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Celtic Diary Thursday February 16: SFA Inaction, Mark McGhee In Action

Bit late this morning. Had a row with the dear lady last night and she’s in one of those moods. Apparently I should have opened the car door for her, but to be honest, panic set in and I just swam to the surface.

Yesterday we had a bit of a rant about the SFA/SPFL and their lack of , well, competence and their lack of accountability. One of the replies, from the Cha, mentioned an inquiry set up to investigate the allegations of abuse, and there was a link to an article which pointed to that.

The Cha February 15, 2017 at 12:42 pm · Edit · Reply →

An Inquiry is being set up https://www.google.co.uk/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/38308254

Also there is official action being taken against individuals.

There’s a lot to criticise the football authorities without making stuff up.  

 

Far be it from me to make stuff up, but lets look at the article…

The SFA said it was “imperative that we take the necessary time and guidance” to ensure its review complemented the work of the police.

Look closely at the bit in italics. In realspeak, that means we will take as long as we want without reporting anything because we, er, need to take as long as we want.

As always with the beaks, they work to their own rules and their own judgement. which was kind of my point. The article is dated 13 December 2016.
There is, as far as I’m aware, no panel as yet established, and even if there is, we’ve no idea who is on it, what it’s remit is, or when its due to report.
Which kind of proves my point.
Thats not all, by the way, the club licenses for next years European will be looked at soon, and clubs have to get their accounts in order for the top level scrutiny of the SFA. I may not quite understand what top level scrutiny means, but i’m sure the SFA do.

” A club is required to submit a summary of financial information covering the reporting year for 2016 and the previous two years i.e. 2015 and

 2014 as detailed below.

 Clubs will provide this information as follows –

 • SPFL clubs – by 31 March 2017

 • All other clubs – by 30 April 2017

 Unless the 2013 & 2014 figures have not previously been provided the club only requires to provide the 2015 figures.”

 

 More details of what is required can be found on pages 55, 56 and 57 at and if its really bad, page 58. at 

Scottish-FA-Club-Licensing-Manual-2017

( Thanks to Auldheid for that, which appeared on CQN yesterday. )

Bearing that in mind, will the esteemed hacks of the SMSM be ready to ask questions, or do they, too, feel its not worth the effort ?

Speaking of the media, it appears Gerry McCulloch of Radio Clyde is considering an ofer-he must be considering it, there’s been no reply yet–from someone to debate all the issues surroundng Scottish football and the media, such as the liquidation lie, SFA misgovernance and anything else he considers to be part of our collective “obsession ” of the last five years.

Lets see if he has the balls to alow such a debate to take place on his show, and lets hope he does a wee bit of research, as I’m aware that the challenger has an awful ot of evidence to back up his case.

( If you haven’t worked it out yet, it was me )

Back at the ranch, and its a fond adieu to Nadir ciftci, who should sort out a loan deal today in Poland with Pogon Szczecin , which filled the SMSM with dread as they struggle with the pronunciation. To help them, its “chifchee”

Nadir Çiftçi z przejdzie badania medyczne w Pogoni Szczecin. Jeśli wyniki będą poztywne, zostanie wypożyczony do końca sezonu.

Translated via google, that means..

Nadir ciftci with @celtic fc pass a medical examination in the Chase Szczecin . If the results are poztywne , will be on loan until the end of the season. 

Lets hope it all goes poztywne then, the guy deserves a break.

At a meeting in Switzerland last week, Celtic’s Peter Lawwell teamed up with representatives of other big clubs in less prestigious leagues to push for a 48 team group stage of the Champions League, which is probably a better idea for these clubs than than starting their own tournament.

That way, everybody gets a piece of pie, and there’s less chance of drawing Barcebloodylona every year.

With the team now managing to keep playing for nearly all the game, its only a matter of time before someone a little deluded on the other side of the river-or in the press-starts to ask the real reason for the improved performances. With Leicester City down south being whispered about in such veins, as a possible explanation as to their collapse this year , how long before Celtic are accused of putting something in the players tea ?

Happily , though, its all just down to good old fashioned training.

Calum MacGregor enlightened us on why its now worth staying in the stadium for the final whistle. For the fans that is, the players have to.

“I think this is the fittest I’ve felt as a player. We had a great pre-season in terms of the running and football fitness side. That’s great but I feel as well that it’s more the mental fitness also in that we are just grinding teams down all the time.

“We keep moving the ball and the other teams are getting more and more tired while we get sharper as the game goes on. So I think as much as the actual fitness itself it’s more to do with the mental fitness as well that we can keep going and get the goals.

