Celtic Diary Wednesday March 22: An Uneasy Feeling About It All

There’s a feeling of unease in the air.

It’s been there a while, but its getting stronger.

It’s not just the dodgy referees who seem to be running a sweep on who will be in charge of the game where the next Celtic player gets injured.

It’s not just about Brian Wilson using his platform within the club to spout his nonsense. Frankly, he is doing us a favour, as he proves that we are indeed an all encompassing club open to all.

If he wants to hang around with the goat botherers, thats fine by me. Handshakes a bit iffy, but maybe he’s gone undercover.

It’s not even the form of Moussa Dembele or Scott Sinclair.

Dembele is having a bad run, its what happens to strikers, and he’ll be reassured by the words of Zinedine Zidane, who has obviously got a hand in advising the player what to do careerwise..

 “He should not think because he is playing in Scotland he has not been noticed — because that is not at all true.

“He is a natural goal scorer and his international career I am sure will be a long and successful one.” 

Maybe he’s just a wee bot down after not getting into the French squad, which is fair enough. but his time will come.

Sinclair ?

He’s living apart from his wife in a big city with a glamorous job and thousands of pounds going into the bank every month.

I can see why he might also be a wee bit  miserable. I have to look quite hard, but I can see why he’s a bit miserable.

Again, though, he sounds happy enough…

I’m enjoying every single moment, I’m in no rush to move back to the English Premier League.

“For me I’m happy to play under a manager that believes in me. We’re winning and winning trophies and you do think; what more could you want?

“When I came up here I didn’t feel like I put too much pressure on myself. I was trying to get the happiness and enjoyment back and I’ve done that. You can see that in my football and how I am on the pitch. That’s down to me not putting pressure on myself and just getting on with playing.” 

Anyway, we hear, on good authority

that Sinclair is saving his goals for the semi final…

The unease appears to be down to a fear of history repeating itself, like it does on the history plus one channel.

As we are well aware, there are allegations of collusion and corruption around the granting of a UEFA licence in the last days of the old Rangers club. This allowed them to compete in the champions League when they shouldn’t have.

For some reason, the media won’t touch the story, and its been left to a group of Celtic shareholders to ask for an investigation.

We are also aware that the Lord Nimmo Smith enquiry, as it will be known as in perpetuity, was a fix, and the case should be re-opened. No matter what flies out.

Surprisingly, Nimmo Smith himself is happy to be forever associated with this particular enquiry, and has made no attempt to remove his name from it.

Then again, he doesn’t seem overly bothered about his image..

One would expect that a man who is among the most respected members of society, however, would be extremely concerned that his reputation has been sullied by the events after his enquiry, after it emerged that he may well have been played by the SFA.

After all, it must mean something to him that from this day onwards any enquiry which is conducted purely to assist those under investigation will have a new word to describe it..a “nimmosmith”

With the SFA feeling that their action to grant a licence to an illeligible Rangers to help ease their financial woes accepted last time, there is a real unease that they might be about to do it again.

If the most recent financial statements by “rangers ” are to be believed-that in itself requires a leap of faith-then they will not be allowed, under Financial Fair Play rules, to compete in Europe next season.

Its that simple.

We have no idea if the SFA are looking at the Ibrox clubs finances, and we have no idea if there are any concerns.

They think they got away with it once, and so therefore, in their own little world, they may feel they can again.

For some reason, Stewart Regan doesn’t answer my emails, and has blocked me on twitter.

Thats why I’d like to ask you if you could email or tweet him, and ask if he has any concerns about any Scottish club not fulfilling their oblifagions under the Financial Fair play rules.

And if I could expand on that for a moment..

I’ve little confidence in the people who run our game in Scotland.

I’ve little confidence that Regan even understands the seriousness and depth of opposition to any more cheating in our game-especially cheating that starts at the top.

Thats why we need the Celtic Supporters Association, the Celtic Trust, the Resolution 12 guys and anyone else who has something they feel of benefit to all get together and present a united front against the cheats.

I’m still not sure the wider support fully understands exactly what happened when Rangers went down, and I’m still not sure that all the evidence is out there in the public domain.

No one is going to do it for us, and with the distinct possibility of the rules beoing flouted again, its time we all got our heads together and stood up for our club in exactly the same way as our board doesn’t.

The period between now and the start of next season is one of the most important in Scottish football history, and we may not get another chance to make sure things are right.

Alright, its maybe not time to hit the car park just yet, but at the very least we should all park outside the same building and have a chat first.

Or we could use it to make sure our game doesn’t return to the dark ages. 

After the court cases a lot more detail will come out, and we need to be ready to deal with that.

Its important that we are all on the same side at the same time.

Most importantly, we also need to be sure that a few years from now we are not looking back and saying ” we should have done it in 2017…”

Time for a heartfelt appeal now, and as a Celtic supporter with a social conscience, can I ask you to get behind this ?

Ach. I’m kidding. Write to your MP and ask for him to be deported.

Now and again, something comes along that does remind me of why I’m proud of our club… and as I’m one of the first to criticise them, its only fair to be at the front of the praise when that praise is due..

AN inspirational Celtic fan has promoted World Down Syndrome Day through his work as a tour guide at the Parkhead stadium.

Alex O’Donnell, 18, works to show that people can live with the disability. 

The teenager was given the opportunity after taking part in the Celtic FC Foundation’s Ability Counts programme.

Ability Counts was launched in 2011 after a consultation with Down’s Syndrome Scotland.

It works with around 30 children and young people with the disability to help them develop their communication skills, motor skills and team-working skills.

And Alex is just one of the many young people the programme has helped. 

Speaking to Sky Sports, Tony Hamilton, the chief executive of the Celtic FC Foundation, was full of praise for Alex.

He said: “Alex is absolutely phenomenal for us.

“He’s came through the programme and has been here for six years or so.

“He is just a real example of what can be achieved if you live with a disability.”

Alex’s parents are both season ticket holders at Parkhead and are immensely proud of their son and his achievements. 

His dad Owen said: “We’re very proud of his achievements.

“He’s been helped hugely with Marie [another tour guide] taking him round during the tours. He loves it.

“He’s learning more about Celtic all the time and he loves the interaction with all the people who want to go on the tours.

“As a Celtic fan, this is a real throwback to the roots of Celtic and how it all started with the charitable aims, and giving back to the local people who have needs in the local community.

“It’s very important for me that Celtic is doing that.”

Tony explained that the Ability Counts programme has moved from strength to strength in its six years.

“Ability Counts has been running for six years now.

“And at that time it was set up for social inclusion for children and young people who live with Down’s Syndrome.

“It’s moved on since then.

“We now have a strand for autism and recently we introduced a strand for adults with Down’s Syndrome.” 

alright, thats from the Sun, and the video, here..celtic-fan-inspires-on-world-down-syndrome-day is from Sky sports, but I’l forgive them this once.

A genuine appeal now, from John Paul Taylor, the supporters Liaison officer..

 We showed you this inspiring image yesterday…

and today, we’ll go with something a little less bilious…