27 Jul 2016 07:34:11
So here we go with the annual toys out the pram blame game . Why is everyone so desperate to make the champions league to play against team's with 30 or 40 times our budget or more, it's a horrible competition that the big boys have designed to make sure they are the only ones that can win it , look at the list of winners from the last 20 years all elite clubs from nations with Europe's top tv money . The competition means nothing to me and if you offered me a quarter final spot today or a league and cup double then i would take the latter everytime.
27 Jul 2016 08:02:36
Well put, I love the Champions League games myself but I reckon I see them through rose tinted glasses. Stacked deck right enough but we have had some great nights, just think people have a bit of a recall bias towards them and forget the awful nights.
27 Jul 2016 08:12:42
Can't believe what I'm hearing.
CL is the competition and yes it's hard to win or even get there but nights like Barcelona at parkhead in front of 60k and winning is historical. Can't think of many teams who have beaten the teams we have at parkhead.
Personally I would take these nights over a league cup win against hibs.
27 Jul 2016 08:48:45
Woop de doo we beat Barcelona, and yes it was a great night and I was cheering as loud as anyone that night, we play them again on Saturday and if we beat them again we win exactly what we won that night, nothing diddly squat, the record's from that season show once again we got papped out on our arse when the elite clubs got serious . I'm not asking you if you would rather win the league cup, I'm asking if you would rather win six in a row or make the quarter final of the money grabbers league , if it is the former as it would be for me , then tonight's game is not a big deal and is nowhere near as important as some of you are making out, I wonder where some of you were during the 90s when I would have given anything just to win a league title , are you old enough to remember when big Pierre scored against Airdrie to win our first trophy in SIX long years, I celebrated much harder that night than I did when we beat Barcelona, did some of you just start going to the games when martin oneil took over?
27 Jul 2016 08:49:43
We'd just be as well chucking it listening to you fab. Porto (under Mourinho) won the Champions League the year after Seville. Athletico have been in 2 finals and have brought in more money with selling players than they have spent. So in comparison to what Man City/ Chelsea, or PSG they should have no chance according to you. It's also bizarre you chose to say that straight after Leicester winning the league, surely to God that shows that shows that you should never stop dreaming. Just because we were rotten in Lennons last year, and the 2 under Ronny doesn't mean we can't improve. I think if we could get money for Johansen, Biton, get rid of the chancers like Commons, who only spoil the atmosphere, and the dead wood then we can get better. The more I think about Toure the more pleased I am - he looks in great shape, he only turned 35 a couple of months ago. For a centre half that's not old, especially one who doesn't drink alcohol and eats well. If we can add another 3/ 4 players of quality then who knows! Bottom line, - we shouldn't be losing 6 goals to Barcelona, or losing 5 against Juve just because they have more money/ play in better leagues. When we beat Inter in Lisbon we were huge underdogs. When we lost against Feyenoord in 1970 we were huge favourites. That's how it should be - nothing is a given!
27 Jul 2016 09:13:35
Porto was more than 20YEARS AGO and you use athletico as a stick to beat me, a team from one of the elite leagues who regularly buy players at 30 and 40 million pounds? Then you go back to Lisbon and Milan when the only thing that remains the same about those competition's is the trophy you win at the end of it, I would love it to go back to those days of one off knockout ties but it won't, why because it's all about the big elite teams making money , oh wait I think this is where I came in .
27 Jul 2016 09:17:22
Fab are you saying win league but don't enter us in europe as we don't want beat by better teams?
27 Jul 2016 09:25:25
Oh wait one more thing you say we were rotten in Lennons last year and ronnies two, so when we were good, how far did we go? The last 32 . You keep dreaming and I will enjoy the titles and cups that we can and do win, while you enjoy dreaming of real toying with us at the bernabeu or the glory of Bayern only beating us by one at the Allianz, and if you really lucky we might get a result at home against one of them and finish second in the group, oh the joys .
27 Jul 2016 09:36:56
For those even discussing this I'm confused and surprised after the abuse Rd took from so called Celtic supporters as unless br wins the treble, qualifies for the champions league and plays attractive football then he's out of a job at the end of this season as going by the majority of posts last season that's the least that was expected, unless of course br is given more time because he is Irish.
For me I enjoy european nights so long as we're competing. If were not then it doesn't interest me in seeing us getting pumped, however I want to continue to dominate domestically while improving the squad etc year by year to help compete in europe, be it el or cl. how well we do in Europe is down to mainly how well the board support the manager as well as players actually playing for the jersey, anybody not should be dropped and sold, sacked or let go immediately.
