When contemplating his first competitive game as Celtic manager, Ange Postecoglou may want to paraphrase Vince Lombardi: half the squad are injured, half want away and the other half are inexperienced kids.
We have a few weaknesses, today, all we can do is own them and get ready for battle. I expect Odsonne Edouard, Ryan Christie and Nir Bitton all to feature at some point, if not from the start. If we are to have any chance, our new club captain, Callum McGregor, will be the man who leads from the front. He brings experience and a level of fitness that belies his west of Scotland heritage.
The midfield core, with Callum, Ismaila Soro and David Turnbull looks like the most effective area in the team, they will need to dominate the ball and Ismaila in particular will be required to offer protection to the back line.
Martin O’Neill’s era started with indifferent preseason performances before the pieces began to come together of what was the third treble in our history. I would accept a slow burner of a season this time around.
Special thoughts today for our old pal, Kano. He would have run us through every scenario on what to expect from an Australian manager. Some legacies live on, though, his sure did.
If you want some news that is not dominated by the self-interested or deluded, here is a wee piece on what your Foundation is doing right now with Islamic Relief UK to help homeless, asylum seekers, refugees, children and victims of domestic abuse in Glasgow.
Celtic is a wonderful thing to be part of, never take it for granted. Enjoy the game tonight!
207 Comments- Pages:
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HAIL! HAIL! por cierto
I never take Celtic for granted! por cierto
SQUIRE DANAHER on 20TH JULY 2021 12:12 PM
FANADPATRIOT on 20TH JULY 2021 11:55 AM
Sevco to have 17,000 at opening league game 🤷🏻♂️
———
Over to you Mr McKay
Get it dealt with or take your seat up the back of the bus with the rest of them.
hits the bar, well don Por Cierto
SAINT STIVS on 20TH JULY 2021 12:13 PM
“hits the bar, well don Por Cierto”
:)))) por cierto
Crowd numbers — the SG / GCC are playing games to wind us up and keep the TFOD2.1 Klanbase happy.
It will be interesting to see how the number progress over the season — we have the bigger ground so our numbers should be bigger across the patch.
I fear we will start to seen the number of gates / covered exits on Janefield Street to keep our numbers down.
What is going on re attendances!! Another thing. Seen on another forum that a guy and his kid have taken the tickets of someone who can’t go tonight. This is their first game for 3 years as they gave going to see the hoops when NL got the job. I didn’t get a ticket for this game!! :(((( No, it’s not sour grapes, well maybe aye! :)) por cierto.
They gave UP going! doh!!! por cierto
I wonder why Paul is so confident Nir Bitton will feature. Ange used him sparingly in the warm up games and he played Shaw in midfield exclusively, so I think we are down to Welsh and Uroghohige and Murray as CB options since it looks like Ajer is not going to risk a transfer-ending injury.
Reading about the ref tonight…he gives on average a penalty every TWO games !!!…that’s an incredible stat….and a worrying one
17000 – it’s a blatant 2 fingers up to Celtic – time to grow a pair
Money talk from the Swiss Bloke — treat with caution.
His analysis in the past was not always the best regarding the club and his recent efforts continue that vein.
However the do provide a data point and that data point shows how much of an erse the bold PL turned out to be — interesting that there are now stirrings regarding trying to understand how we could have gotten ourselves into the mess that is pre-season 21/22.
DD / Irish Raj took the huff and looked the other way.
PL just milked it for all that it was worth — and yet still they clapped.
To think that in June 2018 — the only question up for debate was how many extra seats should we include when it came to the South Stand rebuild — the nice round figure would have been the number needed to generate a CL crowd of 67K.
Different world — and how long and hard does the road that will get us out of this shambles look?
Some would say that fixing the Rest and be Thankful will be easier / quicker.
However seeing the state that Not-Jacinda has left the SG it may be a toss up in the end.
Last season — no effort x no coaching x loads of talent / SB excepted produced the worst football I have seen since FMcC turned up.
Hopefully some effort x some coaching x some talent will get us a result tonight.
PL’s legacy should never be forgotten — he has just milked us dry.
Ange will pick a team to win tonight – no nose cutting off to spite ones face
Anybody else getting England videos playing on this site???
CELTICFOREVER on 20TH JULY 2021 10:00 AM – agree re your previous about the mystery of Jozo.
We let a defender with some glass-knee issues go when he was a willing starter and continually chasing full recovery, but kept a lard-arse striker stay when his head was full of gaming pre-season fitness data and chasing titillation.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast.
I expect Ange’s Army to win tonight. Two-nil. Ajeti and Turnbull picking up goal bonuses. Mon the young team!
Nir Bitton must be close to his testimonial.
21-5-79
Yes
SFTB @ 12.20
KA is not in the squad.
He is just waiting for BL to match Brentford’s bid.
Personally I would add on 10% for them trying to game the situation / being cheeky.
I would play OU @ RB and DM @ CB.
Incredible that it has come to this.
For hesitate © Ange, see Celtic dither.
