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You'll have seen that he signed for Zenit St Petersberg yesterday for £10m!! No way would Celtic have paid that for him and no way do I think he's worth it, good player that he is. Celtic offered £2.2m for him last summer so they were never serious contenders if Shakhtar were looking for that amount.Quote:
Originally Posted by eirebhoy
Apparantly his contract is unprotected (the new FIFA thing) and he could have got bought out of his contract for around £2m. I don't know how true that is, it was in an Italian newspaper.
£10m is still less than Carrick and he's at least as good as him. :) Not that Celtic would even have paid half that.
After the home game I was expecting Milan to cruise it but they had to sweat buckets for it.
The Back 5 performed superbly well. Naka was somewhere between subdued and pish, criminal in this, the game of the season for the most creative player. The goal, most reports hold Sno culpable for losing possesion but Lennon should have done much better, after that it was a brilliantly well taken goal.
Milan's sub was worth more than the whole Celtic team.
Strachan had the team well prepared for the battle.
Did you notice the ballboys behind Boruc's goal vanished for the rest of the game after Milan scored?
I noticed Neil Lennon's immense gut after the game, it sent Souness and Gullit into hysterics.
I noticed that about the ball boys as well.
A 0-0 at home spelled doom for Celtic. They never looked like scoring in the away leg but competed well. The peno appeals: not the stone-wallers that Lou Macari claimed. I thought Naki leaned in to the Italian defender but I have seen them given. The other one was ball to hand I think.
Beattie drove me mad when he came on, falling over and losing possession. Delighted with the performance of O'Dea. McGeady gets muscled off the ball too easy sometimes but did pose a threat. Graveson looked lively but one always suspected the Italians would win in the end.
Fortune has favoured O'Dea with him getting games, makes you wonder would his first team career ever have kick started otherwise.
Agreed about McGeady at this level, a good defence will wrap him easy enough. But O'Dea, exactly the type of player we need in the squad.
On Beattie, the sky co commentator was on about Beatties super turn of pace, he looked like he could get outpaced by a carthorse.
I was hoping Gravesen would start but it couldn't have worked out better with him coming on at 0-0 after an hour.
The first penalty claim was a stonewaller but i wasn't too disappointed at the time. I wouldn't have fancied Celtic to hold on sitting back for 85 minutes with Milan going all out attack.
The 2nd one though should have been a peno imo and we would have won the game if it was scored. Naka was poor last night. You'll never see Naka at his best unless Celtic are controlling the game which is probably why he plays for Celtic and not Barcelona (Reggina spent 90% of their matches on the back foot). He hasn't got the pace to play on the break either. Ironically, it was his counter attack that led up the penalty claim. He took the ball from his own half, made a 1 2 with Gravesen, ran into the Milan box, cut inside, about to pull the trigger and Ambrosini ran into him.
It wasn't intentional from Ambrosini but he didn't get the ball and Naka would surely have scored if he didn't get taken down.
Anyway, anything from this was a bonus. Celtic will only get better under Strachan.
Let's say his entry to the field of play was very timely but there were a few things that could have worked out better.Quote:
Originally Posted by eirebhoy
Did you find the commentator on Setanta patronising to Celtic? He made it sound like a miracle that Celtic had made it to half time 0-0 and his comments throughout the 90 minutes and beyond were as if it was Donegal Celtic and not Glasgow Celtic that were playing.Quote:
Originally Posted by eirebhoy
I watched it on Sky. It's a lot better. Ruud Gullit rates Celtic higher than most pundits and said he believes Celtic had a good chance of getting through.
Just back from the game where the support was amazing by the way. Thought O'Dea was immense and if it had been him facing Kaka for the goal rather than McManus we might have held on a bit longer. However we never really looked like scoring, crosses and set pieces were woeful and we were never willing to have a pop from outside the box.
Agree the team is going places under Strachan. I like his attitude of we can and will get better. Under MON it was more about maintaining what we already had. Proud of the team and supporters once again.:ball:
Celtic should have been 3 or 4 goals up by half time today and go on to lose. :( I can't remember being that frustrated watching Celtic in a long time.
That was a regular occurance in Old Firm games during the Tommy Burns era.
