And we’re back!
Tonight the world famous Glasgow Celtic burst back into action in an attempt to retain the SPL trophy for the 6th time in a row.
Z
The league started pretty much as it ended, Hearts and R2ngers unable to claim the 3 points, Derek fuming as usual, and Motherwell looking like a damn good footballing side again.
Are the Champions ready?
For a one-off game, probably.
For a season challenging on 4 fronts, nowhere near ready enough.
We all know who to blame but I do agree with the quality over quantity approach thats evident in the two we bought and those “we are trying” to buy. As complaining won’t help I’ll just move on from transfers and onto the game itself.
A starved of action support will turn out in maximum numbers primarily to see goals from our two new strikers. Whether they are paired together, how exactly they set up, is the question on everyone’s lips that is about to be answered. It will be a full house because of one of most anticipated debuts in my lifetime, we all want to see Hogh in the Hoops and if that swagger transcends onto the pitch. A couple of good goals or dare I say a hat-trick and we will genuinely start dreaming of another Treble and/or European impact spearheaded by the big viking who looks set to dominate defenses home and abroad. Having a proper forward gives us all reassurance, two gives us big ambitions, I sincerely hope tonight is the start of a successful partnership.
Our odds of victory are surely improved with AJ and Engels in the side, two players who whilst teammates today who ironically will probably face each other as rivals in England’s top flight next season. This might be the last time we each either as a Celtic player, savour it as much as you can.
Formation wise I do believe we will see another 4-3-3, if for no other reason that to get AJ and Arne into the team, and allow Duran and Kasper in the same side. That would obviously mean Duran on one of the flanks, but I imagine him coming inside a lot rather than a pure winger. I’ve been wondering if Nygren could benefit from them both meaning could he exploit the extra attention both are sure to receive, slip through the gaps so to speak, and do even more damage as the defense are occupied with our new dynamic duo? It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that he actually benefits by fielding them, by attention being elsewhere.
Theres several “side quests” that are begging to be solved when you think about it.
Could Osmond go left and Duran right giving us three pure strikers on the field at once? He did exactly that with Sutton, Hartson, Henrik.
Could Hatton get minutes? It wouldn’t be a positive going forward if a youth player looking good is just bombed out when the season starts properly, I think he should be given some minutes from here on in order to improve.
Might Tonetki or Yang improve if they have a big targetman to aim for?
Will our setpiece plays look different now we have a specialist coach in that area?
Is CCV still the same player?
Will Reo be given his last minutes on the hallowed turf in order to give a proper goodbye?
Will Arne and AJ do a lap of honour signaling their departure?
Our family season books where in the Jock Stein stand and apparently its got spruced up over the summer, will that be noticable?
There’s no doubt about it, tonight begins a captivating journey, possibly Martin’s last journey with us. We will look different when the window closes but I for one wish to see a statement performance from those selected, a game to strike fear into Scotland and help get the ball rolling for a positive outcome in the CL qualifier.
I have no doubt the manager wishes the same.
Blow them away Celtic, set fire to the fuse of ambition, lets go on the marching again let both parties inspire each other.
Lets make it another special season that just like last year will live long in the memory.
Up the Hoops
By Mahe
sentinelcelts@gmail.com
We are currently without a nominated charity after the closure of our latest venture on behalf of CHAS. I’ll rectify that in the next few days with our new appeal, a Glasgow-based homeless charity.
Meanwhile, to remind you all of how wonderful each of you are, here is a THANK YOU from BAWHEID, who nominated CHAS for us a year ago.
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A big personal THANK YOU to all those who donated to CHAS, it was very, very generous of you to donate so much.
CHALMERSBHOY – BRAVO, thank you for giving so much of your time to all the various causes, you are the embodiment of a real Celtic supporter following in the ethos of Brother Walfrid the reason why this great club is admired World wide.
MAHE – Thank you for providing the platform that allows Celtic supporters to express their generosity.
CHAS: A couple of years ago Mrs Bawheid and I were shopping in the old part of Kinross, we heard a noise and a black hearse drove slowly past, in the back of the hearse was a small light pale blue coffin with a sprig of flowers and a small black and white plastic football ball. It must have been heart breaking for his parents and friends.
CHILDRENS HOSPICES ACROSS SCOTLAND: Where children go to die, harsh but true. You have raised 6 thousand seven hundred pounds plus gift aid 67 in this the 60 year anniversary of Lisbon.
A fantastic achievement. H.H.
POTY competition sencelpoty@gmail.com
Well said, Mahe.
Good morning, friends and a Big Happy Matchday to everyone who lurks or posts on this fine site.
A busy day ahead for me, preparing the old POTY spreadsheets for the season ahead! A wee request, if I may – if anyone has a ready to hand list of thos players who played last season but have since departed, whether permanently or on loan, I’d be grateful if that could be posted on here. I should have paid more attention over the summer.
Courtesy of BBC – I assume it’s accurate.