If you look at the games we failed in last season, namely malmo, Virgil was at fault for at least 2 goals which cost us qualification yet he was given no blame, anybody who disagrees watch the games back as he was caught sleeping at 2 corners we conceded from which if we didn't concede we would have qualified, then he had the cheek to leave due to no champions league football.
27 Jul 2016 09:43:47
And what's Pierre scoring against Airdrie got to do with it? I've been going to the games long before that, - off the top of my head that was the year after my favourite player Paul McStay missed the penalty against Raith Rovers. Those were dark dark days, and if it wasn't for the maestro then we really would have been as well chucking it. Is it too normal to want to do well domestically and even OK in Europe? Oh and by the way all the fans, are yourself included I'm sure are still talking about the Lisbon Lions 50 years later, - I don't know many who are talking about a few Skol Cup's we won 2 or 3 decades ago! So yes Van Hooidonk scoring that goal was great, I still see McKinley's cross, and Peter Grant on his knees at the final whistle, and Tommy Burns smiling, it doesn't define me as a Celtic supporter though!
27 Jul 2016 09:53:30
Absolutely not deep river the problem I have is with the idiots who think tonight is the pinnacle of our season and start recrimination and abusing, Dermot and peter lawell if we don't qualify , its not tonight is a bonus for winning the league last year, if we make it great, if not then so be it, it won't be the end of the world, now if we don't win the league I will be devastated , that's the important one imo .
27 Jul 2016 10:04:58
I'm not even going to discuss it with you fab, - there's something far wrong with you. You're even making things up now - Mourinho was only at Porto for a couple of years and it wasn't more than 20 years ago, well not in my world! And I was meaning relatively when I mentioned Athletico (compared to PSG, M City, etc) You're actually embarrassing yourself now. Away and splash some water on your face and sort yourself out!
27 Jul 2016 10:12:30
And yet now all these years later delphic the definition of our season is whether we can win the annual game of Russian roulette to become cannon fodder for Barcelona and real, yes I would rather WIN the league cup than be in the champions league just to make money but that is not the point, the point I was trying to make is that all the people further down the page who have started calling out our chief executive and the board already, before we have even kicked off, are treating this game as the be all and end all of the season, it's not .
27 Jul 2016 10:17:23
What's the point if we don't want to play the best teams.
Having said that if bayern get there way we won't be in it at all so be careful what you wish for.
27 Jul 2016 10:20:16
Bigshaw wasn't Ronnie given two seasons? Can I ask if you feel his team regressed or progressed in his second season? And just for the record he quit, he was not fired . And I'm pretty sure if we don't do all the things you mentioned some idiots will be on here and on the phone ins demanding his sacking , as sure as night follows day .
27 Jul 2016 10:29:54
I'll make it a little more simple for you! Porto won it the year after Seville - that wasn't more than 19 years ago. They won it in 2004, that makes it 2024 in your world fab. You've cheered me up if nothing else! It was going to be a long day at work, I'll just think of you and it'll cheer me up. Thankfully I didn't read your post earlier though, otherwise I wouldn't have got out of bed, - I would have just stopped living, knowing that there was never any chance of surprising anyone, punching above my weight or doing too well. Ambition - how stupid of me!
27 Jul 2016 10:56:14
Sorry Porto won it 14 years ago, real, Barcelona, real, Bayern, Chelsea , Barcelona, inter, Barcelona, man u, ac Milan , Barcelona , Liverpool, PORTO, ac Milan , real, Bayern, real, man u, real, Dortmund , juventus . A list of the world's richest clubs? A list of the clubs who make the most tv money? Could quite conceivably be either but no it's the teams who have won the champions league in the last 20 years, no coincidence that the same names would pop up on all three lists, and since Porto won it they have re invented it to make it even more impossible for teams outside the big leagues to win it and are looking at ways to stop the teams from the smallest countries even getting in it . It's a competition for the sole purpose of making money from mugs like you for the biggest clubs and tv company's , while your day dreaming of Lisbon and Porto they are stealing your cash . Get it back to a two legged knockout competition and we can all start dreaming.
27 Jul 2016 10:58:50
And hopefully the Red Imps didn't read your post because they'll have boarded up the stadium and all jumped off the rock!
27 Jul 2016 11:25:27
Who have the red imps got in the next round?
