Celtic Diary Saturday August 31

Celtic face Dundee Utd at Tannadice today, 12.45 kick off, and Sky Sports 3 will cover the game for those of us who spent all our money on beer before, during and after the Karagandy game on Wednesday.

With the support still on a high after the midweek game and the draw for the next round beginning to sink in, one can only wonder how the players must feel, as the hectic early season drama must have taken it out of them as well. Then Neil Lennon jumped on them, and a couple of them needed to be checked out.

Manager Lennon will assess all his players, and has doubts over Derk Boerrigter, and may even break up the successful Ambrose -Lustig partnership to bring in Virgil van Dijk.

Expect a few changes, but this game has the air of one the team just want to get over , so they can have a bit of a break.

With the SFA deciding to close the transfer window for Scottish clubs a couple of days early, there have been accusations that they are not helping Celtic strengthen the side for the european campaign, where , as usual, they will carry the flag for Scotland. Despite the benefits a prolonged run brings the game in Scotland, ( finance, exposure, etc ) the SFa claim Saturday is a normal working day, and there is no need to exted the window until Monday.

This means that any players who may suddeny become available on Monday, as often happens, cannot consider Celtic as an option, and its remarkably short sighted of the SFA not to take any opportunity to assist the nations flagship club.

Then again, perhaps it isn’t. They have form for this sort of thing.

Lennon says he will be glad to get the window closed;

“I’ll be glad when it shuts because there’s your squad to work with. It drives you crackers
at times.

“You sometimes make four or five deals in one day and that’s really not what you want to do.”

So, we have a game today, and we have players to sign, and players to release or sell.

Hardly ideal, and the SFA must carry the can, not just from Celtics point of view, but from the whole of Scottish football.

So far, Nir Bilton has joined from Ashdod, and Teemu Pukki should join him.

However, as anyone who saw our twitter last night ( oooerrr missuss ) would know, the glamour of the champions league has turned a few heads and some quite surprising names have apparently been thrown into the ring. Hopefully, Lawwell will throw them straight back out again. Especially the name of Peter Crouch. Or any other big name English underachiever.

Celtic does not need players who come to Glasgow and see it as a means to their end. Celtic ask players to play for them, and its an honour. Not the other way round so they can have a game in the big league before disappearing back home, having pocketed money we could have spent on someone who wants to play for the club for the right reasons.

A few other names are being mentioned, but sadly, they are mostly loan deals, as players who have signed for clubs that have no realistic chance of ever playing at the top  level decide they would like a shot at it, and hopefully they will all be told to stuff it.

Unless it is Andrea Pirlo and Kaka.

The Finnbogasson deal still isn’t dead, and he does seem to be the one Lennon wants, and by all accounts , he wants to play here. That needs to be sorted.

The club has stated that there will be no more big sales, which will upset Fraser Forster. He seems to spend a lot of time thinking about whether he wants to stay, be that on his line or with the club, and still mentions that he will see what happens when he is asked about it. Thats when he’s asked about staying at Celtic, not coming for crosses, though it could be read both ways.

There is a danger that we could lose a player on Monday and not be able to replace him, which is a little worrying, and it might be worth someone cutting the phone lines at Celtic Park while everyones watching the game later. Perhaps the bus could break down on the way back from Dundee, until the morning. Make sure its on the way back from Dundee though, its where they make the Sunday Post and from that paper it sounds like a right weird place.

Tony Watt is wanted by Aberdeen on loan, and has been told he can go. He has other options, and needs to take one of them, and get his head down and win his place in the team when he comes back.

As ever, on deadline day, its all very confusing, complicated further by there being a game on.

Well done, SFA.

Neil Lennon was told he didn’t have a case to answer when he was in court charged with using a mobile phone when driving, apparently there was no evidence. A sort of unseen fenian handset.

Yesterdays puzzle featured Glen Loovens , which was again worked out fairly quickly.

Today, theres this..