Battle in Brum
Who woulda thunk it?
Here we are on matchday 8 already going through, string of big results in the bag, ready to go to battle in Brum,,,with a single striker.
Of course Maeda can slot in, but he’s unavailable. I don’t even know if Kenny can play, either through registration or Cup tied. Kuhn might be an option but with no Boy Wonder (he returns!) in the squad nor Jamsie fit, the German is needed on the right more than ever because the left will need respite.
Decisions, decisions.
Adam is in for a very tough, long and tiring night, and now Jota is officially signed it’s clear either or both of Yang and Palma shall depart, but ironically they’ll probably play tonight having been deemed lacking. Jota is a big step up from either, and now he shall have a big Baptism of fire in the knockouts.
The managers team talk should be straightforward, put any thoughts of already qualified away, you’re representing the badge and Calmac will preach the same message.
I would say Celtic don’t play for draws, but apparently we have in this competition. A forward planner might opt for using this tough away game as a dressed rehearsal for the knockout phase away game we shall play. With that in mind, plus the players unavailable I just see the usual approach, I think the occasion calls for a very workmanlike performance, nonstop pressing and running trying to match them or make an option. I’m thinking Bernardo over Reo and getting Luke on the pitch at some stage. Engels needs the experience.
Very tough position for Greg to be in,,certain to be targeted with his personal Samurai bodyguard missing in action,,,there’s no point playing Valle as he’s off soon and there’s still a chance GT could sign the new improved offer that’s widely rumored to be on the table.
I recall absolutely biting my fingernails going down to Old Trafford under Fergie, who later asked Van Der Saar ‘Are you buying that wee Japs DVD, because you’re f#$king in it twice!’ (another reason hes never Jocks peer, he couldnt/wouldnt acknowledge a fantastic from range free kick but ironically later cheered when his own CR7 scored a bucketload). Similarly when the much applauded Pep came to Parkhead with his soon to conquer Europe galatians of Mancessity.
I recall a Bambi on Ice striker called Amido Balde putting a Brendan Rodgers Liverpool side away, I recall Arsenal needed to cheat to best the Bhoys under the much vaunted Arsene Wenger who is an alleged football purist but he never seen it when it came to the unsavoury nature of his team.
Although I often fear the worst, our record against the EPL is respectable, in my opinion.
But here’s the rub, the EPL (and I’m an avid watcher) has changed a lot, it’s a different kettle of fish that’s moved from a 4-4-2 physical setup into a rapid technical game.
Any side in that league would cause us problems, the best young talented athletes that would outperform our lot in sports science tests.
If the group pulls anything out of this, they are better than I thought, and I’ll gladly eat humble pie plus hand out praise.
By Mahe sentinelcelts@gmail.com
Last year,our charity drives raised over £4000 for deserving causes. You are truly a wonderful collective, giving selflessly to others in need.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The bulk of the money was split fairly evenly between our two nominated causes, which were
Lanarkshire Cancer Care Trust and Blood Cancer UK.
New Year, New Cause! From 1st January till 30th June, we will switch our attentions to raising funds for another source of wonderful work on behalf of those who need it most.
MacMillan Cancer Care
Once again, the donations page has been set up for us by CHALMERSBHOY, and my grateful thanks to him for doing this and so much more.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/3x3g3-sentinel-celts?attribution_id=sl:0cefe851-42bd-443e-8cdb-345070949a04&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dash&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link
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Morning all, I think Johnston is one booking away from a suspension so it could potentially be a back four of Ralston, Trusty, Scales & Taylor tonight. With Idah a stick on now up front it only leaves a decision on whether to stick with the 433 and play Kuhn and one of Yang/Palma or change the formation and play McGregor, Bernardo, Engels & Hatate across the middle with Kuhn playing off Idah. The other option would have been to play Valle in front of Taylor but that’s not an option now either. We could take a sore one tonight or we could produce one for the ages but either way there must be a new permanent striker and left back at the club by the end of the window.
Going 4-3-3 with the available personnel will be asking for serious trouble.
