I got my wish last night, that Leigh Griffiths would reach the 40 goal mark for the season, and what a great goal it was too, memories of Love St ’86. Also delighted Leigh was aware-enough to mimic Henrik’s ” five zero” gesticulation when he reached 50 in 2001.
40 goals for Celtic in a season is a very rare achievement, as Paul John Dykes pointed out this morning, it’s now only been done 13 times in 128 years. Jimmy McGrory (four times, three in a row) and Henrik Larsson (three times, two in a row), are the only two who have achieved this more than once in their Celtic careers, so Leigh knows what he needs to do next season to get a really special place in the history books.
As for the other pertinent points from last night’s game in Perth, I can cut Stefan Johansen some slack. McDiarmid Park was a farmer’s field not so long ago, and St Johnstone’s first goal looked like it came as a result of a plough intervention.
Efe Ambrose is another story. Last night’s decision to challenge (Logan Bailly) for a ball inside his own six-yard box was inexplicable but consistent with his general awareness this season. When the new manager is in place, someone inside Lennoxtown needs to find the earliest possible moment to sit him down and play the Efe highlights video.
We have a good central defender in Erik Sviatchenko (club captain in the making), and one who could become so in Jozo Simunovic. If Jozo gets himself fit for July we should be well-placed for the qualifiers, but those two aside, we are struggling in central defence.
Out of contract Charlie Mulgrew is in the latter stages of his career, but can be trusted to do a job without causing unnecessary alarm every week. Mikael Lustig’s days as a rampaging full back may be limited by his persistent hip issues, so playing as auxiliary central defender, as he often does for Sweden, works on paper.
I’d be far from confident facing Champions League qualifiers with Efe or Dedryk Boyata, who could still makes Belgium’s Euro’s squad, but if Jozo’s fit, signing a right back, with Mikael covering central defence, feels like an appropriate use of resources.
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I saw earlier tonight about the BBC, for the right reasons, delegating more to regions etc.
Then I thought of Scotland. And I despaired.
Scot,and with more control over its direct media? More chance to push and disguise it’s racist and facist agenda.
I fear for my children. I really do. Scotland with more power is a disaster. We love a one party state and have a dangerous herd mentality.
Orwell only got the year wrong I am afraid.
Macjay1 or a critique of those so Calle Christian values and our hypocracy.
Regardless a fantastic song.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36281699
Mac Jay,
Barcelona was indeed a triumph. A fantastic night that will live long in the memory of many fans.
But this came in the third season. The first two were grim.
I’m not saying for one minute the last two years in Europe have been fantastic but if the new man gets us footy after Xmas in his first season he’ll be doing well.
HH
I also saw an amazing bit of graffiti tonight.
Save Celtic
Sack Lawwell
I think it might catch on.
NEGANON2 on 12TH MAY 2016 11:50 PM
Macjay1 or a critique of those so Calle Christian values and our hypocracy.
Regardless a fantastic song.
===============================================================
:-)
Aye. Mebbe .
Certainly thought provoking.
NEGANON2 on 12TH MAY 2016 11:53 PM
I also saw an amazing bit of graffiti tonight.
Save Celtic
Sack Lawwell
=========================================
Nah.
Save Celtic
Sack Neganon
GEORDIE MUNRO on 12TH MAY 2016 11:52 PM
I’m not saying for one minute the last two years in Europe have been fantastic but if the new man gets us footy after Xmas in his first season he’ll be doing well.
=====================================================================
For me , that`s the least we should have the right to expect.
And the moneyball which flows.
THETIMREAPER
Priceless :)))
Well Macjay I’m sure some of my team would agree with you.
But I’m not the one currently destroying Celtic.
Macjay. You tube and listen. The tunes pretty good too.
NEGANON2 on 12TH MAY 2016 11:59 PM
Just joshing , mate.
My team would still agree Macjay :)
Thanks , Neg.
Never heard of him . Marvellous vocal .
Just sending on to the boay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9BAlBFv9fE
Macjay there are two albums of it. Clever guy with great music.
My age still means trying to link things etc results in failure so thank you.
I suspect post Celtic music and politics are my thing. Not sure about the politics but someone needs to challenge the rise of new facism.
NEGANON
Had a iisten,nice wee tune.Had a 70s vibe to it that fitted lyrics perfectly.
