…OK, I suppose we have to mention them.
I did a preview for STV on Monday and was asked what my expectations were for last night but had to admit I had zero expectations. This season I hoped we would get into the Champions League group stage, or at least, the Europa League. We remarkably overshot. My real hope for the latter stages of the tournament was that we would exit without taking a hiding.
Technically, 0-3 at home is a bit of a hiding but it doesn’t feel that way for several reasons. The first half was the best football we have seen from a Celtic team in years; far better than either of the performances against Barcelona, and on a par with anything under the Strachan and O’Neill eras. Unlike Barcelona, this match plan was flawed, but it was an honourable flaw.
The “gamble” to play Efe is one which Neil may consider, in time-honoured Celtic tradition, will be inscribed on his gravestone. When you face Juventus you need to take gambles; if they all worked, clearly, they were not gambles. This one didn’t, we learn and move on. The player put on a brave performance and I’m very proud of his achievements this month.
With an away game at the daunting Juventus Stadium to come, many considered that our best chance of qualification would be to win the home game, and we clearly went about our business with the intention of doing just that. Had we faced Juve in the group stage it is possible we would have left fewer spaces at the back. Any watching Barcelona players must have marvelled at how big Celtic Park looked on TV last night compared to their visit two months ago.
We don’t know how good Juventus would have been if we camped in front of our own penalty box, as they did for long periods, but they were a more-than-effective counter-attacking team.
It is hard to pinpoint what we were missing. Georgios Samaras would have played if fit and would have given us the height-dimension up front we lacked without him. He would also have given Gary Hooper the support he badly missed. Charlie Mulgrew’s status as Best Corner Kick Taker in Europe is at risk if he doesn’t take corner kicks until Kris Commons has innumerable tries.
Juve were prepared for the Celtic threat from corners and behaved illegally throughout the game. One of the referees should have had the strength of character to deal with the problem but they were sadly unable.
There were many positives. Emilio is back to his very best. On one occasion in the second half two Juve players were goal-side with only Forster ahead. Emilio made-up the five yard deficit and stopped the attack. His pace, skill and decision-making were first class.
Kris Commons repeatedly took-on a crowd of Juventus players before releasing a team-mate or making space for a crack at goal. He looked like he enjoyed the occasion but didn’t get the clear-cut chance his play deserved.
Lustig and Matthews are both excellent right-sided defenders with pace and skill. Kelvin Wilson did well, as did Efe for long periods. Fraser had little to do all night but had no chance with any of the goals. Victor Wanyama bossed everyone in his vicinity, and this was some vicinity. Roy Keane played 13 games for Celtic and, after an unfortunate debut, I remember thinking “This is what all the fuss is about”. Victor elicits the same sentiment; more on the consequences of this another day.
On Friday 1 March the Lisbon Lions will be at the Kerrydale Suite providing commentary and answering questions on their magnificent European Cup final win in 1967. This has never happened in 46 years since that game, to say it is a unique opportunity fails to tell the whole story.
The event is part of our 125 4 125 campaign – central to reinvigorating the charitable spirit which is part of the club we love. It will be a family occasions, tickets are available at £10 for adults and £5 for children. The night has been organised by several fans working in conjunction with the people at Celtic Charity, so please do your best to support this great occasion. Individual tickets or tables are available, details here.
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CRC-I think that was Craigy Bhoy’s starter for ten.
Lol – this gets more ridiculous by the minute. “Helped to expose Whyte WITH HELP OF KEITH JACKSON “, he of Motherwell born billionaire fame!!!
The odd articles from Jackson and Leckie the other week where they were curiously critical of Sevco now make sense.
What a racket.
Honestly, I pity the poor souls who buy any “newspaper” in Scotland. They treat you like an idiot.
Sevco Statement………………………..”Don’t worry about Bloggers, we’ll just make an official statement”
LOL CSC
BadaB
Aye I know, only stuck 3 euros on it, bollix, I honestly thought of sticking a score on it and bottled it.
Jabba deflection of the highest order.
Utd happy with a point says smart Welsh pundit..
BBC Radio 5 live’s Robbie Savage from the Bernabeu
“There wasn’t as much intensity from both teams in the second half as the first, Ferdinand, Evans, Jones and Carrick were fantastic. United will be happy with a point but with the attacking players Real have I think they will score at Old Trafford.
Jabba may also be 007! He was involved in an “operation”, but doesn’t make clear if that was espionage-type regime-change or some kind of gastric reduction. On second thoughts, it can’t have been the latter!
If he wanted CW to confirm the £15m figure (i know!) so he couldn’t later deny the figure, why did Jabba clearly state that he wasn’t including a direct quote.
The man has a very low opinion of his readership. He ought to try for a job on a tabloid.
Hail Hail!
You almost have to admire old Jabba’s ability to spout self-serving, flatulent, drivel . Or maybe not.
I really like this idea that him and Keech were trying to get evidence on Whyte. He could get a job in The Ministry of Truth.
Jimbo
‘Whatever you do don’t mention t̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶r̶ the liquidation’
Faulty Towers CSC
Just got sad news that a good pal of mine living in Kom Sui (sp) Thailand died of a heart attack watching the game last night.
A right good Tim who loved football and Celtic. Worked in Iraq after the yanks rolled in and arranged a friendly for the locals.
Was assigned a sniper with instructions to drop anyone who came within 10 yrds of him. Told sniper if ball was going to cross his teams goal line to burst it.
An irrepressible character with his share of life’s high and lows some of which I had the privilege to share either being there or through his stories
Many up EK way will be mourning his passing.
Jabba is bonkers , an absolute clown , is he a Spanish ref ?
