Docco
Well-known member
Right then ! Get yer coffee️
Here is today's news direct from winter's heid.
Actually it's a reply to Gary's post but takes tangents , digressions and a fair bit of general round the houses.
I answered the question as well and kept my eyes opened for most of it.
Two ways of looking at the pots when deciding who we'd like.
The "optimists view" and the .I wouldn't call it pessimistic view because we are a deserved automatic entrant, yeah our footballs so bad ( we are constantly told, the truth is only we can say that , we do a lot, scouts aside/Scottish football employess etc , those who watch our game and with a population of 5.5 million, one of Europe's worst television deals , always we get this globally our games constantly talked down all the time and ripped off for quality talent on tbe cheap but have a global audience that many countries would be envious of. Yet despite how rotten we are told we are and how we are rubbish everybody says it the Haalands and Darwijn Nunez of this world know exactly how shprite we are NOT , pretty sure theyd beg to differ. Hell were so rubbish collectively that were guaranteed to have one club represent our nation in every group stage tourmanet Uefa has to offer ( aka The Finals), and since were so rotten might as well have a go at FIFA's the nation's league ,seeing as we're about to replace England as an elite nation , we're on a run of two successive promotions in that new league , its incredible to think we were a group C
nation won it, then group B nation , won it and now we will play in one of the 4 group A's ( 3 teams per group i think) , a nations league that began with each countrys ranking deciding where they begin and we started in C groups ranked about 35 or higher playing Albania and Israel now we play in the top tier and though its been talked down compared to the Euros, rightly so , its still become big enough the elite nations want to win it now, its a trophy what the games all about, we'll were about to contest that trophy with the best European nations according to NL results over the past few seasons and deserve it, to be there , not expecting anything but a few shock results would be good.
Coming up we play a few top nations and engerlund in our first friendly I can remember for a good while , what's cool is they have been relegated to groups B &
we are promoted ,to group A yaaas mind you don't fall on the step on the way down girfuy England
on club side UEFA gives us an automatic champions league entry spot ,1of26 with a two legged 1 play off round the giving the opportunity to make it 2 clubs representing the country ? There's about 700 million people in Europe and 5½ million in 0 Bonnie Scotland's populationdon't let that fool anyone though were better than first impressions. That's the only reason i mention it, we're better than the rest tell us, not EPL standard but tbh neither is much of the Champions league, Bayern, Real Madrid, Barcelona at this time are the only other clubs I'd give a real chance of winning the EPL possibly Dortmund.
I think, i heard that Turkey have moved into 9th place in the coefficient pushing Scotland into 10th, due to Galatasaray qualifying for the champions league idk what this means but that can be addressed by positive Scottish club performances in the conference and champions league, all you want is a chance not 3 of the best in the group.
The "realistic view" and the "optimistic view" of group choosing I'd call it.
Two 'favourable ' choices of groups whereby the "realistic view " is made with the head and an experienced realisation of where we're at right now, the type of group traditionally associated with us, the sort we kind of expect and the quality of teams in the champions league, which we are else we wouldnt be one of only 26 club seeds, us playing our next game against the champions league play off losers, they have had the benefit ( only one benefit) of playing against that level competitively, we go there next , even losing to a higher level of football has lessons to be learned from it, we've heard it so many times. with no fans just them it could work in our favour if they don't score the crowd will get on their backs and anxious , what with no-one else there to take it out on who saw that coming 5-1 now Beale is in real trouble and though we've not properly clicked yet , we're yet another champions league side coming and I'm not sure they'll be relishing this game as much pre kick off.
I did not see a 5-1 thumping at all , I saw PSV bottle it again mibbee sneak through in ET, when sevco scored to make it 2-1 honestly thought " not again" but PSV actually turned up this time.
Raskin found wanting many times last night,cantwell cheating wee bassa refs should be made aware of rule breakers that set out to cheat thats not targetting a player thats seeing the laws of the game are adhered too. Anyway I digress ( is that 2 digressions? Bear with nearly done , I think).
