Liam Scales is often judged against his central defensive partner, the impeccable Cameron Carter-Vickers. It is only when Cameron is out and we see Liam as the senior partner in defence that we get to appreciate the gap between him and those aspiring to replace him.
After around a year as first choice at Shamrock Rovers, Liam arrived in Glasgow three years ago and played a handful of games in his first season, before going on loan to Aberdeen.
Jim Goodwin took him there but was sacked after their historic Scottish Cup defeat at Darvel. That game was live on TV and we got to see Liam play right side of a back three; it is no wonder Goodwin didn’t make the cut. Barry Robson got the Aberdeen gig and came close to securing Liam on loan for another season, before an injury crisis at Celtic stopped the move going through.
The pivot which took place in Liam’s career late August 2023 was incredible. Liam was called into the team after Kilmarnock dumped us out of the League Cup for a home game against St Johnstone. Celtic were poor, St Johnstone took a point back to Perth with them, and Liam was repeatedly caught out by the ball over the top. One occasion late in the game almost produced a breakthrough for Saints.
We went to Ibrox the following weekend with some predicting a thrashing. With a weakened side, Celtic lost 3-0 there a few months earlier. It was not just Liam who would pivot that day, the whole of Scottish football did, but Liam was an absolute rock in defence.
He is never going to be Cameron Carter-Vickers, but when you see him alongside others, you know that Brendan will need to bring in an exceptional player to replace him. A month after scoring his first Champions League goal, he scored his first international goal for Ireland in a win in Finland last night.
We have developed a genuine player; credit to all involved.
239 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
emeraldbee
There was not as many International games back then, too many now.
Jimmy only got twenty three caps, Willie Johnston, a terrific player also, only got twenty two. Fact is there were any number of very good Scottish players around back then, not just at Celtic, four Celts played against England in April1967, Jimmy and Bobby were ‘injured’ and six Celts, seven if you include Willie Wallace as a sub, played for Scotland against the CCCP at Hampden two weeks before Lisbon, and Russia won 2-0. The SFA committee system didnt help, of course, but fact is Ronnie Simpson got his first Scotland cap as a Celtic player, and he was thirty six at the time in 1967. Not quite as black & white as it looked, or as green and white in Peter Cormack’s case.
emeraldbee
Just as an addendum, I asked Bertie Auld on this very site in a Q&A if he thought that Celtic in 1967 could have beaten the England World Cup winning team of 1966, but he never really answered the question saying only that Celtic then thought they could beat any team that was in front of them.
Espanyolification test
Celtic Mac on 14th October 2024 12:41 am
Celtic Mac, take your point about the number of internationals around that time and, even we have to admit, the original Rangers of the time had a number of very good players, as did other clubs.
But, I think the original figures I put up are stark. Bobby Murdoch? Did you ever see big McKinnon playing in the flesh? And he kept Big Billy out so often.
As always when it comes to football it’s about opinions and I think many of the Lisbon Lions were ill-served by the governing body of the time. And, I’ve got my own opinion why that was the case.
Ave Ave (on a beautiful start to the week)
HH
This story is mental on so many levels.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gqyezwj7lo
There might be more semi final tickets coming on sale
https://celtsarehere.com/sunday-night-update-celtic-semi-final-tickets/
Re: Trump again.
They say they are confident they stopped another assassination attempt yet he was bailed our for $5k.
new article posted.
https://x.com/tirnaog_09/status/1845736057272164624?t=UasG68vHVwVPU3vGC7gU_Q&s=19