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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AULDHEID @ 9.36
The ( Big Hoose) of cards
Profit and Loss CSC
Last post for Mahe the Madman not sftb.
Not sure if this has been raised earlier but …. any word on JD Sports response to the deal?
I suspect they are entitled to be compensated.
Should celtic qualify on Wednesday night has there been any indication as to whether th AEK match would be 7th or 8th August ?
Back to Basics
That is a really good point. This could be another gift that keeps giving.
Yes! The ‘blue-collared’ Jimmy Connors. Didn’t he have Irish connections?
Hello Lhads, long time naw see….
ACGR…..Mick, how you doin, bein workin where you nearly sent me…….
Away tomorrow, but we’ll have to meet up at Paradise in the near future…
Headin out to the Arbroath on Weds….
Hope yer well bro….
BMA
HUnderbirds
Normally, I am not one to count chickens … but, after the first 30 minutes, Celtic were so far ahead of Rosenberg in the last game, that even a negatonian like me started to look ahead to the next round.
For the next leg, even if Rosenborg show more, all Celtic need to do is score 1 (which I have no doubt thhey will do), and I cant see Rosenborg scoring 4 …
for me, the biggest difference between this team and even last years’s team is Odsonne … he has developed so much, … he makes everyone else around him better.
Gooooood Evening CQN – ???????
I see no one knows how far off Nir Bitton is from playing – last season being coached to play at CH
Also Mikael Lustig is back training, another who can play at CH
No need for a panic buy ??
Get the English transfer window closed, and hopefully players become available ??
Now, in his prime was Gerualitis not classed as the fitessed sportsmen in the world ( thought he was Argentinian though )
Finally – how much money does that 6 year old club have to throw away ???
Norrie …
how are you keeping, mate?
are you Biton’s agent? you have been pushing him pretty hard on here! you getting a cut of his appearance money, or something?
you are thnking of Guillermo Vilas … who played at the same time, … a lefty with a huge topspin game like Borg …who was from Argentina (the Bull of the Pampas, I think they called him)
jimmy Connors CSC
BSR at 10:11
I loved him too but just not as much as the so called super brat!
Hi Mike
Doing ok thanks, although spending too long with work in englandshire ☹️
Just I seen a fit looking Nir going into stadium on Wed
Last season he was being played and coached as a CH.
– very comfortable on the ball, very good passer of ball, accepting he had a bit to go as a top CH
No need for panic as per blog comments in my view
How is the Bhoy Seamus doing ?
Oh your right it was Vilas – super fit
Auldheid,
So what do we do with extra money when it comes in if upping the wages is not good for the business? And we are talking serious money here. If your answer is grow the business bit by bit taking small steps I would agree with that. You can always throw money at things sure but would Lennoxtown for instance need a 10 mill windfall? One of these summers we could have a lot of extra money.
Hail Hail
Mahe
I am going to call a temporary halt to my side of the exchange with the observations that:-
a) It’s just as daft for PL and the board to antagonise BR in the third year as it is in the first. Maybe, even worse, because now that the fans have had a taste of BR’s level of success and development, they will be even more angry if he walks.
Personally, I don’t doubt that BR had disappointments in the target list he handed over to PL in Years One and Two. With close to 5 weeks left in the window, I doubt he is reading the Riot Act (coded version) to anyone as yet.
b) Jokanovic made his statements when Fulham were a Championship club. He had only managed Partizan, Sofia, Watford (in the Championship) and Maccabi beforehand. He had no stellar record of success in order to be given leeway or feel he was more powerdul than the richest club he had managed. He was not yet being seen as a Big Club target for manager.
Yet he stayed on, surviving his outburst and under the same management he criticised. Fulham fans would not have protested overmuch if he had been sacked after 2 years of failing to win promotion, but 18 months after his outburst, he has got them to the Promised Land.
Now the fans will praise the manager but will they praise the Board that stood by him, even as he was biting the hand that paid him? Seems there are many ways to skin the rabbit of success.
c) Yes- the reward of sourcing and developing a good player can reach richer rewards in future. We have seen this with the 12m for Aiden, 11m for Forster and 10m+ for Wanyama and Van Dijk. Our fees are going up but so are the transfer fees and costs of our replacements. You cannot factor in our export gains without acknowleding that our import costs and our operational costs sky-rocket from the very same inflation that brought us higher transfer fees.