It will turn into a 4-5-1 from the off anyway, as Villa will press for an early goal or two and an easy night.
Therefore additional cover in the middle, expecting an onslaught, at the expense of an ineffectual isolated wide player (Palma/Yang) seems sensible.
The issue there, of course, is it leaves midfield replacement options down to one since we normally deem 3 from 5 as sufficient in our paltry squad.
We may rest AJ, unlikely with CCV missing, but as we have little to no options on the bench defensively he will still be needed as cover along with the ignored and hardly match ready Nawrocki. As for left back GT had better avoid injury.
Idah will be asked to do a lonely workhorse shift on his own, and may have to play the full 90 mins plus, chasing scraps.
What a clusterfuck.
Even managerless Motherwell will be hoping for the full horrendous playbook performance to give them( and watching Huns) hope for Sunday.
A more negative outlook from me than is usual!
I fear for tonight both on and off the park.
CCV missing yet another big game, begs the question (esp in light of returning KT)…. how great are players that are so often unavailable.
They will be full strength and have to go for it whilst we seem to be treating it like a dead rubber
Good morning friends and a Big Happy European Matchday to all who post or lurk on this fine site.
Priority 1 – everyone in Birmingham stays safe.
Priority 2 – our fans in the stadium show our club in a great light, as only they can.
Priority 3 – the outcome of the game, where I’d take a draw right now.
JS,
I’ll eat my hat if we’re five in the middle.
Keep everyone on the pitch, compete for everything and try over the top.
Break the game up, Lord knows it’s used against us enough.
Keep the faith.
Almost every Celtic fan I know is heading down to Birmingham today, I reckon anywhere between 7 and 10thousand fans will be in the city, most without tickets.
Could be an eventful day and evening.
Couch repositioned away from wall to allow access.
Morning all,
Hope everyone down in Birmingham has a great day and night and essentially, stays safe 🤞
Im usually very positive but with so many absentees, it could be tricky !!!!!
Auldbhoy67,
“Ah think you’re going to need a bigger couch “
Still KTF and HH 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀
S N
Hoofed up the park for a few seconds respite is how I pessimistically see it.
The 5 in Midfield not by design but in response to pressure from the off.
I also don’t see any physicality in the team/squad to compete and be combative.
Circumstances have laid bare the weaknesses in the squad.
Why are fans without tickets heading to Birmingham? Asking for bother imho. The police have already told those without valid tickets to stay away as well as instigating a ‘counter terrorist’ strategy in order to control the area around villa park😕
Police notice to locals
We are writing to inform you about changes to the road closure arrangements for the upcoming fixture against Celtic. These changes are part of our existing counter-terrorism strategy and have been carefully planned in consultation with governing bodies to ensure the safety and security of all attendees and residents.
Óglach
🎼This is the day that we win away🎼
Where is Your sense of adventure?
Mahe
I have never believed in actually being beaten, before kick off, especially as far as our club are concerned.
Yet tonight, it has that feel about it.
And disgusted that it should even be in operation for a CL match of all matches we are involved within.
This 5 sub rule is hardly new within the game nowadays, yet we find ourselves in a position, where we are struggling to even make them?
The result might not have to much bearing upon ourselves tonight regarding our progression within CL. But there is still a huge issue of pride at stake for ourselves.
We already have to endure enough attacks upon our club, from a hun scum cheerleaders within the media, without aiding them, because we can’t prepare properly for a big match for ourselves.
Can’t help feeling that the powers to be, have already let our support badly down, regarding tonight imo?
Anyway the game goes ahead, with so many issues in play for ourselves.
Idah possibly having to do the lone striker role, with Johnny Kenny as a B list player as backup.
Possibly have to go with yang starting on the left, with Palma as a possibly replacement, who is nearly as good as out of the door within the club.
Wouldn’t be much of a future for yang either beyond this season by the looks of things.
Yet we are hoping for big performances from them, when Rodgers hasn’t got much trust in either, judging by the lack of game time that’s on offer for them.
