The best thing about hearing Jens Berthel Askou had joined Toulouse was that he was off the table for Hearts. JBA matched with Tony Bloom’s Jamestown Analytics would be a formidable prospect. If reports are accurate that Derek McInnes is moving on, it gives our nearest challengers a clear road to consult their stats and appoint a good fit for their system. And let’s be clear, despite coming within a whisker of taking the title for the first time in 66 years, McInnes’ talent is as a blood and guts manager, analytics is not his bag.
With Motherwell still in the market for a manager, there is a good chance fifth placed Hibernian will be the top finishing club without a managerial appointment to make before the start of the season. Celtic’s appointment of Martin O’Neill will inevitably be the least disruptive, which should work in our favour early in the season. I would still be wary as Hearts will inevitably kick on.
92 Comments- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- »
Del McInnes, Del McInnes, we can see you sneaking out.
We can see you sneaking out.
Top 10
Is MON our manager then?
Officially?
Officially a week ago
LoL.
If we actually showed some ambition we would be setting points totals whereby we wouldn’t have to be worrying about other teams.
So Mcinnes is a “blood and guts” manager is he Paul?
Much better to have a modern thinking guy like Nancy?
The aforementioned ex Motherwell manager had a superb season but finished fourth. Mcinness and Heatts were several minutes away from winning the league.
You still refuse to mention how you used to dismiss MON as old achool and a blood and guts type but as I like to remind you, you did on a few occasions on this forum dismissed his managerial way of thinking.
As a club we continue to let the support and MON down by not appointing Maloney and Foz. Absolutely ludicrous from those that claim to run our club.
Another summer of disappointment awaits and the expectation on MON to get us through the CL qualifier without adequate will presumably happen.
As for Askou, why would he have gone to Hearts? Far bigger fish to fry!
Askou had nothing Toulouse
Fantastic. Really looking forward to Martin Sean and Fozzy leading us to further success this season.
Still loving Celtic dominating Scottish football for 25 years personally. Hilarious to see the misery it brings to others.
Sad when it becomes anxiety though.
Including some dafties who claim to be Celtic fans but in reality just want a dog to kick that won’t bite back.
As for the blogger clowns who make their lives work and profit from sowing negativity seeds. Some might say they are pond life profiteers. I think they are smart and manipulating a support hooked on negativity about our club. The Paul John guy is a prime example from my part of the world.
Someone pointed out that Paul 67 himself runs a blog. The difference is Paul does it as an add on and not a profit making exercise. He has a life and very successful business and this he can take a stance which is not always the popular easy anti club, anti board, anti everything one the others take. The kind that gets clicks and not abuse from a sheep like following.
Most on here can see that which to me is great and why this blog is good.
11 comments in an hour.
Not so good.
The read back over the past two days – even filtering out the stuff that is surely sectionable under the Mental Health Act – has been dispiriting stuff.
Been asking myself the counterfactual question – how angry would many posters and clickbaiters be if we hadn’t won the double? Winning it has clearly induced a mixture of rage and terror.
Bhoys Town on 16th June 2026 1:06 pm
I don’t think the blog has been dispirited over the last few days.
On the contrary, I think we are witnessing the best of a footballing experience which the blog has touched on.
We have seen the football experience triumph over the division in society.
We have witnessed the Scottish football experience bring people together in a way politicians could never do.
The power of football can be amazing.
The match day experience is absolutely crucial. The match day experience can be enacted thousands of miles away and this is what I sooooooo want for Celtic.
Let’s make Parkhead the place to be. The place for a good time; the place for joy, fun and excitement.
Hate should not be welcomed, leave that to others. Black clad thugs should have no place in Football.
We are the hoops and variations of that will always be our number one.
But let’s be imaginative and have vibrant. fun, want to wear alternative strips.
Our Foundation is the best of us. Something to be really proud of regardless of any results on the pitch.
There is soooo much we can be. A place where all decent minded people can find a home and a family.
Go Celtic.
HH.
Good celtic supporters getting slated for daring to be critical of a shambles….couldn’t make it up
I see young Strachan and his lap top wanted by West Brom and their revamp …….we’ll probably see this as an opportunity to get someone in on half his wage !!!
You’d think we had a deficit of 70 million rather than a surplus..
