When Braga lined up for kick-off I thought, “Three at the back against a front three away from home in Europe, we should be OK here.” And so we should have been. Braga were average-to-poor during the opening 20 minutes, as Celtic settled into a pattern of attack, primarily down the left flank (we’ll come to that later).
There is always a temptation to scapegoat after a poor result and it would be unnecessarily harsh to single out Kasper Schmeichel for not stopping a shot from 33 yards which went directly above his frame. Kasper’s decline is clear to see, but the team in front of him last night were not any better.
Once the goal went in, Braga players seemed to grow a few inches, while Celtic’s shrunk in stature. The visitors went man-for-man when out of possession and Celtic were – yet again – unable to pass through the press. The possession horseshoe of doom was in full swing and midfielders, facing their own goal, only passed sideways or back to Cameron Carter-Vickers or Liam Scales. Or, of course, Kasper.
The entire support could not wait until halftime in the hope that Brendan Rodgers would sort things out. The change was a surprise. Celtic went three at the back to match up to Braga (note, match up to Braga, who are seventh in the Portuguese league). This created a bit more opportunity in the middle of the park, although the personnel change, which saw Marcelo Saracchi play an advanced role on the left had a lot to do with the improvement.
Changing to an untested formation was a risk. Twice Celtic rode their luck as Braga exploited the space where a right back would normally be, but the chances were not taken. Kelechi Ịheanachọ again stepped up, won a loose ball and smacked his shot below the keeper into the net. To the incredulity of the majority inside Celtic Park, the referee disallowed the goal and VAR did not see enough of an error to overrule the official.
Some sides grow with a sense of injustice, but that did not happen. One man’s thing to fight against is another’s excuse.
Braga’s second goal was a classic of the pressing genre. They pressed a poorly structured team all night and got their reward by forcing Celtic so far back a clearance took a ricochet and flew into the net. Fair play to them. A team who are midtable in Portugal, who could not afford our players or their wages, and a manager who is under severe pressure, tactically out-thought Celtic. Our left flank, with Seb, Kieran and Marcelo, were bossed by a Swedish defender Gus Lagerbielke.
We are like the kid who turns up at the board to play draughts when everyone else is playing chess. Motherwell come to Celtic Park on Sunday undefeated in all competitions this season. Whisper it, they have a good manager. Jens Berthel Askou is like the chess-playing kid and is not keen on excuses.
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CHAIRBHOY on 3RD OCTOBER 2025 8:06 PM
Celtic40me @ 7:58 pm,
“You haven’t thought this through have you?
Who empties Brendan Rodgers?”
What makes you so sure Dermot Desmond won’t? Because he’s his mate and pure loves him more than Peter Lawwell :))
What happened to the new contract?
Please, tell me how Brendan turns this round
CHAIRBHOY
Do you think DD has more loyalty to Brendan than MN an md PL and he looks at what’s gone on at Celtic and takes sides with him?
It’s playground stuff
I see the much touted Chris Davis picked Dykes before Kyogo tonight 😂
Celtic40me @ 8:17 pm,
DD is in an interesting position…
Who appointed PL
Who appointed MN
Who appointed BR
Same person really.
When the going gets tough, the tough go golfing…
Whatever he’s doing it’s not a knee jerk reaction.
The important thing is, we need BR&CO to keep going, there is no Lenny coming to the rescue on his white charger this time.
Outside DD’s appointments, our managerial choices have been pretty poor.
The Board can’t afford to get the next guy wrong – he must be better than Brendan, that’s quite an ask.
Hail Hail
Chairbhoy
Ange was the best since WGS im my opinion.
I appreciate you don’t go to watch Celtic but in all my years I never looked forward to going to Celtic Park or away grounds like it did under Ange.
All DD did is rubber stamp it after it was proposed by 2 others.
Funny who you bump into at St Andrews in Dunhill week.
I was sat in the lobby at Rusacks with some friends and there was our old pal Vidar Riseth who is here with his boss’s son who is playing in the championship.
