Vasilios Barkas returns to Celtic Park on Thursday, four and a half years after his last appearance at the ground. That 1-1 draw with Midtjylland was our first home game in front of fans in 16 months, with 9,000 allowed to attend. It was also Vasilios’ only appearance for Celtic in front of a home crowd. The goal conceded led to a curtailment of further chances for the keeper.
He was awful at Celtic but it would be a mistake to assume that is an accurate assessment of his abilities. His reputation blossomed since moving to Utrecht, where he has remained first choice for over three years. He is better than any of us remember and will do his best to demonstrate this on Thursday.
Barkas arrived at Celtic late July 2020, when unnecessary travel was prohibited, including trips to scout a keeper. Fraser Forster had just completed an incredible season and had returned to parent club Southampton, who agreed in principle to a return to Celtic the next season, when they had secured backfill.
Fraser told the club and his pal Craig Gordon he was also keen on a return. As a consequence, Craig, who was out of contract, rejected a Celtic deal and went to Hearts for less than half the money Celtic offered, in order to play first team football. A week later, Southampton got cover and green-lit the deal for Fraser. Fraser, though, thought he had a bite at Chelsea, so backed out. These events lost Celtic a known keeper and cost Craig a lot of money.
No travel, no fresh scouting, where do we go? Barkas played for the AEK Athens team who eliminated Celtic from Champions League qualification two years earlier. The deal was done.
Vasilios arrived in Scotland alone, unable to speak the language and not permitted to socialise. Players were not even allowed to eat together, they had breakfast and lunch in their cars at Lennoxtown. After training, he went home, and cooked and cleaned for himself. If you anything about young footballers, those tasks are not familiar territory. Barkas was one of millions of desperately isolated people that year.
He was not alone suffering this way at Celtic that season. Others – who travelled up from England – fared even worse personally, but there is no hiding place between the sticks and Vasilios was exposed. Celtic adhered scrupulously to the rules that season. This had a cost which not every club was prepared to pay. Some believe rules are too taxing.
I don’t know if he will suffer some mild form of PTSD when he walks out the tunnel on Thursday evening, or if he will rise to the occasion, fortified by his subsequence successes. Best of luck to him, either way.
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VALE BHOY on 27TH JANUARY 2026 1:33 PM
Board supporters, please.
Come on. Tell us why we should support/trust Nicholson and the rest of the Board.
Please.
————————-
Dermot Desmond
After reading Paul67’s leader was going to mention Aeschylus, Sophocles, & Euripedes….
But that would have given Bourne the chance to ask if they were Celtic’s midfield targets….so no
That said there was something of a Greek Tragedy about that season…
Apart from Dubai that is……
TwistinByThePoolCSC
DESSYBHOY on 27TH JANUARY 2026 12:57 PM
Keep up with you, no thanks, Get your CV in you might get a job with all that know how.
……
I’m happily retired , so I’m out for applying for Exec jobs , although a few on here seem to think we just need to pick up the phone and have a pick of perfect execs who’ll never screw up.
Anyway watch the game properly next time before you post erroneous advice on the World Wide Web. 😀
HH
The Bada Bing
The thing is, he could speak English..quite well as the clip on the previous page shows.,
So did we recall Welsh to weaken Motherwell, or use him as a make weight in a transfer?
Celtic Mac
I know you moved onto the Greeks, but since you seem to be covering Shakey for CQN averaging two quotes a day, – do you think he could have been a Closet Tim?
Thumbs up CSC
P.s. FWIW the man on the 64 to Auchenshuggle Omnibus reckons the Celtic board are having a Reggie Blinker.
DB- A few on here were taken in ,by the language thing….
Opinions are like that ,enjoy your perfect life full of knowledge and without error. And ignore in the future I will do the same.
