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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Toffetim
That was BRILLIANT
Chairbhoy
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.
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Well the facts dispute that the change of management and DoF improved them. The relative swing has been 31 points to us and even if they look on their own performance and ignore our improvement ((and they win their final two matches) they will be 13 points worse off than when Stevie G was there.
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“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”.
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I don’t recall any general laughing at the view that there was a power behind the throne- some saw it as Gary McAllister but Beale made more sense. Unless you were within Ibrox, you could not really know. The same team is in place at Aston Villa and are not nearly as impressive.
I don’t recall anyone laughing at the Beale hypothesis or whether you were the first to advance it. I do recall that it had widespread traction, quite quickly, but again not a lot of evidence offered, mostly conjecture because we could not believe a rookie coach had bested us.
Maybe Ross Wilson is this season’s Michael Beale.
Or maybe Ange Postecoglou, who was laughed out of curt by the majority of Ibrox fans, is this season’s Michael Beale.
Bilel Mohsini kicking that Motherwell player up the backside, walking off after the playoff defeat.
David Gray scoring that last minute winner for Hibs in the SC final when Henderson and Stokes had stormers.
31003
Glad your enjoyed that wee memory.
Sometimes actions speak louder than words 😉
Talking about gauging your audience. I was at one of the early and original Tommy Burns Suppers in Edinburgh. There was a handful of guest speakers and of course guest of honour, the legend Tommy Burns himself.
Jim Delahunt started his wee turn with – A lot of people ask me what team I support. Let me just say one thing. I hate orange b******s.
The look of disgust on Tommy Burns’ face said it all.
Chairbhoy
Just a small hiccup in the grand scheme of things, the hospital system here is way way better than we have ever had to deal with in the past, the Mrs wouldn’t be here if we were still in Ireland or the UK so grateful and blessed that we moved here.
Aye the moneyball thing is good when you have someone who actually know what they are doing in charge of it, only a few short years ago we had for us mega millions in the bank, very decent manager and blew it, that IMO was some feat, but I suppose we have gotten Ange out of the carnage and I honestly believe that if he is backed and it doesn’t necessarily need to involve huge transfer fees, we will surprise many folks, there is something about him that resonates and that he really knows what he is doing, but I could be wrong but have ma doubts that I am.
Superbru update
The 3rd last round of our comp saw Jonny the Tim win by half a point (10.5) from a trio of 10 pointers- kelvinbhoy, Celtic Mac and Leggy. The wooden spoon was awarded rather arbitrarily to BRTH.
In the overall race, the top 3 are:-
Call me Gerry- 227.5
Hopeful Hoops -222
Big Archie- 208
With two rounds to go, the top two seem to have it between them but there is a race to supplant Big Archie’s 3rd position with Magnificent seven, Billy Bhoy, greenpinata, Bhoy from the Village and, even that eject SFTB, all having gone above 200 points so far.
The penultimate round starts tomorrow when Dundee play Hibs at 7.45 pm with 5 more fixtures on Wednesday.
The final round will take place on Sat 14th and Sun 15th May.
Remember everyone has a chance of winning the weekly top points total if they get more than 15.5 points in either of the final two weeks. Thanks for your support!
CELTIC40ME @ 9:00 PM,
Yes, think we are in agreement.
The modern Sporting Director bringing in the players and head coach accepting them and making the best of it doesn’t seem right.
Not sure why, most coaches at Clubs have to train the players they are given, but it seems to me a manager or head coach should have the final say on players.
The thing is of course the budget, having a Board member controlling the transfer budget set by the Board seems paramount to me, if you like he’d be the conduit with the Board, maybe a COO rather than a D.o.F.
If not managers are just going to try to spend, spend, spend and try to keep hold of as many players as possible.
As long as the budget, salaries and squad size etc was clearly defined then a good manager should be able to run his department, then be totally responsible for performance.
Ange like you say strikes me as more than capable of setting the tone and running his department – he should also get to choose his support staff.
Hail Hail
I had stated that SFTB was an eejit not an eject, whatever that is
TOM MCLAUGHLIN @ 9:20
Talking about gauging your audience. I was at one of the early and original Tommy Burns Suppers in Edinburgh. There was a handful of guest speakers and of course guest of honour, the legend Tommy Burns himself.
Jim Delahunt started his wee turn with – A lot of people ask me what team I support. Let me just say one thing. I hate orange b******s.
The look of disgust on Tommy Burns’ face said it all.
—–
I can imagine – that kind of ‘bravado’ when an audience is around gives me the ‘boak’ – much the same as some after-dinner speakers….and certain posters, who still think it’s clever, being ‘one of the boys’ & making sexist jokes at the expense of women….don’t these dinosaurs realise these it’s not funny, it’s crass.
