Outside of Spuds and Roma, we’d fancy ourselves against any of those.
So I’m going on the premise we make the ECL rather than the EL.
I’m going to give a quick guess that the 24 teams involved will be:
EL 3rd place:
Sparta Prague
PSV
Spartak Moscow
Olympiakos
Marseille
Midjtylland
Celtic
Rapid Vienna
ECL runners up:
Maccabi Tel Aviv
Partizan Belgrade
Bodo Glimt
Jablonec
Slavia Prague
PAOK
Rennes
Qarabag
ECL Group winners:
LASK
Gent
Roma
AZ
Feyenoord
Copehagen
Spurs
Basel
There’s nothing there that should stop us from going on a good run if we the draw is good to us. In the potential R32 games, only really Roma/Spurs/Rennes would be troublesome - every other side we should be capable of beating. The R16 games, again only Roma and Spurs would be on the very difficult side.
Just on last night bhoys.
Good performance and all as it was, it was a lot to do with the game being open and Ferencvaros having a go. I’m quite happy that if teams come and have a go at us domestically we’ll win - sadly very few times will that happen. I spoke last weekend about I don’t think we’re able to win ugly. We’ve seen it a few times already this season.
Ferencvaros are a decent side though, some good players, the no 10 who smashed the bar is a tidy operator and I think the centre back with the dreads would be a cracking signing for Celtic - he’s quick, powerful and good on the ball.
Turnbull did well last night but I think a midfield with two of Turnbull/Bitton/Rogic/McCarthy is just too slow and ponderous for us when teams sit deep. Rogic offers far more for me in terms of creativity and keeping us fluid but Ange does seem to like Turnbull.
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St Johnstone came and sat deep and we managed to break then down. I do think we need to avoid as many crosses as we fired in against Livingston but I don’t think the system won’t work against them. But it does need more variation and we don’t really have many players who can thread a pass.
McGregor and Turnbull could both have played Kyogo in last night but it’s the same occurrence in every game. Rogic is probably our most creative midfielder but even he is more about engaging opponents in a 1v1 rather than playing a pass. And if all an opponent has to do is deal with crosses or block a shot from the edge of the box then that’s relatively easy to do.
We definitely need someone who is better at picking a pass. Those lofted passes from Turnbull last season have been missing this year. But even from deeper areas we need McGregor looking for Kyogo more often. His movement is so good and he’s been a revelation but he could be even more dangerous if we release him quicker.
The other thing I think we need is to be better at second waves of attack. When we’re passing around in their half and it has slowed down we need the full backs or deeper midfielders running beyond from deeper positions where they can be harder to pick up. If an attack has stalled it’s very hard for Jota or Abada to find room but Ralston has been very good at joining late and finding space and we can be a bit more creative about how other players do that.
But yeah in summary we are crying out for at least one midfielder who can find better passes and keep the ball moving quicker. The recruitment challenge will be that Ange will need them to be big on pressing too.
Greg Taylor has signed a contract extension.
In fairness to Bitton, hands up, he was effective last night. Its the likes of Livi at home last week where playing him is like being a man down unfortunately
Dreadful stuff
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600k payoff for Lennon.
#OldBhoysClub
Should be back in profit next year and if we win the league should have an extra 30m or so from CL football.
Of course the board will have to find ways to syphon that money out into their own pockets rather than strengthening the team.
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I’d imagine the wage bill has fallen significantly this season with the lack of washed up EPL loanees and the loss of the likes of Brown, Edouard etc.
Our wage bill never really seems to make much sense to me when you look at the touted salaries to the players. I know there’s talk of performance related bonuses but even so it’s a sense of bafflement. There’s obviously some high earning non-playing members behind the board.
I’d predict that the annual wage bill will probably be down in the mid-late 40s when the accounts are published next year. We’ve generally carried too big a squad. I think we should be carrying 22-23 first team players with the youth squad providing numbers after that. I’d say we’re probably up and around 30 presently. I’d consider youth team players as those under 20 who have came through the ranks.
Interesting that the huns spend almost the same as us on wages now. Our wage bill has been falling, but only slightly.
Even Aberdeen at £10m seems high. It’s obviously miles behind but I would have thought the average Celtic player was earning more than 4 times their Aberdeen equivalent.
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So the £5m BI for covid would nearly cover Jota’s fee? What are we waiting on
The Huns have been renewing their big names consistently. Morelos must have signed about three extensions. Tavernier too, Kamara recently renewed.
They have Kent with his contract up next year so will have to splash the cash again. Eventually they will need a big sale but hard to see where it comes from. Think Morelos might have his contract up next year too.
Crucial we win the league, if we so they will.go buat
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They have a big issue with contracts now.
They have a number of players with 6-18 months left on their deals. Goldson, Arfield, McGregor, Balogun, Davis all see their contracts expire at the end of the season. Goldson is the only big one there as the others are kind of hitting the veteran stage so shouldn’t be too hard to renew but there is the issue of whether they should be trying to replace these guys rather than rely on a bunch of veterans.
It’s the end of next season where the bother starts.
Kent, Helander, Aribo, Jack and Morelos are all out of contract at the end of next season so they can hold Rangers to ransom for new deals that will surely see a big rise offered so they could be forced to cash in on a few key players at reduced prices next summer.
They are basically approaching a situation similar to what Celtic found themselves in this summer past. I fully expect Gerrard to jump ship next summer if they don’t get CL football and the impending financial problems that will arise.
I thought “we” won the League a couple of weeks back - ergo the amateur pyrotechnicians having their fun in Waterford the weekend gone ??
We is a plural pronoun. It is commonly used to refer to a cohort of hooped football teams with allegiances to enviro republicanism.
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Were the fireworks sustainably sourced ???
It’s of no relevance really though. It’ll just be sevco mark2 and away they go.