After the fright we got at the Falkirk Stadium last month there was significant trepidation ahead of yesterday’s game. The newly-promoted side who exited the League Cup after a 4-1 defeat at Celtic Park in August have grown in stature and look certain for a top six finish.
For all that Falkirk put into this game, they did not have the players to make the clinical difference. For that quality, Celtic turned to Tomas Cvancara and Benjamin Nygren. As every football fans knows, a new striker needs to get off the mark early. Otherwise, he is cursed with “XX games without a goal” references. Cvancara’s contribution at Tynecastle a week earlier gave Celtic the lead. His deft header in the first half against Falkirk turned a low-probability chance into a welcome lead.
You and I discuss Benji Nygren regularly. If we win anything this season, it will be significantly due to the goals he has scored and created. There is an expectation when he lines up a shot which does not exist with any other Celtic player.
Man of the Match yesterday deservedly went to Julian Araujo. He successfully linked with Yang in the first half and even-more so with James Forrest in the second. Martin O’Neill can reflect that our win was largely due to the value of our two January signings.
A point in yesterday’s officials. Like the referee, I didn’t see the two-handed push on Daizen Maeda which moved him into the way of Araujo’s shot. Sebastian Tounetki scored with the rebound.
As a consequence of an attacking player being fouled inside the penalty box, he was adjudged to be offside and a goal was disallowed. It is scenarios like this which VAR was intended to deal with. That VAR confirmed the offside is inexplicable.
Let’s hope for a busy evening!
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Well,we filled most of the positions needed,so happy with that.Don’t know any of the signings,but MON seems to,and has a good opinion of them,so,have to take that on board.They come from highly rated backgrounds,Norway,Austria,England,so looking forward to seeing them.Loan deals with option on winger,forward.Sensible.
I am happy to wait and see how we have fared.A bit optimistic.
The CH from Brentford,6 foot 4 and very highly rated.Brentford produce great CHs.
Get him in for Ibrox to watch their giant.
We spent £11m on Arne – so £25m would give us £14m less a sell on of say 20% which leaves about £11m. Not worth the bigger chance of losing the league for.
Good luck to the new bhoys.
Ben Arthur has a bit of a mountain to climb, – 5th choice at Brentford?
All figures are approximate
No time for boycotts,not now when we have everything to play for.I. am giving that shower of scum,no advantage whatsoever,our fekin dopey Board already did enough harm.
Keep up the pressure to get the GB and the rest back in.The rest can wait .
Get some atmosphere back.
BSR
When we lend out Kenny to a 3rd division EPL side it puts our squad into perspective.
BSR
I am a Brentford season ticket holder but would confess that I have never seen Arthur play.
If the 4 ahead of Arthur in the pecking order, Ethan Pinnock is nearing the end of his career – and unfortunately – I think that serious money will be offered for Nathan Collins in the summer.
So although I am not certain that Arthur has a future at Brentford, being contracted until 2031 would suggest that he either figures in Brentfords future plans or that it will take a significant fee to buy him.
Bournesouprecipe @ 10:31 am,
It might have been better if we could Loch Arthur into a full transfer…
Hail Hail
BSR,
Very good😉,A lot of Ooo err missus !!!!!!About.
What about yourself,You ever been up Ben Arthur?
Ohhhh,shut her face.
I really dislike loan signings. I can handle loan signings with an option to buy and I fully understand why at this point in time , loan signings are prudent.
However i feel too many loan signings disrupt the chemistry of the team and understandably loan players look to their own futures first, rather than the long term future of the club.
In summary, loan signings are not our players and their primary focus and aligance is to themselves and their agent.
From the outside the optics are poor. The team with the most in Scotland spending the least.
HH.
Gene,
Kenny has to prove he is above that level.
Gene / Tim Malone/ Chairso/ Turkers
These modern English clubs Brentford Bournemouth etc also have communicated recruitment systems, for their supporters.imagine that at Celtic?
Ben Arthur aka The Cobbler when he comes to Scotland 😄
Stephen Welsh back along the motorway to Motherwell
Each to their own.
