Lotw Diary- The Wisdom of Rob McLean

It’s been a while since the “fulcrum of Setanta’s sports coverage” has graced us wie his wisdom. So I’m glad to see he is at his usual earth shattering best in this blog..

The two most likely eventualities - you can call them virtual certainties if you wish - are an Old Firm two-horse race for the championship and a speedy return to the First Division for Gretna.

I’m sure you will agree, this is a prediction worthy of David Icke predicting Armageddon while dressed in Bob the Builder pyjamas and will have us all running to the nearest bookies to lay this months mortgage payment on it coming true.

Forza

LOTW Diary- Reserves v R*ngers

When the reserves run out at Broadwood today to play the mini h*ns the line could point to the future of a few players who are on the fringes of the 1st team and it could also be an indication of the strength of team GS will select for tomorrow nights game against the cousins of h*ns, which is sure to attract a bumper crowd.

Then again it may not. Wie the squad down to the preverbal bare bones we should expect a young side to take the field at Broadwood, wie the normal 1st team benchwarmers of Rioirdon, Sno, Jaro, O’Brien and O’Dea donning their Nike trackies for another exciting night on the bench on Wednesday.

Whether, after bemoaning the number of games we have played, oor manager trusts any of them to get a starting berth, remember Dundee away though Gordon, remains to be seen.

The thought of Sno on a cauld East End night may just lower the attendance even more....

Forza.

Update

Strong line up’s from both the teams. Elvis, Bobo, O’Dea and Rioirdon all got 90mins under their belts, which deems Deek’s involvement tomorrow evening irrelevant. Interesting that Jim O’Brien was nowhere to be seen, right back slot tomorrow evening?, and the words “Bobo Balde goalscorer” have been uttered this side of the autumn.

Here’s Pravda's review.

Lotw Diary- Spiers Sums Up R*ngers

For being a r*ngers fan as a boy, new Times lackie Graham Spiers at times disnny half sum up why we hate or dislike all things blue. Spiers just seems to have the knack of ticking the boxes and pointing oot what makes r*ngers such a dislikeable club.

In today’s Times, Spiers waffles in his own style about David Murray. But in this paragraph, he nails it in a nutshell the difference between Celtic and them.

Murray loved the “establishment club” image of Rangers, which suited his own growing “business class” status as a Scottish entrepreneur, and so the regular slayings of Celtic were in keeping with his outlook. His subtext was: these upstarts from Glasgow’s grubby east end need to know their place, they need to know the pecking order.

In the article Spiers points out the pomp and over extravagance of the early nineties Murray persona. Even then that persona was nothing compared to the late nineties when his “one team for Scotland another for Europe” and his chasing football utopia ended up wie a moonbeam and not riches.

Murray now cuts a lonely almost scrooge like figure, one that is looking for an out and is busy chasing his tail trying to make a success of his numerous failures.

His moonbeam failed and his returning to “wattienaccio” reeks of desperation but one in keeping wie the regression of the club under his stewardship and his belief of the “traditions and heritage” of the “establishment club”.

Thing is, no matter successes that may come his and wattie’s way, his pecking order view, one that is shared by the vocal majority that pollute the stands in Govan will always ensure that r*ngers are seen as damaged goods to any investor. Take that view away and all you have is a bloated beast of a fitba club.

Forza.

View From The Wing- Fans and Motherwell.

“For those who are oppressed in song we can protest”

Well maybe not in today’s modern society. I went along to the protest against John Reid today I was late and the protest was winding up so I can’t say I took part but I wanted to meet and speak to some of the Green Brigade members. Meet a few but I can’t say I achieved my aim but I was a bit taken aback by the reaction of certain “fans” and also Strathclyde finest.

Now, I remember the sack the board protests, hell I remember the days when the Celtic support would protest at a chip wrapper blowing around the car park but today’s fan just stood and stared. There was no coming across and engaging in why the protest was happening and there were a few shouts of abuse. The polis constant filming of a peaceful protest caused the lack of participation for me. Made you feel guilty of a crime standing talking to fellow Tims.

Maybe I don’t agree wie all the GB’s politics and views, I mean you never will agree 100% wie anyone but I agree wie what they are trying to do. Bring colour and atmosphere back to following Celtic. With their banners yesterday I feel they deserve oor support along wie a spell checker!!!

So to the game. Apart from certain “fans” abusing talent like Aiden McGeady who produced a display of magnificent wing play, pace and skill but still gets shouted at and the guys who abuse Scott Brown for running around like the Scott Brown that we paid £4million for.

