It is over three years since Mikey Johnston played a pivotal role in a 0-2 win at Ibrox, which was a pivotal win in Celtic achieving nine-in-a-row for the second time. At the time I wondered why Neil Lennon signed Mohamed Elyounoussi, who also played left wing, a few days earlier. Mikey was our future, or so it seemed.
Mohamed is a solid performer, but the calibre of wingers at Celtic has vastly improved in the years since. Jota, Maeda and Abada are all a class ahead, while Haksabanovic has potential to reach greater heights. Mikey seemed destined to slip away.
Last night’s cameo on his debut for the Ireland national team was jarringly impressive. There was a jink worthy of the Lord of the Wing DVD.
Wingers are usually the players most substituted and circulated in-and-out of the team. Some with abundant talent, like Patrick Roberts, join teams who defend too often to afford the luxury of a talented wide player. Jota spent a season on loan largely watching his Valladolid team-mates before arriving in Glasgow.
His season on loan at Vitoria Guimareas should be perfect for Mikey. They are fifth in a table of 18 clubs, 10 points behind fourth placed Sporting. With little to chase ahead of them, they are free to deploy attacking talent against the 13 clubs below them, but Mikey has only started 8 from 25 league games.
The parable here is probably not to encourage your son to be a winger, unless he is 6’2” and built like the proverbial. The jink is a dying attribute.
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BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 23RD MARCH 2023 12:54 PM
SAINT STIVS on 23RD MARCH 2023 12:41 PM
Celtic park under reconstruction 1994.
https://twitter.com/ordinarybhoy/status/1638516968872464384/photo/1
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Saint Stivs – cheers.
Happy memories.
Many a Friday afternoon I would take a detour from my drive home from work ….
… just to stare at an ⅛, ¼, ½ built stand and get excited about the future.
…………………
Happy memories. I used to do that too and then come home and tell my wife who would laugh at the daftness of it. I must have gone along about 10 times. The workers would let us go into the area of what has become the Lisbon Lions Stand where I would note the grass of the new pitch growing and thickening with each visit and stare in awe at the concrete sections that would grow higher and higher and try to imagine what it would eventually look like with those other 20 or so supporters dotted around the area gazing in contemplative, stony silence like the statues on Easter Island at the magnificence that was ever so slowly unfolding in front of us. No one seemed to move or speak incase we broke the spell. What a magnificent stadium it turned out to be but I think those who were privileged enough to make those visits and witness the construction got a little extra pleasure.
Happy, happy days.
A podium too!
Is the blog broken?
Where’s Aipple?
Shomebody shtop me
TOSB
Now that’s a podium.
The imagination of what the stadium would look like finished was a great topic with fellow fans.
They were always there even through the rubbleCSC.
I always thought Patrick Roberts didn’t quite have the pace for the top level, unfortunately.
Anyone remember Mark Smith who played as a right winger briefly at Celtic in the 80s?
I only saw him live once and I was in the very front of the stand that day. He would hooked his shorts up like Provan and when he received the ball standing on the wing he would shape left and go right and have the left back concede a throw. He seemed quite pleased each time.
In today’s game, with a more fluid style of play he would probably have done well with the ball into space like Abada and Maeda enjoy. In those days, you needs a few tricks
It is very hard for wingers in any team, especially in a Celtic team. You look at Celtic’s illustrious history and our greatest ever player was the Lord of the Wing, Wee Jinky. When I was a young school boy signing, Davie Provan used to take us sometimes for practice. I loved Davie, as he played with the socks rolled down, and could put the ball on a dime. Unfortunatley, he came to practice less and less when he was diagnosed with his illness and we went a long time with no S’ form training. Wingers are never always going to beat their markers every time, or put the perfect cross in. I loved running down the wing when I wore the hoops, even though the stands were empty. I loved having wee Bobby Lennox shouting from the dugout to keep taking people on. We played THE rangers in the 1989 Glasgow Cup Final at Hamdump. From the kick off, I was so nervous. The ball got played back to Mark McNally,and he pinged a great ball on the ground to my feet. Just as the ball was coming to me and I was prepared with the best of first touches, someone shouted my name and I lifted my leg and the ball went straight out of play. I played the first half, getting past the BUNS left back but my crossing was Shite. We went in at the half up 1-0, Big Gerry “George McFly” Britton, scoring the goal. Iwas expecting to get roasted for my lack of crossing, but instead, Mr. McNeil came in and told the Midfield to keep giving me the ball. The second half we were attacking the traditional Celtic end. The Left back brought me down and he got a yellow card and I had him on toast for the rest of the game. With about 3 minutes to go I got past him and drove into the near post and cut the ball back for our young striker, gary Bendoris, to roll the ball into an empty net. Before Gary had even connected wie the ball, I turned and ran towards the Celtic fans in the main stand and went nuts. We won the game 2-0, I lifted the Cup last and turned to the Rangers end and those few that were left I let them know who won:))) When the game was over, some of the bhoys were going to go into the toon. It was a Sunday and I made it home to St. Ignatius for 6pm Mass. I had my Glasgow Cup medal in my coat pocket. I got to keep my Jersey fromthe game, which I had wrapped around my neck under my big Jacket and club tie, as I proudly walked to communion, past my fellow Wishy Emeraldians who had went to the game that afternoon. I write this because Celtic always play with wingers and a lot of times it just doesn’t work out, but you still have to have that confidence to take people on and grit yer teeth and keep on going. It is a tough position, especially as I had always been a center mid, and went back to that position after I moved to America. We played with wingers in college over here as well, and I was usually the guy who played them the ball, so you have to have the patience with those players in that position. We are blessed with some good wingers that have the potential to become great wingers. We cannot judge them on the best, Jinky. He was a one off, and thank goodness, he was ours.
