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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See the old sevco fans have turned up again on here .if you want to speak about them go on to there many blogs and give us piece .for a club that’s supposed to be skint they seem to pay top dollar for players,Personally I think with them not in the stock exchange then I have a feeling people like Mc Coll another fly man who conned his way into Ferguson’s Shipyard then jumped ship when the going got tough and people like Parks and others pumping money into there club;Cheats and Spivs get away with murder in Scotland good guys get Shafted,so come Wednesday up at Dundee we will be champions,Spend wisely in the summer transfer window and hopefully another League Title and and things will be a bonus .
“cmon Larry David is funny”
So is JHB but you won’t find me laughing :-)
https://youtu.be/A1wB9kZ2dnA
Cracking song /lyrics, wonder if there are any racists on here, if there is /are I dedicate this to you.
I travelled on a minibus down to Middlesborough for Tony Mowbray’s Testimonial. There were 14 of us in the coach and, apart from me and Davie the driver, everyone else was a criminal lawyer. One of those criminal lawyers was Bill Copeland. He was a Rangers supporter, I believe, but was totally comfortable in the company of Celtic fans. We all went to the game and stayed in a hotel overnight. After the game we had a great night in the hotel. He was a very affable guy so it was a great surprise to me this afternoon when my grandson told me the name of last night’s after dinner speaker. I immediately texted my pal who had been on the trip to Middlesborough and who knows Bill Copeland well. He texted back that BC is no bigot but seemed to have misjudged the audience.
It is a shock to me that anybody would appear in front of any audience nowadays and use racist and misogynistic material to get laughs but having met the guy I would agree that he isn’t a bigot.
The Eilidh Barbour story reveals much about the Scottish Football Writers Association and probably the majority of the membership. I always viewed them as quite condescending towards their female colleagues…
Macho men R Us…Spiers was one of the few exceptions.
CELTIC40ME – JHB,
Well, I might well have veered of the topic as I’m not sure what the topic is!?
I’ve gone past, present and future, covered the D.o.F role.
If you are talking about us being a well run organisation and them being a basket case, we go back to the summer of 2018.
A lot of water under the bridge since then, yet due to our varying legacies we still have money in the bank and they are still trying to break even.
Now, I think the 90 million on SC was not a windfall as such, it was a similar figure that P67 wrote about a few days ago.
If The Rangers win the Europa Cup they will get into the UCL proper.
They should be able to increase their turnover to 90 million.
They should add value to their playing squad.
And they should make a profit this season allowing them to invest in the squad next season.
Of course as we won the league we go straight into the UCL proper.
Our turnover should be over 100 million
We should continue to make a profit
And have money in the bank to invest in the squad next season.
So things will certainly be closer but we should still be at least ten percent bigger than them.
If of course they fail to win the Europa Cup, they lose out on some 5 million pound prize money, including the super cup and do not go straight into the UCL.
A lot to play for but they would have had to win the league to get anything like parity with us next season and even then our “war chest” would have been significantly larger.
So yes, our legacy has been battered but we still have significant funds available.
Their legacy means they have significant debt, they may have turned the corner but they have yet to make a profit and a few seasons of UCL football is needed to put them on an even keel.
Hail Hail
The scottish football writers functions are where Fatboy Traynor was found out.
Disband the ‘bowling club’ attitude.
BTW…Watch Bill Leckie trying to defend it this week ?.
Another bigot.
If you are a supporter of the hun, you are a bigot, end of.
Stay healthy PB >:)
Confetti shares oc over 4 mill . How is that paid back ?.
Preference shares ?.
Ffs
TOSB,
that was quite interesting, and I suppose for everyone in the public speaking domain, they have to gauge the audience.
If you ever get to the Greenock Celtic events, wait till you hear Compare McDade about big Greenlions suits.
CHAIRBHOY on 9TH MAY 2022 7:53 PM
CELTIC40ME – JHB,
Well, I might well have veered of the topic as I’m not sure what the topic is!?
I’ve gone past, present and future, covered the D.o.F role.
You’ve gone all over the shop but you still haven’t answered what is the fundamental question:
If their D of F is doing such a good job why didn’t they have the money they needed to freshen up a championship winning team, while we were able to spend 23m on rebuilding a full first team after a dog of a season?
And why have they been so bad in the league if it isn’t the fault of the D of F?
ADI_DASSLER NOT FOR 2ND BEST on 9TH MAY 2022 6:30 PM
D
Think we can get some of that for the ‘our’ board ?.
Mgt & others
——
Adi – Need some masell to get rid of this pesky Covid.
D :)
CHAIRBHOY @ 1:15 PM
“Many are scratching their head wondering how they got this far.
I’m of the view that their appointment of a recognised quality Director of Football is a key component.
