Manchester United are constantly being linked with Moussa Dembele, who left Celtic after finding out that Brendan Rodgers was not averse to creative statements.

Oddly enough, with the Lancashire based global brand seemingly having forgotten that football success is a pretty important part of their financial model, they’re also being linked with Brendan Rodgers.

One of their fansites now ponders the possibility of a move for Oddsone Edouard…

Manchester United need a natural striker and they have been linked with Moussa Dembele, but could his compatriot Odsonne Edouard, who is in red hot form, be a cheaper option?

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer knows that his attacking line needs an injection of firepower, and there have been reports of a January move for the likes of Dembele and Mario Mandzukic.

Former Rangers and Scotland striker Kris Boyd is a huge fan of Edouard and has tipped him to reach the very top, Boyd told the Scottish Sun last week that he believes that the Frenchman would be a good fit for United.

There could be a space in United’s squad for both Dembele and Edouard, 

I think that would break whats left of my heart…

There. That’s that off my chest.

Anyway, if Manchester United want a striker , why not go after Alfredo Morelas , available now for just £20m and whatever wage he would command ?

Rangers have slapped a £20million-plus January price tag on Aston Villa target Alfredo Morelos, Football Insider has learned.

The Midlands giants are in the market for a new front man in the winter and the Colombia international is on their radar despite their near-£150million summer spend.

Ibrox sources have told Football Insider that chairman Dave King will not allow Morelos to go without a fight and is ready to set the asking price beyond the £20million mark. 

This comes after Football Insider revealed at the start of this month that Villa were lining up scouting missions for Morelos after setting aside more than £20million for a new striker in January.

Manager Dean Smith subsequently admitted that he is keen on adding a forward to the ranks in the winter window and refused to rule out a move for the Colombia international. 

Which , apparently, has alerted Crystal Palace as well…

In-form Alfredo Morelos is a January transfer target for Premier League side Crystal Palace – according to a report.

The Rangers striker has been in magnificent form this season and scooped the player of month award for September after a fine run.

And now the Eagles are said to be preparing a £20m move for the 15-goal forward and had sporting director Dougie Freedman scout him in person during the 1-1 draw with Hearts on Sunday, say the Scottish Sun .

And some people accuse us of making stuff up ?

Having said that, one of the reasons Morelos is still at Ibrox is that his club have priced him out of a move. He’s a decent enough striker, and referees have clearly been told to stop booking him for anything short of common assault to make it look like he’s grown up, which could see one or two desperate lower clubs take a gamble but not at that price King has apparently quoted.

What is significant is that it’s only October, their club/company has made a very good start to the season, and they’re openly trying to drum up interest in their main goalscoring threat.

And who is this guy, reportedly seen hanging around the wasteland that surrounds Ibrox stadium ?

Thats enough of them, after all, this entity is but a fleeting page in the history of our own club, who are still on track to secure a second nine in a row.

It’s going to be a tough week though, with Italian side Lazio on Thursday and then a trip to the frozen north to face Aberdeen, who have perhaps the only striker in Scotland who could cause havoc for the Celtic back four.

Sam Cosgrove may be a big lump, but he scores a lot of goals, and gets nowhere near the credit he deserves. If you consider the chaos that the Livingston forward of similar bulk caused, then Cosgrove becomes a clear and present danger.

But thats for Sunday, as before that, we have the family friendly Lazio to contend with.

At around lunchtime, Celtic historian Tom Campbell will take us down memory lane with his recollection of the last time Lazio came to Celtic Park, but the team we face on Thursday will be a different kettle of fish. As different as the people who keep fish in their kettles.

It looks like they are a side who will do whatever it takes to get a result , as the Record explains..

Furious Ciro Immobile has launched a defence of himself after being branded a diver just days before the Celtic showdown.

The Lazio striker was accused of cheating by Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini after appearing to go easily in the box during the dramatic 3-3 draw on Saturday.

Italy international Immobile scored two penalties but it was the first that was hotly debated and caused Gasperini to unload after the match.

