Celtic FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2011/2012

PauloMN

Just flicked it on, 1-0 to Madrid at the moment. On ITV4 HD for anyone with Freesat or Sky.

Dempsey

PauloMN wrote: »

Just flicked it on, 1-0 to Madrid at the moment. On ITV4 HD for anyone with Freesat or Sky.

Stokes pulled up in the warmup and Murphy was withdrawn after 30 minutes with a knock.

Rogne started for Stokes & McGregor on for Murphy. Only 3 subs left on the bench and one of them is a goalkeeper! :eek:

Callejon scored for Madrid. Abit of a soft goal to concede tbh

McGeouch looks like our sharpest player so far.

SomethingElse

Dempsey wrote: »

Stokes pulled up in the warmup and Murphy was withdrawn after 30 minutes with a knock.

Rogne started for Stokes & McGregor on for Murphy. Only 3 subs left on the bench and one of them is a goalkeeper! :eek:

Callejon scored for Madrid. Abit of a soft goal to concede tbh

McGeouch looks like our sharpest player so far.

Might want to give the commentator a text. I thought Celtic had fielded 12 for a while there :eek:

Dempsey

McGeouch out cold! :eek::(

EDIT

Regained consciousness but it looked very bad at first

Hooper was on the bench but according to Lennon was not fit to play!

eire4

Dempsey wrote: »

McGeouch out cold! :eek::(

EDIT

Regained consciousness but it looked very bad at first

Hooper was on the bench but according to Lennon was not fit to play!

Broken Jaw it looks like for McGeouch which is a real shame as he was having a good game.
Good run out for quite a few of our youth academy players today as well.

ColeTrain

I didn't get to see this. Real played a very strong team so 2-0 isn't that bad.
McGeouch is meant to have played well, hope he makes a quick recovery.

Savage Tyrant

Didn't catch the game today, but very impressed we only conceded the 2.
How did we look against them? Totally outclassed or did we get to play much of the ball?

the realpigiron

Savage Tyrant wrote: »

Didn't catch the game today, but very impressed we only conceded the 2.
How did we look against them? Totally outclassed or did we get to play much of the ball?

It was a friendly match with little consequence for either side. At times Celtic created chances, Commons and McGeoch created opportunities to score. Real Madrid never got out of first gear, neither did Celtic btw which is understandable. More important games ahead for both sides.

Hope young McGeoch is ok after being stretchered off.

ColeTrain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuhLIikVQLE

Dempsey

Savage Tyrant wrote: »

Didn't catch the game today, but very impressed we only conceded the 2.
How did we look against them? Totally outclassed or did we get to play much of the ball?

They had alot of the ball, alot of the possession, most of the shots on goal. Defensively, we were good. As Lennon said, it was a good lesson for us in what to do when we dont have the ball as its something our players arent exactly used to. We were miles better in this regard than the Ajax game. I wasnt downhearted by the Real Madrid domination but more confident that we were defensively disciplined without the ball and we did create some good chances, pity we didnt have a striker playing (Murphy doesnt count!). As said, it wasnt exactly top gear stuff because its a friendly and the heat made it one of those 'tired' games.

Where they really got ahead of us was having this fancy thing big clubs have called substitutes. We only had 5 (including Forster), Stokes didnt finish the warmup, Murphy was withdrawn after 30 minutes (injured) and McGeouch had his jaw broke and knocked unconscious after 60 minutes. Hooper, although on the bench, wasnt actually fit to play. They looked real fancy being able to substitute almost their entire team at will!

Zaluska pulled off some great saves despite conceding two. Rogne & Wilson looked shaky but put in some good last ditch tackles. Izaguirre struggled the most, kept thinking he was faster than he actually is and getting caught in possession. Matthews handled Ronaldo well and McGeouch kept getting back to help out too. McGeouch was having a really good game imo, great footwork to continually skip past their players and used the ball well. Mulgrew's loose pass can be highlighted for their 1st goal, otherwise he had a steady afternoon @ left midfield. Kayal & Ledley were solid throughout. Commons was lazy when we didnt have the ball and Murphy did nothing, nothing!

