Davie Bhoy

You'll struggle to get 54 to hold his hands up and admit he was wrong. That's Be'er Sheva now beaten Inter Milan home & away as well as eliminating a good Premiership side. Not bad for a wee pub team eh.

Now you mention it, I think you're right. I watched their games well. Did Aberdeen not play Malmo?

Yet you don't factor in the luck of the draw giving us a nightmare group when you try to use our group results against us. Can't have it both ways. Nice spin on the argument there. 2pts from 5 CL group games is far superior to 3pts from 6 EL group games. Last season we failed to make the CL, this season we did. Stevie Wonder can see the improvement from last season. Nobody is comparing our last time in the CL with now. This debate started out as a progress from last season. You flit between last season & our last time in the CL. It was Malmo we faced in the last qualifier...not Molde. It was Molde who ran away with our group. From having been at our games against Malmo, Qarabag & Astana, I can't understand why you claim that Malmo are somehow some great team. They aren't. They carried luck against an average Celtic side. Even this season, poor refereeing decisions were all that stopped Hibs from knocking them out of Europe.

It is relevant though. The insinuation was that we spent that amount on first team wages when it isn't the case. The hefty wages the directors are on from the money the groundsmen, stewards, catering staff etc etc are all lumped into that figure. Anyway, like you said it's no fault of our own and the comparison isn't with other Scottish clubs it's with teams in Europe. Maybe if 54 & counting wants to compare wage budgets he should look at his own club over the past 4-5 seasons. 2nd biggest wage bill in Scottish football for all that time. 4 attempts to win the prestigious Petrofac Cup, 2 attempts to get out the Championship, no major domestic cups won, languishing in 3rd in the league. Maybe he should compare wage budgets with the teams who did win some of those honours such as Hibs, Hearts, Inverness CT, St Johnstone, Livingston, Raith Rovers, QoS, Partick Thistle....or does the playing budget not count when it comes to his own club?

Yes, the rest. Bloody phone/site seems to change words too easily. No it's not like that because this squad isn't just built for the challenges of the domestic game. It's also to help us do well in Europe. This is where we enter the unknown. This season we have spent very little given we've been drawn against big clubs from the top 3 clubs in Europe. Maybe we should use your argument and asses it on a points v money spent to evaluate value for money. Anyway, as this is a European topic I'm not sure why what we spend has to do with the Scottish game in that context. If fans want to compete with us then turn up and put the money in. Don't just cry about it. Which is entirely up to them. If they can afford to repay the loans etc then fair enough. They couldn't afford to splash the cash,....we can!

Every club has bonuses. The money spent isn't to keep ahead of Aberdeen, but to keep ahead of the feast of Scottish football. I'm not interested in what cost each point gained comes at. We are the champions, we are in the CL, we're playing great football, we're looking good for a treble....the money is well spent.

Quite simply because it's a new manager who is still trying to find out about 30 new players and who works well in his system etc. Do you really think that 7 competitive games is sufficient time for a new manager to have assessed his entire playing squad? I noticed you failed to address the conditions they had to play in. How can you claim it was an easier qualifying campaign? On paper the teams were maybe not as good but the conditions and other factors were levellers. Travelling to the edge of Asia, Travelling to the desert, playing on a poor artificial surface, playing in a humid climate. You seem to want to overlook these factors while ignoring the point that the opposition were actually not too bad either. Again...new manager trying to get to grips with an entirely new bunch of players at a new club while trying to navigate through European qualifiers. I know your argument doesn't allow for any of that to be taken into consideration but the only sign of improvement that matters is that while this time last season we failed to make the CL, this season we are there. While we were slipping up in the Europa, this season we are doing it in the CL.

This isn't just for the playing squad though which is where he was aiming that. This includes everyone employed at the club.

Makes no difference. We couldn't compete financially for the past 20 years & we still can't now.

Jeez, just read several of your posts and you really are bitter. Celtic go through & we were lucky...funnily enough in our defeats you never suggest we were unlucky. I mean we battered the Red Imps away but do I hear you say we were unlucky to lose and not kill the tie in Gibraltar....no. All you have done is focus on the negatives. The only game we really struggled in was the away tie in Israel & given the Heat & humidity of playing in the desert, our players looked dead on their feet. That kinda game poss came too soon for them but that's the beauty of the qualifiers. However the fact is we did enough to go through. So it's not lucky. As for throwing in about the penalties, they were stonewallers and if we hadn't been taken down in the box, would have likely scored. That is not being lucky...it's the rules of the game. You also question the quality of the sides we faced & how 'lucky' we were but you fail to mention how this poor Beer Sheva side went to Milan & beat Inter in the San Siro. C'mon man, give credit where it's due. We also drew away in Germany & at home to Man City. Both sides who play in the elite leagues in Europe & who spend so many £m's more than we do...how does that fit into your 'they spend £m's' argument? If you can't see the improvement in this Celtic side in Europe then you clearly have no clue about football. You go on about spending £m's...our net spend is only about £4m

Suggesting Celtic are spending close on £30m a year on wages

It's Celtic who hand out 1yr rolling contracts to managers. Have done with every manager since MoN.

