Where do we start discussing last night? Perhaps the end of the night. There was joy in abundance, not only inside Celtic Park, but in the streets surrounding the game and in a hundred thousand homes across the world. This joy manifest itself into a great sense of community. That performance brought tears, hugs, spontaneous jumping up and down, and not only from Celtic fans. Messages have poured in from fans of other SPL clubs and beyond.
This is what great sport can do for people.
Brother Walfrid has excellent timing. He managed to arrange our kick-off meeting to coincide with match day four of the Champions League group stage. Those of us who attended the anniversary celebrations on Tuesday were reminded what Celtic is all about, the best team in the world were in Glasgow waiting to play, the fairy tale script was written, but could it be delivered?
It’s the details which are most impressive. Mikael Lustig looked like he could play in any team in any league. He was comfortable and composed throughout. Adam Matthews, deputising for an injured former Player of the Year, played out of position flawlessly. I watched him struggle at left back on his Celtic Park debut in a friendly against Wolves last year; it defies explanation how far he has progressed.
Please forget about Victor’s goal, it will only detract from his incredible midfield performance. His composure, skill and assertiveness troubled Iniesta and Messi all game. This was all the more impressive given the absence of captain, Scott Brown.
Georgios Samaras was crucial for most of the evening. He was the one player Barca seemed afraid of, although a lack of training caught up with him before he was subbed.
I’ll not burden Tony Watt publicly with the comparison I made of him earlier in the season but he possesses an impressive array of attributes: upper body strength, pace-with-the-ball and a nose for goal. I’m tempted to say he will continue to improve but, to what level? Without injuries to Hooper, Lassad and Forrest it’s unlikely he would have enjoyed as much time last night. Sometimes Fortune Favours the Celtic.
All of Europe would have been impressed with Fraser Forster last night, dubbed La Grand Muralla, the Big Wall, by a Spanish newspaper. He will play for England, so too with Kelvin Wilson if he maintains this season’s form.
The only man with a problem today is Neil Lennon. Tactically the two games against Barcelona have been as accomplished as any I have witnessed. Neil needs to know how to follow that in Lisbon. I’ve no idea.
Happy Birthday Celtic!
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Courtesy The Mag.. Newcastle Fanzine..
Selling A Great Prospect Bites NUFC Already
When NUFC sold Fraser Forster for a fee of around £2 million in June of this year, I wasn’t happy. Not one bit.
For Newcastle United to develop a young local goalkeeper through our youth system, reserve team and by loaning him out to other clubs for first team experience, to then just sell him for a measly fee was ridiculous and needless. The reason it was a poor piece of judgement is because Forster, in my mind, had future England goalkeeper written all over him. So you don’t sell future England goalkeepers for £2 million.
We all know Fraser Forster wanted to play first team football and he wasn’t Newcastle’s number one because of the even more impressive Tim Krul…but to sell him was needless, considering he still had 2 years left on his contract.
All we had to do was to continue the loaning him out strategy which benefited the club in 2 ways. A) he remains on the football club’s books. B) He improves even more as a player because of first team experience.
Watching local lad Fraser Forster’s performances against Barcelona home and away is a little sickening for NUFC fans. He was outstanding. He showed the whole of Europe what he is about. Yet he does it as officially a Celtic player with no ties to us except a former club on his CV.
As I have already mentioned, he had 2 years left on his contract and for the fee that was agreed between the two clubs, it just wasn’t worth it. How much is Fraser Forster worth now? How much would Celtic have to pay now to make Forster a permanent member of their squad in the summer? Even though he would only have one year left, more than £2 million.
If they couldn’t afford it then I have no doubts a Premier League team would be able to. I am fully expecting Celtic to be making a nice profit on Forster sometime in the future. Like I say, sickening.
Another reason I didn’t like this sale is what if a big, rich club fancies Tim Krul and writes Mike Ashley a large cheque to take him off our hands? Then where would we be? Who would we replace Krul with? There aren’t many keepers out there that are a) as good as Krul b) would be available to sign, c) would be affordable and d) would be remotely interested in signing for NUFC.
If we had kept Forster at the club for another year and merely loaned him out like the previous few seasons, then the replacement would be straightforward. We’d thank Tim for all he has done, cash the cheque and then be safe in the knowledge that a keeper who has withstood the might of Barcelona home and away would take over our goalkeeper position.
