13 midfielders but will it be enough?

With Celtic bringing in Israeli midfielder Beram Kayal, some fans have been wondering why the club have spent more money on another midfielder?

Even before Wednesday night’s capitulation in Braga, the Celtic backline and goalkeeping spot were under close scrutiny and they failed the first test of the new season. This means that the need to bring in centre halfs, a left back and even a goalkeeper should be pressing matters for the club.

This is why there has been some concern over the fact that another midfielder has been added to the squad but Celtic may not be as overburdened in that area as you would first think.

A look at the Celtic website suggests the club has 13 midfielders in their first team squad.

3 of these players are youngsters so you can overlook Simon Ferry, who appears to be on his way to Swindon Town anyway, as well as Ryan Conroy and Charlie Grant. This takes the number of midfielders down to 10.

Aiden McGeady is on the list as well and it would appear that he will be leaving the club shortly. The official line is that Aiden McGeady missed the Braga match because of an injury but many believe he was removed from the match squad to prevent him from being cup-tied.

This leaves the midfield with 9 players and it has to be said that Lennon doesn’t appear to fancy Marc Crosas, with the Catalan player only featuring in emergencies or when the game may not be the most important in the mind of the manager.

So that leaves the Celtic midfield down to 8 players.

Of these, it has to be said that wide men Shaun Maloney, Paddy McCourt and Niall McGinn have all suffered injury problems and it would be a brave manager that put all his faith in them. This leaves you with a core of five players:

Efrain Juarez
Scott Brown
Joe Ledley
Ki Sung Yueng
And new signing Beram Kayal

There is every chance that Aiden McGeady will be replaced, the rumours about Liam Lawrence refuse to go away, or there may be a hope that one of the afore mentioned trio of McGinn, McCourt and Maloney can step up to the plate to replace the Republic of Ireland international.

However, if Celtic are planning to play a 4-5-1 (or 4-3-3) or whatever variant is popular this week, they may find themselves short of numbers if injuries and suspension kick in.

It has to be said that Celtic’s top priorities are the left back, centre half and striking position so there needs to be action on improving these positions.

However, thinking that the Celtic midfield is settled is not quite true either. We wouldn’t be surprised to see a few more changes in the middle of the park for Celtic as well as the other positions on the field.

How many more changes do you think Celtic need to make?

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Hoops have it all to do

Before we start, we appreciate it is still very early on and we are in no way ruling Celtic out of the running this season….or indeed for the second leg. Trophies and medals are never won in July so let’s not get carried away but based on the first competitive match of the season, Celtic do not look to be improved from last season.

The sponsor on the front of the shirt may change and some of the names on the back may be different but it appeared to be the same old Celtic as the 2009/10 season. The first goal they lost came from a shambolic decision by the officials, the second came from a corner that couldn’t have been defended in a weaker manner and the third goal was a huge blunder by Lukas Zaluska.

If David James’ agent has anything about him, he will march into Celtic Park and ask for an extra few grand per week after that showing from the Polish stopper. In all fairness, Zaluska had nothing else to do all game apart from pick the ball out of the net three times but it’s hard to put a positive spin on that.

In trying to look at the positives, Efrain Juarez had a strong debut although he may have dipped later on as tiredness take over. Apart from that, it was hard to see any positive signs from Celtic…Cha Du Ri never really let anyone down but too many players once again failed to show when it was required.

Celtic captain Scott Brown managed a performance entirely fitting of his Celtic career to date, as did Glenn Loovens. In the middle of rebuilding his squad, Neil Lennon should listen very carefully to any bids made for these players. Jos Hoiveld was no great shakes alongside Loovens but he still managed to stand well above the Dutch defender.

Charles ‘Charlton’ Mulgrew….or Charlie Brown as one wag at the bar had dubbed him….lived up to all expectations placed upon him. A sweet left foot cross, a shot that will have goalkeepers scrambling but absolutely no defensive talent or nous to speak of.

However, it would be harsh to single out any player as being particularly worse than the others. It would have been easy for many to quip during the second half that they never knew Maloney, Ledley, Yeung or Samaras had been brought on.

3-0 down probably suggests that Celtic have too much to do in the home leg, even if Braga showed they had nothing special about them. The problem was, they still managed to look far more cohesive and together than Celtic.

It’s early doors but the 4-3-3 / 4-5-1 hybrid didn’t work for Celtic and the tactics or formation will need to be worked upon…and quickly.

