One of the most significant differences between Brendan rodger’s Celtic, and those who ran it by proxy for Peter Lawwell is the way business is done during the transfer window.
Simply, Celtic now sort all theirs before the window opens, which means that the new players join early on and have a chance to get used to the club much quicker, whereas in the past they were usually signed on the last day and spent a week or two reading up on the club they had joined.
In January at least two signings will be made, one of which is James McCarthy, the other as yet unknown, even so far as the position he plays.
The Scotsman newspaper seems to think its Steven Gerrard;
Celtic have emerged as a potential destination for ex-Liverpool star Steven Gerrard after it was revealed he’s considering a return to the UK. Gerrard played under Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers when the pair were at Liverpool and would explain odds as short of 4/1 on a reunion at Parkhead. (Daily Express)
However, those two words which cast doubt on the veracity of any story , “Daily ” and “Express ” are used here, so we can probably discount it.
With no senior football to look forward to for a while, attention turned to the development squad, wh were in action last night at Cappielow in Greenock against Hearts.
Everything about the game was overshadowed by the news that 13 year old Karamoke Dembele, the latest Celtic “wonderkid ” , make his debut at this level when he came on after 80 minutes to replace the first teams youngest goalscorer, Jack Aitchison.
With a number of the development squad on international duty, and the under 17s facing “rangers ” tonight, the way was clear to give the youngster a glimpse of what lies ahead for him.
After previous wonderkids had gone a little wayward over the last few years, Freddy Adu, Islam Feruz, let’s hope lesson have been learned and this one makes the grade.
Thirteen is a bit young to be playing at this level, purely due to the physical development of the older lads, but it does show that if you are good enough, then no matter the age, you’ll get promoted on merit.
But thirteen…See when I was that age , I was only ten.
But judging from that picture, he’s still playing with the same toy most thirteen year old lads play with.
Scott Brown, presumably with bugger all else to do this week, entered the debate around Ronny Deila and Brendan Rodger’s managerial capabilities. Which, incidentally, was not the point of charlie Saiz’s article the other day.
That was about the different attitudes of the club toward both managers, and trying to explain it.
Some of you should read the article and judge from the content, not from the author.
Anyhoo, Brown , unsurprisingly, came out in favour of Rodgers…
‘I think it all starts going into training. The training has been great, as have the physios and coaches.
‘It wasn’t always like that last year. It didn’t always put a smile on your face when going into training. It was difficult, it was slow, the training itself wasn’t hard enough.
‘This season, all the lads are enjoying it, they want to work hard. It doesn’t matter if it’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday; training has been exceptional.’
Fuck me…were Deila and Collins supposed to wear a big red nose and oversized shoes to get the squad to have fun ?
Again we see the idea that anything can always be blamed on someone else.
He was the captain, if he felt training wasn’t working, for whatever reason, he should have said something.
And he should have backed the manager one hundred per cent, and aired his arguments in private.
Instead, we ended up with a few players undermining the manager, all of which are now either gone or going very soon.
Speaking of going very soon, Moussa Dembele is now in second place in the voting for best under 21 player in Europe.
You can help him move closer to his dream move south by voting for him here..
Maybe , however, thats a little unfair, because Dembele has shown absolutely no sign of desiring a move just yet.
Though he has upset a bewildered English media by choosing to play for France when he could have played for England.
And they are bewildered. Read between the lines here, from the Scottish Sun, which, of course, isn’t all that Scottish at all.
But as one Dembele was fast-tracked for stardom, first-team hitman Moussa told Les Blues boss Didier Deschamps that he wants to play for France.
SunSport revealed on Saturday that Deschamps was pondering a call-up for the in-form 20-year-old Celts striker who will make his France Under-21 debut this week.
Just 24 hours later, it emerged the English FA were monitoring the former Fulham kid under five-year UK residency rules.
But Moussa, who scored twice against Manchester City in the Champions League last midweek, is only thinking of France.
He said: “If Didier is keeping an eye on my performances then it means that I am doing well.
Seriously, they have just claimed that as “one was fast tracked for stardom “, the other “wants to play for France “, which as far as the Sun implies, means he is being fast tracked into obscurity.
Scott Brown wasn;t the only one with very little to do this week. former captain and manager Kenny Dlaglish spoke to the media.
