Sorry Diary, it’s been over a week since we’ve been together …but I’m here now to update you.
Last Saturday I went to Celtic Park to watch us play Motherwell ..yes the ones that lie down to Rangers….that’s them.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect as we’ve not been consistent recently and Motherwell were on a decent run.
Oh Diary …how silly am I??… We played them off the park , producing our best performance for a long time and scored four great goals.
Dear Diary I’m so happy.
Sunday to Thursday was spent mainly reading and contributing to Celtic forums. Did you know that Rangers are on the brink of collapse?? Yes it’s true…It seems that the Tax Man is owed pots of money and he’s going after them big style and it’s only a matter of time before they disappear from our planet, never to be seen again.
Dear Diary I’m so happy.
I then got involved with a debate about the Europa League and it was my opinion that it woud only get in the way and that we’d be better out of it. ..
Oh Dear Diary , I wasn’t popular! I was bombarded with people telling me about how we needed great European nights at Celtic Park and how it would help to attract better players ..oh and it would give Lenny the opportunity to rotate the squad and get everyone involved.
My logic , however, was….this season more than ever we have to stop 4-I-A-R and not just for football reasons. It is imperative, I argued, that they are denied access to money making opportunities and so we have to win the League…and drive another nail into their coffin.
This , I said, meant total commitment to the SPL games as Europa nights would only cause us problems in this regard. What problems??? I was asked….
Well, first and foremost, we aren’t , in my opinion, going to qualify anyway, so other than for financial gain, why should we bother? We aren’t good enough for European competition and that truth has to be addressed.This wasn’t accepted by many people as apparently we have a great team…so what do I know?.
Secondly…I think the last thing we need is to travel back from abroad a couple of days before vital SPL games to play teams who have been resting for a week…ah…but… I was informed…this is where the big pool of players we have comes into play, and gives Lenny the opportunity utilise his resources to the full. Mmm…maybe that’s why Paddy Mc Court , to name but one, is perfectly happy to sit on his backside every week.
The bottom line is..there’s not many agree with me on this subject…so we’ll have to see what happens…The team might prove me wrong.
Dear Diary I’m not as happy as I had been.
Thursday: We played in Europa league in Madrid and got beat 2-0. ‘Nuff said.
Dear Diary I’m even less happy now.
Sunday: We’ve just been humped by Rangers after leading 2-1 at half-time. The longer the game went on the more tired our players looked ..and that is not something you would normally
criticise our players for. I have no idea what might have caused that…oh ..wait….Europa League game…I nearly forgot.
Dear Diary now I’m getting depressed.
Have just checked our Europa League opponent’s results at the week-end….. where’s the Valium??
The good news is, the players can get a good rest now as we don’t have to play again until…..aw naw… .this Wednesday .
Thank God it’s only Ross County…when have they ever caused us problems.??
Dear Diary..How do spell …Suicidal?
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The most depressing thing is we obviously have the players to get the better of this Rangers side, at the very least we would have made Rangers work for a win which we didn’t do sunday.
Most Celts are really frustrated by the most obvious errors in the team selection, im not a manager but it certainly doesn’t take a coaching badge to know Samaras and Loovens should not be starting whilst players like Stokes, Ledley, Forrest and Commons are available.
bhoy
I think you are being very optimistic if you think that Celtic have a better starting 11 than Rangers. I would say that if they are able to select their best 11 they have a stronger side than us. Horrible to admit with the financial woes they have.
It is when injuries come in to it that we have an advantage. Their squad is not as strong. I would take any one of their defenders for ours. Including Granpa Weir. Not one of our defence would get in their team. Jelavic and Naismith would also walk into ours.
If both squads were fit we would have the better starting 11, Izzy is a big miss for us.
I think that John makes a really good point about our defence. We all want to see attractive, attacking football- playing the Celtic way. But I feel that a lot of people who keep calling for us to play the Celtic way have forgotten that Celtic’s attacking success was built on a brilliant defense:
Ronnie Simpson, the best goalkeeper in Scotland, and possibly beyond: Billy McNeil, the best center-half in Scotland, and probably beyond. Plus, Jim Craig, John Clark, and Tommy Gemmell who all would have walked into any team in Britain.
Our defence today just doesnt allow us to play attacking football without losing too many goals. There’s no confidence; there’s no stability; there’s no quality.
All we had to do on sunday was play Mulgrew at centre back, Ledley or Commons left midfield and Stokes instead of Samaras, Brown ran out of steam and should have been replaced early 2nd half by Forrest, i think if we went with that we would have won comfortably.
I would just like to say….
this was about more than just Sunday I’m afraid….
I feel really strongly about the Europa League….
we are not geared for it…will do nothing in it…
except perhaps get embarassed…and it could end up definitely costing us….big time.
If Lenny was using all the players at his disposal then fair enough….but he’s not….and although there will probably be changes for to-morrow night..it still means a lot of the players will have played four games in eleven days….
no wonder the team was knackered on Sunday…
and it will only get worse….