The Offical Glasgow Celtic thread

[Banana Man]

has to be league every time due to the champions league (qualifying spot), more doe for that than a shitty cup, and more doe for the hoops and less for the teddy bears is all good in my book 

[clarshack]

noone really cares about the league cup in general but at the same time what decent football person wants to see diouf doing a lap of honour on sunday?

[clarshack]

good to see rangers out and sparing the dubs a clean up operation!!!!

[bennydorano]

Good article in Saturday's Times(UK) by a journo called Graham Spiers, highly critical of the bigotry that Lennon has to endure, interesting considering the source. Maybe someone can get it online & post it.

[Minder]

Good article in Saturday's Times(UK) by a journo called Graham Spiers, highly critical of the bigotry that Lennon has to endure, interesting considering the source. Maybe someone can get it online & post it.

Copy and pasting this from IPhone so hopefully is ok.

One mans troubles in city where bigots still rule


Do you think it might be tough being a high-profile football manager? Well, just consider the ledger of aggravation that Neil Lennon, the Celtic manager, has had to endure, and still endures, in Glasgow.
Twenty months ago, Lennon suffered his third street assault in the city. He had been abused and then jumped on by two men, after which he had to be rushed to the Western Infirmary's accident and emergency ward, where he underwent neurological tests. Lennon received facial bruises and a bloody nose that night.
Hearing about this through the grapevine, I phoned Lennon to find out how he was. "I'm OK, but I took quite a beating, I can tell you," he said, happily admitting that he had come off second best (not something Lennon ordinarily likes to do). "They did me good and hard."
As shocking as this incident was, it did not exactly revolt or appal Scottish society. In part, this is because we have become used to these episodes surrounding Lennon, a man who has received death threats and bullets through the post, on top of assaults in the street. Why does it happen? It happens because Lennon is an iconic figure at Celtic, the team he has led in his first year as manager to tomorrow's Co-operative Insurance Cup final at Hampden Park against Rangers. It is a game that Lennon will have to watch from the stands, having been banned from leading out his team or sitting in the dugout after the fiery Scottish Cup replay this month.
That beating in the street did not surprise me because it had happened before, and even, at times, with a faintly comical twist to it. None more so than in Glasgow in 2003, when Lennon, the Celtic midfield enforcer in a dominant Martin O'Neill team, had his first introduction to the Glasgow street kiss.
Lennon was approached and physically threatened again, this time by two Glasgow University students (for the record, one of them studying law, the other studying medicine). He was jumped upon and the now time-honoured Lennon fracas broke out, with the Northern Irishman deciding to give as good as he got. His assailants were convicted in court of assault.
The incident came early in the timeline of Lennon's exclusive war zone in Glasgow — heartier and scarier episodes were on the way — but I will never forget his description of that particular assault. "I was with my girlfriend at the time and I said to her, 'Hang on, I think there's going to be trouble here,' " he said.
"There I was in the West End of Glasgow — the supposedly leafy West End — and me and these two guys ended up rolling around on the pavement. My memory of that night was of the Glasgow traffic — cars and buses, with people looking out the windows — happily rolling by with next to no one batting an eyelid at this scrap in the street."
One day in 2004, Lennon opened his curtains in his Glasgow home to find a death threat daubed on the street outside his front door. At least, it was supposed to be a death threat, although the doughballs had blundered in their artwork. "Neil Lennon: RPI", the graffiti read, not having intended to quote the retail price index but instead wishing the Celtic player to rest in peace. By this point Lennon was becoming inured to such trash, but that day he traipsed from door to door around his neighbours, apologising for the street mess.
