2015 Celtic F.C.

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Basic info

Full name: The Celtic Football Club

Nicknames: The Bhoys, The Hoops, The Celts

Founded: 6 November 1887

Ground: Celtic Park

League: Scottish Premiership   

History

The Celtic Football club are a professional football club who play in Scottish Premiership. They were founded in 1887, but they enjoyed their greatest successes during 1960's when they have won 9 consecutive titles and European Cup in 1967 when they became the first British club to do it. Their biggest rivals are Glasgow Rangers. So far they have won: 45 Scottish League Championship titles, 36 Scottish Cup titles and 14 Scottish League Cup titles.

Home ground

Celtic play their home matches at 60k capacity Celtic Park since they were founded (there were some location switches in the early history).

*note to admins: you may delete my Wolverhampton topic

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2015 by Misspelled Misspell

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Breaking: Erik Secic (37) takes Celtic F.C.

According to official site of Celtic F.C., Croatian football manager, Erik Secic has been named as official manager of the club. Secic, who spent his days playing amateur football back in days is about to land to Glasgow in following days to finalise the contract.

Secic: I' glad to be given such an honour to lead such a big club as Celtic. Celtic is a club with a big tradition and pretty much successful in the Scottish Prem but I want much more; I want Celtic to raise one step higher.

van Dijk, defender: Erik Secic is not a famous manager but everyone in the squad know he's ambitious. We are all happy for his naming, and can't wait for a first meeting.

Edited November 14, 2015 by Misspelled Misspell

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Key players:

Virgil van Dijk

One of the most talented players in the squad, 23 years old Dutch center-back has most of attributes that a decent central defender must have. Powerful and dominanr in aerial game, but agressive and fast enough on the other side with good tackling ability, van Dijk is likely to fit in Secic's starting eleven.

Scott Brown

A lad who spent most of his career playing for The Bhoys will of course be one of the key players in reign of Erik Secic. Player who has all skills needed to be a good defensive midfielder including passing, tackling and even movement, added on leadership and communication makes a great picture of Celtic's captain.

Stevan Scepovic

Serbian poacher who made Glasgow his home this summer will likely be founded in main squad of Celtic's new manager. Scepovic is a simple example of poacher, with great finishing skills along with communication and movement who can use a little space to make big things

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Pre-season 1

Expectations

- win the Scottish Premiership (!)

- win the Scottish Cup (?)

- reach the Champions League (!)

- "survive the winter" in European competiton (!)

Transfers

Transfer budget I got from the board surely was not a big one (about 2 mil pounds). However after selling some players I managed to sign this lad from Watford:

Ikechi Anya

What I like about this player, besides his awesome name is his ability to play in almost every postion besides forward line. Born in Glasgow, Ikechi Anya is completely capable of playing as central defender, right or left full back, central midfielder, right and left winger. Secic spent 3.5 milon pounds to sign him.

Here is the full list of undertaken transfers:

Spoiler

Next report will come after first half of the season.

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So, here it is: half-season report.

In general, Celtic is a good team with few great players, but are still lacking a lot of quality especially in midfield and on wings. 

Scottish Premiership

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- We started the season very well, with great solid last line. However, we had many periods of fantastic form, but on the other hand, some of them where rather poor. Only defeat in the league came at Dundee's where our side were beaten 2-1. Biggest win in the season so far occured at Celtic Park where we stunned Motherwell 4-0. I also have to mention derby in Aberdeen, where we had a 0-2 lead after half an hour, but almost lost the game that finished 2-2. Our best individuals were a on loan from Villa Bulgarian winger Aleksandar Tonev and mentioned before - Stevan Scepovic. So far, we have not lost s single game on our turf (including all competitons).

Scottish Cup

- We have drawn the Championship side Dumbarton in a match that will be played at the end of January.

Spoiler

 

Scottish League Cup

- In the third round of the competiton, we travelled to Dundee where we faced... uhm, Dundee. We managed to succeed to the next round thanks to Griffiths and Commons who secured a 2-1 away victory. An then, in the quarter-finals we faced our strong rivals - Glasgow Rangers in Old Firm clash. Our side managed to beat the Rangers thanks to Guiddeti who scored after a big mistake by home-side defender. We are about to face Inverness CT in the semi-finals.

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UEFA Champions League

Qualifications

- In the second round (in a match that was also my debut) we faced Poland champions Legia. We lost at their ground with the minimal result, but successfully procceded to the next round after 3-0 home win (Guidetti 2, Tonev). In the third round, we managed to beat Slovan Bratislava 3-0 on agg. thanks to John Guidetti who scored all the goals (0-2, 1-0). In the playoff, we had to face APOEL. We won the first game at their turf with result 1-0 (of course it was Guidetti) and the second leg ended in steelmate so our side managed to reach the group stage of the biggest club competiton.

Group stage

- We had a pretty though group (current holders - Real Madrid, Sporting CP and CSKA Moscow). In the opening matchday we travelled to Madrid and managed to earn a point! Home side took a lead after Bale's header. We were back on terms after Scepovic's penalty, but Ronaldo took his side in lead few minutes after. In the last minutes, a fantastic ball from Ikechi Anya found Scepovic in the box who managed to make another equaliser. We netted once more (Ambrose, 90+3, however the goal did not stand). More great results folowed: 2-0 over Sporting (Scepovic 2), minimal win over CSKA (Scepovic) and a 1-1 draw against Real Madrid (Ronaldo put the visitors in lead from the spot, however Johansen's late equaliser in second minute of additional time truly was worth a point. Our first and only lose came at Lisboa where Sporting's early goal and our red card where enough for the home side. In the last match, we won at Moscow after Commons fantastic shot froum outside the box.

We finished on the second place and we will face Italian side Juventus in the round of 16.

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- Post from analyse of my team's play along with pics of some matches will be put later today.

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verage team formation:

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- One note: Emilio Izaguirre plays as left back, but this was a picture when he was suspended.

- In general, this is my tactic and it works very well. However, there are problems in the midfield. Brown plays as ball-winning mid although it is not his primary role while Kayal is not good B2B buis for now it is the only solution. Commons is actually a left winger but because my playmaker Dirar is useless.

Top players

Stevan Scepovic - porobably the best player so far, and he shows the definition of a poacher: whenever he gets a good chance he scores

Spoiler

Aleksandar Tonev - my vision of a good winger, with a good pace, great crossing and often netting as well; he has proven to be one of the most valubale man in the squad

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Craig Gordon - long story short, great keeper, however he sometimes saves every single shot, but the other day he will concend everything (won't post his stats because he has played all the games but the LC match against Dundee

Top Flops

Nir Biton  - I really hoped he would be a link between my midfield and forward line, but turned out to be very useless with only 4 assists in all competitons

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Stefan Johansen - I wanted him to be a dinamic B2B midfielder, but he lacked inteligence and most of his shots were poor while his balls were not accurate. Probably not as bad as Biton but still pretty much useless

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Matchez