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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Watching Man U with a 40 year old Giggs in midfield. Creative forward passing to forwards running off the ball. Up 5-0 away from home. Completely different planet from us.
Rooney with pin point crosses to feet from either wing, and non stop effort. Sammi and Forest could learn a lot from watching him.
What is offensive about a banner of an almost mythical Scottish figure, about which very few facts are known and an Northern Irish Member of Parliament?
Political expression in a democracy!
Down with that sort of thing.
I’m mad with the Green Brigade too.
If only they would have said we could have given them a big image Celtic’s Willie Wallace to use. Now that would have been appropriate.
tonydonnelly67
21:32 on 27 November, 2013
wow
googy
It’s the single figure caps that’s are the clue.
Pfayr….
If my memory serves me correctly then I’m sure he was on the Committee that drafted the bill.
Will do some digging and apologise if I am wrong but don’t think I am.
You are correct that he was a very active supporter of the legislation.
am out of here, have a good night bhoys and ghirls
Hamiltontim….
“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.”
Really interesting if you were to identify the cleansing of “our repertoire” by the GB
GB ultimate aim is to divide and conquer I’ve no doubt about and run their very own St Pauli in Glasgow with 15,000 similar minded people at their games but on the day Scotland’s future was published in print they staged a little stunt. No big issue in isolation.
Celtic Tom
Well said .
It really is about time the board realise the only thing ‘ world class ‘ about Celtic at the moment is the support .
Those same ghuys & ghirls that fund Big Peters £1m per year salary.
Big Pete is really in danger of biting off the hand that feeds him.
The quicker he and his ilk are removed the better imo
Tony D- how exactly have the GB failed with this display?- their aim was to publicise the hypocrisy of the SNP led police campaign of intimidation of a group of Celtic supporters- and the amount of discussion on here suggests that they succeeded in that.
Doc says v….
I think its the politics that ticks uefa off
Who’d ever say uefa was a democracy lol
Right movie time, night all, an HH .
Stairheid…
They failed because they’ve potentially landed Celtic in the uefa grubber!
PFayr supports WeeOscar
21:32 on
27 November, 2013
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 …
=========
I guess we may never know but given his staunch and sometimes frankly bizarre statements in support of an extremely flawed legislation many have concluded that he given his position as one of Scotland’s leading QCs he would have been fully aware and indeed consulted during the initial drafting of the bill.
Hamiltontim
Fair do’ s. – see my post to Kikinthenakas above.
As Clashcityboy says , and I agree , they risk becoming irrelevant.
What’s worse , from their point of view, is that the board will not allow themselves to be seen by UEFA as unable to control the “extreme ” elements of our fanbase.
Not when we’re trying desperately to get a seat at whatever bigger table might be around the corner. The stakes are too high. The noise , in every sense , made by the GB is actually made by a pretty small number of individuals and the club will not allow that small number to risk their long term strategy. Especially when there is far from universal support for the controversial element from the rest of the fans.
Tlwio
Kevtic
Interesting…
Glasgow Hibernian???
PL must love the GB
It takes the pressure off the pish performances this season at cp
italiabhoy
are there really loads of celtic fans who are pro israel?
if you asked every celtic fan who had no family or heritage ties with either side of that situation, i would be surprised if more than a handful were pro israel
adi_dasler
Brings to mind, someone has pull at UEFA,to allow that apology of a Ref to take a game of that magnitude.
Awerabest PJ
winning captains
joking apart, whats your view on the naughty bhoys? back em or sack em?
Kevtic…
They’d never get 15k!
Justafan, yeah I know, I find that repressive.
Sponsorship chokes freedom of speech, the sponsors don’t want to be associated with political ideas, so they blanket ban ideas!
ItsallaboutthemoneymoneyCSC
….pfayr supports weeoscar
21:32 on 27 November, 2013
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 …
——-
The bill was drafted by legally qualified Scottish Government solicitors.
justafan
21:37 on 27 November, 2013
Hamiltontim….
