The crisis at AC Milan intensified last night after a 1-1 home draw against 10 man Genoa.
Kaka’s fourth minute goal should have opened the door to Milan’s first win in seven outings but Alberto Gilardino equalised five minutes later with the visitors settling for a point after defender Thomas Manfredini was sent off in the 36th minute.
Adding insult to a lukewarm display Mario Balotelli missed only the second penalty of his career after Manfredini’s red card with the former Manchester City striker the subject of derision from the home fans in San Siro.
Before the match the shadow of Clarence Seedorf resurfaced with the former Milan favourite tipped to replace Massimo Allegri at the end of the season with the Dutchman the preferred choice of Barbara Berlesconi, daughter of Silvio, to take over.
To complete a miserable night hundreds of fans stayed behind after the match to shout abuse at the players and only dispersed after words from Kaka and Christian Abbiati with Balotelli one of the main targets for criticism.
After the draw with Genoa Allegri said: “There is bitterness and disappointment for everyone but we must all stick together.
“There are still many points to be won and we must also qualify from the group stage of the Champions League. We need to bring the everything into our favour.
“The team has done so much this evening but are getting too anxious to get a win, I can’t blame them for anything.
“It’s normal that the fans are disappointed and that there is bitterness, but the team has always been committed, we always gave my best, try to improve day after day.
“In these situations you have to stick together to come through, the players so care and give their everything on the pitch.
“After the game I spoke with the President who was happy with the performance. The only thing you can blame is that we were not able to score.”Â
I agree,Joe
Milan are in crisis,and are their for the taking.Especially if our players,are fired up
with determination,and make amends for being unlucky in the san siro.
But what Celtic are going to turn up ?
At home in CL, we are always full of guts and believe.
John Park has made Celtic millions.Big Vigil will go for 8 M+. Scouting has been
dificult,in terms of strikers,however.
Rasmussen,Bangura,Pukki ? ,Balde ?
The quality does not seem to be their.
I feel, the foreigner route,although cheaper,is not working.
As said before,it is time to recruit strikers
from england.There is good quality in championship ans div.1. It could cost 3/4/5 M.
But if we are to continue as a CL club,then
we have to help the manager,try and compete as one !!
What would Lenny give for a quality striker
for Tuesday ? Anybody ?
We need a play maker and that big icelantik lad that scores for fun in the dutch league
Spot on Peter,
My guess is that it will be the “grit and determination” celtic that will turn up.
I am sure all the pressure on the team is emanating from our poor strikers.
We have a first class goalkeeper, an improving solid defence ( exception in my opinion Izzy), a wide range of good midfielders but where it all falls down is in the striking dept.
I cannot remember a season where we did not have a recognised striker by xmas. I hope Stokes personal problems get solved quickly for him but for me he is not good enough to be called our No1 striker. At best he’s a bit part player. Unless something drastic happens with Pukki and Balde I think they will go the way of Rasmussen and Bangura very quickly.
I’m not going to be critical without giving a couple of thoughts on who we should be going for. Two (I agree Peter, Scottish) players spring to mind for instant confidence and ability, Lee Griffiths and Stevie May,
Dont see BOTH costing more than £5m.
The great thing about being a celtic supporter is that unlike other fans we do not “forelock tug” and accept everything is rosey when it plainly isn’t.
Nothing would give me greater pleasure in being proved totally wrong and this current team hitting a rich vein of dominant attractive football but I honestly have my doubts until we get the striking pisition sorted.
Whether its a Crisis or a Confident Milan comming to parkhead lets make sure they leave knowing they have been in a game.
hail hail
Is the striker coaching an issue then?
I know that he had an agreement with his wife to focus on her career after his ended and that he has no need for the money and that he is principled and it is a pipe dream and lots of other ands, but…
If Larsson wants to take the step into management, he is revered as a god by Celtic fans, the Lennoxtown setup is very modern, the club is progressive and he would have the chance to develop some good potential players.
He is still the striker that would most capture my imagination.
Thats a million dollar question oldrosco. I’m not convinced it is the issue.
Martin O’Neil (midfielder) and John Robertson (winger) coached arguably 3 of our top strikers of all time in Henrik, Suttie and big bad John.
I think the modern day players have the life coached out of them by the time they are 16/17. I am more inclined to blame the individual than the coaching.
By the time you are 20 if you cannot trap a ball, shield a ball, head a ball, accurately pass a ball 5 yards and strike with both feet then maybe its time to look for another profession.
There’s too many players at celtic who in my opinion just dont show enough drive and determination consistently.
While at Celtic Nakamura became a WORLD renowned dead ball expert, was he coached to become this? No. He practised religiously at his art.
So if Pukki, Balde and Stokes want to become legends then its down to them not the coaches.
hail hail
I agree with the comments above. I’d also like to add that we better forget about Milan’s problems and start concentrating on getting our own game right.
We were garbage against Ajax: our preparation was rubbish, our attitude was rubbish, and our team selection was rubbish. We should start this game by fielding the strongest midfield we can and try to grab the game by the scruff of the neck: no forwards pretending to be midfielders. We’d probably score more goal that way anyway.
