The concerns you and I have discussed for weeks were ruthlessly exposed at Ibrox yesterday. Sam Johnstone was blameless for the three goals, however, instead of inspiring confidence in his defence, the keeper looked the most nervous man on the field.
It was when trying to play out from the back four minutes into the game that Johnstone passed directly to an opponent inside his own box. From that moment, Celtic were more vulnerable in possession than out.
A month from now, Martin might have Yang and Jota to choose from on the left, both have a robustness in the challenge which Sebastian Tounekti does not possess. The winger looked forlorn. Seb, though, should not be singled out for criticism. Despite the forward talent they have, Celtic did not pose a genuine attacking threat in the game. The core problem is structural.
For getting on two years, you and I have discussed how opponents have figured out that if they man-to-man to press Celtic, they can cause real problems. The triangular passing into space that proved so effective previously, has gone. No one breaks the lines, beats a man in the middle of the park, or takes an opponent out of play.
As a consequence of this yesterday, Newco were able to pair-up out of possession and wait for one of Celtic’s ‘pass around the corner’ attempts offering an opportunity to intercept.
Colby Donovan did well, several solid challenges and Celtic’s best pass of the day, into Kasper Hogh, who stumbled. Liam Scales confirmed Martin made the correct decision selecting him in central defence, when he cleared a shot off the line after a latter goalkeeper aberration. We got nothing from the forwards but I feel the burden of responsibility lies elsewhere. Play failed before it reached them.
To be clear: Callum McGregor, Mika Baur and Benjamin Nygren is not an effective midfield. It lacks movement and physicality. Martin can deploy different faces on the wing and through the middle for this week’s games, but without fixing this core issue, we can expect more of the same.
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In all my time as a Celtic fan I have rarely seen a player radically change position.
——–
andy lynch winger to fullback.
all of martins first crop – wingers to wing-backs.
john paul – was a goalkeeper and then became a pontiff.
Was Bertie Auld a Giant? por cierto
Maybe the most important change in my lifetime was Bobby Murdoch moving from inside forward to wing half.
LAXALT on 14TH SEPTEMBER 2026 8:15 PM
Ged…..ive gave you the benefit in the past but that is hunterloper personified.
_____________________________
I’ve no need for you to give me anything, but I’m puzzled by your distress. Care to illuminate?
Following on from yesterday’s dreadful performance….
1. Paul67 – “The problem is structural” – Yes, indeed. But, organization structure before team structure.
2. Fans – it was indeed inherently unfair that they had 100% of the stadium – shrug emoji.
3. Sevco – average team, but effectively “coached” (on the day) – credit to McInnes.
4. Ferencvaros – an opportunity to rehearse for the important one on Sunday.
5. Sunday – we need a major increase of intensity, and the 60,000 in attendance should guarantee that.
6. Coaching – I see nothing encouraging, so buckle up for more of the same basic “tactics”.
7. Manager – MON is a legend and deserves his statue, but we need our next “long-term” manager asap.
8. Board – two significant failures by mid-September, and we are no doubt still “learning”.
9. Squad – weaknesses are already apparent, and it’s only mid-September.
10. Recruitment – nothing cohesive about our approach, other than the consistent zero (or less) net spend.
11. Kasper – record signing should be starting every game, which suggests a team built around him?
12. System – even good players can fail to deliver when they just don’t fit. Growing evidence.
13. Team – taking the captain at his word, there needs to be some honesty in that changing room.
14. CalMac – never a #6, but was almost always able to pull it off, though not any more.
15. Europa – sadly, it’s more of a distraction/burden and painful reminder all in one.
Positively, we remain top of the SPFL with a 100% record and boast a healthy balance sheet.
TBB- Thanks for reply,we’re obviously top heavy on attacking rather than defensive players, we have 2 good strikers, Hogh and Duran,the 5 in MF will give us more bodies in there, as we are always outnumbered, CCV, Trusty, Scales at the back,a lot of options in MF,KT on left Yang on the right,fit in Hassan, Jota,Nygren, Baur,The Ox…all depending on fitness….but we would shape up better than current formation
“Was Bertie Auld a Giant?” por cierto
No but the team he played in were giants.
