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Celtic Diary Sunday September 1

Celtic duly moved into second place in the league with a 1-0 win up at Tannadice. Anthony Stokes slow motion chipped free kick dropped in off the post while the United keeper stood and watched in admiration. Other than that, it was more or less a run of the mill SPFL game, where the points were more important than the performance.

Except one performance. Virgil van Dijk, the dutch defender-no lets call him a footballer- because that is what he is. Strong tackling, good positioning, good in the air, good on the ball and off it.

Call off  the search for a centre half. We’ve got one. In fact, with Efe Ambrose settling in already beside him, we have two.  Derk Boerrigter, the other new bhoy on show yesterday faded a wee bit, but he is just back from injury, so it was good just to get him a run out.

Elsewhere in the league, Inverness continued their superb start by defeating Hearts,  and suddenly the two clubs, who drew last week at Celtic Park, are beginning to put a wee bit of daylight between them and the rest of the pack.

 

Butchers side may benefit from having no European distraction this year, and if Celtic drop points at the rate they did last time round, then the league might be a little tougher than first thought.

The transfer window closed last night , and apart from the addition of Max Oberschmidt , an eighteen year old keeper on loan from Die Hard 2.

The move by the SFA to close the window a couple of days earlier than the rest of Europe has cost Celtic the services of Dutch left back Alexander Buttner, who was about to come on loan for a year, but his club , Manchester Utd won’t release him unless they get Leighton Baines. Which might not happen, but these sort of deals get done on the last day, and then theres a knock on effect all over Europe as money and players get sucked into a chain reaction. a reaction that Scotland will not now be part of.

The SFA said they closed the window on Saturday because it is a normal working day. A day when they close deals for league sponsors, or when they look for ways to drag the game up a couple of notches to encourage investors. Or when they just send emails to each other with jokes about popes on them. The decision meant that Celtic were forced into a ridiculous scenario of bidding for a player, Lee Tomlin of Peterborough, while he was actually playing. Still, not like the SFA to do something that makes our set up look amatuerish, is it ? Tomlin may not have been the ideal signing, and was slated as a bit tubby on most forums, but three bids for him suggests that Celtic saw something in the fellow that we wanted. So we should have done it earlier, I suppose. Unless the one we really wanted couldn’t give us an answer until Monday…

Tomlin is a playmaker/forward, and despite his McCoistlike girth, is highly rated in the midlands, and above all would have annoyed that prat on Talkshite who is forever running down Scottish football whilst choosing to watch Peterborough every week.

Incidentally, Peterborough provide punters who like to bet on teams scoring a certain number of goals in a game. They regularly hit four or more. Tomlin is their playmaker, and it might be worth keeping an eye on him, as there is always the winter break.

 

Surely, in the interests of all clubs-especially the smaller ones who would benefit from a couple of players desperate to tie up a deal on the last day, the SFA would have grabbed the chance of an extra day. Even if just to put us on a level par with everyone else ?

So, the window is shut, and Celtic have added seven players, and lost around a dozen.

Charlie Saiz posted a list in yesterdays comments, and its worth reposting here;

 

So far going out…
1 Rogne CB
3 Wilson CB
4 Wanyama DMF
5 McCourt LW
6 Hooper FW
7 Lassad FW
8 Miku FW
9 Murphy FW
10 Bangura FW
11 Watt FW

11 Players off the wage bill.

and In…….
1 Virgil CB
2 Mouyokolo CB
3 Biton DMF
4 Derk B LW
5 Amido FW
6 Pukki FW

As well as Oberschmidt, who is this years goalie from nowhere.

Now, there is still a danger a club could sneak a cheeky bid in for , say, Izzaguerre, who flung his shirt into the crowd after yesterdays game, or Forster, and leave Celtic with no chance of replacing them.

Regardless of what anyone at the club says, I’ll wait until Tuesday before I do my sigh of relief.

Of thoise coming in, van Dijk looks like a player-a hell of a player in fact, Boerrigter too, judging by his demeanour on the pitch. Balde looks like he’ll be number three striker behind Stokes, who has certainly took up the challenge, and Pukki, who, if you look at the comments on yesterdyas diary, Gerrybhoy  has added the Pukki song, from Schalke fans.

He had his own song, so I reckon he’ll be fine. Even if the song isn’t. Though it is very, very catchy and will be in your head all day after you hear it. I tried to add it here, but failed. Gerry, if you can , put it in todays comments as well. And Mondays.

This song, as awful as it is, will catch on.

Unlike Adrian Durhams shows, which although equally irritating, don’t have that addictive hook to make you listen again.

Bilton, the Israeli , has a ways to go before he is a first teamer, and thats fine, he can take his time earning a place, while Mouyokolo was always going to be a squad player.

It might not seem it now, but the three first teamers, Boerrigter, van Dijk and Pukki are as good as we can get. Better, even , than we have a right to expect if we listen to the “experts “.

