The Offical Glasgow Celtic thread

[T Fearon]

It is at least gratifying to see that Mowbray's erstwhile supporters have deserted him. I said after Strachan's resignation last May that his reign would be revised in a new light in the seasons to come. I never particularly liked him as a person but I thought under the circumstances, although far from perfect, he did a good enough job.

Bringing in a gang of new players mid season, who lets face it, apart from Keane, have no proven pedigree, and jettisoning the likes of Caldwell (Scotland's Player of the Year a while ago), Robson, Mc Donald, and Mc Manus (none of whom are world beaters admittedly, but all of whom had experience of coming from behind Rangers, and winning games and the league under extreme pressure, and most of them Scots as well), doesn't seem like a sensible thing to do. Also Mc Geady is way out of form (just like Mc Donald, Mc Manus and Caldwell before him). This is too much of a coincidence and responsibility must rest with the manager and his failure to get players to play to their full potential.

Mowbray looked utterly clueless last night on the sidelines. Its obvious that managing Celtic and the attendant pressures are all far too much for him and he's way out of his depth. The Board need to act now, as much for Mowbray's own good as that of the club.

[tyroneStatto]

It is at least gratifying to see that Mowbray's erstwhile supporters have deserted him. I said after Strachan's resignation last May that his reign would be revised in a new light in the seasons to come. I never particularly liked him as a person but I thought under the circumstances, although far from perfect, he did a good enough job.

Bringing in a gang of new players mid season, who lets face it, apart from Keane, have no proven pedigree, and jettisoning the likes of Caldwell (Scotland's Player of the Year a while ago), Robson, Mc Donald, and Mc Manus (none of whom are world beaters admittedly, but all of whom had experience of coming from behind Rangers, and winning games and the league under extreme pressure, and most of them Scots as well), doesn't seem like a sensible thing to do. Also Mc Geady is way out of form (just like Mc Donald, Mc Manus and Caldwell before him). This is too much of a coincidence and responsibility must rest with the manager and his failure to get players to play to their full potential.

Mowbray looked utterly clueless last night on the sidelines. Its obvious that managing Celtic and the attendant pressures are all far too much for him and he's way out of his depth. The Board need to act now, as much for Mowbray's own good as that of the club.

robson and mcdonald are 2 players i would have kept. robson always got stuck in and mcdonald is a poacher who will always get you goals in the spl. i actually feel mcdonald was sold too cheaply.

mcgeady has been horrible in the last 4 or 5 games - i dont know why (if its the manager or something else) but it needs to sorted out asap.

[rossie mad]

Very disappointed with last night.Shocking defending for the goal but the amount of chances we had was unreal and to not hit the net was unbelieveable.
Mowbray is getting hard to defend now and with the league over even if we beat the gers twice if we dont win the cup then its a dismal season.

Impressed with keane and the korean but thought mcgeady and nguemo were woeful.

Anyway i still believe mowbray can still turn the tide and when the new signings gel together in the next week or so i still think we have a good chance of success this year.

[bingobus]

Got in last night and couldn't believe the score. Was 30 mins to go. Celtic seem to be in an awful state at minute, very unbalanced side with a few square pegs in round holes it would seem.

I would reckon Kamara will have as big a impact as Keane.  Keane last night reminded me of the player he was at Liverpool, in tight games when a goal was badly needed he got chances, decent chances and didn't take them. Hurt Liverpool massively as Torres was out at the time. He seemed to be trying too hard and it was a mirror image of that last night.

He'll score a bag of goals but thats cause he'll get loads of chances but Celtic need to get a balanced and settled team out on field.

[SambaSaffron]

Jesus, some people just want to see Mowbray fail. Saying we should keep McManus, bcause 'he has experience of coming from behind Rangers'. So what? He's terrible, and has shown it when he's played this season. Caldwll may have won that POTY, but it was an award he didn't deserve. Most imrpoved player would have been a better title. Since then he's gone even further back than he was when we signed him, which was pretty awful. Robson got stuck in, and fair play to him, was good in the last championship winning season. But he's a very, very limited player. McDonalds attitude stinks. Constantly yapping at everyone else.

So McGeady not playing well is Mowbrays fault? Thats that sorted then. Maybe if he'd take his head out of his arse he'd play a bit better.

Kamara, no pedigree? A very decent Premiership striker, who Fulham fans are sad to see go. Braafheid, a Bayern Munich defender with 5 Dutch caps, no pedigree? Ki, Asian young player of the year and a regular for South Korea. I agree to not knowing much about Rasmussen and Hooiveld, but they've looked decent so far and have reasonable pedigree.

I agree that some of Mowbray's changes last night were baffling. I also agree he looks like he's feeling the pressure on the sideline. Wouldn't you, when half your fans want to see you fail?

[Hoof Hearted]

Keane allowed to go back to Spurs today. It stated in his contract he is to return once Celtic's season is over !

[SambaSaffron]

Keane allowed to go back to Spurs today. It stated in his contract he is to return once Celtic's season is over !

Yeah, haven't heard that one before 

[Hoof Hearted]

have ye not. open your ears and get out more.

[T Fearon]

Sambasaffron, no Celtic fan, least of all me, wants to see any Celtic manager fail, and if Strachan had presided over a run like this he'd have been run out of Glasgow. If anything Mowbray has got an easy ride.

The fact that so may players went off the boil simultaneously is more than coincidental, and the manager has to take responsibility, as the principal function of any manager in any walk of life is to get the best out of his human resources and create an environment where each one can realise his full potential.

