On the road this week so today’s blog is by author Stephen O’Donnell:
Pick the bones out of that! I didn’t see Legia against St. Patrick’s Athletic in the previous qualifying round, but by all accounts they were fairly unimpressive, even in winning 5 – 0 in Dublin. I was even tempted to have a wee bet on Celtic to win by more than one goal on Wednesday night, and by the time my hastily arranged subscription to Premier Sports had come through things were looking good after Callum McGregor’s early strike.
Sadly, it didn’t last. It’s a measure of how poorly Celtic played on the night that they were lucky to escape from Warsaw with a 4 – 1 defeat because, let’s face it, but for Fraser Forster and some wayward penalty taking, it could have been worse.
As expected, it didn’t take long for the Celtic Newsnow stream to start filling up with tales of anguish and pontification from the mainstream media. From AEK Athens to Maribor, the list of European failures at certain other clubs (including one that is now defunct) is long and distinguished, but nothing gets the SMSM in full gloating mode like a painful Celtic defeat on the Continent.
On Wednesday we were reminded about Artmedia Bratislava, Utrecht, Karagandy etc., I even heard Neuchatel Xamax being mentioned at one point. The key of course is that there is no context and analysis provided when these previous losses are dragged up, Celtic supporters simply have to suffer such painful reminders.
This lack of constructive analysis is a pity because there are comparisons and parallels that can be usefully drawn with previous chastening experiences in Europe. It seems that new Celtic managers are particularly vulnerable to them; Tony Mowbray initially enjoyed a successful preseason, including winning the Wembley Cup, but his first competitive game was a 1 – 0 home defeat to Dynamo Moscow. Neil Lennon had Utrecht and Braga, and of course Gordon Strachan had Artmedia.
It’s what happened in Bratislava that I think has most relevance to Wednesday night – a new manager in post, replacing a club legend, trying to introduce a more cerebral approach, a squad clearly divided amongst those who are still pining for the previous incumbent and those who want to move on and embrace the new manager’s methods… the parallels in fact are numerous and really quite striking. Hopefully this is a sign that Ronny, like WGS before him, will turn this early setback around and grow into the role of Celtic manager.
One of the most important aspects of managerial success is the chemistry between the boss and his players. This lack of a connection in the dressing-room and on the training field is the reason John Collins failed at Hibs; it’s why Mowbray didn’t last out a season at Celtic. If the chemistry isn’t right then the team will lack focus, motivation and game intelligence at crucial times in the season, and these traits were all conspicuous by their absence in both Warsaw and Bratislava.
But chemistry takes time, it didn’t come immediately to either Lennon or Strachan, and Ronny Deila still has the opportunity to get his progressive ideas across and win the respect and admiration of his squad. If that happens then, like Lenny and WGS before him, he will go on to lead Celtic to domestic and European success.
In the meantime, there is the second leg still to come. If the parallels with Artmedia and Karagandy are to be heard in the media again then Legia could yet be in for a tough night next week. The tie is most certainly not over and it will slowly be dawning on the players who let themselves down on Wednesday that there is only one way to make up for what happened.
Pride and defiance have to come to the fore again, and the situation is still retrievable. All the ingredients are there for a potentially famous night at Murrayfield next Wednesday.
Follow Stephen O’Donnell on twitter @stephenodauthor
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……and the Zulus, they had spears and bows and a-a-a-a-rrows ….
Uly
0 correct..
disqualified. ?
BT
Surely No8?
Name three Celtic managers who have had their tay tays handed to them in a crucial European qualifier?
U
Big wavy
Hits the nail on the head…
Legia are better than Bratislava were back then…. And Celtic are weaker now than the Celtic that almost came back against Bratislava.
Legia are also better than Karaghandy from last year.
So, as much as I admire the optimists…. Reality is, we will be lucky to win at all this week coming…. I reckon 2-1 Celtic at best…. But have gut feeling it’ll be 2 each.
