Steven Naismith is not a beautician

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It feels like an age since we’ve seen Celtic but it was only 12 days ago.  Can you imagine what it’s been like for teams who lost their last game.  It must hurt.  Really, really, hurt.

I’m thinking about Hearts, of course!  Last time out they lost at home to a Dundee United side who had 34% possession but were able to frustrate Hearts and leave with all three points.  That leaves Hearts joint bottom with Kilmarnock on one point from four games.

Hearts have endured a torrid two months.  Preseason defeats at home to Orient and Spurs, and away to Fleetwood Town, set them up for a Glorious start to the season.  Their first competitive game of the season ended in a 0-0 draw, their only game not ending in defeat since May.  We’ll return to that game shortly.

Since then, it’s defeats have been delivered by Dundee, Falkirk in the League Cup, Viktoria Plzen twice and Motherwell, before that loss to United.

So it will be straightforward at Celtic Park tomorrow, right?  Not necessarily.  Hearts are a footballing shambles, who are underachieving at Olympian levels.  Their lowest possession level in those three league defeats was 60% – an indication that this is a team with all the resources who are poorly directed or motivated.

The outlier was their opening game draw.  That was achieved with 37% possession.  They limited their ambition, defended properly and managed to break with purpose on occasion.

If you were a beautician and somehow were tasked with managing a Scottish Premiership club, you would surely find it easier to come up with a game plan which didn’t extend beyond “Get everyone behind the ball”, than trying to figure out how to beat a Motherwell side, who themselves decided to get everyone behind the ball.

I’m not suggesting Steven Naismith is a beautician, you need to go to college to be a beautician these days, but he has a lot in common with a beautician who was asked to manage a top flight football club.  Both Steven and the beautician would send Hearts out tomorrow to get behind the ball.

If Celtic play to their strengths, none of this will matter, but we are not facing a bottom of the table squad tomorrow, just a team who are being managed like one.

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  1. GuyFawkesaforeverhero on

    Disappointing start to the weekend this morning, no weekly NFL highlights show on freeview tv to watch this season. I didn’t expect it to be unceremoniously dumped.

     

     

    Trust in Brendan and the players to lift the mood today. Good luck to the Celts. Play AJ today, rest him on Wednesday.

     

     

    Happy to be on the road again.

  2. The kano foundation is the most representative thing around Celtic and the ethos of the founders.

     

     

    The efforts made to let kids see Celtic are just outstanding.

     

     

    Ironic season card holding primary school aged children are priced out from attending the champions league games.

     

     

    Shame on the money grabbing plc.

     

     

    Try some fairness sometimes.

     

     

     

    Meanwhile there will be a thousand or so unoccupied seats today.

  3. Fassreifen on 14th September 2024 11:47 am

     

    Would like to know if the ref who “coached” Tom Lawrence was also on first name terms with the opposition players. Anyway, 3-0 to Celtic today.

     

     

    FASSREIFEN,

     

     

    Said something similar the other day. If the ‘ref’ can’t refer to ALL players by their names he should refer to no individual at all. As has been mentioned, in rugby, the arbiters engaging in this ‘active refereeing’, do so by referring to the ‘white team’ or ‘red team’, etc. But …… I think most of us know what we are hinting at here and because of this wee Willie has his work cut out. (Though I’m one of the Thomas’ who doubt that, after years in the Lanarkshire mafia and toeing the SFA party line, he is capable of much more than a bit of window dressing. Hope I’m wrong).

     

     

    Ave Ave

  4. Bada,

     

    ” Same team as the Rangers game,no need to change it”

     

    Very strange comment.What about the manager saying,with the schedule coming up we will be able to rotate the team.What about the new signings,are they never to start,apart from anything else,they need game minutes.You would risk AJ today?.

  5. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    Good afternoon CQN.

     

     

    Game day … at last.

     

     

    3 home games in 8 days in 3 comps.

     

     

    Happy days.

     

     

    Loiking forward to being entertained today … but any kind of win will do me.

  6. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    “loiking”

     

     

    Think i just invented a new word there .

     

     

    “loik” (v) … “to indulge in made up p15h online”

     

    (Source: Made up p15h online)

  7. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    The earlier sharing of comments about Tav on the dark side was interesting.

     

     

    Previously a hero.

     

     

    “Decent enough” player deified by morons.

     

     

    Still their most productive footballer … but against a backdrop of

     

    – him not being good enough against their deadliest rivals

     

    – a general malaise across the club.

     

     

    Stick it out James and count your money.

  8. Fantastic ringing endorsement by BR of Greg Taylor.Think he will be getting his contract.

     

    Funny,Brendan listed all his many qualities,yet never mentioned his height.On the contrary,he actually said he was good in the air.

     

    Just goes to show what someone ,an expert,without an agenda,actually sees when watching.

  9. There was no appetite for it according to Neil Doncaster when asked in days of FFP if the Scottish game might want to consider it.

     

     

    However SFA who grant clubs UEFA licenses have to abide by UEFA rules and UEFA have beefed up their monitoring process and know from evidence shareholders presented via a law firm during Res12 process that SFA and R2ngers need close watching.

     

     

    R2ngers know this too and will not want to risk breaching the FSR rules that next season limit spend on playing squad to 70% of well defined football earnings.