Thanks,always on the lookout,or should that be hearout,for new music.
Me too baba. Me too.
NEGANON2 on 13TH MAY 2016 12:11 AM
New fascism.
Amigo . I see the same trend and have the same concerns.
Circle the wagons time for all the ” Western ” democracies.
NOT wishing to start a debate .
New , to me anyway , music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5748lK9HpOg
Macjay a debate for another day. Scotland is at the forefront of the new facism with sturgeons bizarre take on democracy’s (I dub it facist demorcracy. Votes only count when they suit).
We have no opposition in Scotland and no independent thinking media.
What a shit combination (sorry paul67).
We now live in a world where everything is turned upside down. Raising income tax is called regressive, freezing council tax is called progressive.
It is to our eternal shame in Scotland that we have allowed this to happen. And given Celtic is, in my opinion, now a lost and dead cause, time to contribute elsewhere for me.
NEGANON2 on 13TH MAY 2016 12:24 AM
Don`t live in Scotland ,so I am in no position to judge , but I must say , having visited Glasgow lasy October , the place was immeasurably improved from the place I left 30 years before.
People were better clothed , the whole place looked much cleaner and the people seemed much happier , more optimistic. And basically wealthier. If that`s not a dirty word.
Subjective ,I know.
Seriously sorry you feel that way about Celtic. One of the abiding joys of my life. Unsullied by whatever the current controversy may be.
Mate.It`s the punters who make Celtic , not the Board room.
I seldom meet a Tim whose company I don`t enjoy.
In spite of our different ” take ” on some matters.
Cheers, pal.
PL’s latest exclusive interview. This time with The Herald
EVERYONE else has had their say on Celtic and how the club has been run in recent months. It’s time the man who actually pulls the strings at the Ladbrokes Premiership champions spoke directly to the supporters.
In a Herald Sport exclusive, Peter Lawwell meets with Neil Cameron to discuss wasteful spending at the club, his decision to invite critical supporters to Parkhead, his own future and his acceptance of the need for the team to raise standards and play an attractive game.
NC: Right, so who is the next Celtic manager?
PL: Aye, good one. That’s a good start.
NC: Okay, then. How have you found this season because there has been criticism from the media and supporters aimed at you?
PL: I think a lot of it comes from the press, to be fair. I don’t go on social media, but I do get feedback. Look, we have hundreds of thousands of supporters and it’s a very broad church. I respect all the views of all the fans. They are right to have views and opinions. What I would say is that, from the outside looking in, there will be things that don’t make sense. Decisions and moves won’t make sense. If I could get 60,000 in here to talk to them, that would be very helpful for them and for us.
What has happened over last four or five weeks is that we have had the associations and affiliations in and guys who have written sensible letters, good guys, maybe 40 of them. When you explain things to people, it makes a lot more sense and people become a lot more satisfied. I don’t think we can respond to bloggers. If you start that, you will never stop. I respect their views, but what I want to say is that everything the Celtic board does, including myself, every decision is made in the best interests of Celtic. That’s for sure. That is our commitment right there.
NC: There have been empty seats and some of the football hasn’t been up to, dare I say, Celtic standard this season. How has that made you feel?
PL: There are a lot of reasons for that. If you look at the product overall, and we are Celtic, we are expected to win the league and every game. We go into every match knowing we can only lose. It’s relief when you win and disaster when you lose. It is a very unusual circumstance when you play competitive sport. It isn’t a criticism, but other teams come here and they just sit in, put 10 men behind the ball and say: ‘Come and get us, Celtic’. They don’t change. We have lost four games now. Aberdeen have done fantastically well, but it’s a season we are happy to come out of as champions and move on.
NC: Do you ever feel as if you can’t be bothered with the hassle? Maybe you have taken this job as far as you can go with it.
PL: You constantly look at your own situation. My focus at the moment is to get through the process of appointing a new manager and get some stability and that is my only priority.
NC: Much is made on social media about Rangers, the new and old club debate and what happened five years ago. There is also the Resolution 12 issue (Rangers being granted a license for the 2011/12 Champions League). What are your views on these matters?
PL: I respect everyone’s views and their right to have an opinion, but I have nothing more to say about that.
NC: Is it then time to look forward and concentrate on Celtic?
PL: I am not going to tell someone what to think and what to say. I wouldn’t do that.
