Will be sure to keep an eye out. God help them at the xmas night out with you Chaz
i shagged my supervisor's Ph. D. student last time out. Scared me!
Celtic 4-2 Celtic Reserves (Samaras, Caldwell (pen), Mizuno, McDonald)
Killen and Marsden with the goals for the reserves. Scary-ish, as after the break they pulled back to 2-2 and with ten minutes to go Mizuno cuts in and makes it 3-2. Should not concede two goals to my reserves, but Loovens had a bad day and i only have two uninjured centrebacks (Caldwell and Loovens). The game highlighted my lack of quality in attack and lack of depth in defense. Samaras, McDonald and Caldwell were decent out there, but again, shouldn't have conceded those two goals so not that happy with Caldwell.
July summary (Friendlies in blue, CL in Red):
Celtic 1-3 FC Bayern (Lukaku)
Celtic 2-6 Valencia (Maloney, Maloney)
Celtic 1-0 Tottenham (Verratti)
Albion Rovers 0-3 Celtic (Kadlec, Maloney, Maloney)
FC Twente 2-1 Celtic (Blas Perez OG)
Rochdale 1-6 Celtic (Maloney, Maloney, McGeady, McGeady, Kryvtsov, Kadlec, Maloney sent off after 50 minutes)
The first two games were bad as the score lines show. Team was knackered, new players had come in, morale dropped etc. Team started to pull together and beat Tottenham. We were unlucky against Twente, as they got an 88th minute lead and i thought we deserved a draw following Boruc's impressive performance. Team took it up a notch against Rochdale, and after i said they'd done well they rebelled against their glorious manager, doubting my magnificence and my appreciation of their efforts. Maloney's doing excellent aside from a ridiculous two-footed challenge against Rochdale.
Injuries
Verratti, McManus and Barry Robson are injured. All should be back some time in September.
Miscellaneous
Romelu Lukaku became the youngest CL-player ever, at 16 years and 77 days!
August summary
Fixtures (League's black, domestic cups green)
Celtic 3-0 FC Twente (McGeady, Fortune, Fortune)
Aberdeen 2-3 Celtic (Maloney, Brown, Maloney (pen))
Panathinaikos 2-2 Celtic (McGeady, Maloney (pen))
Celtic 4-1 St. Johnstone (Aquino, McGeady, McGeady, Maloney)
Celtic 2-1 Panathinaikos (Kryvtsov, McGeady)
Hibernian 1-2 Celtic (McCourt, Lukaku)
Fantastic display against Twente to take us through to the next qualifying round, against Panathinaikos. Exceptionally lucky against the Dons, as our 88th minute penalty that ended with Langfield, Aberdeen's goalie, getting sent off for nothing. Maloney's still on fire, with McGeady continuing his good form and Fortune doing well in the Champions League qualifications. The Panathinaikos game was a close one, McGeady opened the scoring, but 10 minutes later Panathinaikos were 2-1 up. 88th minute penalty from Maloney (again) salvaged a point! 3 minutes later Kadlec almost got us three points, missing a one-on-one with the keeper. Other points to be taken from the game were Misun and Samaras' poor performances.
Against St. Johnstone we scored 4 goals, but none of them were courtesy of our attackers, but Aquino scored within 4 minutes of his debut, so i'm not complaining. Maloney destroyed the right wing, playing tremendously well! McGeady was toying with the defence, exploiting any rebounds that might come. Kryvstov scored his first goal for Celtic against Panathinaikos, Maloney being Celtic's best player. Tremendous comeback against Hibs, 0-1 down shortly after half-time, but McCourt, who was subbed on in an inspired moment, and Lukaku, who also ended a 409 minute goal drought, scored their first goals for Celtic! Ma Kalambay had previously gone 180 minutes without conceding. Boruc was the best player on the pitch, with Maloney being the second best. There was apparently some controversy about a Caddis foul in the box, but we were the better team and deserved to win. Only downside was a slew of yellow cards.
Competitions
Doing well so far. No domestic cup games yet, but doing well in Europe. Got a tough Champions League group, but not an impossible one. Sitting atop of the league, with three out of three. Rangers have drawn two and won one, so they seem to be underperforming, but it's still early.
Miscellaneous
Interview with Sky News
Accompanied by Kiss' Heaven's On Fire, Charles Webb is reclining on a couch, an empty bottle of malt on the floor. Wearing ripped jeans, sunglasses and a bandana, he gives the impression of being a washed-out rockstar, rather than a serious manager.