Good chats about transition from Kenny to MON era.
Vinniethedog
Chris seems to alternate them a bit. Also sometimes Stansfield up front.
Other Celtic interest in Iwata at RB and Roberts a loan signing from Sunderland.
CHAIRBHOY on 3RD OCTOBER 2025 8:29 PM
DD will fire him without sentiment if he thinks he’s not doing a good enough job.
“The Board can’t afford to get the next guy wrong – he must be better than Brendan, that’s quite an ask.”
Depends on which Brendan youre talking about. If results continue as they are it won’t be difficult to find someone who’ll do better.
It’s the same as the decision DDs equivalent at Leicester had. They felt they could find someone who would do a better job at keeping them up so they sacked him. That they left it too late was probably because he’d done such a good job before that season but results were so bad for so long they felt a change would mean improvement
Burnley78 @ 8:44 pm,
Angeball was a phenomenon that’s for sure – it worked well in the SPL.
Once he was tapped up by Spurs though, the game was over.
What happened was Ange was short listed by AEK Athens – who ultimately went for the current Red Star Belgrade Manager.
Mark Lawwell gave his dad a heads up on Ange’s availability, PL then recommended him to DD
DD interviewed Ange and was impressed – gave him the job.
Angeball not so hot in Europe or England though – still we wish him all the best.
Hail Hail
CHAIRBHOY
It’s a guess but I’d imagine DD is pretty pissed if with Brendan about how hes been with his board. DD splints these guys and girls and keeps them on the board for years if he’s happy with the job they do
He’s not been slow to sack board members before if they don’t shape up
Celtic40me @ 8:50 pm,
You do know Leicester City have had three managers and three caretaker managers since BR&CO left?
Not a great example really.
You are beginning to believe your own propaganda on Brendan.
What you forget is he’s a very good manager.
Replacing him will be extremely difficult.
Hail Hail
It’s also a guess but I think his loyalties are to the business first so if there’s someone doing more harm than good he won’t stand for it for too long.
CHAIRBHOY on 3RD OCTOBER 2025 9:01 PM
Celtic40me @ 8:50 pm,
You do know Leicester City have had three managers and three caretaker managers since BR&CO left?
Not a great example really.
It’s a perfect example – they sacked a manager who was giving them such bad results for so long that they felt someone else was going to do better in what remained of the season.
It was the same at Liverpool, he nearly won the league but a couple of seasons later the owners made a call
It happens all the time in football, managers do well, then they don’t, then they get sacked
Brendan needs to make sure it doesnt stay as bad as it is at the moment for so long that sacking him makes more sense than keeping him. It’s not about personalities, it’s just business
Celtic40me @ 9:02 pm,
Again, you are fantasising.
Believing the Roger Hannah hype.
Brendan Rodgers means record turnover and record profits.
Brendan Rodgers squad cost 52 mn and is worth 130 mn
During Brendan’s time Celtic PLC have brought in 120 mn + in transfer fees.
Celtic’s UCL record last season
Pld 8 W3 D3 L2
Apart from Bayern, you will have to back over two years to find our last home European loss.
You think this Board is capable of finding that level of replacement mid-season?
If Brendan has overstayed his welcome in Parkhead, he is almost 80% of the way through his contract.
Why would Celtic want to make more of a crisis?
You have to remember assistant manager, backroom staff, etc all changing mid-season, why?
It’s nonsense isn’t it?
Hail Hail
I remember Maresca being coach at Leicester, I don’t know if he replaced Brendan but theres a good argument that they ended up with a better manager than the one who effectively took Leicester down
They are out there. I remember Maresca being mentioned before Brendan was offered the job
From jobo
*SENTINEL CELTS PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2025-26*
*RESULTS FROM GAME #12 CELTIC 0 SPORTING BRAGA 2*
Good evening, friends.
I’m perhaps feeling the same way as the Board did, issuing a statement on a Friday night around 9.00pm but here goes….