27 Jul 2016 11:29:24
How are they making money from mugs like me? I might be a mug, but I spend money on what I want, and when I want it! You're obviously just in a bad mood, is it the time of the month? I want Celtic to do as humanly possible in every single thing they enter! They got to the knockout stages during the years you mention so I don't have a clue what you're raving away about. I'm not demanding they win it, purely they put up a good show and do justice to the club. You're one of these primitive, intransigent fans that isn't interested in anyone else's thoughts, and that's cool, but I live in the hope that we can do well again. We know about the monopoly of top teams/ top leagues - you're telling us things the 10 year old kid in the street knows. In life things change, there might be other opportunities with teams like Porto, Ajax, Benfica, Olympiakos etc etc. We're not the only huge club with the same pressures/ restrictions, but it's alright to keep thinking and hoping there might be better days around the corner! If it doesn't happen that's fine, - that's how life works. There's being pessimistic, there's being realistic, then there's being you!
27 Jul 2016 11:33:11
That's who your comparing Celtic to a once proud club, feared throughout Europe, now reduced to scrambling around far flung corners of Europe trying desperately to bag a restricted view seat at the big show by the very competition that you think is so great, I give up end of thread .
27 Jul 2016 12:12:14
Fab. Your saying you don't want us to enter cl because we will get beat 🤔.
So if we enter transfer talks with a player and they ask what are our ambitions are we say, oh were looking for a title push and league cup semis.
What about European football, nah that's not for us we don't like getting beat so we don't bother.
How can we slag the board for lack of ambition when your just as bad.
27 Jul 2016 12:55:07
No tick never said anything like that, please read the posts I have made on the thread before commenting, I said it is a overrated , overhyped competition , which the people further down the page should not be using as a gauge to judge our season , if we qualified it would be a bonus and people should stop bumping there gums about peter and the board spending money to get there, just to play couple of glamour games in a competition we have no chance of winning , our sole focus should be 6 in a row , even if we qualify, we should rest players for the league games, after all as everyone else seems to think it's all about the prestige of playing in it even though it would be almost impossible to win it .
27 Jul 2016 14:33:23
Fab1888 read my post at no point did I say Rd got sacked, he quit because of morons who call themselves Celtic supporters constantly giving him abuse no matter what he did, good bad or indifferent and felt with the current squad couldn't do much else (funny how br comes in and is allowed to get rid of whoever he wants, you can guarantee lawell has had to give away some of his power in those circumstances) . We were cheated out of a treble in his 1st season in charge (Inverness handball shame as well as Craig Gordon selling the jerseys again, but no doubt that's rd's fault that lawell signed a goalkeeper who wasn't good enough for us even in his hey day) and in his 2nd the same happened again pretty much against county we were robbed and the players against newco let themselves down and the fans more so by putting in a woeful performance despite which we easily should have won that game, but missed chances Roberts and Griff at the end both should have been goals. As every decent manager says it's small details and that's what happened there but clowns will tell you different. All this despite several trouble makers causing issues behind the scenes to the point where some players were playing for the manager and others weren't giving a toss, if they worked in my work they'd be sacked immediately. I certainly don't think we went backwards under Rd, we had European football in both seasons and his record is no worse than Lennon's, despite Lennon being given a better quality of player, he won 3 trophies out of 6 which 4 someone who was given utter dross players, Allan, ciftci, ckrichards, etc as well as being given no influence over who came in and who left, which allowed trouble maker commons (he who threw his toys out the pram under Lenny as well) to stir things up to the point one of our best players in Kieran Tierney almost took things further, as well as having to modernise not only our football club, youth structure, ethos and mentality, sports science, diet etc I'd say he did a great job under those constraints not to mention having parks pet Collins forced on him and getting no backing from the board.
I agree with you that any bad performance or result will be widely criticised however already people r giving more leeway to br than Rd ever got, ed007 already made this point however since Rd joined Celtic it was it we lose this game he should go, if he plays Ambrose he should go, if he doesn't do a treble he should go same as relating to Europe to the point where last season folk were on here saying these next 3 games or this next month is make or break time, that was happening constant. I can't think of many other Celtic managers who took more abuse than Rd.
I was at Celtic Park, can't mind who we played and I was literally arguing with folk for shouting abuse at our manager, I thought for a minute I must have been at the asbestos dome, then next thing some twat giving it about big Isa, hey you go with him as well hen, total embarrassment some folk even claiming to be Celtic fans while doing that.