36 years, how much longer?

[Jacksgranda]

So we're now reduced to point scoring about whose failed title challenge was the least bad? Wonderful.

 

[gannonball]

41 minutes ago, Hoose Rice said:

Then they would have done the next best thing - weaken Aberdeen and sign a couple of their players.   If the league was in serious danger dont kid yourself money wouldnt have been thrown at it. 

I agree we would have had the capacity to do that but our board were very complacent over this period.

34 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

You think Celtic weren’t bothered about qualifying for the CL? 

Judging by our lack of planning for it and cutting our budget year on year  I don’t think the board were tbh. Lawwell was just happy to win the league and get any sort of group stage European football.

32 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

Maybe not overly panicked about Aberdeen making it, but concerned with themselves not making it, absolutely. And I think you're playing the classic OF supporter game of playing up the jeopardy your side faced.

Firstly, you did have Griffiths, and he did score loads of goals.

Secondly, you did win the league comfortably. With seven games to go Celtic were seven points clear. It was won with three games to spare.

Thirdly, Celtic clearly had the financial clout, and, nobody really doubts, the will, to spend a bit more if necessary. Aberdeen didn't.

I’m not playing up our achievements at all more pointing out our complacency which could have bit us on the arse. We would have had the capacity to improve our squad if we needed to but whether the board would have been worried enough to spend is another thing.
We were downsizing really at this time which is why we ended up with Lennon as nobody of note wanted the job, then we appointed a guy who was initially interviewed for the assistants job as couldn’t get anyone really again.

Edited July 26, 2022 by gannonball

[Forever_blueco]

1 minute ago, gannonball said:

I agree we would have had the capacity to do that but our board were very complacent over this period.

Judging by our lack of planning for it and cutting our budget year on year  I don’t think the board were tbh. Lawwell was just happy to win the league and get any sort of group stage European football.

I’m not playing up our achievements at all more pointing out our complacency which could have bit us on the arse. We would have had the capacity to improve our squad if we needed to but whether the board would have been worried enough to spend. 
We were downsizing really at this time which is why we ended up with Lennon as nobody of note wanted the job, then we appointed a guy who was initially interviewed for the assistants job as couldn’t get anyone really again.

Didn’t lawell or someone on the Celtic board state that Celtic should be aiming to qualify for the the champions league on average 3 out of every 5 seasons either around deila’s appointment or a season or two before it ? 

[VincentGuerin]

11 minutes ago, gannonball said:

I’m not playing up our achievements at all more pointing out our complacency which could have bit us on the arse. We would have had the capacity to improve our squad if we needed to but whether the board would have been worried enough to spend. 
We were downsizing really at this time which is why we ended up with Lennon as nobody of note wanted the job, then we appointed a guy who was initially interviewed for the assistants job as couldn’t get anyone really again.

The point is, it wasn't close to biting you on the arse. You won the league at a stroll.

And you wouldn't have had to replace Griffiths with another 31-goal striker. As mentioned, you won the league with three games to spare. You could have replaced him with someone less prolific and won it anyway. And Celtic would have done.

You could have managed fine without his hat-trick in the 8-1 win over Accies, or his goal against Dundee in the 6-0 win, or his injury-time goal when you beat ICT 3-0.

Of course he scored important goals, but the idea Celtic would have been at serious risk without him is over-doing it.

Edited July 26, 2022 by VincentGuerin

[gannonball]

8 minutes ago, Forever_blueco said:

Didn’t lawell or someone on the Celtic board state that Celtic should be aiming to qualify for the the champions league on average 3 out of every 5 seasons either around deila’s appointment or a season or two before it ? 

Pass, if they did it was probs based on looking back at MON and Strachan times but the budgets are a fair bit different now for regular champions qualifying teams. We definitely could have qualified a few times more if we weren’t so slow in the summer transfer market though.

We played qualifiers without strikers or just having one fit centre back which is ridiculous really when you know what is at stake.

Edited July 26, 2022 by gannonball

[TheScarf]

How were Celtic's titles tainted?  I'll need someone to run that one by me.

[Trackdaybob]

21 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:

Of course he scored important goals, but the idea Celtic would have been at serious risk without him is over-doing it.

Or desperately trying to validate a meager stroll to yet another title as something more meaningful and relevant 

[ahemps]

26 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

How were Celtic's titles tainted?  I'll need someone to run that one by me.

This tickles me that Rangers fans see it this way because they weren't there to challenge Celtic but fail to see the titles they won by making illegal payments to players is a much bigger claim to be 'tainted'

[TheScarf]

4 minutes ago, ahemps said:

This tickles me that Rangers fans see it this way because they weren't there to challenge Celtic but fail to see the titles they won by making illegal payments to players is a much bigger claim to be 'tainted'

Is that what they're claiming?  Because they weren't there for 4 years those titles are 'tainted? Fuck me 

[Richey Edwards]

3 minutes ago, ahemps said:

This tickles me that Rangers fans see it this way because they weren't there to challenge Celtic but fail to see the titles they won by making illegal payments to players is a much bigger claim to be 'tainted'

It's not Celtic's fault that the other horse in a two horse race died.

