Timmy RAGING over Spiers article

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
Rocket

Rocket

Well-Known Member
Feb 4, 2010
3,902
487
83
NULL
Hope Spiersy knows a good Glazier....<whistle>

This is supposed to be a time when all the despair belongs to Rangers, but any time you are near Celtic Park these days you can sense an unease around the place. On Wednesday night, Celtic face HJK Helsinki in Glasgow in a third qualifying round for the Champions League, and anything other than a successful route to the play-offs for that competition will trigger further tension. In this, of all seasons, Celtic need Champions League football.

You have to whisper this at times, because some Celtic supporters are indignant at the suggestion, but Rangers’ demise is sorely felt by the corporate Celtic.

The very spice of Neil Lennon’s job is in taking on his Old Firm rivals for the SPL title, and Lennon is on record as saying he loves going to Ibrox. But all that is gone for him with Rangers’ exile to the Irn-Bru third division.

Celtic supporters like to crow that, while they are contemplating Europe’s big guns on the field, Rangers’ agenda is now all about Brechin City, East Stirlingshire and trips to Annan.
Well, that’s not how Lennon views it. The Celtic manager, while acknowledging that Rangers deserve their punishment, doesn’t find his job half as exciting without them.

Nor is it just Ibrox crowds that will be very telling in the weeks and months ahead. How will the wider Celtic faithful respond to the possibility of a one-horse title race, let alone, heaven forbid, a season without any Champions League football?

My bet is this: there will be many a Celtic fan who, having revelled in Rangers’ disintegration, suddenly finds the season ahead a lot less enticing.

The afternoon of Saturday July 28 at Parkhead was a case in point. An unimpressive 15,000 turned up to watch what was justifiably billed as a “glamour” pre-season friendly between Celtic and Internazionale. Notwithstanding that we live in an age of austerity, when supporters are counting their money, there was a hint here of apathy surrounding Celtic.

The club itself, as it had to, publicly brushed aside any suggestion of disappointment at this attendance, but it would have been noted with mild apprehension.

Peter Lawwell, the Celtic CEO, will certainly be feeling the heat these days. Lawwell cannot escape the fact that Celtic’s relationship with Rangers, as terse as it can be, is box-office. With the Old Firm now temporarily divorced, the Celtic chief-executive somehow has to find ways of spicing up the menu for his club’s supporters.

How many season-tickets will Celtic sell this season? The club is cagey about that, too. The appetite of 10 years ago, when 54,000 season-tickets would be sold during the Martin O’Neill era, seems long gone.

In recent seasons that figure has dipped sharply, and the worry for Celtic now is that the psychological barrier of 40,000-plus season-books will not be reached. If or when that ever happens, the alarm bells will be jangling.

Lawwell has already betrayed signs of the gathering mood. In sending out his “begging letter” to Celtic supporters recently to snap up season-tickets, he duly hinted at a slower than usual uptake. “We need you back at Celtic Park,” Lawwell told his fan-base bluntly.

In the same letter he aimed a barb at ‘newco’ Rangers when he spoke about Celtic’s “125 unbroken years” of history. In truth, the Celtic chief should probably leave that sort of stuff to the stands and the message-boards.

Celtic should sweep aside HJK Helsinki over 180 minutes. The Glasgow club is 10 times the size of their opponents, with a far superior budget.

Yet all this only increases the pressure on Lennon and Lawwell to hold firm and deliver their club to the Champions League group-stage. The Europa League – the lesser, uglier sibling to the Champions League – is poor consolation.

In terms of crowing and bragging this has been a momentous summer for Celtic supporters. Given Rangers’ severe discomfort, for many of them life could scarcely seem better.

The more discerning Celtic supporter, however, may be wary of the weeks and months ahead.
Click to expand...

Well slap ma boaby !

I never thought Spiers had it in him.

Well said, Graham <applause><applause><applause>
 
Read this this morning.


This is my favourite bit

The afternoon of Saturday July 28 at Parkhead was a case in point. An unimpressive 15,000 turned up to watch what was justifiably billed as a &#8220;glamour&#8221; pre-season friendly between Celtic and Internazionale. Notwithstanding that we live in an age of austerity, when supporters are counting their money, there was a hint here of apathy surrounding Celtic.

The club itself, as it had to, publicly brushed aside any suggestion of disappointment at this attendance, but it would have been noted with mild apprehension.
Click to expand...

Using attendance figures for a friendly outwith the season book to declare apathy <doh>

One can only imagine how he would describe 28,000 for a European game of 14,000 for a Scottish Cup game.

Yup. Celtic supporters are wary of the weeks and months ahead - I mean, what if we get knocked out of Europe and are third in the table - it'll be painted as a fate worse than Div 3.

This pish was always to be expected.

Using my mystical crystal ball, I predict that, should we be ahead in the league, it'll be described as "dour - support dwindling" etc and, should we not be ahead in the league, it'll be described as "disastrous".

To be expected <ok>
 
Lawwell:

" Please, please come back to sellik park, we need you, please, I beg you, we need you back."
Click to expand...

You can sense already it's all going horribly wrong......<laugh><applause><laugh>
 
Medro Pendes said:
Or a free to season ticket holders friendly that attracted 1800 people
Click to expand...

Aye, we've played some friendlies in front of small crowds - that particular one was supposed to make up for an unused European match cos we got pumped out.

I didn't go.

I was disappointed with the crowd vs Norwich considering it was kind of a freebie.

Sold out for Saturday - full tonight.

Somehow, I won't wait for a "the future is rosy thanks to a good attendance" story.
 
Rocket said:
Was the Norwich game free for Season Ticket holders ?


Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha.........................<laugh><laugh><laugh><laugh>
Click to expand...

He's referring to the one last season in the middle of the season.

Norwich game was only about half full.

I know this is tricky so I'll do it slowly.

It.

Was.

A.

Friendly.

Even so, it was better attended than Rangers last European match and last Scottish Cup match.
 
You must log in or register to see images

You must log in or register to see images


The Penn State fans are fcking furious <grr>

Spiersy's stuck it right up the lot of them...<laugh><laugh>
 
Cyber Cdr Shaftlength said:
He's referring to the one last season in the middle of the season.

Norwich game was only about half full.

I know this is tricky so I'll do it slowly.

It.

Was.

A.

Friendly.

Even so, it was better attended than Rangers last European match and last Scottish Cup match.
Click to expand...

Rangers had a midweek friendly in which over 40,000 turned up to watch Rangers Legends v AC Milan legends.
 
Deary me.


Let's go copying and pasting John Gow's and VB's responses to Spiers on Twitter or go get a pic of an empty Ibrox.


Nah, I'll just go and get my lunch.

As far as pointscoring goes chaps, you're a shadow of your former selves.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back