I never really understood what was so special about Roy Keane as a player until he came to Celtic, where he opened my eyes for 11 games (his first two performances, against Clyde and Kilmarnock, were awful).
He’s right up there in terms of great footballers I’ve seen play for Celtic, but he’s difficult to feel affection for. Today’s comments are a case in point:
“When [Celtic] qualified [for the Champions League]the celebrations were way over the top.
“I thought they’d won the competition. People were hugging each other, the manager, the coaches, the players.”
And the fans, Roy, Celtic fans were celebrating every bit as much as anyone you watched on television. No one thought we’d won the competition, but we are all aware of the transformational impact group qualification has on our football club. That’s worth celebrating. Fans all did, even if some former players found it difficult.
Brendan Rodgers qualified for the group stage with what was largely the same squad which disintegrated in Europe last season. He became the first Celtic manager to reach this level in his first season.
This challenge, coming a few weeks into your time as manager, is viewed as hugely difficult objective by the club. New managers seldom takeover successful gigs, with an upward trajectory and a list of targets ready to sign up.
The significant achievement in Europe this season, which has largely gone below the radar, is beating last season’s Champions League group stage participants, Astana, 2-1 at Celtic Park, with 11 starters who were all at the club before Brendan took over (one Rodgers signing started the away leg).
By any measure, Astana should have considered their chances that night and concluded, “We were better than them last season, and they’ve not added a player to the team”. (Two of Brendan’s signing came on as second half subs).
Going into this season we turned-over around 10% of what one of Roy’s other former clubs, or Barcelona received. If we had around £450m extra to spend, every season, there would be less celebration at reaching the group stage, as it would no longer be transformational. Maybe we’d be like football fans in Manchester, and only fill half our stadium against a Bundesliga team.
Or maybe we’ve not lost the joy in supporting our team. Neither have the manager, coaches and players.
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I wonder if we are currently negotiating to make Paddy’s loan move permanent given the fact that Man City is allowing him to play against them. Can the deal be made permanent outside the windae?
HH
gsu
THE GREEN MAN SAYS SACK THE BOARD on 15TH SEPTEMBER 2016 4:20 PM
Weeminger
Stop defending the bonus culture…..its a busted flush
Businessmen shouldnt be paid more than players imo, its a nonsense
And thats why we cant get a few star players, because the PLC are hoovering up the bonuses:), while we get humped 7-0
HH
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The CEO gets around £10K per week, so the average player at Celtic will get more than that. In 2014 he got around £400K as a bonus, taking him up to around £19K a week (he doesn’t get that every year, but that’s where the spurious claims of a £1M bonus came from). The better players at Celtic will be earning more than Peter Lawwell.
I would reckon that easily more than half the first team squad will be on a good bit more than the CEO, so that’s another red herring.
C’mon TGM, you’re usually better than this: have you been in The Rams Head all day?
FAC the Act
KTF
Weeminger
I dont know what the players are getting paid….but if the Barca game is anything to go by, id say Celtic players are very, very well rewarded…..maybe too much for what they can actually produce.
Im willing to play for nothing…i will dig my boots out:)
HH
CEO remuneration compared to players?
Spurious – comparing apples and pears.
I’ve never been a happy clapper, but I don’t think I’ve ever been a mine-shafter either. I believe the board are doing a good job and perhaps from a business perspective the best job they can (although we lack a bit of entrepreneurial flair).
But I do think it’s getting to the stage where we DO need to realign our expectations and strategy as there is a risk of things going stale. If you don’t go forwards you go back. I believe we have in place a top manager, one who is (generally) tactically aware and is a great people person and motivator. He’s also, I believe, open to new methods and I think it’s important for the club to give itself every edge possible going forward. Sports science should not be seen as an breakthrough but as something from the past, it’s important but should be the bare minimum. Rodgers has brought people in for analysis but this should be done in real-time and not just as preparation from games.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jul/27/how-fc-midtjylland-analytical-route-champions-league-brentford-matthew-benham
Sviatchenko’s old club Midtjylland used a heavily analytical approach to punch above their weight. One major improvement was in set-pieces. Set pieces in the past was one thing we were good at and can be a leveller against superior teams.
Psychologists should be employed to get he best out of players coming through the ranks.
Specialists should be in place to improve sprint speeds, kicking technique etc.
Players should not be eating sugar, should be on a controlled diet and rarely drinking alcohol.
I’m sure a lot of this is in place to an extent, but to what extent I don’t know. We assume it will be but it looked like Ronny was trying to implement some of it and it caused friction. Rodgers being a stronger character and having more experience and reputation should be able to push these changes through to ingrain it into the club.
On player signing, databases exist which can be used to analyse players worldwide. We still need good scouts which is part art, but this should be a starting point. One of Rodgers perceived weaknesses was his signing policy at Liverpool, but he has connections and speaks languages so that should all help finding and attaining players from further afield than England. His signings have been great in the main so far, but it’s players he knows, and you can only go back to the well so many times. I expect next summer to be far more adventurous.
We have a similar turnover to clubs like Porto, yet they outperform us by a huge margin (yes they have more lenient work permit laws but we have to find a way), we probably overshadow Copenhagen’s budgets considerably yet I would say in terms of European football we aren’t really ahead of them. There are massive improvements we can make before we start saying we can’t be doing anything else because the EPL/Spanish teams have too much money.
VFR
You know better than that….tongue firmly in cheek, as usual:)
HH
Anyway….the worst is over, its only Manc City to worry about now:)
NatKnow
Spurious – comparing apples and pears.
