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 CHAMPION…The HORSE has just won the 2.00 Race at Salisbury Today.
It won at 7/4…although I backed it this morning @ 3/1…Happy Days.
I Posted about this Horse a couple of weeks ago ( SOLELY because of its NAME), and although it was beaten into 4th Place that day, I thought it ran quite well. I Posted after that Race, that I would BACK the Horse again….and one particular Poster on here ( I cant remember who ?), sought to DERIDE me when I stated that I would look out for the Horse and BACK it again with my cash in the future.
So I was RIGHT, and the other Poster ( who is entitled to their opinion ?), was WRONG !
I apologise to the GOOD GUYS on here for NOT letting them know that the Horse was due to run again TODAY, but I sincerely hope that some of those GOOD GUYS MAY have spotted it on the Race Card Today , and backed it ?
HH.
I have no problem with keeping an eye on the enemy. However I draw the line on complimenting them, Fair Play to them, my Ass,
There is absolutely nothing to be gained by worrying about the Hun, we cannot influence who they buy or how they play unless we are talking about a Derby game.
I just want Celtic to be as good as they possibly can be.
So far I’m very Happy about the way Celtic are shaping up and I’m fairly confident we can win our 11th Title out of 12 Seasons. Just think about that we are going for 11 out of 12,
MM @ 1:48
If our group is P1 Man City, P2 Atletico Madrid, P3 Inter Milan, even the supreme optimist in me would struggle to see where seven points would come from.
If, OTOH, the group is P1 E Frankfurt, P2 Sevilla, P3 Sporting Lisbon, then it becomes a bit more doable.
Our last foray into Europe resulted in Bodo/Glimt putting five past us. Perspective.
dearie me, it was ever thus
Last years full year accounts were published on 21st september.
JD @ 2.24
You are focusing on reputations not actual reality …
MC are still not the real deal.
AM rely on re-energising EPL scraps / waifs and strays.
IM are full of Chelsea and MC cast offs.
The whole club — manager included — got done over by B/G.
I fear that we under-estimated them and suffered the consequences.
The SPL title was our main focus and that played its part.
AP knows that B/G diminished his reputation.
That is why he wants a full on challenge in the CL this season.
That is how it looks to me.
I am an optimist — I just hope that the team plays with confidence rather than fear.
That and a more capable MF.
Stx2 @ 2.27
Last year and 2020 were CoViD19 affected.
Please look over our history — the accounts used to come out in August.
JIMDOM on 10TH AUGUST 2022 2:24 PM
Easy to forget that our last foray into the Europa League had us winning three out of the last four games in a group that contained teams that were in the cl positions in the Spanish and German leagues. We were ten minutes away from a wining in Leverkusen, we beat Betis with a second string 11. Once we had a settled team who were comfortable with the new system they proved that this group does have that in it.
Unfortunately we’re also capable of playing like a bunch of fat dogs against a certain sort of opposition
I’d fear a doing from the English premiership teams and Real Madrid, PSG and Bayern Munich. Maybe Barça if they get their act together but none of the other teams. Serie a is pretty ordinary at the moment, and La Liga, the bundesliga and Ligue Un are not much better outside of the obvious teams.
Agreed Paul67, last night showed a character they lacked at the start of last season. Maybe Malmo were a better team, maybe Thomason got into their heads, but 3-0 a week after being totally outplayed shouldn’t be ignored.
They didn’t buckle under the pressure, although if they’d have gone in level at half time or if Sands red card had stood it would have been interesting to see how they coped
Stx2 @ Accounts Watch
2018 /19 came out in Sept 2019.
The change must have started earlier than I remembered.
No matter — the board are still worth a watching.
Yeah, fair play Sevco?
On the blog that led the way from 2008 and told us of the impending Rainjurz Armageddon, but the same blog that then ditched Res12 like a red hot mould master.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, inevitable that we’ll compare with our noisy neighbours due to the fact they tuped over the dead Rainjurz support along with John Brown’s’ illusive deeds. By the time they had won the Petrofac Cup they’d never won it before, by the time they giddy up for the CL which no doubt they will after they’ve poo pooed past PSV, they’ll never have been in the CL either.
