When I heard of Liverpool’s freak 3-0 defeat to Watford on Saturday, their first in the league this season, it portended to how Celtic are vulnerable to a cup upset. Football is not a sport where winning all the time is possible.
Even great teams score with a small percentage of their chances and sometimes will miss all chances in a game. Conversely, underdogs will sometimes score with their only chance(s) in a game; cup upsets are a statistical certainty.
As a consequence, this impossibly long run of domestic cup success simply has to end sometime and Perth on Sunday had all the hallmarks of the classic upset. St Johnstone are on form, the pitch was rutted and sodden; the weather, inclement. St Johnstone players were watching television on Thursday, while Celtic’s were exhausting limbs in a failed attempt to remain in Europe.
You will have noted that the only time any of our 33 previous cup games finished level after 90 minutes was at home to Dunfermline this season – immediately after our Champions League qualification defeat to Cluj. That European result hovered ominously over the domestic cup game; players are only human, full of human emotions. Perhaps that Dunfermline game put steel in the legs yesterday.
It takes more than good form, a horrible pitch, a sore European defeat and awful weather to knock this Celtic team out of a cup. The sheer determination to win, which was evident at Hampden in December’s League Cup Final, decided the outcome of yesterday’s Scottish Cup quarterfinal.
We are watching a dressing room united and with common purpose, unlike others I could mention. 34 consecutive cup wins is nothing short of miraculous, but the more miracles you perform, the more real estate you occupy in the minds of your opponents. Does anyone really expect to knock Celtic out of a cup these days?
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Timaloy29
True.
And their establishment Meejahs. have real difficulty
Look at this country and the two rangers
The UK and the royals – do you think Andy will submit to US questioning
The US
– it’s influence in South America since the invention of the Monroe document in 19th century
Britain in Ireland state assisted terrorism glenanne gang etc
Hypocrites serving interests not people.
Sad
HH
” Stick on yellow card “.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51711637
Was working through some info I was sharing with Auldheid when I came across this little diamond in Rangers Annual Accounts for 2001/2002, the irony will not be lost in here hopefully, it also sort of makes a mockery of any idea that the SFA and Scottish Clubs were in any way confused about applications when the FFP was implemented, remember at the time this was printed RFC where changing from one tax evasion scheme the DOS to their next tax evasion scheme the EBT.
UEFA Club Licensing
A pilot programme has been established, with Scotland as one of the test sites, to establish formal license criteria for a club to be eligible to participate in any formal competition. This license will cover stadium facilities, club administration, youth development programmes and financial stability. The intent is to have clubs being managed to acceptable standards and with proper long term planning to secure stability in the game. Over the last year there has been a number of significant casualties in European football which can have an effect both on the integrity of the national competition and the entrants for European competition. We believe the Club is well placed to fulfill the conditions of the
licensing requirements which are due to take full effect from July 2003.
Oh and check out that last sentence again, I remember having a discussion while writing Res12 about when the licensing requirements were to be implemented I found info identifying 2008, we settled on 2010 as it was the least questionable as I was advised it became mandatory that year however, think of all the money lost our club through fraudulent applications since 2003. My point being regardless if it was mandatory or not, even voluntary applications must be accurate, fraud still applies.
Typically our Plc executive failed to share such information with us as it did not suit their agenda, now consider how many times they won the league in that period and submitted fraudulent applications.
Fritzsong,
most people still dont know about 90% of the atrocities committed by the British empire so I’ll again try and point out its all down to the propaganda and who owns the media. Put simply if you believe the so called free west is any better than China or Russia your living in a bubble. The empire is currently trying to silence free speech as we chat, what is happening to Assange and whistleblowers is a strategy, it was also a strategy used during the dirty war. I do not need to venture to the other side of the world to find totalitarian baddies, over a million starved to death in Ireland, over 3 million starved to death in India, many more millions murdered in the name of empire that is now rebranded as capitalism, and you call it freedom. China alone has lifted more people out of poverty than all the years of imperialism and capitalism combined. Useful idiots will sing the praises and do the bidding of their masters while they are afforded the freedom to pay and die for every expansionist failure.
Meanwhile CQN`s socialist clique fiddle while China`s global body bags pile up .
Haven’t posted for a long time, reading Canamalars posts tonight has given me a fresh outlook on things, keep on keeping on Canman and keep telling it like it really is.