Out: Daizen Maeda, forward (Ipswich Town, undisclosed); Kasper Schmeichel, goalkeeper (retired); Maik Nawrocki, defender (Lens, undisclosed); Luis Palma, forward (Lech Poznan, loan to permanent, undisclosed); Hayato Inamura, defender (Tokyo, loan to permanent, undisclosed); Kelechi Iheanacho, forward (Bursaspor); Stephen Welsh, defender (Swansea City, undisclosed); Filip Skorb, forward (Lecce, undisclosed); Ben Summers, midfielder (Ayr United, loan to permanent); Josh Clarke, goalkeeper (Partick Thistle, loan to permanent); Ben McPherson, defender (Partick Thistle, loan to permanent); Andrew Kyle, defender (East Kilbride, loan to permanent).
Loan ended: Marcello Sarrachi, defender (Boca Juniors); Julian Araujo, defender (Bournemouth); Tomas Cvancara, forward (Borussia Monchengladbach); Benjamin Arthur, forward (Brentford); Junior Adamu, forward (Freiburg); Joel Mvuka, midfielder (Lorient).
Loan out: Shin Yamada, forward (Leuven); Owen Hartington, midfielder (Dumbarton); Aidan Rice, goalkeeper (Dumbarton)
”I heard the battlecry from the mountains overhead.
I looked up to the sky to an Irish soldier laddie,
Who looked at me quite fearlessly and said…
Will you march with O’Neill?”
BACK to the FUTURE.
Pure Hollywood so we urr!
Question. Have we started the new season with a stronger starting 11 than this time last year?
Duran and Hogh indicate progress , but the loss of Daizen and Iheanacho suggest possibly only slight.
That the midfield has not been improved in any manner and that there is no left back cover or new wingers is nothing short of an embarrassment.
All for the sake of a few bob , in relative terms to Celtic.
We’ll still win the Title though and we haven’t finished outside the top 2 since a Return to Paradise in 1995.
Mahe
I wish that I shared your optimism and positivity.
Nothing has changed as far as I’m concerned
San Luis
You missed a goalkeeper from that list
Before our season starts here is my take on the Lawwell years. There may be some overlap on comments I have posted previously.
He was appointed as CEO in 2003 with the remit of bringing down costs and reducing the
debt. A task he approached with religious zeal. There would be no more £6m
signings and Martin had to go.The opinion at the time was that the debt was
unsustainable but there was plenty of money available. It was in the UEFA bank account,
but it had to be earned. Martin was appointed in 2000 to stop rangers second 9
in a row. Dick Advocaat had made short work of Dr. Jo as we all knew he would
and made even shorter work of John Barnes as we all knew he would.
Martin was asked to turn things around. He did just that, winning the treble against a
very strong rangers team. Rangers had gone to Russia in the champions league
qualifying round and took seven off the Russian champions. This must be the
heaviest home defeat for a Russian team in the country’s history. Martin won
the league in his second season, and we qualified for the champions league
group stage for the first time. We were cheated in Turin otherwise we would
have reached the last 16. Turnover surges to around £70m. The next season is
the season of glorious failure. We lose the league by 1 goal and lose the UEFA
cup final to Porto after extra time and after going down to ten men. On the way
to the final we knocked out 2 English teams, 1 German team, 1 Spanish team and
1 Portuguese team. That’s how good our team was but it wasn’t good enough for
Lawwell and the board. Martin and his coaching team were costing a fortune and
had to go. Martin couldn’t be fired. He was loved and adored by the Celtic
support so how to get rid of Martin? The Desmond White playbook on how to get
rid of popular and successful players and managers was pulled down from the
shelf. Don’t pay them and don’t back them.
Charlie Nicholas told an interesting story in a BBC documentary. He was the most
exciting young talent in the UK and Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs
and Inter Milan all wanted to sign him. His contract was up at the end of the
season and Caesar spoke to White about his new contract. There was no offer
from the club. Charlie was earning £90 per week and White wanted Charlie out
and the £750k on offer paid into Celtic’s bank account and he wanted Charlie to
be the villain of the piece. Many Celtic supporters fell for it, and Charlie was booed
when we played Arsenal at the start of the following season. If we had the internet
back then Charlie would have been called a rat face, a snake eyes, a judas, a traitor
etc. He would have got the same treatment that Brendan got from some Celtic
supporters in 2019.
So, how to get rid of Martin? Don’t back him. In his last 2 seasons in charge which
coincided with Lawwell’s first 2 seasons in charge we bought 1 player, Steven
Pearson from Motherwell at a total cost of £350k. We had an average attendance
of 60K, second only to Man Utd. All our other signings were Bosmans, freebies
and loan deals. £175k per season is pie and bovril sales for a couple of games
at Parkhead. Despite this, we win the league in style in season 2003/4. In
season 2004/5 things change and Martin explained the situation to Lawwell. Our
talisman and one of our greatest ever players was now playing in Spain. We had
just lost around 40 goals and 20 assists. Henrik was like Dalglish in that he
made everyone he played with look good. The team badly needed freshened up. If
we win the league we get a shot at the champions league pot of gold. If we
don’t win it the opportunity goes to rangers. This is a potential turnaround of
around £40m in the financial fortunes of these 2 clubs. Lawwell digs in his heels
and refuses to strengthen the team. He isn’t impressed that Martin won a league
title and 2 European cups with Notts Forest and learned under Brian Clough, one
of the best managers of the era. He didn’t care if Martin was a successful
manager at Leicester City. Lawwell has a very high opinion of himself and
believed he was the most important individual at the club. This becomes a
recurring theme in his dealings with players and managers during his time at
the club. Rangers won the league by 1 point and Martin walked away. Welcome
to the slow lane. Lawwell should have been fired for chasing Martin and gifting
rangers a league title but he stayed in place.
