Ange Postecoglou popped up last Friday somewhat unexpectedly with a Media Conference from Lennoxtown after the Celtic players concluded their final training session ahead of their flight on Sunday to Portugal.
You may have noticed that since flying out to the winter training camp there has been no social media activity or features on the club’s official website, or Celtic TV or the Celtic You Tube channel and the club’s prominent media staffers Paul Cuddihy and Ryan Maher were both on the Celtic View Podcast this week and are still in Glasgow rather than enjoying their own winter break in the Portuguese sunshine.
If you think back to the summer pre-season camp in Austria, we’d have young Ryan taking us for a walk around the location, grabbing interviews with players and coaches and generally creating a high profile build-up for the various games which were planned and were being shown live on Celtic TV. There’s an image below of the full Celtic media team on their way back from the pre-season trip to Austria and Poland.
In contrast the winter camp in Portugal, which features a match with high flying French side Stade Rennais FC, tomorrow morning, has been completely the opposite, low key doesn’t do it justice.
Austria & Czech Republic 🇦🇹🇨🇿✅
Over and out from your Celtic media and PR team 👋🍀 pic.twitter.com/gz36feylDi
— Ryan Maher (@ryanmaher96) July 13, 2022
Rennes of course will have good reason for wanting to play Celtic because they have drawn our old friends Shakhtar Donetsk in the knock-out rounds of the Europa League, after the Ukrainian Champions beat Celtic to the the third spot in Group F of this season’s Champions League. Both matches between the sides ended in draws while most observers reckon Celtic should have won both games but European frustrations have been set aside – for now – as Ange Postecoglou concentrates on the domestic tasks ahead.
When the game was initially arranged Rennes promoted it via their own media channels while Celtic have never mentioned the match as far as I know. And if you have a look at the official Rennes website – as I did this morning with the help of a fluent French speaker – then there is nothing at all about tomorrow’s game on their website or even on their social media channels.
It’s certainly NOT being promoted as being available on the French club’s own TV channel.
It appears that Ange Postecoglou has taken a decision well in advance that this game will be played behind closed doors, indeed the entire week in Portugal will be a private training affair and there will be no media access to tomorrow’s game.
In the summer we are used to hacks from the tabloids travelling with Celtic and covering the training sessions and the pre-season matches. That’s not happened this time. Even the club’s own media channels are not reporting from Portugal and the players too are all silent on social media, which you can be sure is a directive from the Celtic manager.
We know that Callum McGregor is likely to get some minutes tomorrow as he builds towards his return next Saturday against Aberdeen. We also know that Josip Juranovic is still in Qatar – and the best of luck to him this afternoon against Brazil.
We understand Daizen Maeda, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Aaron Mooy are getting some time off between the World Cup ending and the resumption of Scottish domestic football next week. Expect the three already out of the World Cup at the round of 16 stage to be back at Lennoxtown sometime next week and to be in contention for the game at Pittodrie.
We also know that Ally Johnston will be at Celtic Park on Monday because the club’s media team have already advised us of a fam media conference with the latest Celtic signing on Monday afternoon at Paradise.
But as far as Portugal is concerned it’s nothing to see as far as the Celtic support is concerned and that includes tomorrow’s game against Rennes.
Now while that appears to be the situation it’s not stopped a quite remarkable example of click-baiting of the Celtic support, who remain in the dark as to whether the game against Rennes is going to be available to watch tomorrow morning.
So when the Newsquest owned Celtic Way – a stable-mate of Rangers Review and The Herald – posted an article which promised in its headline to answer the questions surrounding this match, then many will have clicked through eagerly.
“Celtic vs Rennes: Stream, TV channel, team news and kick-off time”
That’s Celtic’s Way’s headline: “Celtic vs Rennes: Stream, TV channel, team news and kick-off time”. On their site they have a list of the Most Read articles and this one is at number one. Then there’s just one sentence about Celtic flying high in the Scottish Premiership at the moment...before you are told that “You can finish this BRILLIANT, IN-DEPTH article by subscribing and getting 25% off…
Desperate to know about what’s promised in that headline “Celtic vs Rennes: Stream, TV channel, team news and kick-off time” and to read what we’re told is a “brilliant in-depth” article some Celtic supporters might have dived in and subscribed ‘taking advantage’ of the 25% festive discount at the same time.
But a bargain it is not.
The rest of the article reads as follows and remember you’re looking for info on streaming the Celtic v Rennes match, details on the TV Channel, team news and kick-off time details and by this time you could have actually paid for it…
They currently sit nine points clear at the summit of the league table after extending their lead with a 2-1 win against Ross County before the break for the World Cup. The Hoops were straight on a plane to Australia after the domestic duties wound down for five weeks, taking part in the Sydney Super Cup.
