I’m not going to say I saw this coming, I didn’t see defeat, but when I wrote a couple of days ago that you and I have seen a lot more games like Celtic’s away to Lincoln Red Imps than Brendan Rodgers, and about European football in July, I knew this one was never going to play out in a triumphant manner.
On the first day he was appointed I asked one of you to compile Brendan an Efe highlights video – I assume we were all busy. God love Efe, he’s a fine man by all accounts, but he’s three years into a slump which is not going to end at Celtic. Brendan must now be aware. It’s no longer Efe’s fault if he costs us again.
I also made the point previewing this game that we can’t expect a squad comprising only one addition to last season’s group to perform remarkably different in qualification than a year ago. In this sense, Celtic performed as expected, this one had all the hallmarks of our recent Icelandic ventures.
The manager may not be embarrassed at the result (I suspect he might sound different privately) but many supporters are. Gibraltar has a population similar to Bellshill, but without the football heritage and support mechanism. Would defeat to Bellshill Athletic be embarrassing? You bet. Yesterday’s result was too.
We are woefully slow in build-up and have only one player in the squad who can create the 7 or 8 chances per game needed to get a result, and he’s 33 next month and currently injured.
We remain strong favourites to qualify for the next round but there is an enormous amount of work to be done in the next month. This is not a Champions League squad.
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Gutted
Morning from Cyprus. Watched in hotel with many English and many Scottish – I can only assume the Scottish contingent were not of a Celtic persuasion. Embarassed, gutted, hung over. How low have we sunk?
Paul,
KC’s time has come and gone.
Perhaps there is enough in the kitty from the 52K season ticket money to buy us a young, ambitious creative fulcrum.
Maybe there wouldn’t be so many heartless millionaires in the team if, there weren’t so many
heartless-sleekit-billionaire-tories running what was once, the club of the poor, starving, underdogs who’s only token of happiness was to, just catch a glimpse of a fitba team playing in green & white hoops. Never mind winning anything, just seeing those colors on the pitch was grand enough.
Michael Kelly was an eejit.
But, even he had a couple of grains of truth in his locker.
When McCann took the keys of the club and, locked all the Celtic supporters who’d queued all night to buy shares to build the stadium, out of they’re club – MK said – “Celtic FC has just lost it’s soul.”
Aye, MK was one of the basturts who was gonna take the club down a division so that he could keep control of the club.
But, for Celtic FC to be controlled by tories, was the end of the underdog club.
Brief flirtations with Celticness when, Wim, MO’N and Neil were managers seemed to disguise the dis-connect because, 3 managers had to behave like mavericks to get the job done, against the grain of the kowtowing-establishment-tories who ran the club with, the fans aspirations as the last item on the radar.
A rudderless ship at Celtic Park has ensured that, the huns were never gonna be allowed to ‘really’ die, no not when, Celtic-PLC-Hierarchy would look the other way as the huns were allowed in the back door to tool-up.
Now the died(LOL)huns are back with a team full of hatchet men who’ll be allowed to kick BR’s team off the pitch with the backing of mibbery.
BR isny tough enough to deal with what will be coming his way.
He aint as tough as NFL, that’s probably one of the reasons that DD was swayed.
Cellic will get through this game with the Imps but, Cellic don’t exist anymore.
That last line there is what the tory-PLC-Hierarchy at Celtic Park have done.
Sad thing is,…..there will be more pain before a lot of innocent, well meaning folk…..get it.
…..oot…..
Happy Birthday Oldtim67.
I know it’s not the gift you expected from Celtic. I hope today is good with wonderful memories.
Mornong. Dry and very bright looking in EK.
Shortest honeymoon period ever?
Maybe this embarrassment will prove to be a blessing.
Surely there cannot be any more doubt that the squad needs a good 5+ additions, while certain others are moved on?
To paraphrase James Joyce…
With respect to Celtic…
The Present is the Here, The Now….
Through which all Pasts Plunge into the Future.
Calm Doon CSC
Kevjungle-
I understand your points about the suits, but that doesn’t account for disinterested, underperforming players on the field.
Leigh Griffiths out on the wing? Wee Jamsie entrusted to come on and win the day? Bitton still in the team even? Naive in the extreme.