Hope I’m wrong…. Reality sucks
Ok uly I’ll give u that..
re instated..
CelticDawn, various posts –
Must support and endorse what you are saying tonight, Hail hAIL
NATknow
I agree we are nowhere being a contender fot the El, but its a bit more realistic than the CL. People look down on the El however, imagine Celtic qualify for the Cl 10 years in a row, meanwhile the deed club get horsed into the EL at every attempt.
Come the 7th year they actually win it!!!! could we seriouslt say our acievement in getting to the group stages was better?? I know what i would prefer.,
Quite simply,I want a day out at a final (any final) rather than the kudos, exposure or money ggarnered bymaking the lesser stages of a more prestigious comnpetition.
I guess im just a glory hunter
I’ve stayed here: http://hotelcatalunya.net/ for the football and the Sonar festival. It’s cheap, very basic but central and clean.
The hotel is in a pedestrian area so it’s pretty quiet as well.
Maleysbhoy
yer son is only 16, ask oldtim as he managed to get a hotel without a bar..
CD
it’s not the money because we never spend it, it’s the atmosphere and whole thing that surrounds the CL night.
plus the grey brigade get to meet for a wee tea and cakes pre match..
BT Is oldtim’s landline working again?
setting free the bears for Res. 12 & Oscar Knox but saying no to CQN racists
22:24 on
1 August, 2014
I once organised a sports training event with Carol Sharp. So pleased that her daughter has overcome some terrible setbacks and brought such joy tonight to a family that have had many heartbreaks
delighted too, tragic what happened to Cameron, their girl done them proud
Kev Jungle
Respect
You might be a pain in the eerchie to the Celtic supporters.Buuuut.
Fans are getting there heads kicked in now regulary all over europe on match away day’s by all and sundry!
At home we are getting a brain bashing by the board the Focus and the Sfa.
You sydney tim and neganon are doing the correct thing and highlighting all the negatives.
something has to give !
BT…
hotel without a bar….are you mad?
Zbyszek
haven’t tried today, not sure
67Heaven … I am Neil Lennon ….The angels are with Wee Oscar in Heaven.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors
22:34 on
1 August, 2014
macjay1 for neil lennon
22:31 on 1 August, 2014
Wow….that’s a great SB level, in all the circumstances …
===============================================================
I agree with you.
From memory(!!!!) ,28-30,000 was the average crowd at Celtic Park when Jock was plying his trade.
That`s 30% increase.And paid in advance.
BT if you speak to him tell him I will try tomorrow evening. Thanks.
Enjoying a Balblair 03 malt just now!!!
Zbyszek
ill call him tomorrow just to interrupt him when he is trying to pick his horses.
Cheers mon the hoops…..
Unfortunately it’s booked for September weekend.
celtic dawn
22:44 on
1 August, 2014
NATknow
I agree we are nowhere being a contender fot the El, but its a bit more realistic than the CL. People look down on the El however, imagine Celtic qualify for the Cl 10 years in a row, meanwhile the deed club get horsed into the EL at every attempt.
Come the 7th year they actually win it!!!! could we seriouslt say our acievement in getting to the group stages was better?? I know what i would prefer.,
Quite simply,I want a day out at a final (any final) rather than the kudos, exposure or money ggarnered bymaking the lesser stages of a more prestigious comnpetition.
I guess im just a glory hunter
——————————————————
It’s definitely more realistic mate – as you say the ECL is a closed shop for us.
.
Where is the Swimming/Diving coming from..?
TIA..
Summa
Bourne..
Said Philip to Lizzie..(And Karen)..
BRTH
Good article earlier.
The “Be Celtic,Because…..” corporate bullshit sickens me.
Last season, you heard every day on the radio:
ALWAYS HUV BEEN,ALWAYS WULL BE, CELTIC!!! (AHBAWBC)
If you listened closely you could almost hear the GIRFUY hidden message!
It spooked the zombies so much they were forced to retaliate with their:
Rangers now,rangers then, rangers forever.