So let’s forget about Milan and get the basics right. If we’re not 100% committed and 100% professional, we will lose this game.
Can’t agree that griffiths or may are anywhere near champions league class.
I agree Sean that they are not CL class at the moment but the point I am making is that the strikers we have at the moment are also nowhere near CL class with the added bonus of not being able to score in the SPFL.
The thread I was picking up on was to go for Scottish rather than foreign strikers and what I’ve seen of these two players I think they could be possitive to the team.
I’d love to see a Defoe, Drogba or Ibrahimovic at the club but its never going to happen. You wont get a CL class striker for under £10m so I’d be interested in hearing other fans choices for strikers.
hail hail
Agree with you.Jimbo,about griffith.
Last year in spl he was.better than any of
our striker,and he scored some spectacular goals into the bargain.
Is he CL class ? Who knows?
But I don’t think he can be dismissed,as
his goals in the spl.proved last.year.
3 players I like down south are Troy Deeney of watford,Nhakki.Wells of bradford and Lee Tomlin of peterborough.
Deeney leads the line well,holds the ball
up and good on the deck and in the air.
Wells is a flying machine and good poacher,two good feet and sniffs out a
chance.
Tomlin is a creative player,which we need.he is a clevet player,with good movement,and he also.chips.in with his
fair share of goals.
So why not go for these british-type players ?
Who would fit in with our game and are
experienced and don’t need time to settle in.
Lee griffiths and Steve May are no the answer we need decent goal scorers who have played in champions league and no how to put the ball in net am no blading these two players they are good but no good enough for champions league teams who wee face we are going to need to go over usuall budget to succeed in champions league further we go more money we will make and it will pay for it itself win win
Bottom line is tic will never pay more than 4 million for a player so when u pay peenuts u get monkeys most of the time
i agree with most of the comments above, but not Griffiths of May. My god is this what Celtic should expect as a good striking option.
I would agree with Peter. If we are looking for bargain of a striker we should look at the English Championship. Look how Hooper fared.
I dont agree with Celtic constant look for a bargain signing.
I know we aint spending fortunes so if it doesnt come off then you lose very little, however for every gem we find right now we seem to find 3 or 4 players of a poor standard who wont improve and wont force there way into the starting eleven.
We cant keep buying cheap.
Each window we should be looking for a player who will come in and go start into the starting eleven, and a bargain/one for the future.
Pukki was the player who was ready made.
I have said on this site a few times now, Pukki is poor. Should be the player playing for the reserves right now and go down the pecking order.
You can say he is player short of confidence or whatever but i dont buy it.
I lost count yesterday how many times he received the ball to his feet to shape up to turn to the right hand side and for the defender to read the same move over and take the ball off him.
Enough about Pukki.
Here’s hoping our next bargain signing Fridjonnsen is a gem.
Now about the Milan game, i am really worried about these stories of Milan under pressure, fans on their backs, managers job on the line. How many times have we heard this when we have played teams in Europe and went onto to lose.
Here’s hoping we raise our game, play much better than we did in Amsterdam and get a win, plus Barca give Ajax a helluva doing.
My team for Milan game.
Foster
Lustig Ambrose Van Dyke Izzy
Kayal Mulgrew Ledley
Boeriggter Samaras Commons
COYBIG
Fair enough Tonybhoy. May would be taking a chance but going on what I’ve seen of him and some glowing reports about his atitude and lifestyle a chance worth taking in my opinion. On Griffiths I can understand he’s a bit marmite (either love him or hate him) and again only in my opinion he’s a more complete striker than ANYTHING we have at the moment.
Peter’s trio are worth a shout also even though they are not playing in top flight football but one thing they are all doing is scoring goals. We couldn’t entice Lee Tomlin away from PETERBOUROUGH UTD what makes you think we could entice a ready made CL class striker away from a CL class club??
Hail hail
Jimbo,I.agree re. Griffiths.
Yes,maybe not CL quality,but going by his goals for hibs,he IS BETTER,than our strikers.
I.would sell.stokes for 800 k + pukki and balde should do double training sessions every day.they are not
sharp.pukki is too predictable with his turns.
Sammy deserves a.new contract for just being Sammy.
Ledley looks to be off. Sell in January for 1 M, replace him with Tomlin peterborough asked for 3M but you would get him for 2M. He is Celtic daft,and has more variation to his play than Ledley.
If big Fraser want’s to go,I’d sell him for 7M+ he is still.dodgy coming for cross balls, millwall’s Forde is a safe pair of hands and wants to play for us.
After wheeling.and dealing I would buy TWO quality strikers to give the TEAM, the FANS and the whole club a LIFT.
Does anybody agree ?
Good shout for the team, in my opinion. I’d certainly like to see us start that way- and I’d like to see us battling for and winning every single ball until we get on top.
All I have to say The best off luck to the Bhoys just give us a good 90 min Hail Hail JMJ