What a nice week this promises to be.
One of those weeks in which our club will be a fairly relaxed place, allowing us ample time to prepare for the game against Aberdeen at the weekend.
This is the beauty of having no Champions League qualifiers; we have the luxury of an extra training day and getting everyone a step closer to their best.
It is nice to go into that game knowing that a win will keep us at least three points ahead of our rivals.
We may even have an opportunity to extend that lead; who knows how they will fare at home to Livingston on Saturday? Anyone who watched them this weekend knows they are miles off it right now and staggeringly vulnerable.
Even Martindale should fancy it. He should not be sending his team out there afraid.
The fear is all on the other side.
What a week this looms as for that team and its beleaguered boss.
They might well bounce back in Europe on Wednesday night, but that game and all the attendant pressure it brings is absolutely the last thing their club needed.
It’s all the worse for them that they don’t know much about the opposition. It’s also bad that this is – and no-one seems focussed on this yet – the first time The Mooch will have managed their club in Europe.
If he tries to play that public park football against the side which won the Swiss league last season, if he thinks that grim lack of tactical sophistication is going to fly against continental title winners, then he is in for the shock of his life and it could be very ugly for them.
The have a lot to be fearful of. Suddenly it’s not just that game this week which looms large in their thinking as a “must-win” tie, it’s that game at the weekend too.
People talk about Rodgers never having had a challenge last time he was here – utter garbage, as a lot of the media were wetting their pants over Warburton and his team – but the truth is that The Mooch hasn’t been under real pressure either in the league, only in the cups and he lost those.
He doesn’t get to cruise, not anymore. The spotlight is on him now and he’s never managed in Europe and never coped with a sustained level of doubt about his abilities to do it in a title race.
That all must be fairly scary and not just for him.
Remember, the players he’s signed, there aren’t a lot of natural winners in there. Two of the strikers were at teams which got relegated last season; only Danilo comes from a side which actually did win its league.
So he’s not the only one over there the pressure is now on like never before.
In the meantime, we get to watch, and prepare for Pittodrie. It is nice to have that luxury, and I know that Brendan and the team will use it wisely.
Come on servette serve it up to sevco and gub them make the people of Glasgow and Scotland deliourious the cockney wankers gets p45.
Servette never won their league. Young Boys won, Servette came 2nd.
Remember also Killie had 9 new players on show on Saturday. Said before questionable whether the rangers new boys were even a match for those on the move never mind a step up.
They get knocked out CL there will be major panic and no money to plug gaps or for a new manager to come into. Once the rot sets in other clubs in the league will have a go at rangers, that second place will need to be earned.
Brendan’s biggest challenges now are replacing Starfelt with a better quality player, finding his best starting 11 and I hope getting a better keeper at the club.
Servette didn’t win the league. That’s why they’re playing Rangers in the non-champions route.
Totally correct James and plenty of work needed this well in order to get ourselves much sharper for the trip to the ewe camp.
Can’t recall ever seeing a celtic team score 4 goals, which could easily been more but from some very good saves from the keeper, and yet still feeling so flat at the end of the game?
I know games are decided by big moments during a game, but overall I thought we produced a very sloppy performance that I hope will be improved upon, this weekend.
The scum on the other hand, are already facing huge problems.
Even when Ange arrived, with a few early defeats, you could still see what direction he wanted his celtic team to be going.
Can the scum make such a claim?
Don’t believe so, as only a team thrown together and hoping something clicks.
The scum cheerleaders are already sharpening the knifes and death for the snidey prick awaits by thousands of cuts, if results are out delivered very quickly, with increased pressure now?
Never taken any notice of what goes on within that shit hole of a club, yet revel in every bit of pain that goes there way, as such scummy individuals deserve every bit of it.
(Ibrox squad) ‘What a fine suit the emperor is wearing.’
They might not find The Referee in midweek so lenient as his Scottish equivalent would be for sure…
Potentially 1 or 2 red cards for Sevco on the night and…
Micheal will be Bealein’ !