“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.”
Really interesting if you were to identify the cleansing of “our repertoire” by the GB
——
I most certainly do.
SOAL
Quite ….result ..he thought
They’ll shout at me for hassling the GB ….forget about the pants fitba
“Our club don’t want it, our manager and the team don’t want it…”
Is that what happened at Kaka’s goal. Our defenders were all too busy reading banners disapprovingly?
justafan- in their view they put a board that cares little for Celtic fans in the grubber
The long wait…..
Paul McBride was one of these you describe?
ulysses mcghee is praying for Oscar
The amount of work that goes into the CQN ANNUAL is huge and we are a very small team.
The risk involved is reasonably significant.
It is only possible because so many CQNers – on here and from Facebook etc have contributed for free.
The hassles involved are many and take up even more time. I think that anyone who has contacted us would say they have had a good service.
A profit could be made on the CQN Annual this year. it certainly wasn’t last year. Recently Paul made some money from our efforts – not much – but the first he has EVER made from CQN. If he divided it up over the ten years he’d be on £60 a year.
Bit harsh to bring people buying the CQN Annual into your argument,
Just saying.
PS did everyone see our video for the weekend? Here is the link –
https://vimeo.com/80205030
Is it because, so the story goes, that Wallace skinned a man alive and made a grip for his claymore that there’s all this uproar?!
That’ll teach those GB scamps, just stick to Sands next time!
Hamiltontim…
I wasn’t asking if you identified with the GB lol
Was asking what sectarian songs etc were, in your words, cleansed from our repertoire?
Guess I wasn’t clear
The GB statement is cringeworthy. Seems that this group seem to think that what they think is right is right and nothing else matters.
How can anyone take them seriously now beggars belief but , by accident or design, they have beautifully, if not in the Celtic way, deflected the attention from where it needs to be; the club management and strategy.
Not buying that so let’s close 111,let the boys grow up ( nephew included), and focus on what matters – the team and management.
A hard winter lies ahead but we will recover. We always have.
Now imagine the scene. Celtic park with dwindling crowds and huge empty expanses, the only vocal support coming from the GB. Now Take the same scenario but without the GB. Now are all those complaining about the GBs real political agenda (the same agenda as generations of Celtic supporters have held in my simple opinion – that is left of centre Irish Nationalist) take up the mantle and bring the sound, vibrancy and colour to the ground once the GB have been banned- NO they won’t.
Stairheed…
So factually and tactically that’s all right then?
ht – listening to one of the lads who helped out with the WO4L cycle back in March was a real eye-opener for me. Different levels of membership, some limited by living away from Glasgow and other conditions. Sounded like a load of egotistical nonsense to me, but closely matched by the questionable actions of the more sinister and publicly funded group called FOCUS!!
I’ve always disliked the Hun term for us “Plastic Paddies”, which seeks to demean our Irish heritage. I must admit though, to having met plenty of “Plastic Provos” in my time supporting Celtic and I have my doubts about the motives of the guys who lead and direct the GB.
Obviously I could be wrong, but that’s my personal opinion.
T4
So we are raging that we didn’t spend millions to strengthen for Europe, and subsequently we lost millions because we didn’t go through. Nor did we smash our wage structure to get the right calibre of players.
Wouldn’t it have been nice of our club if we had agreed to pay the minimum wage?
Paul McConville RIP.
Was planning a break from the blog for a few days but had the misfortune of doing a bit of lurking and when I read tonydonnelly67 telling such a man as HamiltonTim to sling his hook and stop following Celtic I just couldn’t ignore it. I don’t know anything about tonydonnelly and he may well be one of the really great Celtic Supporters, maybe he is maybe he isn’t but I do know that HamiltonTim definitely is. There are plenty of infrequent posters giving it laldy as well and ok some very genuine Tims posting concerns . Yesterday was a horrible day for me tonight is equally horrible. I will always love Celtic and will always wish them every success but I cannot share a blog with some of the new spokesmen that have emerged.