Football is overwhelmingly a results business and results in football drive emotions to a level seldom seen in other areas of sport or business. All that emotion makes perspective elusively difficult. For example, how do you muster anything other than an emotional response to the 1-3 home defeat to Bodo/Glimt, coming, as it did, on the same day Newco won 2-4 in Dortmund.
The result was humiliating, another comfortable defeat in the return leg offered no consolation. Perspective was difficult to find. We laughed earlier in the season when Bodo battered Jose Mourinho’s Roma 6-1. After a poor qualifying campaign that saw them lose home and away to Legia Warsaw, before edging Kosovan and Lithuanian opponents by a single goal to reach the Conference League, Bodo found form. But still, they were preseason when they faced Celtic.
They reached the quarter finals and again got the better of Roma at home, before a collapse at the Olympic Stadium. Roma disposed of Leicester City and are favourites to win the trophy in Tirana tonight, although Feyenoord have form overturning favourites in European finals.
The trauma of our European exit seems a distant memory; a league title win and the sun is shining on Celtic Park. Just as defeat makes perspective difficult, try telling an elated fan that they had better not get too carried away….. Don’t get too carried away, we face existential risks next season.
Considering how Bodo/Glimt pushed Roma so hard, a win for Mourinho’s side would make me feel better about our season. Maybe I’m still trying to find some perspective for that awful 5-1 aggregate defeat in February. Not sure any result tonight will help. Some end of season perspective has me shaken.
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Shoots
That awkward moment when you complain because your fans didn’t have enough toilet water to drink.
Hello
Scores! Counter attack after a high press, ball out wide quick cross, back post header boom!
Grand day for Martin 98
👏👏👏👏👏👏
” Some end of season perspective has me shaken. ”
You could have been stirred by some rousing memories …😜
Gemmell shoots…. Chalmers Y-E-S. Whistle has sounded…..many a heart was warmed AND many a heart shattered to this day.
“We face existential risks next season…”
Is it me? I can’t see that we face an “existential” risk. A risk to our very existence?
Sorry, PAUL67, I don’t get what you’re trying to say here….por cierto
Pingback: Perspective on Europe is a worry | Celtic FC News Now
Celtic face an “existential risk” next season? Utter nonsense.
A wee reminder, that, although Champions of Scotland, we need to improve dramatically for the challenges we will face in Europe.
Hopefully Ange is correct when he says we will come back next season, bigger and better. KTF .
A League Allstars just equalise against Barca in front of 72,000 crowd in Sydney tonight.
1-1
Great atmos it seems.
The precursor ‘celeb’ match series – sponsored by NSW Gov – of which our Bhoys are an integral part.
Paul67,
Our approach to Europe (budget for the giddy heights of Europa and extra dosh if you manage to over achieve) saw us with a team knocked out by Midget Land in July with Bitton and Welsh as our CHs, Barkas in goal and Soro in midfield, with two wantaways playing on empty.
By the time the scandanavian giants of Bodo Glint arrived, despite a better line-up, we got schooled by a team that effortlessly broke our poor press and waltzed by our SPFL level Left Back with ease to sucker punch us 3 times. It was a game of small margins, as Eueope is for us, but on this occassion we were on the wrong side of that.
Hopeful for a more settled side, better grasp of the fundamentals and upgrades in areas that aren’t good enough at this level. Given Ange’s fundamentalist streak though I envisage glorious wins and inglorious humpings in equal measure.
Strap in and enjoy the ride.
Europe matters. A lot.
HH
P67 — Get a grip.
AP was totally focused on the league.
He did not have the bandwidth or experience to make a go of the EuConL.
He did not have the bandwidth to make up for the lack of coaching support at L/town.
He was a one man band and while it was good enough for the SPL it was not good enough for Europe.
He sent out a very unbalanced team — MF was not right and we had DM through the middle.
All the game showed is the need for a proper DM as CMcG was caught out time after time.
We just did not look up for it — never give an athlete an excuse to fail as they will always take it — and AP’s comments regarding the focus on the league would seem to confirm the lack of focus.
B/G are a good team who know their limitations.
When we strung three passes together their limitations we there for all to see.
Just a case that we just couldn’t find our game often enough.
The second game was even more low key.
Shows what happens when you do stop.
Hopefully lessons have been learned.
Proper / fully developed squad.
All the gaps filled.
CL is where it is at and where we need to be.
If AP can banish the Scottish cringe we might have half a chance.
