You will remember Roy Keane getting all up himself after Celtic celebrated Champions League qualification as though it was something important. Roy’s ability to apply perspective isn’t all it should be.
The Champions League presents levels of success. Lincoln Red Imps achieved theirs this season, as did Celtic. As we look forward to the quarter finals, which begin tonight, Monaco are a different type of winner.
In the round of 16, Atletico beat Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus beat Porto, Barcelona beat PSG, Bayern Munich beat the living daylights out of Arsenal, Real Madrid beat Napoli and Leicester beat Sevilla. All these victors, including apparent underdog, Leicester, are richer than the teams they eliminated. Only Monaco, who beat Manchester City, won against the money.
It’s not easy to congratulate tax haven-based millionaires on succeeding despite being relatively impoverished, so we’ll perhaps withhold our joy, but Monaco’s win was the Champions League’s sole instance in the last round of an outcome which was not significantly determined by finance.
What you are unlikely to hear from those happy to disparate Scottish football as an uncompetitive environment, where outcomes are overwhelmingly determined by the richest club’s money, is that our domestic game resembles the elite competition in this very respect.
This is modern football, in fact, it is increasingly elite team sport across the globe. We can get all misty-eyed for days of yore, when 12 different English teams who the league in 14 years, or 11 guys from a 30 mile radius climbed the highest peak, but the future of sport looks entirely different.
You, me and Lincoln Red Imps fans know our level. I suspect we all know where the net ceiling which prevents us moving too high up the food chain lies. We can and should always plot, scheme and dream of bursting free, but knowledge of our place in the game has value. It grounds us in reality, where surely our dreams do not become fantasies?
Remember the Celtic Disabled Supporters’ Association, Dinner Dance, at the Kerrydale Suiteon Friday 21st April. All are welcome.
After the meal there is entertainment from Foggy Dew, with Jim Craig, Bertie Auld, Tom Boyd and more. Tickets are £25 each and are available from events@celticdsa.co.uk 07514-059870 (office hours).
Let’s say THANK YOU to the Lisbon Lions!
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A STOR MHA CHROI on 11TH APRIL 2017 2:37 PM
Yes he is.
wee belter from Munter Media,bet this is sticking in their craw
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I see those two fat yessers from Largs who won the Euromillions are giving Thistle £3.8m to build a training ground.No doubt Taigs.
Good article by James Forrest
https://thecelticblog.com/2017/04/news/dave-king-is-learning-you-cant-fool-all-of-the-peepul-all-of-the-time/
ERNIE LYNCH:
Don’t tell any muccker, but after more than 10 years on here, my top five posters have been yourself (whether I agree with you or not) NeilR, Awe_naw, dbbia, and Pibroch67. (whether I agreed with them or not)
We race to the grave.
And Kano.
TONYDONNELLY67 on 11TH APRIL 2017 2:59 PM
Good article by James Forrest
https://thecelticblog.com/2017/04/news/dave-king-is-learning-you-cant-fool-all-of-the-peepul-all-of-the-time/
I disagree with James on the Hun support.They are the most,knee bending,cap doffing,sycophantic people on this planet.All the Sir David,Sir walter,Sir David Of Weir,how did that last one end?.They desperately need someone to grovel to.Their worship of the Royals being another example.
Lickspittles that were found out and fleeced by two bit conmen.
69. GOAL! Aitchison with the equaliser! 1-1 #COYBIG
Development League
Latest 69min
Hibs 1-1 Celtic (Aitchison)
Development League
Latest 82min
Hibs 2-1 Celtic
Leftclicktic and Frank Marker, thanks for the update from under 20’s game.
I hope the young yins get a winning goal.
More
82. Goal! Fraser Murray makes it 2-1 to Hibs against the run of play.
Oops, i wish I hadn’t posted my last post. Fate tempted by me.
Always enjoyed my trips to Turkey in my single days, even when there was SQUIRREL fake news everywhere about the country being a hotbed of sinister goings on.
From playing and beating the locals at Backgammon in the shadow of the Blue Mosque, to dancing the night away in the clubs around Taksim Square, to lazing on the beach in the sleepy town of Kusadasi (spelling?) and wee boat trips up the Bosphorus to take in the incredible history and ancient buildings.
Apart from old men grumbling and waving their hands about at getting beat at Backgammon by a foreigner in surfing baggies the locals were polite, welcoming and accommodating. And the local lasses, well that’s a story for elsewhere.
will there be a decent uptake on their Tim card in the new Tim Hortons in Argyle street
Connaire 12 you have e-mail regarding flights etc to Lisbon.
TURKEYBHOY
There are lots of yeses on both points, it’s a 50/50 for me :))
Paul, spoken like the businessman you are, I understand completely.
