I was disappointed to hear Neil Lennon was ‘mutually consented’ by Bolton yesterday. He picked the club up off the floor early last season, putting together a remarkable run of form which saw them talked as promotion candidates, but a reply cup defeat to Liverpool saw momentum dip. The year since has seen Bolton look like the relegation fodder they were before Neil’s arrival.
Forget all this nonsense the newspapers are throwing around this morning (anything to undermine the team ahead of Kilmarnock on Saturday), Neil’s ship has sailed in Glasgow, but he should plan to remain in the game.
The people of Bolton might not have seen him at his best, but he’s a genuine managerial talent. After a shaky 18 months at Celtic he turned a corner and became a remarkable success, crafting a team who could compete with anyone in the world.
Looking back now, I think the intensity of the Celtic job got too much for Neil. It’s a 24x7x365 life, you need vast oceans of patience, and need to be prepared to make enormous sacrifices. It’s not just about structuring a defence to subjugate wee Leo and his pals.
The Bolton job was always going to be a tall order. He picked them up in a relegation spot, there was no money to improve things, while each passing month the financial position deteriorated. He also had to find an unusual pre-match technique to address the ‘I know you’re not getting paid but how about giving 110% anyway?’ problem.
The same media who are trying to disrupt our title challenge have misread the mood music this time. If anything, they’ve focussed the support on the task in hand.
On another matter………….. I’m one of the many who have signed up to Zip Slide across Celtic Park on Easter Saturday morning in aid of the Celtic Foundation. This is a great initiative; all those who have signed up have paid event costs, so money raised goes straight to the Foundation’s mission to improve Health, promote Equality, encourage Learning and tackle Poverty.
The work the Foundation do in our name is incredible. If you can contribute, please do so here.
Thank you.
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Ger57
Good luck mate.
Good Afternoon
Here are a couple of new short pieces. One about Sevco’s very public trauma over having no one in the Scotland squad. Oh the agony!
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2016/03/15/the-at-least-you-tried-awards/
And one about Ross County’s League Cup win, and their manager’s praise for Tommy Burns.
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2016/03/15/a-rare-compliment/
And remember it’s not too late to demand answers from the SFA and Celtic about Resolution 12!
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2016/03/15/resolution-12-letter-to-stewart-regan/
Good luck to Neil Lennon.
Hope for his own good that he never ends up back in Glasgow.
The bigots would totally ruin his life….one way or another.
Hope he stays in England.
He wont be out of the game for long.
HH
.
Interesting..
Hull City: Championship club to scrap season tickets for membership scheme.
Hull City plan to replace season tickets with a membership scheme.
The Championship club claim the new system could see some supporters save as much as £282.
The BBC’s Price of Football survey 2015 found that the Tigers’ cheapest season ticket cost £531, while their most expensive was £606.
Their cheapest ticket is currently the costliest in the second tier, but eight clubs have more expensive tickets in the top band of pricing.
The club will give fans the choice of three different levels of membership, with the cheapest costing £21 a month.
What football is costing you
Full Price of Football results for 2015
Ticket rises ‘will mean tourist fans’
Play with the Price of Football calculator and put a price on your support
It is understood that this is the first time such a scheme has been tried by a Football League club, though Barnet, then in the Conference, scrapped season tickets in favour of a monthly non-contract membership scheme in 2013.
Vice chairman Ehab Allam said: “For too long, the price of football in this country has been much too high. This new scheme will at least ensure the same cannot be said of Hull.
“The membership scheme is about rewarding the supporters for their fundamental part in this remarkable story and ensuring that, wherever the team start their new campaign, the club and the fans will be doing it together.”
If the Tigers, currently fourth in the second tier, reach the Premier League this season then some supporters will pay £13 per match next season, while remaining in the Football League will lower that figure to £11 per game.
Summa of the ‘Scheme’CSC
Difficult to see where Neil might end up. I am sure he would have had his sights set a bit higher than bottom of Championship after he left us. Hope something turns up for him.
