Last night my brother reminded me of a comment he made after the 0-0 against Benfica on match day one of the Champions League, “I hope we’re not sitting with one point after five games”. Expectations can be as high as you like, but reality based on experience at that stage suggested Celtic would struggle to have more than a single point at this stage of the tournament.
A solitary point away from home in our Champions League history would lead the harsh realists to expect our trips to Lisbon, Barcelona and Moscow would be fruitless, leaving the enormous matter of tackling Barcelona at Celtic Park.
Two of those away games resulted in defeat, and we were behind in Moscow before one of the most significant fight-backs in modern Celtic history. It’s difficult to find perspective for the win over Barcelona. Suffice to say, they won 0-2 in Lisbon and 0-3 in Moscow. Celtic’s 2-1 remains the most astonishing result of this season’s Champions League.
Manchester City’s failure to qualify for the knock out stage, with their seemingly limitless budget, tells the story of how difficult this tournament is. England’s other mega-wealthy club, reigning European champions Chelsea, sacked their manager this week as the expectation they are likely to be eliminated at this stage dawned.
Beating Spartak and qualifying for the knockout stage will be suitable reward for a remarkable team.
The very first CQN Annual is NOW in stock and shipping order yours here! P.S. it’s great.
In case you missed the story, check out the Celtic Trust’s ‘Stand up for the Green Brigade‘ call on the 12th minute on Saturday. Full details on the Trust’s site.
P.P.S. Stand up for the Green Brigade.
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Yo!
ho ho!
PODIUM
Last 16.
Its raining ,
Are they still crying ?
BMCUP
Not quite!
It’s not all doom and gloom,Paul-despite the deflated feelings on here.
A measure of our progress?
ITSABOUTTIM
Aye ye were too good for me-I’m off for a wee drive round Wiltshire,but on a downer,thanks to you!
HH,KTF…..
Thindimebhoy \at 11.37am.
EBT Recipients.
Alan Hutton £364,000 . Made debut in 2002 and played 94 games, before £9million move to Spurs.
Alex McLeish £1.7million . Managed Rangers from 2001-06.
Alex Rae £569,000 . Midfielder arrived at Ibrox in 2004 and spent two years there. Played 34 games.
Andrei Kanchelskis £145,000 . Russian winger arrived from Fiorentina in 1998 for £5.5million.
Andrew Dickson £33,000 . Head of football administration since 2003. Previously financial controller at Ibrox.
Arthur Numan £510,000 . Dutch full-back arrived at Rangers from PSV Eindhoven in 1998 for £4.5million. Played 118 times.
Barry Ferguson £2.5million . Former youth player who became Rangers captain. Played at Ibrox from 1996-2003 and 2005-09.
Bert Konterman £300,000 . Dutch defender signed by Dick Advocaat for £4.5million in 2000.
Bert Van Lingen £65,000 . Assistant manager under Dick Advocaat from 1998 to 2002.
Billy Dodds £190,000 . Arrived in a £1.5million deal from Dundee United in 1999.
Bob Malcolm £125,000. Central defender started his career with Rangers in 1997. Played 88 games. Left for Derby County in 2006.
Carlos Cuellar £448,255 . Spanish centre-half arrived from Osasuna in £2.37million deal in 2007. Moved to Aston Villa in 2008.
Chris Burke £55,000 . Started career at Rangers, playing 96 games from 2002 to 2009. Left for Cardiff City.
Christian Nerlinger £1.8million . German midfielder signed from Borrusia Dortmund in 2001 and left in 2004.
Claudio Caniggia £1million . Argentinian signed from Dundee for £1million in 2001.
Craig Moore £1.1million . Australian centre-half played more than 90 games from 1994-98. Returned in 1999 and stayed until 2005.
Dado Prso £1.9million . Croatian striker was free transfer in 2004. Left for Dinamo Zagreb in 2007.
Dan Eggen £68,000 . Norwegian central defender signed in 2003 from Spanish club Alaves.
Sir David Murray £6.3million . Owned club from 1988-2011. They won 15 titles and 26 cups. Sold shares to Craig Whyte for £1.
Dick Advocaat £1.5million . Rangers manager from 1998-2002. Spent almost £74million to win five trophies, including two titles.
Douglas Odam £119,000 . Finance director for 15 years. Left in 2003 to take up a role within
Sir David Murray’s business empire.
Egil Ostenstad £370,000 . Norwegian forward signed from Blackburn on free transfer in 2003.
Fernando Ricksen £684,225 . Dutch right-back signed in 2000 from AZ Alkmaar for £3.75million.