The transfer situation has been out of kilter at Celtic long before supporters even heard the name Ange Postecoglu. We didn’t even have a January 21, window because the board had given up by December, and it’s been left to fester June to June. We were going to try and change big, but got bitten by Eddie Howe and the bizarre notion to give him the summer to come up with his no.
Plugging the sieve for the CL qualifiers wasn’t even an option when it took so long, some say since Ferencvaros, and we’ve now proceeded with the punt and , £5M tops player that’ll come to Parkhead for a miserly 20K a week, that used to sustain the Larssons no less.
The landscape has changed, but the window is open for new Celtic heroes beyond Midtjylland and inevitable dreary Sunday league games. With Tynecastle on the horizon see Kyogo Furuhashi for Scott Sinclair.
VINNIETHEDOG on 20TH JULY 2021 12:27 PM
Reading about the ref tonight…he gives on average a penalty every TWO games !!!…that’s an incredible stat….and a worrying one
A pen every two games? Sevco would never stand for that! Miserable bassa!
I think Ange will spring a surprise with the lineup tonight, remember away goals no longer count double so not as much a need to play it cagey defence wise. Ange’s efforts will be on scoring goals so I expect a very attack-minded team with lots and lots of effort and stamina needed, por cierto
Swiss Bloke and his numbers for 19/20.
The impending car crash was all out in plain sight.
TFOD2.1 are matching us regarding stadium income and they are spending a fair whack in wages.
I fear that when the numbers for 20/21 come out it will show that they are swimming in debt and we had to sell JF to balance the books / make PL his last bonus.
DD won’t be bothered — he didn’t need to put in any money and there are no pitchforks on show.
The only losers were the support and they don’t matter as long as they can sell the season tickets.
Madmitch – “I would play OU @ RB and DM @ CB.”
I’m gonna have a crack at this………Dangermouse?
Barkas
Ralston Wesh Bitton Taylor
Forest McGregor Soro Turnbull Christie
Edouard
por cierto
‘Sevco to have 17,000 at opening league game.’
###
In reality though it’s only 310. It’s just that they’re not too hot on the old counting thing.
Crowd levels increase as the days go by without a surge in cases. The Ibrox 17,000 limit is for a game 12 days from now. Celtic’s first home game on August 7th should be 20,000 to 25,000 all being well.
After restrictions are lifted on 9th August, our next home game will be a full house.
Away with the paranoia. The council wouldn’t dare be so blatantly biased.
BSR @ 12.35
19/20 wages total — Swiss bloke has it up over £50mill.
Might be total wages but is suggests that we are paying £30K / £40K pw to a lot of players.
It would be interesting to see how our wages compare to Italy / Spain / France even Germany.
We are paying well over the going rate for Scandinavia and Central Europe / the Balkans.
Squad got fat and happy — a bit like our ex CEO.
Is that POR CIERTO up front?
:-)
ERNIE LYNCH on 20TH JULY 2021 12:42 PM
Either that or…
It’s more likely to be 34,000, but there’s an Ibroxonian art between sales income and taxable declarations.
Barkas
Welsh Dane Murray (6’4″) Urhoghide Taylor
MacGregor Soro Shaw Turnbull
Abada Ajeti
All wantaways and daft boys to miss out.
POR CIERTO on 20TH JULY 2021 12:42 PM
Barkas
Ralston Wesh Bitton Taylor
Forest McGregor Soro Turnbull Christie
Edouard
por cierto
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Hardly ideal, but that’s the line up I was thinking of. Surely Abada will be added to the list today, unless there’s some red tape issue. He was listed as a trialist on Saturday. Mid to front, that team should be well capable of doing well tonight (let’s forget about last year😁).
TMcL @ 12.47
CoViD19 is about to enter its Hunger Games phase as we sacrifice the young.
Herd Immunity never went away — just a case that the mentalists lowered their sights to the U18s.
The “JCVI” decision to ration vaccinations for the U18’s will go done in history as the old and vain tying themselves to the mast of their own egos to save their reputations / money.
Trouser snakery of the worst kind.
Consequently the crowd situation is — to me — all a bit up in the air.
I like the little I’ve saw of Murray but would opt for Bitton tonight. Urhoghide looks (again from a brief glimpse) looks to have good attributes, fast, athletics, strong, good in air and his passing looked OK. But he seemed very prone to dive in. He can be coached to be better in that respect. Needs must tonight, in a massive game. Do we really gaurantee Europa group stage, at least, if we win?
Pleased to say, I’ll be there.
Apart form the fact Christie is vastly experienced and wants away ……………….he’s tit.
Where’s the tea lady!!!!!
OE has also chucked it .
Why take a chance with him?
I don’t get it!
a
MADMITCH on 20TH JULY 2021 12:48 PM
Are wages specified as being solely for footballing personnel? I think that is for total organisation.
Sons of Erin at 1242
I’ve had it UTH with all these initials and wee acronyms, they really GOMT. Surely people aren’t so short of time that they can’t spell out a few words. It really RMK.