Clearly Brendan Rodgers bought Marvin Compper to the club in January because he felt he needed cover and experience in central defence, most probably for these Champions League qualification games. He has now picked up another injury. Despite plans clearly remaining unfulfilled, we are in a good position to travel to Trondheim this week, but despite confidence ahead of the Rosenborg game, the ghost of Compper spooks me.
Jozo Simunovic is fit, for now, although paying the price for an uncontrolled action. Dedryck Boyata will return to the starting line-up soon, but with less than a year on his contract, I expect the big man’s agent will be busy marking cards elsewhere. Kris Ajer and Jack Hendry have been holding fort, but the job Compper was recruited to do is not being done.
Two years ago we brought in Kolo Toure. The big Ivorian was well past his prime and soon found the rigours of regular football too much, but he brought a calm to the team in the qualifiers, especially in a fraught night in Be’er Sheva.
I know coaches are reluctant to be pushed into making short term signings but this is one time it is advisable.
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Hearts v Celtic
Heart of Midlothian Badge Celtic Badge
Ladbrokes Premiership
Sat, August 11 2018
Kick-off 12:30
Tickets for this match are now on sale to Season Ticket holders who meet the following criteria
Attended 16 or more domestic away matches in Season 17/18
Tickets are priced as follows:-
Adults – £32/£30
65+ – £22/£20
Under 18 – £18/£16
Under 13 – £11
Mahe
The reason you have not found a comparable club is because there are none. Stop looking .
What? Totally Unique?
We cannot find strong points of comparison with, say, Anderlecht (10 times Belgian Champs this millennium with a pop. just over twice ours), Or Zagreb,(14 times Croatian champions in 21st century from a country of around 1 million fewer people) , or RS Salzburg (9 times Austrian champs since 2007 with a pop. of 8 million), or Copenhagen FC (11 times champions in the 21st Century and a near identical pop. level.
These teams offer guaranteed medals and European exposure. These countries have sold players for big money and bought for sums comparable with our record.
Yes, through a fan’s eyes, we see ourselves as unique but, in anyy cold-blooded analysis of the status of clubs in European football, we are yet another perennial champion from a smaller country who gets to participate in top Euro club competitions, who springs an occasional surprise, but does not feature at the business end of those Competitions.
Glass Ceiling- where is it? I need to know to agree or disagree.
It is evident in three factors- 1) the non participations of wee teams from wee leagues beyond the CL Q-F stage
2) the monopoly that teams from the big 5 leagues have had in the competition. Porto in 2004, Ajax in 95, Red Star in 91 are the only teams to break that monopoly in the past 30 years. It is only Porto who have done so in the post-bosman era and no team has managed it in the big TV deal era. Yet in the 80’s we had Eindhoven, Porto and Steau. In the 70s we had Ajax and Feyenoord and in the 60’s Benfica and Celtic broke the Spain/Italy monopoly.
3) The hardening of the trend in both 1 and 2 with each passing year.
“ We have not changed strategy -Yes we have. Odsonne represents the next generation of transfer for us
We have been talking for many seasons now of being willing to spend if the player is seen to be worth it. Odsonne was worth that level of spend- others who were willing to come were seen as not worth it. You cite the example of Pukki and Bangura as 1-3 million buys which did not work out and I accept that neither did. Yet, on the other hand Mo went back into well earned obscurity but Pukki scored 55 goals in 130 games for Brondby and got picked up by Norwich when he worked his Bosman. I think he is no frog, but if he is, we were not his prince. Odsonne is one big money signing but we have picked up valuable players within that Frog Money Territory (if you don’t count N’tcham, you will surely accredit Dembele, Sinclair, Lustig, Griffiths, Boyata, Simunovic and Armstrong as fitting the Frog bill). All of them were projects and all have established as regular first team players. So far Odsonne is the only big money signing- I am sure there will be more, given football inflation, but we will still be in the pool for promising talent and overlooked or unsought-after players that the big clubs are happy to leave us to compete for.
These options were always available within model but previous managers chose to operate differently. “- Thats crap. They werent allowed to or needed players for the here and now and couldnt take the time and effort the way BR has. PL accepted players from his favourite agents , and the manager worked with what he got.