It’s hard to judge a game after the week we have just had. Yesterdays game could have went either way, Arfur had a couple of cracking saves and as oor manager says the first goal is crucial in any game. We created numerous chances before we scored, their keeper had a game that reminded me of a flying pigs performance against us a few season back, but when we eventually scored, the goal scorer was not a surprise but the fact he scored wie a heider from a corner was.

The manager praised the Killen and Skippy partnership. Chris Killen was slagged by wags on my bus on the way home. Now, while the big fellow will never trouble the top class defenders he will face playing in the CL there is some doubts that he will even trouble defenders at SPL level.

His last start, domestically, against Gretna produced a performance I slated at the time but after watching the re-run decided I was a bit hard on the fellow. Yesterday, I thought he had a decent first half, he had a number of chances that made the Motherwell goalie work and his link up play was decent. Second, well I think his 70 odd minute lone front man role on Wednesday took it’s toll, I mean he is a big lump takes a fair bit of effort to carry it aboot.

But in terms of big front men we have been spoiled. Killen is not in the Hartson or Sutton class. He is being compared to two masters of the big man art. I will take performances like yesterday from him as really he is bosman signing from Hibs and before that was a bosman signing from Oldham reserves. Not a £12million price tag in his history.

So, we had a number of good performances but again I find it difficult to judge. If this performance had been before the CL had started I probably would have spouted hyperbole that Hartley and Brown would stand up in the CL and we could get away wie oor fullbacks being Naylor and Caldwell.

Now wie the CL underway, I worry that we gave Motherwell to many chances and that we still gave the ball away against an OK SPL side. Nae happy medium here…

Forza

Update

Yesterday's goals are here at http://www.101greatgoals.com/ , just scroll down past every game from England, Germany, Italy and Outer Mongolia i think and you will find it...sure you will agree this site is a must have on your favourites....

Update Updated

I know the link to the GB's banners disnny work.....

View From The Wing- "Wattienaccio"

The musings on the TV, there of Mark McGhee and Billy Dodds regarding r*ngers, Celtic and Aberdeens game got me thinking. They were full of praise of the set up of all teams for their respective games.

The "Wattienaccio" system seems to be flavour of the month all across Scotland at the moment and it won't be long until it is appearing at a public park near you soon. So why is this?

Personally i blame Andy Roxburgh and his think tank. He arranges the forums that gets all coaches together to discuss new innovations. A few weeks back their was one at St Andrews for all the SPL managers and the guests of hounor were Ferguson, Moyes and Houllier.

I'm sure Irons, Leven, Jeffries and them all lapped up the talks on tactics from Moyes and Houllier. I mean these two are the masters of boring the living daylights oot of you by the teams and tactics they have fielded in the past.

I'm sure Roxburgh and Craig Brown are proud their template is now seen as the future....

Forza

View From The Wing- Benfica

"If you don't give the ball away then you don't have to chase so much. And the less you have to chase, the fresher you are mentally and physically,"

Said Mr Strachan after he blamed tiredness on last nights defeat. It’s true and the aim is to stop it happening. So how do you stop it happening?

For one you stop buying players from Scottish teams, unless they are extra special, and you stop buying expensive and not so expensive foreigners who don’t improve the team. You then rear your own players that are comfortable on the ball and your scouting has to be spot on in lesser known countries- that produce technically better players than us Scots- to sign talent before the big guns get interested.

Thing is that all takes time. We have only produced one player who looks comfortable on the ball at the highest level, and even then he has be prone to terrible performances, in the last 20 years and oor scouting and signings seem to amount to raking the championship and SPL clubs.

Yes, we have bought players wie supposed CL quality but you have to ask have they flourished wie the journeymen and technically poorer youngsters that they have been paired wie, which means that we have to play an unnatural style?

Blessing is, the record for games without an away win in the CL is 31 games. We have 16 to go until we beat that but unless GS produces miracles on the training field then we will be mightily close to that 31 figure before we get near wining away from home…..

Forza

Benfica 1 Celtic 0

Late goals are a sickener or a brilliant end to a game. Tonight, unfortunately for us it was the later after the high of Meelan.. But tonight it’s not as much as a sickener as the Brave Celts tag that seems to get put upon the Hoops- and any other Scottish team- when a back against the wall performance goes pear-shaped or goes well.

It’s wee man syndrome. A syndrome that seems to think that effort over skill constitutes a fantastic performance. Yes, make no mistake I’m pleased that we showed effort and if the application of doing yer job, as you should, were applied not just to the defence but also to the more offensive areas of the field then we maybe would have deserved something from the game.

