Five arrested after Celtic fan trouble at Motherwell match

[barca72 440]

Stop your bleating, Lennon. You and yours created the conditions for four years of tainted titles, deal with it. Welcome to our world where someone comes and takes away your best players and leaves you nothing in return. Our young players will meet your young players in a couple of years. Be prepared ...

 

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/448711/Days-of-big-money-Celtic-buys-are-over

 

Days of big money Celtic buys are over

NEIL LENNON took his first step on his way to becoming a Celtic legend when he joined them from Leicester City 13 years ago last week.

Published: Sat, December 14, 2013

Neil Lennon has admitted Celtic can't compete financially in the Champions League [PH]

 

But as the Scottish champions emerge battered, bruised and beaten from the fall-out of the 6-1 Champions League drubbing by Barcelona the Parkhead boss has warned Hoops fans not to expect any more similar Neil Lennon deals.

 

Martin O’Neill, then Celtic boss, swooped on his old club to snap up the combative midfielder for £5.75million but sadly Lennon has ruled out a repeat of such transfer dealings.

 

The Parkhead gaffer was dealing in realism not football romance when he pointed out: “If we go to the English Championship now for a player we are talking about a starting figure of £7m.

 

“Take Jay Rodriguez as an example. I went to watch him at Burnley and two weeks later he was gone to Southampton for £7m. It’s very difficult for us to compete at that level.”

 

Lennon also fears that fees rise once it becomes clear Celtic are showing an interest in a player.

 

The Parkhead gaffer has looked twice recently at Huddersfield striker James Vaughan but he groaned: “He’s now being quoted at £6m just because I’ve been to look at him, and that makes it very difficult.

 

“When I joined Celtic we could compete at that level in the transfer market at the time but it’s very difficult now and we certainly can’t compete financially in the Champions League.

 

“It’s not easy for a club the size of Celtic to say this, or even to be in this position but that’s the reality. It’s hard seeing the likes of Norwich and Southampton taking your best players but that’s where we are.

 

“This year we spent £7m so we were the lightweights of the Champions League in the spending stakes, there’s no question about that.

 

“We punched well above our weight in Europe last year. We had a really good team and as manager the dream was to build on what we have.

 

“But we are in the climate where we can’t do that – we have to sell, and that’s just being realistic.”

 

The spine of last season’s successful was dismantled with the transfers of Gary Hooper to Norwich, Victor Wanyama to Southampton and Kelvin Wilson back to Nottingham Forest.

 

The Celtic boss worries about repeating such deals with chief scout John Park in charge of turning bargain buys into diamonds.

 

“I may never find another Wanyama for £800,000 and sell him for £12 million, it’s not a conveyor belt.

 

It’s hard seeing the likes of Norwich and Southampton taking your best players but that’s where we are

 

Neil Lennon, Celtic manager

“Parky can’t go and find these nuggets all the time but every now and then we hope to get a player who can be sold on for a lot of money. “

 

He added a dose of grim realism to his post-match verdict.

 

“It’s not easy for a club the size of Celtic to say this, or even to be in this position but that’s the reality,” said Lennon.

 

“We have to stabilise. We are healthy and well off at the minute but that’s not always going to the chase.”

 

Lennon also worries about clearing the hurdle of the qualifying rounds which faces the Scottish champions every season.

 

He said: “We have to guarantee Champions League every year, and that’s not something I can do.“

 

Anything can go wrong in the qualifying rounds, we were minutes away from maybe going out this year.

 

“We made it, but’s going to be really fraught again next year come July time.”

 

The Celtic manager also worries about the step up from domestic football to the elite Champions League.

 

“Look at our two recent domestic games, 7-0 against Hearts, 5-0 at Motherwell and then we get beaten 6-1 in the big boys’ playground and that’s the nub of it really,” said Lennon.

 

“We have to try to build a way to bridge the gap between domestic football and the Champions League.

 

“We did it last year, but we’re not going to do it every year, it’s just not feasible.”

