That late winner by Matt O’Riley was the start of a great weekend for Celtic, as later, main challengers St Mirren could only manage a draw at Kilmarnock. The fact that this result is better than Celtic managed there in the League Cup is no comfort to the Paisley side’s title aspirations.
St Mirren are Celtic’s only real challengers this season, as the chasing pack slipped ever-further back. Saints are home to Newco next weekend, and if fortune goes our way, the visitors will get a new manager bounce, allowing Celtic to extend their lead at the top again. The top two meet at Celtic Park on 1 November in a game that will go a long way to deciding the title.
As alluded to above, yesterday the world’s most hilarious football club sacked manager Mick Beale after just 10 months in charge. The Beale episode is a morality tale worth exploring. A youth coach at Liverpool, Steve Gerrard took him to Ibrox in 2018. Gerrard, never considered an intellectual, won the league three years later, with Beale’s reputation in Glasgow soaring as a consequence – he was “the brains” behind the operation, apparently.
In 2021 the pair moved to Aston Villa, where they put the Midlands club through 11 months of poor results and were sacked. Beale spent 7 months out of work before being appointed manager at QPR. This is where it gets interesting.
QPR opened the season on fire, were top of the table, with Beale looking like a Premier League manager designate. The opportunity to manage in the topflight came sooner than expected, as struggling Wolves asked him to take over, but Beale rejected them. As the nights drew in, so did QPR’s season. They lost four games in five and Beale’s abilities were being laid bare.
At the same time, Giovanni van Bronckhorst was struggling at Ibrox. Just months after taking Newco to the Europa League Final, he had them in the Champions League group stage, but the demands of competing at that level exhausted his squad. They were losing heavily in Europe while slipping behind Celtic domestically.
With discontent at van Bronckhorst growing, Beale played his card, visiting Ibrox for a home game against Aberdeen. I listened to Radio Scotland that afternoon and his presence there took prominence. Newco fans wanted him, and his attendance was seen as a sign he was willing to come. van Bronckhorst was a dead man walking.
Fair play to Beale, with some sharp elbows, he got himself a multi-million-pound contract, money Newco can ill-afford but will still have to honour. He is the last type of person you would want associated with your club, but just about perfect for a rival.
Let’s talk strategy. Clubs have immediate demands: win the next game. and for some, win the league. Then they have long-term objectives: improve so we have a better chance of winning in future. Fans of all clubs overwhelmingly make immediate demands. Even when clubs know their short-term actions harm long-term objectives, fan demands can be so overwhelming they become irresistible.
That is horrible, destructive, but very common in football. Newco had an unbelievably good manager in van Bronckhorst. He took them to a Europa League Final, eliminated Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic on the way to winning the Scottish Cup, then took the club into the Champions League group stage for the first time.
Newco were not ready for it. How do you deal with losing 1-7 to Liverpool and still get your players full of confidence and pumped up for the weekend? These were questions they didn’t have answers for, because none of them had the necessary experience. Even clever Newco fans I know rationalised to themselves how van Bronckhorst’s football was bad, and change was necessary to prevent inevitable decline.
How ridiculous does that sound now? van Bronckhorst had earned the right to go through a bad patch and would have emerged a stronger manager with a better team. Instead, the Newco board succumbed to fan pressure – which remember, at all clubs is overwhelmingly focused on immediate satisfaction. Tempted by the fruit of another, they sacked the most successful manager they are every likely to have and appointed a great self-promoter.
I spoke to Peter Lawwell often during season 2020-21. It was clear from around October that Celtic were unlikely to win the league and that change was inevitable. Lawwell had to balance the immediate pressure of winning a very important league, with what was best for our future.
Everyone (including me) was telling the CEO the same thing: change had to happen and the sooner the better. Celtic took soundings. Without going into detail, midway through that season, no one worthy of the job would touch us with a barge pole. Neil Lennon had won five out of five domestic trophies and after his first elimination from a cup competition, a mob wanted him sacked. In those circumstances, only a loser wanting the pay cheque would come.
At the start of this season I gave Newco a 33% chance of winning the league. Celtic signed talented players in their early 20s, Newco signed players typically five years older, at their peak – and most of them physically taller and stronger. Again, they had a short-term strategy: win now and think nothing of the long-term.
It failed, but 33% still feels right for what we knew in the summer. Their alternative, to build a sustainable and successful team, would have had a lower chance of winning the title this season, but at least they would not have burned all that money on players who will do well to finish second.
