The veneer of optimism that was brought by last week’s signing of Kasper Hogh has now dulled. Despite unfounded hopes of being able to retain Alastair Johnstone, he looks likely to head south - along with Arne Engels - and suddenly, the realisation that the Celtic squad is about to be significantly weakened is hard to shake. This and the gloomy summer’s night setting brought with it a latent foreboding.
Still, it’s hard not to be excited; to anticipate what the new season brings. The novelty of it being a Monday gave it another layer of intrigue.
After the flag being unfurled, it became clear that – not surprisingly – not a lot had changed. Dundee looked comfortable enough, intermittently stealing the ball and holding it long enough to frustrate, quiet the expectancy.
In the 9th minute, the big moment arrived but Kasper Hogh snatched badly at his first chance and from there he was a bit rushed, a bit eager to be involved. Throughout the first half he was hit indiscriminately with long passes that looked unrehearsed, speculative, and didn’t stick. As advertised though, when the ball was in the box, he was close by.
Engels headed narrowly wide from a textbook Tierney cross and concluded a beige, non-descript half to start the campaign.
We did start to open up a bit in the second half. Players had got their touch; found their range and started to turn Dundee with quicker passes, and smarter movement.
The similarities to last season continued when Benjamin Nygren scored in the 54th minute. Arriving late, he walked onto another, textbook, trademark, fist time Kieran Tierney cross to head home from 6 yards. Another definitive touch from the Swede but Tierney’s ball is a first-class weapon from that slightly deeper half space.
Celtic continued to be dangerous and Duran produced a slick turn out of nowhere to turn his defender in the box but couldn’t quite get hold of his cut back. Yang forced a smart save from range. McGregor was having a game and struck the post with a lesser spotted right foot shot.
Tounetki, Forrest, McCowan and Donovan had replaced Yang, Duran, Nygren and Tierney.
Hogh got on the end of Donovan’s cross late on. Again, it didn’t go his way, but he was where we’ll need him to be.
I do think that as the season progresses they will be really good for us. I don’t think wide right is really Camilo Duran’s position but hopefully he’ll settle in the next couple of weeks. Kasper Høgh missed a few chances, he will definitely get better and he will score goals for the football club - Martin O’Neill.
Casually, you would probably describe this as a typical first game of the season, against a team with a few games in the legs. It was a bit dusty and hesitant.
We won, which is the most important thing. I thought we were pretty rusty, although we did create and should have scored a number of goals. When you consider the games we played with high intensity last season, I thought in the first half we didn’t have that intensity. We had to try and force the issue in the second half, which I think we did and we got the goal - Martin O’Neill
The 11 that started the game looked strong on paper, encouraging to an extent but there’s no guarantee we’ll see it again. Talk of Engels’ and Johnston’s departures still loom large.
1 down, 37 to go.
The play - off
Right en cue the Champions League play-off is round the corner and Celtic’s inactivity becomes even more mystifying. The first leg will be at home to Austrian champions LASK on 19th August before travelling for the second leg on 23rd.
It could change but it is starting to look a bit familiar. Predictable. Redolent of last summer’s failure to be prepared for something, we’ve known is coming.
The on-going transition of the squad and the tightrope of qualification means the next few weeks take on an event horizon importance for the season, before it really gets going.
You do wonder what the plan is? The money in the bank is for a rainy day, but in additional to fees received from player sales; a portion of it, could easily be spent on fixing the roof. A strange cause and symptom type scenario when it comes to the calamity carousel, we seem perpetually stuck on each summer.
Kilmarnock(A)
The Ayrshire club have finally pulled up that old carpet, just in time for Kasper Hogh to get “used to the grass”. How nice of them.
Kilmarnock conceded four at newly promoted St.Johnstone at the weekend, which gives hope to the notion that this might be the right fixture at the right time; especially for our two new additions.
With big fees come large expectations and Hogh - Duran also - will be looking to get up and running. These games - like Dundee on Monday night - are our bread and butter but too often last season, points were left on the plate. A merciless striker at Celtic would be a welcome addition, turning draws, defeats and nervy wins, into more comfortable, pleasurable performances.
The right-wing.
Fans have seemed very focused on the idea of replacing Kyogo in the last 18 months but the Japanese striker was largely cooked before departing. For me, replacing Nicolas Kuhn on the right wing has been just as important. The German was largely responsible for the successful domestic and European campaign of 24/25. Since then though, it’s been square pegs in round holes, or no pegs at all, in some cases.
News has broke this afternoon, that Celtic are close to finally completing the signing of Haissem Hassan for £9million from Real Oviedo. The Egyptian winger caught the eye with his swashbuckling ball carrying v Argentina at the World Cup.
Yang continues to slowly and surely improve but Hassan’s ability 1 v 1 is something the side has been crying out for.
West Ham are cooling on the deal, and still haven't reached our price.
I hope Arne and AJ (Everton have cooled on his deal)can put it behind them and help the team.
Glad to see you wrong mate, 24 hours is a long day in the SPFL, since you posted it looks like AJ is going nowhere and Hassan looks like it may happen along with Baur.
The board have somehow popped up smelling of roses.
We still need a DM, LB cover and a GK, so no confetti just yet.