Champions League Matchday 5 thread

Bandage · November 20, 2006, 11:45pm

Definitely a draw in the other game in my opinion as no matter what happens Celtic would still be 2nd going into the last game and will even have qualified should they win. If the worse happens tomorrow and ManU turn us over then we still have 2 chances of going through in the last game if the other game tomorrow is a draw, i.e. beat Copenhagen in Denmark or draw there and rely on ManU either beating or drawing with Benfica in Manchester.

I still think that tomorrow is the key game though. There’s a section in Strachan’s autobiography where he openly says he was suspicious about the time Derby won 3-2 at ManU in the 2nd last game of the season in the year his Coventry side got relegated. He says he can’t help thinking Ferguson almost revelled in the fact that it played a part in their relegation given the fact they hate each other. If ManU get their draw or better tomorrow then I can’t help but worry that hateful fook will stick out a second XI against Benfica. We really need to turn this mob over. No English team wins at Celtic Park. None.

Rocko · November 21, 2006, 8:41am

Yeah can’t rely on United doing us any favours whatsoever in the last game. Irrespective of the personal animosity between Strachan and Ferguson United dropped Saha, Giggs etc for the Copenhagen game - believing they were close to qualifying. There’s no doubt that if they do qualify this evening then they’ll rest key players for the Benfica game.

By the way for anyone that may have jotted down the permutations from the post above note that it changed last night after the original poster on the HB noticed an error so make sure you rely on the revised version above and not the original.

Bit of a matchday morning scare for me when I had a dose of the hiccups after knocking back a bottle of sparkling water with my full Irish breakfast in the airport food hall. I’ve been known to go 8 or 9 hours with a bout of hiccups, find them really hard to shake because I can’t burp for some odd reason. Thankfully the moment seems to have passed so back on track.

pagey1 · November 21, 2006, 9:54am

Anytime i’ve stayed in hotels in Glasgow its been the Millennium or Jurys. I’ve had a wee check and as you say all reasonable priced hotels are booked up. Try the Botanic Hotel close to Byres Road or the Lomond Hotel in the west end. Give those a call but besides that I’m sure you’ll get a cheap hostel that will have beds. The Glasgow Youth Hostel in the West end should have a bed available.

Bandage · November 21, 2006, 11:14am

From The Guardian:

Strachan has come a long way from that night in Bratislava

Gordon Strachan’s success at Celtic has gone almost unnoticed. A win over Manchester United tonight will change that.
Kevin McCarra
November 21, 2006 12:30 AM

Gordon Strachan has prospered almost unnoticed, like a pools winner who accidentally ticked the no publicity box. Despite the domination of Celtic last season, it was a close-run vote before he was declared manager of the year in Scotland. He always has been undervalued, with the profoundest endorsement of his work at Southampton coming in the collapse of the club after he had gone. If there is a win over Manchester United tonight, though, there will be no timelag in the recognition.

Not everyone was blind to his worth and Strachan divulges in his enlightening autobiography that Liverpool interviewed him for the manager’s post in 2004, just in case they were unable to recruit Rafael Bentez. A year later he signed up for an unusual project with Celtic. Strachan has done so well that it leads people to underestimate the challenge he accepted.

He claims his tombstone will carry the inscription “It’s not as bad as that night in Bratislava”. The 5-0 defeat by Artmedia in his first game with the club has been chiselled into folklore. It is less understood that he was in the throes of building a new Celtic, since the line-up he inherited was disintegrating. Only Neil Lennon survives as an important factor. This season and last the majority of pundits tipped Rangers to be champions, but Strachan took the title with ease and holds a 15-point lead as he defends it. All of that has been done while participating in a radical shift in Celtic’s philosophy. By Scottish standards, the board spent heavily in Martin O’Neill’s period and got its reward with a transformation in status.

The outlay seemed connected to a hope that Celtic might gain entry to the lucrative Premiership. When that possibility disappeared the club had to put its mind to functioning on a sustainable basis. This has meant cutting the wage bill and shopping with care. Strachan’s record signing at Southampton was Kevin Phillips for 3.25m and despite the Champions League glamour, he has spent little more on his most costly acquisition for Celtic, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.

Thrift is not normally much of a crowd pleaser, but there is a growing appreciation among supporters of the smart and safe policies. The chief executive Peter Lawwell even has a cult following as onlookers come to realise that he pulls off good deals and drives hard bargains in transfer negotiations. Even so, all of that depends on the stability Strachan delivers.

The manager has pulled off the trick of conserving funds for men like Vennegoor of Hesselink and Thomas Gravesen by identifying bargains elsewhere. He has, for instance, a good prospect in the 19-year-old Evander Sno, who was on the bench for Holland in last week’s friendly with England, yet Feyenoord had such scant regard for the midfielder that they discarded him for the nominal fee of 80,000.