NC: Could the communication with supporters be better? When there are gaps in communication, fans can put two and two together and get 10.
PL: I actually think we are open. We want to communicate. It’s not just Celtic, although we are the biggest thing in Scotland, but so many clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Aston Villa get it (from fans). It’s not just about winning on the pitch. It’s football, it is in the public domain, and there is huge interest on social media, which the mainstream media pick up on. That is a phenomenon we have to accept and deal with. I don’t know if anyone has perfected a communication strategy. It is a complicated scene. Look, some of blogs on there, guys write things and they are so far from the truth, but it becomes factual for everyone else.
NC: Did you ever feel sorry for Ronny Deila when it appeared the world was on his shoulders?
PL: This time last year, we were feeling okay. We should have won the Treble. This season, the frustration Ronny felt himself is that we haven’t made the progress we would have liked to in terms of development. There is a slight conflict between development and win, win, win. I asked myself whether he was enjoying this because of the pressures of winning and that he was not getting out on the training ground to develop (the players) as he much as he should have. I felt, at times, he wasn’t enjoying it as much. I felt for him.
NC: How do you win back those fans who aren’t going to games?
PL: What we can do is play winning, entertaining football. Win the games, play the Celtic way, progress the club as far as we can and try to meet expectations and ambitions of the supporters in a difficult financial climate. I’m a Celtic supporter and I know what the supporters want to see on the pitch. We try to give them that. What I can’t do is overnight get us into the English Premier League, the Championship or whatever.
We play in Scotland, a country of five million people, and Celtic is by far the strongest club financially. We have the biggest budget by far, and what we can do is make the best from that budget.
NC: Should the budget have been spent better?
PL: That is a fair criticism; certainly in recent years. Overall, though, not many clubs have found as many players as we have who then went onto England for big money.
NC: Do you think the league is going to be fun next season? A lot of clubs seem to be improving.
PL: I agree with you. Aberdeen and Hearts will be stronger, Rangers will obviously be there. It will be exciting.
Enjoy
https://youtu.be/FmP9_6kGHx8
G’nite to all.
FREEDOMISAROADSELDOMTRAVELLEDBYTHEMULTITUDEcsc
Neganon
At least your govt was not formed over a water bill of 250 euro a year.
Scotland and the UK at least have adult politics
Ireland is a political child
And from The Scotsman
Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell has rounded on those who claim he wields so much power at the club that he is the de facto director of football.
Lawwell has been accused of being behind certain signings and, as a result, partly responsible for the fact that the club now carries a 30-plus senior squad which outgoing manager Ronny Deila has conceded is unmanageable. In an interview withThe Scotsman, Lawwell baulked at the perception that he foisted players on the manager.
“It is absolute rubbish,” he said. “I have no input into players beyond conducting the financial aspect of transfers. The scouts provide reports and the manager picks the players within that process. It is total nonsense to say it’s any other way here. Simply not true. People present it otherwise because they want to be mischievous. It is funny, when they do they never credit the Celtic CEO with bringing in the likes of [Victor] Wanyama, [Fraser] Forster or [Virgil] Van Dijk, but guys who didn’t work out so well.”
Issues relating to the size of the squad and how players are deployed are, Lawwell says, “questions for the manager”. Deila was a player developer who found himself in an environment wherein that task became increasingly difficult in his second season on the back of the Champions League qualifier exit to Malmo.
“What happened against Malmo changed the scene because, at the end of last season, everything was looking OK,” said Lawwell.
“There is an over-eagerness to blame, though, and it is not black and white when it comes to the judgment the squad is too big. We are a club with Champions League aspirations but we cannot buy Champions League-ready players. We look for potential and, in the case of Ryan Christie, we have future players coming into the squad in the present to take over from players who have still to make the changeover. We called him in from being on-loan at Inverness in January because we want him to be ready to go for the start of next season. Christie and others such as Tom Rogic and Scott Allan come into that bracket. It means transition can occur with players departing and [leaving] gaps to be filled in the squad.”
The process to recruit a successor to Deila has now been stepped up, with Roy Keane currently most talked up in a field that sees backers for Brendan Rodgers, David Moyes, Michael O’Neill, Malky Mackay and Neil Lennon.