Yes, we worked hard but oor lack of bravery on the ball, lack of composure and the fact that we couldnae hold oor water for more than two passes at a time mean that we deserved what we got. Benfica played the fitba’ and to quote a famous Argentinean we played the “anti fitba” as we sat in, especially in the second half.

It was a nervous performance from us; it was one of a team that was unsure of the style they were playing but one that was willing to put in the effort to make this style work. The away record is now playing on the minds of both the players and the backroom staff. This was proved in how we set up in, what is now being called the “wattienaccio” formation…a formation, that is taking Scottish Fitba' by storm and also one that bakes performances like tonights.

As oor manager says we paid the price for not keeping possession well. If we had kept possession better then maybe the moments in the game when we looked good would have lasted for longer periods. Only McGeady got passmarks in an offensive sense. In fact McGeady was the only Celtic player to play fitba all night.

Not out of it, not by a long way. But tonight is not up there wie the kick in the gonads as nights of Juve, Lyon and Munich were. Yes I’m disappointed, I’m feckin gutted, but I know tonight’s performance is up there wie the other poor performances I have seen from the Hoops away from home. Only the result and the lateness of the goal make it seem different…

Forza

The Holy Goalie

Sent this by Evil Rhum Ba Ba

Who says that Artur doesn't take his religion seriously.

come on the Hoops!!!!

A War Cry From Lisboa...Well Not Really...

Unsure what I was expecting from today's UEFA press conference. Maybe I was wanting a rallying cry, an Artur type shout from the rooftops but the closest we got was this

"I can say to the players, 'you are (still) top of the league'.
"I would prefer it to be on points but it is on goal difference.
"I can also say 'you beat AC Milan, you are still in the CIS cup, you got chances at the weekend and never took them but you are doing a lot of things well'.

Unsure what things we are doing well, it certainly isn’t defending cross balls, oor defense is not making decisions well, nope we are not creating or keeping the ball like a professional fitba team should and finally we certainly are not adjusting to containing tactics well. Oh, it’s not definitely standing up and being counted well enough all over the park.

Tomorrow night will depend on how oor injuries clear. Tactics will be settled by the players that, worryingly for me, declare themselves fit.

No matter GS musings that it will be up to Mick if he plays or not but I’m sure, I hope, the doctors will make the final decision. But it’s a decision that shouldnae be made. He should be ruled oot even though that weakens an already weak back line a players long term health is paramount.

If he plays and is not 100% fit it’s a disaster waiting to happen. I only hope common sense prevails in this situation. Otherwise, I hope the game is still alive after 10mins and that GS tactics suit the players at his disposal and allow us to flourish by letting the players do what they are good at and not pandering to the normal away European tactics as we feel we should.

Forza

Should Have Been..Sweet F**k All

News, today that oor game against Falkirk on the 10th November, a whole week before Scotland take on Italy in the final group game of the European Championship Qualifiers, has been postponed couldnae go without comment.

It’s OK for the SFA to ask us to rest oor players a full seven days before a game but expects us to play games after delivering oor players back to us on a Friday, sometimes after 9 or 10 hour flights, at lunchtime on Saturdays.

Will the SFA ask other teams like Man Utd, Everton, Derby, Reading and erm..Burnley and Sheff Utd to postpone their games as well?

And how shite must Alex McLeish be if he needs longer than 6 days to get his players prepared for a big game?

Forza

Say What You See Artur.....

"I don't have to like anybody - and I don't. I don't like them, I don't like the club and I don't like the players - end of story.

What would Scottish Football do without oor Artur? In a play on the famous song by the Welsh wailer Bonnie- anything but- Taylor, Scottish fitba’ needed, not a hero, but a villain when Neil Lennon left but oor Arfur made sure he was this seasons pantomime villain wie an interview that makes his feelings clear.

When he says he disnae like the “club” we know the reasons why he disnae like the club. It’s the only place in Britain that you can get reported for “blessing” yourself and the media then blame you for doing it and that you might have caused a riot.

Right, Arfur is a wind up merchant. Make no mistake but he is a character. I hear all the time that characters are no longer in the game. I also hear talk shows and written word lackies moaning aboot the lack of passion shown in the traditional “derbies” wie all the foreigners now taking part. Arfur gives them what they want in one big lump of 6-foot odds Polish daftness.