Signings like Celtic’s, full of young talent that will improve, gives you a platform for the future and a chance of eventually competing at a higher level. Now, Newco are under Uefa supervision for overspending, making the strategy which won the league in 2021 no longer available. They are penniless and have a reputation for being forced to sack managers during their first rough patch.
They have yet to face the truth about where they are as a club. At board level, the backroom and technical staff, recruitment, sport science, commercials (oh the commercials!), football management and player squad, they are a million miles short of Celtic’s standard. We have departmental heads with more experience, business and football acumen than anyone at Ibrox, from the CEO down.
Every new season they will start with a puncher’s chance of winning the league. That is all they have: ‘Buy our tickets, we might get lucky!’ It will remain this way until some very ballsy CEO faces the immediate-gratification junkies and says “No!” I see no sign of this happening. Sisyphus FC are stuck in a fruitless struggle for another generation, at least!
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Jesus wept, Sutty absolutely destroying Beale on 5 live
celtic40me on 2nd October 2023 4:51 pm
AN DÚN on 2ND OCTOBER 2023 4:18 PM
So European success isn’t that important after all
It’s a very parochial view from someone who talks so much about our failures in Europe
—-
I don’t follow mate.
I expect more from Celtic. I hold us to a higher bar. Long may that be the case.
that fan footage of the goal is fantastic, also for showing how well drilled the motherwell defense moved together, what undid it was such a brilliantly accurate cross from much maligned footballer greg taylor, and the movement of the leagues top scorer and also written off by some Matt O’riley.
couple of emerald gems.
cmon the hoops midweek.
i wasnt so enamoured with the crowd invasion, and am still expecting some sorty of comment so about it after the beale show is concluded.
In a “what if” world, how good would the likes of Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs be if they had 50k at every home game? Would they follow our prudent model or the Mr Magoo Ibrox version?
The Huns really should not be a business basket case. Managed properly they would be there or thereabouts with us every year. Not quite as wealthy, but with good mngrs, coaches, scouts, youth players etc. the difference on the field should not be significant.
If they had hit the reset button in 2012 and developed a long term strategy based on solid financials they would be a serious rival.
Aberdeen would surpass them if they had half of the Ibrox revenue.
AN DÚN on 2ND OCTOBER 2023 7:21 PM
Not hard to grasp. GVB achieved the success in Europe we should be achieving, but his failure to keep up with an excellent Celtic team in the league means he should have no complaints over his sacking.
Zero acknowledgment of the thing you criticize Celtic most for
Cognitive dissonance
Apparently one of the Stoke fan blogs reckons Alex Neil might be on the list for the Hun manager – or at least they hope so.
31003- said same…14/1
Sky advertising all the sports and competitions they are covering, only Scottish goal is Tav Pen……what did they win again last season?
AN DUN
Why do hold us to such different standards to them?
It’s peculiarly entitled to assume domestic domination over a rival who‘s only tangible disadvantage is 10,000 fewer seats, and who have spent the last twenty years trying to make it up by cheating and financially doping.
Odds on Davis and Rae turning up at St Mirren,suited and brouged.
” Oh,suits you sir,oh.Are you staunch sir,oh,suits you”
Evening all.
If the blog doesn’t mind, a wee tune that will always remind me of Mick (The Mole) Beale.
Chas & Dave – Rabbit 1981
https://youtu.be/qGNojF9qKS0?si=08QFXoxWO7sZt82w
HH
celtic40me on 2nd October 2023 7:51 pm
AN DUN
Why do hold us to such different standards to them?
It’s peculiarly entitled to assume domestic domination over a rival who‘s only tangible disadvantage is 10,000 fewer seats, and who have spent the last twenty years trying to make it up by cheating and financially doping.
—
It’s far too simplistic to reduce our financial advantage to 10,000 seats.
They are run like a dodgy car wash. Them not having a clue how to run a club doesn’t necessarily make us outstanding in our field.
For me, we have to look at more competent clubs and use them to gauge our performance.
If you want to benchmark us against basket case fc, go ahead. To each their own.
What you call entitlement, I call higher standards.
TURKEYBHOY on 2ND OCTOBER 2023 8:02 PM.
Funny but true.
The first thing I’ve seen of the new management team, is them rolling out the lowest common denominator statements, to appeal to the challenged of mind.
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
Superbru Update Week 7
This weekend was a time for additional rejoicing for all those who routinely bet against Sevco in the SPFL. Sixteen posters predicted a Dons win and, though nobody got the exact scoreline right, fess19 and BMCUWP did predict a 2 goal margin.
