I remember John Robertson crossing for Trevor Francis in Munich in 1979 and a year later, Robbo scoring against Hamburg Madrid. Brian Clough and Nottingham Forest were irresistible. Martin O’Neill was injured and on the bench for the first of those European Cup finals against Malmo, but played as Nottingham Forest retained the trophy a year later. Forest were everyone’s second team.
We should have beat them in the 1983 Uefa Cup. We bossed the first leg 0-0 in Nottingham, but Clough knew what Ferguson knew at Aberdeen – soak up pressure from Celtic and hit them on the counter. The Celtic team of the 80s knew only to attack, it was our repeated downfall domestically and in Europe.
When Martin came to Celtic in 2000 as manager, everything changed in Scottish football. We have lost only five titles since – by a combined points tally of 12, whereas we have won 13 titles, most of them by double digit margins. For this, Martin will always be royalty. Only Henrik Larsson comes close to the esteem he is held in by Celtic supporters.
So I’m fond of Forest and adore Martin, but the latter has let his heart rule his head in becoming manager at City Ground. The game as moved on spectacularly from when Martin arrived at Celtic. His achievements at Ireland are better than many give credit for, but you could see the echoes in Ireland on how we used to play. It will not work in England. Forest may bounce on the sheer enthusiasm Martin will bring to the club, but this appointment will not end well.
Yaya Toure responded positively when asked if he would like to join Celtic. The big guy has achieved more in the game than anyone currently at the club will, but the warning signs are writ large. “Contract terminated by mutual agreement”, the statement which accompanied his departure from Olympiacos last month, is seldom a sign of a bargain.
We are not in crisis; we are not desperate for cover in central mid. If the big guy can bring over the best young talent from Ivory Coast, go ahead. Otherwise, stick to plan.
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CELTIC BY NUMBERS on 15TH JANUARY 2019 9:16 PM
few surprises there
HH
Bateen bhoy tees ’em up and yer man Wits it out of the park?
Hello Luxcelt yes,A Mr Congerton here from Celtic.Regards the CH you were talking about earlier,a certain,Simon Deli chap,never heard of him,but a bit intrigued by your post.Good you say,h,mm.Worth a jolly old look,you think.Hold on a minute till I get a pen.Yes,sorry for that,this chap,plays for who exactly?Ah,Slavia Prague.H,mmm,where exactly is that again?
Boris ‘PM now has mandate to go back to Brussels and renegotiate’. Mandate. Eh??
52 – 48: THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN
432 – 202: Have another crack in a few days
THE EXILED TIM on 15th January 2019 9:40 pm
If that is true then it is horrendously slap dash.
Any club needs to exist with a strategy and 95% the same personnel irrespective of the manager. It is nonsensical to have to change strategy, scouting, sports science or any other department because a manager changes.
Celtic should aim to have elite level departments across all the dimensions of physio, nutrition, scouting, analytics, sports science etc etc as this is cheaper and more marginal value add than throwing it all up in the air for a very expensive short term manager and assorted hangers on-ers.
makes sense to me.
Turkeybhoy
I don’t think you are far wrong re the scouting. We really seem to be all over the place!!
You would think though that at least kolo might have tipped the eejit off…..
“Errr Lee… There’s a great big boy in our Ivory Coast team… Plays in Prague… Good team too – probably won’t be looking for too much……”
CBN
That’s what I have been saying, we are on the right path, it just seems that most of the blog doesn’t think so, they seem to think that the manger is responsible for all the signings, when he isn’t, bad signings happen, good signing happen, mediocre signings happen, it’s all the pish about blaming one or the other that is our problem, the support is so feckin divided it’s a joke.
THE EXILED TIM on 15th January 2019 10:07 pm
I’m with you. Any club, or business for that matter, should have a strategy that they are accountable for at board level to the stakeholders irrespective of one role. The football manager should be recruited to compliment that strategy.
it’s business common sense 101. But not in football.
A website, which is just as ill-informed as most rumours on here, has us in for a RB from Brighton, Ezequiel Schelotto.
I can just see the headline if he arrives at the last minute.
That’s Schelotto!
I should add. To be fair to Rodgers, he seems completely attuned to the strategy, albeit he is an expensive employee.
If he feels a particular department is underperforming or has the wrong approach, that is fair challenge. Is my caveat.
There will be statues being built in Belfast & Edinburgh to the freedom fighter who secured the end of English rule. Nigel Farage we salute you sir. The Brexit Brigade !
It’scalledthemalvinas
A statue of Nigel Farrage, Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson.
Or one of Alex Salmond’s tadger and Nicola Sturgeon’s pre-trial sidebar meetings.
MurdochAuldandHay
Always loved your moniker as those 3 were held in such high regard by my dad.
Bobby Murdoch especially as he felt he was different class…..but he loved the other 2 for their character and steel.
Obviously they are players and men you admire greatly as well and you have shown that you are made of the same stuff.
Keep fighting the way they fought.
Thoughts from friends and complete strangers are with you.
