Fergus Burns

@GAALeagueTables @LeitrimGAA did well, but take McNulty's 2P away it's sobering

2025 v 2026 League Scoring In order to justify my fear of how much Kerry have improved since 2025 I felt compelled to do this one. A county by county comparison into goals for and against, 2Ps for and against, totals for and against, and changes to +/-. This is across the football leagues in 2025 and 2026. Starting with everyone's favourite for another clean sweep in 2026: Kerry. Fewer goals (keep in mind the fired 5 past Derry in 2025), but more 2 pointers. Crucially, TPF is pretty much flat, but conceding 11% less overall in 2026, +/- in 2026 is 33, up from 19 in 2025. However, Meath is the only team in which every single metric is better in 2026 than in 2025. 11% more goals for, -17% goals conceded, +5% 2P for, -22% 2P conceded, +7% Total Scored, -10% Total Conceded and their +/- is up 28 Year over Year. Armagh, scoring fewer goals and 2Ps in 2026, but Total For is still up +17%. A pivot of some of those 1Ps into 2Ps, they will be a real threat this summer. An anomaly is Wexford, red in all but one metric (2P For), but still managed to get promoted. Looking closer to home, Donegal, would be green in all metrics were it not for a bad dose of finalitus in Rounds 6 and 7. --- With thanks to @StatsAndSolos for the amazing database from which 2P Data was pulled.

@collision @stripe 10 years ago my team at Amazon experimented with this concept - didn't have the various pieces to get it to work at scale. Will be interesting to see how this gets adopted by consumers and retailers.

Businesses can now sell directly within an ad or browsing session on Facebook, powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol and @stripe stripe.com/newsroom/news/…

Happy St Patrick’s Day ☘️

@jjpreston32 @moneill31 Looked like it John. Great 2nd half, fair play to @moneill31 - made the right changes. We should have won it tbh, had some great chances. Can’t fault team for resilience and they won’t give up chasing the title. Bad result for sevco, bubble is bursting :-)

@fergusb @moneill31 Celtic players clearly thought it was a 1pm kick off as they seem to have just turned up!

Celtic game is a hard watch. 2nd to everything, outplayed and outfought. Two great finishes. @moneill31 has a lot to do at half time to even salvage pride never mind a point.

@adrianweckler Thoughts with his family. Was on an EI course with John many years ago, a pure gentleman and also great craic.

The well-known entrepreneur, John Purdy, has died. It happened just a day after completing a sale of Ergo, the Irish IT services business he co-founded in 1993 and where he was non-executive chairman. independent.ie/business/techn…

The King of Kings Henrik Larsson - best @CelticFC footballer i have ever seen live. Absolute comedian as well in this interview. Funny whenever you happen to be at mass and you hear "Give Me Joy In My Heart" you end up singing "Henrik Larsson is the king of kings". This is a great episode. Even Roy couldn't get a wise crack in as he usually does.

Changes had to be made - happy to see Tisdale gone (it was overdue), unfortunate for Nancy but he was setup to fail and shot himself with the Kamakazi tactics with the players available. Big appointments to be made - hopefully they get these right as margin for error is minimal. Also need some quality signings in the transfer window - the squad is threadbare with some players devoid of confidence or interest for the fight @CelticFC

The @CelticFC pantomime continues. Peter Lawwell resigns after 21 years. In fairness to him, he presided over a hugely successful period on and off the field. He should have left as a hero through the front door. Instead, he exits amid crisis which was self-inflicted. Paul Tisdale (Head of Football Operations) has made a mess of transfers both in and out, and hired a manager who looks out of his depth, then stays completely invisible. Zero accountability. Four straight defeats. But the losses are secondary to HOW we're losing: kamikaze team selection, one centre back most of the time, self-inflicted tactical chaos. Virgil van Dijk at his peak would struggle in this system. Players look short of confidence. The gains made under @moneill31 short spell in charge have disappeared. Wilfried Nancy is a victim in all this. He's not the answer, especially not for a close title fight. He has inherited a broken recruiting system, an incomplete squad, and an accountability vacuum. The twitter debacle just compounds the shambles. @wilfriednancy It's as if folks inside Celtic want him to fail. This was all avoidable. The problem is when mismanagement meets hubris. We have better players and more resources than every other Scottish team. We have £77M in cash. What we lack are world class leaders (including a competent director of football or none at all), accountable leadership and a board that won't tolerate incompetence. #CelticFC #WorldClassCeltic