As for the chancers touting themselves around while we still have a manager and are involved in a tough title race – you know where you can go. And take your scumbag MSM pals with you.
Paul67… I agree with you regards focusing the support back on the job on hand.
Meanwhile MSM seem to have a found a new level to sink to…never seem to disappoint!
Roll on Saturday.
HH
Good Afternoon Timland.
TGM……spot on pal,Neil should never put
himself and his family throw all that horrible
BS ever again.
SENGA on 16TH MARCH 2016 12:01 PM
Petition signed and thanks to Ard Macha for posting those extracts. I had no idea what those young men endured or the dignity and bravery they showed throughout to their captors/torturers, so AM please keep posting, it’s very much appreciated
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gif tae see you back on board,doll.
Don’t be a stranger now!
How’s you and D?
Best of luck to Lenny, I’m sure he won’t be hanging around to long, a lovely man, and a true Celtic captain, I’v had a few we drinks with him and found him charming funny and very attentive in conversation, great ambassador for any job that comes up, oh! And no ones mug.
Hi Bobby, as you i don’t like posting but Ard Macha is doing an excellent job in educating folk like me who know little about those brave young guys, so more power to his elbow!
D and me are fine, still behaving badly and donating our pennies to the publicans and funny fag purveyors! I hope you, your Dad and the rest of the bhoys and ghirls have a ball in Dublin, i’m green through and through with envy!
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14345618.New_blow_for_Rangers_creditors_as_legal_claim_on___18m_oldco_liquidation_pot_is_put_on_hold/?ref=mr&lp=1
From the Herald. New blow for Rangers creditors as legal claim on £18m oldco liquidation pot is put on hold.
In essence, Rangers FC Group (previously Wavetower) claims it has a security over the assets of Rangers oldco (RFc 2012plc). This would mean that they would take precedence over even HMRC in the creditor pecking order.
I suggest that the old Ariston slogan should be assigned to Rangers (IL) for the next few years.
I see FIFA are wanting their “disappeared” money back. Be interesting to see how that goes.
HRVATSKI JIM
J…be a lot easier if a massive sink-hole opened up beneath the Circus of Horrors.
Global warming, freak hurricane, tsunami from the Clyde….Anything:)
HH
..
Bottle or lack of its maybe the Only thing between Ronny Delia’s Celtic and 5 In a Row..
Gordon Strachan’s Celtic had Positive L15 GSCs: In Spades..In fact l actually had a Bet on Celtic to Beat the Mighty Gretna @ 33/1 as Strachan’s Celtic had a Habit of giving teams a Goal of a Start..
The amount of times the Particular Season I’m talking about Celtic came back to Win games in the Last 15 Mins under WGS must have been some sort of Record..
I can Only really remember Ronny Delia’s Celtic doing it once Famously starting The Ronny Roar.. against Aberdeen..of course there must be More but the fact that its hard to recollect them probably means there were Few and Far Between..
Neil Lennon’s Celtic’s ‘Bottle’ in Particular the Comeback from 3-0 down in the Kilmarnock game in October 2011 Probably Not only Won Celtic the League that season it put the Final Nail in the Then Rangers FC’s Coffin..
The Article Below gives a Insight into the Positive and Negative L15 GSCs in this Seasons EPL
Would be Interesting if any of the CQN Stat men could do a Scottish Premiership L15 GSCs
Hopefully Celtic are Not the EPL’s Crystal Palace..;-(
Summa
Goals in the last 15 minutes- quantifying “Bottle”
In the football sense, “bottle” means the ability to succeed in adverse circumstances. Iniesta pinging the ball into the top corner against Chelsea in the 2009 Champions League semi final showed the world that he had it. Kevin Keegan managing to squander Newcastle’s 12 point lead in the 1995/96 Premier League showed that he didn’t.
