The morning after Ferencvaros reached the Champions League group stage at Molde’s expense, after counter-attacking their way to a win at Celtic Park does not feel any more satisfying than it would be if they were eliminated. The Hungarians will find the ‘real’ competition devastatingly difficult, but they will console themselves with more money than they could dream of a year ago. Money that could have been ours.
The solution to our pandemic crisis lay in our own hands. What a missed opportunity. October will bring difficult and consequential challenges, Celtic need to use the pain of this failure to ensure that on Hallowe’en we’re not looking back on what might have been.
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Guess Ferencvaros got their on merit.Well done to them.
CELTIC
Guess Ferencvaros hot THERE on merit
Oh I give up
Ferencvaros their hot so they are.
The word s there ,their and they’re are so annoying when you are using a phone
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Big games tomorrow for Celtic and “rangers” I certainly hope we go through can also see the benefits of them going through also be it fixture congestion or coefficient points but difficult to see any good in them winning as the money available will be even more important to them.
opportunity gone
good luck to Ferencvaros
onto our next game.
lets build.
good luck Celts
hh
It’s only worthwhile if we learn from it.
I fear we will continue to make the same mistakes.
HH
We have nothing to fear but Shortie-inspired “fear” itself………..
Shortie is Faux ( Fox) News for Huns.
Just reading there in the Turkish sports paper,Galatasaray will be fielding a very weakened side against Der Hun.A mix of injuries,Covid symptoms,and something else I can’t translate.Looks like every star player they have,will be missing.Saliva drooling all over SMSM reporters desks as news filters through.
Bollox.
BB1
Total agreement.
Ferencvaros beat 2 other decent teams to qualify.
Celtic have played 6 games since then ; one good perf, one OK perf and 4 lillian gish perfs
we would have not gone through. Defending and organisation is key in the qualifiers; we don’t have that yet
Fair play to Ferencvaros, hope they do well
we need a big perf tomorrow night psychologically for the team in prep for the big one on 17th
Think we beat ourselves up too much sometimes over results.Looking at Ferencvaros results,they are definitely no mugs at our level.If we were to play them again in a one off match,I reckon it would still be 50/50 on us winning.Rebrov has done a great job with them,but like us,they will now have to face the PSGs,Liverpools,Bayerns,of this world.Totally different level.I am happy for us to compete at Europa level.Severe humpings ,I can live without.
CL — was it any surprise that we failed to qualify?
It is what we do on a regular basis and it is getting worse.
We have no plan / no leadership / no direction.
One failure would be bad but three in a row is catastrophic.
We can write the script in June — and guess what it always plays out in front of our eyes.
Poor start to the season / panic buys from agents we know / unfortunate injuries / speculation over who we are going to sell / transfer disappointment = failure after failure after failure.
And when the AGM comes around — guess what — PL will collect a huge bonus.
TB @ 10.52
The Scottish cringe on full display.
CL — not for the likes of us / file under too difficult.
What about the £20mill of revenue that we miss out on?
Talk about life in the slow lane. I think some of our supporters are parked up and walking along the hard shoulder now.
And seem happy about it.
The problem with the EuL is that when we lose it hurts more because of the quality of the opposition.
CL vs EuL = we still get beat just a case the CL pays out more.
We were the only SPL team in the CL — we had an advantage that we did not make the most of.
The EuL is open to up to 4 SPL teams — we are lowering ourselves to their level and it will hurt us in the end.
We do have a plan, leadership and direction.
They’re simply not focussed where many of us – nostalgic dreamers by and large – find them so easy to accept.
Our club is presently focussed on lower-percentage risk and living within actuarially calculated boundaries. And doing a workable job in that effort, esp during the pressures threatening the game’s financial models.
I love this club, its ethos and the ‘values’ I believed we have (not always lived out in boardroom OR blogs btw).
But we’re not a Madrid, Milan or Liverpool. And thank fugh we’re not Leeds Utd either after their self-inflicted financial over-reach. We’re a niche brand, trading on our deep historical roots and unstinting fanbase loyalty. We’re sticking to our knitting. Playing at lour level. Living within our means; a canny plan for shareholders.
Club’s current commercial management has decreed we’re a Europa-standard side; I grudgingly accept that.
Galling tho, that our tiny taste of the highlife gets extinguished so regularly by clubs who turn it on, and us over, when they need to. This too shall pass eh ? HH
From the info that Turkeybhoy has gathered from the Turkish media it looks like “rangers” could have an easier passage to the group stage than first thought. In saying that Sporting Lisbon were ravaged by covid and still disposed of Aberdeen easily enough.
