Yesterday was the fourth time in four games this season Celtic have won without having to leave second gear. Kilmarnock and St Mirren were both stretched by European qualification ties, while Hibs have had a humiliating start to the season, even for them. Still, there could hardly be a starker illustration of the chasm between our domestic and Champions League challenges.
Scotland’s other leading club made it eight wins on the bounce this season, as Aberdeen continue to provide the main competition to the champions. The first showdown between the clubs does not happen for another seven weeks, a game that could go a long way to determining the title.
Credit to St Mirren for dominating the first 140 seconds of the tie; unfortunately for them, Celtic scored the first time they got forward with the ball. A trademark Celtic passing move opened space for Callum McGregor 24 yards out, who fired low into the net. St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson’s plans to get stuck in early became unstuck before many fans had got to their seat.
Reo Hatate doubled the advantage 33 minutes in with the goal of the game. Alistair Johnston pitched a high ball into the box for Daizen Maeda to run onto. The Japanese winger headed back and down into space for Reo, who struck the ball on the drop-volley, clipping the inside of the post on the way in. Johnston removed any doubt about the result with a goal midway through the second half.
Paulo Bernardo showed lots of tidy work in the central midfield role normally occupied by Matt O’Riley, who travelled south for a medical over the weekend and should compete his move to Brighton today. More on Matt at a later date.
As the deadline looms, players and clubs across the continent have sharpened their options. Barcelona agreed to a new-contract-and-loan-to-Celtic deal with 20-year-old left back Alex Valle. The player is expected in Glasgow today for a medical. At the end of this season, he will have one year remaining on is Barcelona deal, with a buy-out figure which is greatly reduced from where it was a week ago.
Goalkeeper is the only area of the field we are not looking to add to this week. This is not your first transfer window, so usual caveats, but it should be an interesting few days.
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Matt signed for Brighton, best of luck, top player, top man,Hunskelper
Good luck MO’R.
Good luck Matt
Thanks for the memories
https://www.celticfc.com/news/2024/august/26/matt-o-riley-move-completed/
My son tells the story of how several years ago, he was walking up Glasgow’s Buchanan Street with his girlfriend. As they approached the imposing statue of Donald Dewar, the young Edinburgh lass looked up and said — Why has Glasgow got a big statue of Sven-Goran Eriksson?
Gene
Thanks for the cricket link. I have played in a few similar back when ‘the draw’ was an option in league cricket up here and in Essex and Yorkshire leagues. Some of our guys had playing for it as an artform. Mostly now T20 or 50 over games so it doesn’t happen so much.
Great to see us out there and active as the market opens up. There will be some value to be had. It seems we are being public in keeping options open. Probably to ensure no one club or player feels they are our only option. If we get 2 more decent options in along with the left back then that will be decent imo.
I actually think we may get 3 plus the LB.
Must confess to being very happy with the prospect of a loan from Barca.
Some reasonable points made on here around future proofing etc, though I’m willing to take the year and see what happens.
Que Sera, Sera and all that.
Decent bit of business.
Some interesting options for Thursday. No
Team can play 2 from same country.
From 8 games :
5 wins will secure top 8 place and bye to last 16
11 pts will secure 9-16 place & last 16 play off seed
8 pts will secure 17-24 place & last 16 play off non seed.
It should be fun.
Pot 1
2 from
Real M
Barcelona
Man City
Liverpool
Bayern M
B Dortmund
Leipzig
Paris SG
Internationale
Pot 2
2 from
Athletico Madrid
Arsenal
AC Milan
Juventus
Atalanta
Bayer Leverkusen
Benfica
Brugge
Shakthar D
Pot 3
2 from
Sporting L
Feyenoord
PSV
Salzburg
D Zagreb
Slovan B or Mitjyland
Galatassary or Young Boys
Lille
Pot 4
2 from
Girona
Monaco
Brestois
Sparta P
Aston Villa
Bodo G
Bologna
Stuttgart
Sturm Graz
BADA BING
Any mileage in the Odsonne rumour?
BSR
Hope not
my hoped for draw –
Liverpool -h
B Dortmund – a
Brugge – h
Shakthar D – a
D Zagreb – h
Slovan B – a
Sparta P – a
Bodo G – h
doesnt look so difficult , maybe be suckered again to have some optimism.
not that glamarous either – £160 a package would be enough.
Surprised when I checked he played on Saturday, I thought he was well down the pecking order, he’s on mega bucks……
eddie 21 goals in 100 games.
they want rid, shop windae
Best of luck Matt, thanks for the memories.
Now let’s see what’s next on the Celtic transfer rollercoaster!
