Fair play to Newco, a 3-0 win after a 2-0 defeat is an achievement. Anyone who thinks this season will be easy has not been paying attention. Whatever they do in the Champions League playoff round, they will arrive at Celtic Park three weeks on Saturday battle ready.
The circa £5m they earned last night will go towards supporting their structural deficit for the coming season, pending the outcome of their tie against PSV. There is real opportunity, or jeopardy, in those games.
Celtic have to consider whether they are ready to overcome the challenge. Despite early season good form and a manager who delivered spectacularly last season, it is far from clear we are. Newco changed manager mid-term, suffered a midseason wobble, but finished strong, arguably the strongest.
We await to competitively deploy Alexandro Bernabei, Moritz Jenz may, or may not, be used when Carl Stafelt is fit and we are yet to find out what Aaron Mooy can deliver. In short, we can only offer an aspirational opinion on whether our first choice 11 is stronger than last term, or we simply have more cover.
It is reassuring that we continue to be linked with quality players. If our business this month is close to as effective as last August’s, you will enjoy 3 September.
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Celtic supporters will always be there
Hail hail
Paul67
What’s with the bigging up Sevco
You going mainstream?
genealogy.
judith the weather has a granny from Achill
https://twitter.com/i/status/1557302754057527297
Is Dundee United s performance not a threat to our success ?
Or is it a two 🐎 race between us and the 💀
Disgust 😜
We should always be looking for better players. We need one more CB and ideally a first team ready centre mid. You could make a case for other positions, but those are the ones we look light in.
Watching our first two games we look very assured. I confident.
What I’ve seen of the orcs they look like we did a few years ago. Known quantities getting a bit stale, new players looking a mixed bag.
Not really understanding the jittery nature of our host at present.
We must never be complacent and I don’t know anyone who thinks this league will be easy – they only have to be better than the rest to give us a challenge – but we should be confident.
Paul 67
‘Fair play ‘ and ‘Newco’ in the same sentence ?
Have you had too much sun ?
Keith Jackson just off the phone there, dear paul can i have my article back please
Any hun sites bigging up Celtic? Some things should remain as thoughts but addressed in other way by preparation recruitment and coaching, incidentally injuries to our players in games by opposition thugs continues to be an issue unmentioned by the manager or the club.These issues are worthy of comment not sevco who would have got the 5m as a handout from Park etc.
SAINT STIVS on 10TH AUGUST 2022 12:13 PM
genealogy.
Judith the weather has a granny from Achill
===================================
Good St Auggies girl Saint Stivs – (Embra not Glesca) – and many that went there including myself have Irish roots. Mostly Donegal but Mayo second.
Her pronunciation of Achill a wee bit dodgy though!
“Celtic have to consider whether they are ready to overcome the challenge.”
————————-
Errrr, maybe just be the best you can be. If someone else is better there’s not much you can do about that.
Getting caught up in old firmery certainly won’t have us anywhere near our best, although it will help another club – as has been witnessed over the past couple of seasons.
CONEYBHOY on 10TH AUGUST 2022 11:01 AM
BOGNORBHOY on 10TH AUGUST 2022 10:51 AM
i haven’t bought a newspaper in years. I use BBC/RTE and newspapers send me links to stories on FB which i read if free and don’t if chargeable
The only thing i miss from papers was the music reviews/gig guides etc
………………………….
Like you I havent bought a so called ” Newspaper” for years.
The ONLY thing I miss is the Topless Burds on Page 3.
LOL.
HH
‘Fair play to Newco’ – excellent irony paul67
One of the pogues died rip
https://twitter.com/poguesofficial/status/1557009028840030211?t=rt1dgDKZr3SkKhTdP1yxAw&s=19
Hh
AZ ALKMAAR V DUNDEE UTD…2 LEG
LIVE on BBC Scotland ( CHANNEL 9 on Freeview) Tomorow ( Thursday) at 7.45.
The Kick Aff is 8.00pm
R.I.P. DARRYL.
you will never walk alone.
Facts, opinions and interpretations.
Interesting blend.
Fact – Sevco’s result last night is closer to a £c7.5m shot in the arm once net (income minus costs) from PSV qualifier is factored
Opinion? Their overturning a 2-0 deficit?