“The hallmark of insecurity is bravado.”
Barry Bannon still playing well for Wednesday. A good Tim that would have done us a turn a few years ago.
Paddy Roberts with possible play off winner.
Paddy Roberts may have just scored the goal in injury time that gets Sunderland to a Wembley play off final
10 mins stoppage time added at Hillsborough.
3 mins in Paddy Roberts puts Sunderland 2-1 ahead on aggregate.
TURKEYBHOY
Bhoy, I hope you are right! The problem is that in every round, the Huns have allowed the opposition to have as much possession as they liked, if it was in front of them, relying on fast breaks to Kent ( and previously Morelos ). They varied that with punting or crossing the ball long into the goalmouth, fighting like demons for the second ball, and ending up with either Tavernier or a midfield player scoring. Not a single one of their opponents could handle this. I’ve watched Eintracht a few times this season, and I think this will discombobulate them, same as the other teams. What I’m hoping for is that they have watched the Huns closely, and will have a plan to counter this tactic.
Sensational winner from Wee Paddy Roberts.
Heartbreaker for Barry Bannen,best player on the park.Always a mystery to me how he never played for us.
CHAIRBHOY on 9TH MAY 2022 9:25 PM
Merits in both, both can work.
But I don’t see that doing what your competitors do gives you any competitive advantage.
I think our management structure works for us, results over a long enough period suggests it does
Regarding comedy I feel the lines are fairly clear. In essence good comedy, in it’s simplistic form has one thing in common whether it’s a pun, a suprise punchline after being taken down a non obvious path, set up line or story or at it’s best satire, highlighting or taking the p*ss out of neanderthals who are the wrong in society, extreme ‘politics’ or those who partake in discrimination or prejudice, the thing in common in good comedy is that’s it’s clever.
Those who put out slurs whether it be racism, homophobia, sexism, bigotry are lazy ‘comedians’ and those who laugh at such have only ever been simpletons, it’s unintelligible similiar to those who hold those beliefs in life generally. To me if you encourage that really poor type of joke, you are part of the problem. I’d walk out even it wasn’t me who’s the intended target.
Those who are alleged to be ‘controversial’ by the press are commonly those comics who use their platform to bravely highlight the prejudice that exists. The satire used by many modern day comedians in their humour is often one of few instances where anyone dares to question the ‘norm’ and their refusal to accept media or political spin needs to be encouraged. Less and less journalists appear to question much these days so comics of today help to stop and highlighg when attempts are made by conflicted editors to ‘bury’ stories.
It’s not surprising to me in any way whatsoever that the Scottish sports writers was where this took place. There are the definition of neanderthal.
SFTB
“I had stated that SFTB was an eejit not an eject, whatever that is.”
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I believe it’s technically not quite a reject.
Iniquitous,
Watching Eintracht destroy Barca and W Ham,I really think its the scum who will have the problems.
Hail Hail.
As I said a couple of weeks ago,Wee Eileidh is one of the fittest women you will see.Very small,but put together by the Angels.
Is that comment sexist ?Or is that a compliment ?.
Do I care ?
Naw.
Sevco made the final of the europa league as a consequence of hard work, skill and a bit of luck, like most teams that reach the final of and/or win competitions. Hopefully by he time they take the field in Spain on Saturday they will be confirmed as the second best team in scotland.
I don’t think we can look at sevco’s european preformance or business plan, structure as some type of great planning by sevco. They have been living hand and mouth for months and years on end and will likely make a profit for the first time in their existence. To keep their level of spending up they will need to continually preform well in Europe, which is always a gamble.
Celtic’s business plan has been more measured and less risky. It has worked fairly well over the last decade but with an aggressive challenger and higher stakes DD and Co. may just push back.
One thing is for sure we lucked out when we got Ange in the door.
HH
Martim
You remind me of the wee censor guy in’ good morning vietnam’
HH
Evening all.
If this was posted earlier apologies,
BROONY
https://youtu.be/ejzlkJ476PY
AN TEARMANN on 9TH MAY 2022 10:06 PM
Martim
You remind me of the wee censor guy in’ good morning vietnam’
HH
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Funny as I felt it was Robin Williams’ character in that film who broke through prejudice lines, spoke against the war and try to stop censorship using his witty humour and satire..he was the clever one.
Go figure!
Tam/jhb
I really would doubt that was said in front TB
I think you are lying.
Martim he did, by using undefined comedy in a death situation,until defined determined censorship then he was out of there,
Comedy is not definable.
Point of order, he didn’t post the story.
