One of the things Neil Lennon may have on his agenda for the international break is an inquest into the physical condition of his playing squad. The season is a month old and Celtic have an injury list which would wipe out pretty much every other team in the country. If this was an isolated occurrence it would be no more than curious but we have written about, and discussed, the fragile limbs of Celtic players since the Lennoxtown Training Centre opened nearly five years ago.
Since then Celtic ‘lost’ (more on that at a later date) three leagues by a maximum of six points and lost valuable form and points due to first choice players sitting in the stands on match day.
On Saturday our central midfield was without Ledley, Brown, Wanyama, Kayal and McGeouch (on a non-fitness related injury), while even auxiliary stand-in for central mid, Charlie Mulgrew, was on the list of others getting treatment.
The run of bad luck has moved clearly into the realms of statistical relevance. It is not luck at all, we are doing something wrong.
Football clubs look to sports science to deliver multiple objectives. Competitive pressure is put on players to become faster and to be able to run as effectively late in games as they can in the opening minutes (which for now is a physical impossibility but remains a key target), but we are clearly missing a trick.
822 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- »
Lennon has confirmed that extension talks are set to take place with those considered to be crucial to the Celtic cause, with Gary Hooper and Victor Wanyama among those the Old Firm giants are looking to sit down with.
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/8053550/
Old Firm giants?
Sorry but the ‘Old Firm’ is a thing of the past!
Sneaky bar stewards Sky making sure they get there buzzwords into the unsuspecting collective conscious..
typical MSM brainwashing strategies at work.
greenjedi
Which means that EVERY game in Oldco’s History is void then.
Stupid stupid thems.
@606AlfieConn
Talking to one of the Corporate Recovery guys yesterday, BDO expecting fireworks when they start
Also one of the (cont) http://t.co/b1TPk7Iw
If rangers is rangers then rangers owes what rangers owes. And that be fact. So when do they get the bill? Through the letterbox or through the door? So long a they get it.
Monaghan1900
That is a good explanation and will appease those who don’t know any better. However it is flawed in a number of ways:
1.) Incorporation is the process in which any entity becomes a limited company. The Football Club established in 1872 therefore became the company in 1899.
2.) Even if we assume a new company was set up in 1899 which was not the football club but merely a company set up to operate a football club then there are a couple of additional issues that need to be resolved:
a) Why was the football club deducted 10 points if it was only the “holding company” who was in debt and placed into administration;
b) How did the “holding company” get into financial difficulties. Was it involved in paying players of the football club rather than the club itself paying players. If so this would fall foul of SFA rules regarding third party payments.
3.) People who bought shares in the plc were under the impression that they were buying shares in the football club. This was explained in the prospectus that goes out to prospective shareholders. If, as Rangers, Charles Green, MSM etc would have you believe that the club was not the company, then these shares were misrepresented and anyone who bought a share could now sue. It will also make it much more difficult for Charles Green to sell shares in his new company as everyone will know you are only buying shares in a company, not the football club.
Mort
Neil Lennon has revealed that Celtic’s progress to the UEFA Champions League group stage will see them offer fresh terms to key personnel.
A first outing at this stage of Europe’s premier club competition since 2008/09 has landed the Bhoys a welcome cash injection.
The reigning Scottish champions are planning to put those funds to good use, with there now more money in the pot for contract discussions.
Lennon has confirmed that extension talks are set to take place with those considered to be crucial to the Celtic cause, with Gary Hooper and Victor Wanyama among those the Old Firm giants are looking to sit down with.
“There will be three or four we will be looking to give improved contracts to just to reward them for their efforts,” Lennon said in the Daily Record.
“Gary and Victor would certainly come into that category. We are already talking to Thomas Rogne.
“It’s ongoing with him – he has a year left on his deal and he has done very well for me.
“There are a couple of other ones in the pot as well who deserve it.”
