Celtic Banter Archive October 24 2011

24 Oct 2011 19:12:42
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24 Oct 2011 14:59:03
The start of the season has been decidedly underwhelming for Glasgow Celtic, as they sit ten points off Scottish Premier League leaders Rangers after just ten games, and lurch in and out of the Europa League like a drunken street brawler, taking demoralising blows against almost all opponents.

It seems, like in the Europa League, where Celtic were reinstated after Swiss Club FC Sion were found guilty of fielding ineligible players, they might be gifted some unbelievable luck in the SPL too should Glasgow Rangers’ case over a 49 Million pound tax bill go against them.

That would almost certainly force Rangers into administration, a result that would see them suffer a point’s deduction.

While Rangers ‘bullish new owner Craig Whyte continues to insist that he is confident of winning both legal cases currently facing the club, you would be forgiven for thinking the Revenue do not undertake such cases lightly.

But the ‘misunderstandings’ faced by Sion and Rangers have merely created a smokescreen for the downward spiral occurring in the East End of Glasgow.

Despite a very promising end to last season, lifting the Scottish Cup and pushing Rangers all the way in the title race, they now find themselves adrift in the unfamiliar position of third place, four points behind the mighty Motherwell, albeit with two games in hand.

Previous Celtic teams would never find themselves three goals down against Kilmarnock in the first place, so the team cannot justify celebrating an unlikely comeback in any fashion.
It seems to me that this season the dire European campaign is a distraction the Hoops could do without, with Rangers free to concentrate fully on their domestic campaign. It has not gone un-noticed that each of Celtic’ three defeats this season have come after European games, a trend that was curbed on Sunday when they beat Aberdeen 2-1.

At the heart of the current crisis, is, as usual, a chronic lack of foresight and investment by the current board. With Rangers having been in financial limbo for the last few seasons, Celtic matched their cross city rivals self destruction by expensively courting the man no one else wanted, Tony Mowbray and then, letting him rip the heart out of team before quickly and ignominiously departing.

As a result, Lennon was admittedly left with a great deal to do upon his arrival but the initial impetus his passionate approach brought has died down and reality has set in.

The current squad is simply not good enough to compete on a domestic level, with the dead wood cleared out by Lennon replaced inadequately by bargain basement deals from the Championship.

The days of rubbing shoulders and competing with the likes of Barcelona and Milan in Parkhead in the Champions League seem like a very distant era.

We’ve all heard endlessly of the lack of TV money in the Scottish game, but if Celtic wants to ever return to the lucrative stages of European competition, investment is a must.

Not surprisingly, revenue was down last year for Celtic, partly due to the briefness of their European involvement, and Celtic surely cannot rely on the enormous loyalty of their fans forever.

It is a remarkable testament to that loyalty that the Hoops can rake in so much from season ticket sales year after year.

But that will surely change should Celtic fail to even compete domestically this year. With their hands firmly in their pockets, the financial “prudence” of the board may finally kill the golden goose that is the twenty million or so from season ticket sales.

we welcome the chase

Blue bells are blue

A thought blue bells were a violet/purple colour pfft {Ed007's Note - I thought they were 'Young at Heart'}

He may mean bells that ring? that happen to be blue?. Or bells that are a little explicit in their nature, but that implies that bells are sentient.

To be fair the article he has posted isnt far from the truth if at all!

Evinguu. {Ed007's Note - It was a well thought out and well put post, if only we could get other Rangers fans to enter a discussion.}

Your right Ed, is a very good post, not much to argue with. Why i said not far from the truth if at all. And we all need more people willing to have sensible constructive conversation across the divide and get some bloomin ideas or impetus back into scottish football! fan power can still count for something.

That said puts my long post reputation to shame lol

Evinguu

Thank Hugh keevins

Lenny {Ed007's Note - Hugh Keevins couldn't be as intelligent as that.}

It is the reality of not only Celtic's situation but also of Rangers....unless I'm mistaken they are out of Europe & won't be rubbing shoulders with Barcalona etc for a while either.