I would like to propose a measure of “bottle”. This looks at the mental strength of a team going into the last 15 minutes of matches. Before we go any further, here are two acronyms important to this article:
GSC: Game State Changer. This is a goal that changes the state of a game. A positive GSC would be a goal that turns a loss into a draw or a draw into a win. Meanwhile a negative GSC would be a goal that turns a win into a draw, or a draw into a loss.
L15: last 15 minutes of a game. Arguably doesn’t need an acronym, but it will be used so frequently in this article that it saves everyone a lot of time by making it one.
Put together, they make the rather unglamorous L15 GSCs: goals that change the state of a game which are scored in the last 15 minutes. For example, in Manchester City’s 2-1 victory over QPR on the final day of the 2011/12 English Premier League season, both Dzeko and Aguero scored positive L15 GSCs for Man City to win them the title.
Consider the following table, showing the number of GSCs scored and conceded by each Premier League team in the last 15 minutes of matches so far this season:
Screen Shot 2016-03-15 at 20.45.32..See it here..https://dougieanalysis.wordpress.com/2016/03/15/goals-in-the-last-15-minutes-quantifying-bottle/
This raises a few talking points.
Arsenal might have only been on the end of a negative L15 GSC once this season, but they have only managed to swing a game in their favour in the final fifteen minutes three times this season. Only Swansea and Aston Villa are worse at creating L15 GSCs. Arsene Wenger’s team have lost or drawn 14 of 29 games this season; how differently would their season have been if they could improve in this area?
At the other end of the table, it could appear as though God is a Mackem. Either that or Sam Allardyce has instilled a formidable work ethic in his players. Since he took over on 9th October, they have not conceded a single L15 GSC. On the other hand, they’ve managed to score seven of their own. With their top flight status very much in doubt, their ability to turn games in their favour in the latter stages has given them a fighting chance so far.
Screen Shot 2016-03-15 at 21.49.05
From a coaching point of view, there is debate to be had. Does Alan Pardew blame the Crystal Palace fitness coaches for their thirteen L15 GSCs conceded? Or is it his own fault for not ensuring the players are disciplined enough to see a game out? On the other hand, is it a triumph that Stoke City have changed so many games late on? Or is it a case of Mark Hughes failing to make the necessary changes early enough?
Looking at it from the angle of scouting opposition teams, be wary going into the last 15 minutes of a game against Everton and Tottenham. With these teams posting high figures for both positive and negative L15 GSCs, it is difficult to say which way the game will go after 75 minutes!
This is only a basic analysis. Of course there are caveats, such as the fact that many games are won well before the 75 minute mark, and the fact that 75 minutes is fairly arbitrary for a cut off point. However, it is useful as a starting point in quantifying the mental strength of teams, and may well have scouting and coaching implications going forward.
Summa of 15MinutesOfFameCSC
SENGA
You have always been green through and through!
Post more often. We need your sense and senselessness on here(!)
I’ll mail you some photies from the weekend to come. You can eat yer liver thinking about how much wur enjoying ourselves.
SUMMA OF SAMMI
Guid tae hear from you again. But shooooorly The Centenary Season is the benchmark for comebacks?
Bobby gee thanks and you are offal!
Sometimes it helps the team play better if the support show a little bottle, it’s a two way street, and the I told you so accusations like saying the club doesent have bottle, either comes from a Hun, or a Celtic supporter with no bottle, IMO that is.
Anybody heard from Tony Donnelly? :-)
tough crowd us football fans, we often rush to judge without anything like a full grasp of the facts and then argue the point with the self-assuredess and complete confidence of an expert
i still struggle to understand why he could only find a job at a club as low in the championship and in as much financial trouble as bolton were – maybe scottish football’s stock really is as low as some will have us believe, or maybe chairmen believed the media in scotland and thought his temperament made him too much of a risk. he had no failures on his c.v and was young enough to continue learning at a good club. but paul’s right, its very easy to judge him solely on results and performances without taking into consideration the effect that looming administration can have on the morale of the whole club and the players in particular, and as we know all too well it doesn’t take much of a dip in collective performances to have a seriously detrimental effect on the pitch.
i wouldn’t want him back at celtic but only for his own good, if he wasn’t neil lennon i’d have him back tomorrow, which says it all about scottish football
Bsr
Dony tonnelly?