There are no more excuses. As I said before it only took a couple of weeks for Brown and Calderwood to turn Motherwell and Killie around and get them playing with self belief, and they hadn't the luxury of bringing in players costing millions etc. Mowbray has shown not one inkling that he is up to the task of managing a big club like Celtic.

[rossie mad]

Tony jim gannon had motherwell where they are now and had them playing good football before he got the sack because he wouldnt commit to a contract.Craig brown being brought in hasnt seen the well jump up the table all of a sudden he is just continuing on the wells good results.
Calderwood hasnt done anything spectacular with kilmarnock either bar last nights result which id describe as a freak result.
Remember jefferies left because he got fed up with the killie chairman getting to involved in team affairs and nothing to do with their league position.
They have only moved to third from bottom they arnt going to suddenly jump into the top six now calderwood has got one or two good results.
I can guarentee you that killie will be lucky to finish in eigth spot this season and calderwood will just about get them winning about four more games this season.

Your comparisons dont stand up as motherwell were going well under gannon anyway and kilmarnock had no choice but bring in calderwood and like all mangerial changes the first few weeks are the honey moon period and after that people can tell whether the new man is doing a right job or not.
In celtics case mowbray was left with a two bit squad assembled by a one track minded manager.
He has gotton rid of the dead wood in his eyes and now is building a team he assembled and i believe this half of the season will see celtic going well.

[T Fearon]

Disagree totally. Mowbray was left with a squad that was one win away from being SPL Champions last season (Contrast thsi with the clapped out squad Strachan inherited way back in 2005). As I've said before, it should have been relatively easy to sustain a credible Championship challenge as well as simultaneously rejuvenate the squad. Murdo Mc Leod was right at the end of last season when he said minimal adjustments were all that were required.

Instead he brought in Fortune (a flop), Nguemo (a flop), Fox (a flop) etc and has made the fatal error of trying to gel a practically whole new team in mid season, with the best player we have seriously off the boil.

As for the changes made by Brown and Calderwood, these have been significant in a short space of time with no resources. Even Craig Burley said last night that he couldn't believe Killie's competitiveness and self belief when he was used to seeing them roll over when they played the Old Firm.

There are no scrappers in the Celtic team, just hanky ball players, no shape, pattern, or gameplan and this has been the case all season, and is simply reflective of a confused manager who cannot cope with pressure or managing the expectations of a world wide fan base, and who witters on about taking six points of Rangers, not realising that even if this miracle was achieved there's no guarantee that they wouldn't be lost again at Dundee Utd or Motherwell

[the colonel]

Disagree totally. Mowbray was left with a squad that was one win away from being SPL Champions last season (Contrast thsi with the clapped out squad Strachan inherited way back in 2005). As I've said before, it should have been relatively easy to sustain a credible Championship challenge as well as simultaneously rejuvenate the squad. Murdo Mc Leod was right at the end of last season when he said minimal adjustments were all that were required.

Instead he brought in Fortune (a flop), Nguemo (a flop), Fox (a flop) etc and has made the fatal error of trying to gel a practically whole new team in mid season, with the best player we have seriously off the boil.

As for the changes made by Brown and Calderwood, these have been significant in a short space of time with no resources. Even Craig Burley said last night that he couldn't believe Killie's competitiveness and self belief when he was used to seeing them roll over when they played the Old Firm.

There are no scrappers in the Celtic team, just hanky ball players, no shape, pattern, or gameplan and this has been the case all season, and is simply reflective of a confused manager who cannot cope with pressure or managing the expectations of a world wide fan base, and who witters on about taking six points of Rangers, not realising that even if this miracle was achieved there's no guarantee that they wouldn't be lost again at Dundee Utd or Motherwell

Tony your constant support for some of Strachans minging players who he has just bought again is laughable. N'Guemo has been far from a flop, to be fair he was poor enough last night, and Fortune has just started to show his worth. He has missed about 2 1/2 months and is starting to get into a bit of form.

I was at plenty of games last season where there wasnt any game plan, never mind a back up. I'd be confident that Celtic could win the league for the next few years with a decent squad we have now when it gets settled. At the end of the day, Strachan had a better squad starting out than what Mowbray had starting. And if you defend Stephen McManus one more time you should be locked up

[rossie mad]

What bloody changes has craig brown made?
Motherwell were going well anyway before he came in.Thats a ridiculous statement seeing that the team was doing fine only for the previous manager and board to fall out.

You should know that all teams put it up to the old firm on their home patch and last night was no different.
Plus the added fanfare around celtic signing keane would have taken the pressure totally off kilmarnock and calderwood toke advantage of this.
Are you saying that in the two weeks calderwood has become manager that kilmarnock are now a complete team and will be unbeatable? Complete rubbish.

The team strachan left behind missed out on an SPL to an even worse side so that doesnt inspire confidence in them and then to see 80% of the transfers out going to a mediocre championship side that was in the top three when strachan took over and then that other balloon caldwell in the middle of a defence that conceded two to the king pins that are notts county plus scoring an og himself for good measure.

The fact is that side strachan had was mediocre at best and now mowbray has the task of building a team for the future to dominate scottish football and get rid of most of the rubbish strachan brought in.He is doing this at the moment and its work in progress.

On the point about our best player not playing well i presume you mean mcgeady.
At least mowbray actually spaeaks to him and doesnt ignore him.

[Myles Na G.]

Tony Mowbray's a decent man, but he's a football dreamer. Celtic don't need a dreamer at the helm, they need someone who can win football matches.

[rossie mad]

while we are on the subject of dreaming when are you going to wake up from that dream of yours of being a celtic supporter?