Celtic Diary Saturday February 2

James Forrest and Fraser Forster are back in the squad for tomorrows cup clash at Raith rovers, which will bring a sigh of relief to most of us, but Georgios samaras has a small tear in his hamstring and emilio Izzaguerre won’t make it either. tom Rogic has his work permit but the game has come a little early for him, and he won’t play.

However, all Neil lennon wanted to do was talk about how happy he was that all the main players were still with him after the transfer window. Especially Gary Hooper. Well, actually, Gary Hooper.

“I am delighted we kept all our main players, ” he said  ” We have added Tom Rogic, Rami Gershon, and hopefully Viktor-we are just waiting on the paperwork coming through-so it has been a decent window for us. Ther was another bid in yesterday (for Hooper) again, an improved offer,. I am not going to go into figures but it was substantial. we made our position clear and we stuck to that.

I knew what was happening so it wasn’t nervy for me. It might have been for supporters but there was a lot of rubbish and speculation being bandied about, a lot of nonsense, but I suppose that comes with the fun of it all.”

Aye, cheers. you could have told us, to save watching that awful Sky sports deadline day show. Still , we wouldn’t have believed him anyway, but you feel sorry for those who spent the day at the Celtic Park car park.

On the injuries to Samaras and Izzaguerre, he said;

“They had scans yesterday so we are hoping that they will both be fit for Juventus. Its a small tear for Georgiosbut we are going to be aggressive with his rehabilitation and our medical people, I wouldn’t say they were confident, but they think he has a chance of making juventus and we are hoping emilio should be okay.”

Aggressive rehab? Is that where you hit the wound with a stick and shout at it to get better?

Another manager delighted with the window was Third Division Ally Mccoist, who was “delighted that we didn’t have any business”, largely because no-one wants his players. In fact, even he doesn’t want them as he is always harping on about not being able to replace them.

The Sevco side, travelling north today for only their third game against top class opposition, have set the world record for fans attending a boycotted match, with 344 tickets sold to their fans.

This is the real one, not this one.

Which had welcome to the Rangers blazed across it, for their first ever meeting. The link didn’t work.

And certainly not the one which has Craig whyte on the front for his “tribute day”, as funny as they both are.

Aah, the banter. That game is on sky today, and we wish new Tannadice boss Jackie MacNamara all the best. I’m sure one or two of us will have a passing interest in the game. Jackie had a fine career with Celtic , and will be remembered fondly for a few great moments. He lived the dream, and got to do what many of us could only dream of.

Couple of things from the Scotsman newspaper worth mentioning, Glenn Gibbons criticising former Celts in the media for their criticisms of their old club, he says their “Impartiality ” veers into “unfairness”, whilst compares it with Hateley and Derek Johnstne, who he says have been called “laughable” and had their positions within the media as neutrals “brought into question.

One other thing from that paper-on Newsnow the top story was about Charles Green losing a £6m contract, but it disappeared very quickly. Why ?

John Hartson was the man who famously wore a condom on his head for a Christmas night out, and not any of the Innuendo XI mentioned by our team of comedy writers yesterday. Although you couldn’t help but chuckle.

Now, a former Celtic coach, in pre Celtic career, once kicked a ball into a wooden panel with his right foot, and then with his left,splitting the panel,  to demonstrate to a German audience how inadequate local players were. He had to do this because his command of the German language was making them laugh.

Who was he?