The Offical Glasgow Celtic thread

[T Fearon]

None of the YPOY candidates have played that regularly for the first team,so it will be a difficult one. Crosas is in with a chance. Personally for his performances and goals in the first half of the season Cillian Sheridan would not have looked out of place with a nomination

Would love to be going to Ibrox on Saturday, Was there for the Costa Del Clyde game (just after the UEFA Cup semi final second leg win in 2003), something else in terms of atmosphere. Celts all wearing sombreros and oredering San Miguel from the huns on the catering stalls

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

More bad news!



McManus to sit out Old Firm clash 

Celtic captain Stephen McManus will miss Saturday's Old Firm derby at Ibrox because of a knee injury.

The visitors are also without suspended midfielder Scott Brown but Barry Robson has returned to training after a lengthy lay-off.

Rangers left-back Sasa Papac missed Sunday's 2-0 win over Hearts but is expected to be fit.

Madjid Bougherra will return from a ban and Kirk Broadfoot has a slight chance of making a surprise recovery.

The former St Mirren defender has been suffering from a foot injury that has kept him out for two months.

Rangers manager Walter Smith told the club website: "Sasa has a chance of being fit. He has a knee injury.

"We thought he would be fit for the Hearts game, but he just failed to make it, so I imagine he would be okay for Saturday.

"Kirk Broadfoot is also back in training this week, but whether he will be ready for the game or not, we will have to wait and see how he progresses."

With McManus ruled out, Glenn Loovens is likely to partner Gary Caldwell in central defence, with Marc Crosas and Paul Hartley continuing in the heart of midfield.

[T Fearon]

A blow, but Loovens is more than capable of deputising for Mick. Brown is the huge loss here and is impossible to replace. Crosas, Naka and Mc Geady are all too light for this one, although there are places for two out of the three, with Mc Geady a certainty to start. I would play Willo Flood, he had a good enough game against the Huns on his debut in February. Imperative that Boruc is in top form

Here's my team 442.

Boruc

Hinkel
Caldwell
Loovens
Naylor or O'Dea

Mc Geady
Hartley
Flood
Nakamura

Mc Donald
Vennegoor of Hessilink


With Maloney and Crosas coming on for the last 15 or 20 minutes if we're trailing and need a goal

[illdecide]

Picture the scene. The Rangers dressing room before the old firm game and the players are about to get their team talk. "Right lads i want 100% commitment from the word go against these B***ards. Remember they are f**king Fenian's and are full of tattie-munching bog-trotters from the Emerald Isle. I don't care if you kick, punch or head butt your way to victory. Good luck and God save the Queen". Then Walter Smith walks in and says "Thanks ref, I'll take it from here".

[southderryman]

Brown - Senior POY
O'Dea - Young POY (if only for his goal at Hampden in the CIS Cup Final)
Crosas V St Mirren, goal of the season, I witnessed this live at the game, stunning shot

I'd give player of the year to caldwell, more consistent than brown. brown whilst having bundles of energy and putting in massive effort in every game is a very limited footballer. the fact he won the PFA award the other night shows how poor scottish football is at the minute. I also think andy hinkel should be up there. very very consistent this season, a great engine, constantly offers an outlet and has a good few assists this season too.

Crosas should win young player of the year although that spell he had on the sidelines and our "esteemed" managers constant fear of playing him in tough games away from home way count against him. Darren should be in with a shout too, would be a mainstay of the side too if he was ever given the chance.

I'd agree with you about goal of the season, that was an absolute belter. skippy's at ibrox was very memorable too.

More bad news!

wouldnt neccessarily call that bad news at all. imo mick shouldn't be a starter. strachan has backed himself into a corner by giving him the captaincy and wont drop him due to it. he constantly dives into stupid tackles giving away needless free kicks and putting us under pressure, and considering the disaster that is zonal marking, this is always a risk. nothing personal against mick as he is a good celtic man, and a nice fella, but he's not good enough to be in the team. hope his injury isnt too bad tho, you never like to see someone injuried. think big loovens is improving each game he plays, certainly has a lot more of a presence about him and wont be bullied by imposing strikers like mick constantly is. slightly erratic at times too low, and saturday is a day for cool heads, so it'll be a big test for him.