Jabba and Keech jointly investigating a story?
Yeah that’s believable.
Real in depth investigative journalism that unearthed our Heros wealth was off the radar.
Auldheid
Commiserations . A sad loss to u, your friend sounds quite a character .
RIP
Kom Sui
RIP
Auldheid
Harry ?
Auldheid
Sad news about your amigo.
HH
Kojo @ 21:39,
Good to hear from you.
Got to agree that first goal was a killer, a quick away goal was exactly what Juve wanted.
You could tell by Neil’s body language from then on we had a huge uphill battle.
NL was looking for a quick goal himself, our midfield peppered their goal with long range shots from the off.
Wasn’t to be.
Great to see your legendary contributions still coming.
Hail! Hail!
So let’s get this straight.
Traynor says he ran the copy with the reference to £15m past Craig Whyte because he wanted to make sure it would be “difficult for him [Craig Whyte] to try to deny it later”.
Presumably, if Whyte had had the chance to amend the copy, including that figure, and left it as it was he wouldn’t be able to complain about the £15m at a later date. Traynor had his defence in place: “I sent it to him, he cleared the copy with the £15m.”
Immediately, Traynor goes on to say: “Of course he did try just the same but he knows he said it.”
Craig Whyte did try just the same to deny the £15m.
If it’s true that Traynor had his defence in place against just such a denial, why has it taken leaks [presumably from Whyte] to Alex Thomson for Traynor’s defence to come to light? Why didn’t Traynor play his card?
Frankly, Traynor’s statement tonight is unbelievable.
It cannot possibly be that he needed to convince the senior colleagues he refers to at Trinity Mirror and the BBC that he, Traynor, hadn’t made the £15m up.
Some sort of subbing and legal check would have taken place. The newspaper must have been satisfied that Traynor was reporting the story accurately. If someone later calls up and says they have been misquoted, you show your boss the emails, the press release, your notebook or whatever record you have of the conversation from which you have taken the information. You don’t hatch a plan in advance of the complaint in case it comes in.
You write in good faith and report in good faith and your bosses publish in good faith. You can make mistakes, but you don’t spend your time setting traps for your interviewees in case they complain. The whole thing is nuts.
I know who my cash is on between the hut and Alex :)
Maybe Jabba is still in the pay of our hero Craigy and is working a double agent routine. The evidence if his PR work so far surely has the average pig thick Sevconian questioning his loyalties?
He is making a complete bollocks of it!!
Loving it
Jabba flogging a dead horse…
Jabba and Keech-The Woodward and Bernstein of Scottish journalism.
Auldheid,
Condolences for your friend.
RIP.
The best bit about the Jabba retort is how he tries to say it is an attack on R\ngers – smell the coffee you slug, it’s an attack on you and the silence of the succulent lambs.
The fans now know the truth about you and your skills as a journalist and you don’t like it.
The next big bombshell from Craigy Whyte should be interesting.
Auldheid
A fine tribute. God rest that fine mhan.
I was just going to post (for a joke!) that Jabba would respond by saying he was after a job with Whyte to get “inside” and expose him. Didn’t actually think even he would really claim that.
So Jabba has been working for Ibrox for some time. I wonder how his employers feel knowing that ultimate editorial clearance was in the hands of Whyte, Murray and Green. Green to him on the books which is really strange when he was doing a grand job for the club free of charge and controlling all football stories in Scotland on the Record and the BBC. He would be more valuable in this role to Green than sharpening his pencil in the blue room of ibrox.
Why did Green take him on. Did he have an agreement to get the hordes on board with all the soundbites etc and this was his reward. Maybe , but he would have done this free of charge. Was there a follow on agreement with Whyte to Green to employ him…possibly, as he may know too much or discovered a link.
Anyways Jabba had failed as a journalist and sports editor. He oversaw the circlulation fall of the record in titanic like proportions which resulted in many people and families being affected. He had to get out and slid like a snake to ibrox.
This is one journalist who has failed his profession. Can you imagine if Jabba was on the Watergate story…..Nixon would have been Americas best ever president.
The monkeys are now fully in charge of the zoo.
Wouldn’t it be funny if the emails were given to Thomson by someone at the record or the bbc and not Craig Whyte?
Snake
How would they have the text messages?
the thing I find frightening is that he seems to actually believe that he and Jackson exposed Whyte. the fat liar.
Funny how impartial x English referee Graham Poll has a slightly different view of last nights wrestling antics compared to our very own Stuart Dougall!
Dougall is a Hun apologist, always has been !
Celtic First
Forgot about them.
Celtic_First
22:05 on
13 February, 2013
Snake
How would they have the text messages?
____________
You can download a text message to your PC.
So more disinformation from Jabba for the befuddled Sevconians.
Exposing a sevconian to the truth reminds of that old proverb – you can lead a horse to slaughter, but you can’t make it beef.
…or something along those lines…
Jabba is struggling to keep his head above water, which to be fair is no easy task when the head is the size of the Goodyear blimp.
Does Jabba Sleep?
Yes, with his eyes wide open.
http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&tbo=d&biw=1440&bih=838&sclient=psy-ab&q=jabba+the+hut+sleep%3F&oq=jabba+the+hut+sleep%3F&gs_l=hp.3..0i22.2819.12109.0.12402.20.12.0.8.8.0.157.744.11j1.12.0.les%3B..0.0…1c.1.3.psy-ab.5iYIcLhL_AY&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.42452523,d.d2k&fp=f80478f6c3ebea32
Auldheid, God bless yir pal.
Pity it was not a good result.
oh no, sorry Paul, I hope i have not broke the blog :(