On practically all measures the club has had a less successful 2013 than 2012 but I’m going to give you a positive State of the Club Report today. 2013 gave us one critical achievement, qualification for the group stage of the Champions League. Winning the league title is, of course, critical for most ambitious clubs, but at Celtic it has become a bit like putting your socks on; it’s something we do as a matter of course.
Overcoming Elfsborg and Shakhter Karagandy was a lot more difficult than it should have been. They are to us what we are to teams at the top of La Liga or Serie A, but our superior resources eventually held good. You get a sense from recent comments by Neil Lennon and Johan Mjallby that the realisation we need to shop at least one transfer window in advance of the period we need players to be effective has dawned.
Next season’s qualifiers will, in all probability, be more challenging, so the hard work necessary to ensure a high probability of a successful outcome should already be underway.
Performance at this season’s group stage was ultimately disappointing after a promising start. We held our own for 80 minutes away to Milan, looking as comfortably as we have been away to a top Spanish or Italian club in 30 years. Conceding two late goals felt harsh. Defeat at home to Barcelona was frustrating. The plan worked perfectly while the game was 11 v 11 and even when we were reduced to 10 men we still had a chance to take the lead, but Barca were hot favourites from the moment Scott Brown flicked out at Neymar. We missed Brown’s influence hugely over the next three CL games.
A tactically impeccable performance at home to Ajax but some points on the board but the three remaining games, away to Ajax and Barcelona, and home to Milan, were abject. It was like all our accumulated wisdom of how to compete in this tournament was lost. The Milan game at Celtic Park was particularly disappointing as it mirrored the manner and score of the defeat to Juventus earlier this year. No lessons were learned.
When Teemu Pukki cheerfully told us he would bring pace and strength to the Celtic attack, but not a bundle of goals, there was a ripple of concern across the support. In Europe, we can often only afford one striker, so he needs to be the type of will look away but have the ball bounce off his bum and into the net.
Recruiting a player who possesses this talent and can successfully deploy it on the Champions League, while he does his weekend business in the SPFL, has proven to be the key challenge for the football department. It’s not easy, but it’s certainly not impossible. We know the issue, we have time and money in the bank, so I don’t see why we can’t find a solution.
2013 was not a time of harmony for the Celtic support. Amid vandalism, flares and multiple Uefa fines Celtic banned fans and donated seats in section 111 to charity. We are 10 years after the Fifa and Uefa Fair Play awards. The road back to those times will not be easy but there is a road back.
In early 2012 I appeared on Radio Scotland, where James Traynor insisted that Celtic were doomed if the SPL clubs refused to allow Newco Rangers elevated access to top flight football. I told him the overwhelming consensus on Celtic Quick News was that we were prepared to pay the price to ensure new clubs start at the bottom of the league pyramid. If it meant more youth players, fewer fans, less effective European competition, so be it.
The predictions of doom were largely misplaced. Celtic have not only been able to reach the Champions League group stage, twice in succession. My money is on them qualifying again next year, while season ticket sales in excess of 40,000 is exceptionally robust in the circumstances.
It was almost exactly nine years ago that I suggested the start of the Martin O’Neill era would herald a Generation of Domination, as Sir David Murray’s financial recklessness would lead to Rangers collapse. Now the only questions is, how many generations are we talking about? None of what has happened since is a surprise. Our progress on the field will not be linear, it never was, but it is assured.
Have a great New Year, you deserve it.
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Kev Jungle is Peter Lawwell,
FACT!!
Happy and prosperous New Year to Tims everywhere, particularly any SELKIRK Bhoys lurking.
Keep the faith
….pfayr supports weeoscar
20:26 on 31 December, 2013
67 heaven
How can you square your resistance with our boards compliance
With skwerr sausages? :)))
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar.
To all on CQN
Imagine if Wladimir Klitschko had been knocking over bantamweights and lightweights since August 2012.
Do you seriously think he would have taken any enjoyment from this?
However,his management team sit back counting all their cash and bonuses from these fights,as the fans have kept rolling in to watch a bizarre spectacle with only one possible winner.
Then one day his fans start getting a bit bored at the inevitability of it all and start staying in the bar and not even going into the big room to watch.
His management sit back counting their cash and bonuses, as the tickets have been paid for anyway.
Wladimir continues to knock over the hardest 9 stone guys in the world in front of half empty but fully paid for big rooms.
His management team receive a call from the TV production team…….to be continued
.
