It was Brugge who showed the way in our Champions League game in November last year. They pressed Celtic in the middle third which was enough to inhibit our ability to progress the ball into advanced areas. Other managers watched.
Five weeks later, Phillippe Clement copied these tactics in a 3-0 win over Celtic at Ibrox. Barry Ferguson followed this up in March, winning at Celtic Park, then again in a draw at Ibrox. Already-eliminated Young Boys came to Celtic Park, went man-for-man in the middle and lost to a late own-goal.
We watched the same show in the Scottish Cup Final in May: 120 minutes of midfield suffocation before a penalty loss to weaker opposition. It was no different over 210 painful minutes against Kairat. Yesterday’s failure to land a glove on the most nervous defenders in Scottish football follows a well-established pattern. Russell Martin changed every tactic he has used in Glasgow and reverted to the play we all know succeeds against Celtic.
Games with against lesser sides and without Kyogo, Jota and Kuhn have floundered in the middle of the park. We seem to be focussed on adding attacking options today. This is necessary but attacking players are blunt if you cannot break a soft press in the middle of the park.
We got draws at Ibrox, against Kairat and in the Cup Final because we can defend well – Liam Scales was well worth his Man of the Match accolade. That will probably be enough to win the league while Newco beat themselves and the Hearts project is too new. But we are at a tactical cul-de-sac. Chris Davies did more than put the cones out.
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Michael Nicholson’s remuneration last year was £837,000. A £120,000 raise on the previous year.
Peter Lawwell went from £41k to £120k.
Discuss…..
Auldheid on 1st September 2025 2:07 pm
With respect, there are two things wrong with your post.
1) The timing. I don’t think this is the day to be posting that and have no doubt you will repost in the coming weeks. But today? Dumped out the CL, having once again been horribly unprepared. We’re less than 9 hours away from the conclusion of yet another shambolic transfer window. Cash-rich, desperate, and the recruitment strategy scraping the barrel to what agents offer us in the final hours (these will no doubt be dubbed Brendan’s signings by our host). The worst possible place to be. Who are we left with when our top targets go elsewhere? Keeping dross like Idah and Yang because we cannot close a deal? Let the anger die down, and then go after these incompetent buffoons with clear heads.
2) And this is more pertinent. The content of your questions. In my opinion, and I’m sure you’re more educated than I am, is that the vagueness simply tees them up to reply with corporate buzzwords that say a lot whilst telling us nothing. We desperately need accountability. And therefore, the questions must be more specific.
For example
a) Rumours abound that Desmond has final say on transfers. He does not own the club. So ask directly, without equivocation, does Dermot Desmond have any input on transfers? And if so, why?
b) Who is in charge of the failed transfer strategy, which sees us being completely unprepared for CL qualifiers over the last 2 decades, regardless of who the manager is? Is it the CEO? If so, he has cost us tens of millions of pounds, so why has he not been dismissed?
c) Peter Lawwell returned as Chairman and very swiftly had his salary trebled. What additional roles did he undertake to justify such a significant increase?
d) When job vacancies arise in the football department, they are almost exclusively filled by former players or relatives of the Chairman or former manager. Who is in charge of the non-playing recruitment? Why are they not seeking the most qualified people in their fields?
They are hastily jotted down questions that can no doubt be worded better, but I’m sure you get the gist. If you leave them room to squirm, then squirm, and obfuscate they will. Outside fan protests, The Celtic Trust is the only mechanism for change I can currently see. You’ll face fierce opposition from the likes of Paul Brennan and his dwindling band of sycophantic disciples. I wish you well.
In the meantime, the biggest protest fans could make is to cancel their Home Ticket Cup Scheme. Crowds of 20k or less for Europa League games might make them sit up and take notice to set the scene ahead of the AGM
Celtic first 👏👏👏
“It’s a big 6 weeks for the club”
“It’s a massive 2 weeks for the club”
“It’s a huge 7 days for the club”
“It’s an important 48 hrs for the club”
“It’s a defining 24 hours for the club”
“It’s a crucial 8 hours for the club”
…and on we go ⏰
bournesouprecipe;
Oh they’ve well and truly hung him out to dry. Guy builds his playing style on having a certain type of player and they’re making sure that every one of those players is sold and they won’t sign replacements in a timely fashion. Tell me I’m wrong, tell me it’s not what it looks like.
