Celtic’s valiant capitulation last night had a familiar feel to it. We took the game to Milan, bossed them in many areas while the tie was still close enough to be called a contest, created chances but had no cutting edge and lost heavily, at home, to what is clearly the weakest of four Milan teams we have faced in the last decade. It was a similar story when Juventus came to Glasgow last season.
Am I the only one who thought it was familiar from stirring European nights of the 80s? Take on one of the most experience teams in Europe with two out-and-out wingers, inspire for a time but only earn a lesson in how unforgiving the game can be at the top level. Or at least, hope we learned a lesson.
We loved it in the 80s, of course, but it was like going to school when Martin O’Neill arrived and taught us how to win in Europe. Despite the defeat, the 10 men got it right at home to Barca, and in the home win over Ajax, where we allowed the visitors the majority of possession and territory, but with four minutes on the clock and Celtic playing well last night, I noted the game was “worryingly open”.
In Europe, an open game means defeat. We don’t have the midfield or attack to win playing adventurously. When setup properly, we can defend as well as anyone in Europe, this is our irrefutable strength, play to it.
Paul McConville
The first thing I did when I met Paul McConville at the Columba Club on Friday was dig him up for not being in touch recently. This gave him an opportunity to wax enthusiastically about the consuming joy of being back on the tools as a solicitor in Glasgow. He was a man who had arrived exactly where he wanted to be in life.
He was so full of drive, clarity of vision and purpose that it was with utter disbelieve I heard the news of his sudden passing yesterday.
As anyone who read Random Thoughts Re Scots Law knew, he loved his family. He also loved practicing law and held Albion Rovers in high affection. He was not, as has been suggested, part of the Celtic family. Had the snake oil salesmen turned up at Celtic Park they would have endured the same forensic analysis from Paul as he applied elsewhere, but he was an important friend and resource to our community, and ultimately our club, during an historically important time.
To most of us he was a unique blogger. Cheerful, incisive and unrelenting. He charted the story of Rangers insolvency, administration and liquidation, then picked up the even more complicated events surrounding the phoenix.
When asked on Friday why he had been less industrious recently, specifically covering the leaks from Charlotte Fakes, he conceded he just didn’t have the time anymore; he was back litigating and loving it.
The personal cost of his blogging was often all too clear, he was out there, but Paul managed to retain his determination not to be browbeaten, while enduring the numptites with more good grace and humour than most of us could muster. Before taking up his new role in Glasgow he worked a few minutes walk from me. We collaborated on a number of matters in recent years and marked one auspicious afternoon last year by sharing a bottle of Champagne; a genuinely treasured memory.
The fragility of it all is breathtaking. Our condolences to the McConville family. May he rest in peace.
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Oglach
Mcbride was an architect of the offensive behaviour act …interesting …where did you get your info on that ?
Smoke and mirrors.
You’re so stupid that you don’t realise that just mentioning that organisation on a football blog is enough to have you charged under the legislation. I hope the police are looking in and you get arrested. See how smart you are then.
Madrid vs Galatasaray is a cracker – great, open football. Just as well the final result won’t hinge on a missed penalty call by Collum . . .
Hamiltontim
seriously – you need that explained to you?
Tlwio
BCW
That is what worries me.
Only have to read some of the shite posted on here tonight to see where it’s heading, a sad state of affairs.
Even when it’s been pointed out what the banner was meaning, still some don’t want to believe it, disny suit their agenda.
HH
The songs and banners debate will continue forever or until the GB grow up and get a real job
Both sides are too firmly entrenched in their positions and neither really wants to compromise
Time for the club to take the bull by the horns and close the section
However the club also need to address issues on the park
If they really want to sell 40k + ST next season then they need to have a much better product on the park
That might also mean taking a long hard look at the coach/manager
Last night was poor on several levels and the manager was as culpable as his players
I doubt any other team in the CL will attempt to take on a better class of opponent with four non physical forwards. Even fewer would gift the midfield to their opponents by trying to play two against three or four!
Worse still one of the two was clearly only half fit!
Add that to his over optimistic substitutions in Milan -it is possible to say the manager cost us big time!
If he was/is trying to make a point to the board -he had better be careful that they don’t mistake his actions for someone who is out of his depth!
HH
Leverkusen 0-4 – but what was their summer spend?
TTTT
Really good post mate. I’d disagree of a return to a song book from 15 years ago though, many of the songs we sung then would rightly be criticised in contemporary society.
The GB have made large in roads in eradicating anything sectarian from our repertoire and are much more concerned with preserving our culture and ethos.
Like many I rarely sing anything that could be deemed as political these days at the football. However, it would be both wrong and hypocritical of me to condemn anyone who still chooses to.
hun skelper
21:16 on 27 November, 2013
the long wait is over
21:08 on 27 November, 2013
Have they peter ?