But then you know all that, – fair play?
Not in our lifetime CSC
CELTIC40ME @ 2:46
There are some teams in P1 & P2 that are so far ahead of Celtic that our games against them, home and away, will be nothing more than glorified training sessions and will be torture to witness. But, our Euro form sometimes peaks in the Autumn months (Lazio home & away), and last season as you rightly say. The fall away in February knock out games is unfathomable at times.
Please stop worrying about that scum. Pretty average side to me.
Then of course the game on Sep3 , my birthday, what can go wrong, another hun skelping on the cards
KINGLuBO
pS MADMITCH Love your comment but try to avoid all the initials please, does my nut
Watched a rerun of Sevco’s defeat last week. The Belgium team was about on par with a middle of the table SPFL team. So last nights Sevco’s win did not surprise me. Play like we can do and we can give them a right humping. I reckon a 3-0 scoreline to the Bhoys in Green.
JIMDOM on 10TH AUGUST 2022 3:43 PM
I’d see it another way – there are 4 teams out of 8 in each of pots 1 and 2 who we’d give a good game. There’s an even chance we get a great team and a not so good one. No bad teams in pot 3 but nobody who’d have you hiding behind the sofa
I think we’ll peak earlier this year, we’ll have a settled team playing to a system they understand. We’ll need to with all the game’s being out the way by the works cup
Pot 1 – Frankfurt, Milan, Porto, Ajax
Pot 2 – Juventus, Atlético Madrid, Sevillla, Leipzig
JD @ 3.43
Regarding the quality CL teams — are any of their league matches glorified training sessions?
I would suggest not — easier at home I grant you but all tricky away.
Does that mean that you do not think we could survive in any of the top leagues?
Struggle against Brentford / Brighton / CP / Wolves?
Euro form — better in the autumn.
I think that we are better because we have more practice / more condensed experience in the autumn — eventually we get used to playing teams we are not used to.
Come late Feb / spring and we have forgotten all that and revert to SPL type.
Apart from TFOD2.1 and their desperation — if you don’t win you don’t eat — the whole of the SPL is undercooked for Euro football.
I think that the 4 games per season intensity makes us very insular.
We all seem to struggle against the unknown / different.
You might call it the SPL cringe — although it hurts the NT as well.
C40 @ 4.25
Looking better at every viewing — Ajax / Porto / EF …
We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
CFC vs Ajax / Porto / EF …
I wonder who has the bigger wage bill?
Apparently, for the first time in twelve years the Champions League theme tune will ring out over Ayebrokes next week before their game against what we hope will be a highly motivated PSV. I say apparently because I do not know if it is true. What is true however is the that in the match programme the song will be listed as
Zadok the Vicar. New Club, old habits.
One thing about the Porto ground — it is not surrounded by acres of tarmac / Type 1 / grass / tumbleweed.
I wonder how much their CEO took home 2003 to 2021?
MADMITCH on 10TH AUGUST 2022 4:29 PM
Can’t disagree with that 👍
MADMITCH
Porto are over €300m in debt, they’re struggling because of the expense of the stadium building costs, despite receiving government help with the costs
They copped a fine and nearly got banned from European competition because of a failure to pay what they owed to other clubs
I’d rather a wonky sign and some weeds
My friends in Celtic
These stats are amazing.
Highest attendances in European football in 2022:
🏟 91,648 – Barcelona vs Wolfsburg
🏟 91,553 – Barcelona vs Real Madrid
🏟 87,192 – England vs Germany
👏 They were all women’s matches.
𝙂𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙨 𝙘𝙚𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 = 𝙎𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙙
It doesn’t matter if the tickets were heavily discounted, its bums on seats that matters.
HH to all.
That’s right, get the pitchforks oot for Paul 67 ackowledging the huns capabilities in Europe, whilst we get mugged, and mugged, and mugged again, when Ange ball moves ootside of the Scottish midden environment.
