The Offical Glasgow Celtic thread

[Main Street]

I like Strachan and have a respect for him and his coaching ideas.
But I just don't see that the team is playing any better now than his first season, in fact they look worse for wear.

I am just wondering what are the chances of him still being in charge next season, say in the likely event of Rangers winning the league by a comfortable 6+ points and then rubbing it in with winning the Cup.

[Lamh Dhearg Alba]

I know its not Celtic but this is the closest thing to a Scottish football thread on here and I thought it was worth commenting on Dundee United's performance in the CIS Cup final today. They really outplayed Rangers and were very unlucky to be beaten. Crazy back pass unfortunately by Kerr in the 85th minute which let Rangers get the equaliser than after United going ahead again in extra time they conceded another somewhat soft goal. Always feared Rangers would do it on penalties. Poor call by the ref to deny United a certain penalty at 1-0 but so often those calls go against the wee team. You have to feel for Eddie Thomson who is seriously ill, his team gave him their all and deserved to win the cup for him.

If only Celtic had left Robson there till the end of the season!

[ExiledGael]

That's not good. Beat 1-0 by Aberdeen. Even McGeady looks like he's lost that spark now.
Christ Alan Maybury looked like an outstanding defender there tonight.

[clarshack]

absolute rubbish - cant even score at home any more. brown and donati awol again but a lot of blame has to lie with wgs.

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

Just makes winning the league even more important now, although for the first time this season, I'm having my doubts as to weither we can do it! Starting to run out of excuses for WGS as well. 

hail hail

[tyroneman]

More sh*t served up at Parkhead tonight as Celtic try the fans patience even further.

No plan B, not even a plan A FFS as once again Celtic resort to humping the ball into the box.

WGS bemoans the fact chances were created but not taken.......................who brought in JVoH, Samaras, Riordan (6 minutes to come in from the cold and save the game...........aye right Gordon), Killen et al.

Now though even Skippy and Aidinho look well off the pace. You really have to question  his man mangement and tactics (lack of) when established internationals who have flourished elsewhere stumble around incoherantly at CP.

Graveson wnet from being unstoppable at Everton, good at RM when played in position to being headless at Celtic. Jiri went from being a scoring CMF payer in the EPL to a bit part winger / forward in Scotland. Brown went from most promising tlent in the SPL to a no-mark. 1mill spent on Robson and.............................Donati, the £12mill Italian, most capped u-21 player looks aimless. Naka who wowed in his first season should not even make the bench on current form.

Balde the best defender at CP is frozen out, as is Riordan, the best finisher. O'Dea looks set to leave and I would imagine Artur and Aidinho are not far behind him.

[T Fearon]

I am struggling as well with reasons to retain Strachan. For example, kenny Miller looked the part for Derby against Man Ure on Saturday. Could it be that wee Gordon's success in the last two years was brought about by a shite Huns team and management? When you consider the respective budgets at their disposal you have to say that Wattie Smith is doing a far better job. Remember the huns couldn't compete for Scott Brown. Mehinks that Dermot Desmond will be looking a payback in terms of trophies for the outlay. If the Huns win the treble (they haven't a sweat in the UEFA Cup) then Strachan is on his bike, no doubt.

Also anyone else think we're missing Lennon's bite this season? Never thought I'd be saying that but it seems that Neil's contribution was more than valuable in years gone by. At least he injected a bit of passion

[Rav67]

It wasn't unusual for Kenny Miller to "look the part" in the Hoops but not finish any chances, just like he's probably doing for Derby (haven't seen many of their games).  He's a shite finisher so no point keeping him to play centre forward, if we played 4-3-3 i think he'd maybe have done a job at right-wing-forward though.

I've been a supporter of Strachan until fairly recently (my view is that you couldn't argue with 2 leagues, 1 Cup, 1 League Cup and getting to last 16CL) but I feel that if the Huns win the domestic treble this season he'll have to go as he'll have lost the part of the crowd who are still with him.  The last few performances have been totally insipid in attack.  It shows how much the team has been relying on the creativity of Aidenho and the scoring form of Skippy, with them 2 having went slightly off the boil in the past few games there is no cutting edge.

[illdecide]

For me the fact that we won all round us the last 2 years was because Rangers were so Shiite and unorganised, but when Walter Smith took over he installed a bit of fight into them and with a few simple (and not flash) signings they are taking the piss out of us. The fact the WGS still insists Caldwell is better than Balde is beyond belief and as for the midfield Naka has had about 2 good games this year. I don't wanna go thru the whole team as i would find only a few to have a good word on, his signings are poor and for me he has lost the dressing room or he simply can't motivate the players.

AS for Neil Lennon, the fella never got the recognition he deserved. I spoke to Henrik Larsson in Milan 3 years ago after the CL game against AC and he told me he loved having him in the Celtic team as did all the players. Yes he never was gonna beat 3 men and put the ball into the top corner of the net but the donkey work he done and the possesion he kept for Celtic was immense.

[T Fearon]

Question is, who would replace Strachan?

My preference would be Davie Moyes but I can't see him leaving the premiership where he is building a glowing reputation with Everton. Mark Mc Ghee I have never been convinced about and its too early for the likes of Lambert etc. Mick Mc Carthy?

[Rav67]

Question is, who would replace Strachan?

My preference would be Davie Moyes but I can't see him leaving the premiership where he is building a glowing reputation with Everton. Mark Mc Ghee I have never been convinced about and its too early for the likes of Lambert etc. Mick Mc Carthy?

McGhee, John Hughes, maybe even McCarthy would be mentioned since they played for Celtic but I would be unconvinced by all of them.  Moyes would be brilliant but an unrealistic target.  Billy Davies perhaps?  I wonder would Roy Keane consider it?

[clarshack]

neil lennon had limitations as a footballer (i.e. he was no ronaldhino) but he was hard and had fight, pride and passion etc and these qualities more than made up for any such limitations. how many of the current celtic team have similar qualities? bobo balde is another very underated player and it beggars belief that he cant get a game as he would get stuck in the same way lenny would have.

[clarshack]

would gus hiddink be an unrealistic target?

[lynchbhoy]

would gus hiddink be an unrealistic target?

he might not want to talk to Celtic after having been verbally given the job only for Dermot Desmond to go out and get MON who took the job instead.

Strachan is not as good a coach as many attributed him to be.
Tactically he is inept, team selection poor if not puzzling, player purchasing is very hit and miss - mostly miss imo.
Celtic going through a bad spell right now. Cant score in the last number of games in relation to the amount of chances they get.
Route one is fine if you have a BBJ or Sutton, not if you have tall strikers  - who prefer the ball on the deck as JVOH and Samaras do.
Celtic do not up the tempo enough. they slow the game down and allow opposition defenses to settle.
Poor coaching. They dont spread the defense enough when attacking and their own defense are game but poor. Hinkel looks decent. The other three not good enough.
Rangers are also poor, but are playing to a decent style and gameplan.
Celtic last night lost their discipline and went route one from 60 mins onwards, when there were goals to be had - esp if they got further down the wing and crossed from there.
If rangers win, it might be better for Celtic. That way strachan might get replaced.
I have not been comfortable with the guy ever since I saw his shambolic management over the artmedia bratislava debacle.

[the green man]

Question is, who would replace Strachan?

My preference would be Davie Moyes but I can't see him leaving the premiership where he is building a glowing reputation with Everton. Mark Mc Ghee I have never been convinced about and its too early for the likes of Lambert etc. Mick Mc Carthy?

Mogga