Steven Gerrard went on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month. It is as though he was trolling those who yesterday were his comrades. No matter what we think of the other lot, you or I would have more taste than to do that to them. He could have waited another hour.
To Celtic fans, he will forever be the man who clung on after a curtailed season and then stopped 10-in-a-row, but we will lament today, as Gerrard leaves Glasgow. He was a walking UB40 manager, one League Cup semi-final defeat away from being able to sing, “I am the one in 10…. a statistic, a reminder”, of nine failed campaigns.
For months, I wrote here that I wanted him to stay. Celtic’s complete collapse last season made the league a non-event. Gerrard oversaw another year of massive and unsustainable overspend, and coasted to the title. Despite this, his squad was unmarketable, planning was all about consumption today, to hell with tomorrow.
The main reason I wanted him to stay, however, turns out to be false. Gerrard’s current contract was signed after it became public knowledge that Brendan Rodgers had a £9m release clause in his Celtic contract. Surely, I assumed, those sharp minds at Ibrox would tie Gerrard down on nothing less than the same terms. Newco need £9m more than they need a manager who can only win when there is no opposition.
However, Villa will pay £4.5m compensation to deprive Newco of their management team. Lots of things in football are out of your control, but the figure required to adequately compensate a club to allow their manager to break his contract? Someone slipped up here, and on this occasion, it was not Gerrard.
£4.5m will keep the lights on for another three weeks, if they don’t need to pay compensation for the next guy. Anyone in a job is likely to cost as much, if not more. Now comes the work of attracting a quality candidate to a club in the 10th year of living beyond its means. Some sort of miracle worker, would be ideal.
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Been listening to and reading various fan sites, vlogs and blogs today and this old George Jones song keeps bubbling up to the surface. Here’s a version by the late great John Prine and Susan Tedeschi. Hope you like it.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=lU7FJKufJNs&feature=share
T
BURNLEY78 @ 5:45 PM
Back to Basics
Is that (Connor Goldson’s heart condition) recently diagnosed ?
————
Cheers B78.
Nope.
Was a matter of record while he was still a backup centre back at Brighton.
Scuppered proposed moves to two English clubs before Sevco “pounced ! “.
Sir Alex Ferguson would blush at some of the tributes to Slippy G at Poundland, Roumer Bagwash on STV,hang your head in shame
Have a giggle
https://twitter.com/PatrickSMurphy4/status/1458868323349929991?t=GTg2zU5bVqWasE-mjOjUqQ&s=19
HH
…..
INIQUITOUSIV on 11TH NOVEMBER 2021 9:47 PM
really good read.
all the stuff you said about the good doctor implemented at Hawkhead, brought from his miserable experiances at lennox castle,
Phil’s”Rugger guy”who disects the accounts saying that the Directors at Ibrox,who have been loaning money,and taking th e shares as equity,at 20p a share,now have shares worth around 5p,with the amount of dilution.I would find this incredible stupidity.I really was stunned.
I know some scorn him,but as he always says,with that mob you always have to “Follow Follow”the money.He was bang on about King and his interest.
During the lead up to Remembrance Day each year I tend to reflect on two war poems written less than 2½ years apart.
The first (IMHO) has been hijacked by the establishment.
“Prince” Harry routinely trotted it out
(albeit he may charge a direct fee for doing so in the future).
It was written in 1915 while the “Great War” was still being romanticised and long before the true horrors of 1916 and 1917 unfolded.
It contains (again IMHO) the truly repugnant verse
“Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields”
It was written by a Doctor, not a soldier.
A man who, despite taking an oath to preserve life, said
“all the goddamn doctors in the world will not win this bloody war: what we need is more and more fighting men”.
The second was written by a professional soldier in October 1917 just weeks before he was killed in action.
He’d suffered the horrors of war first hand and was steadfast in his belief that no future generation of young men should suffer similarly.
“My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori”
The first poem advocates militarism in perpetuity.
Take up the fight or we died for nothing.
(Extrapolate that and we all die in battle eventually)
The second is a clarion call for honesty.
The poet deliberately capitalised “Lie” as a proper noun to denounce the establishment.
Like many on here, the generation before mine (including the majority of my father’s family) fought in WWII.
None of them volunteered.
The government of his majesty, King George VI had the legal power to conscript his “subjects”.
I knew them all (long after the war)
They were great guys.
Each carried the scars of war (some physical, all psychological) to their dying day.
Every one of them would say Wilfred Owen was completely right and John McCrae was almost completely wrong.
I’d urge every European to study intently the history of the Great War including 3 key areas
– the catastrophic diplomatic failure beforehand which led to it
– the senseless and useless loss of life on a massive scale during it
– the shameless reneging of the Establishment’s promises after it
For the second of the above alone I will never disrupt a minute’s silence.
