Uilleam

I think I know what they mean. The question is do they?

Are the debt factors from South Boston, then?

Friends of mine from The Glen's have hidden that training very well, for a large number of years; or, maybe, that is just part of the training!! I suspected that Mr Forsyth was one of those who went, fashionably, as he saw it, against the grain, but now, you have lifted the scales from my eyes!!

A balanced view from The Telegraph. Mr Roddy Forsyth, an Allan Glen's boy, I am told, for years an assiduous apologist for rasellik and all its works opines that rahoops "... warm-weather training trip to Dubai was rendered toxic by political point-scoring..." Now that is called 'feeding the rat'. Lennon is quoted, at length, and among the gems, the pearls, the diamonds in the rough, we note, "....“The Celtic support is a huge selling point when you are bringing players in..." I would say, this particularly when the team is off form, and these supporters chase your car, or the team bus, with murder in their hearts; clearly a huge selling point, indeed, in a "I'm a celebrity footballer, get me out of this jungle" kind of way. But, as we know, rasellik minded do not 'do' irony. Celtic look to keep slim hopes of 10th consecutive title alive as bottom club Hamilton visit Celtic Park Neil Lennon sees parallels between Celtic and Liverpool, who have suffered a 30 point swing to Premier League leaders Manchester United ByRoddy Forsyth, SCOTTISH FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT26 January 2021 • 10:30pm https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/01/26/celtic-look-keep-slim-hopes-10th-consecutive-title-alive-bottom/?utm_content=football&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1611700754 Neil Lennon and his Celtic side have suffered a difficult season without fans in the stands As Neil Lennon contemplated what have been the best and worst of times in his managerial career, he cited a tale of two cities by way of mitigation. The Celtic manager – whose players are at home to Hamilton tonight – supervised the completion of a fourth successive domestic treble by winning the deferred 2020 Scottish Cup final against Hearts last month, but defeat by Rangers in the New Year Old Firm derby eroded the already slim chance that the Hoops could achieve the 10th successive championship their supporters so ravenously desired. The team’s subsequent warm-weather training trip to Dubai was rendered toxic by political point-scoring and the discovery that Christopher Jullien had tested positive for Covid-19, forcing Lennon, his assistant manager and 13 players to self-isolate during games against Hibs and Livingston, both of which were drawn. A further tied meeting with Livingston last week means that Celtic have yet to record a victory this year. That said, the malaise affecting the team has been evident all season and Lennon suggested a parallel between events in the east end of Glasgow and at Liverpool, where the relationship between club and fans is regarded as similarly symbiotic. “I’m watching with interest how Liverpool are going,” Lennon said. “There is a 30-point swing between them and Manchester United from this time last year. Now that’s not normal - it’s just not normal. Manchester United have improved but not to the extent of it being a 30-point swing.” “Listen, I would not have enjoyed this season as a player. You thrive on the atmosphere. It brings the best out in you. We’ve talked for years of the European nights at Celtic Park where it lifted us to another level. The players have been bereft of that.” “It’s not the total explanation but it is a part of it that there has been a flatness that comes from the lack of energy, atmosphere, rawness that normally the players would pick up on.” Asked if that absence might have had the biggest effect on incoming players who have never experienced a full house on a high-octane occasion at Celtic Park, Lennon said: “The Celtic support is a huge selling point when you are bringing players in, especially players from a different environment, culture and way of playing football. “They can’t go to a restaurant, can’t go for a coffee, be anywhere. It is just training ground or home. Some clubs have adapted better to it, some clubs haven’t and have clearly suffered and we are definitely one of those clubs that have.” Without the allure and motivation of ravenous crowds and amidst a campaign that has unravelled for the defending champions, some Celtic players evidently had enough early in the proceedings, but Jeremie Frimpong was not believed to be amongst them until Tuesday, when it was revealed that the 20-year-old Dutch defender was abroad in talks - believed to be with Bayer Leverkusen - and that the Parkhead club had accepted a healthy offer for an individual who wanted out. “This has been in the offing for the past couple of months,” Lennon said. “We offered the player talks for a new deal but he made it clear that he wanted to leave, despite our best efforts to keep him.” “I feel a bit let down because we felt we could progress him further and we offered him a new deal which would have kept him here for another two or three years but it was down to the player’s personal ambition.”

