You and I have lived through dark days before, but even during the darkest time in the 90s, we faced Rangers with a collective degree of self-belief. The lack of faith among the support over the visit of Newco tomorrow is tangible, with good reason.
Bournemouth’s USA-born Mexico international right back Julián Araujo could bolster our options on that flank after his loan arrival. He will surely start tomorrow. The player has made only one appearance this season, an EFL cup defeat to Brentford, so we should temper any anticipation he will sail through the afternoon.
Before every game recently I talk about the very obvious lessons learned from the previous outing. We will surely not repeat the positional shambles deployed at Motherwell on Tuesday. The formations which faced Aberdeen and Livingston will suffice, possibly augmented by Araujo.
Against Hearts, St Mirren, Dundee United and Aberdeen, Celtic hit the woodwork at least as many times as they scored. The laws of mathematics suggests we are in for an avalanche when our flattering expected goals tally delivers what it promises. That’s about as much optimism as I can muster.
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I’m not sure I will even be able to bring myself to watch tomorrow’s match, it could be a complete horror show.
The current team started the season with really impressive defensive stats, conceding just 1 goal in their first 7 games (extending to 3 from 11). Under Nancy the same players have conceded FIFTEEN goals in 7 games.
For comparison, in 2018-19 Celtic conceded 20 goals in the entire 38 game SPL season. So to match that standard Nancy’s team would need to concede just 5 goals in their next 31 SPL games. Clearly they’re not even in the same galaxy as that, never mind the same ballpark!
For the record, the defence that season included Scott Bain (GK) Jonny Hayes, Jeremy Toljan, Jack Henry, Jozo Simunovic, Filip Benkovic, Marvin Compper, Stephen Welsh, Anthony Ralston and Christian Gamboa as backups to the main starting line up of Craig Gordon (GK), Mikael Lustig, Dedryck Boyata, Kristoffer Ajer and Kieran Tierney. (… That’s a lot of defenders!)
“Scarce optimism”,you say.H,mm,let me think how that could have come about.A couple of things spring to mind.
Driving a manager out,after totally failing to back him in the transfer window.Maybe.
Bringing in MON,when it becomes clear,the Boards summer signings are shit,and ask him for help.He manages to steady the ship,put us back in the title race,then you bump him.Maybe
Bring in a Manager in his place,who knows not one player,give him a day to teach said players,his new way of playing,mindbending,then throw him in to the most important 3 games of the season.Watch on as we progress into utter chaos.,,Maybe
Ban your most vocal fans for daring to criticize you for the shambles you have created.Maybe
Refuse to change any of your mistakes,risking,the League,CL qualification,and having thrown away one Trophy,maybe leave the cupboard bare.Maybe
A lot of” Maybes” there.Nothing really conclusive.Seems a lot of angst over nothing really..
Sign the petition,Back the Board and the Manager.
There was mention yesterday of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Today, Kübler Ross may be more appropriate. Many seem to be around Bargaining or Acceptance. Sadly, Depression may yet follow.
Short term loan deals being lauded as progress.
I remain unconvinced that the club is identifying the self inflicted issues which have hampered us, let alone started moves to rectify.
What a sad state of affairs.
I may be more optimistic nearer kick off, though may just be the meds kicking in.
I can’t remember being as outplayed, in Scotland, than the game against Motherwell. I’m including the doings v the Huns in the 90s and also the 5-1 loss at Ibrox. It’s a lose/lose game tomorrow, I’m afraid to say
“Slow, painful, road to improvement” and “breaking established patterns” angles?
… might have scraped through with a slice of luck (reference the woodwork, Paul)
But that was before Fir Park.
Every league game under Wilfried beforehand had some positives.
(Dundee United was one that got away)
Tuesday was dreadful.
Literally nothing to hang one’s hat on.
Plus, we saw a couple of senior players – including the captain – give up on the nascent system.
Araujo?
I have no factual basis to object to his signing
Get warm bodies in to fix squad shortages.
Loans make sense. Hired guns.
Strategically inept but might help things.
Starts to stem the bleeding.
(Yeah, yeah, yeah, we shouldn’t have been shot seven times .. and “he” [INSERT NAME] is to blame)
… but it is where we are and all the lamentations in the world will not improve us.
