The Offical Glasgow Celtic thread

[Main Street]

It's a typical no quarter asked none given game.  The prettiness is in the scrap.
No such thing as a dead rubber old firm game.

Lenny and McCoist are being put through the wringer.

[Main Street]

Good last 8 minutes from Celtic.

[longrunsthefox]

Lennon has done everything but beg for the job permanent. would be a bad move by Celtic... they need a proven manager not an apprentice as happened there with Barnes and Brady and Staunton with the Republic.

[Orior]

Lennon has done everything but beg for the job permanent. would be a bad move by Celtic... they need a proven manager not an apprentice as happened there with Barnes and Brady and Staunton with the Republic.

Yeah but no but yeah but no but yeah but no but wasnt the last guy a "proven" manager and results were shite.

Give Lennon a chance.

[Main Street]

Depends who the real alternatives for the job are.
He definitely has the players motivated. He has manically invested a lot of himself in getting the job and he would give his right arm to get it. Hard to judge him on the few games so far, but he has done better than could be expected and very solid where it mattered tonight.
The Ross County catastrophe could have been a leftover side effect.

Tonight was the first time I saw Fortune really fired up, Naylor reverting back to the good player he once was, Brown gave the ball away a lot, but he did well in the middle. Makeshift centre halves had a few wobbles but playing Wilson over Thompson was a gamble which paid off. Overall shape and balance was good, ball retention crap as could be expected in a frantic game.

It's another deal altogether for a manager to rebuild a team for next season and to have a decent run in Europe.




.

[tyroneman]

7 wins in a dead league means little. Celtic ballsed up the 1 big game they had to win, against opposition Celtic should be wiping the floor with. Now maybe Lennon could argue the players let him down with it but he was still the manager and has to take a certain degree of the blame.

The best thing fir him to do would be to drop to a lower league team and learn the ropes a la MON and maybe come back in 5-10 years. If he took over now and ended up 2nd or worse it could end his managerial career before it got going.

This is a massive job and will also entails getting rid of at least 7-8 of the current first team duds.I would have McGeady Brown and Boruc top of the list purely on prospective transfer fees v use to team. Artur is back on form but if we can get 8-10 mill he has to go as we have a ready replacement.

There is noone else in the first team squad bar maybe Lukas ( assuming Artur goes) worth keeping.

Hopefully this is the last season I will ever have to endure Samaras in the hoops too   

[lynchbhoy]

'Celtic's' Man Mowbray had as good a season as he guy prior to him. Neither were good enough though. Lets hope Celtic appoint a decent man next time out ! - well us Celtc fans hope so, doubt if you share that sentiment !!

You were the one arguing that he was improving the team - right up until the time we got chinned by St Mirren.  And the difference between Mowbray and the guy prior to him was 3 league titles and 2 last 16 CL finishes. Real football fans - that's football, not 'soccer', btw - would know that. You, on the other hand, are a sports fan whose favourite sport is GAA. And it shows, believe me.

yep - Mogga was improving the side by getting rid of some of the dross and bringing in better players (the centre halves out compared to the quality of centre halves brought in demonstrates that- pity they were always inj since Jan, but we saw enough in the snippets they played to confirm this) - but yet an improvement still isnt good enough. More is required.
your stats would also indicate that strachan was better then MON - we know this is completely untrue, so your stats mean nothing.
the stat that matters is that its two league campaigns with no league victory against a poor rangers side.
Finally , in your brieft sojourn here, no one believes a word of what you say (write).
That consistency is admirable ! You can toddle off now and celebrate the league win with you pals !

[lynchbhoy]

Depends who the real alternatives for the job are.
He definitely has the players motivated. He has manically invested a lot of himself in getting the job and he would give his right arm to get it. Hard to judge him on the few games so far, but he has done better than could be expected and very solid where it mattered tonight.
The Ross County catastrophe could have been a leftover side effect.

Tonight was the first time I saw Fortune really fired up, Naylor reverting back to the good player he once was, Brown gave the ball away a lot, but he did well in the middle. Makeshift centre halves had a few wobbles but playing Wilson over Thompson was a gamble which paid off. Overall shape and balance was good, ball retention crap as could be expected in a frantic game.

It's another deal altogether for a manager to rebuild a team for next season and to have a decent run in Europe.

I'd agree with your last bit there - Lennon can def fire up the players and get them going. Would he have the nous to buy and sell and put together a good side? Dunno.
Odds are against him.
In reality Tyroneman is right - to learn his trade, Lennon needs to do a MON and start off learning how to buy/sell/spot players etc at lower clubs and not at one of the bigges names in the world of soccer !
We would love the fairy tale of Lennon succeeding - but the odds are heavily against it !
Lennosn motivation skills are good, his tactics may be as good as what we have had since MON, but there is the question over some aspects - putting the team together/buying etc - but more worrying is how he put in two half inj players the other week and made them even more inj that they had to come off and potentially set them back further ! That aspect has me a little hesitant !
Still last night was a good win, and while Celtic went missing for the first 20 mins of the second half, they shoul dhave been 3-0 up by half time.
Wilson did as well as he could but a real centre half would have cleared that and some of the other half chances that made miller look good last night !

