Yesterday we discussed that title credentials “are established on plastic pitches and cold nights in places like Falkirk”. Celtic were far from polished but had enough in the tank to win a game in which they withstood a first half onslaught. The credentials are intact.
Martin O’Neill is not a miracle worker, but he knows how to set teams up in order to get results. Confidence, so lacking in the squad in recent weeks, is back in sufficient quantities to see them through challenging pressure.
Across his two tenures this season, Martin has taken charge of seven league games, in which Celtic have conceded only one goal – a penalty kick, awarded by VAR after an incident which passed without on-field concern. That might sound like working miracles, but it is just good old organisation.
When Kyrell Wilson skinned Kieran Tierney and rounded Kasper Schmeichel, he was rushed into the shot by Liam Scales, who arrived to prevent Falkirk taking the lead. Later, when Auston Trusty and Callum McGregor failed to control the ball, green and white shirts arrived on the scene mob-handed, forcing a rushed shot from Williams which Kasper saved. Both were goals prevented by plan.
There is an alternative history for Celtic this season which is even worse than it has been. Can you imagine where we would be had Benjamin Nygren not arrived in the summer? His goals and progressive play are the reason we are still in the title race. Yesterday’s effort was a perfect example of his ability to get into the right place.
He is the best finisher and the most-aware penalty box player we have available right now. A rose by another name is still a rose.
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HH
A win is a win is a win
HH
He a rose from a packed defence to nod in the winner
Can you imagine where we would be had Benjamin Nygren not arrived in the summer?
Well , you can’t expect the recruitment team to be 100% consistent!
who needs a striker when we have Nygren
Bring back Kwon and all will be well
Slim pickings, indeed. Too many average players are locked into starting roles with no real competition from the bench. As much as I want to believe we can win the league, it’s hard to shake the feeling that this team, shouldn’t be the best in the country.
Taking into account bad weather and the plastic , Falkirk stifled us in the midfield, most notably man marking Calum , until later in the game when they ran out of puff.
Getting our wingers to dribble past ( reasonable ) full backs is tricky on the plastic , so we struggled like crazy on the plastic. The option to chip it up to the centre forward , to hold up and bring the midfield into again is tricky as you need to just knock the ball off to a supporting midfielder, or a winger tucking in. Not Daizens game.
If you were the Bologna manager then you would have made lots of notes.
At least we stood firm and held out.
HH
EKBhoy – are you on a supporters bus from EK?
We are flying very close to the sun.
I wrote the other day that with 17 games to play (now16) we could not afford passengers and projects. Whilst acknowledging the pitch, weather etc. unfortunately the performance of a few last night was nothing short of atrocious.
Thankfully we have a virtual gimme at the weekend, but we will not win this league if reinforcements do not arrive in sufficient number and quality.
Organisational plan? Hmmmmmm.
Where was the organisational plan to strengthen the team in the summer? Or, better still, summer 2023?
As I first posted in the summer (and several times since)
“You cannot hope to compete in Europe, if you sell your best strikers and replace them with rumours”
We’ve possibly gone beyond that and are now at the Kübler Ross bargaining / acceptance that Nygren solves that particular problem.
Not seen Auldheid on for a while, hope all OK?
Also, with each passing game we play without a recognised striker, we not only forfeit goals and goal difference but are forced to play someone in that position who looks thoroughly disinterested.
McPhail Bhoy- from earlier, how many replays and different angles did Sky show,for the huns penalty at Pittodrie on Sunday? 1 replay from the original angle,awarded by the cheating Dickinson, added to the KT incident last night.
Whatever the merits or otherwise of the chat about playing personnel, we’d have lost last night under Wilfried. So perhaps we should be grateful for small mercies.
KELVINBHOY
AULDHEID is grand.
Nygren also seems to have missed a few, hit the post or forced wonder saves from the keeper.
A rare success.
He posted on SC 1/2 hour ago!
Thanks to Aipple and Prestonpans for confirming Auldheid is all good.
100% we would have lost last night if Nancy was still in charge. Our ball retention was terrible and we can blame the field but I didn’t see too many of the Falkirk players lose the ball the way Daizen and Luke consistently did. Martin’s observations after the game were very honest, so now we will see if the people in charge are actually going to listen to him. As many people better than me have said, it is borderline criminal that we play week in week out without a recognized striker. As much as we all had a great laugh at the Huns at some point this season, they are not messing about when it comes to bringing in players. I don’t know if those players are any good, but it is giving them different options all over the field. They lose a midfielder to injury, boom, one has been brought in. Hearts are the same.