They’ve set him up to fail. No question in my mind. Deliberately. Wilfully. And they don’t care what the collateral damage is. It’s shameful.
James Forrest on 1st September 2025 3:12 pm
It’s a non-starter. If we’re restricted to closing the top tier of the stand to send a message then so be it. It’ll be heard loud and clear.
————————————————————————————————-
This won’t be a one season operation either. The support are probably going to have to suffer a year or 2 of pain for the board to change tack completely, or better still, sell up and go.
Profit is their God, the less they see the balance sheet showing that, things will change. Starve them of cash, whether it be EL packages, merchandise etc.
Reggie and Auldheid:
It should be boiled down to one, clear demand prior to the AGM; “Show us the plan.”
Keep it simple. Keep it easily digestible. Keep it something all can agree on 100%. This board has until the AGM to show us evidence of a strategy, Michael Nicholson needs to present that strategy within that timeframe so that shareholders can question them on it at the AGM and he should need to do a round of media interviews in the aftermath of it to explain it.
A club which can’t produce that – a club which doesn’t have that sitting in a drawer already – is not just incompetent, but derelict in its duties to shareholders and fans alike. A club that won’t present it to shareholders and subject it to examination is equally deficient in that area.
And the guy responsible for producing that document is the CEO.
One target. One demand. On message, day after day, until the deadline. And in between times, get some smart people together and strategise what happens the day after the AGM if that simple request isn’t met. Not hard to do. But seemingly very frigging hard to do.
Reggie on 1st September 2025 3:14 pm
n the meantime, the biggest protest fans could make is to cancel their Home Ticket Cup Scheme. Crowds of 20k or less for Europa League games might make them sit up and take notice to set the scene ahead of the AGM
————————————————————————————————————————————-
Spot on, this should be the starting point. I cancelled mine a couple of hours ago by email. Simple to do, and loads of people are doing it.
Aye, ‘gross incompetence’ so it was, that snaffled £17M from Como
We must be down to 6th or 7th on list …..one winger in …3 wingers out ….BR suffering now for getting rid of junior…..that’ll teach um!!!
tbh we have brought in an estimated £10M in sell-on fees for both Frimpong and Oh this summer
How the fek are we still penny pinching on deadline day,
James Forrest @ 3:17 pm,
Exactly.
Forgive me stating the obvious…
Also, our Board is a PLC Board, not a Football Board.
One of the key objectives of a PLC is to make money.
Reporter: Why do you rob banks?
Will Sutton: Because that’s where the money is.
Sutton’s law states that when diagnosing, one should first consider the obvious.
Selling key players and not buying suitable replacements not only undermines the manager, it also helps in the Board’s key objective of hoarding money.
Hail Hail
It’s now half past three.
7 and ½ hours of the window to go
We’re now at the desperation stage
What’s the minimum we need to come in?
One striker and one winger, I’d say. Both of quality and able to go into the first team immediately
This is not looking good at all
Our regression continues
That awkward moment when they blame him for buying Adam then blame him for selling him.
vinniethedog:
I think so, so, so much of this is tied up in the departure, and manner of the departure, of a certain son of a senior Celtic executive.
Does feel like we’re in the middle of a vendetta doesn’t it?
Except they usually only targeted “belligerents”.
This one is scattergun and everyone in the support is getting hit by shrapnel.
James forrest 3:17
Nail on head bud.
Reggie on 1st September 2025 3:14 pm
Auldheid on 1st September 2025 2:07 pm
I put it on those terms speaking business language to get Celtic’s attention and as there is an international break the opportunity to discuss is not lost, the reverse in fact.
James Forrest.
The questions posed ask “what is the plan” by setting out how a plan should be made.
It is normal GOOD business practice and the question is are The Board following it?
Having said that there is nothing stopping anyone framing the questions in their own way as I have pointed out in the introduction.