I would love to see a few stand very much corrected if Celtic do turn this around...

Bo he isn't, the poster has lifted this from an irish publication - i read it there yesterday. He has taken out the final line of the article in which the writer states he hopes Celtic sort it out so its by a fan or at least a sympathiser.

Lol...I was quite flattered as well that he had went to soo much trouble to assess 'our' situation

Was going to say this is blatantly copied and pasted.Without doubt written from a Celtic supporting perspective that is acutely aware of our situation and is correctly concerned by our performance on and off the pitch.

Although I don't agree with being "gifted some unbelievable luck." They have undeniably been involved in financial doping and will be found guilty soon so why is this luck. I prefer to say we were unlucky to have devious,immoral and unscrupulous peepil running our mortal enemy. Most times you get what you deserve and I hope they really do get what they deserve for cheating. However nothing excuses on how Celtic are performing in every aspect of the club.

However its payday on Friday.YAAAAS

Albowski56

"The current squad is simply not good." Essentually this is the same squad as last year. There have been injuries and loss of form but to make a sweeping statement like that is a bit bold.

"The days of rubbing shoulders and competing with the likes of Barcelona and Milan in Parkhead in the Champions League seem like a very distant era. "

Now repalced with the days of rubbing sholders with Athletico Madrid and Udinase. Two good teams.


"Not surprisingly, revenue was down last year for Celtic, partly due to the briefness of their European involvement,"

But now we get Europa League money



"But that will surely change should Celtic fail to even compete domestically this year. "

Remind me who are favourites for the League Cup?

IF we win the game in hand then we are 7 points behind. Celtic have lost bogger leads than that and so have Rangers. Too much of the the "Crisis" is paper talk. Yes we need to get the defense settled and I'd be 7 points ahead then behind, but there is a lot of football to be played yet

David

24 Oct 2011 13:46:47
Kayal,should try and play football instead of his attitude problem,conned Celtic for a new contract, Ki jumps on the I am keen to stay at Celtic,he thinks he is worth a new contract and he has still 2 years to go on his old one,I Listened to yesterdays game on the radio,Ki was gettiing accused of looking tired after about 60 miniutes played, at his age he should be able to play 2 games a week,Loovens,unfortunately injured again,Forster can not jump or dive for a ball,Hooper not as sharp as he was last season,has he recovered from his last ankle injury,?Majstorovic,no pace,slower than a week in jail,Neil Lennon and his backroom staff,getting found out now on the players they have signed,and it is going to be a long season a head for all Celtic supporters,Will Neil Lennon last the season,I have my doubts,Get Gorden Stachan back if possible.

24 Oct 2011 11:33:06
Gday all.

Think all that needs to be said about the game has already been said. Im just glad to get a result and get that Euro hangover monkey off or backs. But to be honest a professional football team should be able to play 2 games a week!! im sorry if you cant do that and struggle fitness wise then you aint fit enough! look at tennis players! yes i know different sport, but takes a lot more out of you than a football match! and they can go 5 times a week!! but that is a different arguement as we did have the fitness to get through altho they did look rather tired and sluggish for periods.

Anyways heres a wee thought..

Did the SPL miss a trick before we as a nation went through devolution?? By this i mean they could have challenged all the deals being done with SKY for the EPL TV rights. By going to the competition commission. And stating that it will have a knowckon effect to our league and national team ( which in my view it has) to try and get a bit more investment?

I feel they did miss the boat a touch here as they could have put a spanner in works of the monolith that is the EPL. That said nothing can be done now. But i think something could have been taken to the Competition Commission ( or whatever they are called) as it is basically a monopoly of the whole game in the whole of the UK.

Anyways. Sorry to read you were ILL ed, hope your feeling better. Although yesterdays result probably didnt help you eh? lol. Ohh poor Mancheter United getting a humbling. Had to happen sooner or later though.