We are poor (1.5 ppg last six form) and they’re not great (2.17)
Let’s see what 11 guys in hoops can muster.
Glenowen,
😃
Now all we need is a right centreback a midfielder, a forward who can put the ball in the next a change of shape a new manager team, recruitment team and board and we will be rocking. Shambles of a season.
For thebfirst time in many a yearnthere is not one player in that team i would lose sleep about losing or being sold.
Blindfolded celtic supporters cfc
HH
Huns hunting a loan for Penrice.WTF are we looking at?.Would be ideal for us.Move KT forward,if we are persisting with this shambles.Good LB.
Look at the awful stats of our main opponents this season. Any other year we’d be out of sight. The adage that the greatest threat to Celtic in this era is ourselves is being proven true over and over.
It’ll take everything going our way tomorrow to win. And I mean everything. I won’t be holding onto any hope on this occasion. My default setting is usually optimism. Not this time.
Nancy will repeat the same tactics and the same formation because he is a one dimensional clown, in a job he is unable to cope with, the bigger clowns are those who hired him and are backing him.
Team for tomorrow
Sinisalo
Araujo. Trusty. Scales
Yang. Engels. Calum. Kieran
Nygren. Maeda
Kenny
Kasper needs to be dropped after the 2 howlers in midweek and I’m afraid Tony gets the chop as well.
If the Hun do a Motherwell and block the wide channels, we just narrow up and hit Kenny with an earlier ball.
We just need some sort of collective will to win the game
I’d be tempted to let the Hun come onto us but we need to be better at passing over the press and making the ball stick. They are not letting many goals in as most of their team are defenders so we need to draw them out , hit the CF with the wingers and Nygren supporting…
Clutchingatstrawscfc.
Is jungle jim about .Have you got betting for saturdays game v huns.
Stephenbhoybhoy,
I bet you were disappointed on Christmass morning with your new socks 😥😥😥😥😥
Aw bugger !!!!
9/4 they are it’s stealing money, but I don’t bet against my team
Fave Uncle…
https://www.paddypower.com/football/scottish-premiership
Somehow Celtic are odds on favourites both for tomorrow and to win this season’s SPL. I suspect Paddy Power are viewing things through green tinted spectacles!
DessyBhoy, 5/2 at PP!
How on earth can you play a guy who hasnt kicked a ball apart from a cup tie in August in a must win derby match.
If it was a Gogic ,Mulligan or Bowie yes as they would add to what we need and could play straight away but not this guy.
Thanks guys for betting. I could not believe my eyes . BETFRED 11/4the huns.
I would have went along with you on that Paul. However the performance at Fir Park was nothing short of a disaster fir the confidence of the Manager and players .There was nothing to take away.
As fans, we were left scratching our heads, wondering how players could buckle under the pressure so completely. It was clear from the first whistle the lack of confidence throughout.Watching the team struggle to find their rhythm was honestly terrifying. The collective collapse was one of the worst I’ve seen in years perhaps even since the 90s.
It’s hard to imagine a scenario where they’d play that poorly together again. While the performance was deeply concerning, the one positive to take away is that it’s almost impossible for them to replicate that kind of display.
Also..our opponents are hardly prime Barca,!
Plan for the worst, hope for the best
Ekbhoy – I like that team selection of yours.
Kasper poor on both goals Tuesday so Vil in goal is reasonable.
Kenny can’t get a goal just now .. but he can play (technically) the traditional CF role … which might help wobble two truly awful CBs.
That frees Daizen to run the left flank.
I actually like James Tavernier as a footballer but he’s an awful defender … and is slower still this season.
If we go with poor Liam Scales (I feel so sorry for his plight) give him a simple instruction.
If you can’t see the pass within 2 seconds? Straight lob over the top down the left … every single time.
They’ll keep playing the same way because Nancy isn’t here to win, he’s here to make the title race look competitive before the club throws it away.
Lennon was the fall guy in 2021. Nancy is this season’s sacrifice.
The board will leave him in place just long enough to do maximum damage, then replace him to create the illusion of action. Pull back the curtain, and this has been the plan from the start.
