at Paradise.
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
A belated 10 birthday wishes to Big Paul and CQN.
Cant believe it’s been 10 years, TEN YEARS…………….
where’s it all gone ?
Bigjoepondering…………………………… time
We have already played 5 or 6 friendlies,2 competitive games and have Forrest, Brown and Stokes lying injured.Commons very nearly came a cropper too at the weekend.
We should not be travelling to Germany and Finland.
Paul………………….67
Are you hanging up your key board………………….
BigJoeJustwondering……………
Toughest tie we coulda got. Id happily take a scrappy 0-1 victory for us next week. In my opinion the squad is weaker compared to this time last year when we had joe ledley, sammi, broony and james forest starting the qualifying round matches.
We just about scrapped through and got lucky. Legia Warsaw are a step up from any of those teams.
Big test awaits us bhoys.
Watching the Triatholon from Strathclyde Country Park. Reminds me of my holiday exercise activity …
15 minutes in the shower, 3 floors on the escalator then 100 yard stride to a good seat at the bar !
@lomalitomoala: Really disappointed but means I will be the Main honcho supporting the lads! Need every Celtic fan to get behind us! http://t.co/y2qSNcR3fS
So sad for the wee mhan.
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
The Bhoys are playing in Germany on Saturday and Poland on Wed. Its either send a development team to play St. Pauli or set up a training camp and travel from Germany direct to Poland. To fly players back Sat night and back out again maybe 48 hours later would seem crazy. My bet is a development team for St. Pauli game.
Here’s the conundrum: how do we get close to match speed without friendlies, how do we guarantee no injuries to key players we want at match speed?
Do you think we’re at match speed following our game the other night?
SydneyTim
It’s a long term game. You want us to spend £10m each on 3 players. Pay them £60k a week just so we are not just pumping the diddy teams but also Aberdeen 6-0?
That makes no sense in the current format. We have a strategy as a club. The long term plan is to bring through our own players. That has always been the case but now we have invested in facilities and infrastructure to do that.
You must have the facilities to generate the monies required to attract players and also pay them. Celtic are doing that just now. Celtic will open a cafe and a museum. There is much still to be done. Celtic Park and the surrounding area is not finished yet. It is still developing and growing.
Patience is the key here. I am 36 and have seldom sen the club enjoy a better time in Europe since the year 2000. Before that period I was lucky to see us go 2 rounds. The success is relative in Europe. We have made a final and been in Europe after Christmas many seasons. I’m not sure what the stats are but I would imagine that not since the 60’s and 70’s golden years have we been in Europe after Christmas more than we have the last decade or so.
Ask yourself what you expect.
Treble every season?
Latter stages in Europe?
Do you expect that if we spend £50m on polayers we will do that? Man City spent around £200m and couldn;t even get out of their group. Spending money on players will not always work.
Patience is required until Celtic join a European league because it will happen and we will then be able to compete with other clubs for the bigger names. I would hope that we don;t spend crazy sums on players though. I want us to bring our own through and see as many Bhoys from Scotland as possible in those famous green and white jerseys. If it was good enough in 1967 it’s good enough for our future.
Patience is the key
LB
Legia will be the toughest team we have faced in the Champions Route of the CL, and this is not even our final qualifier.
No player(s) brought in or players sold (with the exceptions of Forster, Van Dijk & Commons) during the qualifiers is going to make any appreciable difference to our odds of qualifying.
However, if we do manage again to achieve the tough task of qualification for group stages, then we will be in a better position to attract better quality players as we offer a CL stage (and shop window) for them.
That is the dilemma. We can buy now and we will be choosing amongst a smaller less talented group of players willing to come. Or we can qualify on the basis of the squad we assembled from previous transfer activity and we might persuade better quality players to take a chance on us or use us as a stepping stone. Which way do you jump faced with that choice?
Answer is “it does not matter” since the club custodians have shown that this is the broad strategy and they will not readily depart from it. Does not matter how many people throw out the “worshiping the balance sheet” jibe, they will continue to employ the best strategy for a club in our position which is a slow and gradual climb up the ladder of those clubs who have to operate outwith the free TV money of the big league clubs and the CL elite cartel.
I suspect we will be favourites against Legia but they are a more technical and tactical problem than were Rejkjavik. We will need to be defensively sound to give ourselves the best chance of reaching the next qualifying stage.
SFTB
” All in all, a wonderfully daft opening to our games.”
An excellent summation of the Opening Ceremony ( capped by the nearly didnae Open Baton Ceremony!).
JJ
“Some People want to see healthy balance sheets and other People want to see exciting players on the park”
…and some believe that the former is necessary to realise the latter.
JJ
Weefrathe, Sorry for our wee Tongan Bhoy OK but having some little involvement in boxing, not making the weight is criminal. In a major games a slip up like that just shouldn’t happen.
SydneyTim
12:16 on 24 July, 2014
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I share your concerns mate.
I think that, the ‘bored’ are going to gamble – Karagandy – style against Legia.
Last year, we scraped through then, got kitted-out as the punchbags of the group.
There certainly seems to be more about the dugout than last season. imho
I have said before that, we shouldn’t bring anybody in unless, their exceptional.
GMS, falls into that category for me.
Legia could provide the punch on the nose that wakens all the hahahappy-clapping dreamers up. I hope not though.
HH
Livibhoy. No I don’t want that. I want one player on top wages to help the youths
I don’t want us to spend 6m on three duds like derk Balde and pukki ( pukki will never be a 25 goal a year striker )
I want our team full of players like Calum , but he needs quality beside him
Just seen that the Tongan boxer hadn’t made the weigh in. Think he’s been enjoying himself a little too much in Glasgow this week! Thought he looked rather chubby. At least he got to wear the hoops in front of a sell out crowd at parkhead. Something most of us can only dream of!
