I believe Celtic are on the verge of announcing (or have they already?) a kit sponsorship deal with Warrior Sports. Theyâre a subsidiary of New Balance, Boston based and are making inroads into the football market in Europe. They struck a deal with Liverpool last year too, as far as I know.
Our game in hand against Dundee will take place on March 18th.
[QUOTE=âBandage, post: 1101458, member: 9â]I believe Celtic are on the verge of announcing (or have they already?) a kit sponsorship deal with Warrior Sports. Theyâre a subsidiary of New Balance, Boston based and are making inroads into the football market in Europe. They struck a deal with Liverpool last year too, as far as I know.
Our game in hand against Dundee will take place on March 18th.[/QUOTE]
Todayâs a match day pal
[QUOTE=âBandage, post: 1101458, member: 9â]I believe Celtic are on the verge of announcing (or have they already?) a kit sponsorship deal with Warrior Sports. Theyâre a subsidiary of New Balance, Boston based and are making inroads into the football market in Europe. They struck a deal with Liverpool last year too, as far as I know.
Our game in hand against Dundee will take place on March 18th.[/QUOTE]
Outstanding stuff. I like Warriorâs gear, should be far better than the rubbish Nike have served up.
Ronny on his coaching philosophy. Very interesting stuff for Celtic supporters:
âThe most important thing is the players and everyone around them sees that what we are doing is effective.
âWe have had six victories after European games this season and thatâs really good.
âYou donât see that around the other European leagues. Inter Milan lost at the weekend and they are struggling a lot after Europe, so we did well to win in that way.
âWe have increased the high intensity running by 30 to 40 per cent since summer, which is a lot.
âWe want to be direct, create, penetrate, be a high pressing team, so you have to run and you have to run quickly and you see that in the stats and in how we perform.
âRodrigo Palacio, the Inter striker, ran for 1250 metres against us at Celtic Park at high intensity. Thatâs an incredible number. But on Sunday, Gary Mackay-Steven ran 1300m against Aberdeen.
âWe now compare to the better Champions League teams in terms of our figures and we have to find benchmarks. Where are we good? Where can we be better? That way we can be as prepared as possible if we get to the Champions League.
âI was inspired last Wednesday in Milan when I watched Bayer Leverkusen against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on TV.
âThe intensity of Leverkusen was unbelievable, so I try to take something of the sprinting they showed and put it into my team.
âLeverkusen coach Roger Schmidt used to be at Red Bull Salzburg and they also play with huge intensity. Itâs not true the best teams are the fittest teams but itâs the easiest part of the game to do something about.
âIn my experience, teams that say: âWe are going to train twice as much as before and be really fitâ are almost always relegated because you lose focus on the important things.
âFor me, itâs what you do in training. We donât train more than before but hopefully we train better and we give more in that hour-and-a-half every day.
âYou must always add things to your game. If someone asks which manager I want to be like. I want to be me but I can add something from him, him and him to make the best of the person I am.
âItâs the same for the team. We have a style of play but can get things from other teams to find the benchmarks but you must know the references of what it means to be fit.
âItâs easy to say that to the other players. If a player asks me why he is not playing, I can show him the numbers. If he is running 600m and a guy in the team is running 1200m, what does he think of that?
âI only wish I learned this earlier in my career as a player. I was always strong but I was too heavy. My body was 92 kilos but I got down to 85.7 kilos and suddenly I was sharper and quicker around the pitch. I ate too many carbohydrates before.â
Celtic are homing in on a Treble, with the next 10 days crucial to their ambitions as they face Saints before taking on Dundee United in the last eight of the Scottish Cup and the League Cup Final.
Celtic took a huge step towards the title with their 4-0 win over the Dons at the weekend but Delia revealed there were no victory roars in the dressing room afterwards.
He added: âThere is still so much to fight for. We are working here on the culture to be 100 per cent focused every day.
âThere wasnât even a hint of a celebration among the players after the Aberdeen game â the manager was celebrating more than them.
âThey were very tired. The amount of metres and sprints they did was unbelievable given they played three days before.