There’s a distinct difference between a fantasy and a dream.
Each one would currently describe the difference between the blue and green of Glesga :-)
Right wing shoite vomited onto the pages of cqn
They know all the kack about rolex wearing people smugglers
Bettered only by the written diarrhoea of how refugees catch planes and pay fortunes so they can experience being a boat person or better still access the Dachau inspired Nauru island.
and democravy and the rule of law must prevail
No insight given to democracy and ruleof law when we blow the genie out of the bottle in the middle east,displace millions.its not our problem….its just done,
HH
champions
Development League
Full Time
Hibernian 2
Oli Shaw 03min
Fraser Murray 82min
Celtic 1
Jack Aitchison 69min
Nothing like a wee bit of Hun on Hun eh? Hahahahaha
A Rangers fan attacked a fellow supporter of the Glasgow club during the pitch invasion after last year’s Scottish Cup final.
Benjamin Taylor, 18, ran on to the field at Hampden Park on May 21 after the final whistle when Hibs beat Rangers 3-2.
He made his way towards a group of mixed supporters then punched and kicked a Rangers fan who was lying on the ground.
Taylor then gestured towards other fans to “come ahead” before sticking his fingers up and shouting abuse at police officers, Glasgow Sheriff Court heard.
Defence lawyer Martin Morrow told the court: “He’s not a Hibs fan. Mr Taylor is a Rangers fan.”
He said Taylor went towards the group of fans on the pitch thinking one of his friends was being assaulted by the other Rangers fan.
Mr Morrow added: “That’s what caused Mr Taylor to get involved with this man who had assaulted his friend, who turned out to be a Rangers fan.
“Mr Taylor, albeit he was on the pitch and ended up involved with a Rangers supporter, was himself a Rangers supporter.”
Taylor, from Tranent, East Lothian, pled guilty to an offence contrary to the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act as well as assaulting the unknown man.
Sheriff Tony Kelly handed the teenager a community payback order to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.
He also banned Taylor from attending matches for a year.
Never bother about trolls on the pages of CQN.
The fact that they waste their precious, limited time given to them called life, means that the blog and its following is hurting them in unspeakable ways… :-))
Just ignore them and they win go away to fester in their own little world of resentment and pain.
One man’s troll, is another man’s clique.
Phil and Joe McHugh both posting that SFA has rejected Sevco’s initial application for a European licence and has sent the application back demanding further info with a deadline of Good Friday. All as we await Glibby’s issue of a prospectus as demanded by the Takeover Board.
Armageddon awaits. HH
A few folk have pointed out a mistake in the interview we did with the senior Fife cop in this afticle which has now been updated:
http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/the-curious-case-of-the-cancelled-kelty-hearts-testimonial-and-why-it-blows-open-the-rangers-continuity-myth/
I went back to our cop and asked him to clarify the name given to us in good faith. He did so and confirmed that he had confused two names and that the person he spoke to at Ibrox was David Martin.
He told me this afternoon:
“I can see why the name George Douglas would cause confusion (and also why it would have been familiar to me, as I also dealt with him for the Raith Rovers v Celtic match the same year).
“David Martin was the Head of Security at Ibrox, and that is who I would have spoken to regarding the Kelty Hearts fixture.”
A report has claimed that the SFA have rejected Sevco’s application to play in UEFA competition next season.
March 31 was the first deadline for applicants to demonstrate that they are complying with Financial Fair Play rules with audited accounts showing losses of under 5 million euros over the last three years.
Sevco’s last audited accounts were to 30 June 2016 and revealed losses of £11.9m for the previous two years.
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It had been suggested that the SFA would forward the application on to UEFA to deal with but according to Phil MacGiollabhain the Hampden authorities have applied the rules and returned the application to the Ibrox company.
According to the award winning blogger: “Last week he (Ibrox executive) submitted some paperwork to the Scottish Football Association.
“This was to enable the Engine Room Subsidiary to play in UEFA competition next season.
“However, it was quickly pointed to him that what he had presented was incomplete and unsatisfactory.
“My information is that he has until the end of this week to get it in order so that it can be sent onwards to UEFA.”
FFP was introduced to prevent clubs racking up unsustainable debt in order to quality for UEFA competitions.
If Sevco are nominated for a place in the Europa League qualifiers they could be hit with severe restrictions for failing to meet FFP rules.
These normally involve fines, registration restrictions and producing audited accounts showing that the club is breaking even to compete in future UEFA competitions.
Well I think that’s the Development squad done for the League this year. However it must be noted that this year despite having a large squad knocking about, by & large we opted not to play over age players. We could easily have included the likes of GMS & Liam Henderson in today’s squad and arguably they would have benefited from the game but it looks like a policy decision was made early in the season not to do so.
