Celtic Banter Archive October 09 2014

 

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09 Oct 2014 21:32:08
I think its quite known on here i've not been won over by Ronny and i'm happy we have an International break.

We're spent the last couple of weeks going over the diet and fitness of Celtic's Professional Footballers whilst watching them play like a pub football team for more matches than not. I'm definitely not against Ronny's comments regarding diet and fitness and to be honest, do not understand the attitude of any player not giving 100% in this area particualry in this day and age.

I do not believe however that Ronny did inherit a Sunday League Pub team, he inherited a team that were defeated just once in the league last season and scored 102 goals. Where are this team - Ronny's missing Forrest, Matthews, and Lustig who are all his right field players. Brown was missing for the Champions League qualifiers which were a disaster having been put out twice.

He persists with this 4-3-2-1 for whatever reason and I can find no explanation for it, anyone?

I put in a post the other day about Johansen, Ronny's player at Stromsdogset, he's now awful and weak.

The 5 loan signings, how can Ronny build a team with this? Is this the Board?

Is Ronny a stranger at the Club he manages - not good!

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Missing the 4 players you mentioned along with samaras (although inconsistent was better than what we were left with) was a major issue for squad when Delia took over and this has been reflected in results.

The board has a lot to answer for here and their reluctance to address this matter by backing Delia and giving him a decent transfer kitty, has cost club £20m in lost revenue by not qualifying for CL.

I'm beginning to think its not the diets that the problem, more the coach responsible for fitness. Reason i'm saying this, is fact Shrewsbury was complaining about Atajic last season and Notts County mcgregor.

My only issue with Delia is his formation choices, but I think he will get it right.

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I personally don't think the formation is the problem. I mean Mrs e thinks he uses a 4-3-2-1. Others on here complain about him using a 4-3-3. Others complain about his use of a 4-2-3-1 (for the record the latter is the one I thought he used). All these formations and the much sought after but rarely used these days at the highest level 4-4-2 or even lennons 4-4-1-1 with commons behind the striker (which certainly got the most out of commons last year with his 30 odd goals) should work perfectly well for celtic especially domestically if the players attitude and fitness is right simply because we have better players than the other teams. Attitude and fitness for me are bigger problems than formation-either that or I'm wrong about having better players than the other teams in which case were we just punching above our weight last year? If that's true then Niel Lennon must have been an immense manager. He is starting to look like a better manager every week without doing anything. Markiebhoy

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October is a huge month for Ronny, dropping 10 points in his first 8 games is not an average that can continue.

He's losing the fans having been booed already 3 or 4 times, the team look disjointed and totally unmotivated.

I don't think any fan has an issue with him improving diet and fitness but he must do his part as the Manager/Coach of a team that have been Champions 3 seasons in a row.

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Mark for me the formation is a problem and the one striker in domestic games - it could get him the sack.

At this moment in time its not working at all, not even close!

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I understand what your saying mrs e, but the point I'm making is that last season domestically we strolled it, record clean sheets, plenty of goals, nearly 100 points and we played pretty much with one striker all season. We are minus samaras who wasn't a first pick and plus 4 or 5 players, so playing one striker worked last year and should this year. Also I think one of the Edds made a good point about how most teams keep the same formation both domestically and in Europe, just tweaking them a bit, we don't have the players to play 2 strikers in Europe (certainly not away) so are they just expected to slot into a formation seamlessly for Europe? Markie

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I agree Mrs E;
I have not been very impressed so far and am mystified why it all seemed to come together against Dundee Utd - for one game only - then we went several steps backwards.
I truly hate having to change managers like we did with Macari, Barnes and Mowbray - after a short stay, as it makes the club look silly and unprofessional, but the standards at Celtic have been allowed to slide for several years and it has caught up with us with a wallop.