Summa
How’s things in the land down under ?
We can all see through the SMSM agenda nowadays. Pre-internet days people would be thinking Lennon / Moyes / MacKay would be in the CP hotseat soon, as we could only rely on the p!sh we were fed from the red-top rags. Now the “headlines” are Lennon / Moyes / MacKay etc “linked” to the managers job. Who links them? Of course! THEY do. It snowballs from a non-story into a … errm … non-story!
All to unsettle the fans, the players, and of course the current manager. It has been no secret that Davie Moyes would be interested in the Celtic managers job IF IT CAME UP. I recall hearing this whilst in his early years at Everton, and starting to show promise. He was quoted as saying it was the only job he would return to Scotland for. It follows therefore that he is an easy target for a “journalist” to ask if he would be interested in the Celtic managers position. What is he meant to say?
Of course it is then bastardised into “I WANT THE JOB” type headlines to unsettle everyone. Absolute nonsense. Over the course of the past couple of weeks I feel a groundswell of opinion that Ronny will be shown his jotters in the close season, regardless of how the season pans out. On the contrary, I strongly suspect he will still be in place for next season and beyond. Ronny was ALWAYS a long-term strategy appointment, developing a philosophy from the youth teams right through to the first team squad. This needs time to bear fruit. If short-term success is gained along the way, great. Of course we expect it, and I’m sure everyone associated with the club also does, but ultimately (IMO) the focus is on the long-term and Ronny is still part of that, and as such deserves our unreserved backing and support.
Summa of Sammi…. on 16th March 2016 12:54 pm
I was having the same discussion with my Dad the other day.
Gordon’s teams played in a very different way to Ronny’s, they wouldn’t often go really hard at the start and would be more patient, it would make for a boring start to the game and often set a pattern, but it did mean that when the final 15 minutes came there were more fresh legs in the team and the players who could make a difference were able to do their stuff against players who were more tired. Ronny’s team just go hell for leather from the start and often looked tired at the end, i don’t think its a fitness thing, i just think anyone would have run themselves out playing at the pace they try to maintain.
Tiredness is a great leveller, it robs players of skill and thought, two attributes that should set our players apart from the other teams in the spl
A couple of things I would like to say.I hear a lot of uncomplimentary things being said about Boyatta and I am wondering,why?.Just what shocking howlers has this guy committed to warrant this.This is a young guy,who Man City,paid big money for,and is a member of the brilliant Belgian squad.Since coming to us,he has hardly played two games in a row with the same CH partner,and we all know how that affects CHs.By no means is he the finished article.Who is at that age?.But he is good in the air,is quick and will get savvier as time goes by.The ones getting on his case probably the same ones now criticizing Jose and Eric.Hardly in the door,and the whingers start.
Secondly,can anyone tell me what David Moyes has achieved in football,apart from keeping a fantastically supported,plenty of cash,Everton team from being relegated.In an era when clubs like Swansea,Portsmouth,Birmingham,to name a few were competing in,and winning cup finals,funnily I never saw this guy even get near Wembley.He has never had to face up to the challenges that confront a Celtic manager.There is no”Just get by”for us.Found out at his last two clubs,yet some on here wanting him as our boss.No thanks,I am not convinced by RD all the time,but to gamble with a nonentity who has won nothing,is not an improvement in my eyes.
bournesouprecipe…..he’s ran away wae Jeanette
Findlay.
SOT,
Loony left are hardly an improvement. They are also fascist, racist and hate Jews. Corbyn has more and more problems with those loons.
