Celtic Diary Wednesday October 24: Transfer Rumours Already ?

Its not even Halloween and the tittle tattle surrounding incomings and outgoings has started already, but then again, after the complete shambles-Edouard apart-of the last one, I suppose we should be grateful they’re taking this one seriously.

Perhaps part of this concerns the fragility of Scott Brown, who it appears is struggling to recover from his early season wounds, which have now caught up with him to the extent he may miss more than just the next couple of games.

Its his knee. Or his calf. Or something,

Scans have been sent to London where a specialist will decide whether its his knee, his calf, or something.

Its certainly not good news, as Brown is the on pitch leader, and the manager now has to consider whether or not to look for a long term replacement in January, or just go with either Calum MacGregor or Yousseff Mulumbu in that position.

One replacement mentioned is Southampton’s out of favour “enforcer ” Oriel Romeu. Being out of favour at Southampton isn’t the same as being out of favour anywhere else, because manager Mark Hughes makes Alex McLeish look like Pep Guardiola. His man management requires a little something else, like someone to do it for him, and Stoke City fans still scream at the mention of his name, as they consider he destroyed their club on and off the field.

Have a look at this, from WhoScored.com

Oriol Romeu Characteristics

Of course, the problem is the wage-currently around £65,000 a week, and the transfer fee, which would be around £10m .

But if Celtic are to move to the next level, the Spaniard, who started out at Barcelona, may well be a wise investment.

Other names are in the frame as well, including Scott McTominay, who is at Manchester United, Nick Powell, at Wigan, and Andy Halliday, of “rangers”.

In the sense that Rodgers is reported to have said “As long as we don’t end up with someone like Andy Halliday of “rangers “, I’ll be happy.”

Not reported, however, by anyone within the managers earshot.

The theme here is that Celtic are looking for a central midfielder, which suggests that the club may be aware that Brown is starting to show signs of wear and tear.

And not just to take the pressure off him either.

It gets worse.

James Forrest and Leigh Griffiths will join Brown in front of the telly on Thursday night, as neither are fit.

The squad is starting to look a little thinner on the pitch than it does on paper, and what is already a difficult couple of games is starting to look even harder.

Griffiths should be ready for Murrayfield, and Forrest will be, because his absence is due to his red card against Salzburg.

Celtic trained at Murrayfield yesterday, and significantly Daniel Arzani was with the senior team, which although he can;t feature in the Europa games may mean that he will be around on Sunday.

His promotion left a vacancy in the reserves, and fortunately, it was filled quite spectacularly..

See if you can spot it in this report from the official website..

Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Celtic Training Centre, Lennoxtown

CELTIC…6
(Bell 7, Diver 11, Dembele 13, McInroy 23, 53, Kennedy 89)

PARTICK THISTLE…0

CELTIC got off to a winning start in the City of Glasgow Cup with a dominant 6-0 win against Partick Thistle at Lennoxtown today (Tuesday).

Lewis Bell opened the scoring early on before Ciaran Diver and Karamoko Dembele rounded off the scoring in the first-half. Celtic added a further three goals after the break, with captain Kerr McInroy scoring a double and Paul Kennedy grabbing the sixth goal of the afternoon.

Tommy McIntyre’s team set the tempo of the game from the start and came close to opening the scoring in the second minute through Armstrong Oko-Flex, but the 16-year-old was denied by a last-ditch block.

The Jags only managed to keep their heads above water for a further five minutes before Celtic found the back of the net. Oko-Flex picked out Bell from a corner and the defender headed home with ease.

Two quick-fire goals followed as Diver doubled the lead minutes later when he headed home a Daniel Church corner at the near post. The third came from 15-year-old Karamoko Dembele, who scored a fantastic solo effort on his first start for the Reserves. And Celtic were 4-0 up midway through the first half as McInroy’s deflected effort looped over the Thistle keeper.

The visitors started the second half more organised but were unable to take possession from Celtic, who patiently worked another opening in front of goal. McInroy bolstered the momentum with a brilliant shot from the edge of the box which he curled into the top corner.

Jack Aitchison was denied a goal by the woodwork, but a sixth goal deservedly came in the final minute through Paul Kennedy, who smashed in a free-kick.

CELTIC: Mullen; Bell; Church, Duffy (Kennedy 80), Welsh; McInroy, Dembele, Coffey (Harper 77); Diver (Deas 77), Oko-Flex; Aitchison.
Not Used: Hughes, Patterson, McBride 

Karamoke Dembele made his full debut for the reserves.and it won’t be long before he makes a bow in the first team.

So there’s something to look forward to, as well as something that should put a few thousand on reserve gates.

More importantly, there’s no need to splash out on putting his name on the back…for those who have not chucked away the shirts they had last season.

Speaking of crowds, Celtic have sold 30,000 tickets for Sunday, and as Hearts have sold their allocation as well, this means that the game will be played in front of Scotlands biggest crowd since Joe Miller secured the 1989 Scottish cup.

Its rather fitting that in the week Roy Aitken is honored with a place in the Scottish Football Hall of Fame we are talking about that game again, as it was he who grabbed the ball for the throw in -daring the referee or linesman to point out it wasn’t Celtics throw, that culminated in the winning goal.

Oh. Referees.

Willie Collum will be in charge on Sunday, which should make for a terrific atmosphere.

John Beaton has the Hampden clash between “rangers ” and Aberdeen, which explains why Aberdeen haven’t sold their allocation.

Sunday also marks the first use of the new referee kits, which were paraded recently for the cameras..

I’m no cynic, but a Celtic “rangers ” final is what the sponsors want, and I’ve a feeling that everyone is doing their best to ensure it happens…

Now I don’t know who “In The Style ” are, or who does their online marketing, but they may soon find themselves on a boycott list..Georgina on Twitter spotted this…

I can;t help wondering if any “rangers ” supporting lassies have noticed this, or if they think its sort of a nice personal touch.

Then again, style and fashion may not be their thing…

There was further bad news for Ian “FTP ” Durrant yesterday…

IAN DURRANT has left Dumbarton FC following the recent changes at the club.

The ex-Rangers and Scotland midfielder became assistant manager in January 2017 after Stevie Farrell took on the manager’s post at Stranraer.

From there, he assisted Stevie Aitken to secure a fifth consecutive survival in the Championship. The two also oversaw progress to last season’s Irn Bru Cup final.

He was kind enough to take interim charge of Sons for Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Arbroath.

All at DFC thank Ian for his efforts and wish him well for the future. 

The Unseen Fenian Hand at work ?

Or just that Dumbarton have realised he’s bloody useless.

Still, at least he got all that press attention to help him in his new career as a stand up bigot.

But steps are being taken to put a stop even to that…though, not , of course, by anyone in authority..

The move by one section of society to call out and condemn religious or racist memebers of the community kind of proved why its needed yesterday…

I think they may see more of us there than they originally thought.

Its the 21st century in the rest of the world, and its about time some peepil realised that.

Yesterday, we had this picture…