The champions dominated and won their opening game of the season, made a shed-load of chances and we all spent the final 10 minutes on edge, fretting every time a Celtic player lost possession, which was frequent, or failed to clear their lines.
I am assured every Norwegian would expect Kasper Hogh to score several goals from the chances he got on his Celtic debut. Instead, he passed up most of the aforementioned shed-load and left frustrated. The old adage about strikers holds, at least he was there to miss them. He will score plenty for Celtic.
Isn’t it good we’ve got a proper target man up front? The lack of familiarity between Kasper and his more established team-mates was evidenced by the frequence balls were played short when Kasper pushed long, or vice-versa. Less than a week at the club, this will hopefully resolve, expect improvements for Sunday.
Camilio Duran had hands on knees, a sign of exhaustion, long before he left the action on 78 minutes. I did not see him preseason, when he played and scored on each occasion as the main striker. He looked less suited to the winger role. Options up top were lacking last term, at least that issue has been resolved.
As was the case so often last term, Benjamin Nygren was the man with the plan to win the game. The timing of his run to meet Kieran Tierney’s cross was worthy of the points, he made impressive work with the finish too.
Dundee, playing their fifth competitive and ninth game overall in five weeks, were clearly fitter and it is no surprise Celtic struggled to dominate the closing stages of the game. These early season tests against lesser but energetic Premiership opponents are valuable. As long as we get the result, of course.
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Bigchipsuk
How could you forget
McAndrew
Picking up on comments made earlier by Auldhead and TBB,….. and previous posts by Gedinte and Chairbhoy…..
I my line we like an evidence based approach to things. I was wondering if anyone had ever done a semi systematic analysis of how long on average Celtic appear to take to get new signings, as opposed to other major teams. I realise that this would actually require knowing when approaches had been made etc and this would probably only have press reports to work with (thus introducing considerable room for error, and given the number of possible confounders – especially given our hostile MSM).
On the surface to us fans, it seems like a ridiculously long drawn out affair. But I’m wondering how it does in practice differ from comparable competitors . Is it really as bad as it seems?
Just realised he was called Andrew. Not McAndrew.
Ziggydoc1: Thanks for response.
TET: Delighted you got it sorted. You’ll be able to ‘turn’ many things around now. 😅
Bashi
I certainly saw it from both sides when the company I was running sponsored both major teams in Scotland in the noughties.
Rangers were extremely front foot and slap dash in ‘getting things done’ in the early period 00-03. Some might say profligate at that time.
They tightened up and seemed to adopt a more rigorous approach under Jorgensen ex IBM guys Chairmanship until just before return of Walter when they went mad again with some crazy stunts. Like the signing of FanFan (would up by PL) and some big French centre back on instinct in a lay-by in France by Martin Bain.
Celtic has generally been more circumspect and gone about business responsibly with few corners cut.
It maybe why Celtic has survived and our rivals have not.
I once had a boss that used tae say to us, “don’t come to me with problems, come to me with solutions” which is how I separate the Celtic supporters from the DOBs on this and other sites, as all they do is criticise critcise critcise with nothing constructive.
Seems JL agreed with me: people asking questions lost in confusion, well, I tell them there’s no problem only solutions
Martin & Co did will in the European games they were involved in last season, inc some good away results so I’m taking a positive from that. Will Lisk be better than Stuttgart who also qualified for the CL? Hopefully not. Interesting that one of our best away performances in the EL was our 1-0 victory in Stuttgart.
