The Offical Glasgow Celtic thread

[AZOffaly]

I think this goes back to the age old difference between a 'club' and a 'team'.

The current Celtic 'team' is nowhere good enough for the premiership. Celtic the 'club' would be a huge club in the premiership.

Just the same as the Liverpool 'team' of the last good while is not nearly the force Liverpool the 'club' should be.

So when I say Celtic shouldn't be parachuted into the Premiership, it's because I think they should have to earn their way in. If they did earn their way in, then I agree they would have the financial muscle to compete very quickly.

I think other people are simply saying this team is nowhere near Premiership standard, and they are correct as well.

[Bingo]

to think Celtic and Rangers want to join the Premier league. Truth is they would struggle in the 3rd tier of English football.

This is the type of stupid assed comment that really annoys me.
Swansea v West Brom would get nearly as much for their televised match against each other as Celtic get all season!! Your comparing apples with oranges, if Celtic were to go to England then they would get a massive income increase and would be able to attract much, much better players. We have a stadium which holds 62 thousand people, there are only a couple of stadia in England that can even come close!

In fairness, I don't think this holds up anymore. If anything, last night will put the final nail into any hopes the two Glasglow teams have of joing the top league in England. Why should they? They have just proven that they aren't competitive with middle tier european sides. Its all well and good saying that the money would make a difference but they are that far behind now that they'd need a whole new squad of players just to stay in the division. The money on offer would never allow that. The players are championship standard at best and its only going the other way.

Its a shame as 4/5 years ago, they would have had decent squads and been competitive. Its not hard to see why Scottish clubs have been snapping up League of Ireland players cause thats the standard they are at.

I'm afraid the highlight of Celtics season may have been the legends game V United in front of a full house a few weeks back. Larsson would still walk onto the celtic team.

[AZOffaly]

If Celtic were to go where in England GD? Straight into the Premiership? Undoubtedly. Would they get a massive boost if they were to join in the lower leagues? And if not, why should they, or Rangers, get special treatment and be parachuted into the Premiership?

The EPL is heading towards financial meltdown, the bubble will pop at some stage unless some financial restraints are put in place, players earning 200k+ sweet feck no team can support that in the long term. Celtic into that pot would increase the appeal of the EPL and bring it to an even wider audience.
Btw I'm not saying that Celtic should necessarily go straight into the EPL.

I agree with that by the way, and a part of me looks forward to it. As long as clubs don't vanish, I'd love to see the money return to something resembling reality. At least loyalty might come back into the game then, and teams would have to work and coach their way to success rather than spending a billionaires money. (I include Liverpool in that before anyone has a pop).

[lynchbhoy]

Unless you're talking about the Doctor Martins league LB there is no way a Celtic reserve/Youth team would fly up the leagues.
There are a lot of good pro's operating in the lower leagues and they can be very hard to get out of.
As it stands Celtic are a championship standard team. The days of the 40k a week contracts and the accompanying quality are long gone

Yes Heffo, whatever lower league Celtic get admission for, they need to pick players who woul dbe above that standard and send them down to rise through the ranks.
there will have to be some legal rebranding etc done to effectively allow them to operate two side in two diff uefa juristictions. but it can be done.
OR
Celtic could buy out a lower league club like MK dons did with wimbledon and at some stage move the ground - ie move it to Glasgow at some point...when they get into the english championship.

the arguments that the EPL wont want Celtic (or rangers) because they are now rubbish will be negated by the fact that the fans they have and the money they will generate through interest and eng/scots rivalry etc. sky have wanted Celtic and to a lesser extent rangers for over a decade now. they still do - and if sky/epl is struggling financially- it could pave the way a lot more quickly for their entry.
the other way I mentioned is longer and the timeline would be guaranteed( subject to success)

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

Btw Samaras WTF 

[screenmachine]

Screenmachine,you ridicule people for going to support their team.Are the people who watch Ballinascreen every week lunatics saying that you have went 37 years with no county title?
It's called backing your team.

I was implying that people who travel in there thousands from here every week are lunatics.  I can't see how you can make a comparison with someone who has to get a bus, ferry/plane and then another bus to watch a crap match with someone who maybe has to travel an average of about two miles to watch a club GAA match.  A comparison on your scale would be busloads of people from Ballinascreen travelling to Wexford, for example, for a division three football match every week.  If this was the case then yes, I would be calling these people lunatics as well.

At the end of the day, there has been plenty of teams from lower leagues who have made it into the Premier League and had further investment, etc. and not made that big an impact.  For any team to have real success and attract the best players they would need to be playing Champions League football.  If Celtic/Rangers were to be parachuted into the Premiership, who would they replace in the top four out of currently Man United, Man City, Chelsea or Arsenal and with a host of other clubs hot on their heels.  And before somebody comes back with, 'Celtic would have more money and could buy better players...'.  Who are they going to attract to compete with players at the big clubs in England.  Surely if these players are any use they will already be at a better club than Celtic/Rangers and will have no interest in joining.

This imaginary money scenario is all theoretical stuff anyway.  Let's deal with the facts...Celtic and Rangers are shite.  All the imaginary money in the world won't change that...

[Pat Mustard]

Screenmachine,you ridicule people for going to support their team.Are the people who watch Ballinascreen every week lunatics saying that you have went 37 years with no county title?
It's called backing your team.