Sorry for the waffle.
Sean
Paul 67,
Mikey Johnston is still our player and deserves a fresh chance.
One reason being :- He got humiliated by his own manager in public. His confidence would have been totally shattered.
I know NFL’s reasoning, but it was not a good watch and unbecoming for a Celtic manager.
It can take a long time to mentally recover from such a public humiliation. So I hope he gets and grasps a new opportunity if it arrives.
However international football is no longer the pinnacle.
HH.
AT,
If you are about, I posted a reply at the end of the last article.
HH.
🎶 Don’t put your son on the wing, Mrs. Worthington
Don’t put your son on the wing
The area is overcrowded
And the tackling’s pretty tough
And admitting the fact
He’s burning to jink
That isn’t quite enough
He has nice feet
Give the wretched boy his due
But don’t you think his arse is too
Developed for his age?
I repeat, Mrs. Worthington
Sweet Mrs. Worthington
Don’t put your son on the wing
Regarding yours
Dear Mrs. Worthington
Of Wednesday the twenty-third
Although your baby
May be keen on a wing career
How can I make it clear
This is not a good idea?
For him to hope
Dear Mrs. Worthington
Is, on the face of it, absurd
His personality
Is not, in reality
Exciting enough
Inviting enough
For this particular sphere
Don’t put your son on the wing, Mrs. Worthington
Don’t put your son on the wing
He’s a bit of an ugly duckling
You must honestly confess
And the width of his seat
Would surely defeat
His chances of success
It’s a loud voice
And though it’s not exactly flat
He’ll need a little more than that
To earn a living wage
On my knees, Mrs. Worthington
Please, Mrs. Worthington
Don’t put your son on the wing! 🎶
MJ had a couple of problems IMO, staying fit,and decision making, if he had 2 options, he invariably makes the wrong choice.
“Could the next pandemic emerge in BRITAIN? Covid-like virus is found lurking in native bats – and scientists warn it may be just a few mutations away from striking humans”
————————————————
The samples taken from bats, most probably from colonies near Bristol, Birmingham and Brighton is the latest stage of the Global Elite’s Depp State Illuminati conspiracy to frighten us into wearing cloth masks over the face just like the leftie Antifa crowd and to restrict ourselves to staying at home like the radical lefty OAP’s of the post WW2 Welfare State Woke Society.
This scare story even appeared as a headline in their favoured daily newspaper publication, the ultra-woke, trendy Wendy, pseudo-goodo, hippy-dippy………………….
Daily Mail
Oh! wait a minute! Scrub that and let’s see if Bristol, Birmingham or Brighton have an abnormally large Chinese population that we can blame this on.
Good evening all from the Victoria Bar.
Boondock Saint 3.55
Keep waffling. 👍
Boondocks Saint
Thanks for that
Sorry, Elyanoussi was hopeless.
As for MJ, when he was thrown on late in the game as an act of desperation you knew Celtic were out of ideas and there was no way back.
I see that Prestonpans has run riot in Auld Reekie after too many gin cocktails. The man is a menace to polite society.
SFTB,
May I ask you a question. Draconian Covid restrictions were put in place by the Establishment because of grave and life-threatening danger to society.
The government, opposition and their ” expert” scientists obviously knew the mortal danger.
So why then did so many break their own rules for public safety given the threat to human life ;-
Boris Johnson
Dominic Cummings
Matt Hancock
Professor Neil Ferguson
Gavin Williamson
Margaret Ferrier
Stephen Kinnock
Scottish chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood
Nicola Sturgeon
Kier Stammer
Etc, etc etc.
