There are several parts of Tuesday’s performance which could be improved upon, parts which will be exposed by the rigours of Champions League football, but we looked like an experienced European team, one who could go away from home, roll with the early season uncertainties, but still have enough in the tank to win comfortably.
For the last couple of years we have watched a team mature while Neil Lennon has continued to add young blood to the squad. Fraser Forster has become an adept shot-stopper, puncher and kicker-with-both-feet. Joe Ledley has developed into a disciplined anchor in midfield while Adam Matthews, Victor Wanyama and Beram Kayal have progressed even quicker than I am sure the manager expected.
Last season’s Europa League campaign contributed significantly to the development. The team seemed to grow a few inches during the home win over Rennes, which propelled them onto the league title. A Champions League examination will present no fears but will expedite progress.
We could be on the verge of the first sustainable, successful, team development plan in 40 years, one that delivers titles, significant progress in Europe and lives within its means.
799 Comments- Pages:
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Paul
I think we could see a number of our first picks being given time off for the trip up north this weekend: Ledely, Brown, Kayal and Mulgrew look well short of being 100% the other night.
We may have to risk losing two or even three league points, but we need to ensure all our top players are available for next Wednesday.
I wouldn’t risk Commons or wee Jamsie at the weekend.
Could this be the trend for the season: a team for the SPL and a team for Europe?
I would love to see us sign Jordan Rhodes. He is the one of the final piece’s in the jigsaw for our team imo. Rhodes and a decent CH would make our team a very, very good team. Even though we are just about qualified for the group stages and have some money to spend I don’t think we will sign either and it will be another opportunity to improve lost.
Paul67
but we are not in the Ramsdens Cup… :(
Awe naw-Just earrings at weekends sweetie :}
The cruix of debates on CQN quickly becomes tabloid polarised. Adopting extreme positions with no middle ground. Lazy journalism in other words.
HH
EC67
“Secondly, who would be best placed to challenge the constant MSM, SFA, SFL, SPL reference to Sevco as Rangers and the retention of their history.”
If the Airdrie Utd. / Clybank F.C. is a precedent here it could be hard to challenge unless it differs from the Rangers F.C. / The Rangers F.C. situation?
I am assured that “the SFA are clear on Airdrie United, they are a continuation of Clydebank”.
I am unsure if this is because Airdrie United bought Clydebank F.C. in it’s entirety or because they transferred the membership and the football authorities see the history as linked to a membership.
If the precendence used is that Airdrie Utd inherited the history of Clydebank F.C. when they transferred the membership then The Rangers F.C. can claim the history (and the founded date as this is for the football membership not a company) of Rangers F.C. – albiet the SFL page for the club should list achievements under the heading “Formerly Rangers F.C.” as they do with the achievements of Clydebank when they list them on the page for Airdrie Utd. F.C. that were inherited upon purchase of the registration.
http://www.scottishfootballleague.com/club/airdrie-united/
QB
Bada
I will put them in for you before the next game ;-)
HH
Ki to have medical at swansea tomorrow – SSN breaking news ticker
Sandman 13:01 on 23 August, 2012
I like Legless – especially when he has hot flushes for Graham Spiers.
Comedy will be poorer when he hangs up his grudge.
Steinreignedsupreme
There were times when Celtic showed maturity with ball retention and with distribution in counter-attacks.
But there were several examples of sloppiness – players caught in possession, concentration levels dropping and hopeful punts
=========================
Bit of a contradiction there?
Several examples of sloppiness does not equal maturity at this level.
I think its something we’re improving on but we still give the ball away too cheaply too often(eg. hopeful punts as you mentioned) and individual mistakes(Matthews) frustrating as the game plan is useless if you’re going to gift the opposition goals.
Some of our forward play was very good – but most of their chances/spells of pressure came from us gifting them possession.
Something for the coaches to work on.
HH
over and over we will follow you!
signings/no signings, I think this could be a right good team very soon.
Eurochamps67 – Sevco fans now talking up the possibility of a Helsingborg comeback; an early goal and yoos will crumble etc.
The Swedish champions are no mugs, and Neil Lennon was spot on in his post-match comments.
Celtic have a great chance of progressing, but the performance next Wednesday needs to be better or it will be a long, long match.
BTW noticed an article in the Torygraph by Roddy Forsyth, entitled “Celtic’s boys are turning into men”….
Bhoys II Men would be a great name for a Celtic flavoured RnB a capella quartet. Let’s make it happen. (thumbsup)
Ki having medical at Swansea tomorrow -SSN
Paul67
Living within our means?