âI am really looking forward to the St Johnstone game now and expect a good performance.â
[QUOTE=âBandage, post: 1101489, member: 9â]Ronny on his coaching philosophy. Very interesting stuff for Celtic supporters:
âThe most important thing is the players and everyone around them sees that what we are doing is effective.
âWe have had six victories after European games this season and thatâs really good.
âYou donât see that around the other European leagues. Inter Milan lost at the weekend and they are struggling a lot after Europe, so we did well to win in that way.
âWe have increased the high intensity running by 30 to 40 per cent since summer, which is a lot.
âWe want to be direct, create, penetrate, be a high pressing team, so you have to run and you have to run quickly and you see that in the stats and in how we perform.
âRodrigo Palacio, the Inter striker, ran for 1250 metres against us at Celtic Park at high intensity. Thatâs an incredible number. But on Sunday, Gary Mackay-Steven ran 1300m against Aberdeen.
âWe now compare to the better Champions League teams in terms of our figures and we have to find benchmarks. Where are we good? Where can we be better? That way we can be as prepared as possible if we get to the Champions League.
âI was inspired last Wednesday in Milan when I watched Bayer Leverkusen against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on TV.
âThe intensity of Leverkusen was unbelievable, so I try to take something of the sprinting they showed and put it into my team.
âLeverkusen coach Roger Schmidt used to be at Red Bull Salzburg and they also play with huge intensity. Itâs not true the best teams are the fittest teams but itâs the easiest part of the game to do something about.
âIn my experience, teams that say: âWe are going to train twice as much as before and be really fitâ are almost always relegated because you lose focus on the important things.
âFor me, itâs what you do in training. We donât train more than before but hopefully we train better and we give more in that hour-and-a-half every day.
âYou must always add things to your game. If someone asks which manager I want to be like. I want to be me but I can add something from him, him and him to make the best of the person I am.
âItâs the same for the team. We have a style of play but can get things from other teams to find the benchmarks but you must know the references of what it means to be fit.
âItâs easy to say that to the other players. If a player asks me why he is not playing, I can show him the numbers. If he is running 600m and a guy in the team is running 1200m, what does he think of that?
âI only wish I learned this earlier in my career as a player. I was always strong but I was too heavy. My body was 92 kilos but I got down to 85.7 kilos and suddenly I was sharper and quicker around the pitch. I ate too many carbohydrates before.â
Celtic are homing in on a Treble, with the next 10 days crucial to their ambitions as they face Saints before taking on Dundee United in the last eight of the Scottish Cup and the League Cup Final.
Celtic took a huge step towards the title with their 4-0 win over the Dons at the weekend but Delia revealed there were no victory roars in the dressing room afterwards.
He added: âThere is still so much to fight for. We are working here on the culture to be 100 per cent focused every day.
âThere wasnât even a hint of a celebration among the players after the Aberdeen game â the manager was celebrating more than them.
âThey were very tired. The amount of metres and sprints they did was unbelievable given they played three days before.
âI am really looking forward to the St Johnstone game now and expect a good performance.â[/QUOTE]
Thatâs excellent stuff. Obviously puts in a huge amount of research into our team and into other teams around Europe to try and improve us.
He makes Lemon look like a Delboy type character.
Ronny isnât showing much love for Guidetti at the moment.
"I donât know because I havenât spoken to him for a few days.
"But I understand he has been saying something in the press again about Feyenoord, or something.
"That will have to be up to him. I donât know if that is right or not.
âHe will be here for the rest of the season, and we are really going to get the best out of him in these last months.â
"Itâs his right to do that. He has to do what is best for him
"But now, he and I have to be professional and do the job here at Celtic.
âIf he is not injured, he can be involved on Sunday.â
âI donât know more than you, maybe you know more, I donât knowâ the Celtic boss replied to a question from a Dutch television crew about Guidettiâs future.
