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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“I don’t need no stinkin’ rear view wing mirrors”
BSR one morning recently.
IGC
17:17 on
1 August, 2014
….In the interest of fairness many new ST holders would have rather have held off subscribing and getting a 3rd round 3rd round qualifier than a 2nd round freebie, even if it is a dead rubber…
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Saw that point earlier – maybe yesterday.
Not sure where it came from originally, but just for the record, I was at the 2nd round freebie, and I also now have my tickets in for the LW game next week.
The tickets for next week are also free / included in the ST price (price on the ticket is marked as £0).
As far as I can see, this isn’t a valid criticism of the club – or am I missing something?
HH
BGFC
—
Day#80,002..In The CQN-HOOSE..!
—
*BourneSoupe* Is In The Bedroom….
Just Finished Knitting A Pair Of 1000mph Socks….
Made Entirely From Navel Fluff…
—
Wee Rascar Is Tearful…
As He Accepts The Bespoke Socks…
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BMCUWP….Is Still At ‘Sixes-An’-Sevens’
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In The Lounge…Ernie&MWD Hiv’ Given Up Oan Assemblin’ The ‘Norwegian Fitba’ Manager’ Kit…
Too Many Loose/Missing Screws…!
They’re Returning It Tae IKEA……
On The Groonds O’ Customer Satisfaction…
__
Canamalar An’ Maggie Are In The Swimming Pool….
Discussin’ Their Latest Commercial ‘Deals’…..
Canamalar….. Is Tae Appear Oan Page3 Of ‘The Sun’. [ Yah-Booh…! Ed ]
An’ Astrophysicist,Maggie….
Is Tae Hiv Her Life Story…
‘Serialized’ In The ‘OK’ Magazine…..
—-
In The Gairden….
The Chilean Chookies Hiv’ Takin’ WeeFra Hostage….
An’ Are Demandin’ An Aeroplane Tae Take Them Back Hame..
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OVERNIGHT NEWS…..
Kitalba Tunnels Intae The CQN Compound…..
An’ Is Quickly Consigned Tae The ‘Rubber Room’
Alang Wi ‘Starry’ An’ SofaTunes…..
Under The Watchful Eye…..
Of NURSE RATCHETT….!!
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George Galloway …..An’ KOJO!!!!
Are The Latest Entrants….
Tae The CQN-HOOSE…….!!!!
George Promises Tae Show Ernie….
How Tae Lick Cream Fae A Saucer In A Red Tutu…..
An’ Still Appear ‘Dignified’……
KOJO….Is Revealed..
Tae Be None Ither Than……….
Michael Jackson’s ‘POP’..#@q*!
—-
Dinnae Gie SFTB Much Of A Chance….
In Tonite’s EVICTION VOTE…??
‘ O Me Miserum..! ‘
(ThumbsUp?)
TBC…??
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TBB
Craaaaaaccccccckkkkkkkeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrjack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So if you turn off the telly in the rubber room do you still hear voices!
Don’t forget the talc..
I don’t know if we’ll spend 1m or 10m in this window, but even if we spend the latter, will it improve attendances? I doubt it.
Let’s face it, despite contrary claims, we played some decent football under Lennon. It was certainly more attractive than under Strachan or Mowbray.
We scored plenty last year, had high scoring victories and an impressive defensive record. We’re a million times more successful than the 90s when as a youngster I used to wonder if I’d ever see us win the league.
All of this didn’t stop attendances from falling year on year.
It seems, to me at least, that a combination of economic factors and people being bored of the competition is the main causes, rather than a dislike of the team, manager or board.
There’s little we can do about either.
Household income isn’t increasing anytime soon, so many will continue to stick with the easy option of watching the game on TV or a dodgy stream. As it’s easy enough to pick up a ticket now, you also lose the incentive to secure your seat.
All we can do is freeze season ticket prices and offer radically reduced offers for juniors – ad we’ve been doing. But this all meams we have to take a massive hit on our budget.
Personally, I’m happy to take a hit on player spending if it means more can afford to go to games, but I know not everyone shares that view.
The competition isn’t changing soon. It’s why Lennon is left and he’s right to say we face the prospect of a league next season where the average attendance outside Parkhead is about 6,000.
Throwing our ire at the manager, board, chief executive, scouts and players for this situation is pointless. While they’re all capable of mistaken judgments, they can’t change the economy or our league.