Roy Hodgson has announced his England squad and it involves Forster once again. I always knew Forster would make the England squad but I didn’t think it would be quite this soon. This one is a real kick in the balls for our football club.
Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias love a good deal so they should be asking themselves ‘we sold an England goalkeeper who shut out Barcelona for £2 million?’ and be drinking a large brandy as they are doing so.
Well done boys. Cracking deal that one.
Forster has been trained through our system. He has gone onto play in the Champions League and beat Barcelona. He has gone onto become a member of the England squad. And what do Newcastle United get out of all this? £2 million. Ridiculous, laughable, pointless mistake. I didn’t like the sale at the time, it made no sense to me. I just plain hate it now. The fact we replaced Forster with Rob Elliott for £500k is just embarrassing.
All the best Fraser I hope you go on to accumulate countless caps for England and who knows, maybe even come back to us one day. Geordie boy did good…….for somebody else. Where have we heard that before?
Summa
Any chance that Hearts announce admin on December the 1st,
Take a 17 point, hit avoid relegation and are nursed (precedent set) to the end of the season,
Enter Liquidation and come out as a The Hearts for the new season,
Apply for entry to the SPL (precedent set),
And all clubs vote them in to escape armageddon if they go to a lower division!!
Why was it 10 point deduction for Zombies and maybe [DV] 17 points for cousins of Zombies?
Are some Zombies more equal than others?
Summa
Big FF spent one year on loan at Norwich and two with us …he hasn’t been at NUFC for over three years
I wonder suggest that his recent improvement has little to do with them
Summa of Sammi….
10:48 on 9 November, 2012
.
Courtesy The Mag.. Newcastle Fanzine..”
If FF had gone back to Newcastle he’d be sitting on the bench for the foreseeable future and no one would have heard of him.
He made the right decision and so did Celtic and we’ve both benefited from it.
DBBIA
Was the 17 point thingy not brought in during the “Save our zombie ” campaign to rewrite the SPL rules to allow them in thro the back door
Dontbrattbakkinanger
10:55 on
9 November, 2012
Why was it 10 point deduction for Zombies and maybe [DV] 17 points for cousins of Zombies?
============================================
Rules changed at the end of last season to be 15 points or a percentage of last years total points (25%?)
Don’t know how this would work if you were the promoted club, therefore Ross County would take a bigger punishment even though they were in a lower league, another well thought out rule.
Flights booked for December the 4th. Now where would a man go about getting two tickets for the Spartak game mmm :-)
DBBIA – I did say for the ‘tourists’ that they weren’t TFOD.
Rules out the BBC.
……Rules changed at the end of last season to be 15 points or a percentage of last years total points (25%?)
———————————–
Whichever was the higher, therefore minimum 15 points.
PFAyr, you’re maybe right.
It would complete an ‘annus mrabilis’ for British sport if the Huns of Midlothian FC went bust before Hogmanay.
Not sure if the link from Channel 4 News about our Barca game been posted before
But I just love the Watt power celebration and Rods emotions in overload
Hail Hail
http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/display/playlistref/081112
If Hearts go burst ..hibs would lose a big derby
Would anyone else be overly affected ?
Personally , if the rancid scum went out of existence I’d consider it another positive event in Scottish football , following the Huns demise
Killie next …feck them as well…
Evolution …the survival of the fittest …very fortuitous that its all the scum that are dying
Barcelona strip purchased with the name WATT for the Bhoy
Live within your means – a lesson for us all – our country, households and football clubs
simples
Great piece in the Indo
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/lennons-lions-run-on-spirit-of-67-8298508.html
I’m a bit conflicted about Hearts.
There are some decent Hearts fans, I know a few, untainted by any association with bigotry or discrimination.
That’s the essential difference between them and the huns.
The great Messi sent home – tae think again.
http://i.imgur.com/kS1Gz.jpg
What a night
The Spirit of Arthur Lee
11:08 on 9 November, 2012
‘Barcelona strip purchased with the name WATT for the Bhoy’
Thankfully we only have one player with that surname on our books. Otherwise, well…..
.
PF Ayr..Ernie..
I Wrote this About FF about 4 hours before that Article was Published..
..
Summa of Sammi….
05:24 on
9 November, 2012
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Fortunès..
