Celtic banter 2

13 Apr 2026 13:45:27
My midfield till end 9f season if everyone is fit would be mcgregor engles and hatate obviously playing well with ox and nygren coming on.

13 Apr 2026 15:19:58
Engels, Hatate and Nygren for me.

13 Apr 2026 15:53:06
I really can't believe folk are suggesting Hatate should start, he's been absolutely brutal all season apart from the second half against Rangers. Hatate and McGregor would spend the whole game passing the ball sideways to each other, McCowan I admit isn't brilliant but at least he tries to move the ball forward and takes the occasional shot at goal.

13 Apr 2026 17:25:38
Hatate is just the best of the rest for me. There isn’t really any other choice to be honest.

13 Apr 2026 17:38:47
Hatate is showing signs of getting his form back and if he is he is the best in that position.

13 Apr 2026 19:31:58
The choice is McGregor, hatate, Engels, mccowan or Bernardo. I don't include Nygren as he is better as a 10 or inverted forward.

Our weakness and numbers in midfield were highlighted at start of season and we are still waiting for the club to recruit. Same is true of strikers and right winger.

14 Apr 2026 01:49:43
Hatate is guilty of losing the ball too often and too easily. However he's also capable of seeing passes that the likes of the captain doesn't see/ attempt. One thing is for certain, and that's that we need to try something different.

14 Apr 2026 08:59:24
Hatate, like McGregor are effective players further up the pitch but both offer nothing and often give me the fear, as defensive midfielders.

Engels is also our best passer of a ball and would be a better option in the holding mid position.

13 Apr 2026 11:08:34
Looking at posters ideas below of how to improve our goals ratio and improve our tactics

Idea I had was play Ineacho (spelling) as our big target man, we know he has no pace, so get him to stay in and around 18 yard line and tell players to play ball up to him to either hold up until other players are brought into play to support him, or get decent crosses into box for him to attack, also the bhoy Cvanaco (spelling again doh) he has pace so we must find a way of utilising his pace in games.

13 Apr 2026 13:13:36
Cvancara is as slow as a week in the BarL.

13 Apr 2026 13:43:01
When osmand fit get him in boy is lightening quick.

13 Apr 2026 13:44:01
It may be me mixing player up but I am sure when Cvancara first came into team he was a strong runner with pace to burn.

13 Apr 2026 14:00:34
Iheanacho done brilliant when he received the ball on Saturday especially when there was never a Celtic player anywhere near him.
He used his body strength to get fouls or he would play a 15 yard pass.

13 Apr 2026 14:23:02
Big Bad John had no pace and done great for us, ad say Ineacheo from start then bring on cava or osmane when fit.

13 Apr 2026 09:50:07
Let's have everyone's thoughts.
Final game against hearts.
They beat Celtic and win the league or we beat them and Rangers win the league. A real chance this could happen.
A simple post Celtic win the game or loose the game.

Loose.

13 Apr 2026 13:08:34
Lose.

13 Apr 2026 13:12:58
But maybe not that Simple, what if we need the points for second and cl ( we try win every game, team who win league with most points deserve it, so whatever opposition is we try beat them that’s it) permatations and outcomes afterwards don’t matter.

13 Apr 2026 13:13:35
I would say loose the game. But I really hope it doesn't come to that.

13 Apr 2026 13:14:44
10 nil defeat if that’s what it takes.

13 Apr 2026 13:43:23
I'm sure there is only 1 cl spot this season.

{Ed007's Note - The SPFL champions enter the CL Qualifying Play Off Round and 2nd place enters at CL QR2.}

13 Apr 2026 13:46:46
Guys we are Celtic we play every game to WIN
I think some of you are forgetting also that 2nd place gets CL qualifuer this season only so we play to finish as high as we can.

13 Apr 2026 13:55:44
Agreed.

13 Apr 2026 14:06:53
Losing would certainly mean no CL place.
I would still rather lose the match to show the Celtic Board the full extent of how much a mess they have made this season.

13 Apr 2026 14:43:31
Its a no brainer from me, why would we hand them a title and 40million quid since they are looking likely to get direct entry in CL groups. F*** 2nd place, we wouldn't qualify anyway.