From a Celtic point of view I’m glad he has come and said what he said. In the aftermath of a roll over and die performance once again at the home of oor rivals then at least we can look on the pitch and see at least one player that reflects some of oor passion.

Wonder if he can rub it off on the other 10….

Forza

Good News...

So, we are dealing with it. We are all probably dealing with it in oor own way, some will be bevvying, others eating pies and some like me will be trying to look forward to the Benfica game withoot panicing aboot O'Dea or Caldwell at right back and Sno patroling the middle of the park.

But as always, every cloud has a sliver lining wie this guid news

Steven Pressley has been included in the squad after recovering from back surgery and there is also a recall for out-of-favour defender Bobo Balde.

Magic......

Forza

Dignified and Paranoid as always

Now ma hangover fuzziness has disappeared, how come you party harder whenyer team gets beat?, i decided i was in the right frame of mind to trawled the net for post match reaction to Saturdays "efforts".

Apart from the usual get GS to feck threads that we seem to generate when poor results happen for once i tend to agree wie most of the match reviews written and in today's Times i found a quote from the "cardiemiester" that sorts of backs up Celtic

“I know there were a lot of bookings but it wasn’t that sort of match tome, I didn’t think it was overly physical.

No the game was not as physical as i thought it would be. But we stillpicked up 9 (nine) bookings and for all of Smiths apparent graciousness in his comments the majority of bookings were caused by his players going doon easily in any position where there gameplan of getting as many freekicks in a"whip the baw in the box" area could be executed.

Not that there is anything wrong wie that tactic especially when it's clear from early doors that the ref will give you all the free kicks you want and ignore any studs up, tackles from behind or common assaults, one that put a guy in hospital,from anyone in a blue jersey.

Smiths gracious comments also fall on deaf ears as 1) he set up his team toplay for "soft" free kicks and 2) his backroom fud's reaction when Mick was being carried off when the fud quite clearly told the player that the challenge on Mick was what he was meant to be doing and giving him the greenlight to do it again.

Forza

"Deal With It"

When I typed that GS seemed to be getting his excuses in early, I did so half jokingly but deep down I was worried. But again oor manger seems to be one for the most illogical of quotes and views on the game.

"We did make chances but didn't take them. They made chances and took them."

Right, we made two half chances- Jaro and Skippy- and a stick on chance, from the bemusing Donati, but other than that we created nothing, which is becoming the norm against r*ngers.

Read somewhere that GS said we would have to “deal with it” regarding the result. But how often do we have to deal wie performances from players who seem ill equipped and ill prepared when they take the field in big games.

Saturdays performance comes as no surprise to all of us who have watched Celtic under Strachan. We can be great or we can be so pish poor it’s embarrassing.

Also how long will we need to “Deal with” strange tactical tweaks to the team? Ok, GS went for the “new black” formation of 4-4-1-1, which I agreed wie, but…O’Dea at right back, Regi Donati as the deep lying midfielder and Sno who has been poor all season playing further forward was bemusing to say the least.

The whole blame can’t all be laid at the managers door. While some paid for being oot of position, half fit and rusty others were just poor. We handed them a victory without laying a glove on them, which is unacceptable.

Did Smith tactically out fox GS? You have to say yes, but a blind man who has lost his guide dug could tell you where oor weak spots are, it’s not rocket science.

Suppose I’ll just need to take the managers words to heart and just “Deal with it”.

Forza

Regi Blinker Award

......Goes to Massimo Donati......shitebag........

They had no pressure, no period when they were the better side, how did it end up 3....cause we let it.......i'm scunnered........

No matter the result, no matter the championship, being Celtic is so much more than yer team being successful, is aboot being on the right path, its aboot being guid within yerself, it's about believing and being brave in the face of adversity....

I wish the team would have the same attitude...apart from Arfur we don't hate enough but maybe we are better people for it.

Forza

Get yer excuses in early....

“Physically, it’s going to be a problem and mentally it’s the same. You have to deal with that, but it’s hard sometimes.“You won’t find players at their sharpest. I know for a fact that you would get a better game if the players from both sides had an extra two days of rest.”

Oor manager has come oot wie some “classic Strachan” in his time but getting his excuses in before the game is even guid for him. More worryingly I’m sure he mentioned the aforementioned lack of mental and physical sharpness before the last abject performance at Mordor.

Forza

For The Greater Good

It’s the nature of derbies all over the world that the diddy team will get a victory occasionally or will have a run of games where they seem to have a hex over you.

