Where am I?

HOME
  • SPORT Fanzine Fanzone

Fanzine Fanzone - Times Online - WBLG

Leading football fanzine editors join the debate on Times Online http://timesonline.typepad.com/fanzine_fanzone/rss.xml

« No such thing as a West Ham friendly | All Posts | The summer of our discontent »

July 23, 2008

And so it starts…

Strachan Pre-season has finally arrived and the question has to be asked – has that much changed since last season? In my view, pre-season has always been the time to refresh things, in terms of personalities, tactics and of-course new strips!

At the end of a long, hard season, a lot of fans, both Celtic and Rangers, were glad to see the back of it. However, with the month of June passing quietly (at least for us) and a couple of friendlies under our belt, the most potent point has been that little has actually changed at Celtic.

Firstly, under Gordon Strachan, pre-season performances has always seemed to go quite slowly with little energy or vigour. This has culminated in the last few seasons starts being quite slow with last seasons’ opening game/letdown against Kilmarnock (that actually typified the season as whole to a large extent) and of course the infamous Artmedia Bratislava debacle both springing to mind.

Secondly, it also has an effect on the fans. Look at this time last year, Celtic’s performances against Newcastle United were a joke while the previous pre-season had seen morale sapping defeats against American opposition. If the management and the team aren’t going to put much worth into these games, then how can supporters? Consequently, the attendances at home friendlies in the last three years has also further entrenched the notion that a lot of season-ticket holders are picking and choosing their games more carefully (I know I was).

What all this has done is create a stale and negative atmosphere at the club before a serious ball has been kicked in anger. While Martin O’Neill’s pre-seasons were generally quite positive and noteworthy due to high profile games against English Premiership opposition, Gordon Strachan’s are exactly the opposite – games that have more to do with commercialism than entertainment or rewarding fans for their loyalty. Indeed, the club nearly scored an own goal with their Irish supporters when it was announced that the Celtic under-21 team would play Glentoran, a Belfast team with a large loyalist following!

My advice to Gordon is therefore very simple and pragmatic – plan at least some PR and passion into your next pre-season. Take the team to Ireland and/or the north of Scotland to reward fans to travel hundreds/thousands of miles and spend thousands of pounds to support the team. The team should then play a few home games against top-drawer opposition. It’s nice to be nice, and for once, the supporters might even give you the benefit of the doubt for a change….

Sean Huddleston

Posted at 09:41 AM in Celtic | Permalink Bookmark and Share

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451586c69e200e553ce97208834

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference And so it starts…:

Comments

And so it starts…

Strachan Pre-season has finally arrived and the question has to be asked – has that much changed since last season? In my view, pre-season has always been the time to refresh things, in terms of personalities, tactics and of-course new strips!

At the end of a long, hard season, a lot of fans, both Celtic and Rangers, were glad to see the back of it. However, with the month of June passing quietly (at least for us) and a couple of friendlies under our belt, the most potent point has been that little has actually changed at Celtic.

  • Arsenal

    All Arsenal posts, Subscribe via RSS

    Bristol City

    All Bristol City posts
    Subscribe via RSS

    Celtic

    All Celtic posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    Chelsea City

    CFCnet, All Chelsea posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    Derby

    Ram Space, All Derby posts Subscribe via RSS

    Everton

    Dixie's Sixty, All Everton posts, Subscribe via RSS

    Exeter City

    Vital Exeter City, All Exeter City posts, Subscribe via RSS

    FSF

    Football Supporters' Fed,
    All FSF posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    FFC

    Craven Cottage Newsround, All Fullham posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    Hearts

    All Hearts posts, Subscribe via RSS

    Liverpool

    All Liverpool posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    Man City

    Blue Moon, All Man City posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    Man Utd

    All Man Utd posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    Middlesbrough

    Boro Brick Road, All Middlesbrough posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    Newcastle Utd

    True Faith, All Newcastle Utd posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    Portsmouth

    Pompey Fans, All Portsmouth posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    Sheffield Utd

    All Sheffield Utd posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    Spurs

    My Eyes Have Seen the Glory
    All Spurs posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    Stoke

    All Stoke posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    Sunderland

    A Love Supreme, All Sunderland posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    Wigan

    Wiganer, All Wigan posts,
    Subscribe via RSS

    JOIN THE FANZONE

    Get it off your chest
    Want to have your say? It's time to join the best biased football forum on the planet

    PLAY THE GAME

    The most realistic Fantasy Football game is back for the 2009/10 season

    AHEAD OF THE GAME

    Sign up for our free daily email, weekdays 4pm

    THE GAME
    THE NEWS
    PLAY THE GAME

    The most realistic Fantasy Football game is back for the 2009/10 season

    YOUR WEB
    • Soccerbase
    • Football 365
    • Who ate all the pies?
    • You Tube
    • Football Shirt Culture
    • News Now
    • Fanbase
    • Pyramid Passion
    • Mike Floate's Football Ground Frenzy
    • The Spoiler
    • 101 Great goals
    • Kickette
    • Newcastle United Blog

    Archives

    • View previous blog posts

    Feeds

    Get the latest news and comments via RSS

    All the latest from Fanzine Fanzone

    All the reader comments

    All the posts from TheGame

    A complete list of all Times Online Sport stories

    Use the buttons below to add the feeds to your RSS reader, or right the links above, click and choose "save target as", then paste the url into your RSS reader.

    For more information on using RSS, and for more feeds from Times Online, visit

    the main RSS page

    Bloglines
    Google
    Yahoo!
    Netvibes