Gordon Strachan replaced Martin and it turned out to be a very good appointment.
He won 3 in row and we qualified twice for the last 16 of the champions league,
losing to Milan and Barcelona. We topped a group that contained Man Utd, the
wealthiest club in the world at that time. Gordon was going for 4 in a row, but things
had changed. Gordon had seen off McLeish and Le Guen and he was now up against
Walter Smith and the cheating on and off the park was ramped up. In January we
were behind rangers but it was tight andthere was all to play for. Gordon reminded
Lawwell of the big pot of gold awaiting to be claimed by the league champions.
Gordon played under Ferguson at Aberdeen and Man Utd in a trophy laden career
but Lawwell knew best. Gordon wanted to sign Steven Fletcher but he got Willo Flood,
a £50k signing from Dundee Utd. Rangers went on to win the league by 4 points and
got to claim the champions league money and Gordon walked away. Lawwell should
have been firedfor chasing Gordon and gifting rangers another league title but he
stayed in place. Lawwell was also interfering in the team selection. Lawwell wanted
Bobo Balde off the wages bill and so he tried to force him out of the club. We went
over a full calendar year without keeping a clean sheet away from home and after
Bobo was brought back into the team, we beat Dundee Utd 2-0 at Tannadice. It is inconceivable that Gordon didn’t want to pick Bobo, his best defender.
We bring in Tony Mowbray but he was a failure and was fired in March 2010 and
Neil Lennon inherited the job. Smith won 3 in a row and rangers, just like in 2000,
were on their way to their second 9 in a row because we were refusing to compete.
Lawwell should have been fired but he stays in place.
Two external events took place which stopped rangers dead in their tracks. Two
events over which Lawwell had no control or influence. In Wall St, New York City
in 2008 Lehman Brothers Bank goes bust starting off a worldwide banking and financial
crisis. It didn’t take long before the crisis reached these shores and Scotland’s two biggest banks, RBS and BOS were going bust and needed to be rescued. RBS was taken over by the UK government and BOS was taken over by Lloyds of London. This was very bad news for rangers. Rangers could corrupt the financial institutions in this country, but they had no influence over the London financial institutions.
When Fergus took over in 1994 there was a 10 club SPL and 9 of those clubs banked with BOS which meant that the bank had a very unhealthy influence over Scottish football. They were ordering these clubs to run a tight ship and not to let debt get out of control otherwise they would step in. The exception of course was rangers. The bank tried to liquidate us
for a debt of around £5m but allowed rangers to run up debts of around £170m. Bear in mind, David Murray moved £50m of rangers debt to the Murray Group so the real level of debt whenthey were liquidated was around £220m.
Lloyds sent a team of their top economists, bankers, accountants and lawyers to Edinburgh to have a look at the books and were shocked at what they found. They immediately
ordered the bank to stop throwing money at rangers and told Murray to get rid of rangers. Smith, interviewed in the ibrox tunnel said, “the bank is runningthe football club”. Fortunately for us and unfortunately for them it is no longer a Scottish bank but an English bank. Smith knew the BOS glory years were over. He won 3 in a row and walked away and Ally inherited the job.
So, in season 2011/12 it is Ally versus Neil and rangers also have a new chairman. Ally gets
a makeover and is now to be known as Alistair and he begins wearing one of Walter’s old cardigans. All of this to give Alistair some kind of gravitas. It didn’tt work. Craig Whyte
paid a nominal fee for the club but he inherited huge debts and the creditors are
knocking on the door. He owes HMRC £27m and Her Majesty wants her money. He
used season ticket money to pay off some of the debt which means rangers are
now entirely dependent on champions’ league group stage qualification for their
very survival. Malmo knocked them out and rangers fate was sealed.
Domestically, Ally did just fine. They won the first derby at Ibrox and opened a big lead. On
November 5th we were 15 points behind rangers. Neil was 5 defeats behind Ally
and we were not even halfway through the season.
Ally was on his way to making it 4 in a row and then stories started emerging from ibrox that rangers were insevere financial difficulties. They couldn’t pay their bills, their players
were being paid late, and Hector’s was coming to get them. Happy days.
Rangers started dropping points and as is always the case these 2 clubs feed off each
other’s misfortune. We won 9 consecutive games beating them 1-0 at Parkhead and
went 2 points clear. On St Valentine’s Day 2012 they entered administration and
were docked 8 points, and we went to win the league by 20 points.
