A little bit sooner than perhaps one could have expected, but the Celts have decided that their generously accepted offer to take it easy early in the season to help make things a little more competitve than usual has now expired.
A six goal thrashing of St Johnstone and a performance that had us thinking back to the Invincible year confirmed that all is now well at the ranch, despite what anyone else will tell you.
James Forrest, a great player and fantastic servant who will go on to be the most decorated Celtic player of all time, showed most of us that we cannot see the wood for the trees when it comes to recognising his ability.
Look, everyone else has done the Forrest Fire headlines. I had to come up with something different.
Forrest rattled in four goals during a blistering first half-the first Celt to do so since John Higgins in 1956.
Maciej Zurawski also scored four in an away game, but it was against Dunfermline, and if I’m not mistaken even Neil Lennon scored that day, so it doesn’t really count.
It didn’t take long for the media to tout him for a move.
Kris Commons tried to outdo his namesake Kris Boyd in complete and absolute fuckwittery when he came up with this.
He is 27 years old and signed a new four-year deal just a couple of weeks ago, which made it seem like he might be set to spend his whole career at Parkhead.
But, if he carries on playing like he did on Sunday, there’s no chance that will happen.
One of the big clubs in England would soon snap him up for a hefty transfer fee.
The transformation in him over the past 18 months or so has been remarkable because it seemed at one point a few years ago that he was on his way out of the club.
He was in danger of being a wasted talent, a boy for whom the penny would never drop.
He had no confidence, struggled with injuries, and had a manager in Ronny Deila who didn’t trust him.
For Forrest, it shouldn’t be just the PFA award he’s targeting. It should be 20 goals, the league title, and every individual accolade in the country.
If he does that, there’s no chance he will still be at Celtic in four years’ time. He’ll be playing in the English Premier League.
He won’t.
Forrest , like Tierney, has been at Celtic more or less since he could walk, and has a deep affection for the club. He doesn’t want to be anywhere else.
Although his performance was noted overseas…
When he plays like he did yesterday, he is unstoppable, and opponents are reduced to fouling him. In fairness, Danny Swanson, who was sent off for an assualt on the winger, probably thought he’d get away with it, given the licence handed to teams to kick Celtic players, but it was that bad even Tom Rogic knew it was a red card…
Commons claims to know whats going on inside Celtic Park, and theres a story doing the rounds that seems to hint that one of the disgruntled players manager Brendan Rodgers referred to on Saturday is feeding him a line or two,
Kris Boyd, the other Chuckle Brother on the telly , who told Tom English, the Irishman who works in the Scottish media that there was a split in the dressing room, citing “because ” as his evidence, is the other who has been fed several lines, but as with all of these examples of tittle tattle, they have been fed simply to reveal who is behind the leaks.
He’s convinced he’s right. I disagree with him. He has a right to express his view. Simple as that
Not on a publicly funded broadcaster he hasn’t, not without evidence he hasn’t, and not knowing he’s been set up to expose a leak he hasn’t…
As for the BBC, and Tom English, maybe they should have taken that into consideration before allowing Boyd airtime to pontificate his piffle.
Seriously, and some people think I make stuff up… Compared to that lot I’m the Encyclopedia Brittanica.
Anyway, to coin a phrase, fuck the lot of them.
I certainly did, but alls well ends well, and Celtic should now be back at the top of the league within a couple of weeks.
“rangers ” too, stormed into the top six, meaning they have a better than average chance of getting back into europe next season, and that wouldn’t be a bad thing, as just last week they hammered an old foe of ours Rapid Vienna, to prove that the Scottish league may not be as bad as its painted by showing that our shite teams are better than Austria’s.
The Ibrox side ended Hearts unbeaten run with a convincing 3- 1 win, which allowed Celtic to move just three points behind the leaders.
Seriously, what were we worried about ?
The media won’t let up though, and with Aston Villa now on the hunt for a new manager, the SMSM are expecting the English club to make Brendan Rodgers an offer he cant refuse, despite the Celtic boss saying he wasn’t interested.
Anyway, how can any offer “you can’t refuse ” contain the words “Aston Villa ” ?
Neil Cameron at the Herald suggested…
BRENDAN Rodgers’ cryptic response when asked about being linked to Aston Villa did little to end speculation he has become disenchanted with life at Celtic despite his side yesterday giving him his biggest ever win at the club.
Reports down south claim Thierry Henry is the favourite to replace Steve Bruce at the biggest name in the English Championship, but it is understood that the 45-year-old Northern Irishman would be a candidate if the deal for the Frenchman fell through.
Cryptic ? It was Chris MacLaughlin at the BBC who asked him, so lets see what Chris thought…
I asked him “would you rule yourself out?” He replied “yes.” Can’t be much clearer than that.
I don’t think “cryptic ” is a word fully understood by those in our media..
Perhaps they would describe this, from Stevie Gerrard, who effectively said all his players were for sale, as cryptic…
I don’t imagine for a moment he’ll be kept awake by a ringing telephone.
Unless its the parent clubs of the loannees he has pointing out that he can’t actually sell their players, as they’re not actually his.
Those of you who have listened to our last podcast will recall Hector Bandido explaining why Celtic and Hearts had to play their League Cup semi final in Edinburgh.
Could this be confirmation he was right ?
unofficially I heard it was based on reducing the number of fans travelling to and from Edinburgh
Though to be fair, he could have heard it from Hector.
Bobby Lennox is getting a statue in his home town of Saltcoats.
He deserves it.
On Friday, we had this picture..
Tully
Lawell to I T department,it’s the best computer there is honest !
today..
