How far behind are they?

What's up ? A lot of realistic sensible posters on this morning, expected the league is won for the considerable future, we will beat them every game comfortably, and they are crap and will stay crap forever no matter who they sign, posts :)
 
I remember 2000 when O'Neill took over the piggery and we all thought Rangers were uncatchable. We had won the league by over 20 points, were unbeaten against them the previous season, and had just spent big money to add to the best squad in the country.

It fell apart, and they won the treble.

Not saying that is going to happen again as I am confident in our present team and manager, but I tend to prefer laughing at Celtic after we have picked up trophies and beaten them, not before a ball is kicked.
Over 20 years ago but that one still hurts with how quickly it turned. I would say though there were strong rumours at that time of a number of players not getting on with Advocaat which probably accelerated our fall.

This time around there are no such stories and hopefully we continue to go from strength to strength.
 
They will strengthen, they have players to come in so we cant be complacent, aslong as we concentrate on our game and strengthen at the right times we will stay one step ahead of them IMO , champions league qualification is massive for us not only does it give us a financial boost it helps us attract better players, and as for their fans they were in denial with all this can you see the rangers coming patter

The league starts in 2 days. Their Champions League campaign is already over.

Even if they do strengthen chances are it'll be too late anyway. In any case our management team would never let complacency set in, it's just not in their nature and they're always demanding more.
 
They will improve within the next month or two. We need to keep our focus and concentrate on our form.
This.

They will improve enough to batter most of the dross as usual. In reality we wont really know until the transfer window slams shut. We are in a tremendeous place on the park though and would take some stopping even if they werent a shit show.
 
It is unwise to speculate about these things; they will still win most SPL games they play.

Their finances are also very opaque and it is hard to seperate the yearly losses from the 'cash at bank' figure which they say means all is well.
 
They are behind but we need to focus only on ourselves. They had the chance after 2012 to really kick on and they did the usual for that mob. They sat back and took the plaudits for beating nobody’s. We need to grab the chance to move even clearer than we are now by guarding aganst complacency and kick on.
 
One of the cries of our support after this past decade has been “never again”. I think this should apply both on and off the pitch. My hope is that SG drums a real hunger into our team so that we never again assume that we are untouchable. The scum are down and it’s great to see but let’s not get drunk on arrogance and follow their mistakes. Winning the next title will take more effort than the last. We are back, we are hated, we are champions and every team in Scotland will want to blacken our eye. In response we display 100% battle fever for 100% of the games.
 
They are a poor side just now, but we can't fall into the trap that they did and dismiss them as an irrelevance. Complacency is our biggest enemy.
The problem is that their situation is easily reversible.
It only takes a real manager and real investment.
However, before they do that, they need to do one thing they are generally not very good at.
Like the alcoholic and the gambler, they need to accept where they are before they can begin their recovery.
 
I never think about it as how far are they behind. My mindset is only about us doing what we need to do and continuing to strengthen and grow. If we do that then nothing else matters.
 
It's all very well being upbeat about how we are are playing and looking forward to the season ahead but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
I don’t think we’re ahead of ourselves on this one.
The difference between us and them is thar we know WE still have work to do and that it is us who need to do it.
We will not get complacent.
 
I don’t think we’re ahead of ourselves on this one.
The difference between us and them is thar we know WE still have work to do and that it is us who need to do it.
We will not get complacent.
This.

55 won, now onto 56.
Get that won, onto 57.

The only way we're going to be seen celebrating 10IAR is if we actually win it.
 
Also remember, between 1st Dec and 2nd Jan our 4 away games are Hibs, Hearts. Aberdeen and Celtic.

Anything can happen and we can't afford to think about what they do.
 
We don’t know but we will have a better idea in July.

I wouldn’t get too cocky about this anyway, football can turn on you in as little as a week, we’ve seen it before.
A goalie, four defenders, a couple of midfielders and a couple of strikers.

Miles.
 
Also remember, between 1st Dec and 2nd Jan our 4 away games are Hibs, Hearts. Aberdeen and Celtic.

