No matter how much work he did with Arsenal, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will need minutes in a competitive game before he looks anywhere near his best. That needs to start as soon as possible. Celtic should aim to secure the win first, but hopefully we will see Alex against Livingston tomorrow night.
A glance at the fixture list confirms we are at the business end of the season. Before the month is out we are at Kilmarnock (you might still have PTSD from our last visit there), Hibernian and we’ve Stuttgart home and away. Alex is ineligible against the Germans but Martin O’Neill will require the entire squad ready for Kilmarnock and Hibs.
I’m trying to supress feelings about the refereeing at our last two games. You get the feeling we are in for it between now and the end of the season. All of our unfortunate coincidences will happen all at once.
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Deniabhoy,
If,and its a big If,PL complained about refereeing,it must have been a couple of hundred decibels below Michael Nicholsons normal volume.
Just give me one instance.
Brendan did at Tynecastle,got fined and banned.Dont remember the club reallyy backing him.
I do remember Fergus.John Reid,and the Referees strike.I don’t ever remember PL speaking out.
As I said,maybe my memory is bad.What did he do?
We are noticing it more because we are not 10 points clear.
Martin presser
https://youtu.be/AZSA9NPpzJc?si=z0KWON_PMo637Y0E
HH
Tontime Tim, police, judge and jury, a very talented man.
By the way I think anyone with Tim in their moniker is worth watching.
Martin O’Neill’s side will take on Livingston at Paradise on Wednesday, February 11 (KO 7:45pm).
You can watch all the action from inside the UK & Ireland with the game LIVE on Celtic TV pay-per-view for just £12.99.
Turkeybhoy – your memory can’t be as bad as mine :)
According to Gemini, Lawell’s most famous intervention occurred in 2010 during a dispute over referee Dougie McDonald, where he stated he would be “astonished” if McDonald was appointed to another Celtic match after the official admitted to lying about a penalty decision.
He has previously endorsed calls for referees to declare their allegiances to improve public confidence in the game.
With regards to whether the club backed BR in March 2024, Celtic expressed “serious concerns” to the SFA following a 2-0 defeat to Hearts. Manager Brendan Rodgers labeled the officiating “incompetent,” specifically citing a controversial red card for Yang Hyun-jun and a handball penalty against Tomoki Iwata. The club subsequently “went to war” with the SFA, hiring a top London lawyer to appeal Rodgers’ ensuing touchline ban, which was successfully reduced from two matches to one.
Other examples include:
December 2021 (Crawford Allan Interview): Celtic contacted the SFA to express “unhappiness” and “surprise” after the then-Head of Referee Operations, Crawford Allan, admitted in a radio interview that a winning goal by Kyogo Furuhashi was “probably” offside.
Earlier this season (September 2025) Celtic sought immediate rule clarity from the SFA after a controversial handball penalty was awarded against them, leading to a public clarifying statement from the governing body regarding “unnatural” arm positions.
It is my assumption that PL would have been behind these actions, complaints, lobbying exercises whatever we want to call them. He was a political operator and seemed to enjoy it. I have no doubt over the years he did the majority of this behind the scenes, not seeking to stir up the kind of public outrage that r2ngers invariably opt for. Was he successful? I really don’t know but the rest of Scottish football certainly were under the impression that he was the Capo de Capi. The huns were convinced he ran Scottish football. I doubt anyone thinks MN is up to that job.
This is not a defence of PL’s role these past few seasons at Celtic. Just an observation that we do not have someone with his stature to take up our grievances with the SFA and lobby them for change.
I was wondering when The Player Queen would make an appearance.
MON mentioned resting Maeda and Engels but nothing about Ihenacho, whom had been making little cameos since returning from injury.
Has he been written off completely?
A wee bit of huns opinions on Twitter:
Robert
@RangersRobert83
I’ll tell you what, people may not agree, but the Celtic fans chasing out Peter lawwell, could be a huge mistake for them, the referees were terrified when he was with Celtic, now he’s away, the referees won’t be as scared to give the correct decisions.