Jesus Tony, Crosas is a shoe in for YPOTY, will even run Brown pretty close for the senior award. We're a much better side with him in the team...

completely agree. when hartley plays brown is much more subdued. he has to do the running of 2 men and as hartley hides the centre halves resort to long balls meaning browns influence is nowhere near as big as less ball goes through midfield, whereas crosas always drops short, looks for the ball and wants to pass it. crosas also gives brown more license to roam forward whereas
he is completely restricted when playing beside hartley.

voted for brown and o dea plus thought skippys goal against woman utd was a gem.

anyone here heading to the game saturday?

Been in ibrox once on old firm duty.not for the faint hearted.

i'm heading over, looking forward to it. 

[southderryman]

Sdm, is your main gripe with the scheduled KO times of the games?

From a football perspective the split looks to be a good idea, especially when it is tight at the top.

just saw your post main street

i've alot of gripes with the split to be honest. whether some people like to admit it or not, it is definitely there to hand an advantage to one team.

the fisaco of the huns having hearts at home 3 times was a clear benefit to them and no-one will convince me otherwise. they are easily the 3rd best team in the league and handing the huns a clear advantage of having them at home for the 3rd time in a season instead of a 2nd away game there (they lost 2-1 at tynecastle in nov) is a very poor joke. celtic recently went to tynecastle and dropped 2 points, there was nothing to suggest rangers wouldnt have done similar.

also, we have the situation this year with the last glasgow derby...... the SPL announced the police would not allow it to take places on the bank holiday weekend just past - pure lies......celtic played at ibrox on the bank holiday weekend 2 years ago. funny that had it been played on the bank holiday weekend both brown and bougherra would have been suspended. now that its this weekend coming brown is suspended and bougherra is free to play. (coincidentally bougherra has missed the last 3 glasgow derbies, celtic won 2 and drew the other). obviously we'll get the usual and very tiresome "paranoid celtic supporters" bullshit. well some people might see it that way, there are many many more who the truth. if anyone wants an argument i refer you back to rangers v dundee united last may and the performance of the sinister minister.

the fact that they claim to have the split to avoid a title decider further shows that there is something dodgy going behin the scenes. by scheduling the game for this sat (may 9th) there was the possibility of celtic winning the league at mordor had results gone differently. so.....despite the clear objective of avoiding a title decider being one of the main reasons behind the split they were prepared to risk a title decider in order to ensure bougherra was free to play while brown was still suspened. somehow i think the police would rather celtic played rangers on a bank holiday weekend when nothing could be determined rather than the next weekend with ths chance of celtic clinching the league at ipox. imo this blows the SPL's original story of not wanting to play on a bank holiday out of the water.

in saying that, should celtic lose the league this season it will be down to the schocking mis-management of the team and not the SPL fixture makers or any other forces of darkness.

another gripe i have about the split is that it f**ks everything up for travelling to games (aberdeen flights cost me 90quid due to the short notice and had to stay over aswell).

The irish CSC's only very very recently managed to secure a ferry home for the hearts game on may24th (At midnight that night despite the game being a 1pm kick off) due to the rugby at murrayfield, now thats not to blame the rugby fans or P&O/Stena, but people who travel every week would have been left stranded.

every other league in the world sets out its fixtures at the start of season and sticks to them. a title decider is the only reason the SPL dont, and it could be easily avoided. talk to any match-going celtic supporter, every single person is sick to the back teeth with it.

also, by splitting in to halves of 6 teams in each there is the possibilty of teams who finish 7th or even 8th ending up with more points than the 6th placed team. for teams like moterwell the difference in 6th and 7th could be up to £100,000 which is quite alot to clubs like that.

its a shambles and it just doesnt make sense.

rant over.

[southderryman]

Strachan predicts typical derby

Celtic boss Gordon Strachan says Saturday's Old Firm clash at Ibrox will run along familiar lines, with "good players" deciding the outcome.

The SPL champions go into the game one point ahead of Rangers at the top of the table and ultimately looking to win their fourth title in a row.

The hype surrounding the lunchtime kick-off has been increasing as the week goes on, with many believing the winners will go on to claim the championship.

However, the Celtic boss did his best to play down the significance of what is set to be an even more fraught occasion than usual.

Strachan, who will have to do without captain Stephen McManus after the Scotland defender was ruled out following an exploratory operation on his knee, said: "There have not been too many surprises in the Old Firm games I've been involved in; it's all down to players, which it has been for the last 100 years.

"Good players win games; a good player won the game (at Ibrox) the last time with a cracking goal, Scott McDonald.