Anyone includes you both of course and I hope you both do do so in your own inimitable ways.
I’ve just noticed an update on the Celticfc.net news page asking if anyone with a decent right foot is available on September 14th…
there is no way we should be fumbling around bargain basement players who cant get a game with their parent club to join us , embarrassing all round , if they deemed not good enough for their own team they should be nowhere near Celtic Park.
Auldheid:
I know brother ;) I’ve looked at all your stuff.
Big week ahead and no football. I’ll be busy bhoy! ;)
Wissa away to Newcastle for £55m. Late Brentford bid for Maeda?
Is it conceivable we might sell Idah, Yang and Daizen on transfer deadline day and make no permanent signings? Maybe a couple of EPL or even Championship reserves on loan?
You’d think that was a sacking offence for the mute but he’ll get a bonus for replacing the ECL losses.
Prepare for Johnny Kenny as our starting centre-forward.
Straight forward simple straight to the point football, in a 4-4-2 formation, 2 touches max, low-block, long-quick-out-ball, a sitting flat back 4, playing long quick high balls to the 2 wide players, ala: MON utilising Agathe and Petta away to Ajax in CL qualifier, knowing that the return game in the boring as fk all seated Parkhead would be the more difficult tie as the singing old Junglists were spread throughout the stadium as opposed to, all sitting together away at Ajax, which created a brilliant atmosphere apart from the usual Ajax thugs outside the stadium.
PS, Agathe was a Celtic Way, Stein-esque signing, £35,000 was a master stroke by MON.
As was Sutton who we got for zilch as Viduka walked out one door for £7 million???? as Sutton walked in the other door for £6 million, ala Berkovic paid for Joos, Risen & Rafael paid for Thommo, etc, etc.
So there was no astronomical backing of MON as has been wildly suggested by some. At a time were the Huns were spending in the region of £40 million each season which was a HUGE advantage in those days, until some Celtic savvy was applied, out went the stupid assed fairy story, Celtic Way, which had had its day, and in came street wisdom.
All of the 20 year long sob stories about “Nobody had the money that MON got, etc” but never mention that MON was competing vs a £100 million already assembled Hun team, a lot of money 25 years ago, and the Huns added another £40 million on top of that in MON’s first season.
None of us knew that this money was stolen at the time, even the Huns fans who still don’t believe it because Phil broke the story.
Yet when Rodgers arrived in 2016 [the year that we soulled out for £49] and Rodgers faced a Hun/Sevco team full of 4th division players, assembled Celtic cyberspace plants were telling us that Rodgers was way better than MON???????
PS, Why were all of Sportscene presenters yesterday dressed in black, including the suckullent plant, Peter Grant, the Legend who put the tools down to get rid of Lou Macari, and gifted the Huns the next 3 titles including a Hun 9 in a row.
Celtic Legends, Bonnar, Boyd, Grant, McStay, Nicholas, and many more, put down the tools to get Lou Macari the sack.
John Collins, Pat McGinley, Simon Donnelly, Brian O’Neil, were the only ones who played for the jersey, and were refreshed by Lou Macari, as Celtic were on life support, so called Legends were playing out agendas.
Davie Provan said this after every Lou Macari game: “THESE PLAYERS DON’T LIKE LOU MACARI’S IN YOUR FACE, NOT BEHIND YOUR BACK, STYLE OF MANAGEMENT, SO THEY WANT HIM OUT! THAT IS WHAT IS GOING ON HERE.”
Sportscene put a pop up thing next to Grant on screen pointing out that he won the 1986, 1988, league titles for which he was a member of Legendary Celtic teams.
2 titles out of 14 is no Legend.
Imho, Grant should have been replaced by Gary Holt as a ball winning midfielder, as was Macari’s plan, as Celtic had been missing a ball winner out of Celtic’s team for 10 years, after Murdo MacLeod left for Dortmund, 1987- 1997 when Murdo returned as manager, Grant was hunted, and replaced by ball winning, Craig Burley.
Ten years without a ball winning midfielder as the Huns marched unscathed to 9 in a row. The centenary year was blessed by God @Gerry McNee.
