When was the last time you were as impressed by a Celtic debutant as Sebastian Tounekti yesterday? For me it was 20 years ago: Nakamura’s memorable first outing, against Dundee United. Post-match, Brendan Rodgers put it succinctly, “He’s brilliant!”
With their new winger deployed, much of Celtic’s play went down the left, forcing the Tunisian into a new partnership with Marcelo Saracchi. Marcelo’s passing suffered early in the game (perhaps his first as an adult on plastic), before reaching a pinnacle when he sent an early cross from deep onto the head of Daizen Maeda for the opening goal.
That looked like settling the game until an abject failure to defend a long punt up field from Kilmarnock keeper Stryjek. The defence were all in place but slept on the job. Kasper Schmeichel, who was a spectator for the previous 81 minutes, was forced into a triple intervention to prevent a goal at the cost of a corner.
Having failed to clear that set-piece, a second corner was met by an outstanding effort from Greg Kiltie to level the game. A game which should have been a comfortable win was now at risk of going the other way.
I am a great believer in deflections. Make a chance and they can happen, create nothing, and nothing will happen. James Forrest’s shot in the 93rd minute spun up against an extended arm of a Kilmarnock defender inside the six yard box. It was harsh on the home side, especially so on their manager, who deployed significantly less potent resources so well, but the penalty award was the right decision.
I know what you were thinking. It’s a Celtic penalty, what do we have to be confident about? Until then, Kelechi Iheanacho had an unnoteworthy 20-odd minutes on the field. Grabbing the ball was as ballsy a move as we have seen since Adam Idah did the same think at Easter Road on his debut in February 2024.
On Friday I wrote, “It will read as tongue-in-cheek, but we have an interest in whether Hearts drop points at Ibrox tomorrow…… We are accustomed to looking locally for a challenge but that situation is fluid.” It feels less fluid today.
Later this week: chasing ‘proven’ talent in Belgium and finding gems in Sweden, and a bit about strategy and leadership.
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JAMES FORREST on 15TH SEPTEMBER 2025 1:55 PM
For better or worse DD has control. He won’t remove his executives because you want it, agitating for it will make it even less likely – he cant be seen to giving in, it’s weak and undermines anyone who remains instantly. And if he does remove his executives he’ll just replace them with others that will do what he wants.
No amount of impotent fury or wishful thinking will change that.
QuadBhoy:
There are mechanisms for making sure Desmond doesn’t just pick similarly minded people. They might not be clear to a lot of people yet but they’ll become clear in due course. Take my word for it. Desmond won’t simply pick whoever he wants; that’s part of the reason we’re here in the first place, all this promoting from within cobblers. This one has to be professionally led and those people picked on merit and if they’re picked on merit they’ll be capable of coming up with a plan.
The deliberate sabotage was against the manager. But by definition that was an act of sabotage against the club as well. Certain people at Celtic Park are so blinded by their antipathy to Rodgers they probably didn’t care what collateral damage they inflicted. That alone makes them dangerous to have in the building. They looked at the scenario and thought that anything that damaged him was worth whatever other havoc it wrought, and look, I’m sure some of them have convinced themselves that they had good reasons … people engaged in vendetta always think they have good reasons.
The example I used recently was the Corleonesi, who won the Great Mafia War. They wanted to overthrow the Palermo old guard, and they did. But once at the top of the tree they set about purging their enemies with such viciousness that the state, which had been allied to them for years, turned against them and instead of calming things down Riina, Provenzano and Leggio declared war on the state itself.
Senseless. Crazy. Brought the whole house down. But that’s vendetta for you. It’s irrational. It pays no heed to the larger consequences. It’s why the ancient wisdom says that when you embark on revenge you should start by digging two graves.
For most of the summer the idea of deliberate sabotage could have been laughed off. But the Saturday morning briefing to that backside wipe tabloid confirmed that’s exactly what it was. The club’s failure to deny or condemn that story proves that it was someone deep in the power structure.
There’s no doubt in my mind that what we saw this summer was wilful and deliberate.
Why the Rainjurz are so shyte?
Not actually under achieving at the moment at all, they are where you would logically expect them to be, far behind Celtic but having lost only one league game.
Smaller club, smaller support and lower turnover, periods of over-achievement based on financial doping and boosted by historical institutionalised bias, are long gone. Both of those advantages have been removed or at least reduced by regulatory and cultural change.