Lawwell may have been walking around town with his chest puffed out telling everyone that
he won 9 in a row, but we got lucky. No financial crisis and rangers would have
had continued success. Their debt may have caught up with them sooner or later
but who knows how this would have turned out.
Neil won the first 3 of our second 9 but he didn’t win a treble. St Mirren beat us in a
league cup semi and Kilmarnock beat us in a final and Ross County beat us in a
Scottish cup semi. In Europe we had a fantastic performance and result against Barcelona drawing 3-3 on aggregate against one of the greatest teams in history. They scored late
on in both games so that’s how close we came to beating them on aggregate. We had
made some excellent signings. Forster, Hooper and Wanyama and we brought in Van
Dyke in 2013. These 4 players cost around £9m in total.
No doubt Lawwell, the astute businessman and big Celtic man, thought to himself that after the result against Barcelona if we brought in another couple of quality players we may
have been onto something very special. Champions league group stage
qualification every season, maybe even last the 16 and with a kind draw, maybe
even the last 8. Of course not. All 4 players were sold for around £45m,
including the sell on fee for Van Dyke who was sold after Neil left. Lawwell is
over the moon but Neil is as sick as a parrot. The spine of the team was gone
and Neil walked away. Lawwell should have been fired but he stayed in place.
Three Celtic managers who won 3 titles each and walked away is remarkable and what’s even more remarkable is that none of these managers had a job lined up. They gave up
a well-paid and prestigious job and chose unemployment rather work with Lawwell.
We appoint Ronny Deila and the man himself admitted that the job was too big for him. He
won 2 league titles and is cheated out of a treble by the most outrageous
refereeing decision. Everyone in the stadium saw it except the 6 officials. No
doubt a strongly worded letter from Lawwell was fired off to the SFA. Maybe
Lawwell didn’t want to rock the boat as he was doing very well, thank you and
he didn’t want to upset the football authorities in this country because there
may have been a job offer from EUFA to come in the future.
Europe is a disaster. We have gone from a fantastic result against Barcelona to a
humiliating defeat by Legia Warsaw. We are reinstated on a technicality and
Maribor knocked us straight back out again. We are the only club in European
history to be knocked out of the same competition twice in the same season.
Lawwell must be especially proud of that achievement.
We were going for 5 in a row and yet we were playing in a half empty stadium. Lawwell had
created a new word in the English language. The verb to tarpaulin. He
tarpaulined the upper tier and the final straw is we lost to sevco in the cup
semi-final and Ronny lost his job. Lawwell should have been fired but he
miraculously stayed in place.
Brendan is brought in to turn things around and he didn’t have his feet under the desk
when Lawwell starts plotting his removal. Lawwell doesn’t like strong
characters.
Brendan won the treble in his first season and repeated the achievement in his second
season, and we qualified for the champions league group stages. Turnover surged
to over £100m for the first time in our history. Brendan was going for 3
consecutive trebles and things were clearly not going well between Brendan
and Lawwell. I posted a comment on CQN at the end of August 2018 as the
transfer window closed. “I think the board are trying to get rid of Brendan”.
Brendan wanted John McGinn and he got Mulumbu, a free transfer from Kilmarnock.
In January he was asked about his new star signing from Ukraine. “We’ve got a
million wingers”. It is clear he was not signing these players, which begs
the question who was signing them? The answer is that it must be Lawwell. Is
there another major club where the CEO is ignoring the manager and signing
players he doesn’t want and refusing to sign players he does want? Once again
Lawwell is chasing a popular and successful manager by refusing to back him.
Brendan’s rapid departure was a tale of 2 desperate men. The Leicester City chairman
didn’t want to wait until the end of the season, he wanted Brendan in
immediately and Lawwell wanted him gone immediately. He wanted the £9m cheque
in Celtic’s bank account asap and he had Neil Lennon waiting in the wings. Neil
was unemployed and would be paid a fraction of what Brendan was earning.
Lawwell should have been fired for chasing Brendan but he stayed in place.
Neil completed the treble but it could have gone pear shaped. Before Brendan left we beat
Kilmarnock 2-1 with Scott Brown scoring a 94th minute
winner. The Celtic support, the players and the bench went nuts because
everyone knew the importance of this goal. Eddie scored a 95th winner at Tynecastle and a 96th minute winner at Dens Park and we get the same reaction
from the support. We did not look like winning any of these games and if these
late goals had not gone in it is possible we would not have won the league.
That’s how close it was.
We beat Hearts 2-1 in the cup final but we were losing until late in the game when we
got a penalty. It was impossible from the tv pictures to tell if Eddie had been
fouled by the keeper. We were fortunate that the referee was Willie Collum, the
least anti-Celtic official in the country. If it had been Madden or Beaton or
Robertson or anyone else in charge that would have a yellow card to Eddie for
diving, and we would probably have lost the cup.