——
sorry ?
hamiltontim is praying for oscar
21:19 on 27 November, 2013
Correct, to many have a go at a easy target HH
Just saw this, not sure if it has been picked up elsewhere.
http://www.marca.com/2013/11/27/en/football/international_football/1385574705.html
Three dead as roof collapses at stadium to host opener for World Cup.
Pfayr……..
Link to Mr.McBride and the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act…..
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=paul%20mcbride%20offensive%20behaviour%20at%20football%20act&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CDEQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscottishlaw.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F06%2Fscottish-governments-controversial.html&ei=8GGWUo6oKdOjhgfk7ICYDg&usg=AFQjCNHF91DxZe1SaheC7ek0XtnDl7RpMQ&bvm=bv.57155469,d.ZGU
TLWIO
Pseudo intellectual claptrap…
“We’re dead cleverer than the board….”
The GB splitting the Celtic support…..
Kikinthenakas
Regards the game last night- I thought our downfall was abandoning our relatively effective defensive focus and trying to go toe to toe with a Milan side which while in crisis would still be too good for any of our squad to get a game for. Worse still we tried that without a goalscoring forward in the squad- never mind the team. Too pedestrian, too predictable and tactically inept
What a cracking goal by Isco. 4-1 Madrid.
Justafan
I would have used – unhelpful, outside UEFA rules, inappropriate etc
Lawwell’s statement is an upping of the ante. No need. He never used such strong language when our club was being cheated by the old rangers fc.
Macjay
Surely suspicions about the motivations are immaterial. It’s about fairness and a level of equality.
A Dog Called Cooperette And The Difference Between A Pedigree And A History
I hope this analogy is original.
Last Saturday my wife and I were lucky enough to become owners of a lovely Irish setter puppy we’ve named Cooper. There were 4 bitches in the litter and we could have just as easily acquired Cooperette and for the purposes of my analogy I will pretend we did.
We were able to meet Cooperette’s mum, and Cooperette’s mum’s mum. Unfortunately we were unable to meet Cooperette’s mum’s mum’s mum as she died several years ago but there were several photographs to see. I was immediately struck by how similar the 4 dogs looked (same strip). They all, of course had the same people looking after (or supporting) them and all had or still did live in the same Big House (no explanation required). It probably is possible to clone Dolly The Setter but all of these dogs had been conceived and born through natural means and quite clearly are 4 different dogs. I was able to view the pedigree of Cooperette and was very impressed at the very impressive list of trophies and honours Cooperette’s predecessors had won. Indeed, when I bought Cooperette I acquired all of Cooperette’s assets including not only the pedigree, but 2 bags of dried food, a cheap collar, a rubbishy toy and some worming tablets in addition. Although these were actually worth £1.78, I acquired them for 7p, stiffing the owner of the worming tablets in the act. I also completed a transfer of Cooperette’s Kennel Club membership from the breeders to me and my wife. There were however rumours that when Cooperette’s predecessors had been sold, the breeders had not declared this income to HMRC and had paid no income tax, and furthermore had deliberately withheld information on their Kennel Club registration form for all their dogs over several generations. Furthermore, for even longer, Cooperette’s breeders have forbidden their bitches to breed with Catholic breeders’s dogs and will not sell puppies to Catholic owners.
No doubt the Kennel Club have all sorts of rules and regulations which I have absolutely no doubt they rigidly enforce, but let’s pretend that Rover Ogilvie, Patch Regan and Lassie Bryson were president, CEO and Registration Officer respectively, and ignored some rules and made up new ones in order to pretend that somehow all 4 dogs were somehow one and the same dog, confident in the knowledge that Rufus Keevins et al who write for Scottish Pedigree Dog Monthly would tell blatant lies about the old dog new dog question.
In due course we decide to show Cooperette for the 1st time at the Ramsden’s Dog Challenge. His main rival is a different breed called Brechin. But there’s only one small problem. The Kennel Club membership transfer between Cooperette’s mum and Cooperette has not been completed, and both are members at the same time; Cooperette was competing against Brechin while Cooperette’s mum was clearly and visibly still alive, but due to be put down the following week.
Last Saturday I saw 3 clearly different but closely related dogs.
Sevco, a club with an impressive pedigree but a pathetic history.
A guilty confession. I have never commented previously on CQN about a death and accept I probably should have on a number of occasions. Tommy Burns is a good example, but there was an inevitability about his death that ever so slightly diminished its impact even though I was absolutely gutted. It’s just not my style. I will break my duck this evening however with Paul McConville whom I never met but whose blog I enjoyed immensely. I have seldom read somebody with such clarity of thought and humour.
PJ
Even watching him in action…. He does look out of his depth.