2-1 to the A League.
Cummings at the heart of the goal. Lovely move.
DM = Player
DM = Pivot / Defensive MF’er.
Sometimes I confuse myself.
Ange will not play a more ‘govan style’ of football so given we conceded just under three goals a game last season in the Europa, I suspect Europe will be a challenge next season.
The extent of the challenge very much depends on the group we get but going by past draws, we can expect a difficult group.
P67 @ Existential risk — existence as a credible CL team?
I fear you have been listening to PL for too long.
We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
Lose the Scottish cringe and we have half a chance.
On a day like today — we are CL credible or we are nothing.
Existential risks ????
2021/22 — EuL group = 2022/23 CL group in disguise.
OK RB let us down on the last day of the league but it was very close.
We need to move up a gear.
We need to complete the squad — CCV + JNPF sorted plus starting LB / CB / DM.
Also need to fill out the squad with potential at GK / CB / Energy MF / RW.
Plus totally re-jig the B Team squad.
We should be looking forward to our potential CL group.
Not soiling our undergarments in fear.
Bronskis/ SPL flat track bullies — no more.
I know I harp on about Aussie fitba a bit – but it’s what I watch live, so permit me this apropos P67’s article:
If a new – 3yrs – startup team [Western United] can make it to our Grand Finals this week after having no infrastructure, players, support or stadium (they still have no stadium btw), it’s clearly possible to get a team to do quite well, just with a good attitude, plan and manager ?
My point…if a relatively impoverished Western United can make a national finals [almost in a 1-season turnaround under John Aloisi] why not believe that a clean-slate Celtic, with all our cash, resources, infrastructure, fans and new managerial guidance can – and will – go all the way to a Euro final ??
HH
Paul 67 et al,
Firstly , I am glad that collectively we seem to have woken up to the reality that European football really does matter.
The benefits of a sustained European run are blatantly self explanatory and cannot be underestimated.
I hope I never again read before a high profile, financially lucrative and prestigious game that we should drop players for an upcoming league game
A club such as Celtic must viably complete in both.
I’m sooooooo glad that Ange agrees as per his recent statements.
Ange bears very little responsibility for our failures in Europe during our last season. He inherited a shambles and made a remarkable turnaround.
Not just a physical shambles but a shambolic mindset.
Our new accelerated journey will grasp European football and give it the focus it deserves.
Winning the league is the pinnacle of domestic football, however we must look beyond that and embrace the substantial prize that it gives.
HH to all, In Ange we trust.
Who had P67 in the “Wet the bed over summer” bingo, no, me neither.
We dont have the players, yet, to play Angeball in a whole European campaign, we did finish on 9 points which is more than a few of the teams that made it out their group, including Triggers Broom, who despite headlines, only won one game away from home in their illustrious campaign.
With direct entry into the group stages, players will be fitter and fresher, though the step up in class is a challenge, as ever it depends a lot on the luck of the draw. I expect the squad to be advancing in the development of Angeball, as last season was only the foundations.
Paul67 et al
On this day in 1961 JFK announced the USA were reaching for the stars
On this day in 1967 Celtic got there before them
https://twitter.com/dadof2boys1988/status/1529133448912306177?s=24&t=AIqbXnQLr6Mg7o2dbAhIYQ
New signage for huns now…..
Great stuff from CelticbyNumbers today. Well worth a read and resonates with my own thoughts.
Leaves us with a teaser about any sellable assets for this summer that we can cash in on – Abada and Turnbull being mentioned. Arguably both back-ups to Hatate and Jota this season, could we be tempted ?
B team pedigree shocking too. Loads of medicocrity assembled over the last few years and the good uns left us young and early (from Morrison to Doak).
http://celticbynumberscom.ipage.com/a-busy-summer-beckons/
HH
Unless you are privy to info yet to come in to the public domain, “existential threat” is a bit OTT??
If you mean we will really need to up our game in Europe, I agree.
After blowing them away in the first half at Celtic Park, the contests that followed against the Huns were extremely tight. We were chasing shadows at times and a top European side could tear us to shreds.
I feel we are too light-weight at present, something that will hopefully be remedied during the summer. I also think AP will need to compromise on his tactics.
A plan for the CL required PL to think / raise his game.
For a lazy / second rate property bean counter — that was just asking too much.
If DD is not up to the task of making us CL credible then we need to get on the Fridge Phone.
CL group games — how many tickets could we sell?