We win our 4th consecutive treble in season 2018/19, winning the league
by 13 points when the league was called with 9 games to play. Null and void was
the battle cry led by the BBC, the impartial state broadcaster. The cup final
is delayed to the following season, and we beat Hearts on penalties after
drawing 3-3. So once again there was an element of luck in this treble. We
should be thumping teams like Hearts.
The covid season was an absolute disaster. We went from winning 4 consecutive trebles to
winning nothing and losing the league to sevco by 25 points. Neil was fired in
February and at long last at the end of the season, Lawwell pays the price for
his uselessness.
We have a new CEO and a new manager and Lawwell knew he would return soon as chairman and made sure Dom McKay was no longer in the building. Lawwell wanted a meek and compliant CEO and Michael Nicholson fitted the bill.
We were in such a mess that we needed a complete rebuild. Ange went to Denmark to play a
champions league qualifier, a game worth around £40m to this club with an 18-
and 20-year-old central defence partnership. We brought in Hart, Juranovic,
Starfelt, CCV, Mooy, Jota, Kyogo and Abada and Maeda, Hatate and O’Riley are
signed in January. All these players went straight into the first team and made
an immediate impact. The most unlawwell like transfer windows. No projects on
this list. Thank you, Dom.
Ange won two out of the three trophies and completed the treble in his second season and
then departed for the EPL.
Lawwell returned as chairman and immediately resorted to type. He sold our most
valuable asset, Jota, and we brought in around £43m in total in player sales.
We signed 10 players for around £20m and although Brendan said that he approved
all of these signings I think he was being diplomatic. He didn’t want to cause
a row on the first day of his appointment. Of the 10 players Lawwell signed how
many have been a success? Iwata, Holm, Tilio, Yang, Kwon, Nawrocki,
Lagerbielke, Palma, Philips, Bernardo, Kuhn, and Idah? Only 2 players are still
at the club. We got substantial fees for Kuhn and Idah but was this money
re-invested? Of course not. Sell big and buy small is the Lawwell mantra. We
made a profit of over £21m. Another typical Lawwell window. Despite this,
Brendan won the double and is cheated out of a possible treble at Kilmarnock in
the league cup.
In season 2024/25 Brendan is denied another treble after losing to Aberdeen on penalties
in the cup final. We take Bayern Munich to the wire, but this still isn’t good
enough for Lawwell.
At the start of this season it was clear that Lawwell wanted rid of Brendan. Lawwell doesn’t
like dealing with strong personalities and Brendan had to go. How to get
rid of him. Lawwell’s tried and trusted method was given another run out. We
sold Kyogo in January, days before a champions league game, and 6 months later
we still didn’t have a replacement in. Brendan stated that Idah would not be
sold until we had a replacement in and Lawwell sold him anyway. Lawwell was
showing Brendan who was boss and once more Brendan would pay the price for
Lawwell’s ineptitude and arrogance.
The decision to appoint Nancy in the first place turned out to be a calamity and the timing
of the appointment was difficult to understand. A top of the table clash with
Hearts, a game against Roma and then a cup final. This just didn’t make sense,
and bear in mind we had Martin in charge and he was doing well. 6 defeats in 8
games under Nancy is hard to stomach.
Lawwell leaves once more and hopefully this time, never to return. We have had
tremendous success over the last 25 years, and this success has been achieved
despite the best efforts of Lawwell and the Celtic board. Domestically, we have
won a lot of trophies during this period, but we should have won a lot more. If
some supporters believe we have a sense of entitlement, then I believe, given
the enormous financial advantage we have had over our rivals, we are entitled
to feel a sense of entitlement.
In Europe, in the main our results have been pretty dismal with the occasional good victory.
The following teams have knocked us out of the champions league:
Artmedia
Braga
Legia Warsaw
Maribor
Malmo
AEK
Cluj
Ferenvaros
Midtjylland
Kairat
Only once were we knocked out by a wealthier club when Arsenal beat us in 2009. We have
had some desperate results in the other European competitions as well.
Before finishing we should not forget Lawwell’s role in not challenging the outrageous
and corrupt decision regarding stripping rangers of the trophies won during the
Murray DOS and EBT cheating years.
A fair and honest punishment would have been the stripping of all trophies won by rangers from the day Murray took over until the day he left. League titles should have been
awarded to the club finishing second and the cups should have been declared
null and void. We were the biggest victims of the cheating and should have
challenged this in the courts, but we said and did nothing.
The SFA and rangers conspired to help rangers cheat Scottish football. Rangers should have
lost 17 league titles, 9 Scottish cups and 14 league cups. Simply not even the
second best. They cheated from the day Murray took over in1986 until 2012 and
got off scot-free. The Nimmo-Smith investigation should be revisited.
So that’s my take on the lawwel years. I stand to be corrected for any factual errors.
Lask Linz
That’s us in EL
St Tams,
did I miss something? Or are you just saying you’re not confident of overcoming this side?
ST TAMS, BAD
Definitely more difficult draws available.
