Celtic Diary Sunday October 13

A little later than usual, but thats what happens when the wife decides she wants to do a wee bit of decorating and the DIY shops are open. Whoever invented international football should be made to visit every DIY shop on a Sunday, preferably when its raining, and preferably holding an almost illegible list of things to buy.

And they should be accompanied by my wife, who is never in a reasonable mood on these occasions.

The Celtic Trust, orchestrating the fight against the criminalisation of supporters who are being arrested for singing, chanting or calling opposition fans names, have released a statement as they continue to score minor, but significant victories over those who think that football supporters are to blame for the ills of society.

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The fight goes on!

Thursday 10th October 2013 saw the voters of Glasgow Ward 5 – Govan take to the polls to cast their vote in the local by-election. It also marked the end of weeks of campaigning by Thomas Rannachan supported by Fans Against Criminalisation all under the banner of Axe the Act, in reference to the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act.

Firstly, we wish to thank all of our supporters for all the time, effort and hard work they put into the campaign. The backing we had was indicative of how many football fans and more, feel against this illiberal law and attack on our civil liberties. We have given a good account of ourselves and proven to the Scottish Government that we will not sit idly by and tolerate this criminalisation of football fans.

Labour won the vacant seat which now leaves Nicola Sturgeon without any councillors in her own ward. We have shown that we can and will take support away from her party until such times as theytake positive action over the Act. It has been a learning curve for us along the way and we can be proud of what we achieved. During campaigning and on polling day, many of us successfully persuaded voters to cast a preference for Axe the Act, showing that our reasoned arguments make sense.

We acknowledge and appreciate that many voters, whilst supportive felt they still had to cast a vote for a main party, given that we are a single issue and they had other concerns which they feel need addressing. We take encouragement from this, that voters across the spectrum are aware of and feel strongly against the Act. It shows, as we have always said, that this issue affects people from all over and not just football fans and it is great they share our concerns. This is something we can definitely work with going forward.

Today is a very important day, perhaps the most important to date, as we move on and continue to fight against the Act. It doesn’t end now that the election is over with and decided. It is just the beginning…

Thomas Rannachan – Axe The Act

Good luck to them. Without this kind of hard work Scotlands lawmakers would probably by now have gone even further. With independence little over a year away, more people should be encouraged into making their voices heard, and that way they will have a say in their own futures.

And then we can ban DIY shops.

Another campaign , the one to sell Fraser Forster, gathered pace today when the Scotsman announced that the giant English keeper is a target for Italian UCL opponents Milan, who only signed a new  keeper a few months ago, but one that isn’t very good. £8m is the fee mentioned, which means we should see a bidding war between Milan, Barcelona and Befica, amongst others. Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City all have their eye on him as well, so really we should just pop him on the shelf in the club shop and see who comes to collect him.

Dylan McGeouch is another that the media have focussed on, with a rain of questions designed to get him to say he wants away. McGeouch, though, dealt well with them.

“I’m not too concerned about things at the minute. We have a good squad at Celtic and are in the Champions League, so it’s a big time for the club. The manager will want to play his strongest XI and if I’m not involved, then so be it. I just need to keep working hard.

“But you need to play [eventually]. It’s no good sitting on the bench every week or in the stands. The older you get, you want to play even more.

“I’m at big club like Celtic, so I can’t really complain, but I do want to play. Is a loan deal in January something I’d consider? Who knows? I don’t know what will happen. I’ll just have to keep trying to impressing the manager in training and see where that takes me.”

Hugh Keevins, the man who provides the diary with more than enough material to make sure that this feature can be written every day, has been tapping the keys again.

”  DESPITE stating otherwise, HUGH reckons Celtic fans are just as obsessed with what goes on at Ibrox as the Rangers fans are fascinated with every move at Parkhead. ”

Well, almost. Personally i’m more obsessed with the sycophantic and scandalous reporting of events over at Ibrox than the actual events, but please, Hugh , continue….

”  CAN you imagine what public reaction would be like if the SFA decided Dave King didn’t pass the fit and proper person test to take control of Rangers? ”

Lets see, Dave King, who “entered a plea of guilty to 41 cases of tax fraud,  not a ” fit and proper ” person to take over at Ibrox ?

Going by the criminal record he’s obtained for tax indiscrepancies I would have thought that would have shunted him into pole position for the job. Maybe not fit and proper for football, but par for the course for Second Rangers.