We of course are still resistant to do the same, yet if Mark Lawwell really knows his stuff, as has been suggested, our Head Scout maybe will give us more bang for buck and help Ange take the team to the next level.
——————————————–
There’s no scratching of heads needed- they won because they beat everyone they were drawn against. Th only plan involved was that they tried to make themselves hard to beat and their players produced an effort and sustained an energy that they were not giving in SPFL matches regularly. A lot of things aligned for them- getting out of the group with fewer points than we obtained in failing to get to knockout- but, after that, the efforts of all their players got them there. Before they got to q-f, s-f and final stages nobody was praising GvB as a tactical genius or seeing their recruitment as stellar. All of that has been post-hoc reasoning- they made a final- they must be doing something right- it must be X, Y or Z- fill in your favourite theory.
Yours is that it’s because they have a DoF who is well rated and you’ve always advocated for a DoF, so we can see why that hypothesis is attractive to you and why you might think it is negative resistance rather than positive disagreement that led to Celtic not appointing ones s you suggested.
But for a hypothesis to be of value, it needs to have evidence allied to it.
Do teams with a DoF regularly outperform teams that don’t?
Do we factor in that bigger clubs with bigger budgets will tend to have more posts and employees, and that DoF’s will be more prevalent there, distorting the stats?
Did any of the teams that Sevco beat- Dortmund? Red Star? Braga or Leipzig? have DoF’s?
If so- how did they lose the match?
How about the teams they beat in the Group Stage? Did Brondy and Sparta lack a DoF? Did Lyon beat them because they had 2 DoFs?
Did Celtic beat Ferencvaros because they did not have a DoF? Did we draw with Betis on aggregate because they too had omitted this post?
Unless you can show that having a DoF is a footballing advantage and not just a footballing preference then the verdict will go against you.
Interestingly the website Football Scotland did an evaluation of Ross Wislon’s transfer dealings back at the start of April when they were already on a good Europa run but not at the astonishing levels they have now reached and, while praising Wilson, they failed to detect his genius in their assessments:- They rated the following signings and deals as Hit or Miss
Hagi- Hit
Kamberi- Miss
Bassey- Hit
McLaughlin (GK) – Hit
Defoe- Hit
Balogun- Hit
Rofe- Jury’s Out
Itten- Miss
Zungu- Miss
That’s 5 hits, 3 misses and a Not Sure- Hardly a ringing endorsement
https://www.footballscotland.co.uk/spfl/scottish-premiership/hit-miss-rangers-transfer-record-23585337
Interestingly enough Michael Mosley on his Radio 4 ‘Just one Thing’ addressed the subject in hand only last week and available on BBC Sounds. Only 14 minutes listen time, so not too exhausting, the Episode is called “Eccentric Exercise”. It turns the conventional idea of exercise upside down. The expert on hand is Professor Tony Kay (Biomechanics) at the University of Northampton. Eccentric as opposed to concentric exercise causes more microscopic damage, to muscle fibres etc, leading to increased muscle strength, flexibility quicker and more efficiently. Running down hill is more beneficial than struggling up, going downstairs better than up, and running down the dunes more efficient than the Jock Wallace school of thought. Good for young and old and especially beneficial for footballers. Not sure if we incorporate these methods at Lennoxtown, but if not we should do.
Hope all is well in Espana…
I’m talking large brush strokes TET,
Its along time since we’ve had the financial geniuses on here giving the detail, P67 did broach it the other day.
https://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/money-sustainability-and-high-stakes/
Point being though, it is likely that Scotland will have a Club qualifying for UCL proper and one in qualifiers for the foreseeable future.
The money coming into Scottish football is going to be significant, it is going to go mainly to the old firm Clubs and it will soon dwarf the losses that The Rangers have made.
Add to that the old firm player trading should increase exponentially – the sale of a few ten million pound players not unlikely from both cheeks.
The Rangers shares should be going only one way….
Of course we await wiser counsel.
Hail Hail
Watching Sheffield Wednesday, captained by Barry Bannon, against Sunderland. The latter lead
1-0 on aggregate, still 0-0 here. Sunderland start with Paddy Roberts, while Wednesday feature ex-Hun Windass.
Paddy struggling to get into the game, which is being played like a cup tie in front of a full house at Hillsborough. Lots of kick and rush, with full blooded effort.
THEORIGINALSADIESBHOY on 9TH MAY 2022 7:29 PM
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TOSB – Better pass on one of the other passengers phone number on your mini bus to the guy who tells bigoted stories and thinks it’s ok in 2022.
He might be in the market for a criminal lawyer.
D :)
D
Try
6 x Tennents, followed by..kebab. then yer missus knocking fek out of ye.
🤣
Before I condem anybody, I would wish to see the transcript.
No-one on here has advocated equality more than myself, However was Eilidh Barbour a touch too sensitive ?
I dont know, but after-dinner speakers always have the potential to offend somebody.
