You and I are old enough to remember when a home cup draw for Celtic was a rarity, so we’ll take Dunfermline at Celtic Park in the last 16 of the League Cup with good grace. I know this trophy is our fourth priority of the season, but it will not feel like that come the latter stages, should we get there, or even if we don’t.
Get past Dunfermline and there is a maximum of one away game before the neutral venue semi-finals. This competition co-exists in the calendar with European group stage games, so it takes careful squad management to chart a successful course through them.
The League Cup represents every other teams’ best chance of getting a trophy off Celtic this season, especially so, if Celtic are the only side still in Europe. As such, it takes on an importance it has seldom held since its inauguration in 1946.
This exceptional domination of Scottish football by Celtic has made every trophy, every game, more important. This is why Brendan Rodgers was right to rest players for a Europa League game in Leipzig ahead of a League Cup semi-final against Hearts. Conventional wisdom held that domination by a single team was bad for a sport, but there is a timeless truism: sport needs great champions for others to aspire to beat. This is where Scottish football is right now. Dunfermline have their chance in a few weeks.
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jimtim on 30th July 2019 12:38 am
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You’re aff yer heid if you think that last game in Govan meant anything. As for the former we were missing half a team and had Brendan Rodgers greetin face as a motivator.
Boris in Jockland…….
Who would win in a fight between……..
Boris Hubris and May Feartiness
Boris self-satisfaction and May cowed
Boris bravado and May`s tremulousness
Boris grandiloquence and May`s hysteria
Boris rodomontade and May`s bowel-emptying .
Aye.
IniquitousIV on 30th July 2019 12:34 am
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NFL will select the midfield depending on who’s available for selection. Celtic will destroy der Hun this season, our foot will remain on their squirming throat.
Macjay
I think the answer is Nicola Sturgeon and the EU
g’night
SFTB
Careful what you wish for , my fellow Tim.
Immigrants using Ireland as a back door to UK ?
Immigrants using Scotland as the back door to England ?
Trouble brewing , old son.
Team for ibrox needs to be players who can dig in in center of park
They just flooded the midfield with hammer throwers .
one niter james Forrest must give a game at ibrox. he has never performed there and in December performed a disappearing act
I said yesterday that it was so far a shambles of a window
only one 1st team standard player brought in the center half big jules
we are weaker at this part of the season than we were last year when we got turfed out by a poor AEK
HENRYJOY @ 1:05 and SYDNEYTIM @ 2:08
You lads are at opposite ends of the spectrum. I desperately hope HENRY is on the money, but tend to agree with TIM. Unless we get reinforced ( and Lenny tried with Turnbull, Harper et al ), our midfield at the Bigotdome is likely to be Forrest, Brown, McGregor and Johnston. Based on the deer in the headlights performance of the wide men last time, that is not going to cut it.
I’ll be delighted to be wrong and will gladly eat humble pie in that event.
IniquitousIV
IniquitousIV johnstone on one wing with forrest on other hands midfield to derhun
we are weaker than last year, we have not invesyed and improved
we still don’t have a right back, we did not invest in a goal scorer
peter lawell is micro manging everything , PL and BR did not like each other we knoiw that, but please don’t make PL as some sort of 100% celt he is not, he is 100% his own balance sheet
we are suffering as we don’t have director of football, peter things he is, but has no idea about things on the park
Lenny knows all about Ibrox and the huns.
Done that and been there.
GFTB
Do you have house, car or life insurance?
HH jg
macjay unfortunately untrue
one of my concerns about neil , is he does not have an assistant manager with experience in tactics , only has Pl man as assistant
macjay1 for Neil Lennon on 30th July 2019 2:41 am
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Exactly. NFL will tear der Hun a new one.
MACJAY1 FOR NEIL LENNON on 30TH JULY 2019 2:06 AM
SFTB
Careful what you wish for , my fellow Tim.
Immigrants using Ireland as a back door to UK ?
Immigrants using Scotland as the back door to England ?
Trouble brewing , old son.
———
Says the immigrant to Australia.
If it wasn’t for ‘immigrants’ uk 2019 would grind to a halt. There would be no functioning nhs.
I thank god for all his children. I didn’t get to choose my place of birth, nor did they.
One Club, open to all.
JAMESGANG on 30TH JULY 2019 2:49 AM
“If it wasn’t for ‘immigrants’ uk 2019 would grind to a halt. There would be no functioning nhs.”
Opinion expressed as fact.
Immigration per se is fine as long as it is carried out legally.
I believe in the rule of law.
How about you ?
