Of course, the priority is nine-in-a-row, even more than Champions League lucre, but I see a bit of chat about prioritising the league and player development, at the potential cost of the domestic cups.
I don’t think this will work. Along with Queens Park, Vale of Leven, Rangers and Aberdeen, Celtic have now won the Scottish Cup three successive seasons. None of the other did four-in-a-row. Celtic fans, if nothing else, cherish making history, we cannot just shrug at the opportunity to set a new Scottish Cup record.
The League Cup is the only trophy we do not have a historical precedent to chase or eclipse next season. Jock Stein won his first five League Cups as Celtic manager (although went spectacularly off plan in subsequent finals).
For teams competing in Europe, the League Cup is a four game competition. A home or away match in August and September, a November semi-final and December final. Games take place between European qualifiers or group stage games, when demands on the players will be greatest.
Last season, Brendan Rodgers prioritised the Heats semi-final at Murrayfield over Leipzig away, three days earlier. Had the Leipzig game been at home, it would almost certainly have been the priority. Squad management worked well.
If we do our job right in strengthening the squad, there will be plenty of opportunity to rest players during the league campaign, but I suspect we will feel precious about the domestic cups.
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Nothing is won in August but they can be lost
The problem with wait and see is that by the time you see which way the wind is blowing it will be too late. I personally take what Phil says with a pinch of salt. He is a journalist after all. But it is a logical conclusion to say Lenny is a cheaper option, not necessarily a bad option, but a cheaper one. You couldn’t argue that he is less expensive than Rodgers. My hope was that if we put Lenny in place we would at least back him with a transfer budget that would leave the 10 less to chance. First signs are not encouraging, potential extensions for Izzy and Lustig? Great servants in their day, but their day is gone. The first CL qualifier is only 6 weeks away. We mustn’t repeat the mistakes of the transfer windows from the last 2 seasons.
FFS – Brains Trust in full flow today.
AdJ here ABC there. You dont …I do.
hrvatski jim
Thanks for that Jim! Just goes to show what a tangled web UEFA weave…..
And what about Amsterdamsche FC (you need a Steve McLaren accent here), Dutch Champions, recent Europa League Finalists, and Champions League Semi-Finalists, still have to play qualifying matches?
And don’t go mentioning co-efficients, that takes us back into McLaren territory, but does not take us very far.
What do we want?
A throw in coach!
When do we want it?
Soon
In terms of optimising the value of a company, it’s the free cash the business generates that’s important, NOT the cash in the bank.
The multiplier of cash in the bank is exactly x1. After all, how much would you pay for £1?
If you’re looking to sell the business, use the cash to grow it. In the end up, if you sell the business you distribute the cash to the shareholders before the transaction.
If Dermot is thinking of bailing (and note PMac has zero sources inside Celtic let alone in Dermot’s heid) it strikes me that Celtic has almost enough cash to redeem Dermot’s shares at today’s prices.
However, the business would be greatly more valuable were it to spend the available circa £50M cash on five Moussa Dembele/Odsonne Edouard equivalents. Celtic’s record in transforming player values is pretty reliable over the years, with gains on disposal double the annual investment in recent years.
Which begs the question: why are they so reluctant to do it more often?
Adi
StatingtheobviousCSC
TBB
Perhaps because ultimately our CEO is more focussed on paving heated driveways than our road sustained European success? ??♂️
Sorry, couldn’t resist. And kinda mean it to be honest.
HH jg
RE. DD, the first time that he was at a Celtic game, was the 1995 cup final against Airdrie
Jamesgang – Ha! I still reckon they haven’t a scooby what to do with it all, but it’s been sitting there growing steadily for four years. Surely by now they’d have figured out a plan?…
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 30TH MAY 2019 3:38 PM
growing steadily
==============
Theres the plan.
HH
The angrycelts.org WhatsApp group know for a FACT that Big Peter is hoardin’ the cash to line his heated underground tunnel ( that leads straight to UEFA HQ) with baby porpoise skin………..
oh, aye.
FACT.
Priorities?
To dominate without becoming complacent.
To win without stagnating.
The initial equation is almost too simple.
Winning the league means breaking a domestically cherished record held by others.
Winning the league also means getting a crack at Europe every season.
Win the league = Two ticks for the Tic
The secondary issue then becomes ambition & resources.
Celtic FC, the players, managers and fans are all ambitious.
The “ambition” of one group is not necessarily the same as the ambition of another.
All groups will share basic ambitions – to win games, leagues etc. But the next level of ambitions are where problems arise. Fiscally cautious folk will point to other clubs who recklessly chased Euro Gold and went bust in the process. Gamblers (usually with money they don’t have) will say that nothing ventured means nothing gained.