Celtic linked with Stephen Appiah of Fenerbahce. Decent player from the few times I've seen him. Also Scott McDonald from Motherwell is apparently signed up. Confused about that one, he's quite a clever player and will score his share but it's questionable whether he's better than Zurawski and Miller who are allegedly being shipped out during the summer and not exactly a signing the fans would be hoping for. Don't think he'll actually improve the team really and that's what you should be looking for.
He definately needs to get rid of some strikers anyway as Celtic are top heavy with them as it is.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ps/6584541.stm
Jim McIntyre's cheeky late penalty secured Uefa Cup football for Dunfermline after victory in a scintillating Scottish Cup semi-final.
Only 8,500 turned up to the replay at the national stadium, but the stay-away fans missed a cracker.
The Pars' Phil McGuire and Hibs' Scott Brown both had efforts cleared off the goal line during a first half of end-to-end action at Hampden Park.
And McIntyre fired the winner after Adam Hammill was felled by Chris Hogg.
Hammill had returned to the starting line-up along with Darren Young and Phil McGuire in the absence of the suspended Scott Wilson and cup-tied Tam McManus and Stephen Glass.
Hibs boss John Collins had brought back most of his experienced men after making eight changes for Saturday's league draw with Aberdeen.
But Damon Gray retained his place ahead of Steven Fletcher after the young striker scored at Pittodrie.
And it was Hibs who grabbed the initiative from the start, with Abdessalam Benjelloun firing straight at goalkeeper Dorus De Vries from 25 yards.
Gray almost latched on to a ball over the top of the Dunfermline defence that beat the offside trap.
But Dunfermline started to force their way into the game and goalkeeper Andrew McNeil did well to turn a low Hammill drive wide after it took a deflection.
It was McNeil to the rescue again, blocking Jim McIntyre's header from a corner and, when McGuire's knee connected with the rebound, Lewis Stevenson headed off the line.
Scott Brown was lucky not to be cautioned when he chipped the ball into the face of Jamie McCunnie after Hibs were awarded a free-kick.
But Brown showed the more pleasing side to his character, weaving his way through the defence and chipping over the advancing De Vries only to watch as Greg Shields cleared off the line.
De Vries had to turn a 25-yard drive from Stevenson as Hibs applied the pressure again.
And Benjelloun curled a drive over from the edge of the box.
Collins replaced the anonymous Gray with Fletcher at half-time, but it was Dunfermline who were the greater threat early in the second half.
Nine players on show were one caution away from missing the final and Dunfermline's Gary Mason became the first to fall foul of the two-booking rule after a late challenge on Steven Whittaker.
Jones headed wide of the Pars post following a corner and Fletcher again rose above the defence but fired over from eight yards.
A shot on the turn by Brown was half blocked by De Vries and McCunnie cleared off the line, while a Fletcher drive flew wide.
But Dunfermline broke forward and Hammill was knocked down by Hogg after jinking into the box.
McIntyre lazily chipped the penalty kick into the centre of the net as McNeil dived to his right.
The Hibs goalkeeper prevented Mark Burchill scoring a second on the break with a fine save, but one goal was enough for the team sitting bottom of the SPL.
Dunfermline: De Vries, Shields, McGuire, Bamba, Muirhead, Young (Burchill 77), Mason, McCunnie, Hammill (Ross 88), O'Brien (Owen Morrison 70), McIntyre.
Subs Not Used: McKenzie, Daquin.
Booked: Mason, Hammill, McIntyre.
Goal: McIntyre 88 pen.
Hibernian: McNeil, Whittaker, Hogg, Jones, Murphy, Scott Brown, Beuzelin (Chisholm 74), Stevenson, Sproule (Shiels 67), Benjelloun, Gray (Fletcher 46).
Subs Not Used: Simon Brown, McCann.
Booked: Stevenson.
Att: 8,536
Ref: C Thomson
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Will they even win their first round tie? :eek:
Could be a useful draw for Pats or Drogheda.
Well done Mr. Kenny.
Now get out of Dunfermline before ya end up struggling against Stirling Albion.
Gretna mark II
Facing Stephen Kenny in Europe?Quote:
Originally Posted by Schumi
Roll on "SuperPars" winning Post of the Year 2007! :D