Celtic and Mowbray: What Now?
Luck not with Mogga…but is that all?
As the old saying goes; “It’s better to be lucky than good” and Tony Mowbray is not a man who inspires luck. There is the idea that at times you can earn luck by working hard and being upbeat and generally pushing for it.
We don’t know what goes on behind closed doors and we don’t necessarily believe a man has to jump and bawl to show that he cares. However, it is fair to say there are doubts over the suitability of Tony Mowbray for the Celtic job.
Very few managers would be able to cope with the vast amount of honest mistakes that SFA officials have made against Celtic this season but it has to be balanced by poor decisions, players letting him down and again, just bad luck.
A few weeks ago at Kilmarnock, Mowbray’s ability to change the team was nullified by three injuries to his defensive line with Hinkel, Hooiveld and Naylor all needing replaced. With only three subs allowed, every change had to go on replacing his defence.
Yesterday, Mowbray’s first sub was used in replacing the impressive Thomas Rogne with Darren O’Dea with yet another injury hitting his backline.
The last sub was used to place Ki Sung Yueng on the field to cover the loss of Scott Brown. Morten Rasmussen was in the process of being readied to come on when his captain was sent off, again depriving Mowbray of bringing on a forward option.
The other sub was perhaps the baffling one for Mowbray.
Aiden McGeady was very poor, not for the first time at Ibrox, and was deserving of being subbed. Mowbray later said that the winger had been ill all week, which begs the question why was he selected?
With Robbie Keane coming through a late fitness test, starting with two of the four offensive players being less than fully fit is bordering on lunacy. Yet again Aiden McGeady let himself, his club and his management down at Ibrox and if he felt unable to perform at his best, he should have said so.
With regards to the sub, Samaras is clearly bereft of confidence at the moment. Being shifted out to wide position and knowing that his manager has now brought in his own men hasn’t helped the fragile forward.
In fairness, Samaras held the ball up well at times, although he had no real impact on the game.
With the league all but out of their grasp, Celtic have to go all out for the Scottish Cup and a return to Rugby Park on the 13th of March could be the final act for Mowbray. Or it could be where Celtic exact revenge and give themselves a platform to take the Scottish Cup.
Or you know, it could be a draw, that tends to be the three options available for a football match!
Even when you exclude the loan signings, there are a few good players at Celtic Park and funds can be obtained through selling one or two new players so it may well be that a new man could come in and inspire more from most of the current crop.
Expect the rumour mill of Mowbray’s planned resignation to become a twice weekly event as opposed to the Friday thing it appears at the moment.
Should Mowbray be given to next season?
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He must stay, he was unlucky yesterday that Keanoooo and Mcgeadyinho had to miss the game with injury
If both had played it would have been a different game
Now Scooter….we think you have an altogether different reason for wanting Mowbray to stay on!
please stay tony
Serious question guys, can we expect to see an article on the dispicable observing of the minutes silence yesterday, the taunts of Simon Weston at half time, and the vile chants to Alan McGregor?
Please dont let me think we would do if it was us Rangers fans?
can u do me a t shirt of big bougy winking it was class
You’ll find that we mentioned the ruining of the minutes silence and were critical of the Celtic fans who kicked it all off.
Vile chants to McGregor – yes because the Celtic goalkeeper is revered down Ibrox way. We still stick with innocent until proven guilty but as we also said, any Rangers fans looking to score points from that needs to have a look at himself.
And we’re not touching the Weston one.
Need to see about the copyright issues for that one Jaz….and our main designer is tied up on other projects until the end of March so we will be unlikely to release any new tshirts until April.
Just in time for the Rangers Champions range!
As for: “Please dont let me think we would do if it was us Rangers fans?”
No, Rangers fans wouldnt abuse someone who served in the British Army, agreed.
However, Rangers fans wouldnt abuse their rivals over offences of a lurid nature? Seriously Scooter, seriously?
Genuinely hope you are at the windup with that remark.
Not at the wind up, we usually take abuse when we do so, with numerous articles written about it,inncocent until proven guilty didnt seem to come into for McGregor yesterday, disgraceful chants from a support who are usually so easily offended
Surely Celtic FC not using the refs performance, who I thought was generally ok, to deflect from these issues? We suffered as many bad decisions as celtic did yesterday, we dont bleat and defelct like others though. they ahve it down to a fine art nowadays
Thing is Scooter, you are the one coming across as easily offended here and overlooking your own club’s problems.
