Can we just take a moment to discuss Martin OโNeillโs absolute tactical masterclass on Saturday?
He allowed Derek McInnes to play all of his cards before finally unleashing the famous 3-5-2 formation on the final day to ultimately WIN the league.
Nobody expected it. The fans didnโt expect it, the media didnโt expect it and Iโm pretty sure Derek McInnes certainly didnโt expect it either.
Martin hadnโt trialled it previously. He hadnโt experimented with different systems beforehand and repeatedly said he didnโt want to overcomplicate things and wanted to keep it simple.
Then when it mattered most he revealed Plan B.
And it paid off massively.
The man is an absolute genius. One of the greatest football minds this club has ever seen ๐
๐ธ๐ช Henrik Larsson on footballโs biggest stage.
๐ 3 World Cups
โฝ๏ธ 5 goals
No player to represent Celtic has scored more World Cup goals.
The King of Kings ๐๐
When Paul Lambert left Motherwell for Borussia Dortmund in 1996, he did not even know if he had a club to go to.
He had no contract.
He had no agent.
And by the time he arrived in Germany, he had almost no money left either.
So Lambert told Dortmundโs general manager exactly where he stood.
โMotherwell donโt know Iโm here.โ
โThey donโt have a clue where I am.โ
โThe other thing is Iโve run out of money as well.โ
Dortmund gave him 200 Marks and a trial.
Within a few weeks, he was in their team.
Within a year, he was playing in a Champions League final against Juventus, marking Zinedine Zidane, and helping Dortmund become champions of Europe.
By then, everything had changed.
Juventus wanted him.
Franz Beckenbauer asked if he would be interested in Bayern Munich.
But Lambert wanted to stay at Dortmund.
โI had everything at Dortmund.โ
Then his son became ill again.
Lambert and his wife had first seen it when he was a baby in Glasgow.
He had a temperature, they brought him into bed, and then his arm went limp.
Lambert picked him up.
Then his head flopped.
โI was shaking him, but there was nothing there.โ
He recovered, but the doctors told them it could happen again for years.
And after the Champions League final in 1997, it did.
That was when Lambert and his wife knew they had to go back to Scotland.
Not because he wanted to leave Dortmund.
But because they needed to be near family.
Dortmund did not want him to go.
Before a Champions League game against Parma, the supporters made that clear.
Banners went up around the ground.
โPaul, donโt go.โ
โThank you, Paul.โ
Then they started singing his name.
โPaul Lambert, Youโll Never Walk Alone.โ
After the game, the club asked him to do a lap of honour.
Lambert got as far as the Yellow Wall, saw people crying, and had to go back down the tunnel.
Dortmund asked him one last time.
โPaul, weโre going to ask you again.โ
โDonโt go.โ
But his mind was made up.
He went home and signed for Celtic.
And within months, Lambert had gone from winning the Champions League with Dortmund to helping Celtic stop Rangers winning ten in a row.
โMy football career is mad, isnโt it?โ
โIt is real fairytale stuff.โ
#football #celtic
โถ๏ธ Take a look at the VAR check that saw Celtic awarded a late penalty at Motherwell for handball.
At 6pm on @SkyFootball watch Scottish Football VAR Review to hear what the SFA's head of refereeing Willie Collum made of it ๐บ
Morning all, Celtic Park has seen quite a few tifos over the years but that night when Barcelona were our guests in 2012 lives long in the memory. Celtic Tito Vilanova said: โI have been lucky in my career to have been to many grounds, but I have never seen anything like it. .โ
As much as he clearly didnโt want us to win the title again, this line from @IanCrocker1 is an all timer
โCeltic are going to win the titleโฆthey kept on winning, they kept on believingโฆ that at the end of the storm, there really is a Golden Sky!โ ๐๐ผ๐๐ผ
@chris_sutton73#YNWA๐
Possibly the best angle I've seen of Daizen Maeda's stunning goal against Rangers. Good scrapping by Maeda and McGregor to win the ball back at the start of the move.