Panda

This is the updated list of possible play-off opponents. A lot of it is based on projections though, and not all of it on the seeded team winning, more the 'favourites', so it's only a rough idea at the moment.

There is a small chance enough seeded teams could be knocked out, meaning Aberdeen could be seeded.

Likewise, if Aberdeen did make the group stage, they would more than likely be in pot 4. 

The new format means we would play two teams from each of the four pots, with four home games and four away.

The top 8 make the last 16. The next 8 are seeded for the knockout play-offs, and the following eight are unseeded. Just need to avoid finishing in the bottom 12 to advance. 

Going by last year's table, 11 was enough to progress, and one team on 10 points made it through (A post-Jimmy Thelin Elfsborg also got 10 points, but missed out on goal difference).

For me, Europe is more important than finishing third next season. Obviously you want to finish as high as possible, but without the guaranteed group stage place, third is not as big a carrot. 

Europe provides a big chance for us to earn significant funds, it's a shop window if we're selling players (and we are a selling club), it's a showcase to others to come and play for us, and it's a chance for us to grow our own coefficient (the club one) to help our seeding in future.

All the players say that getting European football was a big thing to them. Palaversa, Polvara and Clarkson in particular were vocal about it. It's why Knoester and Tobers came here. It's a stage we should be on more often and it's a shame that after this season it'll be more of a challenge to make the groups.

If it's the Europa League we reach, then being competitive likely represents a good campaign. If it's the Conference League, we could still end up with a horrible draw, but there is more possibility of progressing beyond Christmas (should be noted Hearts' group was particularly easy, doesn't necessarily mean we'll get as "lucky").

I think if we finished fourth, did well in Europe, and as ever give the cups a good go, then that's a decent season.

If we were top three, made the knockouts in Europe, and claimed another cup, then it's time to start designing the Jimmy Thelin statue.

1 hour ago, RicoS321 said:

Molloy at left side of defence is better than Milne, Dorrington or Tobers on their wrong side. 

I respectfully disagree on account I could win more headers than Molloy. 

15 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Maddison, Clarkson and - due to injuries - Dorrington were all signed for places in the squad where we were short. That's generally how the loan system works.

Not always, no. The loan system also exists to get better players in that you otherwise can't. 

15 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Overloading the squad with defenders by loaning one is a terrible idea.

Would we be overloading it though?

We ended the season with Tobers and Molloy injured. Without Dorrington we'd have been relying on Knoester and Milne.

Molloy could do with a loan. Rubezic should be sold. So Dorrington coming in would give us four centre halves. I don't think that's overloading the squad.

15 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

 The worst thing would be if we signed him with the intention of pretending that him or another of the right centre halves can play on the left. He was poor on the left. Last thing we need is another imbalanced squad.

He was poor on the right for a long time too.

1 hour ago, DantheDon said:

I think from what I’m reading we would be looking at another loan for Dorrington. That means we are developing him for Tottenham, you occasionally get the chance to sign these guys permanently ala Clarkson but more often they go elsewhere. 

If he is better than what we have then often the only way to get that level of player is on loan. We were never getting James Maddison on a permanent deal for example.

Too early to make a call on Tobers, and likely too early to expect Milne to be a regular starter. Dorrington would be very useful, especially since he can play both sides of defence.

Jack Mackenzie's new manager has just quit for Schalke. Not a good start to life at Plymouth

8 hours ago, Reekie_Red said:

One thing I loved was seeing all the forgotten players who've barely kicked a ball running on in their suits and getting right into the party atmosphere at full time. Shows the unity within the squad!! Even players who were kicking their (presumed) last ball in a Dons shirt were kissing the badge and showing how much this meant to them.

That's because despite Celtic's riches, we have something money can't buy: a soul, a team spirit built in a family tradition.

Just came up with that myself..

12 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

What Duncan does have in his favour is he's pretty solid technically and I think Thelin will like that.  He's also not wee either. You could be bang on mate but I've got a feeling it might work out for Ryan yet.  I think we can all agree that we want it to at least.  

To be fair, he did play a part in our Scottish Cup success by helping to knock out Rangers. 

Surely we can get a medal cut for him.

16 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

I think Duncan is a cert to stay just from a euro registration pov 2bh.  

The feeling of some Queen's Park fans that I've seen was that he improved as the season went on, but if they were loaning him again he's a back-up at best for them.

Wouldn't be the first player to have an underwhelming loan at a lower level then surprise everyone by turning it on for his parent club, but like I say I think he'll start pre-season for us to fill the squad, but unless he trains like Shayden Morris in front of Thelin, he'll do well to survive summer.

Alfie Dorrington probably needs a post of his own.

The 2025 Scottish Cup winner, when asked about potentially returning to Aberdeen, said: “Obviously, I love the city, I love the club, the staff, the players. I love Tottenham as well. They’re kind of in charge of what I do. I’d be grateful if Aberdeen came back in for me but it’s all in Tottenham’s hands.”

And Dave Cormack said: "I know Spurs have been, as I understand it from Steven and Alan, delighted with his loan.

"It's the first time the boy's been away from home in London, and he told me a number of times he's absolutely loved being away on his own, and he looks after himself as a player as well. 

"So we'll just have to wait and see on that one."