You have called my view crap but it is far from proven crap. You use the phrase “I suspect” in your rebuttal so you must be a fair distance from certain about the crap status you have awarded to my views. And, if you are right that there is a substantive shift in policy and BR has earned a qualitative difference in the way that transfer policy is conducted, having more personal control and autonomy, does this not undermine the original bone of contention that started this exchange, namely that BR was being undermined by the suits (just as you suspect his non-complaining predecessors were). Now, which is it? A new policy under BR or the same old same old paradigm (Scout and manager determine targets, parameters of their worth are agreed between BR and PL within agreed available funds, and then PL handles the negotiations)? If it is the new dawn, why would BR be complaining?
“No way would any Celtic man in this situation leave before the 10,,absolutely no way.”- I mean within touching distance
Fair enough. Brendan won’t leave in season 8 or 9 out of 10………..
Except for the reasons we agree on.
i.e. He gets a job offer that he considers suits him better or he gets paid a lot more. If there was Boardroom interference, he would be gone by now and not waiting for 2019, 2020 or 2021.
On the NDA’S,,,you have brought ex players into the debate for some reason. I dont think they sign them and Im talking managers.
We have been told that players and managers have had to sign non-disclosure agreements, that’s why I gave examples of players who were supposed to have beans to spill but didn’t (Bobo) and players who did spill beans on Celtic (Burley) and on other clubs (Miller, Pressley, Gordon and Wallace). I also did give two managerial examples with Celtic in Wim, and Murdo (“I could have done a better job if they paid me more’). I could have added Lou Macari and Davie Hay to the list of those who have voiced gripes.
In the end, you believe they have genuine reasons to gripe (“you wont hear the truth if things sour. You will hear the fudge. “) whereas I believe they would not have praised the support they got from PL unless they felt genuine gratitude. The problem with the way you have constructed your hypothesis is that it is closed thinking, impermeable to disproof because, if the managers voice complaints, it is because they were badly treated, but if they stay silent or even praise the people they worked with, it is merely because they do not want their bad treatment to come to light. ither behaviour still means PL is a bad guy. Those managers could go to their grave praising the way they worked with the Board at Celtic and you would believe they were lying.
Just for curiosity, I googled “manager criticises club over transfers” and I quickly alighted on the example of Jokanovic at Fulham in 2017, who complained about his target list being ignored. He was already 2 years in his post and, surprise, surprise- he is still in post, despite this scathing criticism. Why did he feel no need to be circumspect or coded or compromised by NDA’s?
Antonio Conte said in January 2017 – “”About the transfer market, from the summer, the club decides every single player that comes here,” yet it was still 6 months before he got sacked. I could find many other examples of managers at clubs voicing criticisms.
Do these clubs not use NDA’s? Do these managers feel more powerful in ignoring them than BR feels he is at Celtic? Or, is it likely that too much is being read into the words “I am not sure”?
Now- i am late for my bed “
Ouch,,,well on behalf of the blog I do apologise Sir. Holy crap,,and youre the happy one.We do all hope you emerge on the right side tomorrow. ;)
Now, I know that you put a smiley at the end and I failed to do so in my end comment so I will apologise for that omission.
However, this illustrates the difficulty in translating other people’s thought processes from their words, spoken or written. I had not meant to convey any mood of tetchiness or grumpiness (2 moods I am familiar with) in that sign-off I had intended to convey that I was unable to deal with any replies immediately as I was going to bed (late) and I know that you were in a more wide-awake time zone.
Rest assured, if it is indeed troubling you, that I am completely chilled about this exchange and bear no malice nor resentment at all.
how do you ever get the chance to go to an away match when they start the season with
Attended 16 or more domestic away matches in Season 17/18.
no fair.
STARRY PLOUGH on 30TH JULY 2018 7:42 PM
MONAGHAN1900
“A bit of a tangent but how do other big clubs operate Man.Utd, Liverpool etc ?”
With real money SammyRabBilly real money:)))
————
Beautiful, Starry, innit? The words “other big clubs” typed without a hint of embarrassment or a tinge of doubt. Man Utd, Liverpool, Sevco – not a fag paper between any two of them.