Bridgeton Derry Billy Boy
@BridgetonDerry_
·Feb 5
And it’s no coincidence they receive their first red card in 86 domestic matches soon after he’s gone. 🤔
Lewis
@attillathehunnn
·Feb 5
100% … he had the SFA in his pocket.
You know you’ve made it on CQN when you get your own personal stalker hanging around all day. 😂😂😂
“Former Rangers owner David Murray claimed in his 2025 book that Lawwell built a “seat of power” in Scottish football and tried to “grind [Rangers] down and make them suffer,” describing the attitude as “let’s bury Rangers”.
These claims, widely picked up in discussion around the rivalry, fed the belief among Rangers supporters that Lawwell was not just looking after Celtic’s interests but was actively hostile to Rangers’ survival and status.
He was viewed as one of the most influential administrators in the Scottish game, which made Rangers fans suspicious that decisions in the game’s governance structures were tilted towards Celtic while their club was weak”.
Enjoyable cup tie on Saturday and in addition to some of the dangerous tackles on Celtic players the manhandling and persistent fouling of Cvancara was allowed and totally ignored by the referee.
Looking forward to seeing Ox Chamberlain in action and hope the curse of the dreaded dodgy hamstrings are not an early problem with guys with a lot of mileage on the clock. Do Fender do new hamstrings, they are reckoned to be the best they say.
Did old Minty mention the 5 Way Agreement?
Murray is like Trump, no pushback from the press as he owned them.
Why would a “Celtic” supporter go looking for that and post it here?
The Battered Bunnet on 10th February 2026 3:42 pm
Fairly quiet today.
Is this the pre-storm quiescence?
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Or is CQN now included in the boycott? 😊
Liam Scales’ presser:
https://youtu.be/-_4FIo5-nX8?si=pXJxhJgnoO709HDA
Nawrocki has picked up his 5th injury lay off this season. This time he twisted his ankle getting himself dressed.
Gustav Lagerbielke recorded his fifth clean sheet in a row at the Weekend as Braga moved up to fourth in the Portuguese league. Fotmob has him rated as Braga’s best defender so far this season and fifth best centre half in the league.
Bridgeton derry billy boy mentioned earlier….brought back memories for me.I had written a letter to Sunday Post ( have the SP letter in my scrapbook) about the lack of TV coverage of Celtic’s European cup winners cup 1966 campaign.Got a letter ( still have it) from someone calling himself Bridgeton Billy.He informed me that he would pay me a visit and smash my TV set when he was in Belfast for the orange walk.He never appeared……got 15 bob from Sunday Post..
Opta has the Portuguese top flight as the 8th best in the world, the Scottish Premier league is the 34th
Portugal are behind Belgium, from where Oh went for £12m to the Turkish League
Tough sell these days but its made worse when undersell the decent players we do have
Underselling players sounds like one more reason to punt Nicholson.
Bada Bing on 10th February 2026 4:07 pm
KT ,concussion, broken nose,no red card,remember the shite in the papers for a fortnight after Trusty tapped Butland on the head……
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Very good point, but to be fair, Butland almost died that day.😮
Login rubbish as usual.
Hail Hail
😂😂😂 MNCELT
Denia Bhoy
Yourself and the other guys are not wrong in the distinct and clear change in refereeing issues since PL left.
As you rightly point out this has coincided with PL departing and rangers being in with a shout as well.
For me the Dundee utd and Motherwell games v rangers gifted them 3 points. However more recently we have seen both favours for them and blatant bias against ourselves. It seems more than coincidence.
PL was rarely public in how he approached these things. Early on he did take matters up that way with mixed success. He was very effective in ensuring he had the right people lined up in order to make sure his points were made and stuck in private with those in charge. Hence hunic frustration.
