pete 2,499 Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 IT LOOKS like Celtic wonâ??t have any new signings in place for the Champions League qualifier at the end of the month. But Neil Lennon insists heâ??s happy to face one of the biggest games of the clubâ??s season with the players already at his disposal. Lennonâ??s squad is seven players down from last season and Ki Sung-Yueng will miss the first venture into Europe because heâ??s in the South Korea squad for the Olympic Games. Georgios Samaras, Emilio Izaguirre and Victor Wanyama have also yet to play in pre-season as they recover from the exertions of international duty. But Celtic boss Lennon is refusing to panic. He said: â??I would have liked at least one player with us on tour in Germany so I could have bedded him in. â??But if I have to go into Europe with the squad I have then Iâ??ll be happy, especially if weâ??re up to speed and our main players are fit and raring to go. â??Iâ??d have liked to have found a centre-back and a centre-forward and the sooner we get both of those things done, the better â??Weâ??ve identified players we want but the club might need to generate money before we can spend it. â??The possibility is that if we donâ??t have any new players by the time we play Norwich in a friendly on July 25, there will be none signed in time for the European qualifiers.â? I hope they get tanked in the first round then we will see how much they needed us. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dutchy Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 They may do better at porkhied, but they'll get thrashed at the away game. I thin they'll then go to the Europa, and do more or less the same as last year. Maybe 5 points total, but a wee bit of cash. It'll be more interesting what they'll be like a year from now. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrahimHemdani 1 Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 They may do better at porkhied, but they'll get thrashed at the away game. I thin they'll then go to the Europa, and do more or less the same as last year. Maybe 5 points total, but a wee bit of cash. It'll be more interesting what they'll be like a year from now. Or two or three years from now when their attendances are down to 25 -30,000. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dutchy Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 Or two or three years from now when their attendances are down to 25 -30,000. ha ha, do you think they'll welcome us back by having a party? lol 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted July 16, 2012 Share Posted July 16, 2012 You really have to wonder what Celtic fans have to look forward to. It's all very well being handed an almost guaranteed title before the league even begins - and displaying your schadenfreude for your rivals with big attendances for the first season - but then what? We thrived for a while when Celtic became an non-entity during NIAR but the circumstances were totally different. We were one of the best teams in Europe, buying up top class players, and actually believed we had a realistic chance of winning the CL. Not only that, we still had a somewhat relatively competitive and somewhat glamorous league to play in. It wasn't so long after Fergie had left Aberdeen and they hadn't sunk as low as they have now and Hearts had a bit of money to spend. Both those clubs were spending the likes of £1m on a single player - which would be a lot more in today's money and of the same ball park as middling English Premier clubs, and yet that amount while devalued, is now unheard of. Even Dundee could find the money to unearth unlikely international gems such as Claudio Caniggia and Dariusz Adamczuk. The league Celtic will be playing in will be more of the standard of the First Division of the 90's. Their realistic aspirations in Europe will be qualification for the Europa league before going out without winning an away game. Instead of lots of new money coming into the league, old money will be leaving in droves. By the time we get back to the SPL, I imagine they will have jaded immensely. Crowds will be down, income vastly reduced and trying to attract decent players will be difficult and they may end up paying way over the odds just to bring in mediocre has-beens who lack ambition. The most exciting thing that will happen to them will be the return of the famous Rangers - but I suspect their bitterness will greet that with derision instead of giving them a fillip. As the ones who will have been rebuilding from the bottom up both in league terms and in the structure of our club, fresh faced in the latest challenge and motivated to win, I think we could have a massive advantage. Our glory hunters will also come out of the woodwork - and love them or hate them, they will add to our coffers. We will be sailing on the wind of a romantic comeback, a great catharsis and renewal. We'll be the fancied underdogs that will have many wanting us to smash the tedious, monotonous, monopoly of the league. We actually collapsed from a more favourable position from being a rich, European contender while our rivals were facing bankruptcy, to being the ones who went bankrupt themselves while Celtic prospered. It seems a natural occurrence that often happens in society and there is a good chance it will happen again. There is nothing better than the story of the fall and subsequent rise... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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