“We’ve seen that in the last few games we’ve been scoring late goals and that comes from the fitness side of things as well, which we’re always working hard on. We can see teams tire and we can go on and score and make one or two more goals. You saw that the other weekend against St Johnstone. That was a good example of that and it’s just up to us to keep ticking on and trying to win.

“It’s great to be a part of this team spirit. There’s nothing better as a player if you go and play and win on a Saturday so all of the boys are enjoying it as we are working hard as a team and getting the success.” 

MacGregor isn;t what you would call a regular first team player, but he certainly does his bit when called upon, but even at that, i was surprised to learn he’s coming up to his first century of appearances. So was he, to be fair;

“That would be massive. Obviously as a young player coming through if somebody said you were getting 10 minutes for the first team you’d be buzzing. But to go on and get 100 appearances after coming through the system since I was nine years old will be a massive achievement. Reaching that landmark is something that I will be really proud of.”

In the old Irish the word is Oglach, and it appears that cash strapped “rangers “, our new neighbours on the other side of the river, have come up with a great idea for locals to get involved with the new club, by putting out an appeal for some Oglachs…

I could email them, but they wouldn’t take me seriously. Not if I said my name was David Sands, and I wanted a badge with their club crest on it that said “Volunteer Sands “

Its yet another sign that the coffers are all but empty over the river, and that as each day dawns the board are checking the bank balance with trepidation, and we already know they all take sandwiches to work.

Not only have they made an arse of parting ways with their last management team, they now face the possibilty of funds being ringfenced to pay them off. The three made public their version of events via the League Managers Association, a sort of trade union, which no doubt meant that the Ibrox chiefs didn’t have to have a Skype link to hear Dave Kings howls of anguish…

The three amigos claimed…

Much has been said over the last few days relating to our departure from Rangers Football Club. At this stage, for legal reasons, it is inappropriate for us to comment in any great detail on our departure from the club. However, given that the club has seen fit to make detailed public statements, it is important that we should clarify certain matters and as such we would like to formally place on record, that at no stage did we resign from our positions at Rangers.

“It is a matter of surprise to us, and to the League Managers Association (LMA), which is advising all three of us, that despite its detailed public statements, the club has not answered key questions put to it by the LMA, in writing, requesting an explanation of why it suggested that we resigned from our positions.

“For all three of us, it was an absolute privilege to be given the opportunity to work at a club that is so rich in tradition and history. It was an honour to be given the responsibility of returning the club to the top tier of Scottish football and we are very proud to have played our part in successfully securing promotion back to the Scottish Premiership. Winning the Petrofac Scottish Challenge Cup and beating Celtic, in a memorable semi-final to reach the Scottish Cup Final, are experiences we will never forget.

“We sincerely thank the Rangers fans for their unwavering passion and dedication. We had the good fortune to meet so many outstanding individuals and supporters of the club and we will always value their words of encouragement. We wish them great success for the seasons ahead.

“The current group of players, together with the staff at the training ground and Ibrox, have borne the huge weight of responsibility of taking a massive club back to the top flight. They should be proud of their togetherness and their work ethic. It has been a pleasure to work with them, and we would like to thank each and every one of them for their commitment and contribution.”  

Due to work commitments, I missed a chance to meet Ken loach, the film director last night as he was in Stoke. I was going to give him my new idea for a comedy feature, but to be honest i lost my bottle.

There is no way on this earth I, or anyone else, could compete with with the consistently high standards on offer by those behind the long running Ibrox pantomime, Weh the comedy awards are handed out, they should sweep the board.

Celtic fans are routinely called obsessed by those still in denial of reality, and I’m going to admit it. I am obsessed. It’s the funniest and most consistently original  thing I’ve read, seen or heard since Spike Milligan decided to mess around in a radio studio

It could get even funnier, with script editors constantly striving for even more quality, , as over on the John James site, there are suggestions that a new Director of Football will be announced soon.

Image result for john brown rangers

Over in the BBC canteen, in breaks between filming Miranda, Citizen Khan and Mrs Browns Boys, there must be tears of jealousy…

Aberdeen, Celtics main rivals, fired out a warning last night to the Hoops, indicating that if we do happen to lose eight games on the trot, they’ll be right in there to take advantage.

They crushed Motherwell, perhaps the worst team ever to compete at this level, by seven goals to two, with on loan Celt ryan christie excelling.

Which led to a little bit of paranoia over the river-or is it awareness ?

Hardly fair. I heard we offered to lend them Ambrose.

Mark McGhee, once of Celtic, was sent to the stands and appeared to lose his temper a bit. a lot actually, and he had to have police assistance in ascending the stairs away from the pitch. Then he spotted someone with a phone, and asked, rather angrily, if that was allowed, be fore demanding possession of the item.