Even Jinky was a giant.
With a giant in the dugout who couldn’t be mistaken as anybodies fool.
If MON is not a fool he’ll get rid of Maloney and his stupid assed Belgian junk, and get Neil Francis Lennon in to instill unmuggable street wisdom into the Celtic players.
Then we can all sing – “Hey ho ma Daddy oh there’s whiskey in the jar!”
The problem is the fans who don’t get rid of the PLC and replace them with Gerry Adams.
From jobo
*RESULTS FROM GAME #10 TRIGGERS BROOM FC 3 CELTIC 0*
Good evening, friends.
I’m sure you’ll be relieved that there’s no detailed match report to build up to the latest voting figures. A totally abject performance lacking in skill, in bravery, in tactics, in leadership. No complaints at all about the final result, well beaten by a very average team in blue.
My only crumb of comfort? Well, many of us realised that we had a tough 8 days across 3 competitions and that it was much more important to win the other 2 than yesterday’s debacle. Still no excuse for how poorly we performed but if we somehow get our act together and win our next 2 games (I know!) then we may yet go into the International Break in reasonable spirits. But something dramatic and different does have to happen, and soon. 4-3-3 with the individual players that we have just aint working. Time for the management team to earn their wages.
Celtic have now played 10 games, winning 8 and losing 2. We have scored 22 and conceded 1. We sit joint top of our Europa League table and in the SPL we are 5 points clear of Sevco, our next league opponents.
Considering the poor performance it really was heartwarming to see so many emails coming in for this one. Clearly not as many as in recent games but still a big thank you to the 82 who submitted their nominations for this one, even though not all 82 came up with 3 names!
The total votes cast for each player (with my own nominations asterisked) are as follows –
Johnstone: 0
Donovan: 69
Carter-Vickers*: 13
Scales: 65
Tierney: 10
McGregor: 3
Baur*: 14
Nygren: 0
Duran: 5
Høgh: 0
Tounekti: 0
Hassan*: 49
Oxlade-Chamberlain: 2
Forrest: 10
Mheuka: 1
Lotombo: 0
Unused subs: Murray, Sinisalo, Sørensen, Trusty
And so, the POINTS earned by each player for the game against Sevco are as follows –
25 – Donovan
22 – Scales
19 – Hassan
16 – Baur
14 – Carter-Vickers
12 each – Forrest and Tierney
10 – Duran
9 – McGregor
8 – Oxlade-Chamberlain
7 – Mheuka
4 each – Høgh, Johnstone, Lotomba, Nygren and Tounekti
1 each – Murray, Sinisalo, Sørensen, Trusty
And the CUMULATIVE POINTS after 10 games played are as follows –
165 – Duran
150 – Donovan
123 – McGregor
118 – Nygren
112 – Baur
108 – Yang
103 – Carter-Vickers
100 – Hassan
99 – Tierney
91 – Scales
75 – Sinisalo
74 – Høgh
67 – Tounekti
65 – Trusty
64 – Forrest
62 – Oxlade-Chamberlain
34 – Murray
30 – Engels
26 – McCowan
25 – Johnstone
23 – Mheuka
18 – Hatate
17 – Johnston
15 – Sørensen
13 – Osmand
9 – Ralston
6 – Doohan and Lotomba
3 – Kenny
2 – Balikwisha and Van den Berg
1 – Kennedy
On Thursday evening we play our opening game of this season’s Europa League with a home tie against Ferencvaros. Kick off is 8.00pm.
Hail Hail!
Multi moniker Kev is back.
Gedinte on 14th September 2026 8:47 pm
European football is the prize for doing well domestically. We must treat it as a valued prize.
It is the only true barometer of progress in a relatively poor domestic league.
HH.
Johnstone was really good in Perth but his nerve went yesterday. I really rate Sinisalo and he’s not on loan. Should be restored as our number 1.
Colby Donovan seems to be having his breakout season. The one bright spot from yesterday.
Tounetki seems a really nice lad. He lacks the temperament to make it as a Celtic player.
