After writing a piece on our European season for the forthcoming CQN Magazine I read the excellent contribution from SFTB this morning. It is only natural that we live in the moment but for the last 70 years of the 20th century Celtic fans, more than anyone else, viewed each day in its historical context.
Older generations would have had little choice but to keep their history alive during the lost decades between the mid-20s and mid-60s. 7-1 and the Coronation Cup, each magnificent and modest in their own way, were the highlights, while the legend of Jimmy McGrory more than anyone established what was known as the Celtic Way.
Then came Lisbon. In an instant, all that history was eclipsed. New heroes, one of whom recalled to me he was told Celtic would amount to nothing with him in the team by a ‘fan’ a few years earlier, changed everything, but for this most historical of clubs, the inheritance was not all positive.
If Jimmy McGrory established Celtic as a remarkable goal-scoring team, the incessant attacking that afternoon in Lisbon cast an unattainable shadow. It proved Celtic could win the European Cup by playing fabulous football but set a template we were cursed to attempt to follow.
The rules of the off-field game have changed often since those days, no more so than this season, when Celtic grew from a team who were penned into their own penalty box by HJK Helsinki, who needed a goal to knock us out of Europe in August, from a team the Turin media were joyous when Juventus beat home and away. Thoughts of ‘Maybe we could win this” have since emerged in Turin.
I’ve loved every minute of this season, from the last minute header in Moscow to the last minute header in Dingwall. Adding context to it is a joy for one of our tomorrows.
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The only good thing about the qualifiers is we will be seeded in all three in the better half which should mean avoiding stronger nations in the first round or two.
The best placed association in the lower half is Slovenia I think for the third round and that would be Maribor. By no means would that be an easy tie though.
Climate at that time of year will be a factor also.
Celtic should be heading to my neck of the woods to get ready for it to be honest.
We got two teams last year from Northern Europe who were halfway into a season which was no picnic either.
There is a lot of work to do.
If it meant we lost the Scottish cup to get into the CL I know which I’d rather have.
To be free of these banana skins we need the rest of Scottish football to turn up in Europe.
It’s a vicious circle which favours those who play summer football, and who play Scottish teams who are just off the beach. Hence the high co-efficient of some countries.
Celtic Fc …. Every journey an adventure ! Wouldn’t want it any other way the concept that makes us unique, not better, just different from anybody else . Celtic, Celtic are Celtic. Ps have not missed any tribute act associated with the old deid club one bit ! In fact having not to watch or concern myself with them has made me a more contented individual ! Don’t miss them at all Charlie !
Paul67
There is no such thing as “should”
There is no “we should win the league by x points” (or even we should win the league)
No we “should be entertaining every game.”
No we “should beat Ross County because, well just because we should.”
There is no should, never ever was.
All there is is what is, and if we could but appreciate all the beauty of what is, lovingly carved from what is not, we would all truly be in Paradise. ;)
miki 67 .
Thank you .
Mrs S of T has a drawer for gloves / a wardrobe for shoes and a wardrobe for boots . A man from Dorset dispensing gloves would meet her approval..
Currently waging war with 2 porcupines who are dining nightly on my spring greens . The dogs give them a wide berth..
Choons ? ———– man sends me a weekly list of issued again 45s —- highlight of last weeks list is this ——-Azie Lawrence ——Pempelem . I remember buying it in 1964 . Great choon .!.
Big up and mash it !
philvis
I had high hopes for Regi Blinker and Tony Cascarino.
What happened?!
HH!!
All well and good if you happen to follow Celtic from the ‘big picture’ standpoint, but spare a thought for those of us who follow on a game by game basis, that can be tough and of course in between defeats such as over the last week or so even tougher, but yes, reminding everyone of the big picture is probably very sensible at this point in the season.
Paul 67
Thanks Paul, there are very few easy games in Europe now, the days of Sliema Wanderers are long gone..
Some people pay money to watch competitive sport and then complain when it’s, erm … competitive.
SP
I think Sliema Wanderers are possible opponents this year in the first qualifier.
If Charlie is so keen to play against SEVCO next season, he could always sign for Annan Athletic, Berwick or Peterheid.
I don’t want to have to watch them ever again.
Auldheid, too true.
starry plough, aye.
Paul67 12:58 on 12 March, 2013
Tallybhoy, absolutely correct, it was Bobby Lennox. Whatever happened to him after that?
