Show Notes
Celtic followed up the home win over Falkirk with a comfortable 3-0 win over Aberdeen, and Andrew and Stephen join Harry to discuss a side that suddenly looks enjoyable to watch again. There’s plenty on the performances of Duran, Yang, Donovan and McGregor, first impressions of the new arrivals, and why increased competition throughout the squad may be lifting the level of those already there. The discussion also returns to the painful European exit and the uncomfortable truth that two things can be true at once: Celtic should have strengthened earlier, but the players and management should still have seen out a four-goal advantage. With the transfer window now closed, the focus turns to what Celtic have actually built. Has recruitment finally moved away from hedging bets on several cheaper players towards spending proper money on better ones, or does another frantic deadline week demonstrate that the underlying problems remain? The guys go position by position through the squad, debate the missing defensive midfielder and the goalkeeping situation, and look at the increasingly difficult UEFA homegrown-player problem. Finally, attention turns to St Mirren and how Martin O’Neill begins integrating a raft of new players while preparing Celtic for the bigger tests ahead. This podcast is available to members of the CU community immediately with everyone else able to pick it up from Friday lunchtime. We have excellent content for free and paid subscribers. There’s the main podcast available to all on a Monday morning with Harry’s post-game Monopods to all paid subscribers within 12 hours of the final whistle. Wednesdays sees Matthews History podcast available to all and Sunday has Andrew exclusive guests available to members of the CU community. These are all interspersed with various articles and Ross Hall’s postgame coverage of the B-Team. If you want to ensure that you never miss any content you can become a paid or free subscriber by clicking the links. The Celtic Underground Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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More from The Celtic Underground
In this week’s Celtic Underground In Conversation, Andrew is joined by former Celtic youth player, professional footballer and now PhD graduate Mark McGuigan, who spent four and a half years inside Celtic researching one of the club’s biggest challenges - turning promising youngsters into first-team players. Drawing on his own experience of being released by Celtic and his subsequent work with the Academy, B team and first-team coaching staff, Mark explains why talent alone isn’t enough, why mentality matters just as much as ability, and why the right loan move might teach a youngster more than another season of youth football. They discuss the future of B teams, the threat of English clubs poaching Scotland’s best youngsters, and whether Celtic really have a functioning pathway to the first team. There’s also a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes at Lennoxtown, with insights into the meticulous standards of Brendan Rodgers, the motivational powers of Ange Postecoglou, the quiet authority of John Kennedy and the extraordinary dedication of Celtic’s senior players. An entertaining and illuminating conversation about football, academia and why producing the next Callum McGregor is rather more complicated than simply telling youngsters to be good enough. Available to members of the CU Community from Sunday (as usual) this podcast is also available to all from Thursday as the content is so pertinent to so many current criticisms of the club.
After Celtic’s magnificent seven-goal demolition of Hearts, Harry is joined by Stephen who is in unusually cheerful territory as they pick over a performance that had everything - goals, pace, excitement and Hearts fans heading for the exits before the half-time pies had gone cold. There’s praise for Dane Murray, a debate about giving youngsters a proper chance, and the ongoing search for a midfield enforcer who apparently needs the physique of Virgil van Dijk and the passing range of Andrea Pirlo. We also revisit the Hearts documentary, ponder the remarkable ability of pundits to be right both before and after getting everything wrong, and ask whether Martin O’Neill’s comments are tactical genius or just a man getting older and losing his filter. Finally, attention turns to Celta Vigo and the Europa League, with Stephen confidently predicting a 3-1 Celtic victory based on the most scientific of footballing methods… a good feeling. After seven against Hearts, who are we to argue? Enjoy… Apple podcasts Spotify Amazon Player.fm Spreaker Audioboom Youtube The Celtic Underground Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This month, Glasgow’s George Square will finally reopen after extensive refurbishment work. Over the decades, Celtic have had many links with Glasgow’s main civic space. This latest podcast tells the full story of this. Every week, you can listen for free to more tales from Celtic’s past, as told by Matthew Marr (Hail Hail History). You can also buy his new book ‘Green, white and silverware – Part 1’, describing Celtic’s less well-known trophy wins. It is available now on Amazon as hardback, paperback and Kindle. You can get it here: https://amzn.eu/d/0bZ3rJYi Enjoy… Apple podcasts Spotify Amazon Player.fm Spreaker Audioboom Youtube
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Enjoy… Apple podcasts Spotify Amazon Player.fm Spreaker Audioboom Youtube