THE GOOD
Neil Lennon
Neil Francis Lennon, take a bow. Tremendous stuff!! He is really coming into his own this season. You can see he has matured as a manager and now he is showing he has a bit of tactical nous as well.
As soon as Spartak lost a man, he smelt blood and went for the jugular by introducing Forrest. This got us to 2-2 and a lot of managers might have shut up shop but we had them on the ropes and they were lying deep, so he brought a fresh set of legs into the centre mid and kept at them until we got a deserved winner. This game will long live in the memory of Celtic fans and for that we thank you Neil!! YNWA
Champions League Group Away Win
Martin O’Neill had 9 away games and no wins. Gordon Strachan had 11 away games and no wins. Neil Lennon has achieved it in his first. There is now a bit of belief about the squad, you could see it in the way they played in the second half.
We have the makings of a decent team on a small percentage of the budget Neil’s predecessors had and with this monkey off our back, who knows what could happen. This now makes it 5 away games in Europe without defeat, stretching back to last season. Are we not supposed to be woeful away from home?
Georgios Samaras
What a hugely importantly player Sammy is turning out to be. Again a bit of credit has to go to Lennon for sticking with him when pretty much every Celtic fan, myself included, wanted him nowhere near the team. I seriously think if he did not have that outstanding game against Rangers he would not be in hoops right now. He has improved in every facet of his game. Forster aims for him with kickouts and he wins 90% of them because he has learned to use height to his advantage. He has also improved his decision making, passing, assists and goals. Most importantly though is that he seems to have established himself as a “Big Game” player. When we need him now he steps up and delivers, 3 goals and 3 assists in Europe is a absolutely fantastic turnaround.
Mikael Lustig
He was my MOTM against Spartak and received a huge honour of being selected it the goal.com European team of the week. It has taken him a while to get to match sharpness but now he is looking very assured at right back. Strong in the air and a good passer, you can see why he is the Swedish International right back. I think Lustig is going to turn into another outstanding find for our scouting network. What is more amazing for us is that I still rate Adam Matthews ahead of him, though the gap between them is getting closer.
Fraser Forster
Congratulations to the big lad in getting his first international call up. He put his faith in us that we could give him a platform to showcase his talent by qualifying for the Champions League. We did that and now his form has gotten him the recognition he deserves. Fair play to Roy Hodgson for giving him a chance and selecting a player from a league that is often overlooked for English internationals. Gary Hooper should take heart from this and know that someone down south has been watching recently and i’m sure they will have noticed him as well. Good luck to Fraser, i’m sure he will do us and our league proud if called upon.
Goals Conceded
We played brilliantly against Spartak all game. Limited them to pot shots and half chances. Big Fraser only had to save the free kick on the half hour mark. Yet twice we switched off and twice we were punished. That is what happens at this level. You cannot afford to have lapses in concentration. You must remain focused for the full 90 minutes. The good thing is they did not cost us in the end and they are mental errors due to inexperience. We can learn from these mistakes. It would have been much worse if someone was outmuscled or straight up burned for pace, you cannot teach someone to be stronger or faster, you can teach them to pay attention and become more aware.
Attendance
This is something I have been keeping an eye on for years, but the crowds are dwindling at Celtic Park for SPL games. After yesterdays game with Hearts we have an average of 45345. This is down almost 5500 per game on last season’s SPL average of 50904. Over 4 games that amounts to 22000 fans missing. What is more concerning is that the game against Hearts, who over the last two years generated the biggest attendances behind Rangers saw a drop of 5300 alone. This is the team that should be the new number one in attendance figures for us yet we don’t show up. Now all of our home games came after a midweek European game. We can make excuses for the first 3 SPL games due to the fact we played a big game at home a few days earlier, but there are no excuses for this game. We should have been buzzing after Moscow and playing against the Diet/Mini buns should have had us out in droves. I was under the impression we wanted Rangers out of the SPL and if they were not kicked out we would boycott. I doubt the boycott would have affected attendances much worse than they are now. What happened to faithful through and through?
THE UGLY
Nothing to report here, 4 points from 2 Champions League games and top of the league, great week to be a Celt!!!
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Re. Attendances, a lot of non season book holders are staying away (myself included). I’m involved in football on a Saturday so a season book isn’t feasible for me.
The fact is the pricing is shocking, £29 to see Hearts? I love supporting the bhoys, but I hate feeling I am being ripped off.
I’ve got the 3 match euro package (good value), went to the qualifiers (good value) and attended a couple of friendlies (again good value).
£25 to £30 for SPL football is terrible value and unfortunately I won’t be attending any league games this season due to the pricing. If I wanted to go watch Celtic Vs. Dundee a couple of weeks ago the price was £26, you can’t justify that.
