The Scottish PL discussion thread

A Dub in Glasgo

Should be a great night. I am cutting it a bit fine for the game. I fly down to London tomorrow morning for work and I am on the 17.30 flight back to Glasgow. A few beers in the lounge will get me going for another great European night at Celtic Park (hopefully)

redspider

Celtic 0-0 AC Milano

Celtic's formation lacked penetration I thought in the centre. Sno and Lennon played very deep. This contained Milan and helped thwart the threat of Kaka,but provided little going forward. The flank threats of Nakamura and McGeady were easily dealt with by Milan. Gattuso was also a thorn in the middle. Overall, Celtic gave Milan probably too much respect and it was Milan that controlled the game. Although having said that Celtic created some very scoreable chances and should have got on the scoresheet. Milan also should have scored it has to be said.

Neither Miller nor VofH are clinical enough in front of goal which is needed at this level. This 0-0 would have been a good result at the San Siro but not at Celtic Park. Advantage Milan, although the tie is not done and dusted yet. Do Celtic have any other options up front? Maybe Beattie would be worth a run out. A 1-1 is now the best target to go for or a 0-0 and peno's.

Redspider

Dempsey

Gilardino should get a ban for his dive, that was disgraceful

redspider

Dempsey wrote:

Gilardino should get a ban for his dive, that was disgraceful

It was a pathetic attempt alright, but I think he got a yellow for it which is fair enough.

Dempsey

He should have gotten a straight red because it was an obvious attempt to decieve the referee

eirebhoy

eirebhoy wrote:

Yeah, he's from Cavan. Cillian Sheridan. 18 in 2 weeks time.

Came off the bench and laid on Miller's winning goal today.

A Dub in Glasgo

A fantastic end to a poor Celtic display. Good to see Pressley get his first goal and what a peach from Miller.

Good to see Stephen Kenny with Dunfermline also get a SF place

TwistsAndTurns

Originally Posted by eirebhoy
Yeah, he's from Cavan. Cillian Sheridan. 18 in 2 weeks time.

Saw this lad play a few games in the reserves on Celtic tv and he is one of the best prospects coming through (McGlinchey being another). I was delighted to see him come on and it shows GS must think very highly of him.

On another note CELTIC’S reserves will run out at the Falkirk Stadium tomorrow (Tuesday, February 27) in the knowledge that a victory will hand them a sixth consecutive Reserve League title.:D

A bit of bad news from this weekend is that Naka has a broken bone in his left hand, thank god its not his foot.

odonnell

kinaldo wrote:

I think this would be great if only we had more Rangers fans around here.

*waves*

new to the soccer boards but sure...why not, ill be the sacrificial offering whenever yous need one, wheres the harm, as long as its in good humour (and everyone realises celtic are only keeping the title warm for us....)

looking forward to some good discussions with yous....

eirebhoy

Welcome!

former Real Madrid player Gonzalez.

"He is a player I have always admired. Without doubt, he is the one with more quality than anyone else in the team.

"We have to watch him or he can make you suffer. We will probably put a man on him and try not to let him play his normal game.

"He is an artist with the ball at his feet who carries the whole team on his shoulders. I'm talking about a world class player."

I wonder who he's talking about... (and he doesn't play for Celtic)

A Dub in Glasgo

I think Bazza has slipped Gonzalez a tenner

odonnell

i should change my nick to A Weegie in Dub after seeing your nick mate... nice one. Hope you like it there...I have to say im missing it a bit and especially on matchday.

Whered you nab that from eirebhoy?

eirebhoy

odonnell wrote:

Whered you nab that from eirebhoy?

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/display.var.1227902.0.0.php

odonnell

cheers mate.... i hate to turn a perfectly reasonable Celtic thread into a rangers one but... damn im looking forward to the Osasuna games. Barry is indeeda class act this season, and as much as people speculate on the story behind him and PLG and the fallout of all that - nobody will ever know anything other than the fact hes been our only class act for the past 5 or 6 years now (his stint at blackburn excluded from this obviously). Hemay not show it in all his seasons, but in pure potential terms - hes unbelievably talented in the passing game, and hes showing it this season.

Its just a shame hes 29 now, and he has nothing but abuse to take on a daily basis from both camps. He really is for us, what Keane was for Man Utd, and would have been for Celtic if he was a couple years younger when he arrived.

A Dub in Glasgo

odonnell wrote:

i should change my nick to A Weegie in Dub after seeing your nick mate... nice one. Hope you like it there...I have to say im missing it a bit and especially on matchday.