Anything can happen and we can't afford to think about what they do.
We can start of by remembering our, the management team’s, big, big battlecry last season.
One, game, at, a, time.
 
Middle to front they aren’t that bad
If they sort their defence and goalkeeping position then they will challenge for sure
We don’t want to be complacent in any way
Take care of our own business and look after ourselves only and we will be fine
 
Middle to front they aren’t that bad
If they sort their defence and goalkeeping position then they will challenge for sure
We don’t want to be complacent in any way
Take care of our own business and look after ourselves only and we will be fine
Everyone has an opinion mate but I'm sorry they are poor all over the park with the defense being exceptionally poor.

McGregor in the middle of the park IS a good player but he's irrelevant if he doesn't have it around him

I.e last night, forrests miss after McGregor scored a worldie and put his side in control and the mutants still couldn't see out a game which was essentially won for them with how bad the Danes were.
 
They are not coming from where we were and in football things can change quickly so it would be hard in this case to assume they are years behind! Best we enjoy their pain whilst concentrating on building and getting stronger ourselves!
 
Middle to front they aren’t that bad
If they sort their defence and goalkeeping position then they will challenge for sure
We don’t want to be complacent in any way
Take care of our own business and look after ourselves only and we will be fine

Middle to front?

McGregor and a fit Forrest are decent but who after that?

I’m taking it as a given Edouard is away

Turnbull is a very decent player for Motherwell. No more

Soro is a nothing player. A poor mans Zungu

£5 million and wages on Ajetti who the manager refused to bring on when needed most

And the Racist Paedo
 
They will bring in 6/7 players in and that will no doubt improve them. However I still fully expect us to win the league by about 10-15 points.
 
This idea that they're us pre Gerrard is idiotic. They have their problems, and we can still get better, but they're starting from a far, far healthier position than Gerrard had to.
I know you posted this month's ago but the back 5 for them last night was right up there with Pedro's starting teams.
 
Last night was an eye opener for me.

Essentially they need first team AND backup players at a number of positions. Entire back 4 minus injured Julien are miles off the standard required, with 1 new face already in and quarantining. They've got no defensive midfielders worthy of the name and their goalkeepers are Championship standard (Bain) or worse.

They have 4 talented players - only one of whom wants to be there and can last 90 minutes. They have some absolute cancers in their dressing room they need to clear out - one of whom they just gave a new contract and look how he paid that back.

In some ways coming in as a new manager you'd see this as an opportunity to clean house and rebuild with only players who suit your style, but in this case the manager doesn't know the market and they don't have anyone else spearheading recruitment.

They should still have the money to buy decent enough players to mount a challenge but you have to assume they'll take a while to gel even if they get their finger out. But until they have someone competent managing recruitment then the shit might still be rising because they haven't yet experienced the utter carnage that will ensue from the self-entitled masses.

All of this starting from a position where they were closer to a solid Hibs than to Rangers and with Aberdeen looking like they might have got their act together eventually.

We can't realistically expect to match last year's points tally but at the moment they look more likely to also drop back than to close the gap any
 
I know you posted this month's ago but the back 5 for them last night was right up there with Pedro's starting teams.
The difference is in terms of resources they have available to throw at it. Whether they are willing is another matter, but their wage bill should be a fraction of what it was and they have pulled in some hefty transfer fees to fund spending.
 
I remember 2000 when O'Neill took over the piggery and we all thought Rangers were uncatchable. We had won the league by over 20 points, were unbeaten against them the previous season, and had just spent big money to add to the best squad in the country.

It fell apart, and they won the treble.

Not saying that is going to happen again as I am confident in our present team and manager, but I tend to prefer laughing at Celtic after we have picked up trophies and beaten them, not before a ball is kicked.

Apples and oranges.

Celtic spent big money that summer to bring in Sutton, Lennon, Valgaeren and Thompson. They can't afford to pay big fees and big wages to solve their problems this time.

