The Offical Glasgow Celtic thread

[clarshack]

more dropped points today. 3 wins in 10 is relegation form and simply not good enough. WGS should go now while celtic still have a chance.

[tyroneman]

WGS signings.............

2005/06
Ins
Mark Wilson
Roy Keane
Du Wei
Paul Telfer
Adam Virgo
Shunsuke Nakamura
Maciej Zurawski
Artur Boruc
Mohammed Camara


2006/7

Ins
Kenny Miller
Gary Caldwell
Jiri Jarosik
Evander Sno
Derek Riordan
Dion Dublin
Lee Naylor
Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink
Thomas Gravesen
Steven Pressley
Mark Brown
Jean-Joel Perrier-Doumbe
Paul Hartley


2007/08

Ins
Scott McDonald
Tomislav Pavlov
Scott Brown
Chris Killen
Massimo Donati
Laurence Gaughan
Luca Santonocito
Andreas Hinkel
Koki Mizuno
Ben Hutchison
Giorgios Samaras
Barry Robson

2008/09

Patrick McCourt
Georgios Samaras
Matty Hughes
Marc Crosas
Glenn Loovens
Shaun Maloney
Niall McGinn
Łukasz Załuska
Milan Mišůn
Willo Flood
Filip Twardzik
Patrik Twardzik

Dismal........................

[Rav67]

Caldwell midfield while Crosas warms the bench    That's hurting 2 positions.  Loovens fucked up for the goal as well, but no doubt when WGS decides to play Caldwell in the middle again it'll be Loovens rather than O'Dea who gets the nod.

Big Jan had another stinker.  I know he's been injured for most of the season, but for a Dutch international striker to only have scored in one game playing in Scotland.........

[clarshack]

Caldwell midfield while Crosas warms the bench    That's hurting 2 positions.  Loovens fucked up for the goal as well, but no doubt when WGS decides to play Caldwell in the middle again it'll be Loovens rather than O'Dea who gets the nod.

Big Jan had another stinker.  I know he's been injured for most of the season, but for a Dutch international striker to only have scored in one game playing in Scotland.........

loovens is a very poor defender

[lynchbhoy]

Caldwell midfield while Crosas warms the bench    That's hurting 2 positions.  Loovens fucked up for the goal as well, but no doubt when WGS decides to play Caldwell in the middle again it'll be Loovens rather than O'Dea who gets the nod.

Big Jan had another stinker.  I know he's been injured for most of the season, but for a Dutch international striker to only have scored in one game playing in Scotland.........

loovens is a very poor defender

I think hes better than caldwell and mcmanus (as is ODea), but it aint easy getting one game in every ten and expecting to play well while you have two donkeys who are not natural centre haves playing there week in week out.
Cardiff fans seemed to think Loovens was a superb defender. They havent been quite as stable at the back since he's left in spite of the money they have.

[under the bar]

loovens is a very poor defender

Fits into the current Celtic team perfectly then....

[Clown]

Strachans team selections are a joke. There is no pattern to them. Hartley was our best outfield player in the old firm and was dropped yesterday, mcgeady is our best player and cant get on the team, hesslink has been terrible for 5 games and still starts every match, players like o'dea, crosas and mizuno come in and do well and are then not given another game


the board announced this week that the debt is now below 1million pounds so in 5 years has been reduced from over 30 million to under 1 million.
so what are we gonna do now once we get out of debt? just save up the money and keep buying players for 100 grand from clubs like derry city and cardiff?

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

SFL would consider 'Celtic B' bid 
By Martin Conaghan 

The Scottish Football League would consider an application from Celtic to enter a B team into the Third Division.

SFL chief executive David Longmuir and Celtic counterpart Peter Lawwell recently discussed the issue.

However, SFL president Brown McMaster stressed that it was one of many topics informally raised at the meeting.

"It's at a very early stage and we would want to gauge opinion on the prospect from all 30 member clubs," McMaster told BBC Scotland.

Scottish Football Association chief executive Gordon Smith welcomed the idea.

"This is something I proposed quite some time ago when I was a BBC pundit," he told BBC Scotland.

"I thiought it would be good for Rangers and Celtic but might also be good for the clubs in the lower divisions as it would give their crowds a boost and could be

profitable.  People seem to think that SPL2 is certain to happen, but that is a lot of nonsense

"Albeit it would be their reserve teams, but we could still have a very strong squad of players playing in the lower division."

Top-flight clubs in a number of European countries operate B teams or feeder clubs in lower divisions.

So far none of the clubs in the Scottish Premier League have followed suit, but such a prospect comes as the present structure of the professional game is being considered for change.

The SPL recently announced plans to scrap its reserve league.

And the SFA last week improved the prospects of a second tier of the Scottish Premier League being formed.

