Austria Wien have played three league games this season, won one, drew one, lost one. Scored six conceded eight. Stuffed 5-1 by Salzburg two weeks ago. They have only had to play one round of Champions League qualifiers so far, which they won 1-0 on aggregate against the Icelandic champions-cum-day-job-professionals. Send them over, please, Uefa.
Ludogorets Razgrad, from Bulgaria, knocked Dinamo Zagreb out of the Champions League qualifiers last season before going down to Slovan Bratislava in the play-off round. They’ve won two, lost one, of their three league games this season. Beat Partizan Belgrade home and away in last round, beat Slovan Bratislava on aggregate in round before that. They also have to play their home game for the next round at an alternate venue to due to a date clash with a concert. Happy to take this lot.
Legia Warsaw, won all three league games this season, scoring 12, conceding one. Eliminated Molde, after drawing both games, in last round, took care of The New Saints (Wales) home and away in earlier round. Would be a great European tie though not sure if Zbyszek can arrange the result for us.
Maribor, from Slovenia, have won all three league games this season, scored 11, conceded two. Eliminated APOEL Nicosia after two draws in last round. APOEL got to the last eight of the Champions League in 2012, so this team are no pushover. Maribor also have the distinction of being the last team to knock Rangers out of Europe. Ever!
Shakhtyor Karaganda, 12 points off the pace after 22 games in Kazakhstan. Beat Albanians, Korce, in last round and Bate Borisov (who recorded Champions League wins against Bayern Munich and Lille in 2012) in the earlier round. The travel would be an issue; Karaganda is farther east that eastern Afghanistan. If I can paraphrase an Ibrox legend, define Europe. The fact they are midseason and, like Celtic, they’ve won through two rounds already, makes this a less attractive tie, but they are surely not a Champions League team.
Preferences: Shakhtyor Karaganda are the easiest possible opponents but a trip to Austria or Bulgaria would be best.
Would rather avoid: Legia will be the most difficult draw. Maribor will be a similar challenge as Elfsborg.
Lots more to blog about: last night’s performance, Kelvin, Honest Dave King… maybe later.
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TSOAL
They can’t see the wood for the trees
Hun to Stockbridge: What happened to the £22M [sic.] IPOD money?
Stockbridge (finance director) to Hun: Don’t know.
Hun to Stockbridge: Sorry…daft question….don’t know what possessed me.
Genuine wingers don’t do consistency, wide midfielders might, but wingers electrify, excite, give you butterflies, frustrate, exacerbate, drag you off your feet to cheer or to tear your hair out. As they get older they move more central as they learn to do more of the effective things over 90 minutes, use their experience, fill out a bit. Ryan Giggs, Arjen Robben are modern classics.
Wee James is balancing the scale just now but it will tip it in his favour soon enough and we’ll all be the beneficiaries.
Hit the byline son, you’ve got 3 yards on 95% of your opposition, get the delivery sorted and you’re a Champions League and £15m player every single day of the week.
Useful dates:
Play-offs
20-21 August 2013
Play-offs
27-28 August 2013
prestonpans bhoys
07:48 on 9 August, 2013
Ma weans would have got their erse skelped for swallying that early in the morning
But whatever makes one proud is their own business
Well, only us in the draw this morning. Motherwell’s exit was expected but it is a real shame to see St Johnstone’s adventure end.
Bring on the ???
borgo67
Yes, the referee was good.
Nothing controversial, did not want to be in the spotlight, spoke to players, snuffed out any potential flash-points quickly.
Most euro refs at the top level have a similar approach, which does let you concentrate on the game (although on Wed night, we could have used some distractions!)
HH
BGFC
Monaghan1900
A ‘board meeting’ next week to discuss Crazy Chuck’s behaviour.
How can you sack yourself?
Stupid zombies.
Off oot, taking the grandweans to the zoo. No, I don’t mean the one in Govan. Will miss the live draw :-((. Vienna or Maribor please.
Hail! Hail! PMTYH
BGFC
Thought you may have taken advantage of the free digs in Dublin this weekend.
See Mo is away.
SOAL- what happened to your helicopter the other day?
Is it still goin’ roun’ an’ roun’ over Norfolk, pursued by the Armee de l’Air?
