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.
270 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- »
Protecting Beaton
Anyone can be on those panels including jurnos and ex players ,even Boyd.
Amazing how many elbows, high studs John cheatn Beaton misses when reffing or VAR involving Celtic. His eagle eye and knowledge of the rules of football seem to evade him foul is against hoops. This is the most corrupt set of referees they have assembled to date – don’t forget the sneaky linesmen ! The shankland offside before the corner was right on his line of vision – 2 yards off. We don’t stand a chance unless we challenge the rule deployed by most professional league. Declare your team and have no conflicts of interest.
Again! Where is the Celtic board – who represents the thoughts and concerns the Celtic fans.
SFA appeal.
Not in the least surprised.
The fix most definitely is in.
Is he var again Sunday ?
Appeal hastily dismissed. Our enemies know we are weak as piss, just as our official response indicates. Through meek Mickey we broadcast weakness. Our enemies smell good in the water.
In other news PJ Dykes saying that MO’N is privately furious at the transfer inertia of Mickey and the Board. They’re letting you take a bullet for them Martin. It’s who they are.
By Celtic Football Club
27 Jan 2026, 5:47 pm
Celtic’s appeal over the red card shown to Auston Trusty in the draw against Hearts at Tynecastle on Sunday has been dismissed, following a Scottish FA hearing today (Tuesday).
Clearly we are very disappointed at the outcome of today’s appeal.
The VAR Protocol requires that VAR only intervenes when there is a ‘clear and obvious error’.
It is difficult to see how the original yellow card decision is a clear and obvious error and accordingly, VAR’s intervention by the refereeing team was not consistent with the rules.
We await the written judgement but will be ensuring further discussions with the SFA on the matter as we seek to understand the rationale for this and other decisions.
Beaton and his brethern have been given free licence to carry on cheating
justshatered on 27th January 2026 1:36 pm….
Thanks for the response.
The FSR money doesn’t carry forward. So it is a ‘use it or lose’ situation.
I don’t think that we have come close to using all the available money since FSR came into being.
One would think that THIS window i would be a busy one. Plenty of obvious needs. Money available.
Just wondering how much FSR money is available.
Cheers,
Weeron.
PLB- Spot on
https://www.celticfc.com/news/2026/january/27/celtic-s-appeal-over-the-red-card-shown-to-auston-trusty-is-dismissed/
Discussions ffs? End of story
Where was John Beaton?
Perhaps the SFA just felt that , by the law of averages , we were due a red card after all that time without one, as helpfully pointed out by Boyd and Mcinnes !
That , of course , makes no sense but neither will whatever nonsense is given as the reason.
We await the written judgement but will be ensuring further discussions with the SFA on the matter as we seek to understand the rationale for this and other decisions.
…….
Sundays game was littered with referring mistakes virtually all in favour of Hearts, Arne was used as a punchbag at times and when he was thrown to the ground by Milne ( ref was busy keeping the peace elsewhere ) VAR should have intervened.
I suspect we’re not finished with Beaton just yet
HH
Fergus McCann was a sleekit operative who sacked Lou Macari, and replaced him with, Tommy Burns, who himself said: “This job might have come too quickly for me in my managerial career, but if I don’t take it now, it my not come my way again.”
A bad appointment by Fergus McCann, costing the next 3 league titles and all of the CL money pot that went along with it whilst we were trying to build an all seated stadium because we did not have the balls at boardroom level anymore, to challenge the veracity of “The Taylor Report” which was based on a Government psyop in which 97 Liverpool fans were sacrificed at Hillsborough in 1989, because polis were ordered by Thatcher to crush the fans by overcrowding the area were the tragedy happened.
Celtic showed Zero resistance to TTR as at that time we were led by a man who brought ‘pravda’ to “The Celtic View” so we were sitting ducks….waiting to be back-doored.
Little did we know that Fergus was wearing a mask before he won power.
If we don’t lear lessons then we’ll keep making mistakes, like what happened on the pitch for 3 years after sacking, Lou Macari.
Thatcher’s Hillsborough stitch-up was used to terrify the football world that terraces were now death traps.
Yet if that was the case, there would be Hillsborough disasters every other week, which thankfully there wasn’t and this gives the game away.
So the Tories brought all seating into football stadiums because they cared for fans safety.
If you believe that I have a cupboard full of white Elephants with rainbow coloured ears for sale.
The Tories knew that all seating would create PLC’s with back-doors to the offshore banking cartels [who owns them?] and this allowed Fergus McCann to come into Celtic on the back of the public kudos of [The Rebel Consortium] which he quickly distanced himself from as soon as he got power.
So he was a fraud. Imho.
stebhoy on 27th January 2026 5:40 pm
Fergus mcann wouldn’t stand for this corruption. Current Celtic board are take it on the chin Charlie’s
Celtic need to raise the stakes …
Will Nicholson have the balls or just shrug his shoulders..