Engels didn’t play, AJ didn’t play, KT didn’t play. Neither did CCV. Of those that did only Maeda and Sarrachi are no longer in the squad. Nygren didn’t start, neither did Kellechi. Sini was in goal, Donovan @ RB and Murray @ CB. We will start stronger two weeks tomorrow. Not sure how much stronger, unknown unknowns at play here. Would a Dundee midfielder replacing Engels make us weaker….not so sure it would.
glendalystonsils on 4th August 2026 5:04 pm
Same page
HH
67ECW
bashi-bazouks on 4th August 2026 5:19 pm
Yes makes sense
So £20/30m more in the bank and get humped in the CL
OR
£20/30M less and have a go in the EL
Either way its the same team
HH
67ECW
Engles must be a decent players, or we wouldn’t be selling him for a fair few bob. However, I think myself and many Celtic supporters love midfielders that dominate the ball, McStay, Collins, McGregor etc. Engels doesn’t do that. Add Nygren (who obviously is a valuable contributor, for goals) as a midfield three, I think it leaves us short. Engles going might see us with a totally different balance in the middle, if we ever actually manage to recruit new ones. Bernardo being totally out of the picture, is puzzling.
B78 – the French centre-back, was that Boumsong?
If memory serves they bought him and then punted him very quickly to Newcastle (?) for a large profit.
It all seemed very dodgy.
I think Souness bought Boumsong, for a very large fee. He strolled it up here but not at Newcastle, if I remember correctly.
Bashi-Bazouks @ 5:29 pm,
My point has been, and it doesn’t always come through in comments, is our approach on player trading is fundementally flawed.
Back in the day I talked how a bank would go about a technology upgrade or enhancement.
Of course banks didn’t directly make income from technology but it was key to their business and could give a competitive edge.
So, they would look for technology “solutions” – and a programme, project would be devised to deliver the solution.
This would be methodically designed, planned and costed…
That cost would be the budget..
For me that is how Celtic FC should manage the squad in general and first team group in particular.
However our principal shareholder comes from a trading background – which of course was a significant income stream for a wholesale bank.
Celtic PLC’s player transfer strategy is looking at each transaction as a trade, to maximise income from the player sales and minimise the outgoings from player purchases.
Where for me, player procurement; with purchase price, wages and employment costs, development and coaching costs and other sundry expenses is a football club overhead, a necessary overhead like technology was to a bank…
That does not mean this cost can’t be mitigated or in extreme cases eliminated by player trading (Benfica a few years back).
Yet that only works with footballing nous and football success …
Allow football professionals to buy and sell the players, supported by the Executive – get as good a first team group as possible, develop them to an elite level, get Lennoxtown to strive to achieve as much domestic and European success as possible.
Once that’s achieved sell your HVPs at a premium – having a conveyor belt of talent coming through to replace the quality players that move on.
Now depending on how well you do that, your player trading may cost you a bit, or you break even or maybe you make a bit…
Yet your revenues come from ticket sales, merchandising, stadium sales, broadcasting income…
As 2023 -24 -25 showed us footballing success greatly enhances all your revenue streams and the value of your squad in general and HVPs in particular.
Player trading as a revenue stream fails to deliver a coherent first team group fit for purpose – which is key to a football club both as a sporting institution and as a business.
Hail Hail
Quite a few of the Irish bhoys and girls making the most of their trip. “Can’t get a pint for this price in Derry or Belfast”. Don’t I know it.🙄
The sevs offered £8m for a player??…..eh now they didnae.
Even tho they pay ALL their transfer fees in instalments (Celtic pay 90pc up front and insist on same for sales)…..it just didnae happen.
Forster
McGrain
Virginia
KT
Lubo
Cal
Maestro
Naka
Dembele
Ghod
Virgil*
AlmostheavenCSC
Evening all
There will be a first of the season gathering of the ‘Ship Bank Shipwrecks’ this coming Friday 7th, commencing 12noon.
All welcome.
Just a brief note, please if you can, bring some extra cash, BRRB has taken up the ‘Not a penny more’ scheme.
He refuses to boycott, however, the poor impoverished pensioner feels that this scheme fits his moral compass.
Forget your Snow leopards, donkeys, etc, please support this ‘Auld Duffer’
Damned impertinence.
john mcclelland of ibm.
affectiontly know as
Halloween cake face by the employees.
he could teach infantino some tricks
Tontine Tim on 4th August 2026 5:39 pm
I once had a boss that used tae say to us, “don’t come to me with problems, come to me with solutions” which is how I separate the Celtic supporters from the DOBs on this and other sites, as all they do is criticise critcise critcise with nothing constructive.
