In the last six years of his life, which ended this morning, Fernando Ricksen did what he could to raise awareness of the research into Motor Neurone Disease. MND is a cruel and indiscriminate thief. Fernando will be remembered as a footballer, but his greater legacy may be to the research into this terrible disease. Well played, Fernando. Our thoughts are with his family.
Last night’s Champions League results supplied some validation of the angst we felt a year ago when our Europa League group was drawn. Salzburg scored six against Belgian champions, Genk (who finished 20 points ahead of Anderlecht), while Leipzig won away at Benfica. That we managed to get out of that group is a significant achievement.
The other result that caught the eye last night was Slavia Prague’s 1-1 draw with Inter at the San Siro; the Italians equalised in added time. Slavia beat Cluj 1-0 home and away after the latter dispensed with Celtic in this season’s qualification campaign. At the time, I thought – in haste – that proved how weak Cluj really were.
A lack of reputation is no guarantee of anything in Europe, which we would be well to mind when Cluj come calling again. We committed every defensive cardinal sin in the book when they last visited, but they were still good enough to get the job done.
The opportunity to surprise this week lies with Celtic.
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He should link up well with Afolabi. Just joking Turkeybhoy.but seriously was amazed that Southampton let him go.
You can never know whether kids can make the jump from Youth to the Senior game but this bhoy is definitely a prospect.
The jump to Celtic’s 1st team has nothing to do with any fee…it’s to do with how any individual can cope whilst being under the microscope of playing for us, no matter their reputation. I take great heart from what Odsonne Eduard said…his enjoyment and focus on playing football keeps him relaxed. It’s something I hope is rubbing off on our squad
H.H.
Fernando Rickson…your battle is over…RIP
Morning all.
No more sleeps 😃
🍀⚽️
Weather in Rennes at kick off time should be bright, with no chance of rain, and around 20c. Just like a nice summer day in Glasgow. Lenny said at the press conference that the pitch looked excellent.
So we have no excuses. Nothing else for it but to go and win, which would set us up nicely for both progress in the group, and this next busy run of games we have, twice a week, over three tournaments.
Hail Hail
🍀⚽️
Good morning from a dry and extremely mild Garngad
Well here we are match day 1 of the group stages of the EL.
I do not really care for the EL, especially this year, I just want all of our concentration on the League.
How narrow minded is that???😂 But… We are innit and every game of football that the Famous play I obviously want us to win.
HH
D. :)
Good morning, friends and a Big Happy European Matchday from a dry, windless but grey cloud covered East Kilbride. A return to work for me this morning after my latest wee holiday but always thankful that I do have a job to go to.
Remember, tonight will be game #4 in the ole CQN Player Of The Year survey. After watching the game, just decide on which 3 players contributed the most to our performance and drop a short email to CQNPOTY@GMAIL.COM before 10pm on Friday night. Happy to accept votes from posters, lurkers, family, friends…. ;-)
Off to work….
So buffalo has made a 37 man shortlist of players for a series of friendlies the SMSM tell us.
There are 11 forwards in the list !!
G’mornin’………………….Celtic Quick News’rs……………………….
Here we are and off we go for another round on The Greatest Roller-coaster On Earth………
Buckle-up!
In ither news,
The Herlad Spoort has long been guff and horribly hurtin’ since the days of the boul’ Darryl but what’s happened to the Times?…………..
HH
Jobo – cap doffed…………..
As a semi-retired stank-lifter………….I have a particularly tight (unavoidable) stank to attend to ce soir so may be restricted to “watching” the game on the oul’ wireless…………….I do hope my sage “thoughts” on the Hoops will be recorded and given the respect they deserve?
:))))))))))))))))
Naw?
HH
In other ither news…..
” Alfredoh…….. aka The Buffalo, aka Fat Charlie, aka Sir Charles, Moreorless…….. has today been named as a person who plays football in Colombia. The names of all the other people in Colombia who play football at any level is not recorded.”
According to Oddschecker, Rennes are 5/4 to win tonight while we are priced at 27/10 with a draw at 40/17. Their onsite tipster is urging people to go heavy on Rennes as they are 2nd in Ligue 1 and Celtic “have only 2 victories in their last 17 Europa ties”.
