Amidst all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, it’s about time we had something to make us feel a bit better, amongst all the kerfuffle of the new season.
Should Lyon not win the current champions league, or the last one, depending on which way you look at it, Celtic will be in pot 3 if they make the group stage this season, which makes it just that little bit easier to avoid groups of death.
Albien Aljeti will be announced as an addition to an already fearsome front line at some point today or tomorrow, and there’s a likelihood that Shane Duffy, a Celtic fan from Derry will bolster a back line that clearly needs re-inforcements.
Duffy had been telling his pals back home that he was joining Celtic, and is currently in talks about a loan move.
Aljeti, a former team mate of Mo Elyannoussi in Switzerland, might help to bring out the best in the winger, as the players look to make amends for the appalling display at Kilmarnock.
It’s all gone quiet now, with the players under instruction not to talk to anyone, which can only be a good thing as they lick their wounds and try to make some sort of sense of the events of the last few days.
Events that see them five points adrift in the league already, with the certainty that that will have increased by the time they next tale the field in domestic action.
The game with Reykjavik next week is still on, but the fragility of involvement n Europe was outlined when Linfield were awarded a 3-0 win over KF Drita.
The Drita squad had been quarantined by Swiss authorities after two of their players tested positive for Covid, which shows that there will be no messing around when it comes to decision making should any club have similar results.
Boligoli Boli really didn’t think his trip to Spain through, although there are one or two other players, not Celtic players, who will be anxiously picking up papers and watching for the police at the door based on what is on the grapevine.
For Scottish First minister Nicola Sturgeon, all of this is an unwelcome and tiresome distraction from the job of halting the spread of the virus in the north, and hopefully the conservatives will keep giving her Ruth Davidson to play with to keep her mind of things.
It won’t take much for Sturgeon to call a halt to the whole thing, and there is already enough news waiting to break to pretty much ensure that the season will be halted, albeit temporarily, which if nothing else will have the hordes howling about unseen fenina hands again.
Though that howl may well be cut short….
Alright, the title was a bit misleading as although there is some good news, it might not matter ….if Celtic do get to resume their campaign, then I’ll be surprised and delighted.
And hopefully the players will, by then, have all grown up into mature adults who have realised exactly what is required of them, on and off the pitch, until the moment that tenth title is secured.
It’s not just a disregard for safety that bothers me. One story doing the rounds claims that Olivier Ntcham was due to start at Kilmarnock on Sunday, but turned up in the wrong place for the pre match meet. although we can be certain he wasn’t in as much of a wrong place as Boli, it still smacks of underpreparedness and even sloppiness, at least we’re having these problems now and the proverbial kick up the arse has been delivered.
It just remains to be seen if we get a chance to put the plans into action.
When football has it’s big stories, such as the one playing out now, its an opportunity for the great and wise to offer their thoughts, which when constructively put together can actually help to work out a solution.
Then there’s Alan Brazil, of Talkshite Radio…who , when he was told of the indiscretions of Aberdeen and Celtic players, said ;
“Are people thick or what?”
Fortunately for him, as US comedian George Carlin once said, most people are even thicker than thick, which gives him an audience to play to.
Something else I’ve noticed, which may or may not be significant, “rangers ” have yet, in three domestic matches, to have a player booked or sent off…
Where did this new angelic outfit come from ? Surely they are to be applauded ?
Yet somehow I don’t think anyone in the media will draw attention to this, a pity because whatever instructions Gerrard has given to his players about sporting behaviour should be passed on to everyone as an example of how the game should be played….
| 1 August 20201 | Aberdeen | 0–1 | Rangers | Aberdeen |
| 12:30 | Ojo  45‘Considine  87‘ |
Report | Kent  21‘ |
Stadium: Pittodrie Stadium Attendance: N/A Referee: Bobby Madden |
| 9 August 20202 | Rangers | 3–0 | St Mirren | Glasgow |
| 15:00 | McCarthy 23‘ (o.g.) Morelos 69‘, 74‘ |
Report | Sheron 25‘ MacPherson 68‘ |
Stadium: Ibrox Stadium Attendance: N/A Referee: Andrew Dallas |
| 12 August 20203 | Rangers | 3–0 | St Johnstone | Glasgow |
| 19:45 | Barišić 21‘ Kent 45+2‘Aribo 49‘ |
Report | McCart 37‘ Gordon 78‘ |
Caption – Policeman who foiled armed robbery at pharmacy, was shot in the colostomy bag …”
Today…
see anything Jim? Zero mate,
Caption
Ajeti’s plane begins its descent into Glasgow and the media hordes have gathered on the Clyde to welcome him
There will be no fkn refugees landing in Govan! #WATP
Caption……..
Ruth Davidson’s car crash politics elevated to an entirely different level at the First Ministers Questions. (Haven’t had such a good laugh for yonks)
CAPTION: This is number nine on my bucket list
Re the Bolingoli ‘incident’. I was shaking my head in bewilderment (same as everyone else) when he did it. His pre match Covid test, however, came back negative (A better result than that hun team who didn’t bother taking a test at all.)
But…How many players wives and families have gone to Spain, for instance, and come home; with the player not bothering to tell their club? It’s not as though an ‘intrepid reporter’ from the MSM is likely to be taking their pictures (If they even recognise them) for the front page of a Scottish rag. Not unless they are a Celtic wife.
The point i’m making is, the footballer Covid rules, as they stand, are totally unenforceable. Bolingoli therefore should be disciplined by the club only, and neither player nor club should be liable to being penalised by the authorities.
why is spain worse than going to aberdeen (0-2) or glasgow or anywhere else. because wee jimmy said it and knows where all the CV-19 is. we jimmy needs to fvck off.
