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Preseason 2014

Jordinho said:
Celtic's decision to field weakened team in defeat to Tottenham branded 'disrespectful'

  • Celtic lost 6-1 to Mauricio Pochettino's side in pre-season game on Saturday
  • Estonian promoters FC Santos demand written apology from Celtic
  • Celtic boss Ronny Deila and majority of first team squad missed friendly
  • Scottish champions face Legia Warsaw in Champions League on Wednesday
Organisers of Celtic's thumping weekend defeat to Tottenham are seeking an apology and a refund from the Scottish champions after branding the decision to send a team of kids 'disrespectful'.

Faced with over-turning a 4-1 Champions League first leg deficit to Legia Warsaw, manager Ronny Deila stayed with his first team in Glasgow as a development squad suffered a 6-1 thrashing at Helsinki's Olympic Stadium on Saturday.

Efe Ambrose, Teemu Pukki, Amido Balde and Craig Gordon were the only senior first team players to travel to Finland.

On Sunday Celtic defended the move by saying Deila had inherited the game from the previous management team.

But Leino Lonsu of Estonian promoters FC Santos Invest claimed they felt 'cheated' after providing flights, accommodation and a match fee on the proviso Celtic travelled with a strong squad.

Lonsu told Sportsmail: 'We are very disappointed about the team Celtic brought over. It was disrespectful to the opponent, to Finnish football fans and to the organisers to field such a squad.

'You could tell when you saw the Celtic team that the match would end like this. So we are extremely disappointed.

'The head coach did not come either - and that was disrespectful towards us as well.

'We will be communicating our feelings to Celtic. Because their actions were so disrespectful we want a written apology from the club president and part of the fee refunded.

'We also took care in advance of Celtic's accommodation and travel. We did absolutely everything professionally and what we didn't get back was a team. We feel we have been cheated.'

Spurs coach Mauricio Pochettino expressed surprise the Scottish champions decided against taking a full squad to the Finnish capital, admitting he expected a tougher game.

With £15million on the line in Europe, however, Deila chose to work with his key players on the training ground at Lennoxtown instead.

A Celtic spokesman defended the move on Sunday saying: 'Clearly the match was agreed in February by the club's previous management team and obviously circumstances can change.

'We have spoken to the organisers and they understood the club's position given the Champions League qualifiers.

'Despite us having to send a younger squad they got a fantastic reception from all the fans in Finland and we are very grateful for all the support we received.'

However, promoter Lonsu believes the lack of experienced Celtic names ruined the game as a spectacle.

'The Tottenham head coach was disappointed and the fans were all disappointed as well. The match was organised to be a top level spectacle and Tottenham came with almost a full squad. They played their top team thinking Celtic would do the same.

'We know the reason Celtic did this – they have important Champions League games. We understand that.

'But they signed a contract and according to the terms they were bringing a strong line-up. There was no stipulation for how many top players, it was a general clause. But when the head coach does not travel that is a clear sign of how they are treating the game.'

Swansea, meanwhile, have been linked with a shock move for Celtic's Adam Matthews.

Manager Gary Monk hopes to bring in three new recruits before the close of the transfer window - and right-back is one position he wants to strengthen.

Reports in Wales claim Matthews, a free transfer capture from Cardiff, is interested in a move to his hometown club. Celtic would seek a fee in excess of £3million.
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Reckon they clocked it wasn't Celtics regular team when we only won by 5?
 
Jordinho said:
Celtic's decision to field weakened team in defeat to Tottenham branded 'disrespectful'

  • Celtic lost 6-1 to Mauricio Pochettino's side in pre-season game on Saturday
  • Estonian promoters FC Santos demand written apology from Celtic
  • Celtic boss Ronny Deila and majority of first team squad missed friendly
  • Scottish champions face Legia Warsaw in Champions League on Wednesday
Organisers of Celtic's thumping weekend defeat to Tottenham are seeking an apology and a refund from the Scottish champions after branding the decision to send a team of kids 'disrespectful'.

Faced with over-turning a 4-1 Champions League first leg deficit to Legia Warsaw, manager Ronny Deila stayed with his first team in Glasgow as a development squad suffered a 6-1 thrashing at Helsinki's Olympic Stadium on Saturday.

Efe Ambrose, Teemu Pukki, Amido Balde and Craig Gordon were the only senior first team players to travel to Finland.

On Sunday Celtic defended the move by saying Deila had inherited the game from the previous management team.

But Leino Lonsu of Estonian promoters FC Santos Invest claimed they felt 'cheated' after providing flights, accommodation and a match fee on the proviso Celtic travelled with a strong squad.