Clogher,
Why is Mr Pastry a troll? Because his views don’t concur with yours? This would be a dull blog were it only populated by those who agree with one another.
I think it’s a cert that Ronny won’t be at Celtic next season,going by the way the MSM are saying who the next manager will be and the silence from the current Celtic Board which is very sad, me I’m sticking with Ronny
The Johnatron
I tend to agree that the manager was a long term appointment. My take on it for what it’s worth is that he came in with a long term plan to develop young players including taking the best young talent from other clubs (It just happens that the best young talent are all midfielders!). He’s told the board the plan and in reply been told that he will need to win the league whilst doing this as a minimum ( and maybe a couple of euro group stage qualifications in that period). After 4/5 years then he would have expected to have a very good young side that is miles ahead of the competition in Scotland and only likely to improve (unless we sell them all!). That’s the perfect world thinking anyway.
If this is the case then, for the time being, he is achieving that. However, a semi final defeat and capitulation in the league may be too much for the board to handle.
Turkeybhoy on 16th March 2016 1:20 pm
He got to an FA Cup Final (lost to Chelski 2-1 in 2009).
He finished 4th in EPL and got to CL (KO’d by Villareal in qualifying round).
8 top half finishes in 11 years in the EPL.
His record is decent, better than anyone we’ve employed since MON, the type of football his teams play isn’t good to watch.
Paul67 et al
Of course it wasn’t Neil Lennon who got Bolton relegated from the EPL back in 2012, no that was (friends of) Owen Coyle. Neil was getting them relegated this season though, make no mistake. Never sure why he took a job at a club whose success in the EPL was based, partly at least, by running up debts to its’ owner, debts that were never going to be paid in the lower divisions. Add to that the loss of parachute payments meant that it was Neil that needed the parachute, the only question being how far would he fall. That said, based on results, (and surely that is what football is about) he has been little short of a disaster, winning four games this season and something like 18 out of 80 all told. Can you see an EPL club offer him a job, or even a Championship side, not me. But not to worry, Neil has been keeping up appearances, media ones that is, and will almost certainly be at the Euros with the BBC. And, quite possibly at an “Old Firm” match near you!
The Clumpany
I enjoy your blogs, however the SFA have made it clear to shareholders they will not answer questions posed by them, this needs to head to UEFA
Turkeybhoy
Can you tell me what “The big money ” was that Man City paid for Boyata?
You are a very poor judge of a player and a team if you rate this boy.
Almost every match he gives away possession in dangerous areas.
The fact that we are not punished for it in the SPL confirms what John Collins said.
That Scottish sides do not hurt us for mistakes the way European sides do.
I also have not forgotten the vitriolic abusive criticism I received from you for stating that Celtic would not qualify for the CL and would struggle in the EL.
You didn’t even have the humility to come back on and say that you were wrong.
TT
Turkeybhoy
I would like us to stick with Ronny. But if there was a change I hope it won’t be Moyes.
Failed in his last two jobs, dull style of play. Terrible record in derbies.
Been out of work for most of the last two years – plenty of EPL jobs came up in that time. Does nobody there want him?
I for one am looking forward to Ronny being in charge next year, so I can continue to follow all the howls and gnashing of teeth on here. Free entertainment at its best :-)
Speaking of gnashing of teeth -> With Moyes in charge, how long would it take before the blog was inundated with howls of derision over our boring “not the Celtic way”. He is not for me. What exactly has he achieved?
YaeJustCannyWinCSC
Moyes and the rest of the chancers have no chance.
Do you honestly think the PLC will change their agenda…no way.
They are determined to bring Celtic to the level of Sevco.
£6 reward for away fans…aye right…..pro-active on ticket prices, but not so pro-active when it comes to the cheating SFA Huns.
Like the bold KEVJ says….Swivel-Eyed Serpents.
HH
Does anyone else listen to yon Gideon Osborne and have flashbacks to Piers in The New Statesman?
Canny joooost be me,shoorly.