The Offical Glasgow Celtic thread

[marty34]

Thats was pure dung alright, clueless altogether. They can be so frustrating and would drive you to drink, I don't think there is one player you could say was half decent.

2 x centre backs a joke - getting bullied and pushed off the ball. Talk of Ajer going to a top European team...he would need to tighten up a notch or two.  In fairness, they have no competition at centre back (apart from Bitton, who's a midfielder) and think they are on easy street.  Who's fault is that?

No invention up top. Brown, Mc Gregor and Forrest all looked shattered and having little energy.  Ntcham on with 10mins to go - pointless.

Lennon can't motivate them for important games.  Needed a win after Rangers winning.  Need to not give them any encouragement by beating Killie but the performance was abject, totally abject.  The formation just wasn't right - players playing out of position. Eddie was outside the box, more than inside it - wtf?

I don't mind getting a draw but at least have a go and show some fire.  It looked like a draw after 15mins...static, sideways passing and no tempo. At least, have a cut at it.

[Angelo]

Ohh Angelo you forgot to mention Lawell's salary

His salary is indefensible when you look at the downsizing on the playing side.

[JimStynes]

Yes he's paid far too much but he's on 3.5million not 35 million. It's not exactly the whole transfer fund. I've the usual glass half empty view when it comes to Celtic. Rangers with a bit of momentum could very quickly mount a challenge and end up winning the league handy enough. I just don't trust Celtic under Lenny, he's liable to fall out with half the team by Christmas. And the board don't help with the lack of transfer activity. Why can Dermot Desmond not step in and bring in a few quality players for a season? He did it with Robbie Keane back in the day.

[clarshack]

I'd be very concerned after watching that today. Brown looks done and we've only played 2 league games. Also frustrating in that the players and management never seem to learn from previous experiences on those artificial pitches.

[Angelo]

Yes he's paid far too much but he's on 3.5million not 35 million. It's not exactly the whole transfer fund. I've the usual glass half empty view when it comes to Celtic. Rangers with a bit of momentum could very quickly mount a challenge and end up winning the league handy enough. I just don't trust Celtic under Lenny, he's liable to fall out with half the team by Christmas. And the board don't help with the lack of transfer activity. Why can Dermot Desmond not step in and bring in a few quality players for a season? He did it with Robbie Keane back in the day.

He earned £3.5m the season he scuppered the John McGinn deal for the sake of a couple of 000k. Celtic have about £20m/£30m in cash reserves in their accounts, they have little to no debt, they are turning over profit every season - yet they consistently continue to scrimp on the first team and Lawwell's salary continues to grow.

[rodney trotter]

Celtic haven't qualified for the group stages of the CL in 3 years? The sales of Dembele and Tierney compensated those losses, but they have to be making the group stages  regularly to spend decent money. Don't have the TV money like the teams in England.

[Angelo]

Celtic haven't qualified for the group stages of the CL in 3 years? The sales of Dembele and Tierney compensated those losses, but they have to be making the group stages  regularly to spend decent money. Don't have the TV money like the teams in England.

They don't.

Look at the profits over the past few seasons coupled with the fact that if they actually invest in the first team and buy some quality players and hire a competent manager they should be getting past teams like Cluj and AEK.

Celtic are seeded the whole way through the CL qualifiers, if they invest an extra £10m and hire a decent manager it would increase their chances ten fold.

[illdecide]

Feck me i'm as disappointed as anyone after today's result and performance but you men take it to the next level. Sack Lennon and Lawell needs to panic buy FFS wise up. We all know 2-3 quality signings are needed and there's nothing to suggest that they won't come in probably last minute stuff but that performance today will have confirmed that for sure.
All is not rosy in the garden right now but it's not panic stations after one draw

[dublin7]

This Scottish league thing and the standard is wearing thin too BTW, some people need to wise up. All the English supporters keep coming up with this crap every year yet 90% of players that are moved on from Celtic to other clubs seem to do rightly in the so called top English league...the same league that would put you to sleep watching a live game (majority of matches), the "Match of the day" does a wonderful job of cramming in 90 sec of action from a 90 min games to show us how wonderful it is.

