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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Hootenanny
delaneys dunky
Appreciate but cant support the Sevco (same team coming back)
IF THEY SAY NEWCO WHICH IT IS WOULD ACKNOWLEDGE BUT STILL WONT GO BACK
HAIL HAIL
Auldheid
i was born in 44 stevenson st 1955 ,we used to play from the pen lampost to the back of
st alphonsus chapel seemed a long pitch in 1960 not as long in 2013 when i went for a
look at the old street
the old man used to take us to the whelk stall on a saturday morning
and to watch the guy who laid down on broken glass.
21:22 on 31 December, 2013
Voguepunter
Is that the last we will hear from Googy?
Der hun goalie jersey consumed him into zombie land.
Nah having let two through my legs.
Would have to jump in the Celtic end.
Great
Auldheid,
the last time I tasted whelks was about 1958 in the Barras.
DD
I wish mhate,working all day….topping up ..need equilibrium .
ME
Know what you are saying, but…..
I think the masonic cheats are Still getting away with it!
Jackanoray and his media cronies.
Well that’s the M5/M6/M74 negotiated and returned home safely. Don’t know why but it gets harder to say goodbye to my wee mammy the older I get!!
Ramie
Could you mail me please hamiltontim@hotmail.co.uk
Meant to add I still go but ….
Can I take this opportunity to wish the entire CQN family, and all your families, all the very Best for 2014
then enjoy us all celebrating 3 in a row for the Bhoys, so lets get behind them, cheer them on through the wind and rain
cause Celtic, Celtic is our name
hail hail
Rutherglen’s Green n White
Hail Hail
RUUGLLLIIIIIINNS GREEN N WHITE
Ye can keep yer wulks, it’s dulce for me.
Or is it dulse?
Clydebank is Green and White, and the Rebel bus will be full for the Glesga Derby. COYBIG
i to remember the bizzys ,playing football on the spare ground ,which we named the bully ,it was the backcourt . between nuneaton st and dalmarnock rd be round about the early 50s .some realy good old and young guys played on it, mostly every night during the summer months,have some great memories playing there, going back to bizzys it always seemed to be a sunday when they appeared. hated them for that, they would have been better rounding up the crooks and con men ,that ran about bridgeton cross then, aye they were some con men and safeblowers,.that everybody knew there names. and im sure they were rangers men as well. even away back then they were protected by the police,anyway all the best to everyone on here and abroad ,and to those who ill ,and other problems. i hope you all have a great and happy 2014.
Clydebank free bus tomorrow 1.15. From Stevie Chalmers Street. Come all you young rebels!
DD if you mention Masonic people might think you are paranoid.
I wouldn’t though!
HH and a good new year to all CQNers.
Happy New Year to all you whitecrook tims
kentbeth
Whit aboot the rest of us?
Will there be singing in all those free buses the mora :-)
Well done Celtic with that gesture, just no stewards :-)
Hail Hail
Ok guys, looks like I have the mucking out and replenishing all the coups in morning. Loads to do and will probably not make the game. Will do my best, but chances are slim. Off to bed now and may I wish all Celtic Supporters worldwide, a very happy and peaceful New Year.
Paul67
Can I reiterate, this is the best Celtic Site on the planet, bar none. This will be your legacy. Superb. A very happy New Year to you for this wonderful site, and to your family, for putting up with you attending to us Celtic Supporters. Your efforts do not go unrecognised. :)
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar.
Oops, meant to say, Night Night Timland, and a Happy New Year to you all. :))
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar.
HH to all on CQN and the wider Celtic family for 2014.
Sitting chilling with my wee Bhoy here. Lustig Mk2 in 15 years!!!
KTF. Jamesgang
Kentbeth
The Whitecrook rebels will be out in force tomorrow. Five generations of my mates family will be there 95 to 5. Wonderful :)
And to all you bhoys in green …..
Parkheadcumsalford who is supporting the Amsterdam 5
21:33 on
31 December, 2013
Auldheid,
the last time I tasted whelks was about 1958 in the Barras.
==========================
One of my first weekend jobs was cleaning them in a cellar in the Oyster Bar in the Gallowgate.
I gave up after a couple of weeks when on a Saturday night date I felt like the Creature From The Black Lagoon.
Big Nan
This homegrown must be making me paranoid. :)
delaneys dunky
22:07 on 31 December, 2013
Brilliant, hope that family and the entire Celtic family enjoy Oor day oot
4 – 0 for me also in predictor
Hail Hail
Just seen the fireworks in Sydney celebrating New Year. Not a patch on our recent ‘displays’!!
All the best to you and yours when it comes, Paul. Keep on keepin on!
A personal opinion here, reading our hosts articles and headers over the last couple of months has become slightly irksome to me. There’s never any criticism of the powers that be or the mismanagement on the park, it’s like reading the old celtic view where we were told everything was rosy. is our host under the influence from above ? is he getting to used to the hospitality? All the focus seems to be on the deid club which seems to be a bit of well placed distraction from our boards lack of activity on the SFA/fan issues/Policing. I’ve read all i want to read on the deid club, we’ve got plenty problems of our own to sort.It was all over for me after the shame game, the shame was our board sat in silence and took it up the rear from all directions and accepted it.
Auldheid
21:10 on
31 December, 2013
Your post is not unlike Christopher Brookmyre’s ‘The Rules of Playground Football’ A great read and very, very funny
Cowiebhoy
I have gone for 4-1. Revenge for 71. :)
the cyclist…..
You could always start ‘Not CQN’ for the malcontents?
10 o clock news. Fantastic pyrotechnics from Sydney Harbour. Put Fir Park in the shade !
Have a few quid with Bet Fred on first CQN poster for 2014….fingers crossed. Not me, but who will it be ? Got Kojo ew.
HH. HNY
Just before the madness kicks in I would like to take the opportunity to wish all Celtic fans wherever you are in the world a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. I wish for you and your families all that you wish for yourselves.
To those who have lost loved ones in the past year may the happy memories you have sustain you at this time.
On a positive note I am really looking forward to the Glasgow Derby tomorrow, although I am not. too sure what state I will be in but I will be there cheering on the Buoys.
Haill Haill and God Bless all Tims everywhere.
Buoys=Buoys, not even drunk yet.