New Footy Season 2017/18 ..How's your team doing?

[struth]

watching the Spurs game v Dortmund. Great start 1-0 (Son)

great game. 2-1 spurs. 3 super goals

[Marco]

Hi Brian,

How's it going? Hope you're well

Its very sad, but the hard fact is that Scottish football is just terrible these days.

I know where you're coming from, but I think that there's some cause for optimism with this current Scotland team, even if we don't qualify for Russia. There's the nucleus of a good team there, and with a lot of quality young players, such as Burke coming through, the future looks bright.

The days when Celtic and Rangers were competing at European level are now 40/50 years ago.
Things move on, mainly due to money, but we are now a 3rd/4th rate football nation.

The money side is defo a factor, but if Pedro can build a decent Rangers team (and I believe he can), with BR doing his magic at Celtic for at least another 4 years, and some other good managers in the league, such as your own man Tommy Wright, and who's doing great things with St Johnstone, things aren't as bleak as they might seem.

Hey, I've always been a 'glass half-full' kind of guy!

Even Celtic, who are way ahead of the rest up there, wouldnt stand a chance in the English Premier, and in fact in my view would not win promotion out of the Championship.

Does that include the 3-3 and 1-1 draws we had last season against Man City, with all their multiple millions, where we should've won both games? Or the wins in recent times at Celtic Park against Barcelona, Man Utd, Juventus and Liverpool, and us twice qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League?

No, the reality is that more often than not, a full-strength Celtic team can hold their own against anyone at home. The "not" bit comes against teams like PSG, who can simply cherry-pick the world's best players and fill their team with them. Based on what I seen last night, I reckon they'd easily win the EPL.

As for Celtic not standing a chance in the EPL or even winning promotion out of the English Championship, I think you're way off beam there, too. We hammered Sunderland 5-0 (going on 7 or 8), at the Stadium of Light, in a pre-season friendly, who'd just come down from the EPL, and who no doubt would be one of the favourites this season to win the Championship.

Aside from anything else, you're forgetting that down there Celtic would receive multiple millions of pounds from Sky, rather than the pittance they currently get in Scotland, and with that they'd be able to buy much better players, and with better players and the HUGE support they've got, the sky's the limit (no pun intended).

The reality is that Celtic are one of the biggest clubs in the world, with the fan base and history to back it up, so all they need to compete with the really big boys (in a financial sense), is access to the big money they earn, and then anything's possible. The ONLY thing limiting what Celtic could achieve and become is money.

They've already shown they can compete with and beat some of the top teams in the EPL, even now, and with considerable more money in the coffers from Sky, that task would simply be made easier.

Even my team, St Johnstone, look bad, and they are generally regarded as the most skillful team in Scotland.

<Cough> Haha... Good job you put a smiley at the end!

Marco.

[Stratmangler]

Does that include the 3-3 and 1-1 draws we had last season against Man City, with all their multiple millions, where we should've won both games?

The 3-3 at yours was a tough game.
I wouldn't make too much of the game at ours - we were through to the next round, and put out a very weakened side. It was nice to see Pat Roberts knock one in again

[Stratmangler]

Decent result for City last night.
Comedy goal within 2 minutes, and what followed was very heartening to watch.
We had Feyenoord on the ropes for most of it, and our keeper only had one strike on target to deal with.



I've not seen City play with such ruthless determination since last Saturday

[Marco]

The 3-3 at yours was a tough game.
I wouldn't make too much of the game at ours - we were through to the next round, and put out a very weakened side. It was nice to see Pat Roberts knock one in again

Yeah sure, Chris, but I doubt your guys would've been going onto the park not to do their best and try and win the game, or that the manager wouldn't have demanded it. Professional footballers and managers of that calibre simply don't function that way. Fans would've demanded it, too.

You could also turn it round the other way and say that Celtic had nothing to play for, as they were out. It's just not the case though, as teams such as Man City and Celtic only ever have one thought when they go onto the pitch, and that's to win!

Plus, these fixtures [English vs. Scottish teams] are always portrayed by the media as a 'Battle of Britain', and that factor is guaranteed to add another dimension and competitive edge to the fixture, regardless of the fact that your team had already qualified.

In any case, as you correctly say, the first match between the two teams couldn't have been more competitive, and in that match Celtic ably proved that they could compete with Man City

In one-off games like that they can compete, but it would be a different matter doing it week in week out, in the EPL (should such a thing ever happen).

Celtic currently aren't at that level, but as I said before, it's nothing a few tens of millions from Sky (and soon afterwards, if they remained in the EPL, amounting to hundreds of millions), winging their way into Celtic's coffers, wouldn't sort out!

Marco.

[Marco]

What was the score against Feyenoord, Chris?

Marco.

[Stratmangler]

Feyenoord 0 - 4 City

[Marco]

Good result away from home, but that's one team you'd have been expected to beat, home and away. Your games against Shaktar and Napoli will be the defining ones

Marco.

[Stratmangler]

Aye, it was a good result.
The Feyenoord side last night was very inexperienced, and it showed.
However, I've been to more City games than I can remember when we were dead cert favourites, yet slipped down to our opponent's level and struggled.
Last night City showed their ruthless side, and I've not seen that for a while.

Next game for us in the CL is at ours, against Shakhtar Donetsk.

[struth]

Saw first half of Rangers Partick game last night. Missed all goal action later as quite frankly the action was ghastly poor. God help them at weekend.