60K / 67K / 77K / 80K plus?
Hard to consider any existential risk to Celtic on this, our annual day of celebration and thanksgiving.
Yesterday in the US- an 18 year old man, allowed to purchase guns without a check, killed his grandmother, and then, 2 teachers and 19 children at a Texas school. This may not be the end of the casualty list.
I know many of you find solace in prayers but prayers have done nothing about this regularly recurring atrocity. Indeed, the Gun Lobby have hypocritically used prayer as a deflection from any effective actions. Indeed they recommend more widespread gun ownership and usage as their response on the specious grounds that respondents with guns will kill perpetrators earlier. Placing more guns in the hands of more people who cannot be trusted to use them responsibly will just lead to more events like yesterday.
Those who defend the gun use are doing so because their livelihoods have grown dependent on it, either through participating in a domestic arms race or because their political campaigns are subsidised and compromised by Gun Manufacturer & Sales bribery.
We suffered one major incident of this type over 25 years ago and, thankfully, have never suffered another such outcome. There has been , however, a recent re-growth in gun ownership in Scotland so we are in danger of forgetting this horror. The more guns there are in circulation, the more likely and certainly, the easier it will be, for them to fall into the wrong hands.
We need to continue to restrict this Americanisation trend and we must do more than just pray that it be so.
There is so much sorrow on what should have been a happy day for us.
My friends in Celtic,
As we hear news that our ST sales are remarkable and have nearly reached their target, the focus will inevitably turn to what the board can do to reward the fans and embrace the journey.
This is the worst economic crisis for many a decade and the fans have and will make sacrifices for our team.
The board must play their part and make funds available to slash the prices for our newly focused European journey.
Slash the costs and fill the park. To speculate will be to accumulate as we progress through the tournaments
HH.
Paul67
Ironic on 25th May 2022
Think you’re getting caught up with the Daily Rancid’s Sevco Globe Trotters that are suddenly a Euro force too good to win the Premier League, and we’re no.
We might have lost to Bodo but we didn’t get beaten by Malmo, Red Star, Braga, Leipzig and Eintracht to name a few. We did finish with more points in the first group stage in a relatively harder group.
In the league we overtook them because we spent good money on good players especially in January when they couldn’t, after you become Champions you need a manager such as we have to play a side with a formation where Neil Lennon Ronny Deila Brendan Rodgers Neil Lennon again failed.
We need at least another five top players for the CL or a run in the Europa, watch this space.
BW @ 12.49
Sellable assets — not for this season.
We should be improving the squad by addition not by trading.
DT = Huge talent just needs more energy.
Biggest issue is that his style at times is very close / too close to RH.
LA = He goes for £30mill plus.
Until that happens he stays because we need him.
One year older / wiser / stronger — there is a lot more to come.
Greenpinata,
Or maybe bag the money and use it to upgrade the stadium.
Would be nice for us all to have them think about the fan experience (as a multi-year project) as a priority.
HH
existential risk, needs a footnote P67 for explanation, not the only one puzzled😵😱
BOURNESOUPRECIPE:@12.55
Agree with you on all of that.We remain Scottish league cup champions and title winners.Oooops should have had that League cup winners and title CHAMPIONS…Ah! CHAMPIONS of both tournaments.
Although having some talented players in our ranks we still need a better mix for Europe . We witnessed our rivals make a better go of it in Europe than we did the past couple of seasons even although we have a more skilful team , why is that ? Sevco are a big aggressive team who will get stuck into the opposition , no frills just blood and guts as we saw in the cup semi albeit they were allowed to foul with impunity , our 3-0 thumping of them at Celtic park where we were a mile too slick for them was never going to happen again , the only way to stop our boys was to do what they do best ,continually foul , bully and intimidate us . IMHO ange needs to balance the team by adding a few players who won’t be bullied or intimidated , a hard core of players added to the squad for the horses for courses games , we will encounter games like the cup semi in our league section from whoever we meet at some point , we need the muscle to go with the skill we already posess to succeed on Europe’s big stage . HH
MM,
LA – Playing devil’s advocate, we need to trade when his stock is high and he’s had a breakthrough season with stats that have caught the eye across Europe.
Will he repeat that next season as back-up to Maeda and Jota ?
We need to be better at this. Take the big bucks on offer and buy Solbakken, with lots of change left over.
As for DT, I have concerns that he doesn’t have the energy levels for Angeball.
HH