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