Celtic Banter Archive October 10 2020

10 Oct 2020 22:05:36
This has got out of control again with outbreaks across Europe and yet meaningless United Nation matches are being played.
It’s bad enough Armstrong and Bitton have tested positive when they haven’t left the UK.
Next month the Scottish players travel to Serbia and then onto I think Slovakia and then finally Israel within 6 days.
Surely that can’t be allowed to visit 3 different countries in 6 days with the ways things are.

10 Oct 2020 23:57:19
I'm astounded this testing nonsense is still getting taken seriously, has it not entered anyones head that if all those football players are being told they're positive ( a profession which is very rare) imagine how many joiners, brickies, plumbers, shop workers and office workers would be positive if tested 🤔.

10 Oct 2020 23:57:46
Buzz the Celtic players simple have to be told they can't go. The club pay their wage not Scotland.

10 Oct 2020 21:18:03
Ed

How are you? Hope all well with you and yours and that you're enjoying your weekend.
I was away a cycle today ( time to think) and I couldn't get " football today" out of my head. The inequality, the unlevel playing field, the lack of governance, the greed, the poor attitude of many players enjoying obscene wealth, the number of powerless managers and all powerful owners backed by sovereign wealth.

People are quick to say footy is a business OR you can't stop progress etc BUT I am not convinced that your average fan actually enjoys the game as much today or considers the future of the beautiful game positively.

When you have disloyalty and dysfunction and everyone and their granny ( managers and players) wanting to move heaven and earth to get their seat at the table in the Pub League, the whole topsy turvy nature of the game is very off putting.

My mum, who knows little about football but obsesses about celtic was asking me why I thought lots of relatively young players wanted to leave our club and I explained that were once we were a stepping stone for top talents we are now a stepping stone for emerging talent, ie the bar gets lower and lower and the quality fare that we observe diminishes every year, but to what end exactly?

All these players across the world but only one Pub League and the promise of spain, France, Italy or Germany. And now Qatari leagues and chinese leagues throwing 10m per annum contracts at players.

How does the game become less stacked, more honest and, dare I say, more enjoyable. The enjoyment comes when all teams have a fair to middling chance of winning any given game or cup competition. When 10 domestic teams could conceivably win a league. It has always been, for me at least, the thrill of the unknown combined with the art of the possible.

I'm not too sure what we can do to re-set, but the disparity is now so great that the game has become horribly lopsided with players able to switch off and switch on from one week to the next, or show bad attitude to force a move. And they are getting younger and younger and showing more and more contempt with agents mixing it.

Celtic is a domestic juggernaut, but in reality, we are a very small insignificant unimportant entity with no hope of European relevance.

The more people I speak to about the game I'm hearing that more and more people are turned off and tuning out.

Sometimes I wish there was a second tier, governed by another entity that isn't fifa or uefa, where there are rules around contract lengths, transfer fees, salary caps and the like ( similar to NFL) but where all participating clubs begin on a level playing field . difficult to do with clubs " technically bigger and more popular" than other clubs but when mega clubs like celtic, rangers, ajax, feyenoord PSV, red star, galatasaray, Porto, sporting, benfica, anderlecht, dynamo Kiev, spartak Moscow, steau, panathanaikos, olympiakos and the like become canon fodder to the likes of RB Leipzog, PSG, and Man City then what is the point?

If FIFA and UEFA exist for the good of the game, why has the game, as we know it, fallen apart?

10 Oct 2020 22:26:08
I enjoyed reading your post Lubo.
I thought C. V would’ve changed the amount of money clubs throw about on transfer fees and I’m surprised a cap hasn’t been issued on the obscene contracts the players receive and demand.

{Ed007's Note - It's agent fees that need to be looked at before players' wages, at least the players are doing a 'job' week in and week out. Ed002 tells us stories about what agents want that are eye-watering mate.}

10 Oct 2020 23:35:29
It's probably a silly question, but why do players need agents?, in the olden days, you changed your job if so and so would pay you more money for doing the same job, in my view, agents are parasites leeching of other people's hard work, I think footballers need an anti agent movement, the footballers will be no worse off, and in most cases better off, just say no to agents.

{Ed002's Note - The agents find clubs for the players, arrange sponsorship etc.. The players do not have the contacts to be able to do that on their own.}

10 Oct 2020 23:59:32
Interesting Aindoh . but perhaps agents fees should only be paid ( or held on retention) and only paid where a player honours a minimum percentage of their contract, ie say 60% of the contract term . so a 5 year deal. the agent gets their fee or the lions share of it in month 37, ie after month 36 .

