Celtic Diary Monday July 1

Celtic were beaten 3-2 by Crewe Alexandra at the weekend in a behind closed jumpers for goalposts friendly. The players spent most of the game catching up on holiday stories and showing photies to each other, which allowed the Cheshire side to take full advantage.

And I don’t think anyone took Luke Murphy to one side either. The midfielder is available for round about £1m and looks like he’s off to Blackburn or Wolves. Neither of which is really a step up for him.

Today the squad flies out to Germany for a few games, the idea being to get everyone ready for the all-important ties against Cliftonville, and you can watch from home if you have Premier Sports, who are covering the first four matches. Wednesday at 6 sees it all start, with a clash against Ukrainian Second Division winners Sebastopol, which should let the players know the serious stuff has started.

Thomas Rogne has gone to Wigan, who have also signed Stephen Crainey, another  Ex-Celt which means that their defence will have Rogne , Crainey and Caldwell next season. Unless they sign someone like Carlos Pouyol to play alongside them, they may well have one or two issues concerning goals against next year.

Scott Brown returns to the fold this week, and reckons he is ready to go, but is even more pleased that manager Neil Lennon hasn’t gone;

” Its great that the gaffer, Johann Mjallby and Gary Parker are still here. I heard a few things over the summer and I’m not sure what happened. I was just hoping he’d be here when i came back. We were struggling at one point as a club and the manager brought back the fighting spirit. He’s put belief  in myself and in other players.

He’s due a bit more recognition. Everyone thinks its easy here and we should win the treble and have a run in the Champions League. But we play 60 or 70 games a season, so to be consistent is difficult. ”

If Brown heard about any sort of instability at the club, he should change the newspaper he reads.

Anyway, the good news is that he feels he is almost back to full fitness;

” I feel not too bad. I’ve not really done twisting and turning and passing the ball yet so I’m a bit behind everyone else, but I’ll catch up soon. My pre season won’t be much different from everyone elses. I’m just playing catch up because they were in a week earlier than me. I’ll hopefully join in with a few games here and there.

I’d love to play in pretty much most of the games but we’ll have to see how I go in training and how far behind my touch is from everyone else. My body feels fine, I feel good from the four weeks of recovery and its been good to just rest. ”

Brown has become an important player for Celtic, theres no doubting that its a different team on the park with him in it.

The short break, coupled with the staggered holidays toward the end of the season should mean that the players won’t need as much time to get back up to speed.

Crewe game notwithstanding, of course.

Transfer talk again, and this time it came from Neil Lennon. With a couple of new faces in already, its refreshing to see the club getting things done early, but the gaffer isn’t done yet. He wants a left sided midfielder, and some cover for Emilio Izzaguerre.

” We are making inroads. You never know if you can get over the line, but we’ve done some decent business early, which was important in terms of getting them bedded in. Hopefully, if we get another one in we can bring him over to Germany with us. ”

Anthony Stokes has still to re-sign, but Lennon thinks that something can be sorted.

Stephen Mouyokolo will be given every chance to earn a deal over in Germany, but if Efe Ambrose keeps hiding his boots and shorts, then it could be a bit of a task for the ex Wolves player.

All these centre halfs coming in doesn’t worry the big Nigerian. ( To be fair it doesn’t worry the support either, ) as he reckons he can fill the space created by the departure of Victor Wanyama, if , of course, any club is prepared to take on the player and his somewhat troublesome agent.

Ambrose could well be less of a liability in the middle of the park, and to be fair, he may settle a bit better this season, and be less prone to his habit of giving the ball away so he can try to win it back.

Neil Lennon has said that the defender won’t be rushed back after his Confederations Cup exploits, and Lennon has admitted that the player needs rest, and won’t make the same mistake as he did when he rushed him from the plane straught into the side for the Juventus game, where he managed to influence the result almost straight away.

“Aye, we’ll learn from that one. ” said the boss.

Around four years rest should do it.

Kevin Doyle, of Wolves , is another name that won’t go away, but if we all close our eyes and  make a wish at the same time, it  might.

Theres a whole heap of twitter rumours and names being bandied about on other web sites, but reallistically, until they were pretty much ready to sign, Balde and van Dijk weren’t on anyones radar, so its logical to assume that the next incomings won’t be either. If you say that in a Mr. Spock voice it becomes even more credible.

Sevco continued their fight against reality over the weekend, tearing up the contracts of Doian and Bocanegra, and saving themselves a fortune.

However, Florin Manea, the agent for Goian, claims that the Scottish club have already sent the 500,000 euros as full and final payment for the remaining year of his contract.

Someones telling fibbers.

Curiously, and presumably so that they can say that they warned Sevco, one or two in the MSM are tentatively pointing out that the new club cannot possibly survive at the current level of expenditure, ( although thelatest money spinner is a video tour of the new bus for 99p. Another winner there for them.  ) and even more curiously, Ewing Graham  has pointed out that even winning a cup will not allow Sevco to play in Europe.

The hack says he wanted to put a myth to bed with that revelation, but stopped short of nailing the countless other lies and denials that have seeped from the new club, but its a start.

Hearts have managed to sign Danny Wilson, despite a transfer embargo, as he was already registered with the club before the ban, due to his loan period there.

The new SPFL rules, still being written as we speak, do not allow, as yet for machine gun emplacements to protect the back four, but you get the feeling its on its way. ( We believe Wigan have already asked the English FA for clarification on this. )

After seeing his side fight back from two goals down, to win 3-2 in the 1904 Cup final, Willie Maley spoke very highly of his players  Well done to Run Sammy Run for remembering that one.

“There are still alot of rascals in the game. It is a pity the authorities have turned a blind eye to it. I am perfectly happy with the fact that football agents do not like dealing with me. You have to fight fire with fire sometimes. ”

Still quite accurate these days, and it might be seen as advice to the current management, but who said these wise words  some years ago ?