Bodo/Glimt converted a late penalty to secure a 2-1 win over AZ Alkmaar, whom Celtic eliminated from the Europa League in August. Since then, AZ have seen form fall before a spectacular recovery. They have won 12 and drawn one of their last 13 league games, a run that included victories over Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord. Whether Celtic would have coped in this company (I doubt it) no longer matters, although you would prefer to travel to Dundee on Monday without an exhausting European game last night.
I was pleased when I heard Roman Abramovich was sanctioned, inhibiting his largess at Chelsea. Abramovich started the trend that has seen the mineral wealth of emerging nations distort European football, the sooner it ends the better. The sanction justification was light on detail, littered with couched terms, nothing a lawyer could get their teeth into, which was probably deliberate. Some will read this as being an arbitrary decision.
Sportswashing is the term of the moment, but if it was used in this instance, it happened differently from most. Abramovich was unknown in the West before buying Chelsea, his money bought a profile and credibility before anything needed to be washed. Perhaps not before a profile in the West became useful.
The day of the oligarchs dominating European football may be numbered, but there’s many decades left for other spenders of their nations mineral wealth to go round. The circus will just move on from West London.
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Up the Hoops
Happy Friday from a Louisville expecting snow!
Schizophrenic weather this time of year.
Still three more sleeps until the 1/4. Long blooming week so far.
Speaking of blooming, lots coming to life in the garden. Daffodils, tulips, hyacinths to name a few.
HH!
I wonder will a sovereign or other wealth consortium turn up on our doorstep and will we join the bandwagon ?
And if we don’t like it as fans, will DD give a damn for the pleasure of his 20 year investment being converted ?
Don’t think we’re immune chaps.
HH
In European terms, which clubs should be measure ourselves against?
Alkmaar
Bodo
Sevco
Molde
Other?
How are we doing against such a comparison?
Should we expect more or are we on track?
Is domestic improvement then European improvement sequential or would we expect to see concurrent improvement?
Pingback: Novel sportswashing, Bodo and AZ elevated atmosphere | Celtic FC News Now
Big Wavy
It’s a big question on how fans would react, if we became more successful on a Euro level would the majority turn a blind eye to whoever was the owner
BELMONTBRIAN
How’s things mhate ? Say hi to MAGUA HH🍀
Uncle Jimmy,
I think a continued loss to teams on lower revenues than us strikes me as a big failure in how we have been using our money across the piece.
Sweating our profit to invest in the sort of infrastructure that helps these teams punch above their weight in how they scout ? how they use science and data ? how they set up ? how good their manager and support staff are ? Players, identity, system, etc?
Then we move to punching above our weight to those in the tier above us in the ECL and latter stages of the Europa.
Giving too much money to our old CEO and being obsessed, as a club and support, on the domestic two horse race as an end game is part of that education. Would we tolerate playing our B team in the League Cup for example without taking to the car part with the inevitable doemstic hit ?
HH
Abramovich’s big mistake was continuing to have ambition for his club even after they had pulled well clear of Fulham. Killed the local “rivalry” and they only got four European trophies out of it.
Absolutely no need to ever get too far in front of your neighbours…..
BIG WAVY @ 12:12
Don’t think we’re immune chaps.
—–
Oh we’re immune alright – playing here in Scotland guarantees that. The Aberdeen & Hibs incursions are the high-water mark. We have DD, Ibrox has confetti – we don’t register on the sat-navs of the multi-billion dollar juggernauts. Newcastle is the furthest north they will ever come, and even that is a huge surprise.
GLASSTWOTHIRDSFULL on 11TH MARCH 2022 12:37 PM
Abramovich’s big mistake was continuing to have ambition for his club even after they had pulled well clear of Fulham. Killed the local “rivalry” and they only got four European trophies out of it.
Absolutely no need to ever get too far in front of your neighbours…..