I came across this on another website, gives a little perspective

Zaluska £0
Matthews £200k
Wilson £0
Mulgrew £0
Izaguirre £600k
McGeouch £130k
Kayal £1.2m
Ledley £0
Commons £300k
Stokes £1.1million
Murphy £800k

Total = £4.33m

Adan £0
Arbeloa £4.8m
Ramos £24m
Albiol £13m
Coentrao £24m
Khedira £12million
Alonso £26m
Callejon £4.2m
Kaka £50m
Ronaldo £80m
Higuain £9m

Total = £247m

EDIT

The most important thing I learned today was that Hugh Keevins is banned from Celtic Park!

RoryMac

Agree with your sum up of the game Dempsey, exactly how I saw it. Emilio's form is a worry for me, nowhere new his first season.

McGeoch looked very good, hopefully not out for too long, I think he has a part to play for us this season

PauloMN

RoryMac wrote: »

Agree with your sum up of the game Dempsey, exactly how I saw it. Emilio's form is a worry for me, nowhere new his first season.

McGeoch looked very good, hopefully not out for too long, I think he has a part to play for us this season

Agreed. He'll get away with his current form in the SPL, but we need him to be at his best for the upcoming CL playoff.

Thought Celtic did well overall considering the strength of Madrid's side.

McGeoch really took a bad hit, was worried when I saw him knocked out, glad he came around quickly. He looked our best player and should definitely be given game time in the league games this season.

Those pitch markings were a disaster, made it difficult to watch.

eire4

It was horrible trying to watch the game with those white American football markings. Plus then neither side wore it's away gear so it was really hard at times to tell the players apart. For once actually those horrible black socks Celtic have at the moment helped. Most likely the only time I will ever say that about those socks though.

lubo_moravcik

We've been rumbled

Dempsey

Seems like some fool put alot of time and effort into that, delighted for him!

Spiderpig92

Would love to see Neil Lennon sign Jordan Rhodes to link up with the likes of Hooper, Stokes and Samaras. Top quality player who will get us goals. League 1 teams are the equivilant to most SPL sides so he would be formidable, and he is only 21 so the club could mould him to become a player capable of being top quality in Europe

Dempsey

I dont get this fascination with Jordan Rhodes tbh. Impressive goalscoring record in league 1 last year alright but the money being suggested to sign him is ridiculous. He's older than 21 AFAIK.

Spiderpig92

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Rhodes apologies 22, yeah the only downside is the money being asked, but he would be an addition to Celtic

PauloMN

Check out this crap:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/former-rangers-star-alejandro-bedoya-1260115

LOL!

Broxi_Bear_Eire

PauloMN wrote: »

Check out this crap:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/former-rangers-star-alejandro-bedoya-1260115

LOL!

What crap the crap that Helsingborg will put Celtic out yeah I reckon your right as for the other stuff well;)

blahfckingblah

Broxi_Bear_Eire wrote: »

What crap the crap that Helsingborg will put Celtic out yeah I reckon your right as for the other stuff well;)

naw i think the crap is "Former Rangers STAR"

Broxi_Bear_Eire

blahfckingblah wrote: »

naw i think the crap is "Former Rangers STAR"

You make a good point

Dempsey

"I heard stuff whilst trying not to fall off the subs bench at Celtic Park"

Bedoya has just put the fear of god into Celtic!

Personally, I think he was trying to prove that he actually has friends! :pac:

eire4

Dempsey wrote: »

"I heard stuff whilst trying not to fall off the subs bench at Celtic Park"

Bedoya has just put the fear of god into Celtic!

Personally, I think he was trying to prove that he actually has friends! :pac:

Well I hope that Lennon and our guys have a good read of some of the so called old huns "stars" quotes in that article. Should be good bulletin board material there.

Dempsey

Look like the Izzy to Norwich deal is dead as Norwich are getting Javier Garrido on loan for the season. Celtic werent going to sell him for £5m even if he's out of form.

STV wrote:

QPR have said they will not sign Celtic’s Ki Sung-Yeung just to sell airline tickets and sponsorship deals. He didn’t rule out signing him because he’s an experienced international midfielder with his best years ahead of him.

£10m and he's yours!

blahfckingblah

Dempsey wrote: »

Look like the Izzy to Norwich deal is dead as Norwich are getting Javier Garrido on loan for the season. Celtic werent going to sell him for £5m even if he's out of form.



£10m and he's yours!

10 million... hes like ryanair flights,,, every time you click on his name the price goes up.

He's valuable but not 10 million.