This Celtic team doesn't have a Larsson in the squad returning from injury. Let alone players to the level of Lambert and Petrov. One of their highest rated players has forced a move already, another is blatantly trying to jump ship.

O'Neil had managed and won multiple cups in a major European league. Their current manager has never managed out-with a minor league or a minor international team.
 
It’s doesn’t matter how much better we are, If we aren’t consistent and drop silly points they won’t be far away! Concentrate on rangers and let Aberdeen deal with them
 
Just thinking there, how far behind do you think they are? I reckon they’re where we were about 2 years ago, NOW!
So where will they be at the end of the season when they need 13 players? Where we were 3/4 years ago?
it’s Gona take more than 1 or 2 transfer windows to even get up to a par IMHO!
1. tgey can’t afford it.
2. Loads of new personnel behind the scenes.
3. New manager.
4. Time for players to settle and gel
5. They’re only looking at doing it half arsed because they’ll probably keep the back room staff.
There are more reasons but I think they’re in for a massive shock.
Hopefully we keep going and kick on again next season.
Miles or kilometres.
 
SG did an exceptional job getting us to where we are in the timescales he did it. As a football supporter I am always the optimist and honestly didn't appreciate just how bad we were pre SG. Looking back we were a basket case.

They may not be in the same financial situation as we were back then but their current coaching staff, recruitment team are every bit as bad. Their manager has nowhere near the gravitas or the pulling power as Gerrard.

Qualifying for the CL this year could be thing that edges us further ahead and their scummy fans will struggle to accept that. If we get CL group stages I predict we will have plenty to smile about as that mob further implode.
 
As much as they need players at the moment, they’ll still be good enough to beat the majority of the teams in our league. They just won’t be good enough to compete with ourselves.
 
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I always say your never more than a season behind and i still think thats true. we have to maximise our position.

That said they are a shambles. Ange is holding fort until they can attract someone better. Wont be long until the fans turn on him
 
A country mile behind and Tom English, of all people, last night put it into perspective. If the league started right now, we could field 2 teams, and no more signings were allowed, then our second string team would take the current Celtic one to the cleaners. He isn't wrong either.

They need another 6 or 7 top quality, not average squad filler, players that hit the ground running on top of the CB and Japanese striker they've signed just to be semi competitive. They are then fully dependent on not getting any serious injuries, no covid outbreaks and having a pristine disciplinary record as they would still have zero depth to their squad if they lost any for a prolonged period of time. They need to keep Christie, which I can't see, and the Japanese needs to be as effective or better than Edouard whom he will replace. That's a lot of if's and but's and finger crossing.

The same people in here defending them by saying you can't write them off, they'll still hammer the dross and won't be worse than last year are very likely the same posters under Warburton and Pedro who were vociferous in highlighting why we were miles behind Celtic in terms of winning mentality (they only have McGregor, Thumb, Rogic and the 2 wantaways left who have that experience), individual quality and depth of squad, whilst also arguing we were light years behind them, would win nothing and struggle to get second from Aberdeen.

I called the league in September last year when I saw the mess they were in, and was shot down repeatedly by the one game a time, they know how to win a league, we don't, let's see if we can play after Xmas when it counts crew. I'm calling it now this season. They have far, far, far too much to do and zero time to do it. It's not happy clapping, it's using my eyes and applying common sense.
 
They're a mess on and off the park, but as from this weekend they're level on points with us, so time to focus fully on ourselves and get the job done. We can't be sidetracked or distracted by the freakshow across the city. I'm sure the management will make sure we're not.
 
I think the appointment of a manager who is going to integrate a fixed system was a tad mental I would have thought they would have looked to be more pragmatic with a quick turn around. I also seriously doubt him already in his subs and formation. In the first leg you could see they struggled to get the ball out back to middle. And yet he leaves Soro as anchorman -a player who is erratic and doesn't recycle well or keep possession-for me you sit McGregor there for an important tie and say bring Rogic in.
Their fans will run out of patience with this type of stuff quickly but their focus is currently on the Board -that won't change but neither will any support put up with a manager who is a punt and doesn't deliver.