Brighton have signed midfielder Matt O’Riley from Scottish champions Celtic for a fee believed to be more than £25m.
The London-born Denmark international has signed a five-year contract until June 2029.
O’Riley, 23, scored 27 goals in 124 appearances for Celtic, winning six trophies including three Scottish Premiership titles.
The deal is a Scottish transfer record, surpassing the fee paid to Celtic by Al-Ittihad for Jota last summer, and Kieran Tierney’s £25m switch to Arsenal in 2019.
It also represents a significant profit on the reported £1.5m Celtic signed O’Riley for from MK Dons in 2022.
Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler said O’Riley’s abilities as a box-to-box midfielder “make him special”.
“He is a great character, and has a good ambition to succeed and that’s something which is very important for us,” Hurzeler added.
O’Riley becomes Brighton’s seventh signing of a busy summer that includes a £40m club-record deal for French forward Georginio Rutter from Leeds and Netherlands midfielder Mats Wieffer joining from Feyenoord for about £25.5m.
Hurzeler’s side are second in the Premier League after beating Everton and Manchester United in their opening two games of the season.
The Third Striker
Graham Greene ……a lost novel
any sell on for matt ?
Could throw Palma into a deal for Bogusz
To
Post
On
An
Iphone
You
Must
Do
One
Word
At
A
Time
67ECW
afternoon all
Palma for Mallorca
Chairman Mao and the nodding ducks are in reverse gear.
Manager and support will judge them shortly…..
I watched the LAFC v Columbus cup final , specifically to watch Bogusz. He was played on the left when his preference is in the right. His team only had 30% possession. His team were not pressing and you could see his frustration. A willing runner but I didn’t see anything in him that stood out despite playing against poor quality (neither team was slick). Just one match – so maybe he has potential , just not direct replacement for MOR
I still stand by my view that Peter Lawwell was il advised to get involved with fans waiting to get into the game yesterday. I realise his was the lesser offence of the two committed but I’d expect him to know better. I don’t know the fan involved so I don’t know if I can expect better.
It brought back a memory from my teenage years. On more than one occasion, my friends and I would walk back from Hampden to Castlemilk after an international match, no point in expecting to get on a bus, and finding ourselves behind Jock Stein and a couple of pals walking away from the game, presumably to someone’s house near Menock Road.
We always kept a respectful distance behind and didn’t dare approach him to try to talk. As Castlemilk kids, we weren’t used to being shy and deferential but, we had seen what had happened to an older young man who had shown the audacity to interrupt Jock’s group and ask him about the match or something Celtic related, when he had been talking with his pals. Jock absolutely eviscerated the young man and made him acutely aware that he was off-duty and not available. There were a few swears involved so the guy was left in no doubt never to try that again. Now, I could criticise Jock’s reaction as a bit OTT but I’d never had to walk in his shoes and deal with his level of fame. He was making the point that he made himself available to fans but at times and places of his own choosing; he was not owned by the Celtic support.
Now he could get away with the reaction he had because he was loved, respected and feared. Nobody went running to the papers crying “Jock reduced me to tears when I asked for an autograph”. The appetite for victimhood was maybe less sharp than it is nowadays. Big Jock continued to walk to and from Hampden and enjoyed trouble free walks when he did.
Every well known person takes a risk when they are confronted by a fan. They might get hero-worshipped, pestered for gifts/souveniers, or even verbally or physically attacked. It’s hard to judge where interactions with the public may go.
That reminds me of a story that I first read on CQN and then spoke with a Taxi driver in Helensburgh who confirmed he was the CQNr who had posted it. It concerns a dying Celtic fan who asked the taxi driver if someone from Celtic would visit him in his hospital bed and have a chat. The taxi driver approached Celtic and Big Billy said he’d be happy to go and visit the old fellow in hospital. The taxi driver told Billy on the way to the hospital that the old fellow had said he’d want to ask Billy a question and asked if that was ok with Billy.
Billy said “Aye- that’s fine! I’m used to that. They always want to ask the same question. I get it all the time”
The taxi driver asked Billy what was the question he always gets asked and Billy replied “They all want to know what it was like to lift the Big Cup? I bet you it’s that he’ll ask”
So, they arrive at the hospital and had a pleasant chat until the old fellow gets a bit tired and Billy gets up to leave. The old fellow says- “Oh I forgot to ask you the question!” and Billy turns to the taxi driver and says ” I told you – here it comes!”
And the old fellow, from his dying bed, asks him “WTF were you thinking when you tried to control that throw in from Jim Craig and let Prati in to score?”
stebhoy- my bhoy checked his stats,he’s not a MF,more a winger/striker