Lask, Austrian champions. Won last 5 league matches last year. Won first game this year 3-0.
Not sure it could be a lot more difficult
BAD
If we sell AJ and Engels before these games.
Im definitely not confident of overcoming them with the squad we have.
WESTCRAIGS
My original response to you got eaten by them cybergremlins. So, take two.
Absolutely brilliant piece of work, a superb destruction of the piece of work that is Lawwell.
MAHE and I set this site up eight years ago now in response to Lawwell undermining BR in the 2018 summer window. It was as plain as the nose on yer face what was going on, and had been for some time. Given how long it took us to sign BR’s priority target, Scott Sinclair, in 2016, I’d argue that the undermining begun the day BR walked in the door.
It was repeated as soon as he returned too.
Far from having a statue erected, Lawwell should be paraded in the stocks outside the ground for us all to hurl bricks at. Or Celtic pies, whichever is the harder.
Not only did he get paid more than any Celtic employee in history, you have clearly made the case that he was the club’s most expensive employee due to how much he cost us in bad and spiteful decisions. Sadly, his spirit lives on via McKay, our CFO.
St Tams,
Cheers.
Oh, I share your concerns alright.
As usual though, as soon as the games roll round I’ll be confident of us getting past them …
As ever, any success we achieve on the pitch will have to be done in spite of the money grabbers.
HH 🍀
Dietmar Kühbauer
Return to LASK
So , a new manager returns to LASK in October and leads them to a League and Cup double, losing only 2 games in the process.
HH💚🍀
Westcraigs,
As good a post as I’ve read for a while 👏 Looks pretty accurate to me. No biggy if it ain’t 100% spot on.
Funnily enough I was watching the game in Turin again the other night, and had nearly forgot how angry/ gutted Martin was at the end of the match ..and no wonder.
Was that possibly the last genuine chance we had of getting our hands on the big cup again? The team was certainly physically capable, and had proved we could live with the best the continent had to offer.
I always felt Martin was smart enough to know we weren’t going to get the same chance every year, hence the anger.
Had we qualified with the 9pts we had, it’d have been really interesting to see how far we could have went, especially as you fancied us to have a chance (Especially over 2 legs) at living with whoever the draw threw up.
Leverkusen went all the way to the final, and the following year Porto won it, so not fantasy to say we had a good enough team to live with the likes of them.
And on top of everything else, where was the final that year? Damn! A ground we literally could consider our second home!
The success we’ve had has been great, but it’s hard not to think where even a tiny bit of ambition might have taken us. At the very least we should have been qualifiers almost every year.
Bugger.
HH 🍀
Sack the board . miserable knuts.hardly spent a penny . absolute disgrace !!!
Ex Machina – thank you.
The Real McCoy,
Is that saying they are basically on their 5th manager over the course of a year and a bit?
Whether 4 or 5, they certainly seem to have found the right man now. First cup win in 60 years? And won only their second title since 1965, while adding the cup again?
Impressive.
We appear to be getting them a year late, eh? Isn’t that always the kind of luck we get?
Still, I’m sure they will feel they could have gotten a more favourable draw too. As usual, when the game comes round I’ll be confident the mighty Glasgow Celtic can overcome.
HH 🍀
LASK signed a player Freckleton who was released by St Mirren, if the huns beat the Polish team, they play Larne or Iberia 1999,which I thought was a TV channel….
BADABING
Sounds like we will have to put our faith in Thursday’s opponents if we want to have the huns dumped from the EL.
If we think we have no chance of beating a team from Austria over two legs, we should really just give up. Far too much negativity on here. We have only lost two contributors from last season. Maeda was in a total huff until very late in the season and Ihenacho couldn’t run for more the half an hour. Everyone else never played and Im glad to see the back of them. Regarding possible departures AJ hardly played last season and for me Engels has not fulfilled his potential. I know we haven’t got replacements in yet but the window is still open. Big win tonight and put down a marker.
Bad 👋🏻
my first impression on looking at last year’s Austrian Bundesliga was the top 3 suffered many defeats.
Either they’re not playing well or is their league ultra competitive?
Looked at LASK results and, as noted, 6 defeats 1 draw and only 2 wins in their first 9 games.
New manager bounce = only 2 more defeats on their way to a League and Cup double 🤷🏻♂️
HH 💚🍀
Anyone know who is unfurling the flag tonight.
I heard Despot is flying in from Barbados in his private jet .
Good afternoon, friends. Only a few more hours to wait until Celtic’s season kicks off so here’s one final plug for this season’s “Make Your Opinions Count” !
Sentinel Celts Player Of The Year 2026 27 Season
I’m happy to again run my Player Of The Year game by game survey for the 2026 27 season. This is something that is open to all, on a game by game basis, for every competitive match that Celtic play.
There’s no need to sign up, there’s no joining fee, and perhaps best of all – there’s absolutely no need to justify your opinions! Neither is it limited to folk who post or lurk on Sentinel Celts. So, friends, family, neighbours, window cleaners, absolutely anyone can join in.