If they didn’t play friendlies, they would be involved in training and bounce games at Lennoxtown and quite possibly pick up the odd niggle then.
Forrest is always injured, Brown injury was not a contact injury and could have happened anytime, Stokes ‘injury’ is not a physical one in my mind, and KC has thighs like tree trunks !
I still think they are a bit off the pace as Ronny was quick to point out in the press – ‘irked’ that they took feet off the gas and didn’t ‘destroy’ Reykjavik.
With Izzy and Efe (key parts of our defence) recently joining the squad after WC, I think playing the friendlies offers more benefits than risks.
Thinking of going to 2nd leg. Is it defintely the 6th aug ? cant see anything on the club website.
Afternoon all. Beautiful here, as ever (or so it seems).
Was CQN down this morning? I have been out since 10 o’clock.
As I turned in last night, the last thing I heard was the editor of the Scottish Sun running down the Opening Ceremony. Personally, I thought it brilliant after the first 10 minutes or so. It captured for me a whole lot more than all the independence debates and the song debates on here what I am. I see myself as a Glaswegian, from the East End. Whether that makes me Scottish or British, I don’t really know because there are parts of both identities that I feel comfortable in and parts I don’t. But I feel that the Ceremony captured what it means to be a Glaswegian: open and friendly and welcoming to all.
Take care Tims.
Off oot – zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
SydneyTim, For the most part I’m sympathetic to your point of view, don’t agree with all your stuff but I always feel your heart is in the right place. However I think you are wrong about Pukki, if he gets sufficient game time, I think he could well be a 25 goal a year striker.
An Dun, 2nd game is Wed Aug 6th and it is on official website.
Starry Plough My opinion on Legia game yesterday. We were poor in first half, average in the second half with some signs of normal Legia quality. We can play faster that’s for sure. One CB yesterday will be replaced by the better CB. Generally, I would say about Celtic v. Legia the chances are 70 to 30 percent. I see the bookies are making us the favourites by the margin in Warsaw.
Oh, my apologies to those who felt I was unfair to Hazel Irvine last night. I didn’t hear her refer to Rod Stewart’s connection to Celtic but maybe that was because I was already annoyed with her referring to them sitting in Dalmarnock. They were sitting in Parkhead. The other side of London Road, where the Velodrome is, used to be Barrowfield. Dalmarnock only begins way down at the bottom end of Springfield Road. At least that it is how it was when I was growing up.
“to play friendlies against St.Pauli and Spurs within days of the two legs is outrageous”
Or
Having further opportunities for the New Manager to shape his side his side before important games is a good idea.
JJ
We should not be entertaining any player transfers until we have either qualified for the CL group stages or are out of the CL competition.
It nearly backfired last year.
DO NOT let it happen this year Mr Lawell.
Jungle Jim
11:08 on
24 July, 2014
Bognorbhoy
Does that count as a podium?
no ..no…no…no…no…..yes..
vicarofdibleycsc
Sounds like that Tongan boxer took the ` shirt doesn`t shrink to fit the man` literally 0:-)
Thanks CorkCelt.
zbyszek,
You wouldn’t be trying to lead us into a false sense of security ya fox…:)
sftb
I think Karagandy were a much more difficult opponent all round than Legia will be, and don’t think we’ll lose 2-0 away.
The change of manager fitted nicely with the CL board signing policy as Ronny needs all the friendlies to assess what he has, and we’ve Craig Gordon in case the valuation of Forster is met by the alleged suitors.
Lots out before this board will spend.
What a wonderful evening……excellent show put on in a brilliant stadium,,,,class acts big thanks to all who took part on the hallowed turf……stewardship was courteous on entering the stadium and leaving..something we could do with on a Saturday instead of looking at gloom faces,,,,unable to get past the search team with a flask of cold water,,,,young soldier lad went out of his way to get me 2 plastic water bottles….nice one……seat was in JS section not far from HM and wee Alex…..so all in all 2 great nights in a row…..as for the moaners who have been given air time on the radio this morning about bad organisation etc etc just keep hurting
Legia Warsaw tie shaping up to be a season definer.
Sispini :-) I did say nothing that your coach would not learn and know.
My friends in Celtic,
The good thing is RD will judge all on merit. No reputations or status will count. Everybody is starting from scratch.
On that basis I cannot see a long term future for AS. Pukki will possibly come through as an attacking midfielder, but as a goal scoring striker, I cant see it.
TW remains an enigma. Is he in our plans, is he reliable, is he fit, is he the real deal, has he got a future at Parkhead. ? We just don’t know but the clock is ticking. His potential based on one goal has only got a limited lifespan.
HH.
corkcelt
Fair comment, as I don’t follow boxing too much, I wasn’t aware of that. Every days a school day. :-)))
Weefra HH praying to Wee Oscar.
Sidney Tim
There are lots of reasons why purchasing a high value player is no longer part of the Celtic world.
Apart from putting a big egg in a shoogly basket there is the cost of purchase – would you see that lad Mccormick at £11m a bums on seats player? Me neither.
Then wages. If in the 40k a week bracket that would upset the wage structure applecart and possibly team morale.
Then would a bums on seats player come to play in the SPL?
Would they settle in during the short period before the season starts in earnest? At least we replaced Ledley early.
The world that Celtic operated in in 2000 with arrival of MON has gone.
You might as well complain about the rain. Stand out in it and get soaked or buy an umbrella.
Bonuses and balance sheets are the symptoms not the cause.
Zbyszek
Ah ha I thought you looked shaky in there, best player to come back in, should be two great games, too expensive to fly from here at such short notice for me, will be watching on Celtic TV.
Hope you have a great time Zbyszek meeting up with old friends and making new ones..