Latterly, even VAR seems to have levelled the playing field, and as we know, they’re far from used to level. A sign of the times and fair play to Paul67 who hinted at a Celtic Rainjurz split by Hearts, if not by Kilmarnock St Mirren Hibs Motherwell Dundee Utd Livingston and Falkirk.
They could be where they belong rock bottom by the time they next play at Livingston👍
Just watched the Sevco highlights and would conclude that they were hard done by with the VAR decisions having also hit the woodwork on numerous occasions.
Is Martin just an ‘unlucky General’ or is something more sinister afoot?
celtic40me:
“Impotent.” I wonder where that word came from. Freud might have some idea.
Here’s the thing; just because you personally cannot forsee a way of getting this done, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be done. Just because you personally have doubts, that doesn’t mean that there’s no forward path. There is a forward path. You’re just not seeing it.
I can’t fault you for not seeing it. Some people are limited in their thinking. Some people are overly impressed by high walls and strong fortifications; others look at them and think “that’s not as secure as they think it is.” Watch the Dome Diamond Heist documentary on Netflix. The guys who stuck those diamonds in the Dome thought that by encasing them in the strongest glass cases they could design that nobody was ever getting through them; one likely lad reckoned he could do it with a super-heavy nail gun and he was right and the best security experts money could buy were wrong.
Nothing is impregnable. Every regime that ever stood thought it was secure until it fell.
If protesters can bring down governments, no football board is standing up to a well organised, disciplined and strategically clever one.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
JAMES FORREST on 15TH SEPTEMBER 2025 2:25 PM
“There is a forward path. You’re just not seeing it.”
So what is this strategically clever one, because all you’ve suggested so far is a plan that won’t work?
The cynic in me reminds that Tounetki signed on 31 August then trotted off to international duty until last Friday.
… so unlikely to be exposed to significant tactical coaching.
I’d like to think he’ll still have the same style and approach in 2 months time.
Beat the guy outside or best the guy inside then deliver a shot or cross that … 3 times out of 5 … causes chaos of some kind in the defence
… instead of going high then playing it back to a full back or midfielder …
.. so we can fanny about along an arc the full width of the pitch with its crown 25-35 yards out from goal.
celtic40me:
You saw a plan in what I outlined?
That’s impressive, since I wasn’t aware that I had outlined one.
Let me put that another way:
I didn’t outline anything. I have no intention of publicly sharing with you any of my own thoughts on this. If I knew what other people on the campaign were thinking I wouldn’t share that publicly either.
Let me repeat; just because you personally cannot see how this can be done it doesn’t mean that it can’t be done. You have no idea what can and can’t be done here. For a start, fans have never put these people under pressure before. Neither you nor I can say what will happen until we do.
And that pressure can be applied from various different directions. In various different ways. There only two limiting factors; it must be ethically sound and within the law. And that doesn’t really limit the scope of thinking and possibility as much as you might believe.
I have no intention of going further than that.
But even still, there’s something else you’re not considering; this can’t fail. This is inevitable. Change and renewal are an irrefutable law of the universe. The passage of time itself changes things. A board that’s been in office as long as some as some of these people have will change and evolve because that’s what happens as time goes by. We’re not doing anything revolutionary here … we’re giving a natural process a bump in the direction its already moving.
This is about renewal, not revolution. This club will be renewed because all things are in time, and once that process starts its unstoppable.
Celebrate it. We’ll be better off for it.
There’s a South African runner in the mens’ 1500 metres called Tshepo Tshite.
Not sure if the “T” is silent.
JAMES FORREST on 15TH SEPTEMBER 2025 2:35 PM
“You saw a plan in what I outlined?”
“Remove the weak executive and his instruments by which he exercises his power are removed too. Provided we get transparency on the process by which they are replaced, and he doesn’t promote from within, we’ve got a real shot at getting a strategic shift.”
I genuinely thought that was your plan.
“this can’t fail. This is inevitable. Change and renewal are an irrefutable law of the universe. The passage of time itself changes things”
I don’t think relying on that is a viable strategy, unless you’re prepared to wait a bit longer to get the outcome you want
celtic40me:
You’re ignoring the part where I said there are mechanisms for making sure that we get a transparent, independent, expert led process. Aaah you see … and that’s as much as you’re getting.
As to the second part of your point, what did I say?
This is an inevitable process. All we’re doing is giving it a nudge. A big nudge, yeah, for sure, and that will speed up the process. Quite a bit if it’s done right.