Clubs are permitted to include 5 overage players in a match day squad of 18 so our young bhoys were playing against teams strongly boosted by Senior Players.
There is of course a little matter of a Cup Final to be resolved, which taking the opposition into account is more important than League.
Celtic for the Cup & Ross County for the League.
That sounds OK by me.
tonydonnelly67 on 11th April 2017 4:03 pm
Nothing like a wee bit of Hun on Hun eh? Hahahahaha
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Fantastic. Roasters one and all.
—————–
Lot of strong voices on here today battering psyches with the refugee crisis.
Usually scroll past ranting but got snared reading some poignant first-hand accounts.
A few supercillious comments and the usual left/right accusations being slung, a bit of cyber-ganging-up; nothing unusual. On the whole, a more interesting and reasoned back-and-forth than usual. Many to be recognised for keeping their cool.
I would point out though, the elepahant sat upon western society, in my own reading of the entire problem – the fact that this crisis would be far less of a furore and would be dealt with more efficiently were it not that the vast majority of migrants are Muslim.
Immigration/displacement has never been so underwritten with a clash of ideologies and cultures as it is presently.
I doubt as many would have a problem with refugees relocation if it was not for the fundamental cultural differeces defined by their faith.
Irish/African/Caribbean/West Indies immigration cannot be used as a comparison. Religion was secondary to work ethics, ambition. Islam is the primary governing force in many newcomer’s lives; shifting from a society structured around the faith to our own ‘decadent’ ways of life, by comparison. A quantum leap.
This new wave brings unprecedented problems for Western society. Until people can reconcile their own beliefs with that of immigrants we’re going to be subjected to extremes of fear and aggresion, rhetorical and physical.
So many millions of people victims to religious intolerance, savage ideology, rabid warmongering and corporate avarice.
I was sitting in a pub shortly after 9/11 having a few beers with an acquaintance who was a hedge-fund manager at the time, talking about the market chaos the event had stirred. Telly was on, sound down, but Dick Chaney’s (US vice P) big gurning face appeared on screen, malevolent grin slapped across it.
Friend points at him and says to me, ‘There you go – Halliburton; put some cash in their shares – they’re about to make it real big on the back of New York.’
Halliburton was Chaney’s company- ouilfield specialists and I believe, fingers in the pies of military production. 9/11 was Christmas to them; withing months they had billions of dollars worth of new contracts.
But I’m sure many of you will be aware of that. We live at the behest of these soulless sharks. The Middle-East, its places of historical and religious significane, its billions of people who just want to live in peace – nothing but a monopoly board to the demagogues of the west, and east – let’s not forget the Russkies.
The pincers of advanced militarised societies are soon to turn an entire continent into a war-torn wasteland. ISIS are a random virus, a catalyst thrown into the melting pot as a chaos device for their own amusement.
I never invested any cash in Halliburton. You could have made around 100 times your 2001 investment by 2010. I had considered scraping up a grand to follow his advice. But even now, I’m not too bothered; surprises me ocassionally but in a good way. There’s enough blood money around these days.
Anyway, enough misery. Fitba’ – Fine article P67.
‘Mon the wee poor team of the CL; Moncaco.
Now there’s irony…
Sandman,
That was quite a brilliant post. You are some wordsmith.
Winning Captains
Was there not also a delayed kick off against a Belfast ‘youthclubfundraisers’
Select? :-)
.seem to recall newclubAirdrie’s director at windsor park for a friendly which had been delayed as negotiations for the nooklubs licence had to be finished.
HH
Sandman, Cheney received a bonus of over a million dollars from Halliburton , despite him being in office at the time.
From what I have read about it, they said it was part of his contract when he was CEO of Halliburton.
Your friend was right about Halliburton . They were granted so many US government contracts to help repair some of the Iraqi infrastructure once Saddam Hussein was overthrown
Corkcelt 4, 45
Good post.a lot of our devt squad are getting high quality game time at teams in championship.makzes it all the better for us :-)
HH
Hmmmmmmmmm ?
http://www.eatsleepsport.com/celtic/bhoys-face-target-blow-2261806.html#/.WOz-oVTTWhA
An Tearmann,
Hail Hail Big mhan, saw you were back in Donegal recently. Had a brilliant Holiday there myself last year, went out to see An Tearmann for no better reason than yourself posting here.
Probably won’t go that far North this year, think Sligo or Mayo will be our limit but if the good Lord spares me I’m looking forward to returning to Donegal next year.
Wow! Mr Forrest on fire today, .
https://thecelticblog.com/2017/04/blogs/wegners-plight-is-why-so-many-english-hacks-decry-celtic-theyve-forgot-what-winning-is/
So Sevco , should they qualify on the field, might not be eligible to play in Europe next year?