Reporter: Some would say you were lucky to get the penalty, would you have given it?
Charles: Of course I would've given it. But I doubt they'd let one of the teams' managers referee a game.
Charles has also stated in an interview that he's slowly sobering up after June's festivals.
Mr. Webb, according to eye witnesses, grabbed Lukas Vyntra by the shirt after the Panathinaikos game, slammed him against the wall at Park Head and apparently had a few choice words for the player. Apparently it was about an incident where Vyntra halfed Fortuné when the attacker was through on goal without being booked.
Received a 3 million pound-something offer for Maloney from Man City. Told them to show the money somewhere, and Maloney didn't like my outburst. Tough ****.
Danny Fox didn't turn up for training and got a warning. He's then went to the press and whined, with Charles lashing out at the petulant left back, saying that next time he'll get fined. The press then questioned Mr. Webb whether he'd lost control of the dressing room. Charles, wearing dark aviators, said that he didn't think so, but if things did deteriorate he may have to take a Phil Spector approach to motivate his players.
Lukaku became the youngest goalscorer in the SPL, at 16 years and a 109 days, against Hibs.
Transfers
A slew of players came and went;
in:
Zacharie Boucher 4k
Romelu Lukaku 2.4M
Marco Verratti 110k
Daniel Aquino 4.5M
Vaclav Kadlec 4M
Charles Boateng 1.1M
Sergiy Kryvtsov 2.7M
Nicolás Otamendi 3M
Kiko Femenia 240K
Ki Sung-Yong (01.01.10) 1.7M
Adem Ljajic (01.01.10) 4M
Wellington Silva (06.01.11) 240k
Dodô 1.1M (07.06.10) 1.1M
Out
Willo Flood 2.6M
Scott McDonald 5M
Koki Mizuno 85k
Lukasz Zaluska (Loan to buy) 300k/1.7M
Mark Wilson 2.1M
Andreas Hinkel 3.5M
Lee Naylor 1.6M
Niall McGinn 100k
Glenn Loovens 4.6M
Dominic Cervi 75k
Stephen McManus 3.8M
Barry Robson 3.1M
Chris Killen 1M
Got lots of younger players out on loan as well. Every single position has been strengthened and rejuvenated. i would have preferred to have signed another left back, but Man City wouldn't sell Hélan, and Corchia was too expensive for now. The signing of Charles Boateng was questioned by journalists, as he doesn't have a work permit, and is widely considered a drunken mistaken. Still in the market for another target man, considering Christophermcl's Dell'Agnello as he fits the bill. Otherwise, Airdrie United's 16 year old starlet Porteous is being linked with a move to the Celts. The signing of Czech starlet Vaclav Kadlec was a popular one with the fans, alongside Daniel Aquino.
Screenshots, CL, League Table, Transfers Round-Up, Formation.
Injuries
Fortuné was out for a bit, McManus and Robson returned in time for being sold. Not a single injured player going into September!
---------- Post added at 01:35 AM ---------- Previous post was yesterday at 10:39 PM ----------
September update
Fixtures
Celtic 2-2 Dundee United (Maloney, Robertson OG)
Celtic 2-3 internazionale (McGeady, McGeady)
Celtic 2-0 Hearts (Maloney, Goncalves OG)
Celtic 4-0 Queen Of The South (Verratti, Paul Burns OG, Lukaku, Maloney)
St. Mirren 1-2 Celtic (Fortuné, Maloney)
Sevilla 1-1 Celtic (McCourt)
Should've beat Dundee United... We were 2-1 up and they were down to 10 men. Not much to say really; we didn't play as well as we should've. Was hoping to at least get a draw against inter, but was 3-0 down after 25 minutes. Went alright against Hearts, nothing spectacular. League cup game against Queen Of The South went well, played lots of youngsters.
Went alright against St. Mirren. They got a cheap penalty, though we picked up far too many cards. Maloney put us in the lead again with 5 minutes to go. Lovely! Team played well against Sevilla, coming from 1-0 down after half-time. A wonderful pass from McGeady allowed McCourt to score. McGeady's also out from 7 to 8 weeks following an injury sustained against Sevilla.
Miscellaneous
Aiden McGeady scored his first goal for Eire
Shaun Maloney scored against Holland, Scotland losing the game 1-2.
Zheng Zhi scored against Senegal, losing 2-3.
Vallers and Kurakins, two youngsters, played for Latvia.
Kryvtsov got Young Player of the Month.
Shaun Maloney got Goal of the Month.
injuries
McGeady's out for the next 2 months.
