Sky sports last night reported that Milan were in talks to sign Moussa Dembele.
They didn’t say who they were talking to, but one assumes it is Celtic. There was no hint of whom at Celtic they were talking to.
Peter Lawwell, on what appears to be a genuine twitter account, retorted;
AC Milan can bite my banger
There’s probably an equal amount of veracity in both accounts.
Get French Football News seems to know a little more, and even that is just “reported interest”
Get French Football News can reveal that 5 European sides have made enquiries with Celtic for French striker Moussa Dembélé with a view to a transfer in the summer window.
Those sides are Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla, Chelsea, AC Milan and Olympique de Marseille.
Contrary to reporting from Italy, sources contacted by GFFN have no knowledge of a supposed bid to Celtic from Chelsea for the player’s services
I think they mean Milan.
Whatever the reports, Dembele isn;t going to take the first offer on the table, and neither are Celtic, least of all when the manager and CEO are away on their jollies
And the Hayes story ?
Stranger things have happened, but not very often. Although Chris Sutton, who with his BT sport job, has access to insiders at Celtic, suggests that there may be something in this, and that it means Patrick Roberts isn’t coming back .
( Daily Record )
What it may also mean is that Celtic are after another winger, and its just that Hayes is on the list. and he’s unlikely to be near the top.
Karamoke Dembele, the wee fellow who looks set to make a name for himself around the time Celtic should lift their tenth successive title, has committed himself to the club;
“Clearly there has been considerable publicity surrounding Karamoko but our focus will be solely on Karamoko’s needs as a young player and we will commit ourselves, as we do with all our players, to giving him the very best opportunity to flourish in football and all other aspects of life,”
“Like all young players, it is very important that Karamoko is given the time and space to reach his potential and we believe that our programme will provide such an environment.”
That statement is probably the only sensible thing you’ll read over the next few weeks.
The media are also touting Fabio Borini, the Sunderland winger, as a possible replacement for Patrick Roberts, who no one seems to be touting for a return to Celtic.
Borini, as with Hayes, as worked with Rodgers before and this seems to be the modus operandi of lazy hacks when they try to predict who will be wearing the hoops next season.
Remember, they hardly ever get it right and these days, due to a lockdown on information at Celtic Park, are working at the same level as the rest of us.
They didn’t even know that Rodgers was signing a new deal…
Players who are any good will not move this early, as a rule, as they will wait for better offers when it becomes known they are available.
Though there could be an exception to that rule, although the source is a little shaky.
Most of the Trinity Group papers are claiming that Virgil van Dijk has agreed to join Manchester City for £60m, and a wage of £200,000 a week.
Thats the People, surprisingly still going, and the Sunday Mirror, which are more or less the same thing if you ignore the titles.
Regardless of what else you hear, Celtic will get 15% of Southamptons profit.
If only we were as determined and professional as Pedro Caixinha. He’s not hanging around as he puts together a team to challenge Aberdeen for second place..
Fabio Cardoso and Dalcio will jet into Glasgow tonight to become Pedro Caixinha’s latest Rangers signings.
MailSport understands the Portuguese duo will arrive on a late flight from Lisbon before undergoing medicals at Auchenhowie tomorrow.
Vitoria Setubal centre-back Cardoso has been snapped up for a fee of around £1.3million and Benfica forward Dalcio will join on a season-long loan deal.
Ibrox boss Caixinha has already brought in Bruno Alves and Ryan Jack as he rebuilds his squad while another recruit Mexican midfielder Carlos Pena is waiting on a work permit.
” Jet in “-its just like the old days at the old club as far as the media is concerned, despite any of the reporters having never heard of any of the players they are trumpeting.
They might well have a decent team next season, it all might come together for them, but its kind of strange that no one is asking where the money for these players is coming from.
Remember, the bid for Graeme Dorans was a paltry £480, 000, spread over three years.
Based on this, its unlikely that the club has much money to spread around, and as we know, no one is going to lend them any.
I feel there may be a little exaggeration involved where these figures are concerned.
Unless they’ve found a few quid somewhere..
However, if it gets Billy buying the books, then the publcity campaign has worked, and its hardly been a drain on their finances.
Footballs only been away for a week, and its all going doo lally in the papers.
When I say away, of course there’s been other games to maybe glance at, but not take all that seriously.