This will be a tough game on Wednesday, we all saw what happened the last time we went to livin
Get our best team possible on the pitch , get our big lads at the back toughened up to combat the big centre , get our midfield toughened up as well , because Gary holt is a good young manager ,he will put his team out to get in our faces , and for gods sake take our chances . This game is one I am kinda unsure of . Win this and it’s game over . HH
Just had a wee root about the UEFA website, club licensing was implemented in season 2004/5, thats a lot more clubs excluded from European competition because of fraudulent licensing applications, was it four times the took the title, so that will be four times Celtic were cheated out of Champions League places, and if memory serves, direct entry without play-offs were also available, thats a lot of dough.
Canamalar
I don’t think you get it. I hold no brief for capitalism or imperialism. I am not denying for a second the existence of genuine injustice. But what I am saying is that Western democracies afford citizens the possibility of redress. In China or Russia today that concept is unknown.
I would accept only one point of your analysis: Chinese urban living standards have risen. That is important but less so impressive when juxtaposed with concentration camps for Chinese Muslims.
Incidentally, are you still comfortable with the disparities in wealth between rich and poor in China – greater than those in Europe? Incidentally again, are you aware that communist China has nothing like our NHS?
*** CQN PLAYER OF THE YEAR 2019-20 ***
RESULTS FROM GAME #41 – ST JOHNSTONE 0 CELTIC 1 (CHRISTIE)
I’m still on holiday so, again, it’s just the basic results. So here are the votes from the St Johnstone game with my own selections asterisked. Thanks to the 46 voters.
Forster: 0
Bitton*: 30
Jullien: 34
Ajer: 5
Forrest*: 20
Brown: 3
McGregor: 11
Christie: 31
Taylor: 4
Edouard: 0
Griffiths: 0
Rogic: 0
Hayes: 2
Bayo: 0
So, the players receiving points for the St Johnstone game are –
Jullien – 5 points
Christie – 4 points
Bitton – 3 points
Forrest – 2 points
McGregor – 1 point
The overall points table is now –
1st – Brown – 73 points
2nd – Edouard – 68 points
3rd – McGregor – 62 points
4th – Jullien – 53 points
5th – Christie – 46 points
6th – Forrest – 42 points
7th – Frimpong – 38 points
7th – Ntcham – 38 points
9th – Ajer – 31 points
10th – Elyounoussi – 26 points
11th – Forster – 25 points
12th – Taylor – 22 points
13th – Griffiths – 17 points
14th – Bauer – 14 points
15th – Bolingoli-Mbombo – 13 points
15th – Rogic – 13 points
17th – Hayes – 8 points
17th – Elhamed – 8 points
19th – Bitton – 7 points
20th – Johnston – 4 points
20th – Welsh – 4 points
22nd – Bayo – 3 points
23rd – Morgan – 2 points
23rd – Robertson – 2 points
25th – Simunovic – 1 point
26th – Bain, Gordon, Klimala, Sinclair, Ralston, Arzani, Hendry, Dembele, Shved – all on 0 points
Next up, Livingston with voting opening around 9.40 on Wednesdat evening. HH
Any thoughts on Brown being chipped away at over recent weeks folks in the Jobo standings?
Realistically, only two can catch him. Sign of the times? Just asking.
Interesting comparison to be made with troubled individuals in sport. Team Ineos (Sky) have Gianni Moscon whilst Huns have Morelos. The main difference is how it is reported on and dissected by a less favourable press. Apologies as a bit long (if it copies)
Stalking those career peaks at the Tour and the World Championships is a darker side. Moscon was disqualified from the first of those two Tours de France and copped a five week UCI ban for punching another rider; he was disqualified from the previous World Championship for hitching a lift from a car mid-race. Talent and temper; asset and liability.
Moscon’s 2017 season was arguably the most torrid in his career to date. April of that year is his career in microcosm: a fifth place at Paris-Roubaix announcing the arrival of an exciting new talent; racial abuse of FDJ’s Kevin Reza, one of the peloton’s few black riders, at Tour of Romandie resulted in a six week team ban and a formal written warning. “Gianni knows that there is no excuse for his behaviour and that any repeat will result in termination of his contract,” the team said at the time.
Ineos has spent the years since that line looking for ways to let Moscon off the hook.
After his forced six-week break, Moscon maintained that his “conscience was clear,” and rode out the rest of the season. Later that year, Moscon was accused by Sebastian Reichenbach – a teammate of Kevin Reza’s – of deliberately causing him to crash at Tre Valli Varesine, an incident that ended Reichenbach’s season but was unable to be taken any further due to lack of evidence. “These were serious allegations which Gianni and the Team have always strongly contested. We back Gianni and he has our full support,” his team said afterwards.
