The plan for central defence this season was clear. Carl Starfelt would be allowed to leave, and Maik Nawrocki and Gustaf Lagerbielke would be signed. Liam Scales would return to Aberdeen on either a loan or permanent basis. Stephen Welsh and Yuki Kobayashi were not expected to play significant roles.
Before August was out, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Nawrocki, Welsh and Kobayashi were all injured. Celtic dropped their first points of the season at home to St Johnstone, with Scales and Lagerbielke in a shaky looking central defence. We anticipated a difficult time the following week at Ibrox.
Against St Johnstone, Liam Scales was caught in the headlights when defending a couple of over-the-top balls that forced him to turn back and clear. One which came late in the game could have resulted in the visitors leaving with all three points. On moments like this, careers can turn.
Newco were watching. One week later, they tried the same tactic against Liam, but he was ready for it. To be fair to Newco, Celtic were a bit deeper than they were against St Johnstone, so they had less space to aim for behind the defender. This allowed Liam to attack several of the attempts to turn him, or simply clear if the ball fell behind him.
He played every minute of our Champions League games but partnered Carter-Vickers, Welsh, Lagerbielke, Phillips and even Iwata during the campaign. Now, he is without doubt our first choice to partner Carter-Vickers, no matter who else is available.
Importantly, he is left footed, on receipt of the ball he can open the game up more naturally than Starfelt, who played left last season but preferred his right. Left footed defenders are rarer and therefore more valuable than the more common alternative.
By the summer, he will be 26 years old. He is not the finished article, like Carter-Vickers, and he doesn’t bring the ball forward, like Kris Ajer, but he is a better defender and less error-prone than Kris.
Were it not for how reliant the manager has become on him in the middle, he may have plugged gaps on the left. At this age, Liam is running out of developmental road but he is entering the peak five years of his career. Given a fair wind, his partnership with Cameron could sustain for a few years to come. There is no surprise Celtic have opened talks on extending his contract.
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I don’t feel any different than if they had gone top. The league is a long way from being won or lost
SCULLYBHOY on 14TH FEBRUARY 2024 10:00 PM
Why support Celtic if you want them to lose, or their enemies to win? I don’t get it.
*they don’t its the hunterlopers on here stirring it up
G FEARON on
Raman seen on Squinty Bridge with nothing but his underpants on his head.
STV producer trying to talk him down.
………….
Squinty Bridge = Wee girly/boy/krankies wink wink nod nod tae the dome that we all live under…look at the shape of the rainbow I think the bridge has a few of yon purple-33° twisted DNA insert structure things on the bridge. 👀️ 👁️
Look at the Scottish Parliament design on the building ootside images of cranes to salute the builders inside…but what are they building?
A few weeks before krankie left / got fun oot she was wasting money trying to overturn the cases against witches from hunners of years ago. 👀️
Creepy place is Scotland.
Why support Celtic if you want them to lose, or their enemies to win? I don’t get it.
*they don’t its the hunterlopers on here stirring it up
Give us some names. Don’t be shy.
Like 99% of posters on here (unverified stat) i want to see Celtic win every game, every trophy. However, like many, I have concerns about our direction of travel.
We’re now joint on points with our skint neighbours, they won the league Cup after we dropped out in out first round and they’re in Europe while we finished last in our group and were eliminated.
To even list these, makes me a malcontent to some. A hunterloper, a bed wetter. Pathetic patter.
I believe we have regressed over the past 12 months. I want us to improve. I want us to use our financial advantage and be miles ahead of the huns.
Would be great to have a grown up debate around our progression this last year though I’m not sure it’ll happen on here.
GlenOwen 10.50 pm
A lot of facts there pal . I Feel the same way myself .
Scullybhoy.
Exactly.
So why is Peter running our club?
Glenowen
Do note the difference in quality football between CL and Europa league its massive.
They proved that last year by having CLs worst ever record
It just means talk about like with like as far as tourney goes.
We dont need a comparison with anything tbey do.
I believe your succumbi to mindnumbin/stoppin dirge thrown out constantly by meeja.
No time for girnin there is a title to win
Happy admin day
No unionist vermin will ever be a Rebel
WESTCRAIGS on 14TH FEBRUARY 2024 11:15 PM
Scullybhoy.
Exactly. So why is Peter running our club?
*and I thought it was DD
l
PETERLATCHFORDSBELLY on 14TH FEBRUARY 2024 9:57 PM
I wonder how the balance sheet bhoys will rationalise a £120M swing to the hun if they go on to win the league. .
I believe St.Stivs rationalised the 120 swing last week when lucky Cody suggested the same swing and found it not to be so PLB
HH
Cant wait to tell my Fulham fan boss that their under 21 goalie played a major part in keeping thems second.
Love it!
People have every right to call out the board if they believe that they are not fulfilling the remit put before them. If i worked in a company where i pissed the guts of 20 million up against the wall, not only would i be sacked, i would probably be taken to court and then jailed.