 

He promised young players will get their chances as the domestic season progresses and picked out 18-year-old Stuart Findlay as a candidate for a step up.

 

The talented teenager is skipper of Celtic’s Under-20s and Lennon added: “He’s doing well and centre-half is an areas where we’re short. I’m hopeful of giving some time to the younger ones.”

[der Berliner 3,219]

The more air you give Jeannette Findlay and hers, the more you get brainwashed by their babble about freedom of speech for supporters, the truths about what the GB et al sing about, and Yahoo fan-culture. Disfunctional Reality Perception ...

[Super Cooper 0]

Scaremongering about the qualifiers. They coast past them year after year and in winning the title assure themselves the easiest draw possible. He starts trying to play mindgames with the Celtic board he better watch his back, they have already admitted they are looking for his replacement.

[Doc 280]

The more air you give Jeannette Findlay and hers, the more you get brainwashed by their babble about freedom of speech for supporters, the truths about what the GB et al sing about, and Yahoo fan-culture. Disfunctional Reality Perception ...

 

Their definition of free speech is very narrow. Irish nationalists can sing about terrorists and whatever they like because it's "cultural" and " helps promote enthusiasm for politics among the youngsters". Everyone else's culture doesn't count.

[barca72 440]

The more air you give Jeannette Findlay and hers, the more you get brainwashed by their babble about freedom of speech for supporters, the truths about what the GB et al sing about, and Yahoo fan-culture. Disfunctional Reality Perception ...

 

Naw, db, it's like giving her enough rope. Look what happened to the GB when they were given enough rope. The brightest light will illuminate those dark places.

[barca72 440]

Help is on the way for the GB. Maybe Celtic can sue them for reparations for the Motherwell damage once they get their fundraiser money from the pub.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/belfast-pub-owned-agent-celtic-2928793

 

By Norman Silvester 15 Dec 2013 08:01

Belfast pub owned by the agent of Celtic star Anthony Stokes to stage a fundraising night for the Green Brigade

GERRY CARLILE bought The Rock Bar in west Belfast two yerars ago with ex-Celtic player Paddy McCourt.

 

 

The Green Brigade have been a colourful - but often controversial - presence at Celtic Park for several years

Craig Williamson/SNS Group

A PUB owned by the agent of Celtic star Anthony Stokes is staging a fundraising night for shamed fans group the Green Brigade.

 

Gerry Carlile bought The Rock Bar two years ago with ex-Celtic player Paddy McCourt.

 

The bar, in Falls Road, west Belfast, will hold the Let The People Sing! gathering in February.

 

Carlile also owns Glasgow’s Light nightclub – formerly called Karbon – and has represented Irish international player Stokes for several years.

 

An online advert does not state what the Green Brigade will do with the cash raised.

 

The group of ultra-style fans were blamed for hooliganism during their team’s 5-0 victory against Motherwell nine days ago.

 

More than 200 seats were damaged at a cost of £10,000 and flares were set off.

 

That prompted Celtic to suspend 128 supporters and police later arrested five fans.

 

On Friday, Celtic were fined £42,000 over a Green Brigade banner comparing IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands to Scots patriot William Wallace.

 

It was displayed at a home Champions League game against AC Milan two weeks ago.

 

UEFA rules prohibit messages of a political nature being displayed in stadiums.

 

Carlile also manages ex-Rangers player Kyle Lafferty and former Celtic player Niall McGinn.

 

He said: “I do not even know about it, to be honest with you, so I will need to look into it and get back to you.”

 

Celtic are trying to disband the Green Brigade by dispersing them from Section 111 at Parkhead to

other parts of the ground.

 

Last week, Celtic boss Neil Lennon criticised a “rogue element” of the Green Brigade.

 

In 1994, outlawed loyalist group the Ulster Freedom Fighters fired a rocket launcher at The Rock Bar.

 

Nobody was injured but several customers in the pub were treated for shock.

 

Earlier this year, The Rock Bar was slammed for employing former IRA leader Brendan “Bik” McFarlane as a singer.

