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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to calrify.
Had he done so there would have been no need for that new club/company information to appear in the Update AS THE NEWS IT WAS but it was information that could not be withheld as it formed part of the UEFA justification for not investigating.
Off topic but sky’s coverage of the golf much better than BBC. At least we don’t have Peter Allis boring us to death with tales of yore.
Saltires
Maryhill has a community mobile guillotine.
You can hire it for a tenner a go:)
Im sure the local bhoys be happy to wheel it over to France.
HH
Weeminger
They must do something, and have the authority according to the summarisers
Did I see Froome currently sitting 6th on the General Classification?
With Yates in yellow!
The Green Man
Aye Brendan might need to work them in shifts, guven the enormity of the task
BastilleDay CSC
Barney-Nick Faldo ffs,a buffoon of a man….
I take it by reading this page there is no news of new player/s. So is it going to be the usual last minute token signing. I really thought when BR became manager, things would change. I think I might have made a mistake renewing , looks like Lawwell has pulled a fast one again. Just have to wait and see, but I do not have much hope.
Saltires
Id sack most of the squad….and hold public trials at CP.
Get yer boots:)
HH
It was page 22 that I read
Is it my imagination, or is it cup ties that having been causing most angst on here in recent years?
And if it is, does it tell us something about Celtic squads of recent years?
Green Man
Hehehe
I’m playing Golffitba game on Saturday afternoon
Can make Wednesday night tho’ – available for selection :-)
TIMJIM on 14TH JULY 2016 4:22 PM
I take it by reading this page there is no news of new player/s. So is it going to be the usual last minute token signing. I really thought when BR became manager, things would change. I think I might have made a mistake renewing , looks like Lawwell has pulled a fast one again. Just have to wait and see, but I do not have much hope.
That is the kind of post one would expect to see with quonno’s name attached to it.
Saltires
We could be the new midfield:)
Cannot be worse than Scott Brown and Bitton.
Mind you, after i score 40 goals, Brendan will probably play me in goal:)
HH
I don’t have an issue with Bittons passing it’s his lack of ability to play the holding role.
The basic premise of a holding midfielder is to break up play and make a pass to a team mate that is in a position to create something or just to decrease danger.
Bitton canny tackle and has non existent pace, he doesn’t track back to help his full backs nor does he put himself in front of our box when we are defending it. I remember Stan Petrov performing as an auxiliary goalkeeper when our defence where under pressure. Stan wasn’t a holding player but could defend as well as attack. Bitton offers not so much but I guess selling him we could end up with another project.
So many players in our team with no ability to tackle including Brown. Johansen is the worst.
Weeminger and Saltires
Did the SFA organise today`s stage?
If Froome does not retain the Yellow Jersey (and with an increased advantage) then I will believe the SFA really are involved !
JJ
Auldheid @ 4.05…
It would be extremely helpful if fans of other clubs became more actively involved. At present it is the easy argument for SFA and SMSM to say it’s Celtic fans trying to get at ‘rangers’…Unfortunately, too many football fans still get their (mis)information from the rags and phone-in shows and seem therefore to be oblivious to the goings-on at hampden and elsewhere…
Anyway, good luck to you…
timaloy29 sleeps on the heated driveway on 14th July 2016 2:06 pm
I think Biton gets singled out a bit too much. He’s a deep lying midfielder who helps us maintain possession and keeps the ball moving. I think he’s pretty effective at that. He certainly needs to toughen up a bit though…
——-
Spot on. Better teams than us across Europe are crying out for that type of player.
Get him sitting behind Armstrong and McGregor and you’ll see him more effective again.
WBC
” too many football fans still get their (mis)information from the rags and phone-in shows and seem therefore to be oblivious…”
I could not agree more.
JJ
Hot Smoked
It’s possible, the history of Le Tour turning a blind eye when it suits…
Then there’s the colour of the fleg..hmmmm
;-)
SALTIRES EN SEVILLA on 14TH JULY 2016 4:59 PM
Looks like they might have taken the times from when the crash happened. Froome retains yellow.
Bom Dia frae the Azores.
Took a ferry over the four mile crossing from Madalena on the Ile do Pico to Horta on the Ile do Faial. Great view of Mt Pico from the open back deck of the ferry. 27 C today so the sea breeze was good.
Horta is quite a cosmopolitan village compared to Madelena. It has a big Marina, as it is a popular stopping off point for transatlantic yachtsmen to pick up supplies, do repairs etc. Small beer only one Euro twenty cents.so just sitting on the Main Street looking at a three masted old yacht (schooner?) in the foreground with the conical Mt. Pico in the background.
This is a Mecca for whale watchers so will keep my peepers skinned on the ferry back at teatime.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pico+azores&client=safari&hl=en-gb&prmd=imvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiLxe2nq_PNAhUIGhQKHeF8B7cQ_AUIBygB&biw=1024&bih=672#imgrc=OqEZJi367W3iEM%3A
Hope this communication finds CQN well
Ambassador Hunderbirds ;)
Weeminger
Definitely not the SFA if they have come to that sensuble conclusion !
Weeminger
Only fair solution.
Thanks for update.