There's probably double the amount of money spent in England than any other league but the Champions league winner in more likely to come from a different Country than England...funny that as it's the best league in the world.

Who exactly are all these players Celtic moved on in recent seasons to the Premier League?

Tierney is fair enough as he's a quality player who has been unlucky with injuries. Dembele went to France. After that who else is there? Van Dijk was years ago when that Celtic team was far superior to the current one

VVD left Celtic in 2015. Five years ago!
Fraser Forster, Victor Wanyama. Not a lot of players but not a bad hit rate.
You obviously don't watch much of Celtic if you think VVD's Celtic team was "far superior" to this years.

Celtic used to be competitive in the CL.  These days they struggle to even get through the qualification rounds and the
the Europa League just getting out of their group is an achievement.

The problem for Celtic is attracting quality players. The lack of quality and money in the league means players wont move there for lower wages compared to even decent championship level clubs in England. They can sweep up the best of SPL, but beyond that their only option is signing you unproven talent and hoping they turn into quality players and sell them on for a profit when a bigger club comes in for them

They topped their group in the Europa League last year.

The problem isn't attracting top players, the problem is the board's reluctance to invest in the first team.

Between Rodger's compensation package, Van Dijk's sell on fee, deals for Dembele, Tierney and Armstrong etc, Celtic have recouped upward of £70m in the past 2 and a half seasons. They have barely spent about half of that while posting consistent profits and Lawwell's salary consistently rising.

As I say, Lawell's objective is to win the league, and win the cups etc. with spending as little money as possible.  Lawell knows he can do this - win a few trophies and keep the majority of fans happy.

As an added bonus, a run in Europe keeps the fans happy also  and brings 8n a few pounds!

That is Celtic's level now. What else can their owners be expected to do?They can't compete in Europe so just dominate domestically and try to find a few hidden gems around Europe they can sell on for a nice profit in a few years time.

You only have to look at what happened to Rangers to see what happens if they started spending beyond their means

Invest in the first team. A club like Ajax or Sevilla operate under similar financial restrictions as Celtic do, you look at their turnover levels, wage bill etc - it's not that different.

The issue is Celtic are a very cash rich club but the directive from the board is to sell their top players at the earliest opportunity and not reinvest what they get into the first team.

I've asked earlier, what other club in Europe has their chief executive as the top or one of the top earners at the football club? Celtic have a golden path to the CL every year but have been knocked out by teams like AEK Athens and Cluj in recent years. Lawwell's unwillingness to loosen the purse strings in those early stages of the season has certainly damaged Celtic's opportunites.

The John McGinn fiasco summed it up that season, it was the straw that broke the back for Rodgers, he was furious after the board dragged their heels on getting the deal done and lost out on him. He went public about it shortly after. Lawwell was trying to lowball Hibs to save a few 000k, the same man then goes and pockets a salary of £3.5m that season, it's simply indefensible.

Who exactly do you expect your club to target? They target the best in Scotland and after that it's pot luck based on unproven talent. I don't know McGinn's wages, but whatever Villa are paying in the EPL you can be sure it is more than Celtic could offer.

Celtic are big fish in Scotland, but a minnow in the European pond.

Despite dominating the Scottish league their profits are minuscule due to the lack of money in Scottish football for tv rights and prize winning. Their transfer sales are subsidising a wage bill that dwarfs the rest of Scottish football.

The directors in charge aren't stupid. They in fact are showing fiscal responsibility and not spending money the club doesn't have.

[GiveItToTheShooters]

Angelo is right. Winning in Scotland won't cut it. Investment for European progression is a must.

[Angelo]

This Scottish league thing and the standard is wearing thin too BTW, some people need to wise up. All the English supporters keep coming up with this crap every year yet 90% of players that are moved on from Celtic to other clubs seem to do rightly in the so called top English league...the same league that would put you to sleep watching a live game (majority of matches), the "Match of the day" does a wonderful job of cramming in 90 sec of action from a 90 min games to show us how wonderful it is.

