The Official Glasgow Celtic Thread

[hackjam]

That's an impressive 11 domestic trophy's in a row for SPL Champions Celtic now. Looking back on the season, there was a bit of sarcastic joy by some of our rivals about appointment of Neil Lennon and also some Celtic fans not convinced either. Thankfully, Lennon's second coming proves doubters wrong, Defining moment in the season came on 29th, those embarrassing celebrations at Celtic Park that day only served to motivate the group, went to Dubai, licked the wounds, worked extremely hard and returned on fire. We were on a decent run of form when season was halted, hard to see us dropping points on that form.

Nothing clear yet regarding Scottish cup, just 3 games to conclude.

What's less clear, is what's going to happen with Scottish going forward. Suspect most teams will have to try cut cloth, sell their best players, reduce wage bills etc. just to survive.

From a Celtic viewpoint, we all had ideas of where we would like to strengthen but that goes out the window now. I expect little transfer activity this next window, maybe see all out of contract players released, all loans returned and attempts made to offload the deadwood and non contributors, in an effort to reduce a wage bill that stands at 61M a year. Our squad has always been bloated. 

 

[hackjam]

Looking good for getting Kouassi off the wage bill-and securing a fee also, hopefully this goes through.

Also word of Nicham going to Saints, would gladly swap him for Forster. Worrying to hear NL saying recently that we are in talks with Gordon about a contract extension. Vital that, if we don't get FF, quality keeper is secured, I have no doubt that if we had FF earlier, we would have been in CL.

Manager saying players back to some sort of training on 10th June.

Still no word on Cup games but all indications are that it will be played.

[hackjam]

Jonny Hayes latest to leave Celtic. Likable guy, popular in dressing room, always gave it 100 %, lived the Dublin boyhood dream by wearing the hoops-will never have to buy a drink again in Dublin after that goal. Wishing him the best of luck.

[salty]

Yes he can live on that goal for years.

 

Another departure just announced is Jozo after 5 years at Celtic. I suppose his most memorable moment was that tackle on Kenny Miller in a Glasgow Derby. Also capable of some daft defending. If Ajer goes we wii be light in the middle of the back 4. 

 

Hopefully Elmahed will have an injury free season.

[hackjam]

Jozo will leave with best wishes of all, must have collected a dozen medals during his stay, so he will reflect on a successful time at the club. Will be remembered indeed for putting Miller into orbit and also that 67th minute goal after Billy died.

Just became too unreliable in the end, dodgy knees also.

So right now, we are light when it comes to center half, we do have some promising talent in Welsh and Deas, I suspect we wont spend on a replacement.

Like Boyata, another player we could have made money on, with proper planning.

I do expect some more squad trimming in the next few weeks. 

[CelticBhoy]

[CelticBhoy]

[CelticBhoy]

[salty]

Very well deserved .  Encouraging indications he will be here next season to help us to continue our dominance.????

 

 

 

 

 

[hackjam]

On 6/14/2020 at 12:23 AM, salty said:

Encouraging indications he will be here next season to help us to continue our dominance.

Yes encouraging, and what all Celtic fans are hoping for, along with landing Fraser F, either permanently or another loan. If both were secured, that alone would be a successful window. Any other surgery could be done with loans or frees. 

Just feel that FF may be out of our reach, 10M and 70K a week for starters, especially if the EPL big boys come after him. It would greatly enhance our CL chances, thus repaying any outlay. Just hope we have an alternative plan for quality keeper if we cannot get him.  And I don't mean Craig Gordon, cant believe we offered him a contract. 

[salty]

I would also have reservations about FF from a financial viewpoint. Assuming he doesn't return it is going to be interesting to see who will get the gloves at the start of the season. In that scenario I have to say I wouldn't entirely rule out Craig Gordon .

[hackjam]

SPL Champions Celtic kick off their bid for CL qualification on 18th August, and it will be one off games for 3 ties, then a 2 leg play off in final qualifying round, it is what it is, will just have to deal with it. Never before has qualification been so critical, that 40M incentive vital. Hopefully have keeper situation sorted before that August date. We just cannot afford another Athens or Cluj embarrassment. 

Still no word of the Scottish cup. 

[hackjam]

That's Gordon off the payroll, suspect he would have been a relatively high earner, he did get a contract upgrade when there was reported interest from Chelsea. So I reckon he was on around 20K a week. Overall, we got him for free, had a few good years out of him, decent enough SPL level, was a great shot stopper but poor in commanding his area, especially with high balls, don't think he ever saved a penalty, BR tried to get him to play out from the back, never worked and he did drop his fair share of clangers. 