Then whistle oot the side of yer mooths when yer fellow comrades lol are buying £49 oldfrm treason tickets, then swaggering onto the blog bragging about being mugged, about having souled out, about being a PLC licker.
FOR 6 YEARS!!
December 2016 Celtic season ticket holders bought £49 oldco tickets and announed their agreement that RFC was back in town, oh but they were only supporting team!
Hush, hush, from every blog and Celtic outlet.
Why did the CT not forward a motion to oppose these £49 oldfirm treason prices, agreed to by Celtic PLC, on the grounds that it was deceit on an industrial scale?
They go all around the country singing about Irish rebellions from a hundred+ years ago, then rthey get thur troosers pulled down by an Irish Tory PLC board?
Deary me!
And not one single happy clappy PLC licker breathes a single word of of condemnation?
Did Paul 67 buy a £49 treason ticket and then swagger onto the blog, telling you all how he wouldn’t have missed it for the world, as he was just supporting Celtic?
What you have called him, you who votes for cross dressers, and women haters, children haters, Celtic haters, trade union haters, English people haters, whilst fat bunter Blackford, who bulied poor Charles Kennedy to death, then creams off £250k+ in expenses every year, then he screams about Tory austery!
Maybe if Paul 67 was a £49 ticket mug, maybe then the silent majority would address the PLC Same Club Lie oldco price on tickets scam, but you wouldn’t be doing so from a position of integrity, you would do it out of spite!
Doom Gloom and Despondency CSC 🤧
he knows nothing.
lol
MM
“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.”
——————————
Your posts are peppered with unevidenced assertions. Now, a lot of football finances are difficult to make out because the annual report does not show what deferred payments and bills have been agreed.
Nonetheless, without this inside information (which you don’t have either)- I am aware that we sanctioned two high cost permanent transfers for Jota and CCV. We also made Maeda’s initial loan a permanent deal. We bought Bernabei, Mooy, Siegrist and Jenz.
We loaned out a huge when of players (Barkas, Urogohide, Bolongoli, Soro, Doohan, Montgomery, Dembele etc) and got rid of two large-ish wage earners with Rogic and Bitton. Some of our loanees are Loanees with a view to Transfer but we do not know what transfer fees MIGHT be coming our way and not one is guaranteed to land us a transfer fee of any level if their loanee club doesn’t fancy them or cannot afford them.
So where is the evidence that this is a TIGHT budget and not an AVERAGE or a SPENDTHRIFT/GROWTH budget? Compared to which season? Last year we made a couple of big sales- so far this year- not one.
And the chat about JJ and M O’R is chat coming from Chelsea, Madrid and Leicester- and we cannot stop it. You can believe it is all planted stories from a desperate to sell Peter Lawwell secretly hiding in the club, but again, I would appreciate some supporting evidence as the asertions alone are unconvincing.
Once again Kev J….it’s £52….💣🧨
Scum headline – “GET OUT!”
Petition signed to have thug removed.
Don’t want to post the link here’s a wee sketchy bit….
FOOTBALL fans have called for Paul Tansey to be axed by his new club Whitehill Welfare after he pleaded guilty to assault.
Tansey headbutted Celtic Women’s star and Scotland international Lisa Robertson, 30, during a brutal 10-month long ordeal as he turned up at her home in a jealous rage, smashing her door.
PaddyPower have the huns at 6/4 to win at Ibrox next week but 5/4 to qualify for the next round. Can’t get my head around that one.
C40 @ 4.46
I wish I had never looked it up …
Porto — the new stadium cost EUR100mill in 2003/04 with the state putting in 20%’ish.
Looks like good value to me — then you have the indoor arena next door and the B team stadium out in the sticks. Plus the Juniors to keep the B team company — they sound like my kind of club.
Fully developed fan facilities around the main stadium.
No tumbleweed in sight.
No idea where their EUR300mill debt came from — the CL money should have kept them going for a while.
Interesting how reading their history around this time highlights all the levers that are available to improve the performance of a team — just a case have you the desperation / brass neck / ego to pull them?
On the basis of only half — if even that — get caught …
You have to wonder what does go on in Euro / local football maximise performance levels / results?