————
🤣
The Hipster Union Rep (@HipsterUnionRep) Tweeted:
Russia about to be thrown out of the World Cup by FIFA. The same FIFA that has repeatedly advised Palestinians its hands are tied on Israel as “sport and politics don’t mix”. https://twitter.com/HipsterUnionRep/status/1502186491417661443?s=20&t=Df5Ax74yxdlFyFvE0hop_g
https://celtsarehere.com/some-celtic-fans-may-disagree-with-anges-latest-statement/
https://www.indycelts.com/rangers-tax-case-brilliant-thread-about-disaster-waiting-to-happen/
Abramovich stole his wealth from the Soviet Union. It was a scandal he was allowed to buy Chelsea with his ill gotten gains. His wealth was generated by the acquisition of shares in the former nationalised industries. These Guys are thieves and not fit ad proper persos
Paul67 et al
Abramovic was unknown in the West before he bought Chelsea?
In football circles certainly.
Celtic fans may well disagree with Ange on playing Internationals. However, I believe it is his view that we play the one way in every game which is debateable. Having no alternative formation and tactics hands a advantage to the opposition.
BIGBHOY
Having no alternative formation or tactics.
Is why we failed miserably in Europe
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1499342615141044226/pu/vid/828×448/36Joxx3tHby15lf9.mp4?tag=12
The excellent Matthew Syed of The Times,nailing Abramovich 9 years ago…..
Paul67 still very much singing from the Peter1872-present hymn sheet. European football in March is not particularly welcome. For the 18th year in a row. Asset Management is much more fun.
Twenty odd years ago, when Roman Abramovich suddenly discovered he was a billionaire, he could have shared his good fortune with thousands of his fellow Russians, enriching the daily lives of many and not just himself. He chose not to. His choice. From memory, I think he was filmed taking a helicopter over London and eyeballed Chelsea, Tottenham, and Arsenal. He wasn’t bothered who he bought, just wanted a big London club. Ken Bates happily trousered the Oligarch’s spare change.
It would appear that Boris and his fellow cronies have given Abramovich enough time to shift some assets to safer havens. The Russian will, no doubt, miss the lifestyle, the glamour and the adulation (from Chelsea fans anyway). Hell mend him.
st tams on 11th March 2022 1:32 pm
BIGBHOY
Having no alternative formation or tactics.
Is why we failed miserably in Europe
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I think we were failing miserably in Europe long before Ange.
BIGBHOY @ 12:59 & ST TAMS @ 1:32
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Well made points with which I agree. Ange said when he arrived “I’m a builder”, and in fairness, to have put together a passable squad and instilled the belief that has taken us to where we are domestically in eight months is laudable. The season is a success as it stands right now.
We are playing ‘off the cuff’, with the odd bit of individual flair, out of necessity – Ange hasn’t the personnel to play the way he wants in Scotland, let alone, Europe – injuries have played a big part in this.
Our journey back to some kind of respectability in UEFA competition will take time, however we may just ‘wangle’ the title, and ‘magic up’ the treble this season – that would be a HUGE and unexpected bonus
!!BADA BING!! on 11TH MARCH 2022 1:32 PM
Thanks for the clip. Jim White makes an utter arse of himself at the end – there’s a surprise….
Dignified message and parting-shot to Aberdeen and its supporters from Scott Brown today – shows the mark of the man.
Good luck Broonie on your onward journey. I’m sure more success awaits – you are a winner!!!
Doubling down on “off the cuff”, no discernible team shape or style, “wangling” a title and magicking up a treble.
As for unexpected- let me remind you there were more than a few on here predicting that Secco’s win last year was a “soft target’ and who did predict we could win this year; others thought we would maybe scrape top 6.
Some Celt?
Some Labour Supporter too? – Commie Corbyn & anti-immigrant
Definition of wangling: manage to obtain (something) by persuading or cleverly manipulating someone. Might cover pretending to be the same football club, or that your accoubnts are honest.
How do you wangle a Title.?
