Pot 4, decline of the Spanish empire

1020

A cursory look at our fellow pot 4 Champions League teams shows the extent of the challenge.  Six of the eight teams lost: Steaua Bucharest (3-0), Austrian Vienna (0-1), Celtic (2-0), Real Sociedad (0-2), Plzen (0-3), Anderlecht (2-0).

Copenhagen got one of the better results of the night, a 1-1 draw at home to Italian champions, Juventus, while Napoli, who split Juve and Milan in the Italian league last season, but are still a pot 4 team, recorded the only bottom tier win, a 2-1 victory over last season’s finalists, Borussia Dortmund.

Napoli are in a different category than the rest but Celtic are in with a decent chance of out-performing others from pot 4.

Sociedad’s home reversal to Shakhter Donetsk, who are going through a rebuilding process was a shock, but Valencia’s 0-3 Europa League defeat to Swansea indicates a worrying scenario for Spanish football below the uber-indebted Barca and Real Madrid.  As a general rule, anything which undermines one of the economically powerful football nations should be welcomed by those disenfranchised by the size of their TV market (that’s us).

Shakhtar Karagandy put in a credible performance before going down 2-1 in Greece, a far better showing than Elfsborg’s 4-0 collapse in Salzburg.  Best of luck to the Kazaks.

I’ve been going to the football long enough to remember black players being booed whenever they touched the ball.  The phenomenon seemed to arrive here in the late 70s and faded around a decade later, although such is human nature I don’t think complacency is appropriate.  Homophobia is a different matter.

‘Out’ gay footballers are so rare I don’t know what the reaction would be at a match but the crowd-bullying phenomenon which can exist in the game makes any minority vulnerable.  The first step is to explain to the hard-of-thinking what they are doing, and the error of their ways.

Can rainbow coloured laces change the world?  Stonewall have distributed rainbow coloured laces to every player in the UK, asking them to wear them this weekend.  We’ll not see the WAGs acronym become WAGSABAH overnight but it feels like an appropriate, colourful, first step.

Keep reaching for that rainbow, Celtic.

1254125 at The Great Scottish Run.

On Sunday 6 October there is a 10k and Half Marathon.  If that is beyond you. There are family events taking place the day before. This is your club, remind the world of what really counts and get involved in 1254125.

The first thing you need to do is sign up for the Great Scottish Run, or here for one of the family events.

Once you’ve done that, you can register for the 1254125 campaign here.

Then you can create a donations page here.  Click Start Fundraising, search for Celtic Charity, setup your My Donate account).

Email me and let me know if you are having trouble signing up or need any more help, celticquicknews@gmail.com.

To read the new issue of CQN Magazine click here (don’t try to read the graphic below).
[calameo code=000390171853d2bfc4f69 lang=en page=4 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]

Click Here for Comments >
Share.

About Author

1,020 Comments

  1. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS forza Oscar and Mackenzie on

    KITALBA

     

     

    I thought that the post from you can’t clean rust was a disgrace.

     

     

    So did many on here,I know that from mails and texts on the subject.

     

     

    SETTING FREE THE BEARS spoke for all if us with that opinion. There was absolutely no need to even say “I agree”

     

     

    His card has been marked,IMO.

     

     

    His reputation on here was diminished by his post-and it WAS a deliberate attempt to discredit CANAMALAR,no doubt about it.

     

     

    It did nothing at all to harm CANAMALAR in the thoughts of most of us on here. Quite the contrary,in fact.

     

     

    BTW,the last person to post those details on here was MICKYBHOY1888.

     

     

    Just thought I’d mention it.

     

     

    Keep up the good fight,bud. And good to see ya back to yer old moniker.

     

     

    HH

  2. ACGR

     

     

    Could meet today re the Rod tickets and sort out the swap them over George Smiley style!

     

     

    Kikinthenakas

  3. big-cup-winners

     

     

    11:09 on 21 September, 2013

     

     

    Nothing else to spend my ill gotten gains on and I suppose it keeps a Happy Clapper on the ‘waiting list’for another year

  4. When the Zombie hordes are grunting out ‘And the colours they are fine…’ today, can we assume they have achieved enlightenment and are referring to rainbow laces?

  5. bobby murdoch’s curled-up winklepickers forza oscar and mackenzie

     

     

    And here was me thinking I was doing Canamalar a favour and maybe that some wee cqn colleen would appreciate his profile and we would have had our first big cqn wedding :-)

  6. #Fearless Wee Oscar is on a Celticrollercoaster on

    kitalba

     

    11:52 on

     

    21 September, 2013

     

     

    Hello Kit

     

     

    Hoop you are well? Did your homeland have any corpy buses, so you can have a singsong wiith Smashing Milk Bottles?

