MY first thought, when I heard Celtic's Champions League group draw was - Europa League at best. This, however, was a gut reaction, based on comparing present-day Celtic with the best of AC Milan, Ajax and Barcelona. The Lisbon Lions would not have been intimidated by this draw, indeed, they would have fancied their chances of topping the group. In today's more-pragmatic times, however, where money doesn't so-much speak as shout, we are looking at the Italians and the Spaniards progressing to the last 16, with Celtic and Ajax fighting for the consolation prize of continuing in the lesser competition.
But, after the first couple of fixtures in the group, things are not as clear. The experts will still tend towards AC and Barca, with wins already posted, going through, leaving Celtic and Ajax gto squabble over the consolation prize. However, IF Celtic can lift their game, particularly in the Amsterdam Arena and the Nou Camp, and maintain their best home form - they just might sneak into the knock-out stages of the CL.
This will be, perhaps, the most-interesting of the CL groups, and, regardless of the disappointment Neil Lennon will be feeling this morning, all is not yet lost.
I only saw brief highlights last night, but, was not happy to see the players conducting an on-field blame game after those late Milan goals. This got me thinking - does big Johan Mjallby, no mean defender himself, spend time with the team trying to get them better-organised defensively?
Celtic might have the most-talented squad in Scotland; it is reasonable to assume they will not be fully-stretched by the opposition in Scotland; but, Europe is a different ball game. Does the team work hard enough? Are they genuinely trying to find, what British Cycling guru Sir Dave Brailsford has identified as those tiny, marginal improvements which, in the long run, turn final appearances into bronze medals, bronzes into silvers and silvers into golds?
I doubt it, football seems not to go in for such intense off-field work as other sporting disciplines. Maybe, if Celtic was to give a lead and turn, what I feel is a very good chance of grabbing the Europa League slot, into an only slightly-harder task of turning that into a last 16 spot; then training-on to turn that last-16 spot into a last-8 spot and so forth - they would maybe encourage les autres to follow-on and, in time, lead Scotland back to where we HTUWLU (Here's Tae Us, Wha's Like Us) shouters feel we should be.
MEANWHILE, back on the set of Edmiston Drive, Scottish football's very own everyday story of bigoted folk, Ra Peepul are celebrating reaching a cup semi-final.
There is something symbolic about Ally's Orange Army doing so-well in a competition sponsored by a pawn-broking company. It kind of fits in with so much of what has happened since Lloyd's Bank began to play hard ball with SDM all those years ago.
Just as Celtic's squad is too-strong for the Premiership, then the outfit across the city seems, on paper, to be too-strong for their League One opponents, too-strong even for most of the Championship sides, so, they SHOULD win the Ramsden's Cup and League One.
However, I feel that, should injury befall Lee McCulloch, Rangers will be in deep doo-dah. McCulloch is fast becoming a John Greig for the 21st century, carrying a few passengers, who are clearly not "Rangers Class" on his back; driving-on a team which is still in transition.
I fear Mr McCoist is too-wedded to the Walter Smith brand of management and, that brand is I don't think, what is required, if Rangers are to get back to turning the current monopoly at the top of Scottish football into the duopoly we have grown up with.
The young players who began to come through last season have been supplanted, by and large, by McCoist's close-season acquisitions. Sure, they will get Rangers out of the division they are in; but, the chances are - if the in-fighting and mis-management has not brought about another corporate collapse, some of this summer's acquisitions will be supplanted by more of the same during the summer 2014 transfer window.
They will then - all being well - be replaced by more new faces insummer 2015 and the pattern will continue until the whole edifice collapses again.
Organisations which continue to pursue failed policies always go under in the end - is there nobody around Edmiston Drive aware of this basic fact of life?
Celtic received a valuable lesson yesterday evening, one that I have predicted ever since Mr. G. Hooper smelled the scent of English money and upped and left for the dizzy heights of Norfolk. I can only assume that his wife enjoys perusing car boot sales in Scratby.
ReplyDeleteCeltic, the team, I could not fault on the field, apart from the usual heart stopping moments from the buffoon known as Ambrose. No, the lesson went to the upper echelon who hold the purse strings. They held it together well and produced some exciting fitba. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough for the confidence of their supporters to embrace.
We need a striker... we need more than one striker. We need the best strikers that our millions will afford.
Unless of course the money will continue to languish in the bank in the hope that we will one day soon make our presence known down in the Englandshire League. Oh dear, I feel another conspiracy coming on.