The jeopardy we enjoy so much

205

A draw in with Sheriff in Moldova, a draw away to Olympiakos to stop them reaching their sixth consecutive group stage qualification, a win against Inter in the San Siro, a two goal defeat in Prague and a draw in Southampton. That’s a stunning European away record for a team of no-hopers from Israel. Or so we thought.

In the middle of that run Hapoel Be’re Shiva lost 5-2 at Celtic Park before giving us a fright in the return leg. Olympiakos are seven clear in Greece and join Be’er Shiva in the Europa League knock-out rounds. Inter and Southampton are out.

What do we learn from this? The principle lesson is that there are no guarantees in football. Even good teams can be dumped out of Europe by a team they’ve never previously heard of (I’d no prior knowledge of Be’er Shiva).

The Israelis went 2-0 ahead against Celtic in the return leg three minutes into the second half. Brendan Rodgers put his team into lockdown mode and got the result but, final outcome aside, it was a horrible night’s football. Not for the first time last summer, this season’s project looked shaky.

If Celtic got out of jail, Olympiakos were shocked. We could afford some respect towards a team who came close, but the Greeks were devastated their club was derailed by apparent nonentities.

Celtic, like Olympiakos, have a development plan which is delivering, but even if we had the budget of Southampton or Inter we’re still going to lose out to a team none of us rate in our annual summer lottery. That wee bit of jeopardy is why we enjoy European football so much.

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  1. foghorn leghorn on

    yip

     

     

    looks like the beaver shavers weren’t duds after all

     

     

    though we were absolutely rank over there

  2. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    TONYDONNELLY 1215

     

     

     

    I’d tell them to eff off till they learn how to spell automatic.

  3. After watching the thugs of Astana play us, it was a real pleasure to play against The BEER Sheva Lads – when so much was at Stake for EVERYONE.

     

     

    Obviously the outcome helps things – delighted they are moving on up.

     

     

    Astana were a nasty team and tried to Bully us by hook or by crook.

  4. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    Blinkin’ flip.

     

     

    This site is going downhill.

     

     

    The podia are for eejits like me,not AWE NAW and ERNIE LYNCH.

     

     

    This is populism gone too far.

  5. foghorn leghorn on

    can you be defamed even if your an absolute fud?

     

     

    does the level of defamation compensation depend on how high on the twat ladder you start?

     

     

    so if a good guy has a serious and wrong allegation made against him then he would get a big pile of cash because his character has further to fall effectively,

     

     

    where as a complete knob goblin wouldn’t get as much for the same allegation because he doesn’t have as far down the character ladder to fall

     

     

    or is that a wrong interpretation of the law?

  6. foghorn leghorn on

    in unrelated news,

     

     

    an ex rangers (IL) defender may be coming into a 14p windfall this christmas

  7. An Teach Solais on

    See that Besiktas has made a formal complaint to UEFA over Thomson’s disgraceful refereeing performance.. Would it be helpful if someone could send them clips of his “honest” mistakes/bias/ incompetence?

     

    I suppose, however, Bro. Dallas will be championing his protege. HH

  8. MING on 9TH DECEMBER 2016 12:20 PM

     

    TD67

     

     

    the earlier article from JJ has been pulled

     

     

     

    He must have hit a nerve then, mind you he has been getting rather close to the bone, with some serious accusations on his last couple of posts, interesting time ahead on this one I would think.

  9. Rioskorrie (from Previous thread)…

     

     

    In the immortal words of Manuel: “I know nothing….”.

     

     

    However in the offshore ranking league table thingy:

     

     

    (Man C) £445,770,264 69% – top of the league

     

    (Celtic) £16,426,389 20% – sitting proudly in 8th(?) position

     

     

    We are not in the same league… (even Sevco get a mention in that league table… ).

     

     

    Who was it said something about statistics… ?

     

     

     

    However, I agree it is becoming a problem.

     

     

    I live in Paris and the have “progressed” from:

     

     

     

     

    PSG Nil

     

     

     

     

    to

     

     

     

     

    PSG potential CL winners.

     

     

    But they will never have a patch on the famous Glasgow Celtic !!!

     

     

     

     

    Gardez la Foi

  10. An Teach Solais on

    BADA BING

     

    If an author has evidence of his/her allegations (“Re Vera”) that is a defence against any charge of defamation/slander/libel. Not referring to any particular allegation. HH

  11. SixtaSeven – mair o’ a Red Star ma’sel. Do you frequent the Harp? (if yes, we probably already know each other).

  12. Silver City 1888 on

    It has occurred to me that Brendan can improve the current players’ abilities. He can buy in quality where we most need it. He could even spend beyond what we dare to hope. There would still be the chance that we’d get put out first round next year.

  13. Ah CQN is in full expectations management mode now – is a transfer window looming by any chance? Is it the last one before preparing for CL qualification again?

     

     

    And CQN’s leader? No point in trying to spend cause you might get beat anyway – subtext – we aren’t spending anything.

