Celtic: McGregor’s Hampden goal echoes Lisbon Lions, young Bhoy eyes Barca dream

So much has been made of Daizzen Maeda, Adam Idah and the Center-Forward question that it is easy to forget how many of the goals of Celtic will enter the team elsewhere.

The depth of scoring options available for Brendan Rodgers was underlined on Sunday in the Semi Final of Scottish Cup against St. Johnstone when Callum McGregor resulted in a 5-0 win.

This season McGregor made the seventh Celtic player to reach double digits in the target groups, after Maeda, Nicolas Kuhn, Idah, Kyogo Furuhashi, Reo Hatate and Arne Engels.

If that does not sound like something special, you must bear in mind that this is the first time since the European Cup-winning season of Celtic of 1966-67 of 1966-67 that so many of their players have scored 10 or more.

During that historical campaign under Jock Stein, the top scorers Joe McBride, Bobby Lennox, Stevie Chalmers, Willie Wallace, Bertie Auld, Tommy Gemmell and Bobby Murdoch were.

Celtic is used to having McGregor as their captain-a lynchpin, playmaker and all-round inspiration that is in one-this season he has added goals to his game with the willingness to shoot at a distance.

It is all part of the versatile attack that makes Celtic so difficult to defend against. When the threat comes from different sources, this is usually the sign of a good team.

With Luke McCowan on six goals and Yang Hyun-Jun on five, it is not outside the limits of the possibility that even more of the current crop could go beyond a few figures in the half dozen games that remain. You wouldn't place it past them.

Forgotten man Marco Tilio can be ripe for a return to Celtic Park

The alarming decline in the form of Nicolas Kuhn and the switch from the position of Daizzen Maeda to the central striking role are two factors that have undoubtedly led to a loss of sparkle in the wing game of Celtic.

While Yang Hyun-Jun has won many hearts with some recent impressive cameies and contributions, and James Forrest can be counted to end the season on the typically strong fashion as more silverware sounds, neither of them are considered long-term starting options with next season in the heads of supporters.

Fortunately there is at least one broad man who plays himself in peak shape and mentions his claim for a persistent run on the flanks near Parkhead, but he is so far from the radar that many fans may have forgotten that he is even an option.

Marco Tilio has managed only 28 minutes of action in a Celtic shirt since he arrived from Melbourne City two years ago and has not been seen in Glasgow since he returned the A-League club in February last year.

After having arrived at the back of a 10-target season in Glasgow for Melbourne, with what was then received for a record costs for the sale, an A-League player, big things were expected from a complete Socceroos International who was generally considered a box of tricks by those who had seen him illuminate the top department of Australia.

An injury suffered in his time at Celtic prevented him from coming in and, struggling to break into even the MatchDay team, manager Brendan Rodgers decided to return a loan to the southern hempishere in the best interest of all parties.

Unfortunately, Tilio then had two spells because of his difficult hamstring and he sustained a muscle injury to start, so that he was left in his home country more often than not a frustrated spectator.

However, since he went back to the starting line-up of Melbourne at the beginning of February, Tilio has gone into force and he has delivered praising reviews with his recent versions such as City in vain to keep in touch with champion Auckland FC.

Three goals and three assists are crucially accompanied by complete confidence in his body, and it is clear that he finally enjoys his football again.

Tilio was contracted as Celtic until 2028, but would not be attracted by what his future has in store, with supporters and experts who would like to see him stay with the Aurelio Vidmar team if there can be another loan agreement.

The 23-year-old spoke on Australian television last week: 'There are constant conversations and I have to make a decision that I think is the best for me and my career. I just start to get playing time and consistency with my body.

“Taking week after week and game by game, I just want a top end of the season and of course I want to go into the last series and play very well.”

One thing is certain. Keep playing as he is and add a final flowering for City in a successful A-League play-off campaign, and the decision will not be Tili's to make. Rodgers will be on the phone and instruct Tilio to go back for the preseason with the aim of injecting some life in Celtic's lethargic wing game.

Odin Thiago Holm still believes that he can follow his namesake to Barca

Odin Thiago Holm is planned to return to Celtic at the end of the MLS season later this year when his loan agreement ends with Lafc.

The 22-year-old Norwegian, however, told the American outfit that his real dream is to use his time on the Atlantic Ocean as a springboard to re-blind his imagination to make it the boy of Barcelona.

Holm added the middle name Thiago to his title as a teenager as a result of his love for former Nou Camp favorite Thiago Alcantara.