If your ambitions exceed your capacity to survive failure then you need to tailor your ambitions to suit.
That seems to be where Celtic find themselves most seasons, but as the gap widens between where we are and where we want to be fans get nervous. They complain of board indolence & indifference.
Celtic have resources but they are not too big to fail.
The application fo resources to fulfil ambitions needs a plan that to which the whole club – board, fans & staff – all subscribe.
Without the business side the football side is doomed to failure & without the football side, the business is nothing – they are inter-dependent and entirely symbiotic. Fergus proved that to all doubters.
Thus, we find ourselves back at the door of whoever is responsible for coordinating that plan, for pulling all the disparate threads together to ensure the optimal outcome for the football side while maintaining the financial integrity of the business side.
Good communciation is so underrated – can there really be such a thing as too much effective communication? Repetition & reinforcement of message is often overlooked as everyone assumes that the message they sent out is the one that was received.
Trouble is that I don’t really know what Celtic’s message to me as fan really is.
Do you know what Celtic’s message to you is?
Do you get mixed messages or just none at all that make sense?
If Celtic have a plan for the club – business & football sides – then I wish they’d share it with fans.
If we know where we’re all supposed to be going then so much negative static will evaporate.
Not all of course, because some will not agree with the plan, any plan – but well always have them around.
The other disconnect is that Celtic is a social & community institution but inherently conservative in nature. It is risk averse, fiscally prudent & does not welcome change easily anywhere within its structure.
The fact that directors are successful businessmen often with right of centre antecedents sets them up for a conflict with many fans who are often left of centre or at least liberally minded.
Like the football & business side of the club, these two groups are mutually dependent. This should be enough to combine them into a force to be reckoned with but as often as not – it doesn’t.
By some measures, our CEO & borard are doing a good job – trophies & trebles abound. However, the lack of managerial continuty on the footballing side looks really wonky compared to to the smooth & constant transitions on the business side of things. Chairmen come & go with hardly a blip on business matters, yet when we lose football managers we seem to find ourselves in crisis after crisis.
So I’d like the CEO & the Board to apply the same attitude to continuity & transitions within the footballing side of our club that they apply to to the business side. They don’t wake up one morning & find that the Chairman has abruptly resigned for a better job, so why should we as fans tolerate that scenario repeatedly on the footballing side.
If operating that way in the board room is considered to be reckless & dangerous, then why is it any different with our principal purpose for exisitng – the footballing side?
HH
if we get a throw in coach then we want a confident one, not a shy one . Oh wait…….
The throw-in problem isn’t so much the player taking the throw, it is the total absence of any movement by would-be recipients. As with the difficulty in finding a forward pass, if everyone is just standing there like a statue there is no one to pass/throw to.
The coaching needs to instill much more movement, constant runs to provide options.
The throw-in coach needs to give the other players a boot up the Rs, that’s what!!
FTW asked:
” Do you know what Celtic’s message to you is? ”
Their message to me seems to be , ” Buy this; buy that ” and ignore the OTT prices.
JJ
Even JJ is morning now.
Must have had a puncture!
???
As for Harry Brady’s stuff fromt he last thread..
I disagree with his assertion that the news of NFL being offered the job was announced just as the treble treble was won as some form of diversionary tactic. To be that it would have to be planned in advance & executed well. It was the most cackhanded “good time to bury bad news” operation imaginable. Offered but not accepted? Tweeted? Lawwell blethering one thing to MSM while NFL chats embarrassingly to Celtic TV’s Gerry McCullough?
No, much more cock up then conspiracy for me.
In addition, does he really think that the board knowingly appointed a weak/the wrong candidate & were too scared to announce it? Really?
Does he think that Neil Lennon would know that he was being appointed as a cheap patsy by men who were too scared to tell him or who chose to hide in a dark room?
The writer does suggest that we shoudl always be prepared to be disappointed by the Celtic board.
I agree with him on that issue.
The decision to appoint NFL is one thing & even the timing is not problematic for me – it’s the method – as I’ve said several times.
As for candidates, much was/is being made of BR’s tenure and the double treble etc. No doubts that he swept the board domestically, but in Europe he fell well short of even maintaining our parlous status there.
His tactics were more often than not exposed as ineffectual and his response was to almost shrug and tell us that we couldn’t compete at that level anymore.
As a player how would you feel hearing your manager excuse your failure to win by saying you were never going to win in the first place?
Jock would have taken him by the scruff of the neck & thrown him out the door.