For the UK’s shameless disfigurement of WWI sentiment in order to perpetuate an absurd and vainglorious sense of military significance …
… I will never wear a red poppy.
.
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 11TH NOVEMBER 2021 11:59 PM
Thanks for that – excellent.
Watching Brazil vs Colombia World Cup qualifier. Very physical game, being played at frenetic pace with some sublime skill on show from both sides.
Hard to know whether I want bonny Escocia to go to Qatar, because we would just get destroyed by teams like these.
Mornin Celts hh
Hello again all you young rebels.
From another storm lashed Melbourne peninsula.
That Glesga climate change gathering hasn’t helped much with our
normally sunny and pleasant spring weather. 😡
So the Scouse fly man has vacated his pedestal at the top of the
marble staircase, just makes me think he’s got more savvy than I
ever thought he had.
What do you mean, he shit himself ?
I think it was a very practical decision despite his obvious love
and devotion to a club that epitomised every facet of his being. ✝️
Everything Celtica getting back to normal here, PADDYMACOZ
has got our CSC meetings back and organised for the year ahead,
with our Christmas bbq in the park top priority.
Great reading back and seeing Big Jimmy back on form and necking
the beers and chasing the birds.
Talking about birds, our bright green parrots are back in the hood
for summer starting, squawking and screeching about our huge
gum trees up the back bush.
Strange thing, there’s a huge field a bit down the road where all the
pure white Cockatiels strut about, and very territorial, any other bird
entering there space gets toasted.
Now if I could just get them all to get on a bit better, I’d have a sea
of green and white.
Awaywiththebirds CSC.
H H Mick
My friends in Celtic,
You’re got to be having a giraffe. A standing area where the current front stand is.
Drums, songs and chants all getting maximum publicity, right below the cameras and MSM. Notwithstanding the board sitting within the scent of a flare.
HH to all, especially those of us who are sick.
Good morning all from a dark, overcast and wet Garngad
Did someone mention birds. Awe the feathery type.
Amazing how successful Gerrard was in Scotland (must a missed that) 1 trophy from 9.
Everyone of the English media getting in on the Gerrard gravy train, none have the balls to say 1 trophy out of 9 is not EPL manager material.
Oh and liking him to BR what a feckin cheek. He won everything he contested.
I am sick as 1 of Micks parrots with this pash.
D :)
Re Gattuso.
Don’t think he speaks English which is a disadvantage if you are looking at a “hit the ground running” guy. He is also Catholic but I have no idea if that would be an issue for their hierarchy. I suspect it won’t be him but I’ve been way out many times on who will or won’t get managerial positions, to include at our own club.
“MELBOURNE MICK on 12TH NOVEMBER 2021 7:10 AM
Now if I could just get them all to get on a bit better, I’d have a sea
of green and white.”
Nice one, Mick :-))
Let’s hope those who run our club listen to what Ange said on Wednesday.
” I don’t look over the garden fence to see what my neighbours are doing, I concentrate on building my own house ”
Not like some on here
I think we should be fair re Gerrard at Ibrox.
If he is judged on trophies won then, considering the money spent, he was nothing special.
If we measure him by how much Sevco improved, then he did quite well.
Either way,I believe Celtic and Ange are the better outfit.
ST TAMS on 12TH NOVEMBER 2021 8:41 AM
In Ange`s position, I would be the same. As a supporter exposed to the ridiculous bias of the MSSM re their favourite Club, I am happy to voice and to read comments on Sevco on CQN.
All the EBT names being thrown into a hat.
They don’t have the EBT monies anymore to spend though.
Not sure any of these will end well.
As soon as the slow lane beckoned for Gerard he was for the off.
He managed them well and is getting the plaudits for very little.
He was more authentic as a player than a manager ger as we will see.
None of the others will succeed. More vanity than sanity is some of the suggestions.
The most important thing is total focus on ourselves. I hope Ange walks the talk on that.
They have 7 games with 6 they could realistically lose coming up.
They have 4 league games where they play before us and so could take 7 point leads before we kick a ball.
It’s a critical time in the season. We just need to focus on what we can do.
I well remember the springboard winning the league cup gave Wim in 97/8. St Johnstone semi is priority.
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 11TH NOVEMBER 2021 11:59 PM
B2B, lovely, gentle, pointed but generally warm post. Worth a read back for any visitors who missed it. Thanks
Ave Ave
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 11TH NOVEMBER 2021 11:59 PM
Thank you, excellent post.
Back to Basics
He was killed, tragically, one week before the Armistice:
Dulce et Decorum Est
BY WILFRED OWEN
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria more.