"And Mendes scored a cracking goal earlier in the season which won the game for them.

"So it seems to be decided by good players.

"Like every game, it has relevance; every game is a turning point.

"If we win, we will have the advantage until the next game.

"If Rangers win, it will give them an advantage until the next game."

Strachan added: "It is fantastic, a privilege to be involved in it.

"When I was an Aberdeen, Manchester United or Leeds player - or wherever I've been - I was always jealous of not being involved in it.

"I didn't get there as a player but as a manager it's good.

"I enjoy the atmosphere (at Ibrox), it's good.

"But there are no intimidating stadiums, only intimidating players."

With McManus and Darren O'Dea missing through injury, and Scott Brown suspended, Strachan has several crucial decisions to make for the trip to Govan.

The Celtic boss will draft in Glenn Loovens to partner Gary Caldwell at the heart of the Hoops defence and he has been boosted by the return to training of Barry Robson.

The Scotland midfielder has not played since February after injuring an adductor muscle and has had one set-back during his recovery, but is in contention for Saturday.

Strachan is comfortable with the inclusion of bit-part player Loovens and he welcomed back Robson.

"Glenn has been a top, top player for us," the former Coventry and Southampton boss said.

"It's just unfortunate that he is against one of Scotland's best players this year, Gary Caldwell, and the Scotland and Celtic captain (McManus).

"So he has been unfortunate that way, but he has been a fantastic signing for us.

"Barry trained today for the first time in I don't know how long.

"He's infectious, a great character and it was nice to have him back - he adds to the place."

Strachan also played down the absence of suspended Brown, named PFA Scotland Player of the Year on Sunday.

He said: "We handled the blow last year when he wasn't playing in the run-in.

"He's doing terrifically well this year but Paul Hartley stepped in last week at Aberdeen and we won 3-1 at a place where we had been beaten 4-2 in the previous game."



interesting to hear that he enjoys the atmosphere at ibrox 

[lynchbhoy]

if strachan said that he didnt like the atmosphere at mordor, he would hand the impetus to the orcs, who would only howl louder !

I dont think caldwell is POTY material. Maybe has played well by his standards, but imo these are pretty low.
McManus is not a natural centre half and although def getting better, is still some way off it, its no huge problem that hes not playing. IMO the defence improved after he went off v aberdeen.
Still prefer to see Loovens and O'Dea there (though would rather have caldwell back in def than wrecking things as a 'midfielder')

Strachans rotation policy (sometimes enforeced by inj) has meant that a lot of players havent had a consistent run throughout the season.
Scott brown is poty by miles. McGeadys form from early season up to prior to Christmas meant he was looking like the best player in jockland let alone Celtic.
Young player of the year could go to any one of Sheridan (mcgeady perhaps) or crosas and mizuno - though the latter two havent really had as many games as I would have liked - O'dea possible also.

If Celtic go out for a draw then they could come unstuck. rangers are rubbish, but celtic have been as bad at times this season too !

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

Anyone know anything about this young fella?


Spaniard linked to Celtic
Published: 08/05/2009
Xabi Castillo has issued a come-and-get-me plea to Celtic.

The Real Sociedad left-back, 23, is out of contract at the end of the season and is keen to move overseas, but because he is under 24, a Spanish club would have to pay £2million to secure his services.

"I have interest from Italy, from Bolton in England and Greece," Castillo said in the Daily Mail. "But what I want most of all is a proposal from Celtic."

He added: "I wanted to make some money for Real before I left but, in football, things do not always work out as you like."

[T Fearon]

Read Jim Mc Lean (ex legendary Dundee Utd manager) on BBC Scotland website. He fancies the bhoys but said if he was Walt he would pick Mc Coist ahead of Vesaluikas (or whatever he's called) as on the assumption that Boyd is a certain starter,Rangers cannot afford to have "two traffic cones" up forward, 

local bookies have Huns at 7/5 with Celtic at 2/1

[Main Street]

Here's my team 442.
Mc Geady
Hartley
Flood
Nakamura

Looks a very lightweight midfield, in a game which Celtic go in with an advantage.
You need somebody to muck about midfield to get the ball for the players with ability.
I presume Flood is a McGeady lite.

[milltown row]

great stuff come on rangers

[ONeill]

1-0 Gers at HT

[Carmen Stateside]

Poor stuff! Why did Mc Geady not start?

[ONeill]

Great goal for the Ballymena man.