Personally I would rather win the Europa rather than the league.
I wonder if MON would agree. Unfinished business and all that.
HH.
GP,
Needs must.Incompetent Board .Should be nowhere near buying players.We have only kicked the can down the Road,but the present is more important.
Arthur has also come from the brilliant,Peterborough Academy.
Just keep on churning them out.Great relationship with Brentford.Ollie Watkins,Ivan Toney,etc.
BSR
Ben Arthur is a shoe-in for a starting spot . He’ll leather the opposition .
There’s a sense of ‘just enough’ about Celtic this morning.
A squad that started January absent performers in key positions and which had been running on empty for a couple of months has been supplemented with 5 loan signings.
I understand the utility of the loan-to-buy approach, most particularly as we’ll be bringing in a new manager in the summer. The sense is that the approach was favoured because it left our powder dry – whatever remains in the bank after a loss-making season will be available to prime the new pump in the summer.
Looking at the new signings:
Araujo arrived first and is a competent right back. Knows the position and plays it at a good level.
Cavancara at face value looks to be a very interesting player – big, quick, good feet, good finisher. That’s a lot of qualities to play striker for Celtic and he’s shown some of them in the two matches he’s played so far.
Thanks to the power of Youtube…
Mvuka looks to be a dynamic winger, good athleticism, fast, tricky. If he can complete a move he’s got much to offer. If. I didn’t see much in the way of chances created from the dynamism and trickery. Let’s see.
Adamu looks like Cavacara lite. Less pace, less skill, fewer finishes. With Iheanacho back in the squad, Adamu will likely have to work hard to get time on the pitch and that doesn’t augur positively for impact in the remaining three and a bit months of the season. He seems like cover rather than starter material.
Benjamin Arthur appears to be a replacement for Simpson-Pussey. This one is my biggest concern – having sent Welsh back to Well, we’re an injury and a suspension away from a Murray-Arthur pairing. that doesn’t feel like a title-winning defence. Failing to get an Araujo-level centre back is a failing indeed.
All season to spot the talent we need, all month to nail the deals, and we end up with 3 of the five signings made in the final hours of the window, one of which with a concerning health record that appears to have come as a complete surprise. WTF.
The ‘just enough’ at LastMinute.com approach is not the mark of an operation that is world class in everything that it does. It’s symptomatic of an ailing club and a failing leadership.
We can only hope that MON manages to drag us over the line.
SeatOfThePantsCSC
“Ben Arthur aka The Cobbler”
Your finest ever! 😂😂😂
Ben’s sole intention is to win us the league I’m sure heel do well
Turkeybhoy @ 10:57 am,
When Nick Hammond was at Celtic he went down to Peterborough to sign Ivan Toney…
Unfortunately…
“Nick didn’t bring any money”
~ Barry Fry
Hail Hail
TBB…
Saw your post comparing BR, WF and MO’N’s results t’uther day…
Was missing out a Brendan win an honest mistake or is Arithmatic not your strong point;)
Hail Hail
Chairbhoy, I’m afraid if I diminished Brendan’s performance it is a failing of my cognitive ability, specifically counting up the list of results on the BBC’s website.
I’m sure Brendan will get over it, though.
Don’t think it undermines the point any; three managers, same players, equivalent opponents, remarkable variation in outcomes.
BURNLEY78 on 3RD FEBRUARY 2026 8:21 AM
So we emerge from the window with a first team squad of 30 players. 20 Nationalities I think ? Probably a club record anywhere in football. 8 Scots, 2 Japanese, 2 Americans, 2 Portuguese, Danish, Finn, Swede, Norwegian, Belgian, Austrian, Canadian, Czech, Mexican, Uruguayan, English, Irish, South Korean, Tunisian, Nigerian, Congolese
Stronger than we went into the window ? No doubt but time will tell if strong enough.