Finally did a wee bit of a dive into what Jamestown analytics is and why other teams can’t just replicate it. I wasn’t convinced as to why the likes of Paul give it so much credibility. For anyone interested here is a bit about it from AI:
Jamestown Analytics (JTA) is unique in the football analytics landscape. While it is technically one of many football data providers, its relationship to gambling-grade data syndicates makes it incredibly rare and notoriously difficult to replicate.
What Makes Jamestown Analytics Special?
Jamestown Analytics is not just another data platform like Opta or Wyscout; it has distinct competitive advantages:The Starlizard Engine: JTA was spun out as an official corporate entity from Starlizard, the ultra-secretive, multi-billion dollar professional sports betting syndicate founded by Tony Bloom (owner of Brighton & Hove Albion). While most analytics companies sell data to help clubs improve, Starlizard built its data to beat global betting markets where millions of dollars are won or lost on pure accuracy.
A “Secret Weapon” Track Record: It is the exact engine behind Brighton’s world-class recruitment model. It has consistently driven massive profits by identifying undervalued players globally (e.g., Moisés Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister). It also engineered the rise of Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium and has been licensed out to clubs like Heart of Midlothian in Scotland.
The Commercial Monopoly Strategy: Unlike mainstream providers that sell to anyone who pays, Jamestown strictly enforces a “one club per league” exclusivity rule. If a club buys a JTA subscription, they are guaranteed that none of their immediate domestic rivals can use the exact same model to scout players against them.
Vast Global Coverage: The database profiles almost every professional footballer in the world who has played more than 3,000 minutes. Crucially, it uses predictive modeling to calculate how a player from an obscure league would rate if they were dropped directly into a different ecosystem, like the Scottish Premiership or English Premier League.
Is It Relatively Easy to Replicate?No, it is exceptionally difficult to replicate. While any club can hire data scientists to build an “expected goals” (xG) model, duplicating what Jamestown does is bottle-necked by two major barriers:
1. The Financial and Structural Data Asymmetry To build a model as accurate as Jamestown’s, you need clean, historic, and highly granular global data spanning over a decade. Mainstream clubs buy “event data” from third-party vendors, but Jamestown sits on top of Starlizard’s proprietary, in-house collection infrastructure built by hundreds of quantitative analysts and software engineers. A typical football club operating on standard revenues cannot afford to fund a massive, hedge-fund-level tech operation just for scouting.
2. The Feedback Loop of RealityMost analytics models are academic—they optimize for “good football metrics”. Jamestown’s algorithms are constantly battle-tested against the cold reality of global Asian Handicap betting markets, where flawed algorithms result in immediate, severe financial losses. This relentless financial pressure forces a level of predictive precision and bias-elimination that traditional football clubs simply cannot organically replicate in-house.
The Human Nuance Despite its sophistication, football insiders emphasize that JTA is not a magic bullet. Club executives using the data note that while the algorithm is unmatched at filtering out thousands of global players into a targeted shortlist, it still cannot measure human character, family adaptation, or locker room chemistry. It provides the ultimate foundational filter, but human scouting is still required to close the deal.
Could that dog you want to kick be Brendan Rogers by any chance?
Deniabhoy – good to see you posting.
Talking to a (not young) Scottish guy at the pool last week who said he was planning to visit his father (in his 90s) who lives up in Denia.
Immediately thought of you
(Because of location, not age of course 😜)
Nice one Paul
And, BTW, I’d echo Burnley78’s sentiments about this blog.
That it doesn’t crave popularity is commendable.
One view I’d repeat about Hearts.
Yes, they’ll come again and stronger.
But from season 27/28.
Next season was already looking tough with the advent of a Europa League campaign to resource.
Losing key personnel will further disrupt.
Shankland couldnae wait to fly the coop.
Others to follow.
VinnieTheDog @ 1:42pm
Help me out if you will.
Where are you seeing the Strachan to West Brom story?
Someone (apologies, can’t recall who)
… posted yesterday of a trio of players, Findlay, Devlin and Braga switching from diets to full fat this summer?
Couple of thoughts jumped into my head.
First was downsizing.
Devlin on a free makes sense if they can find a buyer for Raskin
(not easy – other than dirty up mediocre level games the boy doesn’t actually do much)
Second was “Findlay? Please do”.