Gianni Moscon climbs the Mur de Péguère at the 2019 Tour de France.
In 2018, riding in service of Geraint Thomas at the Tour de France, Moscon punched Elie Gesbert of Fortuneo-Samsic, and got booted by the commissaires as a result. Team boss Dave Brailsford said that they would announce any repercussions for Moscon after the Tour had concluded; in early August, the team again came down with the weight of a feather in saying that “We will continue to give him the help and support he needs to learn, develop and move forward from this.”
That’s a stance that has some echoes in the way that Gabriel Rasch talked about Moscon’s conduct after Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. “It’s something we’re working on and have to continue working on … it’s more supporting him, and doing the right things so it doesn’t happen again,” Rasch said. “[It’s] something we need to prevent from happening again.”
Jens Debusschere finished Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne with a bleeding hand and wrist, to the news that Gianni Moscon had been disqualified from the race. Debusschere didn’t mince his words. “It’s a series of incidents and it’s always the same guy…. It’s not only this incident – there’s many more incidents,” Debusschere told Cyclingnews. “If you ask around in the peloton about how their relation is with him, then ninety percent will react negatively.”
THE TRIALS OF A TEAM
Ineos has now spent most of Moscon’s career grappling with the apparent tempest raging inside him. On the one hand, he’s an incredibly strong rider – nicknamed ‘The Tractor’, his presence can make or break a result for the team, from the classics to the Grand Tours. On the other, his presence on Ineos’ roster brings reputational damage that worsens with each indiscretion.
From salbutamol to jiffy bags to Fancy Bear hacks, detractors of Team Ineos aren’t short on reasons to dislike the team. Moscon’s presence in the squad doesn’t do much to restore its image.
But how do you solve a problem like Gianni? Team and UCI suspensions haven’t worked. HR training courses haven’t worked. Blindly supporting him hasn’t worked.
Strade Bianche, 2019.
At time of writing, Ineos were yet to respond to specific questions from CyclingTips about whether they saw Moscon’s conduct as an individual problem or a team one; about where the line now exists for disciplinary action since the team’s May 2017 statement that “any repeat will result in termination of his contract.”
Whilst Jens Debusschere got patched up and recovered from his part in the latest furore surrounding Gianni Moscon, the Italian sat in the team bus at the finish of another race that he didn’t finish. And once again, his team was left toeing the treacherous line between ‘results’ and ‘respect’ as they figured out what to do with their talented, troubled charge.
——
Footnote: Besides disqualification and a quiet ride back to the team bus by himself, the only penalty Moscon has received to date as a result of Sunday’s events is a 500CHF fine for littering with his race numbers.
Fritzsong,
Can I ask where you get your info?
As far as China goes, I get my info from Chinese colleagues, I am well aware of what conditions are like, I do know that social services differ very much depending on which province you live, this ranges to paying all medical and education bills to paying very little.
As for the “concentration camps for Chinese Islamists”, I only hear that from american news and politicians, what I have been told is that foreign access to those areas has been restricted due to external attempts to radicalize the Islam community, hence there were terrorist attacks and now greater restrictions. The people now trying to make claims about concentration camps are the same ones that pay for the radicalization. Its no rocket salad. Its he same organisations that were telling us the Hong Kong demonstrators were peaceful.
And Russia, well that’s just made up drivel pumped out by the propaganda machine. But I’m unlikely to convince you to challenge your sources, I’m more than happy to be convinced if you can provide me with a reliable source.
Canamalar
Spot on
HH
Oh and I usually go here for my info
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
I find it less full of propaganda articles written by independent journalists but there is also a smattering of propaganda outlet.
Go ogle Russia China double helix, it’s a great read.
Macjay
For you dalling! 😊
https://t.co/P7CRgrX0id?amp=1
HH
By the end of this coming weekend, 80% of the SPFL program will have been completed.
Should the SFA and SPFL decide, in their infinite wisdom, to cancel the rest of the season, they will have no option but to declare us champions.
Again.
Anything else would be seen as an act of betrayal of a member club and would be interpreted, correctly, as a blatant act of cheating.
It could also deal a major blow to the fabric of Scottish football.
Is there any club in Scotland, apart from our own, capable of taking a major revenue hit without being forced into administration and possible liquidation?
The suits would in essence kill the game and their own existence.