James Forrest will take a huge step forward in his development this season if he can avoid injury. The team lack sharpness at the moment and their passing at the moment is poor. Once that improves, so will their confidence and James will be able to make more runs beyond their defenders.
He is a great player. He stagnated a bit last season but had been injured. All he needs is a good run of games this season.
Macjay1 @ 09;05,
Personally I like to look at Eastern philosophy, not that I’m an expert in any way shape or form.
So I don’t see everything in black and white terms.
JF’s game is not perfect, but the lad has loads of talent and he’s one of us.
I’d love to see him develop into the top internatioal player he could be.
I posted a while back Steve MacLaren’s comments re-a great English prospect, while accepting some criticism of Willshire he said the end product will come, he was developimg well.
That’s an England International.
Personally I think we have to take a long hard look at Lennoxtown and ask why players like Maloney turm up at other teams, are given a new training regime and turn out to be the players we knew they could be.
Then we could point to the injuries and fittness.
That aside we are where we are and James could do worse than look at Andy Murray and see with the proper talent attitude and coaching Scottish boys can become World Class despite the qualiity of the opposition.
For me James Forrest is no coward and has got loads of potential.
Hail Hail
Yin&YanCSC
And we’re all off to Dublin in the GREEN!
HH
blantyretim
09:28 on
9 August, 2013
I think Tony Stokes should also attend the offside remedial classes..
Aye,but he`s no Skippy.
Deo gratias.
Macjay
Amen to that
Ten Men Won The League
09:39 on
9 August, 2013
Monaghan1900
A ‘board meeting’ next week to discuss Crazy Chuck’s behaviour.
How can you sack yourself?
Stupid zombies.
——
Post should have said “IPO”.
That’s going to be one long meeting.
A few zombies actually thinking that something might be amiss at Mordor – sharp.
i know it goes against everthing we all
know/love/understand and agree with but….
you should listen to snydes podcast fae last night.
big dj is the prime example of the head in the sand hun.
it is hilarious. he is as thick as sh?+
they just cant see that they are done for again.
they believe every spoonfed morsel that their high masonic
heidyins feed them.
i sometimes feel sorry for them…..LOL LOL
do I foog.
Anyone see the tweets from Harry Brady last night – can’t get on now but said basically heard incredible stuff in the last 48hrs, only a few people will ever know how close the unseen fenian hand came to total domination! Someone guessed if Desmond tried to buy the huns to shut them down and the response was basically that it was even more incredible than that.
It is twitter, so who knows.
HH
Scott McDonald, 51 league goals in 88 starts for Celtic.
We’ve had a lot worse.
Dontbrattbakkinanger
You are right. He is very missed.
On another note. It very usual that Polish media check what Celtic supporters think about possible Legia draw, and very usual that the Scottish media check what Legia fans think about possible Celtic draw.
Yesterday I read in one of the newspapers : Celtic supporters don’t want Legia. Why?
It’s KDS topic and comments.
“Dr.Stiegl
Legia i hope we don’t get. this would be an unsafe trip for the support.
That would be the only downside to that draw.”
“Yes. I was there once – never again. Football trips to poland as an away supporter can be risky. A game against legia in warsaw is a risk. The hooligans there are just mental and the police is on their side.”
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
admin Bobby Peru “Taking into account the standard of teams involved and the potential difficulties of the trips (Warsaw – Hooligans.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
“They’re no very good. Ojaama is one of their best players. Only downside would be a potential for trouble.”
Get a grip men. Are you Sol Campbells?
Hooligans? Unsafe place? Police on their side?
I can assure all CQNers that if the game is going to happen and you come, this is going to be one of your finest trips of all time.
And… get the Green Brigade back.
Dontpatmadug, @ 09;25,
Totally agree, see my post to Mackay @ 09;42.
The solution, that’s the tricky bit.
Hail Hail
on the coward issue…
commons and forrest are cowards on the park.
they pull back from challenges that they feel they wont win.
dye know what…I couldn’t give two twangs. they are creative players
who get booted all over the park when in celtic colours without any protection
from the officials or their team-mates.
its time to buy them some protection.
I hate the odious wee scumbag but someone like joey barton wouldn’t let that kind of thing go on.
