Celtic Diary Thursday February 14

Now that we’ve all calmed down, well, a bit, its defender Kelvin Wilson who offers the most sane view on the Juventus debacle. Talking about the Italian style of defending, which was a cross between all in wrestling and common assault,he said;

“Thats what Italian defenders are renowned for. They make sure they get a hold of you in these situations. I’m a defender myself, so I’m not going to say bad things about it. I’d do the same at the other end myself”

Except he didn’t get near enough to any Juve forwards to try.

But he has a point. although the referee was poor, very poor, players should adapt, and unfortunately ours weren’t streetwise enough to do that.

Kris commons was less generous, talking about Efe ambrose;

“Look, the manager picked him,. The manager pulled him to one sideand asked him if he was feeling okay. He said he was feeling brilliant. If he wasn’t feeling okay he should have said so. If he felt good he should have put in a better performance.”

Apart from the fact that Lennon shouldn’t have even asked Ambrose, commons is spot on. but those sort of comments are not for the public ear. It just shows petulance instead of passion.

Meanwhile, EUFA have confirmed that manager Neil Lennon will not face any action over his post match verdict on the referee Alberto Mallenco, which means that everyone can just move on and forget all about it.

Scottish radio stations wheeled out Stuart Dougal as their “expert” on the tugging what took place in the penalty area, and he proved just how little he knows about the game by saying the ref couldn’t award a penalty as the ball was out of play. On STV, (he was busy last night) he even claimed this while pictures showed the tugging continued when the ball returned to play. But credit to Dougal, at least this time he didn’t have his lawyer with him, and faced tough questions on his own. Still, it just shows if you want to talk about tugging and pulling, then Dougal is the man who springs to mind.

Last word on the tie for now cames from Andrea Pirlo, who says he fears a Celtic miracle” in Turin in a few weeks time;

“I’ve been in football long enough to know miracles can happen. I can still remember the Champions League final against Liverpool. Liverpool scored three goals in just a half, whereas Celtic have a whole game. Of course, we have put ourselves in a great position, and after a win like that, we would expect to go through, but it would be dangerous to consider that the tie is won yet”, he said as he was filling in his bookies line.

So, for the next couple of weeks we will have to heal the wounds, and come up with a plan to score three more than Juve at their new ground. They should have given us something difficult.

Anyone else who is married, or lives with a partner may have noticed doors slamming, one word answers, and a general huffiness from their spouses this morning. you know, as though you had forgotten something…

Its Adminiversary Day!

Thats right, twelve months ago today, Craig Whyte plunged his club Rangers into administration, causing much hilarity in the civilised world, and much permarage in the uncivilised. Ally Mccoists failure to take his side into the champions League group stages meant a huge shortfall in cash intake, and Old Shooter couldn’t pay the Tax and PAYE due to their queens men.

Thought I’d remind you, in case you’d forgotten, and then you can celebrate with your loved ones later on.

The saga still rumbles on, as everyone blames everyone else for the crash, which ultimately led to the end of 140 years of history via liquidation, in fact some blinkered souls still deny they died at all, which beggars belief. Actually, maybe it doesn’t , because the press themselves continued to peddle the myth about new owners, as opposed to a new club, which was formed to try to milk, sorry, capitilise on the support of the old one.

Indeed. just yesterday a grown up journalist from London town, Alex thomson of channel four, published e-mails which show that James Traynor , once a respected sports journalist, and now head of misinformation at the New Rangers, sent copies of his articles to owner Whyte for approval! and he asked him for a job, although it could be argued he was doing a fine bit of work for the Rangers while he was at the Daily Record and BBC Scotland.

Traynor, of course, has denied it, calling the story “malicious”, which is a big word for the portly prat. Thomson also claims at least one other hack, not from the Record was doing the same thing, and both of them have to be commended for their sterling work in making sure that the old club finally passed away.

After all, if they had had any professional integrity, they might have exposed the shennannigans not only of whyte, but of previous owner “Dodgy ” Dave Murray.

Thankfully, his mouth was too full of Daves succulent lamb for him to speak out. (note, “Lamb” in this context is not a euphanism for any particular body part)

Which brings me to a headline on SSN text today, which claims “McCoist confirms Bell liking” – I had to look twice at that one as well. Actually, Mccoist was on SSN, saying that the most important thing was that the club survived…

They really do deserve everything that is coming to them. Muppets.

A wee story I picked up on from a Celtic forum had me thinking this morning. It appears that a Celtic fan had his ticket confiscated by the police, but after buying one from a tout to get into the ground, he made his way to his original seat-to find a chap there who had bought his brief from a tout. Surely those honest coppers in her majesties finest are not at it?

Now, due to them mistaking the affluence of incohol on me a time or two before the game, I’ve had a couple of tickets removed, and it just made me wonder, thats all. Anyone else ever have this, and then find that the ticket has been sold or given away? The allegations may be true, or they may not be. but it merits investigation.

In a two legged European knockout game, no-one has overcome a three goal home deficit from the first leg, although arsenal did win 5-1 in the San Siro after losing 3-0 at home to Inter. This was a group game, and the final where Liverpool came back from three down was obviouly a one off game.

Still, if they continue to cheat and foul, maybe we will get three penalties. Has anyone ever scored three penalties for Celtic in one match, and if so, details?

Oh, and by the way. See the guy in the picture at the top. If you see him tell him he can come out now.