Celtic Diary Wednesday July 24

Everything went pretty much to plan last night as Celtic picked up a couple of co-efficient points and duly despatched Cliftonville 2-0 to secure a 5-0 aggregate win.

Efe Ambrose backed up his pre match words with a sixteenth minute opener, although nearly an hour passed before Georgios Samaras added a second.  Probably because the players were still talking about Ambroses elaborate celebrations.  As usual, chances were made, and chances were missed, but we’ll put that down to ring rustiness. For which ointment is available at all good chemists.

Cliftonville managed to keep the score down, which will do their confidence no harm heading into their title defence, and we wish them luck.

Last night saw Gary Hooper make a cameo appearance from the bench, and today Neil Lennon will tell him that those few minutes mean that he now cannot play for any other team for the next five years, due to a new UEFA ruling. If, as we suspect, Hooper is listening to anyone and everyone who offers him advice, a wee bit of sincerity when telling him may yet convince him to stay.

Lennon does want him to stay. He said, of Hooper;

“I spoke to him today and asked him how he was feeling. He said he could do with some game time, and thats exactly what we did. He’s not given me any indication either way, so no news is good news on that front. If I’ve got him here for next week, I’ll be delighted. It’s a better squad with Gary in it. From our point of view we want him to stay, and if we can persuade him to stay we will do everything we can to do that. ”

Lennon continued;

” I think Peter was speaking to Nottingham today to tell them that he’s not for sale, or if he is for sale they are going to have to come back with a sizeable offer. He was excellent tonight and he has been for the last twelve or thirteen months now. ”

Noting the puzzled looks on the faces of confused hacks, he added that he meant Kelvin Wilson. Which didn’t help, as the hacks had seen a little bunny rabbit on the grass outside the window. Speaking of transfers, Kenny Jackett of Wolves says in todays Express and Star, that he has had no contact from Celtic over Kevin Doyle.  Our eternal thanks go to the girl on the desk at Molineux who keeps answering the phone by saying, ” no, he’s not in ”

So, when the back slapping finished after last nights  game, supporters and management alike turned their thoughts to next weeks game, which is against Elfsborg, the champions of Sweden.

Elfsborg beat Latvians Dougova 11-1 on aggregate to book their place in the next round, and must be looking forward to facing Celtics defence. The winners of this tie will be dropping in to the Europa League group stages at worst, which after last seasons European roller coaster , will be poor consolation. Defeat means a game in the Europa league play off round.

So, whatever happens , there will be at least one more European tie this season. Which is about as bad as it could get.

Lennon, of course, wants to be back in amongst the big boys.

No, not those ones. The elite clubs.

UEFA confirmed yesterday that Celtic will trouser just over £22m for their exploits last year, which is a nice little earner by anyones standards. Any club with that sort of money going into their bank account can look to a healthy future.

Well, almost any club.

That figure doesn’t include gate revenue or any merchandising, so its clear that the club could do with a similar run this time round, which might mean we can afford to keep some players.

Lennon said;

” I think the money is imperative for us, for any club really, but from a footballing point of view it is about the development of players, the experience they get and bringing their reputations and careers on. That is important but the more successful you are in the competition the money will come with gate revenues, sponsorship and television money.

It is a fantastic competition and one that went well for us last year but there is no guarantee that we will qualify this year. We are going to have to step things up in the next week or so to be ready for Elfsborg. We know how important it is but I can’t base my whole season on qualifying for the Champions League, I have to look beyond that. ”

Even worse, there’s no bunny rabbit outside my window to look at.

Lennon avoided the thing we all wanted to know. Mo Bangura. Should he play against Celtic or not ?

And if anyone is worried about facing him, should we really be in the competition at all. He’s on loan at Elfsborg for a reason.

Its tempting fate to write him and his team off, but surely he should be allowed to play. Otherwise they might field someone who is actually decent.

Still, we hear Bangura has asked former England legend Michael Owen for help.

Meanwhile, the Daily Star has Graeme Dorrans earmarked to replace victor wanyama, a story which bemused even the player.

John Keane, a man who gave  £1m of his own money to the bank to bring Celtics account back within its limits back in the dark days of the old board, was the surprise but deserved choice to unfurl the championship flag on Augustv 3.

Keane has been a low profile but hugely significant part of Celtics history. He stepped forward when asked. In fact, the bank, which was not noted for its celtic mindedness at the time, could have still called in the overdraft and flogged the clubs assets anyway. Keane would have lost his money, so it was a hell of a risk.

He’s one of us. When the time comes, show your appreciation.

Someone else who is one of us is wee Oscar Knox, and this picture, taken last night when he was mascot and first seen on the Huddleboard forum , captures the sheer joy of what it meant to the little fellow. God bless him and his family.

Pensionerbhoy deserves a mention for giving us the full name of Pierre van Hooijdonk to be among those who correctly named him as the giant who could bully Richard Gough.

Who is this fellow, desperately in need of a haircut?