Ah! A Unionist Tim, like Brian Wilson, the very worst kind.
Incidentally. I said Spain ‘for instance’. A house party in Aberdeen? The point still stands. Now jump off your Loyalist, anti SNP, “I vote alongside the Orange Order” high horse.
“unionist tim, “ youse are good at using the language of irish politics when it suits
many of us “unionist Tims” remember the monklands bi election
the snp as we knew them
Is that where the SNP played the Orange Card? The 1st time that I had known them use it to my Knowledge but there again living in Yorkshire I only became aware of the SNP through Winnie Ewing and the Hamilton by-election in the late ’60s. Hail. Hail.
Well, if you’re a unionist and a tim, you’re a unionist tim! What have Irish politics got to do with it? If you’re too embarrassed to admit it maybe you’re the one who has the problem with language. Come out of the closet and wave your butcher’s apron with pride like the huns do!
PS I’ve heard of bye-elections but bi elections? Do the candidates have to swing both ways?
Leave the Beach Boys out of it.
ah someone who cant understand, it doesn’t matter a fvck what you say its what wee jimmy says about spain that counts. Thats why boli got fined by the police state for exercising his democratic right to get on a flight to spain. am I anti SNP and anti fascist you betcha
btw boli broke club rules which are real and he should be fined by celtic, made up wee jimmy nanny state protocols are not real and change every time jimmy has a w@nk
why is going to spain, for instance any more risky than going to the supermarket down the road for instance? enlighten me because I havent seen any hard facts on this that you and jimmy seem to have real insider knowledge of.
I wonder if the Labour Party will have a vote of no confidence in the education minister at Westminster, as the downgrading is seemingly worse there??
Caption: What’s the pilot doin’ Tom!
Caption: Good morning ladies and gentlemen we are now begging our descent into Glasgow* Prestwick where the local time is eight thirty and it’s a cool but sunny 12 degrees. We will soon….ÀWW FOR FUC……,
In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.
Hunter S Thompson.
Caption
Nicola deploys the navy as another player tried to sneak away on a foreign jaunt …
Caption : ‘Nine, nine, nine. Which service do you require’?
caption
Scene: The Falklands.
FFS Bert, I’m shitting myself and there’s Prince Andrew over there with not a drop of sweat on him.
Ntcham turns up at the wrong place for the pre team brief.
I thought they always stayed in a hotel the night before a game?
How the hell can he be in the wrong place. No one think to say wheres Ollie, someone go see where he is.
Make sure he’s OK?
With the bolingoli saga and if this is true, then our management team are in danger of losing a dressing room?
Brown McGregor Christie provided no ammo for the front players last Sunday. We failed because they didn’t get passes going.
Someone commented we had 70% of the play, we had 2 shots on target.
2 ffs. All our play was sideways.
We miss Big Tom, the only midfield player who can take players on.
Ntcham is a class above McGregor and Christie on the field maybe not with maps.
Its time for a shake up in the middle of the park.
Big Tom’s been dead for a couple of years.
Has Rogic done anything/much since the Invincibles?
Caption: Yes captain 9 is safe but 10 is under attack i repeat 10 is under attack
Wing commander Bojo: Excuse me chaps but you haven’t seen an aircraft carrier around here, Dom assured me there was one in Rosyth when I booked a little jaunt up to North Britain.
caption daily rectum headline ..brave kamakazi onion bear gets posthumous knighthood for unsuccesful attempt at stopping timmys ten
Caption
The family in the top tier are crowing about their comfortable nesting.
Caption
Morellos exit plan hatched
The garbage being printed about Celtic shows the fear of the Billy boys and their compatriots in the media. The mighty Wankers may well go eight or ten points ahead, but a season long run will peg them back, as their team is made up of journeymen.
There should be an improvement in our transfer policy, we need a big strong defender, hopefully that could be Shane Duffy he would frighten a few. The time for penny pinching is not this year as we go for ten, also we could be in the third pot for the UCl
Onwards and upwards to ten in a row
Does my bomb look big in this?
good signing
ajeti up top with eddy should do the trick
klimala will do as back up and Griffiths can maybe make an appearance if he can be bothered or is not at G.A
Yes, the less reliance on Griffiths the less chance of being let down time after time.
and yet still comments
He’s not the brightest.
agreed, certainly more common sense than putting on a left back with 5 mins to play chasing a goal when guys like rogic are up the road
haha so it was game management
never mind trying to score a goal, lets give taylor a 3 min reprieve
oh dear
taylor whio btw had 2 seasons or so playing on that pitch every 2nd week
sensei stuff that
Caption: Bolingoli, after being convinced nobody would know if he flew to Spain to meet up with one of Griff’s ex girlfriends. Realizes upon his return it was a Kamikaze mission.
Caught a bit of Radio snyde tonight , stuck in traffic.
Maybe i am getting more cynical , but i detected a nervousness among the ‘panel’
Discussion was along the lines of: Aberdeen players and Boli made big mistakes , clubs can’t be held responsible , lets get rules and regs arranged for any new breaches , whats done is done !
My reading of this , a Sevco player or players have breached a rule , the media know about it and they must get the narrative set before the story is released.
When they have the chance to slay us with a story like this , but choose not to you know there is something behind it
Caption,The Belfast C S C try to stop Boli,s flight to spain
Caption:
Boli McBoliface under quarantine.
Out-of-pocket is The Rangers term.
sevco scheming FC.