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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Henke
Sevconian sympathisers and chelski fans….same difference :o)
Even me?
nctim
Brammer-lea tale
:o)
RICHIE
Better make room for a big yin,Jamesgang is en-route.
Leftclicktic
Bruce Springsteen – If I Should Fall Behind live in Dublin
Celtic FC: 25 Wins in a Row (2003/04)
I accept BMCUWP’s point that, as a left back, he is often up against stronger players … fair point, but it seems teams are able to exploit that against us more than the other way ’round. and it has become more apparent since his injury ….
And had he not suffered the injury, we probably wouldnt be having this discussion…I would be happy for Izzy to stay on as a back up LB/winger even, but I think we need a new LB starter… or a really good youngster, and blood him this year with the idea of starting next season.
hebcelt
15:00 on
10 July, 2015
RWE diarrhea is hereditary – it runs in your genes!!! I’ll ger my coat.
H H H ebcelt
…………………………
hebcelt I want to take tissue with what you incistern saying…oh wait..hang on..
got to ruuuuuunnnnn.
mit,
I think Izzy gives everything he’s got. Like Adam Mathews, he hasn’t been the same since he was injured. With the system our manager wants us playing, we need full backs who can cross the ball consistently. Imo, too often, Izzy doesn’t deliver. He did combine well with Stokes early in the season just past.
MIKEINTORONTO
Izzy is only 28yo. Plenty of mileage in him yet. Armstrong playing in front of him will give him the cover he needs.
Although he could do wi concentrating more when the oppo have the ball on the other side from him,he seems to switch off for crosses from there now and again.
jamesgang/mit,
why not platoon Charlie Mulgrew with Izzy. I know Charlie doesn’t have his pace but I do not think we would lose anything defensively and Charlie is going to see his time limited elsewhere on the park as a natural left footer and scoring threat on set plays and his height on defending corners also would help, Izzy is vertically challenged in this area
HH
gsu
Whoopee !
Work done for the day .Now for a big pot of cold peach tea with lots of added lemon granita – that and a listen to Reese Witherspoon reading the the first chapter of To Set A Watchman..I doubt it will be as good as To Kill A Mockingbird – – but hey ho – you never know – then it’s cycling , cricket and Celtic.
Friday night – way down south
Celtic FC: Champions 2013/14 (3IAR)
GREENSIDEUP
Izzy is 5’10”. I dunno why he seems shorter than that,though he does!
C’mon the Fed Express!!!!!!!
Roger in THREE
Go Set A Watchman.
Sun addled brain CSC – way down south.
Bicuspid … I am shocked to hear he is that tall!
Some good tennis being played … Come on the Swiss (papal) guard!
Bicuspid was supposed to be BMCUWP … Hate autocorrect! Sorry!
Paul67
It’s great to see some of the smaller clubs and their fans getting a taste of European football.
What is s National disgrace is the ongoing and systematic failure of our top clubs to perform in Europe. Hearts & Hibs in particular, have been a huge disappointment in that arena- almost forever!!
The behaviour of the old Rankers in ramping up the ante using other people’s money ( not playing by the rules) and causing the rest to give chase ( still playing by the rules) has wrecked our game for a few generations.
The acceptance of clogging tactics by our referees and the clubs, has killed the development of talent – almost completely.
The clubs have sat back and permitted the SFA to bury their morals & imagination in the sand.
Mainly, I feel the fans have allowed their clubs to accept this abject failure.
A collective approach was needed, but too many local & petty squabbles allowed the vested interest group to carry on unquestioned.
It’s still going on – sadly, it probably always will.
Bloody depressing state of affairs!
saltires en sevilla
Were not Hibs the first British club to get to an European Cup Semi-final?
I could link stacks of vids of Scottish clubs gubing Europe’s best, then along came subscription TV.
Bobby, he certainly doesn’t look that tall, I think it may be his running style. But as Mike in Toronto says, never the same after the injury
HH
gsu
MIKEINTORONTO
So was I-and I’ve been called worse,and not always because of autocorrect.
(Still got the sackcloth and ashes from replying to TINYTIM when I’d just got this contraption)
mike in toronto
16:33 on 10 July, 2015
Bicuspid … I am shocked to hear he is that tall!
Some good tennis being played … Come on the Swiss (papal) guard!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Interesting.
What are you saying when you say “Come on the Swiss (papal) guard!”?
I only probe because I know you are a genuine CQNer.
Closed my eyes and just listened to a point of the tennis … When they hit it cleanly, it sounds like a gunshot. I would love just once to fknow what hitting a backhand like that feels like!
Petec .. A joking reference to roger federer
did u notice how they are having to put a huge bo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhjkPdFyNG8
did u notice how they are having to put a huge bouncer between murrays wife and mauresmo?
just saying.
South of Tunis, I can now understand your dislike of Mick Hucknall after reading your post at 12.20.
Enjoy your Froday night sports night.
I was thinking that Davie Moyes might think he’s in Back to the Future tonight seeing us playing in our away strip similar to one he wore when he played for us.
Murray looks fitter and has more movement than I have ever seen him
HH
gsu
Saltires, I hope your recovery from your cycling injuries is going well.
mike in toronto,
Nae Worries,
Roger slippeed into that Whole Establisment easily, giving Wimbledon the Total Respect.
There are a Multitiude of better players out there, potentially.
HH
Mr N
canamalar.csc
The joys of being a grandparent.
Watching kids playing in the pool on a brilliant sunny day.
Listening to Wimbledon app on iPad.
Celtic game in prospect for later.
And CQN to read.
Did I Jinx Andy?
I just hope someone can get the link to where Stephen McManus tried to defend his area, prone, to stop Celtic losing a Goal against the the the…
What happened to the Adam Matthews money
Good tennis. That was as good a set of serving as I can recall from federer, and still just scraped by!
If Murray hired Becker or edberg, or even McEnroe (all great serve and volleyers) as a coach, he could go on to be a much better player. But not aggressive enough.
bamboo
15:52 on
10 July, 2015
Burgas Hoops
just like the UK government what they say does not always equate to what they are really doing.
Turkey are aiding Isis giving them an open border.
______________________________
What a load of crap mate,a claim made by WESTERN media which has no proof at all.
Despite continuous accusations against Turkey, no evidences have been shown to prove that Turkey aided ISIS or the al-Qaidaaffiliated al-Nusra Front, both of which are listed as terrorist organizations in Turkey.
Furthermore, Western media turns a blind eye to the fact that Turkey has an open-door policy for war-stricken Syrians, and that most of ISIS recruits are citizens of Western countries who can easily obtain Turkish visas.