RoryMac

I think I've said it before on here that I really like Ki as a player, he's one of the most technically gifted players we've had in a long time but not really suited to the SPL IMO, I'd be happy to accept any bid around £7m as I think he has the ability to become a very good player just not with us.

Can't see us accepting anything but a huge bid for Izzy, it took us years to find a decent LB and I doubt Lennon want to be going into the market at this stage of the window to try to find another. Hopefully 6 - 10 games into the season will see Izzy back to his best.

Dempsey

blahfckingblah wrote: »

10 million... hes like ryanair flights,,, every time you click on his name the price goes up.

He's valuable but not 10 million.

I think we can get above the market value for him. We rejected £6m from Rubin Kazan, he had a great Olympic tournament and he no longer needs to do military service. He's certainly worth alot more now.

eire4

Dempsey wrote: »

I think we can get above the market value for him. We rejected £6m from Rubin Kazan, he had a great Olympic tournament and he no longer needs to do military service. He's certainly worth alot more now.

You would think we probably can get 7-8m for him now after his good showing at the Olympics. I guess we will find out what is going on for sure when we see the starting lineup to play Helsingborgs. No way Ki will feature at all if we think we are going to sell him before the close of this window.

RoryMac

eire4 wrote: »

You would think we probably can get 7-8m for him now after his good showing at the Olympics. I guess we will find out what is going on for sure when we see the starting lineup to play Helsingborgs. No way Ki will feature at all if we think we are going to sell him before the close of this window.

Not sure playing Europe will affect his sale too much, most of the rumored interest in him is from England and teams not not playing in Europe so if he's needed he'll play.

Dempsey

You are allowed to register 1 player thats been involved in European Qualifiers so playing Ki should have no impact on any of the clubs that have shown an interest so far.

eire4

Dempsey wrote: »

You are allowed to register 1 player thats been involved in European Qualifiers so playing Ki should have no impact on any of the clubs that have shown an interest so far.

Oh ok I though if Ki played against Helsingborg then he would be cup tied which obviously would restrict the number of teams who might be interested in buying him. But if thats not the case then great. Gives us another quality option for the Helsingborg tie. I wonder might we see Ki in the lineup tomorrow against Ross County given we have so many injury issues for the game.

Dempsey

Ki is not involved in tomorrow's match as he's on a break after the Olympics. Lennon says he hasnt spoken to him in about a month but he should be back in training on Sunday. We should know if he wants to sign a new contract by Monday evening I reckon!

EDIT

Josh Thompson is set to join Portsmouth on loan for 6 months. Sky are suggesting that its a loan deal because a deal couldnt be reached before their match tomorrow so in January we should see this turn into a permanent deal.

A Dub in Glasgo

Team: Forster; Lustig, Wilson, Mulgrew; Matthews, Kayal, Wanyama, Ledley, Izaguirre; Commons, Samaras

Subs: Zaluska, Rogne, Watt, McGregor, Slane, Keatings, Chalmers

RoryMac

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

Team: Forster; Lustig, Wilson, Mulgrew; Matthews, Kayal, Wanyama, Ledley, Izaguirre; Commons, Samaras

Subs: Zaluska, Rogne, Watt, McGregor, Slane, Keatings, Chalmers

It'll be interesting to see how we like out, 3-5-2?

Hopefully a few of the young players will get a run out

A Dub in Glasgo

Looks like 3-5-2. I can only hope we get a stronger bench for Tuesday

Dempsey

Horrible Camera Angle tbh

EDIT

Celtic are still in preseason mode, people are saving themselves for the UCL qualifier.

RoryMac

1 - 0 down, great fk. As with every game so far this season we're giving the ball away too easily, not controlling the game.

Could've had a pen for the tackle on Sammy but no excuse for the performance so far.

A Dub in Glasgo

Don't you just love last minute equalisers

Commons

Piss from Celtic though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRPk1zSmJPc

RoryMac

1-1 FT

Commons goal seconds from the end will be hard for Ross Co to take, can't say we deserved anything from the game. Our minds were obviously on the midweek game but I expect a lot more from the players.

Lennon seems to have serious issues getting the players motivated for these kind of the games and it's something we really need to address.

Dempsey

Celtic got out of jail there, Ross County were the better team on the day and they'll feel hard done by just getting a draw.

Celtic started the game too slowly and looking to avoid a physical battle with some lazy tackles and it cost them. Brittain's free kick was top class. Watt & Slane looked lively and not going through the motions like the players who started. Lennon has to drop this 3-5-2 formation, its not going to work especially with Lustig as a CB.