I think he drank the bottle of ginger!
Malc @ 12.51
“but we did in fact fail to qualify for the Europa League proper. It was only the Swiss clubs attack of Rangersitis* did we get into the group stage.”
Let’s just agree that we qualified by beating all teams that played legally registered players. We should never have been forced to take the field against an illegally recruited team. If Sion had only played their legally registered players, we might have lost and we might not.
But we cannot proclaim that we did not qualify as a fact. Sion’s player registration difficulties were known in advance. They were warned not to play those players. We could have registered Robbie Keane and Riquelme illegally for that tie and maybe won but we would know that we would be papped out, as a consequence.
We are sometimes very hard on our own. Against Sion, we lost a meaningless friendly, as far as I am concerned.
Tallybhoy – True story: the film “My Dinner With Andre” is based on a real life meeting between Reginald Blinker and Andy Thom over a scooby snack from The Maggie on Byres Road.
Stan Petrov was working on the van at the time. (thumbsup)
THOMTHELEEDSTIM. 1256
First time I’ve literally LOL’d since my mate sent me his latest Pistorius joke yesterday.
I’m just a bundle of joy at the moment….
Steinreignedsupreme
13:06 on 12 March, 2013
Some people pay money to watch competitive sport and then complain when it’s, erm … competitive.
_________________________
:¬)))
If our ‘bored’ was doing its job properly, there would be an end to this ‘competitive’ nonsense against these wee diddy teams.
Sack the BORED.
GlassTwoThirdsFull – I think he drank the bottle of ginger!
Barrs or Solripe? (thumbsup)
Snake Plissken
I wouldn’t mind a wee trip to Malta…
MadonnatapinuCSC
STARRY PLOUGH
All I remember about Sliema is their pitch being a sandpit.
I believe their groundsman is now a consultant at Fir Park.
Steinreignedsupreme, 12:14
Clink\o/, 12:25
Thanks
With regard to next seasons CL, assuming teams co-efficient points are similar to this seasons in each round, then Celtic will almost certainly be seeded for each round. As Paul previously alludes to however, this does not guarantee anything. On paper at least, we would be considered favourites to progress to the Group stages again.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
Our team in the away leg..
Williams, Craig, Gemmell, Dalglish, McNeill, Connelly, Callaghan, Macari, Hood, Davidson (Hancock), Lennox.
Goals from Hood and Lennox gave us the victory..
Was down in London at the weekend where the favourite joke was….
Why is Ally McCoist called the snowman?
Cos you wake up in the morning hoping he’s still there…
Kikinthenakas
I wonder if KevJungle would give up his broo money to help Celtic…
A WORLD War II veteran handed his €500 monthly pension over to Omonia Football Club yesterday, in a bid to help his beloved team collect €5 million in order to meet UEFA Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.
Omonia president, Stelios Mylonas, came out yesterday to confirm rumours that the club, which is a total of €17 million in debt, needs to collect €5 million by March 31 or risk sanctions from UEFA for not meeting the FFP regulations over clubs getting into excessive debt.
UEFA has set up an independent panel, the Club Financial Control Board (CFCB) to assess if clubs have broken the FFP rules. Between December 2013 and April 2014 the CFCB will advise clubs of the outcome of their assessment and any punishments. The most serious punishment would be a ban from UEFA competition.
In his letter to the club which accompanied his pension, the veteran who wished to remain anonymous, wrote that he was giving his monthly income in the hope other Omonia supporters would follow his lead.
“I have cried many times since Omonoia was founded,” he said. “My beloved players, play football, and you will receive your money,” he added, referring to the fact that players have not been paid for the last four months.
The club expressed its gratitude towards the pensioner through its official website.
Omonia has also begun the pre-sale of season tickets for the 2013-2014 season in an effort to collect funds.
“The club has not yet exhausted the possibility of receiving help from supporters,” a statement from the club’s board said. “The board is obliged to give its all in a final effort to meet the deadline of March 31 to meet the FFP rules,” it added. “If the current board does not meet the deadline then the members will resign,” the statement said.