[ahemps]

Just now, TheScarf said:

Is that what they're claiming?  Because they weren't there for 4 years those titles are 'tainted? f**k me 

I thought that is what you were referring to but yes I have heard this numerous times. They also claim the covid title was tainted but don't see that it probably saved Gerrards job because if Celtic had won another treble under his watch (which they eventually did) in front of full stadia I don't think he'd have survived......but he did and it turned out well for him and Rangers.

[Jacksgranda]

1 hour ago, TheScarf said:

How were Celtic's titles tainted?  I'll need someone to run that one by me.

Of course Celtic's titles weren't tainted. It's just something the Rangers fans throw at Celtic fans in the hope of getting a bite. Sometimes it works.

[Hoose Rice]

42 minutes ago, Richey Edwards said:

It's not Celtic's fault that the other horse in a two horse race died.

Only wish they went down the pan too. 

[Richey Edwards]

2 minutes ago, Hoose Rice said:

Only wish they went down the pan too. 

Yep.

[Monkey Tennis]

30 minutes ago, Jacksgranda said:

Of course Celtic's titles weren't tainted. It's just something the Rangers fans throw at Celtic fans in the hope of getting a bite. Sometimes it works.

Not tainted.

Merely hollow.

Everything both clubs ever win, is.

[Jimmain]

2 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Not tainted.

Merely hollow.

Everything both clubs ever win, is.

This...a million times this...ever since Murray arrived on the scene and decided to buy the League and the only institution who could possible keep up was Celtic...even then after they too almost went bust. 

The self congratulatory arse-licking and pure 'SCENES' that conclude each season from whichever side of the cheeks has won whatever fucking bauble they deem most significant that wretched year never ceases to amaze me. What the f**k did they think would happen at the beginning of the season?

...it's that 'YAAAAAASSSS' from the purple faced OF supporting mate as his team of multi millionaires score that winner against you in the 94th minute...it no longer fucking hurts. It no longer fucking matters.

They made sure of that...nobody else.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

The point about whether or not Aberdeen really threatened a few years back, is that it's only really open for debate at all because Rangers were not in the picture.

That's what's key here.  Celtic probably did get a bit complacent in Rangers' absence.  Their gates dropped, they struggled in Europe and they kept losing domestic Cup Ties.  It was only when the re -birth got promoted to the top flight that they upped their game again, appointing Rodgers, allowing them to win everything for years. 

Without their sister club for company though, they had withered a bit and come closer to the pack.  It's not just Celtic and Rangers as individual powerhouses that are the problem.  It's the fucking duopoly itself.

[BFTD]

2 hours ago, TheScarf said:

Is that what they're claiming?  Because they weren't there for 4 years those titles are 'tainted? f**k me 

They started with that pish before the SFA licence had even been transferred from the old club to the new one.

32 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

The point about whether or not Aberdeen really threatened a few years back, is that it's only really open for debate at all because Rangers were not in the picture.

That's what's key here.  Celtic probably did get a bit complacent in Rangers' absence.  Their gates dropped, they struggled in Europe and they kept losing domestic Cup Ties.  It was only when the re -birth got promoted to the top flight that they upped their game again, appointing Rodgers, allowing them to win everything for years. 

Without their sister club for company though, they had withered a bit and come closer to the pack.  It's not just Celtic and Rangers as individual powerhouses that are the problem.  It's the fucking duopoly itself.

...and our press, along with the people running the game, spent those years whining about the terrible effect that Rangers' absence was having on "the game". Because by "the game", they meant attendances at Celtic matches, and the lack of Celtgers derbies for them to be glad-handed during. The fact that the rest of Scotland's teams were thriving was of no consequence.

Always a laugh when one of the press corps would let slip that nobody wanted to be going to Hamilton when they could've been enjoying the hospitality at Ibrox.

[Monkey Tennis]

17 minutes ago, BFTD said:

They started with that pish before the SFA licence had even been transferred from the old club to the new one.

...and our press, along with the people running the game, spent those years whining about the terrible effect that Rangers' absence was having on "the game". Because by "the game", they meant attendances at Celtic matches, and the lack of Celtgers derbies for them to be glad-handed during. The fact that the rest of Scotland's teams were thriving was of no consequence.

Indeed.

Who can forget the perspectives offered by idiots like Souness, breathlessly reported as if containing even a shred of worth?

[BFTD]

1 minute ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Indeed.

Who can forget the perspectives offered by idiots like Souness, breathlessly reported as if containing even a shred of worth?

Gordon Strachan must be quite pleased now that the top division is back in its' rightful order - all the big clubs present, and Dundee absolutely nowhere near. As God intended.