And while we have enjoyed great success with the very expensive Odsonne, the moderately expensive N’tcham, and the cheap-verging-on-robbery fee for Moussa, we still have our take-a bath signings (De Vries, Bailley, Gamboa, Comperr, Benyu,) with the jury out on Hayes and Hendry. I suspect we do not have foolproof scouting and that such a thing does not exist. Our next signing, whether cheap, moderate or expensive, might turn out to be another unkissable frog.
That is not glass-half-full thinking; it is a realistic appraisal of the possibility that every transfer, just like every game, has. 3 possibilities – win/improve the squad, draw- replace like with like, or lose- replace superior with inferior, even allowing them time to develop.
It’s great to have Brendan but the ways of the world remain the same. We can and are likely to make mistakes in the transfer market. We, as fans, are likely to blame PL for the failures and credit the successful manager for all the successes. No-one really worships the Suits and the Balance Sheet. It is just that any deviation from our traditional narrative, that the players and staff (scapegoats excepted) are good guys & the Board are devious bassas, if not outright Masons, will be treated as heresy or not being a proper Jungle Rebel.
CQN is a rare oasis where I can find willing ears to listen to my version of what I see as reality but I talk to fans in many other situations and I know that the CQN outlook is not well supported by the majority of fans. I am realistic to know that, just like James Forrest is only ever one bad game away from Gethimpuntedland, so will BR and his team to be subject to ever raised expectations. I can see BR being considered for a sacking if any of our future league titles ever become tight affairs (remember that the “disastrous Ronny won both his leagues by margins of 17 and 15 points but that was too close for some and, yes I know his 2nd Europe campaign was very poori).
I confidently predict that, if we make the 10iar, the 8th, 9th or 10th title will be closer than any of Ronny’s were. And I seriously wonder if those who have become used to success have the resilience to cope with a nervy league outcome. Evidence from match day postings when we drop points in August to February, suggest that we are not.
We have a terrible longing to be back at the top table. I have a terrible fear that no mortal can achieve that status within current conditions. You feel there is a formula and route to do so but clever, tested and street-wise people like DD, PL and BR have been trying to do so. And their counterparts in Belgium, Austria, Croatia and elsewhere have been trying to work this too without success.
The minute one of them shows us it can be done, I will be demanding that Celtic try to emulate their route.
Norrie
glad the work thing is going okay … I guess if we have to pick, its always better to be too busy than not busy enough …
I rated NB when he came, and even wondered myself about him as a ball playing CB, but he just seems to languid for the scottish game …. and we definitely seem to be playing with more tempo now ….. so not sure he will fit …
but he is tall …. it seems to be the way that, if anyone is over 6′ 2″ and coaches dont know what to do with someone, they now just stick him in as a CB ……
wish they had done that 30 years ago… If all you had to be was over 6’2″ to be a CB, I could have made a career out of it!
:)
I think Mahe and SFTB should get a room …. :-)
The journey from Turkey is long enough but even worse if you are surrounded by huns on the plane. God these peeple are thick, care one brain cell between them.
Oh and £49 for these new tickets available against them is just wrong. Stop it Celtic.
WITS at 8.21 (I think it was)
Dead right. I paid it before and am paying it again (and in my own seat this time).
£10 per Celtic goal against that mob; £10 per wonderful, joyous explosion of emotion against that mob; £10 per goal to be able to say, I saw those goals, I felt the love, I felt the stadium shake…and I shared it all with my son.
Sevco, Newco, Zombies, Deidco, call them what you like, we all know the truth of what they are, a mob of bigoted shysters just past their sixth birthday. I’m happy to pay to watch us turn the screw.
Whats the latest on res12?
Ilie Nastase…great character, fiery…never a dull moment watching mr nasty…at times, undiluted, raw talent…george best of the tennis world…I think Ivan Lendl began the cold, determined,; machine-like style that (never won him wimbledon) was carried on by Pete Sampras and even today Roger Federer…
What would get the stolen trophie’s stripped the quickest ?