The club’s financial plight came to light last season after previous president Miltiades Neophtyou had bank-rolled a number of big money transfers. The club’s failure to reach the knock-out stages of the Champions League in the 2010-2011 season meant it was not in a position to meet the large wages it had agreed to on many of the players’ contracts. Although Neophytou decided to forgo the €17 million Omonia had owed him personally, a number of decisions to overspend on transfers and wages have crippled the club.
garygillespieshamstring – Charlie Mulgrew is a nice young man who was just being polite about the recently deceased. De mortuis nihil nisi bonum and all that.
The media are desperate to get Celtic people to talk about The Walking Dead FC in the hopes it will help keep the zombies relevant. They’d love it if they could manufacture some sort of controversy where someone at Celtic says something negative about the huns, which Charlie Green would use to drum up attendances from the no surrender crowd.
I’m quite happy for the club to keep saying nice things about our departed foes and their distaff counterparts, all the while chuckling up our sleeves at their deserved fate. (thumbsup)
Alpine Limeade
Omonia play in the Hoops and have a Shamrock as their club badge.
AC Omonia was founded in 1948, in the backdrop of the Greek Civil War. The political turbulence from that conflict spilled over into Cyprus. APOEL board officials sent a telegram the Hellenic Amateur Athletic Association (SEGAS) stating its intention to have its players sign allegiance to Greece’s fascist dictatorship, clearly violating the statue prohibiting clubs from being associated with any political groups.
After numerous players criticized the decision made by the APOEL board, and ultimately refused to sign any documents professing any political party or philosophy, those players were expelled from the club. Determined to carry on, those players and other club members left the team and established their own, separate clubs in the Cypriot capital, Nicosia. On 4 June 1948, AC Omonia was created.
I’ve watched an interview the other day of Fat Sally after the Annan game and he looked really worried about losing his job as he was sweating more than Kevin Webster standing outside Manchester Crown Court.
Cremola Foam
philvisreturns
13:33 on 12 March, 2013
___________
Good post, Phil.
Charlie is being pilloried for being mannerly. It is probably his parents’ fault.
You are too intelligent to be a member of the Milk Snatcher’s Fan Club.
You are probably a secret Trotskyite doing undercover research.
The Narrowbhoat Tim – Am I right in thinking Sevco is paying Alistair McCoist £700K a year?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISEc_iQ4RLs (thumbsup)
Anyone who was at the charity night a week past last Friday at CP with the LLs, there should be an email in your inbox (!) with a link to your photo taken with the LLs.
SPF
philvisreturns
Watched a Simpson’s the other week were Bart starts a cartoon called ‘Angry Dad’ and every time he goes into the web company that produces it he is told to take more shares from a loo roll dispenser.
Fat Sally popped into my head at that point and I wondered if it was the same for him at ibrokes…
I remember back in the day playing football against ‘the Proddies’ down the ole local Park, and we ‘the Kaffliks’ we’re winning comfortably. A cash strapped, bright spark Tim decided that a bottle of Barr’s American Cola each, would be a decent half time reward.
We lost heavily in the second half as the sure flute footed *EBT* *Honest Mistake* *Brown Brogue* free, Proddies danced round us jeggied up jinkys, some of whom were already puking up behind the goals, by the time they were finished with us.
It’s funny the things you remember.
Celtic have made £25 million or so from Europe this year. Fine, you may think, but after record breaking attendances and several continent’s worth of supporters world-wide locking on to the Norwegian Blues, there’s a problem. Chortles (sounds better than Chuckles) Green will want to compare balance sheets at the end of the year. That’ll larn them pesky Celts.
Between mumping about Ross County and moaning about replacing star players, give a thought to the poor dears who play for and follow Caerphilly Castle Ladies in the Women’s Welsh Premier League.
Having lost their entire 1st team squad in the summer, they have couragously battled on and 10 games into the league campaign have conceded fewer than 10 goals in only one match, have scored but a single goal, and currently have a goal difference of -218. Their most recent game ended 43-0 – that’s a goal conceded every 125 seconds…
Manager Julie Boycs said: “We could have promoted some of the really talented girls from the under-16s into the first team, and the results would have been nowhere near as embarrassing as they have been.
“But at the start of the season we took the decision that the first team crisis shouldn’t be allowed to disrupt the excellent work we’re doing at youth level.
“We’re taking a long-term view. We’re not going to rush girls through just to window dress this season – we’ll take our time because we know that in a few years we’ll be back bigger and stronger than ever.”
SFTB has not endorsed this message :¬)
Philvisreturn
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