Anyhoo, got to get back into my classroom and see how Trump is affecting my world. Already had one of my girls on my soccer team have her dad picked up in a sting operation. Absolutely heart breaking, and as a history teacher, it is getting harder for me to not address it in my classroom. Orders from above, keep politics out of your lesson. My reply was this is not politics, this is just pure inhumane hatred.
Hail hail my friends.
Sean
Take care BOONDOCK SAINT.
KTF.
Below is another example of wealthy new owners investing modernising a football club
If Dermot doesn’t want to modernise the football dept, clearly he doesn’t believe in investing
Time for hime to find and do due diligence on selling his stake in the club
Swiss Ramble
Como Finances 2024/25
One of the big football stories in Italy has been the rise of Como as they returned to Serie A after a 21-year absence, finishing in a very creditable 10th place in their first season back in 2024/25. To date, this season has been even more promising, as they are currently in 6th place, very much involved in the race for European qualification.
The team has often dazzled under its young coach Cesc Fabregas, who was appointed head coach in July 2024. The former Arsenal and Barcelona midfielder had previously been part of a coaching partnership with Welshman Osian Roberts, while he completed the required UEFA badges, which worked well, as the dynamic duo led Como to promotion from Serie B.
Wealthy Owners
Clearly, much of Como’s success has been built on the substantial financial support from their owners, the Hartono brothers, who bought the club in 2019.
The Indonesian businessmen are by some distance the wealthiest owners in Italian football, worth around $50 bln according to some estimates, thanks to their investments in sectors such as cigarettes, e-commerce, electronics and real estate.
Management of the club has been entrusted to their countryman, Mirwan Suwarso, who has been appointed president, while Como also benefit from the expertise of a number of minority shareholders, including Fabregas and French legend Thierry Henry.
Transfers Sumer 2025
As an example of Como’s new financial might, they splashed out more than €100m last summer to strengthen their squad, including the signings of Jesus Rodriguez from Real Betis, Nicolas Khun from Celtic, Martin Baturina from Dinamo Zagreb and Jayen Addai from AZ Alkmaar, while Maximo Perrone’s loan from Manchester City was made permanent. In addition, they took Alvaro Morata from Milan on loan.
According to Transfermarkt, this was the fifth highest gross spend in Serie A, only surpassed by Milan €157m, Juventus €137m, Atalanta €126m and Napoli €115m.
In another sign of their ambition, Como actually had the highest net spend in Italy last summer, as their €94m was comfortably ahead of Juventus €53m and Inter €42m.
League Position
Just seven years ago Como were playing in Serie D, the fourth tier of Italian football, so their ascent through the pyramid has been striking. Following promotion in 2018/19, they spent two seasons in Serie C, which incidentally includes 60 teams (three groups of 20), before going up in 2020/21.
It took them a while to get going in Serie B, but promotion to the top flight three years later was still a notable achievement, backed by significant owner investment, allied with good use of data analytics to help recruitment,
Administration
Before the arrival of the Indonesians, Como had suffered many financial issues, even entering administration on a couple of occasions, first in 2004 after two consecutive relegations, then in the 2016/17 season when the club was put up for auction, eventually being bought by the wife of Ghanaian footballer Michael Essien, before getting into more difficulties.
As a result, Calcio Como SpA and Calcio Como Srl have both been liquidated, so the club now operates as Como 1907 Srl, referencing the year it was founded.
New Strategy
Things look very different today, as the new owners have embraced an exciting vision encompassing Lake Como and its attraction to millions of tourists and various celebrities.
Mirwan Suwarso explained the strategy, “It’s really important for us to find a way to transform football into a real business. Football is the catalyst, the gateway, but ultimately we need to create an ecosystem that can support football activity. So, we need to make everything sustainable. A football club in a city of 85,000 people has enormous difficulty becoming sustainable with football alone, but we’re very fortunate to be located in a place where the city itself is a brand: Lake Como is a global brand.”…
The only team with a plan out there last night was coached by John McGlynn. Every player in every position knew what he was doing, whether on or off the ball. And not only that they kept it up for the ninety plus minutes. Terrific use too of their substitutes, some loanees from both Sheffield and Manchester Uniteds, brought on in pairs to keep their overall momentum going. We did well to win, and get back on the nearby M9 with the three points. Wouldn’t play Kellechi at the weekend, not if they are still using a pitch which reminds me of a carpet beaten to within an inch of its’ well worn life. Good news if him and Serracci are on the way back to fitness. Thats one away game of four out of the way, lets see if we can win the second one and get into the next round of the Scottish Cup. No point looking much further ahead than that.
Another day and other leader and still no critique or our executive or board when you may think there is plenty to get your teeth into. Makes you wonder what they would have to do in order to get a grilling from the host?
