Is this the quietest close season Celtic have had in a generation?
Euro 2012 is providing plenty of excitement and goals while the twists and turns of the Ibrox pantomime continue to develop at an incredible pace.
Over the last 20 years close seasons have usually involved trying to build a title challenging team, finding a manager or during the Martin O’Neill years retaining a manager.
Without doubt the current close season will have long lasting consequences for Scottish football- not just because Georgios Samaras scored for Greece against Germany!
August 4 can’t come quickly enough when the proper football gets underway and the great sporting integrity question is finally answered. Will Michael Johnston be rubbing his hands as fans of reborn Club 12 fill up Rugby Park or will there be a few dozen Fifers chanting ‘We Are The Pars’.
What matters most is being fiercely debated from all angles.
The Ibrox crisis is certain to run and run allowing Celtic to get on with their business on the quiet- the fact that Mark Wilson, Darren O’Dea, Niall McGinn, Cha Du-Ri, Glenn Loovens, Daniel Majstorovic, Efrain Juarez and Dominic Cervi have all left has barely been noticed.
Next season will be one of the most dramatic in the history of the Scottish game. Will it emerge vibrant and competitive from the demise of Rangers or will the doom-mongers from Motherwell and Kilmarnock be proved correct as the roof finally falls in?
Celtic’s priority is to reach the group stage of the Champions League- four years without the football, finance and attention that the competition brings is far too long for our club.
Last season’s Europa League group provided encouraging sings of improvement with the players and management gaining priceless experience.
In an ideal world in May 2013 Celtic will be SPL champions, three of our younger players, any three from Tony Watt, Joe Chalmers, Marcus Fraser, Dylan McGeough, John Herron, Callum McGregor or Filip Twardzik will have featuered in 20 first team matches and we’ll have reached the last eight of the Europa League after picking up seven points in our Champions League return.
There has been some great debate on this site over the last few weeks with the strength of the site coming from the range of contributors expressing their views on a range of issues.
As an incentive to keep the debate going site sponsors Samsung have put up some prizes across the entire Football Fancast network.
Add your comments below about what happens most then click on the image and enter the Samsung ‘what matters most’ competition (140 characters) and try your luck for some great prizes including a 55” Samsung Smart TV ES8000.
What Matters Most.
This is a chance for scottish football to start again. Never before have fans of Hearts, Motherwell, Dundee United and Hibs looked at the comming season with a such as realistic chance of winning silverwear.
As the three succesfull teams of last season prove(Celtic, Hearts & Kilmarnock) there is still life in the SPL.
Over the next couple of years, i expect one of the afore mentioned clubs to make a serious challenge for the title and that in its self will be refreshing.
We shouldnt forget that the return of rangers will also bring with it great excitement. As Sky covered the return of Cantona with such pinache, the Return of Rangers to the SPL will also bring with it much anticipation and excitement.
The future starts now!
I agree with the comments above as having previously posted a similar comment before… I welcome an honest challenge! also, if aluko and mccabe have set a presedence to ex-rangers “sons of the newco” players coupled with goughs reported warning to mccoist regarding players affinity to the old rangers then I think it will be some time before we see the new rangers in the spl… thats just how the cookie crumbles in my opinion! I reckon a lot of bears will be greetin into thier big pillow before the season starts! HH!
A domestic treble champions league winners and a big lottery win will do for me and maybe drawing newco in the Scottish cup and giving them a hunskelping would be the cherry. Hail hail
“Is this the quietest close season Celtic have had in a generation?”
I’ve just said the same myself on my own blog Joe.
For me what matters most is that Scottish football can learn from this sham of an experience.
The governing bodies and suits involved with Scottish clubs need to start looking at what will be good for our game and its supporters.
Too much focus and attention is made on teh finances of clubs, its about time clubs starting paying fans more respect and thinking up a proposal that will give supporters more value for money.
I doubt this will happen.
How many more times will we have numpties spouting about re-organizing the league set-up for the overall good of Scottish Football. It has happened so often in the past….yet still we never learn.
A Country the size of Scotland with so many so called professional clubs & such limited resources.
How about we call it quits, remove the hangers-on and put them into regional leagues at the standard they truly belong. We SHOULD only have a max of 20 senior clubs the rest are merely kid-on clubs.
Then we can disband the various Associations, SPL, SFL, SFA and all the many administrators who are bleeding the game dry and leading us nowhere.
Wiki states in 2007 the SFL needed 14 admin to run 30 clubs, yet the Conference with 68 clubs only required 4 personnel…..How many fingers in the pie do we have at the top levels 100-150 (Anyone’s guess) or more for a mere 40 clubs.
How much would be saved by simply cutting them, who would even notice they were gone. 3 x sets of offices, wages, travelling expenses, hotels…..we could save the real clubs a fortune.
Best idea I’ve ever heard.
“the fact that Mark Wilson, Darren O’Dea, Niall McGinn, Cha Du-Ri, Glenn Loovens, Daniel Majstorovic, Efrain Juarez and Dominic Cervi have all left has barely been noticed.”
Would they have been normally? As for the rest, I your hopes and fears are probably typical and I applaud the systematic format in which you expressed your views. I myself was buoyant a few days ago at the prospect of fan power achieving the ultimate good.
However, the seeping news from the halls of Hampden in recent hours has me reconsidering my euphoric abandon. Paul67 seems to be insinuating that that there are some shady moves afoot that will placate the powers that be in clubs even though they may alienate a large number of fans.
I believe Mr. Regan is on holiday and unavailable for comment while ‘Uriah’ Ogilvie and ‘Two Face’ Doncaster are in convenient hibernation.
All I would say to them is that should the ignore the groundswell, not only within the football supporting population but even in the wider community, then they may need hiding places rather than their existing ‘hideaways’.
H H