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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RWE
Saddened to read of your loss.
Your posts on here about your struggles and triumphs have been inspiring.
I can’t imagine the grief of losing a child.
Tony will be in my thoughts at Stations tonight.
I pray that God and the caring community you have built will give you the strength to bear this burden.
Those who live on in our hearts, can never die.
This board us an old firm board more interested in maintaining a profit than development of the football club.
I hope they get lucky with Ronny but he will also tire of his best players being sold at the alter of Peter Lawwells ever increasing bonus while our standing in the global game plummets.
No vision at Celtic Park since the Bunnet left. Just puke inducing ingratiation.
1. Old Firm rebuilding and Celtic fans glassing innocent ten year old Rangers fans headlines.Check.
2. A return to standing while the stadium is half empty.Check
3. Reintroduction of Alcohol sales. Check.
No ideas. No vision. DD trying his best to secure Roy Keane before Ronny was again the fault if the worldwide support for imagining things.
HH
Celtic Mac 18:18 on 20 February, 2015……….
Exactly……. and succinct……….
Cheers………
Regards & Hail Hail
TBM
Clyde trying desperately to paint celtic as a team in crisis. Hilarious.
rwe
sincere condolences for the loss of Tony
thoughts and prayers
Neganon – Friday night comedy gold on Clyde eh?
Hamiltontim
18:08 on
20 February, 2015
I genuinely wonder if any Celtic supporter who criticises the Celtic Trust really has an understanding of what they do.
—————————————————————————————————————–
I criticise the Celtic Trust on the approach they take on the board of Celtic – I’m sure they do good work on other fronts and I applaud them for it – I am not a member the Trust and therefore don’t know what they do – however their over-simplistic view on what it takes run Celtic, is risible – regardless of their other activities.
Stan Collymore is giving the Klan some doing. And the abuse he gets,from them on Twatter is unreal. I hope he is careful about his,personal security. Our neil should have a word methinks…..
Tom McLaughlin
so sorry we missed you it’ll be easier on Sunday
not such a big crowd and daylight :-))
we usually congregate around the left hand side of the pools walkway , not right down beside the doors
see ya Sunday I’ll be wearing a green and white scarf :-)))))))
but with cqn badges on
HH
Don’t post much at all any more but wanted to say hi to RWE………
So for my other contributions such as they are/were, hey, just side issues of little or no consequence……..
Relax…………
Regards & Hail Hail
TBM
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo
18:21 on
20 February, 2015
————————————————————
Change your name to:
Awae_An_Bile-Yur_Heid
You could not be more out of touch.
I was lucky enough to enjoy the no7 restaurant experience last night with my son. Sat on the table next to Stevie Chalmers ( autograph and photo as keepsake) and had a few words with Tommy Boyd.
A fantastic night all round.
Thanks Dena29. I’ll give it another try.
Hail Hail.
No apologies if someone has already posted this.
It’s worth repeating.
Desmond Kane 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.
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 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.
In such a respect, celebrated English players McManaman and Chris Sutton, discussing the goings on 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.
Quote:
Derek Rae @RaeComm
Morning after the night before. Get much sleep, anyone who was at Celtic Park last night? Goals still reverberating in my mind.
7:15 AM – 20 Feb 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 scarfs.
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 somehow 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 Inter boast.
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 support they had been given at the end of the match after escaping with a draw, 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 Parkead.
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 the Celtic support blind you to the reality that while they are a big club, 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 shihsa 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.
Bolding is mine. :-)
rwe
Sincere condolences to you and your family on your sad loss
RWE, very sorry to hear about Tony passing away.
Tony RIP
Gene
While it’s nice to hear you met with Stevie and Tom, please don’t hesitate to tell Tom and his fellow commentators to shoosh when YNWA is being sung.
RWE
Deeply saddened to hear the CQN latest from the U.S.A.
Tony’s short life was filled by brave, wonderful parents may he rest in peace, he
was one nice guy.
justafan @5.46
No Sir. Must confess I dont.
HH jamrsgang
St stivs
sven goran eriksons stunt double
Brilliant :-)
Awe_Naw –
There is absolutely nothing about your post that is new. Nothing that hasn’t been posted a thousand times already. So what motivates you to post it all again tonight.
Is it that you just get totally pissed off when the blog is in positive mode and feel the need to turn it down a peg or two?
Or are you just generally a grumpy auld git?
Bhoys, if you can, get along to Celtic Park on Sunday , and support the team.
RWE
sorry to hear about your loss, you and your family will be in my prayers.
RIP
Tony.
‘GG at 18:32 on 0 February, 2015 –
Thanks for sharing that
Alfie you are arrogant and silly. Quite a combination.
Robertressell Clyde are actually just baiting celtic supporters tonight…..
Stuart Armstrong and GMS must be walking on cloud nine today.
What a start Csc
tom mclaughlin
Re CQN corner, I recommend you wear a yellow carnation on your lapel and carry a Harold Robbins novel, make yourself easily identified :-)
Half an hour in and shortbread have had half an hour on a lower division game. Wasn’t any big games last night was there?
Tom mc
I couldn’t see any other “huddles” so gave up. That’s the second time I have failed to make the connection. I’ll go for third time lucky on Sunday. Can you tell me exactly where you all congregate, as I am obviously doing something wrong, unless you are all going into hiding when you see me coming ☺
———-
We’re like wee Fenian meerkats the way we can scatter!
See you Sunday. I’ll look out for lots of tweed and deerstalkers given that you and Livibhoy are both heading through from the douse side of the nation.
;-)
HH jamesgang
Jamesgang
Coen brothers ffs
Mair like the chuckle brothers!!!
To me to you.
Sorry they have in the last twenty years built Lennoxtown and the Celtic way from our ain money and saved their beloved Rangers FC. Important for the pension plan that one. Th ecubs could have done this in twenty years on a bob a job contract.
HH
pedrocaravanachio67
Away! I know you wrote Fargo for them!
HH jamesgang
SSB–Caller says Celtic done well against Inter, who are still a class team despite going through a rough patch. Delahunt asks where is the evidence for this? they are 10th in Serie A, doesn’t mean they are a good side. Obviously no understanding of the differentials in European football then?
Jobo
The lad deserves a few hits so here is the link
https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/desmond-kane/celtic-park-on-a-grand-old-european-night–%C2%A35-136-billion-of-premier-league-tv-cash-can-t-buy-the-greatest-atmosphere-in-world-football-140304973.html?
rwe
condolences to you and your family on your loss.
After the first 15 minutes i thought this was men against boys – at the end it was bhoys against men. Loved the style of play ronnie is introducing – of course when you get defenders to play football you will get errors. Was proud to hear craig gordon getting the fans backing when he boobed on the 3rd goal. Magnificent support.
Met some great CQNrs in the BV before the game, but wow the game itself an amazing experience ranks up there with some of the best nights I have witnessed at our fantastic arena. Sure there were errors but the team spirit, attitude and fight with no little skill was a joy to behold. I had a quick scan through the highlights when I got home last night and had the misfortune to listen to Sutton and mcmanaman what a couple of trumpets. I would just love to hear that Ronnie roar in the San Siro.
It’s great to see our pundits support the game in Scotland.
IronyCsc