[Main Street]

Point taken about Wilson, but it was a choice of him at CH or young Thompson. Lennon's square peg choice paid off, just about.

On the manager, it all depends on how far the Board are willing to go.  If the Board won't invest, then Lennon is at least as good as any other manager in Scotland, Walter excepted. Would Lennon win the title back next year? maybe yes - maybe not.
If the Board go for a manager with some profile then they will have to invest, a decent incoming manager would only be attracted if funds were made available.
There is no name that jumps out from the list that the bookies have, the prospective new manager is not there, though Avram Grant looks interesting. He is on a reported salary of £900k pa. I was impressed with how he organised the Israeli team, at least on a par with the Swiss manager Kobi Kuhn.  But you get the sense he is looking for something like a cushy well remunerated National team position, where he just works with available squad.

[lynchbhoy]

Point taken about Wilson, but it was a choice of him at CH or young Thompson. Lennon's square peg choice paid off, just about.

On the manager, it all depends on how far the Board are willing to go.  If the Board won't invest, then Lennon is at least as good as any other manager in Scotland, Walter excepted. Would Lennon win the title back next year? maybe yes - maybe not.
If the Board go for a manager with some profile then they will have to invest, a decent incoming manager would only be attracted if funds were made available.
There is no name that jumps out from the list that the bookies have, the prospective new manager is not there, though Avram Grant looks interesting. He is on a reported salary of £900k pa. I was impressed with how he organised the Israeli team, at least on a par with the Swiss manager Kobi Kuhn.  But you get the sense he is looking for something like a cushy well remunerated National team position, where he just works with available squad.

yep - thats about right.
If there are no obv candidates - or the board cannot afford to pay for one, then carry on with Lennon and Mjallby.
Avram grant - interesting one. Would he be able for the ridiculousness of the glasgow goldfish bowl and all the false accusations under the sun coming at him !
I presume some of the 'faithful' would not want him because he is an israeli and therefore suppose he is anti-pali !
I have an Israeli Celtic daft buddy - who tells me that most of the israelis are not anti-pali , they are more apathetic than anything else!
Id be interested in Grant. Wouldnt get excited by the prospect though.

[Main Street]

Tony's prayers were not in vain

[the colonel]

Was at the game last night. That tackle by Brown got some cheer, as did Nacho Novo falling over like a twat. He got grief as soon as he came on. Looked a wee bit more comfortable last night that everyone who watched it on tv is suggesting. Would definately give the job to Lennon

[Myles Na G.]

'yep - Mogga was improving the side by getting rid of some of the dross and bringing in better players (the centre halves out compared to the quality of centre halves brought in demonstrates that- pity they were always inj since Jan, but we saw enough in the snippets they played to confirm this) - but yet an improvement still isnt good enough. More is required.
your stats would also indicate that strachan was better then MON - we know this is completely untrue, so your stats mean nothing.
the stat that matters is that its two league campaigns with no league victory against a poor rangers side.
Finally , in your brieft sojourn here, no one believes a word of what you say (write).
That consistency is admirable ! You can toddle off now and celebrate the league win with you pals !' LB

No, you see improving means making better. 'Mogga' did precisely the opposite. He stripped the side of experienced players and replaced some of them with untested kids. He demoralised the remainder of the squad by announcing that many of them weren't fit to wear the shirt. Then he expected them to play like Brazil. The result was chaos, as we saw. Which part of that do you think constitutes an improvement?  As for your comparison between WGS and MON. Both decent managers and both did a fine job for Celtic. I happen to think MON's time at Celtic is a bit overrated. He had plenty of money to spend and he inherited Larsson into the bargain. For all that, what did he do that WGS didn't on a much smaller budget? Took the Hoops to a European final, okay, but according to you, even poor sides (like Rangers) can do that!  You really should stop posting now, because you're making my arguments for me. Keep taking your points.

[red hander]

'Took the Hoops to a European final, okay, but according to you, even poor sides (like Rangers) can do that!'

Yeah, where they were narrowly defeated (and some would say cheated out of it by a bunch of diving Portuguese cheats) by a team that went on to lift the Champions League the following year... a lot of people tend to forget that.  There's no comparison between the Celtic team that made the Uefa Cup final and the Huns first XI who did the same a few years later

[saffron sam2]

Took the Hoops to a European final, okay, but according to you, even poor sides (like Rangers) can do that!

A Rangers side that won two of eleven European matches that season.

A Rangers side that failed to score in seven of those matches.

I'm with Lynchbhoy on that point.