“We are now meeting with people after whittling down a list made up of those we’d like to talk to and those who applied and we are looking at a timescale of an appointment before the end of the month,” said Lawwell.
Shocking Q and A from PL.Totally disgusted.Still,he means nothing to meAs long as he keeps us solvent until the next,hopefully better,CEO takes over.
Very sad,but after supporting this team for over 50 years,whats new?.
GARY67 on 13TH MAY 2016 12:37 AM
I had to check the Herald website to see if this wasn’t a spoof interview you posted. Sadly it wasn’t and if anyone is any doubt that we as a club are now firmly at the back of the bus then this interview is as much proof as anyone needs.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/14490150.Peter_Lawwell_opens_up_on_bad_transfers__bloggers__playing_football_the_Celtic_way_and_the_moment_he_knew_Ronny_Deila_wasn__39_t_enjoying_himself/
To summarise, Rangers/Old Firm are back, Scottish Football is now exciting and of course we are not going to pursue Resolution 12 or any other cheating or corruption. On the basis of this, anyone who buys into the Scottish professional game is being a taken for a mug.
I suppose th Q&A with The Herald puts to bed the nonesense that he discussed Res 12 in his Sun exclusive but they chose not to print.
Excellent comments from PL.
PS. Rodgers had his interview today
Keane was yesterday
Frankly seeing Lenny and sleekit sharing gutter MSSM space is giving the boak.
What Whas that whisper anyway Lenny?
GARY67 on 13TH MAY 2016 12:51 AM
And from The Scotsman
Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell has rounded on those who claim he wields so much power at the club that he is the de facto director of football.
Lawwell has been accused of being behind certain signings and, as a result, partly responsible for the fact that the club now carries a 30-plus senior squad which outgoing manager Ronny Deila has conceded is unmanageable. In an interview withThe Scotsman, Lawwell baulked at the perception that he foisted players on the manager.
“It is absolute rubbish,” he said. “I have no input into players beyond conducting the financial aspect of transfers. The scouts provide reports and the manager picks the players within that process. It is total nonsense to say it’s any other way here. Simply not true. People present it otherwise because they want to be mischievous. It is funny, when they do they never credit the Celtic CEO with bringing in the likes of [Victor] Wanyama, [Fraser] Forster or [Virgil] Van Dijk, but guys who didn’t work out so well.”
====================================================================
Will the deniers now accept that their ongoing rubbish about Lawwell being behind certain signings was simply not true ?
Well of course they won`t . That would be to admit they were wrong.
Will they now sheet the blame to where it has always belonged ?
The scouts and the manager.
Well of course they won`t . That would be to admit they were wrong.
Now.
What`s the next manufactured issue for them to unjustifiably vilify and smear our C.E.O. ?
PL: “That is a fair criticism; certainly in recent years. Overall, though, not many clubs have found as many players as we have who then went onto England for big money.”
Crux of the interview for me.
PL does a great job, but he’s an accountant in an executive role.
The two skill sets are entirely different and never shall the two meet.
Look for failing corporations and you’ll find the bean counter mentality in charge.
M6BHOY on 13TH MAY 2016 12:58 AM
GARY67 on 13TH MAY 2016 12:37 AM
I had to check the Herald website to see if this wasn’t a spoof interview you posted. Sadly it wasn’t and if anyone is any doubt that we as a club are now firmly at the back of the bus then this interview is as much proof as anyone needs.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/14490150.Peter_Lawwell_opens_up_on_bad_transfers__bloggers__playing_football_the_Celtic_way_and_the_moment_he_knew_Ronny_Deila_wasn__39_t_enjoying_himself/
To summarise, Rangers/Old Firm are back, Scottish Football is now exciting and of course we are not going to pursue Resolution 12 or any other cheating or corruption. On the basis of this, anyone who buys into the Scottish professional game is being a taken for a mug.
====================================================================
Where in the original does he say “we are not going to pursue Resolution 12 or any other cheating or corruption. ” ?
Or did you just make that up ?
My money is now on Rodgers
Oh jobby – so who do we blame now ?
Hope we don’t go near Martinez – unless it’s Conchita
OVERSEASBHOY on 13TH MAY 2016 1:40 AM
Oh jobby – so who do we blame now ?
=========================================
Nae worries , pal.
A scapegoat will be found.
As it was after John Reid left .
Hang on.
I can feel a “living wage” coming on.