Pat McCluskey, who died yesterday, was one of the 44 players who won nine-in-a-row first time around. He was from a generation of Celtic players who returned to the club when their careers ended, as fans and in other capacities.
Pat was a popular figure on for Supporters’ Nights, where he would share tales of how it was in those other glory years and give his take on current events. Celtic players are different today. For a start, few come from the neighbourhood and many live elsewhere after leaving football. The loss of Pat’s generation will not be easily filled by those able and prepared to give up their evenings to meet fans.
My earliest memories of Celtic are patchy; mostly of big crowds and travelling to and from games, without specific memories of the games themselves. The Scottish Cup Final in 1975 was different. Hampden in the sun, Paul Wilson (twice) and Pat with the goals, now both sadly lost. I know for sure that Pat’s penalty and Paul’s headers are the earliest goals I remember. That was the first team I knew well and could recall effortlessly (I got it wrong when I tried this morning: Steve Murray!!).
Celtic pivoted that season, nine years of unfettered success ended. Billy McNeill retired and Jock released Jimmy Johnstone, but Pat, Paul, Billy and the others made sure there were no mistakes against Oldco Airdrieoneans in the final.
Pat is a part of our rich history. Our sympathies to his family and friends.
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What happened to the Dave King money?
Turkebhoy
“you really won’t find better than Taylor anywhere near our price range..”
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We’ll disagree there fella. There’s much better value and talent available globally. We need to recruit better as a club, like a lot of our European opposition have done down the years.
We took £25m for KT and spent nearly £5m on Taylor and Bolingoli. I find that criminal waste of our budget.
The hun top is tosh
‘Cause it fades in the wash
That’s Castore
TURKEYBHOY on 26TH AUGUST 2020 10:02 AM
31003
Really wasting your time,and me.When fans minds are set,nothing changes them.
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That’s a poor post. Too much cognitive dissonance in our support who want to both win and then limit that ability with a limited left back.
Not many come in here after a loss and say: “Well, I’m glad we gave GT a run out in that defeat…”
The money spent on Boli is a write-off.
I think it’s incredibly harsh on GT to write him off like that.
TIMALOY29 on 26TH AUGUST 2020 10:21 AM
The money spent on Boli is a write-off.
I think it’s incredibly harsh on GT to write him off like that.
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Do you want to be nice to GT or do you want better players to help us progress as a team?
Happy international dog day to all our fur babies.
HH and woof woof.
Scullybhoy 9:20
I can relate to the phone call aspect.
My dad died in 1987 and for a few years after that I still expected his phone call on Saturday night.
If, unfortunately , Celtic had lost the call usually started with ” I see your team got beat today “
I see Mr Delaney Dunky has been making a fuss after I posted Pat McGinely, instead of Pat McCluskey on the sad news of his death.
Let me say again to all posters on here how sorry I am. For some reason after reading Paul’s tribute, the two Pat’s pictures entered my head & I stupidly entered the wrong one.
I, of course, would have no objection to a moderator removing the original post.
Mr DD’s indignation & personal attack was as unnecessary, but not entirely unexpected.
God rest Pat McCluskey HH.
BACK TO BASICS
I wouldn’t be surprised as Kelly was the De Facto manager at the time. I was certainly shocked as we had been all over MTK in the first leg.
Well we’ve spent money this window so far. Just not on the areas we require improvement . No matter what supporters think of PL he likes a wee gamble . Tonight will tell if it comes up .
I looked at the Oddschecker website and I see that we are 5/12 on to beat Ferencvaros tonight and you can get the Hungarians at 19/2 to win.
Having seen them against the Swedes (can’s spell Duigardens) I think they are very generously priced.
I think these odds reflect the expected money to be coming on Celtic and give hefty weight to our home advantage.
I expect us to win but I expect it to be, at best, a 2 goal gap. Anything else will be a good achievement but getting through is important. Although the 10 is our paramount aim this year, we cannot afford to weaken our recruitment chances by spoiling our Euro prospects early. Some players may be looking at staying with us or cming to us, dependant upon our chances of Euro progress.
We all know, we are one CB injury away from being seriously short in that department. Nir Bitton has earned some right to the jersey from early performances but his longer term weakness in letting balls go over his head, unaware of who is behind him, will hurt us in Europe, if he does not get back to a DM position again soon.