A far from full Celtic Park (I’m partly responsible) and a 5.45pm kick off on a rainy Thursday so what more did we expect? Another pretty dismal display and another game where we fail to score a single goal although more on that later!
It was certainly strange to be sitting in front of a TV screen watching a home European tie but I did feel as if we started the game well, pressing high up the pitch and effectively too. The first 15 minutes saw Celtic mostly camped in their half despite Kasper’s best efforts to bring Braga into the game – in that quarter of an hour there were 3 (at least) poor distributions from our Great Dane that went straight to the opposition. But Schmeichel saved his best present to last by failing to stop a long distance effort that was heading his way. I know that the ball moved a bit late on but was his decision to try to then put his right hand up into the left top corner a sign that he is still not over last season’s left shoulder injury; you know, the one that Aberdeen exploited in the Scottish Cup final when both their goal and their penalties targeted Kasper’s left hand side?
From taking the lead on the 20th minute until half time Braga suddenly looked a much better, more confident side, having regular long periods of possession and exposing the glaring spaces that were appearing all around Celtic’s midfield.
Braga almost doubled their lead just before half time when another shot was fired in on goal, but this time Schmeichel managed to get a fingertip to touch the ball over his bar.
The second half started with a complete shock – Brendan decided to try something different, bringing on Saracchi on the left at the expense of right back Donovan and going to a back 3. A back 3! Under Brendan! So, credit where it’s due – at least we did try to change something. 3 at the back afforded Braga much more space on the break and 2 or 3 times they exploited our right hand side but without scoring. When they did get their second it was nothing to do with our system, or failing to mark players, it was really just an unfortunate stramash. Braga progressed down our right with their attacker getting away from the tiring Tounekti. An edge of the box shot was saved as was the 2nd effort and as Murray looked to clear the ball from 4 yards out it ricoched off the Braga attacker and back into the empty net.
The stands immediately copied the net and also emptied pretty quickly and despite there being significant additional time added (unlike last Saturday) Celtic failed to create any real chances.
This whole match report might well have been different but for the involvement of the Video Assistant Referee. In the 51st minute Iheanacho (or, to make the spelling easier Ian Archer (copyright McCaff) bumbled through 2 Braga defenders and drilled the loose ball into the corner of the net. After a long VAR check it was deemed that the ball hit off Kelechi’s hand. I have yet to see any camera angle that shows this conclusively. The referee wasn’t called to the monitor, meaning that the VAR decision must have been a ‘factual’ one where there was no need to ask the onfield referee for his opinion. Such factual decisions are usually ‘evidenced’ by a different camera angle that clearly shows the hand ball. That did not happen last night and I remain confused over the decision to disallow the goal. We can never know whether Celtic would have ended up with a more favourable result. But in my own mind I’m sure we would have gone on to take the 3 points.
We have now played 12 games, winning 6, drawing 5 and losing 1. We have scored 17 goals and conceded 5.
As for the voting numbers, I’ve clearly made a rod for my own back with my “100+ to trigger a charity donation”. In 2023-24 we averaged 64 per game and this rose to 72 for last season. So, although we have only hit 100 for 3 of our 12 games, this season’s average is 89 and I take great comfort from knowing that my daft wee survey reaches so many people.
For last night’s game I feared a very low turnout. So I am pleasantly surprised to have received nominations (not always 3 names!) from 75 learned watchers of the game.
The total votes cast for each player are as follows, with my own nominations asterisked.