Celtic FC Tickets
Verified account
@CelticFCTickets
8h8 hours ago
More
Concession Opt Outs and Special STH can now purchase their season seat for the home match v. Rangers on 2nd September. http://www.celticfc.net/tickets Deadline to purchase is 5pm on 9th August.
why £49 ?
greedy greedy plc.
——————–
Celtic v Rangers tickets on sale to eligible Season Ticket Holders
By: Newsroom Staff on 30 Jul, 2018 11:41
FOLLOWING the recent club statement regarding ticket allocation, the additional home support tickets for Celtic v Rangers on Sunday, September 2 at Celtic Park are on sale now to Special Season Ticket holders and Concession Opt-out Season Ticket holders (one ticket per STH).
The deadline to purchase will be 5pm on Thursday, August 9.
Tickets are available to buy now to eligible Season Ticket holders only, priced as follows:
Concession Opt-out Season Ticket holders
Adult: £49
Special Season Ticket holders
Adult: £49
Concession: £30
Please note: Concession Special Season Ticket holders can choose to upgrade to an Adult ticket for this match for £49. However, these upgrades are only available direct from the Ticket Office at Celtic Park and cannot be purchased online or via the sales line.
Eligible Season Ticket holders can purchase their seat for the match v Rangers on September 2 in a number of ways:
Aye,…….who are the real gullibillies ?
Every £49 merchant deserves to be cheated till their last breath.
Celtic died in 1994,it jist takes the know it alls a wee bit longer to get it!
Oh,…….another phone call, bye.
MONAGHAN1900
The Stevie G effect as it’s know in psychiatric wards up and down the land:))
The tickets are £49 because people are glad to pay it. I know plenty who would jump at the chance to buy a ticket for Celtic Rangers game. Celtic Sevco Newco call em what you like
MiT
Thank you for giving a hint to our lady posters/lurkers about who should play me in a (your) movie. I am glad that I am now in a global minority of 2 who think this way. 100% improvement on this morning.
Regarding the script, I would have approached it differently:
Hrvatski: So, Mr Lawwell, how much do you actually earn for doing deals like this?
Mr Lawwell: Well, about £1.5m per year (cough,cough)
Hrvatski: What? What? WHAT? The shame. The shame Mr Lawwell. Mr Lawwell, do you know that I have a friend in Toronto? A lawyer, Mr Lawwell. A lawyer. But Mr Lawwell, the thing is…..his dog earns more than £1.5m per year.
Mr Lawwell: ” ”
———————————————-
I asked for a statement and I got one tonight:
“RANGERS can today confirm a partnership with Lifetime Protection Services Ltd for insurance products for season 2018/19.
Rangers Protect will be the name given to a range of insurance offerings including Bad Deal Protection, Get-a-Life Insurance, Corporate Critical Illness and Big Hoose Collapse Risk Insurance. Rangers Protect will provide competitive quotes from the UK’s C+ insurers allowing Rangers supporters to choose the best policy for them.
Stewart Robertson, Rangers Managing Director said: “We are delighted to announce this partnership.
“Rangers Protect will provide a range of insurance services to our supporters and every policy bought through Rangers Protect will contribute income to the club once Mr Ashley has taken his cut”.
Martin Delany, Managing Director of Lifetime Protection Services said, “We are absolutely thrilled to launch Rangers Protect which as well as offering Rangers fans a great deal on their insurance will give any fan simply requesting a quote access to Rangers Rewards where they can get their free blue, white and red blindfolds suitable for stadium or television viewing.
“We see this as a big win for Rangers fans who have been starved on big wins for such a long time. We are proud to partner with such a novice club and we are all hugely excited about the season ahead”.
Josey Wails fae the Parkheid Jungle^^ roof ; KEV PUT YOUR PHONE ON AIRPLANE MODE, ONLY JOKING PAL HOPE YOU ARE WELL.
Anyone planning on getting the limited edition Celtic PES edition, probably not the forum for this but I know Petec might be interested.
http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2018/07/30/the-mighty-glasgow-celtic-get-special-pes-2019-edition
The late Vitas Gerulaitis, who had suffered 16 consecutive defeats to Jimmy Connors before finally defeating him in a close contest in 1979.