However, the Motherwell boss was only having a laugh, which you can see for yourself in the video, I’d do a link, but frankly we don’t encourage video nasties on this site.

“I wasn’t losing my patience or temper – I was having a bit of a laugh actually” 

As the phone in question captured this image, you can see old Mark is positively chuckling himself into incontinence.

There was no caption yesterday, as the Diary was devoted to the failings at the SFA etc, so we go back to Tuesday for this…

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Oztim67 February 15, 2017 at 12:55 am · Edit · Reply →

Caption: Excuse me Mrs King, can you let your husband know I’m still waiting to be paid. 

Today….

a famous picture, but I often wonder what she said to him…

Jackie and John F. Kennedy during their Texas tour, Fort Worth and Dallas, on November 22, 1963.

Finally, a true story from the Kerrydale Street forum, which should remind you all to be careful out there…

 

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Mike Annis
7 years ago

Caption. Nothing to worry about John, they only said tha The Rangers were coming for you.

Paul McGovern
7 years ago

Caption, what time does the Celtic game start, Jack? Need to get a move on here and up tae The Parlour and get wur pie and beans!

Raymobhoy
7 years ago

Cant read the story from Kerrydale St. Letters are inelegibly small. Any chance of copying them into the Response section?

Cheers

Shug
7 years ago
Reply to  Raymobhoy

Right click on small image

In drop down box select View Image.

Click

TonyB
7 years ago
Reply to  Shug

I don’t get the View Image option in the drop down box so can’t read the item.

Shug
7 years ago
Reply to  TonyB

Are you on a Mac?

Here it is anyway.

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=73cb53&s=9

alan
7 years ago

I think the irish word for what the Huns are looking for is Amadan, not Oglach.

hard to beat a bit of free stewarding.

7 years ago
Reply to  alan

Surely the correct Irish word for the huns is ARMAGEDDON?

5TB
7 years ago
Reply to  Steven R

The Irish word for ‘hun’ is, ‘hun’.

The word ‘hun’, like the word ‘taxi’, is universal. Everyone in the world knows what each refers to.

One is a vacuous pollution and the other is a taxi.

Shug
7 years ago

Just to be a pedant.

The plural for Óglach is Óglaigh!!

Monti
7 years ago

Caption: JFK- ” Jackie that’s terrible language to use ”

Jackie -” No dear i said duck, duck “

7 years ago
Reply to  Monti

Belter Monti

Monti
7 years ago
Reply to  Iancelt67

🙂

Monti
7 years ago

March should be a good month like…..ken

7 years ago

Caption: “they must be cheering for you, Jackie… the chauffeur’s taken a wrong turn off the M8, and we’re on Edmiston Drive!”.

Raymy
7 years ago

Caption:

Look up there jackie, in the sky. It’s the hopes of getting Frank De Boer floating away.

Cortes
7 years ago

” So I told Warbs, ‘Don’t get mad. Get even.'”

Admin
7 years ago

“I think I see a shooter!”
“Shut up Jack, do you think I’m giant buttoned up the front?”

BTW..Ive fixed this for you:

Over in the BBC canteen, in tears filming Miranda, Citizen Khan and Mrs Browns Boys, there must be breaks of jealousy

Monti
7 years ago
Reply to  Desi Mond

PISH 🙂

mike
7 years ago

Dearest, darling, its only 24 hours from Dallas,

cause something happened to me, while I was driving home,
and I’m not the same anymore.

7 years ago

I’m obsessed too Ralph,’kin hilarious!

7 years ago

Caption
Hey Jackie that grassy knoll looks a top spot for a picnic
Yeah john , yeah maybe we can have one of those bay of pigs on the spit

7 years ago

Good to see Barca humbled fuck them with their classy football. Bayern psg final I r reckon Dortmund for the Europa

7 years ago

Caption
I hear there’s a boy in Scotland with a magic bullet for a a shot
His name is zapruta , no bad wi a super 8 as well

7 years ago

True story my brother was told about he shooting and when he found out who it was he said thank fuck I thought it was Kennedy from Celtic

JinkyLarrson
7 years ago

Hey Mark We are the sheepil

mckenzke67
7 years ago

Caption – Jackie: I see the wigs are going to allow Rangers to survive again.

John – Why don’t they just F’OFF and die, Scotland needs them like I need a hole in the head…..oops!