So do we, run kuhn and idah into the ground tonight, when both will be required at the weekend, where the 3 points on offer are a must, and both will be expected to deliver also.
We have such a issue within our defensive set up, where only ralston might be the only available option, that has had any real first team experience with ourselves this season to date.
Possibly backup in Murray and Monty, trying to see if there in contention for a squad place next season, along with another option in rocki, who is facing the exit door also?
This without AJ looking that bit jaded at present with the amount of game time he is currently undertaking.
Along with Taylor who will surely be targeted, when not committed to our club at present, and doubtful he will be now, especially with it confirmed that Tierney is set to take his place, and only a question of when remains at present?
Sorry for the rant, but had to get it out of the system.
Are we entitled to expect better from our club in preparation terms for CL matches?
Better believe we are imo?
Thanks for all the tips on Birmingham. Ended up in Hennessy’s and Norton’s. Had a bit of craic and sussed out for tomorrow. I ended up in broad street this morning for my run and feel as others have advised this should be avoided. More than a bit apprehensive about tonight, we could have John Kennedy playing at the back tonight. Circumstances and bad planning have left us with the bare bones. Never mind, we’ll just enjoy the trip as we always do.
Oglach,
We are a world famous support who travel far and wide to support our team. I know how to conduct myself as do the majority of our support. Last time I checked it is a free country and if we want to travel in our numbers to follow our team and have some fun I’m sure that’ll be ok.
ATOB,
Well said!
We are among the best travelling football supporters on the planet.
I’ve been hearing about this fear every single time we have met an English club in my lifetime, and most times we have put the arrogant b@st@rds in their place.
Last time I was in the Holt end Ally Mccoist scored a belter 😯
Keep the faith!!
Johnno
The preparation for the CL should have been done in the summer.
Taylor, should have been replaced then and a 3rd striker should have been brought in.
We don’t have a strong squad, probably 15/16 ,that we can rely on and Kyogo being available, wouldn’t have made any difference
ATOB etc
Missing the point entirely. Irrespective of the reputation of the Celtic support as a whole or the good natured intentions of individuals like yourself the police have specifically asked those without tickets not to travel. They, plod, obviously think that there is a high potential for trouble hence the draconian wording of their ‘counter terrorism op’s’ statement. Do they have intelligence that some group or groups may try to instigate trouble?
Hopefully nothing untoward occurs and everyone has a safe and enjoyable night.
I had train booked and a hotel room for tonight.
As there was no chance if getting tickets, I decided to cancel hotel and forfeit my train tickets.
But if fans want to travel down, that’s their choice.
ATOB
Hope you have a good night
St Tams
I totally agree, and did have my doubts when our squad was finalised in September.
However, I didn’t visualise it deteriorating into the manner that we currently find ourselves either.
Believe that a fairly high level of stability has to be formed within our squad, to compete at CL level.
In turn that should mean Scottish football dominance remains intact?
You are quite correct to point out that we still remain nowhere near to having a full 25man squad in operation for next season in place.
Could be struggling to even get a full 20man squad in place for the weekend, that would be regarded as a sufficient standard for ourselves.
These are hardly new issues that are still in existence.
But little signs of actually addressing the issues on show?
A squad game has been in existence for some time these days, which will require more rotation, to match the game demands upon players, especially key players.
Yet we still aren’t capable of putting the likes in place, to match the demands.
Now the question is starting to arise with what we have seen this season, especially this month of January?
Have we actually got any intentions whatsoever to address the glaring issues on show within our squad building?
Just Sayin’
January 29, 2025 9:45 am
I also don’t see any physicality in the team/squad to compete and be combative.
———
Begs the question.
What have we needed the most for the longest time.
A top notch left back or a strong, ball winning midfielder?
Another question.
Why?????
