Amid all the consequences of Champions League group stage qualification, lies a subtle shift in the calendar for Celtic that could prove pivotal. The club has started competitive football for recent seasons in the first or second qualification round, often in the first week in July. Added to our habit of reaching (and winning) the Scottish Cup final, Celtic’s close season has been truncated into a period of between six and eight weeks.
This year, we will have an impressive 11 weeks to rest and rebuild before the cinch SPFL Premiership campaign gets the competitive season underway on 30 July. Consider what that differential means for the fitness coaches. They were previously tasked to allow the players sufficient rest, then accelerate their return to peak condition to avert a potentially disastrous exit from European competition.
In recent years, this has resulted in giving players as much time off as possible before a three-week fitness ramp up. You and I can speculate on what impact this has on Celtic’s multi-season catalogue of soft-tissue injuries.
Preseason is also when the base layer of endurance is laid. Players can do speed work between games, but they cannot do endurance work and play a game five days later. This training is only effective if it exhausts and breaks muscle fibre, allowing a natural period of regrowth, which builds the muscle. Squad-wide, it does not happen during the season.
We have seen enough hamstring injuries, as well as Celtic players looking exhausted late in games, to know we have preparatory issues to address. We also know the fitness coaches are not given the opportunity to work on either matter effectively. This close season is such a change to the norm, the techs at Lennoxtown will have no realistic experience of how best to spend the valuable weeks handed to them.
Getting it right could extend the careers of the likes of Callum McGregor. It will also make the type of football Ange Postecoglou wants to play more achievable.
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I just watched the BBC news. In the Scottish news section, they mentioned that some people walked out of the Scottish football writers gala lest night, due to sexist remarks by one of the speakers. I’m sure we’ll hear more on that later. Anyway, I thought you I’d have a look on the BBC Scottish sport website to see if there was any more news. Nothing more was elaborated on that but I did notice another of their news items. This other item is titled: Rangers: Tell us your memories of a remarkable decade as Europa League final looms. 😂😂 Unbelievable. Prepare yourself for some off the radar Scottish (Sevco) media drivel over the next fortnight. Hopefully it’ll all come crashing down in sunny Seville.
Hopefully, we can get the point required midweek then give the Bhoys a well-earned rest!
On the VAR for offside, bizarrely the VAR line for offside is now just above the elbow on the T-shirt line (as you are allowed to score with that part of your body now), so I think the Hearts player was just offside (too tight to call without VAR)
I know we’ve looked leggy in both games against the Huns recently, and Hearts had probably moved onto bigger games for them but out with the derbies I think our fitness has been good recently. We’ve stopped tanking after half time and we’re scoring a good amount of goals in the last third of the game
I think we’ve learned to pace ourselves better, and Ange is making use of the 5 subs better as well. It’s going to be a squad effort next season if they keep the 5 subs
As far as the Huns go, their fitness levels may be better now but they lost the league by conceding too many goals late on in games after Christmas. We don’t concede late goals
It’s not how you finish the season, it’s how you do over 38 games that counts.
casual racism allowed is it ?
CHAIRBHOY
We would never have had a Director of football when your favourite Brendan Rodgers was at Celtic, he wouldn’t have allowed it and I’d agree with him, it wasn’t necessary.
I think Ange is a similar sort of manager. Just because it’s worked elsewhere doesn’t mean it’s right for Celtic. It’s failed elsewhere as well, and the structure doesn’t seem to be working at Leicester at the moment – Rodgers has fallen out with his D of F who sacked BR’s head of recruitment Lee Congerton.
Just before they won in Europe,the OF sites were throwing a multitude of abuse at their DOF.Unrepeatable,on here,abuse for his policies that they claim,lost them the league.
RUBICON
I tried Tannadice.
They say they’ve none.
Still hopeful that I’ll get one
PHILCOOL on 9TH MAY 2022 1:45 PM
True story mate. I think Dunfermline tried to sue Chris Sutton after his comments.