————
Hitler coined that
Good run out for the Bhoys yesterday. As expected, the game was tight as we will take 4 or 5 games to get into somewhere near top gear. 1-0 wins until we’re there will be just fine.
Thought Nygren had a great game. We are still short in midfield and out wide up front. Yang is a decent player, but doesn’t look like he will be able to deliver consistently. Oh to have Jota back in there.
TBB
I realised another reason that might blunt Mr Occham to explain why Celtic behave as they do.
One thing about having FSR headroom not touched is that it provides the opportunity to pay more to retain players we want to keep for another year.
They and any amortisation cost drops off the squad cost calculation meaning more to offer next year to replacement.
The biggest problem clubs fear from one season to the next is churn.
Too much and performance level drops for a time.
The wrong time for CL qualification as it happens when other clubs are ahead on march fitness.
Other than Yang (bless him) and maybe the goalkeeper, to upgrade on any single player who started for us last night, it would cost us 10 or 12 or even £15m.
The problem with players who cost that much is that they and their agents and families will believe that they’re good enough for the top 5 leagues and the accompanying riches.
So they’ll say to Celtic….maybe but im going to wait n see if anyone else comes in.
So…we have a choice move on to a lesser player who isn’t the answer or hold off and hope like we done with CCV and Jota.
We could have signed 50 players by now but then after a few transfer windows we’d have a team like Sevco.
Its not a computer game.
Just realised I chose the wrong career path being a Celtic fan, I should have opted for the catering business and become a waiter.
All I do now is wait, wait on these clowns running the club to get their collective fingers out.
kinglubo
bigrailroadblues
You mentioned three `points`earlier and I assumed it was a misprint.
Laxalt on 4th August 2026 7:12 pm
You make some interesting points there.
We’re only 8 weeks into the transfer window, let’s not rush into anything.
Hot Smoked
You know that is a starting point J. 😂
bashi-bazouks on 4th August 2026 5:19 pm
67 EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS on 4TH AUGUST 2026 4:42 PM
Thank you for making the EL income point.
On top of that there is the cost of players to get the CL rewards.
5 players at £15m each have an annual cost of £15m to the wage bill.
5 players on £60k wages pw add another £15m ((£60k x 52wks = £3m)x5) not much profit left if £25m is the return.
Celtic will have the actual figures and time scales to help set their own limits, if not TBB and others are right they are incompetent. If they do it might benefit everyone if they explained how they work.
It would help if every reason given is not turned into an excuse.
Changing subject: was Hogh making an excuse when blaming real grass as a reason for his misses or making an excuse.
Caution if making an excuse was he lying or was he telling his truth?
Laxalt on 4th August 2026 7:12 pm
A thoughtful post taking into consideration the wider factors at play.
It is risky to provike thinking outside the norm but it does add light to opinions.
Having been relegated last season Port Vale needed some personnel changes, I think we’re up to 11 new players – that’s what I call an urgent response.
Is there any consensus emerging from the now 7 points emerging on why Celtic Board act as they do?
Just wondering.
Ranging from Celtic know what they are doing in the prevailing economic and West of Scotland social circumstances, to they think they know what they are doing but doing it badly, to they havent a clue.
TET, your vote is a sitter. Lol
Or a scatter gun approach
Auldheid
They’re incompetent when it comes to football matters.
Tontine Tim
I had a boss who said similar.
He followed it up
‘Bring me solutions’ with
“Then I remember why I pay you”.
Although it did make most of us much more solution orientated in life than some who do just seem to spend all their time seeing and opining others have done wrong and somehow being irked by it.
Laxalt / Auldheid
Don’t be silly. Just pay more money and they will all be desperate to come to play here in this shithole of league which has not ever generated even a £20m player on exit.
Apologies typo I meant £30m