After winning their four League Cup group games, Partick Thistle were battered on the opening day of the Championship at St Johnstone. A draw followed against Morton, but since then they won their three games against Ayr United, Ross County and Raith Rovers. St Johnstone look to be in a league of their own this season, but if Thistle win their game in hand, they will move three points clear of the pack in second place.
That means they are in form and will relish the chance of a home cup tie against League Cup holders and Scottish champions, Celtic. The wild weather due in Glasgow over the weekend will also give encouragement to the home side.
On paper, Thistle should not offer much resistance to Celtic. They don’t have the kind of money that even the likes of Kairat possess; I looked back a decade in Transfermarkt but there was not a single paid incomer in that period. You will recognise one of the frees they brought this summer – Tony Watt. 13 years after that goal, Tony signed for Thistle, the 14th senior club he has appeared for, which is quite a stat for a player who is still only 31.
Whatever ails Tony, he is a player who has talent which is greater than his messy CV suggests. He is good on the ball, can roll a defender and knows how to make the most of a big stage.
You and me might go on about 1967, but when Thistle fans indulge in history, it’s a League Cup game against Celtic they talk about. Celtic were red hot favourites that day but went down to a record final defeat. Learn from history and book a place in the semis, Celtic.
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Good morning CQN
The Graham Spiers comments about Brendan’s skill in handling this recent crisis are worth a look
(that’s my opinion, not a fact)
The following quote is attributed to him
“I’m now convinced of this: no-one in the Celtic boardroom went to The Sun and said:
“Here’s what is happening…put this in the public domain, the quotes, but just don’t put my name to it”
To be clear, this is just another point of view about this leaking situation.
It may be accurate, it may not.
I assume he knows a little bit about leaking to the media.
Spiers is experienced enough to frame this as his belief.
Unlike others who have almost automatically assumed guilt (“rat”,”coward”) and continue to pitch their opinion as fact.
Respectfully, it’ll take a lot more than 100 words from an SMSM hack with an obvious agenda to persuade me to condemn anyone at Celtic.
Maybe the truth will out. Maybe it won’t.
PS – pure speculation below.
Why was that recent media conference of Brendan’s held back a few hours before being released publicly?
Perhaps lawyers acting on behalf of Celtic were invited to give it the all clear first.
If anyone wants a better idea on how Celtic are run and why check this informative post on https://sentinelcelts.com/2025/09/20/partick-versus-the-richest-club-in-the-land/#comment-403916
Note impact of FSR and need to sell players to remain sustainable.
Bit of an odd one…
my old neighbour is moving to New Zealand to see out the rest of her life and stay with her
daughter. Long time season tickets holders her and her husband rarely missed a game, sadly though her husband passed. She now wants to be with her daughter and grand children.
I want to give her a present and thought how could i get a personalised pic of Henrik with a good luck sentiment to her on it?
Anyone have connections or ideas?
B2B
You’ll be aware that Brendan introduced the word ‘coward’.
I suspect he knows more than you or I…or even Graham Speirs.
If the story was codswallop, I await the official Celtic clarification and condemnation of the story.
Sometimes, silence can be deafening
Other opinions are available
This time next year we’ll be trebillionaires …mibees…🙄😜😉
drink in what could only be described as a tenement commune/squat with st pauli fans in koln. Also drank with them in hamburg (or so i was told). would have to be very selective in drinking with any of them now. despite that, despite their gov and despite their polis they have come out in greater numbers in the likes of berlin in support of palestine than Scotland.
TBB earlier – good spot.
Once I heard the cash in hand was still in the region of £70m (i.e. not the foolishly predicted £100m)
… I stopped paying attention.
Reasonable to assume it will drop next year with the absence of Champions League revenue plus, here and now, I’m not seeing an imminent £25m player sale from our current squad.
I think you rightly ask “what is the plan”?
Without any evidence whatsoever (beyond the fact the board rarely communicate their plans)
… I’d lazily assumed Celtic were aiming to build up to £100m cash then announce a south stand rebuild and fairly significant stadium revamp totalling around the £150m mark.
Best laid plans.
Events dear boy.
With Scotland’s coefficient being what it is … that £100m cash ship has well and truly sailed for at least the next three years.
