Celtic Diary Friday July 19

By the time you read this, its highly likely that the potential opponents for the next phase of the Road to Lisbon II will be known.  One of  UEFA s main men will dip his hand into a bag of scrabble letters and pull out a dozen or so tiles which will form the name of Celtics third qualifying round opponents. Hibs, Motherwell and St. Johnstone will  be in the draw for the next round of the Europa League, with St. Johnstone actually having a realistic chance of participating, thanks to an absolutely superb 1-0 win in Rosenborg last night, delighting bookies across the land.

If Celtic lose the in the next round, , heaven forbid, the club will drop into the fourth qualifying round of the Europa League. A win means a play off game against one of the other European league winners. Thats all based on the expectation that Cliftonville will not overturn a three goal deficit in Glasgow, which looks unlikely at this stage, but you never know.

Anyway, at the time of writing, it was Albania, Moldova, Azerbiajan  Sweden or Finland.

Bizarre as it might sound, I  have been offered a couple of free return tickets to Helsinki, but the catch is I have to start from Tallinn. Its a long story.

Everyone who went to Belfast had a wonderful time, there was no trouble and the only blot on the horizon was the outburst of ” sectarian singing ” which caused an outbreak of letter writing from at least one disgruntled “loyalist “;

” Dear Sir

I am writing in disgust at the behaviour of the Glasgow Celtic supporters at last nights Champions league qualification match held at Cliftonville’s staduim in North Belfast, Northern Ireland.

I live in Northern Ireland,and my father and i settled down to watch a game of football only to be subjected to a vile sectarian songbook of anti protestant songs and chants in support of the I.R.A. This was very unpleasant because at this present time the tensions are very high and not too far away from the football staduim their is sectarian rioting between Roman Catholics and the Protestant communities due to the same hatred and intolerance the (Glasgow Celtic ) supporters displayed at this football staduim last evening and further more i believe these actions have just RAISED TENSIONS HIGHER.

For reference i have taped this football game and in only the 4th minute the ‘roll of honour’ was sung,which is a song praising men that took part in the hunger strikes of 1981. attached is reference to such events which i find a offensive song within any football staduim. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll_of_Honour . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Irish_hunger_Strike.
In the 35th minute ‘the boys of the old brigade’ was sung, the adding on to this song was the chanting of ‘ WE ARE THE I.R.A.’ , attached for reference https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bo…he_Old_Brigade

There were constant chants of I.R.A. through the 90 minutes which i found very sinster from a set of football supporters,also flags like the Illegal starry plough were on show, am not sure if this allowed in scotland were they play their home games but as this is a uefa champions league match am certain they are breaking the law and also offending thousands of people in my own country when as i previously mentioned tensions are very high at present.

They also chanted ‘clap your hands if you hate the orange order’in a country like northern ireland with a vast population were there are members of this christian organistion, my father and myself included i found this deeply offensive and insulting and it could inflame tensions in this country at the height of the marching season, For your reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Order

These same supporters have been singing songs of hatred and discrimination for years now with little action being taken by the authorites.I will be contacting my local MP to register my complaint at their actions and your failure to deal with them.

Let me also confirm that i no longer be attending matches organised by your association until such times as you deal with this sectarian cancer that Celtic Football Club brings to football games.Support for IRA terrorists that murdered men,women and children is disgusting and brings shame on Scotland and your organisation and this football club,and in Northern Ireland where these terrorists have killed and injured thousands of people is disgusting.

Yours in Sporting Fairness and Respect ”

(NB , this is reproduced in all its glorious original form, including grammar and spelling. )

Now if that wasn’t a wind up , written by someone called Declan, then how would the poor fellow have felt if he had seen this , which had me chuckling away all last night?

The poor fellow would have simply fell apart when he caught a glimpse of another story, found by Paulie Walnuts, who tweeted it,  on the BBC site. Well, perhaps not exactly what it is, but again, it made me chuckle.