A mam nager who 'always clashes' with his bosses, and Roman Abramovich's Chelsea. What could possibly go wrong? No wonder it's only an 18 month contract, The ‘control freak’ that Chelsea need Thomas Tuchel always clashes with his bosses but his tactical acumen is undeniable, writes Constantin Eckner Constantin Eckner Tuesday January 26 2021, 12.01am, The Times Thomas Tuchel’s win percentage as PSG manager was 74.8. Of his 127 games in charge, he won 95, drew 13 and lost 19 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-control-freak-that-chelsea-need-3b66m5xfp When comparing their respective careers, Thomas Tuchel has little in common with Frank Lampard. Unlike the man he succeeds at Stamford Bridge, the German never had any notable success as a player. The pinnacle of his career on the pitch totalled eight matches in Germany’s second division with Stuttgarter Kickers before a knee injury forced his retirement at 25. Tuchel, 47, made the most of his misfortune, dedicating himself over the next few years to studying coaching philosophies and methodologies. His intellect and knowledge quickly won admirers while working in the academies at Stuttgart and Augsburg before earning his first managerial position at Mainz, replacing Jürgen Klopp in 2009. Over the next five years he gained a reputation for being an out-of-the-box thinker who dismissed most of what was considered traditional coaching. His 2012 talk, entitled Rulebreaker, became an internet sensation, with Tuchel explaining how he was pushing his players constantly during his first years at Mainz. “We were the first to break with old thought patterns (in the Bundesliga) by playing different tactical systems,” he said. “A feeling of inferiority” made him realise that his team could only beat opponents through repeated tactical changes. “Other teams were stuck in old thought patterns, once a 4-4-2, always a 4-4-2,” Tuchel said. Rather than rely on one system, he would often adapt his tactical set-up depending on the opponent Mainz were facing. They would switch between one holding midfielder or two, a back three or a back four, or a diamond in midfield. In 2011 he steered the small-town club to fifth in the Bundesliga with a distinct brand of high-octane, counterattacking football. His team were spearheaded by Lewis Holtby, André Schürrle and Adam Szalai — nicknamed the “Bruchweg Boys” after the club’s stadium — who were likened to a boy band for their energy and youthfulness. He left the club in 2014 after a dispute over finances but his work made him Borussia Dortmund’s first choice, once again replacing Klopp. Despite winning his first major trophy, the German Cup in 2017, he was unable to emulate his predecessor and secure a league title. His strained relationship with Hans-Joachim Watzke, the club’s chief executive, led him to leave at the end of that season. It was then that he first spoke with Chelsea when the club were concerned that Antonio Conte, who had just won the Premier League title, would quit after one year in west London. Once it became clear that the Italian would remain, the talks ended and Tuchel agreed to join Paris Saint-Germain in the spring of 2018. Tuchel is a control freak who likes to have a say in everything. When he arrived in Paris, he instructed the cooks at the team hotel about his preferred menus, drew up diet plans for his players and started monitoring their sleeping patterns. He even provided architectural drawings for requested changes to the training ground to make more space for physiotherapists and doctors. He found it difficult to implement his tactical blueprint, however. Although the club reached the Champions League final last season, losing to Bayern Munich, throughout his tenure Tuchel was virtually forced to exempt his star players, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar, from most of their defensive duties. Once again he clashed with the club’s hierarchy over transfer policy and it was no great surprise when he was dismissed in December with a £5.3 million payoff. At Chelsea, the task is more straightforward. Lampard’s team conceded an average of 1.35 goals a game — the most under any of Roman Abramovich’s managers. Tuchel’s tactical vision must improve the team defensively while finding suitable roles for his compatriots Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, the expensive attacking signings who have misfired in England. Despite all the off-field turbulence, Tuchel has made clear that he sees his main job as assisting those on the field. “It is a players’ game. We as managers only serve our players,” he once said. After a £220 million summer spree, Chelsea are hoping Tuchel can unlock the full potential of their highly gifted players.

In Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea are pivoting to a kind of anti-Lampard The tactical modernist is very different from his predecessor at Stamford Bridge but could be just what Chelsea need now @barneyronay Tue 26 Jan 2021 09.02 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jan/26/in-thomas-tuchel-chelsea-have-pivoted-to-a-kind-of-anti-frank-lampard According to the Thomas Tuchel playbook, managing a football team is “something you need to learn and understand, not a thing you do because there’s nothing else left or because it seems like the logical next step after 400 professional matches”. Tuchel wasn’t talking about Frank Lampard when he said these words. Although it would surely make his likely arrival at Stamford Bridge a little spicier if he could rehash this statement for his opening remarks at the unveiling-station – ideally while wagging his finger and brandishing his economics diploma, his youth coaching medals, and all the other evidence of a coaching hinterland, a life spent outside the inner circle, that separates him from his immediate predecessor. What does seem certain is that should Chelsea end up recruiting Tuchel they will, by accident or design, have landed on a kind of anti-Lampard. Exit one underqualified celebrity appointment. Enter the gangling Bavarian uber-nerd, tactical modernist and obsessively-minded details coach, a man whose stated hobbies include nights in drinking orange spritzer and “an interest in furniture design”. All managerial hires tend to oscillate between extremes to some degree. Lampard is a superstar. Tuchel was no kind of player at all. Lampard was already being touted around as a manager by his uncle before he’d even taken his first steps. Tuchel believes in coaching and management as a kind of vocation, something to learn and understand, an intellectual discipline as much as a function of status and personality. And yes, it is already possible to hear the knives being sharpened, Lampard’s friends in the media taking pre-umbrage at the presence of this outsider, who has already upset a few people along the way and seems certain to have his early collisions and wrong turns. But there is plenty of good sense too in this pivot towards a Tuchel-type figure. Where Lampard was a tactical blank, a manager still working out how he wants his teams to look, Tuchel is very clearly associated with a way of playing, with direct links to the current hot headliners of the German school of gegenpressing, rapid transition and all the rest. Another point of contrast: Tuchel is demonstrably qualified to do the job. In fact he is an upgrade on pretty much every professional level, with the exception of one key quality: he isn’t Frank. And this kind of thing really does matter at Chelsea. Lampard’s sacking may have arrived with startling speed, the executioner’s block wheeled into place with that familiar brutal efficiency, but it was, in the end, a victory for the circle of life. Lampard returned to Stamford Bridge with an idea of reasserting the basic Chelsea identity, the Chelsea of his own playing days. In which case – job done. The end may have arrived with a merciless swish of the blade, but this was in itself a reassertion of the deep Chelsea culture of the Abramovich years. This is the model. And in a commendably ruthless fashion the model has now done away with one of its own favourite sons. And so we go on. The circle of life demands fresh meat for the shredder. Tuchel looks, in outline, the best Chelsea hire since Antonio Conte, and before that Carlo Ancelotti, 11 years and seven empty chairs down the line, albeit one who arrives with a degree of uncertainty over his own trajectory. At this point it is worth recalling how Tuchel first announced himself. Rewind 21 years and Tuchel was playing under Ralf Rangnick at Ulm, a club in the process of a transformative rush up through the divisions. A cartilage injury forced Tuchel into retirement aged 24, and a spell in the wilderness. He worked as a barman in Stuttgart. He raged at his bad luck. He settled into a youth level coaching role under Rangnick, groomed as an awkward, clever, challenging coach in the making. Tuchel got his break at Mainz in 2009, following on from Jürgen Klopp. He trimmed his squad, refocused the players, and did well enough to create a kind of wonderkid buzz around himself, a persona that propelled him on to Dortmund in succession to Klopp once again. Tuchel was a success at Dortmund: he brought Christian Pulisic through, he experimented with positions and roles, and he ended up being sacked three days after winning the club’s first trophy in five years following disagreements with assorted levels of the club hierarchy. Paris Saint-Germain followed, a weird appointment in itself: PSG is a star project, Tuchel is a systems manager who demands the players act as a collective. But he won a lot of games, won the trophies he was supposed to win and took that team to the Champions League final. At the end of which nobody really knows what Tuchel’s ceiling might be. He’s done quite well, without ever looking the ideal fit in his environment. There are some obvious advantages at Chelsea. Through Rangnick – an early mentor of both Timo Werner, the player, and Tuchel the manager – he has a direct line in to how to get the best out Chelsea’s £50m striker. No excuses here: Tuchel looks like the ideal choice for a player who needs to be used in a specific way to replicate his Bundesliga form. Rangnick is also a huge fan of Kai Havertz, who he once described as Cruyff-like in his all-round game. Should Tuchel get the job it is to be hoped the odd long chat with his old boss is in line. Otherwise Tuchel will make Chelsea’s players fit his pattern, with obsessive drills, and a very clear idea of where he wants them to be on the pitch. The Tuchel style is based on running, hard pressing, and speed of thought and deed. In Germany this playing style was considered at one point to be classically “English”. So much for the good news. There is also plenty that will be picked away at and used to beat him with. Tuchel does not suffer fools, speaks brusquely at times, and has some quirks: no use of surnames, and an insistence players look into each other’s eyes while saying good morning; an obsession with good manners and punctuality. There is plenty to work on here if, or indeed when, things start to go bad. For now, should he get the job, he has a blank slate: a hugely powerful squad, a natural tactical fit with some key players, and even the added benefit of an empty stadium into which to ease his awkward frame. Over to you, the anti-Frank.

