Big, Big Month For Celtic - Part II

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Hibernian away on Sunday. We’ve only won 1 of our last 4 games there, including a 3-2 defeat last Autumn and a crucial 2-0 win during the title run-in. The season before the games resulted in a 2-2 draw when we came back from 2-0 down and a 2-1 defeat on the last day of season when we played our reserves and Scott Brown scored his last ever goal for them after the deal to take him to Celtic had been announced earlier in the week

AFAIK, Aiden’s been training all week but I reckon he’ll start on the bench. Hibs always attack and aren’t overly physical so I don’t think we’ll have both Hartley and Robson playing to match them physically away from home.

I’d expect something like this:
Holy Goalie,
Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Wilson,
Nakamura, Hartley, Brown, Maloney,
Samaras, McDonald.

We could do with getting McGeady, Hesselink and Crosas back. The latter’s passing was good in away games before he got injured and he linked up well with Brown. Hartley tends to sit too deep at times and Robson’s all heart and desire but lacks a bit of composure.

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Yer man on Celtic Quick News wrote a pretty decent article today, which is rare enough.

Basically making the point that we’ve brushed aside teams away from home this season by going out positively and attacking them with our creative players.

But Strachan’s decided to solidify the midfield on occasion to take into account our oppenents’ physicality and it hasn’t worked in Aalborg or Edinburgh at the weekend.

On both occasions, we’ve gone with one flair player in midfield with 3 robust others and we’ve been dragged down to their level.

It’s also weakening our defence by moving Caldwell into midfield.

Plus, we’re badly missing Hesselink now.

We need to get Naka, Maloney and McGeady all in the team and start pumping teams again.

I don’t think we should go away to the Huns and set up for a kick fest by playing Hartley, Caldwell and Robson in midfield. Let’s go out and get Brown in the middle and our creative players out wide and upfront.

The Boruc problem remains though and I don’t know what to do about this yet.

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Hopefully, Strachan has learned his lesson after last night and won’t repeat the mistakes of Aalborg and Hibernian. We need to see Aiden, Naka and Shaun all playing from the start on Saturday, with Scott Brown in the middle and Caldwell at the back. Hearts are on a decent run of form so it should be a good game.

If that was Naka’s last Champions League game for us, then it was a majestic way to bow out. It’s actually a pity he hasn’t played centrally more often over the 3-4 years because last night he was magnificent when most of our play went through him.

There’s still no news on a potential return for Hesselink and he’s been out for 2 months now. Crosas is doing light training apparently and he’s been out for 6-7 weeks with that hamstring tear now.

Strachan’s banned all the players from Glasgow city centre in the wake of repeated attacks on them. He says they’re guidelines and not rules and has made an open offer to the players to pop over to his house if they get bored. Well, everyone except one particular player:

“They can always come over and watch the telly with me if they want…as long as it’s not Scott Brown. They can all come over apart from him.”

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[quote=“Bandage”] Hearts are on a decent run of form so it should be a good game.

:[/quote]
Bandage / Rocko / DB ? Any of you heading over for the match tomorrow?

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Yep, I’m heading over Tipper - early flight to Prestwick and back from Edinburgh at 9.15pm, which means I’ll miss El Clsico.

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I’m on return day trip to edinburgh so will be on your flight home. we have a bus organised from the Hoops bar at 7pm to bring us back to Edinburgh airport, will prob be spare seats!

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Sure, PM me your mobile number please Tipper! I was planning on getting the train back to Edinburgh after the game but the station might be best avoided what with the Huns coming back from their early kick-off in Dundee and the potential for mini-Huns to be returning to Edinburgh too.

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tipper & bandage arent exactly natural bedfellows

I expect lots of awkard silences

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[quote=“north county corncrake”]tipper & bandage arent exactly natural bedfellows

I expect lots of awkard silences

[/quote]

big time

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i would be friendly with only 2 lads who frequent glasgow for the odd celtic match, go maybe 3 times a year(not together i might add), but they both come back with a bit of a scottish twang and it takes a day or two before it fully disapears.
this common among the irish legion?

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If Tipper really pulls up his socks and makes a good, honest effort, allied with a little bit of flair, then it could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

HBV, I don’t suffer from the accent affliction myself but I often learn new words that are part of the every day vernacular* over there but which I’ve never heard of.

  • Can someone confirm whether or not I’ve used ‘vernacular’ in its proper context please?
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A bad start to my day - there was a collection of muldoon Kilkenny hurlers on the flight over and, judging by my eavesdropping and their collective garb, they’re over to see the Celtic too. Tommy Walsh, PJ Ryan and a couple of other boggers were spotted.

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There was allegedly another big, big bust up between Strachan and McGeady yesterday. As has been reported before, they apparently hate each other. All sorts of stories have been doing the rounds throughout Celtic cyber-world since last night but one of McGeady’s friends has now said the shit will hit the fan tomorrow so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

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McGeady will probably end up with Sunderland or Middlesborough or one of the mid-table English sides…Realistically how much do you reckon ye would get for him Bandage…8 or 9 million…

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saying on the huddleboard that mcgeady has played his last game for celtic

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Aiden McGeady is poised to leave Celtic after a row with manager Gordon Strachan.