Surgery
Meanwhile, Lennon has revealed that club captain Scott Brown may require surgery on a hip problem which has seen him rely on painkilling injections in recent weeks and has forced him out of Scotland’s 2014 World Cup qualifying double-header against Serbia and Macedonia.
He said: “Scott’s not training right now. He could have played against Serbia but there’s no way he could have got through the Macedonia game.
“That’s where we are just now with him.
“We have six games in 23 days coming up and Scott won’t play most of those. It’s not career-threatening but we want to avoid surgery at this time if we can. We need to take it week by week.
“We don’t want to inject him before games and it’s really corrective surgery that’s needed.
“It is a degenerative problem so he might need to go in, get it cleaned up and then shut down for a spell.”
big nan09:42 on 5 September, 2012
>>>>>>
That’s brilliant. Can you direct me to further reading?
HH!
.
Tom..
A Happy Hoopy Birthday..
I believe You share Your Birthday with Another 10 Excellent CQNers.. He He He..
Couldnae Resist Tom..;0(
Summa
Big Nan @ 09.42
He’s very good, I’m surprised he’s not better known
79caps
09:29 on 5 September, 2012
Big Nan @ 09.20
Thanks for telling me about The Cowdenbeath Man. I found the William Hershaw poem in “100 Favourite Scottish Football Poems” (Luath Press).
>>>>>>>
Aha! That’ll teach me to read the blog backwards!
Monaghan1900
09:17 on 5 September, 2012
++++++
The easy and obvious response to that is: why did they have to transfer the player registrations if they are not a new club?
Ten Men Won The League at 9:08
I don’t know who is the guy who tweeted it.
Anyway, according to the news leaked from Wisla Cracow, there was nothing official from Celtic. It was Melikson agent who told Wisla and Polish press later that the offer was real.
The alleged fee offered was “only” 1 m euros…..£1.25m today if you have that galloping inflation thing.
Talking of poetry
Where is CQN’s Serenity
Excellent stuff
Just gone and bought William Hershaw’s book from Amazon! Thanks for bringing that to the blog today.
HH!
Anniversary of John Thomson’s tragic death
By: Joe Sullivan on 05 Sep, 2012 08:29
IT was 81 years ago today (Wednesday), on Saturday, September 5, 1931, that Celtic goalkeeper John Thomson received a serious head injury while playing against Rangers at Ibrox. He died later in hospital, having never regained consciousness after the incident.
The death of a footballer in his prime is thankfully rare, and even rarer on the field of play. Even after this length of time, John Thomson´s untimely death at the age of just 22 remains one of football´s great tragedies. A young goalkeeper, already the first choice for his club and country, with a long and distinguished career seemingly ahead of him, dead as a result of an accident during a game.
Thomson was renowned for his bravery and fearlessness, and his dive at the feet of the Rangers forward Sam English as the player went to shoot was visible evidence of those virtues. As English shot, John Thomson´s head took the full impact of the Rangers player´s knee, leaving the goalkeeper unconscious and his head bleeding.
As the keeper was being stretchered off, a section of the home support were unaware of the seriousness of the injury and cheered until they were silenced by one of the Rangers players.
Thomson´s death stunned football, and was particularly hard-felt by everyone connected with Celtic. Some 40,000 people attended the funeral in Cardenden, including thousands who had travelled through from Glasgow, many walking the 55 miles to the Fife village, and Thomson´s coffin was carried by his devastated team-mates.
James Hanley, in his book The Celtic Story (1960) wrote: “It is hard for those who did not know him to appreciate the power of the spell he cast on all who watched him regularly in action. ´A man who has not read Homer,´ wrote Bagehot, ´is like a man who has not seen the ocean. There is a great object of which he has no idea.´
“In like manner, a generation that did not see John Thomson has missed a touch of greatness in sport, for which he was a brilliant virtuoso, as Gigli was and Menuhin is. One artiste employs the voice as his instrument, another the violin or cello. For Thomson it was a handful of leather. We shall not look upon his like again.”