Federico Nieto £24,500 . Argentine striker joined on loan deal in 2005 from Almagro. Scored once in three matches.
Gavin Rae £376,000 . Midfielder signed from Dundee in 2004 for a fee of £250,000. Moved to Cardiff in 2007.
George Adams £30,000 . Ex-player was head of youth development between 2003-05.
Graeme Souness £30,000 . Player-manager from 1986-91.
Gregory Vignal £173,000 . French defender joined on loan from Liverpool in 2004. Moved to Portsmouth in 2005.
Ian McGuinness £25,400 . Club doctor sacked after Paul Le Guen left.
Ian Murray £95,000 . Midfielder was free transfer from Hibernian in 2006. Left in 2007.
Jan Wouters £285,000 . Former Dutch midfielder joined as a coach under Dick Advocaat, then Alex McLeish. Left in 2006.
Jean-Alain Boumsong £630,000 . French centre-half joined in 2004 on free transfer. Moved to for Newcastle for £8million.
Jerome Bonnissel £48,000 . French left-back arrived in 2003 from Bordeaux.
Jesper Christiansen £320,000 . Danish goalkeeper signed in 2000 as injury cover.
Joel Le Hir £28,275 . Paul Le Guen-appointed physiotherapist from 2006 to 2007.
John Greig £40,000 . Played for club from 1961-78. Managed Rangers from 1978 to 1983. Later became a director.
John McClelland £225,000 . Appointed a director in 2000. Chairman from 2002 to 2004. Resigned last year.
Julien Rodriguez £638,000 . French centre-half signed from Monaco in 2005 for £1million. Left for Marseille in 2007.
Kevin Muscat £1million . Australian defender joined from Wolves in 2002 on free transfer. Joined Millwall in 2003.
Kris Boyd £215,000 . Signed from Kilmarnock in 2006 for £500,000. Left in 2010.
Libor Sionko £178,000 . Czech midfielder signed from Austria Vienna in 2006. Played 18 matches before signing Copenhagen in 2007.
Lorenzo Amoruso £639,000 . Italian defender signed from Fiorentina for £4million in 1997. Moved to Blackburn Rovers for £1.4million in 2003.
Martin Bain £249,000 . Chief executive of Rangers from 2005 to 2011. Resigned after Murray sold club to Whyte.
Marvin Andrews £316,025 . Centre-half from Trinidad and Tobago joined from Livingston in 2004.
Maurice Ross £120,000 . Played 78 games for Rangers from 2000 to 2005, before moving to Sheffield Wednesday.
Michael Ball £1.4million . Left-back signed from Everton in 2001 for £6.5million. Moved to PSV Eindhoven in 2005.
Michael Mols £260,000 . Dutch striker joined Rangers under Dick Advocaat. He arrived in 1999 and spent five years at Ibrox.
Mikel Arteta £674,603 . Spanish midfielder joined in 2002 and played 50 matches, scoring 12 goals. Moved to Everton.
Nacho Novo £1.2million. Spanish striker joined in 2004 from Dundee for £450,000.
Neil McCann £500,000 . Winger joined from Hearts in 1998 for £2million.
Nuno Capucho £970,000 . Portuguese winger who arrived in 2003 for £700,000.
Olivier Bernard £224,000 . French defender arrived on a free transfer in 2005.
Paolo Vanoli £592,000 . Italian left-back joined from Bologna in 2003 and played in 28 matches.
Paul Le Guen £201,250 . French manager replaced Alex McLeish in 2006. Left in January 2007 after a string of poor results.
Pedro Mendes £1million . Portuguese midfielder joined in 2008 for £3million. Joined Vituria Guimares in 2010.
Peter Lovenkrands £902,000 . Danish winger arrived in 2000 from Akademisk Boldklub for £1.3million.
Ronald De Boer £1.2million . Dutch midfielder joined in 2000 under Advocaat.
Ronald Waterreus £510,000 . Dutch goalkeeper joined Rangers in 2004 from Manchester City.
Sasa Papac £319,000 . Bosnian left-back arrived in 2006 from Austria Vienna for £450,000.
Sotirios Kyrgiakos £532,200 . Greek centre-half signed from Panathinaikos in 2005.
Stefan Klos £2million . German international keeper signed in 1999 for £800,000. Join Bayer Leverkusen in 2007.
Stephane Wiertelak £28,275 . French fitness-physiotherapy coach joined Rangers in 2006 under Le Guen.
Steven Davis £600,000 . Northern Ireland midfielder. Left for Southampton in the summer.
