Celtic's European Campaign 2017/18

[jagfox]

Can Brendan build on a rather lacklustre if lucrative debut European campaign at his second attempt?

[Thistle_do_nicely]

he'd have a fair bit of rebuilding to do to emulate Celtic's best manger of recent years, Gordon Strachan, in making the last 16 of the CL. They could well get crazy money for the likes of Tierney or Dembele in the summer and tbf Brendan Rodgers is competent enough that they could trust him to use that money wisely if they do sell.

GK in particular is a weak spot for them, plus there's a fair bit of dross stinking out the squad. Forrest isn't good enough for starters, Brown is having a bit of a resurgence but he's not going to be able to play well at CL level for much longer, Ambrose, Ciftci, Izaguirre...

[Davie Bhoy]

he'd have a fair bit of rebuilding to do to emulate Celtic's best manger of recent years, Gordon Strachan, in making the last 16 of the CL. They could well get crazy money for the likes of Tierney or Dembele in the summer and tbf Brendan Rodgers is competent enough that they could trust him to use that money wisely if they do sell.

GK in particular is a weak spot for them, plus there's a fair bit of dross stinking out the squad. Forrest isn't good enough for starters, Brown is having a bit of a resurgence but he's not going to be able to play well at CL level for much longer, Ambrose, Ciftci, Izaguirre...

So in order to improve the squad, you suggest selling off our best players???

We don't have to sell Tierney or Dembele. We will lose players off the wage bill like Commons who will free money up. Plus the £28m we'll roughly take in from the CL. The money for the friendly matches at the start of the season which were lucrative etc plus 52,000 season tickets sold and two new shirt sponsorship deals means we can still give Rodgers a good 'war chest' and not a phantom one like another Glasgow club gets, & we can add to the squad to supplement players like Tierney & Dembele.

Also why can't Broony keep playing well in the CL for another couple of seasons? Plenty of players have managed to shine at that level into the end of their career so Broony can do the same. No reason why he shouldn't for next season which is what is being discussed.

[Trackdaybob]

That's one hell of an assumption you're gonna qualify for europe next season........?? 

Oh wait.

You must all be so excited. 

Fuckin snoozearama 

 

[sjc]

I hope they get papped out in the qualifiers. 

[Davie Bhoy]

That's one hell of an assumption you're gonna qualify for europe next season........?? 

Oh wait.

You must all be so excited. 

Fuckin snoozearama 



 

So you don't think we'll qualify for Europe. Sitting clear at the top of the league & in the first cup final of the season. We'd need to have an almighty crash to not qualify for Europe.

[Davie Bhoy]

All about Rangers though (again)

Says the Aberdeen fan commenting on a Celtic topic (again)

[Davie Bhoy]

It's an open forum, thicko. I just wonder why in two posts about your team in Europe you have to shoehorn a reference to Rangers into both of them. It's just odd behaviour.

Reminds me it's an OPEN FORUM then complains then complains when there is any reference to any other club. A football fan having a sly dig at another club...& you can't work that out. You're a strange strange man.

[Davie Bhoy]

A sly dig

I used to laugh at the whole "obsessed" thing Rangers fans used to trot out but it's true, you really are.

you're never away from Celtic threads & hide behind the 'open forum' mantra. You really have a brass neck to talk about anyone being obsessed.

Oh you're some state for one man

[54_and_counting]

5 hours ago, Davie Bhoy said:

 

 

Also why can't Broony keep playing well in the CL for another couple of seasons?

when did he last play consistently good in the CL?

[Ross.]

32 minutes ago, 54_and_counting said:

when did he last play consistently good in the CL?

This season?

[54_and_counting]

One decent game against city at home that they fell away in the end is now consistently good, brown and co were passengers at home to BMG and were struggling away till the red card,

barca are obviously on another planet but last night brown would have struggled to dispose any of their midfielders in a phone box, and his lunge on messi at the end is classic brown when celtic aren't dominating teams

[Davie Bhoy]

One decent game against city at home that they fell away in the end is now consistently good, brown and co were passengers at home to BMG and were struggling away till the red card,

barca are obviously on another planet but last night brown would have struggled to dispose any of their midfielders in a phone box, and his lunge on messi at the end is classic brown when celtic aren't dominating teams

One good game? Every opinion you have on Celtic is a negative one. Myself and most Celtic fans have rated Broonies performances in Europe throughout the campaign but you narrow it down to one game against City...& not even a full game

He managed to dispose a few Barca players last night but that must've escaped your notice.