I liked the new ideas and theories of RD as we do need to move with the times, but we also have a winning mentality and expectation which seems to be missing at present.
Entertaining, attacking football would be fantastic, but first we have to gain a level of teamwork and graft that will give us some consistency.
One of my main concerns in achieving this is the amount of loan players and the usual handicap of numerous long term injuries to the same players.

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I agree Jim, I don’t think changing Managers in a short space of time is good and I am not calling for Ronny’s head either.

His ideas and theories are spot on but its not working so far in practice and it has to or else it all just becomes nothing more than a good idea. If Ronny cannot get results and performances soon, then he might as well just be reading from a modern football manual which is something anyone of us is capable of.

Mark, I see I did write 4-3-2-1 but you knew what I meant lol

The Europe debate for me is completely different and also involves investment. How can we say this team that played on Sunday needs a tweak to compete with Real Madrid (Ronny’s Bale and Ronaldo example) – that one almighty tweak

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{Ed007's Note - Nobody's said the team on Sunday only needed tweaked to compete with Real Madrid, what RD is trying to do is get the team playing the same system in every game, that's what most teams do, play to their own strengths. Could you do your job as well or type as easily on a Dvorak or Colemak keyboard layout if your work asked you to do it once every two weeks but they wanted you to do the same amount of work as people still using Qwerty?}

10 Oct 2014 19:08:11
Ed, how is he trying to get team playing the same system, when he keeps making changes,ie, players/formation.many times has a first 11 started consective games??.

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{Ed007's Note - What? I'm not sure what you mean, teams use a lot more than 11 players throughout a season. However, as I ponder and reflect upon the work of Zhuangzi it is clear that I must provide a few thoughts on the matter of the “formations” that so pre-occupy the thoughts of fans of football. It will be one way that I can prove my worth by opening the door to provide enlightenment for others.

So here goes, it's a two part story – firstly context and how we got where we are with all of these 2-4-1-3, 4-5-1 etc. discussions.
Then tomorrow I will explain about formations and tactics as viewed by two of the worlds most respected coaches (one French and one Dutch) and perhaps just this once give my own perspective of the matter.

SUBBUTEO – THE EVIL MONSTER

EXPLOITING THE GULLIBLE NEARY 70 YEARS ON

Subbuteo began in the 1940s, I always assumed as a tool of a diabolical foreign power or maybe as the creation of the fertile mind of Sax Rohmer? A new opiate for the masses; one that would eventually provide for Fu Manchu’s domination over the pre-apocalyptic children of post-war Britain? Just possibly the eventual socio-economic control of the whole country would be in the hands of the newly formed Subbuteo & Sons company.

The game allowed children the opportunity to play matches with their chums using the dexterity of the index finger and the strategic placement of the figures that represented the players they so adored. It provided a visualization of the crackly post war radio broadcasts live from White Hart Lane or Villa Park on a Saturday afternoon.

A lucky few could accompany their cloth capped father across the cobbled streets of indistinguishable smog-filled northern towns against a horizon of the smoke stacks from the mills - standing empty for the weekend. They could sit outside pubs whilst horny-skinned dock workers quaffed as many pints of wallop as they could afford. Eventually they would arrive at the game, where 65,000 rosette-clad supporters would ferry those lucky few to the front of the stands. They would be carried above the heads like a bucket brigade fighting a fire. At half time they would have the opportunity to urinate through a copy of the Daily Sketch fashioned in to the shape of a cone. Perhaps, once or twice a season, the opportunity would arise to urinate in to an empty lemonade bottle. Something to tell their buddies at school about on Monday.

This is the target audience for Subbuteo & Sons - post-war children who were dreaming of life as a footballer. These players were paid enough to ride the bus to the game on Saturday. Some would be allowed facial hair. They were the ones who deserved respect. All that was needed was a means to capture the attention of their followers and then they could be controlled – perhaps even have them begin to work for the greater cause.

Thus Subbuteo was born.

Cardboard was in short supply at the time so the players were made of lead. After all, lead tasted pretty good to kids, and all scientific research pointed to lead being a good substitute for fresh fruit - and just as nourishing.

