The Athletic - report on last night's comedy gold at Torbett Towers

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By the time George Tucudean scored in the 97th minute, fans were already streaming out of Celtic Park. The switch flicked from exasperated to irate.

Neil Lennon's side had fancied their chances in the return leg of their Champions League qualifier after securing a 1-1 draw in Cluj, but a porous defence allowed the Romanian champions to score three times. That is always likely to result in elimination, and while Odsonne Edouard's goal gave Celtic 13 minutes of hope, they were already crashing out on away goals as the exits filled during stoppage time and Tucudean - the top scorer in Romania last season - ended all hopes with his late, late goal.

A former Celtic trialist, Tucudean has an incredible back story. That won't have comforted those streaming out into Glasgow's East End though.

But what material effect does this have for the Scottish champions?

Well, it essentially wipes out the financial gain from selling star left-back Kieran Tierney for a start. There was a time when Celtic could almost wait until they knew whether they'd be in the Champions League group stage, receiving their lucrative television rights cheque, before selling big players but in losing Tierney and now Uefa's cash cow, they have become an unintended victim of the Premier League's peculiar insistence on ending the transfer window before the rest of Europe.

As an aside, there is a growing feeling in the English top flight that this peculiar arrangement will be reversed before long. Most of the top coaches in the division are against it and, in private, there are almost no coaches in the division at all who would fight its corner should the decision get revisited.

But back to Celtic, who now have a season ahead where a domestic title race is their only concern. There might even be one this season, given last year's nine-point gap was as narrow a margin as we've seen since... Rangers were Rangers.

Steven Gerrard has obviously brought the club back to some semblance of on-field respectability and their recruitment looks to have improved. The financial gap with Celtic, though still significant, will narrow slightly with the latter failing to reach those all-important group stages.

With Neil Lennon almost universally considered a downgrade from Brendan Rodgers, there are ways to talk yourself into the idea of a proper Old Firm title race this year and that is the least Scottish football needs.

Rangers must win a trophy this year but Celtic, smarting from a continental exit, must win the league. It feels like something has got to break.

We'll be watching intently


Tucudean has had 2 operations on his heart this year.
 
Usual snidey mentally challenged minded slant to this report

The Athletic need to nip this writing style in the bud

The way report says when “Rangers were Rangers” is alluding that we are a new club and it’s mentally challenged minded speak

Maybe reporting should be asking why £10m of new signings didn’t start and a midfielder at LB and losing 4 goals at home
 
I was considering buying this as it was meant to be above tabloid trash but only 2 weeks into the new season and they have already went down the trash tabloid route with snyde digs at Rangers so I will be ignoring them as much as the rest.
 
I was considering buying this as it was meant to be above tabloid trash but only 2 weeks into the new season and they have already went down the trash tabloid route with snyde digs at Rangers so I will be ignoring them as much as the rest.

Rather than sign up for the free trial use the below link and you'll get 3 months access for $1. You can cancel straight away to turn off the auto renewal and get 3 months for basically nothing.

https://theathletic.com/checkout/?plan_id=66&curr=CAD
 
Rather than sign up for the free trial use the below link and you'll get 3 months access for $1. You can cancel straight away to turn off the auto renewal and get 3 months for basically nothing.

https://theathletic.com/checkout/?plan_id=66&curr=CAD

Why would I want to sign up to just another trashy outfit putting out articles with deliberately antagonistic content towards Rangers?

They market themselves as a fresh take on sports journalism then serve up fanzine/blogger rubbish full of snide digs at Rangers, already plenty of that out there for free.
 
If the window ended later then they would've got less for Tierney. Having no CL money means they would be more desparate for cash, which is a poorer bargaining position than a side that looked like they were favourites to qualify for the group stage when they sold Tierney
 
It's written by a Celtic fan for celtic fans, I've zero issue with the article. But if you wanna write off the hundreds of other quality writers based on 1 article then knock yourself out.

If you are going to market yourself as a serious publication then you need to act like.
 
since Rangers were Rangers.

Really ???????

I was going to ask for feedback on this considering subscribing

But Ill not bother.
 
It's written by a Celtic fan for celtic fans, I've zero issue with the article. But if you wanna write off the hundreds of other quality writers based on 1 article then knock yourself out.
Perhaps they should have had one of their quality, impartial writers do the article rather than a foaming tim ?
 
A few people seem in a rush to be offended at anything. I personally read that comment as a positive. We've been a shadow of ourselves for the last few years, and Stevie G has made us Rangers again.
Its a dig mate

Since Rangers were last in the top flight would have covered it.

They cant help themselves

Get educated
Get decent job

Have a dig at a football team, quite pathetic really.
 
If you are going to market yourself as a serious publication then you need to act like.

For years people cried about writers not disclosing their allegiences. Now we have a writer who has and you still arent happy. Theirs a writer for the same publication who writes for Rangers.

Dont know how many times people need yo say it on this thread for you to understand.
 
Perhaps they should have had one of their quality, impartial writers do the article rather than a foaming tim ?

Do u have a subscription to the athletic? Do u even know how it works? You subscribe to the writers and teams you want to follow and their articles appear on your timeline. This article never even appeared on my timeline.
 
Do u have a subscription to the athletic? Do u even know how it works? You subscribe to the writers and teams you want to follow and their articles appear on your timeline. This article never even appeared on my timeline.
No i don't and i don't know how it works, if thats the case then of course i have the choice not to read articles written by Celtic fans.

Now i know.
 
The whole point of this publication seems to be that fans of your own team cover your own matches.

I wish Sky would adopt the same approach and I wouldn’t have to listen to Andy Whanker every time I watch Rangers on Sky
 
For years people cried about writers not disclosing their allegiences. Now we have a writer who has and you still arent happy. Theirs a writer for the same publication who writes for Rangers.

Dont know how many times people need yo say it on this thread for you to understand.

Doesn't matter who it's aimed at, if that's the sort of person they are bringing in to write for them then I won't be bothering with it.
 
I don't know what kind of article you expect a Celtic fan to write about last night's result. I only subscribed to The Athletic a few days ago, but very happy so far with the content I'm reading.
 
Do u have a subscription to the athletic? Do u even know how it works? You subscribe to the writers and teams you want to follow and their articles appear on your timeline. This article never even appeared on my timeline.
That is correct.
Although if you subscribe you get a general update of top stories first thing in the morning. That article was the top story in this mornings update and the article was part of the email. This is without clicking any links to see the article.
 
Well it’s badly written.
Rangers have always been Rangers, whether we offer a challenge or not.

To be fair now that I've seen it the way others have i see the point, but i don't get the impression it was meant.

On the bright side, if he did mean it that way, he'll be hurting this morning :D
 
A few people seem in a rush to be offended at anything. I personally read that comment as a positive. We've been a shadow of ourselves for the last few years, and Stevie G has made us Rangers again.

Agreed - anyone that thought the Rangers of the last few years was the real Rangers needs to get their head checked.

Win 55 and we are finally Rangers again.
 
Some of our support are just as bad as them when it comes to how quick we get offended now.

1 tiny comment and you label the whole company. On the other hand I signed up for the free trial and have been very impressed with the content that 1 little line, where its debatable to what the writer meant, isn't going to put me off.
 
I was considering buying this as it was meant to be above tabloid trash but only 2 weeks into the new season and they have already went down the trash tabloid route with snyde digs at Rangers so I will be ignoring them as much as the rest.

Erm I think they have Snyde digs at everyone. That's what fanzines do. That's all it is really. A fanzine.
 
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