Thomson was born in the Fife town of Kirkcaldy before moving to the mining village of Cardenden, and like many of his contemporaries, had started his working life as a teenager down the pits.
He signed for Celtic in 1926 at the age of 17, having been spotted playing for Wellesley Juniors by Celtic scout Steve Callaghan, who had also alerted the club to the talents of a certain Jimmy McGrory.
Celtic paid £10 for the young man who would go on to become known as the Prince of Goalkeepers, and by the age of 18 he had already made his first-team debut against Dundee at Dens Park in a 2-1 win for Celtic.
During his short time as Celtic goalkeeper, he won two Scottish Cup medals – in 1927 when East Fife were defeated 3-1 and in 1931, when Celtic beat Motherwell 4-2 in a replay, having drawn the first game 2-2.
International recognition followed on the back of his impressive displays for Celtic, and Thomson gained four caps for Scotland and four for the Scottish League.
A quiet and unassuming character off the park, once on the field of play Thomson had a natural athleticism aligned to a brave spirit and impressed all who had the privilege to see him play.
In his book, The Story of the Celtic; 1888-1938, Willie Maley, manager of the club from at the time of the tragedy, wrote: “Among the galaxy of talented goalkeepers whom Celtic have had, the late lamented John Thomson was the greatest. A Fifeshire friend recommended him to the club. We watched him play. We were impressed so much that we signed him when he was still in his teens. That was in 1926. Next year he became our regular goalkeeper, and was soon regarded as one of the finest goalkeepers in the country.
“But, alas, his career was to be short. In September, 1931, playing against Rangers at Ibrox Park, he met with a fatal accident. Yet he had played long enough to gain the highest honours football had to give. A most likeable lad, modest and unassuming, he was popular wherever he went.
“His merit as a goalkeeper shone superbly in his play. Never was there a keeper who caught and held the fastest shots with such grace and ease. In all he did there was the balance and beauty of movement wonderful to watch. Among the great Celts who have passed over, he has an honoured place.”
Certainly the death of John Thomson hit the club – the officials, players and the supporters – hard and had an understandably adverse effect on subsequent performances over the next couple of seasons.
Indeed, further tragedy was to hit the club just two years later when Peter Scarff, who had played in that fateful game, died from tuberculosis at the age of just 24.
John Thomson´s memory has lived on with Celtic supporters, through the moving song whose words are printed opposite, and fans still visit his graveside in Fife to pay their own respects.
And the John Thomson Memorial Committee hold an annual football tournament when children of all denominations in the Cardenden and Kinglassie areas play for the ‘The John Thomson Trophy’.
The final thought on the tragic events of September 1931 is to remember the epitaph on John Thomson´s gravestone, which reads: ‘They never die who live in the hearts they leave behind.’
Ah hope that quiet assassin super Joe Ledley gets tied down to a new and improved contract anaw
HH
Zbyszek
It was Alex O’Henley who tweeted that. He has worked for UEFA for their website and previously he had worked for CelticTV.
Mort
In a rare interview with the London Evening Standard Hill Wood explained: “At a certain level, we can’t compete. I don’t think Stan Kroenke (Arsenal’s majority shareholder) is going to put the sort of dollars in that (Roman) Abramovich or Sheikh Mansour are putting into Chelsea or Manchester City.
“That’s not the way he thinks clubs should be run. Luckily, Arsene understands that. He got an economics degree from Strasbourg University so he’s certainly no fool. He knows how a club should be run.
“That annoys a lot of people but clubs have to be sustainable. We’re not going to go bankrupt in the way one or two other well known clubs have.
“The Glasgow Rangers example is something we’ve all got to guard against. They spent far more money than they could afford. We’re ambitious enough but we’re not going to end in the same plight as Rangers. That is a fact of life. So my advice is don’t get miserable about it.”
Tom McLaughlin
07:29 on
5 September, 2012
Vmhan –
I may be wrong, but isn’t the second line of the song . . . From the Wellesley Fife he came
Not that it matters. It’s a great lament.