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Who’s been comparing stairs? That has to stop…
THE GREEN MAN SAYS SACK THE BOARD on 15TH SEPTEMBER 2016 4:36 PM
VFR
You know better than that….tongue firmly in cheek, as usual:)
HH
_________________
Oh, I know that. Did you watch the cartoon?
FAC the Act
KTF
Has anyone considered the possibility that the key to European success might be to increase Peter Lawwell’s bonus?
” after crowd trouble marred their 6-0 home defeat by Borussia Dortmund.” BBC on Legia.
I would have thought the result had already marred the game !
Geordie,
Where can I buy the ” How to Run Faster ” book? It had sold out by the time I got there.
JJ
Maxibhoy,
I am on it. I do not want you to be out of pockets so one of your tickets. I will pay you for.
Thanks
HH
Malone Bhoy
You raise some interesting points there in a good post. I think the models we should be analysing are clubs like Basel, who have consistently made the group stages with a lower budget than Celtic’s – they are now at the point where the Swiss league has an automatic group stage spot (albeit their stronger National Association coefficient aids that). Celtic need to try to emulate that – repeated group stage participation. However, I think with the revenue levels Celtic can expect from that, we would be in a better position than Basel to take it a step further and be a threat from the third pot in a group, to the point where a favourable draw would give Celtic a real opportunity to qualify from the groups. I don’t think Basel have achieved that so we would need to find the magic formula for pushing it further like, as you rightly point out, Porto have.
Everybody
Looking for a Man City ticket. Preferably a good one
. Let me know and I will buy it of you.
HH
ERNIE LYNCH on 15TH SEPTEMBER 2016 4:45 PM
Has anyone considered the possibility that the key to European success might be to increase Peter Lawwell’s bonus?
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Ha! Guantee if he was on an additional £1M if we reached last 16 of CL, we’d be there every year. Speculate to accumulate boys, speculate (for me) to accumulate.
Davidopoulos
Basel are another example, there are many clubs out there will similar or lesser budgets, consistently doing a lot better than we are. We don’t have an easy or even playing field. But that can’t be an excuse.
CTV should have been at the opening night of the musical, once again they are slipping up on extra revenue imo.
I’m sure there would be a few like myself would have paid for the privelage.
Cheers Awe Naw.
Malone Bhoy
Exactly, but this is Year 1 on our journey. We need to take this year as starting point. We made the group stages, we got our £30 million. We now need to do that in the next two seasons as well. Paul67 labelled the CL qualification “transformational”. I would say it was crucial – consecutive group stage participation for 3 years is what will be truly transformational. Major investment in the team is needed to make sure this happens.
I just love the rouse that our continued diminishing trajectory has nothing to do with plc incompetence and lack of ambition and verything to do with outside matters ?
Where did this come from ?
We are in a reasonably good situation with regards top 30 club incomes and being in a position to qualify every year but our risk averse million dollar p.a old firm loving non domestic interventioal board seem to survive on made up on the hoof ever changing soundbite culture
An anethma to our values an embarrassment to them.
There PKI’s are obvious … I mean real obvious.
Mon the balance sheet. Behave yourselves. What are the huns daein, if were an EPL club do do do da
You could have affected change but instead we had our biggest game of th e season last Saturday
Big was eh ?
HH
As well as budgets consider costs when looking to compare. For example, some European clubs do not own/manage/maintain a 60k capacity stadium – the cost of that needs to be factored in when making comparisons. Surely must be significant?
Big wao … specs or spell checker not sure
Awe Naw Annoni, e-mailme at vfr800a8@me.com
FAC the Act
KTF
love the post malone bhoy – it’s a starting point but we’ve got to make sure it’s different this time
btw, has the blog got a name for not a ‘happy clapper’ and not a ‘mine shafter’?
I’VEHADTOCHANGEMYNAME on 15TH SEPTEMBER 2016 5:18 PM
love the post malone bhoy – it’s a starting point but we’ve got to make sure it’s different this time
btw, has the blog got a name for not a ‘happy clapper’ and not a ‘mine shafter’?
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That would be a Happy Shafter…. :-))
I’VEHADTOCHANGEMYNAME on 15TH SEPTEMBER 2016 5:18 PM
Happy shafter,
VFR
Done
Europa League
Live-Inter Milan v Hapoel Be’er Sheva
Freeview Channel 59 8.00 pm
Whit aboot ‘Mine Clapper’?
VFR
Your a star … I promise to agree with from now on :-)
Maxibhoy
This changes nothing.
Still looking for a good Man City ticket for you’re Da
HH
MAXIBHOY on 15TH SEPTEMBER 2016 4:19 PM
Single tickets for Man City are on sale just now.
FAC the Act
KTF
How much do you get for scoring a goal in the CL?
Someone saying £700k? Does that mean Barca got extra £5m ?
does anyone know the alternative to the 0871 number for the ticket office as I cant seem to get through when calling from abroad. thanks
MAXIBHOY on 15TH SEPTEMBER 2016 4:19 PM
If you can get a season ticket holder to buy you a single ticket for the Man City game, MNCelt will probably take your Borussia tickets. I know he’s looking.
I can’t get the Man City ticket because I bought 2 extra packages to help some others out.
See if you can get any takers.
FAC the Act
KTF
Cultsbhoy
No money for goals , just points,for money.
TT
MAXIBHOY
Drop the zero. Country code 44 871
Roy Keane lived the dream.
VFR I am a season ticket holder I just cant get through on the phone on the 0871 number and the main ticket office is shut.