We have little to moan about when we hear of Kano back in the hospital. Very sad to hear of this, his story encouraged me to get off my arse and be one of the original “bucketeers” at the Motherwell match. The story of his plight and the strength shown by his freinds and family are living examples to us all.
Hail! Hail!
A happy new year to all CQNers and the wider Celtic family, hope you all have a safe and peaceful night. Looking forward to the first game of 2014 tomorrow, 3 points will do me with a sprinkling of some fancy footwork thrown in. If not then maybe next game :-)
Hail Hail (back to lurking)
delaneys dunky
20:23 on 31 December, 2013
I used to hate goin to those games
Partly because you didnt want to lose but just hated the songs from the deid club
If a new club comes up with their vile fans I aint goin .
I sincerely hope that our Coatbridge prodigal son realises that he is living all our dreams. I am a fitba failure, Tony made it to Paradise. I pray he realises what he has at his feet and screws the nut!
Nananananana Tony Watt.
Another one nearly over, my two boys will be in my thoughts tonight, looking forward to taking the big yin to the game tomorrow.
To all who have family at hand, hold them close and dont take them for granted.
Best wishes for the coming year to all.
Looking forward to the only Glasgow derby in town.
Ayrshire is Green and White.
HH
Adi Dasler
I would take my seat at home for a game v sevco. Pray it never happens though.
Happy New Year to one and all, especially Neil & The Bhoys.
You make our days happy.
It’s party time and a case of Magners awaits.
Watching Sportscene they are pathetic.
MOTD standing joke is the poorest match is on last.
Sportscene put Celtic on last and keep us all watching.
MOTD putting Chelsea or Utd on last ???
Delaney’s Dunky
20.42
Agreed.
Playing for Celtic, to me, would be the closest thing to getting into heaven, here on earth.
Unfortunately I was not born with the football skill.
Anyone who is a fan as well as a player has got it all IMO.
TBM
Neath the shroud of the foggy dew.
Just dipped in to say, a very Celtic New Year to all on CQN and thanks to Paul for his great site.
Thinking of all our CQN brothers lost this year and those who are suffering for whatever reason.
May 2014 realise all our dreams.
Looking forward to our Glesga derby tomorrow, may have to watch it with one eye shut though !!!
Hail Hail
Googy
1st year media studies students could produce a better programme. Sportscene is a pathetic amateur production that down plays the Premier League. Much to Jack Irvine’s satisfaction.
As a young goal keeper I always wanted to play for Rangers in just one Glasgow Derby. Just the one
Hail hail
delaneys dunky
20:59 on 31 December, 2013
Googy
You are so correct.
English tv big up their game.
Scottish tv pish on their gemme.
Best wishes to all for 2014.
Bma
All the best to everyone when it comes. Can’t wait till tomorrow to see which superstar we’ve signed on the first day of the window
Glendalys
If only you could put a mature heid on young shooders! Hope it clicks upstairs soon for young Tony. He could be the player of his generation, if it does?
A happy and a healthy 2014 to all my brothers and sisters in Celtic.
As we approach the Janus hour I am sure we all indulge in a bit of looking back. What follows was inspired by the latest TSFM blog on broken goalposts and the SFA, but it led to finding out my next door neighbour in the Calton was the authors grandfather!
It’s a small world.
Jaickets for Goalposts
As a Calton boy in the mid to late fifties (I only started kicking a football from about age 10) anything other than a whelk strewn* Stevenson Street with lampposts for goal posts, parked cars to dribble around and regular patrols by the fifties’ version of FOCUS, was considered a luxury.
Luxury stretched from playing on the so misnamed Glasgow Green black ash pitches topped with cinder (but with real goalposts), that had ASA existed back then, the name would have to have been changed to Glasgow Black.
The absolute luxury of the green Green was out of bounds, not that that stopped us playing, but many an exciting game of a summer’s evening was abandoned when a Parky stopped play.
Back on the Calton streets the fifties version of FOCUS used various ploys to try to catch us, from arriving in our midst in a taxi, to sneaking around the back of the tenement to exit from a pen (or pend**) that opened into Well Street in order to ambush us.
Neither ploy worked because of our sixth Focus alert sense in Stevenson St (we were always at Preparedness Level V) or the wee boy we bribed with a swizzle lollipop to watch for sneaky polis in Well St.