Gerulatis proclaimed at the presser “Nobody, but NOBODY, beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row…”
Greatest Quotes in Sport CSC
BSR
Through the most amazing generosity by a prominent CQNer i have a book signed by Vita Gerulaitis, Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg. One of the most precious gifts i have received in my life.
I loved Vitas. Always an entertainer as well a very good player. A bit unfortunate to be in the Borg, McEnroe and Connors era or he would have won more. God rest him.
Can not believe or understand why Celtic fans are being overcharged for some spare seats for the Sevco games. The extra cash amounts to peanuts on any game at home.
BSR
of course, Bjorn Borg beat Mr. Gerulaitis 20 times in a row …
in fact, Borg never lost to him in a competitive match …. although they were great friends, and often trained together, particularly for the US OPen (as VG had a house and court near by the the stadium in NY) and Gerualitis apparently gave him some real thrashings in practice.
Unsure if much consideration has been given to this yet on the blog, but provided we get through to the final round of qualification for the champions league, I believe we will be the third highest seeded team (of the 8 teams remaining), provided Salzburg also get through to the final round as well (they would be seeded higher).
All things being equal, this means we miss out on the particularly hard draw of either Salzburg or PSV, but could face the difficult task of Young Boys (the Swiss champions), as given their coefficient it would take a few unlikely results for them to end up in the seeded pot. Young Boys enter in the final round due to the high coefficient of the Swiss league.
https://www.facebook.com/lostglasgowofficial/photos/pcb.1583185995126584/1583180415127142/?type=3………………..for all you coia buffs… for if you know you historeeee :)
Vitas Gerulaitis should have joined
Sons of Lithuania CSC
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DjG8QJAX4AAINVQ.jpg
smiley smiley thing
Braw
Ah! Vitus Gerulaitis…my one-time favourite Lithuanian tennis player…he was great in a great tennis period…long gone I’m afraid!
THE HANDS CANT HIT WHAT THE EYES CANT SEE
We’re a better team than Young Boys, it would be a major upset in my view if they knocked us out…
HH
If anyone on the blog has been wondering who keeps phoning, it’s only Nurse Ratchet checking he is taking his Lithium.
?⚽️
“People come up to me in the street and say, ‘Hi, Borg.’ I just say something in Lithuanian and keep walking. They think it’s Swedish.”
The great Vitus Gerulaitis…
STILL THINK THE MCENROE AND CONNORS ENCOUNTERS TOOK SOME BEATING.
Sftb,,
In no way do I take this serious,,keeps the grey matter working and youre good sport.
So with that,,,
Yes we are unique. Totally absolutely. LOok everywhere you wish. Many have some of these things but none have them all,,,
One horse race so guaranteed medals
A 60k home crowd that should be losing interest due to a 1 horse race but the opposite is happening- they just cant get enough and love their team
We play attacking football
European expectations are not very high which helps the players relax on that stage
As we know we are going to win the league we can use it to blood young ones no worries
We have a proven track record of preparing players for EPL life
Our buys are a big big hit in our preferred selling market so much so that we were the route of choice for the worlds most expensive defender
Our ass literally touches the biggest shoppers in the world with the most money in the world.
Glass Ceiling,,,we do differ here. To me you would take a look at the opposition and say Im not fighting him,,,Im sizing him up thinking you stupid bassa youre about to go down and youve no idea.
I guess we might all have a different about idea about what we could achieve .
We had a record turnover of 92m. That included 7m from Virgil addon.
If we had got out of the group or sold one decent enough squad player ala Armstrong ( he missed these figures ) we smash the 100m.
So now you know how to hit the 100 ( a good domestic season plus out of group or one sale ) you can budget for it.
THat is approx one third of an increase to the normal football turnover,,stands to reason you will have a better chance getting out of those groups if your wage level and thus player level just increased.
With the way the market down south is going it could easily be 5o mill is standard for a decent player very soon,,and so we sell one at 50 and we are looking at 150m turnover.