BOURNESOUPRECIPE 1.50
Until Friday probably. 😁
James Forrest on 15th September 2025 2:17 pm
“There are mechanisms for making sure Desmond doesn’t just pick similarly minded people.”
Time will tell. Unless he is bought out, or he hands over to Moustache Jnr who may think differently, I don’t see anything changing.
“The deliberate sabotage was against the manager.”
I can’t believe anyone would to this. Literally can’t get my head around it. Though to be fair I can’t understand the fan protests either which seem a more deliberate act of self-sabotage and have more than a hint of personal vendetta around some of the narrative.
Fair play to BR though – he has the same fans who called him out on his return now championing him. I am not his biggest fan but if he could use those powers against the refs rather than internally then I’d give him a 10 year contract.
“For most of the summer the idea of deliberate sabotage could have been laughed off. But the Saturday morning briefing to that backside wipe tabloid confirmed that’s exactly what it was. The club’s failure to deny or condemn that story proves that it was someone deep in the power structure.”
Unless our board (PL is the assumption I read most in this instance?) are stupid, and for all their faults I don’t think they are, then I can’t see this being them as it was NEVER going to land and if anything was only likely to lock BR in more lest he prove the coward right, and this is not what they want allegedly?
Far more likely a friend of a friend has spoken out of turn and with no approval OR a journo at the wind up to cause a rift as only Celtic can beat Celtic atm – and they’d love to load the gun and point it at our feet.
BR coming out and saying the person should be sacked assumes that the person is employed which is a bit of an assumption as well – Rod Stewart could be considered a “club insider” if he’s had a few too many malts with someone who has mouthed off.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that what we saw this summer was wilful and deliberate.”
Do we only have bad windows under BR? He’s had good backing too and other managers have had poor windows too.
I find it strange that so many have no doubt (often about different versions of what happened and why) when they seemingly have no actual knowledge but only supposition…
“Ref Watch !”
Cue dramatic music.
Camera 1: Close up of earnest looking rent-a-gob
Script Status: Agreed before camera rolls.
Audience: The usual fools
QuadBhoy:
Don’t kid yourself my friend, as difficult as this is to wrap the head around – and I get, believe me, it sounds ridiculous on the face of it – someone in a senior executive position at our club was behind the attack on Rodgers. Someone very high on the structural ladder.
Because that attack was SO potentially damaging that the club should – and WOULD – have disavowed it on the day that it appeared, and they’d have banned the paper that was behind it. This was not, as you surmise, someone expressing frustration. This was a deliberate attempt to do Rodgers over, authored by a senior person at Celtic Park, senior enough that no-one has contradicted it.
I know it’s nuts. It is absolutely off-the-charts nuts. But I have not the least doubt that it’s what happened, because it was such a destructive act that the club would have shut the story down immediately had it not been true. You’d have had the chairman, the CEO and the manager himself all signing off on the official statement refuting the story.
And nobody has. That’s a copperbottomed ironclad stonewaller of a story.
Incredible as that is to believe.
Bring on the Maryhill Magyars. 👍
JAMES FORREST on 15TH SEPTEMBER 2025 2:56 PM
So there was a plan. It won’t work, even when the stars align.
Brendan is your best bet and DD will never let him decide anything above his significant pay grade, especially when his Celtic career will be over in 8 months time.
DD doesnt strike me as someone who’ll give in t threats – harassing his board members off the board will stiffen DDs resolve.
Your plan will make things worse.
Doing nothing and relying on the power of rhe cosmos would get you a better outcome
Watching yesterday’s game on TV I missed one or two key moments. As Paul67 identified, Tounetki was at fault failed to mark Watson at the Kilmarnock goal. That said, few Celtic players have made such an impressive debut as the Tunisian.
Saracchi had a very decent first half and Donovan made the goal/penalty. On the penalty award, the defender’s hand/arm deflected the ball away from the goal and out of play. So, if that’s not a penalty, what is? Bear in mind,too, that Kilmarmanock had twice gone un-punished for very similar offences.
While the majority of away supporters stayed out, there was a sizeable minority that took their seats.
All things considered, I expect the away supporters to be overwhelmingly uti g into the campaign.
I’ve my own doubts now whether the numbers are there to force change.
We’ll know more when we see Europa tickets updates.
I don’t see the campaign lasting too long as things stand.