Being fleet of foot, which once helped me outrun a chasing copper with a loose fitting cap who was loudly questioning my legitimacy in pursuit, gave me considerable evasive advantage and I was only caught once in Bain St playing keepie uppy. This was either by an over zealous newbie or the cop who lost his cap in the previous Well St encounter and still hell bent on revenge.
(That btw was my introduction to the escalating fine which my father paid. It started at ten bob but by the time I started work about 5 years later it had become a fiver. I’m not sure if my auld man was charging interest in the vain hope of repayment or simply getting doddery in his advancing years.)
Then one day, as Glasgow indulged in a period of self ravaging, luxury arrived. A tenement in Well St was demolished and the waste ground left us an area on which we could play more or less free from Fifties Focus scrutiny and with jaickets for goalposts.
The “pitch” was not without its hazards. Broken glass was never totally removed and many a Frido (the one with the knobs on) or Wembley (the dimpled one) was slashed as it sped unerringly from one player to another.
Many a bust baw had to be replaced following a quick whip round and it was an event that really depressed our spirit. Sometimes somebody got a cut needing stitches but that was more likely a cause for mirth than depression. (Calton hard men to a man).
The ground of course was not level with a slightly raised concrete platform that was the equivalent of a goal saving tackle if you failed to give the ball a little lift as you negotiated the slab.
The worst hazard though was the extruding gas pipe, about six to eight inches above the ground. I still wince at the memory of one of my mates cry of anguish as he missed the ball and kicked the pipe full on. He was out of the game for weeks.This was always an accident waiting to happen, but a risk worth taking for the sheer joy of playing the game we all love.
The pitch may not have been level, but I played with friends from both sides of the religious divide (my dad’s boast was that I played with the Tims [St Mungo’s] in the morning and the Proddies [St James Calton Boys Club] in the afternoon) who were all honest Calton men.
The quest to restore honesty and joy to our football is still with us and it is the desire for such that will keep us going until it finally arrives.
* The Barras had a couple of Sea Food shops in its vicinity selling mussels and whelks, the latter particularly dangerous if you were motoring down Stevenson St on roller skate.
** There seems to be two versions of pen or pend which was an opening much wider than a close to allow vehicles to enter a building. I imagine “pen” was the Calton version and “pend” came from Kelvinside.
PS The looking forward bit is in the can waiting editing. ,)
Delaneys
he could indeed be a great player. I just hope it is not with someone else.
Delaneys Dunky after trying on the huns goalie jersey…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7GJcKuVGm8
Ok Bhoys great New Year to you all and Keep the Faith.
Love CQN
Some post from Eurochamps67 earlier, what a man.
To the brave posters who are having their own personal challenges- you are never ever walking alone on here, respect to you all and I hope you can find some inner peace this New Year.
Wishing Paul67, Gezeboistas, CQNrs and all Celtic supporters and their families all over the world, a prosperous and peaceful New Year.
googybhoy ♥ celtic
20:52 on 31 December, 2013
Watching Sportscene they are pathetic.
MOTD standing joke is the poorest match is on last.
Sportscene put Celtic on last and keep us all watching.
MOTD putting Chelsea or Utd on last ???
I watch on I player and fast fwd to Celtic game.
Hail ! Hail !
Happy New Year CQN’ers
delaneys dunky
Nope
I wont be there & will not watch it
Thats my protest against the cheating
Voguepunter
Is that the last we will hear from Googy?
Der hun goalie jersey consumed him into zombie land.
labis
SFTB beat me to it!
Ευτυχισμένο το Νέο Έτος
All the best to you all for 2014 and of course, our team.
How good does it feel to support Celtic FC?!
DD
Was it Googy ??? Thought it was you :O( need to read more carefully :O) HH
Burghbhoy 20:58 on 31 December, 2013
Oh the bravest fell, and the Requiem bell rang mournfully and clear…………….
TBM
Adi D
I respect your stance. Last time I was at doom dome, Wim was our manager. Paradise is my patch, and sevco won’t keep me away.
I always find the New Year to be an emotional and nostalgic occasion, drunk or sober.
The last two or three years have been dramatic to say the least and I’m happy that this blog was around to examine, analyse and expose events. Without CQN, Phil and Paul McConville etc., who knows what the cheats would’ve got away with.
There are internal and external issues PL and his board must address and resolve. However when I look at the bigger picture, the club I love are further ahead of its dead or alive rival, than at any time in our 126 year history.
From one happy Tim….have a great New Year bhoys and ghirls.
HAIL HAIL
Voguepunter
You been in that Ru’glen establishment all day? ;))