Napoli sitting on the pot with Toljan

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Maryan Shved is in Glasgow with his representatives, ready to sign a contract with Celtic before spending the remainder of the season back in Ukraine on loan, despite a late offer from Anderlecht yesterday morning.  Meanwhile, Jeremy Toljan remains in Dortmund, with long-term admirers Napoli still ‘sitting on the pot’.

I hear there is no chance of the player considering a permanent move anywhere else while Napoli continue to show interest.  The fact he remains in Germany means little, everything that needs to be done can still be achieved, but you know the script, these deals are never done until you see them on the park in green and white hoops.  Unlike Shved, this one is not in the bag.

Just caught the video of Ryan Christie’s first touch for his goal last night.  Delicious.  It is the way my first touch always worked in my head.

More soon.  I hope…

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  1. Go tell the Spartim on

    Lustig – 9 assists this season, including 2 last night

     

     

    youseewhatyouwanttosee CSC

  2. GO TELL THE SPARTIM on 31ST JANUARY 2019 1:19 PM

     

     

    He had a good game last night, he’s looked good since the break

  3. What is the extent of the injury to AR , and when is he due back if someone sees himself as going to napoli rather than us leave him where he is and move on to someone who will come and is of the required quality.

  4. TINYTIM

     

    Lustig has been a good servant but i agree with your points.

     

    However he is certainly not the only one who constantly faces sideways and backwards.

     

    JF had a purple patch earlier in the season culminating in his Scotland heroics.

     

    Unfortunately since that international break he has reverted to facing inside or backwards and his forward forays into the box have markedly declined.

     

    Sinclair seems incapable of going past his man on the outside.

     

    This predictability makes us easier to play against.

     

    Coach said after the game he changed it at half time and the changes contributed to the win.

     

    No shit as the first half performance had their goalie only making one save.

     

    When you face in the direction of opponents goal you are more likely to put a shot towards it.

     

    Our penchant for possession has now overtaken logic.

     

    Neither Christie or McGregor made a forward run in the first and their body position to receive the pass told you it would be moved sideways or backwards as they never looked up to see what was ahead.

     

    Burke made some good runs with our any service being forthcoming.

     

    We face the passer waiting to ball to feet leaving us with very little chance of moving ball upfield.

     

    There is a complete lack of anticipation throughout the team.

     

    A simple adjustment of turning our players bodies slightly forward rather than completely square would make a difference to this teams performance.

     

     

    We face the passer waiting to ball to feet leaving us

  5. GlassTwoThirdsFull on

    Big win and huge three points. If we can get the lead above six the other teams will find it difficult to maintain real belief.

     

    Two great goals, another clean sheet, Brown looking fitter again and Edouard back. Things starting to look much brighter again.

  6. Traditionalist88 12.29

     

    He’s led our defence well up to his mare against nooklub

     

    He may,may not have an error in him,but over his stay,they did got less and combined with good coaching he has improved.Think e dodged a bullet with Fulham.

     

    :-)

     

    HH

  7. BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 31ST JANUARY 2019 1:24 PM

     

     

    He was doing the attacking when I watched him against Italy in the playoffs, a swift karate kick to the neck seemed to do the trick

  8. Should point out that both Lustig assists last night were with sideways and slight backward pass.

     

    Nothing wrong with these types of pass if it creates space for guy receiving ball to attack space.

     

    It’s the guy receiving ball who needs anticipation and awareness which both Christie and McGregor showed to score.

  9. Does anyone have the antidote for anti-football? A formula that guarantees to overcome every time?

     

     

    Unless there is one, I’d suggest that our method is rather good, but still there are those who criticise:

     

     

    – guy behind me last night got awful excited when Ajer / Simo / Bain passed the ball between them on our penalty area… ” it’s going to cost us a goal doing that. GET IT UP THE PARK”. Only for Scott Bain to ping a beautiful ball out to unmarked (PC) Lustig standing on the right touch line. Lovely.

     

     

    Of course, like Man City on Tuesday night, playing football at the back will sometime cost a goal. But with footballers of the right ability, mentality and coaching the chances are it won’t happen very often.

     

     

    – slow, side to side passing. Passing to wingers and wing backs who just send it back. True, sometimes it is slow and I think we could miss out a players when going across the back. But it is this side to side passing and retaining of possession which creates the opening and tires out opponents (see next point). It also prevents the other team from creating chances. 12 goals for, 0 goals conceded suggests something is working just fine.

     

     

    – we played much better in the second half, much faster. There’s a reason for that. The opposition are tiring and more space becomes available. As well as being able to pass into more dangerous areas, we can also take on and beat defenders that previously wasn’t possible due to double/triple marking. As I remarked in a previous post, it’s not a coincidence that the starting centre forward is often overshadowed by the person who replaces him in the 60th minute onwards. The starting no. 9 has hardly seen the ball all game but run the defenders around, and the new guy benefits.