The Emirates tournament gives Neil Lennon two more opportunities to tinker before the home tie and who knows, if Celtic grab an early home goal, they could set up an almighty European comeback.

If that happens, the thunder may be back at Celtic Park. On tonight’s showing though, it may be more damp squibs and weak showers than thunder!

Are Celtic bound for the Europa qualifiers?

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Touched by madness? More than a few are.

Let’s make something very clear…we don’t like James the band, their music or their smug annoying faces. However, it’s a cheap pun for us to use and that’s always going to make it likely to be used.

The news that the proposed talks between Celtic and David James, said to be taking place today, have been postponed will leave many saying “I told you so.”

There has been a suggestion by some that James, like others before him, was using Celtic to drum up interest from other clubs. We don’t see that as the case, we hardly think the English number one keeper being available on a free transfer needs to drum up more interest in himself.

Some will panic and moan, others will point to the teachings of Don Draper and lecture about how you must always “seal the deal” but they key word, at the moment, is postponed.

Not cancelled, shelved, laughed at or shot down in flames, but postponed.

It appears to be a busy day at Celtic Park with Efrain Juzarez being unveiled at around 1430 and Gary Hooper looking to be on the brink of signing. All this and preparations for Wednesday’s Champions League qualifier against Braga may have really stretched Neil Lennon’s time.

Also, as David James got married yesterday, he may have one or two other things on his mind.

So….if Celtic can start talks with James on Thursday or Friday, there isn’t any real need for concern but of course, that’s a long time in football.

We’ve had some discussion about David James already and the opinion appears split so not everyone will be dismayed at this delay but with such a public courting of a high profile keeper, how will Lukas Zaluska react to having the spotlight back on him in Wednesday’s crucial match?

Also, what’s more annoying about James (the band)? The music or they t-shirts?

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Season book holders get in for free

Celtic have just announced a pre-season friendly at home to Blackburn Rovers on Sunday 8th of August. This game will feature as part of the season book package, giving fans two free games (well, its part of the ticket price, two non league games if we’re being pedantic) before the SPL season kicks off.

The lessons of last season when Celtic had to arrange a late end of season friendly with AZ Alkmaar to meet the contractual requirements of their season books have clearly been learned.

The thing is, it was said that Celtic were playing Real Vallodolid at Celtic Park as part of the preparations to the SPL campaign but this match appears to have dropped off the radar. The Blackburn Rovers match may be instead of the game against the Spanish side.

Either way, it means Celtic will be pitting their wits against the silky total-football skills of Big Sam Allardyce’s team. Hold on…it means Celtic will be pitting their wits against the uncompromising and unpleasing on the eye Big Sam Allardyce’s team.

Say what you want about Sam…and we usually do…but he gets results and work rate and apart from that spell as Newcastle manager has marked himself out as one of the most consistent managers in the EPL.

Best league in the world my erchie…..

Anyways, this completes a Glasgow doubler for Blackburn as the English club are set to face Rangers in Australia in the next few days. You may recall a few years back, Rovers then captain Gary Flitcroft remarked (after a 1-0 defeat) that a game versus Celtic was like men against boys.

With the Rangers squad down in size, in the eyes of Martin Bain, being limited to 13 players, Blackburn may be facing the boys of Rangers in Oz!

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Will the English number 1 be the new Celtic keeper?

The internet
Batman movies
Skoda cars

All of these things were a bit rubbish and naff in the 1990s but through hard work, proper marketing or us all forgetting the bad moments, they’ve managed to gain a level of respectability. It just shows how opinions change over time…if you let them.

We’ve been keeping an eye on the David James to Celtic stories because we’ll let you into a secret here; we think David James is an excellent goalkeeper.

Yes, we remember the Calamity nickname.

Who could forget the gaffes in FA Cup finals for Liverpool and Aston Villa resulting in 1-0 defeats.

Of course the blundered goals that James puts down to playing his Gameboy for a silly amount of consecutive hours on the bus stick with is, of course they do.

Thing is, how long ago were all these mistakes?

We are not going to say we know English football inside out or follow their national team that well but when did James last make a big mistake? (And we don’t mean the musician James Last, he’s made a lot of mistakes!!)

Yes, he played in goals for relegated Portsmouth last season but anytime we saw him, he was keeping a defeat from being a hiding.

As for the national team, if James started against USA, he would not have blundered in the manner Green did, England would have won the group, avoided Germany and faced a Ghana team they would have had a better chance of winning against.

Not saying they would have went further than that because there were a lot of problems with that team but David James in goals for the first match would have saw England top their group. His experience would have made the difference over a nervous Robert Green.