SYDNEYTIM on 30TH JULY 2019 2:46 AM
I was comparing Lenny`s experience of Ibrox as a player and manager to Brendan`s lack of same .
Lenny experience as a player was excellent
Not so much as a manger
Once again fear the backup , he has an assistant Manager with zero experience
Syd.
I like John Kennedy.
Damien Duff remains to be seen , but I`m confident.
In particular , I`m sure that their hearts are in the right place.
Lustig about Brendan. If you love Celtic , you don`t leave in February.
Hear Hear.
Re. Experience.
Gerrard is learning on the job.
GFTB
You say you worry about your posts and so you should this effort was nearly as bad as your Huns will finish in the bottom six one last year.
I can understand why the Huns are needed for Scottish football, I understand us v them is a draw for foreign players, also Scottish players as well … what I can never understand is why the likes of Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs & co let them away with blatantly flouting the rules … they are still signing players they can’t afford, Hibs in 4th place missed out on Europe as a team from Govan have been trading while insolvent … they are living on the never never payment scheme …
I would be gutted if Celtic and our board ever acted like that mob.
See this is the burying the heads in the sand posts that frequently appear on here. Res 12 anyone?
You slate Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs and co, then praise our board.
Our board excepted us to be cheated out of about a dozen trophies over a 12 year period, and said they were surprised.
They then were silent when a new club received the old clubs 1 hundred and whatever trophies, not a peep, yet you come on here and have a GO at the wee teams, wakey wakey, dig your head in the sand further, why don’t you. They then did their best to neutralise Res 12, just for your knowledge GFTB that was also blatantly flouting the rules.
Bye the way the Huns finished second last year not bottom six , why would poster’s listen to a word you say about next season, with a judgement like yours?
Some fantastic contributions last night particularly from REGGIE, INIQUITOUSIV and SYDNEYTIM who overall assessed the current situation extremely well. Currently as things stand we will not win the league, Sevco have improved and we have gone backwards. We do not have a team who can go to Ibrox and win. All this as things stand right now,but we only have Brown who can compete with the physical game we will encounter there. To go to Ibrox with Forrest, Sinclair, Johnson, Morgan, McGregor, Christie , Rogic, Henderson will be suicidal. This problem has not been addressed to date and even if we sign players with those qualities today you have to ask, going by our recent standards, if they will be ready by the time that fixture comes around.. My/our fear has to be that Celtic will not do the required thing or spend enough money to get the quality till we sell Tierney and/or achieve CL qualification .This is far too late for us, we need to invest to get there, not be rewarded for doing so.. It would be difficult to believe that Lennon doesn’t realise he doesn’t have the players to win at Ibrox and therefore there can only be 1 man holding things up. Apart from having no aggression (except Brown) we also have no leadership (except Brown) and although Lustig’s legs were gone for past 2 years, he did offer leadership, otherwise we have none, Ajer with potential. We desperately need to replace the job Dembele did up front, I.e. be a physical nuisance, a target man with pace and goal scoring ability , heading ability also welcome.
So by my reckoning it is already too late to integrate the players necessary to meet the early demands and my expectancy is that that the striker we need will be dependant on other things as mentioned. This is not acceptable based on non-budgeted incomes from Rodgers, Dembele etc. and the health of our cash situation. Celtic fans being taken for a ride once again.
I repeat but giving ourselves every opportunity to progress in Europe should be our right, not a reward after the event especially now when that investment appears to be needed for 9/10 in a row.
Where does the idea that Sevco are stronger originate?
They have only played on the back pages of the red tops so far, and those referees are of a distinctly Hunnish bent.
They have signed a load of players using the old principle of never mind the quality feel the width.
Any quality they MAY have is dressed up and are sitting in the transfer display window.
Meantime, we are refusing to sell off Kieran, have signed quality, have Christie, Johnston and Morgan impressing. Our talismanic striker is in rare form in the pre season and our midfield is coming up to speed.
We have class, we have options and we are in a position to strengthen with players Sevco cannot afford to even envy.
Stop reading Jaba fed journalists who fondly remember succulent lamb, and are now relegated to Big Macs. Super sized of course.
Me, I believe in justice, unfortunately the rule of law supports injustice.
GG 04.59
The fact the gap is narrowing is undeniable, so either they are getting stronger or we are getting weaker or both. 2 seasons ago we went to Ibrox and expected to beat them 5-1 and we did. We have lost our last 2 games there and indications as things stand are that we will lose to them again basically because there are other factors which are important as well as skill and that is where they have advantages , we do not have the physicality or leadership they have, add in the rabid crowd and officials and I think you have a home win. We need to counter this and to date it looks like we are not trying. I think our fans are also disrespectful to Gerrard’s knowledge of the game and his connections, and he is a huge improvement on what they have had previously and has no doubt added a professionalism to their playing staff.
