IggyStooge Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 Eff off, Zippy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennett Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 1 hour ago, IggyStooge said: Eff off, Zippy. Don't you think that for once they may have a point? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 (edited) There seems to be some uncertainty over whether Clarke wants only OF games off or all Premiership games (how many non-OF Scottish-based players will be likely to play v Israel?); and whether he wants a blank weekend or just no games on Sunday (which while gaining an extra day's rest is hardly a massive difference?). Different media outlets report it differently. There seems to be no suggestion of asking EPL or EFL clubs to postpone their games, or not play on Sunday. It's an interesting situation as it turned out very badly for SPL (as was) last time, which was in 2007. They cancelled OF games weekend before Scotland v Italy but Scotland lost anyway. In due course they also agreed to postpone a Rangers game weekend before big CL match (which Rangers lost anyway)... and Rangers reached UEFA Cup Final... and had some replays in the Scottish Cup... and suffered a few postponements plus a cancellation due to Phil O'Donnell's death. Ultimately they had to extend the league season into the midweek before Scottish Cup Final and Rangers finished season Sat-Mon-Thu-Sat. This is Celtic's current potential schedule: Sat date Weekend Midweek Jan 18 SC R4 Prem (21) Jan 25 Prem (22) Prem (23) Feb 1 Prem (24) Prem (25) Feb 8 SC R5 Prem (26) Feb 15 Prem (27) EL R1:1 Feb 22 Prem (28) EL R1:2 Feb 29 SC R6 Prem (29) Mar 7 Prem (30) EL R2:1 Mar 14 Prem (31) EL R2:2 Mar 21 Prem (32) INT BREAK Mar 28 INT BREAK INT BREAK Apr 4 Prem (33) EL QF:1 Apr 11 SC SF EL QF:2 Apr 18 Top 6 (34) Free date Apr 25 Top 6 (35) EL SF:1 May 2 Top 6 (36) EL SF:2 May 9 SC Final Top 6 (37) May 16 Top 6 (38) May 23 EL Final So if they progress in EL and Scottish Cup... when will Premiership match #32 be played if it is cancelled due to Clarke's request? Particularly if there are any weather postponements, or if Celtic or their opponents have any Scottish Cup replays? For example if St Johnstone - being Celtic's opponents on March 21st - remain close to reaching Top 6 that game must be played before the 'split' in mid-April. Similarly if Kilmarnock and/or St Johnstone - their opponents on consecutive midweeks in January - have Scottish Cup replays which would take precedence. This in turn begs the question why - given Scottish Cup Final is May 9th - the Premiership season is finishing May 16th. French, Italian, Spanish, leagues etc. are finishing May 23rd which also sees the German, Greek, English, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Swiss etc. cup finals. Finishing early has effectively wiped-out 2 free dates. Edited January 12, 2020 by HibeeJibee 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BFTD Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 1 hour ago, HibeeJibee said: This in turn begs the question why - given Scottish Cup Final is May 9th - the Premiership season is finishing May 16th. French, Italian, Spanish, leagues etc. are finishing May 23rd which also sees the German, Greek, English, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Swiss etc. cup finals. Finishing early has effectively wiped-out 2 free dates. I take it somebody important was wanting away on their holibobs early. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 (edited) Who knows. Perhaps the solution is giving Clarke a choice - does he want extra rest before the playoffs, or before the finals? EDIT: Incidentally - how would: Thursday 7th May EL SF 2nd leg Saturday 9th May Scottish Cup Final work? Edited January 12, 2020 by HibeeJibee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binos Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 14 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said: Who knows. Perhaps the solution is giving Clarke a choice - does he want extra rest before the playoffs, or before the finals? EDIT: Incidentally - how would: Thursday 7th May EL SF 2nd leg Saturday 9th May Scottish Cup Final work? Both should be the answer 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accies1874 Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 How many teams would we potentially be taking more than one player from? Definitely Celtic, probably Sheffield United, maybe Wigan, maybe Killie, maybe Aberdeen? Anyone else? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 1 minute ago, accies1874 said: How many teams would we potentially be taking more than one player from? Definitely Celtic, probably Sheffield United, maybe Wigan, maybe Killie, maybe Aberdeen? Anyone else? Called-up during last 12 months; 6 Celtic Taylor, McGregor, Christie, Forrest, Morgan Bain 3 Kilmarnock O'Donnell, Brophy Findlay 2 Aberdeen / Hearts McKenna, Devlin / Naismith / Souttar 3 Sheffield Wednesday 2 Norwich, Sheffield Utd, Sunderland, Wigan 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 The Scottish Cup final is earlier this season to get Hampden ready for the Euros. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binos Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 1 hour ago, craigkillie said: The Scottish Cup final is earlier this season to get Hampden ready for the Euros. Which if we qualify we'll play at A once in a lifetime opportunity Any advantage we can get should be given 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, craigkillie said: The Scottish Cup final is earlier this season to get Hampden ready for the Euros. Correct, it's May 9th. (Some other venues are not being made to finish early - e.g. Wembley - but there it is). However this means Premiership season ends after it anyway: there are games on the following midweek and on May 16th/17th. So with many other countries finishing on May 23rd could that not be an option if Celtic say they can't accept a cancellation as it stands? You can understand their concern given 2008 outcome, winnable ties with Partick and Copenhagen, and no free midweeks before the split if reach EL QFs (and none whatsoever if reach EL SFs). 