Photo: Vagelis Georgariou biglens.co.uk
In the immediate aftermath of defeat in Turin our manager was magnanimous towards his opponents, the television broadcaster and his players. Sky TV were thanked for their treatment of Celtic (note to others), Juventus were encouraged to win the Champions League, and Neil acknowledged some players may want to further their careers beyond Scotland.
Let’s be clear, most of the squad are happy at Celtic. Georgios Samaras could go anywhere in Europe but this Celtic team is his project, as much as it is yours or mine. Many of the others, including Matthews, Wilson, Lustig, Forster, Mulgrew, Commons, Ledley, Forrest and Izaguirre are settled at Celtic with plenty still to achieve.
Hooper and Wanyama have declined contract offers, so will be most likely to leave in the summer, but in the business Celtic are in right now, if they go, who they go to, is important. If we lose players to tier-one clubs it will make attracting others a whole lot easier. If you are a stepping stone to Barcelona, as with Larsson, you are a far more attractive employer than if you lose a striker to Norwich City (I’m friendly with a former Nigerian international who went on trial to Hamilton Accies the week after, and on the strength of, Brian Easton leaving there for the English Premier League).
Selling right makes it easier to buy who you want. Got to get the right price, keep them for the Champions League qualifiers, and make sure you sell to the right club.
See you at 7.30pm tonight at the Supporters’ Association Club on London Road for the Twists & Turns Celtic Supporters Club charity night. There will be Question and Answer session with me, John Fallon, Dixie Deans, Archie MacPherson, compared by Phil Agnew. Afterwards you can enjoy music from Foggy Dew.
Tickets are £10 and you can get them from Phil by calling 07811 178764. Profits are going to the Tommy Burns charity.
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According to sports report on radio this morning Rooney is on 300k a week at Manure. Little wonder he’s putting on weight.
jackie mac@ 19:39,
“Mon Ray on Great British Menu Northern Ireland”
That music they play in the background is great!
Oh a up the Ray! Oh a… he wins!!!
Celtic_First @ 19:46,
“Well, it was Neil Doncaster.”
A visionary of that ilk deserves a 28K pay rise.
starry plough
some light reading note (jan 2003):))
http://www.ianfraser.org/the-worst-bank-in-the-world-hboss-calamitous-seven-year-life/
SOAL
:¬)
Marrakesh Express from 16.44
Thanks for the reply but i am hearing a lot from people whose dislike of the WGS reign comes from other sources. I do not accuse all of those who disliked WGS as disliking him for being non-Celtic minded but we are being less than honest if we say we did not ever hear or read that accusation made against him by a sizeable number of fans.
I would say that my position of being wholly supportive, I mean wholly because I was willing to tolerate the less than entertaining football, of WGS, was a minority position amongst our support. I’d say that, in the first 18 months of his reign, you’d get more grief from fellow Celts for speaking well of him than if you joined in the criticism. Even at the Tannadice match of Helicopter Thursday where we won 3 iar, vile things were being shouted at WGS from the Celtic crowd and, when we won, not one chant in his favour. That was, at the very least, ingratitude and bad manners. At worst, it was an irrational hatred. The only parralel I can think of is if Rafa Benitez led Chelsea to a CL trophy defence and he was still not acceprted by the support because e had once played or managed a rival team, and not even your big rival team.
WGS’s achievements were never accepted and celebrated. In fact they were explained away. If he did win 3iar, then posters would say, anybody could beat that Rangers team. As we found out with his replacement, that was far from true. Any league title is hard won, even this year’s, which will be won with a similar margin to that achieved by MON and WGS’s teams when Rangers were alive.
You cannot square that circle of saying he was lucky to be up against a poor rangers who, when he left, won the next THREE titles. And did the CL downsize during 2005-8 when we qualified from group twice? No, but we still got the “MON had points totals that would have qualified” that team we loved, if he had done it in the years WGS did. It was an “if your auntie had enhancements, she’d be your uncle” type of argument.