1. Empty seats ?
Or,…….
2. Prayers ?
Oh,……another call, bye.
FieldofDrams…
“we all know the truth of it “….
dont think our Club agrees with you ….
“CELTIC Football Club has confirmed that it will issue approximately 800 tickets to visiting supporters for the fixture against Rangers at Celtic Park on September 2. This mirrors the decision announced recently by Rangers.”
Not even The Rangers.
I seem to recall that when the first sevco match was announced, and they were called Rangers on the Celtic website, it was said that the announcement came directly from the league … something like that …
no such excuse now.
I noticed that Lithuania and Lithium get a mention on the blog today.
Personally, I think anyone who pays £49 to fund the huns has bipolar disorder.
WBC
Before Lendl, Borg was called the iceman (is i magen in swedish meant ice in the stomach … .something like that …meant never showing any nerves)…
Whereas Borg and VG were recreational chemists … it was often said that Lendl was the first of the prominent male tennis players for whom pharmaceuticals were as important as their racquets…
of course, Lendl was a product of the old Eastern block system, so, the general assumption was that all of those athletes were juiced.
MIKE IN TORONTO, how are you mike hope seamus is well,ive got a feeling you would not pay 49 pounds to watch sevco.hh.
Charging special season ticket holders £49 to see the tribute act is a joke. I’ve listened to the TO manager and the Finance Director speak about ticketing in the past so this decision doesn’t surprise me at all. To them it is a simple supply and demand argument. It is however another poor decision when it concerns the tribute act.
I hate the fact that Celtic supporters are bipolar.
It’s awesome.
NORRIEM on 30TH JULY 2018 10:03 PM
I told you 2 weeks ago it was another 2 months for Nir.
MIT… Borg, when he lost to McEnroe in the 1981 US Open, walked off court and was not seen again till the following year, where he played only one tournament before announcing his retirement…at 26! (twenty-six)…… Jimmy Connors was the first top pro to discard the wooden racket…by 1976 almost everyone was playing with aluminium/graphite rackets…mcenroe was one of the last to give up the ole wooden walloper…
bringbackwhiteballs csc…
Remember all the celebrating when the huns cancelled their walk down London Road last week???
Well, seems like they knew what they were doing: https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=18520&fPst=1
Seems like they knew what they were doing and, check the week before FFS..
THE HANDS CANT HIT WHAT THE EYES CANT SEE
Just going from what I saw of them this season on telly, seemed to me that their win was as much to do with Basel’s collapse going for nine in a row etc as them being a great team.
I’m confident we would beat them over two legs, also they don’t have anywhere near Basel’s or our Euro experience.
Foret AEK we still have a big job to do Wednesday, they get an early goal and we’ll all be re-arranging the furniture:))
HH
Mahe @ 7.23,
I have no desire for mineshafters to leave. We all have doubts.
What I do wish is for ill informed, negative, repetitive posters, that don’t even go to support our club, recognise that their suppositions are based on their own prejudices, not on any factual basis.
By repeating them, ad nauseam, unsubstantiated, merely highlights their lack of insight.
Us older generation may have experienced times when it was genuinely difficult to be a Celtic supporter but we have prevailed.
We were never left alone.
Eurochamps67
MMMM….
Council Website FFS….
Check the 11 August and, especially 18th while were at Firhill….
CaltonTongues on 30th July 2018 11:19 pm
That august list is absolutely astonishing…hard to believe its 2018…300 brave souls on the 19th though
Game, set and match to…
Hasta tomorrow…
CELTARELLA on 30TH JULY 2018 11:30 PM,
Seems like the ‘Locals’ knew there would be a sting in the tail.
They’ll be walking up the Gallowgate while the Celtic game is on BT Sports and you can bet the Police will shut the pubs…
CELTARELLA on 30TH JULY 2018 11:04 PM
I hate the fact that Celtic supporters are bipolar.
It’s awesome.
===============
That made me chuckle.
You are wasted on here. :)