Celtic

Samaras



Must be quite a cultureshock for them celts, first you have the useless VOH..and now they have the perfect striker!

Hlebtastic wrote:Samaras is a huge talent. He won't stay long in scotland if he settles in well, he'll be at a big club in the next 2-3 years

and he'll be $h!t

Better then Alves!! That's for sure

Alves>>>>Samaras=Ricard

Alves is a decent striker, a finisher a poacher even. But Samaras is the real deal...he can make it in any league!

Sven never gave him much of a chance!

Alves wont make it in the epl though And certainly NOT at Boro!

Samaras was given chances by other managers..or just Pearce, whatever..and was $h!t.

No a real chance though! He is a better version of Berbatov ffs!

He's a scope version of Berbatov.

@ Anglo. Hinkel played against Inverness Caledonian Thistle and was pretty good. Well worth €2m. Celtic were good down flanks. McGeady was really good on left and Hinkel and Nakamura did well on right. Samaras was good, but loudest noise made by Celtic fans was to complain about his lack of effort in not bothering to stick out leg. Hinkel will get offers in summer, especially if he does well in Euros. Definitely worth more than Celtic paid.

I heard unpopularity earlier of McGeady was because he elected to play for Ireland rather than Scotland. He is a good player. Who produced him?

He has been brought up through the Celtic youth ranks.

He was born in Scotland although at the time Celtic didn't let their youth players play for the Scottish Schools team. At that time the SFA had a stupid rule that meant McGeady subsequently couldn't play for the Scotland Schools Select.

Packie Bonner, the Ireland goalkeeper found out about
McGeady's grandparents being Irish and since they didn't have that stupid rule allowed him to play for their under 15 schools team and so he rose up the levels to play for the Republic of Ireland which hasn't gone down well with most Scottish supporters.

Interesting Monty, but why aren't Scottish supporters more annoyed with their own FA, rather than McGeady? After all, he was given a chance to play, took it and is showing loyalty to the country that gave him a chance at international level. As you say it was a stupid Scottish policy rather than McGeady that caused this.

Thank you, EMP! Good to hear he's getting better and better...

No problem Anglo. He seems to have settled in quickly and was pretty good in Celtic's attacks on the right flank. Looks like he will start when fit and bar injury will do pretty well. Don't think even he can overturn Celtic's advantage against Barca though. How long is his contract with Celtic for? Will Celtic try to cash in on him or not? Shouldn't in my opinion as he is a pretty good buy by the look of it as he links up with attack well.

I think he is cup-tied in Europe EMP. Do you think he will do enough to get selected for the German squad for the Euros if he continues and improves his current form for Celtic? I don't know when he last played international football, maybe one of the German posters will remember.

I saw the second half in the pub before going to our game. Celtic played some decent football, although the conditions weren't particularly helpful, and neither were the continuous late fouls that disrupted the game. With Hinkel and Nakamura down the right flank they've got a lot of quality there compared to the rest of the league, and Samaras looks like he is settling well. Good header from him, although he wasn't marked very tightly.

I think Celtic are fine down the flanks now. McGeady is pretty good down left. Regarding Samaras goal against ICT I think poor marking was down to double-teaming on McGeady, but also being done by sublime piece of skill to get cross in. Double-teaming left space for Samaras, as did surprise at service coming at all.

If Hinkel stays fit he will be regular at Celtic and as long as Loew is kept informed he should get called up unless there are better options that I don't know about. I think problem he will have is poor quality of opposition in Scotland. Loew may hold that against him, but you can only play against what's up against you. He will have to keep playing and avoid injury. If he does, he should be worth a place in German squad. Sevilla just wasn't right move foor him - not his fault though. He thought that Alves was going and when he didn't that ruined opportunity for Hinkel. He is good enough given the chance.

Samaras should do well at Celtic. With the flanks sorted out he should get pretty good supply. If given chance he will score regularly, but any half-way decent forward should thrive with that kind of service, especially against poor quality opposition. Celtic's biggest problem is themselves. They really should have beaten ICT far more convincingly.

EMP wrote:No problem Anglo. He seems to have settled in quickly and was pretty good in Celtic's attacks on the right flank. Looks like he will start when fit and bar injury will do pretty well. Don't think even he can overturn Celtic's advantage against Barca though. How long is his contract with Celtic for? Will Celtic try to cash in on him or not? Shouldn't in my opinion as he is a pretty good buy by the look of it as he links up with attack well.

As Sheffield said, unfortunately, Sevilla let him play for a total of fifteen minutes or so...

His contract at Celtic ends in June 2011... And I think both sides are more than happy with each other at the moment.

Good to hear he's getting forward (on the pitch ) again, which wasn't the case at Sevilla, where he concentrated more on defending (probably because he was more insecure, but that's a personal view ). Plus the fact that he's up against weaker sides should help with settling in and getting used to the Scottish league.

@ Anglo; he defended well as well, but it was linking up with Nakamura down the right flank that impressed most. I think he will popular with the fans and looks like he will enjoy Scottish football, but probably not the weather - bit of culture shock after Andalucia.