Looking forward to another round of the Rollercoaster tonight. This season will be the most tense since 1997/98. And to add to the tension, this time we have to do it without a Larsson :-)
JHB
I was mortified when I read your post yesterday. Having grown up with Pat McGinlay and knowing his family well. My apologies to you if it was a genuine error. It is a mistake, I couldn’t imagine any Celtic supporter making. More important matters to worry about, starting tonight against the Hungarian champions.
Could I request that you stop trolling me, both here and on SentinelCelts please.
There’s a good chappie! 😊👍
Ferencvaros are probably comparable in standard to Cluj but not as good a team as Copenhagen so Celtic will have to be on form to get through. Would like to see ELhamed back in the team and James Forrest in his best position down the right.
Just looked at the 1998 table again there and noticed that Marco Negri scored twice as many league goals that season as Henrik.
Not only that, a United forward (a fellow Swede) scored 2 more than him and a Dunfermline player, who earned one Scotland cap, scored as many as Henrik.
I’d be surprised if anyone can name them, without google help.
Another thing brought back to mind by 1998 was that the old Rangers outscored us by 12 goals. It was our defence that won that league.
JHB
You attack and troll me, and you will receive it back in spades. It is how my parents brought me up.
Met and defeated your type throughout my life.
Water off a duck’s back.
TURKEYBHOY
I must admit I agree re. Greg Taylor as a very willing and accomplished full back for SPFl, just not sure about Europe, but hopefully he improves.
I see the club are gambling again with CL as we did last year. Just hope we don’t fail again.
Ajer , who I’m not a big fan of must play instead of Bitton.
BIG WAVY on 26TH AUGUST 2020 10:25 AM
Do you want to be nice to GT or do you want better players to help us progress as a team?
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GT is still early in his Celtic career considering he was only given his chance at the turn of the year and the season was called early. I think he’s done a good job so far.
We should, of course, sign another LB because Boli is a complete write-off. Hopefully, he’s the next Kieran Tierney whoever he may be. The aim should always be to sign the best player we can in each position.
But Taylor has 3 assists so far this season and a goal. That’s good going and we should be encouraged by that. Tierney was usually good for about 11 or 12 assists a season. That has to be the benchmark for GT.
I think GT gets unfairly singled out for criticism because of his low profile pre-Celtic. I think he will be a fine servant for the club for years to come.
I haven’t been on CQN as much lately but I’m sure there must have been uproar when Birger Meling scored on his debut against Nimes?
I never really rated Wim as a coach but he must have made a great deal of difference to that defence when you see how they were playing early on in his tenure and how they ened up conceding only 24 goals
Celtic 6 Tirol 3
SCULLYBHOY
Very sad news from you too!
May your Dad rest in peace.
Timaloy………I think Greg Taylor has shown great improvement in his recent form. More agressive and making some great runs down the left but he has to avoid getting his crosses blocked by defenders on occasions. Coaching hopefully will improve that part of his game.
Big Wavy
I whole heartedly agree with you on the Brown common denominator in midfield stagnation (been arguing this for about 9 years) but the time to ease out such an influential captain was last year when he signed the extension. Maybe that was the plan but the tight league at Christmas in such a crucial year probably binned that idea.
As such, I think he will play all season and we have to accept that and see how Neil works out how to get the best out of the formation with him in it. Certainly struggling with it right now.
i disagree on Greg Taylor though. Far too early to judge him in a much more expansive role than he had at Killie. Yes, he has limited pace and I would prefer him to hit the line and cross more , but Kieran had regressed into that style himself in the last year or so. Mainly due to the one striker and the loss of form/fitness of Sinclair. I like Moi but he trends to run far too far away from Greg who then takes the possession over pointless pass option. I thought this looked good in pre season so maybe MOI needs to tweek his game. Also, MOI is a passenger defensively so Greg has to be more defensive minded. I must admit I’m OK with Greg as first choice.
My expected team tonight:
4-2-3-1 (which when in possession is is 2-2-5-1 and all wrong)
Barkas
Frimpong Julien Ajer Taylor
Brown McGregor
Forrest Christie Moi
Edouard
Preferred line up (4-3-3) – controversial as hell!
Barkas
Elhamed Julien Ajer Taylor
Ntcham McGregor Moi
Forrest Edouard Christie
PS Messi, for god sake Peter, get it done
BACK TO BASICS
Kelly did indeed anounce that Celtic would not shut up shop in the away leg. Jimmy McGrory had no say.