We’ll continue to win and the Huns will continue to lose and sadly, for a lot of our supporters, that’s all they care about.
celtic40me:
You don’t what the plan is. So you’re rambling. You’ve dismissed something you don’t know the first thing about. Your “wisdom” is based on nothing but your own lack of imagination. And guess what? That’s not wisdom of any description.
An Dún:
What numbers does it take? :) 50%? 60%? 70%?
Imagine if 50% decided not to buy the Europa League packages. (Not something that campaign is recommending or asking for.) But you don’t think that would rock this club to its foundations? What if 50% pulled out of the HTCS? That collapse the HTCS. 50% reduction in merchandising spending … massive. And on and on and on.
The campaign guys are under no illusions about getting 100% support at any point.
As long as the campaign remains respectful of those fans who do not want to participate, and who for whatever reason don’t think we’re in the right we’ll be in a good place. That respect is the key to keeping us unified. We might not all be on the same page, but we’re all on the same side.
James Forrest on 15th September 2025 3:04 pm
“Don’t kid yourself my friend”
I don’t kid myself that you are a friend given your recent responses to some of my posts but I appreciate the civility, if not the sincerity, none the less.
“as difficult as this is to wrap the head around – and I get, believe me, it sounds ridiculous on the face of it”
If it walks like a duck…
“I know it’s nuts. It is absolutely off-the-charts nuts. But I have not the least doubt that it’s what happened, because it was such a destructive act that the club would have shut the story down immediately had it not been true. You’d have had the chairman, the CEO and the manager himself all signing off on the official statement refuting the story.”
What destruction has it caused?
QuadBhoy:
Don’t pretend not to recognise the damage that leak has done, and could have done. You’re not stupid, you understand that as well as I do.
And sorry about the civility. I won’t make that mistake again.
James Forrest on 15th September 2025 3:27 pm
“Don’t pretend not to recognise the damage that leak has done, and could have done. You’re not stupid, you understand that as well as I do.”
I like to think I am not stupid (in some regards) but I am a little naïve and my autistic brain does not always see things as others do so please humour me.
In the litany of issues I’ve (first hand) heard people complain about the alignment/timings of signings I hear a lot, money banked with no plan again a LOT. This article not so much. The only time (irl) I heard mention of it, it was brushed off as “that might put fire in his (BR) belly and help get us firing again”.
“sorry about the civility. I won’t make that mistake again.”
We all have bad days and perhaps my question seemed stupid enough to deserve the scorn but most my posts are genuine, no matter how stupid they may seem. My flippant comments are usually followed by a :)
JAMES FORREST on 15TH SEPTEMBER 2025 3:24 PM
You and I both know the away support are far more critical than the home support.
The away supporters are to borrow a phrase from Dev – our ‘legion of the rearguard’.
If 30% of these lads are taking their seats, that does not augur well for successful protests at CP imo.
But we’ll see soon enough.
I admit I know nothing on this matter, so I will put my tuppence in.
I think some people had it in for BRs signing policy and didn’t want him to “overspend” I also think they thought we had enough to qualify.
I also think we probably had players lined up once we had qualified.
To Matters Football:
The low block is destroying football as a spectacle. Even Liverpool required a late Penalty to win. Wonder if sometime in the near future, especially as it happens against the major teams in each league, if there will come a point when a rule is introduced that only so many men can be behind the ball in certain areas when your team doesn’t have ball, or something of that ilk. But as it stands it’s definitely not what I want to watch on a weekly basis, por cierto.
brutush bigoted corporation headline this morning, “Rodgers & Celtic bring board relief, but fan unrest remains”, and there’s where the movement stems fae, them and the HSM, as watching the scenes when our penalty went in of exuberant fans spilling out on tae the track was the only movement that I saw.
I have always said that this blog is the best out there among Celtic sites as it has its fair share of members with that oul Scottish saying “hauf a brain”, as the debates on here are articulate and at times enlightening, however this mantra of sack the board baffles me when the majority on here KNOW that one person and one person alone calls ALL the shots at Parkheid and that’s the same one who hired BR, twice, and could fire him tae. and NOT any member of the much maligned board.
Now the reason I called it a much maligned board is I have worked for more than a few boards in my lifetime and I have NEVER seen one like the Celtic board, most CEOs, CAOs, and Presidents report to some kind of upper chamber where be it elected officials or shareholders but this one reports to, again, one man and one man alone, who decides everything about the club from the proverbial tea ladies to the CEO and any monies spent including transfer fees MUST go through him, so why do we need a board.