THE GLORIOUS BALANCE SHEET on 13TH JULY 2016 3:02 AM
It’s a repeated failure to bring in players ahead of European qualifiers to fill know problem positions in the team. Make do and mend that comes unstuck against modest opposition.
2010 – having sold boruc we go with Zaluska in goals for the qualifiers when the guy had played about 6 games in the previous 2 years. Only once we are papped out of 2 European competitions at the qualifying stage do we deign to sign a keeper – Fraser Forster on loan from Newcastle.
2011 – with Fraser forster’s loan ended, we again prepare for European qualifiers without a reliable keeper. Pletikosa is used in the prep friendlies as a trialist. Finally the day before we play Sion, we sign Fraser Forster on loan again. We lose 3-1 to Sion, failing in qualifiers for the 4th consecutive time.
2013 – no striker replacement signed for gary hooper until after the qualifiers. We scrape through by a bawhair against Karagandy and then on deadline day pukki arrives ostensibly as hooper’s replacement.
2014 – the summer of the loan brigade. Ronny doesn’t spend a penny on a player until the qualifiers are done and the CL is gone when scepovic arrives again on deadline day. Another year of 2 failed attempts at qualification thanks to the Legia issue.
2015 – failed again at qualifiers.
The record since 2009 is
Played 9 deciding CL/el qualifying ties
Won 2 (Helsingborg and Karagandy)
Lost 7 (arsenal, Braga, Utrecht, Sion, Legia, Maribor, Malmo)
How many of those 7 sides we lost to enjoyed any great wealth or squad depth advantage over Celtic? Only arsenal I’d
It’s a deplorable record that straddles numerous managers. I think it’s indicative of poor planning and shutting the stable door on deadline day every year once the horse called CL qualification has bolted.
The buck stops with Peter Lawwell for this serial failure.
—///—///—///—///
A superb post. You have a wonderful ability to ignore the emotional froth and get straight to the juice! I’m going to bookmark for future reference.
Here’s a bit of froth… Just because!
During the game I was shocked at the amount of passes from our players that were lifted off the deck. Causing need to control pass at knee and thigh height. As bad as the surface was, the ball was capable of rolling at a decent pace without bouncing. Our players couldn’t do that and their players could. At pace!
The calls for the variation of a long ball game to catch them out has some merit but only as a variation tactic. Their goal came from that route and a lot of poor judgement by our last man!!!
However, from what I saw they were not playing a long-ball game every time they had possession. They were also playing through us on the deck with triangles and diagonal passing that our guys could not cope with.
If reports are accurate, some of their guys completed a full shift of daytime work as tradesmen in the heat of the Med. Summer, then ran out in the same heat and played 90 minutes against a professional outfit. At times it was impossible to work out what team had been lazing around in luxurious preparation with massages and wee naps and who were fixing Mrs Sanchez’s blocked drain!
This squad of players is a disgrace to the jersey. It needs ripped up and started again. There is a malaise in the squad and a culture of entitlement and wtf if we don’t try a leg or get pamped out by lower league teams!
The hierarchy that have sat back and allowed that to happen need hunted too.
The Brendan revolution has seen only one player signed and he had little or no service, but we saw enough of what he might be capable of if he had team-mates around him who could deliver a decent pass. The one decent shot he did make from the edge of the box arrived to him at knee height, a pass that travelled a maximum of 10 yards!
As someone pointed out earlier, if these guys from Gibralter manage to score at any time next Wednesday, we will need to score three times, and maybe four, to ensure there isn’t collective heart-failure in the stands at Paradise. Right now I cannot see that Celtic team from last night scoring 3 or more against the Red Imps.
The list of 7 teams from TGBS’s post above, reveals in the baldest terms, the absolute shite standard or level we have become in European football. It is systemic failure and t’s not the fault of any one manager, although they do get it right in the neck eventually.
No, it’s not the managers or even the hapless players, who roll in or roll out at their leisure, with bank balances bloated with the hard-earned money earned by the honest sweat & toil of Celtic fans.
The whole situation is a joke.
