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Celtic Diary Thursday February 21

After spending a couple of games atoning for his mistake in getting on the right plane to make the Juventus game, Efe Ambrose has further endeared himself to the Celtic support by expressing his dream to play in the English Premier league.

The Nigerian defender, linked with Swansea, Liverpool and Sunderland,said

“I am happy to be linked with a club like Liverpool. My dream is to play across the border. The English league is the best but I am happy at Celtic. I love the fans here and we were unlucky against Juventus.”

Its very rare that a Celtic player comes across as unlikeable, but Ambrose is beginning to manage it. Perhaps I am being unfair, but the only unlucky thing about the Juventus game was the choice of referee. The mistakes were avoidable. His mistakes, actually.

Ambrose, who has a unique style of dribbling, in that he gives the ball away and then takes it back, is perhaps is own best publicist, because he cannot be accused of listening to any hype about himself, because there isn’t any. Though its no surprise Martin O’Neill likes him, given his record for buying calamitous big defenders. (Well, Balde, really. And Laursen, oh, and Hedman-then theres sorry, I digress…))

Anyway, Mulgrews return to centre half is long overdue.

The Evening Times claims that Scott Brown has lost his battle against undergoing surgery for his dodgy hip, and then corrects it to Neil Lennon “fears ” he has, and then gives no quotes anyway so the reader is none the wiser, preferring to dwell on Lennons gushing praise of the all new and mature Georgios Samaras, who he says is now a “top, top European forward.”, which is true, but nowhere near the headline worthiness of Browns injury.

With Samaras being described as “mature”, we put it to the test last night and asked him if he fancied going for a few beers, but he said no, because he has work in the morning, which is as mature as anything I can think of.

The Daily Express, still looking for that crucial first ever correct story, claims that Celtic have had John Park watching Andre Carvalhas, a winger with Portuguese Division 2 side Naval. Or it might be John Park has had Celtic watching him. You can never be sure with the Express, but whatever happens, it will be down to poor border controls or Brussels red tape.

There was outrage , fury and demands for a government enquiry last night as the Royal Television Society overlooked the contributions to reporting from local hacks (except Mark Daly) and gave awards to Alex Thomson of Channel 4 , and the BBCs Mark Daly for their work on the demise of former Glasgow football club Rangers. Warmest congratulations to them, for providing facts, opinions and all round hilarity.

Speaking ill of the dead, New Rangers /Sevco / Toxic FC owner Charles Green has paid Rapid Vienna £750,000 of the outstanding fee for Nikita Jelavic, who Rangers sold to Everton before they had actually paid for him. All this is part of Green and his all friendly policy as he tries to get his new club admitted to  the human race.

To help him in his new quest, here are a few others that are still looking for money from the old club/new club/financial basket case;

rangers-administration-full-list-of-creditors-1-2325870

If theres anything else we can do, all he has to do is ask.

Interestingly, GAIS, Orebro nd Palermo say they have received money that they were due as well, but St. Etienne, owed over Bocanegra, have refused to comment. Surely this is a new Rangers, paying all their dues , and not a cynical ploy to keep UEFA/FIFA out of their affairs.

Celtic are at home to Dundee on Sunday, and the Dens side will be without manager Barry Smith, who was sacked for having the least competitive side in the most competitive league, although because he only knew he’d be competing in it the night before it started, thats perhaps a bit unfair.

An early candidate for the post is the unemployable Jimmy Calderwood, fresh from his Go Ahead Deventer job-actually he was told by them to go ahead, as they pointed to the door, last May. Word on the street is that bosses at the BBCs Only an Excuse need him in work, for fear their annual New Year show may not seem topical, and are threatening to pull the plug, which means that someone somewhere should lock the little fellow up until the crisis passes. And we can watch Antiques Roadshow, or Jeremy Kyles New Year Party, which is being planned now, so everyone can fight over who got who pregnant on New Years Eve, and what they have been doing for nine months. Or where they have been doing nine months.

Alberto Mallenco, who raised a few eyebrows with his refrshing and novel  intrepretation of the laws of the game in last weeks Champions League game, has been the subject of howls of protest from Athletic Bilbao in Spain, who don’t want him in charge of their Basque derby with Real Sociedad.;

“He’s absolutely shite, ” said a spokesman, “and corrupt. His son plays for Reals junior team and his wife does their books.”

Now, my Spanish isn’t too good, but I think thats what they said. Apologies if I have got one or two words wrong. Or all of them..

The treatment of supporters who go under the various banners of the Green Brigade continues, with the group refusing to meet STV to talk about the police harassment, and they have also turned down a chance to talk to the Sun.

If they want to get it sorted, they need to let the world know whats going on. Otherwise, it’ll all end in tears, and they’ll claim no-one knows the truth. Sure, the likes of the MSM cannot always be trusted to tell the truth, or even part of it, but recording the interview, might help to ensure at least a partial representation of the facts.

Personally, if they ditch the guy with the drum, I’ll find some lion poo to scare the horses.

 

Allen McKnight, Paolo di Canio. Great names from the past, if the personality and talent within didn’t quite reach such greatness. Both made marvellous sporting gestures which cost their team advantages in English games. Despite the scepticism, both stories made the news, and re-affirmed belief in sporting integrity.

But not all gestures can be so magnanimous.

What did Graeme Souness do before Dynamo Kiev came to Ibrox for a European game?

 

 

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Ewen C
11 years ago

Narrowed the pitch

the lurgan tiger
11 years ago

Hacked and chopped his way through the opposition and then grew a rather fetching ‘tache?

Or narrowed the pitch, forcing UEFA to bring in minimum dimension standards

bognor bhoyle
11 years ago

he let kiev train on the pitch ” normal dimensions ”
but shortened it to minumum dimensions for the game .
( sneeky big get that he is )

11 years ago

yes they narrowed the pitch…..but the groundsman wore his brown brogues and club blazer so that the cheating was done in the most dignified manner.

Raymobhoy
11 years ago

Interested to hear where the Efe Ambrose qoutes came from.

It wasnt the MSM was it.

It sounde like the usual shit they print but just change the name to a Celtic player that has been scoring goals.

Also is it just me or is the font in this reply boa.

A. Tiny
B. Hard to read.

Cheers

Raymobhoy
11 years ago

boa should have been box, but i couldnt read it properly.

San MIguel
11 years ago

Now, now – they didn’t narrow the pitch – they actually moved the touchlines closer to each other as an efficiency measure to save money on line marking paint.

The Record reported the next daty that SDM – richest man in all Scotland – was a genius and despite his unfathomable wealth proved he could look after the pennies as well as the pounds.

I wonder if he still has the £1 Craig Whyte paid him ?

And yes the font is toty !!

Pensionerbhoy
11 years ago

Ralph

That was too good for my measly comments, Great greet!

Sorry to all the guys who answered the quiz by claiming Souness narrowed the pitch. WRONG! He actually had seen SDM’s financial forecasts and thought he should get some turf (that is doubtful given the state of the pitch over the years) to put on ebay when his alimony got too much. The thought that Dem would do something underhand that might be construed as cheating is anathema. How can you guys call yourselves decent Celtic supporters, thinking that. I am ashamed to be one of you. I am going to bury my head under some missing turf.

H H

Lenny Bruce
11 years ago

Did he shite in a dustbin and leave it in their dressing room?

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