And, WGS achieved all of this without Henrik, and with most of MON’s signings choosing to move on when the big bucks ran out. Only Henrik moved on to better himself.
As for mediocre signings (you cited Sno, Riordan Pressley) well Sno was never as poor as he was painted, Riordan was a major talent who let himself down (another in a long line of Scottish wasters but could have been a great player), and I had hoped Pressley was bought for his backroom influence but WGS disappointed me by playing him in too many games.
However, amongst the other projects he signed who did contribute I would cite Telfer who never lost a league(good journeyman pro), Zurawski (2 seasons of scoring before losing it), Caldwell (not my favourite but made 2 last 16 appearances), Hartley & Robson (influential in winning one league), JVOH and Sammi (2 scorers who have given us memorable moments).
And, in the Willo window, when the Robie Keane deal fell through at the last minute, rather than buying any old dross to make sure the money was spent, WGS brought in a bunch of youngsters including the Twardzik boys.
I never bought the line that the Willo window blew the league, but I remain in a minority with that view. I do not feel the facts fit. We did not run out of steam and blow a lead all the way to the end. We did lose a lead but then won it back and with a 4th title as good as in the bag, we played an utterly dire game of football at Easter Road against a dispirited Hibs where we showed the same lethargy and lack of penetration that MON’s loved players had shown at Fir Park on Black Sunday. And Steven Fletcher would not have changed it because he did play that day and was totally useless.
A year before WGS left a Scottish journo evaluated all of WGS’s 31 signings. Ewing Grahame, by no means a Celtic hater, despite his faults, rated out of 10 ,
Boruc 9,
McDonald 8,
Zurawski & Miller 6,
JVOH, Sammi, Naka, Robson, Hartley, Hinkel, Sno, Pressley, Naylor, Doumbe, Mark Wilson, Paul Telfer, Roy Keane, Mark Brown, Dion Dublin and Ben Hutchison as 5s,
Gary Caldwell was a 4
On 3 he placed Jarosik and Scott Brown
On 2 he placed Donati, Killen, Riordan, Gravesen, Du wei, Aladiere and Mo Camara.
1 was reserved for Kojo’s favoured Adam Virgo (how bad do you have to be to get that rating?)
I feel his assessments were in line with many in the Celtic support though Brown and Sammi would be revised upwards as, I hope, would Naka’s but overall it is a devastatingly low assessment of the squad that won 3iar.
The only conclusion I can draw is that, if his players were that bad, he must have been some coach to get 3iar and 2 last 16’s out of them.
Art of War
19:51 on 8 March, 2013
…
KK – whit years you talking about? Would like to impress me ma and da with my new found knowledge as I’m sure they would have went also.
_____________________
We are talking early 60’s.
Magical days.
Would just like to wish Steven Pressley all the best at Coventry. My wife’s home town club.
KK
Agree.
NL is our manager and we do not need Celtic supporters
speculating on his future.
He is the heart and soul of our club.
I never wanted to believe that my Dad was stealing from his job as a road worker.
But when I got home, all the signs were there.
Sftb
Couple of minor points I’d disagree with, however, that aside I don’t recall reading or hearing a more accurate analysis of WGS tenure.
1 week on……
no news from the spl regards LNS report ?
the silence from the celtic plc board ….zzzzzzz
its all about the money££££££££££
roll up roll up the show must go on
THE STENCH FROM HAMPDUMP WILL LINGER FOR MANY MORE YEARS TO COME
takingusallformugs fc
Regarding the Nimmo Skullduggery I once heard it said that the law was an AASFA.
Predictions for the balance of 2013
The tic do the double with a Scottish cup win in glorious sunshine against hibs.
Lenny stays , hooper, Forster , kayal leave for £14 m ; Vic stays , Celtic make CL group stages with 4 new players who are all internationalists now or by year end
Sally resigns in October 2013 after his latest Ramsden cup exit and mid table league position
David Murrays butler Campbell Ogilvie joins Hugh Dallas in UEFA
Chuck Greens Sevco goes into administration blaming SFA, SPL, Celtic, BBC, Celtic, SPL, BBC, Celtic, Celtic and Celtic. Robert Grieve in the Sun blames Neil Lennon.