I doubt many here will know a Weegie though

odonnell

very good point ah well.... its my mission to educate

eirebhoy

St Johnstone drawn in the cup semi's. To be played in Hampden.

odonnell

4-1 celtic

eirebhoy

Celtic - Dunfermline highlights:
http://media.putfile.com/celts-v-dunfermline-

KdjaCL

Champions yet?


kdjac

eirebhoy

It's Celtic v Rangers next week. If Rangers lose against Hibs tomorrow Celtic can win the league against Rangers. If Rangers draw and Celtic win next week they could still mathematically win on goal difference.

odonnell

KdjaCL wrote:

Champions yet?


kdjac

not yet mate... Rangers won yesterday so.. itll have to wait!

eirebhoy

IT’S been a long time coming, but Shunsuke Nakamura has claimed his first ever Player of the Month award in Scotland.

http://www.celticfc.net/newsroom/news.aspx?id='2007-03-05_1522gk'

I can count at least 3 months he has performed a lot better but at least he has finally won it.

eirebhoy

A Celtic fan has died after being knocked down by a taxi ahead of his team's Champions League clash in Milan.

The supporter was crossing the northern Italian city's Via Santa Sofia when he was hit by the car at 11.30pm on Tuesday night.

He was taken to the Niguarda Hospital, where he died.

http://www.sportinglife.com/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/07/03/07/manual_101221.html

Sad news.

redspider

Can Celtic get a bit of luck they need in the San Siro tonight? I wont be holding my breath, but if there is a time for Nakamura to score one of his free-kicks, tonight is the ideal platform for it.

Milan, it has to be said, controlled the first leg, but anything can happen in football. A lot will depend on the frame of mind of the players. If the Milan players think they have it won, ala Lyon last night, it could come back to haunt them. If Celtic do nick a goal 1-1 would be a nice result. It could go to 0-0 and then extra time and penalties.

Overall, I think its going to be a long night for Celtic fans ..... fingers crossed!

Redspider

eirebhoy

It'll be a boring game. Gravesen playing would have created space for Naka and McGeady and he's also a creative player himself. Jarosik is like playing with a man down.:(

redspider

AC Milan 1-0 Celtic

Celtic fought a rearguard action all night and only created a handful of half attempts to Milan's 30-odd. A goal was perhaps inevitable for Milan, but it took a good one from Kaka to break the deadlock. The Celtic defender (McManus?) though gave him too much space and got neither a tackle in nor put any pressure on the shot. Do that and you will get punished and they did.

The 'hand-ball' by Maldini was more ball to hand than an intentional block. Near the end, Celtic got a free-kick in a within range position, but Nakamura was already subbed off!

Over the 2 legs, Milan deserved to go through, and Celtic can feel proud that they made things difficult for Milan. To go further though in future years, they will need to step up a level. But overall, money-wise, Celtic are punching well above their weight, so well done.

eirebhoy wrote:

It'll be a boring game. Gravesen playing would have created space for Naka and McGeady and he's also a creative player himself. Jarosik is like playing with a man down.:(

I dont think it was a boring game. I agree that Tommy Gravesen would have been a better choice than Jarosik. Why does wee Gordy persist with Jarosik?

Also, in terms of what could have been, if only Larsson would have opted for Celtic instead for his 2 and a half month sojourn. He could have been enough to unlock Milan. Even a Hartson. But Beattie and V of H dont fill me with confidence in terms of firepower up-front.

Anyway, its water under the bridge now. The Rangers game on the weekend is of slight interest but the rest of the season will be a case of going through the motions for the Celtic players (and fans?) on the slow march to an inevitable league title.

Redspider

ps: " A Celtic fan has died after being knocked down ..."
Meant to say no-one likes hearing of these things, but I have no doubt that a Celtic fan was probably killed in Scotland as well and it just went unreported. These things unfortunately happen.

odonnell

Henk Larsson couldnt have gone to Celtic for these games though mate as his season is just about to start in Sweden again...

By all accounts it was a typical backs to the wall performance and they did well to hold on for the 180 minutes...its cruel that it took a last minute goal - youd surely almost prefer a goal from open play after 60 minutes or so... but with the Scottish teams in Europe - too often its a backs to the wall job, and only somtimes does it work out well. Same happened for gers last season against Villarreal - denied penalty claims, diving, goals chopped off etc etc etc.

Its all heart-attack stuff.

Unlucky Celtic. Excellent attempt against one of the worlds biggest.

[edit] sorry i just got sent this from a mate in glasgow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QObeYR9J9bI watch it through to the end and see what ruud gullit is laughing about.

eirebhoy

I wasn't too disappointed with the first penalty claim as it was very early in the game and it would have certainly been cleared anyway. The 2nd claim though really disappoints me. There was 5 minutes to go. Nakamura makes a good run into the box, comes inside, about to shoot and only Dida to beat and Ambrosini takes him out. It wasn't deliberate by Ambrosini but he didn't touch the ball and Naka would probably have scored if he didn't get pushed over.