There's probably double the amount of money spent in England than any other league but the Champions league winner in more likely to come from a different Country than England...funny that as it's the best league in the world.

Who exactly are all these players Celtic moved on in recent seasons to the Premier League?

Tierney is fair enough as he's a quality player who has been unlucky with injuries. Dembele went to France. After that who else is there? Van Dijk was years ago when that Celtic team was far superior to the current one

VVD left Celtic in 2015. Five years ago!
Fraser Forster, Victor Wanyama. Not a lot of players but not a bad hit rate.
You obviously don't watch much of Celtic if you think VVD's Celtic team was "far superior" to this years.

Celtic used to be competitive in the CL.  These days they struggle to even get through the qualification rounds and the
the Europa League just getting out of their group is an achievement.

The problem for Celtic is attracting quality players. The lack of quality and money in the league means players wont move there for lower wages compared to even decent championship level clubs in England. They can sweep up the best of SPL, but beyond that their only option is signing you unproven talent and hoping they turn into quality players and sell them on for a profit when a bigger club comes in for them

They topped their group in the Europa League last year.

The problem isn't attracting top players, the problem is the board's reluctance to invest in the first team.

Between Rodger's compensation package, Van Dijk's sell on fee, deals for Dembele, Tierney and Armstrong etc, Celtic have recouped upward of £70m in the past 2 and a half seasons. They have barely spent about half of that while posting consistent profits and Lawwell's salary consistently rising.

As I say, Lawell's objective is to win the league, and win the cups etc. with spending as little money as possible.  Lawell knows he can do this - win a few trophies and keep the majority of fans happy.

As an added bonus, a run in Europe keeps the fans happy also  and brings 8n a few pounds!

That is Celtic's level now. What else can their owners be expected to do?They can't compete in Europe so just dominate domestically and try to find a few hidden gems around Europe they can sell on for a nice profit in a few years time.

You only have to look at what happened to Rangers to see what happens if they started spending beyond their means

Invest in the first team. A club like Ajax or Sevilla operate under similar financial restrictions as Celtic do, you look at their turnover levels, wage bill etc - it's not that different.

The issue is Celtic are a very cash rich club but the directive from the board is to sell their top players at the earliest opportunity and not reinvest what they get into the first team.

I've asked earlier, what other club in Europe has their chief executive as the top or one of the top earners at the football club? Celtic have a golden path to the CL every year but have been knocked out by teams like AEK Athens and Cluj in recent years. Lawwell's unwillingness to loosen the purse strings in those early stages of the season has certainly damaged Celtic's opportunites.

The John McGinn fiasco summed it up that season, it was the straw that broke the back for Rodgers, he was furious after the board dragged their heels on getting the deal done and lost out on him. He went public about it shortly after. Lawwell was trying to lowball Hibs to save a few 000k, the same man then goes and pockets a salary of £3.5m that season, it's simply indefensible.

Who exactly do you expect your club to target? They target the best in Scotland and after that it's pot luck based on unproven talent. I don't know McGinn's wages, but whatever Villa are paying in the EPL you can be sure it is more than Celtic could offer.

Celtic are big fish in Scotland, but a minnow in the European pond.

Despite dominating the Scottish league their profits are minuscule due to the lack of money in Scottish football for tv rights and prize winning. Their transfer sales are subsidising a wage bill that dwarfs the rest of Scottish football.

The directors in charge aren't stupid. They in fact are showing fiscal responsibility and not spending money the club doesn't have.

Villa were in the Championship when McGinn signed, he is a boyhood Celtic fan and the move was his priority but Lawwell dicked about and wouldn't pay the £2.5m Villa offered, think he had offered £1.2m. Villa came in and met Hibs asking price and McGinn signed for them. Rodgers had made McGinn a priority and was livid that the deal had failed.

I don't see why you think the EPL is the only market out there for players, there are plenty of players in European Leagues out there, you look at Jullien and Edouard who have done very well, Jullien had a nightmare yesterday but has done very well overall. We've signed players from France, Poland, Greece, Austria, Norway who took part yesterday so I don't see why you're obsessed with us needing to sign EPL players. No other league in Europe can compete with the finances of the EPL but Celtic have financial resources that should allow them to compete with teams like Ajax, Porto, Benfica and Sevilla for instance. Teams who have been in the latter stages of Europe year on year over the past decade.