Hugh Keevins bhoycotts Celtic Park in protest at the treatment from Pedro
Chuck Greens Sevco are liquidated ; Rumours of a newco called yoyo FC
Sally takes on the Kilwinning rangers job and joins lodge no 1
SOAL
Me and the better half loved that one.
Why did the scarecrow win an award? He was outstanding in his field.
Right bhoys need help, suffering a severe flare up of gout and never slept a wink last night, aff the swally for lent so canny have a drink, what can I take to help get some shut eye
gordybhoy64
Read kojo’s posts
What did the buffalo say to his son when he dropped him off at school? …….Bison.
a player is worth whatever anyone is willing to pay for him, so i’m hoping people will stop running down certain players and shouting for taxis etc i don’t see the media biging up any of our players as they hate to see us getting decent cash for them
Macanbheatha, I would rather suffer, but thanks for the suggestion
jackie mac,
Didn’t hear that. No I don’t think they are getting their act together. They are doing what comes naturally, circling the wagons and hoping times will return them to their former glory basking in the warmth of the Empire.
Those days are gone.
Árd Macha
starry plough
19:35 on
8 March, 2013
Just what does Ian Durrant do??
————————————————————
Eats helium balloons?
Edb
She’s next on my playlist !
leftclicktic
Monstrous is the only word I can find to describe that stuff and there’s a lot of people in Scotland with a vested interested in sweeping the Rangers/Murray story under the carpet, would that the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth come out it would be an eyeopener I think to see just how far that stain spread..
Hope yer well mate..
SP
sipsini
you might want to tell annie that he resembles durranty in some ways… from memory … mini-bigot bears the same resemblance.
met a guy from the rr on holiday who knew him .. told me something i didnt know regards his introduction to his good lady
lets just say the story was similar to novos meeting with his mrs
The Boy Jinky,
He recorded the first 17 days of his hunger strike which is now called his ‘Prison Diary’. Not sure if that counts
Árd Macha .
Ghordybhoy64
For gout you need a doctors prescription for allopurinol, it will do the trick, been taking it for 15yrs
The Spirit of Arthur Lee
The SoAL’s Dream Machine
V
árd macha – thanks.
SFTB
Yeah even as I stood in Paddy McGuires bar in Sydney at 8 in the morning watching that free kick going in the net I thought to myself ” still only 5 out of 10 for Naka”
I spent much of the first three years of WGS reign in foreign parts – though I was home for the matches with Benfica(2 times) Milan, Shakhtar and the decider at Tannadice- and remember with nothing but affection . And as for Fletcher my source, the nephew of a Celtic director, Celtic, WGS and PL could have offered £5m for an unproven striker and the Hibbies would have said ‘can we have another 1/2 mil please.
WGS teams weren’t always the best to watch and his first two and last two games were disastrous but he had plenty on the credit side of the ledger.
Jimbo
voguepunter,
Nil a bhuiochas ort.
Árd Macha
gordybhoy64
That’s an easy one if you want the genuine answer that you seek, a good night sleep.
Suspend lent for 17-18 hours and drink as much as you can of a bulvennie 12 year old
Voila, sleep like a tired kitten, although there may be some side affects.
Remember them sorry. I8 months on I still dont really know how my phone works.
Jimbo
Our exit from the CL may have been inevitable
however the dignity in defeat shown by the players and manager
and most of all by our supporters is
worthy of respect.
Check out this bhoy
https://twitter.com/Away_Fans/status/310088424025620480/photo/1
Árd Macha
Níl aon chion mo chara.
Tbj.
I know the story i worked beside the guy he backstabbed.
A nice bloke.
Good to hear it Ard mhaca – I got a bit of a shock – he sounded intelligent , but it gave an rte type (can’t remember if it was a west Brit) to say that post Good Friday Agreement the tenets of republicanism were up for grabs !