QP @ 11.29
We have an actuary now — aye right as they say in the more salubrious areas of Kiltoon.
Managed risk using the said actuary’s numbers — where is that shark / I need to jump it.
What did the actuary have to say when we closed the LL Upper?
Was that risk identified / understood / managed well?
Happy clappy nonsense — we have a second rate property bean counter winging it.
In the dark / through the mountains / no compass — what could possibly go wrong?
The biggest financial opportunity we have had for each of the last nine seasons has been monopoly status amongst Scottish clubs to qualify for CL Group stages. Our biggest risk is not taking it. That loses you a KT, a French Eddie or a VVD not on our terms. And makes us a far less attractive proposition for foreign talent.
Controversial and not doubt unpopular hypothesis – had the FOD had this opportunity:
a) they’d have made the group stages at least as often as us, perhaps more
b) the financial gulf that they’d have created between them and us would have been unbridgeable.
We’ve been given a golden goose every summer for the last 9 years. And most times, it’s just shat on our head.
This season, here on cqn, posters were identifying the danger men and tactics that Ferencvaros would likely employ while watching their previous qualifying tie.
The game us the respect of doing their due diligence on us and planning accordingly. We by contrast were served a big slice of humble pie at the Cafe Hubris.
HH jg
Halloween arrives at the end of October, we arrive in Sarajevo at the beginning. Full moon and all, hope it’s not a howler. Could be out of Europe before the UK. Absent crowds and the ability to travel not quite the same attraction it had in previous times, but it does help the players at least to develop. CL? Knockout football? Seen that horror movie three times in the last year. That said Neilly has been able to get some good results away from home so fairly confident we’ll be in the draw on Friday.
I wonder what criteria the “experts” would define for any future Celtic boss.
You MUST win all domestic competitions forever and you MUST qualify for Champions league, failure to comply and your a dud
Only one person to blame for CL exit .
The same as last season. The manager.
Ernie Lynch.
Not engaging in your forever circular point scoring it only feeds the beast. However I would like to ask a question.
Has anyone ever told you that you come across as a right arrogant pr*ck?
We missed an opportunity indeed. Champions League money in the pandemic would have helped with the effect on our income. i love when we play the big european teams Barca, Bayern, Juventus. They generally beat us but its great to be there.
Europa League is not as financially advantageous but we can compete better at this level. Lazio Rennes etc are still attractive games.
We are where we are. the League is the main competition this year.
Here we go,,,,
Longer term Paul ….
We need a strategy to deliver a stable, settled, fit, up-to-speed squad in time for the second qualifying round of the CL.
Even if, simplistically, this involves an early pre-season to get the squad fit for qualifiers then rest them for 3 weeks (and 3 league matches) after we qualify.
Changes by UEFA two years ago increased the number of automatic group stage entrants from 22 to 26.
Qualifying slots reduced from 10 to 6.
We don’t appear to have managed that change well?
Our previous approach (IMHO) seemed to be
– last year’s squad will easily get us through QR 1 & 2
– QR3 SHOULD be negotiated with same squad as last year but now up to fitness. (Some group stage euro football assured)
– QR4 COULD be negotiated with limited early additions to squad.
– Then, if we qualify, significant increased funding assured – buy players at end of window.
Doesn’t necessarily require an early splurge into the transfer market.
If we manage the squad properly the previous season (including intelligent use of pre-contract agreements) the players in the building – if prepared properly – should have a good chance of getting it done.
PS – blame Bolingoli
Hail hail
Keep The Faith
Afternoon CQNrs,
Some musings on our style of play in particular the left hand side, ahead of three big games.
Victories over St Johnstone and Sevco will cement our excellent domestic start to the season. A win in Sarajevo will surely settle a section of the fans but in reality will not offset the CL disappointment against Ferencvaros.
It feels like quite a delicate time in the season, all games are important but occasionally a little cluster of matches emerge that you feel will be pivotal to the mood around the club – the next few weeks fall into this category.
I don’t know how the manager will set the team up in these games but we all know by now we have to do something about the left hand side. Greg Taylor looks to me like a sound pro. He is quick, fit, he can defend and block crosses and has good positional sense at left back. He can still get better in all of those areas as he gets tested at higher levels but that will come. What I cannot fathom is whether he is being instructed to check back / turn out / pass inside every time he advances, or whether it is a natural tendency.
