06 May 2013 23:01:21
Player of the Year / Young Player of the Year / Manager of the Year Awards.
I'm not at all surprised our guys didn't win any of these. There is a lot of jealousy towards us and that's just the way it is. However I can't help thinking that Lenny is at least a wee bit responsible for it too. His confrontational "in yer face" behaviour does nothing to win friends or influence people outside of Celtic and it is at times like awards ceremonies that the small minded folk in Scottish football get their chance to stick 2 fingers up to him. Don't misunderstand me, I think he has been great for us and I love his enthusiasm and passion, but his PR skills are a bit short of the mark. If he can cool his jets a bit and take the heat out of situations from time to time then he and the Celtic players might just get the recognition they deserve.
Hail Hail
ChrisBhoy {Ed007's Note - NL should start by getting off of Twatter and concentrate on team matters. I disagree with you about his PR skills, he's a football manager not a pop star, managers aren't there to be liked, they earn respect through their actions and treatment of players etc. There is far too much emphasis placed on having to pander to the MSM or you get portrayed as an ogre.
Banning certain reporters is a complete nonsense and totally embarrassing, if you are holding a press conference for anything then you are open to criticism and questioning from the press, you are inviting them to do it. You can't and shouldn't control the press, that is the problem with our MSM, people have been controlling what is reported for years and the fans are so confused they appear fickle, everything good about CFC is true but anything bad is supposedly made up.
Anyway that isn't really relevant to your post but I feel that managers shouldn't worry about what is written and said by the media, one of the things I admire about NL is he will speak his mind, but he can't take the huff when other people do the same. PR doesn't keep a manager in his job.}
Celtic Banter Archive May 06 2013
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06 May 2013 17:55:36
Dundee's Scot Gardiner calls for new league set-up in Scotland
--- Who? --not a word from this guy, then the day after his club is relegated (club or company!?!) he comes out crying for change. What he's really looking for is money from the better more deserving teams. No big parachute payment this year mate.
Almost as bad as a manager, jakey bombed out.
The penalty was the correct decision. Seasons are not lost on one referees decision. There's also more games to go to drop more points. So every loud mouth point was wrong, wrong and wrong again.
The ten signatories for an spl2 are looking for a hand out. No more. Tell them ok an spl2 but no more money than current sfl1 and they'd run a mile. They want to take rather than contribute something. They want parachute payments, more spl1 money and play offs with more chance of three teams getting into spl1. But what exactly are they bringing?
There's also the possibility of a dark cheating con trick to get sevco into spl2 by jumping 14 other teams. Or am I just cynical or paranoid? Or both?
Talking of sevco, hearing things are not too good over there.
06 May 2013 16:09:07
On the Manager of the year award. I don't doubt that Johnson has had a great season from a queen of the south perspective, but the seasons beat manager?
What criteria did the voters use here? The facts are he is manager of a second division club who gained promotion, granted in some style, and won the Ramsdens Cup. This trophy is for lower league clubs yet is cited as an achievement by Johnson supporters.
Is this more of an achievement than gaining a top six slot in the SPL? I would think not. Surely there are managers in the top division who achieved more?
Neil Lennon; League cup semi final, CL last sixteen beating Barca on the way, Scottish cup final. Also, managing a huge club with huge expectations.
McCall;Guided his team into Europe for the second season while working on a shoe string budget. On their day a difficult team to play against.
Butcher; Pretty much had to build a team from scratch using lower league English based players, Again on a very tight budget. Another difficult side to play against and had a couple of great runs during the season.
You could even throw Jackie McNamara into the mix. Took thistle to the Ramsdens final and laid the foundations for their promotion to the SPL. Left to manage Dundee Utd, pumped sevco out the cup and gained a top six finish.
And Johnson achieved more than these guys? It is a very strange decision for me. green jhedi
06 May 2013 16:01:18
just had a look in at ibrokes for 10 mins. the lowest crowd ever for a Manchester United legends game. big gordon mcqueens half time interview. it's great playing in front of 20 odd thousand crowds. obviously still double vision from the sauce gordon. 15,000 max.
40,000 less than us last season . of course this is a dig at them, won't deny it.
bigger picture though. last year we paid 10 + 5 pounds. they are paying 17, 13 + 5. drop prices more people go. and more people spend more money when they are there. better to have 60,000 paying £15 than 30,000 paying £30. shammy
06 May 2013 14:38:45
I see clown prince Gascoine playing to the knuckle draggers in the Thistle Hotel at the weekend. Twice he imitated his old flute playing routine to the great delight of the crowd who responded by indulging in banned loyalist songs. Wonder if Sneaky and the rest of the gang were there to lap up the entertainment. DH
06 May 2013 11:14:36
So winning the Ramsden Cup on penalties is seen in Scottish football as a greater achievement than guiding your team through CL qualifiers then on to the last 16 beating the best team in world football in the last five years. You couldn't make it up. DH
06 May 2013 10:55:27
It says a lot when Celtic are snubbed at SFA awards, then the winner is arrested after winning it and the young winner was charge with racist tw*ets and causes his manager no end of trouble, despite being a good footballer.