An arbitration panel decided that a so-called SPL2 would not breach the SPL's agreement with the Scottish Football League, which presently runs Divisions One, Two and Three.

The SPL will hold an extraordinary meeting of its 12 clubs in mid-March and, if the proposal is approved, will open negotiations with the SFL.


Smith thinks the Old Firm could boost lower-league crowds
Longmuir, who explained that his meeting with Lawwell had primarily been about Co-operative Insurance Cup final tickets, does not see the formation of the SPL2 as a fait accompli.

"People seem to think that SPL2 is certain to happen, but that is a lot of nonsense," he said.

"It was only a legal ruling and the debate has still to take place.

"The SFL is in a better position now than when I took over. There is more positivity going on within the leagues."

[nifan]

I take it players have to be registered to the b team, rather than just being able to put any player in when you feel like it as with current reserve teams.

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

I take it players have to be registered to the b team, rather than just being able to put any player in when you feel like it as with current reserve teams.

Not sure how it would work.
Obviously there would need to be checks in place if your "A" team and "B" team ever met in competitive competition.

[nifan]

Yeah, obviously rangers would be in on this like a shot too.
Be interesting to see the turnout for a 3rd division match in this case.

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

Yeah, obviously rangers would be in on this like a shot too.
Be interesting to see the turnout for a 3rd division match in this case.

It would definately increase attendances at Div 3 matches, although Rankers may not be assured of entry! 

[Myles Na G.]

I take it players have to be registered to the b team, rather than just being able to put any player in when you feel like it as with current reserve teams.

Not sure how it would work.
Obviously there would need to be checks in place if your "A" team and "B" team ever met in competitive competition.

Is there any other kind of competition? 

[lynchbhoy]

SFL would consider 'Celtic B' bid 
By Martin Conaghan 

The Scottish Football League would consider an application from Celtic to enter a B team into the Third Division.

SFL chief executive David Longmuir and Celtic counterpart Peter Lawwell recently discussed the issue.

However, SFL president Brown McMaster stressed that it was one of many topics informally raised at the meeting.

"It's at a very early stage and we would want to gauge opinion on the prospect from all 30 member clubs," McMaster told BBC Scotland.

Scottish Football Association chief executive Gordon Smith welcomed the idea.

"This is something I proposed quite some time ago when I was a BBC pundit," he told BBC Scotland.

"I thiought it would be good for Rangers and Celtic but might also be good for the clubs in the lower divisions as it would give their crowds a boost and could be

profitable.  People seem to think that SPL2 is certain to happen, but that is a lot of nonsense

"Albeit it would be their reserve teams, but we could still have a very strong squad of players playing in the lower division."

Top-flight clubs in a number of European countries operate B teams or feeder clubs in lower divisions.

So far none of the clubs in the Scottish Premier League have followed suit, but such a prospect comes as the present structure of the professional game is being considered for change.

The SPL recently announced plans to scrap its reserve league.

And the SFA last week improved the prospects of a second tier of the Scottish Premier League being formed.

An arbitration panel decided that a so-called SPL2 would not breach the SPL's agreement with the Scottish Football League, which presently runs Divisions One, Two and Three.

The SPL will hold an extraordinary meeting of its 12 clubs in mid-March and, if the proposal is approved, will open negotiations with the SFL.


Smith thinks the Old Firm could boost lower-league crowds
Longmuir, who explained that his meeting with Lawwell had primarily been about Co-operative Insurance Cup final tickets, does not see the formation of the SPL2 as a fait accompli.

"People seem to think that SPL2 is certain to happen, but that is a lot of nonsense," he said.

"It was only a legal ruling and the debate has still to take place.

"The SFL is in a better position now than when I took over. There is more positivity going on within the leagues."

this is possibly the precursor to my own suggestion to Celtic plc
a couple of years ago when it all started off about Celtic going into the epl, I thought it would be a great idea to leave the reserve team in the spl and it would increase competition amongst the rest of the spl clubs and give them all a great chance of winning the league and developing players further - through international copetition.
Now it looks like the reserve team will be farmed out, then when they get up to championship level (old Div 2) they might swap the teams around and stick the first team in the championship (div 2) league with a view of winning promotion to the epl (div 1).
while Celtic might not get euro action in that first year in the epl, the revenue from being in that league would make it worthwhile and after one or possibly two seasons in epl, they woul dbe back in europe again, but armed with larger bank balance to buy a better level of player (subject to strachan being long gone).

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

I take it players have to be registered to the b team, rather than just being able to put any player in when you feel like it as with current reserve teams.

Not sure how it would work.
Obviously there would need to be checks in place if your "A" team and "B" team ever met in competitive competition.

Is there any other kind of competition? 

Great input there.