Celtic Diary Tuesday September 3

Exactly two years ago today saw the first edition of the Etims Diary, and surprisingly, people still read it.

Its hard to believe that there are roughly six hundred of these little missives floating around on the interweb. Which means that more effort has gone into this than lifes other trivialities, such as work, raising kids and drinking beer. Well, perhaps not the latter.

Mikael Lustig isn’t as badly hurt as was originally feared. Theres no fracture, but there is a bit of ligament damage. Having said that , manager Neil Lennon is hoping he won’t be out for long;

” It is a relief because he is a top player,”

Speaking on the clubs website, presumably so no-one would hear him, the manager spoke of his delight in winning at Tannadice on Saturday;

“It´s a huge win after the efforts they put in on Wednesday and a huge win considering the effort they put in on Saturday as well,” he said.

“We would have probably dropped points last season so they are learning and learning how to win. I am delighted. It´s a great performance. We would have dropped points last season so the mentality of the team is changing.

“It was a tough game as the pitch was very difficult to play on. It was very sticky, very dry. So it was difficult for the ball players like Commons, Boerrigter and Mackay-Steven to get any fluency going in the game.

“We did try to play with a bit of width but with the pitch playing the way it was we had to try and go a bit route-one, as there was no way you could string a succession of passes together as the ball was bouncing a lot on the pitch.

“So Balde has come in and what he has done has given us a different option. We went a little bit more direct and we just missed the midfield out in the second half and played in their final third a bit more. ”
What is interesting here is that the style of play was altered during the game, something which doesn’t happen very often, so you have to agree with him that the team is continuing to grow together, despite the loss of a couple of players.

No more players were lost during the last day of the transfer window, Stokes didn’t go to West Brom, Kayal managed to avoid Wigan, which is what anybody does when travelling through the north west.

Playmaker Anco Jansen of De Graafschaap was a late target for Celtic, the hoops had wanted him in on loan back on Saturday, offering £120,000 (or euros -its from the express so they probably don’t know either ) , but the Dutch side wanted more money, plus £65,000 if he wasn’t signed at the end of the six month loan period.

A loan , in football, was originally allowed so that injuries or other unforeseen disasters could be compensated for. In Scotland it was abused by one club, years ago -guess which one- who loaned a player specifically to help another club become stronger.

With Jansen, if he was needed, then just buy him. Otherwise, you are borrowing something you don’t want,  don’t really  need and have no intention of keeping.

But , it was in the express, so its probably all bollocks.

James McCarthy followed a recent trend by choosing to play for Ireland instead of Scotland and suddenly becoming worth millions of pounds. He joined Everton yesterday for £13m, which surprised one or two people.

Also on the move yesterday was Gareth Bale of Tottenham, who joined Real Madrid for either £77m or £85m , depending on whether Christian Ronaldo is listening when the fee is mentioned.

That one came out of the blue-you’d have thought there would have been some rumours or something. Football is a game which never ceases to amaze and surprise.

Such as when Nicky Law, who has a part time job talking shite in the papers, says that he thinks Arnold Peralta is a “real firebrand ” on the pitch, and could go on to be the new Rino Gattuso.

Peralta has been in a permanent bad mood since he realised that he was joining a different Glasgow team than his compatriot Emilio Izzaguerre, and doesn’t think that the joke played on him by Izzy is in the least bit funny, and he won’t be coming over for dinner on Sunday now.

” And he’s not getting his strimmer back either “, added Peralta.

Those of you who travel to Europe for cultural enhancement when the Celts are in action may already have noticed that Thomas Cook, who served the club so well over the years, are no longer involved with the club.

Instead, www.celticfctravel.com has been formed, and under the wing of Thomson travel, Celtic fans can relax and let them organise trips abroad.

But at £349 day trips, they may struggle, especially if the guarantee of a ticket is not there.

Megabus are doing Amsterdam from Glasgow for £56, and although it takes a wee bit longer than flying, there is a breakdown lane next to the bus if things go wrong. As opposed to when things go wrong on a plane.

Looks like Celtic have backed another winner with the travel site, but as ever, we will give it a chance.

I had the discussion over Amsterdam with the wife last night, and somehow it ended up with me saying that there were prostitutes in Dunfermline, and there were no issues about me going there. Apologies to the fine Fife town. I’ve no idea if there are any such ladies in that town. Which is not a request for any of them to email me. Well, not yet anyway. Dunfermline are in Division 3.

A piece of meat with Char on it, Bruce Lee, and the famous Sharon Stone impersonating the Clyde Tunnel gave us Charlie Nicholas as the answer to yesterdays puzzle, and to those of you who made the comment that the last picture alone -or at least the view supplied a few minutes later by the lady in the film – equally and more economically described the man have no respect whatsoever, and your comments were deleted. However accurate and insightful they may have been.

Today we have this to ponder..

The original, please..