Celtic Diary Wednesday December 5

Tense? Nervous? Headache?

Must be a champions league game coming up.

Tonight Celtic must better Benficas result to stay in the champions League as the group stage of the competition comes to a close. While Benfica face an understrength Barcelona in spain, Celtic must do the business at home to Moscow Spartak. Its that simple.

Manager Neil Lennon reckons qualification “would be my best achievement as a manger.”

He continued;

“It would be great for everyone associated with the club and it would give the players something to look forward to and get their teeth into in the New Year. No one gave us a prayer coming into the competition. There were people saying we wouldnt get a point and people saying we wouldnt get into the Europa League but we felt that we had a decent chance and thats what we have given ourselves”

Wish he’d saved that speech for tomorrow morning, though.

“However , regardless of the outcome, we will have European football in the new year, and that was one of the targets going into the group. Which competition it will be in remains to be seen, but we would all love to be in the Champions League, obviously.

Yup, obviously. Some people think that the Europa League is a competition we have a realistic chance of winning, but to be honest, every team we play has to come to Glasgow no matter what competition we are in, so lets aim for the stars. Its been a great campaign to date, and theres no reason why it should end tonight.

Complete concentration and one hundred per cent effort from the players, and everyone in the crowd doing their bit, and we should be in with the big boys come 2013.

Victor Wanyama will miss the game, but there is Beram Kayal to take his place, Paddy McCourt, James Forrest and Anthony Stokes are the other absentees, but there should be enough in reserve to get through, if everyone does their bit.

Scott Brown thinks Aiden McGeady will be a threat, describing his former team mate as a “joy to play alongside”. McGeady, of course , is still a Celtic fan, but the memory of Henrik Larsson scoring for Barcelona is too fresh to hope for any favours. Lets just not give him a chance.

Celtic Park will be rocking, and lets hope the passion and enthusiasm rubs off on the players, and that they have got the nerves out of their system after the Benfica game.

Yesterday HMRC announced their intention to appeal the decision that let Rangers off the hook for their novel and refreshing way of paying players, and Charles Green said his club will not take up their ticket allocation for the upcoming cup tie at Tannadice, where they play Dundee Utd. Apparently the Arabs were nasty to his club when they wanted the money they were owed.

You can get a copy of the new clubs share prospectus if you apply, which shows the major investors haven’t invested majorly.

But its not about them today. Its about Celtic. Its about re-establishing the club back at the top tier of European football. most commentators think that the fans deserve to be up there, but the team too, should be back where it belongs.

So if you are going to the game, sing your heart out. Get behind the team before during and after the game. Frighten the life out of Spartak and make them wish they were somewhere else.

C’mon the hoops.

Woody Guthrie was the man who penned the original This Land is your Land, as a reposte to all the “patriotic” US tunes, and today, although no doubt your mind will be elsewhere, can anyone fill in the missing word in this sixties squad hit record?

Celtic Are ……..?