If you think your getting ripped off stay away but don’t jump on the european bandwagon . faithfull through and through eh well maybe not
Very good article what about Gary?? 😀
As far as attendances is concerned I think a bit of realism is in order. We are all going through financial hell these days after the establishment (and the establishment club) turned a blind eye to playing casino with public funds. We, the real people, are having to tighten our belt to breaking point just to survive. For there to be as much as forty five thousand supporters at any game just now is an astonishing turn out for ANY football team let alone Celtic. Not everyone has the money to spend on anything other than essentials these days.
As for Celtic’s great week can things get any better? Barcelona next . . .it just couldn’t . . .could it! . . .I wonder. . .
Re: attendances. Got to agree with the first comment. Ticket prices are a total joke considering the product that is being sold. I spent an absolute fortune on away and cup tickets last season and I won’t be doing it this season. I will always buy my season book as I love going to the football but Peter lawwell and the other clubs/ SFA need to look at the ticket pricing. We should be charging £10-15 maximum for tickets. Check the bundesliga ticket prices – EVERY game is packed and the atmosphere is amazing! I guy I worked with lives in Spain and has a season ticket for Malaga – £250!!!! That’s value for money.
I agree that prices should be reduced, but have they changed since last season? If Rangers were still in the SPL and putting pressure on us at the top, would attendances have dropped so drastically?
Prices for non Old Firm games should have dropped anyway because there was only 48000-50000 attending them last season. So we had room for another 8000 supporters.
My point is that if Rangers were still in the league, our attendance would not have dropped.
you just have to look at the german league when you compare attendances. the average price for their games is £15, and every game is literally packed, no spare seats.
Yes, you could look at arsenal and chelsea and say “well what about them, they have sell-out attendances and their tickets are about £50”, but they’re in london, a place that has the same population as scotland, so theres bound to be enough londoners who can afford to go (you have to be pretty wealthy to live there anyway).
Glasgow aint the most executive place in terms of the money thats floating around, so Celtic should base their prices on that. What a difference a even £20 game would make, the stadium would be overflowing and back to the martin o’neill days, where there was over a year’s waiting list for a season ticket.
Kick off time wouldn’t have helped attendance either but still dissapointing. Hopefully there’s changes from UEFA on the way at some point to get us playing in a league that’s closer to our high standards.
Have to agree on Lustig….was starting to doubt him but has been brilliant last few games and Izzi getting back to his best also
The guys moaning about ticket prices must think ledley and hooper and the like play for peanuts if we don’t pay good money at the gate they won’t be on the park
Hooper and ledley are on half the money the likes of larsson, hartson and Sutton were on but the ticket prices are the same as they were then! So phone PL and tell him to give all the bhoys a wage rise…
Who are you to preach to the poor? Most folk cannot afford this outlay every week as more and more people find themselves out of work or do you expect them to go hungry to satisfy your upturned nose? I like many many other true Celtic fans will back the club in whatever way we can but charity starts at home and anything extra can then go to buying tickets etc…Do not give Celtic fans a hard time in hard times or you could end up writing for youself to yourself!
Thete moaning about prices if your skint your skint the prices shouldn’t matter . there’s guys who go to big games but don’t go to smaller games well I go to see Celtic not the other team I don’t care less who were playing that’s what I’m going on about a guy moaning he’s no paying 26 quid to watch dundee but will pay more to see barca its the same Celtic team so what’s the difference.
Jockspants, of course you look after yourself first. If you can’t afford to go, don’t go. I’m not asking that at all and never alluded to it once in the article. My point is that we are done 5000 per game. What has changed this year from last year? Economy was bad last year and the year before, so why now? I highly doubt the people that can’t afford to go this year could afford it last year or the year before.
The only difference between last year and this year is Rangers not being in the league. The SPL has less interest for our fans knowing we should walk the league. It will get worse if we start pulling away. Less and less will turn up, not to do with money, but lack of interest.
The reason is due to kiddy on Celtic fans not renewing their season tickets cos there’s no Huns game.
Attendances at Celtic shocking unless its a glamour game for the prawn sandwich brigade
I sent a message to 20 of my so called Celtic comrades for the Hearts game as my supporters bus had a spare ticket due to a holiday. Good value, ticket and bus £30.00 yes that’s £1.00 more than the ticket for the game and we will take you there and back.
Surprise surprise they were all doing their hair or shopping at IKEA etc. Funnily thay all asked if I had spare tickets for the Barcelona game. Well guess what NO!
Do any of you pretend Celtic fans (I’m talking about the 40,000 that were missing for the league cup game after the European game) actually understand the words to you will never walk alone.