I once had the privilege of being in the senior SPFL figures office when he took a call from PL and it’s fair to say the guy understood Celtics positon at the end of the call. I also know from an SFA former staff member that he was respected and listened to there.
It maybe coincidence or it may be a direct influence we have lost. Either way it is not great. The one thing which does not make for guaranteed results is public grandstanding although it does play to your own audience and get your own fans liking you. Hence it would be an easy card for Nicholson to play right now.
An Dun
So were you a big fan of Oh then ?
Did you see his potential.
Not many seemed to on here. I recall Mark Lawwell was routinely abused for a guy who we have now made over £6m on.
Timmy
A Celtic supporter looking for what to post on here ?
I am maybe not quite understanding what you are meaning ?
Thanks for the replies on PL.
Oh,is just a perfect example of people judging players too quickly.Something I have always railed against on here.FFS,we had someone on the other day writing off Mvuka after a 45 minute cameo.Tounetki cops it every week.
No idea what goes through their heads to think like this.
Well over to Hearts v Hibs game.Hope its a cracking 3-3 draw.
fredian slip by the radio clyde news reader tonight
celtic demand the 20%
and a return to the bigot allocation
mon the hibees
” A former Celtic academy prospect has joined an Australian team after 18 months without a club.
Barry Hepburn, 21, originally from Bannockburn, has signed with Manningham United in Australia’s third tier.
The winger left Scotland in 2020 to join Bayern Munich’s academy but was released by the German side’s second team. ”
When the rise is fast, the fall is epic.
Given they almost “Hibsed” a 3-0 lead last time I’m not getting my hopes up.
More than happy to be proved wrong.
COYHIG
Hibs balls up a 2-on-1 opportunity.
the league’s in our hands
nick walsh.
what a total prick.
didnt book the hearts guy for a slight pull on the hibs player.
then 30 seconds later books a hibs player for very similar.
even michael stewart couldnt believe it.
and he let a hearts player away with a stone wall booking after a few minutes.
Mr MON is the big sensible Elephant inside Timmy minds.
But you know what?
This Old Firm stuff cannot continue to be danced around.
Celtic fans say Rangers died, and then they went along with the PLC’s cover-up of the Sevco = Rangers tickets scam.
The all seated era Celtic fans certainly fall in behind a lot of scams don’t they.
Which they will deny till their dying days.
So that means Celtic fans have gone from, “The Best Fans In the World” during the JUNGLE era, to insincere all seated era sheeple.
Rangers fans say that it was the company that died and they knew nothing about the EBT stuff and they are correct on that, not knowing about EBT’s.
But continuing to be children playing at tig with Rosemary’s baby does ZILCH to present a clear picture.
I would go further than MON and get Celtic and Rangers fans to agree with a 50-50 split of the tickets for EVERY derby game.
You already pay £56 for tickets for these games, so they are no longer a run of the mill games, get real.
And then, get the ball rolling for a AC Milan, Inter Milan, stadium sharing setup by moving to Hampden, bringing the ends behind each goal right up as far as possible to behind the goal, with a 20,000 standing area behind each Goal, with the opportunity for seating to be built over the top of the standing area.
And soon enough there might be 50,000 of each set of fans at every derby game?!
Parochial Pygmies among the supporter base will not take us forward.
You have already sold out – get over it!
https://celtsarehere.com/celtic-fc-martin-oneill-ibrox-away-fans-reset/
You have to accept that without this derby game the Spl is the Irish league.
Nobody is talking about promoting bigotry or other stuff.
Maybe try growing up.
Seats and nothing but seats is a rat trap.
Set by Thatcher and her goons.
Wouldn’t it be better to get 100,000 crowds for cup finals again?
Rather than sitting half a pitch away from the pitch at the ‘present’ Celtic and Ranges ends of Hampdump.
Mr MON = Mr Maturity, Mr NOT a Dinosaur.
Imho.