Celtic Banter Archive August 25 2013

25 Aug 2013 20:16:45
An news or names on the striker and the other players representatives who are coming tomorrow Ed?

MikeyBhoy88 {Ed007's Note - Nothing Mikey, sorry.}

25 Aug 2013 18:12:59
Ed, why r we looking at bannon? Where will he fit in & who is dropped to accommodate?
Don't understand this rumour/ possible outlay.
We've a CF to fill, all money should b channeled at that. CHs, van d & mulgrew for me. As for midfield, wanyama gone but we've got to go with what we have. As I say at beginning, bannon, why? Stevo dundee {Ed007's Note - He can play in the middle or on either wing so it is competition for the likes of Forrest, Commons and Boerrigter in the AMF positions.}

25 Aug 2013 18:37:37
Thinking about Wednesdays team and it seems we have some injury doubts, so here is my team if Forrest, Boerighter and Stokes do not make it.
Forster
Lustig, Ambrose, Mulgrew, Izziguirre,
Mathews, Brown, Rogic, Ledley,
Commons, Samaras
Subs. Zaluska, Myokoula, Watt, Balde, Boerighter
and Forrest (if 50% fit)

Hopefully either our wingers are fit enough to play some part, maybe even bring the Dutch guy on 2nd half. But if not Mathews has the pace and the attacking ability and crossing ability to play right midfield.
My other formation would be drop Rogic to bench, put Commons there and shift Sammy to left wing where he is happiest and put Balde or Watt upfront.
Thoughts guys? Timalloy

I hope I am wrong mate but I think Sammi might be a waste of a shirt in midweek. He will have nowhere to run, they will pack their half for sure.Possibly he might be used to suck them in and get a pass off, but can he be trusted to do this? With every injury it starts to look like the Europa for us and that would be a joke as this team are easily beatable. green jhedi

I'm thinking a 3-5-2 maybe Tim

---------Forster---------

Lustig Ambrose Mulgrew

Matthews Brown Ledley Izaguirre
Commons

Balde Watt or Samaras

Although, I'm not sure who to play up front and depends on injuries. Would love to see Boerringter involved but don't think he'll start.

We cannot afford any lapses at the back or it will be a mountain to climb. I reckon they will have 1 striker up against 3 Centre Backs but to an extent Lustig and Mulgrew can go a bit wide but not wide enough leaving Ambrose on his own. I thought in the last game, Scott Brown was almost acting in a sweeper position. Let Ambrose do that this time, if necessary.

I think we need the attacking options of Izzy and Matthews almost in the wing back position as they are going to defend stubbornly.

I would go:-

GK

CB Sweeper CB

WB WB

CM CM
Commons

CF CF

Or something like this, I don't know if i'm any good at these formations lol ~ Mrs E

I don't really see this thing everybody sees with Rogic? Personally I wouldn't start him in a game of this importance. I've backed wee Forrest loads of times on here but I'm running out of excuses for him, the wee fella clearly isn't fit and is trying to play through the pain barrier. One player I would love to see fit for Wednesday is Borrighter, think he could be our secret weapon. Ian L

I agree with Mrs E- I think we should be going with a 352 on Wednesday.

Balde Stokes

Commons
Izaguirre Matthews
Ledley Brown

Mulgrew Ambrose Van Dijk

Forster

Given that we need to score, we really should be going with two up front. I think Samaras should be on the bench, with Watt, as potential game changers if the game is dragging- but of the four strikers at the club, I'd stake my money on Stokes grabbing the goal/s.

With Commons in the hole, and Ledley and Brown working the middle of the park, we should have enough in there to press pretty high up the pitch, and given the fact they are likely to pack their box, our flanks, in an attacking sense, aren't as effective- so using both Izzy and Matthews there gives us an out, as well as pace in defence if they break.

And finally, seeing as they played one striker, we could use Mulgrew and Van Dijk in there, with Ambrose giving support to both defence and midfield.

I'm unsure if Derk is fit, but if he is, I'd keep him until they tire- and a double change of Lustig and Derk, would turn the above into a fairly attacking 442.

The Patient

25 Aug 2013 17:38:16
I think our transfers will go like this if we beat karagandy we will sign finnbo if we lose we sign pukki

25 Aug 2013 13:59:06
I think rogic will be our new cam this year, with more regular game time he will be our new young star he looks a classy player. I know every one is cAlling out for a new cam but what's the point in buying and not giving a bhoy with so much potential the time to shine?

