When you and I write, whether you are aware of it or not, there’s always a narrative. Behind the words the subtext explains why we think a game was won or lost, why events on the park reinforce our world view, or, for some, just that they are angry people.
For most, our narrative is bound by the constraints of realistic parameters, although some are so afflicted by a heavily prejudiced world view that no amount of evidence to the contrary would convince them, for example, that they are being led by the nose by charlatans.
As the game drew to a conclusion last night, this troubled me. I was proud of the way Celtic played. They attacked a team from one of the top leagues in a way we’ve not seen since Juventus visited in 2001. It was glorious and gutsy, skilful and dramatic. But with 92 minutes on the clock, it was heading towards defeat. No matter the circumstances, defeat binds any narrative as a failure, glorious or otherwise. It didn’t feel like failure, but this was how we would remember this game.
John Guidetti’s 93rd minute equaliser changed the result and created some memories, but the underlying narrative would stand, with or without that goal: the improvement in Celtic since our August debacle is as profound as anything we have witnessed in 49 years.
Delighted to announce that our treble winning captain, Tom Boyd, will be attending CQN11 St Patrick’s Dinner at the Kerrydale Suite on Friday 13 March. We also have big Packy, wee Joe and conventionally-sized Tommy Coyne. And Archie Macpherson’s going to talk about the transformation which got underway 50 years ago that week!
Fill your boots at what will be a great celebration of our club and heritage, with a wee song or two from Patricia Ferns, and you’ll also help to build a school kitchen in Malawi for kids who often go without a proper meal. For tickets and details, email me, celticquicknews@gmail.com
Congratulations to the SPFL, Hamilton Accies, Georgios Samaras, Celtic and Scottish football fans for last month’s Goal of the Month award, which was won by Jay Beatty for his strike at New Douglas Park. Up with this sort of thing.
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Listened to Jay and his Dad on highland radio. More greetin’
HH jamesgang
thomthethim for oscar ok
That was brilliant thank you.
Tears being dried from the eyes. Just listened to Jay’s dad’s interview on Highland Radio. What a story. What an incredible wee bhoy and a loving family. Touched too by how much Sammy and Neil Lennon are part of his story. Well done to Hamilton for the part they played in making a young lads day.
pedrocaravanachio67
Till tomorrow Sweetness
Adieu
HH jamesgang
proudbhoy
Re Cruncher
Yea ,as I said he was telling me last week he had something in the pipeline
Really good to see
pedrocaravanachio67 no idea what you are talking about mate private conversation maybe but dead simple, friendship or love, can never be wrong. Live love and laugh.
Is there a way tomorrow, to show Hamilton how much we appreciate their work with wee Jay?
Applauding their players when their names are read out??
Something? Anything ?
Jamesgang and Pedro
We in the BV where blessed by the arrival on the lovely Dena who somehow managed to find us despite the duff info given to her by Lennybhoy
thomthethim for oscar ok
Superb link really enjoyed that.
Jamesgang@10.55
Nearly choked on ma roll on skwerr laughing at that mate, brilliant!!
Then I thought about it again.
It will probably be a realistic situation!!
HH
charliemac
Yip
Hail Hail to Wee Jay n his Family
taurangabhoy
I take it you’ve never met the big hunk…… ;-)
The players are sure to be drained after last Thursday and there is also the matter of the 2nd leg next Thursday. Ronny will see better than anyone how individuals are responding but I would be firmly in the freshen things up camp. I would love to see Fisher get a run and wouldn’t baulk if Efe got a start, even though I think its unlikely.
Guidetti will be buzzing after that goal, I feel if he starts he will get a hat trick.
macanbheatha oscar abú
11:27 on 21 February, 2015
—
Good wee bar he is in aswel..saw him in there many a sunday.
taurangabhoy
It’s ok. No need to buy a hat. Young Pedrocav’s brother ACGR has a wild and acerbic sense of humour as you’ll know.
He told us to get a room! Our crime? Speaking with civility to one another!
Anyway we’re neither of us lookers. But our good ladies are. So we’ll quit while we’re ahead and stick with them!