âIf he wants to stay here itâs a possibility but I understand that things are going on. I want him to stay if he wants to stay. If he doesnât want to stay we have to find someone else because we canât force him to stay here, a lot of players want to stay at Celtic.â
Asked why Guidetti wasnât stating Deila replied bluntly: âThatâs an easy question to answer, because he isnât good enough, you have to be good enough to play every game. Today he was injured, heâs a good player and hopefully heâll be back soon.â
Another âI dream of going back to Feyenoordâ interview by Guidetti today. See you then, pal.
Celtic appealed Van Dijkâs red card and it will be heard on Thursday.
The cup replay has been fixed for Wednesday, 18th March.
Van Dijk is scheduled to miss the League Cup Final this weekend and the replay.
So Ciftci has been handed a 2-game ban for kicking Brown in the head and will miss Sundayâs final and the cup replay.
Van Dijk and Paton are having their appeals heard on Thursday but the SFA havenât given Butcher a ban at all, even though Paton was sent off in a case of mistaken identity. Apparently there is no ability under the current rules to charge somebody, e.g. Butcher, if someone else has been mistakenly sent off in their place.
That effectively means that Butcher and Paton will get off. Celtic have released the below statement:
CELTIC Football Club notes that no action appears to have been taken in relation to Calum Butcher of Dundee United.
It seems completely illogical and fundamentally unfair that, in an incident where mistaken identity has been claimed, the Dundee United player now identified clearly as being involved in the incident appears to have no case to answer - and would be available to play in the League Cup final and the Scottish Cup replay between the two teams - while Celticâs player may potentially miss both of those matches.
Celtic Football Club and Virgil van Dijk maintain their position that no red card offence was committed by Virgil.
Virgil will appear at Hampden to put his case on Thursday and we will fully support him in this appeal.
Virgil Van Dijkâs red card has been rescinded and heâs available for Sundayâs League Cup Final.
Dundee United in the cup replay on Wednesday night. Johansen is suspended and Armstrong and Mackay-Steven are cup tied again so weâre a little bit short on midfield/attacking midfield options. I imagine Commons will move infield to play the Joahnsen role and Forrest will come in on the right. Henderson is also an option in a central or wide role. Stokes was my MoTM yesterday and heâll need to keep that form up. Theyâll be without SeĂĄn Dillon as violent conduct suspensions apply to all competitions. Hopefully theyâre fatigued from playing 35 minutes with 10-men yesterday and we can put them to the sword.
Last 3.5 minutes of the greatest you tube video of them all:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2ZKQfp7D6U
Gotta have faith that your path will change
Gotta have faith that your luck will change
Tomorrow
Deila doing The Ronny Roar to all 4 stands last night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZzvMCG7sV8
Celtic will play Caley Thistle in the semi-final on Sunday April 19th at 12.15pm.
Celtic are playing Dundee United for a change in the SPFL tomorrow. We flopped immediately after our previous run of high profile/high intensity games (the Inter ties and Aberdeen in the league followed by losing at home to St Johnstone) so we need to ready for tomorrow after beating them in two cups in the last week.
Armstrong and Mackay-Steven (cup-tied), Johansen (suspended midweek) and Matthews (post injury) are all available again so that should freshen things up.
Interesting stuff from Ronny on management style and disciplining players, including praise for Stokes:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/sport/football/deila-to-frighten-people-to-get-betteri-will-never-do-it-this-kind-of-leadership-shou.121123035
farce of an articleâŚtalking about senior players instilling leadership in the group and the most trusted player, the captain, is found starfish on the street making love to a kebab a few days before a cup final yet gets picked while stokes gets dropped in a different match for being late back from dublinâŚtalk about one rule for oneâŚ
Stokes missed a training session.
Brown did not.
[QUOTE=âNembo Kid, post: 1109618, member: 2514â]Stokes missed a training session.
Brown did not.[/QUOTE]
club captain pissed out of his face a few days before a cup finalâŚragball rovers stuff⌠even more embarrassing when Delia comes out with article about discipline and barely mentions the Scott brown incidentâŚ
He doesnât fine or yell at players. He encourages them to learn from their mistakes.
At the end of the day, Brownâs behaviour did not disrupt preparation ahead if a big game. Stokes did.