SPL Discussion Thread

[pete]

Genesis Consultants are scottish afterall.

[Junior]

Good win for Rangers yesterday v Hearts. From the highlights it looked as though, they battered Hearts, 2-0 going on 5.

Celtic were strolling today against ICT, 1-0 up, without playing that well (but again, not creating many clear cut chances - eirebhoy!!). But at 1-0, its always a dangerous game and it was no surprise that we conceded a late equaliser. Miller put in a decent shift, but again with no goal for his efforts though he did set up Pearsons.

The positive for me (and Ireland) however, was McGeady. He played Left Midfield and created plenty, nearly always got a cross in or won a corner, hardly ever lost posession even when faced with 2 or 3 defenders. His final ball still needs to improve though. He came in for some pretty heavy treatment, late tackles, shirt pulling etc... Probably 2 or 3 ICT players were booked as a direct result of not being able to deal with McGeady. I did notice he was a bit mouthy towards the ref and had a little kick out at one ICT player, I've not seen this before from him but I can't say I blame him because he was constantly being fouled. However we all know that this sort of behaviour can backfire, so I hope he can keep it in check. He also tracked back well, helping out Wallace and generally getting stuck in.

[eirebhoy]

Terrible performance today and they really need to improve. It's not nice seeing Rangers at the top of the table. It was the worst performance I've seen from Nakamura and Jarosik was poor too.

Hesselink is flying to Glasgow tomorrow to try and agree terms. It looks pretty much a done deal as his father/agent said a few weeks ago that personal terms will not be a problem. Great signing if it goes through. A left back and replacement for Petrov and hopefully it'll be a decent team for the CL. Maloney and Balde still to come back aswell.

[Junior]

Terrible performance today and they really need to improve. It's not nice seeing Rangers at the top of the table. It was the worst performance I've seen from Nakamura and Jarosik was poor too.

Hesselink is flying to Glasgow tomorrow to try and agree terms. It looks pretty much a done deal as his father/agent said a few weeks ago that personal terms will not be a problem. Great signing if it goes through. A left back and replacement for Petrov and hopefully it'll be a decent team for the CL. Maloney and Balde still to come back aswell.

The thing with Hesselink, is I just don't know much about him, he didn't really feature much in the WC - Is he really any good or is it just cause he has a (long) foreign name that people are getting excited. Got any stats/info for me eirebhoy.....c'mon I know you must have some

Petrov was badly missing on Sunday or at least that type of player, general lethargy was evident amongst most of the side.

[eirebhoy]

The thing with Hesselink, is I just don't know much about him, he didn't really feature much in the WC - Is he really any good or is it just cause he has a (long) foreign name that people are getting excited. Got any stats/info for me eirebhoy.....c'mon I know you must have some

Yeah, I've seen him a few times and he's exactly what Celtic need. Excellent header of the ball and at holding it up, bringing his teammates into play. I put a few clips of him online last night from Saturday's game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlGpGz6ue-w

The flick to Kone for the 2nd goal was excellent.

Scored 72 goals in 156 games for PSV and has scored more Dutch top flight goals than any player currently playing in that division. Sutton scored 63 in 130 for Celtic pretty much equivalent records with Hesselink playing in a stronger league.

[Junior]

Now thats service!! -cheers, eirebhoy.

Pierre was a great purchase from the Dutch league (NAC Breda) and as you say if he has a similar record to Sutton, thats a decent return, though you did get a hell of a lot more from Sutton than just his goals - in terms off effort, commitment, assists and generally taking the pressure off larsson - don't know if Hessilink would provide that.

As for the flick in 2nd goal, yeah looked good, assuming he wasn't going for goal!!!!

[Pat O' Banton]

Terrible performance today and they really need to improve. It's not nice seeing Rangers at the top of the table. It was the worst performance I've seen from Nakamura and Jarosik was poor too.

For patches in the first half I didn't think that it was that bad, we retained the ball well, moved it from side to side, but we are definately lacking something. To often we are asking Millar to come out from the front line and play someone in, meaning unless we are getting a few bodies in the box (which apart from Pearson's goal we were not doing at all) he is wasting his time.
We really fell apart when Zurawski came on. Not that this was particularly his fault, it just seemed that even with Jarosik doing not much in midfield he was at least occupying one of their players, without 5 in midfield they easily disrupt our passing. Which is worrying because it shows a lack of ability to be tactically flexible on the pitch.

