We never stop

 

We never stop

Watching Celtic falter to another predictable exit from European football in the Norwegian arctic was strangely not as depressing as it might have been. The team looked disinterested and sluggish in the first half against a well drilled and fast-moving team. Perhaps it was the first leg deficit and the fact that the likelihood of Celtic turning it around was slim. More likely it was the unfolding tragedy in Ukraine which puts sport into its proper context.  Few things please me more than Celtic doing well but it all pales into insignificance when we watch the suffering of others.

It has long been a mystery to supporters that teams with a fraction of the resources Celtic has at its disposal, can develop sides which regularly give the hoops real trouble in Europe.  Bodo Glimt play in a town with a population smaller than Paisley or Cumbernauld and yet their coaching and youth system seems to be very successful. The team plays to an average crowd of under 4000 and has won the Norwegian league for the past two seasons. Their style of play, play acting apart, is attractive to watch and not dissimilar to the style Ange Postecoglou is looking to develop at Celtic.

Developing a pattern of play which is instilled into every level of the club - from youth players to the first team, takes time and the early signs are promising at Celtic Park. Few of us expected a club in transition to be challenging for the title this season, especially after the club dragged its heels for over a hundred days waiting for Eddie Howe to make up his mind. Ange has brought in virtually a whole team and in football, that changing of the guard is seldom smooth. His ‘we never stop’ mantra has seen Celtic overcome a sticky start to the league campaign, in which the first three away games were lost and Celtic sat sixth in the table, to now sit three points clear at the top with eleven matches remaining.

Celtic fans are no fools, they know the results in Europe and recent stuttering form in matches against Raith Rovers and Dundee mean that nothing can be taken for granted. They would also have watched Rangers knocking Dortmund out of Europe and know the boost this will have given them although remaining in Europe will also put added demands on their squad as the domestic season reaches its climax. Celtic now begin the most telling part of their season at Easter Road on Sunday. How this new side reacts to the pressures of ‘must win’ games every week remains to be seen but we can be confident that Ange will prepare them well and give them the belief and organisation required. European football is over for this season and those ties with Bodo Glimt must not affect the team’s confidence at this vital stage of the season. Celtic has won over a dozen games this season by one goal and while that shows real fighting spirit, it also demonstrates the fine margins involved in putting in a real title challenge. The upcoming matches are going to test the team’s title credentials to the maximum and they need to turn up at Easter Road, Livingston and Ibrox and demonstrate that they are up for the fight. Livingston have proved a tough nut to crack for Celtic in recent times and the hoops have spilled four points to the West Lothian club in two games this season. That needs to be addressed before any mental block develops there. They must also ensure that there are no slip ups in home matches to the so called, lesser sides, in the SPFL. The two derby matches left on the fixture list will also be pivotal. Celtic’s comfortable victory over Rangers in the early days of February will give the team a lot of belief.

The support remains solidly behind Ange Postecoglou and can see the progress the side has made. Few of us expected that his side would be in such a challenging position a mere eight months after he took over but as we reach the business end of the season, the club is in with a fighting chance of pulling off a remarkable turnaround. We need total focus now. The team needs to fight for every point and the supporters need to back them every step of the way. No silly squabbles with the board over flares, no empty zones in the stadium, just a club and their fans united in a common purpose; to put Celtic back where they belong- at the pinnacle of Scottish football.

The future starts today, be relentless Celtic and never stop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parcel

 

Parcel

It is said that modern technology has shrunk the work and allowed people from all over to interact. Social media, for all of its inherent flaws, has also allowed people to exchange views on every topic under the sun and introduced me personally to some great people. One then was the irrepressible ‘Parcel 0  Rogues’ otherwise known as David Brown. His online persona could be brash, funny and often caustic but he challenged the haters and hypocrites wherever he found them. His avatar, an image of Fagan as played by Ron Moody in the movie ‘Oliver’ was familiar to thousands of us on twitter.

David and I share a love of Celtic Football Club and our early interactions on Twitter were all about the ups and downs of our team. He encouraged me to follow fans of other teams on Twitter as is helped counteract the tendency of social media to become an echo chamber of like-minded people. He loved his team and told me he had first seen them in action in April 1977 in a match against Aberdeen and was smitten. Those of you who have that emotional bond with your team will know how strong that can be and despite David’s life taking his to the USA, he never lost that affinity with Celtic. He could be withering in his assessment of them if they played poorly but loved the ideals the club stood for. Inclusion, charity and of course good football were the values he saw in his team and, like so many of us, his moods could be influenced by their results.

Our late-night conversations would focus on the things he loved most in life; his family and Celtic. It was very much in that order with him as Siobhan and his boys were his pride and joy. He knew pain in his life as well as joy and was philosophical about it most of the time although some things he carried with him on his journey. Dave was a generous guy and first to support my annual charity fundraiser. Last year he won a beautiful signed and  framed portrait of Odsonne Edouard in one of my lottery style draws and immediately contacted me to say I should give it to the group I was supporting. That’s the sort of man he was.

Our last conversation in January was a poignant one. He was discussing his views on religion and spirituality and said to me…

‘Like all of us, I’ve been through heartbreak my friend. But my ma taught me I’m no better or worse than anyone else. Every single day I thank God, because I’ve had so many days since then knowing just how much people love me. When it’s my time, I’ll go to face the music.’

We’ll all miss David and his alter-ego, ‘Parcel.’ Life can be fickle and at times cruel. He was just 56 when his journey ended and  it may be of some comfort to his family in these dark days for them to know that many people enjoyed his humour, his wit and his humanity. Like us all, he was a complex human being but his decency shone through and he touched the lives of many.

