Gordon Strachan a Celtic Legend Appreciation Thread

I would say that you said there has never been, under WGS, a worse performance than some of the debacles in Europe in the 90s, and that you were wrong. It was our worst result ever in Europe, so in that sense it is clearly 'extreme' and it is worse than any of the results in the 90s (topping even Xamax Neuchatel).

If they were good enough to cut it in England perhaps part of the problem was the manager they played under in Scotland ? It is his job to get the best out of them. It didn't happen.

Slightly disengenuous here Mike. The Sky money was nowhere near as high when SAF took over compared to now. It seems to me that we are rebuilding every year when what we should be doing is just adding things to what is in place to take us up the next step. IMO that is not happening as too many of our signings have not worked out.

Re Wenger I think Arsenal are skint having built a brand new stadium.

 

this is a strachan appreciation thread m8 it wasn't up for discussion

you and the anti strachan brigade were not invited in here

hail hail wgs

 

I'm not Pro or Anti WGS in any real regard, he has done good things & bad, his tactics & stubborness in team selection does my head in sometimes.

He did the trick with Aiden though, he has come back a better player than earlier in the season.

He sticks with guys more often than not, McManus/Caldwell being the obvious, Caldwell did turn it round & proved the manager to be correct, I hope Mick does the same.

I am Pro Celtic though & WGS is doing a good job, however you look at it - he is a strange character, but he's in the job & is winning titles - so I'll back him.

 

O.K. I can admit that the first 90 minutes in Artmedia could well be the worst European performance in decades. The tie as a whole? People use Artmedia as the flagship beating stick of Strachan in Europe when in reality it was a tricky tie, one of his first if not the first competitive game in charge of Celtic, that actually ended 5-4. The fixture came so early in Strachans tenure that I would even go as far as strike it from the record!!

This is a dubious point at best. The examples in world football of top players (even world class players) simply not adapting to a new environment is for all to see. Veron at Man United (30 million, gee that Sir Alex must be a right donkey), Shevchenko at Chelsea (30 million, gee that Jose Mourinho doesn't have a clue does he?). Aye while we're being negative to Strachan lets lump all the blame on him and not the money grabbing players.

Whether or not you agree with me on the sky money or not, the ponit is still valid. How can you expect to build a team that HAS competed in Europe at the last 16 level (didn't we take Milan to extra time as well? Only the £100 million Kaka broke the deadlock). No, you're actually asking him to put together a team to do BETTER than last 16 on a shoe-string budget within less than 4 years. Come on Martin, as they say - no team is complete, let alone after 3-4 years and let alone in the financial prison of the SPL.

Skint by EPL standards but vastly richer than us. £7.5 million on Eduardo, a figure approaching £12m for Walcott. £12-13m on Nasri. OK so not a patch on the other big 3 but again vastly larger than Celtic's budget and again my point being they are still a work in progress.


Again, I must point out of course I'm a Strachan fan. I don't want people thinking I'm defending him out of blind faith because I am defending him only where necessary. As people have said he should and will be criticised by people (me included) where necessary.

 

no one and nothing is perfect - we are allowed to express constructive criticism whenever it's needed.

I don't think we need to create a pro wgs thread after every single victory - the same goes with wgs bashing threads after every defeat.

 

i didnt realise that you had to be invited to post your views in this forum............* me, change the name from talkceltic to talkwgslovers.

 

We need to stop calling each other anti-strach & pro-strach supporters, its just fuel for the fire! UNITE THE CLANS!!

 

Fair play to you.

We were a bit unfortunate in the 2nd leg, I agree. If you want to strike it from the record that is your prerogative. I won't as it was the worst European result in our history and if we are having a balanced look at WGS's tenure it needs to be included.

For me there is no dubiety about who the buck stops with - the manager. Whetehr that is right or wrong I agree is another matter but that's football. My point is that IMO too many of our signings have not worked out and we are having to re-address issues in the team because some signings haven't worked out.

You make a valid point here, I must concede that. No team is the 'finished article'. I have communicated that poorly using the word 'built' as if we should be the finished article. But I still feel that as a result of signings failing we are having to deal with the same issues at times.

AS you say Arsenal are not in the SPL so their financial problems are relative.

The broad point I am trying to make is that I fully accept that some of the criticisms of WGS are OTT but I also feel that some of the praise is similarly inaccurate.

 

i am not an anti strachan fan, but the man has got his flaws. Yes he has brought us 3 soon to be 4 titles an 2 last 16 CL but sometimes at a cost of good football. Plus since he took over strachan has bought 38 players.

Arthur Boruc 800,000
Maciej Zurawski 2.2m
Naka 2.7m
Mo Camara free
Paul Telfer 200,000
Adam Virgo 1.2m
Jermie Aliadiiere loan
Du Wei Loan/Trial
Mark Wilson 400,000
Roy Keane free
Doin Dublin free
Kenny Miller free
Caldwell free
Derek Riordan 150,000
Jiri Jarosik 1.5m
Evander Sno 80,000
Big JVOH 3.4m
Thomas Graveson 2m
Lee Naylor 800,000
Steven Pressley free
Mark Brown 100,000
Paul Hartley 1m
Scott McDonald 700,000
Scott Brown 4.4m
Massimo Donati 1.2m
Jean-Jeol Doumbe 400,000
Chris Killen free
Koki Mizuno 400,000
Ben Hutchinson 300,000
Andrius Hinkel 1.9m
Barry Robson 1.1m
Pat McCourt 100,000
Samaras 1.2m
Macr Crosas 400,000
Glen Loovens 2.5m
Shaun Maloney 1m

Plus he has brought in a couple already this window. the reason i put all his transfers ter was to show people the scale of his team rebuilding efforts, which a glance at te names above in my opinion will show tat it was an expensive failure, take into consideration the transfer fees, plus wages, plus outgoing transfer deficts. il again state tat im not anti strachan, im just a supporter worried about his inability to not waste money on players we dont need. Yes he found talents in the likes of McDonald, Brown, Boruc and Naka but i think 5 or 6 players out of 38 or so is not a good return.

 

That is highly debatable, and a perfect example of the OTT things said by the pro- camp.

 

Good luck with that.

 

I don't see the relevance of how good Strachans signings have been when:

a) We are continually winning titles.
b) Continually improving our finances.

Sure there have been some stinkers, but what top class manager can deny that?

 

Thats quiet a list of players,apart from a few at 3-4 million celtic really are shopping at the barras.....very depressing.

 

tat is wat im trying to say yes we bought a few good players but the majority were deadwood and being paid wages 4 it.

 

most of those players have dun a job bar a couple, in my opinion only 2 have been expensive flops, gravesen and virgo. plus we made a profit onmost of the ones weve sold on

 

plus (i said in another thread) i dont think naka cost half as much as wot you have quoted there, im sure strachan said that he didnt cost half as much as wot ppl were saying

 

thats right mate i saw an interview with wgs and he said both naka and jvoh did'nt cost half as much the press quoted....

 

wgs is not a legend. hes done very well.

We have to remember that rangers are going through the worst patch in their history and we are still only narrowly winning.

I'm loving the success, dont get me wrong but we have to keep progressing ad i dont think we are.