Lonsu told Sportsmail: 'We are very disappointed about the team Celtic brought over. It was disrespectful to the opponent, to Finnish football fans and to the organisers to field such a squad.

'You could tell when you saw the Celtic team that the match would end like this. So we are extremely disappointed.

'The head coach did not come either - and that was disrespectful towards us as well.

'We will be communicating our feelings to Celtic. Because their actions were so disrespectful we want a written apology from the club president and part of the fee refunded.

'We also took care in advance of Celtic's accommodation and travel. We did absolutely everything professionally and what we didn't get back was a team. We feel we have been cheated.'

Spurs coach Mauricio Pochettino expressed surprise the Scottish champions decided against taking a full squad to the Finnish capital, admitting he expected a tougher game.

With £15million on the line in Europe, however, Deila chose to work with his key players on the training ground at Lennoxtown instead.

A Celtic spokesman defended the move on Sunday saying: 'Clearly the match was agreed in February by the club's previous management team and obviously circumstances can change.

'We have spoken to the organisers and they understood the club's position given the Champions League qualifiers.

'Despite us having to send a younger squad they got a fantastic reception from all the fans in Finland and we are very grateful for all the support we received.'

However, promoter Lonsu believes the lack of experienced Celtic names ruined the game as a spectacle.

'The Tottenham head coach was disappointed and the fans were all disappointed as well. The match was organised to be a top level spectacle and Tottenham came with almost a full squad. They played their top team thinking Celtic would do the same.

'We know the reason Celtic did this – they have important Champions League games. We understand that.

'But they signed a contract and according to the terms they were bringing a strong line-up. There was no stipulation for how many top players, it was a general clause. But when the head coach does not travel that is a clear sign of how they are treating the game.
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Does anyone believe for a moment that if the tables were turned and this game fell on a weekend between two CL qualifiers for us, that we wouldn't have put out a second string side?

We knew it would be likely that Celtic would be involved in qualifiers, the fact we entered into a contract to play this game at a neutral ground on that date seemed crazy when it was announced. Now we seem to be saying Celtic should have compromised their chances of qualification to give us a test in a preseason friendly. Come on, get real Spurs!
 
Hully said:
Does anyone believe for a moment that if the tables were turned and this game fell on a weekend between two CL qualifiers for us, that we wouldn't have put out a second string side?

We knew it would be likely that Celtic would be involved in qualifiers, the fact we entered into a contract to play this game at a neutral ground on that date seemed crazy when it was announced. Now we seem to be saying Celtic should have compromised their chances of qualification to give us a test in a preseason friendly. Come on, get real Spurs!
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Eh? As far as I can tell, the most noise was made by some Estonian tour promoters who felt let down by Celtic's lack of communication: by contrast, apparently only Poch and our fans were disappointed by the youth side they put out. I highly doubt the club hierarchy is making any great fuss over it, so it's not like Levy and the rest of the board deserve to be castigated because Poch and the fans felt let down. If anything, I suspect Levy might have been a bit peeved with Poch when he presumably was shown the list of players Poch intended to take to the game: surely even Poch must have realised that Celtic were in no position to offer us a real game after they left their CL hopes hanging by a thread immediately beforehand, so why he chose such a strong side is something I've yet to adequately decipher. Probably for fitness reasons, but then the lads got a good run-out regardless of the quality of the opposition, so he can have no complaints on that score.
 
DubaiSpur said:
Eh? As far as I can tell, the most noise was made by some Estonian tour promoters who felt let down by Celtic's lack of communication: by contrast, apparently only Poch and our fans were disappointed by the youth side they put out. I highly doubt the club hierarchy is making any great fuss over it, so it's not like Levy and the rest of the board deserve to be castigated because Poch and the fans felt let down. If anything, I suspect Levy might have been a bit peeved with Poch when he presumably was shown the list of players Poch intended to take to the game: surely even Poch must have realised that Celtic were in no position to offer us a real game after they left their CL hopes hanging by a thread immediately beforehand, so why he chose such a strong side is something I've yet to adequately decipher. Probably for fitness reasons, but then the lads got a good run-out regardless of the quality of the opposition, so he can have no complaints on that score.
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Sometimes I think teams are happy to have a friendly against weaker opposition somewhat closer to the league start just to score a few and "get going". Good to have a tougher game lined up though.

Agree with you fully though, this isn't Spurs making noises at all.
 
Hully said:
Does anyone believe for a moment that if the tables were turned and this game fell on a weekend between two CL qualifiers for us, that we wouldn't have put out a second string side?

We knew it would be likely that Celtic would be involved in qualifiers, the fact we entered into a contract to play this game at a neutral ground on that date seemed crazy when it was announced. Now we seem to be saying Celtic should have compromised their chances of qualification to give us a test in a preseason friendly. Come on, get real Spurs!
Click to expand...