Now Immobile – who netted his 11th goal of the season for club and country which earned him a cool £100,000 bonus from Lazio – has used his agent to defend himself from being labelled a diver, ahead of this week’s Europa League tie.

Marco Sommella said: “Gasperini’s statements are completely unacceptable and very serious. 

A striker called Immobile ? Surprised we’re not in for him.

“Ciro is angry because they come from an experienced coach, not from a fan. He has built his career with sweat, sacrifice and passion.

Ah..he’s a donkey.

“What happens the next time he is fouled or is tripped? His professionalism has never been in question and he shouldn’t be the subject of this debate.”

Something for the referee to watch out for.

Meanwhile, GazettoSport, a resepcted Italian journal, claims..

La Lazio si trasforma: maxi turnover di Inzaghi per la sfida con il Celtic

which, according to my best schoolboy Italian means…

Lazio turns: Inzaghi’s maxi turnover for the challenge with Celtic

Some sort of family sized apple based dessert ?

No, it means he’s making several changes for the game, hinting that with a couple of important league games ahead, Lazio are not treating this game as a priority.

The rest of the piece…

translates as this;

Thursday in Glasgow with Leiva, Berisha, Lazzari, Jony, Vavro and Bastos. In attack Caicedo ready to make Correa breathe again. Ok Luis Luis, left battered by the race with Atalanta Nicola Berardino 

20 October – 18:50 – ROME Turnover to Lazio to the Europa League. Simone Inzaghi is studying a wide exchange in the training to oppose on Thursday evening at Celtic. The Glasgow race will be a hub for the Biancocelesti towards the qualification after the k.o. immediately in Cluj and success with Rennes, but at home Lazio has a strong need to balance the energies between the various fronts. After the engagement in Scotland, two insidious championship races on the horizon: the trip with Fiorentina (Sunday 27 October) and the internal match with Torino (Wednesday 30). 

It would, on refelction, probably have been better to get someone else to translate it, but the gist of it sort of shines through.

Lazio will employ a touch of squad rotation, and are probably trying a spot of mind games as well. Hopefully, we’ll treat the game as though they are Juventus or Barcelona and hit them with pace, power and precision passing.

One thing I did learn, SS Lazio, as they are known, stands for Società Sportiva Lazio, and thus the club, somewhat surprisingly given the notoriety of its fans and normal skin loving chairman, no connection to anything else that happened to have those initials and a similar outlook on ethnic backgrounds.

In fact, In 1927, Lazio was the only major Roman club which resisted the Fascist regime’s attempts to merge all the city’s teams into what would become AS Roma the same year.

They are a lot more cosmopolitan than one tends to believe…

Lazio’s colours of white and sky blue were inspired by the national emblem of Greece, due to the fact that Lazio is a mixed sports club this was chosen in recognition of the fact that the Ancient Olympic Games and along with it the sporting tradition in Europe is linked to Greece.^[29]

Originally, Lazio wore a shirt which was divided into white and sky blue quarters, with black shorts and socks.^[30] After a while of wearing a plain white shirt very early on, Lazio reverted to the colours which they wear today.^[30] Some seasons Lazio have used a sky blue and white shirt with stripes, but usually it is sky blue with a white trim, with the white shorts and socks.^[30] The club’s colours have led to their Italian nickname of Biancocelesti.^[31]

Lazio’s traditional club badge and symbol is the eagle, which was chosen by founding member Luigi Bigiarelli.^[32] It is an acknowledgment to the emblem of Zeus (the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology) commonly known as the Aquila; Lazio’s use of the symbol has led to two of their nicknames; le Aquile (“the Eagles”) and Aquilotti (“Eaglets”). The current club badge features a golden eagle above a white shield with a blue border; inside the shield is the club’s name and a smaller tripartite shield with the colours of the club.