An old diary regular, Billy MacBiggott from Larkhall slammed the BBC for subjecting his eight year old daughter the the vile terrorist chants, claiming she has refused to come out from under her bed since Wednesday, whilst he is demanding the resignation of  the BBC board and warning them that he will not take this insult lying down.

A protest has been organised by die hard fans of the now defunct Rangers FC, and Billy reckons that hundreds, perhaps thousands of bears will attend. And maybe a dog or two.

He isn’t going though, as he has a bad back.

Meanwhile, back in the land of hygiene , Kris Commons has echoed Neil Lennons wish for new faces. ( nothing to do with Fraser Forsters ex winning backing for her facial fix up firm from Lord Shit of Turd Mountain, sorry Alan Sugar )

The forward, who seems to have found his spiritual home, said;

” We will pick up injuries throughout the season so it is important that people that are pushing us all the way are more than capable of playing at that level, so it would be ideal if we could get two or three additions to maintain that level. We are always trying to improve, we want to make the group stages of the Champions League and obviously we have three domestic trophies to win this season. ”

Commons also paid tribute to the support in Belfast on Wednesday;

” Wherever we have been in Europe, our travelling support has been incredible. Even the time we went to Australia for pre season , there was support down there. We are playing for a club that is worldwide. We have a lot to live up to.

When you pull on that shirt you know you are representing a club that is worldwide and that is something you take great pride in ”

Poor Kris. Looks like he had to sit next to Bert Auld on the plane back.

Actually, thats probably the best soundbite, or quote to come out of a Celtic player for a few years. Sounds like Commons has caught the bug…

From time to time, the Diary makes little predictions, or picks up on a rumour that has more than the usual substance to it. Not many examples spring to mind, but even we would be thoroughly ashamed -and that takes some doing-to match this report from the Daily Star, which, apparently is a newspaper.

star report

It concerns Gary Hooper, Celtic forward-or ex-Celtic forward, depending what time you read this. If you are twelve months behind, it will be “former footballer Gary Hooper ” when the press describe him and victor wanyamas descent through the leagues into conference football and a part time job at a car wash.

Hey, its not just oranges that can be bitter.

According to the report-sorry about the digression-Hooper is worried about playing in the championship, he is also quoted as the SPLs top scorer and after that I stopped reading.

But it has given me an insight into the workings of his mind. ( Note to any Celtic players in the dressing room reading this. Stop laughing.  )

Hooper seems to be completely undecided about what to do. He appears to be listening to everyone , and doing exactly what the last person he spoke to thinks he should do. which probably explains why Mrs commons locked him in the toilet at the end of the last transfer window.

You know what to do, Mrs C.

Speaking of Mr Hooper…anyone else see Top Gear when they took some super-cars around the Spanish playboy-land that is Puerto Banus. By sheer coincidence, we remember Kris Commons and Gary Hooper were over in Marbella for a break last season…is this our confused front man captured by the BBC cameras?

Over on the dark side of the city, Walter Smith has once more donned his battle cardigan and defended the teams manager Ally McCoist.

He complimented the ( Can someone lend me a thesaurus ? I’m running out of ways to describe the useless fat bastard ) manager on holding the ship together last year, and looked forward to ” the formation of a more Rangers like team ”

Fill in your own punchline. Theres a lot to choose from.

And can anyone, anyone at all make any sense of this?

Good poetry, even good soundbites, can be judged on the way they can mean a number of things, which can be identified with by a wide diversity within society.

That  composition doesn’t mean a fecking thing. Its just some words put together, like a Will. I Am offering. Oh, wait. Is that a connection?

Rod Stewart was the man who spotted another supporter on his way to a Vancouver bar early one morning to watch the game. As an aside, I’m just about finished reading his autobiography, which has is quite amusing, if a little repetitive, and the description of his meeting with Jock Stein is a genuine reaction from a genuine fan.

Sometimes, perhaps apt today as another player thinks over his future at the club. Who pined for Celtic with these words, not actually that long ago?

” But I tell you what, I’d walk to Glasgow today for a chance to play for Celtic one more time. ”

Edit:

Celtic will play Elfsborg in the Third Round. home leg first.