James Forrest needs to get back to what he’s good at. Get the ball and drive at the opposition defence. If he’s out wide, take the full back on the outside and get the cross in. He seems to have forgotten how to do this. The ball comes to him the first thing he does is stop it, then wander inside where he invariably loses the ball or makes a square/backward pass.
A penalty box striker would help him immensely. If he goes on the outside and gets crosses in at least there will be someone in there to try to get on the end of them.
Maybe he should watch Derk, if James can replicate what he does on the right then we are in for a very entertaining season.
DBBIA
Just as well it was a plane and not a Greenpeace boat
Young Forrest to me looks like he has either lost his confidence or he doesn’t seem to be able to play in that formation we played on Wednesday night, to say he is a sheet bag? Well to me that doesn’t even deserve an answer.
Just about the worst thing you cna say to any man, no matter what he does for a living, is to accuse him of being a coward; it makes no difference what other attributes he has or contribution he makes; it strikes straight at the essence of masculinity.
rooney, suarez, barton and kaka all in on loan and we’re sorted ;-)
and PL’s bonus remains intact
I know I know…ye wouldn’t have suarez or barton anywhere near our club…but
I wouldn’t have had bangura, murphy, Caldwell etc etc anywhere near our club either.
James Forrest, like a lot of wingers, plays on confidence. He needs a run of injury free games to get into a rhythm. Hopefully he will get that this season – the bhoy is undoubtedly talented.
dbbina
in my posts re: coward
replace with scared of getting their heids kicked in with no protection.
Chairbhoy
09:42 on
9 August, 2013
As I said,great wee prospect is James Forrest.
Staying onside,for a pro. is basic.
It`s not hard.Many,maybe most of us,have managed,on the 50 pitches or the plant`n.
Re. Lennoxtown.To be perfectly honest,I wouldn`t have a clue.
Not sure if Maloney is any better now than he was when he played for us.
Frankly,I don`t miss him,basically,because I haven`t thought of him since he left.
The other insulting accusation levelled at James does not deserve repetition.
Controversy lovers seek recognition.And revel in it.
Best to ignore.
Nice to talk to you,my fellow Tim.
Zbyszek, I agree, some drama queens in our support I’m afraid!
Re. Forrest, thought he was better in the away leg than the home leg. Against Ross County at one stage in the first half, he had the ball in the box and there was a lot of space behind to go past his man and have a pop on his stronger side, but he chose to cut inside and hit a pretty tame effort on his left foot. Looks like a lack of confidence but if he can get 10 games under his belt I think he will get back to his best.
HH
Murdochbhoy, yermanfrommk
I agree with you about our pedestrian style of play. We play at too low a tempo. For long periods of the game we don’t move the ball around quickly enough. Many of our players take three touches before passing. Top teams take two and when in the last third mostly one touch.
I still remain a critic of our pre-season (lack of) preparation. No matter how you want to cloak it, it was a wasted opportunity. IMO, we should have played as many first team players as possible in their recognised positions for about an hour of each match to improve passing, movement and to try out tactics etc. we could then have introduced the youngsters for the last half hour.
While not ignoring the negative impact the pitch had on our performance in Sweden, it looked as if the players had been introduced to each other for the first time.
Chairbhoy
09:51 on
9 August, 201
When Man U signed C Ronaldo for 12m they basically signed a very skillful player who was no more than a show pony. He would produce very little end product, two season later they had a world class player on their hands who was a match winner at all levels.
That must have been down to coaching and a lot of hard work by the player.
Obviously their is no comparison with CR to anyone one on Celtics books but the principle is the same. JF and others have the potential to be better players. I am just not seeing any improvement from season to season.
Of course I do not know how their decorating skills are. :)
James Forrest has been at his most effective in Europe when he come on after 1 hr, Spartak A and Helsingborgs A he was almost unplayable.
Dontbrattbakkinanger
09:49 on
9 August, 2013
Scott McDonald, 51 league goals in 88 starts for Celtic.
We’ve had a lot worse.
Agreed,mate,but being offside was his hobby.
Normally the odd player will complain about a pitch, but it seems every Celtic player where in agreement that the pitch was not good, as someone said no wonder they haven’t lost a home game in 18 months.
hmmm….
Unfortunately Anthony Stokes won’t be at today’s signing session in Dublin but Mikael Lustig and Adam Matthews will be in attendance.