You simply cannot see outside of your EPL obsession, Celtic's profits and turnover are not miniscule in terms of the rest of Europe. There's only about 5/6 clubs in Italy that boast a higher turnover than Celtic, the same in Spain, the same in Germany. The world of football does not revolve around the EPL like it does in your head.

There are resources there for Celtic to go out and spend money and improve the first team, the board just choose not to. They choose to appoint a cheap option of a manager who is not up to the job. They choose to hawk their best players at the earliest opportunity and invest half of that money into the playing side. They choose to top up the bank reserves with the profits they make and reward the suits at the top with higher salaries.

As I've said, what other club in Europe has a suit as the highest earning/one of the highest earning salaried employees? The whole thing stinks.

Celtic are going nowhere this season with the likes of Forrest and Elyonoussi as regular starters. The team badly needs a £20m or so net investment in the first team this season.

[tyroneman]

Elyonoussi brings very little to the side. Neat, tidy, technically ok - that's it.

No creativity, no beating of his man, no great shooting.

Celtic are sleepwalking into losing the most important season since Wim came to stop 9iar

[clarshack]

In games like yesterday, the team needs more width (Taylor and Forrest are very poor) and a physical striker along with Edouard in order to get the job done. Continually passing the ball around with no end product is madness. 2 shots on target is pathetic but the players never seem to learn or adapt to those artificial pitches and keep putting in these type of poor performances away to the likes of Kilmarnock, Livingston and Hamilton. Very frustrating.

[tyroneman]

In games like yesterday, the team needs more width (Taylor and Forrest are very poor) and a physical striker along with Edouard in order to get the job done. Continually passing the ball around with no end product is madness. 2 shots on target is pathetic but the players never seem to learn or adapt to those artificial pitches and keep putting in these type of poor performances away to the likes of Kilmarnock, Livingston and Hamilton. Very frustrating.

Forrest has zero consistency. Pulls a wondergoal out every so often, but in terms of giving you a decent 90min he's awful

[dublin7]

This Scottish league thing and the standard is wearing thin too BTW, some people need to wise up. All the English supporters keep coming up with this crap every year yet 90% of players that are moved on from Celtic to other clubs seem to do rightly in the so called top English league...the same league that would put you to sleep watching a live game (majority of matches), the "Match of the day" does a wonderful job of cramming in 90 sec of action from a 90 min games to show us how wonderful it is.

There's probably double the amount of money spent in England than any other league but the Champions league winner in more likely to come from a different Country than England...funny that as it's the best league in the world.

Who exactly are all these players Celtic moved on in recent seasons to the Premier League?

Tierney is fair enough as he's a quality player who has been unlucky with injuries. Dembele went to France. After that who else is there? Van Dijk was years ago when that Celtic team was far superior to the current one

VVD left Celtic in 2015. Five years ago!
Fraser Forster, Victor Wanyama. Not a lot of players but not a bad hit rate.
You obviously don't watch much of Celtic if you think VVD's Celtic team was "far superior" to this years.

Celtic used to be competitive in the CL.  These days they struggle to even get through the qualification rounds and the
the Europa League just getting out of their group is an achievement.

The problem for Celtic is attracting quality players. The lack of quality and money in the league means players wont move there for lower wages compared to even decent championship level clubs in England. They can sweep up the best of SPL, but beyond that their only option is signing you unproven talent and hoping they turn into quality players and sell them on for a profit when a bigger club comes in for them

They topped their group in the Europa League last year.

The problem isn't attracting top players, the problem is the board's reluctance to invest in the first team.

Between Rodger's compensation package, Van Dijk's sell on fee, deals for Dembele, Tierney and Armstrong etc, Celtic have recouped upward of £70m in the past 2 and a half seasons. They have barely spent about half of that while posting consistent profits and Lawwell's salary consistently rising.

