No trophy left behind

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Sunday’s trip to Perth is the only away game Celtic have this month. With three home points from Livingston in the bag, we have home games against both St Mirren in the Scottish Cup and  Aberdeen – who are going through one of their more interesting periods, before the Hampden League Cup Final against our new adversaries.

By winning on Wednesday St Johnstone avoided defeat for the first time in eight games; this does not make a summer. St Mirren have everything going for them, although they will not look forward to returning to Celtic Park, the venue of their worst result of the season only two weeks ago.

One of the truisms in football is ‘it’s all about the next game’. I know this and so it’s with a bit of trepidation that I suggest we might want to plan for the three fixtures before Hampden as a group. We have a new striker, defensive mid and central defender all needing game time to get up to full fitness. I’m also sure Sead Haksabanovic could do with 60 minutes playing time. Use these games to make sure we arrive at Hampden with as strong a squad as possible.  The bitter anquish at only winning five of the last six League Cups cannot be smoothed over.  There should be no trophy left behind.

Playing in such a weak league has few advantages, but being able to build an early lead and then develop players is surely one of them.

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371 Comments

  1. HRVATSKI JIM on 3RD FEBRUARY 2023 7:32 PM

     

    THE ONLOOKER

     

     

    I know Carl Mugglerton’s brother. He loved playing for Celtic and his record was not bad considering the state of the club at the time.

     

     

    *He played for us in what would be Lou Macari’s farewell, the Hamilton Cup which was held in Hamilton Ontario in the summer of 1994 as part of a Scottish Festival sponsored by Guinness.

     

     

    After a 1-1 tie against the calvinists big Carl was the star as he saved 2 penalties in the shoot out, we beat the Sheep 1-0 in the final again in the scorching heat.

     

     

    The team that day was Muggleton, Smith, Martin, McNally (McQuilken), Mackay, Gillespie (McLaughlin), Holt, Hay, Byrne (Whittle), Falconer, Gray

  2. TONTINE TIM

     

     

    You are a font of knowledge on this site. You never make an irrelevant post

     

     

    The team that you are quoted vindicates the point I made.

     

     

    Out of that team, Carl would be 11th in my list of failures but he is vilified I memoriam, unfairly in my opinion.

  3. bournesouprecipe on

    Lou Macari plundered two British soldiers for Celtic Gary Holt and Justin Whittle. Tommy Burns freed them both and wee Luigi took them to Stoke City after Fergus had shown him the door.

  4. Tom McLaughlin on

    When Giakoumakis signed for Celtic in the summer of 2021 he was told he would be on a mid-range wage which would be reviewed at the end of the season. One year later Celtic opened negotiatons with regard to an extension of his contract — ie a wage increase.

     

     

    Talks broke down when the player rejected Celtic’s offer. Fair enough. It happens. Disagreement is part and parcel of most contract negotiations.

     

     

    The problem was, Giakoumakis’ agent ran to the press and claimed Celtic had renaged on a promise of a wage increase after a year.

     

     

    Celtic clearly offered a wage increase by virtue of the new contract offer. If it wasn’t enough, fine. Why go public? Why not take negotiations to the next stage?

     

     

    That is why Giakoumakis is persona non grata. The talk in the steamy is that the player’s agent tried to smooth the waters and resume talks but Celtic, at Ange’s behest, said no deal, there’s the door.

     

     

    The manager clearly saw Giakoumakis as a disruptive influence in the dressing room and is not interested in a player who conducts contract negotiations through the Daily Record and the Sun.

  5. Still thinking about the cold, the younger folks won’t remember this but come the winter the amount of drivers lighting fires under their lorries esp to defrost the diesel was very common.

  6. Prestonpans bhoys on

    Tom

     

     

    I’ve always said GG has been badly advised by his agent. He should have tested the water in the European market for any interest as a benchmark for negotiation. Otherwise you need up in the American league.

  7. Tom McLaughlin on

    PRESTONPANS BHOYS

     

     

    I’m also hearing he, or his agent, has been stalling on a deal with Atlanta due to the money on offer. I suspect the Japanese club have now walked away.