Should discover this week about our keeper going forward, still hopeful of the dream signing of big FF. 

[hackjam]

Great news for SPL Champions Celtic signing Mo Elyounoussi for another year, hope we have an option to buy at end of loan spell. He was just hitting form- 20 games, 7 goals and 4 assists-when he was struck down with injury, and foolishly rushed back for cup final when clearly not ready. At 25, we will be getting him at his peak, he is an outstanding player, great brain, can play in the 10 as well as left flank. Will be a vital European player for us-was outstanding against Lazio away.

Already got medals in his pocket, suspect all Celtic fans will be delighted with this signing.

Seems we can have who we want from Southampton!!!!!

 

[hackjam]

Today is first day of new deal with famous world wide, global leader brand Adidas, believe its a 7M per season deal.

Meanwhile, in a bedsit in Liverpool........

[salty]

Yes excellent news re Mo Elyounoussi. He picked up that injury on International duty which put him back a good bit. He had been very impressive earlier on including the great ball to Forrest in Rome which produced the equalizer.  He was getting back to form when lock down came.

 +

We got a couple of great years out of Craig Gordon. Excellent shot stopper but prone to kamikaze advances from goal and distribution poor. He did save a penalty against Ber Sheva  but so bad I probably could have saved it myself.

 

The odds seem to be that FF will not be returning. The names being bandied about include Joe Hart and a return for David Marshall. Both would be in the iffy class. 

 

Very lucrative deal with Adidas . No doubt CB has his order in for all his brain washed family.????

 

[CelticBhoy]

Very lucrative deal with Adidas . No doubt CB has his order in for all his brain washed family.

 

Very funny, Salty old son. At the moment only two of my four bhoys are 'Tic fans.

The other two, believe it or not, are rooting for Bayern Munich and Barcelona.

Reason being, to quote them, "  at least we can watch them play nowadays ..."

 

I have ordered my new Adidas shirt, naturally, and the two little bhoys will duly receive theirs when the copies roll out at Sampaeng Market ..... ????

[hackjam]

Still no keeper sorted, just reckon that after FF, whoever we end up with will be a downgrade. FF seems to be playing hard ball with Southampton, maybe angling for a pay off and if that's the case, could drag out till end of window, which is too late for us, we need new keeper in for CL qualifiers.

Also, need to et a center half in, God forbid an injury to big CJ or Ajer and we would be up the creek.

Pretty much in good shape in all other positions.

[balo]

On 7/1/2020 at 3:02 AM, hackjam said:

Great news for SPL Champions Celtic signing Mo Elyounoussi for another year, hope we have an option to buy at end of loan spell.

I read in the Norwegian news that he turned down a contract from La Liga club Real Betis, because his family and kids was happy settling down in Glasgow . So you can expect him to stay for a few seasons. 

[hackjam]

Griff pissing everyone off again, could very well be in last chance saloon.

Should provide Klimala with his big chance. Hearing lots pf positive reports about him.

Still worried about keeper situation. 

[salty]

Back in action  after long lay off with a 1-1 draw against Nice in the French tournament. An early Eddie goal ruled out by VAR. He looked offside but the wall was played by a defender so it should have stood. Celtic had more of the early play but Nice began to have more of the play as the game progressed. Celtic defence looked dodgy and the Nice goal was due to very poor defending.

 

Polish Paddy one of several subs availed of a clanger by the keeper to rob him and roll in the equalizer with 20 minutes to go. 

 

Good to see action again.

[hackjam]

Just so good to get back playing again. Very useful exercise, getting game time into legs, started with possibly our first choice starting 11 and most performed well, with the exception of Forrest and CMcG.

We must have missed half a dozen tackles for their goal.

A raft of subs after an hour, Nicham and Welsh impressive.

[salty]

A 2-1 defeat to Lyon in our 2nd game.  Have to confess I only half watched it in between viewing FA Cup semi final. Not surprising as we started with virtually a B team.  Nice goal by Mo near the end.

 

No news on any signing for problem positions so the wait goes on. So we have missed out on the close season cup for another year. Oh dear.????

[salty]

A 4-0 defeat by PSG. Result was hardly a surprise but felt we could have made a better fist of it. We were easily beaten in the first minute and a super star like Mbappe is not going to miss a chance like that. 2nd goal a deflection from Neymar who once again showed

what an obnoxious individual he is.