The structure of a Public Limited Company (PLC) is a separate legal entity whose shares are owned by the general public and are traded on a stock exchange, allowing for easy capital raising and liquidity for investors, its structure includes a board of directors and management responsible for overseeing operations to increase shareholder value, while the company itself is accountable for its debts, not the individual shareholders, operating as a PLC involves high costs, strict regulatory compliance, and transparent financial reporting to shareholders and the public.
BTW I got that piece fae google as again the PLC Structure at Parkheid is so unusual, but IMHO it does work hence the 17 titles in 20 years, oh and for those that want rid of our de facto owner, be careful what you wish for.
One of the reasons Scottish football is still considered a joke by most folks is that in our top flight we have 3 artificial pitches that are absolutely awful. Can you imagine the outcry if Liverpool or Man Shitty, playing in the best league in the world covered by sky sports, had to play on that carpet?????? It’s a credit to our players and managers that we still tried to play controlled football, while they knocked every ball up in the sky to their 6′ 6″ striker, or relied on corners and freekicks. We had 80% possession on a rainy, plastic surface. Yes, we didn’t play our best, but we got both of our goals from moving the ball quick and taking people on. Balikwisha is soon to be the new whipping bhoy if he doesn’t start to take players on and set up chances. As I have stated before, playing on the wing at Celtic is a tough gig. The fans can be unforgiving if you don’t always take yer man on and beat him. They hear the groans of the fans when they play the ball backwards. We have been spoiled at times with the legends that we have had. We have had some good wingers over the years, some that maybe didn’t produce the form at Celtic that we initially saw in them from their previous clubs. I remember how excited I was when we bought Stuart Slater, didn’t turn out so well.
We are signing more players these days that have to adapt to a whole new life, most times language as well. Think how it would have felt for Kyogo, or Daizen , or Reo, to walk into a dressing room and be welcomed by Broonie and Wee Jamesie :)))) Time we got behind our bhoys.
Hail Hail
Sean
Yep, at times yesterday it looked like we were playing on ice.
Hopefully we will only ever play on that surface one more time.
Hate plastic pitches. They are never ever conducive to playing football.
Emdy who wants to change things at Celtic needs either Dermot’s buy-in to their plan, or else needs the explicit backing of Chris Trainer (11%) the guys at Lindsell Train (17.7%) and James Keane (6.5%) and hope the larger part of the smaller shareholders (~30%) fall in behind.
50.1 is the magic number, per cent. Anything else is pishful thinking. Persuade Dermot (34.5%), or get Chris Trainer, Michael Lindsell and James Keane on board and start to build a shareholder consensus, a right old slog, that.
What’s the plan? Who’s pitching it? How many shareholders are already behind it?
Clues: There isn’t one, Emdy/Naebdy, None.
Por Cierto
We (sometimes) use it ourselves. We played Barca with 3 centre halfs and 4 fullbacks. It was wonderful, mind.
But you’re quite right, it’s killing the game as a spectacle. The game will evolve, though. Likely see the value of tanner ba’ players soar, or else some other development yet to be worked out.
We’ll see.
Our problem is that we get it every week.
The Battered Bunnet on 15th September 2025 4:52 pm
Emdy who wants to change things at Celtic needs either Dermot’s buy-in to their plan, or else needs the explicit backing of Chris Trainer (11%) the guys at Lindsell Train (17.7%) and James Keane (6.5%) and hope the larger part of the smaller shareholders (~30%) fall in behind. 50.1 is the magic number, per cent. Anything else is pishful thinking. Persuade Dermot (34.5%), or get Chris Trainer, Michael Lindsell and James Keane on board and start to build a shareholder consensus, a right old slog, that. What’s the plan? Who’s pitching it? How many shareholders are already behind it? Clues: There isn’t one, Emdy/Naebdy, None.
*which is why the current STB protest is an exercise in futility.
memorable debuts. off the top of head.
moussa. reo. kyogo turnbull
there are loads of them.
same venue as well sammis galloping goal.
If the plc go to war on the vast majority of the support by refusing to use the resources that the fans have provided to the plc for the purposes of having the best team possible, then that plc does not deserve support, does it? The NEDs are hopeless and appear just to be yes men with their heads in the money trough, we need tough scrutinisers to align the plc with the Football club, the plc would not exist without the Football club, not the other way around.