Much has been made of Lenny’s comments yesterday
The Times ran article about it today
I thought he was being quite supportive of Deila …
As for suggesting that there has been a lack of investment …..hardly breaking news…..we have driven down the debt at the club…comes at a cost
After Wednesday it’s reasonable to suggest that quite a few players may be getting paid too much
ipaddy mccourt
Thanks for your comments. I’m just lucky to have the time and money to be able to go to European away games. I retired (very early!!!) last year and can now live the dream having been going to UK games since 1964….an excellent time to start to see the bhoys!! So I was lucky there too :)
Paul67 et al
I think when McCormack and Snodgrass went for nigh on £20 million between them we knew the game had gone bananas. And I am not talking Joe Bananas here. Much discussed I know, but season on season the game is becoming more and more skewed, not just against us of course, but at just about any level of football you can look at. The BBC, Sky, BT, UEFA etc favour, advocate and support a distinctly uneven playing field, aided and abetted by Corporations who seem to feel that giving millions to football teams merits the good use of shareholders money. And not the alienation it deserves. The more I look ahead the more I hope our future is being part of a bone fide Atlantic League, not Paul’s version, but the one I believe New York City is gearing up for. Europe is our home of course, but it is little more than a cartel these days, with contempt for countries the size of Poland, never mind Scotland. I read recently that Celtic are currently 55th in the UEFA coefficient league, that does not correlate with playing three qualifiers to gain entry into a league of thirty two. Question, does correlation mean anything anymore? I think we should be told!
Evening All.
Nice and sunny outside so Byres Road CSC for me.
I will raise a glass to one and all.
However, can I just add something.
I just want to say thankyou to Canamalar for a wee message he sent me regarding a family matter which I shared with him and a couple of others.
I won’t go into the detail of events but at times the very fact that someone takes a bit of time out just to send you a wee message of support makes you stop and think.
I am not one for seeing cliques and groups and factions here there and everywhere, and tend to keep myself to myself being unable to go to days out at times thus missing out on some social occasions with folk from this blog — even with ones I might disagree with.
However, I know from some absolutely private experiences that there are some really very very good minded people on this blog and I am privileged to have met some of them.
Have a good night all.
Celtic Mac
No
Skewed in favour of the big leagues ..we are out the picture ..significantly out of the picture
BRTH……What a lovely post, hope any troubles you
have disappear ……….btw you don’t half go on a bit ..
…smiley face thing.
I am a regular reader but rare poster however I feel compelled to put my view across.
When things go wrong I have learned to look at myself first before I point he finger at anyone else. Following the Legia result, everyone from the board to the players to the manager has been getting the blame, what about the supporters ?
Ask yourself have you done everything you can to support the club, a very small number can say the can but the vast majority not.
I have supported the team from the very early seventies and I always felt the one thing that was great about the club was it’s support, well not now !
It’s easy to be a fan when we play Barcelona at Celtic Park but what about Partick Thistle, a great support would give it’s all in every game.
Imagine someone watching a CL game on tv and thinking, we need to go there, and then turning up at a league game, what a let down.
As been said by a few already our actual support at the games has reduced significantly in numbers in the past 5-7 years and with many more concession season tickets being sold I estimate our season ticket revenue is down 30-40%. I personally feel this has a bearing on our budget as it’s the boards duty to think 3-5 years out and if attendances and ST income continue on their current trend then we will have a real problem.
What really gets me is the rate of non attendance increased when Oldco left the league, what are we Celtic supporters or Celtic V Rangers supporters ???
Even those attending the games sit on their hands and wait for someone else to get the atmosphere going, in days gone by we would all get the atmosphere going.
My challenge to the supporters is, ask not what Celtic can do for you, ask what you can do for Celtic :
1. Come back and support the team.
2. If you are a season ticket holder, support the team properly, not leave it to the GB.
3. If you have financial challenges take up the offer of free books, they do circulate and when the clubs gives out free tickets, use them.
4. It’ easy to find an excuse not to go, this is crap, that’s crap, blah blah. Find an excuse to go.
Once we are a great support again then I feel we have the right to challenge the board.
Hopefully my cloak of invisibility has now slipped off.
Can anyone confirm if the upper tier of Murrayfield will be open or closed on Wednesday? Looking for some public sale tickets for colleagues. More chance if the full stadium is open. Ta.
So what do we do when these expensively selected players don’t produce, why we buy new ones of course.
But what if the new ones are no good, well that’s simple we buy more.
We just keep buying until we get it right.
Why do the Celtic board not understand this?
I see you tried to slip in Efe Ambrose’s name into that vat of mediocrity. It behoves me to defend the big man. While he may have moments like Wednesday, he most certainly does not belong in the company of Derk, Pukki et al.