Fraser Foster.. My thoughts on Him were the Same a SFTB.. Only he Put it better than Me..People slagging Fraser because he was a Loan deal .. Oh Dear..;0( for Me I really started Liking FF when he said in a Interview about 11 months ago that he had to Play to his Best to get a Contract at Celtic.. Then Finished by Saying he Could then Decide if HE wanted to Play for Celtic or Go back to the EPL.. Wise Words..
..
The Trouble with NU Fans is they Think they are Bigger that they Are..When l said ..He Could then decide if HE wanted to Play for Celtic or Go back to The EPL..Newcastle United was the Last thing l was Referring to..Ditto FF..
Well Done Lenny and PL for getting the Big Fella..
Summa
Ps.. I Hope None of You 2 were Slagging FF When we Got him on Loan..:O)
Good photies of the start of the barca match. I downloaded them for my own wee collection but it made me think that there must be a few fans with quite a few good photies of days like this.
The Celtic minded site had (and maybe still has) an excellent collection of pics, maybe we should start one on here ourselves or even have a joint timternet site
The jambos will not see any sympathy from me with their plight. Their misbehaviour against Lennie last year will stay long in my memory. They can pay their debt or they can fold and go to division 3 if division 3 will have them otherwise they can go the way of third Lanark
Administration is lower of 15 or one third for previous season. Hearts finished on 52, one third is 17.33. I did read on on Twitter some guys insisting it would be rounded up to 18 rather than down to 17 but haven’t seen anything to back that up.
It would put them 11 behind Dundee and give them real meaning to their season! Crowds up in the relegation fight. Or if they get to January and sell all their players and then do badly it incentivises Killie to follow suit (15 point deduction)!
Poor old Motherwell. Humped for the £900k prize money by a measly 10 point deduction from der hun last year and would suffer a 21 point deduction this year because of the rule change that it brought about.
Ernie it was £10.00 cheaper than Georgios Samaras
ernie – I wouldn’t be a natural ‘agree-er’ with you but I met a lot of Jambos when I worked in Edinburgh and thought they were just like anybody else – good, bad, indifferent.
I also got the sense that if you were from west of Princes St, you were a Jambo – east and you were a Hibee.
I also went to a Hearts Hibs game (the one where Riordan had a ned attack him) but apart from that a few flags, there was no sense of unpleasantness.
Other than it being Baltic for early May.
The football world is reminded of our greatness every 10 years or so.
1957 Celtic 7 Rangers 1 …record score in a national cup final
1967 Celtic 2 Inter Milan 1…first British, first non-latin club to win the EC
1979 Celtic 4 Rangers 2…10 men win the league
1988 Centenary double
1998 Celtic stop 10 in a row
2003 Seville
2012 Celtic beat the worlds best ever club side 2-1
(not to mention other major events of this year)
Always have been a special club and always will be.
hh
Anyone really excited about the St Johnstone game on Sunday?
The manager has a job to get European thoughts out of the players’ heads and back to the domestic job in hand.
Summa of Sammi….
11:20 on 9 November, 2012
‘Ps.. I Hope None of You 2 were Slagging FF When we Got him on Loan..:O)’
At the end of NFL’s caretaker season I said on here that the most important thing he had to do was get FF on a permanent deal.
It’s nice to be right occasionally.
The thing that gets me is how these “experts” who have obvious leanings towards deadco and are part of the propaganda machine to get reconstruction up to full speed because without it Sevco will be goosed provide little by way of proper evidence.
Hearts have been in this position long before old Rangers’ situation was made public. It was a running joke for many years going away back a fair way. Flats flats glorious flats was the chant sang at them and it was coming for a very long time. Losing RFC from existence and then their tribute act has not prompted this. Selling your players to them and not receiving cash for those sales probably has accelerated their problems but really that club has not been paying players for at least two years with regularity AND THAT WAS WITH DEADCO in the SPL.
It beggars belief that they phone in shows and papers have jumped on this as the start of meltdown – without the Hearts travelling support there will be Armageddon now. How big is the famous Hearts travelling support?
Last week when Dundee United and Hearts played in the LC Qtr final they hardly filled the stands and Tynecastle has not been bustling this season itself (one of the few ground to have lost punters by the look of things). How many of their fans were at Celtic park a few weeks back? Anyone know?
They’ll pack out Easter Road because they want to stuff the Hibees but games in Dundee (East Coast after all) have not seen this huge support.
It seems dodgy to me.
Motherwell have no fans anyway, nor do St Mirren or ICT to speak of but they’ll be out in force if they’re in a cup final and the Saints will take a big support to Hampden vs Celtic, that is a given.