Comedy is very difficult in these sanitised times. Have you heard some of the female comedians. ?
It’s a mixed up situation, sometimes I’m offended by someone taking offence at something.
Let’s digest the transcript before we pass judgement.
HH.
PS : Maybe another example of what was previously acceptable years ago , but not now. Lessons must be learned.
SAINT STIVS on 9TH MAY 2022 8:08 PM
TOSB,
that was quite interesting, and I suppose for everyone in the public speaking domain, they have to gauge the audience.
If you ever get to the Greenock Celtic events, wait till you hear Compare McDade about big Greenlions suits.
……………….
Agree with you about gauging your audience. Most of them are obviously dinosaurs and I wonder if he prepared his material accordingly. When you look at any TV sports panel nowadays they mostly have either a female presenter or female former athlete or footballer. Women have really come to prominence in recent years. He really seems to have got it abysmally wrong.
Haven’t been in Greenock since the Tall Ships event some years ago. I only see myself getting back there if Morton reappear in the Premier League. 🤣
So BBC Scotland asking Huns about their memories of ‘a remarkable decade’ (seriously).
We should do a Celtic version.
I’ll start with:
1.liquidation
2. ‘The big hoose must stay open’
3. PC Lustig
4. A hun wearing a Warburton’s bread wrapper on his head
5. ‘Same old Alloa, always cheating’
6. The Petrofac Cup
7. Motherwell beating them in the promotion play-off.
I could go on all night. They have been an endless source of great memories over the past decade😂😂😂
Off the pitch they’ve got here by luck rather than design
There’s no part of their strategy that included a Europa league final as a way of securing CL cash
The failure to get automatic qualification by winning the league comes as a direct consequence of the D of F not executing their strategy effectively
THE BLOGGER FORMERLY KNOWN AS GM on 9TH MAY 2022 8:29 PM
“Sashes to Ashes” still makes me laugh 🤣😉
GREENPINATA on 9TH MAY 2022 8:24 PM
Before I condem anybody, I would wish to see the transcript.
No-one on here has advocated equality more than myself, However was Eilidh Barbour a touch too sensitive ?
I dont know, but after-dinner speakers always have the potential to offend somebody.
Comedy is very difficult in these sanitised times. Have you heard some of the female comedians. ?
It’s a mixed up situation, sometimes I’m offended by someone taking offence at something.
Let’s digest the transcript before we pass judgement.
HH.
PS : Maybe another example of what was previously acceptable years ago , but not now. Lessons must be learned.
……………….
Without having seen the transcript I think it must have been a bit over the top. There was a female journo on this evening’s BBC Scotland News who, I think, left after 20 minutes of a 25 minute speech. She had said it was just one inappropriate joke after another.
Chairbhoy
Starting to heat up here, about time, been a hellish couple of months weather wise, for here anyways, had a crap day, drove nearly two hours to get to Granada and then they inform us that they have changed the wifes hosi appointment, but they forgot to call and tell us, miffed to say the least, but it is what it is.
Looking forward to seeing what Ange does during the summer, we sure do need a proper clear out and as he said himself, he doesn’t want projects but players who will help the team straight away, I just hope the suits are on board, and no I won’t be holding my breath >:)
Hope all is well with you.
Take care
HH
The guy crying outside Ibrox.
The ball on top of the hedge.
the manager inside a hedge
not wiinning the petrofac diddy cup
any number of home humiliations.
greens hospital bed interview
greens christmas message
some highlights came yesterday and today.
the guy on clyde crying in the albion car-park because he got a ticket but his passport is expired, am 72 i am heart broken
then another gut tonight, i got a ticket for me and the boy, but he doesnt have a passport i cant go without him ………..
super sally not being able to win consecutive diddy leagues
craig whyte sauntering up the salt-market to the court without a care in the world
Well in Eilidh Barbour.
I used to attend PFA dinners and was subjected to the same after dinner speaker racist diatribe dressed up as humour.
One time a muppet called Happy Howden started his racist crap and one of the Albion Rovers players Vic Kasule stood up iin an all white suit and called the arsehole out to muted applause.Huge respect to Him.
Was absolutely disgusted but payback was sweet.
I was invited to the after dinner lounge for drinks after and who was there but the bigot Howden lying pissed and sleeping the free bar off !
Opportunity Knocked !
Me and my pal took his shoes off poured lager in them put them back on and poured lager down his trouser front,and wrapped him in big roll.
He woke up later in a stupor suit and shoes ruined raging and demanding an apology from the Hotel !
No one saw us do it but my pals father who was in the PFA union knew who did it and why !
Couple of Rebel Tim’s were in the bad books for a few days but he soon saw the funny side after a wee bit of deliberation.
Made my weekend in fact still dine on that wee thirty year old memory nugget with my old pal when we go drinking.
