retired_sander

When the fúck did Celtic sign scholes

Raptor

Best did, in Frost's absence. Obviously, there's been many changes in the squad since 2009. I gather the Belfast Telegraph will do a full squad review for the new season.

retired_sander

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Raptor:
Best did, in Frost's absence. Obviously, there's been many changes in the squad since 2009. I gather the Belfast Telegraph will do a full squad review for the new season. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

They would if the club ever released player info :p

Raptor

He came home late that night, well after ten, after a long hard day at the office. Soaked, splitting headache, and incredibly pìssed off after Celtic's heartbreaking defeat the other day. Maybe a shower would make him feel better. Couldn't make things worse, anyway, like those six aspirins he already had today. Oh well, there's always CM. So he loaded up the savegame most CMSers hoped would finally be corrupted soon, so that they wouldn't have to put up with the ridiculous republican propaganda that had littered the bestest forum on the interweb for a year and a half now.

No such luck. Not today, at any rate...

Raptor

In between the first two Super Cup games, Frost and Best talked about how they felt a lack of firepower could cost Celtic dear in the new season...

GB It's good to see Scholes get on the scoresheet. I expected him to do it a little more often last season. I thought he'd contribute more in general to be brutally honest.

MF He was over 35 when you signed him though, was bound to be over the top. Still a massive player for the Irish League if you ask me though.

GB I'm not sure he really wanted to be here though. But no decent British clubs offered him a contract, and he felt he still had something to prove at European level.

MF That argument's always worked to bring players over hasn't it?

GB Usually does. Doubt Arena knows how to use it though. I haven't seen a new striker arrive so far...

MF The club's a bit short on goalscorers now yeah. Costello and Chadwick both gone, Ronaldo's work permit not renewed yet...

GB Not to mention Gary Malone still wants away. He's been talking about "bigger clubs" for years now.

MF Yeah, even back when I was still in charge. Wish he'd realise he's a star at Celtic, and could become part of football history if only he sticks to us.

GB Late last season, I told him exactly the same thing I told Michael Reddy when he wanted away because he said bigger clubs were interested...

MF What did you say to him then?

GB "If the club's big enough for Ronaldo, it bloody well should be big enough for you!"

MF Heh, nice. But it didn't work with Reddy.

GB Not in the end. But then, he didn't want a bigger club, he just wanted first team football. In a peaceful enviroment.

MF So he went to Burnley. Yeah, that made sense, I guess...

GB Do you reckon Arena will bring any strikers in?

MF To be honest, no. O'Mao just robbed the club of another £3m+ in dividends. He wants to maximise profits. And signing players won't achieve that. Strikers are expensive.

GB It would be a huge mistake. Keddy, Healy and Malone can't do it without proper backup. Not in a 50-odd game campaign.

MF You know that, I know that, any football fan knows that. But Celtic's run by a trio of retarded Yanks. Well, 2½, or whatever percentage O'Mao considers himself to be American.

Raptor

Friday 29 June 2012, Super Cup, Shelbourne v Belfast Celtic, Tolka Park

A day later, the former club management's worries were highlighted when a lacklustre performance by Celtic's frontline saw them fail to create anything noteworthy in the game against Shels.

Thankfully, at the back, the champions had solved an important problem though. Against Linfield, Celtic Reserves goalkeeper Liam O'Leary, who never quite made the grade in the first team, had to wear the #1 jersey in the absence of Danny Milosevic. The Australian keeper was involved in Australia's Oceanian Nations Cup, watching the Socceroos beat Papua New Guinea 4-2 in the final. Watching from the bench that is.

With Patrick Bucic having left for Shamrock Rovers, Celtic had been looking for a backup goalkeeper for a while already. In signing John Dodds, they went one better. Now 30 years of age, the goalie who had spent the 2006/7 season on loan at Belfast Celtic, was brought in on a permanent contract. At £850,000, he'd probably be the most expensive summer transfer in Irish football. Despite an unhappy spell at Birmingham, Dodds had established himself as Scotland B keeper, which earned him a move to Coventry in the summer of 2011. But ultimately, the Scot needed more than a First Division relegation battle to further his career, and choose to come to Belfast.

In his debut game, he performed well, kept everything out, and through the clean sheet, staked his claim for the permanent number one position.

Shels 0
Celtic 0
Attendance: 13,335

Raptor

That Sunday, all people cared about was the Euro2012 final. In Oslo's Ulleval Stadion, England took on Scotland. England were after their second European title of the century, while Scotland could win their first major international trophy ever. For the fans at least, putting one over the English was just as big an incentive...

But it wasn't to be. During the group stage, England had already shown Scotland the art of patiently awaiting the time to strike, and in the final, they did it again. Kenny Dalglish's team enjoyed most of the possession, but couldn't find a way past the formidable central defensive partnership of Jonathan Woodgate and John Terry. It took them an hour before Stephen Hughes of Rangers finally made Celtic's England goalkeeper Adam Leonard collect the ball from the back of his net. From a deflected free kick, but they all count.