So when the board are pissing a portion of my money up against the wall on dross, I will be calling them out every day of the week. Ray Charles, who incidentally is blind and dead could have told you that a left back was needed in August, was a left back acquired? Nope, but plenty of crap was purchased in it’s place. A last minute dot com striker, who everyone is hoping does well, but this was a punt in the dark, what if Van Hooidojnk young fella said no to Norwich? There would be no Adam Idah at Celtic Park. This is called gambling, there has been a lot of gambling on shot in the dark punts since Big Ange left.
If that makes me a hunterloper, bedwetter, Hun et al. So be it. I’ve been called much worse.
It’s a good job you boys were in the minority in the mid 90’s, as we’d still have the Kelly’s running the show.
But sure you were supporting the club… . . . .. eh!
Watching as it circled the sewer but afraid to man up and call out the people who are the cause of it.
It’s the same craven lot who whine here about rebel songs and back genocide in the Middle East, making excuses for the murder of 30,000 people who were already living in a ghetto.
Middle class Labour voting tossers who have nothing in common with the true ethos of the club is what you all are.
You all know it.
And we know it too.
Dipped into the dark side media for 10 minutes.
teehee
Testy
Oops, see the Tripled Numbered Hun was on at 10.40. Keep ignoring, deprive the oxygen.
How upset must he/it be at losing that goal?
Ave Ave
EMERALDBEE \O/ A DOUBLE NINER!! re: Testy
Don’t be so testy.
Aipple, was it fun?
Dipping into the Dark Side I meant!
Does it matter to me that Celtic FC are still top of the league?
You better believe it does…..
EMERALDBEE \O/ A DOUBLE NINER!! re: darkside
It never fails to deliver, only ever have to read one or two pages on a thread or two.
It only matters at the end of May.
You get no trophies for leading at the 2/3 stage.
And I won’t be bothered if next Sunday we go behind on GD. I will only be upset if we fail to win.
Long, long way to go. No declaration of winners just yet.
Can you imagine if the shoe was on the other foot tonight and Celtic failed to go top against the worse side in the league?
With 23 shots on target and only 3 goals to show for it 2 of them in 15 mysterious minutes of injury time.
The headlines would be a lot different than what they are tonight.
They bottled it, and don’t let anyone else tell you differently.
GLENOWEN (10:50 PM), sadly, though I too wish it weren’t true, the quality of player we both crave to make your dream a reality wouldn’t even consider playing in the SPL.
It’s not Celtic that is preventing them from that choice, but Ross County, Livingston, Dundee, etc.
I truly believe that if Celtic were in the English Premiership many of those players would seriously consider us as an option, and we’d have the money to finance those deals. But that scenario will never come to pass… unless we migrate to Wales!
Love me some John Stewart.
Good wee take here on some, eh, current news.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpBPm0b9deQ
Aye, ye may chuckle and aye, ye may cry.
SFTB (12.00) you are spot on. No team is crowned as Champions any earlier than 8 games from the end of the season (ref 2017 & 2020). Just remind them of that, particularly the latter!
https://spfl.co.uk/league/premiership/archive/334
It matters now.
The point is to stay at the top of the league from here on in.
None of this I dont mind if we are second behind them
Plenty time to catch up….
No no no no
That is the position of the feeble minded, the snowflake….
It’s not for me….
I’ve seen how that movie ends…
It wont end well for us
Top, stay top, break their spirit…
Again!
WESTCRAIGS on
Scullybhoy.
Exactly.
So why is Peter running our club?
…………..…
Because 60,000 x Soulless Empty Heads throw millions of ££££’s at the PLC through the season ticket trap which was necessary because of the all-seatng trick that Thatcher’s goons pulled off at Hillsborough killing 97 innocent working class Liverpool fans sacrificed on the altar of the ‘Brave New World’ to facilitate the “We need all seating for safety….” palaver media puppeted storm of that time.
But that was then and this is now….there were no safety risks with standing at football before Hillsborough 1989 on that one fatal Government designed psyop to terrify fans about standing areas and usher in an all identity detailed security state through footballs back door sneaky sneaky.
The PLC like to have traps and tricks in play to keep control over the structure of the club if it wasn’t all seated then there would be no season ticket trap.
Seats are not what football stadiums should be about. How many fans even thought about seats during the Stein era for example?
Terraces were a crucial element for fans were grand old atmospheres can be generated.
Example – The worst version of our fans singing YNWA was in Seville 03 because of the way the seats were structured in an almost oval shaped stadium.
Dortmund fans now sing the best YNWA because they are terraced now and Lawwell has totally fkd up our YNWA with his idiotic light show what a dick.
But the PLC all seating – all tickets – shareholding structure to suit the richest is anti everything that Tims were supposed to be about we are lazy because of all of this bs features that strip away our identity even the sacred hoops aren’t off limits for these middle class, woke, rich bhoy charlatans were Royal loving, Tory Boris loving, Sir Rod the fraud fits like a glove with all this rich bhoy meets capitalist girl, lipstick powder and paint fake false identity pish that we have.
Get O’Neill’s to supply the Celtic kit and get the big oligarchs out. The strips get worser and worser. and worser. and where does the money go to apart from bonuses?
Get rid of the project bus and buy real players only if they are needed and get a manager in who will show the players different systems tactics formations etc.