11 Oct 2020 02:19:08
Whats absurd is that McBurnie gets paid 1 million per year and he is rank rotten.

11 Oct 2020 00:04:34
So what you are saying Ed, is that the agents stir up trouble between the player and the club they are contracted to, by suggesting they should leave their club, by enveigling a move to another club, that will pay the player more and the agent a lot more, in my eyes, these guys are the lowest of the low, I say banish them from football, let the footballers grow up and handle their own affairs.

{Ed002's Note - Obviously I did not say that and clearly you are struggling to uderstand how the game is run.}

10 Oct 2020 19:01:23
Heard there that nir Bitton has C.V.

10 Oct 2020 21:19:13
All the best to the big man and I hope he's back soon. Just as he was starting to play well after his injuries. On
the humouress side Ryan Jack should self isolate for 14 days after being in the big mans pocket during the midweek game.

10 Oct 2020 21:54:26
Has any more of the Israeli team got it?, I know there is an incubation period of 5 or 7 days or whatever, before you show symptoms, but once you are infected, i. e. day one, do you test positive?, I won't be going on a plane any time soon, because I think a plane is an easy to spread environment, for the virus, so I suspect that all it takes is for one plane to have a dodgy virus cleaning system and it could be spread to players that got on the plane testing negative, did Armstrong fly up for the game?, anyway just a theory.

10 Oct 2020 18:49:03
It looks like biton has now got C.V.😡.

10 Oct 2020 18:43:19
Another quick one ed and all

I watched Norway Serbia highlights

Ajer was number 3

You tube highlights

Have a look at our Kris . he was absolutely shambolic

I wonder where the idea came from about his defensive qualities.

If any one gets a chance, take a look at Serbia 1st goal. and if you look at every serbia chance, big Ajer is horribly culpable

I don't see improvement

Young, naive and a born ball watcher . and yet we see him as a key man

I've never understood it

I think bitton is a better defender

Ajer has qualities but for me, if he is the new " standard " then I worry about Management's judgement.

10 Oct 2020 20:27:58
First and foremost Ajer is right sided and does all his best stuff on that side of the pitch. He is not good enough in the air defensively to become a quality centre-half. His attributes, athleticism and stamina make him an ideal Midfield player - or at least a right back.

10 Oct 2020 21:04:34
I've said it all along Ajer is a defensive midfielder, never a CB.

10 Oct 2020 21:57:37
Ajer was always a midfielder, when he signed for us he was captain of his previous team where he played in the "Broony" role. It was Rodgers who for some reason decided the boy was a CB, just like he did when he decided to retrain young Calvin Miller as a LB.

11 Oct 2020 08:26:57
Been saying the same for 2 years now celtic mad hh.

10 Oct 2020 15:45:01
Jason Leitch from the Scottish Government has announced the fans who live nearby the stadium will be the first to be allowed back in.
Celtic will go by the post code on your season ticket details.
I looks like that will still be a long time away.

10 Oct 2020 11:24:30
Edouard could still have a chance to starting next Saturday.
The other International players won’t be getting much preparation until the day before the game anyway.
It will depend on his fitness.
I don’t think Edouard will play the full game because he has only played 90 minutes once so far this season
The decision will be to either start Edouard or bring him on.
I’m sure he will be involved in some capacity.

10 Oct 2020 11:33:03
Buzz it will also depend on fitness or lack of, Griffiths and Ajetti and Klimala, all 3 are at different stages of fitness and Klimala plays for his U21 side Wednesday I think so hope he comes through game OK
Lennon has some tough calls to make come next weekend.

10 Oct 2020 11:44:29
Tim because of our forwards fitness issues and the 5 substitutions rule,
I expect to see all 4 strikers playing their part next Saturday.
If all 4 players played their hearts out for 45 minutes each, that would easily do the trick.

10 Oct 2020 12:12:12
Was just going to add that Buzz; I am sure NL has learned enough about the timing and impact of the new five subs rule and as well as having the top first 11 in the SPL, we certainly have the best subs.

10 Oct 2020 12:29:25
How is Edi doing anyway?, has he got any symptoms?

10 Oct 2020 13:04:22
I don’t think he has aindoh.

10 Oct 2020 18:46:47
Klimala to start for me

Eddy will be too tired to play!

10 Oct 2020 08:18:31
Sorry make that there’s no midweek fixtures available until next year.
Scotland are playing 3 games that week on November 12th,15th and the 18th.
If Celtic beat Aberdeen in the Scottish cup Semi final we will definitely be 3 games behind when we visit Ibrox on January 2nd.
That’s why it is vital to win this game on Saturday before a massive lead appears.

10 Oct 2020 21:16:09
The 11 point massive lead never happened that was predicted. If we gub them next Saturday we will be 2 ahead with a game in hand. The pressure will be all on them and we haven't even hit second gear yet.

10 Oct 2020 07:40:10
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Review Of The Day 9th October 2020