Every manager who played Peter Grant was sacked as a loser.
Every manager who chose Grant as his assistant, was sacked as a loser.
Celtic TV sucks bad enough without having Peter Grant in the studio as the expert.
Celtic TV appointed Gerry McCulloch as its leader, as GM was renowned for banning Celtic fans from SSB phone-in.
Celtic are sponsored by Adidas whilst their fans support Palestinians.
The Jungle would have been chanting “GET ADIDAS OFF OUT HOOPS” etc, etc, and the PLC would have melted.
That is why there is no Jungle as a neutered version of Celtic is much more appealing to the STILL TO THIS DAY pro Thatcher austerity Government in UK.
No Government has overturned a single Thatcher policy in 40+ years.
PS, James Forrest, why have you never written on your blog that Celtic PLC agreed to put Rangers prices onto Sevco tickets in 2016 which was obscured by the dancing street parties to welcome Rodgers in 2016, therefore PLC going along sleekitly with the same club lie?
Are you another journalist, Blog writer who is bought, or, unaware, covering up for the PLC, and deceiving your fellow Tims who are either utterly fkn stupid or, they are sleekit, like you, and the MANY others who write blogs??????
Celtic PLC help Rangers PLC, SFA, SPFL, SPL, Scottish Media, Scottish Government, UEFA, FIFA, Orange Lodges, Masonic Lodges, Eastern Star Lodges, KOSC Lodges, Catholic Church, Church of Scotland, Ulster Scots, etc, etc, yadda, yadda, and you, Mr Journalist…..didn’t notice??????
Until you mention the cover up by Celtic PLC and their highly educated stupid assed supporters, of Scotland’s greatest Sporting crime, then you are a fake pretender, like Peter Grant and all of the other FAKE Legends mentioned above.
I forgot to include Mr Auldheid of the Bible, hope he is keeping well, as he is also on the same bus as you James, now ain’t that a coincidence?????
Surely this proves that the Bible teaches people to lie their asses off?????
What a time to be alive!!!!!!!!!
…and apparently Celtic have knocked back any interest in Stephen Welsh as they plan to redeploy him as a centre forward this season. 🙄
Who is the moron?
When you go shopping for players at around £2 or 3 million, you will have many failures. The odd one will be a success and then sold after a short time to bag a profit which then goes towards a £2m replacement, usually at a very inappropriate time.
It seems that way to me anyway. I know there are exceptions.
Michael Nicholson’s remuneration last year was £837,000. A £120,000 raise on the previous year.
Peter Lawwell went from £41k to £120k.
Discuss…..
….ting
Yeah we were told “you get what you pay for.”
Odd since Lawwell denies he does anything, therefore we’re not paying for anything and Nicholson leaves us no way to know what we’re paying for since he’s been in hiding for 1348 days.
Doesn’t seem to me that they’re worth it.
When Brendan goes at the end of the season, there will be no NDA, he needs to sink these clowns for the good of the Club, to move it forward
I look forward to Brendan’s autobiography…
And Lawwell’s
James Forrest
“And the guy responsible for producing that document is the CEO.”
===================
No he isn’t not on his own. Any Board sets the strategy for a CEO to Execute. That is why the title is Chief Executive Officer.
It is his role to deliver the policy that meets the Strategy and articulate it at AGMs, but Strategy and policy are a joint effort of The Board of which MN is a member.
MN is a lawyer with experience in law and rules to advise on Strategy, but the idea he solely makes the plan is just not the case.
The lack of a proper plan is not down to MN , forming a plan is not how it works in practice.
Had the CEO been responsible for making the plan Dominic McKay would still be in post.
Changing personnel will only make a difference if the strategy and policy of their predecessor changes and we simply do not know what it is.
Think of my questions as pulling a loose thread on a jersey and getting folk interested and thinking about why we are here transfer window after transfer window.
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2025 3:13 PM
I’m sure it’s been said before but perhaps the board have elected not to spend significant money on new players because the current manager is for the off at the end of the season, and the money is being prioritised to bankroll the incoming manager.