Ps when will fan media get in as they can help here
PPS any word from Nicholson on MONs request for a truce to allow the full support back in
No surprise MON is having a go at the Nicholson — an embarrassment to Celtic FC
Milne will be retroed for violent conduct … Just before the minis play the hun …
The Bada Bing @ 12:19 pm
The Venus de Milo of goalkeepers
———-
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
bournesouprecipe/bada bing
The second “challenge” there is a red card (red card) all day long. Not sure either what the first one involved which put another Celtic player on the deck. In the last 10-15 years or so we have been able to win so many games in a season that even the Tynecastle ref antics of 2024, one red one pen, could not stop us on the way to the title. Not the case now, key refereeing decisions will cost us results. and almost certainly did so against Hearts. Not that we were great Sunday, but the brothers made crucial differences at key times in the game. Said it before, it would not be enough in Scotland for refereees to declare which team they favour, wouldn’t be enough refs for Celtic games, no they should, like the Met in London, have to declare if they are members of the Masonic Lodge (27/32 in recent seasons) and which one. The dismissal of the Trusty appeal is just the icing on the cake, soft foul in real time, and never a red card any time. Lets hear a broadside from Dermot or Ross on that score.
celtic40me on 27th January 2026 12:22 pm
I do remember his signing being well-received after we missed out on FF.
Something changed that season
———
Yip.
Celtic were bad after a long period of being somewhere between pretty good and really good.
We can laugh at Rangers “Statement o’clock” mentality all we like but they’d be at the SFAs front door with torches and pitchforks for this and would bully concessions out of the SFA.
How Beaton gets anywhere near a Celtic or Rangers game when where his loyalties lie is so clear and in the public domain , let alone what the SFA know privately , is a staggering indictment of the cabal that is Scottish football.
My confidence that we will league isn’t great but we are still in there and I’d trust MON above almost anyone else to set a siege mentality in the dressing room and just grind results out until the end of the season.
If we do win this league I’ll celebrate it like no other since 1998.
Another shrug of the shoulders,by MN.Difference being,he put on his version of a stare.
Just to let them know.he was,in no way,best pleased with the decision.
Has any member of the media questioned the red card? It’s so so ridiculous it could only be given in Scotland and against us.
We really do need to take this nonsense further.
Our collection of cowards will do nothing as usual.Oh for a Fegus McCann..
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL on 27TH JANUARY 2026 6:45 PM
I meant that supporting Celtic changed for good that season. The power of the internet took over.
It brought us to where we are today where all sorts of ridiculous, nasty and persecutory behaviour is normalised and passes without comment.
celtic should send that video to the SFA and ask for retrospective punishment – its a clear punch and a straight red card. Also the elbow on Engels face – he is standing still , the hearts player running and jumping towards him leading with the elbow.
WE REALLY NEED TO START FIGHTING OUR CORNER – WHEN WILL SOMEONE ON THE CELTIC BOARD GROW A SET!
Huns trying to kid they knocked back 10 million for Gassama
The Trusty farce should fuel our fire going forward , let’s show the feckers ,every game a cup final .
And if the board had any self respect , they would do their bit ……give us the tools we need to win the league and put all these snide masonic feckers in their place . While you’re at it , don’t let up on the corrupt SFA …..if only there was a lawyer on the board ….oh , wait….
Personally, I’ve had it with Engels, really have. Does not fit in at all.
If we sign Hogh from Bodo, I will be the next Pope.
FFS, we paid 9 million for Idah, what’s the problem
kingLUBo, aka Pope LUBO
When Martin gets asked tomorrow about transfers, he should tell the lapdogs to ask thr Board,he shouldn’t be taking and bullets for these clowns
the Bada Bing on 27th January 2026 7:11 pm
When Martin gets asked tomorrow about transfers, he should tell the lapdogs to ask thr Board,he shouldn’t be taking and bullets for these clowns.
EXACTLY.
Celtic Mac
Might have been elsewhere, but I posted that the cheating would ramp up because there is a tighter ‘title chase’. They went on to steal around six points via VAR, after they complained about Jack Butland’s near death experience at Hampden.
This is where Celtic including MN do have the credentials for getting at Kings Park, apparently we even have a Kafflik in charge of referees. Never via ‘the media campaigns’ like Sevco but by discussion. Celtic ‘behind closed doors’ I’m pretty confident brought Alan Muir’s career to a well deserved abrupt end, after the Maeda cheating at Easter Rd.
John Beaton should be in our sights It never brings the points back, and doesn’t prevent the new kids on the block like Dickinson etc, but it’s a just fight, as old as Celtic ourselves.
THE BADA BING on 27TH JANUARY 2026 7:05 PM
Huns trying to kid they knocked back 10 million for Gassama
————————————-
What happened to the Morelos money?
Hammering your keyboard even harder and calling them names (whoever THEY are) is going to do it.
If it doesn’t work today, start again tomorrow.
Never trusted Collum since he awarded that non-penalty to the deid team at Celtic Park. He was looking the other way and never saw it (and it was before VAR). I was right in line with it. Yet another truly ridiculous decision given against us and in favour of the deid lot.
Will he comment on Trusty’s red card? I doubt it.
Celtic Statement on Trusty
Interesting line “this and other decisions “
Celtic admin side(non playing) important fig.
1.Brother Walfrid
2.Fergus McCann.
3.Willie Maley