Anyway, I won't get too down. Getting to the last 16 shouldn't just be delaying the misery. Anything from this was a bonus and at least they didn't get destroyed.

Gillie

Very proud of the bhoys! We'll be back.

lynchie

A Dub in Glasgo wrote:

I doubt many here will know a Weegie though

Or a teuchter!!!

Pepe LeFrits

Must say, yer man Boruc was quite impressive against Meelan.

redspider

Missed some chances against Falkirk and paid the price. Even with the loss, the title should be Celtic's this year. However, they will need to shake themselves off after the Milan and Rangers defeats and the inevitable 'hangover' which that has brought.

But watching the season from here on in will be like watching paint drying ......

Redspider

ps: Hibs win the CIS

odonnell

Theyve done this in the past few seasons - celtic, whilst they may be the kings of the comeback, have a very bad record in wrapping up the title at 10 games to go stage. They'll win the title for sure....but these wee slips are what fuels the endless debates about whether or not this season could have gone any other way.

All good craic....

Incidentally (this being my first post since we were miserably put out of the uefa cup by them bloody spaniards again), so far, Smiths gers have scored 4 more points than Celtic since he came in - which is adds promise for next season.

PauloMN

As a Celtic supporter, I'm happy (in a way) that the results have been as they have over the past few games. It will hopefully be a wake-up call that we are in desparate need of a striker that can actually finish.

Much as I've tried to like Miller - and I really have - he's just not up to the job. We need to have an up-front partnership comparable to Hartson and Larsson. I think we have the Hartson bit in Vennegoor (albeit a bit injury prone for my liking), but we're definitely missing a Larsson type character. We've not scored enough goals this season, simple as that, regardless of the table position.

Mind you, referees like Sunday's don't help. I lost count - literally - of the number of fouls on Beattie that weren't given. Just a shame he made such a mess of the one penalty award we did get.

It's not just Miller causing concern though - some other players are equally frustrating to watch. High on that list for me would be Jarosik - I honestly can't see what he brings to the team.

I just hope we can hold onto the class acts that we do have - namely Boruc and Naka. There must be serious interest in the Premiership for those lads, I hope we can keep them as both are most definitely responsible for getting us beyond the group stages of the CL and maintaining a good lead in the SPL. Naylor, JVoH, O'Dea, Wilson (early season) and some of the others have been great also - great to see O'Dea doing so well against Milan.

As for Rangers - hopefully - based on recent results - Murray will think they have a squad good enough for next season and invest little or nothing in the summer. Although it would be nice to have things spiced up a little bit.

odonnell

I reckon theyre able to just about compete with Celtic as they stand, but thats at this current point in time. After the close season - who knows mate. Its a sure bet GS will get some funds to spend whilst I can tell you now bud, Rangers will spend next to nothing on players for next season. We should have a few players off the wage bill, and big earners too - klos being one of them - the effect of this being a freeing up of funds for bargains, bosmans, and utility players.

next season WILL be better though, look at the progress the other teams are making.

eirebhoy

Hour long interview with Larsson:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/sol/newsid_6470000/newsid_6472000/6472069.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm

They also interviewed Strachan a few months ago which I have on my PC if anyone wants me to upload it.

PauloMN

eirebhoy wrote:

Hour long interview with Larsson:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/sol/newsid_6470000/newsid_6472000/6472069.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm

They also interviewed Strachan a few months ago which I have on my PC if anyone wants me to upload it.

Fantastic, will defo listen to that Larsson one when I have a spare hour.

Where can you upload the Strachan one to? Would like to hear it if it's not too much trouble.

@ ODonnell - you're probably right there. I think lack of CL this season will have been a big blow for the Rangers transfer kitty. Mind you, I don't think Celtic's purse will be seeing that much daylight either, but hopefully enough for a decent striker. I'd rather one decent summer signing than 3 or 4 squad players.

I have no doubt that next season will be much closer. Even withstanding new signings, Smith and McCoist will make enough difference to close the gap. At least they understand the Scottish game, unlike poor aul Le Guen.

PauloMN

odonnell wrote:

next season WILL be better though, look at the progress the other teams are making.

Excepting Hearts. Mad Vlad must go, he's completely ruining one of the better SPL sides. I cannot imagine how frustrated Hearts fans must be feeling watching that guy destroying their club. I pity Craig Gordon stuck in there.

odonnell

aye i was just reading that Ivanauskas has gone now too. Anyone care to hazzard a guess at how many managers Hearts have had since the eejit Romanov came in? Hearts are living proof that its not healthy for football to have an owner like this. Poor hearts, and their fans - hopefully he will get bored and sell, or the consortium can come up with a decent ousting bid in the next year or so...