In this narrative called Let's Kill Neil Lennon, it has sometimes been far worse. Only six weeks ago the Celtic manager was sent live bullets through the post, in a package that Celtic handed over to the police. Two weeks ago he was sent a hoax parcel bomb, a "suspicious package" that the police intercepted. In Belfast 12 days ago another "Neil Lennon RIP" daubing was spotted. Last week Celtic arranged private 24-hour security around Lennon's home, within which he, his partner and their six-year-old child live.
On and on it goes. In Glasgow, where the city's heartbeat throbs and the social vibrancy is openly admired, we tend to roll our eyes at it all. It is only now, in chronicling this saga, that I can step outside the bubble and ask just what the hell is going on? Well, it is obvious. Lennon is a victim of bigotry. There is no way that this can be camouflaged or soft-soaped. It is excruciating for Glasgow and the West of Scotland, but what has happened to Lennon is akin to a mirror being held up to Scottish society, only for a grim and ugly image to be seen in it.
There is something enduring in West of Scotland society that cannot stand a prominent Roman Catholic from Northern Ireland, such as Lennon, 39, coming to this part of the world and being successful with Celtic. For some, this is too much to bear. They feel it like a dagger to their heart. If this sounds absurd to many across sophisticated, multicultural Britain, well, I can only apologise. It is how it is.
The Lennon experience speaks of a deep truth about the way football can reveal a society to itself. "When I was at Leicester I wouldn't say I was a nobody exactly, but I was nothing special and I was certainly no headline-maker," Lennon once told me. "But all this kicked off when I signed for Celtic."
So what was it exactly that "kicked off" that day in December 2000, when O'Neill signed Lennon for £5.5 million? It was this: Lennon pulled over his head one of the great, most visible, most iconic images of popular Catholic culture — the green-and-white hooped shirt of Celtic — and it changed his life for ever.
From that day on Lennon has been, to an extent, a marked man. He took up residence with a football club steeped in culture and tradition, yet for those mired in sectarian prejudice, in Scotland or Northern Ireland, it was like a provocation. "Get Lennon" seemed to become, if not a popular pastime, then at least a worthwhile pursuit for an alarming number of people. Almost casually, in 2001, a death threat ended Lennon's Northern Ireland career.
Has he sometimes made it worse for himself? Probably. Lennon is no innocent when it comes to peace in the streets. He is no shrinking violet. He comes from an underdog tradition, politically and socially, in Lurgan, and to borrow from the vernacular of Glasgow and elsewhere, his motto is: "I take no s*** from anyone."
He has a slightly comical habit of offering an old-fashioned shove to people with whom he disagrees. Lennon once pushed Aiden McGeady in open play after his former Celtic team-mate had criticised him to his face. If you look closely enough at the footage of the fracas at the end of the Celtic-Rangers Scottish Cup replay 17 days ago, you can see Lennon go to shove Ally McCoist after he and the Rangers assistant manager had gone face to face. So let it be affirmed again: Lennon is no pacifist.
Yet something, surely, is amiss when a football figure has to go through the gauntlet of bullets, assaults and death threats that Lennon has suffered. On the fewer occasions now when I see him — as Celtic manager he has to choose his friends more carefully — we share a black humour about his continuing survival. "Ah, still here, I see," I will crassly joke, and he will smile and roll his eyes.
But it is no laughing matter. The Neil Lennon experience should make everyone in Scotland and elsewhere sit up and ask again, what can be done to cure the prejudice and bigotry in our midst?
Head to head
This season a record seven Old Firm matches will be played. So far, Celtic have the upper hand.
• Oct 24, league: Celtic 1 Rangers 3 Rangers overcome a half-time deficit to win as Kenny Miller scores twice.
• Jan 2, league: Rangers 0 Celtic 2 Georgios Samaras scores two second-half goals to extend Celtic's lead at the top of the table.
• Feb 6, Scottish Cup: Rangers 2 Celtic 2 Celtic twice come from behind to force a replay. Fraser Forster, the Celtic goalkeeper, and Steven Naismith, of Rangers, are sent off.
• Feb 20, league: Celtic 3 Rangers 0 Gary Hooper scores twice in the opening half-hour to set up a comfortable victory.