But I suppose his red card is being exercised again. !.
I was told yesterday about the banner at 6:30 pm, I wasn’t told what was on it, but what was said to me was “the MSM will be on meltdown tomorrow” Masty was with me ask him, so they are kidding them selves on, they knew what they where doing, self inflicted, but you kind of knew things where to quiet and they needed attention, and as they have done before it’s bit them on the erse AGAIN.
tonydonnelly67
21:14 on 27 November, 2013
it is ‘too’ when you mean also
the long wait is over
21:18 on 27 November, 2013
Hamiltontim
seriously – you need that explained to you?
Tlwio
——
Please try to be a little less offensive, I simply asked in what way?
Ryecatcher
I am aware that Mcbride was a supporter of the act
Perhaps I have misread the above ….but…where does it mention him being an architect of it
PFayr supports WeeOscar
21:17 on
27 November, 2013
—-
Oglach
Mcbride was an architect of the offensive behaviour act …interesting …where did you get your info on that ?
====
Mo Chara, numerous newspaper articles, blogs, numerous TV appearances in support of the bill, resignation from the Conservatives due to their refusal to support the bill, and much more.
Leverkusen Quick News in sack everybody meltdown
Kikinthenakas
Bryce
que pasa amigo?
long time and all that
U
TLWIO,
I was actually thinking something similar earlier.
Their London Calling banner last year was brilliant and truly inspiring for players and fans alike.
As for The banner last night, I can’t understand its relevance to the biggest game of our season.
Once you loose relevance…….
5-0 Man Ure – perspective CSC
Was looking at Jimmy McGrory and his Britsh goal scoring record and his seven Scottish caps.
Went on the SFA site and searched his name no result,
This is the greatest goal scorer in British football and no mention.
Despicable
Kikinthenakas
I can’t see the club construing last night and , probably more so , that statement as anything other than out and out defiance and insult.
Waiting on Benefica for a treble
The GB I’m afraid are disappearring up their collective jacksie.
I am no fan of the SNP at all, (and I presume the strange display was a go at them), but it is simply unacceptable for the GB to constantly broadcast their politics in defiance of the wishes of the Club and in defiance of the rules laid down by UEFA.
Honestly, what did last night’s display achieve? It was so vague, inept, and weird that most people round me looked at it hard, then shrugged. For this act of toddler-esque vanity, the Club will be fined and the patience of UEFA wears ever thinner.
And please don’t start with the “free-speech” nonsense. I know lots of Celtic fans who are pro-Israel. Imagine if we clubbed together to mount an anti-Palestinian display? The GB would explode in fury.
Some of the GB’s displays have been inspired, and on the whole they are probably still a decent feature of life at Celtic Park.
But I think the novelty is starting to wear thin now. It’s like standing next to some boring know-it-all in the pub…
smoke and mirrors
21:12 on 27 November, 2013
TonyDonnelly 67 we had better watch out for the dim man obviously a man of letters , well 3 actually ARI rearrange as necessary
——–
Not moi surely? X
raymac
Great post sir, my frustration is PL and the board are extremely quick to stick the boot into Celtic supporters but have been ever so silent on matters relating to Oldco / Sevco/ SFA and their systematic cheating of our club.
Really wish they would grow a pair.
Tell it as it is…..the support is an inconvenience to them something tolerated to generate PLC money , they cannot wait to re-establish in their eyes the OF gravy train and treat us all like mugs with penny pinching signing policies and inferior product.
My God even the price of a pie & bovril is a scandal.
Kickham
That’s it your getting there, just get the gist, to auld for lessons son.
Oglach
Doesn’t make him an architect of it ….he was a supporter….
As far as I’m aware he wasn’t involved in the drafting of the bill …
hun skelper
i hate it when i hear people say no politics in football etc.., politics impacts on every part of your life and the recent criminalisation of celtic fans is just another example of politics in football. but it seems so long as it is agreeable to the establishment then its ok. if it deviates from establishment thinking then its bad and must be stopped. it is essentially state censorship and there are people on here talking about STATE CENSORSHIP is GOOD and proper and questioning the GB, think about it man!!!!!!
DeniaBhoy in awe of wee Oscar’s Courage
agree 100% he’s no one for changing but it will be his downfall
I’m looking forward to the strongly worded statement from our “custodians” apologising to the fans for their complete and utter failure to build on last seasons success.
According to their latest statement-
“Celtic is a world-class football club and rightly proud of its wonderful reputation in the game. This is a reputation hard-earned by our supporters over many years. We cannot and will not allow this reputation to be tarnished any further.”
Any chance that Celtic will ever become, or even try to become, a “world-class football club” by playing football?.
These people running our club are making fortunes from the support and our reputation and giving bugger all in return.
I for one am sick of them.
HailHail