TURKEYBHOY on 9TH MAY 2022 2:28 PM
It’s them, and it’s also an online community, which at the best of times isn’t the most measured or always the most representative, but they did seem to hate him.
ziggydoc1
Maybe Roddy Forsyth will regale us with the story of how his debentures were condemned to the dustbin of history. No?
alongwihisclub
Hankray 1.16 pm
Found this
Europa League 2021/2022 » Top Scorer – worldfootball.net
Player Country Team Goals (Penalty)
James Tavernier England Rangers FC 7 (4)
Galeno Brazil 6 (2)
Karl Toko Ekambi Cameroon Olympique Lyon 6 (0)
The boy ekambi has played 10 games compared to tav penalty who has played 13 games . But the point I was trying to make was that old firm fc are a lot tougher made for european football . Wee have the tanner baw players but not the Brawn .
CELTIC40ME @ 2:22 PM,
Call me fickle but Brendan Rodgers isn’t my favourite anymore, it’s one Ange Postecoglou.
The D.o.F. debate is an interesting one, for me there’s no doubt The Rangers guy has made a huge difference – you only need to look at the GvB appointment in the wake of loosing Steven Gerrard and his staff.
A lot of smart, if not great signings, plenty bang for buck. Arron Ramsey might yet prove to be an inspired signing.
BR does seem to have a few issues this year. Still thought it was very observant of you to point out, after he’d taken a team to the semi’s of a European Cup competition, that he wouldn’t have done better in Europe with more resources;)
It’s always possible that ML is being groomed for the D.o.F position anyways – Ange seems to get on with him and the CEO…
Them three working together could really make a huge difference to the dynamic of Celtic FC – unique even.
Hail Hail
Hail Hail
Just one more thing, could somebody @ CQN HQ please update the sidebar SPL table? Or is the idea to keep the less observant in suspenders?
HANKRAY
To be fair, when Celtic won their UEFA Cup semi-final, there was wall-to-wall coverage on the entire Scottish media – tv, radio, newspapers – every day leading up to the final.
A Scottish team in a Euro final is newsworthy, no matter who it is.
Starmer to resign, if he gets a fixed penalty notice.
CHAIRBHOY on 9TH MAY 2022 2:55 PM
there’s no doubt The Rangers guy has made a huge difference – you only need to look at the GvB appointment in the wake of loosing Steven Gerrard and his staff.
If you ask the Huns there’s plenty of doubt. Go on their websites and take a look. Their signings over the past two years have been pretty average. They have t sold a single player for any value in his time. The squad is full of players out of contract or with a year left, their squad management has been terrible. And GvB fell into their laps, an ex-player who had been out of work for a year.
I don’t think even Brendan Rodgers, who famously said he didn’t know what the conference league even was, would describe this season as anything other than a failure in Europe. To not even make it to his previous best of the round of 32 didn’t exactly put paid to the suggestion he isn’t a manager for Europe. He had one of the biggest budget in the competition at the start and he couldn’t do better than third in the groups
GFTB ( from late last night )
I don’t think you will get either of your wishes ( or mine ). Eintracht Frankfurt have won 8 out of their last 24 matches! They have fallen to 12th in the Bundesliga, while the 2 German teams the Huns took 9 goals off are 2nd and 4th and will be in the Champions League next season, possibly at lower seeds than Sevco.
Hertz have little chance in their Cup Final. When they lost Beringame, they lost their best player. We could have scored 8 yesterday, with Hertz offering very little.
GFTB ( from late last night )
Neil Lennon’s Omonia Nicosia have a great chance to win the Cypriot Cup on May 25. They play Ethnikos Achna who are second bottom of the bottom six in the league with 22 points. Omonia are top of the bottom six, 24 points ahead of them, but have to be wary as Ethnikos thumped a top 6 team 5-2 on aggregate in the semis.
PHILBHOY
Just reading back. Best wishes for a speedy recovery from the lurgi, mate.
Tom MCLaughlin………….Complete agreement great for Scottish football and encouragement for teams on small budgets.