2 hours ago, Binos said: Both should be the answer So if you're cancelling games on March 21st, and ending before other leagues on May 16th: when do you play St Johnstone v Celtic? Even without factoring any postponements / replays. Obviously you could gamble on them exiting EL before latter stages - but if not you could find another crisis like 2008 with an OF title race and forcing Celtic to play 2 games in 1 midweek. Edited January 12, 2020 by HibeeJibee 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Binos Posted January 12, 2020 Share Posted January 12, 2020 1 hour ago, HibeeJibee said: Correct, it's May 9th. (Some other venues are not being made to finish early - e.g. Wembley - but there it is). However this means Premiership season ends after it anyway: there are games on the following midweek and on May 16th/17th. So with many other countries finishing on May 23rd could that not be an option if Celtic say they can't accept a cancellation as it stands? You can understand their concern given 2008 outcome, winnable ties with Partick and Copenhagen, and no free midweeks before the split if reach EL QFs (and none whatsoever if reach EL SFs). So if you're cancelling games on March 21st, and ending before other leagues on May 16th: when do you play St Johnstone v Celtic? Even without factoring any postponements / replays. Obviously you could gamble on them exiting EL before latter stages - but if not you could find another crisis like 2008 with an OF title race and forcing Celtic to play 2 games in 1 midweek. Who gives a f**k when you play it Virtually meaningless fixture as almost a walkover Sure Celtic will play full strength team in it anyway 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameus Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 While I don't agree with it, I can see where Celtic are coming from (if the story is real). International football matters far, far less than club football now to most people that matter. Celtic would benefit indirectly from Scotland making it to a major tournament, of course they would, but given it's hardly certain that them supporting this would lead to that, they have to look after themselves. Particularly if, as they'll presumably be hoping, they end up with a few more European games. Sad but true. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dons_1988 Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 Surely they aren't considering just cancelling OF games? You either cancel Premiership games that weekend or you don't. Do Rangers even have anyone other than Jack in the squad? I'd be in favour of cancelling anyway, this is such a big thing for football in this country that it needs to be given every opportunity. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 I don't see the point in cancelling games to be honest - the players based in England are going to have to play anyway so it doesn't have any obvious benefit to the whole squad. In addition, it's unlikely that anyone other than Celtic will have more than one player featuring heavily. It's also not even clear whether there would be a benefit to it - on both previous occasions where games have been called off (Scotland v Italy, Rangers v Lyon), the Scottish side has ended up losing. Maybe they would have lost anyway, or maybe the lack of sharpness actually counted against them. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Estragon Posted January 15, 2020 Share Posted January 15, 2020 On 11/01/2020 at 11:50, come on shire said: I went to the Nation's League game vs Israel and they were handing out pro-Palestine flyers. When I informed them that a chunk of Israel's squad were Arabs they didn't have an answer... They were probably just completely flummoxed at encountering someone who thinks that Behram Kayal's inclusion in his international football team is a viable defence against a "flagrant violation of international law". What bearing do you think one has on the other? Do you understand that it wasn't planned as a protest against the football team? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burnie_man Posted January 15, 2020 Share Posted January 15, 2020 On 11/01/2020 at 11:50, come on shire said: I went to the Nation's League game vs Israel and they were handing out pro-Palestine flyers. When I informed them that a chunk of Israel's squad were Arabs they didn't have an answer... Who were "they" out of interest? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melanius Mullarkey Posted January 16, 2020 Share Posted January 16, 2020 On 13/01/2020 at 09:38, Dons_1988 said: Surely they aren't considering just cancelling the OF* ? 100% behind this tbh 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
come on shire Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 On 15/01/2020 at 15:53, Burnie_man said: Who were "they" out of interest? A small group of folk outside the ground. Not sure who they were. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 1 hour ago, come on shire said: A small group of folk outside the ground. Not sure who they were. Not entirely sure why you thought it was in any way relevant to the conversation. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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