I saw him play in last league fixture in Spain last season. He was pretty anonymous, although in fairness so were most of the other Sevilla players. He did more with first couple of touches against Inverness than entire career at Sevilla, but not his fault. Should be good move for both Celtic and Hinkel, but Sevilla could live to regret it, especially when Alves goes.

Does anybody know exactly what Artur Boruc did at the weekend to earn booking. The referee Iain Brines has been backed by SFA over booking.

EMP wrote:Does anybody know exactly what Artur Boruc did at the weekend to earn booking. The referee Iain Brines has been backed by SFA over booking.

It was a sickening, shocking, terrifying, and gruesome act. One of the most heinous acts ever perpetuated by a man on a football field. He waved at the Hibs fans!


The SFA don't like Boruc and, some would have you believe, Celtic.

The Bulk wrote:

EMP wrote:Does anybody know exactly what Artur Boruc did at the weekend to earn booking. The referee Iain Brines has been backed by SFA over booking.

It was a sickening, shocking, terrifying, and gruesome act. One of the most heinous acts ever perpetuated by a man on a football field. He waved at the Hibs fans!


The SFA don't like Boruc and, some would have you believe, Celtic.

Was sent this by a friend:
I Was Right To Book Celtic's Artur Boruc, Says Referee
Mar 4 2008 Neil Cameron

REFEREE Iain Brines yesterday defended his decision to book Artur Boruc at Easter Road on Saturday and described the keeper's actions as "inflammatory."

Brines was also backed by his bosses at the SFA, who insisted their man was right to show a yellow card to the Pole for making a gesture to Hibs fans after Celtic's 2-0 victory.

Celtic boss Gordon Strachan believed Boruc was being victimised and had done nothing wrong.

But on the whistleblower section of the SFA website, Brines insisted he had no alternative but to book Boruc.

He said: "I clearly saw Boruc make a number of gestures towards the home spectators which could only be described as inflammatory."

A statement on the SFA's website read: "Brines acted in line with our instructions."

If he waved at Hibbs fans, surely that waranted a straight red card!

Celtic are in danger of allowing Rangers to win the league by default. They drew 0-0 at home to Dundee Utd last night.

They bought United's best player during the previous transfer window and they still couldn't overcome them. It was a turgid affair last night.

Still, Celtic have the opportunity to take 9 points from Rangers before the end of the season as they still have to play each other three times in the league.

It should make for an exciting conclusion if Celtic can win, say, 2 games and draw the other.

As it stands, Rangers are 3 points clear with a game in hand that they should win.

Cheers

If Gretna get kicked out of the league, they will be level on points but Rangers will have 2 games in hand.

Murray wrote:If Gretna get kicked out of the league, they will be level on points but Rangers will have 2 games in hand.

Hi, Murray.

It is in Rangers' interests to keep Gretna solvent. Consequently, I think Rangers will pay somebody - an agent, for example - to keep Gretna afloat, at least until the end of the season.

This is illegal, I'm sure, but any proof that Rangers have paid to keep their advantage over Celtic will never be forthcoming.

Now we have to wait until an agent, or some other dubious character, comes to Gretna's rescue!

Thanks

Celtic 0-1 Aberdeen

Celtic fans will be calling for Strachan's head very very soon.

Rangers quad looks more likely by the day

Yes, the Celtic fans now have the ammo to demand that Strachan is dismissed.

But who could they attract? Moyes? Well, he said in an interview recently that he was very keen on managing Celtic one day. But he probably meant when he was 60! I doubt he would leave the Everton team that he's built up. They're a good team. So it makes little sense to walk away from them.

Other names mentioned are:

Tony Mowbray - WBA - 50%

Mark McGhee - Motherwell - 100%

Paul Lambert - Wycombe - 100%

Quique Flores - NA - 25%

Fernando Chalana - Benfica - 0%

Claudio Prandelli - Fiorentina - 0%

Cheers

Celtic legend Tommy Burns died yesterday. He played and managed them in the 80s and late 90s respectively.

His Celtic team contained a raft of really good players like Jorge Cadete, Pierre van Hooijdonk, Paulo Di Canio and Andy Thom. His Celtic side are considered one of the most entertaining in Celtic's history. They would have won the league under Burns - they lost only one league game - had it not been for Andy Goram's unbelievable goalkeeping.

He said this about losing the league to Rangers that season :

"On my gravestone it will read Andy Goram broke my heart"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/may/15/celtic.scotlandfootballteam?gusrc=rss&feed=sport

Two legends have died recently now.

Jinky and Burns.

A true legend


I will never ever forget what Tommy Burns did for my football club. He is the reason my team are an established SPL club, he was the first manager at Kilmarnock when I was a boy and I idolised the man.

R.I.P Tommy you will never be forgotten

Yeah, I forgot that he was a Killie legend. He transformed the club.

Celtic shouldn't have stolen him back in 1995.

He was a fit chap. I used to see him jogging around the south side quite a lot. His daughters went to a school near me and were friends with some of my friends. Good looking girls, too.

Died too young.