Ondanks het feit dat je nog steeds een doorbraak moest maken in Parkhead sinds hij in de zomer van 2023 in een £ 3 miljoen verhuizing van Homeland Side Valerenga moest komen – en tot de zomer van 2028 tot Celtic wordt gecontracteerd – was hij duidelijk wanneer hij werd gevraagd in een officiële LAFC -podcast over de vraag of hij nog steeds voldoet aan de hoop op de hoop wat een meest onwaarschijnlijk pad te Barca.

“Hopefully,” he replied. “That's the dream. I have always been a fan of Barcelona. '

However, Holm admits that having such a permanent memory of Alcantara as a former hero is not as great idea as it did when he changed it, with the permission of his parents, 13 years old.

“I'm not sure if I think the Thiago section is just as cool now as at 13 or 14, but it is now part of me.”

Holm was paid to Lafc in January after he had made only three replacement performances for Celtic earlier in the season and seems to go a long way to go back in the thinking of manager Brendan Rodgers.

However, he has not expressed regret about making the leap to Celtic Park almost two years ago.

“It was a big, proud moment when I heard of interest,” he remembered. “I didn't hesitate.”

Moussa Dembele nowadays not only scores for clubs, he buys clubs

Former Celtic Striker Moussa Dembele clearly has money to burn while giving away the best years of career in Saudi Arabia's football

Because the Al-Etifaq has connected the striker to the growing trend of owning football clubs by adding his portfolio with the acquisition of the Lithuanian second-class outfit FK Minija.

Dembele, 28, still rubs shoulders with people like Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and N'Golo Kante in the filthy Saudi-Pro League, but he clearly has one eye on his post-playing career who has set up an investment group with the name Triple M, who already owns Mansa in Mali, where.

Halfway through a lucrative four-year contract, Dembele has been out of operation since the beginning of February after tearing his Achilles-tendon in a routine victory at Al-Okhdood. It came after a promising start of the season that had seen him score seven times for the club established in Dammam, which was finally abandoned in January with the services of Steven Gerrard after his struggles to make them a competitive force in the Middle East.

What Dembele sees in FK Minija is open to interpretation, since the recently formed side has no real pedigree in Lithuania. They are located in Kretinga, a picturesque city a short hop of the Baltic Sea Resort Palanga, and they have collected six points from their five league games so far from the new season.

But if a player with a fairly decent pedigree of sniffing opportunities and getting the most out of the field, on the field, we may not have to be too fast to write off the newest company in Dembele.

View this space indeed.

Maria Mcaneny is a rare clear spark for Celtic women this season

Celtic Women's coach Elena Sadiku believes that their young midfielder, Maria Mcaneny, is developing into a leader with the mentality to inspire the people around her.

In a 1-0 win against Motherwell on Sunday, when Celtic struggled to change dominance in goals, Mcaneny separated the parties with a free kick curled around the defensive wall and earlier goalkeeper Emily Mutch.

The strike of the 20-year-old, halfway through the second half in K Park, was desperately needed by a Celtic team that none of their previous six games had won and had scored only five times in that series.

Sadiku admits that at a certain extent it is vital to have Mcaneny, a midfielder who can make the difference. Not only with her technical skills, but with her determination to act when it matters the most.

“Maz becomes a leader in this team,” says Sadiku. 'She shows standards and requirements, and that is something that I really like to see, in terms of knowing the mentality and mentality.

'It is clear that she has quality and she showed [against Motherwell] What she has shown all season. She is one of the players who has done the most assists and goals. '

Although it was a welcome victory for the struggling team of Sadiku, they are fourth in the SWPL table, eight points behind leaders Hibs, with only five games to play.

The title seems to go somewhere else, but Sadiku says that the victory in Motherwell, who followed with Rangers and Hibs, was a step in the right direction.

'We have had a hard time not to achieve victories, but I feel that the last four games make a good effort, even if the quality is not how good we can be. Hopefully that is something we can work on. '

Oude Bhoys will be back in the city while Martin O'Neill organizes a grand reunion

Martin O'Neill goes back to Celtic for a grand reunion with some of his star players from the past.

The Parkhead Club has announced that they are holding a special event in the SEC Armadillo in Glasgow on Sunday, June 8, to mark 25 years since the Noord -Ieer took over the course from the manager and reversed the club's fortune.

O'Neill won seven trophies in five seasons – three competitions, three Scottish cups and a competition cup – after leaving Leicester City and remains a huge favorite among the Celtic believers.

He will be accompanied on stage during this official Celtic event by a number of the players he coached during those glory days with other famous faces from his entire career, also planned to appear.

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