Efe has been a good servant to Celtic.
shooie
18:53 on 1 August, 2014
100% mate to many excuses why fans won’t go.My mate had a rant on Wednesday in the local. 50 tims we counted 4 had season books.
DEILA OUT
PFayr
It is a shocking reality. I would actually advocate being founder members of the Atlantic League, (weekend games), right now, before that is hijacked too!
shooie
18:53 on
1 August, 2014
Do you honestly believe that the support is getting the backing from the management that it deserves?
jungle jim
13:46 on 1 August, 2014
“Unable to sell 50% of the SB’s it could sell 10 – 15 years ago.”
We have sold 40,000 this year. Did we used to sell 80,000? I must have missed that.
———
No idea if your post was commented on Jim as I’m playing catch up.
However, where did you hear that we’d sold 40,000 ST as I must have missed that.
Hard as nails, great attitude, prolific goal scorer.
Is it too much to ask for signings like this guy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm_dJW4SFao&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Incidentally, make sure you look at the goal scored around 1 min 40. Worthy of our sieve at its best.
Perhaps people like myself should simply accept that Wednesday’s result was in keeping with what has long been the norm when Celtic play away in Europe.
HT
That’s the party line
Look at the website it’s suggests swathes of seats are unavailable …different story when you inquire in the ticket office
Parallel with Artmedia? Sorry but for me there is only one, exit from the CL. I am still having horrible flasbacks from Wednesday, I even checked again today to confirm the timing of goals 3 and 4. So it wasn’t just the good drink in Bradleys Bar, we did collapse in that manner.
However we have one game left to save our season…as ever I will dream, once again I will be in my favourite Lancashire pub. Last time I watched us there it was the Barca 6 goal gubbing, so I am owed one.
I just wonder if we have the heart in the team? That worries me more than Legia as they looked as bad as Karagandy, the possible EL qualifier concerns can wait till later.
Stringer Bell…….remember standing at traffic lights
in Paisley when a car drives up,inside it the bold
Regi window open fag in hand……what a pro.
PFayr supports WeeOscar
19:14 on
1 August, 2014
HT
That’s the party line
Look at the website it’s suggests swathes of seats are unavailable …different story when you inquire in the ticket office
This has been the case for some time.
It is the reason that on a number of occasions I have referred to an alleged waiting list in years gone bye.
Going out for a quick cycle but before I go …
1) I wonder if the gate money for tomorrow is part of a player’s signing on fee, or money owed as a cut of a transfer to a former club …just asking
2) Celtic have been very cute about how many STs have been sold, using words along lines of ‘ we are on course to sell over 40 k STs’ . I saw someone on twitter ask for an outright answer and they got a bullshit answer about commercial confidentiality
3) Saw clips of team going to Finland, but not the manager …did I miss him…is he maybe staying behind to plan next week ?
PS well done to stephen o donnell on his leader today , thought it was very constructive and well written
jmccormick
19:17 on
1 August, 2014
You refer to lack of heart in the team.
Could it be that Efe is not alone in being a better player in his head than he is in his feet.
Quonno
Our players have been instructed to lay the ball out of defence
Not sure some are up to it …playing two midfielders on Wednesday made that virtually impossible …the players tried to force it ..the rest is history
CCB
There is no sensible reason to be playing Spurs in Finland ..other than economic advantage
Lay… Play
Jurgen Klopp’s first season…fourth game in Hoffenheim (who?) 4-1 Borussia Dortmund. Why didn’t they get rid of him then? :)
shooie
18:53 on 1 August, 2014
Great post and I’m with you. A ST is for life, if you can afford one are also able to go along.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Clashcitybhoy…….RD did not travel to Finland
according to STV.
F.A.B. Virgil
17:18 on
1 August, 2014
Oddly enough I think the atmosphere might be better at m field next week. More like a giant away support.
HH.
An excellent bit of thinking…..and a distinct possibility.
JJ
“However we have one game left to save our season…”
Wow! What a supporter!
Pfayr
I mentioned on here several times that I’ve relocated for next season. The seat I’ve moved to wasn’t available on the online stadium plan. It was when I asked for it at the ticket office.
Anyone know how much we got for the CG using Parkhead for the opening ceremony?
jungle jim
what type of supporter am I then? What I am is a realist, Celtic Park will not be hearing a lot of thunder unless we turn this round.
jungle jim
19:30 on 1 August, 2014
“However we have one game left to
save our season…”
~~~~~~~
Dear Bhoy…
More Like One Game Left
To Save Our DECADE..!
“O Kilbowie Miserum…!)