HH
I’d be very happy with 2:0 against the imps at CP. We’ll know now not to underestimate them in terms of organisation and fitness but also that we should get chances. The performance of the players and their attitude will be very interesting. Can BR polish a turd ? We played like that under ronnie but then got no reaction in the home games – we were poor and very very naive. The squad is almost the exact same – can br do it in a short space of time – a big ask
My keyboard does not allow the correct spelling of ` sensible`in a sentence containing SFA ( except for reference!).
JJ
!!BADA BING!! on 14TH JULY 2016 4:21 PM…true story.
Scottish Open at Loch Lomond some years ago. My 11 year old son waits for Faldo to finish an interview before politely approaching and asking for an autograph. The man walks straight past him, almost knocking the pen out of his hand. Later that same afternoon, Tom Lehman arrived on the practice range having just finished his round. My son spotted him and made his way over to get the big man’s signature. As luck would have it, he arrived at the same moment as Lehman’s wife who was carrying their baby. This she handed over to her husband but, on seeing my boy, he handed the baby back to her and not only signed his name in the book but gave him a ball too, which he signed…
Moral of the story? Faldo’s a fanny…
I was listening to the radio this morning and they were extolling the sporting heroism of Tommy Simpson who tragically died on the Tour de France in 1967. There is a memorial to him in the mountains.
Maybe I’m being a bit harsh here but he was in essence a drugs cheat, albeit a tragic one:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Tom_Simpson
CORKCELT on 14TH JULY 2016 3:10 PM
Jeepers just scrolled back Timalloy, starts with a list of players who need to be punted, and then lists his team that should be played and includes 2 of the guys that he has already said should be punted. FFS this place can be bad for your mental health at times.
_________
Well, the reason Rogic and Johansen should be punted is because they haven’t signed a deal. They are good enough to get in the team on merit.
I’d like them to play because they are good players and it keeps them in the shop window. We gain little from keeping them in the reserves.
POGMATHONYAHUN AKA LAIRD OF THE SMILES on 14TH JULY 2016 5:16 PM
Well bear in mind this really was in the days of them all being at it. It wasn’t necessarily the drug use that killed him directly but the fact they clouded his judgement that he didn’t realise he’d pushed himself to the point of death and tried to carry on at a racing pace.
Wow, strange goings on in the cycling, with spectators out of control. It seems Froome retains the yellow jersey after running up a mountain without his bike , emulating a mountain lion.
Of course all perfectly innocent, however unfortunately Lance Armstrong’s legacy to the sport will take a very long time to completely disappear.
GREENPINATA on 14TH JULY 2016 5:28 PM
Today’s incident had absolutely zero to do with doping or Lance Armstrong’s legacy.
WeeBC-he’s an ar$€ of a man HH
FAN-A-TIC on 14TH JULY 2016 2:44 PM
Timaloy29
Comparing Bitton to Lennon is laughable.
One was positionally excellent had game sense and won tackles the other is Bitton.
Rogic and Bitton in centre together.
So let’s expose an already fragile defense by putting in front of them two guys incapable of tackling?
Plus Rogic should not play again unless he renews contract.
Only guys with commitment should play.
_______
First of all, Neil Lennon joined Celtic for a big fee at the age of 29. He was over 10 years into his career at that point.
Nir Bitton is only 24 right now and Celtic park is a hard place to develop. You are either brilliant all the time or you get absolute pelters from your own fans.
Your putting an overemphasis on tackling if you ask me. Celtic’s next game is at home against a bunch of Semi-Pros. Do you think we need two battling midfielders? We’re going to see a lot of the ball and I’d like two good passers of the ball.
As for Rogic, we should be actively looking to sell him but I don’t mind him in the team. He’s a professional footballer and will give it all on 90 minutes (even if that’s just because he’s in the shop window)
The only other option would be Liam Henderson. Which I’m not against if Rodgers wanted to go that way.
Pog
Ive not read that yet (bookmarkedfor later)
Story I read years ago Tom had been living in Belgium and a local Mercedes car dealer offered him a free car if he was first up Ventoux.
In those days doping was less scientific and the autopsy had traces if cocaine in his blood amongst other things.
The truth is they are all at it – allegedly!! A few years ago the clean Sky rider blasted off at the foot of the first big mountain climd. The guy he left standing was born and raised at altitude in Colombia.
The commentator said ” and Froome has just taken off leaving His opponent in his wake … Just like Lance Armstrong once did back in the day… ” oh wait!! A long Silence followed!
The next day the French press were howling about it, but it seemed to calm down and it was noticeable that Froome was less exuberant in the latter stages Of the Tour that year…he did enough to win it !!
Anyway, tradition has UK cyclists making a small token acknowledgement at the memorial to Tom anytime they climb Ventoux.
Armstong’s legacy includes a foundation that raised over 500 US$M
as well as making countless others in his sport and associates very wealthy .
WIN
If BR wants Shane Duffy,hopefully we can mug Coyle and throw on Forrest and someone else into a deal for him
Ken Brown commentating on golfer Nick Faldo and his caddie Fanny
Sunneson lining-up shots at the Scottish Open: ‘Some weeks Nick likes to use Fanny, other weeks he prefers to do it by himself.’
I agree
HH ;))
WHITEDOGHUNCH on 14TH JULY 2016 5:41 PM
Well said.
That money must have saved many lives and done countless good, probably the greatest result from “cheating” that has ever been.
LIVESTRONG