The 2010–11 season was the 122nd season of competitive
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
by
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
. New manager
Neil Lennon
Neil Francis Lennon (born 25 June 1971) is a Northern Irish football coach and former player.
During his playing career he represented English clubs Manchester City, Crewe Alexandra and Leicester City. Lennon moved to Celtic in 2000, where he ...
made considerable changes to the Celtic team for the 2010–11 season. He sold
Aiden McGeady
Aiden John McGeady (born 4 April 1986) is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Scottish Premiership club Hibernian. Born in Scotland, he represented the Republic of Ireland national team from 2004 until 2017.
He started his c ...
for a then Scottish record £9.5 million along with captain
Stephen McManus
Stephen David McManus (born 10 September 1982) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player who is a first team coach at Scottish Premiership club Celtic.
McManus, who played as a centre-back, was a product of Celtic's youth acad ...
and fan favourite
Artur Boruc
Artur Boruc (; born 20 February 1980) is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
He began his career in the Polish third division with hometown club Pogoń Siedlce. He joined Ekstraklasa team Legia Warsaw in 1999 a ...
. 13 other players also left the club, this gave Lennon enough funds to re-build for the new season. He looked to sign talented, young, cheap, relatively unknown players, from smaller leagues around the world. This paid off with players such as
Gary Hooper
Gary Hooper (born 26 January 1988) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Cypriot club Omonia.
Hooper started his career at League Grays Athletic in 2003. While there he won the 2004–05 Conference South, as well ...
,
Beram Kayal
Beram Kayal (or Biram Keyal, ar, بيرم كيال, he, בירם כיאל; born 2 May 1988) is an Israeli professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Bnei Sakhnin F.C., Bnei Sakhnin of the Israeli Premier League. Internationa ...
and
Emilio Izaguirre
Emilio Arturo Izaguirre Girón (; born 10 May 1986) is a Honduran former professional association football, footballer who played as a left-back. He became the new sporting director of Motagua in October 2022.
Izaguirre started his career at F. ...
all having excellent seasons and earning many plaudits. Lennon also signed several experienced players on free transfers.
Charlie Mulgrew
Charles Patrick Mulgrew (born 6 March 1986) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Scottish Premiership side Dundee United.
Mulgrew began his career at Celtic, during which time he spent time on loan at Dundee U ...
,
Joe Ledley
Joseph Christopher Ledley (born 23 January 1987) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder.
He started his career with then Championship side Cardiff City where he spent six years. He helped the club to the F ...
, and
Daniel Majstorović
Daniel Majstorović ( sr-cyr, Даниел Мајсторовић; born on 5 April 1977) is a Swedish former footballer who played as a centre back.
He started his career with IF Brommapojkarna in his native Sweden. After a year with the club, ...
all went into the first team. In addition to these Lennon also signed five other players, including
Fraser Forster
Fraser Gerard Forster (born 17 March 1988) is an English professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur.
Forster sta ...
on loan from
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
who became first choice goalkeeper and helped set a new
SPL
SPL may refer to:
Association football
* Saudi Professional League
* Scottish Premier League
* SportPesa Premier League, Kenya
* Singapore Premier League
* RoboCup Standard Platform League, matches between autonomous robots
Computing Program ...
record for most clean sheets.
In July Celtic were drawn in the third qualifying round of the
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
against Portuguese side
Braga
Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...
. Celtic lost the first leg of the tie 3–0 away from home. Celtic won the return leg 2–1, but went out of the Champions League 4–2 on aggregate. Celtic were knocked out of European football altogether in August, after they lost their
Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...
qualifying match against
FC Utrecht
Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion Galgenwaard.
The club was formed in 1970 as a merge ...
4–2 on aggregate.
Celtic won their first eight league games of the SPL season,Celtic v Rangers as it happened BBC Sport, 24 October 2010 before losing to Rangers, who also had a 100% record, 3–1. Celtic started November beating
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
9–0 in an SPL record victory. They then lost to Hearts and drew at home against
Dundee United
Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...
and
Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional F ...
,Celtic 2 - 2 Inverness CT BBC Sport, 27 November 2010 with a victory over St Mirren the only consolation. The Inverness match was notable because it was officiated by
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
referee
Alain Hamer
Alain Hamer (born 10 December 1965, in Luxembourg City) is a Luxembourgian football referee. He was a referee in the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup. He has refereed over 50 matches in the UEFA Champions League, the first in 2000–01. He has also re ...
, who had stepped in because of the
Scottish football referee strike
The Scottish football referee strike refers to the unprecedented withdrawal of services by top level referees in Scottish football, following a dispute between the Scottish Senior Football Referees' Association and the Scottish Football Associatio ...
. Celtic began 2011 by beating Rangers 2–0 at Ibrox, and beat their rivals again 3–0 on 20 February. Celtic finished the season in second place in the SPL table, a point behind Rangers.
In the
League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
, Celtic beat
Inverness
Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...
6–0 and
St Johnstone
St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an old ...
3–2 before beating
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
in the semi-final. In the final, they lost 2–1 to Rangers
after extra time
Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a Draw (tie), tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is ...
. In the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Third Division team
Berwick Rangers
Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, just south of the border with Scotland.
Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite hailing fr ...
2–0, and drawing 2–2 with Rangers in the fifth round. They beat Rangers 1–0 in the replay and booked their place in the final beating Aberdeen 4–0 at
Hampden Park
Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...
. In the final Celtic beat
Motherwell
Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...
3–0, with goals scored by Ki Sung-Yeung, Charlie Mulgrew and an
own goal
An own goal, also called a self goal, is where a player performs actions that result in them or their team scoring a goal on themselves, often resulting in a point for the opposing team, such as when a football player kicks a ball into their own ...
from
Stephen Craigan
Stephen James Craigan (born 29 October 1976) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer. He played in central defence, and spent his entire playing career in Scotland, playing for Motherwell (twice) and Partick Thistle. He has also pl ...
.
Celtic played in an unprecedented seven Old Firm matches in 2010–11. This was due to being drawn against Rangers in both cups, and the fact that they required a replay to beat them in the
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,List of Celtic F.C. seasons