I was disappointed for St Johnstone at their exit from the Europa League last night but not for Scottish football, or our coefficient points. Saints are a provincial club in a very rural part of Scotland. You only have to travel through the hills to Perth to realise that pocket of Scotland, with its tractors, knitwear and wellie boot shops, has no God given right to beat a team from any municipality anywhere.
They have done very well for the last couple of seasons, from a tiny catchment area, but managed to reach Europe by pipping Dundee United, who ironically were good enough to have key players poached midseason.
St Johnstone don’t have potential superstars, they are also the oldest team in the league, which gets you through a long campaign but they are never going to sparkle. Or earn Scottish football a hatful of coefficient points.
Dundee United were decimated by the loss of those two players midseason, and were done no favours with the shadow of uncertainty which enveloped backroom and boardroom for months, but they, Aberdeen and Celtic are the only Scottish clubs capable of getting their act together to the extent required to reach European group stages. For everyone else, Europe is strictly a July pursuit, so don’t stress about it, and Tommy Wright is well within his rights to talk up his own club.
If Scottish football wants to get all introspective about last night, we should concern ourselves with concentrating resources on clubs who are independently financially viable: Dundee United, Aberdeen, Hearts, Celtic, Hibs and maybe Dundee. If more of our sponsorship and TV money went to Aberdeen and United and less to the thirty-or-so hangers on, they would be better placed to consolidate their development work and compete in Europe.
Celtic are five days away from their opening competitive game of the season, so I would think tonight’s friendly against Davie Moyes’ Real Sociedad will be the last strenuous exercise the players go through after what will have been a taxing first few weeks of preseason. After this workout it should all be about recovery before the visit of Stjarnan on Wednesday. The usual caveats apply to Nadir Ciftci, if he looks like he couldn’t run upstairs, he’s about where I’d expect him to be right now.
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The ole Utd one two
Yes yes yes Nadir second touch an assist:)))
Ciftci on for LG – Leigh must have burned up 2 boxes of teacakes in his stint !
Gooooaaallll GMS
Bit of mis-control by Ciftci but he has his first assist
Good goal
Celtic 1 Basque Friends 0 yesssssssssss
There’s two Bobby Maddens.
First one sees any contact by Celtic player a foul.
Second one allows typical SPL thuggery against Celttic.
GMS 1-0
Assist Ciftci
Made in Dundee
Well, some start to Cifci’s Celtic career. GMS scores from his pass. (A wee bit lucky, me thinks.)
Is the mad Ottoman on?
Intae thum!
HH!!
Beautiful left foot shot from GMS after Gonads, thanks Boylo83, flicked a ball to him in a tight position.
the way this game is developing I’d like to see a few more subs
we cant afford any injuries for Wednesday
HH
GMS puts Celtic ahead with an immediate ‘assist’ from Cifcti – 1-0
Evening Timland from a hot hun free mountain valley.
No bad, less than a minute on the park and an assist.
HH
Yeooooooooooo
HH
Corner Celtic on left
I must say that the commentary is shocking george is murder and they other guy is worse
Hello this is WEE BGFC. Going mental in Brussels. YEEEEEEEEEEHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
HH
WEE BGFC
Go Nad one on one with GK who saves.
Should have been a goal
Celtic have an extra gear
second half much better
… young darnell giving us some energy … seems like the sort of player that RD (and the fans) would like ….
already, Ciftci looks like the sort of focal point we need for the 4-2-3-1 that RD likes to play ….
think RD will disagree, but I would like to see ML at centre back with DF at right back for wednesday…
BT
George’s speaking voice may be a bit uncultured but he is speaking some sense.
Great stop by their keeper denies Shifty !
Ciftci nearly scores after some lovely football from Celtic.
Chirpy caught offside
bmcuwp
Some say stop talkin about politics….lets talk about Celtic or football.
Some say the more posters posting, the better.
I liken this place to the pub.
Talk to people like you would to their face.
1 thing i wouldnt expect in the pub is for someone to blank me if i said something to them but thats what some folk do on here.
Scratch my head at times and think whats the point.
Lovely passing move sees great save on Ciftci by keeper
ffs yeeeees
Id like to see Janko
Tony
black/white
COYBIG
From Gran Canaria. Well done GMS once again. Good start Nadir!
who is running the book on how many different spellings there will be for ciftci’s name this season on CQN … I’d go for 25!
Bring back ole Archie ‘weetabix heid’ MacPherson for the CTV commentaries!
HH!!
Madden penalizes GMS. Wrongly
Madden true to form.
Hun cheat
The enthusiasm of GMS is a pure joy.
Even better than Cha Du Ris smile
Janko on for GMS