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Wee Jock Poo Pong McPlop football thread


Devon Malcolm

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13 hours ago, Shy Dad said:

Was Nick Hammond not Director of Football last year?

He was head of football operations which was apparently just recruitment but he left recently, the rumour was because he didn't get the Director of fitba gig. I think it was because he brought it Shane Duffy. 

Edited by westlondonmist
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Honest don't know how anyone can be surprised given the shambolic state of the last 2 years. Before a ball was kicked, I had already made peace with the fact that we were never going to get far in Europe this season. Hell, there's every chance we could get papped out by Jablonec in the Europa qualifier. 

The Celtic Board seem to have made incompetence into an art form of late. Months and months and months of faffing about with Eddie Howe only for it to collapse wasting so much valuable time. Personally I was never even that thrilled about him as an option to begin with and was much happier with Ange Postecoglou, who seemed to have achieved far more. The should have installed him in February/March when Lennon left, given him a free crack of the rest of the season and then the summer to build his squad. Instead, they opted to sign him a month before the start of competitive football and he had only a couple of weeks to perform a miracle with perhaps the worst Celtic team of my lifetime to date. Even at this early stage you can already see his frustration with the board and their penny pinching and how threadbare the squad is at the moment is actually scary. We started a Champions League Qualifying tie against a respectable opponent with an 18 year old in defence, who until last week, didn't even have a Wikipedia page, for crying out loud! How the board could bring this club from the comfortable, dominant position where we were to the bottom of the cliff we have fallen off is staggering. 

I really like Ange so far by the way. Seems to talk a lot of sense and I like his attitude "I'm not an accountant, mate". I actually feel bad for him as he has more or less been set up to fail by this board. Selling good players and replacing them with cheaper options who often turn out to be duds is not a viable strategy for success. Rodgers saw this coming three years ago and bailed. I recall him expressing frustration too. I really hope Ange does a great job but I also hope he isn't made a scape goat by some when it's clear to all where the problems lie. 

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I’d say the way he was spoken to by the BBC reporter last night showing him no respect shows how the Times have changed. Money has been spent at Celtic, just on terrible players. Europe is the only way to make half decent money up here and the focus on the ten over focusing on that has seen distaster after disaster with last minute buys when it’s too late 

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Celtic have made something in the region of 60m in player sales in three seasons, Europe is absolutely not the only way to make money in Scotland. The investment of those earnings has been nothing short of disgraceful though. I think many see Ange as being a Deila type or even a Pedro but he's not at all. 

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I meant through competitions, focusing on a league that makes you a few million for winning it over being ready for a competition that makes you 3 or 4 times that is bad business. They expected Rangers to stay rubbish and to coast titles for years to come. If that back 5 including the keeper start against Rangers end of august, it’ll be a blood bath 

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Ah ok, I'd agree on that, although Celtic's model has been more along the lines of developing players to sell for profit and top up with Europa League money. I don't think the intention had been to focus on just the league.  What stands out for me is how the decision making at Rangers has made such a difference. Celtic appointing Lennon straight after the treble treble final was the moment the momentum was lost and surrendered to Rangers who were on the upswing wih Gerrard. Sticking with Gerrard under pressure has worked out well, although you wonder what would have happened had the pandemic not come along. 

I still think there are some question marks over Rangers on not being able to win a domestic cup even after Celtic are eliminated. Champions League money would be huge but without it the squad is in danger of becoming a little too weighted towards players of around 27/28 years of age with limited sell on value. 

I expect a closer season this season but to win the league Celtic would need a Martin O'Neill level of impact from Ange who unfortunately doesn't have a Larsson to build around. 

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St Johnstone have drawn 1-1 with Galatasaray away in Turkey. What a result that is. The craziest thing of all is that there's some minor disappointment that they didn't win it, with the Turks down to 10 men. Callum Davidson is some manager and he's got some team over in Perth. 

Regardless of what happens next week, that is one incredible result and very well deserved. Great result for Scottish football too. 

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  • 3 months later...
On 8/5/2021 at 8:32 PM, Keith Houchen said:

Having been inspired by one of their fans when at Christmas he showed amazing generosity to his cleaner, Motherwell do this and are now everyone’s favourite sweaty team. 

I'm not going to say what I'm getting him this year, but let's just say I managed to snag a PS5 for myself from Game a few months back, and I'm back hitting refresh on their website every morning at 10am this month.

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Going to be interesting because he's not going to have any money to spend come January you would imagine, given the absolute state of Rangers' accounts. Meanwhile, we're beginning to come into our own and, with the exception of the 0-0 against Livingston, we've pushed on full steam ahead on all fronts in recent weeks. Van Bronkhorst did well at Feyenoord but not so well in China, finishing 11th with Guangzhou, so it remains to be seen how he'll get on. I'm not too worried - I've been loving Ange Postecoglou's football and I think we are only going to push on and gather more momentum, with the potential of new recruits from the J League being added in January. They're badly needed too as if a couple of players pick up injuries we are badly left short, as was already seen with Kyogo (God, how I love that wee man). 

Edited by SpiritOfTheForest
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