Manchester United realistically only need a point to end Celtic's Champions League hopes at Parkhead on Wednesday night; the holders are on seven points, while the Glasgow club have just one point. With the very real danger of stating the obvious, Celtic go into this match with a simple game plan; throw everything, including the kitchen sink at United because they have nothing to lose really given their plight.
Matches between the two teams are usually reasonably entertaining affairs, going into this game the United players will know what to expect from the home crowd, who will do all they can to help Celtic further their slim hopes of progressing to the next phase of the competition.
United's defence has been unusually porous over the last couple of games, with both Ferdinand and Vidic making mistakes which have led to goals. At the weekend United just about did enough to see off the challenge of plucky Hull City, while Celtic won 2-0 at Hearts.
There's little danger of complacency in the United camp given how many times our players have come up against Celtic recently and of course Fergie would no doubt like to put one over on the Celts.
I wouldn't be at all surprised to see another 4-3 as happened last weekend. Tevez will likely start and I have a gut feeling his name could end up on the score-sheet for United. The battle for competition for places in the Champions team is red-hot right now, which should hopefully make for a full-blooded slugfest. Bring it on.
One cautionary note to Wayne Rooney; calm down lad - we do not want to see him getting sent-off in this game, he has been like a coiled spring in the last two matches.
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Showing posts with label celtic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label celtic. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Friday, October 05, 2007
Eureka! Has Blatter finally come up with a good idea?
The man who brought us the dreadful silver and golden goals and decided that players who take off their shirt after scoring a goal should be booked, to list just a few of his previous bad ideas has finally potentially come up with a good one. Though it isn't a new one or come to that original. The man from the land of cuckoo-clocks himself Sepp Blatter, the FIFA supremo, has decided that it's about time someone challenged European Union rules in a bid to impose a quota on foreign players within European teams.
Blatter says that too many foreigners is bad thing "When you have 11 foreigners in a team, this is not good for the development of football, for the education of young players, and there is a financial aspect, too."
No doubting Arsene Wenger had got wind of Blatter's forthcoming interview with the BBC earlier this week when he stated that quota's would be bad for the standard of the Premier League. He would say that wouldn't he?
Blatter clearly had the Gunners in mind when launching his verbal broadside, but Arsenal are by no means the only club in the UK who have fielded entire teams of foreigner players. It wasn't that long ago that the 'Old Firm' derby in Glasgow had no Scottish players' taking part. At that time the Scottish national team was very, very poor. The warning bells were ringing for the future of the Scottish game and big time.
Move forward to 2007 and things are very different with both Rangers and Celtic fielding British and Scottish players, their results have improved dramatically as have the fortune's of the Scottish national team.
There could be a big downside to the quota system though, if indeed it ever gets introduced. While it would be good for the long-term future of England, players playing in England from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will no doubt be treated as foreigners, which was the case back in the early 90s.
Back in 94/95 when playing in Europe there was quota system in place and against Barcelona it deprived the Reds of Peter Schmeichel and Eric Cantona for a game in the Nou Camp in which we were thumped 4-0. Many Reds blamed that defeat squarely on the three foreigner rule.
Now if Blatter intends to bring in this ruling for our domestic league's as well as European competitions, then players from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland could lose out as they may well have a less of chance of breaking into say the first team of United.
The devil will as ever be in the detail concerning the numbers, but no doubting that the FA and Premier League will argue that British players should be treated as a special case.
Blatter says that too many foreigners is bad thing "When you have 11 foreigners in a team, this is not good for the development of football, for the education of young players, and there is a financial aspect, too."
No doubting Arsene Wenger had got wind of Blatter's forthcoming interview with the BBC earlier this week when he stated that quota's would be bad for the standard of the Premier League. He would say that wouldn't he?
Blatter clearly had the Gunners in mind when launching his verbal broadside, but Arsenal are by no means the only club in the UK who have fielded entire teams of foreigner players. It wasn't that long ago that the 'Old Firm' derby in Glasgow had no Scottish players' taking part. At that time the Scottish national team was very, very poor. The warning bells were ringing for the future of the Scottish game and big time.
Move forward to 2007 and things are very different with both Rangers and Celtic fielding British and Scottish players, their results have improved dramatically as have the fortune's of the Scottish national team.
There could be a big downside to the quota system though, if indeed it ever gets introduced. While it would be good for the long-term future of England, players playing in England from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will no doubt be treated as foreigners, which was the case back in the early 90s.
Back in 94/95 when playing in Europe there was quota system in place and against Barcelona it deprived the Reds of Peter Schmeichel and Eric Cantona for a game in the Nou Camp in which we were thumped 4-0. Many Reds blamed that defeat squarely on the three foreigner rule.
Now if Blatter intends to bring in this ruling for our domestic league's as well as European competitions, then players from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland could lose out as they may well have a less of chance of breaking into say the first team of United.
The devil will as ever be in the detail concerning the numbers, but no doubting that the FA and Premier League will argue that British players should be treated as a special case.
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