 

McFarlane, who now works for the peace process, was jailed in 1975 for a bomb and machine-gun attack on the Bayardo Bar on the loyalist Shankill Road in Belfast.

 

Five people were murdered and another 60 injured in the no-warning IRA blast.

 

A year ago, Celtic disciplined Stokes for attending a party honouring a murdered Real IRA boss in Dublin.

[barca72 440]

Keevins having a go now ...

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/hugh-keevins--its-time-2928879

 

15 Dec 2013 08:36

Hugh Keevins : It's time for Celtic board to act after Barcelona wake-up call

HUGH believes that Kris Commons called it right after his Nou Camp cameo and that Celtic's board need a better reaction to issues on and off the pitch.

 

IT'S a fair old trick to perform when you think about it.

 

Celtic are the only club in the country with any money. They’ve got the biggest ground and the best squad of players.

 

They don’t even have the inconvenience of having to fight tooth and nail with their ancient rivals for everything they get as Rangers have been consigned to the lower orders and are inconsequential for the time being.

 

They should have a support beside themselves with joy. Yet somehow they’ve managed to snatch turmoil from the jaws of triumph.

 

Even the manager who once had the slavish devotion of supporters has now had to put up with the indignity of fans accusing him of not knowing what he’s doing after the battering in Barcelona.

 

That’s the section of the support still allowed inside the ground, not the banished ones serving a precautionary suspension, whatever that is, for their anti-social behaviour. UEFA fines, SPFL investigations, flare throwing, wanton destruction, smoke bombs and banners carrying political messages.

 

If this is how it is when things are good what it would be like if Celtic were skint, trophy-less and living in Rangers’ shadow?

 

So good on Kris Commons for having the courage of his convictions to say exactly what he felt about the sub-standard performance in the Nou Camp.

 

Freedom of expression isn’t exactly welcomed by those in authority at Celtic Park, but if ever anyone was entitled to speak his mind it’s Commons.

 

Whatever affects him in his private life, Kris never lets it have a negative influence on the contribution he makes to the club that pays his wages.

 

He at least earned the right to talk about the “lost souls” round about him who reminded him of a “dying lion” waiting to be put out of its misery in Spain.

 

I’d love to have heard what he had to say in private about not starting, then being brought on when Celtic were five goals down.

 

Recent days have been, or should be, a wake-up call for Celtic, on and off the park. Time for the chief executive and his board to stop wallowing in self congratulation and pay attention.

 

The embarrassment of having to pay another club £10,000 for structural damages caused to their ground could have been avoided by Celtic recognising the disreputable element in their midst a long time ago.

 

Somebody should take a look at the Jock Stein Friendship Cup inside the ground, for instance, and think back.

 

The trophy was played for between Albion Rovers and Celtic starting in 2006. But the idea was forced to be abandoned in 2010 when the Green Brigade started throwing flares inside Cliftonhill’s wooden stand and what we’ll generously refer to as fans had to ejected from the ground.

 

If Celtic had reacted then and recognised they were literally playing with fire they might have spared themselves the bother they have now.

 

But heads were stuck in the sand and the chief executive didn’t even put his name to the statement issued on Monday about 128 supporters being suspended-ish.

 

He called over selected members of the press for a strictly off the record briefing instead in an “I’ll load the gun, you fire the bullets” kind of way.

 

Ballistics to that.

 

In the meantime, if somebody listens to what Commons has had to say after Celtic were exposed as inadequate on the European stage, the board might fund the purchase of players better able to uphold Celtic’s reputation before there are any more sound thrashings.

 

A pre-tax profit of £10million was posted in September. More than £40m has been made from back-to-back appearances in the Champions League and transfer sales over two seasons.

 

It’s the sort of trick only Tommy Cooper could have mishandled.

[ian1964 10,386]

[ian1964 10,386]

[Juancornetto 1]

If only Shagyer Parahandy had put them out in the qualifiers, they'd have imploded big time time this year. Lennon out, fans rioting and causing mayhem in the Europe League and every big "star" looking for a way out. Here's hoping they get a decent team in the quals next year.