13 Apr 2026 15:22:35
That’s it Stevie this squad won’t get through a pre qualifier never mind a second round and as for recruitment that’s another disaster waiting to happen.

14 Apr 2026 21:41:58
Play to win but lose.

13 Apr 2026 09:37:19
I think Maeda is overly criticised by a lot on here.

13 Apr 2026 10:20:52
Been disappointed in Maeda myself and was talking to a mate who suggested that maybe MON should play a 4-1-3-2 with Maeda playing off Cvancara/ Iheanacho. I know it's going back in time to big man - wee man up front, but what do others think?

13 Apr 2026 11:10:45
He should have been sold in the summer when at peak value. Instead we kept him, his value has greatly deprecated and his performances and value to the team have diminished.

Another failure by the board.

13 Apr 2026 11:35:24
Absolutely! We need goals! One up top is not going to do it. Sevco went 2 up top when 2-0 down and look. We need to start getting crosses in the box.

13 Apr 2026 11:38:02
Something has to change. As much as 1-0 wins will do the job this team will not get 5 of them for the league.

Try it in the semi final and see how it works. We would all rather have the league than the cup.

13 Apr 2026 11:39:05
He's hardly scored a goal this season and at tines even his famous work rate has been missing partly due to not getting his move, the rot started at rhe end of last season he should have won the cup for us came back and had a howler in cl qualifier, but he plays due to a threadbare squad lacking quality.

13 Apr 2026 12:38:57
Daizen on his good days is worth his place, but he has never significantly improved his game in all the time he has been here. What you see now is much the same player as Ange brought in. I reckon we all thought he would kick-on to become an excellent player, terror of the fullbacks, plenty of goals.
Never happened.

13 Apr 2026 19:35:48
Worth a try as our wing play has been absolutely honking. Might help us get control in the middle of the pitch and give their defence a bit more of a test having 2 up top.

13 Apr 2026 07:39:15
{Ed's Note - Davey Sulls has posted a new article entitled, Why Iraola Fits Liverpool Better Than Alonso

14 Apr 2026 21:43:37
We need to change something ad every game is the same and not in a good way.

12 Apr 2026 23:45:40
I saw that the semi final tickets went on public sale.

That suggests that thousands of fans have left the cup ticket scheme and is likely part of not a penny more campaign. I personally think the collective should have went further and done a boycott of the cup game and released a statement calling time up on the Desmonds.

12 Apr 2026 20:43:48
With 5 games to go we clearly still have a chance but our play suggests otherwise. No goalscorers of note and no chance we score 6 in a game from 2 down. In our favour I think Sevco will beat Hearts and we should take care of them also in last game so it's down to us to keep grinding and hope that Iheanacho can get fit enough to play more mins.

Can't help thinking letting Kenny go and bringing in Tam and Adamu was a mistake.

13 Apr 2026 00:11:04
Kenny wasn't good enough unfortunately and missed a few good chances before he left. The fans had already given up on him too so no way back.

13 Apr 2026 09:16:54
My biggest concern chink is our lack of goals. We have nygren as the only player that can be trusted to score whereas the Sevconian have been scoring goals from everywhere in recent weeks. We need to keep 5 clean sheets as i can't see us scoring enough goals. That makes them favourites for me.

13 Apr 2026 12:29:20
Nygren scores goals but his general play isn't great. He just cannot control and hold onto the ball.

We have no forward who is going to take the chances we need to take in the run in imo.

We start well, get a goal and then sit back.

By well I mean we move the ball forward quickly but up front we have nothing to worry many defences.

Tounekti went off the boil along with Maeda. Had they been playing well, I think we could have won more games. Maeda of last season would have finished off many of the chances we have created.

Big Thomaz is not the striker we needed, not mobile enough or strong enough.

A fit Iheanacho would have made a difference but he has been nowhere near fit.

Our injury rate this season has really hurt us.

With AJ, Jota, CVV and even young Osmand we would have been better placed.

All that aside our terrible recruitment has cost us. We have taken in poor players and at one point a terrible Manager.

No matter what happens between now and end if the season, we need to recruit more than half a team.

There is no way our board will sanction that without selling, and that could mean Engels and Nygren heading out, along with Maeda, Hatate, CCV and maybe AJ.