From the 1940s until the mid 1960s the Subbuteo experiment continued but did not really reap the expected benefits. All matches would begin with a goal keeper, two full backs and three half backs in front of them. Finally five forwards would line up across the half-way line with two wingers, two inside forwards and a centre forward. There were no strikers at that time – that was a word reserved for those with grievances who opted out of work (on many an occasion) and those dirty long-haired beatnik students. Something had to be done – a radical thought was needed.

Whilst watching the 1966 World Cup, the evil Fantomas (now running the ever growing Subbuteo Corporation) found out that the German side has introduced a new position, that of sweeper; a chap who would occupy the space behind the half backs filling a hole between the full backs. And it transpires that the kids had starting playing Subbuteo by putting one of the players (typically the tall good looking one) in this new position.

Then Fantomas flashed.

It came to him immediately that all he needed to do to control the minds of the children was to invent new “formations” (a term he first coined in June 1966). They would see games on their new black and white televisions and run upstairs to play these new “formations” – eventually they would focus only on this, rendering Britain helpless, devoid of workers and no longer a manufacturing nation. Eventually he knew that the human form would evolve that people would only require index finders and thumbs to get by. (Note: We normally keep this sort of thing within the Illuminati, but this is also the reason why mobile phones are laid out the way they are.)

For the next 40 years Fantomas would attend televised games in order to spread the word – succouring in followers for the system – attracting those who truly do care where players stand just before kick off. If you go back and look at those old games – and look carefully at the crowd - there is always someone who blends in to the background but still manages to get his message across. Meet master of disguise, Fantomas.

You would often see Fantomas as a shaven-headed, lager-swilling, pot-bellied, tattooed, knuckle-dragging oaf shouting just before kick off, “my god, they are playing 4-2-4!”. Sometimes “Never seen a 3-5-1-1 before chaps!”. Occasionally, “4-2-2-2, you think you are Brazil!” would be heard. At Cathkin Park, the home of Scottish football, his lone voice can still faintly be heard on quiet Saturday afternoons “3-5-7-1-2!”.

By 2000 Fantomas, now an old man, had exhausted all possible numerical combinations. Sales of Subbuteo were still good, but for Health & Safety reasons the onset of new designer haircuts had made many of the players too dangerous for children to play with. It was now a game for the over 21s and could only be purchased in plain brown wrappers from seedy stores in Soho (and Lord Lucan’s Haberdashery in the village of Winkfield Row near Windsor).

He needed an assistant, one who could take over from him to ensure that eSubbuteo Inc would remain a powerful world force and that their Tracy Island headquarters would remain secret. He found this beautiful young man with long flowing copper coloured hair. Someone kind and trusting. Someone who spent his days watching Adam West fight-the-good-fight on Betamax. Someone who cared for the feelings of others and would walk the street looking for injured wildlife he could nurture back to good health.

Tasked with identifying suitably gullible people who continue to care where people stand at kick off, a new bright and enthusiastic evil dictator was born. Someone who would gain the trust of unsuspecting football supporters by promising them that their clubs would be buying all of the best players in the world, by reciting tales of locked rooms under Stamford Bridge full of uncut emeralds, diamonds and sapphires. Silver cases weight down by the gold they contain. Piles of money in all currencies known to man hidden in kennels across the South of England. And a small thermonuclear device.

He would toy with them letting them discuss formations and then delete their posts. Eventually he planned on herding them to one room on a web site where he would unleash iSub, a place for them to hang out and discuss where they have seen players stand immediately before kick off. “I noticed the right back, although stood in the correct position, was staring at the left winger, which is unusual. I decided it would become much clearer why he did this when we were well in to the second half.” “Although it looked like a simple 3-4-1-2 it was obvious before the start that our inverted number 6 meant we would be playing both a number 9 and a false number 9”.