  8. The team that day was Muggleton, Smith, Martin, McNally (McQuilken), Mackay, Gillespie (McLaughlin), Holt, Hay, Byrne (Whittle), Falconer, Gray

     

    ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

     

     

    Though times indeed. Imagine, some Celtic supporters had no problem with the Board at that time. Now, they boycott all thongs Celtic – ???????

  9. Coneybhoy

     

     

    Re -22 in ‘95

     

     

    I remember it well

     

    Billy Connolly did a tv gig from the arctic

     

    Dressed in Inuit style clothing he done a piece to camera

     

    In a Billy voice, “it’s minus 20o here, you’ve never felt anything like it….”

     

    “We have Billy…..we ARE” I said

     

     

    He proceeded to run around bollock in the snow at -20o

     

    I ran round my back garden in -22o

  10. I liked big Giakamakous but at 40 appearances for us Celtic has been his 2nd longest club since 2011.. think Platanias he had 59 appearances must have been the club where his heart was :-)

     

     

    Canny see the big man staying too long at any of his future clubs

     

     

    2011–2012

     

    Atsalenios

     

    23

     

    (8)

     

    2012–2017

     

    Platanias

     

    59

     

    (14)

     

    2014

     

    → Episkopi (loan)

     

    11

     

    (2)

     

    2017–2020

     

    AEK Athens

     

    30

     

    (1)

     

    2019

     

    → OFI (loan)

     

    10

     

    (2)

     

    2020

     

    → Górnik Zabrze (loan)

     

    12

     

    (3)

     

    2020–2021

     

    VVV-Venlo

     

    30

     

    (26)

     

    2021–

     

    Celtic

     

    40

     

    (19)

     

     

    Cheers for the 19 goals … and some cracking one touch finishes …as Ange says … we never stop and.. the club moves on 🍀

     

     

    As soon as a player even contemplates moving, show them the door

  11. Prestonpans bhoys on

    GFTB

     

     

    Thats not exactly a stunning CV well apart from the last two, if folk consider 19 in our league good?

  12. lets all do the huddle on

    Though times indeed. Imagine, some Celtic supporters had no problem with the Board at that time. Now, they boycott all thongs Celtic – ???????

     

    —-

     

     

    aye

     

     

    they do get their knickers in a twist

     

     

    😄

  13. PPB 8.59pm

     

     

    I liked the big man and thought he was a terrific option but Kyogo definite number 1 option

     

     

    But to go over a decade in your work and never being settled … maybe just maybe the big man (& his agents) think this is as high as his stock has been … and want to cash in

     

     

    As Celtic fans we would never contemplate leaving but as the big man’s history shows it is just his job

     

     

    I wish him well … and looking forward to Oh backing up wee Kyogo :-)

  14. Tom McLaughlin on

    My best memory of GG would be his winning goal in 95 minutes at Perth a minute after St Johnstone had equalised.

  15. Back to our young academy football players,how many on here would like to see Barrowfield being upgraded a few new stands toilet and catering facilities in place for match days ,I’m sure plenty of Celtic supporters would be there firstly giving them plenty of encouragment to go on to be better players,and at present it’s all grass pitches there,what do you think bhoys

  16. Fanadpatriot

     

     

    Its good that there seems to be a path with young irish talent on it coming through at Brighton.

     

    A good routemap for a player should be able to be mapped out.dynamics change now with playing squads of 16/18.

     

    We dont appear to have that routemap in league infrastructure- at mo we say come to Celtic and….what? Play b? We need a plan,a long term one for both the national and european games.

     

     

    It is worrying that the developmental side of the equation;the academy seems pitted again the transfer activity,kinda longer term vs short term fix(and resale profitably) but i guess there will be a lot of turbulence as more and more money is sucked into the epl and the power of clubs in europe fades.something has got to give.