     

     

    I scroll by him, as he is not worth the effort. Suffocate him of energy and he will simply die. Question is, does he come back as a green zombie?

     

     

    HH

     

     

    CRC

  7. One Nation…

     

     

     

    By Kevin McKenna

     

    THE future of Catholic education in Scotland

     

    may rest on the outcome of an increasingly

     

    bitter struggle to save an old primary school

     

    in Milngavie. Quite simply it’s a battle that

     

    the Church cannot afford to lose. There is too,

     

    attached to this case, more than a hint of

     

    good, old fashioned anti-Catholic

     

    discrimination.

     

    Even a cursory glance at some of the salient

     

    facts makes you wonder why the axe is ready

     

    to fall on St Joseph’s Primary in Milngavie,

     

    one of the oldest established Catholic schools

     

    in the west of Scotland. It was founded in

     

    1873 and has existed on its current site for

     

    more than 50 years. Local people—both

     

    Catholic and non-Catholic alike—are rightly

     

    proud of this little jewel and with some

     

    justification. It has educated generations of

     

    Catholic schoolchildren to a very high

     

    standard and is consistently praised by school

     

    inspectors for its quality and professionalism.

     

    In recent years St Joseph’s has been playing a

     

    vital and dynamic role in the heart of the

     

    wider community in Milngavie as its facilities

     

    are deployed daily from dawn to dusk as a

     

    nursery and a timeout club. The nursery is a

     

    non-denominational one while the timeout

     

    club provides care for children before school

     

    and after school, thereby adding a degree of

     

    flexibility to many families who need both

     

    incomes. The Tuesday club provides support

     

    in a loving environment for adults with

     

    learning difficulties. In delivering all of this St

     

    Joseph’s is an outstanding example of what a

     

    dynamic Christian community can achieve in

     

    modern Scotland. All of these resources would

     

    be adversely affected if St Joseph’s were to

     

    close. Such though, is the preferred option of

     

    East Dunbartonshire Council.

     

    At the end of March the council commenced a

     

    formal consultation on the closure of St

     

    Joseph’s. This would involve the relocation of

     

    its children to a new-build at St Andrews in

     

    nearby Bearsden. In front of a dozen or so

     

    parents, one local politician stated that this

     

    would keep ‘all the Catholics’ together. Quite

     

    why this individual thought it was desirable to

     

    have ‘all the Catholics’ in one place was left

     

    unstated. Perhaps it’s easier to keep an eye

     

    on them all. Writing in The Scottish Catholic

     

    Observer at the time, Andrew McFadyen

     

    stated: “Instead of a local school, they are

     

    offering a bus pass.”

     

    There is simply no valid educational reason

     

    for closure. The proposed merger with St

     

    Andrew’s would entail a two-mile bus journey

     

    for the pupils. Currently children often walk to

     

    St Joseph’s in the company of a parent or, in

     

    many cases, a grandparent and so a key

     

    component in the Christian family structure is

     

    under threat here.

     

    There are three non-denominational primary

     

    schools in Milngavie, yet not one of them is

     

    being earmarked for closure in this way. At

     

    least one of them is under-capacity to a

     

    greater degree than St Joseph’s. Indeed the

     

    way that East Dunbartonshire Council

     

    calculated the capacity of St Joseph’s is

     

    deeply unfair. The stated school roll is 127, a

     

    figure which the school board states, is simply

     

    false. The council has also factored in an

     

    outbuilding used by the timeout club as a

     

    classroom to deepen the impression of under-

     

    capacity.

     

    When the council first issued a consultation to

     

    the changes proposed in the provision of

     

    primary school education in the area the

     

    percentage of responses from the St Joseph’s

     

    parents was 96 per cent, the highest

     

    percentage of any of the schools in the area.

     

    Each of the replies stated how important it

     

    was that 140 years of Catholic education in

     

    the area continued.

     

    It’s difficult to escape the suspicion that St

     

    Joseph’s is about to become the victim in a

     

    decidedly dodgy local authority stitch-up with

     

    a stench of anti-Catholic discrimination. Is St

     

    Joseph’s being made to walk the plank

     

    because it is small and Catholic, and as such

     

    is deemed to be an easy target? Why is the

     

    Catholic school in the area being treated

     

    differently?

     

    For reasons as yet unknown, the local

     

    councillor, Labour’s Maureen Henry, has been

     

    about as useful as a chocolate teapot. She

     

    has refused to back the campaign by her

     

    constituents —something that, hopefully, will

     

    come back to haunt her at the next local

     

    council elections. The response from the

     

    Catholic Church has been muted apart from

     

    saying that it desires some form of Catholic

     

    primary school education to continue in

     

    Milngavie.