Rest easy, pal and thanks for the laughs, the advice, the honesty and kindness.

 

David Brown (Parcel O’Rogues)

Family man, Celtic fan and a good guy.

 

All Aboard

 

All Aboard

Walking along the Gallowgate towards the bright lights of Celtic Park on Wednesday night, you could feel that old electricity in the air. Man and boy I’ve walked that walk, and in days long gone it would be the tall pylon, standing like a lighthouse in the darkness, that would guide us to the old stadium. As the rivers of green clad humanity flowed towards the new place, their songs rising into the dark Glasgow sky, you could feel something was afoot. There was hope in their hearts that at last the ghost of last season could be exorcised. Yes, Celtic were missing key players and had a poor record in derbies in the past couple of years but this was a new Celtic side, full of heart and running. Ange Postecoglou also has them playing a brand of fast, attacking football which if not always getting the rewards it deserves, at least promised to give Celtic a fighting chance.

The decision of Rangers to deny Celtic any tickets for Ibrox this season meant Celtic reciprocated. Their players would therefore be entering a noisy bear pit at Celtic Park as 60,000 of the noisiest fans in Europe were arrayed against them. Not since the legendary Barcelona game of 2012 have I seen the stadium as animated and raucous. The players came out to a wall of noise and Rangers on loan ‘wonder kid’ Amad Diallo looked visibly nervous at the assault on his senses he was experiencing. From those first moments when the whole stadium roared out ‘You’ll never walk alone,’ the fans kept up an incessant racket which cascaded onto the pitch and had the desired effect of driving Celtic on from the very first moment of the game.

They played at a high tempo throughout and harried and hounded their opponents into errors. This was exemplified when Croatian internationalist, Borna Barisic tried to start an attack down Celtic’s right flank. He was met by a turbo charged Callum McGregor who forced him back into his own half, before the experienced Rangers player passed the ball back towards his own goal keeper as McGregor audibly snarled ‘shite-bag!’ at him. Celtic were up for this game and every single player in the famous old hooped shirts demonstrated a degree of hunger and desire to win that had been lacking at times last season.

Abada, the hero with a late winner against a Dundee United side, which in truth offered more resistance at Celtic Park than Rangers did, ran Barisic ragged.  With Jota on the other flank and supporting full backs joining in attacks at every opportunity, Celtic carried threat with every attack. The 3-0 half-time lead could easily have been 5 or 6 but the game was effectively over when the ever-alert Abada raced past the flat-footed Barisic to score the third goal. This though, was a team performance, typified by Joe Hart racing from goal to snatch the ball from the feet of Arfield and immediately look to begin an attack. A moment later Hatate was curling the ball past McGregor at the other end. It was as solid a team performance as we’ve seen in Ange’s time and as he explained after the game, the team is improving week by week but still has a lot of developing to do. Hatate is still not fully fit and will be an even more impressive player when he is.  

Their emphatic 3-0 win over their rivals puts Celtic at the top of the table and perhaps ahead of where many thought they would be at this point in the team’s restructuring. The fact that they destroyed Rangers with key men like Rogic, Turnbull and Kyogo missing augurs well for the future. No one is fooling themselves that it is any more than a big win as there are still many twists and turns to come this season. It is however a major bursting of the Ibrox bubble as they now know they have a real fight on their hands. Last season’s meek surrender of the title hurt a lot of Celtic fans, but the class of 2022 won’t be brushed aside so easily.

When the season was in its infancy, Ange Postecoglou castigated a journalist for suggesting the league was over after Celtic lost their first three away games. Celtic were six points off the pace and sitting in sixth spot in the table, having collected just ten points from the first seven matches. He shook his head and commented…

 ‘It’s a weird league, you call things early here, don’t you? It’s remarkable that seven games in people are calling the title already. It’s just not how I work. I’m not pulling up stumps after seven games just because other people think there is some sort of insurmountable challenge for us. I know people are wanting to push me onto some kind of ledge somewhere but that’s not going to happen. I know what this club is all about and what the expectations are.’

His words are as true after Wednesday’s stirring victory as they were back in September. Nothing is settled in the league. Celtic is in a good position, playing well and full of confidence, but no more than that. There are almost 50 points still to be fought for so it’s one game at a time. Postecoglou said…

"Our end goal was not to be on top spot in February. Being where we are at the moment means that we've progressed, we've improved and we're a step closer to the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to be successful at the end of the year. I haven't sensed any change in mood or atmosphere amongst the players. They've come in today ready to work hard and to get ready for what's going to be a difficult game on Sunday."

The Eddie Howe saga now seems a distant dream as Celtic fans take their new boss to their hearts. Some have spoken of ‘dodging a bullet’ with Howe although we’ll never know how he would have fared in Scotland. What we do know is that the man in the manager’s chair has done a tremendous job in building a team in just six short months. When Postecoglou’s Yokohama F Marinos side played Manchester City in a very competitive friendly in 2019. Pep Guardiola raved about the style of play the Japanese side adopted. They gave a full-strength City a real fight before losing 3-1; City’s third coming in the 94^th minute of a game in which the J League side had 58% possession. Guardiola said…

"Yokohama played some incredible football and they were an incredible test for us. I knew how good they were and it was tough for us,"

Raheem Sterling was also suitably impressed by how Postecoglou’s side played and said after the game…

"They’re probably one of the best teams I’ve seen play out from the back and they played some great football so it was a great test for us.’

That is the measure of what Postecoglou wants to achieve at Celtic. He wants the Hoops to be competitive not only in Scotland but also in the European arena. That journey has only just begun and there are exciting times ahead.

All aboard the Ange Express! It’s going to be quite a ride!