Meantime, Neil Lennon has spoken honestly about the start to the season, and the pressure;

” NEIL Lennon has bared his soul on the most tortuous seven weeks of his life, spent sitting halfway between heaven and hell’s waiting room.

The Celtic manager’s emotions have veered wildly between relief, anger and joy in the week that saw his side retake their seat at Europe’s top table in the most dramatic fashion possible.

With half a dozen games against Barcelona, AC Milan and Ajax to keep Scottish football’s name allied to the elite in the coming four months, the Northern Irishman had a lot to feel proud of as he watched the draw drop from Monte Carlo on Thursday.

But in an insightful sit-down, the 42-year-old revealed the:

MISERY he feels reading fans’ forums and listening to phone-ins deriding his team

STRAIN the summer’s sales put on his relationship with Peter Lawwell and others

EMBARRASSMENT he’d have felt among his coaching peers meeting in Geneva next week if Celtic had failed to qualify

TRUTH behind his ‘I’ve not had much help’ jibe in his post-match press conference on Wednesday.

Lennon said: “The last six or seven weeks, I’ve just been living in a bubble.

“The only thing you think about is qualifying for the Champions League group stages. And the only other thing you think about is not qualifying.

“Seriously. You sit in the house, you’re there but you’re not there with your family and friends. You drift off. It is tough.

“By a million miles, it’s the most tortuous period. You try not to think about the other scenario but it’s sitting right there.

“There’s heaven, and there’s … maybe not hell, but purgatory anyway.

“I had two weeks in Portugal as a break but only zoned out on a couple of days. After that it starts to creep up on you again.

“Always in the back of your mind were those games – always. What’s the draw going to bring? Can we get through?

“Can we get players in? Am I going to lose Gary Hooper? Lose Victor Wanyama? How do we go about compensating for them?

“It’s stressful but I’m pleased we handled a really big pressurised situation.”

Pleased wasn’t the word that leapt to mind as Lennon handled the post-match routine in midweek. He bristled at questions, scatter- gunning his responses with a visible ire.

In the more relaxed environment of Lennoxtown’s Dressing Room 2, however, he was more circumspect.

He said: “I was relieved. And I was angry at some of the stuff that has come out. The players sacrifice a lot to be successful and sometimes that is under appreciated.

“Prime example – Georgios Samaras. He was fantastic for me last year in Europe, player of the year in the Champions League. Yet he has a poor game in Kazakhstan and gets absolutely slaughtered.

“I don’t mind criticism if it is constructive – but sometimes it is venomous. And you think that is not an environment conducive to thriving, it really isn’t’.

“I have respect for most of the journalists in this country but I was looking at forums, hotlines and phone-ins. It really sucks the life out of you at times.”

Which automatically begs the question of why he even subjects himself to them in the first place.

He sighed: “I don’t automatically read them but people tell me. They say ‘Did you hear what so and so said on the phone-in last night?’ or ‘Did you read about this and that’.

“There is a wave of it sometimes and it seems to be relentless. Sometimes all they want to do is criticise and humiliate.

“That is us in a nutshell. If I say to people ‘What do you think of this player?’ it’s all ‘He can’t do this’ and ‘He can’t do that’.

“Don’t talk about what he can’t do, talk about what he CAN do. The first thing you talk about is the negative.

“It seems to be an in-built mechanism in all of us. People are looking for the perfect player, the perfect team, the perfect result and performance – but you’re never going to get it because they are human beings.”

Lennon admits his patience was tested to the limit in the summer, seeing the spine of his team sold but none of his first choices come in as replacements.

Asked if that had put a strain on his relationship with the chief executive, he said: “It does, yes. I think it puts my relationship with everybody under stress.

“Not in personal terms but workwise it becomes stressful.

“The board never said to me you HAVE to make the Champions League – but I think probably the cushion for that was that we sold three players for £20m.

“Now we probably felt two were leaving anyway but we didn’t envisage Kelvin Wilson going and that was a blow.

“When you lose your mainstay centre half, a key midfielder and your top scorer for three seasons no matter who you are – whether you are Barcelona, Liverpool or f**gging Scunthorpe – it really bites you.

“Was that what I meant with the ‘Not much help’ comment? Yes. I wanted players in if we were selling players, and we couldn’t do it.

“We’ve brought players in with good potential but what you want as a manager if you’re losing a 30-goal striker, is to get in a 27-year-old who has banged in 30 goals last season for some great team or other? You want a ready-made striker to slot in and still have the development players around.

“Teemu Pukki is a good player and is a bit ahead of some of the others we have brought in. He’s a Finnish internationalist and has played at a big club for a year and a half.

“Nir Biton is an Israeli Under-21 player with experience but you are looking for value for money and resale value. It’s going to take time – we knew that.