If winning the league is down to how many nationalities are at a club….if you throw in Michael Nicholsons new Aboriginal p.a,……Pootonya Ridshoos ….we’ll win at a canter…
The common denominator for our loans is that they all want to make their respective WC squads ie they’re hungry & by god we need hungry players, Ajuaro Cvancara Mvuka Adamu &
B Arthur is looking to gain experience to break in to the Brentford defence for next season.
🤞we get AO Chamberlain for the midfield too.
Dirty Dozen CSC
TBB
Saving grace is the source of loans EPLx2 Bundesliga x2 Ligue 1, two players with buy
options.
Our loans are better than your loans FC
CHAIRBHOY
Did BR get eviscerated……… and it turns out he was 5 players short of a title bid after all?
He had grounds for his petted lip, along with Tisdale’s punts now away on loan.
Bookies aren’t daft.
Our latest signings have by far been of a much better quality than other team has brought in.
We have players coming back who will improve the squad.
We now have a football manager who knows what’s required to win a league.
Here we go 5 in a row! por cierto
MAOLMUIRE O MUIRGHEASA on 2ND FEBRUARY 2026 11:40 PM
The boards own incompetence has cost them 25m this evening.
M O M — we will have a disgruntled player on our hands to add to Maeda, Yang and Hatate.
All of this was eminently avoidable if the “CEO” done his job and reviewed his direct reports portfolios in the usual intrusive manner. The recruitment operation was non existent and the talent pipeline was empty.
Nicholson stated lessons would be learned and clearly this hasn’t happened.
It’s also clear that MON did not get the level of player he needed or wanted. Either, Desmond didn’t approve or Nicholson failed miserably as he has admitted previously.
As a result we have a team with some glaring deficiencies especially midfield which is the Achilles heal of the team. Not having a physical midfielder is a huge mistake for the tougher games. Now we have two players in there that we don’t know how they will turn up.
It should be not surprise that clubs will come for our better prospects and we should always have a plan for the top 2/3 to be replaced. Nicholson with his empty talent pipeline was caught in the headlights while still lowballing loan offers for players nobody has heard off. Desmond would have taken the £25M in a heartbeat and a conversation almost certainly took place with MON — who probably told him there is no point of me being here if you sell and maybe give me some unknown loan.
It’s not as if the structure of the club is broken, it never existed. Michael Nicholson is the last guy you would give the job to put it in place. Useless doesn’t begin to describe his talents.
New chairperson and ceo needed urgently to build the requisite org to deliver sustainable success (in a tougher SPFL environment) as well as Europe. We will need the guts of a new team and DOF/Manger/Coach.
Also on the TO DO LIST to help with the toxicity driven by Nicholson/Hargreaves behaviour.
– End the Bans (urgent)
– End the Fan Media bans (urgent)
– Communicate
– Academy
– Stadium
– Women’s Team
None of the above will happen with Desmond and the grossly incompetent CEO.
Toxicity will be off the radar scale….
Back the Team — Sack the Board !!!
I have contempt for this Board.
However, a boycott at this stage would be an act of serious self-harm by the Collective. Be sensible.
Irrespective of the how the circumstances came about, MO’N and Maloney only had a few weeks to put together their requirements and potential purchases. That we have secured 5 new players in that short period of time has to be a plus and has strengthened the squad in important but, admittedly, not all areas. The fact that 3 have options to buy is no different from the CCV and Jota arrangements and, in the circumstances, is eminently sensible. The fact that no fees other than the cost of loans has been paid is an irrelevance. This window has been better than the two that preceded it.
Anyone else have problems logging in? I often log in then find I’m logged out immediately.
I really love these imaginary conversations that people post – they should write books instead of posting on blogs.
Fact is that none of us know what goes on in transfer windows so it is the ultimate in uninformed speculation.
We are all entitled to opinions on players, formations performances etc. – but concocting internal confrontations is a bit desperate.
new article posted.
Ray Winstone’s Big Disembodied Heid on 3rd February 2026 10:23 am
That is just a shoite post.
Ben Arthur- The Cobbler @bsr
Take a bow 👏👏👏