Celtic host Inverness today, seeking revenge for the one blot on the league record this season so far.
Mananger Brendan Rodgers sounds like he’s up for it, and it might be worth putting a few quid on today bringing us the first 7-0 of the campaign..
‘It is still a game that rankles with me a little bit. We should have 10 (league wins) out of 10.
‘We conceded late on, on the back end of the Barcelona trip.
‘We put in a good performance that day, we just didn’t take our chances and of course if you don’t take the opportunities something like that can happen.
He also went out of his way to stress that this won’t be an easy game-none of them are-but the mood suggests that anything short of a damn good thrashing for the highlanders means that the Celtic players will be in at 6am tomorrow morning sweeping the stands with a toothbrush.
‘I saw on the day that Inverness had some good players with good quality and they have started to play more football now, pass the ball a little bit, they scored some good goals last week against Hearts but will be disappointed with the goals they conceded.
‘So it’s not totally surprising Inverness got the result in the end.
‘But I am really happy with the way the players are improving, their hunger going into each game and for this game, the last one before the international break, we want to ensure that we have no slip-ups and have real intensity and attacking intent.’
On the bigger picture of so called “easy ” games, the manager explained..
‘There is no easy game. There are many reasons why, firstly, the opponent will always fight.
A game against Celtic, whatever the levels the players are at, the opponent will always go up because they are playing against one of the big teams, which is natural. All the players up here will always fight for the result.
‘Supporters will demand that so there have been no easy games as such. There are some very good coaches up here who work and study and analyse their teams to set up against you.
The league table may suggest that they have all been easy games so far…..
but credit does have to go to the players for performong no matter who the opposition are.
‘Some of the scorelines have been down to some of the great play of our players and how hard they have worked.
‘Look at our last four games. The League Cup semi-final (against Rangers), tough game. Away to Ross County, travel, tough game; away to Aberdeen, tough game then away to Monchengladbach.
‘You can put in lots of excuses but it really shows you the focus and concentration of the team, how hard they are working and how well they are playing.
He sounds a little miffed that the players aren’t getting the credit he thinks they deserve, so Inverness might well be in for a spanking.
There is a lot of love for Emilio Izaguirre again, after he stepped in to a champions League game after a long spell away from regular football and performed, well, as if he’d never been away.
He has impressed the manager, and I would venture a suggestion that he has surprised the manager with his performances, and he may well be offered and accept a new deal to see him end his playing days in Glasgow.
“That’s the idea, to have the competition for places at left-back,
“We have one with experience and one with youthfulness. So it is perfect balance. Emilio has been very good since coming back into the team. It is a testament to how hard he has been working. A lot of the guys who have been playing regularly have got a lot of credit and rightly so. But they have only been so good because there are a lot of guys in behind them who have been pushing them every day.
Emilio has come in and played Ross County away, Aberdeen away, Monchengladbach away and showed up very well. I was really pleased with the defensive part of his game on Tuesday. He is renowned more for going forward but he has defended strongly. It is great for him and great for me to have someone like that here.”
The diary’s credibility suffered another major blow when yesterday, it said
Expect a similar story to appear, courtesy of Level 5, in a couple of Scottish red tops about billy Gilmour-I think thats his name-the Fleckalike currently wowing their development squad
And lo, either courtesy of Level 5 PR, or just simply by reading the diary and realising what a great idea it was, Gary Ralston of the Record started the ball rolling…
The ball was then picked up by Stewart Regan, which is remarkable considering he hasn’t heard any of the accusations surrounding his suitability for employment at the SFA…
“I’ve seen some of the performances in the Victory Shield games and it’s really encouraging. There are some very talented kids and a lot of scouts watching them.
“That’s a signal we’re starting to do something right and people are starting to sit up and take note. It’s encouraging for the future.
“When Scottish boys are linked with some of the biggest names in European football it is heartening.
We shouldn’t be surprised about that. We said several years ago giving kids more contact time with the ball and putting them into environments where they can get greater exposure to improved coaching, performance analysis and better diets will make a difference.
“In 2011 we said we needed to have world-class facilities in Scotland to complement our performance strategy to allow us to develop elite players to play for Scotland. It’s great seeing it coming to reality with the official opening.”
I hadn’t paid much attention to the Victory Shield, as international football, especially the SFA sponsored side, hold little interest for me these days.
So lets see what happened..are these world class facilities developing elite players ?
The SFA website, so you can expect it to be more positive than most..
Scotland have finished second behind Republic of Ireland in the 2016 Victory Shield following a win, a draw and a loss in the tournament at Oriam in Edinburgh.