“Amido Balde’s going to take time. Virgil van Dijk, once he’s played 10 games or so, will get the pace of the game. At SPFL level, he will be an excellent acquisition.

“I probably rushed him back too early and he struggled in two games. That is totally understandable and totally my fault.

“Steven Mouyokolo was brought in as a squad player and has done really well so far so I’m pleased with him.

“And Derk Boerrigter is ready made but has been injured. We’ll see the best of him when he’s fit. So the four we’ve brought in, we’re pleased with. It’s potential. Isn’t it?”

Lennon now has 18 days to think about how to exploit that potential before they face AC Milan in Italy on September 18.

Before then, however, he’ll join Europe’s coaching elite at a symposium in Geneva during the international break. An event he admits he’s looking forward to – now.

Lennon said: “It was in the back of my mind – going there as a Champions League boss. The gravitas that gives you.

“Little things like that, all add up. Walking into the room and thinking you belong, not ‘There’s the guy who lost to the Kazakhstanis – what are YOU doing here’?”

Thats from Gordon Waddell, and whilst the tone is perhaps not how Lennon would have intended it, the actual quotes are very interesting and thought provoking. Thats why I’ve copied it in its entirety, thats the best way to judge it.
Still with the press, Hugh Keevins has had his say on matters Celtic, presumably from his standpoint on a big box on the car park.
keevins shite about paranoia , which is only a link, giving you the option of whether or not you want to ruin your Sunday. Its worth looking at because in it Keevins says that his “job security ” is paramount, so he needs to sell papers, which is the first time he , or any of the others, has admitted what we were all paranoid about in the first place, not so much the selling of papers, but who they wanted to sell them to.
 Bear-Ham Kyle sort of gave us Beram Kayal in yesterdays picture puzzle, today we have
 

 

 

 

 

 

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KrisLowe
10 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oI8GZWRcUlA

Gerrybhoy posted this so ALL kudos/credit belongs to him

its feckin catchy.. i warn you !

George lazenby
10 years ago

Teemu pukki

George lazenby
10 years ago

Yah dancer I finally got one! Hey am easily amused.

the lurgan tiger
10 years ago

Its Ki Sung, Ki Sung Yeong, Ki Sung Yeong he hates the huns.

Big clue in the picture

Brian53
10 years ago

Thought we played well yesterday, particularly in the first half. Seems as if the MIB are going to see how many of our players they can get on the treatment table after each game.
Wouldn’t surprise me if they had a wee fantasy league on it.

As for the transfer window, I think we did rather well with some of the guys starting to blend in nicely, hopefully the others will too.

As for Neil’s soul, I’m sure he loves it or would he rather be worrying about administration and what trialists to buy?
I agree with him about the misery of the fans forums though.

I won’t ruin my Sunday!

Honest Hoops
10 years ago

I had to giggle at Hugh (Celtic don’t like me)he needs to ask himself why….as he keeps telling lies…he is not banned from Lennoxtown… he just needs to pay to get in and stop making stories up whilst he is there…

10 years ago

Hugh Sleekit is an irrelevance.

deadhead67
10 years ago

Some celtic fans need to stop reading MSM or listening to raidio snide or radio bigot SCOTLAND ,if they are taking what they read /hear seriously,At the game yesterday some young numptie was screaming his head off at nearly every celtic player on the pitch,with very little of it justified ,he obviously had little idea of what happens on a football pitch,like the opposition are allowed to tackle and defend,he was going on at a couple of players in particular even when the loss of possession was due to a bad pass from another player really spoiled the game for me

Frank McGaaaaarvey
10 years ago
Reply to  deadhead67

Deadhead,

U will always get roasters like that at games. Folk who just moan for the whole game and NEVER offer any encouragement or a “good ball” or an “unlucky” to players at all. People who are mired in negativity and have nothing positive to say about the team or , well, anything at all.

There is a miserable old c#nt who sits behind me and I have just learned, after about 5 seasons or so, to finally dingy (sic) him!

It’s not exclusive to Celtic, these horrid drainers of life and soul are everywhere and make the Rev. I.M Jolly look like Louis Spence.

Pensionerbhoy
10 years ago

Ralph

Blootered again. This being the Lord’s day, I will remain calm. No time for a follow up or a repeat as I am on kitchen duty and have no time to post again. Pretend I used invisible ink and enjoy!

H H

daviebhoy
10 years ago

Frank McGaaaaarvey are you sure thats no Pensionerbhoy in front of you, only a joke.
Great work again Ralph,keep it up.
NL has his work cut out trying to get the new guys to gel together for the CL games which will now come thick and fast. Lets hope we can give a good acount of ourselves once again.
As for keevens, I wish all the bhoys would give his and all the other phone ins and papers a wide berth
HH. Keep the faith onwards and upwards.

gerrybhoy
10 years ago

Thanks KrisLowe for posting link to Pukki song .
First post on this site and I get my name in the
Diary the next day
And for those who have not heard it

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