At this stage they have massive problems and their dealings in the transfer market is absolutely crucial-he needs a very high batting average in getting players in who can do a job and indeed replace whatever goes out the door, Pedro was sunk not only because he was winging it but because he bought badly. Good signings for Pedro would have made a massive difference albeit he was also a manager stuck with a style.

The pain of losing their run will haunt them for a good while, this wasn't normal circumstances and they should still be ahead-this is going to take time for their support back on message-the appointment of this guy looks crazy to me and will set them back I think.

Nobody at our club under SG is going to get carried away and I think we need to see how both squads look when the window closes but we do have genuine attractive articles in our squad I think we face a battle to keep those players. If we keep the bulk of the squad we should be in a strong position but until we actually see them up against our league teams it's difficult to truly judge, A trip to Tynecastle in the current situation for them looks a massive game already.

They looked behind last season and the post-Lennon era couldn't have gone much worse for them so we will take that.
 
Scotland is a weird footballing country, Aberdeen regularly beat the the rest of the dross under McInnes for a good while, that's all they still need to do

Talk of them being behind doesn't help anyone
 
Middle to front they aren’t that bad
If they sort their defence and goalkeeping position then they will challenge for sure
We don’t want to be complacent in any way
Take care of our own business and look after ourselves only and we will be fine
They can strengthen all they want but their manager is Warburtonlike in his setup. That won't be enough to avoid dropping points needlessly unless they miraculously start signing top quality players who can make that work.
 
A country mile behind and Tom English, of all people, last night put it into perspective. If the league started right now, we could field 2 teams, and no more signings were allowed, then our second string team would take the current Celtic one to the cleaners. He isn't wrong either.

They need another 6 or 7 top quality, not average squad filler, players that hit the ground running on top of the CB and Japanese striker they've signed just to be semi competitive. They are then fully dependent on not getting any serious injuries, no covid outbreaks and having a pristine disciplinary record as they would still have zero depth to their squad if they lost any for a prolonged period of time. They need to keep Christie, which I can't see, and the Japanese needs to be as effective or better than Edouard whom he will replace. That's a lot of if's and but's and finger crossing.

The same people in here defending them by saying you can't write them off, they'll still hammer the dross and won't be worse than last year are very likely the same posters under Warburton and Pedro who were vociferous in highlighting why we were miles behind Celtic in terms of winning mentality (they only have McGregor, Thumb, Rogic and the 2 wantaways left who have that experience), individual quality and depth of squad, whilst also arguing we were light years behind them, would win nothing and struggle to get second from Aberdeen.

I called the league in September last year when I saw the mess they were in, and was shot down repeatedly by the one game a time, they know how to win a league, we don't, let's see if we can play after Xmas when it counts crew. I'm calling it now this season. They have far, far, far too much to do and zero time to do it. It's not happy clapping, it's using my eyes and applying common sense.

I think this criticism of posters who are cautious is silly and actually the reverse of what you say. Of course there were Bears so tight last season that they couldn't recognise the league was over but they were not normal circumstances.

I tend to think people who get carried away do it both ways and we also have a rump (understandable ) who think every thing they do is shite and all their players are shite...very similar to their idiot ex-player last season-we saw it under Rodgers who was dismissed as was their team when he clearly had gelled them-read on here they were pish when they were bossing us.

They look to be a shambles but I repeat they looked to be a shambles 2nd Souness season and us heading for 10 we looked to have a strong advantage. It only takes a dip from us and confidence to start kicking in with them and the balance can shift noticeably.

Only an idiot would not be delighted at where we are sitting but football teaches us nothing is decided early on and a season can be a very long haul. We will have our setbacks for certain. Yes they look to be in a real mess but I want to see that in tangible terms after games and the results verify and prove just how bad they are. I got stick for saying their European tie would be a nervy affair and I was told that they would get pumped easily...in the end it was a dire result for them but they weren't outclassed the way many claimed.
 
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