—–
I thought that line:
‘from the West Neuk (pronounced nee) of Fife he came’
nev er seen it written down
have a great birthday dinner
HH
Snake Plissken
09:47 on
5 September, 2012
greenjedi
Which means that EVERY game in Oldco’s History is void then.
Stupid stupid thems.
…………….
Thats EXACTLY what it means
Mort
Thanks. Good soure for the news the man is then. I have doubts if Melokson is good choice for Celtic. He is not bad attacking midfielder but as we say in Poland he has flies in nose.
Zbyszek
I’m not aware of that saying but it sounds great.
Mort
flies in nose?
Don’t get it sorry…
AikiBhoy
pout, easy going unhappy, grumpy
Thought this might bring a smile …?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2012/aug/13/the-worst-skied-penalty-ever?CMP=twt_gu
AikiBhoy
If you don’t get it, try to forget about flies and imagine you have 30 wasps in your nose :-)
Zbyszek
Ah..
reminds me of Georgios Samaras until fairly recently..
Greetin’ faced!
never liked that…
Sammi seems to have made improvements to that side of his on pitch personality though thankfully
Concerning the John Thomson song. I remember it being sung by two old lads on our bus in the 1960’s.They had been at the fateful game,and the line was definitely ‘from the Wellsley Fife he came’.
I take a look at you old man,
as you sit in your chair
You can be almost anyone
For all I know or I care
But on your chest is a red star
From the days long gone by
of a proud fighting past
For a cause you held high
Son we set out from Glasgow
To the war torn Spain
Brave socialist fighters
from a Scottish Brigade
Not knowing our fate
or what would befall
But for Justice and freedom
were prepared to give all
(Chorus)
And these hands fought the Fascists
at Jarama in Spain
My heart beats for justice
until my dying day
I never set out for glory
but I’d my part to play
In the fight against Franco
at Jarama in Spain
For five long weeks we waited
to be handed a gun
They drove us into the fighting under Spain’s blazing sun
And the fires of hell don’t compare
to the battle that day
In the heat of Jarama
Seven thousand were slain
But we ran out of bullets
taken by Franco’s men
To Tavelerna de la Reina
and then moved on again
The Calton had never
seemed so far away
as I lay in that prison in Salamanca in Spain
(Chorus)
So take a look at me now son
and the star on my chest
Some of us gave up everything
For the cause of the left
The deeds that we’ve done
and the part that we played
in the fight against Franco
at Jarama in Spain
just cos I was listening to it there on the headphoines in the work.
these hands
the wakes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI23eUo4ohA
CRC/Bundhoran bhoy,
i will be on holiday whe the cashing in for Wee Oscar takes place,
i will provide my donation as soon as i return,hopefully bring back
some extra pennies that i can contribute,
BTW am sitting here in tears having watched the video that was sent
with the e mail,totally heartbreaking
67Heaven … I am Neil Lennon..!!.. Ibrox belongs to the creditors
10:36 on
5 September, 2012
Thought this might bring a smile …?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/video/2012/aug/13/the-worst-skied-penalty-ever?CMP=twt_gu
—
Belter..
still nothing to beat Dixie in the semi final European Cup in 1972 v INTER MILAN at CP
I remember everyone at school the next day taking ‘penalties’ -the aim was to hit it as high over the bar as Dixie, who was a local bhoy …adding to the irony
HH
headphoines
are special ear plugs for listening on the i-pad
He was from Cardenden and played for Wellsley, hence the line in the song
St Stivs
superb
No pasaran!
Hh
Monaghan
A frock is the new velcro and elasticated waistband.
I really must take you shopping :-)
theweegreenman
09:42 on
5 September, 2012
Hamiltontim
What if you put lipstick and stilettos on the donkey as well?
You don’t want an ugly wan……..
————————–
Ah, I see that you’ve been to Hamilton Palace before then? :-)
Have Charlie Green,
and David Icke,
ever been seen in
the same room ?