From the top of our minds, Robert Green, Ben Foster, Paul Robinson and even David Seaman have made more recent blunders for the English national team than David James. David Seaman is still regarded as a safe goalkeeper even though Ronaldinho and Nayim have both lobbed Seaman from distance in high profile matches, so why is James saddled with past mistakes?

Celtic need experience in goals and they need presence.

Lukas Zaluska is not a bad stopper but he lacks presence and him rushing off his line isn’t going to frighten a striker as much as a Boruc or a James would. Scoring goals and making saves has a lot to do with the players mind and if the goalie is a big name, the striker may just wobble a bit before shooting…and that could make all the difference.

Aside from that, we like David James.

He is an intelligent man, his weekly column in the Observer was a great read and showed him to have a good understanding of the game and football’s standing in the community and society. He also does a lot of work for charity and he is respected in the English media.

Sure, he was a daft boy and some of his haircuts are more than questionable but David James is a credit to his profession and is the sort of personality Scottish football could do with.

Whether you think he is the answer to Celtic’s problems, whether he can justify the wages or is he fully over the injury problems that have plagued him of late….who knows and all of these questions need to be answered by Neil Lennon.

However, David James is a long way removed from the keeper once known as Calamity…and maybe those that don’t see it are too busy playing their SNES or Megadrive, drinking Hooch and buying Loaded magazine for the latest pull-out poster of Yasmine Bleeth.

See…Yasmine Bleeth…some things that were brilliant back in the day are not so great now…much like some things that were naff in the 90s may have changed it around quite a bit.

What’s your take on David James?

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Official club website breaks the announcement

Ever since the draw was made on Friday, Celtic fans have been waiting for confirmation for the date and time of the away match against Braga in the Champions League qualifier. They are still waiting for confirmation of when the home game is to be played but the away game comes first.

Wednesday 28th of July is the date the Celtic website have announced.

The game will kick off 8pm local time.

We’re not the brightest so we’ve ran a few searches on Google and at the moment, the time in Portugal is running at the same time as the UK, which means the game will have an 8pm kick-off for fans in the UK.

Check it out here:
Western European Time

And whilst we are talking about time, do you think Celtic are running out of time to get new signings on board for the game?

Celtic finally won their first match of their North American tour on Sunday when they overcame a spirited performance from the Seattle Sounders to grab a 2-1 win. Samaras and Paddy McCourt were both on the score sheet and both players have seen speculation about their future in the past few days.

Paddy McCourt has been offered a two year deal with Celtic but with Blackpool sniffing around, the Irishman may decide that a trip to the English Premier League and the delights of the Pleasure Beach may be too much to ignore.

Do you think Celtic will be ready to take on Braga?

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Braga a tough test but could have been worse

The BBC website is pushing the headline “Celtic get tricky Braga Euro tie” which is fair enough but when you consider they avoided Zenit St Petersburg, Ajax, Dynamo Kiev and a trip to Turkey…it is hardly the worst out of all the ties.

That said, Celtic will still need to be on the ball and any complacency will be punished.

Scottish football fans only have to remember the confidence / arrogance shown by Rangers fans after the Champions League group stages draw last season. “Some pub team from Romania?”…we don’t think we need to discuss where Rangers finished in that group.

For further proof, what about the English at the World Cup. The Sun got the ball rolling with:
England
Algeria
Slovenia
Yanks

The best English group since The Beatles.

Well, we’re still laughing….

So…Celtic need to get their attitude right and the club doesn’t need to look back too far to find times they have let themselves down. Ross County, Clyde, Artmedia, Caley etc etc.

So, what about Braga?

They finished second in the Portuguese league, running Benfica close and finishing ahead of Porto and way ahead of Sporting Lisbon, who Celtic meet in America. This indicates the task that lies ahead of Celtic.

However, Braga will have a new manager in charge and the club have sold their No.1 goalkeeper to Italy.

Hold on…is that Braga or Celtic? They have also made nine signings so far this summer…which is a difference from Celtic!

So…can Neil Lennon get his bhoys beyond the tricky Braga test?

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Tricky start for Lennon and the bhoys

Celtic have been drawn against Portuguese side Braga in the third qualifying round for the Champions League. Celtic knew that their opponents were limited from a small bunch of teams so this is not the biggest surprise but now the specific preparation for Neil Lennon and his side can begin.

The hoops may be currently in America and with Manchester United on their mind with regards to their next friendly match but you can guarantee that the new Celtic management team will be putting their focus into this match.