Makes a change from throwing the ball into the net, I suppose.

I've just skimmed through that nonsense about Rangers doping the players with coffee. It read like the product of an all-nighter on bennies. I would offer the following comments: 1. It explains why, at times, watching Rangers is just like watching Brazil 2. It explains why Steven Gerrard is odds on for Barrista of the Year.

Such preferential treatment will cause a rowie in the dressing room.

In whose gift is this "Manager of the Year" award? Press/pundits? Managers? Players?

Still better than mediocre. Very decent record at Test level.

More than a club, right enough.

Better than mediocre, Compo 58 Tests, 229 wkts @28.39. 159 ODIs, 235 wkts @26.42 https://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/13411.html

Well, I would hope that the settlement of claims such as those of Whitehouse and Clark would not go through on the nod. I appreciate that settling out of court is often cost effective, but I am unsure whether it is advisable to let those who were instrumental in causing the claims in the first place licence to agree their settlement, without hindrance, and without being subject to scrutiny from outside ie from an auditing authority.

There has to be some oversight, no matter the amount, and no matter the profile of the claim. Otherwise, there is scope for all sorts of malfeascence, expediency, graft.

Why wouldn't they be? If such outgoings are subject to no scrutiny whatsoever the scope for abuse is huge.

I was of the belief that one had to evidence loss, and to demonstrate/prove the value of that loss. Where the settlements are out of court, by the government, as they are in this case, then surely they will be subject to audit, and if not, why not?

A sadly unsurprising turn of events, given results and performances. Chelsea spent a huge amount of money in the last window, although I thought that this was, maybe, the Club catching up following its Transfer Ban. The resultant team, however, has singularly failed to impress, in fact, in many respects, has struggled, and the new players, particularly the two German donnerstiefel, have looked, well, like duds. Tuchel, or a coach like Tuchel, will surely get a better tune out of the squad. As for Lampard to Piggery Place, I would be very surprised: -Frank is neither stupid, nor unhinged; -he has no sellik pedigree or connection; -if he can't optimise performance from the expensively assembled array of talent at The Bridge, then how will he manage with that lucky bag of playing staff at Porkheid? Two weeks ago, Eddy Howe was nailed onto the sellik job; last week it was Rafa Benitez; this week, presumably Lampard will be the nap. Next week? The next high profile dismissal in Europe.

Stop fucking around, lads

We have been streets ahead, and 3 - 0 does not flatter in any way. Aribo's goal was not too shabby. A couple of goals in the second half before the hour mark, then bring on the subs. If we can convert this into a barraload, 6, 7, even 8, I would be happy: it would build the goal difference; it would build confifidence; it would have Timothy spewing (assuming he has anything left to puke).

No such thing as coincidence, GS.

The Club has been hoovering up sponsorships and partnerships like nobody's business, so, perhaps, it should look, now, to sell 'naming rights' for the new facilty. In that regard, I am inclined to go for a beer Company, and would, respectfully, and humbly, suggest THE FAMOUS ORANJEBOOM HOUSE

It's not much of a building, so.....

Unless we spend it. i don't think that he mentions that, but it's an easy mistake for a financial guru to make.