If its the latter, it needs coached out of him if he is to progress his career at Celtic. You cant play safe and have a rewarding career at the top level. He sees so much of the ball in the system we play he must endeavour to do more than just be tidy and recirculate the ball. KT didn’t have the pace of Agathe, Frimpong or even Izaguirre in his first year but he was able to drop his shoulder and make for the byline regularly, earning corners or delivering crosses – I see no reason why Taylor isn’t trying the same. Unless he is being asked to, and this is a possibility.
McGregor, Christie and Ntcham have played dozens of balls into the inside left position for Taylor to run onto this season, it is a feature of our play – has anyone noticed that most of the time he delivers a cutback or a ball low across the face ? I am not against this, I think it is partly due to Edouards lack of presence in the air despite his height (subject for another day) and I’m sure it has yielded a few goals, but there has to be more to our attacking play on the left side.
Eddie is not going to be around these parts for ever and I dont think we can work a large part of our attacking strategy of trying to thread the ball through the eye of a needle to him around the box. Watching Ajeti’s highlights for Basel he looked like a player who could score headers from crosses but we’ve not seen any evidence of that so far. Clearly we dont have strikers in our ranks with the aerial ability of Sutton, Hartson or Larsson or even a Samaras or Venegoor of Hesselink. Perhaps the return of Griffiths, our best header of the ball in the forward department, will see us deliver a few more crosses form either side. I enjoy seeing us work passes in the wide areas to get in behind and set up a cutback, but occasionally an early whipped cross from the touchline can cause problems, even on the second ball. I think we’ll see a more rounded left back in Taylor when he adds this to his game, as there is a very good player in there in time.
I suspect he will start all of the games against Sarajevo, St Johnstone and Sevco – I’ll be interested to see how he plays.
TJ
Neil Lennon needs to learn how to manage a knockout game.
That’s it.
TOMMY JOAD on 30TH SEPTEMBER 2020 12:25 PM
Afternoon CQNrs
Totally agree about your assessment of the importance of this cluster of matches. Pivotal. Even this early in the season.
Agree that Taylor looks a competent defender.
He does seem to be able to run on to a ball in the inside channel and cross competently. A couple of nice goals already as a result.
He doesn’t have the pace or a trick to skin his man 1on1. Few do. Hence the buzz around wee Jeremie.
The ‘turn back and pass’ routine. While KT (and Scott Sinclair) began their time careering down the wings to great effect, by the time of their final season on the pitch for Celtic, both were adopting the very same tactic.
HH jg
Pure negligence.
Losing to that mediocre mob could be put down to bad luck. But it’s consistent with the broader pattern of failure. We could lose to any one of Maribor, Malmo, AEK, Cluj, Ferencvaros. But all of them? Negligence.
PS we were very close to adding mighty Karagandy and Beer Sheva to that ignominious list.
Look to change our football calendar, to be far better prepared for the challenge in gaining entry to the Champions league
Start league in July
Shutdown, Dec & Jan, when European leagues are also shutdown ??
Oh and get players settled into team, before we gamble on trying to gain entry
B2B @ 12.21
CL qualifiers / the “Champion’s Route” — some things have changed but our failures are our issue.
From memory this route used to have 5 teams qualifying now we have 4.
The last round now involves 8 teams not 10 so the quality goes up.
However we should be favourites to qualify based on the resources at our disposal.
If we don’t qualify then that is down to management off the club and management of the team.
Every year we make it difficult for ourselves — finding new ways to perform below our abilities and our resources. I fear we are becoming a laughing stock — a giant with a glass jaw — with opposition coaches licking their lips at the thought of playing us in our annual state of dishevelment where even the smallest amount of preparation will see us beat by a team a tenth of our size.
The CL is the one thing that sets us apart.
When we fail we fall towards the level of the SPL and one day it will consume us.
MadMitch on 30th September 2020 12:50 pm
I don’t agree with you very often but that post was spot on.
Aye, modern football tactics, wherever you are on the field don’t give the ball away! How many times does the ball now go from a short corner to the attacking teams goalkeeper! It’s not Greg Taylor’s fault, actual fact I think there are far to many times when there are not enough options for him to put it into the box, but he has done it more often recently, with the inclusion of Ajeti in the team, a natural CF who know the runs to make when a wingback has the ball wide left or or right. It would be interesting to see the stats on how many goals we scored from him re circulating, that’s my positive word for passing backwards :)), the ball? Wee Frimpers just has that natural instinct to keep going forward, but he does lose the ball often and not every cross results in a goal or even a bye kick, por cierto.
bye kick = GOAL kick :)) por cierto