Real Madrid swept aside Juventus last night to claim their twelfth European Cup, but manager Zinedine Zidane knows that only a Petrofac Cup will lift his side above the current most successful team in the world in Glasgow.
Scotland face England at Hampden in the World cup, which should at least hold some interest for Celtic fans, as it looks like the club will provide most of the Scotland side.
Which could be fairly exciting, depending on how much beer you drink first.
Living in England, I’m on a sort of ban from visiting bars when their national team os playing after i took my wife out for her birthday for something to eat. I do take her out now and again, its easier than kissing her goodbye, and in the bar of the place we went to I heard that famous line
“Welcome to the San Marino stadium and its 1-0 to San Marino “ as the hosts took an early lead against the mighty blighties.
It fair cheered me up, and visibly annoyed the local yokels who could see i was fairly cheered up, so from that day on I gave international nights a miss.
That night, we had to sit outside and as I remember , it was raining.
Took me ages to finish the soup
This Saturday, a few of us are planning to go to a place called Leek to watch the game, surprisingly not in Wales, which I cannot see ending well.
There’s one pub that sells beer at £1,50 a pint, which will probably be busy.
Anyway, its probably wise to avoid town centres and such like these days.
Last nights attack on London shows that there are still a few nutters around intent on instilling their own views of the world on the rest of us.
Views and actions which have no place in a modern society. Views which remind us that whilst the majority of people, whatever their colour, creed or religion, are still convinced that their way is the only way.
It’s sad.
It really is sad.
And yet, as ever, there is much more to these sort of attacks than we know…
There’s your Sunday read, should you wish to be a lttle more informed about serious world events.
The media world is a strange one, and thanks to Grant Russel of STV for highlighting something that you probably not only weren’t aware of, but weren’t aware that it was possible to do…
Google removes STV article on former Scottish referee from search results
Former official Dougie McDonald retired after controversy over granting a penalty in a Celtic match.
Google has informed news organisations it has removed stories from its search results about a former top Scottish referee who retired amid a controversy over a match decision.
The news reports relate to former Category One official Dougie McDonald, who retired after controversy over his reasons for granting a penalty in a Celtic v Dundee United match.
On Wednesday, STV was informed by the internet giant that one of its reports in relation to the 2010 incident had been removed from Google searches in the EU under “right to be forgotten” ruling.
It follows a European ruling that individuals have the right to remove information about themselves from internet search engine results.
STV was not given detailed reasons for the removal of the article or who had requested it.
The Google notification read: “We regret to inform you that we are no longer able to show the following pages from your website in response to certain searches on European versions of Google.”
The Guardian was also involved in the removal of articles from search results, with the newspaper informed by Google that three of its articles — including one on the same subject — had also been removed.
STV’s article reported comments made by football match official Steven Craven to the Sunday Mail.
“Dougie ran towards me and said: ‘I think I’ve f***** up,'” Craven said at the time.
“After the game Dougie said we should tell the referee supervisor [Jim McBurnie] that I called him over to question the penalty award.
“I went along with it because I wanted to be supportive of Dougie.
“But then Neil Lennon came in after the game and asked Dougie why he hadn’t given the penalty kick.
“We told Neil the version that was a lie. It was wrong to lie. And I’m not proud that I went along with Dougie’s suggestion.”
McDonald had awarded Celtic a penalty during the game on October 17 2010 but, following a discussion with assistant Craven, reversed his decision.
Craven resigned following the controversial decision and though the SFA cleared match referee McDonald of any wrongdoing they did warn him about inconsistencies in his match report.
The SFA probe decided that McDonald had been correct to rescind the award for Celtic against Dundee United.
However, it was found that he failed to complete the “post-match administrative process to the expected standard”.
Who has asked for it to be removed, and why ?
STV article that was removed -in case you want to keep it.
On a lighter note, and we did go all serious and tin hatted there for a moment, those prolific prodigies over at Ibrox have come up with yet another ditty to enhance their already impressive songbook…
And this one..
They’re doing it as a sort of protest about the gaelic translation of one of their favourite places…
Yesterdays picture…
Caption: You think that’s an arse,wait till you see who the next president is going to be.
Today, in much the same vein, and still looking for a different viewpoint, so to speak…