The last 4 days of the notoriously difficult transfer window is a notoriously difficult period in which to sign players
Reports in France indicate former Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy has been proposed for a role at Saint-Etienne. (Glasgow Times – subscription required), external
Head coach Ron Jans, of Utrecht, has refused to resign following a fifth successive defeat, with the Dutch club visiting Celtic on Thursday. (Herald – subscription required), external
Hibernian midfielder Josh Mulligan, 23, reminds former Scotland manager Gordon Strachan of Scott Brown, the former Celtic, Hibs and Scotland midfielder. (Edinburgh Evening News – subscription required)
And here was me under the impression that these guys were all Celtic class and it was just that Brendan wasn’t getting the most out of them…..
We have two centre forwards out injured.
We have a winger / forward who is so badly out of form he is unrecognisable from last season.
We have another forward who converts about one chance in a hundred and we have a new lad in who is not renowned for being prolific and has hardly kicked a ball for the last couple of months.
Another one flew in from Japan and has just flown out again for not being good enough to play back up to any of the above.
What a shambles.
I think the Huns will now take the league. The momentum is with them, not to mention the officials. They have done a decent job in dragging themselves back into contention and squad depth and Tavernier’s penalties should give them the edge over Hearts.
Whether DD is doing this deliberately or not, he is killing the Club through his dictatorial leadership and bloody mindedness.
Mentioning the covid season brought back memories of the last time Celtic threw a league championship to keep the huns afloat.
Pay Attention.
You must hand it to the board ,they might not get players in but they can certainly ship them out .Parasites one and all
Happy St. Angela Merici Day! Ave Ave
Petition:
One Celtic. Back our Board, our Players, and Manager.
https://c.org/KFpKd6pRQJ
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 27TH JANUARY 2026 1:39 PM
No argument from me with that. A striker was an obvious need but our midfield is just as pressing a concern for me.
We haven’t had the midfielders to beat a half-organized press for too long, we haven’t signed any to do it, we don’t seem to have even been looking. It’s the most obvious challenge, I said the other day it will be the difference between winning the league or not. We’ve had nearly three windows to do it but there’s no sign that we’re even acknowledging it. We’ll never do anything in Europe until we do.
Sunday showed we don’t have the midfielders to win a battle either, we’re too easy play against by teams playing different ways. A quick change of tactics and were unable to adapt.
If Calmac gets injured we’re in serious trouble for this season, but worse is that we don’t have anyone coming through for next season when he’s going to need even more careful handling or even completely replacing. It was really poor planning to find ourselves facing such an obvious problem.
The small squad that we were told Brendan wanted needs more numbers, for sure. The problem, as ever, is who will come to Scotland who can do what we need right now.
But we’re also seeing what happens when you give up on development – it’s come at us quickly.
Perhaps the Bould Dermot threw a hissy fit and behaved like a fishmongers wife on Leeson Street when he heard Breandán Rodgers would not be signing a NDA. . . . . . .
Some were playing Ludo, when others were playing chess.
Something ALMOST touching about this slavish adoration of the board, despite the damage it has done and continues to do to our club.
Has the peteeeetion reached double figures yet, and how many huns have signed it?
slAve slAve!
And what is it with all these references to Catholic saints?
Surely this site is supposed to be open to all?
I wonder when Celtic play Mirren next 🙏😂
No word on any of the players we are ” Monitoring,keeping an eye on,plotting a move for,being kept informed of,tracking,in contact with.No?,then WTF is this site for.All Our Yesterdays.Small boys,footie in the park,jumpers for goalposts,isn’t it.Marvellous.
FANAND PATRIOT.
Have a blessed St Contracepta’s Day!
Catholic Quick News.
Ray Winston’s,
Eh,Sionnaigh has every Saint sent a card.Early morning you can tune in to Vatican Radio,Ave,Ave.
What no mention of St Jude ?
The MSM have us potentially bidding for Bodo/Glimt’s Kasper Høgh. I appreciate that the video linked below is a bunch of cherry picked highlights, but he certainly seems to have a great awareness of where the ball is likely to go and where opponents are positioned and moving, along with a great touch and good strength and balance. Look at how he shoots with different parts of his foot to direct the ball in the direction of greatest scoring probability.
He also appears to have something we’ve been missing for years: great heading ability, with a superb positional sense and a knack of directing his headers into the unprotected area of the goal with pace and precision. We might even score some goals from corners with this guy up front!
https://youtu.be/nZ7V2mqBP8Q?si=97NWUZIyKSK-GCLJ
TURKEYBHOY
What is it you have to do to get sainthood anyway?