If that is the case, be prepared for a raucous outcry from the hordes who will believe that everyone hates them and that those Fenians at the SFA are unfairly leading them to the slaughter.
If it is true that the SFA are finally doing their job properly, then good but the MSSM have been so wilfully negligent I suspect some form of social unrest is likely.
JJ
HOT SMOKED
I wouldent hold my breath on the media fighting for a winning headline on this one mate :)
THE greatest signing in Celtic history isn’t the theft of Henrik Larsson for £650,000, signing Lubo Moravcik for half that or even the deal to bring Lisbon Lion Ronnie Simpson to the club who quite incredibly cost four grand.
The £1200 fee paid to Llanelli for one John Stein, a modest fee even back in 1951, not only changed the club forever, not that anyone knew it at the time, but it’s not hyperbole to suggest football itself would later come to welcome the decision for Celtic to sign a former miner playing for a Welsh club.
This piece of business will take some beating.
Read more: Brendan Rodgers: Nobody will leave Celtic and we will buy before the Champions League qualifiers
Every manager, and certainly his chairman, loves a bargain. Spending £80million on Gareth Bale doesn’t require a trusted scouting network; rather a bottomless pit of money which Real Madrid always seem to have.
But to find a Larsson, a Kris Commons, almost 100 goals and as many assists for £300,000, takes skill, patience and a line of people working together for a football club who knows where to look for those players others have failed to notice.
Celtic is an easy sell. Scottish football is not. Brendan Rodgers is a manager that good players want to work with and they will be handsomely rewarded for it. But Stoke City, alas, can afford to triple the wages Celtic’s highest earner can.
There are many, too many, who would rather be a fringe player in the Premiership or at Championship in England instead of testing themselves in an environment which is far more demanding than one of those English mid-table clubs who cruise through every season.
Rodgers is hardly the first man to sit in that office who knows there are limitations in terms of finance and persuasion.
That’s the challenge and it’s one which is going to be fascinating when the summer window opens.
“I think there is still a level of player out there for us who can bring excitement,” said the Celtic manager with some confidence.
“Again, it’ll all depend on what it is for the player. We can’t just pay anything, and I would never ask the club to do that.
“I’m not here to put the club in a risk. Not at all. I’ll always demand that we sign the best possible players we can.
“But I understand strategically where the club is at, and how it needs to function going forward.
Read more: Brendan Rodgers: Nobody will leave Celtic and we will buy before the Champions League qualifiers
“That’s not lacking ambition, that’s just being real. And also knowing – from being down south for a number of years – exactly the types of players we can attract here. In fact, not even attract. Players we can get here.”
The man in charge of recruitment is Lee Congerton who Rodgers raves about. His role will be to find the likes of Victor Wanyama, bought for £900,000, sold for £12m and any future sale is going to add even more to Rodgers’s kitty.
“The reason I brought in Lee was because he’s one of the best at it,” said his manager.
“This is the guy who found me Philippe Coutinho. No-one would have heard of Coutinho otherwise. When I worked at Chelsea I remember Lee being away in South America. He came back and told me about two players who were 14 or 15. He said ‘wow, there are two players out there we’ve got to try and get.
“It was Coutinho and Neymar. At that point no-one had heard of them. Alexander Pato was another one, I remember, that he mentioned. So I’ve brought in one of the best in his field. Someone who has a worldwide network.”
A Coutinho type of signing would be something else, although perhaps bringing a potential superstar from Brazil might be beyond a Scottish club but it must be encouraging for the supporters to hear that such a market is somewhere their club will keep an eye on.
The proof will be in the pudding, of course, but given that Scott Sinclair was relatively cheap and Moussa Dembele could prove to be the steal of the century, there is living, breathing evidence that Celtic know what they are doing.
Read more: Brendan Rodgers: Nobody will leave Celtic and we will buy before the Champions League qualifiers
“Lee can really help us in a lot of markets, to get the best possible players we can,” said Rodgers.
“But the profile and everything has to be right to fit in with the club.
“But Coutinho at 14 was great. He was at Vasto de Gama and Chelsea tried to do a deal, but they’d already done one with Inter Milan.
“He went there at 16 but I was always aware of him. Then when I was at Liverpool I got the guys to find out about him.
“Inter Milan were struggling for money and young players very rarely got a chance.
“So it was an opportunity for us to get him. He cost £8.5million, that’s what we got him for. What’s he worth now?
“But no-one knew of Coutinho. But he was in our team at 19 and he flourishes. So there is talent out there and we will always look to get it.
My last post was from the E Times by the way.