A powerful poem which all who remember war as a glorious event would do well to read.
I know this reference won’t please everyone, but a quick read through Phil’s Rugger Guy taking a look at Sevco’s recent accounts revealed this wee nugget –
“RIFC spent £16.8m on new players”.
Gives something of the lie to Slippy’s claim that they had spent nothing in the last two windows and had to spend big in January in order to compete!
As a C & P, I don`t know how ` mori ` became ` more`.
Sorry.
Gattuso never went to Spurs because of tax reasons.
—-
He walked out after 20 odd days at Fiorentina this summer after falling out over his transfer budget. I can’t see him being happy with the transfer budget at Ibrox.
EMERALDBEE \O/ A DOUBLE NINER!! on 12TH NOVEMBER 2021 9:34 AM
I know this reference won’t please everyone, but a quick read through Phil’s Rugger Guy taking a look at Sevco’s recent accounts revealed this wee nugget –
“RIFC spent £16.8m on new players”.
Gives something of the lie to Slippy’s claim that they had spent nothing in the last two windows and had to spend big in January in order to compete!
__________________________________________________________________________________________
I read it too Emeraldbee and there are some incredible numbers in there and that’s what they have published who knows what is left out, allegedly. But I am a bit disappointed if this ‘rugger guy’ really is a top notch accountant or whatever, he says this,
‘RIFC have not as yet adopted this model and would be in liquidation once more if…’
RIFC have never been in liquidation, RFC 1872 are and as everyone knows you can’t be liquidated twice, or am I wrong?
Hot Smoked – Did Slippy improve Rankers last season or overall or did we rest on our laurels? Down size, have an absoloute catastrophe of a season last season?
Oh and all other clubs cut their cloth accordingly and did not run up millions of debt.
HH
D :)
Hot Smoked
I did that poem for Higher English, have never forgotten it. I can honestly say that this poem was the first poem which made a real impact on me, I’m not sure any others I have read since have in the same way. I believe, open to correction, that Siegfried Sassoon published most of Wilfred Owen’s poetry. I also read a story about him. He was a Captain in the Sussex regiment and had been decorated for bravery but also had led a protest against the continuation of the war in 1917. He was then sent to a psychiatric hospital, Craiglockhart I believe where he met Owen. He threw his MC into a river after the war.
Van Bronckhorst would be a really interesting appointment. He is a big name but has had one good season as a manager. His record with Feyenoord was:
2015/16 – 3rd place (21 points behind winners PSV)
2016/17 – 1st place (1 point ahead of Ajax)
2017/18 – 4th place (17 points behind winners PSV)
2018/19 – 3rd place (21 points behind winners Ajax)
He was also assistant manager to Ronald Koeman and Fred Rutten prior to taking the manager position, so enjoyed some sense of continuity. He would be walking into a very different situation at Ibrox where all of the first team coaching roles have been gutted and he would be starting from scratch and, one would assume, have a limited budget to fill those roles (never mind money for the January transfer window). Certainly will be interesting.
Anyway, now that I have wasted my time typing that out, get your money on Derek McInnes…
*too many and’s for one sentence…
And whit?
McInnes won’t get it, “Ra Bears” would be up in arms if he gets a second bite at the cherry, por cierto.
MCPHAIL BHOY @10.00am
Yeh I picked up on that reference ” ….. liquidation once more.” I looked on it at the time as just careless or lazy language because, as you say, a company cannot be liquidated twice. Disappointing from an accountant right enough.
Ave Ave
Ra bears allowed McGregor etc to come back after they refused to TUPE, nothing matters to them other than results.McInnes and Barry Ferguson are the obvious ones as they know the club city expectations, sound familiar?
I reckon McInnes would be tolerated as an “interim” manager. You know…that old chestnut…
Wilfred Owen
Now there was a guy you would want in the trenches with you !
Seriously the best poem written IMO.
Watched Journeys End on tv the other night. It totally emphasised the absolute futility of it all. And why we should remember those innocents who were so betrayed for believing the ‘lie’ they it be so ‘sweet and beautiful to lay down your life for your country’ !
The big memory should also be to challenge the need for war in any form and to challenge all nationalistic jingoistic rhetoric. Yet here we are turning a memory of the fallen into a jingoistic charade. Like a couple of others on here I will always remember and respect. Like them I will also never wear a poppy.
I also strongly recommend the 6 book series about Celtic and the First World War by Ian McAllum. Amazing insight into the Glasgow Irish and Celtic at that time. Not a 2 night read though.
HOT SMOKED on 12TH NOVEMBER 2021 9:32 AM
Back to Basics
He was killed, tragically, one week before the Armistice:
————
my great-granda was shot in the Dardenelles
Said it hurt like feck!!