     

     

    I’m happy with those tactics. I can watch patiently while we probe a 12 man defence (how often was the ref in the way last night), and wait for the right time.

  10. glendalystonsils on

    Re breaking up the game/slowing things down………I have seen goalkeepers yellow carded for wasting less time than the St. J keeper did last night . Usually keepers do this late in the game to help protect a lead but with him it was the reverse…only showed a bit more urgency after we went ahead. Not even spoken to by the ref of course.

  11. South Of Tunis on

    Napoli suit on the radio .

     

     

    Being interviewed re ” The market ” . Not one word re Toljan. Lots of words re the possibility ( Or not ) of Napoli coughing up @ 25 million euros for 19 year old Agustin Almendra . ( midfield _Boca ) I must check him out -allegedly he’s the ” nuovo Riquelme “

  12. fan-a-tic on 31st January 2019 1:27 pm

     

    from TV our play seemed to change and create more space from about the 30th minute

     

    was not aware if the manager issued instruction

     

    Scott Brown created a lot of space for folk last night even I think for Calum to nip in and score

     

    Enjoyed it

  13. mullet and co 2 on

    How quickly do Napoli need to stop cogitating in order for us to sneak a hand under their metaphoric loo?

     

     

    We seem to be able to find wingers and wide men quite easily but it takes some serendipitous global event before we see a right back or a centre back of any import in the Hoops.

     

     

    There is a choice of about 300 professional right backs who earn less than they would at Celtic. We can’t sign one over the course of 5 transfer windows.

     

     

    I used to watch clubs from Nuevo football countries like Kazakhstan and that thinking they looked like a bunch of mercenaries. You know like the A team or a just some bunch of cobbled together folks. The number of loans and projects make me feel similarly about Celtic.

  14. Happy Birthday Murdoch Auld & Hay, hope you are doing OK.

     

    Second article makes me think our right back may not materialise but we live in hope. If Ralston is OK, Mik & himself will see us through the domestic games, Valencia games will take care of themselves.

  15. garygillespieshamstring on

    This year the gap at the top has been closed …………….

     

     

     

    to the exact same size as it was this time last year.

  16. Fanatic 1.27

     

     

    I couldn’t agree more.

     

     

    Someone needs to show JF a Jinky Video once a week.

     

     

    Home in the clips were he puts his right foot under the ball and flicks it up and over the full backs tackling foot.

     

    Beating the fullback on the outside .

     

     

    He did regularly whilst hemmed in on the touch line.

     

     

    Go inside once then outside once .

     

    Take your man on once , lay it off once .

     

     

    The full back then doesn’t know if you going to wall pass him and run into space , or take him on .

     

     

    Furthermore, if you take him on .

     

    He doesn’t know if you’re going to inside or outside.

     

     

    I was taught this at the age of 13.

     

     

    It served me well.

     

     

    James Forrest has the pace to be a world beater and can finish.

     

     

    He just needs to mix his game up a bit.

     

     

    Sinclair has fallen into the same bad habit this last year.

     

     

    Frustrated CSC.

     

     

    TT

  17. South Of Tunis on

    The delights of click bait fly a kite .

     

     

    Coded a wee Toljan Napoli notification please .

     

     

    Something came up -from a Calcio Mercato site –

     

     

    Dated today ( allegedly sourced from a German newspaper). Headline is –

     

    Competiing with Chelsea for the wing back — Napoli look at Toljan

     

     

    All well and good but there are 2 things which are not quite right . The German Club is Hoffenheim and the Chelsea Manager is Antonio Conte

  18. mike in toronto on

    MAH

     

     

    Happy birthday !

     

     

     

    An Tearmann

     

     

    A little while ago, there was discussion about PL’s pay, and how it measured up to EPL standards. I had a quick look (and I realize that not everything that we read on the internet can be taken as gospel), but my sense is that PL would be in the top half of pay for their executives, but we would have the lowest turnover of any such team. .

     

     

    https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/06/premier-league-finances-club-guide-2016-17

  19. What is the Stars on

    We should exit every transfer window with a stronger CEO Bonus

     

     

    Remember the Celtic CEO Bonus doesnt shrink ….to fit inferior bonus collectors.

     

     

    God Bless Peter !!!!

  20. GLENDALYSTONSILS on 31ST JANUARY 2019 12:31 PM

     

     

     

     

    Things you don’t want to hear;

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    ” Our business is done for the day”

     

     

     

     

     

     

    ” we tried right up to the last minute “

     

     

    “and here with the weather, is Christopher Blanchette”

  21. same old same old always needing and not getting as some might say god bless peter lawell saves us a fortune

  22. Bada

     

     

    My experience is that yon types might carry the bible. They don’t read it, let alone adhere to its values. ? Oh and they tend to be dirty, underhand MIB bassas.

     

     

    HH jg

  23. how do you become a member of this board do you have to prove your tightness when it comes to spending?

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