Paul67 et al
Of course there is yet another round of International matches to play before we get that eleven weeks of rest, UEFA Nations League games against Armenia, 08 June, Republic 11 June. No doubt other Nations are involved in the same tournament. And before all that, there is, for Scotland at least, a World Cup playoff against Ukraine (sold out four days after Russia invaded) June 1st 7.45pm Hampden. Possibility of another play off against Wales June 5th. Now I make that possibly four matches for our Scottish Bhoys, 4-5 players, and at least a couple for some of our other Internationalists. Not many will get to put their feet up after next Saturday.
TOM MCLAUGHLIN on 9TH MAY 2022 3:03 PM
HANKRAY
To be fair, when Celtic won their UEFA Cup semi-final, there was wall-to-wall coverage on the entire Scottish media – tv, radio, newspapers – every day leading up to the final.
A Scottish team in a Euro final is newsworthy, no matter who it is
____
Correct. There certainly was. The difference this time, is that I’m not enjoying it as much 😁. We didn’t have guff, like comparing their achievements to the Lisbon Lions. We also received great praise for how our huge support in Seville behaved.
St Tams / Rubicon
Good luck Celts wi tickets on wed.
HH
CELTIC40ME @ 3:15 PM,
Without being overly partizan, I’ve never found The Rangers support to be the most knowledgeable or realistic when it comes to footballing matters.
Ross Wilson has given his managers very effective players on a very tight budget.
Despite what others say, The Rangers didn’t spend a fortune on their squad and haven’t thrown money they don’t have at average players to renew their contracts.
Now The Rangers fans don’t like that, they still think they’re Galacticos but we’d be criticsing them for making multi-million pounds signings and paying their welterweights huge sums they don’t have if it was the other way around.
You will notice how threadbare their squad is and how they relied on the youngsters to best Dundee United. No sign of them throwing money around there either.
They’ll be waiting to see what happens, two huge games for them but they could be in a strong selling position with the ability to rebuild in the close season.
Not too sloppy in my book.
GvB just fell on their lap did he:))))
Like Lenny just fell on ours….
Wonder if GvB was told to not tinker with the set up of the team;)
Hail Hail
Talking of directors of football and Leicester in Europe, Roma, who beat them in Europe’s jobby cup have an interesting recent history
A few years ago it looked like they’d pulled off a real coup by persuading the cultish figure, Monchi, to leave his life’s work at Sevilla to take up the D of F position in Rome. He’d been there 20 odd years and, so the story went, been responsible for their remarkable success in the Uefa cup and Europa League
Roma had just had their best season in a long time, finishing second, they needed a new head coach but they were looking to spend heavily in the transfer window and with the right appointments push on to win the league
It didn’t work. He appointed an upcoming coach who had mixed results but never looked like winning the scuddetto, his signings were disappointing, he didn’t make nearly enough from transfer activity
Monchi was seen as being the best in the business by many, his failure at Roma and return to Sevilla shows how getting the right man can be as hard as appointing the right coach or manager sometimes more important
Having caught up on all the games of the weekend, I thought United didnt even turn up, a win would have gauranteed european football, but they didnt try a leg.
Hertz with nothing more to play for put in a decent 20 minutes, and did make a game of it till the bhoys went up the gears.
Ross county need to take something on wednesday to have a chance at 5th,
Bill Copeland named as the speaker at the Writers awards who had tables walking out because of his misognystic and sexist routine.
Guess what team he supporters ?
“HANKRAY on 9TH MAY 2022 3:22 PM
.Complete agreement great for Scottish football ”
I have heard a few people say that but I cannot see it myself. Care to elaborate?
CHAIRBHOY on 9TH MAY 2022 3:42 PM
As Paul67 pointed out the other day, their euro run has added a lot to the selling price of the wantaways. It’s not by design or planing though, unless they somehow foresaw being in a Europa league final a year or 6 months ago. In their entire history they’ve not sold anyone for much over a million quid, they haven’t faced the challenges of selling your best and most promising players since we have done exactly that. They lost the league after winning it by 25 points because they didn’t refresh the squad. A 31 points swing while spending the same amount on wages suggests something went badly wrong somewhere
Like Lenny just fell on ours….