[54_and_counting]

1 hour ago, Davie Bhoy said:

 

 

One good game? Every opinion you have on Celtic is a negative one. Myself and most Celtic fans have rated Broonies performances in Europe throughout the campaign but you narrow it down to one game against City...& not even a full game

He managed to dispose a few Barca players last night but that must've escaped your notice.

he also managed to get nutmegged twice if memory serves me right along with messi sending him down to the shops for a packet of fags with 10 minutes to go

i think my opinions are realistic, you might want to think they are negative thats up to you, however this will likely be celtics worst ever season in the group stages, and part of that is the celtic midfield being passed off the park by everyone, i dont think brown offers anything going forward and defensively he's too erratic and tends to get dragged out of position leaving holes in the team shape, ive said this before both for celtic and scotland, in the scottish game its hardly noticable because celtic are up against inferior opposition, but against better passing and moving teams he is found out

given how you refuse to see much wrong with celtic i doubt you'll agree with this, but its my opinion on brown and ive had it for years now

[Davie Bhoy]

he also managed to get nutmegged twice if memory serves me right along with messi sending him down to the shops for a packet of fags with 10 minutes to go

Messi takes the piss out of an opposition player. Who'd have thought a ballon D'or winner was capable of such things. Well I never. Next you'll be trying to tell me Craig Whyte was in it for the money.

i think my opinions are realistic, you might want to think they are negative thats up to you, however this will likely be celtics worst ever season in the group stages, and part of that is the celtic midfield being passed off the park by everyone, i dont think brown offers anything going forward and defensively he's too erratic and tends to get dragged out of position leaving holes in the team shape, ive said this before both for celtic and scotland, in the scottish game its hardly noticable because celtic are up against inferior opposition, but against better passing and moving teams he is found out

Yes that's what it's because. It's got absolutely nothing to do with being drawn against the toughest group it possibly could have been. I mean all 3 pots threw up a team from the top 3 leagues in Europe and arguably the world but let's ignore that to concentrate how it means Celtic & Broony must be shite.

given how you refuse to see much wrong with celtic i doubt you'll agree with this, but its my opinion on brown and ive had it for years now

Premiership, La Liga, Bundesliga opposition. Now how on earth could I possibly disagree with your superb assessment and fair judgment.

Mind you, the stats don't back up your argument that we've been passed off the park by 'everybody' but hey ho. Let's ignore the fact we've competed in our games this season (2nd half v Barca away apart), your argument is spot on.

[CityDave]

Dembele, Celtic will struggle to keep hold of him in the next or during the summer transfer window.

[Davie Bhoy]

Dembele, Celtic will struggle to keep hold of him in the next or during the summer transfer window.

I suspect he will be will be with us until the end of the season. Possibly into the following season too depending on just how high any bids are. If the bids don't satisfy the board he'll be told he'll be staying & I don't think another crack at the CL would do him any harm. Then he might be able to move in the following Jan transfer window.

[54_and_counting]

11 hours ago, Davie Bhoy said:

 

Messi takes the piss out of an opposition player. Who'd have thought a ballon D'or winner was capable of such things. Well I never. Next you'll be trying to tell me Craig Whyte was in it for the money.



Yes that's what it's because. It's got absolutely nothing to do with being drawn against the toughest group it possibly could have been. I mean all 3 pots threw up a team from the top 3 leagues in Europe and arguably the world but let's ignore that to concentrate how it means Celtic & Broony must be shite.



Premiership, La Liga, Bundesliga opposition. Now how on earth could I possibly disagree with your superb assessment and fair judgment.

Mind you, the stats don't back up your argument that we've been passed off the park by 'everybody' but hey ho. Let's ignore the fact we've competed in our games this season (2nd half v Barca away apart), your argument is spot on.