Maybe this is a way to finally clean up the game?
Trump Explained
https://twitter.com/noamchomskyT/status/1234680032540254208?s=20
HH
Good morning CQN from a dry and very calm Garngad
Bring on the Livvy.
GG – good post
D. :)
Art of War
Very good read about Moscon. He is as very good rider but he doesn’t have the temperament to compete at the highest level. SKY/Ineos have done nothing to try and change his attitude probably because they think that what gets him going. I suspect this year is make or break for him. I don’t think he will make it and be dropped by Ineos but I also thought Suarez would end up playing for a mid table team and he managed to sort himself out.
AN TEARMANN on 3RD MARCH 2020 3:25 AM
Trump Explained
============================================================
Excellent analysis from Chomsky .
To give the piece its actual title :
( No fake news here )
:-)
” Chomsky BRILLIANTLY Dissects Trump, Democrats & RussiaGate. ”
FAR harsher on the Democrats and their ” tactics ” than Trump .
Unfortunately didn`t refer to the utter stupidity of the attempted impeachment .
Why fight a battle you can`t possibly win ?
Just empowered Trump further . People vote for winners.
AN TEARMANN on 3RD MARCH 2020 1:43 AM
Macjay
For you dalling! 😊
===============================================
Thanks , big boy .
gggff
So is it gonnae be;
Adidas, Nike, Puma, Umbro, Macron, Hummel, Joma, Kappa, Admiral, Lotto, Under Armour, or maybe New Balance again?
Thursday could be the day.
…any wurd oan stevie?
………………He must be still thinkin’………….
( now, folks imagine the scenario had Neil made such an outburst? The meeja huns like wild monkeys in a tree would have created chaos and had him chased)
China is the most capitalistic one party state in the world.
It persecutes not just its Muslims but various religions, including Catholics.
Insomniacs aroused.
PARKHEADCUMSALFORD on 3RD MARCH 2020 8:46 AM
Perfectly correct .
Utterly totalitarian.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/21/world/asia/china-islam-crackdown.html
ERNIE LYNCH on 2ND MARCH 2020 3:57 PM
I reckon only about 5% of the population know how to wash their hands properly. And most who do know seldom do it.
=====================
Close… ~8% of 1149 people washed their hands adequately (91 people out of 1149) when observed using thermal imaging cameras:
https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2020/0302/1119640-hand-washing-coronavirus/
CorkCelt Birthdays are like buses :)
Happy Birthday CorkCelt!
HH
CORKCELT..
A Happy Hoopy Birthday to you.
HH
I had it in my mind when I awoke to write a wee dissertation on diuretics.
Buy yes you’ve guessed it
I need to go for a pee.
Camanalar
Let’s not fall out. You have your own world view. It is one without subtlety or nuance but it suits you. And you know a Chinese person. Well done.
Orwell wrote that you can take some people by the hand and – step by step – prove conclusively that they are wrong but they will never ever admit it. Ring any bells?
Apart from being well versed in the effects of diuretics, I am also from necessity an expert in hand washing.
I have anti bacterial gels in the hall, or the lobby as we called it in the wee green oasis, the living room, the kitchen, the bedrooms and of course in the bathrooms.
I always have hand sanitizers in the front and back of the gas guzzler.
I asked my local supermarket to provide cart wipes at the entrance and they did.
They also placed hand gel around the store during flu season.
Any of my children and particularly the grand kids are encouraged, read badgered, to wash their hands anytime they come indoors.
My long suffering wife follows them around using wipes on door handles or preparation surfaces.
There is a wee hole in the ozone layer with her name on it.
Back to hand washing
Hot water, not too hot for the wee grand son, soap and a thorough rubbing including between the fingers, the palms and the back of the hands.
Scrub like a surgeon would for a minimum of thirty seconds while humming “Happy Birthday.”
For over 20 years we have done this religiously and so far it’s been successful.
Not only have I the cleanest hands in Christendom, but I also may have the tenderest.
Priests and fellow mass attenders were a wee bit curious at first when I bowed instead of shaking hands and when I wouldn’t use the holy water fonts, but they now understand.
On leaving church the priests are happy to first pump and wish me a holy and healthy week.
And for fellow Catholics,
I stopped taking the Blood of Christ at communion. I’m sure the Big Man understands.
He must as he has rewarded me with a Generation of Domination.
Working feverishly on a vaccine lol. You know his mates were in the background going ‘I dare you to say it…’
HH
CORKCELT
HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!