SENTINELCELTS

I’ve sometimes noticed on venues such as Social media, there are some Celtic fans who don’t quite seem to understand that these are great times for our team, of course some things could always be bettered within the club structure, then, there will always be stumbles or slip ups, or transfer disagreements or tactical differences, and European chances that could be improved upon, or other club matters that won’t please everyone, but we should be proud of what the team we have today achieve, and the spirit that is there among them as they go right to the wire to accomplish some great victories on the way to breaking records and making history.

This isn’t a complete history of Celtic i wouldn’t claim to know it all, more a short refresher of records to show we have had some really good past times, and are currently witnessing some more.

Let’s start of with a few notable records from early Celtic days.

Celtic create the British record of 62 league games unbeaten between November 1915 and April 1917.

Fast forward till 1965 when a certain John ‘Jock’ Stein became Celtic manager, and with a team of mostly local bhoys, records were once again about to be set and history made, most notably by the Celtic team known as the Lisbon Lions.

Celtic hold the record of becoming the first ever Scottish, British, and North European club, to win the European cup in season 1966-67.
Celtic continued to be a strong force in Europe beyond 1967 by getting to the latter stages of the competition.
Celtic were the Quarter Finalists 1968-69, Runners-up 1969-70, Quarter Finalists 1970-71, and Semi Finalists 1971-72 and 1973-74.
Celtic hold the record for the highest attendance for a European club competition game Celtic v Leeds Utd 1970 the Official attendance was 133,961.
Celtic become the first Scottish team to win nine league championships in a row between 1966-74.

Fast forward till 1988

I do know some of you will recall the bleak years of 1988 to 1997 (some refer to it as the terrible nineties) when a financialy doped up club across the water cheated their way to their tainted nine. Mondays at work during this period i recall, were not some of the best, (however remembering this period, at least for me, makes today all the sweeter, and makes me appreciate what we have now), because little did we know back then that they were illegally spending money they did not have, to give them a ‘sporting’ advantage. During the 1990s and 2000s, they owed up to £30 million to the Lloyds Banking Group, this would ultimately lead to their Administration and liquidation.

One other significant event in 1994 was the arrival of Patron Saint Fergus of Bunnet, (god bless his cotton socks), who bought the club and started to propel it back towards better times.

Jump to 1997-98

A certain Henrik Larsson was signed by new manager Wim Jansen in 1997, in his second season at Celtic under yet another new manager Jozef Venglos,
Henrik (along with the arrival of a certain Lubomir Moravcik, who created a highly productive partnership with Henrik) managed 38 goals for the season, and both played a big part in stopping the ‘financially doped’ club across the water of reaching the holy grail of ten in a row.

Summer of 2000 seen yet another manager change as Martin O’Neill became the Celtic boss, this was Henrik’s most successful season at Celtic, (35 league goals in 38 games) as he struck up a formidable partnership with newly aquired forward Chris Sutton, and this partnership, along with some good transfer dealings (with Didier Agathe, Neil Lennon, Alan Thomson among them), by Martin O’Neill seen Celtic win the domestic treble once more. Some other very notable Celtic players graced our team between these times but it’s not possible in this short piece to name them all, however all of them carry my eternal thanks. In his five seasons at Celtic, Martin O’Neill became the most successful Celtic manager since Jock Stein. Some of our records under his leadership are as follow.

Celtic hold the SPL record for an unbeaten run of 77 home matches from 2001-04
Celtic also amassed 103 points in their 2001-02 campaign.
Celtic in 2002–03 season reached the 2003 UEFA Cup final in Seville. Around 80,000 Celtic fans travelled to Seville.
In season 2003–04 Celtic created a British record of 25 consecutive league victories

Fast forward to what may be described as the current good times, where I have to include four manager changes at Celtic, 2009-10 season seen Neil Lennon appointed caretaker manager. Under Neils leadership begins the first three seasons on our way to winning another eight titles, 2011-14. Next up was Ronny Deila under his leadership we got the next two titles 2014-16. Next was Brendan Rodgers who lead us to the next two 2016-18. Then the full Cycle was complete as Neil Lennon came back as Interim manager for title number eight. Throughout all of these, the Celtic captain has remained the same, Scott Brown, I don’t think most people will realise what an influence Scott Brown has been in these triumphs, until he is no longer there. During this successful period the following records were created

Celtic currently hold the UK record for an unbeaten run of 69 games (56 in the league) in domestic competition between May 2016 till Dec 2017.
Celtic in 2016-17 season were undefeated in 47 domestic games and became “The Invincibles”
Celtic hold the most points in any European top-flight campaign with 106 points in 2016-17.

Jump to now.

The bulk of our team just now, Calmac, Rogic, Christie, Ntcham, Odsonne, James, Leigh, and the rest, and some others no longer with us Moussa, Sinclair, Armstrong, Lustig, KT, etc. have given us some wonderful times, and goals in games, and cup finals, that should live in our memories forever, and I for one feel very priviledged to have witnessed such events.

Celtic are the First team to achieve back-to-back domestic Trebles.
Celtic are the First team to achieve Treble-Trebles.
Celtic have won 10 consecutive domestic trophies in a row.
Neil Lennon joined Jock Stein in lifting all three domestic trophies as a player and manager at the same club.

Celtic look set to equal their long standing record of nine (cleanly and fairly won) titles in a row, a feat no other Scottish club can claim.

My Celtic friends we look set to continue to make history and break records.

It really is a good time to be part of the Celtic family, cherish it, I certainly do.

The above guest article is by ASWGL . Should you wish to fling an article in the email is sentinelcelts@gmail.com and we would be more than happy to publish and discuss.