After all, the match versus Braga will be the clubs first competitive match of the season and the first real chance for Neil Lennon to bring the thunder back to Celtic Park.

The Glasgow side have been drawn away from home in the first leg.

The dates for the legs are:
First leg will be on the 27th or 28th of July and
the second leg will be on the 3rd or 4th of August.

These games come either side of Celtic’s participation in the Emirates Cup in London.

Season book holders have been informed that this match will be on the season book, and with a pre-season friendly also on the season book, a repeat of last terms end of season friendly against AZ Alkmaar will not be required in order to fulfil the requirements of season book holders.

Many punters know that Tony Mowbray lost his first competitive match as Celtic boss, a 1-0 home defeat against Dynamo Moscow causing many people concern but Celtic rallied to win 2-0 in the away leg before succumbing to Arsenal in the final qualifying round.

This 3rd round tie represents a tough task for the new boss but any sort of passage to the next round will be extremely welcome. At the very least, victory in this round will guarantee Europa League football for Celtic but the teams that Celtic could face in the fourth round, whilst all tough opponents, are not as tricky on paper as the ones Celtic would have been drawn against last season.

That is getting ahead of ourselves though, first of all, Celtic have to get it right against Braga.

Do you think Lenny and the bhoys will overcome the challenge of the Portuguese side?

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Time for Lennon to go?

Who remembers the good old days when Celtic would lose a pre-season friendly and the Daily Record would have a cracked crest and 6 page special on a club in crisis?

One game into their current tour and a loss to the team that makes that bland cheese-like spread may have the red tops twitching again.

Especially with Manchester United and Sporting Lisbon on the way before the bhoys return to Blighty.

The more sane amongst you would recognise it was merely a training exercise designed to raise fitness levels and not too much should be taken from it.

It does however make you question if Celtic are going about “breaking the American market” in the right manner?

We all know sporting Yanks, they love their local team and they love a winner. Celtic are able to tap into a huge ex-pat market in the USA but even these fans may feel a bit short-changed from the performances.

No one would really object if the Celtic players were still running around Lennoxtown at the moment…but that doesn’t bring in the dollars.

Anyways, Celtic lost 1-0, the Union had a man sent off very late on, there was a Paul Caddis goal chopped off for offside and Celtic hit the bar at the death.

As if it matters….

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Thigh injury or bye bye story?

It appears that some Celtic fans have given themselves some wailing and gnashing of teeth over the weekend that wasn’t quite required.

Joe Ledley has signed for Celtic and is jetting off to America and it appears that the stories of ensuring the 2009/10 season was over before signing him up may well have been true. For the saving of some money, can anyone argue about Celtic delaying the signing for a couple of days?

Dave Jones and Cardiff City fans need not comment!

The flight to Philadelphia sees Ledley joining up with his new team-mates and former Cardiff team-mate Glenn Loovens may be the first friendly face to fill Ledley in with all the goings on at the club. We’re not sure if Loovens is familiar with the back catalogue of ‘Chewin The Fat’ but it may be a “w*nk, w*nk, good guy, w*nk” moment.

Mind you, Neil Lennon appears to have lifted the dressing room after the Tony Mowbray Experience so it may be a more harmonious bunch at Celtic Park this season.

One player who is reportedly not jetting off to America is Aiden McGeady, with reports of a thigh injury ruling the Irish internationalist out of the trip. If that’s the case, fair enough, Niall McGinn is missing the trip through injury and no one is speculating about his future.

However, given the rumours and hearsay about Aiden McGeady and the latest tabloid tittle-tattle from Sunday, his absence in America will be met with suspicion. Artur Boruc is supposedly on the flight to America but there has also been speculation about his departure, with Fiorentina waiting in the wings with a bid of around £3.5m.

Apologies for the airport related puns in the previous paragraph, not all were intentional!

If Celtic were to lose McGeady and Boruc, there would be two important roles to fill in the team but the proceeds from the sales may just give Neil Lennon the sort of warchest or transfer kitty that the red tops salivate over.

The latest player linked with a move into Celtic is the Mexican defender / midfielder Effrain Juarez, who some sources indicate is all but signed for the Glasgow club. Mind you, other sources completely deny the story so we’ll need to wait a bit longer for that one.

And we haven’t even mentioned the Jimmy Bullard stories – surely he can’t seriously want £75,000 a week?

That originated from the Daily Mail so we aren’t going to speculate too long about that one.

Hoops fans, gearing up for another busy week searching the internet for transfer news?

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