     

     

    As the window progresses we will be told how hard it is, how we cant compete with England, how no deals are really done in the winter – etc.

     

     

    But man those extra non contractual bonuses the board award themselves will feel sooooooooooooo good.

  14. I would imagine JJ has indeed hit a nerve, I can remember at the time RG was outed in the press for doing what JJ is suggesting, along with a referee I recall, the print media stopped quick enough but some got through else I wouldn’t have read about it :-)

     

    I wouldn’t be worried if I was him either, can you imagine RG taking this to court.

  15. As the window progresses we will be told how hard it is, how we cant compete with England, how no deals are really done in the winter – etc.

     

     

     

    But man those extra non contractual bonuses the board award themselves will feel sooooooooooooo good.

     

     

    Honest to f… change the record ffs, are you ever happy? There will be more in here today backing you up, but honest ti f… you really need to get a f…..g life all of you, smile ffs, crack the enamel why don’t you,, is it a contes to see who hates the board more on here?

     

     

    Iv neve seen so many people posting so much negativity about Celtic in awe my life than all you board hating, Walapers , it’s attention seeking at its best, there’s a few things a don’t like, but every single f…..g day? Give us a break ffs, enjoy the moment, naaaaa never gonny happen.

  16. EL @ 11.59 / Previous

     

     

    I think you are remembering TH from today’s viewpoint.

     

    In the 60’s he was the new face of Toryism putting their grouse moor years out to pasture.

     

    He was all management report, think tanks, away days and techno babble.

     

     

    And how the media and the establishment loved it over HW who’s career was long enough to include rationing. And that love percolated down to the Tory voting masses who really took to him with his piano playing, his little jokes and his yacht — just what the “aspirational” wanted to see and hear.

     

     

    That is the TH that got voted into power in 1970 — the one who then sold the British Army to Stormont so that his UU allies could get their hands on some real soldiers rather the Burton’s Commandos that were a relic of 1921.

     

     

    My point is that the aspirational voters of 1970 who idolised TH are the bitter and twisted coffin Dodgers who voted for BrExit. They are of a generation that wants to have their cake and eat it and it is their selfishness and lack of self awareness / history that brought about BrExit.

     

     

    The TH / EP spat has its links to the ShamCam / BoJo feud.

     

    Just a case EP went for racism to boost his political profile / BoJo went for BrExit.

     

    However they are both political chancers who give hypocrisy a bad name.

  17. I think maybe jj got a wee bit carried away with his belief in nashgab and is now indulging a wee bonailie before putting on his go really-really-fast trainers.

     

     

    God’s speed….

  18. NegAnon2,

     

     

    I hope Celtic smash the bank for Patrick. He wanted that goal on Tuesday, he didnae fake anything. I’d go to £8Mill.

     

     

    I’m very excited about the young ones who will hopefully make it all the way in to the first team…. and Stay in it.

     

     

    Getting established players like Sinclair will be a bit easier after this Season. HOPEFULLY. ;))

  19. mullet and co 2 on

    Leicester City are 40-1 to win the Champions League. Worth a bet.

     

     

    Paul67 your article today is accurate in that we enjoy the unpredictable nature of the Champions League qualifiers. Money doesn’t guarantee success so that should be the reason for us to dream big.

     

     

    On last nights evidence, we would take Southampton. We all know the capabilities of Virgil and Fraser Forster. We scouted and purchased those two and now have players with as big a future.

     

     

    If we stick to scouting the correct players that the manager wants we can incrementally increase our chances of qualification for the Champions League and then European football after Christmas.

     

     

    The goals for Celtic from now until September 2017 are crystal clear. I’m overjoyed that we have a manager who will be in place for that duration and we have funds to improve the first 11. We no longer have the hiatus of negotiating the sale of our best players in the days leading up to the qualifiers.

     

     

    There are no excuses that are acceptable for us not planning for July and August.

     

     

    Get the players we need now and shut the league down by winning it early. Give players the time they need off in April and May and get them in for preseason in June.

  20. If you copy and paste “fake news” and imply endorsement – does that not make you a proxy author to the fake news???

     

     

    Genuine question.

  21. An Teach Solais on

    I understood Thomson’s Solicitors were mainly engaged by Trade Unions. Could it be that the Players’ Union funded the Cease and Desist letter.

     

    I harbour a suspicion that the motivation of any proceedings is to “out” JJ whereby the Klan can do an Angela Haggerty on him. HH

  22. Kit @ 13.16

     

     

    You are in the mix.

     

    One of DT’s acolytes came unstuck over this.

     

    One of many but he has been offered up — probably to save others further up the tree.

  23. Kitalba

     

     

    I think you;re correct re JJ. I don’t know why so many people put any store by what he says. He has a long track record of predicting (positing) on court cases and proving himself to be completely wrong. I suspect he’s a little seduced by the attention his blog gets and can’t help himself going for that extra bit of attention through controversy.

     

     

    He better have a good lawyer if his comments regarding the ex Rangers captain are also untrue.

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