In Scotland’s opening match they took on Northern Ireland with Taylor Wilson opening the scoring after 18 minutes before Zac Butterworth tucked the ball away late on to secure a 2-0 win.
Billy Gilmour impressed and started Tuesday’s draw against Wales. The Scots, coached by Brian McLaughlin, started brightly and led 2-0 at the break thanks to a Jamie Semple brace but Wales hit back with two goals of their own to secure the draw.
During the match, 13-year-old Karamoko Demble made his first appearance for Scotland Under-16s coming off the bench.
Scotland went into the final match of the tournament against Republic of Ireland, knowing a win would allow them to top the group but they lost out 3-0 to end a promising week for the Scottish youngsters.
Same as the senior team.
One win out of three.
Note the inclusion of the Ibrox wonderkid alongside the Celtic wonderkid.
I feel sorry for the lad, and if I was him I’d chuck it and sign for Hearts, who at least give their kids a chance and he then won’t have to put up with all the hype.
At this level of development, the kids should be kept well away from the limelight, a mistake Celtic made with Dembele.
Rumours, you say ?
Two names, both Italian, both not in their club’s first team, and both have previous with Brendan Rodgers. Except the first one.
Matteo Darmian of Manchester Utd, currently standing in for Antonio Valencia doesn’t get on with Jose Mourinho. That in itself isn’t exactly rare, but he’s apparently looking to leave Manchester in January, and his name has been mentioned in inner circles, as has that of Fabio Porini at Sunderland, though the removal of John Parks means that we don’t especially chase injurry prone players any more.
and here’s another rumour…sent in by a regular reader, and I wonder of anyone can explain this…
What caught my eye is the date, which is presumably proof of time travel, as its dated the 8th of this month, which is Tuesday.
Still, a rumours a rumour, and if anyone can make any sense of this obvious mock up, if indeed it is an obvious mock up, then I’d be grateful.
They’ve got enough problems over there without me adding to them, especially with joey Barton being forced to work with the kids…
The petition published yesterday and its response shows the depth of feeling about possible SFA misgivernance, and the worry that it might happen again with the current Ibrox entity struggling for cash, just like the last one was before it went down, means those worries are surfacing again.
The petition is a good idea, but it needs to be on change,org or something suchlike, so if anyone knows how to do that give me a shout.
One reply yesterday dubbed signatories as “paranoid “, even though past events showed we simply weren’t paranoid enough, and i don’t want to see an Ibrox based club stiff another bunch of creditors and get away scot free again, so we need to be on the ball here.
Do events mirror those of four and five years ago ?
Read this, from Mark Warburton, who is playing the Ally McCoist role in this years revivial of the pantomime…
‘How important is European football to Rangers next season? It is very important,’ said Warburton (below), whose side drew 0-0 with County at Ibrox in September.
‘It generates income for the club, as does getting season tickets sold and making sure the punters enjoy coming to Ibrox every week. That’s also very important
There are other things above my pay grade that will hopefully be resolved, too, in terms of shirts and everything else. These are all areas — which aren’t currently being maximised — that will help the club move forward.
‘So, for us, a win before the international break is important. But it won’t be easy. Ross County have not deserved some of the results they have had in their last two or three games. It flattered the opposition.
( Thinly veiled attempt to bring Celtic into the conversation, and keep his club relevant to us.)
They are a good team. Liam Boyce is back up front and they have good pace and width. So we are well aware of what we face in Dingwall on Sunday. But we are in good form and we are looking forward to it.’
Good form ? Oh, aye, they beat somebody the other day…
The target has dropped from winning their 55th title in four years to merely achieveing European football next year, which will be a laugh when they show their accounts to the SFA, who then have to vouch for them to UEFA…
Oh wait….
Get that petition up on a proper platform Ralphy bhoy. so someone help me, before its too late.
Yesterdays picture, that of Charlie tully being escorted by a couple of policemen..
prompted this reply.. not a caption as such, but a wee story which made me chuckle…
That looks like a young Charles Patrick Tully arriving at Celtic (1948).
This is a true story,?!!.It was on the Vernons pools literature entitled “Legends of football”.
Charlie missed the team coach for Aberdeen and went on the train.
The coach broke down and arrived at half time but everthing was jake,Charlie was winning 1-0.
Today, well, I think this needs explaining, as a “rangers ” player is pulled off before the game even starts..
By the way, don’t forget the foodbank collection today, and here’s a reminder of where to go with your donations…