Worth reminding ourselves that in season 1964/65 Celtic finished eighth in the league – 8th behind Clyde, Dundee, Rangers, Hibs, Dunfermline, Hearts & kilmarnock.
Two years later with the same players plus Simpson & Wallace, they won all five trophies including BIg Ears while defeating Inter Milan & Real Madrid. They went on to win the rest of our 9-in-a-row too.
HH
” The throw-in problem isn’t so much the player taking the throw, it is the total absence of any movement by would-be recipients.”
If there is a problem, it may well be that the team taking the throw in has fewer , potential recipients than does the team defending said throw in. Also, your point is diminished by claiming that there is a `total absence of any movement`. Quite simply, that is not the case. Likewise re the forward pass and `statues`. With nine or ten men defending and seven or eight attacking, there really is very little room in the forward areas.
JJ
JJ
JG
No puncture but a wee bit damp. Wet enough to allow me the occasional morn :-))
JJ
Free kicks, I’ve had a few, but then again too few to mention
I’ve fouled, when I had to, and I’ve went through without exception
I planned to take the course, and learn each step along the shy way
But more, much more than this, I threw it my way…
Celtic mac
???
HOT SMOKED
With respect, I tend to agree with FOOL TIME WHISTLE regarding the lack of movement at throw ins. There is no offside at a throw in, yet we never see Forrest, Sinclair or any other player advance to the byeline, thus stretching the field and making a lot more room for us to attack.
I watched the entire Chelsea-Arsenal game yesterday, and not once did either team lose possession from their own throw in. We do it repeatedly, often because KT or Lustig lose patience at the lack of movement and resort to merely hurling it up the line, where it becomes a lottery, and we inevitably lose it. The top teams move away from the thrower, then one will dart back, receive the ball to feet, and pass back to the thrower, leaving him lots of room and options. We rarely do this, and when we do, the thrower (Izzy was often guilty of this) will often throw the ball chest high!
These problems can be simply rectified. It has bugged me for years (especially when we are struggling for possession in Europe) that we fecklessy and literally throw it away. ( That should have been ‘recklessly’, but ‘fecklessly works as well.)
Watch Forrest at our throw ins. He rarely offers himself as an option, either pulling up his socks, or even turning his back. It is just baffling how this issue has been allowed to persist for years.
We need to take advantage of everything we can on the pitch, and this Includes throw ins. Kudos to Liverpool for recognizing this.
There is records and then there is even more records. Records records records, some are not worth tuppence halfpenny but we have a chance at a record that will stand for eternity.
Who cares about another League Cup win or another Europa League run? Get the Nine done then get the Ten done, everything else way way down the very bottom of the priority list,
After we’ve won the Ten we can go back to players development projects, long term planning, domestic cups, squad rotation whatever else takes your fancy,
but until then just focus on the one goal – ten in a row – forget everything else. If I was in charge at CP this is what we would be doing, heads down, blinkers on, focus on one goal only.
HOT SMOKED on 30TH MAY 2019 4:29 PM
JG
No puncture but a wee bit damp. Wet enough to allow me the occasional morn :-))
JJ
——
That embarrassing moment when your spellcheck intervenes to make a monkey of you in front of an English teacher!! ?
Still, mustn’t MOAN! ?
HH jg ??
Can any of our posters in God’s green country advise on Concern Worldwide as a charity in terms of its reputation and traditions.
Obscure question I know. But the wealth and breadth of knowledge on here never fails to amaze me!
HH jg
JAMESGANG on 30TH MAY 2019 5:37 PM
Can any of our posters in God’s green country advise on Concern Worldwide as a charity in terms of its reputation and traditions.
——————————————————————-
It’s Ireland’s largest aid and humanitarian agency, Ted. Or so I understand…
Re the comments earlier on our poor throw ins . It’s not just us that have noticed how we tend to lose possession . On Saturday ,,direct from kick off , Hearts blootered the the ball out for a shy up near our corner flag quite deliberately because they knew they had a good chance of winning possession near our box.
We have been rubbish at shies since at least the Lions. It is NOT a new phenomenon.
Paddy new 2 year deal at Man City, then loaned to Norwich
Natknow – thanks pal
GLENDALYSTONSILS – Hearts basically kicked for the corner for a lineout as per a rugby match. And our throw ins (and corners) are indeed pash!!
HH jg
FTW @ 4.25
Regarding the post match events on Saturday — the moons can align to suggest that PL is both devious and useless.
First of all we have the manager decision — that it was going to be NL.
When was this decision made and how was it made — board meeting / sub group tasked with the decision which would need to be authorised by the full board?
Then there is the dimension of NL needing to be informed and the possibility that he might want time to make a decision.