Hogh needs to buck up his ideas. At the same time we need to give him some service.
Nygren is terrific going forward and beyond pathetic in defending. If we’re going to play him against better opposition it cannot be as part of a midfield three. It’s so frustrating to see our management team fail to understand the flaming obvious.
Hassan looks unstoppable… until it comes to his final decision-making. I worry a wee bit about his ego but he could do a lot worse than take a couple of tutorials from Jamesy Forrest on how to improve his final decision making. Improve that aspect and he will be truly unstoppable in Scotland.
onenightinlisbon on 14th September 2026 3:23 pm
Burnley78 on 14th September 2026 2:57 pm
Crawl back up Desmond’s rear mate.
*dearie me better Celts have been kicked off here for lesser, the only time we hear from the Lisburn Lout and Buffalo Bill is when we are down but certainly NOT out
If you have one of these creepy spies in your house –
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/09/lg-tv-shown-capable-of-tracking-user-activity-even-when-offline/
You need to take it down to you’re local stoorie/burn/river/swamp/quick/sand/pit/etc and get rid of the fkr!
Only trying to help in case innocent trusting folk don’t know that they are being spied on –
216 Million LG SMART TV’s are spying on you like something out of a Terminator movie.
https://youtu.be/6IFVTcM28KA?si=1BI929MgBbw5yH6b
But LG have sold over 350 Million Smart TV’s?
Apparently all Smart TV’s do this :
I wonder what country LG’s main shareholder is from?
Something not sitting properly here.
Have you watched how our big strong defenders actually tackle the opposition by throwing a lazy leg in the direction of the ball including a backwards turn of the shoulders to turn their back or side away from the ball shirking their defensive duties , stand up and face them head on and do what you get paid for.
CCV , AS and LS as a back 3 , wow I will sleep better tonight with that thought.
AT
in
Laxalt
IMO it doesnt matter why Tierney has to come off after 70 mins, whether hes tired, injured or needing a jobby. He should never be our first choice left back if he cant consistently last 90 mins. He should be used like Tony Ralston and valued as such.
GREENPINATA on 14TH SEPTEMBER 2026 9:31 PM
Gedinte on 14th September 2026 8:47 pm
European football is the prize for doing well domestically. We must treat it as a valued prize.
It is the only true barometer of progress in a relatively poor domestic league.
______________________________
You are of course correct. I’m still dealing with the LASK hangover.
Thank you for a little reminder and perspective.
SPIKEYSAULDMAN on 14TH SEPTEMBER 2026 11:35 PM
IMO it doesnt matter why Tierney has to come off after 70 mins, whether hes tired, injured or needing a jobby. He should never be our first choice left back if he cant consistently last 90 mins. He should be used like Tony Ralston and valued as such.
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My point entirely. In the same breath, it matters not a jot what we pay him. He, like any other player, should be in the team on merit, and nothing else.
To your specific example, our RB situation is quite interesting. We have a Canadian international who is on reportedly £20k per week, but has been fit for significantly less than 20% of our games over the last 12-months. Then we have a Scottish international who is understood to be earning £15k per week, yet has registered only 36 minutes this season, while playing less than 40% of first team minutes in 2025/26 (partially boosted by his inclusion as the right side player in the lamentable WN back 3). Lastly, we have Donovan who rose to prominence in the absence of AJ and while AR struggled for form, who is on £1k per week, and this term has more minutes than any player other than CalMac, CCV and Duran.
#goodenoughyouroldenoughCSC?
24 hrs later and time has done nothing to soften the pain.
We have an immediate problem and a long term one as I see it.
The immediate one is how we get positive reactions and results from our next two games. We took a pumping in Sunday and the players will be damaged by that and on top of the that the captain put the boot in severely in his after match pressers. How that goes down in the dressing room remains to be seen but I would have thought comments like that should not be made in public.
We have a once great manager who sadly appears to have lost some of his mojo and a coaching team who are frankly useless IMHO. We have ability in the players but no plan, style of play or ability to change and that is 100% down to football coaching and management. The appointment of these guys was lazy in the extreme – were they the best we could attract? Did we even look or try elsewhere? Think we all know the answer to that. It was a romantic appt nothing more.