We’re oot this Saturday so our wee topical act of retribution will be recalled again. Still
Hate Racism Still Hate Racists Uneducated Vermin.
CALL IT OUT ALWAYS !
John Brown’s stadium that he played for…and youse buy the pies…
SFtBs @ 8:14 PM,
Well I’d make a few points on that
First his hit or miss – while that is a mixed bag, no doubt he didn’t have the funds he’d like to spend and also it’s a significant improvement on where The Rangers were – I’d suggest looking at the squad he inherited.
Secondly your assumption that I’d favour a D.o.F at Celtic. Well yes on the whole I would but it’s not something I’m wedded too.
In the past I’ve suggested a Celtic Football Board, distinct from the Celtic Executive, like Ajax for instance, if that we’re the case the manager/head coach would be answerable there.
CELTIC40ME talked of Brendan Rodgers not accepting a D.o.F at Celtic – true, but that’s because he thought he had the role. He is quoted as saying he run the football department.
Of course he was wrong, DD runs the football department, in BR’s case through his proxy PL.
So my main beef was the interference from the business executive in football matters. A quality D.o.F that could have been the conduit between the head coach and Board, specifically at that time, the CEO would have been fine.
The set up we have at the moment seems fine, Ange having enough nouse and stature to “run football”, ML should provide the industry knowledge and expertise to enhance our scouting and recruitment and Mr Nicholson seems like the conscientiously, grey executive we could live with.
What structure that might morph into who knows.
And a top Chairman showing true leadership would be great.
As far as The Rangers are concerned they changed managers (SG) , changed Chairman and changed D.o.F s and each of those changes have improved their Club immeasurably imo.
Some while back I wrote on here that one Micheal Beale was a sharp cookie and was the brains behind the Steven Gerrard improvement.
Of course I was laughed at and chastised at the time, as is fholk’s wont. However not only do I stand by what I said at that time, I would say it was later regarded as “common knowledge”.
As far as Ross Wilson goes, as a wiser man than I once said…
… we’ll see
Hail Hail
Cammy Bell’s howler that meant another year in the lower divisions.
THE EXILED TIM @ 8:34 PM,
Sorry you had a lousy spring, it’s been poor over here but I know you didn’t go out there for mediocre weather.
That journey sounds like a nightmare, it won’t be any consolation but the NHS is no better these days, in fact you won’t be surprised to know it’s taken a nose dive under aul Boris.
Still hope your wife is getting through it, I know she’s a fighter…
Personally I wasn’t against moneyball as a concept but they way we run it and the lack of expertise we had on board to implement it (I remember your man in the video room going) meant squad after squad suffered and million after million was squandered.
So yes, dead wood out and no more projects – was great to hear Ange saying that and I hope he gets his way – the stakes are too high to keep monkeying around.
Have a good one and hope the summer improves for you.
Hail Hail
CHAIRBHOY on 9TH MAY 2022 8:48 PM
“So my main beef was the interference from the business executive in football matters. A quality D.o.F that could have been the conduit between the head coach and Board, specifically at that time, the CEO would have been fine.”
Brendan Rodgers wouldn’t have had that. Here’s what he said when the idea was floated at Liverpool:
I need to feel that I can manage the team and have a direct clear line through to the owners. Once that becomes hazy, for me there is a problem. I don’t think it was a model the owners were set on, by any means. I think it is one that people have come to them and suggested. They are still learning about the game.
One of the items I brought up when I was speaking to the club was that I wouldn’t directly work with a director of football. I feel that if you are going to do that as a club you have to do that first. That was my recommendation. If you want to have a sporting director, get him in and then you can pick your manager from there but if you do I won’t be the manager.
It’s absolute madness if you are the manager of the club and someone else tells you to have that player. It doesn’t work. I’ve had total clarity with that from the guys so I’ve got confidence that will remain.
It was for this reason that I didn’t want to be sat up there, say what I’ve said and then in three weeks’ time Louis van Gaal walks in the door.“
I agree with him. If you have a manager like Rodgers or Ange you don’t need a D of F.
SAINT STIVS on 9TH MAY 2022 8:43 PM
craig whyte sauntering up the salt-market to the court without a care in the world
—————-
Wished Craigy boy ‘best of luck ‘ as he strolled bold as brass along Argyle st ,gave me a wave and thanked me:O)
Iniquitous,
Hearts did not offer a great deal on Saturday,because they did not have toAll their attention will be on the cup final.They will also have their two CHs back.
Massive chance for Hearts with OF in Seville on the Wednesday.Would not be writing them off.
Or Eintracht who have been preparing for this game,all eyes on getting to the final for months.Huns not exactly world beaters.
ADI_DASSLER NOT FOR 2ND BEST on 9TH MAY 2022 8:23 PM
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Adi – 😂😂😂
D :)