Steven Smith £7500 . Defender came through youth ranks and made debut in 2004.
Steven Thompson £485,000 . Joined from Dundee United in 2003 for £200,000. Went to Cardiff City in 2006.
Tero Penttila £140,000 . Finnish defender joined in 1999 for £300,000 from Haka Valkeakoski. Left in 2002 to join HJK Helsinki.
Thomas Buffel £1.2million. Belgian midfielder joined in 2005 for £2.3million from Feyenoord.
Tore Andre Flo £1.3million . Norwegian striker joined from Chelsea in 2000 for £12million. Sold for £6.75million to Sunderland in 2002.
Yves Colleau £106,200 . Former French midfielder served as assistant to Le Guen at Rennes, Lyon and Rangers from 2006 to 2007.
Zurab Khizanishvili £405,000 . Georgian defender joined on a free transfer from Dundee in 2003. Moved to Blackburn Rovers in 2005.
While I’m not to be taken as the rational guru of yore, after the first game my expectation was that after five matches we would be sitting on eight points.
I suppose it all comes down to projecting our own inner determination and confidence onto the team and believing that our support home and away would NEVER have allowed us to be on one measly point.
Celtic just aren’t in that tier of underachievement.
Mind you we are a point down on my expectation so I suppose that shows that I know diddly squat! :-)
Hail Hail
Estadio (who might be meeting WDH at lunchtime to compare head functions – if we both remember)
Envious huns.
Stand up for the Green Brigade, all together now..
P67
In a similar way to your brother, when we had 4 points after 2 games I said to people that I fully expected to still have 4 points after 5 games. Although Wednesday was really disappointing (a true measure of how far we’ve come) we are still 3 points ahead of where I expected us to be.
There’s something sureal about feeling disappointed when you are way ahead of where you expected to be!
Excellent article Paul67, couldn’t believe the reaction to the result in some quarters of celtic cyberspace. This team is punching well above it’s weight and the simple fact is Benfica were deserved winners the other night. If you’d have told me going into the last game we’d have 7 points, a stirring victory over Barca (which I’ll proudly be able to say forevermore that I was there!), europa league football confirmed and a fighting chance of the last 16 I’d have laughed! I really do think that if we do end up in the Europa League that we could go far.
Fact is we could go out with 10 points which would be a travesty of justice! Especially when you see the likes of Man City and Chelsea, with all their wealth, struggling. It puts our performance in a stark perspective and shows that money cannot buy success.
That said, I think we are lacking a bit of creativity especially with Forrest out. Really hope he’s back for Spartak.
I don’t think broony/Hooper should have started but hey what do I know in lenny we trust I’m still having a party and so proud of our bhoys..still a bit of debate re last 16 or run in Europa..I like it in the big playground..HH everybody..
Disturbing news from Rome
2 Spurs fans stabbed + 10 injured after being attacked by Lazio hooligans outside a pub last night
If my memory serves me correct, not one British club has been to Rome in the last decade without their fans being attacked by either followers of Lazio or Roma (depending on which club they were playing)
Once you’ve stopped counting your Qatari rials Michel, could you have a look into this please?
TMWTL
Mind you Glasgow and Manchester aren’t much better. Every support that travels here and there get attacked by Chelsea fans. :-)
Hail Hail
Estadio
From Sport Witness (News Now):
Benfica have claimed that Barcelona didn’t take their match against Celtic seriously in comments made to Portuguese newspaper A Bola. It’s in the paper edition and has already been picked up by Catalan outlet Mundo Deportivo.
It appears that Benfica have used their own club affiliated journalist Silivo Cervantes at A Bola to release a statement saying that Barcelona didin’t put up a serious fight in Glasgow and that as a result Benfica could find themselves in the Europa League.
Celtic defeated Barcelona 2-1 which has left them as strong favourites to progress as group runners up. It’s one of the greatest matches in the club’s history and anyone who watched the game fully would surely not question the desire of either team on the night. Barcelona don’t like losing games and were certainly giving it all their effort to come back into the match, just like they had done in the reverse fixture at the Camp Nou.
The angry suggestions have come out of Lisbon after Benfica’s 2-1 victory over Celtic on Tuesday night. Benfica’s victory kept alive their chance of reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League but they will face an uphill challenge as they head to the Camp Nou for their final game of the group stages.
Celtic face Spartak Moscow in Glasgow in their last match knowing that if they better Benfica’s result then they will be the side who progress to the next round. The Portuguese giants know that it is unlikely they can win or even draw in Spain and therefore have become pessimistic about their chances.