 

Competed in your games? Barca at home you had one decent chance at 1-0 when barca could have been out of sight at half time, BMG at home you never looked like scoring, they did, more than the twice they did, and away in Germany celtic were huffing and puffing until the red card, even then BMG should have taken the lead again before mcgregor's miss

Even your best performance of the group relied on craig gordon giving celtic a point with two quality saves at 3-3

You mention the countries the teams have came from, that doesn't mean it's the strongest opposition, i still argue that celtics last CL group was harder given the European pedigree and experience of the 3 teams last time, and celtic fared better then barring a surprise result away to city, but you keep thinking it's been good, stats tell something different and a - 11 gd and papped right out of europe with a game to spare says its been poor

[1320Lichtie]

They've definitely competed in the games apart from the Barcelona ones. Bmg better in Glasgow. Celtic unfortunate not to take more than a point in Germany. Draw fair though. Against City they took the lead 3 times. The 7-0 hiding was horrendous but Barca even took 4 off City there. It's not been great, but I think some people on here are being pretty harsh, certainly positives to take for them anyway.

[Davie Bhoy]

Competed in your games? Barca at home you had one decent chance at 1-0 when barca could have been out of sight at half time, BMG at home you never looked like scoring, they did, more than the twice they did, and away in Germany celtic were huffing and puffing until the red card, even then BMG should have taken the lead again before mcgregor's miss

One decent chance but we had a few other chances. However, we won't judge ourselves against arguably the best team on the planet, by how many chances we had. We had chances to score against BMG at home although I accept our performance wasn't great that night and the scoreline was a fair reflection of the game. However if you want to talk about luck, they created little and the goals they did score came from mistakes. Is that not lucky on their part since everything we do you put down to 'luck'? I don't know what game you we're watching away in Germany. We were the better side and could've won the game. It was a good battle. It's just another example of you giving Celtic absolutely no credit.

Going by your judgement we have been lucky in everything we do & everything the opposition did was them being better than us.

Even your best performance of the group relied on craig gordon giving celtic a point with two quality saves at 3-3

Did the Man City keeper not make any saves in that game? Imagine Gordon making saves...well I never. Getting ideas above his stations here.

You mention the countries the teams have came from, that doesn't mean it's the strongest opposition, i still argue that celtics last CL group was harder given the European pedigree and experience of the 3 teams last time, and celtic fared better then barring a surprise result away to city, but you keep thinking it's been good, stats tell something different and a - 11 gd and papped right out of europe with a game to spare says its been poor

These are teams who qualified from the best leagues in Europe and arguably the world. There is no denying that. This was as tough a group as we could've hoped for. You wouldn't put Hamilton Accies in a group with Celtic, Aberdeen & Rangers and then expect them to come anything other than 4th & poss 3rd at a push given the huge difference in wage budgets so why are you still failing to accept that the big difference between ourselves and all our group opponents means that yes, Barca will dominate us & yes Gordon might be relied upon to make a few saves v Man City (just as a keeper of any club does...it's their job), but we gave these clubs a good game. For 45 mins in the Nou Camp we played well then Barca did what Barca can do and that is RIP is to shreds playing superb football...it's Barca FFS. The -11 GD also accounts for that 7-0 thumping over the 5 games. FFS your manager tells us the gap between yourselves & us isn't that big yet you have a -5 GD over just TWO games...& that's let's not forget the wrongly disallowed goal too.

Last season we relied on Griffiths up front. Now we have Dembele & Sinclair weighing in with the goals. Broony was below par as were a number of players and now he is playing out his skin. The stats show he was the best passing midfielder out of the UK clubs in the CL. We had Ambrose & Boyata leaking goals last season, this season Simunovic is back and forming a solid partnership with Sviatchenko. Toure has looked superb and other than his 2 mistakes v BMG, has brought experience and looked brilliant for us.

Remember, this team is just being put together. Brendan Rodgers has had one transfer window in which to try and get used to he current players at the squad as well as bring in new additions and get them fitted into a system and philosophy that he wants to play. The early signs are very promising. We were told we wouldn't make the group stages and we proved them wrong. We were then told we wouldn't take a point in the group and again we proved them wrong. We will bank around £28m and to help improve this team & squad and we will be back next season even better. Domestically though, yourself and all the rest better get used to having to watch our European games for any chance of seeing us get beaten because it will be a very rare sight in Scottish football.