Schmeichel: 0
Donovan*: 18
Carter-Vickers: 8
Scales: 23
Tierney: 5
McGregor: 4
Bernardo: 12
Nygren: 1
Maeda: 2
Iheanacho: 26
Tounekti*: 68
Saracchi: 42
Engels: 1
Hatate*: 10
Forrest: 0
Murray: 0
Unused substitutes: Balikwisha. Kenny, McCowan, Ralston, Sinisalo, Trusty, Yang
And so, the POINTS earned by each player for this match are as follows –
25 points: Tounekti
22 points: Saracchi
19 points: Iheanacho
16 points: Scales
14 points: Donovan
12 points: Bernardo
11 points: Hatate
10 points: Carter-Vickers
9 points: Tierney
8 points: McGregor
7 points: Maeda
6 points: Engels and Nygren
3 points: Forrest, Murray and Schmeichel
1 point: Balikwisha. Kenny, McCowan, Ralston, Sinisalo, Trusty, Yang
Curiously the 3 players with arguably the hardest surnames to spell occupied the top 3 places. Perhaps there’s hope yet for Big Alec fae Wishaw…. (off to get my coat)
And the cumulative points achieved after 12 games played are –
205: Scales
136: McGregor
137: Tierney
131: Nygren
129: Carter-Vickers
112: Forrest
108: Donovan
104: Engels
103: Tounekti
99: Hatate
90: Maeda
87: McCowan and Iheanacho
80: Saracchi
72: Yang
70: Ralston
66: Schmeichel
60: Murray
54: Johnston
44: Bernardo
41: Yamada
26: Kenny and Sinisalo
23: Balikwisha and Trusty
22: Inamura and Trusty
19: Idah
2: Doohan, Osmond and Simpson-Pusey
0: All the other players who’ve not yet made a matchday squad!
One more game left before the International Break and it’s back to league action this Sunday when we take on Motherwell at home, kick off 3.00pm.
Hail Hail!
“What happened to the new contract?”
Unfortunately this is another smoking gun that doesn’t reflect well on those running the club.
They would have known months ago if they intended to offer him a new contact (yes/no answer) or if he’d sign one if offered (yes/no answer).
If the answer to either of these questions was ‘no’, he should have been thanked at the end of the season and paid off.
Why?
Because he was never going to be `’backed” and any backing he got was never going to be good enough.
As such, this shit-show was entirely predictable.
Denial > Migration > Panic
After throwing them under a bus with his “ I’m not the maintenance man” speech, I’m sure his employers would love to get rid of him, particularly as the penny drops and with more and more Celtic fans that his one dimensional tactics have been rumbled.
Trouble is, I do not credit them with having the foresight to have a succession plan in place.
CHAIRBHOY on 3RD OCTOBER 2025 9:21 PM
Again, if he was producing those sort of results on the pitch there wouldn’t be the conversation about replacing him.
It’s not about his CV
It’s the poor results were getting at the moment we’d look to improve on. We need to judge whether Brendan will do better than he has recently regardless of what hes achieved in the past – if we think he won’t and someone else will do better in the future then we need to change
Things go bad with managers all the time, smart judgement makes a change before things get too bad. With hindsight I’d bet Leicester would have appointed Maresco ten games into Brendan’s final season wenen they’d lost 9 of them
THE BLOGGER FORMERLY KNOWN AS GM on 3RD OCTOBER 2025 9:34 PM
As long as he was getting results on the pitch I don’t see how sacking him was a viable option
Or even a good one
Ok, maybe it made sense but in practice it would have been so much upheaval that I don’t think it would have been viable
He’s not being getting results in big games.
As you said “ Things go bad with managers all the time, smart judgement makes a change before things get too bad”.
Denial > Migration > Panic
Never reach panic stage👍
Not signing a new contract isnt grounds for sacking
Watching Bournemouth v Fulham
Cracking game of attacking football from both sides
What strikes me the most…apart from little or no sideways passing…is the fact that most of the players are not afraid to lose the ball when trying a difficult ball…they accept that sometimes the opposition will win the ball…
Most of the players also run at the defence….theres absolutely no fear of taking a man on when the opportunity arises…
Looking at Celtic…it’s as though we’re terrified to let the opposition win the ball…hence all the sideways and backwards passing…..we’re more interested in not losing a goal as opposed to scoring one….
2 essays on Zionism and Celtic
Part1https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/the-day-that-celtic-football-club-played-to-raise-money-for-land-theft-in-palestine.
