Biblio

They have had a poor start to the season and the early signs are that this time next year they will still be trapped in 2 Bundesliga. What has happened to them? They are a big city team with a history of success and a large support but seem to have turned into the pre-2020 German version of Leeds. I'd love to see them back again but things don't look hopeful.

It's still early days but this result has brought an end to the narrative of the great Celtic revival. I hope it has put a torpedo through their morale.

If it is applied properly it is much better than spending more than you can afford on vanity projects.

It is a good idea in principle, no club should be paying more than it can afford and when they do it distorts the competition, but it can be easily abused. It was tried in rugby league and the big clubs were and are able to get round it. Wigan employed a player's wife as a secretary on exhorbitant wages for instance.

They are glory hunters, not fans. They want to be there for all the celebrations but don't want the rest of the baggage that goes with supporting a team.

It is very disappointing but the players now have to take the view that the season starts here and put the bad results behind them. I'm not surprised at the result particularly because this level is a big step up from the SPFL but I'm still very disappointed.

It's never good to lose but at least this might stop the nonsense about the league being a foregone conclusion, 29th August will be a cricket score etc.

How predictable if he chooses to go to PSG. If he really wanted a challenge then he would go to a club where success is not guaranteed and experience something new in his career. Then again, I suppose he will starve if he gets paid less than £500,000 a week.

I would disagree there.

Especially when the goal difference has been halved?

The Allsvenskan is of much higher quality than the SPFL and Malmö are top of the league. A scoreline like this should not really be a surprise. It could still be turned round though in the second leg.

Penalties are a bad way to lose a final but they are also a bad way to win one. Italy's last two trophies have been won on penalties.If the match was decided on points then Italy would have won quite convincingly, so I wouldn't argue against the result as such, but there must be a better way of deciding things. Personally I think that the number of players on the pitch should be reduced progressively, creating more space and allowing the match to be settled in open play, rather than a tacked on competition. There is some artificiality in that approach as well, of course, but, while it is one thing to have earlier rounds settled by penalties, it is bit demeaning for a championship to be decided on them.

Success in the Euro championship is no guarantee of doing well in the World Cup, the one that really counts. Look at the winners over the last 30 odd years. Almost all, with the exception of 2008 winners Spain, have flopped at the following WC, and even Spain got into that habit in 2014.

From what I remember from the 1977 tv documentary, that section of the Millwall support were called 'Treatment'. F Troop (who I think included the infamous Harry the Dog) just looked like the typical 70s hooligans of the time.

1-0 to Linfield after 20 minutes

Anyone else see the Larne v Crusaders match earlier? It finished 1-1 and went to penalties. Crusaders goalie saved three penalties but they were all ordered to be retaken because he moved off his line. After the third one he was sent off to be replaced by an outfield player who had missed a penalty in the sequence. Larne eventually went through to the final. Linfield v Ballymena is on BBC i-player at 7.45.

Normally OG games are occasions for great anxiety. I'm not feeling that now, not out of any sense of over-confidence but just because there isn't really anything at stake. The important issue was decided weeks ago. I would still hate to lose though as Celtic fans would act like they'd done their precious 10.

I've never actually joined there but I sometimes read their pages. Gersnet is much better, much more intelligent comments and none of the vitriol and unpleasantness which permeates other sites.

True to form some idiot on FF is moaning that one trophy from nine is not good enough. After the last 10 years you would think that he might have learned some perspective and realise that that one trophy, which he seems to disparage, is worth more than any of the others put together.

The most important thing was the league but to tell the truth I wasn't that surprised by tonight's result. Certainly once it went to penalties then there could only be one winner - it was in the script. It may not be a bad thing either. There was a certain amount of arrogance on FF about who we would play in the semi and who we would beat tin the final. It's best for that attitude to be shown the door well before the next meaningful match.

are not seriously comparing Rangers in the 1990s to Salford now are you? Rangers generated much more money and had far greater support than the opposition. This was not the case with Salford who bought their success without any of these factors applying. There is really no moral case for it at all. And I would not want Rangers to go down the big spending route again. Neville said nothing when he and his team (plus Liverpool, Chelsea) etc hoovered up all the money. He said nothing when about CL money being used to prop up the same teams every year. How has he only just noticed that football is not some corinthian ideal? I think there are two things motivating him - one is his attachment to the corrupting outfit that is Sky TV (who would almost certainly not have been in the running for broadcast rights) and the other is his desire to be seen as being on the side of the angels. Check out an excellent article in The Times today (paywalled)which really outlines the hypocrisy on display.

No, they didn't. They won it with money that they did not earn and through buying players who were out of the reach of their rivals. I live in Liverpool and am familiar with the non-league scene, and Salford did not earn promotion in a fair manner. Neville is unhappy because his paymasters Sky are not part of it, if they were then he'd be all in. It''s his hypocrisy and the fact that after benefiting from a money distorted set-up in the past he has only just noticed that money can be a corrupting factor.

It annoys me to see the likes of Gary Neville doing his moral grandstanding bit. This is a man who bought EFL status for Salford City by distorting the playing field in which they were competing against other non-league clubs. How is this proposed ESL any different to what he did, other than in scale? I don't lie the idea of a ESL but part of me would love to see the back of clubs who have showed no concern for the welfare of the sport at all over the last few decades.

Looking at the news, I'm finding the moral condemnation from some quarters, especially Premier League fans, pretty amusing. Have they only just noticed the corruption that their favourite clubs have indulged in for the last 20 odd years?

This season has been an amazing success even before today and would still have been a success if they had won. However, victory today means that Celtic have nothing to hide behind, no valid excuses, and, best of all, no trophies.