So too did Joe Cole's sloppy opening goal. There was a strong case for offside against Michael Owen, but the flag stayed down. New Hibs signing Craig O'Neil (just over £1m from Newcastle) did well to parry the ball, but his defence let him down by failing to clear it further than Cole, who mis-hit his shot, but still saw it trickle agonisingly slow over the line.

After Scotland's equaliser, both sides went looking for a clinching goal. It never came in normal time, so extra time, or even the dreaded penalty competition would have to decide the destiny of the Coupe Henry Delaunay.

On the stroke of half time in extra time, Steven Miller made the mistake that would haunt him for the rest of his life: a poor backpass to his keeper which sent Justin Georcelin clear through on O'Neil. Desperate to make amends, Miller slid in from behind, but got his timing wrong. Inside the box, there could only be one outcome...

From the spot, defying the unwritten law that you don't take penalties awarded for fouls on yourself, Georcelin blasted home his 20th England goal in 46 caps. It was the golden goal that made beer scarce in his home country.

Raptor

Sunday 1 July 2012, Super Cup, Belfast Celtic v Shamrock Rovers, The Oval

While the two British rivals scored three goals between them in Oslo, at The Oval, Celtic and Rovers failed to create even three goalscoring opportunities between them. It wasn't worthy of a game deciding the winner of the Super Cup, but then, few people actually care about the trophy anyway.

It took 80 minutes for the crowd to have anything to cheer/boo (delete as applicable) for, when Celtic's Ljubo Milicevic was sent off for a second bookable offence. With both goalkeepers, ex-Celtic man Bucic in the Rovers goal, and ex AND new Celtic man Dodds in the Belfast goal, 0-0 was the bookies' odds-on favourite prediction. They were right.

It wasn't pretty, but for Rovers, it'd do. The draw secured their fourth Super Cup, equalling Shelbourne's record.

Celtic 0
Rovers 0
Attendance: 15,000

Raptor

On Thursday morning, Patrick returns from an early morning shift at the post office, where he found a temporary job, out of breath, with the Belfast Telegraph in his hand...

PO'K Mark! Check this... Celtic sacked Ronaldo and Keane!

MF Huh?! When did that happen?

PO'K Late last night, apparently. This says they had "an unbridgeable difference of opinion with the club's manager and chairman regarding the future of Belfast Celtic FC".

MF In other words: They told Arena and Johnson where to stick it.

PO'K Must've been something like that. Listen to this: "In a parting shot, former Ireland captain Keane called chairman Johnson "a useless c*nt", and said manager Arena "wouldn't recognise a football if it hit him in the face".

MF That's our Roy!

PO'K There's more... "Ronaldo publicly backed former manager George Best, saying he was treated disrespectfully. The sacked assistant manager lashed out at the decision to replace the man who brough Celtic three League championships during the club's and its hometown's darkest days."

KF It had to be said. Shame the club loses two great men because of it, but they're right. 100%.

PO'K Ooh, this is interesting... Keane allegedly said that the one thing Celtic needs now is the return of the Frost/Best partnership in charge of things.

MF Excellent... Public opinion could swing our way a lot quicker than I had hoped this way... Good job Keano...

PO'K Like you, he's out of a job now though...

MF I'll let you in on a little secret... Keane's been offered a coaching job at Man Utd. Graham Rix wanted him there from the day he took over at the start of last season. Mark my words: he'll be appointed before the week is over. Couldn't have given the club a better farewell speech though.

KF What about Ronaldo though?

MF I really feel for him. He risked his life for Celtic, playing in a war-torn foreign country for three years, only to have an extension to his work permit refused because he doesn't actually play anymore. The fact he's an assistant manager doesn't seem to matter. It's like the Jan van Dijk situation all over again. And now, he's sacked as well. I hope he'll get a proper coaching job in Spain or Brazil, he deserves that.

KF I wonder what Stevie will do to counter this situation... He has to do something, because a lot of Celtic fans will only be more eager to see the back of him and his henchmen now...

retired_mellnet

Stevie could figure out what all the hoopla was about. Roy Keane wasn't worth the sh-it he took every day in the Club's toilets. What could he teach the youngsters? How to drink yourself under the table? How to take your Prozac pills every morning? So after several years of diminising returns both on the field and on the training pitch, Stevie couldn't believe that anyone would be upset at his releasing the moron.

But with Frost and Best doing their best to stir up trouble, it was all in the papers, "Keane lashes out at Celtic Yanks." Hell if Keane was allowed to stay, Frost and his gaggle of quacks would be attacking him for keeping a good for nothing drunk on the payroll.
He couldn't win either way.

Ronaldo was the same. The real problem with Ronaldo was that just the mention of his name had everyone thinking of the young Brazillian that 15 years ago was setting Europe a light. But no one but the staff, Stevie and of course the opposing defenders thought of the 40 year-old slow fat striker that was trying to hang on for one more paycheck.

Stevie knew that he was bound to lose some of his grip on the club, it was inevitable. The fans were clamoring for the return of Frost, despite the fact that they had won three titles without Frost. But to keep the fans buying tickets he had to do something to placate them.