His work was done. They had been herded to the iSub and their hands have nearly complete evolved in to having just thumbs and index fingers. They could still of course fulfil both major needs of the modern day football fan. Flicking a Subbuteo player and sending a tweet/text message.}

10 Oct 2014 20:04:17
Wow!! Iam speechless, how do u respond to that?? 😱

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{Ed007's Note - (finger)

09 Oct 2014 21:24:15
Reader's poll: who wrote Roy Keane's book for him? Actually, I'd settle for: did he write it, or did someone else.

The grammar he's displaying in the recent propaganda suggests a very well endowed editor, to say the least. Not that I'm casting dispersions. Well okay.

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{Ed007's Note - His latest book was ghost-written by Irish writer Roddy Doyle, the previous one was done by Eamon Dunphy.}

Roddy Doyle is a well known author of fiction and is very well suited to write this book.

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{Ed007's Note - I've never heard of him, Chris, I just checked the cover when Rabbie asked. There's not many footballers could write their own book.}

10 Oct 2014 13:40:08
Ed, Roddy Doyle wrote a few books that were made into films, The Snapper, the Van and possibly the most famous, the Commitments.

Roy just tells his stories and Roddy then makes into something readable Rabbie.

For me Roy Keane was a player of limited technical ability but he was an outstanding footballer. Possibly the best footballer in the early days of the premiership. He had it all. If you were in the trenches and looked over your shoulder and say Keano there with you, you knew you had some chance.

I'm amazed that he gets so much sticks on here. Maybe if he told more lies or said what people like or want to hear, but no Roy says it as he sees it. It's called honesty and integrity, sure he'd never make a politician!.

In Manchester and Cork and probably further afield, you can find Roy involved in a lot of charities and visiting lots of kids hospitals etc. One condition though, it is not publicised. The only people who have convinced him to publicly front their charity is the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. He has done some stupid things, somethings he regrets others he doesn't but he has earned my respect as a player but foremost as a person.

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{Ed007's Note - You don't need to convince me lol Roy Keane is my hero mate, he's my favourite sportsman of all time. My grandparents and 6 of their 7 kids left Cork for Manchester in 1951, and then a year later my dad made a surprise entrance to the world before they moved to Glasgow in 1969/70. I still have family over there so I know all about what Keane does for the local community and on a wider scale. The proceeds of his testimonial went to the Guide Dogs for the Blind. I've had it out with a few Man Utd fans over the last few days on their site as well who seem to have forgotten everything he done for the club.}

10 Oct 2014 14:56:13
surely this is not the same Roddy Doyle who wrote the commitments and the van, lol

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{Ed007's Note - It seems to be!}

N Lennon is also deeply involved in charity work.
It's probably in the nature of Irish people to be generous with their time for those in need .

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{Ed007's Note - That is very true. I know for a fact that when NL played for us he paid for an entire boys club kit (strips, trackies, bags, nets, balls etc etc) for a team from Motherwell and used to appear at every POTY dance for the club, it wasn't a CFC Boys Club btw. The guy running the clubs dad used to scout Motherwell and when NL had trials with them he stayed with them and he never forgot how well he welcome he was made to feel and treated by the family. He done a lot more but that's all I'm mentioning, I actually only found out by accident, a guy I was friendly with when I worked in the engineering game son played for the boys club and him and his wife invited me and my Mrs over to a presentation dance after we donated some prizes through work.
For all I know he might still finance the club in the same way, it wouldn't surprise me.}

09 Oct 2014 21:07:52
Question! If you had the choice to sack rd just now wld you do it and who would u bring in?

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Foolish to sack Deila at this stage, I think he may be doing many things wrong but it would be terrible wrong to sack him without giving him a reasonable period of time.