SOS BHOY

I agree he can unlock defences. In saying that Scott browns pass yesterday for Matthews was world class. Rogic and Brown CM

Is he fit, as he looks as if he's struggling for breath at times and he isn't the fastest, but he looked good yesterday,,,,, deep river bhoy

@ DRB: For me the problem is Lenny is using him in the wrong place.He needs to be free to just play in the last third.I feel in the engine room of the team he needs to work the length of the pitch too much. green jhedi

25 Aug 2013 13:41:53
Did you know that the lads and lassies in cp on math day that serve in the food stalls can't keep their tips! Has to go in the till! My niece has just started there, not happy about that

I'm op. actually she gets 7.50 an hour so that's fair, I was a bit too quick to pull the trigger there. HH joe

Quite right too . If those pesky fans would have bought another 7 pies and 3 bovrils we would have had enough money to buy Fingaboson . DH

Disgraceful. I am amazed that we still out source this. Any one with any business sense could run an operation that only works one or two days a week. When you consider the discounts involved in the volume of purchases a bloody fool could make money.

Anyone who has attended a major 'ball' game in the states will tell you how amateurish and inept our catering facilities are.And they wanted to sell beer! God knows what a shambles they would make of that. green jhedi

Well said GJ. The income generated is massive, yet when this subject was raised at the last AGM, Lawell made a joke, as if this was a petty request, Surely in this day& age someone or company can realise there is a HUGE profit too be made doing it the USA style. Also the quality is still pi$$$$ poor. steff

25 Aug 2013 12:35:26
Is it just me that thinks the fee involved for Gareth Bale is obscene!

Financial Fair Play? They currently have debt of about 600m? I was also just reading since 2000, they have spent 780m on transfer fees!

This surely cannot be sustained given the state of Spain's economy.

We can't get Celtic to spend 5m, soul destroying! ~ Mrs E

All transfer fees nowadays in my eyes are obscene Mrs E . The way Chelsea, Man City, Spurs etc are spending money on jumped up nobody's really sickens me . When you read about players wages then read about food banks and poverty in the country it makes you wonder . Some players earn more in a week than some people who work really hard earn in a lifetime . Rant over . DH

I think when you price Bale at over £80m it is obvious the game is in danger of dying altogether. Good player but vastly overrated. green jhedi

Its horrific DH!

No pressure on the player then with money like that involved. Torres was never the same when he moved to Chelsea ~ Mrs E

Torres was rubbish for his last 6 months at Liverpool a bet they were pissing themselfs when Chelsea offerd 50 mil mind you they went and paid 35 for Carroll haha. Davie C {Ed007's Note - It didn't work like that Davie. LFC wanted Carroll and Chelsea wanted Torres. Chelsea agreed to pay Newcastle what they wanted for Carroll and £15 million to LFC in exchange for Torres.}

25 Aug 2013 11:42:44
Is all this Bannan stuff true?

25 Aug 2013 09:01:43
I think that Peter Crouch would be a good addition to our depleted squad. Not sure what he would cost but maybe a loan period would help us out. Any opinions? jk {Ed001's Note - do Celtic not have a wage limit? Only he is on somewhere between 80 and 90k a week at Stoke, so it might be a struggle to get him to lower his wage demands enough.}

Young fast hooper was better for CL than crouch. (But hooper not fast enough) look to Neymar and Oscar for young fast that make the difference.
English football needs a total reappraisal of valuation of players if crouch is on that.
Spend £5m bring hooper back. {Ed007's Note - It would shock you if you knew the money very mediocre players earn in the EPL.}