I was implying that people who travel in there thousands from here every week are lunatics.  I can't see how you can make a comparison with someone who has to get a bus, ferry/plane and then another bus to watch a crap match with someone who maybe has to travel an average of about two miles to watch a club GAA match.  A comparison on your scale would be busloads of people from Ballinascreen travelling to Wexford, for example, for a division three football match every week.  If this was the case then yes, I would be calling these people lunatics as well.

At the end of the day, there has been plenty of teams from lower leagues who have made it into the Premier League and had further investment, etc. and not made that big an impact.  For any team to have real success and attract the best players they would need to be playing Champions League football.  If Celtic/Rangers were to be parachuted into the Premiership, who would they replace in the top four out of currently Man United, Man City, Chelsea or Arsenal and with a host of other clubs hot on their heels.  And before somebody comes back with, 'Celtic would have more money and could buy better players...'.  Who are they going to attract to compete with players at the big clubs in England.  Surely if these players are any use they will already be at a better club than Celtic/Rangers and will have no interest in joining.

This imaginary money scenario is all theoretical stuff anyway.  Let's deal with the facts...Celtic and Rangers are shite.  All the imaginary money in the world won't change that...

Simpleton.

[screenmachine]

The truth hurts.

[mountainboii]

I can understand Celtic's Irish fans longing for a move to the EPL, but what is the feeling among the club's Scottish supporters? I can imagine there'd be some discontent over the idea of abandoning their country and possibly damaging their national team in the process.

[lynchbhoy]

I can understand Celtic's Irish fans longing for a move to the EPL, but what is the feeling among the club's Scottish supporters? I can imagine there'd be some discontent over the idea of abandoning their country and possibly damaging their national team in the process.

while it used to be ALL, then most, now somewhere between half and three quarters of Celtic fans dont really care about Scotlands national side.
Most wouldnt support any, others mostly scots fans or fans of Ireland.
Really most of them just support Celtic and thats that. Plus anyone who play against England !
thats my experience with them.

[mountainboii]

Would Rangers fans be similiarly indifferent to the national side? If Celtic supporters genuinely aren't bothered about Scotland, then national titles most hold very little value (other than winning a bit of bragging rights over Rangers). With this in mind, I don't see why Celtic haven't made a serious effort to jump ship years ago.

[Pat Mustard]

Screenmachine,you ridicule people for going to support their team.Are the people who watch Ballinascreen every week lunatics saying that you have went 37 years with no county title?
It's called backing your team.

I was implying that people who travel in there thousands from here every week are lunatics.  I can't see how you can make a comparison with someone who has to get a bus, ferry/plane and then another bus to watch a crap match with someone who maybe has to travel an average of about two miles to watch a club GAA match.  A comparison on your scale would be busloads of people from Ballinascreen travelling to Wexford, for example, for a division three football match every week.  If this was the case then yes, I would be calling these people lunatics as well.

At the end of the day, there has been plenty of teams from lower leagues who have made it into the Premier League and had further investment, etc. and not made that big an impact.  For any team to have real success and attract the best players they would need to be playing Champions League football.  If Celtic/Rangers were to be parachuted into the Premiership, who would they replace in the top four out of currently Man United, Man City, Chelsea or Arsenal and with a host of other clubs hot on their heels.  And before somebody comes back with, 'Celtic would have more money and could buy better players...'.  Who are they going to attract to compete with players at the big clubs in England.  Surely if these players are any use they will already be at a better club than Celtic/Rangers and will have no interest in joining.

This imaginary money scenario is all theoretical stuff anyway.  Let's deal with the facts...Celtic and Rangers are shite.  All the imaginary money in the world won't change that...

Simpleton.

I'll humour you, and try to explain in simpleton's terms.

You obviously don't understand "supporting" a team. If you truly support a team, then yes, you would go to Wexford to watch a division 3 match. Most Celtic fans are lucky enough to have been brought up with success at some stage, which I suppose helps. Others do it simply because they love the club. I guess in Ballinascreen they don't know much about success, but I'm sure there are some who go to Ballinascreen and Derry games in freezing cold temperatures because they are proud supporters.
Are there? Because it seems to me any team who've had major investment and managed it have done ok out of it. See Man City, and Chelsea for example. I'm not even sure what your next point is about them being at better clubs if they are any use. You are just waffling dung.
Yes, yes they are. So are Ballinascreen. So are Derry. So are many other club teams in soccer and Gaelic worldwide. What's your point?

[screenmachine]

In fairness, it's probably better to be quite successful in a poor league than to move into a better league and be a mid table team (at best). The fan base would start to dwindle away after a few seasons of mediocrity and no European football.

[Forever Green]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14679531.stm

What do you`s think of this? Tbh we deserve to be out and it would be embarrassing to go through this route.

I have calmed down since last night and realised that my comments for Lenny to be sacked were going a bit far but he needs to quickly learn from mistakes like these and continue to develop as a manger. I have still faith that we that we are going to have a clean sweep of titles in Scotland

[Pat Mustard]

Would Rangers fans be similiarly indifferent to the national side? If Celtic supporters genuinely aren't bothered about Scotland, then national titles most hold very little value (other than winning a bit of bragging rights over Rangers). With this in mind, I don't see why Celtic haven't made a serious effort to jump ship years ago.

There's a huge difference between not caring about the national side and not caring about the league. Scottish Rangers fans wouldn't be as indifferent to the national side, although there's still a fair few of them who don't give a toss about Scotland.
The bragging rights has generally been enough, plus I think most realise the upheaval required of possibly going through the lower divisions etc. Celtic wouldn't survive without Rangers and vice versa, IMO.