A Dub in Glasgo

Another beauty of a freekick from Nakamura

Dundee Utd 0 - 1 Celtic

KdjaCL

1-1

Dillon having a decent game.



kdjac

eirebhoy

What Gravesen ever did to Strachan I'll never know.

Badabing

eirebhoy wrote:

What Gravesen ever did to Strachan I'll never know.

Yeah im wondering that aswell, he was banging the goals in early in the season and imo he's a far better player than lennon, i would like to see him and hartley play together in midfield.

eirebhoy

Bellamy is being linked with a move back to Celtic. The News of the World said "he'd walk back to Glasgow" if Strachan went for him. That's probably pure speculation but Sidwell off Reading is definitely on Strachan's wish list and Appiah is also being linked. I'm pretty confident he'll have £10-15m to spend in the summer so I can't wait for it.

The Scott McDonald transfer is a strange one. Probably just a replacement for Miller who's likely to leave, similar sort of players.

odonnell

squad players.... both sides of the old firm are investing in squad players currently on pre-contract agreements and they have always bought these sorts of players from the other SPL teams.... normally theyre shipped off to english first division sides within a couple of seasons - this is what we expect to happen to Riordan at any rate.

never know though - he may get his game, but its entirely more likely GS has seen a good squad player and nipped him before Gers did.

PauloMN

eirebhoy wrote:

Bellamy is being linked with a move back to Celtic. The News of the World said "he'd walk back to Glasgow" if Strachan went for him. That's probably pure speculation but Sidwell off Reading is definitely on Strachan's wish list and Appiah is also being linked. I'm pretty confident he'll have £10-15m to spend in the summer so I can't wait for it.

The Scott McDonald transfer is a strange one. Probably just a replacement for Miller who's likely to leave, similar sort of players.

I tend to agree on the McDonald for Miller theory. I've read a lot of rubbish from Celtic "fans" on the McDonald signing and how they don't feel he's fit to wear the hoops. As far as I'm concerned, his goal tally speaks for itself - the boy can finish, which is something that Miller, Zurawski et al seem to be having great difficulty doing of late.

Hope you're right on the transfer funds - £15m would be very optimistic in my view, I'd say maybe £7m to £8m would be more realistic. My main concern is holding on to Naka and Boruc - dunno about anyone else but I have a feeling that there's great interest in those two, and not just from mediocre middle-table Premiership teams, but top 6 clubs. I cannot begin to express just how important I think those two are - we are where we are in the SPL and we got as far as we did in the CL largely due to those two boys.

As for new signings, I think £700k for McDonald is a great bit of business. I reckon he can be for Celtic what Kris Boyd is for Rangers. Put it this way - if he can get a goal or two where we've been struggling, he'll be worth every penny. Example - last home game against Rangers - we should have been 2-0 up at half time. No doubt about it, a finisher would have guaranteed that. Instead, we don't finish a host of chances and Rangers score a flukey goal (don't get me wrong - flukey does not mean cr4p :-) ), we lose our composure and it ends up 0-1. McDonald is what we require for the SPL. Could prove to be as good a buy as Naylor has been and I wish him all the best.

There's no doubt that a big-gun striker will have to be bought in for CL games though. We definitely need someone pacey and that can carry the ball forward from midfield like Larsson could... any ideas?

odonnell

you can have Filip Sebo if yas like.....

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

eirebhoy

ziggy67 wrote:

I hope when the league is wrapped up Celtic relax a bit and start playing entertaining attacking football because the stuff being served up at the moment is turgid to say the least (and has been for most of the season TBH)

tbh I know I always seem biased with regards Naka but I really doubt we'd be much clear without him. The odd time we do play well it's basically because of Naka. McGeady (or Maloney last season) can put in a fantastic individual performance but when Naka plays well the team plays well.

This was, imo, the best performance under Strachan:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8412982221912978729

Intelligient players like Naka, Maloney, Petrov and Sutton all linking up. I think replacing Lennon with an intelligient Pirlo type player (obviously not his standard) will make a massive difference.

Naka said yesterday that Riordan is a "special talent". Riordan has played very few games for Celtic but when he does play the positions he gets in are fantastic. I honestly can't think of one time Naka has put in a through ball to Miller, which says it all. Strachan says Riordan doesn't see himself as a striker, Riordan says he'd play up front. He'll definitely start up front against St Johnstone on Saturday anyway.

For the new CL quality striker. As much as I dislike Bellamy I'd love to sign him at this stage. There's no way he'll be at Liverpool next season and I can't see one of the top premiership teams bid for him. It's a definite possibility if the wages are ok.