It’s a crap strategy, but at least it has some logic to it. The alternative, that they’re simply crap at the job, is no less likely.
—————
TBB,
If, and it’s a big if, there is a coherent policy decision that dictates why we’re not willing to just spend and secure players asking prices’ ( as opposed to forces outwith our direct control) then I suspect that’s it.
James Forrest
You will have your work cut out to write anything positive about the Celtic in the next 2 weeks. Good luck young fella. 😂
JAMES FORREST on 1ST SEPTEMBER 2025 3:17 PM
bournesouprecipe;
Oh they’ve well and truly hung him out to dry. Guy builds his playing style on having a certain type of player and they’re making sure that every one of those players is sold and they won’t sign replacements in a timely fashion. Tell me I’m wrong, tell me it’s not what it looks like.
They’ve set him up to fail. No question in my mind. Deliberately. Wilfully. And they don’t care what the collateral damage is. It’s shameful.
————————
The only thing that could disprove what most people think has happened, would be a contract extension offer to our best hope of an ‘elite manager’, currently still in situ.
The collateral damage is covered in the ‘stash’ currently £70M / £80M we had it months ago on here dressed as a “ cataclysmic retrenchment “ which is another more dramatic way of saying, papped out of the qualifiers.
i was going to cancel my hcts at the start of the season anyway, but i didnt so am going to stick with it for this season now.
i would likely have went to some of the games anyway, but it has turned into yet another scam.
most people joined it i reckon to get a chance of hampden semi/final tickets. but there must be so many folk on it now that that advantage has been greatly reduced, and so many of the tickets go to corporate and ticket touting packages as well.
also, fully in line with the masonic secrecy that the PLC enforces. they have never disclosed how many are actually on it.
if i need to watch semis or finals in a boozer then so be it.
as for CL/EL tickets on the HCTS, theres another scam pulled by uefa in cahouts with the clubs.
we now have 4 home games to pay for on our package for the group stage, instead of the previous 3, just to be much further away from the final than before after the group stage.
just greedy cash grabbing scams.
as a minimum celtic should split the domestic and european home ticket schemes.
they wont obviously.
Looks like the Dolberg deal is well and truly over.
Anyone who has ever negotiated for anything in any market knows that there is always a risk that if you don’t agree a deal quickly then , unless you’re lucky enough to be the sole interested party, you run a huge risk of someone coming in at the last minute and scuppering the whole thing.
The atmosphere at the next home game could be really toxic – Lord knows what it could have been had we lost yesterday.
Auldheid:
No, I’m not saying there’s not cross-table discussion about, or that he’s the sole author.
But it’s one of the jobs of the CEO to sign that document and present it, yes?
So calling on him to break that long silence and actually explain what’s in it, to get in front of the media and defend it, to actually be questioned on it … that’s down to him.
Not bad Paul.
Incendiary stuff but chunks i agree with.
Some I don’t including this
“Games with against lesser sides and without Kyogo, Jota and Kuhn have floundered in the middle of the park. We seem to be focussed on adding attacking options today. This is necessary but attacking players are blunt if you cannot break a soft press in the middle of the park”
Respectfully, it think this is contradictory.
If we were successful with the current midfield and Kyogo, Kuhn and Jota types ahead of them? … Stands to reason replacing them with similar gives us a chance to repeat.
The model is predicated on fast (legs and or brains) forward players having sufficient quality and speed of thought & movement to turn a medium percentage option for a man marked midfielder … into a higher percentage option.
Which statistically gets us up the pitch more often, breaks the press, and turns the opponents midfield and, sometimes, defence.
To be fair to Brendan, that approach requires fresh forward players … hence the need for lots of them.
Agree though with other concerns about midfield.
We rarely see short passes between them at speed and on the move, changing the angle to negate the approach of an opponent, as a means of advancing up the pitch.
Feels overcoached to me.
PS Paul, the last sentence was unnecessary.
Of course he didn’t just put out the cones.
He was #2 in the football operations division
Tounetki deal on the brink of collapse according to reports. Darn Brendan and those pesky “tactics”