Coneybhoy,
Thanks fella. Brown for me is the guy to come on late in a game to close it out. His leadership qualities, drive and passion are best suited for that. Too slow to catch the nippy CM and never been a Pirlo-type so can’t grow old gracefully. The risk of course with Neil’s sentiment – we get over run in midfield against decent teams, try and shoehorn Ntcham in and bugger up the system.
Moi is a number 10 and think he can play behind / beside Ajeti (who he knows well) and Eddie. I’m excited about that. Get us a Sinclair first season clone on the left.
GT’s sample is small and opposition has been poor but I’ve seen a guy with no trick to beat an SPFL RB and that results in us slowly recycling the ball. He’s not a dud and a decent talent but I have that vision of coming on here when the luck runs out to a chorus of “GT is not a LB” when up against a decent team.
The Hungarians best player is their RW. Let’s see how he gets on tonight.
Good morning all from Govanhill. Gerrintaethum Celtic!!!!
Big Wavy
Elhamed is the first name on my team sheet for tonight. He is our best and most solid defender. I would have Greg Taylor nowhere near the squad tonight. I am afraid, he is way out of his depth at this level, considering he struggles in the SPFL. Never Celtic standard. Killie is his level.
BIG WAVY on 26TH AUGUST 2020 11:42 AM
GT’s sample is small and opposition has been poor but I’ve seen a guy with no trick to beat an SPFL RB and that results in us slowly recycling the ball. He’s not a dud and a decent talent but I have that vision of coming on here when the luck runs out to a chorus of “GT is not a LB” when up against a decent team.
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I don’t really agree with this point. It’s not the LB’s main attribute to be skipping past defenders like Jinky. It’d be nice to have of course.
Tierney didn’t really do it much of that. What we had in Tierney was a player who was fast, powerful and was able to make quick decisions with the ball.
Taylor has shown some of that ability too. Unfortunately, the team collectively has struggled to make the breakthrough against Dundee United and Kilmarnock. This means Taylor is often faced with a packed opposition defence and no classic number 9 to aim a cross at.
Opposition teams are playing with a narrow packed defensive block. Leaving both our fullbacks with space when they receive the ball but nothing in front of them. Elyounoussi, for example, has been pretty poor in those two games in front of Taylor. Failing to find space with his movement.
Greg Taylor had the second-most touches of the ball against Dundee United and Kilmarnock. I think he’s suffering a bit from the Samaras effect. In the tough moments, if you are the guy who’s always on the ball trying to make something happen you single yourself out for criticism.
In my opinion, Frimpong has been poorer in the few games we’ve had this season. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him dropped tonight.
HANKRAY on 26TH AUGUST 2020 11:19 AM
Timaloy………I think Greg Taylor has shown great improvement in his recent form. More agressive and making some great runs down the left but he has to avoid getting his crosses blocked by defenders on occasions. Coaching hopefully will improve that part of his game.
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I’d agree I’d like to see an improvement in his crossing.
Hopefully, as we begin to score more goals collectively he will find himself with more space and more to aim at when he picks the ball up.
DD – Agree with that. Like Big Tam.
Timaloy29 – In a league where 90% of the teams sit in and we don’t defend, we need a gallus, marauding, attack-minded LB – KT dropping a shoulder, or Izzy in his pomp recently or that goal Bolingoli produced for Eddie against Cluj are beyond GT.
SFTB- Kjell Olafsson?
Big Wavy…I feel you are being obsessively negative re Taylor and Broonie…sure, you are entitled to express and post your opinions, however, when have we ever had a flawless team? If someone has leadership qualities, passion and drive, why would you only bring him on late in the game. To close it out? What does that mean? And if you are losing?
Anyway, 2-0 tonight…Taylor and Broonie to score… (Broonie 89th minute)😊
Bada
Correct- I have to confess I forgot all about him and can’t remember what he looks like, but he outscored Henrik by 2
Now- anyone willing to guess the Dunfermline Scotland B international who matched Henrik’s tally in the league
SFTB…Stevie Crawford?
Celtic Quick News………
The Dear Green Place.
HH.
SFTB- Olafsson,big strong No 9,a good touch,shot like a cannon on him
SFTB
Andy Smith?
WeeBobbyCollins,
Nonsense post mate. Takes the man not the subject. Tell me about their qualities and argue the facts.
Brown comes on late as his impact for 90 minutes against faster, fitter and younger is diminishing. Happens to us all and not his fault. It’s how Klopp manages Milner to greater effect. Similar ages and similar players.
Not rocket science.