Celtic 2012/2013 season discussion thread

Sport
181

Already taken. For sale for a cool $1,995.

182

Lennon said last night that he’s after a centre back and a striker but that if nobody has been signed by the time of the Norwich game (next Tueday) then there won’t be anyone brought in before the CL qualifying round.

183

Oh The Celtic Fan Site?

184

Drawn against HJK Helsinki or KR Reykjavik.

HJK Helsinki won the first leg of the tie 7-0 so will be favourites to progress to face Celtic I imagine.

First leg at Celtic Park on 31 July or 1 August and the second leg is in Helsinki a week later (on an artificial surface).

They’re half-way through their season.

185

Celtic being linked with James McFadden again this morning

186

Think I may go along to the first leg.

187

An I right in thinking we played HJK* a few years back. I seem to recall Chris Sutton scoring in extra time over there.

    • it mightn’t have been them at all
188

[quote=“thedancingbaby, post: 670867”]An I right in thinking we played HJK* a few years back. I seem to recall Chris Sutton scoring in extra time over there.

    • it mightn’t have been them at all[/quote]
      Yeah we beat them after extra time. Seville season maybe.
189

It was 2000/2001.

190

Thanks Larry

191

Do we play Ajax in a friendly this evening?

I’m getting really pissed off at our lack of transfer activity. I glanced at one of the papers over here during the week while I was in the shop and I read something along the lines of us not signing anyone until/unless we qualify for the CL. I despise that cunt Lawwell.

192

6 pm I believe, live on premier sport

193

Yes, we’re playing them in the Amsterdam Arena - it’s a 6pm kick-off. I’m happy to take any questions from travelling fans having attended Ajax games in the past.

Lennon’s quotes seem to indicate that we’ll be going with what we have for this qualifying round. We’re guaranteed Europa League group stages minimum if we progress through that round and it seems the Board aren’t willing to release funds yet.

194

Celtic are 3-0 down in the first half in Amsterdam. Tuning in for a bit of it now.

http://www.thefirstrow.eu/watch/131594/1/watch-ajax-vs-celtic.html

It’s on Setanta Sports 1 too.

We started with a 3-4-1-2 but have reverted to 4-4-2.

195

Are you watching Peter Liewell?

196

Only saw bits and pieces of the first half but we actually played well in those spells. Were the goals bad? Ajax have a lovely style about them.

197

This is like Rugby Park last October when we were 3-0 down at half time and Neil was on the verge of resigning.

We’re gone to 4-5-1 now with Stokes on the left and Forrest on the right.

Seems 3 at the back was completely exposed by their 4-3-3. Either centre backs getting dragged wide or wing backs being pinned back.

198

Jesus some of our defending has been woeful.

199

Indeed. Haven’t seen first half goals yet but the build up to the 4th was ridiculous. Mulgrew sent off for handling on the line before Daley Blind tucked the penalty away.

200

Mark Guidi was quite scathing of Gary Hooper in today’s Daily Record. Criticising his attitude on the pitch (with reference to Saturday’s game) and saying now is probably a good time to cash in on him. I agree with this to a certain extent, Hooper can be extremely lazy at times and when he is off form he really is brutal. I’ve touched on this before, but I think Lennon has managed both Hooper and Stokes wrongly in the past two seasons. Hooper seems to be the type of player who needs to get a kick up the hole every so often as he slacks off on his performances - instead Lennon seems to make him a garaunteed pick no matter how out-of-form he is. Stokes is the opposite in different ways in that he’s a confidence player so when he’s on a good run of form and playing well, he shouldn’t be the one that is dropped or the first striker to get the hook. The lack of viable alternatives in attack for us as well is worrying, when either Stokes or Hooper are out of form we don’t really have anyone to come in, Samaras is not a striker, IMO. Watt is still a relatively unproven player and Bangura has looked shit so far.

Very disillusioning times to be supporting Celtic at the minute, after two really good transfer campaigns in the past two seasons and good financial performances off the pitch, I was expecting this season to be the one where we kicked on from and started to really build on things. The opposite has happened however, we see that no longer having to compete with the huns as reason for us to cutback and further downsize our squad. I still think Lennon is a very naive manager as well.