Celtic Diary Thursday January 17

Tomas Rogic is coming to Celtic. As long as he can agree personal terms.

What seems like an impulse purchase is dragging out a wee bit, but if Kris commons reckons he’s a good player, then its fine by me. Commons said;

“I’ve seen him train once, and it seems like he has plenty of ability.”

So thats that then.

Another new bhoy, Rami Gershon, may well feature against Hearts on Saturday, with Efe Ambrose on international duty, and Kelvin Wilson suspended. He has already shown he can fit in by being injured for the Steaua game, and could well have a future with Celtic.

Manager Neil Lennon has been away at a managers conference, along with such giants of the game as Howard Wilkinson and Walter Smith, who aren’t actually managers, but to be fair, they couldn’t exactly ask McCoist, could they?

The subject of  Barcelona cropped up at this meeting, and other attendees, such as Tony Pulis and Davie Moyes leaned forward and took notes as Lennon explained how to play against the side.

“Barcelona set the template. It is a dangerous template because a lot of managers strive to play like that. you must understand the culture you are playing in. what we are seeing now in the current Barcelona team and Spanish team, are the best footballing teams I’ve seen. so thats what we all strive to be now. we can’t all be that way. We have to cultivate our own styles.”

In a nutshell, its the old Stein philosophy of letting the other team worry about us.

Managers are hogging the limelight this week, with ally Mccoist claiming that gordon Strachan will be a success with Scotland. Apparently, Mccoist reckons that if you can manage the “OldFirm you can manage anywhere.”

Strachan was asked if he would pick Rangers players even if they were in division 3.but he said he didn’t think any Berwick players were good enough. Or so the interweb would have you believe.

you have to be careful with the web. as STV found out when they copied a spoof story about Tony Watt disrespecting Steaua bucharest and being forced by Celtic to apologise. Poor STV, they didn’t even get the Magners story before Etims.net and its resident drunk.

Soory, I digressed for a moment there. McCoist talking about being able to manage anywhere, which is quite something from a guy who is lucky to manage anywhere.  The rookie manager, who worked under Walter Smith for Scotland before they returned to Ibrox six years ago, and has had a long apprenticeship in the role of team manager. During which he spent most of the time looking out of the classroom window and carving his initials into the desk.

Its good to see him doing well as the boss of the only full time club in a part time league. A league where it is compulsory for at least one of the opposition to be sent off.

The fat funster has also said that this years third division, which is the fourth tier of senior football, is now pointless because they will not be promotede to the third tier if they win it. Instead, he is in favour of the 14-14-14 plan which will see his club in the , er, third tier.

And people still ask him for his opinion on matters.

Incidentally, his club have announced they will have only a “minimal” presence at the cup tie against Dundee Utd next month, which will save on the bus fares. Hopefully, the Tayside club will put them in their place and give us all a good laugh.

Some say its wrong to give the oxygen of publicity to charlies Chancers, but having lived through the nineties, even if it is a different club from its dead predecessor, its still great to poke fun at the tribute act.

Just to prove its not just the Scottish press who are useless, the Mirror in England has Gary Hooper, the “SPL goal machine” turning down a new Celtic contract to “prove himself ” in the EPL. Having proved himself in Europes premier competition, he has to answer the question of being able to perform against Wigan, QPR and Stoke. Otherwise he is shite.

More good news on the transfer front, Leigh Griffiths will be staying at Hibs until May, and not because its part of his bail conditions. There were rumours that the SPLs top scorer would be heading along the M8 but they have proved to be fruitless.

A decision on the future of Dundee Utd boss Peter Houston will be made on Thursday, even though it seems obvious to everyone (except him) that they want him out and Craig Levein back in. Blackpool, having spoken to Houston about their mangerial vacncy are also talking to anyone else who will listen. Except nobody else wants to listen, such as the bosses of MK Dons and one or two other clubs. houston did admit to being surprised that he was allowed to talk to Blackpool by Dundee Utd, whilst Blackpool were surprised to learn that he wasn’t the Houston who used to be number two at Arsenal some years ago.

If you are looking for your extra tickets for the Juventus game, forget it. the queue is all the way back to the M74, and stewards are sending everyone home now. And don’t try to ring them. Your call is important to them, but not today.

But you can now download the Celtic view from the official site. Whoopee!

Sunday Eniola, another Nigerian footballer , described by the man himself as a strong player, has expressed a desire to join Celtic. Now , I have never seen him play, but he has contacted us to ask the coaching staff for a place in the squad, so if anyones reading , have a look at him. In fairness, he is the only Nigerian I ever spoke to on the web who didn’t have a brother in prison and a huge amount of money to offload, so he probably is genuine.

Which has also given me an idea for something for us to think about today..

Yesterday, we asked about Steauas european record that they set this year, and Gareth Savage was spot on with his answer of nine qualifications for the group stages of European competition, via the preliminaries.

Throughout the years, Celtic have signed many players who made their name at the club. Henrik Larsson, in particular will always say he made his name at Celtic, and the Swede apart, who was your favourite who “made his name at Celtic”?

I would go for “I was never a zero” Lubomir Moravcik, who didn’t make his name at Celtic as such, but in the eyes of many became a household name for the first time in his career.

You may have noticed that Etims have a radio show, and there a song thats running round in my head…

“does anyone know the way, there’s got to be a way, to blockbuster”

I’m only asking because this bailiff guy asked me.