It’ll never catch on.
Someone claiming to be a Celtic fan on Clyde SSB last night urging Celtic to spend big on Rhodes repeatedly using the phrase “we deserve better”.
Hmmm….where have I heard that before?
More importantly, I’m at home, enjoying a well earned break from work only to be rudely awoken at 06:50am this morning by a Scottish Water van with a loudhailer proclaiming it unsafe to drink, cook, wash or bathe with our tap water and it won’t be back on until at least tomorrow afternoon.
So, when ex Rangers fans and new Sevco fans declare us the great unwashed, I’m afraid that in my case, at least today, they are dead right.
SwanseaBhoy
Paul67,
Further to my last opinion. If we don’t make any further signings this season and collect £6m approx for Ki, collect a healthy profit above say £6m in CL monies, would the club invest all this money in reducing the debt?
If we are not to make any more signing’s and continue on the path of player development would it not make more sense to make the investment to improve and enlarge the youth facilities at Lennoxtown? Such as permanent accomodation & educational facilities for young players.
HH
ASonOfDan
13:04 on
23 August, 2012
You missed out ‘vibrant’
The ‘vibrant’ Ramsdens Cup.
(c) Chris Jack
We already have a young team……senior squad age avg. 25……
Steinreignedsupreme – Follow followers of the Sevco Franchise generally tend to be small children in fully-grown but over-developed bodies.
Does anybody know what happened to John Brown?
Is he still camped outside Ibrox demanding to see “ra deeds” and demanding to buy Sevco for £40K? (thumbsup)
In this day and age its not teams that win things but squads, competition for places spurs players to play better, ours has been whittled down this summer, no complaints about that cos some needed to go. We have some very promising youngsters knocking on the door for 1st team places. 2 of the best have been injured unfortunately. We really cant afford to lose any more.
Paul67
Yes that sounds like a plan –
tho’
I’m going to keep moaning about lack of heid ba in net striker (not Sammi despite a superb demonstration if the artform on Tues..)
Too many quality cross balls being wasted because we don’t have a striker capable of getting napper on the laces :)
I will give it a rest when the window closes …in the interest of teamwork and cooperation on here lol
HH
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo
12:56 on
23 August, 2012
The honest mistake
How much have we spent on CBs since Adam Virgo was signed ?
I would guess at upwards of 4 million and if we count wages hell of a lot more as we have more players for central defence than required in the last few years?
We have two recognised very injury prone centre backs not without potential. Getting both of them up to the required CL level is asking too much of them at this time. I have been left less than impressed by this saving. They have never been properly addressed as you can get away with it at SPL level.
This is true for the rest of the team, we don’t play at CL standard but hopefully we will learn and improve. It would be nice to have a new recognised CB but can we afford one?
Wait until the accounts come out but I don’t think we can.
In Europe moving mf and lb into SPL duty is a poor decision all around for the club.
We signed Fojut on a precontract and he became injured. I don’t expect a CB until the start of next season and he will probably be courted in the same way.
I’m resigned to valiant attempts in Europe that fall short and doubt that we will progress but I hope we do. Expect a few wins but the players learning is the main thing.
What happened to his bank account,”direct debit details to follow….I’m no rich so if a can put in 40k another 249 of ‘US’ can and we’ve got out £10m for ra rengers”
I demand to know what happened to bombers bank account!
Pay no attention to anything a hun says. The lot of them are drooling idiots. I mean, they think the sleekit one is the greatest football mgr. in the greatest league in the world.
They think a Yorks. asset stripper is not a front man for Ticketus. They think Charles Whyte has simply spontaneously combusted and gone away. They think Hector’s forgotten about them.
They take the meaning of ‘stupid’ to a whole new level.
traditionalist88 13:08 on 23 August, 2012
“Bit of a contradiction there?
“Several examples of sloppiness does not equal maturity at this level.”
I said “there were times when Celtic showed maturity” and I backed it up with some examples.
The reason I started the third sentence with “But” was to emphasise there were poor aspects to our play as well as the positives.
That’s why I started by saying Celtic are a “developing team” rather than the ‘finished product’.
HH
NegAnon2@10:13
‘Then we have the league reconstruction nonesense. For the avoidance of doubt if the SFA/SPL/SFL try to gerimander the league structure to allow the new huns into the top league earlier then the supporters will once again rebel – they can forget their season tickets etc (and this is true for Celtic as well as any other club).’