With more than double our regular turnover we could raise the wage bar across the board.
How can we see how high we can go until we try? I posit if we are doing reasonable now being skint what if we were mega flush in our terms. Then we could dream of quarters and further. At least of getting out of the groups a lot more often. THis is all hypothetical and we could spend forever on it .
Odsonne represents the next generation of transfer for us,,,
It seems to me we have changed tact in the transfer market . Since BR arrived anyway and I shall try only to focus on his buys.
We seem to be going out of our way to avoid frogs,, and we spend at a level now when buying from parent club that there are far fewer frogs in that bracket. ( Ncham and Sinky)
We take potential on loan now if possible ( Odsonne ) but if someone is seen as a bargain we might bite ( Henry or Morgan ). I see the entire operation as stream lined now and no longer would I say it looks made up on the hoof or thrown together cheaply.
“ Thats crap “
It was crap and you are pulling my leg if you are seriously saying other managers had as big a say in the transfers as BR does. They got players handed to them,,you know this. Does BR? He does my eff.
So no this doesnt undermine what started this. I and many reckon the suits are penny pinching.
I believe BR choses his players and leaves it to PL yet the players havent happened . So he is upset at what he sees as just excuses from PL hence the cold answer. He should be complaining because having brought in a fortune the club have spent zip and we are in the midst of our crunch games.
“ If there was Boardroom interference, he would be gone by now “
They would have been daft to antagonise him in the first 2 years. We enter year 3 of his reign and it seems he has got his way for the first 2 . Lets watch closely what emerges in the next few months.
“ We have been told that players and managers have had to sign NDAs“
Sorry I personally have never heard of players signing them as standard protocol. Could be wrong mind.
“ I also did give two managerial examples with Celtic in Wim, and Murdo (“I could have done a better job if they paid me more’). I could have added Lou Macari and Davie Hay to the list of those who have voiced gripes.”
What Wim said isnt actionable plus maybe Fergus never did NDAs. We know this shower do though. Seems they didnt in the past so Macari etc can spout whatever they like.
“ The problem with the way you have constructed your hypothesis is that it is closed thinking “
I really do see your point but in my defence we know there are NDAs involved which supports my theory. My argument has some basis in fact.
THose manager you mention who did slate the board or the owners,,it does happen. We both know it does and could find more examples. Its rare though and tends to be a certain type of manager who does let loose. Former Celtic managers tend not to for reasons I can only guess at but I assume respect for the club ( not the individual you fell out with ) and fans tends to win out usually.
Jokanovic,,,Fulham are a localised second to third rate club,,,he doesnt need them
Conte,,,knows he will do well in Italy for the rest of his days and his English troubles wont matter a jot,,,he doesnt need them
Hail Hail
@ STARRY PLOUGH on 30TH JULY 2018 9:19 PM
Not sure if that is outdated thinking. Young Boys won a league containing Basel (who are ranked 18th in Europe and have been to the last 16 of the CL and quarter finals of the EL in recent years). I would call it 50/50 if drawn against them. We still have AEK to surpass who I think will be tough.
There is a smashing book on that great tennis period, High Strung by Stephen Tignor…it truly was a golden age with great characters…Borg, Connors, McEnroe and Vitas Gerulaitis, my favourite ever Lithuanian tennis player…there is a chapter called, Nobody Beats Vitas Gerulaitis…
I may have mentioned it before but Vitas Gerulaitis was my favourite……och! You know the rest…
Right, I loved Vitus Gerulaitus and it was tragic what happened to him but FFS there was only one GREAT tennis player in that era, step forward one John Patrick McEnroe!
On making the semi-final of Wimbledon as a teenager he was asked something like, “with a name like John Patrick McEnroe you must be Irish”? – his answer “100%”!
YouCannotBeSerious.CSC
TTT I welcomed your late and most sensible post last night explaining how one posters post disappeared, after responding to a post that was deleted.
Eutrohamps67 I am 100% behind your comments today. As TTT says it is possibly an age thing, though I may add that social media demand instant success and have created a greedy and me, me, society and we have all been sucked into it.