Surely these figures did not have a deathwish to themselves or others.
Or did they know something the general public were not told ?
BOONDOCK SAINT, cracking story. :)
GREENPINATA
It’s easier to fool a man than convince him he has been fooled.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WZZTfuarj4E
Greenpinata
They need to answer for themselves but I’d guess a fair few were egotists who thought their work and mental health was too important to be curbed. A fair few were just b****rds who think the world evolves around them and a couple of them caught Covid during this spell.
The answer is not- they were part of a giant conspiracy to misinform and they just lived a life of public swinging and debauchery.
They all got caught breaking the rules. So did less well known names, neighbours of yours and mine and so, probably, did you and I on occasion. I did a lot to lessen my risk and exposure to a serious and real condition but I have 3 sons who all had partners and who I am sure gathered at my house, socially distanced, to celebrate a family occasion. Never at the height of the epidemic but at periods where the threat was lessening and restrictions were about to be relaxed but what we did was probably technically illegal at the time and we got away with it. 2 of my sons caught Covid and rode it out reasonably easily. I have avoided catching it right up until now. But so many people n China, Italy and here, plus some high profile Covid-deniers in the States actually died from this as they listened to an eejit telling them to drink bleach, buy miracle cures from snake oils salesmen or even take up arms against the Elite telling them what to do, that I won’t take lectures from that side of the debate.
Lockdown was excessive and over-prolonged but it was necessary and it did save lives. The lessons to be learned have not yet been researched or peer reviewed by qualified people. The debate is dominated by ill-educated loudmouths with a track record of wrong advice as long as your arm.
Lots of simplistic proposals have been made- we could have opened schools for longer, they say, as schoolchildren were not at high risk from this disease. That is true but the other half of that equation is ignored- the teachers and support staff, were not children and were not all in a low risk group of 20 and 30 year olds, would have to be exposed to higher risk, just as our hospital staff had to be in running the Covid wards where the risks were highest.
So for Johnson to party, claiming they were working hard and deserved this, while NHS staff lost colleagues who were working harder and did not deserve that, is an insult to all of us.
There may be some on your list who were neither egotistical or corrupt but simply made a careless error. You may remember Nicola Sturgeon fell foul of her own rules when she popped back into a venue after removing her mask outside because she forgot something. I am no fan of the lady’s party but her offence was not on a par with Downing Street or Margaret Ferrier’s for example.
I fear that next time there is a genuine epidemic, those who have a vested interest in diminishing the concept of truth and evidence, will be all over social media , drawing allusions, merely asking a question, doing their own research which consists of reading Facebook, and generally operating on the level of analysis that falls for “there’s no smoke without fire”, or “there’s no such thing as a coincidence”, or the Fox News approach of “what are they not telling us?”
I’l take my chances with the best advice formulated by people trained in the area of expertise, who are willing to put their evidence out there, have it peer researched and criticised, and amended, rather than the bullhorn merchants who shout from a radio or TV microphone and never show their workings (as evidenced by the Fox e-mails that show Rupert and the boys don’t believe a word of the “Stop the steal” narrative but are still willing to lie to the gullibiles about what they think.
It pays very well to shill for the new Right.
TET
See the Fox News e-mails and the Stop the Steal narrative.
Even when faced with direct evidence that the people spouting this at them, don’t believe a word of it, the impact on the true believer is minimal. They just accommodate it into their existing world viewpoint- “Oh that’s just Deep State lies and not reflective of reality- they’re being forced to say that”
SFTB
The truth is out there, all you have to do is look for it.
TET
So many terms looking for a definition there.
SFTB,
What was really frightening was the way our country among others embraced authoritianism. ( Or control measures )
Noticeably Sweden’s socialist government did not.
The restaurants did not close.
The schools did not close.
Works and businesses stayed open.
General consensus suggests Sweden has fared better.
What science did they follow.?
This is not Hindsight as the MSM may have you believe.
Even Jason Leitch suggested a few days ago closing schools was a mistake.
Thanks for your reply much appreciated.
HH.
PS : Thank God for Tiktok during Lockdown. It refreshed the parts others couldn’t reach.