Just what do clever / desperate / greedy / ambitious / deluded football owners and managers get up to — to get ahead / catch up with their big local rivals who have bragging rights and then some?
And that is before you bring in the gamblers to complicate matters.
No matter we should batter Porto — we owe them quite a lot.
Now who was the ref in Seville?
!!BADA BING!! on 10TH AUGUST 2022 5:23 PM
Once again Kev J….it’s £52….💣🧨
““““`
It was £49 in 2016 when huns came into top league, and Celtic season ticket holders bought these tickets without a single word of protest, probably all fell for the PLC squirrel trick of recruiting Brendan Rodgers?
£49 – £52 – £55 next?
Will Timmy be “that” daft?
Login
SFTB @ 5.21
You want evidence — then we have a 20 year history of transfer dealings / forced sales / selling club vibe to look back on. This is not our first PL inspired transfer rodeo.
A lot will be revealed in Sept but until them we can just read the runes in true CFC style.
We are looking a bit under cooked at the moment.
My thoughts are that we need to invest more.
We seem to be playing it very canny.
Too canny but I live in hope.
As for your good self — waiting to hear your thoughts?
Any ideas on how you want the club to develop?
Please no phone a friend nonsense — your original thoughts.
MADMITCH
You missed out the training facilities – cost €16m but built and owned by the municipality and leased to Porto FC for €500 a month.
€35m from the government and local authorities for help with stadium and training facilities. Not bad if you can get it, I wouldn’t imagine Celtic would ever receive that sort of state aid but if you don’t ask you don’t get!
SFTB @ 5.21
You are pushing just a bit too hard — ooh er matron …
For your information — we have not bought AM / BS / MoJ.
The fact that you need to big up these players suggest you know that you case is weak.
We are undercooked — we need more investment.
Greenpinata
“t doesn’t matter if the tickets were heavily discounted, its bums on seats that matters.”
——————————
I’m afraid it does. People will buy tickets for a cockfight if it’s hyped enough and affordable enough.
I played a sport that is really only attended by friends and family of the participants for the most part. For Cup Finals and Internationals we can maybe manage crowds that Scottish League One clubs could attract.
We have had Scotland or England playing internationals in my sport against other weaker Western European countries and they would be lucky to sell 500 tickets, yet, when the Olympics are on, there is a ballot to get tickets for any match past the Group stages. I was fortunate enough to land 2 tickets for Bulgaria vs Italy at London 2012- the 3rd/4th place play off for semi final losers. Myself and everyone else at the Earl’s Court venue paid for this match not knowing in advance who would be playing. Friends of mine applying, were unsuccessful in the ballot but were offered fringe area seats for S. Korea v Turkey in the Group Stages such was the demand for tickets. These self same teams could have played in London a month later, outwit the Olympic event and no-one would watch. It was the event that sold it and those tickets were nowhere near as cheap as for the Women’s football.
Nobody would cross the road to watch Wrestling, Shooting, Weightlifting or Diving for free on 264 days a year but put it in a Commonwealth Games and they get a crowd nd pay for it.
I wish the Women well and hope their game grows. I have attended Celtic Ladies games and will go again but I have not bought a Season book ticket , even though it gives me access to Celtic B games. The truth is I’d rather just pick and choose a few games each season outwith my Season Book for the Men’s first team.
But at this point in time, there is more hype than there is desire to watch. Celtic Ladies will go on playing in front of smaller crowds. Elite clubs like Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City ladies will attract crowds currently that are less than teams in the English League One get, and they only get that by having a large number of free tickets and cheap tickets. There is not one completely self sustaining club in Women’s football- not Barca or Real or the England Women’s Team – that can pay wages from gate receipts. Individual stars of that team will make some money in the next year from sponsorship and ads but the club teams have still to attract that level of sponsorship.
As I say- I genuinely wish all sports people the best of luck in growing their game and making a living from it. But- I can still see the difference between hyped attendance for big occasions and a game that cannot sell enough, as yet, or in the near future to be a self sustaining game.