Muzzy_Larsson

Fair point. RB Leipzig did finish third in the Bundesliga last season though.

I don't recall there being any allegations whatsoever tbh. Not among Celtic fans anyway, who watched him every week.

It's man for man about 70% the same side.

Cobblers. He was rushed back from injury and broke down early on in the game. He wasn't seen again for a couple of months due to said injury. Get realistic, why would any Celtic player bottle against Rangers given how we have absolutely owned them for years now, they've not even won a major trophy in coming up for 8 years.

He played well and strolled against better sides than Rangers last season.

He played and strolled it when we beat RB Leipzig at home last season, the same side that just won their champions league group and are threatening to win the Bundesliga.

This, exactly. We can't be that bad if we beat Lazio home and away who are sitting third in Serie A at the moment. We kinda also know a good centre back when we see one given we had who is now the best CB in the world at Celtic a few years ago. I can only base it on what I saw but Benkovic was a class act at us and probably in the top 5 centre back's I've seen at us in the last 20 years and that includes a side that reached a European final and papped out a couple of EPL sides on the way.

Now there's a blast from the past! Tore Rangers apart on his debut for us and then O'Neill decided to play him on the wing the rest of the time where he was as to be expected, honking!

I love Edouard, will be gutted when he eventually moves on, it would be great if he could be here for the 10 but I expect he'll go this summer. Dembele would be a superb signing, an absolute monster of a striker. I'd love to have seen Celtic with the two of them in the same team for a full season, they would have been unplayable in Scotland.

@DerbyshireFox already touched on it it but when I watched the match the other night there was a slight sense of deja vu. The one sort of constant criticism levelled at Rodgers during his time at Celtic was his stubborrness in terms of deviating from his principles, it cost us a couple of bloody noses in getting thumpings off PSG and Barcelona. We naively tried to play them at their own game and there was obviously only going to be one winner. I sensed this the other night when watching the match against Man City, albeit it was far less apparent as the gap between the two sides wasn't as vast as say Celtic v Barcelona and essentially you guys have better players. That said it's still naive in my opinion, you set up and play City at their own game and nine times out ten they will win as they are much the better side. I think in these games a coach needs to find a different way to win to stand more of a chance of taking points off such sides with any regularity but this for me is still one of Rodgers' weak points, he's too rigid in sticking to his style and philosophy at all costs. It's a large part of the reason his record in Europe is poor across the board (at Liverpool and Celtic) as it becomes even more prevalent in Europe that you need to alter your approach game by game sometmes according to the opposition and he doesn't seem to want to do that, as yet.

I hope not lol! Hopefully not Edouard to anywhere lol!

As I've said previously on the thread I have reservations about Bowen coping well with the jump to whatever club in the EPL. I think 12-18 months ago Bowen would have been a viable option for Leicester but given the drastic upturn in expectations and the very real possibility of champions league football next season I think Leicester need to be aiming higher. If you want to ensure that CL qualification isn't a flash in the pan and properly build on it then each signing needs to be an obvious upgrade on what you already have and Bowen for me is most definitely not that.

Ziyech will go for a lot more than £35m. He recently signed a new contract and there’s no release clause.

Bit of a daft thing from the BBC imo, iconic is so subjective and so applicable to the eye of the beholder. If I was a Leicester fan it would be Vardy, if I was a city fan it's Aguero, etc, etc.

Was he not at Derby on loan last season and didn't do much? He's obviously a club legend and a thoroughly good pro but he barely even made the bench for Rangers yet there were a bunch on here when he signed saying he was going to absolutely stroll in the SPFL.

That's rubbish tbh, maybe accurate in Sunderland's case but most definitely not Celtic. We may have less spending power but everything is relative. We have a great record of identifying players, buying for peanuts and selling on for vast profits over the last decade (Dembele, Van Dijk, Tierney, Forster, Wanyama, I could go on and on). The only time that came unstuck was the couple of years Congerton was at the helm. To say we can't bring in "great players" really is laughable given a player we brought in five years ago is now the best centre back in world football and came second in the latest ballon d'or rankings behind arguably the greatest player of all time. The problem at Celtic was giving Congerton too much freedom with regards recruitment so I'd be careful what you wish for in that regard. As others on this thread have said, as long as Congerton acts like a glorified scout and identifies players and no more and feeds those into your already successful model then he shouldn't be too disruptive.

£20m+ would be a lot of money for a project though and would still leave you with the hole to fill of a wide player who can go in right away and improve the team and you'd have £20m less to find said player.

Come on now that's madness, do you really expect him to ever be given such instructions.

I've clearly got no emotional attachment to Barnes, I'm talking about the general theme more than the player in question.

Not buying that, guys like McGregor etc may get a bit more leeway domestically because of what you say but they need to take a massive jump and perform in Europe for us at the elite level, Hamilton one week and Bayern Munich for example the next and guys like McGregor due to patience and proper development have been able to make that jump. As I said, even McGregor aside there's a load of examples in the EPL of a similar trajectory where patience has been shown and players getting there eventually, like the two I mentioned, amongst numerous others. You can't apply some linear logic across the board like if a player hasn't become a mainstay with x years then he's no good, that'd be daft and it blatantly doesn't work that way.

As a basis for comparison, Callum McGregor was in and around our first team for over three years, playing several positions, not pulling up many trees then Rodgers came in, he's now arguably our best player, played more minutes than anyone in world football last season, an international, has turned in man of the match performances in Europe against sides like Bayern Munich, Zenit and Valencia and was the subject of a rejected £19m bid from you guys in the summer. Going by your logic we'd have tossed him on the scrap heap before he got the chance to properly develop. Development of young players is not linear and depends on a whole bunch of factors. Even the premier league is littered with similar examples, Harry Kane probably being the most obvious who had a few not so successful loan spells. Gnabry another one.

Yeah for sure, I predict this time next year he'll have already thrown a number of his players under the bus.

Agree with the bones of the point but Chelsea and/or Spurs will finish top 4 this season imo, particularly with both able to splash the cash in January you'd think.

Granted I've not watched a lot of Leicester games this season but what I have seen the notion that you have been "carrying" Barnes is a bit ridiculous imo. He's done fine anytime I've seen him, do you want more from him, of course but with young players that takes time and perseverance. I could see the point in moaning if this perseverance was impacting results but it's the exact opposite, you've been on a terrific run of form and Barnes has been part of that. If as a club, fan base or whatever you don't want to sacrifice and have the patience to let young player make their mistakes then just don't bother with a youth academy and buy players off the shelf. You can't put a young player into the team and expect them to immediately become consistent, it's a gradual progression. It's maybe lost in today's cash rich version of football but the principle remains the same, young players from 16-22 are undertaking an apprenticeship like in any profession and as such should be allowed to make mistakes and most importantly learn from them along the way.

Paul McGrath's book is an excellent read, quite harrowing at times but excellent nonetheless. Once upon a time in Naples is also very good, about Maradona's time in Napoli. I've also got a now unwanted copy of 'Brendan Rodgers - The Road to Paradise' if anyone wants it