HH jamesgang
burghbhoy
;-)
BT
She told me. She was quite proud!
HH jamesgang
A wee story from work yesterday:
We were discussing food, calories, carbohydrates etc.
One of the young boys eats a lot of mcdonalds, KFC and food of that ilk at lunchtime.
So I says to him:
” Stephen are u listening to this? you are what u eat”
Without missing a beat, he turned and said to me :
“Aye, well u must have eaten a lot of a…holes”
Speachless
Brilliant.
The humility and decency of Jay’s dad burst out of that interview.
When you listened to the unfolding story of Jay’s love for Celtic, it couldn’t fail to articulate what our club and it’s people,(us), means to so many.
I liked the follow up Tweets and messages from listeners, expanding on the involvement of Celtic in the lives of people with various difficulties.
I sometimes feel that the work of the Celtic Foundation gets overlooked.
The list of it’s initiatives at home and overseas is impressive and is a living testament to the Celtic Ethos.
Ht@10.30 and Macanbheatha
100% right. The clause in the SPA (1922) that Vorster referred to ie that they would trade all of their Apartheid legislation for was the one which enabled the RUC to arrest and detain people without holding a trial on SUSPICION of them being involved in “terrorist” activities.
Pedro never met almost anyone from here in person been on since 2004 I think . CQN keeps me connected, all my friends even if I never meet anyone, ever. Hail hail.
Lol Jamesgang. sweet
67 @10.55
There is a difference though between investigating “it” and doing something about “it”.
Could be they are just covering their collective tails.
taurangabhoy
I’m taking it you’re living in a place that’s far flung and not easily connected to being able to meet fellow Celtic supporters…..
I’m guessing Kilwinning ?:-)
Good morning and a big Hail Hail to all!
Sometimes we have to do it the hard way! Said it the other night and I still believe we can go through. The players never gave up. I think Ronny has put some belief in that we can go and win the whole tournament.
Great news about Jay winning goal of the month. Absolute class from all involved!
corkcelt
Agree red exhaustion
My team
Gordon
Fisher denayer VVD izzy
Tonev Henderson broooonie stefan
Guedetti Scepovic
With Griffo, GMS, Armstrong on the bench
HH jamesgang
Pedro close : )
BSR – Just got back from son in law duties (sister in law taking over the monitoring role) and am well dissapointed to have missed such a great night. Am sure the rafters were shaking! Maybe a wee surprise to come in Italia; we can still hope :))
HH
Gerry
pedrocaravanachio67
11:38 on 21 February, 2015
:))))))))))
I have a mate who’s put down lines are legendry,
He wont even consider opening his mouth when my youngest(blusher) is in the room ,due to past experience of her slaying him with one liners,
Young yins ehhhh
Parkheadcumsalford. 09:57.
What was said about Nevin ?
I agree with Bournesouprecipe.
Indeed, I’d go further than he has. The actions of the SFA to have “a Rangers” playing in Scottish football at all costs in he summer of 2012 served to undermine both the Game and the Rangers support.
Charles Green’s Sevco Rangers was waved through without a thought as to whether it ought to be, or whether it was actually wanted. The determination to get it through brooked no alternative, and in fact, no advocates for an alternative were permitted a voice.
Had the supporters of the old club been permitted to start over, the new club would have developed and grown in its own time within its own means, self-respecting and indeed respected.
But “Scottish Football needed a strong Rangers” didn’t it, and no barrier or impediment to a “strong Rangers” was or is brooked. What we have now is the natural conclusion to a grand misconception: An utterly dysfunctional club and a governing body(ies) unable to apply the rules.
Scottish football doesn’t need “a strong Rangers”.
“Rangers” need a strong Scottish Football.
Is it too late to reverse the paradigm? Are we too weak to go back to the first principles of the Game?
In the rush to transplant Sevco Rangers into the Scottish game, we appear to have done little more than create our very own teratoma.
Thomthethim
Dead right, The Celtic Foundation do fantastic work, it makes me incredibly proud of the thousands of ordinary supporters who either contribute or go to great lengths with events to raise funds for it.