@CoachDougieA @Celtic67Fins72 Especially need zonal when you have a keeper who never leaves his line

Celtic Defending Corners 🟢⚪️ The video has graphics with important information, however to expand on this: - Conceded a goal from a corner in each of the last 3 games since Nancy arrived, albeit one was an O.G. - Marking system is very man-to-man orientated. - Markers then outmatched by their opponents both in terms of height and aerial aggressiveness. - Scales and Trusty are both capable in the air but are being dragged out into negligible positions by decoy runs, they'd be more effective attacking the ball from a zonal position in the centre. - No zonal players on the centre of the 6 yard box, where high xG chances are conceded, see the post I wrote about Hearts' goals from corners earlier in the season.

Yesterday hurts as a @CelticFC fan. I get the anger. Fans want the board gone, CEO sacked, manager sacked, etc. But sacking people won't fix the current system that's obviously broken. Celtic's squad turnover post-Ange has been massive. The goals lost from the squad have compounded our problems this season. Lost: Kyogo (85 goals in 165 games). Nicolas Kühn (24 goals) and Adam Idah (29 goals) are some key examples. Current situation: Only Daizen Maeda (68 goals in 182 games) remains as a proven scorer after his goal haul last season. Creativity lost: Matt O'Riley (27 goals, 35 assists in 124 games) and Abada (51 goal contributions in 112 games ). Jota returned in Jan 2025 but is out with an ACL. Bottom line: We haven't replaced the goals or creativity since Ange left. The transfer windows under Rodgers and Paul Tisdale have been a disaster. Rodgers is gone. Tisdale is still at the club. Regardless of the manager situation, Celtic have regressed since the transfer window activity of summer 2021 and the squad needs improving. No point looking to win the competition for having the most cash in the bank. We have to invest. Margin for error is small as we're not in title winning form in a tight league fight. #WorldClassCeltic #Celtic

I'm a @CelticFC supporter and shareholder. It's hard to avoid all the noise recently. New manager, prior manager tensions, unhappy fans, angry shareholders, disappointing performances, and a board in a PR firestorm. Celtic is one of the greatest clubs in the world. Rich history. Deep roots. European Cup winners. Lisbon Lions. Paradise. A global support base. Yet we're leaving so much on the table - both on and off the pitch. The question is in the words of the CelticFC CEO is how do we become truly world-class?

Didn’t make the game tonight, but something wrong when you see stadium empty with 15 minutes to go. Team did better in 2nd half - on another day they would have scored 3. Manager needs time and support to fix the on field. Fixing off field is a bigger challenge.

Have avoided twitter (sorry X) for last few years - but curiosity on the new @CelticFC manager as well as the excitement about Irish soccer #COYBIG has me back for 15 minutes a day. #FOMO

@collision @gdb Awful looking pints. Haven't spotted the usual Irish pub trick of clock on wall, running 20 minutes fast. Look forward to the podcasts....

One of the best parts of Stripe is working with the world's most interesting businesses. Taking advantage of this, we're launching a podcast where we host founders and leaders for a cheeky pint in our hastily-constructed office pub. Coming soon: episodes with @gdb, Meta’s Susan Li, @kvogt, and @levelsio. Let me know if you have suggested interviewees. We'll likely include a bunch of interviews with people you've never heard of but whose business stories are fascinating.

@WaterboysMusic @MickPuck in Glasgow Queens Park. 36 years since last gig. Long overdue. Great band.

Delighted to see investment into #Glenfarne demesne - it’s a beautiful amenity with huge potential. Well done to local representative Sean McDermott who worked tirelessly to ensure initial funding obtained.

#kin is one of the best crime series ever. Bonus that’s it’s Irish. Not clear if @rte will fund a 3rd season based on some media reports - hope someone steps in. Great actors and storylines - have room for a few more seasons.

The feeling of a nation this morning. Disappointed for Sexton and other players who are at the end of brilliant careers. Sport gives us all such joy and pain. Fair play to the All Blacks in an incredible game.