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09 Oct 2014 09:58:54
I posted yestrday that we should all get behind Delia, despite our own misgivings, as he is manager of Celtic Football Club and us the fans must back him while he is in the job.
But I heard Frank Macavennie say that he was told by officials at the club that Ronnie had gone on a 7 day holiday to Marbella, yes I am aware a few of the players are away on international duty, but surely he should be using this time to work out his future strategy for the club. I also heard Delia himself say at the previous international break a month ago, "he needed a break as it was hectic" so he has had 2 holidays in 2 months, I am worried he cannot cope with the stress of managing Celtic and think the stress will only get worse in coming weeks and months.

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If he's been on two holidays in two months then that is a bit of a joke. I only get two holidays a year, and my job isn't that hectic!

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Maybe he's looking for another job?
I know a lot of the players are away, but there must be work he could be doing with the other players - especially those constantly injured and look at ways of getting our season on track. I can see very little progress (if any) in the teams performances and results and if things carry on he will be on a long 'holiday' again before Christmas -

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{Ed007's Note - What do you expect him to do with injured players, he's not a physiotherapist or doctor? A lot of players take a few days during international breaks to visit family or have a few days in the sun if they aren't on international duty, other players will go in and work by themselves in the gym or with specific coaches etc and everyone is given a date to return by.
If RD had came out and said he wanted players who weren't on international duty to report for training as normal he would have been slaughtered for not letting them rest or relax and how he is infatuated with fitness blah blah.. no matter what he does he can't win with some people.}

Managers need time off as well you know.

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Here's hoping after a nice couple of days in the sun he comes to his senses and realises he should be playing 2 strikers up front in domestic matches. Trying to implement a system with continuity between Europe and domestic matches won't work in a league of such low quality where no team other than ourself make any impact in Europe.

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{Ed007's Note - Yet it works for every other club, no matter what league they're in.}

I don't have a problem with him having a few days off if there is nothing for him to do, but I think it would be helpful to the club, the fans and ultimately himself if he took his laptop with him and logged onto this site just so he can get a wee idea as to the depth of feeling amoungst celtic fans regarding what's going on at the moment, because I really don't think he has any idea about the depths of passion Celtic fans have for this club. He might even pick up a few things tactically and personnel wise as there seems to be more sense spoken on here than he seems to be spouting the noo! (Well in the main lol) Markiebhoy

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09 Oct 2014 18:04:14
Hes only in the door five minutes , I think there's a lot @ the club he could be doing,rather than suning himself in Marbella, stressed don't make me laugh, mayb if he stopped talking shite in every interview he wouldn't b Under so much pressure.

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{Ed007's Note - So tell us what you think he could he be doing then?}

09 Oct 2014 18:55:26
Maybe working with the fringe players,youngsters, what bout watching some of ar international players, maybe watch all ar games to date, there's plenty of nightmare performances to be studied, take a few classes on how to talk/ deal wi the media, certainly not getting a sun tan.

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{Ed007's Note - It's not his job to work with reserves and young players, that's why we have coaches at the club with specific roles, and how do you know he isn't going to watch a game, he can fly in anywhere on the day of the game, should he be telling everyone what he's doing on an hour by hour basis, maybe we could tag him and follow him on the internet? Does he need to be at Lennoxtown or CP to watch DVDs of our games or work on his own plans, I'd have said he could do all that on a laptop. Why does he need classes to deal with the media, because you don't like what he's saying or because he is being truthful and honest when he talks to them? Being media-friendly is not part of any manager's job description, watching NL should have shown you that, he quite rightly had no time for the press, look at the way Gordon Strachan has spoke to them for years, should they have went on this course you speak of? What had RD done wrong in any his dealings with the press so far?}

09 Oct 2014 18:23:11
ED007 on the subject of injured players, is there any news on when Lustig, Mathews and Forrest can return.
Also did Boerighter go out on loan or is he injured again also?