Speaking of which :-)
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/celticfoundation
gearoid1998
We’ve got our own contemporary version in Scotland. It’s called the OBaF Act :-)
From Eurosport –
Celtic Park on a grand old European night: £5.136 billion of Premier League TV cash can’t buy greatest atmosphere in world football
Nor can the frisson inform some former players. Chris Sutton should know his history. Even if Steve McManaman doesn’t, observes Desmond Kane.
By Eurosport
21 hours ago
Desmond Kane
Steve McManaman knows all about revelling in gilded moments in Glasgow. The former Liverpool winger scored a solo goal of the highest order at Celtic Park in the first round of the UEFA Cup back in 1997 when he bounded almost the length of a rocking Glasgow ground’s playing surface before sliding the ball into the corner of the net to earn Liverpool a 2-2 draw.
It proved to be the equivalent of a dagger to the chest of Celtic as a 0-0 draw in the return leg at Anfield helped the English team progress to the second round of the old knock-out tournament.
McManaman also knows about leaving it late at Celtic Park. That goal came in the final minute of an absorbing encounter between the two British clubs in Glasgow, marginally quicker than Swedish forward John Guidetti’s swivel and hit that ensured Celtic escaped with a merited 3-3 draw with Internazionale in the first leg of a breathless Europa League last 32 dust-up on Thursday night.
Celtic fans unveil banner remembering their European Cup win in Lisbon, very nice it was too: https://t.co/slmfU7T1zY
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) February 20, 2015
In such a respect, celebrated English players McManaman and Chris Sutton, discussing the happenings as television pundits, were disappointing in their analysis of a match that will struggle to be bettered in terms of atmosphere and thrilling, unpredictable energy that saw Celtic Park again come alive amid the maelstrom.
It was a typically hectic sort of night when Celtic confirmed that they seem happiest when they are trying to outwit clubs playing out of more fashionable leagues with loftier reputations, and vastly higher wage bills.
The English Premier League television deal might be worth a staggering £5.136 billion over the next three years, but Inter and Serie A’s finances are hardly emaciated.
Yet the atmosphere that continues to rage at Celtic Park on such evenings of utter organised bedlam remains priceless. Easily the best in Britain. Arguably the best in the world. In Europe, you could probably put up a case for Borussia Dortmund’s imposing Westfalenstadion. And that would be it.
If Carlsberg did football grounds, they would bottle Celtic Park and sell it on tap. One gets quite giddy even clamping your ears to a (wireless) radio on such nights.
The contrast between Liverpool’s meeting with Besiktas just over the border was noticable. You’ll Never Walk Alone is done well by Liverpool fans, but the Celtic Park rendition is like something sent from angels hovering over Paradise.
It is like comparing Gerry Marsden’s time-honoured chirp to Bryn Terfel’s melodic version of the old song.
The match commentator on BT Sport Derek Rae was mangled relaying it, busy admitting on Friday morning he could not get to sleep after the astonishing goings on.
Morning after the night before. Get much sleep, anyone who was at Celtic Park last night? Goals still reverberating in my mind.
— Derek Rae (@RaeComm) February 20, 2015
Put quite simply, football like this gives the sport a good name at times when it is easy to lose faith and be cynical about the whole shooting match.
It simply bewitches audiences, threatening to topple the senses in the thrilling moment. Raw, ungagged, unbridled passion is why football is the greatest game ever played. 22 players and substitutes giving their all for a cause at Celtic Park hankered back to a bygone era. And at the end, Celtic and Inter fans exchanged pleasantries and swapped scarves.
In a week of some Chelsea fans visiting Paris to do a spot of “mingling”, this was a poignant reminder of what it should be all about.
Celtic say they are a club like no other. On nights like these, they are.
Yes, the quality remains a moot point as McManaman and Sutton suggested with defences as reliable as someone looking after your car in Glasgow’s East End, but they are missing the greater point.
With a young untried Norwegian manager in Ronny Deila and an array of unproven players at this level, Celtic really have no right to be expected to compete or beat any side from Serie A. Especially one whose annual wage bill cotinues to exceed £50 million despite savage cuts in the era of Financial Fair Play.