I make it that we had 3 wins in our last Group Stage last year (2x vs Rosenborg and a home win vs Leipzig) plus a win in our Europa qualifier that year. In 17/18 we also played a last 32 Europa tie vs Zenit, having qualified as 3rd in CL, and won the home leg. In the previous Europa Group of 15/16 we won none of our 6 ties (3D and 3L) but in the 14/15 campaign we had 2 wins, so I make it 7 wins and 7 draws in the last 24 Europa ties.
In all those ties though, we have only one away win to boast, against Rosenborg last year.
It is our away record, rather than our Europa record, that we will have to overcome in order to make the Oddschecker pundit look foolish.
No better time despite the odds against.
Rest In Peace Fernando, your pain is over. Thoughts with your family and friends.
The BBC site`s article re tonight`s game could well be headlined: Be Afraid , Celtic!
It is almost as though they don`t want the Scottish Champions to win.
Another point. It seems that quite a few on here — including myself– seem quite confident of a positive result tonight.
Often, this is just bravado but I feel that the confident attitude is genuine this time. Why is that?
JJ
Really looking forward to our game tonight. European football is soooooooo important
It’s a real test of where we are.
I’m confident we will be up for it.
HH.
Hot Smoked, I am always confident in a game where Celtic have the ball for long periods but I have just read an article where it states that Rennes are very good at ball retention and Celtic will have to play for long periods without the ball.
Was happy this morning but have the fear now,
However mood swings are quite normal for me on a European day so I could be full of confidence & bravado in a couple of hours but right now I’m bricking it.
Corkcelt
:-)))))
I would think you have described most of us on Matchdays !
Are you going to manage over for any of the EL games ?
Jim, I’m on Hols for the Cluj game but am targeting Lazio, no definite arrangements yet.
T,
Be good to meet up if you do make the Lazio game, Where are you going on holiday?
Apparently, Feyenord fans will be singing YNWA tonight as a tribute to Fernando . Anyone know if this is true or just a twitter wind up?
A wee bit of Googling has shown that this , YNWA, is , in fact, regularly sung by suppoters of Feyenoord.
Cheerio for now.
Haven’t sat down to do this since the window closed. So here is our current state of the squad in terms of contract length. 34 players contracted for 1 to 4 seasons. Bearing in mind how momentous next season could be for the club its very interesting.
2020: Currently, these guys won’t be here next season but I could see a scenario where only Daniel Arzani, Calvin Miller & Scott Sinclair are allowed to leave. I suspect that, if they play well enough, much of our transfer budget could go towards making Forster, Bauer & Elyounoussi permanent. On top of that new deals for Gordon, Hayes & Bitton are possible.
2021: You have Brown nearing retirement which is a special case. I don’t think Neil Lennon has any intention of giving Kouassi a chance to play so its more a case of trying to offload his wages for the next season and a half. But Simunovic is an odd one. He will potentially be a safety net for early next season on the back of expected interest in Ajer but we worry about signing him up to long-term with his injury record.
2022: If any key players are in this bracket they are on red alert for a summer 2020 sale. In particular I am thinking of Ntcham, Edouard & Ajer. Hopefully the club are preparing for replacements.
2023: These guys are here for the 10 & the long-term
2020:
Forster, Arzani, Bauer, Gordon, Sinclair, Hayes, Bitton, Elyounoussi, Calvin Miller,
2021:
Brown, Simunovic, Kouassi
2022:
Edouard, Griffiths, Forrest, Bain, Christie, Ntcham, Morgan, Ajer, Hendry, Afolabi, Bayo
2023:
Jullien, Micky Johnston, Shved, Taylor, O’Connor, Frimpong, McGregor, Boli, Elhamed, Rogic, Connell
About Daniel Arzani – potentially a real star – if he can recapture his World Cup form. Man City signed him for a reason . In the few minutes against Dundee before he was injured he looked good. If he breaks into the first team and does well Man City might be open to an extension of the loan so I hope he’s given a chance.
Gonna miss the game tonight. Working :-(
So I’ll say now – Mon the Hoops.
Sipsini- just read back….😁
BAMBOO on 19TH SEPTEMBER 2019 10:33 AM
About Daniel Arzani –Man City signed him for a reason .
—
Is the reason to trade him for a profit without ever considering playing him?
:)
new article posted.