7 years ago

Caption.Jackie “ur you gonnae stoap pumping that Marilyn Munroe ya basssa”

Tam the tim
7 years ago

I don’t get the “funny comments” about a guy who is looked on in Irish-American views as a great man getting his brains blown out. I like a joke like everybody else but I’m sorry this one’s not amusing.
HH

7 years ago
Reply to  Tam the tim

Tan lighten up with e all hated what happened but screw the nut

Monti
7 years ago
Reply to  Tam the tim

Tam,
It’s called dark humour my man, chill the fuck out winston!

Monti
7 years ago
Reply to  Tam the tim

Oh dear!

puggy 67
7 years ago

Caption: Don’t know about you but I’m always more comfortable with a decent roof over my head.

5TB
7 years ago

The Irish word for ‘hun’ is, ‘hun’.

The word ‘hun’, like the word ‘taxi’, is universal. Everyone in the world knows what each refers to.

One is a vacuous pollution and the other is a taxi.

rebus67
7 years ago

If you were Dave King what would you do? Suppose you had decided that the game was a boggie, how do you get yourself out of it with the least negative publicity? Why, you blame someone else. You find a scapegoat, or perhaps three scapegoats. As Trump says, “Many people are saying…” that the “resigners” are skipping the Employment Tribunal and going straight to court. An initial tactic of this strategy will be to ring fence the projected compo cash.
That should be enough to either sink the ship, or force further soft loans to cover it. In the former case, the lethal torpedo came from the Ibrox three; in the latter the Board is obliged to support King’s actions, delaying the demise until a later date.

Devious is as Devious does!

Rebus

Snood
7 years ago

Jackie; oh John you’re such an intellect I’d love to pick you’re brains one day

Monti
7 years ago
Reply to  Snood

Snood,
THAT IS A FUCKING WINNER LOL

henkesdreadlocks
7 years ago
Reply to  Snood

Deary me.

Monti
7 years ago

🙂

FredCDobbs
7 years ago
Reply to  Snood

ffs. send your dosh to the palestinians now! its ok honest

Monti
7 years ago
Reply to  FredCDobbs

I do send it to the Palestinians….just as i did with the IRA

Monti
7 years ago
Reply to  Monti

…..allegedly.

FredCDobbs
7 years ago
Reply to  Monti

that because yo are a murdering bastard

Raymobhoy
7 years ago

Caption: And so i said to Monti, I have no problem with Dallas whatsoever.

Broxburnbhoy
7 years ago

Here we go again with the fearful Scottish media. The real story is the mess at sevco, the pisspoor sackings and the legal action now being brought by the three stooges against RIFC. If they ask for money to be ringfenced, the whole game could be up. Big news! Not for the Scottish media – they are delighting in moonbeams of a Director of Football and a Top Manager. Talk about learning nothing. The old club and the new club as well as the old media and the new media are doing a rerun of the liquidation story. Nothing and been learned, no humble pie has been eaten and the “pivot” to moon beams is the default to any actual real story which puts Sevco in a bad light. Who would do these jobs given the Twix employment history there and what type of contract would any self respecting director or manager demand. The only applicants I would guess would be ones that no one else would hire. Desparate in fact.

Rebus67
7 years ago
Reply to  Broxburnbhoy

Brox,

It is all about deflection. Get the people speculating about something else.

Thevtiming of the removal of the Three puzzles me. Why do it now? The deadline for submitting financial info tonthe SFA for a European licence is the end of March. Will the compo claims be included in the club’s submission? Surely such a potential liability will be enough to sink the application. So why pull the trigger now? Surely DK must have thought that there would be a compo claim? Or is that the end game? Licence refused because of the claim rather than the dismal financial performance over the last three years! Given the length of time that it took the tax case in SA to come to fruition, perhaps Mr King is a master at the delaying game.

Rebus

Broxburnbhoy
7 years ago
Reply to  Rebus67

My guess is that the magic hat and the GASL had a falling out over results and Warbo told him the real truth about the investment needed to put a good team on the park. And GASL pointed out that he has the second biggest budget in Scotland. My guess is the internal exchanges were heated and angry and hence the rash moves on the part of sevco. I think they are worried about the hat spilling the beans in the media about the internal chaos and financial position. The good news is this is all caused by our wonderful club and their hatred of our success. They are imploding as a result to trying to compete with something they are in no condition to compete with. The SFA ( and clubs with shot at Europe ) will really need to look at any license application from sevco with a very critical mind. Will the other potential European qualification clubs accept sevco before them given the “exist on soft loan” model????

Monti
7 years ago

Quite like that Hooped Betis top…
Wonder how much it is in an erm…..large:)

Shut it Mike!