Though that badge did make me think…

Lazio (Italian pronunciation: [ˈlattsjo]), is an Italian professional sports club based in Rome, most known for its football activity.^[3] The society, founded in 1900, plays in the Serie A and have spent most of their history in the top tier of Italian football. Lazio have been Italian champions twice (1974, 2000), and have won the Coppa Italia seven times, the Supercoppa Italiana four times, and both the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and UEFA Super Cup on one occasion.^[4]

The club had their first major success in 1958, winning the domestic cup. In 1974, they won their first Serie A title. The 1990s have been the most successful period in Lazio’s history, seeing them win the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and UEFA Super Cup in 1999, the Serie A title in 2000, and reaching their first UEFA Cup final in 1998. Due to a severe economic crisis in 2002 that forced president Sergio Cragnotti out of the club along with several star players being sold, Lazio’s success in the league declined. In spite of the lower funds, the club has won four Coppa Italia titles since then; in 2004, 2009, 2013 and 2019. Current president Claudio Lotito took charge of the club in 2004 after two years of a vacuum after Cragnotti’s departure.

Lazio’s traditional kit colours are sky blue shirts and white shorts with white socks; the colours are reminiscent of Rome’s ancient Hellenic legacy. Sky blue socks have also been interchangeably used as home colours. Their home is the 70,634^[1] capacity Stadio Olimpico in Rome, which they share with A.S. Roma until 2020, when the latter will leave for the Stadio della Roma. Lazio have a long-standing rivalry with Roma, with whom they have contested the Derby della Capitale (in English “Derby of the capital city” or Rome derby) since 1929.^[5]

Despite initially not having any parent–subsidiary relation with the male and female professional team (that was incorporated as S.S. Lazio S.p.A.), the founding of Società Sportiva Lazio allowed for the club that participates in over 40 sports disciplines in total, more than any other sports association in the world.^[6][7] 

These days, they are more of a name than an actual contender, but I guess the same could be said of Celtic…

Ryan Christie will be available for selection on thursday, having rested up at the weekend due to his suspension after an enthusuastic tackle at Livingston. His energy will be vital if Celtic want to play at pace, as this heat map which shows his movement against Cluj in the previous EL game shows..

However, with Immobile up against Mobile , perhaps he needs to watch out for dirty tricks…

Christie, however, is looking forward to the game nonetheless.. despite somewhat misleading headlines from the Record..

Celtic star Ryan Christie on his Football Italia nostalgia as he relishes Lazio showdown

The 24-year-old has missed the Hoops’ last few games after being sent off against Livingston earlier this month.

Er, he’s missed one.

“It’s a massive match within the group and we have touched on that as a squad.

“In a tough section like this you need to make the most of your home games and use that advantage.

“When we play at Celtic Park, we always look to get three points. The aim coming into the Europa League was to win the home games and then see what we can do away from Celtic Park.  

So far, so good. Two more home wins should secure qualification, which would be Europa League after Christmas, which right now is as good as it gets for us.

There’s also Mohammed Elyannoussi, who seems to be settling in quite nicely at Celtic, and the possibility of a permanent move isn’t as far away as you may think.

One Southampton website indicated the club doesn’t want him back..

It’s good to see Elyounoussi flourishing in Scotland; it gives Saints a better chance of recouping some of the £16 million that was spent on his signature last year. 

He was hugely impressive for Basel and has shown a similar level of quality for Celtic. It didn’t work out for him at Southampton, but it seems he does still have something to give, particularly in European football.

Elyounoussi is a player who is at his best when he has the full backing of a manager, his club’s supporters, and his teammates. He appears to have found that at Parkhead. 

We’ll discuss that game a little later as it gets closer, as no doubt Lennon is currently working out his master plan to give s another great night under the lights.

Meanwhile, there appears to be a police  investigation into historical child abuse in Scottish football, as surely that can be the only explanation for this..

Maybe now that this in fully in the public domain, attention can shift to finding out who is guilty of what, instead of mindless fans scoring points off each other.

And then the victims can finally get some kind of justice.

Yesterday, we showed the less than happy face of the Ross county keeper …