Our team next season could and should be unrecognisable.

12 Apr 2026 19:55:00
I thought Martin had aged 20 years since last time I saw him on Friday.

Not sure if it was standing on the touchline in the wind or the teams performance.

I'd take five one nil wins in the league and see if that gets us over the line.

Not sure this team have got that in them.

We need a spark. Osmand Saracchi even Engles AJ coming back.

12 Apr 2026 22:24:57
I don't know why MON is so reluctant to play Saracchi as he usually makes things happen and although he can't see past Tierney he would even be a better option than Maeda on the left?

13 Apr 2026 11:42:09
Love Marton but can't fathom some desicisions I'd have bwrnardo over mccowan tounekti makes an impact from bench but he's not getting used and saratchi should definitely be getting used more even as a winger.

12 Apr 2026 18:09:31
Our next 2 games are probably our easiest out of next 6. We've got to use those 2 games to find a bit of form or we can forget the league. The Dundee game and yesterday's performance was alarming, there is no energy in this team even with a 60,000 backing.

We can't be as bad as our last 2 performances, i'm still hopeful we can turn this form around for the run in.

12 Apr 2026 20:22:39
Going by our recent form especially yesterday performance, we’ll struggle against St Mirren next Sunday in the cup semi final 🫪.

12 Apr 2026 21:15:56
We have 4 weeks to get returning players up to speed before we host them, we just need to grind out the wins in the meantime.

12 Apr 2026 17:56:41
If we were playing sevco tomorrow and aj was fit my team would be,
Sinasola, aj, trusty, scales, kt, callum, engles, hatate, maeda, iheanacho, yang, with osmand if fit ready to come on likewise ox.

13 Apr 2026 09:21:56
Wheres the goals coming from there mally? there's about 10 goals all season from that 11. Maeda and hatate are like playing with a man down. Nygren for hatate, and saracchi for maeda.

13 Apr 2026 09:26:37
Forget AJ, out for season. It's going to be Ralston unless we change the system.

Sinisalo
Arthur Trusty Scales
Engels
Yang Nygren McGregor (Tierney/ Saraachi)
Maeda Iheanaco.

12 Apr 2026 17:52:24
Going to be a weird nerve wracking run in as we are capable of beating all the others but just as capable of losing against any of them. would/ could everybody accept losing league if it instigated real change?

12 Apr 2026 18:11:08
Yesterday was our first clean sheet for a while and that is one positive that should be seen as a foundation to build on. Sevco are scoring more than us but they are also conceding (5 in last 2 games) , so the priority in training sessions should maybe be shooting practice. 😊.

12 Apr 2026 18:12:57
The 2 English guys were talking about Celtic on the “Business Of Sport” and it was interesting they finished the podcast by mentioning that the main benefactor from Celtic not winning the league this season would be CELTIC.

12 Apr 2026 18:20:57
As much as I hate saying this I don't think we will win the league this year. As for real change we definitely need that but regardless of what the end result is for this season I don't have much hope of there being real change sadly mostly down to the board not willing to open the biscuit tin.

12 Apr 2026 20:00:42
Not winning the league this year could be catastrophic and potentially give out rivals a great opportunity to get closer to us and perhaps even surpass us.

12 Apr 2026 22:06:16
This current Celtic side have done nothing this season (other than go backwards) to inspire even the most green tinted glasses wearing supporter that they can win the last 5 games and retain the league title.

At the same time, in financial terms, Sevco are nowhere near us and this is the best league run Hearts have had in 20 years, one that I don't expect them to repeat anytime soon.

We need to get our house in order, talk of Sevco (if we didn't retain the league) becoming the 'dominant' force in Scotland again is utter nonesense, so much so that not even the most gullable of the gullables would believe.

Our board has caused more damage this season to Celtic F. C. than Sevco, Hearts and the rest of the teams combined.

HH.

13 Apr 2026 11:16:22
Pedro, if you are talking about purely money in the bank, then Sevco are nowhere near us. However, if you are talking about purely revenue, then there won't be much between the teams at the end of the season and I can see them surpassing us if they get champions league football next season. This is one of the reasons I was so angry with Desmonds and the board.

They have allowed our gargantuan advantage to deteriorated and it shows no signs of it changing.