Celtic Diary Friday March 8

League football returns tomorrow with a trip to the Highlands and a difficult match against surprise package Ross County. The Dingwall side currently sit fourth behind the Celts, Motherwell and Inverness, and have only lost seven of their twenty nine matches. Not bad for their first season.

Celtic have doubts over a number of players, some more than doubts, and right back looks to be the biggest problem, with Efe Ambrose favourite to fill in for the injured duo of Adam Matthews and Mikael Lustig. Lennon  might surprise us by playing youth regular right back Darnell Fisher, but in such a tough match, he will probably go for experience. Over ability.

Scott Brown is still out, and Victor Wanyama is not expected to play, so Lennon might flood the midfield and go with three at the back. Then again, he might not. Only in the Diary do you get such concise, expert analysis.

Surprisingly, the game is not on the telly, even though it promises to be a cracker, but that means it should be a full house.

Inevitably, the relative success in Europe has led to paper and radio talk of a mass exodus at Celtic, including players, managers and a cheeky bid from a Premier league team  for some of the supporters. Well, we’ll deal with that in the summer, but its interesting to note that certain sections of the press are decrying the end of Scottish footballs competitiveness as Celtic rake in the money from their exploits abroad.

In much the same way as they didn’t when Murrays Rangers bent and broke every rule they could to compete at that level. Remember the three teams article-one for Europe, one for the league, and one for the cups? Now , of course, carrying the flag for Scotland and doing well is seen as a disaster for the club, and everyone will leave.

Sure , some will be away. Fraser Forster was the first to break rank;

“I’ve always wanted to play in the Premier League and hopefully I’ll get the chance to do that. “, but he will only go as a number one-“I won’t be going to go and sit on a bench somewhere.”

Be careful what you wish for, big guy. Theres many who moved on and found that the bench was the best they could hope for. Not that they weren’t good enough, but that they thought they were better than they were. Thats what happens you play in a good side.

It gets worse, Daryl Murphy has said he doesn’t want to return to Celtic.

But, no matter who does go, bossman Peter Lawwell has moved to reassure the support.

“I think inevitably there will be one or two players that will probably want to move on. But stability is a very important thing in football so we would hope to get the balance right, to make sure that theres some quality coming in that may replace those that are going, but keeping a real balance in terms of stability and continuity going into, hopefully the qualifiers next July.”

At least, I think he was trying to reassure us.

He then commented on speculation about manager Neil Lennon.;

“…Celtic is a big part of Neil Lennon…..and we are hoping that he stays for a long long time.”

Lawwell did not comment on specualtion that the new Kia model, the Provo , will be issued to all staff as the new company car, mainly because no-one asked him, and I made that bit up. The Korean car company have run into a bit of flak (oops) over the choice of name for their latest vehicle, as it has connotations with the Provisional IRA. They look like they will change the name after all, but my suggestions of “Balacalava” and “Armalite ” have so far fallen on deaf ears, and its unlikely they will go with the tag line “Our Day Has Come” It seems they have rejected this one as well.

With the media going into overdrive to avoid giving any credit for Lennons remarkable debut Champions League campaign, it was left to Gordon Strachan to praise his old friend;

“We can all take a lesson in bravery from what we’ve seen. It was an unfortunate result over the two legs but they were performances that Celtic and Scottish football can be very proud of.” And that sums it up perfectly.

Now, Charlie and his Fiction Factory was  live on Talkshite Radio yesterday, and Charles took his version of talking shite to a new level. In an interview with Richard Keyes and Andy Gray he repeated the usual debt free, innocent of crimes nonsense that we have come to expect of him, but any hopes that serious questions would be asked of him were soon dispelled as the tone of the chat took on a fawning not seen since the days of Chick Young and his “Walter, why are you so good? ” interrogations.

Before the show, I rang to make the point about the new club using not only the old clubs name, but claiming they are the same club with the same history operating from the same premises with the same staff and management appealing to the same customer base. The chap who took the call said it was a good point, and said he’d call back if he could get me on. So, I waited, hoping to get a chance just to simply ask a few direct questions to perhaps coax Green into admitting a few home truths, such as their guilt in paying illegal payments to players, which on air he said they had been cleared of. He continued to re-write history throughout the show, and after it ran out of time, with no callers or comments invited, I rang back.

I asked why Green was allowed to lie , unchallenged on air, about the results of certain disiplinary hearings, and the tax case. He said he would note the comments, and pass them on to Keyes and Gray, who had gone by then.

He also told me of an email address, feedback@talksport.co.uk where any criticisms can be made about the shows, direct to the controllers.

Well, that should give me something to do later. And anyone else who wants to raise the point.

The interview turned into little more than a plug for Sports Direct, which would no doubt have delighted Wickes, who sponsor this rubbish.

Some might wonder why anyone would bother with the airwaves equivalent of the National Enquirer, but as Talksport outdid itself yesterday trying to get Tims to ring up, one moment made it worthwhile..

I missed the guys name, but the teatime show, with Adrian Durham, possibly the least talented of all those on that station, asked what the point of Celtic FC was. They could only continue to win leagues with no competition, and a wee run in Europe. You get the picture, and Durham was desperate for Tims to take the bait. One did. And Durham said that Celtic need not bother with the Champions League, as they will never win it. The caller replied that on that basis England should not enter World Cups.

Made my day.

Henrik Larsson is Celtic top scorer in Europe, with thirty four goals. He is also the man who holds the all time UEFA Cup /Europa League scorer title, the most European goals with a British club, and was a damn fine forward in his day.

Right, a trickier one today. Celtic have had players from all over the world, which of the non Scots has made the most appearances?