• March 2, Scottish Cup replay: Celtic 1 Rangers 0 Rangers have Steven Whittaker, Madjid Bougherra and, after the final whistle, El-Hadji Diouf sent off and the teams' benches clash. Mark Wilson's goal settles it.
• Tomorrow, Scottish League Cup final: Celtic v Rangers, live on BBC One Scotland.
• To be arranged, league: Rangers v Celtic.
Words by Bill Edgar
Clubs with history
• Celtic came into existence in 1888 on the back of a flood of Irish immigrants to the West of Scotland, fleeing the Great Famine. Formed by Brother Walfrid, an Irish Marist priest, Celtic became an emblem of the Irish — and thus Roman Catholic — community in Scotland.
• Rangers, having been formed 15 years earlier, were born of indigenous Scottish founders. As the new game of football flourished, the two clubs quickly grew in stature and popularity, although the early years appear to have been reasonably peaceable.
The 1909 Scottish Cup final riot Whether this was a staging post in the looming sectarianism problem is hard to pin down, but the Old Firm final riot foretold a problem. The match was a replay and when it ended in a draw, the crowd rioted and set fire to parts of Hampden Park. The Evening Times in Glasgow opined that "all police should be withdrawn from these matches and substitute them instead with a regiment of soldiers with fixed bayonets".
The 1980 Scottish Cup final riot Now the sectarianism problem really was becoming apparent. On a boiling day at Hampden Park in front of 80,000 fans, Rangers and Celtic fought out a slog of a final. As the exhausted players trooped up to receive their medals, the crowds from both ends surged on to the field and started fighting. Mounted police went on to the Hampden pitch, and the TV commentator, Archie Macpherson, a touch preposterously, described the scene as being "like Passchendaele down there". The riot led to new legislation in Scotland controlling taking alcohol into football grounds.
The 1989 signing of Maurice Johnston for Celtic ... no, wait ... Rangers Johnston remains the poster boy of the Old Firm divide, having originally played for Celtic, then moving to Nantes, before supposedly returning to sign for Celtic in June 1989. Johnston was even presented at a Celtic press conference upon his "signing", wearing a Celtic top and hugging Billy McNeill, allegedly his new manager. But Celtic quibbled about financial aspects of the deal and two weeks later Johnston was presented by Graeme Souness as a Rangers player. Cue the burning of effigies by both sets of fans: Celtic for this "Judas" and Rangers, many of whom deplored this signing "from the other side".
Martin O'Neill, Neil Lennon and more fuel on the flames O'Neill was appointed Celtic manager in May 2000 and enjoyed five years of domination over Rangers. A Roman Catholic from Northern Ireland, and the first from his denomination to captain his country, O'Neill became adored by the Celtic legions and loathed by Rangers, on both counts for obvious reasons. O'Neill's presence in Glasgow only served to arouse the dormant bigotry. In 2004, O'Neill spoke of the "religious and racial discrimination" he experienced at Ibrox. Now comes Neil Lennon, the Celtic manager, from a similar background.
Words by Graham Spiers

[Doogie Browser]

All the best to Celtic today, heading for few pints to watch the match. 11/8 to win the match looks too good for me.

[Celt_Man]

Is the match on Setanta?

[Hoof Hearted]

Is the match on Setanta?

Yes, but it's on Channel 971 on SKY for those who don't have Setanta

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

Is the match on Setanta?

BBC Scotland, you should be able to get it on Sky

[Celt_Man]

Is the match on Setanta?

BBC Scotland, you should be able to get it on Sky

Nope no can do for whatever reason....  oh well I guess I gotta go to the pub

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

Is the match on Setanta?

BBC Scotland, you should be able to get it on Sky

Nope no can do for whatever reason....  oh well I guess I gotta go to the pub

Lifes a bitch eh! 
Just about to head out the door myself, starting to get excited.................gonna be a tighter one then the last few.

I am Neil Lennon



[size=8]Hail Hail[/size]

[screenmachine]

Any decent links for the game lads?

[Seamroga in exile]

Any decent links for the game lads?

http://www.stopstream.tv/ch1.html

[Seamroga in exile]

Although the huns have just scored. 

[Milltown Row2]

Celtic 10/3 at the minute, worth a punt?