As I say, Lawell's objective is to win the league, and win the cups etc. with spending as little money as possible.  Lawell knows he can do this - win a few trophies and keep the majority of fans happy.

As an added bonus, a run in Europe keeps the fans happy also  and brings 8n a few pounds!

That is Celtic's level now. What else can their owners be expected to do?They can't compete in Europe so just dominate domestically and try to find a few hidden gems around Europe they can sell on for a nice profit in a few years time.

You only have to look at what happened to Rangers to see what happens if they started spending beyond their means

Invest in the first team. A club like Ajax or Sevilla operate under similar financial restrictions as Celtic do, you look at their turnover levels, wage bill etc - it's not that different.

The issue is Celtic are a very cash rich club but the directive from the board is to sell their top players at the earliest opportunity and not reinvest what they get into the first team.

I've asked earlier, what other club in Europe has their chief executive as the top or one of the top earners at the football club? Celtic have a golden path to the CL every year but have been knocked out by teams like AEK Athens and Cluj in recent years. Lawwell's unwillingness to loosen the purse strings in those early stages of the season has certainly damaged Celtic's opportunites.

The John McGinn fiasco summed it up that season, it was the straw that broke the back for Rodgers, he was furious after the board dragged their heels on getting the deal done and lost out on him. He went public about it shortly after. Lawwell was trying to lowball Hibs to save a few 000k, the same man then goes and pockets a salary of £3.5m that season, it's simply indefensible.

Who exactly do you expect your club to target? They target the best in Scotland and after that it's pot luck based on unproven talent. I don't know McGinn's wages, but whatever Villa are paying in the EPL you can be sure it is more than Celtic could offer.

Celtic are big fish in Scotland, but a minnow in the European pond.

Despite dominating the Scottish league their profits are minuscule due to the lack of money in Scottish football for tv rights and prize winning. Their transfer sales are subsidising a wage bill that dwarfs the rest of Scottish football.

The directors in charge aren't stupid. They in fact are showing fiscal responsibility and not spending money the club doesn't have.

Villa were in the Championship when McGinn signed, he is a boyhood Celtic fan and the move was his priority but Lawwell dicked about and wouldn't pay the £2.5m Villa offered, think he had offered £1.2m. Villa came in and met Hibs asking price and McGinn signed for them. Rodgers had made McGinn a priority and was livid that the deal had failed.

I don't see why you think the EPL is the only market out there for players, there are plenty of players in European Leagues out there, you look at Jullien and Edouard who have done very well, Jullien had a nightmare yesterday but has done very well overall. We've signed players from France, Poland, Greece, Austria, Norway who took part yesterday so I don't see why you're obsessed with us needing to sign EPL players. No other league in Europe can compete with the finances of the EPL but Celtic have financial resources that should allow them to compete with teams like Ajax, Porto, Benfica and Sevilla for instance. Teams who have been in the latter stages of Europe year on year over the past decade.

You simply cannot see outside of your EPL obsession, Celtic's profits and turnover are not miniscule in terms of the rest of Europe. There's only about 5/6 clubs in Italy that boast a higher turnover than Celtic, the same in Spain, the same in Germany. The world of football does not revolve around the EPL like it does in your head.

There are resources there for Celtic to go out and spend money and improve the first team, the board just choose not to. They choose to appoint a cheap option of a manager who is not up to the job. They choose to hawk their best players at the earliest opportunity and invest half of that money into the playing side. They choose to top up the bank reserves with the profits they make and reward the suits at the top with higher salaries.

As I've said, what other club in Europe has a suit as the highest earning/one of the highest earning salaried employees? The whole thing stinks.

Celtic are going nowhere this season with the likes of Forrest and Elyonoussi as regular starters. The team badly needs a £20m or so net investment in the first team this season.

Top European players won't sign for Celtic. That's just a fact of life. The like of Ajax & Benfica are champions league regulars and are far superior to Celtic who can't even get through CL qualifiers. The board at Celtic thankfully are realistic and financially sensible as they target players who fit a certain profile and budget.

Celtic don't need to spend anything close to £20m to win the Scottish league. They have the biggest squad, biggest playing budget and they only have one challenger in Rangers.