With respect, I think you're missing the point.

Firstly, Spurs haven't been kicking up a fuss about the team that Celtic fielded. Not publicly, anyway, although I wouldn't be surprised if, privately, they're ****ed off.

More importantly, Celtic were contractually obliged to field a strong team. Now, obviously, a "strong team" is a vague term without any legal basis but there can be no possible interpretation which concludes that the team that Celtic fielded was anything other than extremely weak.

So the fault lies with Celtic. Not with Spurs or the organisers. Celtic were the ones who should have looked at the CL schedule and realised that this friendly fell at a very inconvenient time. They were the ones who should consequently have declined the invitation. But they chose to accept it. For money. No other reason. And having failed to fulfil their side of the bargain and having shown great disrespect, as the article stresses, to both Spurs and the fans from Finland, Scandinavia generally, England and Scotland, then it is quite right that they should be asked to forfeit a large part of their fee. I mean.....not even their manager bothered to make the trip. Appalling behaviour on their part.
 
braineclipse said:
Sometimes I think teams are happy to have a friendly against weaker opposition somewhat closer to the league start just to score a few and "get going". Good to have a tougher game lined up though.

Agree with you fully though, this isn't Spurs making noises at all.
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I have suspected this myself for quite some time. It makes perfect sense. :)
 
jimmyb said:
With respect, I think you're missing the point.

Firstly, Spurs haven't been kicking up a fuss about the team that Celtic fielded. Not publicly, anyway, although I wouldn't be surprised if, privately, they're ****ed off.

More importantly, Celtic were contractually obliged to field a strong team. Now, obviously, a "strong team" is a vague term without any legal basis but there can be no possible interpretation which concludes that the team that Celtic fielded was anything other than extremely weak.

So the fault lies with Celtic. Not with Spurs or the organisers. Celtic were the ones who should have looked at the CL schedule and realised that this friendly fell at a very inconvenient time. They were the ones who should consequently have declined the invitation. But they chose to accept it. For money. No other reason. And having failed to fulfil their side of the bargain and having shown great disrespect, as the article stresses, to both Spurs and the fans from Finland, Scandinavia generally, England and Scotland, then it is quite right that they should be asked to forfeit a large part of their fee. I mean.....not even their manager bothered to make the trip. Appalling behaviour on their part.
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This .. a few 2nd string players is one thing, the manager could not give a **** enough to show up ... Christ ...
 
Hully said:
Does anyone believe for a moment that if the tables were turned and this game fell on a weekend between two CL qualifiers for us, that we wouldn't have put out a second string side?

We knew it would be likely that Celtic would be involved in qualifiers, the fact we entered into a contract to play this game at a neutral ground on that date seemed crazy when it was announced. Now we seem to be saying Celtic should have compromised their chances of qualification to give us a test in a preseason friendly. Come on, get real Spurs!
Click to expand...

Are Spurs saying any of this or the promoters of the game?
 
kanoute16 said:
Are Spurs saying any of this or the promoters of the game?
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That wasn't the point I was trying to make. Most teams like to play against at least two strong sides in preseason. We're going into the new season with one game where we'll actually be tested.
At a time when our new manager is trying to assess his squad, all he's had so far are training games.
I find it a strange decision to agree to play against Celtic at that point in pre-season.
 
Hully said:
That wasn't the point I was trying to make. Most teams like to play against at least two strong sides in preseason. We're going into the new season with one game where we'll actually be tested.
At a time when our new manager is trying to assess his squad, all he's had so far are training games.
I find it a strange decision to agree to play against Celtic at that point in pre-season.
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Then why did you say
Hully said:
Now we seem to be saying Celtic should have compromised their chances of qualification to give us a test in a preseason friendly. Come on, get real Spurs!
Click to expand...

Which suggests that someone from Spurs is saying anything?
 
Paulinho's back
aug6_instory.jpg
 
It will be interesting to see if he gets time against Schalke. I don't think he will as the other World cup players who got back last week didn't play against Celtic.
 
I thought the same. Younes looks quite trim, whilst Kyle looks to be carrying a little bit of baggage. Probably just the camera angle, although he hasn't been playing for a few months, so who knows?
 
Cochise said:
I thought the same. Younes looks quite trim, whilst Kyle looks to be carrying a little bit of baggage. Probably just the camera angle, although he hasn't been playing for a few months, so who knows?
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FWIW, when I saw him close up in Toronto, I felt that he looked some way short of full fitness and carrying more weight than normal.
 
Celtic 0-1 down to make them 1-5 down on aggregate. Doesn't look like the team and manager rest worked :-"
 
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