During the games Down Under, they suffered a 2-1 defeat to Sydney FC and lost on penalties to Everton.
After some time off the players have returned to training and are currently in Portugal as part of a warm weather camp. Ange Postecoglou’s side’s preparations for the first game back against Aberdeen at Pittodrie include the Scottish champions taking on Ligue 1 side Rennes behind closed doors.
Here are all the details you need to know ahead of the match…
When is Celtic vs Rennes? The match takes place on Saturday, December 10 and kick-off is currently scheduled for 10am UK time.
Is Celtic vs Rennes on TV? The game is not being shown on television and there is yet to be confirmation of whether a stream will be available for fans to see the fixture.
Celtic team news – The Bhoys will be without Cameron Carter-Vickers, Aaron Mooy and Daizen Maeda who are all being given time off after representing their respective countries at the World Cup. Josip Juranovic is also unavailable for selection given Croatia are still in the tournament. The only other injury concern is Stephen Welsh, who suffered a head knock against Everton and it is unknown whether he will be able to play or not.
The rest of the squad is available.
That’s the “brilliant in-depth” article.
So to recap. Celtic vs Rennes: Stream – None. TV channel – None. Team news – uninformed. Kick-off time – 10am Celtic Park Time.
A better preview might look like this…
Celtic will play high-flying French side Stade Rennais FC behind closed doors in Portugal tomorrow morning (kick-off 10am Celtic Park time) as both sides prepare for the return of club football following the break for the World Cup in Qatar.
Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou spoke to the media a week ago today but since then there has been nothing reported by Celtic from the training camp in Portugal. Neither club’s media outlets including their own TV channels are showing the match tomorrow and at this stage it looks like there will be no reporting of the game, as journalists have not travelled with the squad.
Rennes are in good form this season, currently sitting in third place in Ligue 1 table with 31 points from 15 games played under Bruno Genesio and the Brittany side has not lost a domestic match since August. Rennes performed well in the Europa League Group B, finishing second behind Fenerbahce and ahead of AEK Larnaca and Dynamo Kiev and their reward is a knock-out round tie against Shakhtar Donetsk who drop into the Europa League from the Champions League after finishing in third position in Group F ahead of Celtic.
Bruno Genesio will be looking closely at the two Celtic matches against the Ukrainian Champions with the Europa League in mind but his immediate focus will be on the first Ligue 1 match after the break which is against Angers later this month.
Rennes will be without Croatian midfielder Lovro Majer as he is a teammate of Celtic’s right back Josip Juranovic at World Cup in Qatar. Croatia play Brazil at 3pm this afternoon (Celtic Park Time) and both players are likely to be involved.
Rennes could have both Jeremy Doku and Arthur Theate available for the Celtic game as both have returned from Qatar after Belgium were eliminated. Baptiste Santamaria remains sidelined with an ankle injury.
Celtic will be without Juranovic, and the other players who performed so well at the World Cup – Aaron Mooy (Australia), Cameron Carter-Vickers (United States). New signing Yuki Kobayashi is with the Celtic squad in Portugal but will not be officially register as a Celtic player until the start of 2023. However he may feature against Rennes as a trialist. Ange Postecoglou also confirmed last week that he had taken several members of the Celtic B team to Portugal to train with the first team so expect the likes of Rocco Vata to get some minutes against Rennes, with as many Celtic players as possible likely to feature throughout the match.
Celtic will be back at Lennoxtown on Monday to continue the preparations for next Saturday’s Scottish Premiership match against Aberdeen and will be joined by new signing Ally Johnston, who will also speak to the Celtic fan media, including The Celtic Star on Monday afternoon.
You’re absolutely correct in highlighting this point with regard to the Celtic Way and their so-called bargains. I have subscribed to their YouTube channel for Celtic related content at no cost. However, I am increasingly getting the sense that their first and most important priority is to generate income via paid subscriptions.
I’m not wholly against this in principle but I ask myself what information, news or content do they offer that I cannot source for free from other avenues online. The answer is none. Most of the online information with regard to Celtic from any source at the moment is rumour-based, negatively aligned clickbait, or regurgitated opinions from self appointed experts. I suppose this is a consequence of the World Cup and lack of domestic football at present. Nonetheless, is this non-information worth paying for? I think not!
One of their priorities is also to mention
“ rangers “ as much as possible in their so called “ articles “ .
A site to be well and truly avoided for any real Celtic supporters… ( also any other so called Celtic sites who still fantasises that “ rangers 1872 “ still exist .