     

    If a Catholic school which has provided

     

    unbroken excellence in education for the

     

    community can be gerrymandered out of

     

    existence like this then no Catholic school in

     

    Scotland is safe. Aggressive humanism and

     

    militant atheism is beginning to place a

     

    stranglehold on civic and political life in

     

    Scotland. These people will stop at nothing to

     

    see every vestige of Christianity wiped out of

     

    society. They know that if they can eradicate

     

    Catholic state education they will have taken

     

    a massive step towards this goal. The fall of

     

    St Joseph’s would be celebrated long and

     

    loudly by them.

     

    The self-inflicted damage to the Church in

     

    recent years has alerted many people and

     

    organisations to the possibility that its

     

    influence may be ended forever. They will

     

    never have a better opportunity to bring down

     

    their hated Catholic schools. It is time for the

     

    hierarchy to awake and draw a line in the

     

    sand of Milngavie.

     

    n Kevin McKenna is former deputy editor of

     

    the Herald and former

     

    executive editor of the Daily Mail in Scotland.

     

    He is currently a columnist for the Guardian

  8. tommytwiststommyturns supporting Wee Oscar on

    Kit – I contacted P67 in the hope that he would remove the offending post. I don’t know if he did.

     

    It was entirely out of order.

     

     

    T4

  9. mighty tim supporting wee Oscar on

    sponsored by cheetah

     

     

    1 son and 2 daughters previously attended St.Joe’s. All young adults now but as you say we need all the help we can get.

     

    As I said in a previous post I am sure we have a MP or councillor on here I would like to here if there is anything that he can do or advise on the situation.

     

     

     

    KTF

     

     

    HH

  10. mighty tim supporting wee oscar

     

     

    11:20 on 21 September, 2013,

     

     

    Petition signed.

     

    My sisters told me about this a while ago.

     

    Both being head mistresses they are concerned of which looks like an attack on the structure of catholic schools.

     

    The church is aware of this and the archbishop is maybe having to work behind closed doors,due to the anti catholic feeling amongst some of the constituents.HH

  11. BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS:

     

     

    That’s not a moniker, it’s my given name and my country.

     

     

    75 people have got off their apathetic arses to back Canamalar take the SFA to task.

     

     

    Celtic will most likely do everything they can to block his resolution, it won’t surprise me in the slightest. What does surprise me and invoke kaleidoscope vomit is when Winning Managers (or whatever his name is) comes on here and tells us how many tens of thousands of global Celtic Supporters (sic) come on here to read this blog and out of those tens of tens of thousand Supporters (sic) only 75 have so far found the courage to back Canamalar backing Celtic against corruption.

     

     

    I saw what that PRICK did, I didn’t see Paul67 publish any appropriate response. But then Paul67 does not read every post written, he’ll quickly respond to an e-mail though if any poster was that disgusted they felt the right thing to do would be to bring it to his attention.

     

     

    Did I?

     

     

    No.

     

     

    Why?

     

     

    I have my reasons.

  12. tommytwiststommyturns:

     

     

    I don’t have a book of good guys and bad guys, but if I ever do, I won’t populate it alphabetically, your name would be in the book of good guys (who I don’t always see eye to eye with, and long may that continue) on the first page, up at the top, and the ink would reach out and touch Ol’tim and Smashinmilkbottles.

  13. Celticrollercoaster:

     

     

    I had one of the days of my life with SMB. It was an ordinary day, Celtic were playing St. Mirren in the rain and were getting beaten 1 – 0 until Wee Gordon brought on Riordan and we drew.

     

     

    Then we left in the rain, caught a bus into town, sang a few songs, put beer tokens into the pockets of the refugee kids, told the fiddlers in the pub that they were worse than the Rangers, told our ex-chairmans brother Mr. Quinn that his brother is named in the good book and the beers will always be free in heaven and then I went home to the family I had at the time.

     

     

    A simple day in the simple life of a simple Celtic Supporter, but I know I’ll never, ever get to repeat a day to come close to that day. That day goes to my grave with me.

  14. Kitalba.

     

     

    If you need the contacts of a broker to buy shares e-mail canamalar.

     

     

    He’s been busy of late, so if you don’t get a response, I’ll pass on the info you need.HH

  15. kitalba

     

     

    Seeing as you have the soap-box what’s your reasons?

     

     

    I was not going to comment at all on the share isssue to Canamalar again, but i will.

     

     

    I sent over all my details well over a month ago now, did i get a reply? did i get a 2 word e-mail back to say “received” not a chance.

     

     

    He then apologised to me here on the blog when i mentioned it, he said he was working with 3 PC’s and was finding it difficult to keep up.

     

     

    Still no e-mail has been sent to me to acknowledge he even received my details.