Part2https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/a-paradise-for-zionism-celtic-park-in-the-1990s-and-2000s
HH
https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/the-day-that-celtic-football-club-played-to-raise-money-for-land-theft-in-palestine
https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/a-paradise-for-zionism-celtic-park-in-the-1990s-and-2000s
HH
Strategically it might have made sense, and all the things in the sun article might have been true, but he had still had a great season on the pitch.
I know optics shouldn’t necessarily determine your biggest decisions but Brendan had done such a job on the board that it would have looked absolutely crazy to anyone on the outside.
difficult ball=difficult pass..
Im not saying it would have been a bad decision
If the board needed a precedent for this season they might have looked at the terrible start Leicester had in Brendan’s final one there and how it worked out for them
“Not signing a new contract isnt grounds for sacking”.
That’s assuming one was offered.
Time for Brendan to drop the “Oh Woe is Me” routine and get on with the job he is paid handsomely to do, which is get the best out of the players he has fit and available, and maybe also those that he, the Celtic manager, has made ‘unvailable’ namely Yamada, Inamura, Simpson-Pusey, Osmand et al. By Monday we could be back at the top of the SPL. If we beat Motherwell at home which we could well do. No coach or manager is going to get every one of his first choice targets, and even if he does he still needs to fit them into a tactical formation. We are not scoring goals but there are goals in this team, in the squad even, if Yamada gets a look in. Focus on Sunday then regroup during and after the International break. Football Management 101
GetWithTheProgrammeCSC
An Tearmann on [3rd October 2025 9:55 pm]
…….
Hadn’t seen that before. Thanks for posting.
PS, What were you doing on the anti vaxxeen conspiracy theory blog of UK Column for?
Its never too late you know…..to get your tin foil hat on.
Celtic Mac
Good call given where we are.
Blogger GM
Good to see you last night. I do agree the owner / execs should have acted but it was far easier for them to let it go and hope he could see out the contract with a decent unblemished series of league wins. Sadly he has dug the hole so deep that now seems at risk and the energy has been decimated by his constant inferences and negativity about ALL aspects of the club. Apart from his sheep like support who will follow him lapping it up to 3rd or 4th in the league as long as there is a suit or authority figure to blame.
For me this shit show has been 8 months or so in the making. I am just glad rangers support is even less tolerant than ours. Clement staying would have saw them out the traps quicker. At least we have a cushion. Although Hearts charge and momentum needs to be stopped by someone soon.
Who is keeping the Lagerbielke Lion oot of the Celtic team?
Must be some player.
Maybe he was trapped in an invisible elevator with yon CalMac fella, last night?
CalMac was the original invisible man swapping shifts with Jamsie Forrest.
That was the dark old days of yore before Brendan-1 appeared and we signed that new boy fae Hibs, Scott Brown[who we nearly signed in 2008] who was stuck in that elevator fae 2011 after he did the Broony \0/ in the game that set up the Shame Game replay that Alex Salmond couldn’t handle Timdom having a Celtic Manager who refused to bow to the mob like a ginger haired IP Man[Donny Yen] lol.
The old Scott Brown got stuck in yon invisible elevator again after Brendan-1 left and we lost the 10, but it wizny Broonies fault he was stuck in a lift for the whole season.
These things happen.
Is IHEANACHO gutted about the goal being chopped off, or has he got an Idah face on already [Awe naw whit have ah done signing for Rodgers?] waiting for the tippy tappy ball that never comes will make him old looking before the baldness begins, the Celtic Way.
Or is it the Rodgers way?
Robots r us CSC
B78 – you too and your boy (always positive and smiling).
Yep, not having the first clue about running a business I’ve always found it strange being in a position to question/judge people who do and appreciate there’s more to it than building a model in excel.
That being said, on my side of the fence “hope” is never a viable strategy so I’ll stand by my view that this shit-show was very predictable.
Anyway, despite the weather the big derby game is still on tomorrow so an early start beckons (until they cancel it at the last minute 😂) 👍
Google getting bots to ban innocent accounts and no recourse for account to be reinstated. Only saying.
https://odysee.com/@AlphaNerd:8/google%27s-ai-is-banning-innocent-user:6