Nail on head. Fans of other clubs(inc Celtic) will kill this plan stone dead until SevCo have served their proper 3 years in the lower leagues
With Ki’s deal imminent, that’s over £90k a week saved in wages ( circa £4.4m a year) so far with a £6.3m transfer fee also in the coffers. With CL money all but assured i sincerely hope PL has 2 or 3 deals all but tied up, and we are not scrambling around in the last day of the window
Lenny and the players have got the club to the promised land (CL), it is now down to the board to keep the bandwagon rolling
Fail to prepare, Prepare to fail
100% agree paul but you could also argue if you invest 4m in a player his sell on value would be an awful lot more than a 2m in a player, this is the area i think Celtic are weak buying and selling players with a quick turn around…
Exciting times Paul
Get the job done on Wednesday and we’ve got a great season to look forward too!
!!Bada Bing!! 13:00 23 August, 2012
We’ll have to invest in the current team we have to keep them at the club as they develop and improve. This appears to be the path the club have chosen. I am all for that.
Paul67/The Honest Mistake
You are both correct that we can only spend what we earn, and that we are now building a team in a sustainable manner. However at times we need to speculate a little. Without going over old ground the Steven Fletcher scenario is a prime example of this. We bid for the player, so I assume that bid and the proposed wages were within our budget.The marginal difference between our bid and what Hibs wanted was what we were not willing to risk – that may have been the right decision at the time, or made for the right reasons.
Now we don’t know how Fletcher’s career would have panned out at Celtic, I doubt he would be on the market at £12m certainly, but I think his career in the EPL has shown that he would have been an asset at Celtic, that may have helped us win the title and gain CL income that would have heavily outweighed that marginal difference.
In all lines of business, I am sure in yours Paul67, sometimes it is necessary to make an investment that will lead to increased revenues or productivity.
There are players out there that the manager wants, that would improve our first 11. What he has achieved to date, in my view, warrants some support, however modest, in improving that team.
We have a clear run at the CL income for a number of years now, we have no need to chop and change the team, a tweak here and there, 2, 3, maximum players in at any one time, funded if necessary by the sale of assets such as Ki has to be the model going forward.
I would hope that we have learnt from mistakes in the past
Does anyone know when the draw for the Group Stages takes place? I’ve just checked out http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/seedcl2012.html and it has us (assumed we qualify) in Pot 4 for the draw.
Steinreignedsupreme
Ok then:)
All I am saying is some of our forward play was excellent but some of our ball retention was extremely poor.
From Sky Sports:
Helsingborgs Celtic
61.2 1st Half Poss. 38.8
63.8 2nd Half Poss. 36.2
We need to improve that maturity.
Encouraging that we were so dangerous with so little of the ball though. Imagine what we could have done with an equal share of possession.
HH
kdc – I think Bombers wife may have put the kibosh on that one.
Either that or he wore out his court appearances suit and it’s currently being dry cleaned. (thumbsup)
8 days, 10 and a bit hours to sign a big mobile striker, an experienced centre half and Johnny Russell (arguably not needed at the moment but if we don’t move now he’ll move south and out of our range).
No loan deals on 2nd rate EPL rejects or other clubs promising youngsters.
And there’s still a few we should listen to reasonable offers for (squad players)
Phil MacGiollaBhain nail’s it once more:
http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/big-brother-is-confusing-you/
You can pre-order his book Downfall, How Rangers FC Self Destructed here:
(cannae find the link creator??)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Downfall-How-Rangers-Self-Destructed/dp/1904684262/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345725038&sr=1-1
SwanseaBhoy
Hel Cel
519 Total Passes 313
More passing please, Celtic:)
But the best stat of all
Hel Cel
0 GOALS 2
HH
Potential CL Group Stage draw
Excellent draw
1. Arsenal
2. Sporting Braga
3. Olympiakos Piraeus
4. Celtic
Not so excellent draw
1. Barcelona
2. Manchester City
3. Juventus
4. Celtic
The Honest Mistake-I agree mate,invest in what we have.It’s often quoted on here that we have a young team,that is true but can be rectified with a couple of older experienced guys.This however,does not fit with the policy of signing younger guys to sell on.A mix of the young and old is preferable for me.Big Dan for whatever reason(s) didn’t work out but an older CB with leadership qualities would IMO be a valuable building block for all.
Big G @ 12:57:
“Does anyone know the last time we went a full domestic league season without losing? Have we ever done it?”
We were unbeaten in the league during season 1897/98.
We have been unbeaten in the league at home on at least 20 occasions. (last being season 2002/03 I think, but might be wrong).
We have been unbeaten in the league away from home on at least 3 occasions (last being season 2003/04).
HAIL! HAIL!
Token