The headline in A Bola reads ‘Victory Bitter against Spartak’ and goes on to say ‘Barcelona was not a serious club in Glasgow. Benfica fits the Europa League.’
The headline was in relation to Barcelona defeating Spartak Moscow in Russia which confirmed their passage to the next round as group winners. Two goals from Lionel Messi helped the Catalans to a 3-0 victory which has left a sour taste in Portugal. The club feel the same performance and result should have been inflicted on Celtic two weeks ago.
It’s sour grapes in the extreme and will surely leave many Celtic fans furious.
frankiebhoy
12:25 on
22 November, 2012
Thindimebhoy \at 11.37am.
EBT Recipients.
……………….
i just wish i could find an employer who will give me a intrest free loan of £1 million plus
repayable on death
jam67
frankiebhoy
12:25 on
22 November, 2012
Why is Campbell Ogilve not on your list?????
He has admitted to being in reciept of £95K (price of a good night out in Glasgow these days apparently).
If he is missing……….who else?
Guesses???
Paul67,
question for you
last 16 and knocked out in that round
or
2 or 3 more rounds in Uefa cup?
play
‘From somewhere, the suggestion came that perhaps the chairman of the Tribunal, Mr Ken Mure QC, may just have an establishment club leaning and there followed questions about his objectivity in the proceedings and whether this had any part in the delay in issuing the long expected decision.
I would have to say, that I believe such fears to be not only unfounded, but also completely and utterly groundless, of no merit, and to be honest really rather pathetic.’
brogan rogan travino
####
Mmm.
Ten points (should we win) I believe would be our highest tally of points in any of the euro comps to date. Surely that would be enough to qualify but even, if not, a remarkable achievement.
Good Article
I said to my son after the home game against Benfica that the draw would come back to bite us on the bum. At the time I thought it would be the difference between finishing 3rd and last. We are already exceeding my expectations !
I will be glad to stand at 3.12 on Saturday and let everyone know why.
EC67
Good on Benfica for noising up Barcelona! Who knows a draw might be enough! :D
Were we not knocked out with 10 before?
Maybe it was 9.
think it was the first year under MON.
others have been knocked out with 10pts.
p
Obonfanti1888,
Let’s hope that Benfica article is pinned up on Barca’s dressing room wall!!!!!
SOUNESS NUMBER VERY LOW – i ASSUME HIS SLICE WAS JUST STRAIGHT OUT OF THE TILL THEN!!
Stand up for the Green Brigade!
Empty 111 on Saturday and everyone else standing up and making appropriate noise at the alloted time
I was wondering how everyone in 111 not in the GB got informed ….. but I believe the polis have a fairly complete distribution list!
frankiebhoy 12:25
Cheers frankiebhoy
So the auld cardigan is not on the list
I always thought he was on a retainer of some sort whilst in the Scotland job waiting on the nod from Minty if the PLG experiment failed
Rothbhoy hope word gets through to Barcelona that some quarters of Benfica think they are effectively cheats. Give them something to play for :-)
HH
just in From Lisbon last night. What a trip.. Our fans fantastic and we were treated terribly at the stadium.. Held up, searched and the Benfica police and stewards were in danger of creating crowd crushing when there was no need..
Lisbon a friendly city..
HH
Great to see Bertie Auld and Evan Williams sitting in with us.. In Lisbon
IMO, there is no debate – it’s got to be last 16 of the Champions League. Yes the quality of opponents will be lower in the Europa League but there will still be some good teams in there so further progress would not be guaranteed.
The prestige of simply making it through to the CL last 16, for me, outweighs any benefit of dropping into Europa League for a potential (but by no means guaranteed) extended run.
Okay, progression in CL means we’d be up against a team who will have won their group so, although we would be up against it, after Barca, do we need to fear anyone? Particularly over 2 legs…
More money in CL last 16
The elite of European football
Prestige for the club
Bonus coefficient points
No argument
Really surprised about the EBT decision. Rather than celebrating I’d be pretty annoyed if I was a rangers fan, after all it was HMRC’s controlling vote which saw the CVA rejected.
Oh well, if they hadn’t been so generous with their loans to players and staff they might have been in possession of the necessary funds to manage their debt.
I may have missed it, but has anyone suggested what the general terms of the loans are? If the loans were given in the absence of any repayment terms at all surely it reverts to the definition of a payment, regardless of what the two parties called it. Or does the law provide for a generic understanding in the absence of an agreement? Anything in case law perhaps?
Of course we all want the last 16 but at the very least we will have European footie after xmas. I’d have gladly taken that.