The Offical Glasgow Celtic thread

[Club Rossa]

Thank God for the Tyrone man last night

Morton must be bad if they can't even score against our defence.

[Declan]

Former Celtic assistant manager and player Murdo MacLeod has had a stable night in hospital after heart surgery.

The 51-year-old remains in intensive care following an operation to replace the aortic valve.

MacLeod is in the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank after being admitted on Wednesday evening after a period of sudden illness.

His family are hopeful of a recovery for the BBC Scotland football pundit and newspaper columnist.

They say they have received hundreds of supportive messages from across the football community.

MacLeod started his career with Dumbarton, enjoying success with Hibernian and Borussia Dortmund after playing more than 280 times in midfield for Celtic and receiving 20 caps with Scotland.

He went on to play for and Partick Thistle and managed the Glasgow club, also enjoying a spell as manager with former club Dumbarton.

MacLeod returned to Celtic as assistant manager under Wim Jansen, helping the club win a league and league cup double in their only season in charge.

He now has a career as a newspaper columnist and football pundit with BBC Scotland's Sportsound radio programme.

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

Another young fella!


Celtic sign former Stabaek defender Thomas Rogne 

Rogne has been training with Celtic at their Lennoxtown complex
Celtic have confirmed the signing of Norway Under-21 central defender Thomas Rogne after the 19-year-old left Stabaek on freedom on contract.

Rogne has signed on a three-and-a-half-year contract, with his former club due a compensation payment.

Celtic manager Tony Mowbray said: "He's only 19 but has had good experience in the Norwegian league.

"Thomas has a bright future and will be training with the first-team squad and competing for a place in the side."

Rogne is the second central defender to be signed by Mowbray this month following the arrival of 26-year-old Dutch defender Jos Hooiveld from AIK Stockholm for a fee of about £2m.

Mowbray played down reports that Celtic were in line to sign Philippe Senderos on loan from Arsenal as they seek replacements in defence after the sale of Gary Caldwell to Wigan Athletic.

He said that Rogne was not a "major signing" but was a significant one, perhaps an indication that the manager is looking to the long-term rather than immediate success from his new recruits.

"Sometimes you build the club with marquee players and other times you bring players in who you wait to blossom," Mowbray told BBC Scotland.

Norwegian Rogne has impressed on trial at Celtic's training centre over the past few days after leaving his former club in his homeland.

"Thomas is a young player we've watched for a while and we're delighted to bring him to the club," said the Celtic boss.

"We've had a chance to have a look at him in recent days at Lennoxtown and he's shown up well.

"He has all the physical attributes and personality to be a success at Celtic.

"Like Josh Thompson and Milan Misun, Thomas is a big part of our future plans in defence.

"We are bringing these talented players to the club in order to ensure the foundations are in place for the coming years."

Thompson, signed from Stockport County in the summer for £250,000, made his debut in Saturday's 1-1 draw at home to Falkirk.

However, Misun has yet to break into the first-team since being brought to Celtic Park from Dukla Pribram by previous manager Gordon Strachan last January.

Rogne, though, is determined to make a quicker impact with the Glasgow club.

"I'm absolutely delighted to sign for a club of Celtic's stature," he said. "It really is a dream come true to join such a famous club.

"I've already joined training with the first-team for the last few days and I have received a great welcome and have enjoyed very much working with the manager and players at Celtic.

"The Celtic first-team is where I want to be and I'll be doing my very best to try and make an impact and ensure that I can achieve this as soon as possible."

[T Fearon]

Is it to much to ask that Celtic sign a player that we've actually heard of?

[the colonel]

Tony do you mean sign someone like Graveson, Donati, Camara, Juninho, Hedman or someone like Petrov, Lubo, Mjallby, Joos, Bobo, Boruc and dare I even say the King of Kings??

Be careful of what you wish for Tony

[lynchbhoy]

I still laugh at my brother for moaning about signing Larsson !
The bit I saw of him in the 94 world cup made me think he was a promising enough 'winger' !
Most of Celtics best players in the past number of years have been discarded by other teams - Lubo, Larsson, Sutton, BBJ, Mjallby, Reiper, Thompson ....
same can be said of rangers too imo

[T Fearon]

Yeah, but Larsson and Lubo were the last "unknowns" who turned out to be good players, and that was nearly ten years ago.

What about pursuing the likes of St Ledger, Shane Long (surely Celtic would be a better bet than Reading) etc. Even signing Senderos would send out the right signals....at least we've heard of him!

[lynchbhoy]

Yeah, but Larsson and Lubo were the last "unknowns" who turned out to be good players, and that was nearly ten years ago.

What about pursuing the likes of St Ledger, Shane Long (surely Celtic would be a better bet than Reading) etc. Even signing Senderos would send out the right signals....at least we've heard of him!

the last 'world class' unknowns - though could at least add Boruc in there too...

a good few cracking 'unknowns ' unearthed after that - agathe, thompson, miller (well he was until he left) ...am sure you could think of a few more if given more than 10 seconds...

[rossie mad]

Hartson in my eyes was one of our better players in the last twenty years.

Also what about mjallby,rieper,lambart,t boyd and di canio in my eyes were players of a very high standard.

We just have mcgeady and skippy now who in my eyes are players of a high calibre and you could add in scott brown but not on form before he got injured.

The lower calibre players we are attracting at the moment is down to several reasons

Lack of revenue being generated by the SPL itself mainly low tv revenue and falling attendances even at old firm games.

A tighter hold on the purse strings by the celtic board driven by a very astute major shareholder aka mr desmond and also the fear of turning into the financial mess that the near neighbours find themselves in.

European form bar a couple of uefa cup final appearances is absymal.
qualification to the knock out stages of champions league now looked upon by both clubs as a major victory.

Lower wages than other leagues

Big name managers no longer look to the old firm as big jobs and will prefere to stay in the epl or the championship to keep themselves in the shop window.

Glasgow is not exactly WAG heaven.might not be a major point but big name players are being influenced more and more by the other half.

I am firmly of the belief if the powers that be in scottish fooball want to improve its fare then they have to forget the old firm and concentrate on the other major clubs in its cities eg dundee,aberdeen,edinburgh.

The old firm are well able to look after themselves.
Either turf them off to the EPL which i believe will happen in the next 5 to ten years or else give the other ten clubs in the league as well as the lower divisions a bigger investment over a five year period so that they can at least try to challenge for a top spot otherwise the league as it is now will be a massive joke in five years time.

[Club Rossa]

Celtic created a huge amount of chances today and it looked like it would be the same old story again,the goals were of real quality though and the win was vital.anything less would have been a disaster.

[longrunsthefox]

Celtic created a huge amount of chances today and it looked like it would be the same old story again,the goals were of real quality though and the win was vital.anything less would have been a disaster.

Tell that to the people of Hiata 

[Club Rossa]

If you're going to be so picky,at least try to spell Haiti correctly

[longrunsthefox]

The last minute penalty... now that WAS a disaster   

[tyroneStatto]

with 13 mins left it was still 1-1. if it was 11 v 11 i dont think celtic would have won. it was the same old story needing about 16 chances to get the 1st goal and what about o'dea's sitter! great finishes by fortune & mccourt though. the hibs game on wednesday night will tell a lot.

[Orior]

I saw a little bit of the match today:

Boruc - potential disaster
Loverens - disaster
O'Dea - needs confidence
Samaras - I just dont know
McCourt - genius!