But the bottom line is if you go one up and fail to kill off a game, or even to create chances to kill of a game you are always vunerable.

[eirebhoy]

Hesselink has just completed his medical and apparantly signed in the last few minutes. We should see some much better football from everyone with his addition.





Oh, and Naylor signed today aswell....

[Junior]

Hesselink has just completed his medical and apparantly signed in the last few minutes. We should see some much better football from everyone with his addition.

Im not counting my chickens on Hesselink

"Netherlands striker Jan Venegoor of Hesselink is in Glasgow for a medical and contract negotiations with Celtic." from BBC

It sounds like Celtic are way off in terms his wage demands as well.

[eirebhoy]

It's basically a done deal. The negotiations were done between Lawell and Hesselinks father over the phone on Monday and Tuesday and Hesselink flew over yesterday. He had his medical yesterday too and there was pictures of him leaving the hospital. Celtic Underground said yesterday that he signed from a very strong source. Radio Clyde also said this.

Only Celtic fans would get nervous at this stage of a signing.

/edit - just confirmed:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...ic/5270280.stm

I doubt they have the correct figures though as the Celtic board pay the minimum possible fee for anyone.
/edit again, they've updated the link to change the fee to €5m.

[Junior]

cool, I thought it was £5m quid PSV were after??? wonder what his wages are?

[RogerMilla]

guys , don't ever ever heed what is posted on the bbc website as regards glasgow celtic, whatever about the BBC's reputation worldwide BBC scotland is a completely different animal and there are anti-celtic agenda's there.

welcome to Big JVOH hope he bangs them in in the CL and SPL ( and the cups as well!!) , big up to naylor as well hope he can nail down that left wing and let wilson say on his right side

[eirebhoy]

Press Conference:
http://www.celticfc.net/channel67/presser.aspx

[Green Tribe]

Don't know if this has been mentioned yet. I assume it is allowed to be discussed, if not please delete. It is the carry-on up here regarding Boruc now having a criminal record because he blessed himself while at the goalpost position and some Rangers fans complained! He was charged with incitement to cause sectarian hatred or something like that.
I think this is a disgrace, you see Italian players etc doing it going on to the pitch all the time. Sorry if this should be in Current Affairs!

[DmanDmythDledge]

Celtic are close to agreeing a deal to bring Gravesen to Celtic Park- http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...pe/5290454.stm

Good signing for Celtic IMO.

[Poor Student]

Don't know if this has been mentioned yet. I assume it is allowed to be discussed, if not please delete. It is the carry-on up here regarding Boruc now having a criminal record because he blessed himself while at the goalpost position and some Rangers fans complained! He was charged with incitement to cause sectarian hatred or something like that.
I think this is a disgrace, you see Italian players etc doing it going on to the pitch all the time. Sorry if this should be in Current Affairs!

GT, check the World Football rules. You cannae discuss this sort of thing.

[McGeady10]

Don't know if anyone saw the Celtic game at the weekend but McGeady was great again. Had a right battle with Hibs & Scotland U21 right back, Steven Whittaker, in the first half but in the second half McGeady had him on toast!

Set up the first goal with a great slipped through pal to Naylor who pulled it back to Zurawski. For the second goal he picked the ball up on the halfway line, drove by a defender and hit the post from 20 yards allowing JVofH to follow up and tap home. Had another few sublime moments. Hitting form at the right time

[RogerMilla]

agreed mcgeady10, i hope he starts on saturday not coming off the bench when its too late to save us.
gravesen is a massive signing , delighted
booked my ticket to lisbon for the benfica game

[drinkfeckarse]

McGeady played very well alright. Graveson is a good player and will add that bit of steel to the midfield. Pearson played in the centre on Saturday and did reasonably well too. I'm glad too as I rate him highly. I'm wondering if Strachan is seeing him as the natural replacement for Stan as he's got the same work ethic and having Graveson playing the holding role would see him have the licence to get up and down the park.

To be fair, the board are due credit for the money they've spent and allocated for wages. If you told me before the summer that Jarosik, Hesselink and Graveson would be signing along with all the Bosmans I'd have told you to seek help

[RogerMilla]

pearosn was fantastic in the uefa games against barca and did well initially , i like him and it would be great to see him play his way back in , lennon is now a liability far too slow