The ongoing cheating of the old and new huns, sfa, uefa aided and abetted by our own feckless board and their well- heeled lackies. We cannot do much about the other organsisations but we need to send a message to the current group of custodians that enough is enough!
This blog was littered with gloating huns last night and no doubt today will see another batch on for more of the same. Eventually they will get it out their system and await the next debacle. Meanwhile we are left to ponder our next debacle!
I have never been more glad that I no longer have to go into an office, or join a call with those buggers. God love those of you who do!
What we watched last night was awful. The sad news is there is much more to come before it gets better! If we thought getting humiliated by sevco or the Red Imps was bad. Watch this space!
The entire set up is rotten to the core! I agree that Lawwell is a villain in this piece, but what about the board that employ him. What about the fans who stand back and allow the board to employ him when the evidence that they are wrecking the club is staring us in the face?
I have been as guilty as any!
HAPPY HOOOOPY BIRTHDAY to
OLDTIM!!!!!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aj4wcuo9Mgo
Ronnie deila
Will be pishing himself
This morning
Not a bad manager after awe
WHERE IS OUR NEW SIGNINGS
1 teenager
Not good enough
Taken for a ride
AGAIN
SALTIRES EN SEVILLA on 13TH JULY 2016 6:54 AM
That speaks for me too.
Imagine having to comment on the result as I did yesterday (today for me) to four very football educated Californians.
Questions about wage structure and disparity etc, etc, etc.
BBC just showed the goal again.
Confirmed my initial impression that our goalkeeper is also very, very poor at it.
SIN CITY BHOY
_______________
So, what was all the street parties about when Brendan was appointed if, he’s supposed to be on a different, more qualified level than RD ?
Maybe a lot of the parties were borne out of relief, rather than the consideration of the provisio that, this is Celtic FC were your not just competing with a main rival but, yer taking on a football establishment that exists to serve that rival.
Maybe it’s a quantum leap that Brendan canny quite grasp ?
Maybe there are no ‘real’ Cellic folk to be found within the structures at CP to, take BR into an almost darkened room and, spell it out to him that, to be a success at Celtic, you’ll no get away with just being good.
Oh no, you have to be much more than that.
You have to be the best of the best, of the best.
Being good, very good – isny enough.
But ye have to be grand then, you’ll be touched by the magic.
Celtic-cute-managers are seen as a threat to the ‘established’ order who run Celtic-PLC because, they fear social unrest in the case that a, Celtic manager is too successful….imho.
Why do you think that they pull on the hand-brake when we go through a successful period, rather than strengthening from a position of strength ?
Celtic will never fully recapture it’s soul until structural change is brought into effect at Celtic Park.
That won’t happen until say….a BR led Celtic team loses the league to the died(LOL)huns….imho.
So, the Celticness will remain on the outside of the club till, that change takes place….imho.
HH
Hoopy Birthday OldTim, have a great day.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
With the current squad, it’s reasonable to think the inconsistencies of last year will be there this year and we could well be reliant on other clubs being unable to keep a run of form going. I don’t know much about br’s career but I’d imagine he hasn’t had a squad with a lack of options like our current one. For what it’s worth I don’t see us as being significantly better than the rest of the spfl at the moment though I’m sure we’ll win some games very well.
Paul67
“This is not a CL squad.”
Glad you read that you feel the same as me.
I said the same thing last season and was verbally abused on here for it.
This is basically the same squad.
We are in deep trouble .
I see no solution to the scouting failures of recent years.
Brendan must sort that out quickly.
Our scouts no longer find golden nuggets ,just nuggets.
I have no faith in them .
I’ve been saying it for years.
Unless Brendan hunts them ,then we are going to get the same results.
TT
Sheik – get your point buddy, but to be fair to Ronny he will probably just shake his head in despair!
Sin City – I don’t envy you that task. Take the day off and tell them I said it was ok – Force Majeure ;-)
SHEIK YERBOUTI on 13TH JULY 2016 7:03 AM
_______________________________________________
When John Collins announced that he would be leaving with RD after winning, 2 flags in a row and a league cup.
He said that, history would reflect on how successful that management team had been.
But, for me……and, I said this at the time that, JC intimated as much as – “You think that we were bad, wait till see what happens next!”