Blaming Nancy is exactly what they want. Anyone with a brain knew “Nancyball” wouldn’t work with these players, that wasn’t an accident, it was by design. They’re probably telling him, “Stick to your guns, we back you,” giving him the confidence to carry on with his own brand of madness.
So the loop continues… until the team is too far behind to recover. Then he’ll be dumped without ceremony, and the fans will take the blame.
This is the COVID shitshow all over again.
#OldFirm.com
Bat Signal broadcast – we now wait.
Expect the usual playbook in response: open with a joke, ridicule or deflect (FSR is a favorite), then close with “just my opinion” or another quip.
Even if we lose tomorrow it looks like WN stays and will be given money. Well done senior management. Get yourself in the biggest hole yet and just keep digging. So scunnered, it’s beyond words.
MOM
The enemies within, take you pick as far as I’m concerned, they’re all culpable for this state Celtic FC is in, and the solution they have come up with will just cost wasted fees and the support watching humiliation on the park.
It’s only football, a pleasurable distraction to take our minds off the live streamed genocide that our governments here in the West are enabling..Bread and circuses etc.
Anyhow that said Nancy is possibly the worst ever manager we’ve had and for “the board ” to claim he was their first choice ,liked his style/profile etc is obviously complete nonsense..A 6 goal hammering by our dearly beloved rivals tomorrow might (in the long term) be preferred to a flukey one goal win,as surely it would be the end for Wilf.
That said I will be hoping for a flukey home win to paper over the cracks.
The guy from Bournemouth is probably no better than Tony Ralston (who will at least put his body on the line for us)
One disappointing thing on here of late is the vitriol directed at our host Paul..He doesn’t deserve that,he doesn’t make the decisions that have us where we are..Though his articles have been totally ridiculous in recent weeks and months.
But let’s be honest it all went downhill the day Brendan Rodgers released Kwon…
The bet tomorrow is Huns draw no bet @ 6/4
So only way to lose money if celtic win
Huge misgivings about playing a guy in a hun Derby with very little football….train crash
Why are we making soo many bad decisions?
It’s like we’ve moved from football intelligence to thick as mince in a very short space of time!!
If we are a couple of goals down early on can we appoint MON at half-time.
Memories of ‘78 Tic 4 FD’s 2
Detect a degree of buyer’s regret in today’s header. Not quite at the “just own up you can’t do the job without Thierry Henry” stage yet, maybe the manager has to be on the way to a domestic double before dropping that particular MSM-bomb.
Wonder where we are on the Dunning Kruger chart today.
Celtic Diary Friday January 2 2026: Happy New Year !
https://etims.net/?p=19161
Turkeybhoy, was buzzing until i remembered i had to watch the builder playing rcb again lol!!!
We’re gonna need more Mars bars….
Turkeybhoy.
All those “maybe’s” are now facts, I honestly can’t remember being so pessimistic in over 70 years of supporting Celtic. Even when facing administration in 1994 we knew Fergus was waiting in the wings.
At the moment the absent Godfather in Ireland, or maybe the Caribbean seems to have no inclination to change things, he’s probably taking pleasure in our misery. Sickening.
Seems this clown is coming out swinging at the press conference, on SSN soon
Someone tell Scales,he is not Becken baur.Ridiculous time he is taking on the ball.They would have watched us,and be swarming all over us for the high press,which got us into all the trouble.Scales makes it worse.All he does is wait,then pass it to KT,who is marked.Must have done it at least 10 times against Well.Fek the manager,do what YOU know you can do.
MMcC,
Yep,definitely,a where do we go from here,moment.So dispirited.
Wilf giving it large on Sky presser……. In a few words…….. give me time !!
Feel a bit sorry for him , hope he goes on and becomes a success ……ermmmm!
my team
BigChipsUK @ 1:28 pm
https://www.paddypower.com/football/scottish-premiership
———
Cheers, BCUK
Not a client of that business but I assume
(happy to be educated / corrected if wrong)
Odds calculations are largely algorithmic based on data incl. recent results.
Celtic’s last six league games at home outperform R2ngers’ last six away … by a margin.
I guess that’s why we are favourites.
fs this is madness
Whistling