This isnt a dig at you but there is a massive element of “whataboutery” with regards to both Celtic and Rangers fans?
If you ask Celtic fans, the media reaction to some of the vile chants from the Rangers fans has been massively brushed under the carpet.
Rangers fans today will be talking about the unfair treatment to McGregor and given his current situation, if anything ever went to trial, would the chants of yesterday be seen as influencing them. If anything, it spurred McGregor on…although in the second half, if the chants disturbed him….they would only have disturbed his chances of getting a quick nap.
And opinions about the ref are going to be based on your view of the game…in our report, we’ve tried to move away from that and look at the inconsistencies of Dougie McDonald’s performance. On that level alone, it was a very bad performance from the whistler.
We take your points on board, we accept both sets of fans will be unhappy about a number of issues that arose from yesterday, we’ve addressed some of them and others are probably above or away what we would be hoping to talk about. Purely because we don’t know enough about what either side would be thinking or coming from.
Should you not be out celebrating (or at least hiding a hangover at work) anyway?
ok from now on we will say nothing (unless it rangers fans being vile) this should keep everything fair
we shall also question no referee decison (Edu’s pen, Brafheids shoulder high challenge on Miller that caused our “goal to be chalked off, Nguemos assault on Boyd (his 6th challenge he could have been booked for) Kamaras BLATENT cheating, etc etc
we will say no more unless it goes against celtic, thats the new rules, that should cheer them up and keep them happy
Re celebrating, once you celebrate as much as we do the effect of drink isnt the same as it would be on a Celtic fan
Haha, we’ll pick up your dummy and send it back to you Scooter!
Thought Celtic were meant to be the paranoid fans – surely all of they decisions were honest mistakes by McDonald, is that not the party line?
As for your view on Brafheid’s challenge – okay……..and if you would like to see a bit of blatant (two A’s) cheating, have a look at Kenny Millers after his handball. He falls to the ground, looks up at the ref and then grabs his head – haha, that is top quality cheating by Kenny Miller…mind you, he probably learned that at Celtic Park though eh Scooter?
This is why a comment based site involving Celtic and Rangers fans eventually goes nowhere, it just keeps circling downwards by fans who can only ever see one point of view.
Thought Celtic were meant to be the paranoid fans
yep thats up for debate!!!
Take the blinkers off
There are many Celtic fans who are paranoid.
As there are Rangers fans.
With regard to people who ruin minutes silence they are arseholes please fuck off ,also people who respond are out of order could they also fuck off.Simon weston jingoism by Rangers pandering to the bigots they new exactly what they were doing tut tut.
I was upset yesterday that a minutes silence for a Rangers player could not be respected by a minority of Celtic fans, I was also upset that some Rangers fans felt the need to boo and respond to the noises that were coming from the Broomloan Road end. Why anyone cannot respect the dead is beyond me.
As for Simon Westons appearance at half time, I’m sorry Danny but your out of order with your comments. Mr Weston was a guest of honour from the Rangers Charity foundation, he had been up the previous day at a fund-raising function and was quite rightly afforded the privilege of acclaim from the home support and his gift of a specially commissioned Rangers ‘poppy’ shirt. Please explain how honouring a man for his bravery in overcoming such horrendous injuries and dedicating his life to benefit others, is pandering to the bigots?
Normally I enjoy your comments Danny but perhaps your disappointment of yesterdays result is clouding you judgment with your poor statement above.
not at all quagmire said it before the game pr stunt by Rangers they seem to love the jingoism stunts lately they are pandering to the bigots.
danny danny i take it your hurting to come out wi pish like that.
Not @ all far more important things in life just giving an honest opinion if you dont like it tough,funny how people dont like my opinions upset a Celtic supporter the outher day when i told him the teachings of the RC Church were balderdash or words to that effect.
danny your honest opinion is pish
Well since you class me as a BEGGAR i will BEG to differ.
Scooter and Jaz, I can’t help but feel your time would be better spent A) Down the gym shedding a few pounds B) Learning to talk to women. Or C) In structured adult learning(AKA remedial class).