A Dub in Glasgo

Penalty shout ignored by Thomson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhC-vFyWPMo

The_Kew_Tour

Ross County are decent side. Ones to watch.

Ye should of had penalty too though.

RoryMac

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Ross County are decent side. Ones to watch.

Ye should of had penalty too though.

If they play as well defensively as they did today they'll do really well. Going to be really tough fir teams to break down.

Savage Tyrant

RoryMac wrote: »

If they play as well defensively as they did today they'll do really well. Going to be really tough fir teams to break down.

Today's goal was the first they've conceded in their first 3 games. Now I know it's early early days, but if they can stretch out that kind of defensive form they'll do very well.

Dempsey

One thing I noticed but forgot to bring it up was Forster kicking regularly off his left foot. Is he carrying a knock or was he instructed to use it more during matches? He's become very comfortable at kicking off his left, he's almost as two footed as Boruc was.

eire4

Have to say I disagree with those saying we deserved to get beat today. Credit to Ross County they were up for that game big time and battled and scraped for every ball. Great free kick for their goal and later the strike off the bar from Brittain as well. Whether Celtic had their minds on Tuesday or not there is no doubt we were poor. Movement off the ball was either too slow or not there. Very little ingenuity or quality in the final third. But we still smacked the bar twice. Had a great chance for Commons in the first half while Fraser made 2 good saves from Commons and Samaras in the second half. We were poor no doubt about it. Ross County played well absolutely. But we had more chances them them over the 90 minutes so I disagree that we didn't deserve a point.
No doubt Ross County are gutted to not get the win when they were so so close to a famous result. But the fact that we scored our goal in the last seconds doesn't change the fact that we had enough chances over the course of the game to deserve a point.

Also as an aside a good performance from Tony Watt when he came on in the second half with his movement and shot obviously setting up our goal.

Brewster

Hi to all resident Scottish football fans, what a few months it has been hopefully things will start to settle down now, whatever that may mean! I think the most important thing for the game that Rangers future has been secure first and foremost. There were times over the summer when their future was looking bleak but with nearly 50k at Ibrox yesterday the club will go from strength to strength and I have no doubt they will be back in the Top division in due course. Who knows whether that will be in the SPL or not? The SPL faces an extremely uncertain future but hopefully it can survive. I think Celtic face into a period of uncertainty. It is going to be very hard for Lenny to keep his players motivated throughout the season. Clearly Champions League qualification is a must and will provide a welcome distraction for the first half of season. European football after Xmas will help keep the players interested. Celtic will face a huge challenge to keep the crowds coming into Celtic Park. The attendance at the first league game against Aberdeen was less than impressive. If the punters can't get up for the league flag being unfurled, what chance next Feb when the league will be won? The marketing people at Celtic will have their work cut out for them. Many on here have argued passionately that Celtic don't need Rangers, many including I, would disagree with this statement. Time will tell as the man says.......

RoryMac

ha ha you can but laugh, Rangers going from strength to strength but Celtic face a period of uncertainty!?!

Top class trolling

bobmalooka

Brewster wrote: »

Hi to all resident Scottish football fans, what a few months it has been hopefully things will start to settle down now, whatever that may mean! I think the most important thing for the game that Rangers future has been secure first and foremost. There were times over the summer when their future was looking bleak but with nearly 50k at Ibrox yesterday the club will go from strength to strength and I have no doubt they will be back in the Top division in due course. Who knows whether that will be in the SPL or not? The SPL faces an extremely uncertain future but hopefully it can survive. I think Celtic face into a period of uncertainty. It is going to be very hard for Lenny to keep his players motivated throughout the season. Clearly Champions League qualification is a must and will provide a welcome distraction for the first half of season. European football after Xmas will help keep the players interested. Celtic will face a huge challenge to keep the crowds coming into Celtic Park. The attendance at the first league game against Aberdeen was less than impressive. If the punters can't get up for the league flag being unfurled, what chance next Feb when the league will be won? The marketing people at Celtic will have their work cut out for them. Many on here have argued passionately that Celtic don't need Rangers, many including I, would disagree with this statement. Time will tell as the man says.......

Lol, clutching at straws at this stage Brewster. Rangers future secure and celtics uncertain....ok