Then comes the issue of when the decision would be announced to the world / the support / the stock exchange.
Put all these elements together with the shenanigans of Saturday and the following scenario is all too familiar …
Those working on the selection process had already made their decision — NL.
That decision had not been put to the full board at a planned / regular board meeting.
The issue on Saturday was then about the timing of the announcement of NL as manager.
They used the 3×3 euphoria to jump the gun / planned process and get the news out there and then.
Cue pandemonium / men in suits entering a shower room / mixed messages regarding the offer of the job but not the acceptance of the job.
Consequently it was a shambles of our own making.
People of limited ability trying to be too clever by half.
There might be more detail out there that expands on this but it all seems a bit cloudy.
Love Aiden O’ Rourke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLVZVJpceqc&list=RDRLVZVJpceqc&start_radio=1
parkheadcumsalford
Have to disagree with you there. Tommy Gemmell could shy a ball, Jim Craig too, with one notable exception. Jim Brogan could take a decent throw in, and of course the master, Bertie Auld, turn your back on him, the shy was taken, and ten thirty was gone, with the ball at his feet!
GDT @ 6.06
Hertz throw in tactic — saw that at the start of the second half.
We really must be in a hole if the rocket scientist that is CL has got us sussed to that level.
CELTIC MAC,
There were plenty of times when the Lions wasted shies. Not corners, mind you, especially if Charlie Gallagher was playing.
MADMITCH @ 11:36 AM
PL must love you as you spend time and effort to critically analyse the thoughts of others with a view to suggesting that things are not as bad as they seem / be happy with your lot / what we have is the optimal way forward given our situation.
You are the conservative voice of the support.
What? Was there an election?
If I suggest that things are not as bad as they “seem” (or as proposed by the likes of yourself), it is because I have a memory that lasts beyond the last poor game which prevents me from advocating “Sack ’em all and sell the rest!”. We have won 8 titles in a row- not yet a historic run but getting damn close. We have won a Treble treble and that is an historic first, so, for me, I’d have to separate myself from logical thinking in the real world before I looked at Celtic and said “Man, we’re really shecht, aren’t we?”.
On Saturday night, most of us were really happy with their lot- personally- I was deliriously happy- Were you not? And, as for asserting that I believe we are operating optimally, you would have to have misread what I wrote, suppressed the memory of what I wrote, or deliberately twisted it to make an easy straw-man argument to shoot down. Going with the generous interpretation that you merely overlooked the sentence- I’ll reproduce it for you…….
“The alternative to that view is that we are actually doing quite well but we can always do better”
Always taking time and effort to analyse the thoughts of the support but not the board.
Happy clapper does not do your efforts justice.
Firstly, I reject the framing of the argument. I participate in this blog (and others) so I respond to the posters on here. Unless, someone who posts here is a Board member I have not even tried to converse with them- Have you? I do remember being critical of the salaries some of them are taking. I am also concerned that dividend remuneration could be too high but I have never seen anyone post definitive figures on this. I have also been scathing about the tin ear and patronising talk of Mr. Bankier when he speaks on our behalf, about our support. My general view, shared by WITS, is that people spend too much time blaming the suits because we think it is some kind of socialist position (hence your attempt to portray me as conservative). I have never been persuaded that there is anything remotely socialist about telling Celtic to splash the cash on a big name centre forward so we can pretend we are richer than we are. That’s a fur coat and nae knickers strategy. So you go ahead and vent about the Board and the suits, if you like. Allow me to find it just a wee bit bogeyman-ish, a wee bit Scooby Doo Villain thinking….”If it wasn’t for those pesky Board members- we’d be lifting Big Ears again!”
As for a more pejorative term than happy clapper? – Knock yourself out thinking of one. It will be no skin off mine. You can either deal with the argument or call names at the man making it- your choice?
But if you want to call me a Board ass-kisser, be prepared to be dubbed an
adolescent permanent rebel or a delusional expert who does not have to prove his self-awarded expertise by actually doing the job in the real world (and apologies there if you are, indeed a Board member at Barca, Real or Man U). Exchanging insults can be fun, and I can be up for it at times, but it’s rarely enlightening.
Have you and PL ever been seen in the same room?
Actually, I think we have been once but we never spoke to each other. Rather telling that! A spooky coincidence, don’t you think? How about you- have you met him? Ever spoken to him?
I think we should be told.
You just have been……
but, next time, I’d prefer a more grown-up conversation.
Parkheadcumsalford
No doubt! But I think the Lions generally had a bit more nous than the present squad on that front.
As for Charlie, like his namesake, (and along with Harry Hood) a bone fide footballing Prince.