Very strange vibes that I got from JC that day.
HH
OLDTIM 67
___________
Happy-Hoopy-Birthday to you.
I hope ye have a grand ole day, fella.
You’ll Never Walk Alone….in the Jungle.
Big calls need to be made on several players. Efe is a foregone conclusion – he simply has to go. Brown-Bitton midfield link up is hopefully now consigned to history.
A creative midfielder, a CB and a right back are need to make the CL. That won’t happen and we won’t qualify. We don’t have the players, just serial bottlers.
We should win next week but these players have history of bottling big games against lower opposition. I wouldn’t bet my life on winning next week.
phone-call-oot…..laters…..
Haven’t seen any of the game. Can’t access BBC. Any links to goal?
Kevjungle-
Thanks for the reply.
Agree about all the managerial requirements Brendan will have to deal with.
I’d just take a much simpler tack and tell him to be successful in dealing with all aspects of the job he just needs to be one unholy, raging, unrepentant ARSEHOLE. (Sorry Paul).
I still think that Cellic at this moment in time, have some guid players.
It’s just that they’re badly managed….imho.
These players need a Cute, a Celtic-Cute-Manager….imho.
Forget all the stuff about embarrassment. That’s the MSM trying to stir the brown stuff, as they always do with our club.
Looking for a headline – “Rodgers calls Celts an embarrassment”. They didn’t get it, so they are trying to turn it round the other way.
Interesting that they didn’t lose their voices or have their computers break down like when the dead club were embarrassed under the great Walter.
phone-call-noo……oot-laters….
OldTim-
A very Hoopy Birthday to you!
Our new manager thinks Forrest is a better option from the bench than Roberts. If that doesn’t terrify you nothing will. Forrest couldnt lace Roberts boots even on a good day. Pi**** off.
Away to my scratcher finally.
12 hours of self-flagelation is quite enough.
Our biggest problem seems to be that we have a large squad of average players with a terrible attitude.
They lack desire, pride and, for some , the necessary skill levels required of Celtic players but we are stuck with them, all on very good contracts.
We need to sell them before any new players come in.
But, who will buy them?
I thought our new manager would kick their arses but he doesn’t seem to judging by their pre-season performances, last night’s humiliation and his subsequent comments.
Some Maribor player spitting wasn’t the worse thing about that game, our deficiencies were glaring.
Ronny would not have left Gibraltar as Celtic manager.
Makes you wonder.
Personally, it’s the lack of leadership and their acceptance of defeat(we saw it countless times last year) allied to the lack of urgency which get me.
The honeymoon really is over.
Embarrassing doesn’t come close.
I posted last night that I was away to my bed at 9 , beelin.
Well I’m up with the lark en route to work and still beelin.
The wave of optimism is gone.
We may have a marquee manager but we don’t have marquee players or a marquee board.
For any Celtic team to loose to that mob is an utter disgrace.
An affront to the 50k who have been conned.
Conned into believing it’s a new era, new thinking, change of signing policy.
Leigh was played in the 1st qualifier last year on the wing , it didn’t work.
If 40 goals doesn’t let u start as main striker, God help us.
Bitton must go. Too pedestrian, too lazy.
I’ve cut Efe major slack before but no more.
He must be released .
Forrest rejected a contract he should never have been offered .
Release him.
Brendan must play people in their true position.
Christie is not a winger.
Hopefully BR will forcefully be knocking down Big Pete’s door demanding these gutless performers be cut adrift.
If we can get a few quid , good.
If not, get rid anyway.
A blind man can see we need a quality centre half to play with Eric.
We better get one .
HH
Sleekit(s) havin’ a field day……..and a laugh.
Ach well, if it turns out there’s no European football this season there will still be the old Firm games to look forward to.
A bit embarrassing right enough for The Great Desmondo, what with his Gibraltar connections and everything.
Maybe wee Paddy will get a run out next week IF we are 3-0 up. Squad player that he is.
Can’t believe people are debating whether this result was as bad as Artmedia.
They were a proper team, who went onto have a decent CL campaign.
Lincoln Red Imps… I mean, seriously..?
Oldtim Hoopy Birthday have a good one