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{Ed007's Note - Lustig and Matthews should be about ready once the international break is over, Boerriggter is still a long term injury as far as I know and Forrest's groin injury is still healing. That was what I was told last weekend so things might have changed.}

09 Oct 2014 19:58:12
So he hasn't contradicted himself in any interviews, talks about progress,it's not on the footballing side, all this talk about changing the football philosophy and diets is all a smoke screen, he should never have got the job in the first place, but that's life, if he is in the sun, good luck, he will need it when he gets back,

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{Ed007's Note - Do you know what a smokescreen is? You think he's lying that he is trying to change things, are you serious? So what are his real intentions if his talk of change is a smokescreen? Some supporters are talking more about player's diets than RD ever has, their infatuation with it only shows their lack of understanding it or they would have been saying it's about time we modernised our set-up, only in Scotland do people get chastised for trying to improve things.
If you don't think he should never have got the job that's hardly RD's fault, see Pedro about it, that'll be the last 3 managerial appointments he's ballsed up, our trophy haul since 2009 should be much higher and it's an embarrassment it isn't, do you think 5 trophies out of 15, considering Rangers demise, is acceptable?
It's not just Deila that has said about fitness at the club, how many players went on loan only for their new manager to mention how unfit they were, McGregor had to do a whole new pre-season at Notts County, Norwich told Gary Hooper he would need to train more and lose weight even Southampton thought Wanyama would have been fitter than he was hence his fitness and stamina levels needed work.
Have a read at Vider Riseth's opinion on it, would you rather our players were as fit as a Ronaldo or a John Hartson?
Riseth played football until he was 38, John Hartson left CFC and blew it out his ar$e until he retired at 32, whose lifestyle would you recommend to a young player at 16/17?

.Barça bring their chef with them to London.

Real Madrid given food for thought.

A Soccer Player's Diet

Soccer Player's Guide to Nutrition

I suppose John Hartson knows better though, or maybe every other FA and club in the world are in on it and are helping RD with his smokescreen.}

I think you've hit the nail on the head Ed, for years the fans have been crying out for a manager who is honest & tells it like it is, now that Ronny is here & doing exactly that, the fans are giving him a hard time for it! The guy can't win whatever he says or does! It's becoming blatantly obvious that there is an element of the support who are not willing to give RD the benefit of the doubt or the time needed to turn things around. It's becoming a joke the way fans (everywhere) are demanding the head of every manager the minute things get a bit rough, it needs to stop as it's becoming a cancer in the modern game!

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{Ed007's Note - Spot on, I have no doubt there are supporters who want RD to fail just so they can say 'I told you so'. I'm just waiting on the 'Celtic minded' p1sh to start (puke)

I will give him some credit if or when he deserves it, but at the moment I have seen very little in the way of:- entertainment, results, team/player performances and his interviews to convince me he will be a success.
Anyway; can't wait for the annoying International breaks to end and we can concentrate on sorting things out.

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I have no problems with the guy taking a few days away.people saying it shows he doesn't care talk rubbish.i read that his children had stayed in norway? is that ryt ed? If so taking a few days to see his family n recharge isn't an issue.if he chooses to do it while in the sun then fair play

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{Ed007's Note - Yes his kids stay in Norway but RD and their mother aren't together anyway.}

Yes, it is his job. He's the manager of Celtic Football Club: He needs to make the whole shebang run and run well.