AHBAWBC should have been our slogan for the next decade….lest THEY forgot.
Now, it’s been replaced with some cringeworthy corporate claptrap.
No doubt, like the annual replacement of kit, we’ll now get a new corporate slogan for every new season, each one more cringeworthy than the last.
It sums up the direction of the club these days.
At least PL has retired his “we’ll come out of every transfer window stronger than we entered it”. That’s some consolation.
I’ve not commented on Wed nights performance and won’t now. I think enough has been said. Except to say, PL got it dead right to say that he only budgets for EL football. I can’t see us playing anywhere else anytime soon.
SoS
Edinburgh
shooie
21:47 on 1 August, 2014
quonno
Sorry for not coming back sooner.
I am not saying the board is right or wrong, what I am saying is that as supporters we have without question lost something and are just the same as other clubs fans, nothing great about our support now.
If we get our act together as supporters then maybe just maybe the board et al will do the same.
————-
What do you propose??
Full employment? The abolition of poverty in the UK & Ireland? All employment to take place between 9-5 Monday to Friday??
What, realistically, are our chances of going through?
Legia have the same team and management that was in place last season. We have a new manager still trying to find his way, players leaving, players being lined up for moves away, and the odd freebie and loan player coming in. In other words at this time Legia are stable and we are not.
It should not be difficult to beat this Legia side in a one-off game. They lost 7 out of 30 league games last season and 5 out of 6 Europa League group stage games.
However, they did not lose any games by more than 2 goals, and this included games against the likes of Steaua Bucharest, Trabzonspor and Lazio.
Not only that but in Griffiths, Stokes, Balde and Pukki we have in my view the poorest selection of forwards available to a Celtic manager since Andy Walker, Willie Falconer and Charlie Nicholas in the Hampden season of 1994/95.
We are also very short on creativity. Our blunt forwards cannot expect to have lots of chances laid on a plate. Add to that the defensive weaknesses that we saw on Wednesday then I think we`ll struggle both to score at least 3 times and keep a clean sheet.
We have given Legia something to hold onto and I think we`ll see them fight to the death to maintain their lead. I fully expect them to play in a cynical manner with lots of time wasting, “clever fouls”, diving and waving imaginary yellow cards. They`ll have so many advantages in their favour – a comfortable first leg lead, avoiding the Celtic Park cauldron at a neutral and likely half empty Murrayfield, as well as a couple of thousand of their own fans cheering them on.
I hope I am wrong and we can conjure up an astonishing comeback. But I just can`t see it.
It hung above the kitchen fire, it’s barrel long and brown ……..
The players who strive to be as good as they can be will not share the perception of EL vs CL being discussed tonight.
The EL is seen as very much the inferior competition. It isn’t even awarded the same respect as the old ECWC or even the Fairs Cup. Amongst the clubs that have recently reached the lofty heights of beaten Uefa finalists are:- Alaves (now near the bottom of the Spanish 2nd division), Middlesborough (middling Championship club), Fulham (now in the Championship) and Rangers (now dead).
Look at MON’s attitude to managing Celtic in the Uefa Cup and his attitude of playing reserves when in charge of Villa.
There are some signs that recently clubs like Chelsea and Benfica are treating it more seriously but that just means it will be harder to reach a final in future.
So, sure, let’s accept and embrace the Europa League if that is where we end up but let’s not aspire to it. Sure, Seville was a mystical experience but reaching the last 16 of the CL is a far superior sporting achievement. If we can get to the CL, let’s go there and take a tilt at the big boys.
If we start prioritising lesser competitions because we might get silverware (unlikely), then we might as well prioritise the League Cup.
the glorious balance sheet
23:05 on
1 August, 2014
You have just covered every single scenario, fair play
I will be there next week and i will be secretly expecting a kragandy result ,god willing.
My own thoughts and comment’s to anybody i have met this week includng the local polish community is ,we cannot under no circumstance’s play as bad as we did on wendsday previous.