Clearly this shows the need for The Rangers to find a new tax avoidance scheme and people to rip off so they can challenge the true dominant force in Scottish football, or can they really be considered a proper tribute act!

Aye that's the one. Remember we used to be in the Georgie Rd end and having to park the Supporters buses along by some wee Crescent that felt like miles away & in the middle of it was a grass bit that had cattle grazing on it lol. Used to get into the ground through the gap in the flats. Was about 15 on my first visit there. If it was about cost would they not have been better putting a bit more on the sideline instead of the wee bit around the corner? Was just strange seeing it the first time.

Speaking about roofs, what was the thinking behind the old Tynecastle one where their main singing crowd used to gather in the corner when it was terraced? Only a wee bit of the sideline & a fraction behind the goal had a roof & the rest was exposed to the elements.

Scotland Celtic Park Ibrox Firhill Rugby Park Tynecastle Pittodrie McDairmid Park Fir Park New Douglas Park Victoria Park Dens Park Easter Rd Tannadice Cappielow The Falkirk Stadium New St Mirren Park Almondvale Hampden Broomfield - (Airdrie old) England St James Park Old Trafford Anfield Goodison St Mary's Craven Cottage Loftus Rd Cardiff City stadium Ricoh Arena County Ground (Swindon Town) Filbert St (Leicester City old) Ireland Solitude Aviva Stadium Abroad San Siro Olympic Stadium (Seville) Been to loads of junior grounds too but will keep them off the list.

Do I need to spell it out to you. Apparently I do. New manager comes in and has qualifiers quickly thrust upon him as he's still trying to not only get to know his best side but he's in new players & have them get to know each other. If we played those same teams just now I'd be confident we'd do a lot better than we did in the qualifiers. Although to give them credit, Hapoel Beer Sheva went to the San Siri and beat Inter Milan so it puts our result at home into perspective against them. Why wouldn't we improve when the manager has had a full season at the club and will know what his full squad can offer him, what his best starting line up is and with them more aware of what he expects of them. Throw in the massive financial returns the club will have from this campaign which will help increase his budget then it'd be silly to suggest there would be anything other than an improvement.

We're in the group stages earning €28m which tells me we weren't as piss poor in those qualifiers as the picture you're painting. Regardless, Rodgers had just taken over & the league season wasn't totally up & running so what you expecting. Bit of a moot point really. It glosses over nothing. The point being made is about the progression being made in such a short space of time. NOT how we were at the starting point.

I don't think there is a "very very long way to go". As I said elsewhere, I think if we're in any of the other groups this season, we'd be competing for a 2nd or 3rd spot but when you get hit with teams from La Liga, Premiership & Bundesliga in your group then you're up against it. If this side can at least give a decent account of ourselves with Rodgers at the helm for just a few months & only £4m spent, then I'm sure we'll be even more competitive next season.

oooops!

Best ask the ones who wrecked them.

Whatever happened to the talk of Motherwell moving to a new stadium? Always felt a club like Motherwell could be doing with something similar to what St Mirren have. Not a big fan of Fir Park. I know CityDave likes the stand but I found it to be poor with the catering facilities in the middle serving both the lower & upper tiers not able to cope with a large travelling support. I found it to be the same as Easter Rd that despite going down about 5-7 mins before kick-off, you still don't get back to your seat until about 5 mins into the 2nd half. Also been at games at Fir Park where the roof hasn't done a good job of stopping the rain from dripping down. If you're unfortunate enough to be in that seat where the drips come down you have a poor 90 mins ahead of you.

Wasn't aware that it was but just because it's a listed building surely doesn't make it immune from having to reach the same fire safety standards as other grounds. Clearly something in the rules allows it but I don't understand why. Especially when we look back to the Bradford City fire you'd have thought that while the building still stands, they'd not be allowed to open it to the public.

Regarding Firhill. Just a couple of queries. I was in the main stand a few years back when we rented the stadium for our youth team to play it's matches there. Couldn't believe just how bad the main stand was & how out of date it was. Surely the old wooden stand is a clear fire hazard. So how is it allowed to be used for Premiership games...or any games in fact? Not mocking, serious question. As for the vacant end behind the goal, I remember reading in the paper a few years ago there were talks/plans to build flats there with a small seating area under it for about 800 seats if memory serves me right. Whatever happened to that idea & does anybody have any artists impressions etc of how this was going to work. Couldn't get my head around how they would work this with the limited space there.

I disagree with the overhang part. What 'soft touch' did we get with regards to that? We paid for the airspace above the cemetery and built over it. Not uncommon in the construction trade. I also sit in that stand in the upper tier, just a few rows in front of the pillars & I've never felt the exits were crushing. It seems to work ok on matchdays & there is never an issue. As for the pie stall queue in that corner. Can only recall being in there a couple of seasons back for a one-off game in the cup when the upper tier was closed and I don't remember people queuing up & standing on exit stairs on that occassion. Was it a Scotland game or a Celtic game you were at? Maybe different fans naturally didn't really know the way the queue normally snakes & it ended up like that. Although sometimes on rare occasions the queues at Celtic games in my own section can go differently to how they normally go. It's the sheep affect. Someone stands in the wrong bit and the next person just blindly stands behind them. Stewards should maybe do more in terms of crowd control here.