What got me during the lockdowns was the supermarkets, corner shops and takeaways
Same staff (especially the supermarkets) in all these customer facing places
They should have been hammered with massive staff sickness and death
Supermarket checkout staff touch everything their customers touch to scan them
They should have had the army in running them going by the daily updates on infections and deaths
That was when I started to remember
The government lies continuously (regardless of which party is in power)
And have done for centuries
And do so today
WBC
To come back to your earlier comments
You’re right
I do very little modding on this site now
Long may that continue
Am still here every day
But it’s a joy to see most folks get on, and have arguments and debates without the previous nonsense
Yes, we have lost a few people
But we will gain a few more as newer people see they can come on and have an opinion without getting shouted down
Mod 1888
Who asked you anyway?🤔😁
BRRB
That’s true, best get back to the spinning wheel of what am banning you next for lol
Re Covid time.observations
In and out of Glasgow every day.
-Buchanan St and just me at 11.15am on a saturday
– no homeless. Showing were there is a will there is a way to do something.no one in doorways
– sihlverburn to bothwell juncture roundabout and only 9 cars seen on my lift m77.m74.when it all was over 9 cars passed on the slip on at silverburn!!
– deer in Buchanan st.
HH
Mod 1888,
Good to see you on.
BRRB,
Do you have a dog. ? Would be good to have a CQN dog friendly guide to Glasgow’s boozers.
PS : My hound and I are in Lock 27. We watch out for DD’s foxes
Just watched Alistair Johnston refer to glasgow rain as “pishing down” on Celtic’s youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2C_zgd0Du0&t=294s
I do love our new bhoy
AT,
Good to see you on the correct article 😀
I’ve been driving my daughter into work the last few days. It’s heartbreaking to see some poor soul out in all weathers at the corner of Ingram St and Queen St.
He was there weeks ago when I was last home and still there today.
Don’t know who he is or whatever, but he needs help.
This collectively shames us.
Cheers and HH.
I dinnae like any pile on.
SFTB,
Covid has been the Biggest Con ever. IMHO.
It is All about the Money.
Cheers for that Boondock Saint!
For waffle we have Greenpinata
Mod
In my local supermarket- all checkout employees wore gloves and used sanitizer’s regularly. All customers were gloved or gelling and were spraying their trolleys too and wiping. It was, during the height of the epidemic, very well observed. In addition I washed all fruit and veg on bringing it home, if it did not have plastic covering and sprayed all tins and packaging.
What is characterised as willingness to be oppressed, I see as shared civic responsibility. The Swedes, despite locking down far less (they did shut down football, please note), also have a good record on civic responsibility and cooperation and did not gather in large groups as this was advised against. Advice was enough for them to behave sensibley. Their covid denying set was not large enough, or brave enough, to go out on mass demonstrations to defy the guidance. They just fumed behind their keyboards.
I have no idea if the death rate was higher or lower among supermarket employees, once you take into account the likelihood that lower paid workers have an existing higher risk of illness (you know, that old scientific approach). Do you? I ask because your statement suggests that, if you did not hear about it, it couldn’t have happened and you felt it should have. Not a lot of evidence gathering going on before your conclusion is tentatively advanced.
Governments and politicians do lie. Scientists do too but much less often and are more likely to get found out. One of those who did get found out, but not after he had caused untold damage to the Autistic community and general accepted vaccinations was Andrew Wakefield, who, like Dr. Oz, continues to peddle the Covid myths while selling expensive cures for a condition they say they don’t believe in. As I say a lot of shills for the new alt-right, the libertarians who don’t like being called Tories, are coining it in from the gullible.
I had a schoolmate who railed against his restrictions of liberty when the government made motorcycle users use helmets. Smokers did the same when others asserted their right to smoke free spaces. The attitude was that they had the right to enforce their “freedom” to smoke on others and Covid deniers operated with similar individualistic or selfish (depends on your bias) approaches, as they asserted their right to raise the risk factor for themselves and also for others. Like my motorcycling pal, they did not offer to pay more for the outcomes of their recklessness. They expected the rest of us to pay for their brain injury treatment and physio recovery or their lung cancer treatment whilst we got passive smoking.
Liberties are important and must be defended but it is madness to go to the barricades over generally accepted health measures during epidemics, over passive smoking, or your right to expensive health treatment caused by recklessness. Now some people are addicted to drugs, alcohol and smoking, so I would never deny treatment. But I don’t want my air full of fag smoke, I don’t want reckless motorbike riding and I don’t want to defend the liberty to shout fire in a crowded cinema or night club.
No. one is a proud rebel defying the conformities the rest of us sheep adhere to; that’s just a wee comforting fable to tell yourself. We are only debating where we draw the line between freedom to and freedom from. Science helps but it can never dictate. For real dictatorship, you need to follow the Libertarians who want to surrender their backsides to a big strong leader like Trump, Bolsonar, Urban, Modi or Erdegun. Then you’ll know about restriction of freedom