Top-level talks will take place between Celtic directors today after the Republic of Ireland internationalist and the Celtic manager clashed in the wake of Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Heart of Midlothian at Parkhead. The most likely outcome is that the player will be allowed to leave Glasgow, with England or Bayern Munich in Germany, his most likely destinations.

A source in the Celtic dressing room has revealed to The Herald that Strachan confronted McGeady over the winger’s display on Saturday and the player and manager became embroiled in a heated row.
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“Aiden took the criticism for some time but then hit back,” said the source, speaking under condition of anonymity.

It is understood that Peter Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive, has been informed of the breach between player and manager and will advise board members today of the depth of the rift. Sources close to the player believe they will have to back Strachan, paving the way for the 22-year-old to leave the club he joined as a schoolboy.

Strachan and McGeady exchanged words during Saturday’s draw with Hearts with the Celtic manager seemingly about to take the player off and replace him with Koko Mizuno, the Japanese winger.

However, McGeady finished the game and headed for the dressing room where he was met by the manager. The confrontation occurred soon afterwards. “The manager seemed to be blaming Aiden for the defeat,” said the dressing-room source. “Aiden was quiet but as the manager went on he let him have it. He did not hold back.”

Strachan then left for the media centre, where he described Celtic’s performance as the poorest for “a long, long time”. The manager added: “We were too predictable in the first half. We built ourselves up to average in the second half.” He made no mention of the row.

McGeady, who has just returned from a calf injury, had a quiet game by his high standards. He was part of a Celtic midfield that excelled against Villarreal in the Champions League last week but the engine room of the side stalled against a Hearts team who closed down quickly and ensured that the supply line to him was not flowing freely.

The clash between manager and player on Saturday was the latest, and most severe, of a succession of rows that have blighted their relationship.

McGeady was “rotated” after the defeat by 4-2 Rangers in the first Old Firm match of the season on August 31. This was thought to be a punishment for not accepting Strachan’s criticisms of him over his performance in the match. McGeady is believed to have been excluded from a team meeting as part of the management sanctions.

However, he came off the bench in subsequent matches to turn the tide in favour of Celtic. He was particularly influential in victories over Hibs and Aberdeen at Celtic Park.

There will be a host of suitors for McGeady, who was voted Scottish player of the year last season. His most likely destination is the Barclays Premier League although Munich have already tabled a substantial bid through a third party that had been turned down by Celtic before the dramatic events of the weekend.

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I’d treat this article with the usual disdain I usually treat articles in the Scotish media which I believe are designed to unsettle Celtic, especially when the cunt thinks we lost on Saturday, only for the fact people who are close to McGeady have confirmed on various Celtic sites that something serious happened.

Yer man Hugh MacDonald, who wrote the article in The Herald, is known to be one of the journalists to have a good relationship with Peter Lawwell too so I reckon there’s definitely something brewing.

There will be absolute fooking ructions if McGeady’s sold because of a personality clash with Strachan.

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[quote=“Bandage”]I’d treat this article with the usual disdain I usually treat articles in the Scotish media which I believe are designed to unsettle Celtic, especially when the cunt thinks we lost on Saturday, only for the fact people who are close to McGeady have confirmed on various Celtic sites that something serious happened.

Yer man Hugh MacDonald, who wrote the article in The Herald, is known to be one of the journalists to have a good relationship with Peter Lawwell too so I reckon there’s definitely something brewing.

There will be absolute fooking ructions if McGeady’s sold because of a personality clash with Strachan.[/quote]

mcgeady comes across as a petulent cunt & wgs is a cantankerous fuck

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Clich time, nobody’s bigger than the club. But if they have had a huge bust up then the manager’s position is untenable if the Board don’t back him. We saw that at the Huns when David Murray sided with Barry Ferguson and Paul Le Guen was on his way.

I think Strachan has the backing of Lawwell and Reid and if his relationship with McGeady is broken beyond repair then I reckon Aiden’s going to be on his way. To be honest, I don’t think the support will stand for that and Strachan will be hounded out afterwards. So, if McGeady is sold in January, I think Strachan will bow out in the summer.

Celtic supporters like football played the right way. While not getting too weepy about it, the modern game’s becoming more concerned with athletes, power, strength, systems and all that scheidt and Aiden’s a throwback to the old flair player who plays off the cuff and shows his natural talent.

He’s the one of the main reasons for going to Celtic Park and I would be gutted if he left.

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This would be the worst thing to happen Celtic in an awful long time if it’s true and if it comes to pass.

It’s impossible to debate the rights and wrongs of it when it’s rumour and unsubstantiated quotes but there’s no way Aiden deserves to be singled out for the defeat on Saturday. He has given far more to the club than the likes of Maloney for example. And a big problem is we can play ok without Maloney, we look terrible without McGeady.

Hoping it’s just a load of nonsense but whatever about the Board I’ve little doubt that the overwhelming majority of supporters would back Aiden over Strachan.