25 Aug 2013 00:07:25
Sticking my neck out here for criticism, but watching match of the day tonight you've got teams like Hull City and Southampton playing in front of 20000 plus. The Daily Rag slaughter us if we have less than 40000 at a home game FFS! Surely we could bring a massive contribution to a Premiership? What could we offer, let's start at the basics. Every game would bring an exciting contest of a Scottish team against an English or a Welsh opponent. This would create the atmosphere we all love to see at Celtic Park.
Secondly, these players we are or were chasing would be tripping over themselves to sign for us and most importantly, we could more than afford them. But if we had a budget of between 80 & 100 million (what Man U.Arsenal Chelsea etc can currently expect to earn), would we even be looking at our current targets? I think we would actually be looking at bringing in a Wayne Rooney or a Suarez, that is the class that we could actually attract to a club as big as Celtic and if we were in their league, they would play for us, I have no doubt.
Thirdly, we would be as big as any in the top 4. Going with attendance alone we have the second largest capacity club stadium in the UK behind Man U. I also have no doubt this would be full every home game whether it was against Chelsea or Cardiff City.
Fourthly, The away attendancies would also be massively over subscribed, any Premiership sides would be delighted to fill their away section with passionate Celtic fans doing the huddle!
With all these benefits we would be a serious contender in the Champions League, and wouldn't have to lower ourselves to playing 3 qualifying rounds just to get to the group stage. But that is where the problems arise. They wouldn't want another serious contender for the title or even a CL place, it would probably be a good bet we would be competing every year and they don't want this.

This of course is all pie in the sky. It's never going to happen unless UEFA back down and the TV companies demand it, Why would they though? They have, in my opinion, the best money earning football league in the world at their disposal so why upset the applecart?
But before any comments about how we can't beat Inverness at home come in, we wouldn't be playing mediocre teams like Inverness.
We play in the league we are in, we can't change that. But we will never fulfill our full potential being stuck in this set up. Scottish football is crap, no matter which way you look at it.
Still, onwards and upwards eh?
Good luck to our bhoys on Wednesday, our season depends on this win.

BigRab

The EPL is a league fighting above its weight, yes it does have a regular decent games between "big names" but the largest chunk of games are pure tosh amongst teams who if they were playing in your back garden you wouldn't open your curtains to watch. Southampton v Sunderland, hull v Norwich, Newcastle v west ham? Hardly mouth watering. Give me celtic v spurs or Liverpool anyday- and even at that spurs are only a draw because they are playing Celtic.

Jd

Good comments but as we have all said many times, not going to happen. That said, I have watched most of the EPL games so far and they have been poor. Standards have dropped this season.

Which is exactly the point I am trying to make Jd, Sky & BT Sport choose to pump millions into broadcasting those crappier ties in that league. If it was a game between Celtic and say, Crystal Palace, they would be stumbling over each other to show it as it would add an extra interest to a mediocre EPL team. I'm not saying the whole league are fantastic, all I'm saying is they are prepared to pay monsorous sums to show them and we could benefit.

BigRab

The EPL has hit its zenith and cannot develop further. The big countries of Europe with numerous big cities is where there's enough money, big teams to deliver best soccer; Germany, Spain, Italy, France.
English football needs to grow bigger and have more big cities involved. Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen. It's a competition with europe and England is failing and falling behind. We would enhance the game bring huge fan base and more revenue.
Arguably both the Scotland and England teams would improve with better domestic experienced players.

The Liverpool v Celtic friendly in Dublin was huge. What if it was for three points in a league?

No clubs in epl are interested in scottish teams ever entering the english set up. They earn enough money via tv already without additional competition

You say it won't happen unless there us a will. This would be true if you didn't want the upset apple cart but there is a compelling legal argument which could be used to force us in. I've said that all along celtic are speaking to English counterparts regarding this politely but the legal means would get us right in there but any legal process would be long bloody and costly ie bosman {Ed007's Note - And what compelling legal argument might that be? What is to stop Real Madrid, Barca, Juventus etc coming to join the EPL after that or what is more likely is that the big hitters in Europe will form their own European Super League as is there ultimate aim. Every year at this time their club reps meet in Monaco to discuss such moves, CFC are not invited to these talks. So we will move down to England and Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City etc all leave the league, taking all of the TV money with them. Do you think UEFA will want to lose all their main teams from their CL? It doesn't matter that English clubs don't want or need us down there so I have no idea who you think CFC have been talking to but it is nobody that represents the FA, EPL or UEFA/FIFA, all who will have more say than any of the clubs. Teams MUST play in the league of the country where they are geographically based.}

There are plenty of big cities in england who don't have teams in the epl. Leicester, Leeds, sheffield, bristol, etc. They don't have to look elsewhere. Even York has nearly 300k population which means York city could be bigger than Aberdeen.
The only solution, I can see is an amalgamation of big teams from poor leagues. This would be fought tooth and nail by UEFA. Maybe a breakaway is needed? Would need big money.
Yorkiebhoy