WHO ARE THESE 6 CLUBS WHO ARE GOING DOWN THE PAN THEN MR EXPERTS?
Celtic- yer having a laugh
Aberdeen – support increased on last season and have good travelling support – NO
Dundee United – Chairman says they’re fine and they have had the only genuine sell-out this season in Scotland for the Dundee Derby. They also have good players for sale – NO
Dundee – on a lower division budget anyway and have that derby for extra funds – UNlikely
St Johnstone – have 2 derbies and are run at zero debt – NO
Ross County – run properly and have highland derbies – NO
Hibernian – another club run on a no debt policy and they have seen a rise in attendances due to form – NO
Motherwell – I don’t know
St Mirren – I don’t know
ICT – I don’t know but they have a derby and a cup semi/final to look forward to
Kilmarnock – in bother from what we are told but again it’s their own fault
Hearts – in obvious bother
Even in half the SPL are in trouble that is too bad. The policies of the people running those clubs are to blame and the prices paid in wages are also a part of that problem. Clubs need to get real and start paying what they can afford and if the players want more tell them to beat it and play the young boys.
In Division 1 Thistle, Falkirk, Raith, Hamilton and others are run within strict budgets and they are healthy. Other clubs are not so fortunate but if these clubs go down TOO BAD. There are too many teams in Scotland and if some amalgamated they’d stand a chance of doing more in the game.
Reconstruction for me will come and it has to for the good of the game but not for the good of clubs like Kilmarnock, Hearts and Sevco whose mismanagement is their own fault.
Sensible clubs like Celtic, Hibs, Aberdeen Dundee united and St Johnstone should be leading us into the future, not allowing neanderthals and an old boys network of like minds dragging us back to the 1950s where crowds were healthy at every stadium.
Amalgamate where possible or die and get over it. Too many senior teams in Scotland anyway.
If you don’t want that then run your club in a fiscally responsible fashion and get on with it.
Develop young players and sell them on for decent cash.
END OF STORY
Phil MacGiollbhain said on BEYOND THE WAVES FOOTBALL SHOW the other night that the newest club in Scotland are likely to run out of money soon and more jelly and Ice-cream will be on the cards. This pincer movement from the media to get “experts” is another on message talking point decided in the offices which Stuart Cosgrove exposed this week as jumping for joy at being invited to succulent lamb dinners.
Don’t believe the hype.
Summa
I was completely wrong re FF …
Nothing makes me pwouder to be a Celt ,than to read testimonials from world class players
regarding our support.
Hail hail
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon
11:29 on 9 November, 2012
‘Anyone really excited about the St Johnstone game on Sunday?’
I’d like us to put out the reserve team, or at least the core of it.
Our players have a problem with adjusting from the highs of the CL to the level of our domestic game.
Summa of sammi
That is good news to my ears.
Has the young in joined the GB yet.
I’m still on cloud67 and the wee fella is but a dot in the sky above me.
MWD
What I´d like to know is how come the official attendance was only just over 55,000 ?
I´ve zoomed round the ground & can see hardly any empty seats.
I know people who couldnt get a ticket for love nor money.
So there were 5000 empty seats ? Yeah right.
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon 11:29 on 9 November, 2012
Anyone really excited about the St Johnstone game on Sunday?
………………………………………………………………………………………..
Yep I am, in exactly the same way I was excited about the killie game two weeks back, I just hope we fare better on sunday in the result stakes.
I’ll be even happier to be back in my own seats without a bloody pillar in front of me (moved due to uefa ticket scam).
HH
I’m still floating.
What a night – like many people on here I have been at some incredible games at Celtic Park over the years, some have been in the latter stages of the same competition, league clinching victories, and winning big domestic fixtures, but that atmosphere is the best I have ever experienced and the result ranks among the best as well.
Happy birthday Celtic.
ernie lynch,
I’m sure there will be a few changes. Every player must be desperate to show Neil what they can do.
I was in the main stand at tynecastle some years ago – during Charlie Nics second spell at the club. The bile and hatred pouring down from the ‘toffs’ that day towards Celtic and especially Nicholas was worse than anything I had heard at Ipox.
I hope Hearts Die.
I am beginning to get back down to earth I’m afraid. Work beckons’. What a great night and then I was thinking how much I enjoyed the LC qf against St J with less than 15k in attendance. We are blessed to have our club and we should never forget it! HH.