Could legitimately be perceived as a strategic game changer …
… if only we knew what the strategy was.
So BR described a cowardly act on himself by himself? Really?
Auldheid, thanks for the link, well grounded stuff.
Celtic – cash rich, board room deficient……
4stonecoppi….I think the best idea would be to try and contact the man himself directly on social media.
I would suggest you had an exact item that you would like to send him to be signed/messaged and the NZ story included in your direct message.
Good luck
we have made hay the last number of years with the money we have made selling players, particularly to england.
my worry is that im not sure if we will keep getting those levels of transfer fees.
simply because a lot of our transfers away in the last year or 3 have hardly set the heather on fire with their new clubs, so clubs may become reluctant to send big cash up our way, regardless of how well a player is doing for us.
AULDHEID on 20TH SEPTEMBER 2025 11:50 AM…..
Aulheid,
This was an interesting post, not only in its content. I was struck by the fact that the Club had not offered this information to the fan base. If there were some critical issues facing the club in this season, they could have laid this bare in the summer.
Some of us would have ignored it. Some would be in angry denial. Others would have taken it on board and understood that this could be a difficult season. It might have allowed us to see that it may be the Board who want Brendan to leave, rather than the other way round. In that context, we could see the Hannah briefing as an effort to encourage our Coach to leave.
My takeaways:
All that being what it is, the money that we DID spend could have been spent well BEFORE our crucial playoff.
The Board could have saved itself some (not all) of the grief they are currently getting.
There is no excuse for briefing against the Coach. None.
There is a GREAT need for qualified TRULY independent Board members.
Weeron.
Laxalt on 20th September 2025 12:28 pm
good idea, i will thanks
Auldheid @ 11:50 am,
The Gombeen Man back on his pro- Big Pedro anti- Brendan crusade – quelle surprise!!
Hail Hail
Amongst other things, what the accounts demonstrate is that there are too many folk running around like their trousers are on fire.
The amount of pish-stained rumour dressed up as insider knowledge that I’ve read on here and elsewhere lately is embarrassing.
We can though plainly see that:
The business is looking squarely at a year or more of regression.
This is caused by the significant increase in costs (mostly wages) set against a significant decrease in revenue (UCL)
There are no obvious high-value players in the squad that might generate substantial transfer fees – we have not had enough time to see what the new bhoys have to offer, while the previous year’s crop looks like producing a disappointing harvest.
The support is almost entirely disengaged from the club’s leadership.
Given the financial position, the January window will likely be more Willo Flood than Nic Kuhn.
Despite that, we will win the league, somewhat underwhelmingly perhaps, but we will drop fewer points than our rivals over the season, whoever the rivals turn out to be.
In all of this, it remains highly unlikely that there will be (increasingly necessary) changes in the leadership. The people who run the club and their approach to running it will not change. Conservative choices will remain the default.
We can expect a new manager come the summer. Unless BR can create performers in the interim, the new guy will inherit a squad over-represented by average performers. He’ll have a job of work to do to fashion a new team – within the financial constraints of a loss-making year – sufficient to negotiate 3 rounds of UCL qualifying.
Short term, we’ve got a stumbling leadership, a loss-making business, an underperforming team, a manager in his last year, a squad of highly-paid average talents and a disengaged support.
It’s not a pretty picture. In that light, the pish stained rumours ill-serve us all. We need to concentrate on fixing the problems. That starts at the top.
Spiers is for the most part, worth a read.
He’s also a Rangers fan.
Like all Huns that I know, I suspect he’s utterly desperate for BR to move on – just like Kris Boyd.
Huns have known nothing only Celtic trophies and record breaking financials since BR came to Celtic.
AULDHEID
More power to you sir.
new article posted.
Graham Spiers may have grown up a Rangers supporter. I believe he was barred from Ibrox quite a few years ago.
Glenowen @ 11:58am – cheers.
“If the story was codswallop, I await the official Celtic clarification and condemnation of the story.
Sometimes, silence can be deafening”
—-
Agree that sometimes, silence can be deafening.
In this instance though I’d cast a little doubt on what the silence is saying, if anything.
… based on nothing more than our board having a clear track record when it comes to publicly ignoring codswallop.
The dog barks but the caravan moves on …. and all that.
BTW – codswallop and libel ain’t the same thing