…and one day, with a boy’s desire, I climbed to take it down….
Evening all,
Now the mist has lifted (a tad) I am trying to be as open minded as I can.
My conclusion, for what it’s worth, is this…….
I believe the current custodians do what they believe is best for the club, however, just like the modern football player, they can’t but help keep an eye on their own bank balance and the old ‘what’s in it for me?’.
As a business it is hard to put up an argument for how the ‘business’ is run, we are a model template for any entrepreneur looking to make money in a ridiculously small market.
The problem is this, we ain’t selling crappy jeans, t-shirts or fake ray ban shades, we are dealing with people’s emotions, emotions that mean more than the ego of a billion aire or the profit and loss columns of the fanciest spread sheets anyone has seen.
The custodians of Celtic are loosing customers (fans in old money) due to the fact they don’t talk Celtic the way we do.
I don’t need a guarantee of X amount of millions to be spent on X player/players, I need to hear the people at the top talk about Celtic with the same passion as i feel, I need to understand that they want what we want. We all know the financial strains we face, my ghod we’ve had it drilled into us for long enough.
Celtic aren’t about what we can’t do, Celtic are about our dreams and aspirations.
Our custodians don’t need to remind us of realities in life, I live them 6 days a week, they need to start talking about what we can do and what they are doing to make things the best they can instead of the constant negativity about not being able to compete with the big boys.
If they do the best they can for the support I will be happy, at the moment I think they can do better.
HailHail
setting free the bears for Res. 12 & Oscar Knox but saying no to CQN racists
23:26 on
1 August, 2014
Agreed.Celtic`s vision was never to accept second best.We the punters would never accept that.
Having said that,the E.L. this season would probably provide an opportunity for Ronny to work his way through the transitional period.The interregnum.
He had to hit the ground running.
Probably unreasonable of us to expect instant success.
I still hope and am confident that if we fail,it won`t be by much.
A nailbiter beckons.
What are we made of?
.
Interesting Article..In Hindsight..
Maybe Ronny and JC should have read this instead of going to watch Legia for 50 Mins..?
Legia Warsaw v Celtic: Pressure on Henning Berg ahead of qualifier
By Richard Wilson
Champions League 3rd qualifying round, 1st leg
Expectation is stalking both Legia Warsaw and Celtic.
The two clubs need to reach the group stages of the Champions League to satisfy the demands for achievement on a wider scale than domestic triumphs.
Pressure will be in close attendance when the two sides meet in the third qualifying round, but it is the Polish club that is more susceptible to its harshest influence.
Legia Warsaw won the title emphatically last season, but that has provided no protection for manager Henning Berg.
Berg has only been Legia Warsaw manager since January
He was brought to the club to succeed Jan Urban as manager in January because the team had failed in Europe; a priority that was underlined by the fact that Legia were top of the Polish top flight table at the time.
Berg is a manager with limited experience, but he was able to bring improvement to a team that was already effective. They won 12 of their last 16 games, and claimed the title by 10 points from Lech Poznan, yet criticism has crowded in on Berg in recent weeks.
Results alone portray a team that has yet to find its rhythm or its self-assurance, and the manager has been left exposed by the uncertainty of his side’s displays.
It is early in the season, and Legia have played only five competitive matches, but there has been no hesitancy in poring over Berg’s work.
Defeat by Zawisza Bydgoszcz in the Super Cup final was a set-back, although the Norwegian did not select his strongest side for the game.
A 1-1 draw at home to St Patrick’s in the Champions League second qualifying round first leg led to Berg and his players booed off the pitch, and losing at home to GKS Belchatow in the opening league game of the season only exacerbated the sense of a team at odds with itself.
St Pat’s were defeated 5-0 in the second leg in Dublin – with four goals coming late on after the Irish side had been left weakened in defence – and Cracovia Krakow were beaten 3-1 in Legia’s league game preceding Wednesday’s first leg against Celtic, but Berg remains a manager who is surrounded by doubts.
