Hearts v Celtic - Wednesday night

I have chosen to believe.

Having given this some thought I’ve elected to share your belief Bandage. Tonight will be very decisive.

In other news I see Hearts have clarified the situation around Zaliukas not playing against the huns last weekend. Apparently Zaliukas has been sent off by referee Iain Brines twice previously and Romanov (fearing a repeat) intervened and pulled him out of the matchday squad. Jim Jeffries executed this perfectly sensible plan. In the interests of balance it’s worth mentioning that the only possible downsides were:

  1. his replacement (Jonsson) was red carded during the game
  2. making a player miss a match to avoid him getting suspended is sort of not really dodging the avoidance of the suspension.

Sham of a club and a spineless puppet of a manager if he lets that sort of crap happen.

Open game so fa which isn’t ideal. Always likely to be goals in this one though just need Dundee Utd to grt their share of chances. Rangers used to be blunt enough up front and solid at the back but that is completely reversed now I think. Strikers not shy about throwing themselves to the ground in the box already.

Fuck. Jammy goal. Gave Whittaker far too much room though and Jelavic too obviously.

2-0 lafferty

Fucking big ugly cheating cunt. Fuck that.

This is a thoroughly professional performance from Rangers. They are playing with the authority of 3 in a row Champions elect.

Dundee United doing quite well now. Just smacked the post with a cracker and McGregor’s had to make a couple of saves. One goal in it and they’d be nervous moments. As it is, with 10 to go it’s probably too late.

Looks like Hamilton Accies are getting relegated tonight

I’d take Craig Conway at Celtic. Probably a bit similar to Commons but has a bit about him, lovely strike of a ball, and he put in a good shift tonight.

Wally got man of the match. How pathetic is that ?

Well lads, I avoided tonight knowing the inevitable would happen as it would have built me up into a stage of frustrated rage watching it unfold. Sadly when I returned home no miracle had took place and they had carried out a routine and comfortable win. In the end it was the huns ability to grind out results when they are not playing well that won it for them. It’s even more crushing given how well we have played since the turn of the year and how promising our season looked 5-6 weeks ago. I now look forward to the summer and I hope we can keep our star players, rip the deadwood out of the squad and make 4 to 5 quality signings which should leave us in good stead for next season. For this season a cup triumph will have to suffice.

Tiocfaidh ár lá.

+1

League was there for the taking but ultimately we spent large parts of the season trying to find a settled team (and in particular looking for a solid defensive partnership). We didn’t even leave it too late in the end - the title was there to be won with a decent squad in the second half of the season but we just didn’t win enough games where we didn’t play well. In the last few months Motherwell and Caley Thistle turned up to play and both beat us. Same with the huns at Hampden. We need to be far stronger when it’s put up to us. The good news is that:

Kayal + Ledley is a dream partnership in the middle
Stokes + Hooper look great together
Commons + Brown are good on the wings
Izzy is a great full back and Wilson is a competent one (with Mathews to join him).

Plenty to be removed from the squad.

I’d sell Samaras - can’t rely on him for goals and while he provides an outlet against the huns I think we carried that a step too far this season by picking him every time.
Hinkel probably won’t be offered a new deal
Ljungberg will be gone too
Not sure what McGinn’s status is but I’d happily allow him leave
Loovens offers nothing other than emergency cover now, and that’s in a squad with no quality centre backs. On the assumption we’re strengthening there by at least one more (in addition to Kelvin Wilson) I’d be letting him leave.

Murphy, Juarez, Maloney should all have offers listened to also. And there’s a few lads coming back from loan O’Dea, Rasmussen, Hooiveld (?), Towell who can probably all move on too.

So you’re talking about:

Goalkeepers:
none worth relying on. Need to buy

Full backs:
Izaguirre
Mulgrew (cover)
Matthews
M Wilson
Cha (cover)
Wouldn’t be the first area I’d strengthen on a limited budget

Centre backs:
Majstorovic
Mulgrew again (cover)
Rogne
K Wilson
Badly need a top quality centre back here and let the others compete to be his partner.

Central midfielders:
Kayal
Ledley
Ki
Brown (cover)
Fine for cover here probably.

Wide midfielders:
Commons
Brown
Forrest
Paddy
Actually probably a bit short here if Ljungberg leaves.

Forwards:
Hooper
Stokes
Maloney (cover if he stays)
Need one more top striker to replace Sammy and Murphy

Apologies to anyone obvious I’ve left out.

Agree with alot of that mate, Maloney would top my punt list, he’s a treacherous little coward. I would also like to give Juarez a chance this pre season, I’m hoping he can deliver some of his early promise.

A quality centre half, a striker, a wide man, some cover for left back and a goalkeeper would be my targets.

I would also keep Murphy as an option up front, think he is reasonable back up for us.

The players I would like to move on are.

Maloney
Samaras
Loovens
Hooiveld
O’Dea
McGinn
Ljungberg
Rasmussen
Forster
Hinkel

I wonder how much we could pick Robbie up for in the summer and what his wage demands would be? It seems likely West Ham are going down and I’d say Spurs would be desperate to get him off their wage bill.

Find it hard to see Paddy McCourt having much of a role next season.

I really hope he does mate although I fear the same.

He’s on another level to someone like Forrest.

Eh, we’ll still win the league on Sunday.

according to villa forums, Richard Dunne was letting it be known earlier in the season that he had an offer from a club going into the Champions League. its safe to rule out any EPL club that was in contention so he must mean Glasgow Celtic.

How much did Ljunberg earn for his stint?

Badly need a pacey direct option in midfield Id say. Maybe that Cypriot left winger who has caused us problems in the past. Alonfitis or something.

Duff and Keane could probably be convinced if finances allowed.

Should be easy enough to pick up a keeper. If Wigan go down, Al Habsi is well worth considering but I suspect he will have other offers.

he is comimg home to tallaght

Sky Sports News giving alot of coverage to the ‘rivalry’ between Hearts and ourselves today.

Hope that if things aren’t going well someone ends that vile thug Ian Black.