We have large holes in the team unaddressed due to our parsimony and incoherent or non existent recruitment planning.
All of this has to be overcome within a week. Sincerely hope I am wrong but that is a big ask.
The long term one is DD, he just doesn’t care enough despite comments to the contrary. Don’t need to go into great detail just look at our board and executive – is that the best we can manage attract. Would he put such a group together to run his other businesses? Would he watch them struggle and fail repeatedly and crack on regardless?
As many have said before until he goes nothing will change.
I think it was BR that said we don’t want to “manufacture our own stress”
Remove the man that said it for those with a BR phobia – it is exactly what we do……
Advertising a music festival and seeking solace in the women’s team result after the trauma of LASK and Sunday, that has been the official club response,as per usual nothing from Nicholson , the Captain going public with comments on the teams performance which will do nothing for the dressing room or unity with players only here for the wages, the season is seriously at risk of falling apart and it’s early September.
Look at yourself in the mirror ask yourself do I want to be here and if I do what needs to change because change it needs to do.
Celtic FC⚽️🍀: Kilwinning Rangers 4 Celtic B 0 – The Celtic Underground (Substack) https://ift.tt/XkFRJw8
🍀#CelticFC #COYBIG #Celtic
https://x.com/CelticTelegram/status/2099584017066590268?s=20
A little bit of an explanation would be helpful explaining why Celtic have attempted to move away from the discredited Tier 5 development model of the Lowland League.
Our stronger players are now loaned to Tier 2 & 3 clubs Ayr and Dumbarton.
That leaves the B side full of youngsters.
It was believed that we would pull out of the Lowland League altogether but we’ve stuck with it for now.
Elite clubs in Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands play their second side in Tier 2 (Championship) football. Arne Engels came through this route.
That innovative move has been voted down in Scotland, hence we are forced to develop youngsters for at Tier 5 level.
Is the Hun-like expectation of constant success a reason for the scarcity of posts on here ?
Goalkeepers are rubbish
Fullbacks can’t tackle and one only lasts 60 minutes
Defence is a sieve and hopeless defending corners
Midfield weak as pish, couldn’t tackle a fish supper
Wingers useless can’t go past a full-back
Manager too old and only interested in money
Coaches haven’t a clue – don’t listen to what we, the fans, are telling them
Strikers don’t get service and when they do – miss too many chances
Board are only interested in profit – hate the fan base – won’t sign the players we tell them to
Referees give us nothing
Var benefits only the huns
Polis are anti-Celtic and pro-hun
God has turned his back on us
6-0 for the good guys on Thursday night
Donovan and Stephen Welsh in Scotland squad
HOT SMOKED on 15TH SEPTEMBER 2026 10:35 AM
Is the Hun-like expectation of constant success a reason for the scarcity of posts on here ?
—————————
Is competence too much to expect?
I suspect apathy probably has much to do with lack of posts….
I suspect resignation is the reason for fewer posts.
Resignation that everything we feared about our team/management/club/recruitment came true in two crucial games, so early in the season.
50 arrests and counting.
More dawn raids on supporters attending our title winning celebrations.
I very much doubt this is proportionate or am I missing the full scale riot with hospitals full that happened in just a few hours.
And it was just a few hours as we passed Trongate coming back from the match via a few boozers.
At 10 o’clock the area was spotless with not a hint of a full scale riot that had obviously taken place to warrant the amount of dawn raids months later.
It is well publicised the police have very limited resources. Is this a justified use of these very limited resources.
Or is it now a witch-hunt?
HH.
Or maybe all the posters have now been arrested. !!!
Pleased for both Donovan and Welsh in getting picked by the new Scotland coach. The former has been involved with youth teams etc though I hope he does not actually play @ this point, and the latter who did well on loan @ Motherwell last season before moving on from Celtic.
Greenpinata
It’s a lot easier to follow politicians orders to arrest Tims than remove the drug dealing scumbags from Glasgow city centre.
BTW, still no update on the two police officers who were seriously injured.
Hope they are OK.