Legia:Beat St Patrick’s 6-1 on aggregate in second qualifying round
Two games in to domestic league season
Featured in Europa League group stages last season
Celtic:Beat KR Reykjavik 5-0 on aggregate in second qualifying round
Yet to play a competitive domestic fixture
Reached Champions League group stages last season
The assessments might in part be a consequence of misgivings that were raised at the time of his appointment, since his managerial career encompassed a three-year spell at Lyn, two years with Lillestrom and 57 days at Blackburn Rovers.
Legia Warsaw would not claim to be one of Europe’s leading clubs, but some followers still questioned Berg’s credentials for the role when the focus is on making progress in the Champions League. The Norwegian, after all, only had to quit his role as an occasional scout for Norwich City to take up the position.
The concern is that Legia are under-performing, but also that an opportunity will be missed. It is 18 years since a Polish side last qualified for the group stages, and Legia are still smarting after their experiences last season, when Steaua Bucharest knocked them out of the Champions League play-off round.
“Champions League qualification was the goal set, and it will be a huge disappointment if it wasn’t achieved again,” said Ryan Hubbard, a Polish football writer.
“Celtic will be massive favourites for the game. Having not qualified for the Champions League since 1995-96, Legia can only look on in awe at their opponents’ record in the competition.
Berg, had several Champions League campaigns at Old Trafford
“However that isn’t to say that fans don’t think that they can progress. They are aware that in order to reach the competition they will have to beat at least one good team.
“While a Champions League exit wouldn’t necessarily put Berg’s position under threat – especially having faced a club like Celtic – it would mean added pressure to at least do well in the Europa League.”
Legia are financially sound – they recently signed commercial deals with Pepsi and a telecommunications firm – which allowed them to strengthen the squad during the summer, and stave off interest in their own young burgeoning talents.
They signed two full-backs, in Igor Lewczuk and the Brazilian Ronan, while striker Arkadiusz Piech joined after scoring 14 goals in the league last season.
The recruits have added depth to a side that could already call upon Dusan Kuciak, voted the Ekstraklasa’s best goalkeeper last season, and Serbian winger Miroslav Radovic, who was the player of the year
.
Michal Zyro and Jakub Kosecki are the two youth graduates who have been attracting the most attention from the scouts of foreign clubs, and the former in particular is a dangerous attacking threat on the flank.
Berg, who won three Premier League titles in England and played at two World Cups, has been downplaying his side’s chances by remarking that Celtic “are a step above where we are at the moment”. However, psychology alone will not redeem him. Hmmm..
The former Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers defender was expected to bring European nous to Legia, because his playing career took him to the game’s elite level, and to live up to that expectation he needs to solve the problems that have beset his team this season.
..
I have Boldly highlighted some points/players that Celtic maybe should have know about before the First tie..
but also highlighted some points that make me think..
Celtic FC can do this.. MON THE HOOPS..
Summa
Read so much since Wednesday…GUTTED! A very poor result that came from poor tactics, a poor team selection and naivety.
My depression is lifting and even though there is so much wrong in my eyes at present all that matters right now is Wednesday.
A miracle at Murrayfield seems beyond belief…but we are Celtic.
HH
celtictom
23:35 on
1 August, 2014
Mate.The game was lost on the field.
The loss just provided an opportunity for the permanently whingeing to have another go at the Board.
On the plus side,for the moment,no talk of the “living wage.”
Probably shouldn`t have mentioned the ant in the room.
celtictom 23:35
Nail on head.
All will be well next year however when we all receive breathless e-mails from Celtic inviting us as treasured ST holders to purchase an extra £50 ticket for the “Return of the O** F***”
Summa of Sammi….
23:37 on
1 August, 2014
I just hope Ronny has been on the phone to Lenny.
He wouldn`t get a knockback.
natknow
23:01 on 1 August, 2014,
Just one more throw at the dice to see the hoops in a European final would send me on my way a happy mhan.
Seville… One week of total harmony with fellow tims.