He doesn’t hang about, our Brendan. No sooner is the window flung open than he’s out there dragging people in through it. At least Robert Snodgrass is being given time to look for a house in the Livingston area first.

That sort of luxury hasn’t been afforded to Kouassie Eboue. He hasn’t even been given time to settle in properly at Russian side Krasnodor before he’s whipped away and forced to join the Celtic.

Or to give him his full name, much to the delight of commission based salesmen in the club shop-the ones who do the names on the back of shirts- Jules Christ Kouassi Eboue. 

He’s from the Ivory Coast, and no doubt Kolo toure is responsible for recommending him, but with the mainstream media caught completely off guard, we notice that he isn’t a wonderkid, but merely a midfielder. And , of course, there will be problems getting him a work permit, despite the untimely death of Jim Farry some years ago.

The press had to go to that most reliable of sources, Wikipedia, a sort of all encompassing information site, similar to Etims but slightly more accurate, for their information.

Although clearly its edited by the same guy who does the Daily Record.  Which led to a later profile being pulled by a number of papers when someone on the copy desk asked ;

“Are you sure about the facts here ? “-a first in Scottish journalism history.

However, there is someone who knows a little more about the player than our own highly respected media, and thats David Sanson, who did a profile on the lad for Russian Football News. Read this, and take no notice of anything else.

david-sanson-russian-football-news

A fee of around £2.5m has been agreed, and although there “is still some work to be done “, the Rodgers Revolution shows no sign of slowing down.

My only worry is that its been reported in the Daily Express, and they don’t even get the date right on their editions..

Celtic agree £2.8m deal to sign Krasnodar midfielder Kouassi Eboue

Still, at least they knew his name. The BBC didn’t know a thing about him, and put out a tweet asking for readers thoughts, as they clearly didn’t have any.

The Robert Snodgrass story came from our habitual substance abuser over on the east coast, and he’s adamant that Snodgrass is looking for a house, but cannot confirm whether or not its for his own use, which is an unusual turn of phrase for a drunk, but he’s quite pleased with it.

No ones going in the other direction yet, although young Joe Thomson is going out on loan to get kicked around to toughen him up, and its unlikely anyone will until after the club return from Dubai, after which the players hope to come back refreshed-not that sort of refreshed, its banned over there-and the board hope to have secured a few quid from some Arabs who want to throw some money about as its clogging up their garages.

Moussa Dembele, despite the obvious itching of some of the board members to cash in while they can, has confirmed what his manager says about him wanting to stay at Celtic.

Although he’s only nineteen, or twenty, its hard to tell from the SMSM, he shows a remarkable maturity when discussing his career, which is the same maturity that saw him choose Celtic over the other offers available to him last summer.

“I never have pressure,”

“There is no pressure on me at all. I am off and in Paris this week with my family and friends and I will be switched off from football for a little while.

“Then I am going to Dubai to meet up with my team-mates and when I am there I will be concentrating on the sessions with the team and what comes next in the season.

“I am not the type of player who loses focus easily. I don’t pay attention to who is saying what about me because it doesn’t matter.

“I just pay attention to what the manager wants from me and on doing my very best for Celtic.

“I have enjoyed my football this season. It has been a good start to the season for me but I never worry about what is next. I am loving playing for Celtic and I want to make sure that we prove ourselves to be the best team in the country this season.”

That shouldn’t be too difficult, to be honest.

“We have to keep proving ourselves,”

I think everyone wants to be the team who beats Celtic. No-one has beaten us in Scotland this season and that means that everyone wants to be the first team to do that.

“But we are hungry too. We don’t want to relax. We can see that there is a big gap at the top of the table but we want to keep it that way.

“No-one knows what might happen as the season goes on. We might lose a game but it won’t be because we didn’t want it enough. We will be giving our best in every game.”

He’s absolutely right with this. Everyone does want to be the first to beat Celtic, and it showed in the last few games when even Motherwell, Partick, Hamilton and new boys “rangers ” all put up a bit of a fight before going down.

Whilst the league table might show Celtic have cantered to the title come May, each individual game will tell a different story, as every side from now on in will lift their game and for the hoops to remain undefeated will be up there on a par with anything the club have done over the last decade or two.

All of which makes for great entertainment, and all of which should catch the eye of tv companies , sponsors and newspapers.

In fact, the hogmanay game between “rangers ” and Celtic was behind only the Liverpool -Manchester Utd clash and Midsomer Murders in the digital tv rankings for that day, and some feel that with a little more imagination, combining the game with the Agatha Christie mystery show by including a whodunnit at half time would have sent ratings into the stratosphere, but the most recent death in Scottish football is still sub judice so that had to shelve the idea.

By the way, has anyone else noticed that this headline refers to the name of the company that was liquidated, RFC , as Charles Green changed it just before they went under so he could carry on using the Rangers name for his basket of assets ?

Speaking of the big handed chancer, is he about to go shopping again ?

Former Super League champions Bradford Bulls have been liquidated after the club’s administrator rejected a bid to save the club.

The Bulls entered administration for a third time in four years in November.

The administrators hoped to have a deal agreed by Christmas but turned down a bid from a consortium on 29 December.

Despite the liquidation, the Rugby Football League has confirmed that a new Bradford side could compete in the second-tier Championship in 2017.

The new Bradford team would start the season, which gets under way on the first weekend of February, with a 12-point deficit.

They would also get the lowest funding of all Championship clubs from the RFL, receiving just £150,000. 

Despite the liquidation indeed, simply buy the non debt history, call it The Bradfoed Bulls, and they’re off and running again…thats right, isn’t it ?

Well, sort of. In a move that must have been envied by the SFA, the RFL put out a statement which left everyone on no doubt what happens next…

 “To clarify the next steps for all concerned, the independent RFL board has met to determine how the future of professional rugby league in Bradford can move forward in 2017.

“While a number of alternatives were considered the board were most mindful of the planning already undertaken by all other clubs in the competition structure, the season tickets already purchased and the players and staff who will now be seeking employment in and around the sport in 2017.

“Accordingly the board has agreed that the wider interests of the sport is best satisfied if it offers a place in the Championship to any new club in Bradford and that such a club start the 2017 season on minus 12 points.

“Any interested parties should contact the RFL directly.”

Of course, the liquidation of the Bulls has led to panic amongst the scribes of the SMSM who now need to tell the story in such a way as to avoid words like “new club ” and “out of business “.

This sort of reportage has always confused me, how one club can go into liquidation and emerge all shiny and fresh, without losing its identity or history whilst others are consigned to the dustbin.

So I consulted the Oxford English Dictionary for a definition of “liquidation “;

Fairly straightforward. Except for the pronunciation

Pronunciation:

Glasgow teenager invests his ten bobs to ensure greater security for car owners  at the football