SFTB Always good to see you posting detailed responses, ensuring that some don’t hijack the blog with negative (in my opinion) view, although in this particular post, I suspect there is a bit of good nature jousting. Keep the flag flying.
KTF CATHACH.
Here is how not to run a club. From Twitter
Barcabhoy @Barcabhoy1 · 4h4 hours ago
It’s another expensive mistake to add to a collection of expensive mistakes
If the reports are correct then Rangers could have suffered losses today alone of
£500,000 SD legals
£885,000 Cardoso asset write off
£750,000 Estimated Cardoso contract settlement
£2.1M loss in 1 day
Here is a link to discussion. Book balancing stuff.
https://twitter.com/Barcabhoy1/status/1023973479840997381
HRVATSKI JIM
Loved him as well, tragic loss very true about his era, and I remember a joust with
Bjorn Borg at Wimbledon which was a classic encounter.
MIT
Ssshhhh…I knew it as I was typing it.
The BBC Football home page is headlining 18 stories tonight – 5 of the 18 are about Sevco.
Surely this is a record?
Looks like the BBC Sport Scotland editorial team are sucking up to the one club that won’t allow them in their ground.
Strange.
Remember how BBC Sport (England admittedly) stuck to their guns in the dispute with Swalex?
If only they could send someone with a spine up here to run things.
Don’t buy from Ashley
The strip my father never wore CSC
I met most of those guys when I was a youngster (I was a decent player… one of my friends was a senior umpire, so, in return for playing for his local club, he would get me into the tournaments, and in to meet the players) …… at the time, I was of the view that Rod Laver was the greatest tennis player ever (still am… just edges out Fdererer, followed by Borg … and I was not a fan of the ugly Americans… (Connors and McEnroe)
having said that, as a youngster, I met all of them a few times, and Borg was usually a surly bellend … while Connors was always the most gracious and giving of his time to everyone anytime I saw him …
(personally, if my wife was a playmate of the year, I’d have been giving the kids the bums rush and hurrying back to the hotel)
… my sense was that Connors loved the game, and wanted everyone to love it, and wanted all kids (not just the country club types) to love it as well…. so, he always stopped to say hi and sign autographs… after having met him (only very briefly) I ended up with a lot more respect for him.
Borg v Gerulaitis classic 1977 Wimbledon semi-final…
Watched it from start to finish…8-6 final set…
Is it only me that has a bit of “the fear” for Wednesday night? Some posts in the last few days have been discussing possible Play Off Round opposition, after we dispatch AEK Athens.
Eh, hello! The Rosenborg tie is far from over. If the ties were reversed and we had scored an away goal first in a 3-1 defeat. How would we be feeling about the second leg at home? We would be thinking we had every chance, of scoring the two goals required on our own pitch, in front of our own supporters.
Rosenborg are a streetwise and well organised team, with a good Champions League pedigree. They created chances in the first leg, and can certainly threaten our progress in the competition.
No wanting to pee on anyone’s parade, but it will need a good performance to get the right result on Wednesday night (1-0 defeat would do me). Eyes on the job everyone.
?⚽️
Sftb,,
“We play attacking football”
That is where I get most enjoyment and last season there was less than the one before (injuries to our best players being a factor) and after some games that we won, I still moaned if the football wasn’t at our higher standard.
“We had a record turnover of 92m. That included 7m from Virgil addon.
If we had got out of the group or sold one decent enough squad player ala Armstrong ( he missed these figures ) we smash the 100m.
So now you know how to hit the 100 ( a good domestic season plus out of group or one sale ) you can budget for it. ”
Imagine we had no qualifying rounds to play as was the case a few years back. The title guaranteed £xxM so we could afford to spend some or all of that on getting out of the group.
Qualifying games are one off cup ties, what makes cup ties cup ties is the possibility that on a given day a poorer side will beat a better one.
The risk is just so much greater that the £xxM does not materialise and the custodians do have a responsibility to look after the future generations of supporters as well as current ones.
Its not a responsibility current supporters bear. The point doesn’t nullify the basic point being made about improving the team quality, but it suggests that it is best done in baby steps building season on season with as few changes as possible in players from one season to the next by upping the wages to encourage them to stay.