Yet McManaman bizarrely suggested that the home side should be destroying an Inter side who are 10th in the Italian standings.
Being top of the impoverished Scottish Premiership does not equate to the vast talent, riches – and some will say unlike Celtic’s model housekeeping – copious amounts of lamentable debt that clamps itself to Inter.
Serie A boasts the third highest average salaries in the world of £1.3m a year or £25,263 a week.
The Scottish Premiership is 18th. The average player in Scotland is on £182,783 a year or £3,515 a week. Those figures are probably boosted by Celtic.
Celtic’s players were quite right to address their fans and applaud the unwavering support they had been given at the end of the match after escaping with a draw from trailing 2-0 and 3-2, but not so according to McManaman.
McManaman felt that Celtic’s celebrations were over the top, but he was the same chap who skipped over the advertising hoardings before sprinting to the Liverpool fans after his goal at Parkhead.
Sutton knows how fraught such nights are having played in them for Celtic for five years. Yet his lack of a cohesive critique was baffling despite playing at a time when the club shopped in the Premier League. Now they struggle to meet the wage demands of an English Championship player.
As the former England keeper David James suggested to me recently after Neil Lennon tried and failed to persuade him to sign in 2010.
It is easy to let 60,000 Celtic supporters blind you to the reality that while they are a big club on such heady occasions, they are leagues below Inter. Celtic won the European Cup in 1967. Jose Mourinho’s Inter lifted the Champions League only five years ago.
To put all this into context, Inter’s Roberto Mancini is a manager who hopes to be reunited with Manchester City’s Yaya Toure in the summer.
The Celtic left wingback Emilio Izaguirre was picked up from a club in Honduras. Is it any wonder he struggled against Xherdan Shaqiri, a right winger Inter purchased for £15 million from Bayern Munich last month?
Celtic’s two key captures of the transfer window were two inexperienced gems from Dundee United, both of whom were making their debuts at Celtic Park. Gary Mackay-Steven was signed for £250,000 and Stuart Armstrong £1.75 million from United.
Like McManaman, there is a general ignorance towards the goings on in Scotland. The Burnley manager Sean Dyche tried and failed to sign Armstrong in January for £1.5 million before describing him as a “development player”. Dyche must have been smoking the shisha pipe with Roy Hodgson to see Armstrong in such a light, but Burnley’s loss is Celtic’s considerable gain.
£250,000 is obscure sums of money even to Inter. Several of Mancini’s dressing room at City collected more in a week.
Yet Celtic’s youngsters looked as comfortable in their skin as the Lisbon Lions, Celtic’s 1967 European Cup winners against Inter, did in greeting the Celtic team onto the park.
Celtic may depart the Europa League if their defence doesn’t sober up in Milan. They are unlikely to progress if they are so loose at the San Siro, but there is a greater point to be made in aspiring to the Palace of Widsom.
Celtic Park remains a stadium like no other.
Evenings like this do not go gentle into that good night. Let the people sing.
Desmond Kane
Dropping my step daughter at the station.
Debates?
Celtic and laps of honour
The green brigade – do they only turn up for the big games?
?????
Dix
HH jamesgang
To clarify ‘debate’ was radio shortbread.
Not my stepdaughter. She’d have missed her train cos I’d have gone the other direction!
HH jamesgang
I do indeed have to agree with the RST statement that they have done more than most supporters groups to address the problems reported in the press about sectarianism, bigotry and racism in the Ibrox faithful.
They deserve special recognition for the great success they have achieved in keeping reports out of the press, threatening journalists, pressurising all sorts of officials into turning a blind eye, time and time again.
Sadly, I think they misunderstood the question when asked about what they have done to address the problem.
pedrocaravanachio67
11:28 on 21 February, 2015
Is there a way tomorrow, to show Hamilton how much we appreciate their work with wee Jay?
Applauding their players when their names are read out??
Something? Anything ?
——
I think that is a very good idea
Loads of energy on here expanded on criticising the behaviour of fans when they sing songs etc.( rightly so Imho) it would be great to see the same energy when another club / fan group does something positive
Maybe a wee email or tweet to JP Taylor could be the catalyst ?