Celtic Diary Saturday April 14: No More Cheers

Celtic Diary Saturday April 14: No More Cheers

April 14, 2018 · by · in ,

If we cast our minds back to the day it was arranged that celtic should play “rangers ” in the Scottish cup semi final, we will remember the cheering that eminated from the Ibrox players.

Well, they don’t have many big games to look forward to.

It was described at the time as an emotional outburst based on their new found confidence, a confidence that disappeared after they succumbed at home to a ten man Celtic.

They seem rather reluctant to mention it these days, but happily, Celtic boss Brendan rodgers is on hand to remindd them.

It is probably something etched on Rangers’ minds because this is the game that they were cheering for. For us we always respect every opponent we play and just get ready for the game 

Be careful what you wish for…

Then again, perhaps the “rangers ” players are just happy to be on the same pitch as a squad that have already made history, and continue to re-write the books… Rodgers again…

“Let’s see where we go over the next few years. As we sit here now, the players have already done last season what no other team in the history of Scottish football has done. 

“No team has gone through a season without losing a game to win a treble. It was only the fourth treble in Celtic’s history, under three managers. So they are already in the history books.

“But we don’t think about that. We will all be judged when we leave. In the present you just have to keep fighting and working to create this new history, keep looking to raise the bar and the standards. That’s all we think about.

“Who knows, in 25 years’ time we might get an invitation to the Hydro!” 

We’ve had a moan or two along the way this season, which has been frustrating for both players and supporters alike, but we are now very close to that unprecedented back to back treble..

“It gets you one step away if we win this game. It gets us to the Final and gives us that opportunity. We still have to close out the league but we are in a brilliant position to do that.

“It’s been a fantastic season, a challenging season of course, with so many injuries. But if there’s one thing about this team – outwith the free-flowing football and everything that came with it last year – they have still done what they’ve done with all the barriers put in their way.” 

against the Ibrox club, Rodgers is unbeaten, and you have to go back a long way to find when this club actually beat Celtic in 90 minutes.

Actually, they never have.

rodgers again…he’s on a roll today.

“I never take too much heed of records. You get a chance to create your own. We can’t deny it has been a sequence of, in the main, very good performances which have led to those results against Rangers.

“Arguably our two most disappointing performances were at Parkhead, this season in December and last March. But you have to leave that in the past.

“In the last game at Ibrox we came up against that little bit of adversity which really strengthens your resolve to go on and win a game.

“That was a real partisan crowd, a great atmosphere, and to come back and win with 10 men for 30 minutes really told me everything about the team.

“I knew it anyway but that just reinforced it and let people see this is a team with a real resolve and spirit. That’s what the best teams have.” 

The old Hampden hoodoo is dead and buried under rodgers, so there’s no excuse not to give the “rangers ” a damn good spanking tomorrow, and although the media may try to talk up Murty’s chances, there aren;t really that many to focus on.

This weeks “rangers ” manager said his piece, but he wasn’t very convincing, and seemed a little unenthusuastic..

“It is an easy answer really. This has been our focus, our desire since I came in.

“I said to the guys this is the big one for us, this is what we want to go and do and win the cup.

“If you are going to win the cup, you have to beat Celtic and it just happens it is at this round.

“If we are on our game, if we concentrate for 90 minutes, better than we did at Ibrox, I believe we have the tools and the players in the team to cause them a problem.

“Rather than getting [the last Old Firm game] out of their system, I think they should use it as motivation to remember how hurt they were and how disappointed they were to let them off the hook. Use that as motivation so make sure that when they walk off the football pitch they have got a smile on their face.

“Scott (Brown) says lots of things that he believes are true. I believe that my team have more than enough, and showed more than enough, to cause Celtic a problem.

“We have to understand where they are going to be dangerous, we understand that they have good players but I believe that the gap has closed demonstrably and we have to make sure that the next step we take is winning a game because I think that when we do win a game it will kick our belief into another level.” 

Not very inspiring, and hardly enough to get the “battle fever ” raging.

Battle Fever.

It’s what the hordes describe their feelings as before a game against Celtic.

They do seem to like these militaristic phrases , hinting at a strong response to adversity,except of course when involves saving their old club, standing up to venture capitalists or spotting when they are being fleeced by their own.

there are injury doubts over Stuart Armstrong and Tom Rogic ahead of the game, but there are plenty of other options available for Rodgers should they not make it.

As long as Celtic play like they can, then we should be in for another chorus or two of Beautiful Sunday.

And we can enjoy even more of their pain, which continues to grow at an alarming rate..

 

Yesterday we published “The compliance Officers Dilemma”, which pondered how Tony MacGlennan will report on the shennanigans of 2011/12.

This post appeared on the Kerrydale Street site..

There are 3 possibilities.

RFC kept SFA in the dark on the true nature of wtc liability and obtained a licence fraudulently by doing so and also misled the SFA and SPL at the SPL fact finding stage in March to summer 2012 on the use of side letters.

The SFA learned about the true nature of the wtc liability after May 2011 but before mid March 2012 but kept it from the SPL

They all knew before March 2012 about the true nature of the wtc liability which HMRC described as fraudulent or negligent and why and kept it out of the LNS ToRs.

Interestingly in Feb 2012 Regan and LNS met to discuss ToRs of the Judicial Review into Craig Whyte. One of the charges was failure to pay VAT/PAYE but NOT the wtc liability.

On what basis that decision was reached should be put to Regan and LNS by the Comp Off. 

Which sums  up thew shennanigans more than adequately.

However, whilst we accpet that the SFA are treating the shareholders of Celtic disgracefully, and possibly even illegally, what about the biggest shareholder, Dermot Desmond ?

Image result for dermot desmond

Why is he not applying pressure on the SFA?

Even if its just to gain assurance that the events of 2011 cannot be repeated today, and there are already enough suspicions that they are.

After all, they are his shares as well. It’s his club as well.

Or so he says.

More importantly, he’s seen as a sort of absentee landlord by a huge section of the support, and this is his chance to show he really is one of us.

One interview, one question.

Thats all it would take.

Then we’d know we really were all in this together.

 

Yesterdays caption competition…

James61 April 13, 2018 at 10:02 am · Edit · Reply →

Caption
I think I’ll find an easier way to stop smoking 

today..

 

 

On a serious note, those of you worried about the escalation of the current crisis in Syria , with the distinct possibility of Britain and the USA bombing Russia can relax.

May cannot act without clearing it with Trump, and Trump cannot act without clearing it with Putin.

Which is why we got that one time show of face attack this morning…

Personally, I think Arlene Foster is to blame, using her influence on May to end the world before we get ten in a row.