Good luck, Chaps.
general leo you know what your right , to much time spent at football and to be honest the enjoyments not there , its getting far to easy . so thanks to your concern its off to the gym i go , on sat theres a celtic club near me i will go there for the women [ they say they are unbelievably easy ]
but thank you chappy.
Here General, how did you do facing up to Lady Thatcher?
Got your ass spanked all around the Falklands, much like Walters done to poor Tony Mowbray this season.
Jaz, too much time spend on the ineternet whittling away the empty hours of your life trying to prop up an ego devoid of self-worth.
Again, lost some weight, stop buying your clothes from Matalan and learn to talk to women.
Edit: Sorry General, thats just a step too far for us – the to and fro banter is fine but hopefully you can understand we will try to avoid that, legal reasons you know!
General your out of order lets be honest here the goverment of Argentina were a bit dodgy during the falklands conflict playing the jingo card just like that evil bastard Thatcher just ask jaz he knows how evil she was.
general leo the only stanley you were in dropped his shell suit bottoms in font of you .
EDIT: Again, c’mon….
Danny, spare me the history lesson.
Crikey Leo the more you speak the less you say!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m sure that sounded witty and appropriate in your own head, Daniel, however, maybe next time you might want to get a second opinion.
Ok let’s side step the ramblings of the mad man and get back to the topic in hand, what next for Mowbray?
Will the Celtic fans give him until next season now? He’s definitely getting rid of the old guard and there’s rumours that he will look to ship out Boruc, Brown and McGeady in the Summer to help bolster his own budget for players. Can he be trusted to sign appropriate defenders though? The two kids looked ok on Sunday but are they really the long term solution either? Yes Hoiveld (sp) will come back and he certainlty looks like the type of defender that can handle the physical side of the Scottish game. But let’s be honest, the system and tactics that Mowbray seems to be employing, the cavalier style that so many Celtic fans covet, is hampering his ability to keep clean sheets and will ultimately cost him his job if he continues with that approach. In Scotland you have to win the physical battle first, then you look to win the game with some flair. Surely the likes of Rasmussen must play for the rest of the season, but that will mean Keane or Fortune missing out, the former looking like a very expensive mistake given the 7 points gained from a possible 15 since his arrival, not that you can lay the blame at him for that.
Who comes in should Mowbray walk? Many are suggesting Lambert, indeed the Celtic radio station (Clyde) offered a one hour special on the man tonight in lieu of the normal phone in, surely there’s an agenda there? Is he the answer, I don’t think he will be any better or worse than the present incumbent. Mark Hughes is another who’s been mentioned, that would be a ‘sparkling’ appointment but I’m sure he will have other offers and the budget compared to previous clubs, may see him pass up on the offer. There seems to be a gap in the market for ‘Celtic Minded’ managers, Owen Coyle didn’t fancy it and surely Celtic wont give him the chance to knock them back again? Mark McGhee, well he’s doing a grand job at Aberdeen is he not, Strachans best pal as well.
Sad thing for a Celtic fan is that they shouldn’t be in this position, had they spent money and backed Strachan a year past in January, then things would’ve been very different right now. Many Rangers fans, myself included, cannot believe that so many wanted Strachan out after what he delivered, yes he was a wee nyaff at press conferences, but we all knew that before he arrived. Perhaps it was time for him to move on, but look what has happened since his departure, weak surrender to a team that hasn’t signed a player in two years and is embarking on a financial crisis that is unheralded in their history.
Strange old thing Scottish Football.
Nothing wrong with being a we naff @ press confrences fuck them they are arse holes apart from that resonable assesment of situation Quagmire should mowbray be given more time well Alex Ferguson only won 1 league title in his first 5 years with aberdeen & it took him 6 years to sort out man utd.
The mad world of the Old Firm means hero or zero, Rangers lost one of the worlds best young managers in PLG because his team was early in the making and far behind Celtic in the league, who knows what might have happened had he been backed in the way Walter Smith was in the early part of his second tenure. It’s a huge decision for Cetic and I get the impression that he has the backing of the board, of course Rangers could gift wrap next years league for Celtic if they are forced to sell off the family silver. Maybe Mowbray will grow into the role, at the moment it looks too big for him though.
was that leo wi the wee dick and ginger pubes
Fair comment although i would like to give him @ least 1 more season Celtic gave Tommy Burns 3 years & the football in his first season was rank.