     

     

    SFA’s poor appetite is in my opinion a reason whose hy Celtic got involved with UEFA in development of FSR knowing it was the only way to hobble the folk at Hampden that had no appetite for ruling out non football money and by extension Ibrox.

     

     

    I suspect McGowan got the go ahead for his article from Celtic and a good thing to as it will reach a damn site more supporters than the ones I bore on social media commenting about it.

     

     

    I was actually pleased to see I had got that bit of FSR about the player spend ceiling right and McGowan had obviously been briefed on the consequences of FSR.

  10. theBHOYfromU.N.C.L.E on

    Grateful to be in a position where I’m able to contribute via monthly direct debit to Kano and Celtic foundations respectively……the Kano kids especially give me so much joy seeing and hearing them on match day, can imagine their households in the days leading up…..xmas like.

     

     

    thefuture’sgreen CSC

  11. My previous was in response to

     

     

    An Tearmann on 14th September 2024 12:01 am

     

     

    Auldheid

     

     

    Would you know if ffp….fsr rules where in any way implemented domestically by sfa?

     

     

    HH

  12. garygillespieshamstring on

    Bada

     

     

    Someone sent me that through the week.

     

     

    It came from johnjames site and he claimed to get it from a source who is “one of our former custodians” as he put it.

     

     

    I’m not going to risk ten bob each way on it being correct.

  13. Bada Bing

     

     

    For those who don’t mind visiting the Daily Record site re Bennett resignation.

     

     

    John Bennett ‘to resign as Rangers chairman’ as Ibrox crisis deepens with supremo heading for the exit door – Daily Record

  14. Bennet,another Masonic idiot,who pumped millions into that abomination,now has had enough.The penny finally dropping,that no matter what you do,how hard you work,how many millions you donate to buy worthless shares,being second to Celtic damns you in the eyes of the Bigots.

     

    Seeing the hopelessness of the situation,he is getting out,before it really dawns on the mob.

     

    Who will come now?Parks chucked it after blowing many millions,now Bennet,the same,to howls of abuse,and good riddance from the Bigots.

     

    Whoever is stupid enough,if anybody is,that Marble staircase may just as well be the steps up to the Guillotine.

  15. bournesouprecipe on

    Celtic, Celtic that’s the team for me,

     

    Celtic, Celtic on to victory,

     

    They’re the finest team in Scotland, I’m sure you will agree,

     

    We’ll never give up till we’ve won the cup and the Scottish football league.

     

     

    They come from bonnie Scotland, they come from county Cork,

     

    They come from dear old Donegal and even from New York,

     

    From every street in Glasgow they proudly make their way,

     

    To a place called dear old paradise and this is what they say.

     

     

    Celtic, Celtic that’s the team for me,

     

     

    Celtic, Celtic on to victory,

     

    They’re the finest team in Scotland, I’m sure you will agree,

     

    We’ll never give up till we’ve won the cup and the Scottish football league.

     

     

    There’s Fallon, Young and Gemmell who proudly wear the green,

     

     

    There’s Clark, McNeill and Kennedy the best there’s ever been,

     

    Jim Johnstone, Murdoch, Chalmers, John Divers and John Hughes,

     

    And sixty thousand Celtic fans who proudly shout the news.

     

     

    Celtic, Celtic that’s the team for me,

     

     

    Celtic, Celtic on to victory,

     

    They’re the finest team in Scotland, I’m sure you will agree,

     

    We’ll never give up till we’ve won the cup and the Scottish football league.

     

     

    Repeat till you get to Big Billy’s statue CSC

  16. As somebody who has experienced first hand how important the Kano foundation are the club should back then financially ….

     

     

    MissGFTB and her P7 class were taken to 2 games back in 2019 … all the kids were not allowed to take any money (in case some kids had more money than others) wee back-pack, scarf, drink & food, travel and ticket for the game, all for heehaw … I can assure you it makes fans for the future as some of her pals weren’t interested in football that much but are now (her included) … the Kano foundation influenced her much more than I ever could have

     

     

    Celtic PR should be all over this, many many primary school kids are given the opportunity to watch the hoops through the Kano Foundation

     

     

    A terrific legacy for Martin & his family 🍀🍀

  17. Bennett’s health has not been great of late . The pressure of that kind of job is high. For someone with zero experience and no CEO transitioning the business it is impossible.

     

     

    As they go he was not the worst.

  18. Auldheid on 14th September 2024 12:28 pm

     

    There was no appetite for it according to Neil Doncaster when asked in days of FFP if the Scottish game might want to consider it

     

     

    No appetite for it… I wonder who they asked

  19. FFP or whatever its called this week is a joke. Why should clubs not splash their own cash if they want to. ?

     

    Top class Football is a money oriented and rich investors are part and parcel. Rightly or wrongly, market forces prevail.

     

     

    Logically, fairness and sustainability should mean all players are capped in renumeration and all transfers are capped. It could be argued that this is only fair .

     

    Compare the value of squad and wage bill of Celtic and Hearts today.

     

    Is it a level playing field?

     

     

    No its not. And in my opinion long may it continue.

     

     

    UEFA have decreed. Now let me think, have UERA ever been charged with fraud ?

     

     

    Anyway, Celtic 3 Minis 0

     

     

    HH

  20. bigrailroadblues on

    John Bennett

     

    He left his heart and money in a rancid hun shitshow.

     

    Try singing that after a few beers. 🤣🤣

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