     

     

    Maybe just maybe that’s the reason he has under 100 names eh?

     

     

    Anyway i wont sign off now on his proposal i would rather give my vote to the Celtic Trust, who seem to always reply to me when i have a question to ask.

  16. SuperSutton

     

     

    Sorry to jinx anyone with a bet on this, but Pukki to score a hat trick today.

     

     

     

    Ruled out today as far as i know.

  17. Simple thought.

     

     

    Any person on CQN who has been critical of Celtic’s silence on the matter of SFA collusion with a dead club & who has still not supported Canamalar’s petition should ‘forever hold his peace’.

     

     

    You will get exactly WHAT YOU DESERVE.

  18. Burgas Hoops:

     

     

    Mate you do what you want to do, you do whatever makes you happy. If for some reason you think Canamalar let you down, then I think the appropriate thing to do is to take it up with him. And if you feel strongly enough in your conviction you’ll find a way to get your point across. Bleating to me… well we’ve both just squandered how many heart beats?

     

     

    The front line is that way, in the absence of orders are you going to fight or are you going to go seek out solace with Terry the Teddy that your auntie Theresa gave you forty years ago.

  19. kitalba

     

     

    i’m certainly not bleating to you ive pointed out the facts.

     

     

    get off your soap-box no one’s really interested if the truth be told on your opinions.

  20. God bless and guide the work of Archbishop Leo Cushley, Scotland’s first episcopal appointment by Pope Francis.

  21. burgas hoops

     

     

    12:40 on 21 September, 2013,

     

     

    Maybe you missed canamalars post earlier on in the week about the amount of spam he has been receiving!

     

     

    I got a reply and an apology for the delayed response, which was not needed.

     

     

    I take my hat off to anyone that can make the effort to highlight the corruption that has been going on.HH

  22. The person in the whole world who is probably the most glad that Celtic are playing this afternoon is Chris Evert. It means there will be a two-hour respite during which she will receive no tweets from Winningemmell.

  23. sipsini:

     

     

    ACGR linked a broker whom I’ll phone on Monday, if there are any problems buying shares in my name and my kids too, then I will panic and be seeking every assistance.

     

     

    I really do believe it is our mission in life to face down the corruptions that our parents just couldn’t. If we don’t do it in this generation, in this time, then we bequeath the task to those we’ll leave behind.

     

     

    Here son… a parcel of bile and bigotry and intimidations. Oh and the post office saving stamps… I cashed them in for a couple of bottles of courage that was watered down.

  24. Looking forward to seeing some of the new bhoys today

     

    This could be a really exciting season as a new group comes together and hopefully some new heroes emerge

     

    Despite thinking that we could have done better in the last 15 minutes on Wednesday – overall I thought there were huge positives to take from the game

     

    We are so so much better than we were before Lenny took over

     

    It was fabulous to see us hold the ball so well in one of Europe’s truly great stadiums.

     

    We certainly looked the part for much of the 90 minutes

     

    I’m now far more hopeful for the rest of the campaign – while also aware that the margins at this level are so small that it is still possible that we could end the group on zero points

     

    We could also still end in second place – if we get a few breaks – I really think in this group the difference between the three teams ( Barca apart obviously ) are very small

     

    Can’t wait for the games!

     

     

     

     

     

    On an aside I see that there are some campaigning for the RC school in leafy Milngavie

     

    As someone who works in education in EDC and a parent of kids who attend their local RC schools – I would find their argument for keeping their school a lot more compelling if they sent their older children to the RC secondaries that serve both Milngavie and Bearsden!

     

    Seems they like RC primaries but secondaries not so much so!

     

    Couldn’t be anything to do with postcodes could it?

     

     

     

    HH

  25. mighty tim supporting wee Oscar

     

    11:04 on

     

    21 September, 2013

     

     

    Don’t know if it was me you were referring to as the esteemed part kinda put me off !!!!!

     

     

    I am a Councillor with GCC if you want a chat contact me on st.john.doyle@gmail.com

     

     

    I have posted previously about certain assurances the SNP have made to the more loyal sections of our society for after independence on a move to joint campuses.

     

     

    If you want to contact happy to give you my views on the absolute vital case for the continuation of Catholic schools.

  26. Big Georges Fan Club - Hail, Hail, Wee Oscar on

    Kilbowie Kelt

     

    12:47 on

     

    21 September, 2013

     

    Simple thought.

     

     

    Any person on CQN who has been critical of Celtic’s silence on the matter of SFA collusion with a dead club & who has still not supported Canamalar’s petition should ‘forever hold his peace’.

     

     

    ++++++++++

     

     

    I’m critical of the Board’s silence – I can’t afford shares – should I hold my peace too?

     

     

    HH

     

     

    BGFC