The lad is a Scottish pudding of limited ability and athletic capacity.
Under contract too so money needs to change hands.
Which brought me to Braga.
Contracted to 2028, R2ngers will have to do something a club playing out of RAAC-brox has not done since 1993.
Pay a very large whack to a Scottish club
“Burnley78 on 16th June 2026 12:54 pm
I enjoyed that post.”
“vinniethedog on 16th June 2026 1:42 pm
Good celtic supporters getting slated for daring to be critical of a shambles….couldn’t make it up”
Is winning The Double a `shambles` ?
If Celtic supporters believe that, they have become a bit like the supporters of the Old Rangers .
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 16TH JUNE 2026 2:16 PM
VinnieTheDog @ 1:42pm
Help me out if you will.
Where are you seeing the Strachan to West Brom story?
…………………………
It was reported on FaceBook yesterday.
vinniethedog on 16th June 2026 1:42 pm
I see young Strachan and his lap top wanted by West Brom and their revamp …….we’ll probably see this as an opportunity to get someone in on half his wage !!!
*and how many on here and other sites were giving it nepotism and would drive him and big JK to the airport myself, be careful what you read
Interesting lead…
My thoughts in January were, I’m glad we have MO’N as manager – I’m glad Hearts have got DMcI as manager…
That turned out okay for us…
Of course Mr Bloom got a bloody nose at the hands of the famous Glasgow Celtic – he’ll start to take us a bit more seriously now…
Especially as R2ngers look like they’re planning their two in~a~row – third place that is…
Hail Hail
TOSB @ 3:08pm – cheers.
So, someone, somewhere put it up on FB?
Tontine Tim – Lol.
We’re doomed if he stays and doomed if he goes.
Go figure
Chairbhoy on 16th June 2026 4:24 pm
I remember Bloom at the start of last season saying something to the effect of – ‘Hearts will win the league within a few seasons , perhaps even this season’.
I , and I’m sure many others, scoffed at this at the time .
Little did we know that Celtic’s season would unfold in such a way as to almost hand the league to them .
There’s a serious lesson for us to carry into the coming season . Don’t go holding loaded guns pointed at your foot .
The Celtic Way reporting so maybe it true….
https://x.com/i/status/2066912161004216341
Hot Smoked on 16th June 2026 3:03 pm
Is winning The Double a `shambles` ?
Getting beat of one of the worst teams in champoins league qualification histrory kinda looks like a shambles
Failing to qualify from the champions league qualifiers 7 out of 9 times kinda looks like a shambles.
Asking first team coaches to take a wage cut when your hiking up your on exectutive wages kinda looks like a shambles.
Providing crap facilities for ordinary supports kinda feels like a shambles.
Penny pinching on every deal, kinda a shambles.
Telling celtic supporters they are malcontents is kinada a shambles.
The way they communicate to supporters is kinda a shambles.
Holding 70 + million in the bank, paying 8 figure corporation tax whilst refusing to invest kinda feels like a shambles.
But aye we won a double so shut, nothing to see here ffs
HH
folk who are successful in business (life ?) are beyond reproach. Their opinion matters more then the rest, regardless of whatever shyte they right (at the behest of others who might be even more successful in business)
the rest are just losers, clowns and sheep.
who would have thought Donald J Trump posted on this blog (which is the laughing stock of the celtic blogsphere btw)
The laughing stock of the Celtic blogosphere????
And yet here you are logging in every single day of your life.
I’ll bet this is the most read site on the genre.
Understand this….For some of us including Paul67, slagging off Celtic on a public forum is the exact same as slagging off your wife or kids on a public forum.
Burnley….totally agree re PJD.
Sad to see him turn into the Daily Record.
3 weeks til we play Sherbourne. Let the good times roll in Dublin. 👍
Or even Shelbourne ffs 🙄.
Barkeep, please remove that ‘old duffers’ drink.
Laxalt
Paul and others have no problem slagging off one of our most successful managers on this public forum. It’s a blog and all about opinions- some one agrees with some one doesn’t.
BelmontBrian
Damned impertinence. 🧐
Gene…fair point
But Brendan is not Celtic FC.
To a lot of Celtic fans he is a man who tried to cripple us while working his ticket out the door.
So he’s fair game.
Laxalt
The board are not Celtic fc either – so they’re fair game by the same logic