Midtjylland v Celtic Thursday November 6th kick off 5:45 TNT sports 2

And even within that framework of thinking, we’re performing poorly in a competition they reached the final of not so long ago and last season performed much better with a much more difficult draw than we have in it this season.

And we’re supposed to be aiming for doing well the competition the level above it. We point towards being in that competition more to explain away our lack of knockout round wins since Martin O’Neill was last here… and here we are, unsure of even making it one to lose.

We are very, very lucky that they selected the wrong manager this summer and the guys they have in charge of signings. We aren’t by design just ahead this season. It’s sheer * luck.

 

This is probably the crux of the issue.

And its been the main problem that has plagued us for decades... Succession planning.

Weve zero * plan b, for ANYTHING.

We've touched lucky with players like Kyogo, VVD, CCV, Jota, etc etc etc over the years. But when the quality leaves, dips, or breaks down... There's no plan to replace like for like...or even similar.

Look at the LB situation. * years to find an actual LB who could compete in Europe and replace the loss of KT, and who did we eventually replace KT with? With KT of course. Only hes a shadow of the player who left, and our superior (form wise ) back up is loanee. Back to square one in the summer again.

This type of * has been going on for decades now. Right back to losing an ageing Henrik Larsson, and replacing him with * Henri Camara, just because he was available.

We're so far behind even SMALLER clubs, like last nights opposition, when it comes to analytical recruitment.

The only forward planning Ive seen is in the signing of our young goalkeeper. Which again, looks like total luck.

Desmonds board have no idea how to run a football club.

 

Was worse with Henri Camara, wan’t even that available we paid a record fee for a loan there at the time

Last summer we done it well, earmarked and had the deal in place when it eventually happened O’Riley going, Engels coming in. Forward planning at least that.

Best we’ve ever done it was Edouard and Dembele, it’s such a rarity it stands out.

We’ve stopped any pretense of it now. We all knew Kuhn was going, the club have said we blocked it in January and knew in summer he was away. He went early.

Our RW’s are 34 year old Forrest, Maeda who is better on the left and the middle than RW but is the best option for it, and Yang.

That’s criminal. Maeda last season 31 goals, electric, this season sacrificed to his worst position with little chance to help get the best out of him.

When Jota does return, we’ll probably do the same to him. Best as a LW, but will be the best option on the right.

 

Give us another shot

YESYESYESYES

Glad we got a goal.......
could have been worse

 

Looking at the fixtures wee needed a point from this can see us getting 7 points and it not being enough


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

It’s mental to think that squad we played last night was assembled for €27m (12 players) and supplemented with 5 academy players.

Olafsson
Diao
Lee
Erlic
Bech Sorensen
Bak
Mbabu
Castillo
Bravo
Billing
Gogorza
Simsir
Byskov
Osario
Cho
Franculino

Now don’t get me wrong that hasn’t happened over night for them but basically they made some really good moves this summer adding the experience and physicality of Billing and Erlic to a young talented team. They also have Mbabu as another older head who has played EPL and Bundesliga and Bech Sorensen who has played EPL.

They have clearly done well from the Korean market and also from getting guys in from lesser South American ones both Chile and Columbia. They have developed some excellent young talent themselves and spotted overlooked young talent from other clubs such as Franculino.

Now their model is not directly comparable to us as they have won very little over the last number of years and if we go back a year and have the team that took Leipzig apart we give a far better account of ourselves but it does go to show if you do recruit properly there are still good players out there in a number of categories that could enhance our squad.