No, go on Hugh, I can’t imagine what the public reaction to the SFA following their own rules and denying the Ibrox club something they really wanted. But imagination would be required, as it is something that has never happened before.

” The fertile side of my imagination tells me troops would be deployed on the streets and we’d all be living under martial law. ”

Which troops ? These ones ?

” Or, what if the man who would be King at Ibrox was to be given the good housekeeping seal of approval courtesy of a deciding vote cast by Peter Lawwell, Celtic’s chief executive and member of the full SFA Board?

Would the fundamentalists be organising a boycott of Celtic’s matches in protest over a decision that might possibly deny them their cherished aim of seeing Rangers go out of business altogether? ”

Here we go again. We all hate Rangers, and want to see them go out of business…. It has obviously escaped his attention that the original 1872 club, the one the new lot pretend to be, is actually in liquidation.

The Oxford English dictionary is fairly clear on its definitions of the word,

Liquidation, n, ” Fucked, as in Rangers, Glasgow, 1872-2012. ”

They are already out of business. Thats that. Dead, Finished, its over.

Hugh, who has admitted he isn’t a financial journalist , perhaps doesn’t quite understand all of this jargon. I tried to contact him, but his office says he was away out to Woolworths to get some sweeties. Probably Spangles.

Scottish football would be more than happy to welcome a new club, even one in the spirit of the old Rangers, if it was properly and honestly ran, without the sectarian exclusivity of its predeccessors, and certainly without the campaign of intimidation and lies that has become omnipresent with the new lot.

” And how, if the result went their way, could the conspiracy theorists on the other side of the fence come to terms with the realisation that the game’s governing body wasn’t solely dedicated, as they believe, to the continuation of their club’s misery?

Our already demented parish might be about to undergo a humorous episode that will be pure comedy gold for those of us who marvel at the distorted thought processes of the ones out there who would make you lose the will to live. ”

I’m losing the will to live reading this tripe, but there is one other paragraph worthy of note…

” The Celtic supporters have believed the SFA was corrupt ever since the decision was taken to withhold Jorge Cadete’s registration until after a Scottish Cup semi-final tie against Rangers had been played and lost.

It was undeniably improper conduct and it caused a man, Jim Farry, who has since passed away, his job after legal advice was that any other course of action was impossible.

Apart from the bizarre wording-“caused a man his job  ” that bit is in effect saying that Celtic fans believe the SFA is corrupt.

No, Hugh, again, you are missing the point.

We -and many, many other supporters throughout the land-  are absolutely certain that it is corrupt.

So instead of publishing virtually unintelligible ramblings with little direction, how about you and your colleagues in Medialand making a concerted effort to find out exactly why the old Rangers club was allowed to get away with dodging taxes, breaking rules and making underhand payments to all and sundry , so that those guilty could be brought to justice, and the supporters of that club, who have been, are being and will no doubt be fleeced again in the future can get some sort of answers-however unpleasant it may be for them-as to what actually happened to their club.

I’ve even thought of a word for it.

Journalism.

Or even “transparency”

Hugh also mentions his pal Ally McCoist;

” Ally McCoist wanted transparency when Rangers had a transfer embargo imposed on them and the manager publicly demanded to know who had arrived at that ruling. ”

Except, of course, McCoist already knew who they were, he just wanted to tell a confused and angry Rangers support who they were…

Perhaps Hugh doesn’t understand what transparency means. After all, its taking him ages to work out “liquidation ”

Speaking of not quite understanding what certain words mean, McCoist has been at it again..

Rangers manager Ally McCoist is still hurt by the way the Croatian striker left the club, he said: “Nikica gave us a couple of great years, although I was a bit disappointed in the manner he left the club.”

Nikica Jelevic left Ibrox for Everton in a £4m deal in 2012. McCoist went on to say he was aggrieved at the money they recouped when Jelavic went to Everton. McCoist added, “Steven Fletcher, who’s another centre forward I admire, went for something like £13 million within weeks of Jelavic going.

“I really like Steven. He’s a good centre forward, probably a certain starter for Scotland this week if he was fit.

“Darren Bent, who I like as well, went for £19 million. But you can’t tell me there’s £12m or £14m difference between Jelavic and these boys. Not in a million years.”

Recoup the money on Jelavic ? They didn’t pay up front for him in the first place.

Yesterday the pictures were of three players who had always wanted to play for Celtic, but none of which actually wanted to enough to sign permanent deals.

Today, a wee change.

What would you associate with this strip ?