So starting with the "realistic view," putting on my CL hat (nae yella bunnets yet) and thinking 3rd place will give us progress through to the Europa league round of 32.
I do believe that's our level on the playing field ,
When ironically off the field there's only around 35-40 odd clubs on the planet that could compete with us financially, of the 4,400 clubs FIFA recognise. the board do a good job governed by bonuses and the business side , their wages etc and theres a very good reason why Celtic are one of the richest clubs in the world and its not because we're aw sound cnuts haha even though the majority are , we're extremely well run but some ambition in that boardroom "Bunnet" style , " im gonny build a stadium" style is required for we're wee Scotland's the country that always comes so close, we're the underdogs underdog, national side doesnt lose a game at a WC and are still out1st time it had ever happened before and Celtic the club against the establishment run of course by the establishment or if it makes it any better, their " go do-ers", by establisment I'm just meaning " rich beyond your wildest dreams" establishment, not to be confused with the government establishment though they're all involved with one another.
Its sometimes forgotten or unrealised by foreigners even British londoners and Southerners especially , who've always known the north as manchester and the midlands as Birmingham, truly what the sheer size of Celtic is, what the size of Scotland is even , who's been on a train or worse the coach into Scotland from England and see a sign where it says " welcome to Scotland " and first timers go "yaay almost there" then 4 hours later are like " wtf ? Thought we were almost there?" id bet it would surprise many a Celt even just what we completely do as a club for the massive number of good causes there's so many I'm constantly finding out more about the Celtic Foundation, but when you witness the stadium , you sense it European night-time game under the lights, something special happens here not just on the field of play in the stadium, crowd participation its awesome, for want of better language but also so is a Saturday ko in the sun 3pm where the green turf is the main attention , its beautiful, we all remember the first time we walked out the concourse to be met in my case the old Celtic Park,
For that to happen we really require two evenly matched sides that are far superior to 3rd and 4th place not difficult to be in such a group but win against the other side, we qualify.
That's the realistic view where the clubs are for instance :jmo
1. BAYERN MUNICHq1
2. REAL MADRID
3. COPENHAGEN
4. CELTIC
This is not the group I want , Bayern again and Madrid againnah let someone else welcome Two of the best in the world. I think we could beat Copenhagen at Celtic Park and at least get something there, lets say for talking sake Madrid and Bayern don't lose any ties, draw twice with each other then it's down to Celtic v Copenhagen, beat them over 2 legs and into Europa league we go akin to the Anderlecht ties the last time we progressed in Europe a 0-3 win in Belgium followed by a 0-1 defeat agg 3-1 & into the last EL32 and we beat Zenit 1-0 but collapsed in St Petersburgh 3-0, under Rodgers tbf the 1-0 win at home was a good result for us, they weren't a bad side far from it, think it was Mancini was their manager at the time
"The Optimistic view"
It needs 4 clubs good enough to beat each other, These groups happen every season but we've not been party to any for many years , So id go for
1. FEYENOORD
2. PORTO
3. CREVENA ZVEZDA/uch awrite
RED STAR BELGRADE
4. CELTIC
Celtic can win the derby, the psychological boost for us and blow for them on the back of their exit from the big time would be immense.
If we can avoid 3 big hitters, that's got to be the target for us
No Man City , No real Madrid, No Ac Milan.Which is possible for us to draw too.Hopefully not, want a group we can have a fighting chance for 3rd at least because that's an impact on Europe certainly would be a super start last 32 in the EL,
Makes for wonderful nights no doubt ar CP when the big guns come but we want progress and any points from such a group as above will be difficult, give us a wee chance for a change, give us the Optimistic view group please where everybody can win at home v anyone it'll be down to away form.
FEYENOORD, PORTO , RED STAR please
Nice post
Read War and Peace quicker though
Btw, done that simulator thing about 4 times and every time we get Copenhagen and Bayern
" did somebody say just champions league 
. 