AN TEARMANN on 9TH MAY 2022 10:23 PM
Martim he did, by using undefined comedy in a death situation,until defined determined censorship then he was out of there,
Comedy is not definable.
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That’s fine. What happened last night in the awards was acceptable for you.
Done discussing anything with you as previously discussed. You just like arguing.
An Tearmann…no, he wasn’t lying, it was Tom McLaughlin’s post he was responding to…or you could say he was just sticking his nose in. But no, this time he’s not guilty.
Imagine me defending Josephine’s Hair Brush…
Ernie,Jim,bigotry and Fergus
https://twitter.com/MickMcCahill2/status/1523760684286152704?t=znvGIzUS5RGKf3bPLUAN2A&s=19
HH
An Tearmann
The wee barra on drums.
Ms Grogan
https://youtu.be/S9x7d-n2zPM
SFtBs @ 9:10 PM,
Again, probably like me you are not overly obsessed by what The Rangers got up to, especially when all we did was skelp them.
However, remember they came third to Aberdeen before Steve Gee arrived and loosing to teams like Progres in Europe, I am talking about the change from Pedro to Stevie Gee, I did put SG in brackets.
GvB hasn’t even had a full season yet so it would be unfair to judge him, yet I would say there has been a marked improvement since his faltering start
It wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say there has been a seismic shift in the way The Rangers are run and have performed over the last three seasons.
Of course if you look at 2020/21, then you have two outliers, us being exceptionally bad and them being exceptionally good gave a very skewed end of season league table.
The Michael Beale thing was just me explaining why I take the skeptics on here with a pinch of salt, they may give the impression they know what there talking about but as far as I’m concerned there are screeds of comments on CQN that proves what’s what, it’s there for the record.
I was actually told about Michael Beale by a Liverpool fan, apparently they didn’t want to lose him.
Then I did a little research and found he was regarded as an authority on tactics and had written highly regarded books.
Thirdly I looked at The Rangers dug out and seen how often Beale and not MacAllister was giving SG advice.
I came on here with my opinion and the know it all’s poo-poo’d it.
I’ve been reading CQN for some eighteen years so it didn’t surprise me.
Just as the reaction to Ross Wilson doesn’t surprise me.
I’ll tell you what would surprise me, if Ross Wilson does prove to be the real deal the know it all’s put their hands up and say I was wrong – now that would be a first:))))
TET @ 9:21 PM,
Well, glad to know you are in good hands and of coursr these things happen.
Agreed, it seems to me we just forget about the hype and go with Ange who really does seem to have an eye for a player.
We have always made more out of players like Wanyama and VvD etc who could come into the first team, players like Matt O’Riely who are gifted young players, if they are good enough of course they’ll want to move on but they can make a great contribution to the Club first and when they advance they can do it with everyones blessing.
Trying to manufacture such a process is very difficult, especially when you don’t have the expertise or infrastructure to accommodate it.
CELTIC40ME @ 9:52 PM,
Well I have never advocated copying either Rangers, quite the opposite, one of my first, if not thee first comments I posted was we should not be using them as a benchmark but look to our peers in Europe as our standard I. e. Ajax, Benfica etc in those days.
It has been something I’ve felt very strongly all the way through and I’m not repeating my mantra because The Rangers have done well in Europe we need to change our attitude. I’ve always believed Europe should be our goal and the domestic game would take care of itself.
Now of course it is Rangers that is trying to emulate our peers in Europe and we need to follow, where we should have been leading and twenty years ago we were leading.
Hail Hail
Again, if I’m grinding yer gears please let me know.
Stuart Adamson RIP
https://youtu.be/wT9eQ2smjUM
https://youtu.be/wgGNhAJd2cE
https://youtu.be/9udxbvHiqGw
Nite all
Brian
Martim
Where do you get this is my view?
××’That’s fine. What happened last night in the awards was acceptable for you.’xx
Just to be clear in your post I only picked you up on your definition of comedy,as something not definable
That’s all.
All I would say here is Martim is pause and think before you write.
I am just interested in the mental jump of making something up,which I question(comedy bit)suddenly defines me as something I am not,wee made up thing number 2 lol.you have form on making it up martim.
Still no apology over your SD and T7 shite.
At you only argue with certain posters.
Leave me alone please.
Your campaign to censor others who hold views to you is obvious.
BELMONTBRIAN on 9TH MAY 2022 10:33 PM
Dead pop stars was a track John Peel liked
Wee klurr was a regular in rock garden back in day,theym and mcelhone bros partook of the ol maestros 50p schlitz nights
Keep tunes coming,seen big country night moves on there first tour.mad days
HH