“He’s made his decision and he’ll have to lie in his own bed, won’t he? If he thinks it will prolong his career, there’s no reason to argue against it. He did what he thought was right. But it’s fantastic to play for your country.
“It’s always strange when you hear of players retiring from international football – I thought you had to be selected before you could retire. I don’t understand that one.
Brown was the captain when he retired. Dalglish obviously hasn’t been paying attention.
“Okay, he might have had some injury problems but if I was being picked for my country, I’d always go.
“Scott has been fantastic for Celtic and for Scotland and we are not in a position where we can afford to lose people of his quality.
“His performance against Man City was exceptional and that lets you know, we’ll miss him.”
Funnily enough, he claims he would always go when picked to play for Scotland, but never seemed to show that much interest in being manager.
Dalglish was on a roll yesterday. He also said that Celtic had won the league, with 31 games to go. We will probably go on to win it, but there is still a long way to go, and anything can happen between now and then. Complacency , for a start.
“The richest clubs don’t always win but you can almost give Celtic the championship now for this season,”
“Without being complacent, it’s over. They beat Rangers 5-1, they’ve beaten Aberdeen as well.
“They are going to win the league, no doubt.
“Brendan was up against it because they’re expected to win the league and the two cups.
“The big test for him was to get to the Champions League and he did it. So you can say he’s already been a success.”
Someone ought to tell him that the win over “rangers ” won’t be as significant as a win over the old club was back in his day.
Speaking of the Ibrox club, the original one, that is, Craig whyte, the last man to own the club, was in court yesterday, charged with causing a run on the nations supply of jelly and ice cream when he put Rangers into liquidation.
The full indictment , despite being checked dozens of times for errors, states quite clearly the club abd the company are one and the same thing, as we already know thanks to a letter from UEFA. ….which, of course, like that letter, will be ignored by the media, who aren’t sure what to believe, unless it’s told to them by Level 5 promotions;
Wonder if any of our esteemed journalists will be taking the court to task over that statement.
Or will we get a statement from the Ibrox club about that statement. They usually cobble up some nonsense when their party line isn’t adhered to.
That won’t derail the new clubs recent surge up the table into a credible fifth place…
They beat Partick, for fucks sake. Their third win of the season.
Thats not roaring. Meeowing maybe, perhaps even purring. but not roaring.
Maybe they meant they were back with an” oar “, because where they are just now, as the saying goes, they might need one.
There was more embarrassment for Vladimir Weiss yesterday, the former Rangers player who likes to wind people up on twitter.
Former Rangers star Vladimir Weiss to miss Scotland clash
for Slovakia after being arrested
FORMER Rangers loan star Vladimir Weiss won’t be in action against Scotland for Slovakia after he was arrested by police.
The winger, who now plays for Al Gharafa in Qatar, was dropped from the Slovakia squad after he was taking into custody on Sunday.
Weiss reportedly refused to take a breathalyser and blood test after he was stopped by police in Bratislava.
Scotland take on Slovakia next Tuesday, three days after they face Lithuania at Hampden.
His manager Jan Kozak confirmed that he was left out of the squad and said: “Regarding Vladimir Weiss, we tried to contact him but unfortunately we failed.
Should have tried through twitter. He’s always on there.
“We got in touch with his lawyer who said he would be with us in a short time.
“I’ll talk to him. Regardless of whether he is guilty or innocent, I decided that he will not play in the next two matches because we need to work in peace.
“We’ll see how the investigation goes and then we will draw conclusions.
“He is a valuable player for us, a key player.
“But Slovakia has enough quality football players, and others must be given a chance.”
Thats as polite a way as any of telling someone he’ll never play again as I’ve ever seen.
Those of you who like your music a little monotonous and dull will have heard of Roger Waters, the bassist with Pink Floyd, who gave us Another Brick in the Wall, See Emily Play and Money, to name but a few of their , er, classic ditties.
He has praised Celtic fans for their involvement in raising money and awareness for the plight of those under Israeli occupation in the Palestine;
Talking Baws website has the video, and a full article, here;
roger-waters-praises-celtic-fans
The club were fined around ten thousand Euros, the appeal to match the fine surpassed that, with just under £200,000.
Well worth it, I would have said.
Yesterday we showed a picture of a zeppelin flight crew, or so we thought..
Whereas , in fact, it was..
Caption: Are you sure this is Europe Billy, we’ve never been before!
Today, we have this…