Evinguu

Iv always wondered about this too. The thing is that of course they are fit enough to compete twice a week, the thing is (and anyone who has played at any level will back me up) wen you play two competitive games and train full time u always pick up wee knocks that dont stop u playin u just play thro pain, train light for a day let it heal and ur fine for next game but wen u play 3 days later u cant really train lightly so ur still carrying wee niggles into matches. Now couple that with the fact that 9/10 in scotland anyway the opposition hasnt been playing midweek so all their players get a full week to recharge and let any wee niggles fully heal. Now u cant say that the fully fresh team will not have at least a slight advantage?

I aint saying that players aint capable course they are (if i was then they are) but u cant expect them to play at the same level they would if they had a weeks preperation as oppose to 3 days (sometimes less because of travelling).
You cant compare it to tennis cos usually the opponent ur playing has had the same amount of matches in the same amount of time but you do see some players having the advantage of having an extra days rest than their opponents and at times this can be a huge difference.

Germinator

The signings made in the summer were horrific & yet again..rangers managed to dig out a decent defence.

I'm all for playing the Celtic way but the Lisbon Lions had big Billy McNeill for a defender !

Get it sorted...

Your right Ev, this is when you find out how good your manager is - when things go wrong..injuries etc. Crying out for an experienced head - Chrissy

Fair point Germinator. But surley it is then upto the managers and coaches to ensure they are not carrying these niggles through to the next game by ensuring enough recovery time etc. recovery time is of course a big must, Im just using the tennis example as people who in my opinion are some of the most elite all round athletes on the planet!

I feel at my level of fitness i could manage 2 games a week altho i prefer to play floorball than football ( much more fun IMO). These guys are payed thousands a week, to keep themselves fit for possibly 2 games of footie a week, and they struggle!. Other sports around the globe too dont seem to have this problem. look at NHL ice hockey, teams can travel from washington to LA and play to games in 2 days! Yes they average 20 mins ice time a day, but the physicality of that game and the chance to pick up an injury is tenfold jigher than football.

When you compare EPL players and SPL players even the levels of physicallity and general fitness are wayy much higher than up here. Conditioning in spl clubs is lacking, celtic and rangers included. We are even behind the times in this aspect of the game too. Although getting better. Even when you look at players for the national team who play in england, they look in much better shape than those who play in scotland.

Anyways going off there. I think 7 days is plenty of time for 2 or 3 games to play and recover, i think teams make training too intensicve when they should be more relaxed after these midweek games. and maybe we would see an improvement.

Anyways. no time to re read this, tinny window open at work.. hope it makes some sort of sense.

Evinguu

When Rangers have to cope with injuries and players form dips , we will see how they do , i'm not putting this up as an excuse , but it has not helped Celtic being without Izaguirre , Brown , Kelvin Wilson to long term injury as well as several others being out for periods over the season , whereas Rangers have had only David Weir out long term , he is 41 and probably would have played sparingly anyway .

24 Oct 2011 09:49:13
Been thinking about it all night(sad i know) but Lennon should do the decent thing and walk before this season is gone. Its almost away already and there is no way we are good enough to put a run of wins together. The players are not playing for him and Forster is to blame at back. Does he have to wash his own top? Is this why he wont dive?

Joeshmo1888

In previous years I remember how sad I was when Billy McNeill and Tommy Burns were relieved of their position as manager, as they were Celtic legends...
If NL wants to keep the love and respect of the support then he should step down.
He has made too many mistakes - and learns little from them and his blind faith in Foster, Ki and Dan (and Samaras) is costing us dearly.
Yes, he has had injury problems, but all managers have this at some stage and it is how you cope and provide cover and balance within the squad that counts.
The squad he has assembled has not progressed at all since last season and we appear to have players not giving 100% for one reason or another and that cannot continue. Please take a long hard honest look at the big picture Neil?


Jungle Jim