Many of you reading this will already know what’s involved. But for anyone who doesn’t, or for anyone thinking that they can’t join in cos they don’t actually post on here then here’s a quick reminder of how the thing works.
1. After the final whistle for every competitive game, the voting lines are open and remain open until 9.00pm (Celtic Park Time) on the following day. Votes should be sent to me at sencelpoty@gmail.com
2. Anyone and everyone is entitled to email me their own opinion on which 3 Celtic players stood out. Importantly, you do NOT have to put the 3 names in any order – your 3 nominations will all get 1 vote registered.
3. If you have watched the game in company, whether at Celtic Park, in the pub, at home etc then by all means gather together the opinions from your family, friends or whatever and include these all in the one email. For example this is done regularly by someone on these pages who sends an email along the lines of “… my 3 picks are…, my son’s 3 are….. “ etc etc.
4. And as the season progresses there’s no obligation to vote after every single game. And new voters are welcome at any time, right up until the last game of the season.
5. And that’s basically all you have to do!
6. After every game, I total up all of the votes sent in. I put the players names in order from highest to lowest number of votes and then I allocate POINTS. The player receiving the most votes gets 25 points. Those players finishing 2nd to 5th in the voting receive 22, 19, 16 and 14 points respectively. The remaining players (6th best right down to 16th, if 5 subs have come on) get 13, 12, 11 points, etc etc. And even the unused subs each get 1 point. As the season goes on, these points are accumulated to show how each player is being viewed over the whole season.
7. The results are published in 2 places. First, on the Sentinel Celts website. And second, I also email the results out personally to anyone who has asked for that extra option (around 40 folk opted for this last season).
8. Finally, I’m going to continue to try, with your help, to benefit the Sentinel Celts nominated charity. For every game that sees 100 or more voters I’ll donate at least £3 to the charity. I’m just waiting on the nominated charity being announced. Last season those donations totalled £107.
And I’ll end with a promise! Everyone who votes has my assurance that their opinions are kept secret, their names are not divulged, their email addresses are not shared and all emails are only kept for a couple of weeks before then being deleted.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to seeing dozens of emails flowing in from around 9.30pm tonight!
Hail Hail!
JOBO
I’ll post a reminder just before kick off.
Saint Stivs on 3rd August 2026 1:30 pm
Motherwell v Freiburg
Hearts learn fate
The Jambos will take on Austrian side Rapid Vienna or Estonians Paide if they end up in the Conference League.
Hibs out the hat
Swedes IFK Gothenburg or Belgian outfit Gent lie in wait for Hibs if they make it through.
Rangers v Jablonec or RFS
And finally it’s Czech side Jablonec or RFS of Latvia for the Ibrox side – but they will hope it doesn’t come to that.
St Tams@1:13
Only if he is allowed to carpet bomb the area occupied by the Green Brigade!
He is a vengeful and spiteful guy.
St tams
August 3, 2026 1:13 pm
Anyone know who is unfurling the flag tonight.
brian wilson
Just woke up to read today’s SC and our CL draw.
First of all, congratulations to WESTCRAIGS. That was just a magnificent post.
Hat doffed. I’m sure there’s an emoji for that, but I can’t find it.🤣
On our playoff draw, it’s bad news. This is a better team than the one that just took 6 off Hearts with no reply, and one with a higher co-efficient than all the other possibilities other than Celje. I think only Viking would have been tougher as they are well into their season, and LASK have just started.
I would have preferred any from Celje, Ararat-Armenia, Kairat Almaty, Levski Sofia, AGF Aarhus, or Sabah.
Unless we act really quickly now, LASK will go through our present midfield like a dose of salts.
SAINT STIVS
“The Jambos will take on Austrian side Rapid Vienna or Estonians Paide if they end up in the Conference League.”
————————————-
Hi Saint:
There’s no “If”😊. Benfica will take a few goals off them to pump them out of the Europa.
HH
INIQUITOUS IV😊
Saint Stivs on 3rd August 2026 1:47 pm
lpsers mentality
—————–
Heart of Midlothian can confirm the club is appealing Stuart Findlay’s red card.
The defender was shown a straight red in the 92nd minute of Saturday’s defeat at Aberdeen following a foul inside the box, with a penalty also being awarded to the home side.
Given our player’s genuine attempt to play the ball, we do not feel that a red card was merited and, as such, will be making that case to the Scottish FA.
We note with interest a near identical incident during Motherwell’s win over Hibs yesterday, which resulted in a yellow card for Oscar Preistman, not a red.
Being forced to highlight the consistency, or lack thereof, in refereeing decisions after only one match of the new Scottish Premiership season is not a situation we wish to find ourselves in. However, given the lengthy, worldwide debate around this topic last season, the club feels it is only right to inform our supporters that not only do we share their grievances, we are also taking appropriate action to rectify the matter.
We trust that, on this occasion, justice will be served.
Iniquitous IV@1:40
An arthritic tortoise could waltz through our midfield.
Been the same for a few seasons either unrecognised by the coaching staff or an unwillingness to spend on a solution.