Breeny here is the plan
1. spend about 15m on the 30 m we have available to spend , just filling a few cracks from last year where a poor AEK were technically were far superior to us
2. after we get put out by some team on a fraction of our income
3. sell Tierney to make up lost CL income due to not investing see item 1
4. spin to everyone we are the best run club in the world and proclaim we are not in debt at the AGM
5. Spin the “in Neil we trust”” that 1st came direct from peter lawell to hyperspace when he appointed a project manger “” in ronny we trust” nonsense came out
Breeny, why the panty wetting?
Slippy is a dog whistling chancer. It’s never nice to lose at Ibrox, but I’ll accept 2 losses if we still win the league. Last year BR sent out the wrong team, and Lenny’s team lost after the league was won. I can live very comfortably with that. Also, the Huns raise their expectations; only for their hopes to be dashed by Celtic winning another treble. Delicious.
SYDNEYTIM
Yep that is the story year after year, if it ever was the right strategy then it is now out of date and needing change which will only come when Lawwell goes. If we are to lose the league this season coming then it has much greater meaning because it stops 10 in a row and therefore when the opposition is getting closer you have to do things differently, the warning bells are there and Lawwell appears to be ignoring them. Make no mistake we could very easily have lost last seasons Championship, Kilmarnock did us a huge favour at the same time we were scoring in injury time to win by odd goal, things were nearly very different, wake up Celtic.
if My wife shops in Macy’s I expect Macy quality. And a sales discount
If she shops at Nieman Marcus, I expect far better quality, and a bigger bill.
We have the spine of the treble win last season.
We have added a quality centre back and have improved options with Morgan a fit Christie and a rejuvenated Griffiths.
Early season play indicates that Lenny is not going to be so reliant on midfield muscle and will utilize speed, craft and fitness.
Morgan, Forrest, Sinclair and Johnson give options on the flanks, while Henderson, Rogic provide flair to the the goals of McGregor and Christie.
KTF
its the same plan s every year, except PL is micro managing more than ever after losing control in 1st BR years he has grabbed all control here
the team should be years ahead, but we are not
GER57
Are you unable to see that we don’t have the right balance or character in the team to win at Ibrox? Will Forrest, Johnson , Morgan etc. be up for that game? What do you think ?
Morgan have we used the dembelle money and Rodgers money(29M) to improve our quality
if we had virtually zero money I would say yes not bad, but we have a lot of cash and have failed
the answer is a resounding no
breeny Forrest has never been up for Ibrox and has always been a man down there
even during our skelpings there, he was mr invisible
SYDNEYTIM
One of life’s mysteries, doesn’t raise a sweat most games but is heralded for the increasingly infrequent highlight. Lennon could not get rid or he would be slaughtered, absolutely mind blowing
SYDNEYTIM
he must be a nightmare to play behind because he offers no cover for the full back and goes through the motions making half hearted attempts, I truly find him a hard watch and leaves us a man down and sometimes with Sinclair and Rogic we can be 2/3 men down.
Breeny
I now make a point of commenting on JF display. in all pre season games our player of the year contributed zilch
he actually contributed very littlie in 2019
Good morning, friends and Happy Matchday! That’s all.
As I say it’s one of life’s mysteries to me how people only remember the 5% good and forget about the rest when he is an absolute handicap, an amazing opportunity if you look at it like that.
Roberts would have been huge improvement
ST
Change the record ffs. I have been on here for 7 years and all you go on about is big bad PL. We have won every league title, 4 Sc Cups and 4 League Cups, including 3 trebles. In Europe, we have qualified for CL 4 times, and played post Christmas in Europe 4 times, 3 in Europa League. Not too shabby for a team from Scotland, although I feel strongly that we could have achieved more.
Our domestic supremacy is unparalleled, and our recent European record is the best since Big Jock’s time. Get some perspective, and enjoy these great times. I’m lovin’ it!!
GG –
earlier……
:)
I’m hearin’ that we’ve just signed some Eastern seaboard talent ; two Wingers – Lord and Taylor
and a couple of midfielders – Barnes and Noble………….
………. while Slippy G was spotted scoutin’ Dollar General!
:)
BedBathandBeyond CSC
G’mornin’ troops.
With a real game to look forward to, remember…….
It’s Good To Be A Tim
FACT.
:)