I have been convinced by the Scottish Press to play my Goals Galore joker on Sevco.
Defoes is bound to score at least 6 by himself and Davis is good for a hat trick but Alfredo will outscore them all.
Given that my first 2 team picks in this comp both scored 1 goal each, I reckon I can live up to my track record
A few years ago,a Saturday lunchtime, popped in to a wee bookies in Clarkson, spotted a very well known referee, he’s retired now,writing out his fixed odds coupon.Fast forward a couple of hours, i was at Celtic Park for the game, guess who was the MIB?
Park Road 9.16 pm
When I was down in Girvan at a golf comp ,
he was introduced with his lodge number after
his name. He wasn’t chuffed.
He declared that his favourite team was Ayr Utd.
Telling porkies obviously is second nature. HH
I you like Only Fools and Horses you will appreciate this…..
https://twitter.com/PoliticsJOE_UK/status/1085261972063600641
Probably picked Ayr utd. as wee chick Dung had already bagged St. Mirren.
CBN
I agree, Brendan knows the score, he knows fine well what the club can and can’t afford, he knows we don’t and won’t spend relative silly money on players that are bordering on lets say not very good in the grand scheme of things, we are about developing players, this is what he is superb at, but sometimes and I think he has reached the level you can only take a player so far and then you need fresh blood, this imo is where we are at and it seems at times that he doesn’t think he is being indulged, only going by what is said, there will always be friction, Brendan is a football man and the board are money men, their instinct is to make money, they don’t like spending it, we know who will win at the end of the day, I just wish there could be more of a compromise at the end of the day, we have squillions in the bank, it’s no helping the team in the bank.
https://youtu.be/nD-qiDYFqIc
Cracking new Celtic choon…
Glendaylstonsils
Airdrie had been snapped up by Jabba and Waddell loves Falkirk :)
ANGELGABRIEL 10-30PM
Aye the bold Willie came from a family of huns so yes he told lies about being an Ayr fan , his older brother was also a ref and his younger brother played in goals for Clyde
‘Bearing in mind 27 countries of the EU all backed this withdrawal deal, what a gigantic blow to the #EU for the UK parliament to reject it so massively. First the people voted to #Leave the EU. And now our MP’s roundly reject their best efforts at negotiation.’
James Traynor, Level 5
Exiled Tim 10.34
I agree with your post , my biggest conundrum with Brendan is the lack of game time given to “squad players “ like Kouassi .
He cost a substantial fee, by our standards, and despite playing well in a few games, he often then drifted out the picture.
He was slaughtered on here after his performance at Tynecastle , but was thrown in with little or no game time leading up to the game. He was then asked to perform in a weakened team, on a tight pitch,against a thuggish opposition in a highly tense game that
is always a difficult match.
Meanwhile, in plenty of home games , against lesser teams in better circumstances, he remained on the bench or sat in the stand .
Always a puzzler that one . HH
‘It’s an absolute disgrace’, fumes Neil Warnock.
Park Road .
Yip . No surprise. The other factor is , as stated on here earlier, if he works for BTO , then they are the lawyers for the SFA.
After listening to Kenny Clark on BBC Radio Scotland last night, it seems that arrogance, ignorance , telling porkies and being a Hun are the main credentials for top tier referees in Scotland. Or is my paranoia getting worse ;-))
Angel G- the same qualities that gets you a gig on BBC Scotland…
Brexit is now becoming the Clusterf******’s Clusterf***.
George Armstrong Custer had a better strategy.
AngelGabriel
I think he has had seriously bad luck with injuries, can’t remember against who, Killie possibly at home he done his knee, I think he was just coming back from a dibilitating illness and then injury after injury, the boy has had no luck, yet some on the blog use him as a stick to beat the manager with, they really need to have a look at themselves.
Exiled Tim .
I make you right. I remember he didn’t want to come off against Hearts at Murrayfield, turns out that he played on with a serious injury, and not coming straight off didn’t help.
SFTB.
We’ve got the political leadership and parties that the country deserves. Westminster is now a cluster f##k .
Most MP’s are self serving tossers on a career path.
Guy Fawkes was a visionary.
CELTIC could be set to snap up English youngster Josh Maja from Sunderland.
Sunsport understands the Hoops are keen on landing the 20-year-old frontman with defender Jack Hendry moving to the north-east on loan as part of the deal.
There’s only one Joshua Erowoli Orisunmibare Oluwaseun Maja..
Bit of a mouthful?
Seen lots of posts re- Ntcham, for a 21 year old he is inconsistent.
See what I done there.
YaYa, just to regain the advantage in the PR game, I would.
MIKE IN TORONTO on 15TH JANUARY 2019 11:38 PM
doesn’t trip off the tongue that’s for sure :-)
HH
SFTB’s, at this point in history, Custer has a better chance of success!
MIT- Brendan has been mentoring Jack Ross,since he was at Alloa,maybe he might point the boy in our direction
!!BADA BING!! on 15TH JANUARY 2019 10:39 PM
Wonderful.
Talented Tims.
John Clark