Strachan has handled himself shrewdly in several areas. Despite his penchant for the occasional quip, he has mostly avoided coming out with sparky remarks in the tinderbox environment of the west of Scotland. When not at work he has seen the need for something akin to self-imposed house arrest, since there are too many provocations awaiting a Celtic manager who meanders into the polarised Old Firm environment of Glasgow.

His experience, enjoyable or otherwise, has opened up a new dimension in him. The glib conclusion would be that he is now equipped to take one of the positions in English football that was not previously on offer. In truth, there are very few jobs there that promise a greater adventure than he has embarked upon at Celtic.

He is also entitled to think that his current side would cope comfortably in the Premiership. “I think you give yourselves too many pats on the back for being the best league in the world,” he told visitors from south of the border yesterday. “It’s all right at times but I’ve seen some dire games there as well.”

While O’Neill received the devotion of the Celtic support there was no instant affinity with Strachan, who was once their tormentor in chief as part of a wonderful Aberdeen side. Despite that, a place in the knockout phase of the Champions League, where the club has never featured before, would underline just how vital he is to Celtic.

RaymondCrotty · November 21, 2006, 2:29pm

A fella from the hb says this is the team. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was. It seems to be the sort of team strachan would pick.

boruc
telfer
bobo
mick
naylor
naka
gravesen
lennon
sno
jvoh
magic

Rocko · November 21, 2006, 2:50pm

It certainly has similarities to the teams selected against man u and benfica away but I’m not sure I’d be too happy with it. I like the balance with two wide men but there is obvious logic in Sno and Lennon holding with Naka and Tommy G pushing on, as you suggeted by SMS.

Rocko · November 21, 2006, 2:52pm

From reading HB and Celic Minded briefly there one would get the impression there are rucks all over Glagow. I’ve seen nowt and I’ve been at 3 of the alleged flashpoints already - Central Station, Argylle Street and Jamaica Street.

RaymondCrotty · November 21, 2006, 3:01pm

is the atmosphere starting to build? many irish over there now? am heading up to laytown so won’t have internet but will text you the team as soon as i hear it. i have a feeling it is the one i just posted though

Rocko · November 21, 2006, 3:04pm

Yeah plenty of Irish about town. Most locals are still in work so it’s quiet enough - just lads in Celtic shop and pizza hit and the likes. As an aside Pizza Hut has a very complicated buffet ordering system that I made a mess of. None of the Belfast guys look like they’re going to get over because of the weather.

RaymondCrotty · November 21, 2006, 3:16pm

Thats Pepsi hut for you. Apparently there is about 800 who won’t make the game from Belfast. What a blow that would be. Hope it doesn’t effect the atmosphere

Bandage · November 21, 2006, 3:21pm

I love these posts before huge matches from lads who are apparently after sneaking themselves into the training ground this morning on the sly and saw the behind closed doors training session where we worked on our shape and formation. Or else they were talking to Strachans wifes brothers milkmans friend etc etc. All adds to the build up I suppose.

Id be very surprised if that was the team and I dont think it will be either as I expect Strachan to have learned his lesson from Benfica away where he played people in unfamiliar positions and altered the shape of the team. I dont think we should let them dictate to us either and say theyre so dangerous that we need both Sno and Lenny sitting with a wide player sacrificed. I want us to play our natural, patient and attacking game with the threat coming from Maloney and Naka wide.

The Association of Irish Celtic Supporters Clubs has apparently chartered flights at 4pm for those whose ferries were cancelled. You would be some gutted to miss this game due to a fooking ferry being cancelled. Fair play to them hope it comes off.

I read that the ManU hooligans had stormed Jurys Inn alright where all the Irish Celtic supporters stay too! I know they ran amok when they were up in Ibrox a few years ago and there was a bit of trouble in Manchester in September as they seem to hold us Fenian Celtic supporters responsible for the Manchester bombing in 1996. The talk is therell be 300 of them storming the Gallowgate this evening before kick-off. Tread carefully rocko!

pagey1 · November 21, 2006, 4:37pm

I’d be seriously pissed off if that is the team Strachan puts out tonight. What a negative move, that is fine away from home, although as bandage said it backfired on us overthere. If he doesn’t play the wings with King Kenny and Vinegar up front it will be a costly move.

Rocko, who are you over with?

And…

Oh Willie Maley was his name,
He brought some great names to the game,
When he was the boss at Celtic Park.

Taught them how to play football,
He made the greatest of them all,
Gallagher and Quinn have left their mark.