Yes. Heās a rugby superstar
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Sutty on BT Sport here saying Rangers should measure themselves against Thistle as regards Glasgow rivalries as Celtic are so vastly superior. 
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DembƩlƩ was so strong at the end. Awesome:
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Something inside so strong
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this was a wonderful thought provoking post that had me thinking
@Sidney @GeoffreyBoycott
can we explore what happened to Celtic post the double winning 87 88 season to the lows of the mid 90s?
i watched the 5-1 defeat at castle greyshull in august 88 there the other night on youtube
celtic were virtually unchanged from the side that won the double in May, Bonner was injured for this game BTW, Rangers had the woods, butcher, stevens, steven, wilkins england backbone along with the quite brilliant Ian Durrant
i remember at this time celtic signed Dziekanowski and Wdoczyk (sp) but for the next few seasons they were consistently battling Hibs for 4th place, Rangers , Aberdeen and Dundee Utd occupied the top 3
Aberdeen at the time had a mass influx of Dutchmen , Theo Shnelders, Hans Gillhaus , Pat Van de Ven, Willem Van der Ark,ā¦ Mason , Ian (Eoin) Jess and Jim Bett were also good playersā¦ John Collins, Darren Jackson led Hibs
I remember in 92 93 when Rangers nearly got to a european cup final, celtic were beaten 5-1 by Neuchatal Xamax in the UEFA cupā¦ Germinal Ekeren beat them i think i 90-91
the question i have is where did it go wrong?
how did aberdeen , hibs , dundee united pass celtic out back then
i know we had a scottish cup in 1989 but really it was only the 1995 scottish cup victory that signalled things were coming back
we know now that HMRC did a bit of work on the cross town rivalsā¦
what era is this from tho is it from 1988 onwards incorporating the whole 9 in a row winning rangers sides?
Wrong target market for your question Mickee . The Celtic fans here are mocks who started to follow during the Martin O Neill years .
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Bhoys, do any of you recall the incident inside the first ten minutes when one of their players hit a raking, diagonal ball from left to right? It was drilled in front of Tavernier and was about a yard over the far touchline when he got his toe to it and knocked it ābackā into play and a bit forward straight to Izzy. Izzy claimed possession then about 5 yards infield and passed it forward to another Celtic player only for the linesman to flag for a throwā¦to Sevco. It was beyond weird. @Rocko, post up the clip there - it was after 8 minutes I think.
The other crazy things were the two first half offside calls when Celtic were clean through and the free out for them when one of their players was lying on the ball inside their 6-yard box. Andy āgreat tight ankleā Walker proclaimed that it was a good decision to award the free out because you donāt know what will happen in that situation.
@mickee321 - Iām not a fan of Celtic and donāt really follow Scottish football all that closely, but did have reason to be in Scotland on and off in the late 80ās and 90ās and occasionally attended Celtic games, including Old Firm matches. The one observation I would make is back then from the time David Murray took over at Ibrox, Rangers in particular were throwing serious money at players wages and even following on from the players you mentioned (who were largely brought in by Souness), they were subsequently attracting the likes of Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne when they were amongst the best players in Europe. Obviously, its all become apparent in recent years, the scale of financial chicanery that was going on there.
Celtic had some world class players in the likes of Paul McStay and John Collins and latterly in Henrik Larsson but that was about it. Celtic were still been run by a few old dynastic families who hadnāt the first clue how to run a business/football club. The likes of Aberdeen still remained a very well run club for a good decade or so after Sir Alex went south and were still able to contend on the back of the foundations he had created.
The quality of Scottish player was probably a lot better back then. Rangers run in the European Cup in 1992/93 was back boned largely by Scottish players who had acquitted themselves well against Germany and the Netherlands in the 1992 European Championships. Scotland qualified for five consecutive World Cups from 1974-1990 and again in 1998. The Scotland national team now is an utter joke and the standard of domestic player is way down.
For whatever reason, Rangers never got it together in 87/88 like they had the previous season. Celtic were buoyed by the return of Billy McNeill, and despite the loss of a couple of big players like Brian McClair, Mo Johnston and Murdo McLeod, made some astute short term signings in Mark McGhee and Billy Stark. Andy Walker and Joe Miller were key signings too but Frank McAvennie and Mick McCarthy were the really inspired ones.
There was definitely a feeling that Celtic were inspired by it being the centenary season.
Rangers regrouped though and money became the key factor as they started signing English players left, right and centre. They won the league easily in 88/89.
The short term nature of some of Celticās signings that had worked the previous season began to show. McAvennie and McCarthy left and were not really replaced. Roy Aitken who was the mainstay of the defence for a decade left soon afterwards too.
Jacky Dziekanowski was a big hit in his first few months but it went sour very quickly for him.
Celtic tried to buy quality on the cheap and it didnāt work at all - it meant they were restricted to the Scottish market bar a punt Eastern Europeans like Dziekanowski and Wdowczyk. John Collins was probably the only real success on the domestic market. Paul Elliott was a good signing too but only stayed for one or two seasons I think.
Celtic never had a consistent goalscorer from when McAvennie left until van Hooijdonk was signed in 1995. Tommy Coyne came up with the odd big goal against Rangers, usually in the cup, and Gerry Creaney looked promising for a time but neither were the answer. Charlie Nicholas was past his best.
Meanwhile Rangers had McCoist, Johnston and Hateley. The mess over Johnstonās re-signing and then non-signing and subsequent signing for Rangers cast a long shadow over the club.
Billy McNeill declined badly as a manager, Liam Brady wasnāt up to it, Lou Macari symbolised the paucity of ambition that had taken hold by then.
As the teamās fortunes went down, attendances went down, the club was thus starved of that revenue, and nepotism and incompetence at board level meant the club was ill-prepared to deal with the redevelopment of the stadium which was necessary in the wake of Hillsborough. A move to Cambuslang was mooted at one point but fell through when Fergus McCann took over in 1994.
I canāt embed it for reasons I canāt be bothered explaining just now but here you go:
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Those offside calls were shite but the free out was appalling. And then stopping play when Armstrong was fouled later on for a drop ball after weād just won possession back at the edge of their box.
That was fucking obscene.
Did you see the picture of him queuing up to be seen in the A&E department of some Glasgow hospital in his playing gear?
Yeah what a joke of a club. Queuing to see a nurse.
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