Muzzy_Larsson

Probably never been a better time to play Liverpool.

Durham is absolutely brain dead.

He needs to start showing the form of 12-18 months ago on a regular basis, for a season at least before the top teams will even have him on ther radar again imo.

Love him or loathe him I think part of the attraction with Grealish is he's a bit of a throw back, particularly in an English sense. England just don't seem to produce players like him anymore, individuals. Yes he holds onto the ball too long at times, yes he can be greedy, yes he sometimes drops too deep and tries to do it all but that's what makes him great to watch, he plays off the cuff in a day in age where most players are so robotic. He's one of the few players nowadays I'd pay the admission money alone to watch as he tries things and gets you on the edge of your seat in that you think somethng can happen when he picks up the ball.

I used to but in the last number of years fan media has taken off to the point I no longer listen to the radio. For Celtic content there are a few full time podcasts who produce really, excellent, varied stuff and then for football in general there are tons of free high quality podcasts out there also.

It was all over the Scottish newspapers, twitter, Rangers forums. I'm sure if you google you'll find a lot of the side by side images and the story about the school jumpers having castore and rangers logos ironed on and sold for £80.00 or something. Some examples below: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/castore-rangers-apology-ibrox-fans-22555457 https://www.followfollow.com/forum/threads/pathetic-quality-on-castores-rfc-range.131069/page-74 https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-castore-kit-strip-celtic-18805463

Castore have been an absolute disaster with Rangers. They were selling fruit of the loom type sweaters with Castore and Rangers badges printed on them. Then there have been multiple variations of the same shirt. They totally underestimated the demand and have struggled to keep up with it. More than a few links to Mike Ashley also.

Don't forget Solanke!

It's absolutely fine if playing two centre backs, in fact if you look through the league most teams play wih two right footed centre backs. It becomes more of an issue when you play three CB's however, withou someone who is naturally left sided in that system it becomes a bit lop sided and disjointed.

This is it. It's how the media work, hype them and build them up to the heavens initially so they can chop them back down and superimpose a turnip onto said players face when England get knocked out a major tournament.

All comes down to money and shirt sales though. Fulham for examle I think struggle to sell 30k shirts a year, it's not worthwhile for a large kit manufacturer to give them a bespoke service. If they want that they should go with a less prominent manufacturer and sacrifice a bit of sponsorship money.

Yeah totally agree with this, that in itself is probably an issue with Asian and African marketing and the likes. You'll gain new followers when your doing well but unless you can stay at the top, compete in the CL etc these fickle, fair weather fans will disappear and move onto whoever is the best team at that moment in time.

I think we do have a global reach Celtic, we have supporters clubs all over the world but it's a very organic, long held fan base that's been built up via ex-pats and family history, etc. I've been in CSC's in Florida, New York, LA, Sydeny, Melbourne, Villareal and Dubai for example. In modern day terms though we aren't close to the level of exposure, marketing or global reach as the top EPL clubs nowadays who have huge followings in Asia nor do I think any Celtic fans think we are either. If we ever left the Scottish league, which I'm not sure I'd want to happen anyway that may change however.

I'm not sure really, I guess there is a cost associated with having it in more geographical locations and I imagine the marketing boffins at Adidas have a good idea where it's viable or not to stock a certain side's strip. Think that's the key, consistently becoming one of the top sides in the league will increase demand through the EPL's marketing machine in Asia particularly. I'm sure when we had Nakamura for example our kit sales were at their highest and weren't far off double what they are now. We were Nike at that time in saying that.

I totally get having this conversation 12-18 months ago when he was arguably the best English player in his position in the league but I genuinely don’t understand how he merits getting in the England squad at the minute. Maybe there are players in the squad who are also undeserving but that’s a different debate and surely a discussion on how the manager isn’t fit for purpose. That argument is feeble imo when arguing that Maddison should be being picked. Playground stuff. let him get consistent starts in the league and start showing the form of 18 months ago again and then shout from the rooftops rightly about his inclusion. He’s played 270 minutes of premier league football this season for example.

They are all playing regularly though. Maddison isn’t, regardless of opinion of who is the better player.

World class is over egging it a bit imo. World class to me is one of the best 3 or 4 players in the world in your position. I don’t think Maddison will ever be at that level, not that there’s any shame in that of course. He still has everything required to be a top EPL and international player but the next two years are key for him, he’s 24 soon and will be entering his peak years in the next few years.

Have England not perfrmed pretty well at youth level in the last 10 years, a couple of world cups at different levels? Personally I think the major problem is in nations like France, Germany and Spain young players get chances and play 200 odd games by the time they are in their early 20s, that doesn't happen with young English players much at all in the premier league, they end up spending their key developmental years on the bench or bouncing from club to club on loan. I'm not bashing Maddison on this thread I think the Maddison of 12-18 months ago is a great player but he has a lot to prove again imo and I don't think he and Grealish can play in the same side. 12-18 months ago him and Grealish were neck and neck and in the time since one has kicked on and become one of the league's top players while the other, admittedly through bad luck and injury has stalled. This season is huge for Maddison imo if he is to kick on and reach the level Grealsh has and fulfil his potential.

Decent player but the epitome of the modern day footballer, more athelticism than ability. TAA has more ability in his wee toe.

I'm not disagreeing with you but this is what happens wih absolutely every nation, happens with the Scotland team also and we're shit and it happens with Germany, Spain, France, etc, etc too. It's always been this way.

I totally forgot about Maguire sorry, agreed, he'd start. Disagree with Mings > Gomez. Mings is very lucky to be playing imo.

If you take your blue tinted specs off ti's really not. Maddison has barely played in a year, Mount has played regularly for a side who finished top 4 and has played and scored in the champions league. I don't think he's all that personally but he's done far more in the last 12 months to merit inclusion than Maddison. Mount is a completely different type of player to Wilshere.

There was a thread on the huddleboard about exactly this last season when we (Celtic) signed the Adidas deal. Unsurprisingly which tier you sit in depends entirely on how many shirts you sell, for comparison rough figures I found were, in typical years: Leicester City: 50-70k shirts Celtic: 160-200k shirts Arsenal: 800k shirts Man Utd: 3.25m Depending on where you fall in these tiers depends on the level of bespoke service you get. I think in the range 100k + per season you'll get bespoke designs and ranges and your shirt will be sold globally, for example you can buy the Celtic shirt in the Adidas store in new york. Although the bigger clubs like Arsenal and Man Utd get an ever greater level of range, marketing etc.

Turning into one of the best midfielders about. Looks to have added a bit of consistency and mental steel to his game this season which really were the only things missing.

Agreed.