Statistically – meritorious. Doesn’t happen often?
Performance indicator – who knows. Either they played rubbish against an ordinary team in first leg or they raised the bar high in return leg against a solid outfit
(I can guess what their fans will think).
Interpretation
Their signings?
Young loanee from Bayern is imaginative.
Turkish full back is a big punt.
EVERY other signing is some previous club’s cold leftovers reheated …
… and shamelessly marketed as a la carte by the agenda driven SMSM.
Bring it on.
TULLY57 on 10TH AUGUST 2022 12:28 PM
She was on a chat show a while ago, in which she revealed she went to catholic school in embra, but was actually a hertz supporter.
If our business this month is close to as effective as last August’s, you will enjoy 3 September.
—
I’d imagine – and would probably prefer – that our starting XI on Sept 3rd are all already at the club
spooky , you mention hearts and alber kidd pops up.
lol
:-)
…and now he’s popped up twice! True to form
Dear auld Albert . He popped up when it most mattered .
Irrespective of what is happening over the other side of the river, Celtic’s pre-World Cup break focus should remain the same. Top of the league and seven points from the six CL games. Achieve that and we will be well placed for the post-World Cup fixtures.
Taking seven points from the CL games would be a huge achievement, and would guarantee Euro football after Christmas. To re-establish our reputation, it needs to happen.
No doubt that’s a decent result for the huns last night, following a poor one last week. I watched the whole first half last week and a little of the second half. I thought usg were really poor in the first 15 mins and thereafter OK but not very impressive. The huns knocked out better teams last year. Right now, I’d say they are weaker than last season due to who they’ve lost. Of course their new players might turn out to be very good. I think we are definitely going to be better this year. I don’t understimate the huns and certainly don’t fear them.
Another article about the huns.
P67
Worst case scenario for myself as a supporter is that your comments / attitude / hints suggest that we are heading back the old Govan / P/head double act where we will share the SPL title with the TFOD2.1 — performance seesaw.
We win the SPL — they will do well in Europe.
They win the SPL — we will make our money in the CL plus get their black book EUFA contacts / hacks / fixers / MIB friends for CL qualification in the season after.
Best view — cartel working to improve our EUFA / CL co-efficient.
Worst view — PL inspired fleecing of the support for the least amount of board effort.
As you note — and it is pretty brave off you — we still have a huge amount of work to do regarding squad improvement / development.
Our defence lacks real class but it is / can be effective.
Our MF contains real class but is not set up right / lacks a defensive pivot.
Therefore we should be busting a gut to get things moving — bringing in the qualities / talent we need and shipping out the deadwood and the marginal.
Plus spending a few quid on the B team with some quality 18 year olds coming onboard.
My thoughts are that AP knows that he will be judged on his CL exploits and at 57 he won’t get many more opportunities / plus Aus expects big things this season — so he is fully engaged with his growth agenda.
I think that we will work at it until the last day — shake the tree and see what falls out at the last minute.
As for TFOD2.1 — if they make more progress this summer than we can then something needs to change / the board needs a boot up the erse.
As for form in the run in last season — our nerves started to jangle the closer we got to the prize.
SAINT STIVS on 10TH AUGUST 2022 12:58 PM
TULLY57 on 10TH AUGUST 2022 12:28 PM
=====================================
Didn’t know that but she would’ve been in the minority.
Approx split would’ve been
Hibs 50% Celtic 40% Hertz 10%
An under current of concern today which is fair enough. Better to over estimate your enemy than under estimate them.
I don’t know if they’re a good side or simply an average side that made hard work of beating poor opponents. Much like us coming back against Karagandy didn’t make us world beaters.
If we’re sitting here next Wednesday and the huns have just dismantled PSV, I’ll be more concerned, much more than I am right now.
USt.G — small team on the up.
Well set up / value for money signings / well coached.
Lacked class and a big game attitude — see their league failure for more evidence.
They took time to settle at home — lacked a bit of belief until they found their feet.
Very simple game plan — could be effective but very limited.
Some of their players would struggle vs Livi @ home.
Lost a game away from home to a strange penalty / a stramash / a GK’ing howler.
How many bookies were hurt in the playing of this tie?