I’m a bit rusty since I was deprogrammed.
Inamura, Simpson-Pusey, Yamada all gone. Balikwisha barely getting a kick. Brendan’s fault though…..
No updates on Tierney’s injury?
Just think of the careers that those 3 players would have had if they had been lucky enough to be managed by Mr MON.
What is the Starz on 27th January 2026 12:21 pm
If only Brendan Rodgers hadn’t let Kwon,Nawrocki and Lagerbielke go..
He has really scuppered our chances of winning trophies …
Speaking of the midfield, `i’d have hoped to see Engels showing more signs of promise by now.
I wonder how much longer he’ll be given before he’s moved on.
On the subject of cutting our loses Oh my!, is someone shelling out £10m for Oh?
Not sure what to make of that within the context of buying Idah for £9m and selling him 12 months later for £6m.
bournesouperecipe@1.53
Pretty sure Shakey Stephens was a closet Communist, based on no more than the fact that his agent was in the CP & used to book him into working mens clubs before he finally made it through the green door.
As for Old Bill (from up on the hill), I do believe there is evidence plenty that he was indeed a closet Tim, if you read between the lines that is…..which isn’t always easy, since Tims were outlawed in those days. Two recent acquaintances of mine, both writers of a sort, beg to differ though, one, English, Mark (my words) he is of the view that , far from being murdered in a pub brawl in 1593, (or assassinated by Elizabeth R) Christopher Marlowe, escaped to France and continued to write Bill’s plays in exile. The other, Vera, both French and Russian avers, and believes that not only did Shakespeare not write Shakespeare but that Shakespeare was not even Shakespeare….and she has a deadline to meet, unlike Marlowe…..
Like Bill Mikey N has to be careful, of which he speaks, busying away in secret, where signatures on the dotted line must be written in invisible ink, for fear of breaching the FSR or is it the FSB?
Fear not Bourne the No 64 will arrive soon, the tram that is, not the latest addition to the sqaud…
Background stuff already mostly known Paul but interesting enough.
I bear no ill will to Barkas.
He played badly for Celtic.
I wish him a happy future – starting Friday.
Perhaps a couple of key lessons to be learned from the Forster – Gordon episode …
… which can be enshrined in improved recruitment & capacity strategy and plans.
1. Never assume. When you do … etc
2. A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it is written on.
On the face of it (happy to be proven wrong) and with the full benefit of hindsight …
.. the whole episode had a convivial, presumptuous feel to it.
“Good old Fraser. He’ll come through for us” stuff.
More discipline and rigour please.
Any updates on Tomas Cvancara suspected hamstring issues?
Tontine Tim on previous thread .. thank you
I’m all for holding suits to account ..
.. but let’s do it in an informed way?
PS – and FWIW ?
I don’t share your vibe about Lucky Cody
(Hopefully he doesn’t object to me speaking of him to another poster as if he ain’t in the room)
I reckon he – like thousands of other Celtic fans – is frustrated by events …
.. with cause
Didn’t have to be like this
Shouldn’t have been like this
But it IS like this.
… and my TARDIS is in the repair shop
Fix forward …
… starting with Celtic urgently patching the squad for the run in
… and us supporters backing Martin and the bhoys to the hilt
If you don’t throw the board off the roof of the old Main Stand then you’ll never get rid of them.
No amount of tea and biscuits round at Timmy’s podcasts will change that.
Engels was hiding against Hearts – Chris Sutton.
https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/sport/25800675.chris-sutton-tears-celtic-stars-performance-vs-hearts/
Bodo,have a terrific midfielder,Haughe, they will sell. T
he Big Canadian International,Nico Sigur,just waiting on the call,Motherwell have a terrific midfield anchorman,Elliot.
Players are there.We are not.
Vasilios Barkas was at Celtic when the club was actively carrying out an inside job to keep Rangers afloat.
And then blaming Covid as though only Celtic were affected by the Covid scam.
Just ask Shane Duffy.