Sorry, it's hard to view this article as anything other than a windup. Lordy Lordy, we didn't beat Celtic and the team isn't as good as last season, well isn't that a shock! It is definitely a fact that we failed with a " collection of talented individuals " that is a fact. It is not a fact that we have failed with a " collection of individuals with very little talent " although I stress here that this is not how I view the present team! We can afford to chill for a week or two while the manager sorts things out and can see where he is at, now isn't the time to be conceding defeat , 3 weeks before we kick a ball in competition. History shows us time and again, teams in pre season games can lose and play shabbily, understandable considering this is the time when they sort out any problems. So lets see how they pan out, and lets wait and see what the full squad looks like before condemning the team.
SB I don't think it is a wind up as while Iggy is fairly new here he was a regular poster on BBC606 and he saw the game in a fairly similar way to me. If a WUM he wouldn't have had that detail. However, we mustn't over react to only our 2nd game pre season when, as others have pointed out, Celtic start their SPL on Saturday so are much further advanced than us. There were some bright points and 5 first team squad members didn't take part plus Miller, Kiss and others to come in, we hope. What was obvious was that Parkin is just not up to it, Taiwo's 15 minutes in the spotlight showed he hasn't improved and the youngsters are not yet up to the mark. Surprisingly Naylor played okay and linked up well down the left - but no tricky winger against him. Although I thought Stokes had got between the 2 cb's for his goal but having seen it on TV this morning it was Gerrard and Nayls he got between. Apologies to Hudson!!!! Mind you he has split Hudson and Gerrard for his saved header a few minutes before. Anyway, onwards to sunny Bournemouth. It would be good to see Earnie and Conway back at least plus any new signings and the Cherries won't present the same issues as Celtic who were excellent in mid field with good movement from their front guys. Bournemouth's geriatric Steves,Lovell and Fletcher will hardly have the same amount of mobility unless they come on their mobility scooters - they could be old enough.
Whoops - whilst I concur with your earlier post, that quote by Hanson came back to haunt him. He said on air, "you'll win nothing with kids" sometime back in the mid 90s when Ferguson put out his ManU side with a load of "kids", and they got stuffed by Villa on the first day of the season. I think SAF had got rid of a lot of experienced players in the closed season, and had to rely on his youngsters. Not sure how many, but I remember Beckham, Scholes and Gary Neville were amongst them. ManU went on to do the double that year and rammed Hanson's words back down his thoat. Not saying we've got anything like that quality and can do the same, but let's give 'em a chance.
All i will say. It wasnt much a spectacle. Just a pre season warm up, big John missed a howler but i thought our defence looked solid enough. Onward to Bournemouth. We will be fine.