Yet Wanyama can get to the Champions League last 16 and there are other Celtic players who should have been considered.
beebee
06 May 2013 10:33:53
Any news if Celtic are closing a stand this year due to poor attendance, would not be surprised but already the rangers fans are seeing this as a sign. if so fair enough as attendance has Ben dropping. at least our ground is still ours
06 May 2013 09:17:36
Well done to Michael Higdon on winning Player of the Year, the 29 year old has been consistent and is the SPL's top goal scorer.
Leigh Griffiths on Young Player of the Year, ach not for me. I'm still disappointed Adam Matthews was left out.
Celtic had a magnificent Champions League campaign and the SPL table does not lie, we are the best team in Scotland but consistency has been a problem for most of the players.
In my opinion (and its okay if you do not agree) Neil Lennon is in an impossible position thanks to the demise of RFC. It does not matter what he does, until there is a Club that can match Celtic financially, he will have his doubters. Celtic could have got to the last 8 of the CL and won the domestic treble but it still would not be good enough.
This for me is a very lazy and just too convenient excuse to slate Neil Lennon but hey that's some folk for you, they can't really form their own opinion.
Celtic and Neil Lennon single-handily kept Scottish football on the map with that run in the Champions League this season and will be one of the main reasons the SPL get any decent sponsorship.
Celtic were in a group with the CL semi-finalists and the Europa League finalists and held their own, quite comfortably even though financially they are miles away.
I never seen the Ross County game yesterday, my Son plays football on a Sunday but my jury is still out on sending players on holiday. Will it be worth it if we qualify for the CL next season? Of course it will. I see fans moaning that they pay good money yesterday and don't deserve this hmmmm, what does this really mean? Manchester United lost yesterday, did their fans deserve that? Pogba got sent off yesterday for spitting, did Juve fans deserve that at their title party?
I posted last week that I will judge Neil Lennon next season as like it or not, this season has been ususual with that absence of RFC who have been Celtic's greatest rivals for over 100 years but one season is enough to adjust.
This season is nearly history now, Celtic are the best in Scotland. Next season, I WANT a better goal difference and more points than this season in the SPL. If we don't then No, it will not be good enough! We need to sort the defence out and a spark in midfield.
If Celtic have missed Rangers (or some form of them) at least we can take comfort in that, it won't be half as much as they have missed us ;-)
Mrs E
06 May 2013 02:08:40
Just wanted to mention something about the amazing reach our club has with the world. My old man was knocked off his bike on his way home from work and ended up in hospital with a punctured lung. He's ok and in good spirits, so I took him in a Celtic scarf and a puncture repair kit :) to cheer him up. Anyway, a young Chinese doctor with a thick aussie accent came in to see him and noticed the scarf draped over the bed. He said "Oh The Bhoys! You guys like Celtic?" My Dad said "Yeah mate how do you know Celtic?" He replied "Oh I love football, they're a great side, much better now The Rangers are bankrupt" We all laughed Dad included, until his ribs reminded him why he was there!
Made me realize anyone you walk by on the street, whatever their background or occupation, are drawn to our magnificent club.
Melb Bhoy
05 May 2013 23:34:34
Commiserations to Dundee on their efforts to stay up.
I did think their manager was rather tasteless and classless in his ill advised decision to verbally attack his nearest rivals St Mirren over the last few weeks. Uncalled for.
Danny Lennon in contrast has shown professionalism, calmness and dignity. A much better example. True Leadership.
05 May 2013 22:05:41
According to the latest chatter things are getting hotter in sevconia. Alex Thomson has a new article on them next week, and apparently there is a meeting scheduled for the board tomorrow, on a bank holiday? A Mate said he had heard that their investigation revealed that Green owns the dust bowl and Murray park through a company he owns. Remember the Tuesday rumour ED? Interesting. green jhedi {Ed007's Note - My birthday, International Star Wars Day and Meltdown 2:Zombies Suicide all in the same week... Even I don't have that luck.}
05 May 2013 19:17:53
How's it going Ed - As the season draws to a close I anticipate quite a few comings & goings over the next few months, I suppose I want your opinion on how much you think we will spend in the close season in new players? Hope the powers that be show a bit of ambition and back Neil Lennon this year, we both agreed earlier in the year that the board did not give Neil the financial support he was looking for. Now that he has delivered in Europe it will be interesting to see how much of a war chest PL makes available. {Ed007's Note - I'm not a great believer in judging players solely by their transfer fee Ian, it's more about their quality, there are a load of good players out there that wouldn't cost the earth. I think the most important thing is getting value for our money and in that I have 99% confidence in the scouting system to find the right players and 110% confidence in PL to haggle over every penny.
I said it last year that the fans and NL had delivered their part of the bargain, it was up to the board to keep their part and they failed miserably.
After the money the club has made this season, (and even more so if we qualify for the CL next season) there is no reason that CFC should miss out on players over a couple of grand a week, surely with the rise in revenue, the cuts to the wage-bill with players leaving, new sponsorship etc etc we could break the £25k a week wage barrier for the right player.
PL can't keep asking the fans to stump up money if he is going to spend it on the likes of James McFadden, but I also wouldn't like to see us splashing out millions on signing players just for the sake of it. I would rather see our young players given a chance.
One player I would like us to go back in for is Bjorn Bergmann Sigurdarson at Wolves or push the boat out for Adem Ljajic at Fiorentina.}