Paul 67,
It is not anti Celtic to acknowledge the huns are a decent team.
It is a huge compliment to our team and our manager to acknowledge that we were better
Complacency never sleeps csc.
JD @ 1.12
The CL groups this season will have a lot of dross in them.
Italy might be on the up but Spain / Portugal / France are on the way down.
Plus Germany are in the grubber and the EPL are their for the taking.
If teams like Brentford / Brighton are suddenly competitive in the EPL then we should have nothing to fear.
We should be aiming to come second — anything else is just some form of defeatism.
If we play with confidence then we have a chance.
I thought Paul’s justifications for writing about and keeping an eye on the Huns were sound.
I find many of the objections to it as either hypocritical or forgetful as so many of them are coming from people who stated we were underestimating them as we cheerled Celtic on to a 10iar failure.
Why was it right to be fearful/respectful/acknowledging or aware of the Sevco threat then but it is unforgivable for Paul67 to do similar to Sevco this year.
I enjoy beating them because they have been our main rivals for most of our history, Between us we have won 107 of 122 league titles for which we have competed. Who else should we be keeping an eye on?
I don’t fear or respect Sevco as an institution but I respect their competitive record against us- one version of Rangers has won more titles than we have and together they have one more Cup (SC or SLC) than us.
Not keeping an eye on them is foolish. Not being wary of them is naive. Pretending it is wrong to refer to them is hypocritical as you talk about them plenty in your own conversations.
The bragging rights for this season have not yet been established. Neither team has dropped points. We own the bragging rights for last season but, as many of you reminded me in 2021, past performance is no guarantee of future performance.
How many actually disagree with the sentiment Paul expressed- they are recent Europa finalists- they had a good result last night- there is still all to play for to decide which of us will triumph this year?
When I am talking in the company of fans of the Ibrox club, I will be either dismissive and sneering of their chances or politely respectful of their competitive threat, depending on whether I am speaking to a Hun or a bluenose. But in the company of good Celtic men on this blog, I have yet to hear or read someone who has never mentioned The Ibrox club, and most of you and me are multiple offenders on that front.
on the 3 Sep it is crucial that we play with energy in the midfield. That was our issue in the SC semi and last league game. We were brilliant/good there in the 3-0/2-1 games.
I didn’t watch the RC game but i noticed MM mentioning the midfield perf. I was at the Aberdeen game and felt we were a bit off the pace that day.
A solid win on Sunday with a dominant midfield will make me more confident for the 3rd. I am actually quite confident already
Interesting to see what our financials will say when they finally come out in Sept !!!
They we will find out how well we did last season / what our cash position is / what did we actually spend on squad improvement?
Waiting until the transfer window has closed makes them — the board — worth a watching.
Fearty.csc?
Goodness me Pablo,
There’s being cautious and this. Weeks of this actually.
Account been hacked? ;)
KLV
do you understand anything about the timing of the accounts and when our actual fiscal year end is ?
the transfer window spending or not has got nothing to do with the timing of the published reports.
What I have seen of the Ibrox mob they haven’t impressed me very much. I agree we shouldn’t under estimate them but I’m sure Ange won’t allow that. We’re playing well but I think there is some improvement to come especially in the finishing dept.
As Ange said early last year the season is a marathon not a sprint and there will be a few twists and turns along the way and even more twists and turns from Jota.
Looking forward to another Successful season, League and one cup plus Europe after Christmas would do. Europe at Easter would be even better.
Stx2 @ 2.02
The full year accounts — July to June — used to come out in the second week of August then it moved to the third week.
Now we have been told that things came out ahead of expectations but that the accounts will come out in the second week of September.
Given the track record of our board — it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the late publishing of good accounts is down to a desire to limit information to the support that would generate a clamour to invest in the squad.
We seem to be running to a very tight budget this summer regarding squad investment.
I think that all the chat about JJ or MO’R leaving is down to AP having a limited budget while knowing that the squad needs more quality — short of cash so he has to improvise / work the squad.
We were a selling club last season.
We should not be a selling club this season.
The financials suggest that the ongoing business has been producing cash like a golden goose on Flybogel / prunes.
Now we have the CL bonus coming — a player spend of £15mill is not where we should be given the gaps in the squad and the opportunities on offer.