The performance last night was dire. Clearly a win is a win but that level of performance will win nothing this season. Only saw the last 5m of 1st half and whole 2nd half and apparently we were better in the 2nd than the 1st which is terrifying. On what i saw I would saw Falkirk were at least our equal in most if not all aspects of the game (excluding goal obvs) and to hear people excuse that because it was raining or a plastic pitch is frankly pitiful.
We have a bunch of players who are not good enough or not motivated enough or both. It is spectacular mismanagement and anyone that thinks we are a couple of players away from winning this bang average league is kidding themselves. Poor MON looked shellshocked last night – I would suggest he’s is coming to terms with how terrible the squad has become and how the infrastructure in the “football dept” behind it is worse.
We are a Conference League team ATM and frankly I wouldn’t fancy us to do anything there either and we are where we deserve to be because there were choices about what direction to take and they took this one. If we are to win this league two things need to happen – our opponents will need to collapse and we would need a minimum 5 new, first team ready, experienced, talented and battle hardened professional footballers in place by the weekend.
I have no expectations that any of these will happen – sorry to be so negative but look at what is in front of us. Clearly hope i am 100% wrong and will happily take all the criticism coming my way if thats the case but very difficult to find positives at the moment.
The very top of Celtic has lost the plot and lost the room and it has filtered into the whole organisation – it is extraordinary that supposedly smart people could not see this. One person did but they were bombed out and we were told he was the problem…………….hows that working out for us now?
Selfinfilcted CSC
M17
Thanks Aipple,
Crazy what is happening everyday, all over!!!
Hope things are good for you and yours in Louisville.
Hail Hail.
Sean
Simpson-Pusey played for Koln last night against Bayern with Harry Kane et al and seemed to do well despite the 4 1 defeat.
And he can’t get near the Celtic team ?
BOONDOCK SAINT
As a green card holder I do feel that my wings have been clipped recently.
Outside of the madness all well here.
HH!
PETETHEBEAT re: Simpson-Pusey
Some said he was a little too cocky in the training ground with us?
SWANSEABHOY on 15TH JANUARY 2026 12:17 PM
EKBhoy – are you on a supporters bus from EK?
……..
Trusty Toyota for me
HH
Aipple – I would rather have a player that has too much confidence rather than too little.
He can always be brought down to earth whilst it’s much harder to raise the self esteem of the latter.
celtic end tickets now sold oot for sunday.
should be a good day!
A bit worrying that the old problems seemed to be there again.
The pitch is a bit of a leveler in terms of technique so the basics become even more important and they did them better than us.
We pressed really poorly, they pressed well. We were unable to beat their press, they seemed to know exactly how to beat ours. With a high line and a front 3 it’s essential all three work well and together, Tounekti offers very little, Daizen looked below his best, Kenny looked disinterested when he came on. Press that poorly, give the opposition time on the ball and any team will put us under pressure. We need to work harder at winning the ball back around the opposition penalty box
Not something thats difficult to remedy provided the manager and coaches see it, which they will and the players are committed to it, which they have been in the past.
Any striker we look at has to be able to do both – press effectively and help with breaking a press. Basic goalscoring stats aren’t enough, a goal hanger won’t do.
Finding a way of beating a well organized press will be the decider in whether we win the league or not.
MOISEY17 on 15TH JANUARY 2026 1:09 PM
. We are a Conference League team ATM and frankly I wouldn’t fancy us to do anything there either
…….
Reminds me of the painters sketch “ you’ve taken it too far” ..
Seems to me last night was characterised by a dysfunctional midfield unable to deal with being man marked , a feature of Brendan’s setup , which we usually counteracted by having someone upfront to get us out of jail.
The previous 2 games v Falkirk at home they can’t man marked us on a bigger pitch and our wingers can skin their full backs on a grass pitch … so both games easy wins.
I personally discount any games played on plastic , we just need to grab the points , shower , get on the bus and leave.
HH
A good listen:
https://youtu.be/kiArqxh-Y9A?si=KmA1k_nvkF71KZqK
NOTTHEBUS @ 12:10
Slim pickings, indeed. Too many average players are locked into starting roles with no real competition from the bench. As much as I want to believe we can win the league, it’s hard to shake the feeling that this team, shouldn’t be the best in the country.
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Agreed. A sad state we’re in, indeed.
Can only hope for successful reinforcements.
HH
Never make comments about games on Plastic on a soaking wet night.
Marcus Aurelius.
The organisation was there under BR – it was October before we conceded our second goal in the league.
However a striker is needed, and these results will dry up and points lost without additions.
The decision to dismantle our organisation under WN will undoubtedly go down as one of the very worst in the club’s history.
I think Hearts will probably win the league if we don’t see a significant investment this week.
Is Marcus Aurelius a centre forward ?
Is he injured ?