If we win this year’s Title it will be an incredible achievement, coming from the disaster of last year, with a new Manager and virtual new team.
What kind of Celtic Supporter would attempt to downplay this by describing it as wangling a Title.
My understanding of winning a Title is you play 38 games, you get 3 points for a win and one for a draw,
After 38 games the team with the most points are Champions,
There are no points for wangling.
SFTB @ 2:17
——
An illustration of someone desperate for something to say, and anything will do.
Splitting-hairs, ‘clever’ remarks, misrepresentation and point-scoring – context and perspective completely ignored.
Scroll by him gents…
He’ll be loving the attention you’ve given him.
…..Celtc fan me arse
HH
Perhaps JHB should change his Blog name to the The Wangler, or something similar.
Bigbhoy / St Tams …
Having no alternative formation and tactics hands a advantage to the opposition.
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Having no alternative formation or tactics is why we failed miserably in Europe
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If one were to replace
“Having no alternative formation or tactics”
With
“Executing your plan poorly”
Wouldn’t the statements still ring true?
IMHO, from what I’ve seen
Ange has an overall strategy for how we play …
… within which he has a few (possibly not many) formations and tactical approaches.
And he is currently building a squad and a structure over years to execute that strategy …
… with bumps along the way because you can’t fix everything at once.
Recent example?
Livingston score to make it 1-3 around 56 minutes?
Tactics changed in an instant. Free flowing stopped and we choked the life out of the game for next 25 minutes.
Poor Ange – forced to send out a team that plays off the cuff. Luckily he has the odd bit of individuality that saves the day.
League in the bag
Top of the Scottish League
Top scorers in the League
Best defence in the League
I think that Ange has had a lot of success for a manager who doesn’t / can’t coach.
JHBarroganceunbounded CSC
EMERALDBEE and BACK TO BASICS
Thanks for your replies on previous thread re CL qualification.
For those wishing to be pedantic rather than serious.
WANGLE
If you wangle something that you want, you manage to get it by being clever & persuasive.
After an horrendous end to last season, the board were clever and persuasive in securing Ange.
Ange has been clever and persuasive in putting together a squad that has taken us with eight games of the title.
Context & perspective ignored to make ‘cheap shots’….not unexpected.
Context & perspective my arse,
What context & perspective did you apply when you analyzed our early Season position and said we were playing for 2nd place and that 2nd or 3rd place was at risk.
Did you consider we were robbed in 1st game at Tynecastle, that we matched the Hun at Ibrox and deserved a draw at least that our other loss was on the plastic pitch.
Yes we were mid Table but we weren’t that far off the pace, we had a new team, a new Manager, it was going to take a few games to gell.
No context or perspective there.
Just to remind you we are 23pts ahead of Hearts & 36 pts ahead of Hibs, these are the teams you were speculating could finish ahead of us,
Wangling his way on to the blog and coming up with ‘off the cuff’ posts. Imagine winning a title with the odd bit of individual flair.
I’m afraid you are the one who is desperate for something to say…unfortunately, it’s another desperate post.
JJHB
“An illustration of someone desperate for something to say, and anything will do.
Splitting-hairs, ‘clever’ remarks, misrepresentation and point-scoring – context and perspective completely ignored.”
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Well, I wasn’t expecting it to produce that level of self insight but fair play to you if you are recognising your own issues
JHB @2.38
However you try to wangle your way out of it- wangle is a pejorative word.
If you had wanted to say we were organised, clever and motivational, you would have used a different word.
It occurred in the same post that had us “magic up” a treble- again- a whiff of undeserved in the description.
You know, for a fanbase that you see as largely unintelligent and sectarian, we saw through you quickly enough
FRANKTERRY on 11TH MARCH 2022 2:10 PM
!!BADA BING!! on 11TH MARCH 2022 1:32 PM
Thanks for the clip. Jim White makes an utter arse of himself at the end – there’s a surprise….
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Does he ever, one person I do not miss seeing on TV.