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{Ed007's Note - It's Peter Lawwell's job to make sure the whole shebang runs and runs well. Why do we need a Football Development Manager, Head of Youth and Academy, Performance Consultant, Fitness Coach and a Head of Sports Science? I'm actually surprised some people haven't suggested getting rid of the yet, according to them John Collins was going to be doing all of those jobs anyway.
All of these people will have had as much input to any changes as RD, if not more on specific subjects, it wasn't RD who changed the diet, they will have looked at all the available avenues to help improve fitness and the diet problems would have immediately flagged up. Nutritionists, a performance consultant and sport scientists would have done tests and studied it before making reports on what can be done to help the manager reach his goals, RD would talk it over with John Park and it would be implemented and become normal practise because the club can see it is to their advantage to have the players at their peak physical condition, there is NO excuse for any professional athlete not to strive to be in the best of condition.
Most modern players even try to keep fit during the close season so that they are better prepared for the coming season, our players looked jaded in August ffs! The days of 6 weeks on the bevvy and running till you spew in pre-season are long gone.
Have you ever wondered why very few British players succeed when they go to play abroad? It's too much like hard work for them to live their live as a professional athlete, yet foreigners come to British football and usually stand out, Dennis Bergkamp and Arsene Wenger revolutionised Arsenal, players were coming in and couldn't believe the way British players behaved, Gerard Pique has spoke about how shocked he was to see Man Utd players eating burgers and drinking beer. Paulo Di Canio trained the way he played and was very particular about what he ate, John Collins was obsessive about fitness and conditioning as a player, look at the difference in Paul Lambert from Motherwell till he arrived at CP after only a year in Germany, then we have the Kris Boyds, the Garry O'Connors and Liam Millers, they didn't put in the hard work or effort and their careers show it.}

Thanks for putting the football diet up ed.

Can't believe players are actually struggling to adapt to a diet like this.

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{Ed007's Note - I hold my hands up, BB but I love all that kind of stuff, looking at the technical side of the game and reading about the latest methods, that's one of the reasons I am excited by RD's appointment if he is given time. My first choice of replacing NL was Murat Yakin and he would have been doing the exact same kind of thing, modernising the club's approach, Basel are still using a lot of Yakins ideas behind the scenes.
Maybe it was NL's lack of experience that held him back, he only knew how to do it the way he had been taught as a player, times and methods move on and progress, RD has spent time watching Brendan Rodgers and working/studying at Man City.
I guarantee you that a lot of RD's ideas will still be used at CFC after he's gone, no matter when he goes.
RD is the first manager in years to talk about CFC as a CL club, he doesn't feel we should be grateful just to be in it, he wants to make his an our mark and become a well organised, hard to beat team and with energy, fitness and desire to match anyone. Not once did he moan about English teams can pay X amount and we can't compete with the Man Citys of the world but we should be competing with the Basels, the Maribors, the BATE etc etc. He talks the club up rather than moan what other teams are doing, why should the money EPL teams have make any difference to CFC, do teams in Belgium, Spain outside the big 2, Swiss teams or Scandinavian teams use England as the benchmark? Apoel Nicosia reached the CL quarter final in 2012 and went out to Real Madrid, not once did they mention what money English teams were spending.
We need to stop making unrealistic comparisons and start concentrating on our club rather than what anyone else is doing. Big clubs make their own way and concentrate on improving themselves.}

So Ed, can you tell me exactly what RD's job is?.

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{Ed007's Note - He's the first team manager, in charge of first team affairs. It's modern football, the days of managers running the club are long gone. Even Mourinho doesn't have the final say at Chelsea, Liverpool have a committee that decides transfers, and Barca just promote a coach that will keep the ethos of the club in place while tinkering with it to be successful.
RD is one cog of the machine that is geared towards bringing success to CFC, we already know he doesn't hold much sway when it comes to player acquisition, it's his remit to work with the people here to improve the team, improve players already there and any incoming players. He's told us he is trying to do it and told us some of his ideas, he has a proven track record in producing players (between 2001-2007 not 1 Strømsgodset player earned a youth cap for Norway. However, in just 5 years under Deila, the figure reached 179).
Come the end of the season if we haven't reached my expectations I will be ranting away but RD deserves the time and a bit of leeway. Are the stats really that bad when compared to recent years? Wait and see the trophy count and progress at the end of the season, we lost to Accies and that was a freak result, but remember the performance against Dundee Utd? We know the team is capable of that, they showed us.
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.}

Because of his record at Stromsgodset, at bringing younger players through, should'nt one of the main parts of his job at Celtic be keeping an eye on the younger teams and liasoning with the youth coaches, I've nothing against him having a break, but this week would have been a perfect time for him to spend a bit more time working with the younger players.

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