Written by member: Patoninety
As titled, Scottish Footballs Big 2 have now entered the English Football Pyramid.
After swapping out Woking and someone else (can’t remember) Celtic and Rangers have now entered the Vanarama National League and will undergo the gruelling season ahead with 60+ games being played (including cup runs and Europe). I will just do a quick generalisation up to the point i’m at the now, coming off the back of a 4-1 first leg at home against Manchester United in the last 16 of the Champions League.
Board competition goals are as follows:
Vanarama National League: Get promoted by winning the league
Scottish League cup: Win competition
FA Cup: Be competitive
Uefa Champions League: Be competitive
FA Trophy: No interest
Starting budget: £2.5million
Summer Transfers
Transfers in: Juan Larious from Southampton : £2m
Transfers out: Greg Taylor to Rennes - £7.5m
A quick preseason which saw us go undefeated against some dutch sides, rounding off with a victory against eventual Champions League opponents PSV set us up nicely for unfamiliar territory in The Scottish League Cup group format:
5 teams
3 points a win
1 point a draw
bonus point if you win the penalty shootout after said draw.
Mental set up but cruised through to the second round after picking up 11 points from 12 after a 2-2 draw with Partick Thistle and winning on penalties to pick up the bonus point. We smashed our biggest ever result by trouncing Stranraer 13-1 in our last game. Knock out ties against Ross County, Hibs, Hearts and Rangers with saw us secure the first piece of silverware in December after a penalty shootout after a 2-2 draw.
The league has been pretty straight forward, 29 played, 28. wins and 1 loss which came against Gateshead, battered pillar to post but couldn’t secure the 3 points. Goal difference is at 130 and we’ve scored nearly 150 goals and only conceded 18. Rangers are hot on our tail with 6 games in hand and if they will all their games they will be a point behind with both derbies still to come along at the tail end of the season. Promotion should be well within our capabilities and squad rotation in the league has kept us fresh for Europe where we try and go toe to toe with the best. The end of the season will be frantic with a lot of big games coming up.
The FA Cup has been surprisingly pleasing. from round 1 and 2 it’s been plain sailing, round 3 saw us batter West Brom away from home 4-0 and 5-4 belter against Leicester have us teed us up against Newcastle at St James Park (more on this later). I personally think we will go out in the next round, it’s been a good run but being in non league will have it draw backs in terms of quality and the bigger teams spending money in January seen us drop down the pecking order.
The Champions League we have punched well above our weight. A group that seen us drawn against Real Madrid, PSV and Galatasary I was hoping to finish 3rd with at least 6 points. PSV beat us away from home 1-0 in the first game, Real Madrid came to town and stumbled after dominating us, Daizen Maeda scoring the only goal to secured a 1-0 win. a trip to Turkey saw us draw 1-1 and the return game saw us take all 3 points. PSV came to Celtic Park needing a victory to secure last 16 football. A win would’ve also took us through via head to head. A late Luuk De Jong header made it 1-1 after a huge period of domination and set up an incredible last day, Celtic away to Real Madrid and PSV at home to Galatasary. We rocked up to The Bernabeau expecting to lose by at least 4 or 5. Real Madrid, like the first game never played with any width so we managed to exploit the wings and get crossed into the box. We found ourselves 1-0 at HT, Adam Idah missed a penalty to make it 2-0 before the break. PSV found themselves 2–1 down at the break against Galatasary. Real Madrid and PSV both level with 15 minutes to go. Squeaky bum time as PSV are still behind but any slip up on our part would see us in the Europa League. We saw out the game 1-1 and a late Malik Tillman goal for PSV managed to secure them Europa League football and we edged the last 16 spot by a point.
Roll on to the January window and cash injection of £65m has allowed us to move around in the market:
Transfers in:
John Duran from Villa - £20m
Facundo Buonanotte from Brighton - £7.5m rising to £22.5m
Jakub Stolarczyk from Leicester- £4m rising to £10m
Jack Hinchy from Brighton - £7.5m
Connor Barron from Aberdeen - Free
Transfers out:
Callum McGregor to Newcastle - £35m
Above transfers was hard to take. losing my captain mid season with Europe and the FA Cup still ongoing. He will be hard to replace but at 30 years old it seems good business taking into consideration that i won’t be in Europe unless i win the FA Cup.