Indeed. Very similar, and similarly lacking in imagination, but, arguably, the right person at the right time. He did lose the league quicker than Lenny did, so maybe not.
It does make the appointment of Ange seem so much more remarkable. Luck played its part, but also imagination, judgement, knowledge and understanding.
I don’t think GvB’s appointment showed much imagination at all.
SAINT STIVS on 9TH MAY 2022 3:51 PM
Arbroath?
GvB lost the league with a team who had won the league by 25 points and were six points ahead.
He’s not been a resounding success
Fair play to Eilidh Barbour for walking out due to the sexist language last night at the awards dinner.
I’m taking it she will be taking a similar stance when sectarian chanting is heard at games she is summarising at or even mentioning it ?
He was brought in to win the league and guarantee the fabled champions league bazillions.
CELTIC40ME @ 3:59 PM,
Well surely this is the whole point, they didn’t have the money to strengthen the squad or to offer lucrative contracts to their current players.
They had no money.
So any success they’ve had is despite them splashing out money they don’t have unlike the myth of them overspending.
What went badly wrong was the original Rangers cheated and died, the newco Rangers were set up by dodgy geezers liaising with dodgy football authorities then getting taken over by more dodgy owners.
We know the story – what we have seen from The Rangers in the last couple of seasons is a pragmatic approach and a team overachieving.
That strategy is paying dividends – if you offered them stopping the ten and a European final two seasons ago they’d have bite your hand off. We’d be saying they’re on the deludomal.
Ross Wilson has got vast experience (considering his age) of buying and selling multi-million pound players, despite what the MSSM told us, he didn’t inherit any such players when he came back to Scotland.
He’ll be in his element should they win the average size cup.
Hail Hail
Celtic beat them in the head to head, set to win the league outright, but there’s CQN hand wringing , because they’ve leeched it to a Europa finale.
It didn’t take long for it to be Peter Lawwell’s fault of course according to internet sabre rattlers, and we’ve to copy a business model, which even fleeced the face painter for his £40.
Celtic quietly won the league in the January window spending wisely on players that Eddie Howe and us had never heard of. SMSM were busy backing their favourites, through Europe. in an open one off game I’d take whoever they are playing, except Haerts to win.
ITSCALLEDTHEMALVINAS on 9TH MAY 2022 4:10 PM
Fair play to Eilidh Barbour for walking out due to the sexist language last night at the awards dinner.
I’m taking it she will be taking a similar stance when sectarian chanting is heard at games she is summarising at or even mentioning it ?
Based the extensive sectarian chanting at Celtic Park on Saturday, she would be quite entitled to walk out of our ground (very sadly). The re-emergence and growth of sectarian chanting is our disgrace.
All aspects of our club – fans, management and board – need to eradicate this now or we have ceded the moral high ground that we have occupied due to lack of control of a sizable minority of our crowd.
TOM MCLAUGHLIN @ 3:03
To be fair, when Celtic won their UEFA Cup semi-final, there was wall-to-wall coverage on the entire Scottish media – tv, radio, newspapers – every day leading up to the final.
A Scottish team in a Euro final is newsworthy, no matter who it is.
——
Agree 100% – some have either a short, or, slanted memory.
I mentioned Ross Wilson a few days ago – it would appear his is THE key role, in influencing the success of Gerrard & GVB. Taking Kent out, the recipe seems to be low acquisition fees and high wages. Could it be that the Ibrox wage-bill….and turnover to June 22, will be in touching distance of ours for the first time in many years? Will be interesting when the -‘dust settles’ – nb. I am aware that the Ajer, Edouard & Christie fees will probably tip the balance in our favour.
That last sentence is no slight on Celtic, although I”m sure some will take the opportunity to jump on it as such…MoM. HH