Celtic Diary Friday April 26

Doctors were rushed to Celtic Park last night as staff became concerned about the increasingly erratic behaviour of chief executive Peter Lawwell. Just a couple of days after slashing £100 off the price of season books, he now wants to allow the sale of alcohol in the ground so that people can drink in a “controlled, policed environment”

“We’ll get that money back off them somehow, ”  he confided to the rest of the board.

Actually, yet again its another move from Celtic that indicates that they have suddenly realised that supporters are important. Lawwell explained his reasons;

“Its more responsible. You could open the bars at 12.30, let people come in and watch the football or the racing. The alternative is you go to the pub. There are no stewards, no police and people come rushing to the ground at 2.45”

Which shows he hadn’t noticed how little we actually play at 3pm these days.

Worryingly, and I may stand accused of paranoia here, but he mentions the word “police” far too often for my liking in that statement.

It could easily be interpreted that Lawwell is trying to make sure all the fans are in one place so the police can film them and plan their weeks dawn raids.

Or it could be genuine business sense. Punters will have a beer before a game, so why doesn’t the club sell it to them?

Bearing in mind that a hospitality ticket means you can drink-but not within sight of the pitch-the law does seem unfair, and with the Commonwealth Games likely to see a suspension of the ban, Lawwell hopes to sit down and have talks with Glasgow Council to see what can be done.

With no Celtic players on the PFA list, Neil Lennon came out swinging, calling it “abysmal”. It seemed a strange rant to have, and possibly its just a bit of man management to wind his own players up, ensuring maximum effort from now until the Cup Final, and unsurprisingly, PFA top man Fraser Wishart dismissed it very swiftly;

“Celtic have had a fantastic season and I think the voting , in a strange way, (the importance of punctuation in this sentence cannot be underestimated) reflects their season because seven Celtic players received nominations, they were voted for by their peers.”

Not the most eloquent of statements, but he has a point. Even Celtic supporters, voting for their player of the year, would split the vote between a number of candidates. So thats why there was no single nominee.

That  , according to Lee Wallace, who plays in one of the lower divisions, and the fact that Rangers aren’t in the SPL.

Lennon balanced his rant with more reasoned replies to a couple of leading questions in the Scotsman. When asked if the SPL was less attractive now than when he joined the club, the gaffer replied;

“Well, Celtic was always a big attraction and lure for me….I had played five years in England and never experienced an Old Firm game, so that wouldn’t really matter to me…I would want to play for Celtic….there are a lot of incentives there.”

The rest of the article is the usual  questions on the now standard theme of “How do you expect to keep your players if they can’t play against Rangers ?” shite.

The boss has also decided that four players, Ambrose, Wilson, Commons and Ledley can have a week or so off as he begins the task of resting and recharging the players for the Champions League campaign. The opening games in next years tournament for Celtic are on July 16 or 17-about six weeks after the Cup Final.

It gives the fringe players a chance to get some game time, and one or two of the younger players will get a chance as well. Striker Bahrudin Atajic, we hear, has been given his new suit by the club, so expect to see more of him in the coming weeks. All the best gossip here as ever.

More importantly, it means that players, especially those who will be playing international football in June, get some sort of a break before it starts all over. Celtic have played more than fifty games this season, so its not surprising that one or two have picked up knocks. Kris Commons has admitted he has been popping pills to help him through games, which perhaps should open our eyes a wee bit to the effects of  first class football on the players bodies as the season goes on.

Now, one or two people on the interweb are beginning a campaign for former player Stilian Petrov to be allowed to unfurl the championship flag at Celtic Park. Petrov, still battling but winning a fight against Leukaemia, was at Celtic for a number of years, and some supporters would like to see him given this honour to show that Celtic fans are supporting him in his fight.

Now, whilst the illness he has , and the ordeal he has been through deserve our thoughts and prayers, there is no reason to ask him to raise the flag. Nothing against the man, and no disrespect to him, but no. That honour should go to a Celtic man, although if recognition of  someone overcoming illness, perhaps against the odds, then wee Oscar Knox should be asked he he wants to do it.

Otherwise, keep it in house, as they say.

The Daily Record has swiftly got back on message as this mornings paper claims that Charles Greens pal, Imran Ahmed has been slagging Ally McCoist and Walter Smith on line. You don’t have to see the paper to realise that Chucks buddy is simply working his ticket as well now, even allowing Tommy the Taxi Driver to announce publicly that in a text message he had offered the prankster a reward for exposing Francisco Sandazas real motive for playing at Rangers.

Green gone, then Ahmed, and still the SFA say nothing. Its now over a year since they issued any sort of statement on the  Ibrox club, which considering all that has gone on over there, is astonishing in itself.

Of course, this move against Ahmed is no deflection from the accusations that John Brown made towards the two “Rangers ” men in the picture, or indeed the paper featuring them…

Still, there is a wee bit of good news for the stricken side today-Lee Wallace and David Templeton have been nominated for Third Division player of the Year. Presumably because they won’t need to take a day off work to attend the function.

They also have a new CEO/chairman, and Craig Mather told the fans;

“Rangers fans have been outstanding in their support during the most diffcult of times and I know they don’t know me and may have some doubts. I hope to dispel all of those if that is the case……I could not stand here and tell you I have always been a Rangers fan…. …Hang on!   ”   he suddenly shouted

“This is Charlies speech from last year”

The interweb was alive with rumours that Follow Follow, a popular Rangers website, had told its members to brace themselves for more bad news…

Looks like Kenny Miller is going back , then.

Of the four legends mentioned yesterday, perhaps surprisingly, Bobby Lennox is the only one to have appeared less than 600 times for the club.

Now, instead of an odd one out, what specifically did Ronnie Simpson and Kenny Dalglish uniquely have in common?