     

     

    Talking of Brighton making good with irish boys,i got sent a nice pic of AlexisMcAllister with one of the Brighton physio team,he was from Letterkenny,so the irish get everywhere fp :-)

     

     

    Hail Hail

  17. Well you did ask 😀 😃 😄 😁 😆 😅 😂 🤣 🥲 🥹 ☺️ 😊 😇 🙂 🙃 😉 😌 😍 🥰 😘 😗 😙 😚 😋 😛 😝 😜 🤪

  18. Great times to be a Celt. Playing some of the best football since the Lisbon Lions.

     

     

    Well done to the Club.

  19. Tontine

     

     

    The team that day was Muggleton, Smith, Martin, McNally (McQuilken), Mackay, Gillespie (McLaughlin), Holt, Hay, Byrne (Whittle), Falconer, Gray

     

     

    ——————————————

     

    Laughing here Tontine,shaking head ,we are absolute nuts as Celtic fans,there on your side of the pond you had Celtic fans probably coming from all over to see that team,and 93/4 was a tough follow,i was up n down from London,mad as 9bob notes :-)

     

     

    HH

  20. TIMBHOY163 on 3RD FEBRUARY 2023 9:24 PM

     

     

    Plans for significant upgrades to barrowfield have been granted, like the hotel and museum they have not been used yet.

     

     

    Academy has produced lots of players and prospects over the years. Folk expecting 1 young player a season to break into the first team are having a laugh. If we get 1 player every 3 seasons we will be doing well. We need a pathway for the kids who excel and can make the leap to our first team and another to allow more moderate steps towards our first team.

     

     

    Regardless of the opportunity and pathway some kids will opt to sign for other clubs for whatever reason. Over the last few years lots have moved to Liverpool, Leeds, man City etc. Which lends itself to the view that the academy is doing a decent job. Its worth remembering that celtic are compensated every time a Liverpool, Munich or man City etc poach our young players helping to sustain the academy and invest in the kids that wanna stay and play for the hoops.

     

     

    Overall I reckon celtic are a well run football club that has lots of scope for improvement, which should actually be viewed as a positive despite the fact it highlights some negitives.

  21. Hello again all you young rebels

     

     

    From a rain sodden Melbourne junior football ground.

     

    After weeks of no rain we get it all in one huge dump.

     

    Just finished all our new mini parks, painted lines

     

    within the competition size main pitches, done in a red

     

    colour for training purposes.

     

    Had to have a quick look this morn to see if they were

     

    still there, phew ! all good.

     

    Off to the pub/ club today for a deserved few pints of

     

    the black nectar.

     

    5 extra teams added to our club this year with the

     

    incredible amount of new kids wanting to learn to play

     

    our beautiful game.

     

    Be interesting to see how many have a Celtic connection

     

    within their family, even if they don’t, they’ll be connected

     

    with a bit of my input 🤣 🇮🇪

     

    Great read back this morning, mod doing a good job, and

     

    all the notable regulars in fine form, CQN at its best.

     

    H H. Mick

  22. Stephbhoy 67 Thanks for replying to me about Barrowfield,,At times I don’t get many replys , possibly my grammar isn’t good but I try my best to say what’s in my mind especially all things Celtic,

  23. TIMBHOY163

     

     

    At least you got a reply, think I need a blog

     

    that works Aussie hours 🤪

     

    H H. Mick

  24. Prestonpans bhoys on

    MM

     

     

    The night shift was suppose to be you guys plus Petec and occasional kevj too 🤪

  25. The returnof weeron on

    TOM MCLAUGHLIN on 3RD FEBRUARY 2023 5:48 PM

     

    THE RETURNOF WEERON

     

     

    =================

     

     

    Tom, so I have heard. I don’t think that it has ever worked when I have been there, which is about oncea year or so…..

     

     

     

     

    Celtic Park has free Wi-Fi

  26. Canamalar it looks like OCD obsession on

    I used to join the night shift too, but the jingoism became too unbearable to tolerate.

     

    Changed days from the rebelioust Celtic support I grew up with, challenging propaganda and supporting the rights of people to self-determiation.

     

    The freedom fighters became stalwarts of conformity that prefer to silence dissent and call dissidents traitors to a cause they don’t remember swearing allegiance too. Sad days indeed.