Oglach…the Police notice only suggests safety measures in place as per usual arrangements for high capacity crowds. Every city and every force will have these arrangements in place, as a direct result of previous mass attacks around Europe and the world. I agree there’s capacity for trouble, my wee guy is there and although I know he won’t be looking for trouble he’s been warned to be careful. There’s always feckers out there looking for it though. The Ireland/IRA connections can be a huge source of conflict in England, and Birmingham City have a bit of a Right Wing element to their support, but generally speaking if the Celtic support stay together in areas they’re welcomed then they should be okay!
Good luck to everyone who’s there, look after yersels and each other!! 🙏 🙏 🙏
The transfer window will close soon and as predicted it has turned into another lawwell window. Maybe there will be some late activity but I’m not holding my breath.
It is clear that as soon as we qualified for the last 24 the decision was made to sell Kyogo and use the funds to bring back Jota. They didn’t want to buy Jota first and let Kyogo play against Villa in case he got injured or the Kyogo deal collapsed for some other reason.
I think they have written off Europe and they believe they don’t need to spend to win the league.
As it stands, we have spent nothing and it will be interesting to see how much we had in the bank at the end of December.
Here’s a wee back of a fag packet post detailing the prize money earned by 3 Scottish teams in Europe this season. This is solely the money that comes from performances on the park and nothing to do with TV money, ticket sales, etc etc…..
Peter getting it again, not spent, not prepared, sold our best player etc. I honestly wonder if some people get any joy out of Celtic. Peter has zero say on players, good players have options and wait till tbe window is closed to evaluate what they have, Kyogo was done with us,l and wanted away. We are playing a free hit tonight against a good team, should be a cracker. Have patience and trust in Brendan. Mon the big Adam.
Greeting.csc
KLV
An ambitious club would have taken a punt on winning the 11 million for qualifying, not selling their best forward. Usual window, more wind and p*ss from the club and letting the supporters down. Not even going to watch tonight. Hopefully there will be paint drying somewhere I can watch instead. Can see a hiding coming. Hopefully I’m wrong.
Kev Lv,
Imagine what this place would be like if the team wasn’t successful! Jeezo!
No matter how many times people are told that Kyogo wanted to go NOW, there are still people insisting he should have been denied his move and played tonight!
HH.
Óglach
January 29, 2025 10:00 am
Why are fans without tickets heading to Birmingham?
###
Where would you expect them to head to? Sheffield? Bristol? Norwich?
The game is in Birmingham, so that’s why they’re heading there.
Why do footballs do anything? Why is anyone a football fan in the first place? It’s not rational behavior.
For the craic.
It’s a CL game and it’s easy to get to.
Pubs will be happy.
Big Audio Dynamite
January 29, 2025 12:51 pm
Who is it was saying that he wanted to go now?
Has Kieran Tierney made it clear what he wants to do?
Ernie,
Is he away?
McCaff@noon
“The Ireland/IRA connections can be a huge source of conflict in England”
Correct the only time I saw serious trouble down south was in Burnley in 1978. The Anglocup pish. Your comment above was the catalyst from what I saw!.
westcraigs
The people running our club have no plan or strategy, everything is reactive.
If we were serious about Europe, we would have had a centre forward in the day after Kyogo left and a new left back.
It’s all about staying ahead of the huns . Nothing has changed.
Has anyone seen the invisible man Nicholson
Zombies to appoint Moroccan U21 coach as new assistant manager. He has worked in Belgium, so presumably is known to PC
EBT Arteta has Celtic over a barrel regarding Tierney. He owes us no favours. An entirely predictable clusterfcuk.
4 days to go in the window. Manager still talking about getting a striker in. Has been doing so for weeks. No discernible movement. We are over another barrel, assuming we are even trying to get someone in. Another clusterfcuk.
Several Norwegian reports that we have bid for a winger. Manager says he knows nothing about it. Are we back to the Shved days of clusterfcuk?
Scales and Taylor tonight. The two that played at the Bigotdome recently against a Sevco B team and looked like deer in the headlights. Taylor allowed the opposing 4th choice right back SIX shots at goal. Sevco scored 3, hit woodwork twice and had 24 shots. Does anyone expect differently tonight? The Zombie B performed creditably against both Spurs and Man U. Have no doubt our performance tonight will be compared unfavourably to theirs.