The top positions this week go to :-
1. Scaniel- 11 pts (I reckon one of the donkeys is helping him with this)
2. BC Milan- 10.5 pts
3. = Bhoy from the Village & snapper 1969- 9 pts.
At the bottom we have:-
wee BGFC (failed to trap) – 0 pts
Por Cierto (official wooden spoon) – 1 pt
and 6 punters on 1.5 pts (Tirconnell, Apple, Big Jimmy, Angel Gabriel, Hamiltontim & Ayrshiretim)
That leaves the Leaderboard Top 3 as:-
1.BC Milan- motoring ahead on 53.5 pts
2. Scaniel (and his Neddies) – 50.5 pts
3. Billy Bhoy- 47.0 pts
At the bottom we have, ignoring wee BGFC, :-
the unflinchingly inept Friesdorfer on 17.5
the decidedly consistent Disco Deek on 18.5
& the occasionally mediocre Wee McCaff on 20.5
Our next deadline is for 7th October when we have 5 matches kicking off at 3pm. The biased fenian fixture computer is allowing Sevco an additional day’s grace before their next beating.
Tx. for taking part in this fun. It is much appreciated, especially since there were so many alternative sources of fun last weekend.
Saw the huns on the news getting all excited about Davis and Rae, one mentioning the latter had managerial experience.
I thought Rae had been sacked in every managerial appointment 🤔
AN DÚN on 2ND OCTOBER 2023 8:09 PM
It’s far too simplistic to reduce our financial advantage to 10,000 seats.
Of course it is.
“They are run like a dodgy car wash. Them not having a clue how to run a club doesn’t necessarily make us outstanding in our field.”
Then you go and do the exact same thing yourself. We’re ahead financially because they’re poorly run.
Where do years of profitability fit in? This year we made a profit before tax of £40m. Not because of them, because of us.
It does beg the question though, which is what I was driving at; if domestic dominance should be assured given the mess they have made of running their club, why should GVB have no complaints over being behind us in the league. What sort of handicap should we apply to our successes so we can more fairly asses the performance of GVB, our manager and our board
How good should we be given how bad they are?
I have noticed a few posts about what standards we should be looking for in Europe.
Most of those posts seem to think it is a relatively simple matter of simply adopting the European Model ( whatever that is) and forgetting all about Sevco.
I would say it is much more involved than that and certainly not as simple as some seem to think.
Just seen this post on SC
As for Alex (Nosferatu) Rae
Dundee – Sacked
Mk Dons – Not given a contract offer (ie: Sacked)
Notts Co – Sacked
Blackpool – Sacked
Genk – Sacked
St Mirren – Sacked
Reading – Sacked
Obviously, performance on the field is of primary impotance so how many `class` players do we have?
I`ll go for:
Johnston, Carter-Vickers,O`Riley,McGregor,Hatate,Abada ,Kyogo and maeda (sometimes !).
Some of the new guys might be good enough as well . Time will tell but that is not a bad group for starters.
….and let me add that the likes of Scales and Taylor are no mugs either.
Another question
Given how much we have won domestically recently, how much better we are than them, if they were well run what do you think our trophy haul would look like?
HOT SMOKED on 2ND OCTOBER 2023 8:30 PM
I think people assume it’s as simple as adopting the same model as other clubs who operate in different leagues with different ownership models. Or copying and scaling it differently.
Every club is unique and faces different, complex challenges.
Check out the run from James Forrest, taking a defender with him, creating room for Matt.
“CELTIC40ME on 2ND OCTOBER 2023 8:50 PM
I think people assume it’s as simple as adopting the same model as other clubs who operate in different leagues with different ownership models. Or copying and scaling it differently.
Every club is unique and faces different, complex challenges.”
I strongly agree.
Running a club like Celtic is not as simple as some seem to think.
Anyway, I am pretty tired ( well, tired anyway ) so I`ll wish you all an early goodnight.
Goodnight.
celtic40me on 2nd October 2023 8:50 pm
GVB wasn’t sacked in isolation.
I don’t want to go around in circles here but he lost 2 league titles, overseen the worst group stage in 30 years of CL football and according to their fans, was playing pish football.
I want to see Celtic achieve domestically and in europe. I’m not sure what’s so contentious or entitled about that ?
Just a wee reminder for the old firm obsessives…
Celtic won on Saturday because we never stop
Celtic have an important UCL game coming up on Wednesday evening
Rangers died!!