 

Celtic had a decent period between the goals with Frimpong and Taylor doing good work.  Elounoussi was probably our best player. Jullien headed against the post late in the 1st half.

 

we were caught again early in the 2nd half with Bain very poor effort to save from Herrera even though he may have been partially unsighted. A 4th goal followed . Even though we had a decent bit of possession we lacked the speed and ability of PSG

 

That was hardly surprising but we look very dodgy in defence. Nothing new so far on the signing front . We definitely need a goalkeeper and a centre back?

[hackjam]

Stayed up to watch the game and have to say, was pleased with performance, against one of the worlds best sides. Just that difference in class told in the score line. Getting caught cold for first goal, a poxey deflection for second and a good spell for us between both those goals. Keeper error for 3rd and also young Jerry should have cleared in build up for 4th.

Jerry did have a fine game, would have been my MOM, Taylor and MoEly combined well down the left, Bitton was solid and Forrest did well, looked threatening when introduced. CalMac looks a bit off the pace, Nicham and Christie did well in first half. Eddy totally ineffective. 

We are not far away but we just need a quality keeper and then its just a few tweaks. 

That Neymar is one horrible individual.  

[hackjam]

Watched both games over the past few days, looked like Lennon just wanted to give all players the 90min. Taylor going off after a nasty tackle is a bit of a worry. 

The second string done well against Hibs, surprised that Bitton, Rogic, Boli were not involved-injured perhaps? Nicham was head and shoulders above everybody, Soro showed up well, puts himself about. Griff on for 30min-seems like that rocket NL fired up his ass has worked, he looked good. But start of the show for me was Luka Connell, was only on the park second half, and was outstanding, played that Brown role. Hopefully see more of him soon, may even be an option at left back??

Looking like the Greek keeper is on his way, seems to tick all the boxes.

[salty]

Did not see either of the bounce games . Interesting to read reviews.  Griff has gone from being over weight to being in very good shape in about 10 days. One wonders if Lenny was slightly exaggerating in both cases. He (Griff) looks like he will face more competition with the expected arrival of Ajeti from West Ham on loan. Has'nt done too well there but played well with Swiss club when Elyounoussi was a team mate. 

looks likely out quest for a goalie has been sorted. Vargas would seem to be the real deal. I wonder how he will fancy Scottish winters.

 

Young Connell has got very good reviews on yesterday's game. Hopefully with the heavy load of fixtures he will make some competitive first team appearances. 

 

If if we can strengthen our defence things will look promising for the coming campaign.

[hackjam]

Finally got a new keeper in, and its encouraging to spend decent money on what looks a quality keeper, instead of some cheap option, was so worried that we would end up with that plonker Joe Hart. Suspect we just could not wait for big Fraser F, so fair play to the board for making a call. He has big gloves to fill but seems to have all the attributes. 

So now feeling relaxed about our squad going into new season, just need a few contract extensions and we will be in good shape. A bit concerned to see us being linked with a few strikers, hopefully Eddy remains for another season.

Disappointing to hear Micky J is going to be out for a while, could have done with his injection of pace on the left, as neither Taylor of MoEly have pace. Micky J just seems too brittle to me, skillful lad with blistering pace, but too easily rag dolled. Hopefully, he has been using this downtime to bulk up. 

So overall, squad is in a good place right now. 

[salty]

Congratulations to Kieran Tierney who won an FA Cup medal with Arsenal today to add to the 3 he won with Celtic, his 4th Cup Winners medal in a row.

[salty]

An impressive start to competition with a 5-1 win over the Accies. Frimpong was like the Duracell Bunny non stop energy but not always making the best use of good positions. Soon after being cynically fouled he made a great break , it was switched wide to Taylor who delivered an excellent cross for Eddie to show good anticipation for a tap in. Soon after another quality Taylor cross was finished by Frimpong at the far post. Well in control Accies got back into as Celtic failed to clear the line and after 2 deflections Bain got a hand to it but was unable to stop it .

 

The irritation at conceding was forgotten as Celtic put it to bed within 7 minutes of the restart. Forrest who had a quiet 1st half was put away an excellent centre and Eddie was in for a good finish. A few minutes later Christie forced a good save from the keeper and Eddie completed the hat trick by being on hand again for the rebound. That was game over and while Celtic controlled it fell rather flat. I was surprised that the first change was in the 70 th minute with 3 more with 5 minutes to go. None the less Kilmala got on the score sheet in the last minute to muscle a defender out of it and glance it across goal and in to his obvious delight. 

 

So a good start but I still would have some concerns at the back where we still seem fragile especially with clearing headers.