Brendan Rodgers will hopefully see Daizen Maeda at Lennoxtown earlier than planned, as Japan’s World Cup qualifier in North Korea has been cancelled by the hosts due to “unforeseen circumstances”. Fifa have yet to decide if the game can go ahead at a neutral venue but that is currently considered unlikely.
Reports in Japan suggest the cancellation is due to the outbreak of an infectious disease in the country, streptococcal toxic shock syndrome, which is deadly and makes international travel unnecessarily risky.
Daizen is a nailed-on starter for the important games after the international break, so having him back early and focussed on the priorities ahead is important.
I’m not having any “a bit steep” chat about Paulo Bernardo’s reported €7.5m asking price from Benfica. The player only recently turned 22 and has the core ability we should be looking to turn into a top player – just as we did with Matt O’Riley. This is the going rate, anything less than that and you’re not taking a talent out of Portugal.
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new article posted.
Avery nice post from TT who has remained constant in his support of the team and his criticism of our failings as a club. He knows I don’t agree with all of this and I prefer optimism to pessimism but there is a place and a time for both and, in season 20/21 those views proved to be right and justified.
There can be a perception, and indeed evidence, on both sides, that statements of Über-Celticness apply both way.
The optimists get pejorative terms all the way from happy clappers (mild) through board lovers, balance sheet worshippers, risk-averse, right through to greenhuns.
The pessimists get hit with mineshafters (mild), Viv Nicholson bankruptcy flirters right through to greenhuns.
What surprises me in these exchanges is the fact that the majority of the support is already convinced of the merits of the argument that the football guys are the goodies and the suits are the baddies. I am confident that any poll on CQN would be, at least 70:30 in favour of that view and on other Celtic blogs the ratio is 90+: <10.
In the end, it makes little difference. With a plc structure at Celtic, we cannot readily affect the financial approach of the majority shareholders, Board members and Appointed Staff.
And in any case, what difference does blog sentiment make to the approach of Celtic PlC and FC? So long as we have sold out Season Books and a waiting list to join, Boycotts are gonna fail to impact. The main traction for fan annoyance and willingness to protest is not a failure to spend per se but a failure to secure league dominance. This business approach is extant because it has been domestically successful, palpably so. Never have we had so many trebles in anyone's lifetime. We are a spoiled generation domestically. So we have to invent the "new" grievance that we are a European irrelevance. There is strong evidence for that. I accept that we were a European irrelevance from 1974 through to the 2002/3 season (apart from 1980). We had a brief resurgence of being a 2nd Tier team between 2003 and 2013, our last final 16 in CL appearance. In the past decade we have only managed last 32 Europa, that's barely hanging on to Tier 3 gradings.
Happy clapping or criticism on a blog makes little difference to the team or the match day outcome. Many of the most persistent blog critics are amongst the most fervent and vocal match day supporters. Many of the most regular happy clappers are quieter match day attendees. The mood on match day at the ground is set largely by the Team. The crowd can occasionally on Euro nights or games against the Ibrox mob, get the team going but mostly it's the reverse.
So this is just a harmless blog war.