Yes, I don’t like getting beat but if my team play wie passion and heart- unlike the last time we visited Mordor- then we canny ask for more. If they get beat and have just rolled over and died- like the last time- then I’m more annoyed wie ma team and not the fact that we have got beat by them.

Yes, I will have the nervous tension at 7am, when I will wake on Saturday, and yes I will probably wish I was going to support my team in what is a hostile atmosphere and yes I want to stuff them, like a big game hunter stuffs his kill and mounts them in his hallway to boast aboot when Farquar comes round for dinner, but I somehow no longer get the feeling that I’m going to be sick before these games. I now get more nervous before European nights. Maybe I now see the bigger picture.

Which, somewhat long windily, brings me to my point. I read wie interest that r*ngers are rushing back players who are injured. I hear this evening that GS says players that are not 100% fit will not be risked and I agree.

If Hesslelink, Brown, Hartley and Caldwell have any chance of being a 100% fit for the game on Wednesday in Lisboa then they must not play at Ipox. They can't take the field on Saturday only running at 60 or 70%.

Oor competing in the wider scheme of things after Christmas, in the Champs League or the UEFA Cup, could hang on getting a decent result in Lisboa. We have 28 games after Saturday and 3 of them are against oor foes. Saturday is not life threatening, maybe we will get a bloody nose but we can sort that.

Forza

The Rise and, Could Be, Fall Of Jim O'Brien

In this week when Celtic news has been a bit slow, not very much to be sarcastic or comment aboot and Celtic quotes or players have been as rare in the papers as they have been at the Hoops new training center, it was wie much relief that when one player finally put his heid over the parapet that he gave us an oh ma god moment.

After the hopes of the nation crashed like an on fire Zeppelin over Berlin, Jim O’Brien, the forward and winger who’s style reminds me of the ungainly Frank McGarvey, gave us something to worry aboot ….

“I came on there against Gretna and I played right-back in a closed-doors
friendly with Dundee last week and it felt okay. In the first half, I was a wee
bit wary of going too far forward, but after the break I settled down.“Willie
McStay spoke to me about a few things and I felt a lot more confident. If the
manager wants me to play there, I’ll go in and do my best, give it everything
and try to learn as much as I can about the position.”

We wouldnae try and turn a winger into a full back would we? We wouldnae throw a winger into a game where a bad performance in an unfamiliar position would probably end his Celtic career or worse for the lad a decent performance may ear mark him as a full back for the rest of his days?

I think before Jim made those quotes he should have locked himself into a darkened room and said the name “Ross Wallace” a thousand times to remind himself what happened the last time oor manager experimented in this way….

Forza

Graham Roberts is a horses….

A few weeks back I was listening to ma daily dose of Alan Brazil on Talksport when he interviewed his former team-mate the fat conductor himself Graham Roberts. Now the fat conductor was bemoaning the fact as a self proclaimed Tottenham leg-end that he was left oot their 125 years celebrations.

Maybe his not guilty verdict in a certain court case still wisnny enough for the Spurs suits to allow him on the park wie anti-Jewish sentiments hanging over him but whatever it caused quite a bit of a stir on the Spurs Worldwide Web.

So imaging ma surprise after listening to him whining and saying that “He would have run through a brick wall for Spurs” when yesterday I read in the Sunday Herald, an interview that dissny paint him in a good light, that he is now a “a r*ngers man through and through”

So what has changed during the last fortnight? Would a book release and the fact that he will be the “guest of honor” at Ipox on Saturday have anything to do wie this shitty thug of a player becoming a uberh*n?

Forza

Bang, Goes Ma Senses...

The paranoia wrecked and stressful week that will ensue in the lead up to the first Glesga derby started yesterday. It started yesterday while Scotland was again defying the odds by beating the Ukraine. While the curse of the right back is already there for all to see at CP, wie Wilson, JJPD, Hartley and Caldwell all succumbing to the curse in the last few weeks yesterday saw more woes.

Yesterday I watched Scott Brown leave the field holding his hammie and saw Mick give a Ukrainian a Glesga kiss. Mick ended up reminding me of another Mick who played for the Hoops who permanently seemed to play wie a bandage round his heid.

But signs that ma logic and realism were taking leave of ma body was two incidents concerning r*ngers “blue chip summer signing” Lee McCulloch. Did I really “think oot loud” that he got himself booked deliberately to be suspended for the midweek game as he canny play “two games a week” © Wallie Smith, and that when he went doon injured in the second half did I really “think oot loud” that I hope the injury was serious as he was a major threat to us?

Forza