With the ponderous pace of our defense behind them it does not inspire confidence!
Motherwell, Hearts , Hibs will not make European competition.
Huns should make it to the conference league.
I reckon our tie against LASK will be very close indeed. If we don’t put them away in Glasgow I fear we will fall short in Austria. If we were unseeded would the second tie be in Glasgow? Not much time to gel for the 19th of August. We shouldn’t play anyone who isn’t 100% committed to the cause. The manager shouldnt slag of his own team before we play them. This mob finished above Strum Graz who have just dismantled Hearts 6.0. Beat them home and away.
All these teams have changed line ups. So not that straight forward. Austrian league above the Scottish league and Celtic above LASK in the coefficient table.
An almighty squeaky bum battle awaits
st stivs
No attempt whatsoever to play the ball. Red all day, in any league.
The Real McCoy,
The 2 titles I mentioned Lask winning, 65 + last year, are the only 2 title wins in their whole history.
I would have lost money on that.
Austria Vienna and Rapid are the 2 teams with the most wins ..something like 50+ titles between them.
We probably could have drawn them at any other point and considered it a great draw.
Because of what they have done recently, I’m not so sure I wasn’t right when I said we got them just as they have turned a very big corner.
Looking at the history of winners in Austria, it looks like they would’ve been seen as minnows in their own country, but it’s now hard to gauge what we’ll be up against now.
I’m usually very confident of us winning (Wherever, whoever) and see nothing to suggest we won’t be favoured to go through.
put it this way …i think they will fear us far more than we should fear them.
Dig out your lederhosen.
BBTB,
The negativity comes from the lack of quality in the squad. Same back four but almost certain to lose one. Same midfield but almost certain to lose 2, possibly three. Nae back up keeper of any standard. We plod about haggling over players that might not even be that good. Is it any wonder why there’s negativity?
Apparently, Houston back in for Saracchi. His club have apparently told him to find a new club, and again dropped his price
Why don’t we just get a couple of guys in the day before we play LASK?
Not enough time to integrate any new possible signings into the team before the first tie unless they are proven quality. Not going to happen.
MON used the example of Matt O Riley he could easily have used Daizen Maeda. I do think Daizen was told not happening this year rather than next week.
That’s MON’s call or is it ?
Personally I wouldn’t.
So we should use the next three fixtures to prepare for the £40m tie.
We don’t have any quality backups for goalkeeper and left back. So should Tierney snd Sinisalo be wrapped in cotton wool for these three games? Bearing in mind Scales is suspended for two of them
Doohan in goal ?
Who can fill in for Kieran ?
CCV has to get up to speed and must play alongside Trusty (if he’s staying?)
Ralston should start ahead of Johnston.
A.N other ahead of Engels. Bernardo ? The Ox ?
We should only play one striker at any one time over these three games.
I also reckon we will be trialling new formations and tactics in these games.
Might not be looking at 9pts from 3 games
Bad 😂
’ dig out the lederhosen’ 😱
Ol McCoy in his Oompah Band 🎷 🎺
Do You Fink I’m Saxy …
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nZo6Tp30cV4&ra=m
HH 💚 🍀
mair like Awe Naw 👇
Hearts, Hibs and Motherwell all have tough draws that do not augur well for the Scottish co-efficient.
As for us, this will be the 13th time we have faced Austrian opposition in Europe. Our record is abysmal, W2, D3, and L7. We have 10 days to register new players, which basically means they need to be in the door in the next 2-3 days, in order that they can meet their teammates and get a couple of sessions at Lennoxtown.
If our ridiculous compulsive obsession on selling first before spending continues, despite the selling being practically guaranteed, we risk playing a tie worth £40M with Doohan an injury away from being keeper, having Scales play his first competitive game at left back if KT gets injured, Ralston or Donovan at right back, very poor options at winger, and a porous, colander like midfield.
We have literally spent weeks with zero movement on Baur, so it quite understandable why so many fans have zero confidence in our farcical and irrational recruitment process. WESTCRAIG has superbly detailed our history in this regard. Pedro is gone, but his malign influence still permeates, and his chosen ill-suited acolyte is still in place.
The fans have every right to be more negative than positive.
When it comes to the team and winning, there won’t be many more positive that me, but it is almost impossible not to come across as negative when discussing those that run our club.
I’d absolutely love us to have people in charge we can trust and applaud when they deserve it. When was the last time you could genuinely say they looked like they were running a football team, rather than a business that exists only to make the rich even more rich?
How many times have they fecked up the opportunity to have us properly prepared for the beginning of the season (CL qualifying etc)
Of course their backers will do their usual and point to the trophy room – fair enough – but it isn’t that simple, as we should be winning the vast majority of trophies, as we are mega-rich in Scottish football terms.
No, there are many reasons to be wary of them and the way they run the club. So, although I’m very positive when it comes to the team, I totally understand those who are angry or viewed as negative.
The Real McCoy
My Lederhosen aren’t as tight. I’m to manly