Example – I don’t know if the junior football still gets played, but if it is Mourinho or Stevie Clarke could could pick 20 junior players and shape them up with their shrewd canny management skill sets and win the SPFL maybe even in one year as well.
The rich game makes me feel uneasy and dirty after watching any of it.
HH
Celtic Mac
“That is the position of the feeble minded, the snowflake….
It’s not for me….”
—————————————-
Surely the fragile snowflake view would be to be scared about being second or even joint top? The fragile snowflake would need the courage of an advantage in points or goal difference to reassure themselves they have a chance.
In the dressing rooms at Ibrox and CP, there will be players who, having clawed their way to the top of the SPFL are not going to be daunted by the challenge of the run in, even if they were 3 points behind, and feel that can’t get any deficit back.
Don’t fool yourself that Sevco are worried about their position or see tonight as any failure. Their manager said clearly before the game- just win and don’t look at the table. He was right and, if you check their fans forums, they don’t think they’ve lost any momentum by failing to go top.
Only in the more brittle sections of the Celtic support, the Snowflake Brigade perhaps, is there any confidence issue. The rest of us know this league, and every league we win, is hard fought and worthy of celebration.
Can’t wait for the Killie game and being put to the test. These are the times where you prove yourself.
sftb
Even as their club was dying they won three titles in a row.
If they smell blood, as they did, until tonight, they will go all in, the referees will continue to go all in, Jesus how many examples does !!bada bing!! have to show us for us to accept what we are and will be up against.
Dismiss the importance of Celtic FC at the top of the SPL Table this morning at your peril, that is your position not mine, I say we are still top of the league and they’re no
At this point in time that….is what counts….in my book
Read all about it!
There are two types of insider threats against Celtic this season : intentional and unintentional. They can both cause significant harm to Celtic on/off the park and despite their differences in intent and execution, the Celtic support will decide the outcome. Fascinating.
Ave Ave
U2 – Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
https://youtu.be/6_VHA0WsRUQ?si=DYoMHmYq7AEbGJvc
Ave Ave
Vatican Media Live
https://www.youtube.com/live/M_W3ppj-Umg?si=OuaHmo6Dn0xXw5Ab
Ave Ave
Celtic Mac
Even as their club was dying they won three titles in a row.
There was not a sniff of them dying until Murray made the distressed sale. He was using a tax loophole, ignored by a governing body, to gain those 3 titles. Nothing can save us from losing a title when a rival cheats on an industrial scale and the authorities are too scared to punish them. They suffered the price for those 3 titles in the following year, despite what some record books and corrupt officials state. I prefer my club’s intact history to those tainted titles.
If they smell blood, as they did, until tonight, they will go all in, the referees will continue to go all in, Jesus how many examples does !!bada bing!! have to show us for us to accept what we are and will be up against.
They smelled blood when they won the pre-season trophy. They smelled blood when Clement went on a winning run. They smelled blood when they signed superstars better than ours in the transfer window. They smelled blood tonight at 7.45 pm and still do after the final whistle. There is no “until tonight” about it.
Bada doesn’t need to show me any examples of ref corruption or Sevco spending what they don’t have- I can see it and so can you. It is just in our reactions to this that we differ. We are up against this threat until we win the league. The most blatant and sustained ref cheating that I saw since the days of Mr. Davidson was Rev McCurry in the 2008 season, when Craig Levin had his rant. We still won the league by 3 points that year though, despite all the help they got.
Dismiss the importance of Celtic FC at the top of the SPL Table this morning at your peril, that is your position not mine, I say we are still top of the league and they’re no
I am glad Celtic are top as it should make our job a little easier but it gives us no advantage when we play Killie- they will be just as motivated and difficult as if we were in 2nd place. Similarly, Sevco going to Perth will find it just as easy or as difficult as the form the Perth lot produce for the match. They won’t change the approach because a team is first or second or even joint top. There is no peril involved in dismissing or exaggerating the importance of being narrowly first with with 13 games to go. It’s just a thing for some supporters. The Sevco players are not crushed by their failure to be top; they are buoyed by their achievement in getting equal on points after a long winning run. The Celtic team are not relieved or elated to be narrowly top; they too are buoyed by getting back to a long successful run of matches after a poor spell 2 months ago. They even had this winning run with big players missing, who will be coming back. So they have grounds for great confidence too. But their confidence and ours will not be measured by anything other than what we do in future games not past ones.
At this point in time that….is what counts….in my book
Read all about it!
Fair enough-your view is your view. I have read all about it and I’ve said what I’ve said.
I’m aff to ma kip now
February 14, 2024 Anno Domini – Penitential Procession, Holy Mass and imposition of the ashes – Pope Francis.
https://youtu.be/eszhKqN25mU?si=4do058f2LhjfSwQo
Post Scriptum – Ave Ave
Post Scriptum Scriptum – The JJ Man
https://youtu.be/ZVkqQ8BDiWA?si=nb2IeyHGWPfc2PGT
Ave Ave
The malcontents were on the right side of history.
The board apologists were not, but who will now admit to being one in 1994.
HH.