It's an interesting one. There's no doubt he has improved as the season went on (especially from the mistake-laden game at Easter Road). I would like to see Tobers and Milne get more of a chance, but at the same time if you have access to a good player you should take him. I'd hate for us to turn him down and then he ends up at Hibs or Hearts.

Although not his natural position, I'd bringing him back as understudy to Knoester, and then give Molloy a loan elsewhere.

So this is where we are at the moment.

I've not included the youngsters who have barely played, but of course there is Emslie, Bavidge, etc.

There is also Ryan Duncan, Richard Jensen and James McGarry. I suspect they'll join us for pre-season but won't last the window. Rubezic I've included - his loan was more about personal issues than Thelin not rating him so he may still have a future, although Tobers and Milne probably both ahead of him now and we might feel we can get a small fee for him. Will he even want to come back if he's third choice CB?

We do need more Scottish players for the European squad - there's only three there. We'll sign or promote a Scottish third choice GK probably, and Fletcher Boyd has been on the bench in three of the last six games and think he'll make the squad if we're not considering a loan move.

Happy one week anniversary.

50 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

Agreed, a lot more, but they have no manager and a pretty poor squad. They’ve also spunked a fair amount of money on players in recent years that I don’t think are in a healthy financial state. This change doesn’t buy them success and, putting my red specs on, we at least have a manager and a squad to build on, plus plenty of momentum. Still think we could give them a challenge next year.

I think it's fanciful. For a poor squad, they were still 17 points ahead of third and Europa League quarter-finalists.

I think our target for now is Hibs and Hearts - we're still early into our own rebuild.

I'll settle for beating them in next season's Scottish Cup final though.

2 hours ago, Kowalski said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cqj7gj2w0k5o
 

£20m? That’s fuck all, they must spend most of that sacking managers. 

19 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

When you factor in Celtic will pay maybe 10m for a player and rangers need multiple signings, 20m is not a lot. With wise spending I think we’d be competitive with them next season.

That's £20m additional investment though.

Add around £14m from season ticket sales, the £11m in prize money from the Europa League last season (which doesn't include ticket sales from five games which would be another £5m - £6m), and although I don't think they'll make it there is always the small chance they might get through the Champions League qualifiers and into the group stage.

That doesn't guarantee anything, but it's a lot more than they had last summer.

On 07/05/2025 at 14:40, Panda said:

I also wouldn't be surprised if we bring a cup final shirt out now before Hampden, despite the current one being a nod to the 1990 strip, so would make sense we wore it in the final. 

Fair fucks to the club for sticking with the current strip by the way.

The squares on the shirt were already iconic, and now even more so.

(I have the day off tomorrow and am currently celebrating the six-day anniversary with a few whiskies. There's a chance of more nonsense posts like this before I get put to bed.)

The issue for Jack, like a lot of our local lads through the years, was that he was always one of the first for criticism. I don't think he was ever that happy, certainly not this season when he was getting pelters from Nilsen.

I think the only time I saw him truly happy was scoring that goal at Ibrox, and on Saturday with a winners medal around his neck.

I think we'll see him back at Aberdeen one day. And I hope he pushes his way back into the Scotland squad when Robertson, Tierney and Taylor retire. 

But for now he's probably best moving on. I get people saying Plymouth aren't a step up, but he'll likely play there and maybe will get noticed by a bigger club, so good luck to him.

6 hours ago, tlg1903 said:

Apologies if I missed this but let's have a bit of love for Palaversa's hand to the ear when he scored his pen.  He clearly can't stand the cunts . 

14 hours ago, OrlandoDon said:

 

however, is dabbagh any better than sokler? He’s better than Ambrose but I still think if we’re taking a punt on one of our existing strikers, I’ll like it to be bavidge.

Well his goals to game ratio is far better than Sokler's. We don't even need to talk about Ambrose. Bavidge is not at the level required yet.

Am I suggesting Dabbagh should be our first choice striker, no, I'm saying can we develop him into a big part of the squad. Morris for me shouldn't be a first choice either, however he has shown he can make an impact as part of a squad and I think Dabbagh could be the same.

On 26/05/2025 at 17:17, tom_widdows said:

Riejka won the Croatian title so Dynamo Zagreb now potentially in the seeded teams

Apparently not. Zagreb will either be in the Conference League qualifiers, or will get direct entry into the Europa league groups.

It's because the two Conference League finalists (Chelsea and Real Betis) don't need the automatic EL spot they would get from winning the Conference League final, so the spot goes to the highest ranked EL qualifier, which will be Zagreb or Shakhtar.

On 17/05/2025 at 20:23, Panda said:

I'd give him a B for the league season. Had we finished third it would have been a very good season.

And I'll give him an A+, as well as a gold star and a letter home to his parents praising him for his Scottish Cup performance.

I didn't see it myself, but Dabbagh apparently was motioning this ()to Cormack during the celebrations, presumably asking for a permanent contract. Either that or he wants his autograph.

I'd quite like to see him stay. I think he does have good movement and he's a player who with a full season behind him would improve.

But then after what Thelin has done with Morris, I believe he could make anyone a player.

29 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

Much like David Turnbull, 

He's been a regular starter post-injury with Cardiff and still has two years left on his contract. They paid £2m for him so doubt they'll want to sell him, and if they do it'll be for a fee that we won't be paying.

Anton Rogan

Dariusz Wdowczyk

Callum McGregor

Alistair Johnston

A list of Celtic players that I will forever hold a social place in my heart for.