Anyway you look at it, the Celtic hierarchy have zero strategic planning ability. A less than match fit Jota today, and KT jam tomorrow, are sops to a Celtic support designed to blind our eyes to yet another transfer window that’s a, what’s the word? Oh Yes, clusterfcuk.
We shouldn’t accept anything less than £40m for Igamane and Jefte – no points for guessing what fanbase are saying delusional crap like that right now.
I don’t think they’ve made 50 appearances in Scotland between them! 🤪🤣
AFTERNOON ALL AND JIM AND MAGUA well aston villa’s ground is only just off the M6 junction 7 so when we beat them, the supporters can jump on their busses and back up the M6 before their fans can get to us😎👍👍 used to deliver coffee mugs to aston villa with their club crest on them ,also man utd man city liverpool and everton ,used to pick them up from a little factory in west yorkshire ,cyber pint if you know where it was, clue compo and Clegg 👍👍👍😎
There is a brilliant comment by Brogan Rogan on LQB about the real world in which transfers take place.
That real world is a million miles away from the made up views expressed here that surface every transfer window as it closes.
Celtic unlike supporters cannot press buttons to make supporters happy or stop them whinging.
BR was quite clear in an interview about recent movements especially Kyogo, yet that is not what is expressed here.
Probably because it has not been seen yet.
It is what it bloody well is and that is accepted every game supporters attend when they turn up in numbers knowing what Celtic’s Strategy is (if they look) how the process works, what circumstances dictate the strategy.
Based on acceptance of those factors Celtic are doing well to provide a team to go and watch.
An attitude of gratitude is sadly lacking if SC is any guide.
Just rechurning the same old transfer window song with no factual input based on the reality of professional football trading.
At the end of the day, for every Calum McGregor with a sense of loyalty there are thousands of players who cgaf and are happy to take supporters money as long as it suits them.
That is a fact in the real world we like to escape from.
someone mentioned the game at Burnley in 1978, that was the first time wee Joan seen celtic in the flesh, didnt have a car back then, we had to get 3 trains liverpool to Warrington warrington to Preston and preston to Burnley, yes remember the police holding us back and wee Joan saying is this normal when celtic play😎😎😎😎😎
BP
I hope you told Joan that heavy policing is not the norm when Celtic play. Only happens when the police hear that BP is coming to town!
🙂
Another viewpoint.
https://thecelticblog.com/2025/01/articles-and-features/only-celtic-could-have-made-complicated-the-simplest-january-window-in-years/
HI MIKE hope you and seamus are well,,yes ive told her when packys in town the police double their numbers😎😎😎 cant think why,,possibly because im a fenian bassa ❤❤❤
IQV
Arsenal are in the driving seat when it comes to KT transfer. It’s all about who loses on a transfer fee and Arteta is not a loser.
That is circumstances in the real world that Celtic have no control over.
The Celtic blog provides no detail. Just more perception based on perception.
BAD…what would the blog be like if we were losing? Well, there’d be Mahe, Bobby and about 4 others left who just moan constantly about us! You know who you are so don’t ask! Oh aye, and yersel, BAD, but you’d only be moaning about Taylor!! 🤣🤣🤣
MIKE had to take one of our westies, frankie to have 5 teeth taken out, mind you he has 37 left😎😎we have been going to the same vet in frodsham cheshire for 30 years, isnt that remarkable and it gets more expensive every time,,you walk in the door and its 50 quid just for an appointment🙏
MCAFF dont lump me in😎😎😎😎
Not you, Big Jim Packy…you’d start yer ain blog called ‘The Lions Would Be 6 Up By Noo…!’ 😜😁
McCaff,
You know how much joy the Tic give me and the wee man I’m sure.
I’ve tried with Greg …believe me!
The lad just isn’t a good football player.
Amazing we can both see this from completely different ends of the spectrum.
Guess big DJ was right, it is all about opinions 👍
McCaff, 3.39
😂
HI MCAFF hope all is well with you and yours👍👍❤