P-R-I-O-R-I-T-I-E-S
Hail Hail
celtic40me
It does beg the question though, which is what I was driving at; if domestic dominance should be assured given the mess they have made of running their club, why should GVB have no complaints over being behind us in the league. What sort of handicap should we apply to our successes so we can more fairly asses the performance of GVB, our manager and our board
How good should we be given how bad they are?
—
It’s not for me to assess how successful the hun manager is. That’s for them. If they want to benchmark against us then thats their business. GVB knew the score, he knew what was expected. He went there with his eyes wide open. So in that sense, he can have no complaints.
WE’RE not half of anything.
CQN CSC
HH.
https://cdn.celtsarehere.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/SPFL_MOTHERWELL_CELTIC_2425-1920×1215.jpg
https://twitter.com/MotherwellFC/status/1708874487356117255?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1708874487356117255%7Ctwgr%5E43c550692f84ea4e7d9fea4f5acdc6396f326a7b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fceltsarehere.com%2Fwatch-motherwell-release-dramatic-saturday-celtic-video%2F
The only downside of having Brendan Rodgers is knowing that we’re going to lose him more than likely sooner than we think.
Top EPL club will be in for him, probably Man United.
On the plus side Celtic will be well prepared and very well compensated. The Celtic way is upwards.
Ave Ave
Scullybhoy
Thanks for the motherwell fc vid highlights
Goodnight all
So Michael Beale is gone, cut loose by a regime that is a shambles. Ibrox has been a visible shambles for most of the past twelve years, and a hidden one in the years prior.
There is some hatred being directed at him – why?. I don’t hate him – why would we hate him? He ends up as a patsy – in some ways I have sympathy for him.
He was out of his depth, plain and simple. There is an old saying “ your eyes are bigger than your belly” – so it was with Beale., He just couldn’t resist the Ibrox job when it was offered. Those who engaged him and gave him carte-blanche over all football and transfer activity must shoulder the blame – an utter shambles of a club that stumbles from crisis to crisis and seemingly never learns.
The SPFL computer giving them a run of home matches and us a plethora of away matches was supposed to give them an advantage.
As it turned out, we have played 4 away matches and won them all. We have only dropped points in one of our 3 home fixtures- the draw with St. Johnstone.
Rangers have actually won 2 of their 3 away fixtures losing only to Killie, but they have lost 2 of their 4 home fixtures- to us & the Dons.
It’s only a small sample but it shows how easily we can misread what is a hard and an easy fixture.
That said, in the longer term and with a bigger sample, I am fairly sure our home records is stronger than our away form.
Hello again all you young rebels
From a very wet and blustery Melbourne peninsula this
morning.
But it’s most welcome, especially for my parched garden.
What a read back today, everyday’s a learning day on
here.
Who’d a thunk we would be reading about Greek mythology
and Sisyphus ?
Just want to know, if I canny push a big boulder up a hill
does that make me a big sissy?
O.k I’ll go get my toga 🤪
H H. Mick
think.
PRESTONPANS BHOYS on 2ND OCTOBER 2023 8:35 PM
Just seen this post on SC
As for Alex (Nosferatu) Rae
Dundee – Sacked
Mk Dons – Not given a contract offer (ie: Sacked)
Notts Co – Sacked
Blackpool – Sacked
Genk – Sacked
St Mirren – Sacked
Reading – Sacked
Geordies funeral services…..??
:-)))
These login issues are not Good.It isn’t new.
Forget about Newco and concentrate on taking on a Top Level Italian team.
We, IMHO are miles from where we should be, hopefully the Sensational Celtic win at the weekend will galvanise the Bhoys for Wednesday and we get 3 points.
Are we playing St Mirren on November 1st? Seems I missed a dig ;-))
Doesn’t really matter who theRagers replace Beale with….their team remains the same…stupid stupid Huns ;-))
Pete did GFTB take you up on yer offer?
H.H.
TLT,
Apologies, the Bhoy is sunning himself in Spain this week, he had told me a few weeks ago – I forget a lot.
1 Stipulation,,,, you need to shout Big Time for the Bhoys and not be a moaning minnie. No way I wannae hear that. Ticket is yours a donation to any charity of your choice would be nice (not essentia)l You can get my number so we can meet before the game. I like to enter the ground earlyjust like seeing the warmups.
It will be Good to meet ya.
Not sure if I’m gonnae drive or get the Danny McGrain yet.