At the beginning of Pep’s tenure at Manchester City, I was highly sceptical as to whether or not he would be as successful at City as he was with both Bayern and Barcelona. I personally didn’t rate him as good a manager as he is built up to be.
At Barcelona, he was there at a time where they produced the best team of all time with the likes of Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta and of course Messi. At Bayern Munich, no team really produced much of a challenge to their dominance over the Bundesliga and with the strength in depth Guardiola had, it’s easy to argue his European progression was not to the standard the Bayern squad merited.
He has very rapidly proved me wrong in his short time City boss, taking a squad lacking direction and enthusiasm and turning it into an unstoppable force with ten wins from ten. Of course, the Spaniard spent well over £100m to get to that point, but so did their neighbours and Pep’s side thoroughly beat Jose’s United earlier this season. To think we have a chance of getting something from this game is to say the least, extremely optimistic. However, we’ve done it before on numerous occasions, by defying the odds and beating Europe’s best at Celtic Park.
Manchester City from back to front is better than Celtic. They have spent more since Sheik Mansour bought the club than Celtic has spent in their existence. They will continue to spend at this magnitude for a long time yet with Sky money sharply increasing in England and Scotland being left with the scraps, but that’s another story. One day the bubble that is English football will burst and the Premier League will implode because it is not sustainable to continue to grow financially at the rate it does. Nevertheless, in the here and now, we play Manchester City on Wednesday. There is one thing we have that money simply cannot buy that is the atmosphere we produce at Celtic park on the European stage. We will produce yet another famous cauldron of noise when the old foe come to Parkhead in the form of City, and it will inspire the players to produce a performance to match. There may not be a single Celtic player who would make the City bench never mind starting eleven but that is often the case for Celtic in Europe. If Celtic start the game well and do not concede early, and allow the fans to come into their element then who knows what is possible.
One day the bubble that is English football will burst and the Premier League will implode because it is not sustainable to continue to grow financially at the rate it does. Nevertheless, in the here and now, we play Manchester City on Wednesday. There is one thing we have that money simply cannot buy that is the atmosphere we produce at Celtic park on the European stage. We will produce yet another famous cauldron of noise when the old foe come to Parkhead in the form of City, and it will inspire the players to produce a performance to match. There may not be a single Celtic player who would make the City bench never mind starting eleven but that is often the case for Celtic in Europe. If Celtic start the game well and do not concede early, and allow the fans to come into their element then who knows what is possible.
Nevertheless, in the here and now, we play Manchester City tonight. There’s one thing we have that money simply cannot buy that is the atmosphere we produce at Celtic park on the European stage. We will produce yet another famous cauldron of noise when we welcome an in-form City officially for the first time, and it will inspire the players to produce a performance to match. There may not be a single Celtic player who would make the City bench never mind starting eleven but that is often the case for Celtic in Europe. If Celtic start the game well and do not concede early, and allow the fans to come into their element then who knows what’s possible.
Craig Gordon will start the game and he has it all to prove. Whether to go with Roberts against his parent club is up for debate. He may look to prove his worth to Pep and earn himself a place in the City squad when he leaves at the end of the season. However; Forrest and Sinclair are in sensational form so it depends on your mindset what you would like to see.
Realistically the chances are minuscule that Celtic will get even a point from this, as before when we avoided a three-goal defeat in Israel we had achieved what we had to in Europe. Regardless of the result this has been a fantastic season so far, we look set to cruise to a sixth successive title, which will be the third time in Celtics long unbroken history, so savour the atmosphere and enjoy it.
@jackgallagher88
Clearly all of Roberts, Sinclair and toure would all make the city bench as all have many times. As for City spending more than Celtic in their entire history, I’d say that’s not surprising as so at a glance have Sunderland!
Build them up cause they are in for a hell of a fall, man city players don’t know what an amazing atmosphere is, these people aren’t gods they crap sitting down, it’s up to us to control the game, use the 12th man and scare the crap out of these over paid wannabe supermodels. The market is 4 or 5 times over priced in England, in most cases the market is a joke, is not the pound signs were playing. Come on the hoops !