Tommybhoy
7 years ago

Caption: You are never too big to be taken down.

charlie
7 years ago

ryan christie scored that goal last night and the aberdeen fans started singing weer only sheepshaggin bastards ha ha fuckin peach its on the clumpany twitter

Monti
7 years ago
Reply to  charlie

Charlie,
They did it on his debut as well lol

The Cha
7 years ago

More info on Inquiry:

“Child wellbeing independent review to commence” – http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fa_news.cfm?page=1848&newsID=16757

“The review will now commence”, don’t know if that literally means the 2nd Feb when above was posted.

A news story from a couple of days ago has raised “Concern over child abuse review chairman” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-38976269

I don’t know the org, Open Secret and whether its concerns are shared by other survivor groups.

portpower
7 years ago

sevco are looking for volunteers to replace
Broxi,Roxi and Boris bears.

Benefits include:

A chair,big wooden table with marble floor surroundings.

No Experience Required.

We are the Patrimony.

portpower
7 years ago

Caption:

John, is George H. W. stalking us?
I`m sure I just seen him in the crowd.

SteveNaive
7 years ago

Don’t like the new found liking for the sheep. My seat and that of two weans is near them at Celtic Park and make no mistake they are vile with a full repertoire of ‘abuse’ chants.
The huns can’t help it because they are born into it but the sheep pigs could. Why should we help them with Christie with a scum support and scum manager ?

Monti
7 years ago
Reply to  SteveNaive

They are still better scum than hun scum!

FredCDobbs
7 years ago
Reply to  SteveNaive

what new found liking?

FredCDobbs
7 years ago
Reply to  SteveNaive

btw. helping them with players keeps the hunz down and gives players a gemme.

Monti
7 years ago
Reply to  FredCDobbs

Exactly, well said fuckwit

FredCDobbs
7 years ago
Reply to  Monti

the mongs are keeping up …

Monti
7 years ago

Caption: Jackie ” So John, you managed to get out of visiting my mothers today, that’s three weeks in a row now ”
JFK – ” Yip dodged a bullet there honey “

Rob O'Keeffe
7 years ago

Jackie says “Is that Marilyn’s boyfriend up there?

On other matters,I know Christie had a good game but didn’t realise he was on his own and scored 7 goals.So unfair Celtic to those on the sooside that always do things with sporting integrity!! DOBS

mike
7 years ago

I never realised that I still had an emotional attachment to the Kennedys until I posted in todays caption competition. I came of feeling disappointed in myself, regretful.
Remembering back to those days of promise, of realisation that dreams COULD be fulfilled. A Catholic, yes a Catholic, could be the President of the richest country in the World, the very first one.
His charm, good looks, his beautiful wife, the beginning of Camelot, of a new hope for the World.
A much overused word today “charisma”, he had it in spades, bucket fulls . A superstar in a World of Hollywood stars, they all faded into obscurity, disappeared in his glow.
Fuck me, even the Germans loved him, they were eating out of his hand, do you know how difficult that is to achieve?
“Ich bin ein Berliner”
How much hope there was for the World, in those innocent days.
In school, the “Heedmaister”, speaking over the tannoy, the Cuban Missile crises, being so young, we didny have a clue.
The Bay of Pigs, a tarnish on his reputation.
Then “Bang” and he was gone, the Funeral Procession, everyone in tears, no matter the creed or colour, “Crying inAnguish”
his 3 year old son, young John, saluting at his internment.
America, the whole World lost its innocence, as true now as it was then.

Uralius
7 years ago
Reply to  mike

Aye, Mike, but the Bay of Pigs plan was not of his own design and he like the world was naive of the growing military industrial complex. When a man such as he so verbally attacks the machinations behind the curtain terrible things are bound to happen. It is with great sadness that I look at that picture because I have come to realize that my life today could have been so different.

Caption: Unaccounted for Russian nukes, multiple wars against Communism, the growth in power of big oil, hand in hand with the crushing growth of the military industrial complex. All of this was to be prevented by the vision of one man, but his life was cut short by those who were driven to hatred and controlled by those who crave power.

Auldheid
7 years ago

Caption

John. Did you hear a ba

Jez
7 years ago

Caption:-
‘Keep smiling, I don’t think they realise I’m a Tim!’

portpower
7 years ago

Chins up sevconians!

Scotland still has Celtic.HH

Enjoy.

SteveNaive
7 years ago

So Ryan Christie plays,stands out because he is one if if no the best player in his position at the club. He gets”game time” and keeps fit. He has to listen to McInnes every day , a guy with a Hun mentality who will run if they tell him and who has singularly failed to develop one player or team in his time there…or he listens and watches Brendan everyday ?

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