Real football returns today, and Celtic travel through to Edinburgh with a chance to extend the lead at the top of the table to six points. Inverness don’t play until tomorrow, and the best that Motherwell can do is win at home to Hearts and draw level with the highland side.
The hoops will be without Derk Boerrigter, Adam Matthews and Steven Mouyokolo ( who ? ) ( that bloke from Wolves, thats who ) while Mikael Lustig is doubtful with a hip problem.
One or two exercises may help;
Joe Ledley and Tomas Rogic are fit again, and James Forrest will negotiate the tricky steps off the bus and hopefully get a run out before the Ajax game.
Manager Neil Lennon wants his charges to focus entirely on the Hibernian match, and warned them if they don’t , they might not be in the line up for the Tuesday game. Which he promised not to mention again.
“Talking about momentum, (the Hibs game) is pivotal. The players have responded to everything that we have asked them to do in the league but if they want to play on Tuesday night they are going to have to play at their best on Saturday. It is there for them and it is another great week for us.
“The Ajax game is huge in terms of the group and where we want to be in the group. I wouldn’t say it is a must-win game, but it is a game we would dearly love to win to get us up and running in the group. We mustn’t lose. I don’t like making predictions but if we could get four points out of the next two games it would set us up very nicely indeed. But it is a big ask.”
Back to the Hibs game….
“They have turned things around since the Malmo game where it was all doom and gloom and they have some really decent results, winning at Partick and at St Johnstone. We lost at Easter Road last year and Pat’s teams can be dogged when they want to be and difficult to beat, so we have to be wary of that.
“Paul Heffernan has been a good signing for Pat. I think he is clever, a goalscorer, and they have a threat going forward with him and James Collins while Liam Craig has had an excellent start to the season. But we want to go into the Ajax game with a positive result.”
Oh no, theres the Ajax game again.
It has to be difficult to concentrate on todays game when there is a very important European fixture around the corner, but thats what they’ll have to do. BT Sports 2 are covering the match, with the show starting at 12 noon. And its free today.
I wonder if they’ll mention the Ajax game ?
The Celtic Trust have put the papers for the AGM in an accessible place for anyone who wants to look at them, and again, we would urge everyone who has a vote to vote, and anyone who knows anyone who has a vote, to urge them to use it.
Although the meeting is still a couple of weeks away, lets keep this in the spotlight , and lets put as much pressure on those in charge about how unsuitable and unacceptable it is for Celtic to not support these resolutions.
The club have launched a new video, We are Celtic, which will help to get the anti discrimination message across as the fortnight of action against racism begins, theres a link on the official page here;
Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell said: “As we mark the European-wide fortnight against racism, Celtic is delighted to project such a strong message. As a UEFA Champions League Club, we fully understand the reach and profile we enjoy and therefore the power we have to project a positive message.
“Clearly, football cannot be blamed for all society’s ills. However, we can make an impact and act as important ambassadors to promote the positive messages of tolerance, and inclusion – these are Celtic’s values.
“Wherever racism and intolerance exists in society, it needs to be addressed and tackled and we are delighted to play our part in highlighting this important issue.”
Lawwell also went on to say that he fully supported equality, and that race, colour, sexuality and religion would not make any difference to him if someone were to apply for a job at Celtic. They too , would be offered a zero hours contract at below a living wage.
The club are also believed to be looking at plans for a new staff canteen;
Georgios Samaras has sent out one of those twitter messages, informing us that if he does have a haircut, he’ll tell the official website to publish the news. Surely he can’t be saying the rest of the interweb is unreliable ?
Davie Hay, in the Evening Times, has a wee bit of advice for the upcoming appeal on behalf of crazed madman Scott Brown, who attacked Brazilian Neymar with a big stick during the Barcelona game, before attempting to run him over on the car park. He says , simply, don’t do it.
” I really don’t think it’s worth taking that gamble, especially given Celtic’s records in appeals with Uefa.
I go back all the way to the Rapid Vienna case in 1984 when we were found to be in the clear, then ended up having to replay the tie at a neutral venue. ”
” So, I’d steer well clear of going back with this one in case it ends up with Scott receiving a bigger punishment and it becomes a distraction to everyone else trying to get Celtic’s Champions League campaign back on track.
Scott will know he made a big mistake. No-one will have had to say anything to him about what he did.
He would have felt isolated when he got back to the dressing room after receiving his red card, and will feel even worse when the team walks out without him on Tuesday. ”
And there it should be left. Time to get on with it.
As Hay says;
” This is a time for experienced men to put in an experienced performance.”
Over on the other side of the city, a mere eighteen months since their club died, RSecond Rangers fans, who bizarrely still think they are following the now defunct First Rangers club, have demanded to know the truth;
The Outlaw Reparee, on KDS , has replied to them with this, which is finer prose than any thing else you will see on the web, in the press or any where else for that matter;
” Dear Sons of Struth
As requested, please find below, The Truth.
No one likes you. But you don’t care, so that’s okay.
This is, in part, due to 8 decades of institutional sectarianism and bigotry at the club you supported, instigated by the man whose stern features adorn the wagon you are driving around town, the purpose of which remains unclear. Are you trying to jog the memory of the Man in the Street, hoping he will deliver new insights into what has happened at Ibrox in the past couple of years?
Well, here’s a short version. Don’t thank me, it’s been a pleasure watching it.
Rangers were run into the ground over a period of decades, not the last two years. David Murray came in and bought your club, which had won three championships in 20 years. It was a club that, on the face of it, appeared to be on the way up after those two decades of ritual humiliation. For the next ten years, David Murray fed the delusion of ‘we are the people’ with grandiose boasts and unsustainable spending. When one of your directors tried to enlighted the fans, he was lambasted. Only last year, he was dismissed as a doddery old man when he spoke of the culture of ‘cheating’ that everyone behind the scenes Ibrox knew of and embraced. When he died, his memory was besmirched.
All for trying to tell you the truth. As it turned out, he was right. The club was hammered into the ground and sold for a pound. You threatened Lloyds bank and demanded they clear the way to install Craig Whyte, because he was touted as your saviour. He was carried down Edmiston Drive on the shoulders the grateful fans. Attempts to enlighted you were met with anger and derision. The BBC was picketed for running a story, with the demand for ‘parity of esteem’, another bizarre soundbite where implied dignity obscures meaning and relevance.
Craig Whyte burned you, as predicted. ‘But nobody told us, why didn’t anyone tell us?’ you wailed. Well, you were too busy standing behind banners on the picket line to see the obvious.
No one, not the fans or the ‘billionaire’ businessmen who are suddenly full of moral fibre, wanted to step up and ‘save’ the club and pay the money owed to the taxpayer. Remember that. It’s important, if you want to know The Truth.
A deliberate decision was made to kill the club and stiff the general public of money that could have been used for services (maybe equipment for those soldiers cavorting around the pitch on Armed Services day?).
Charles Green clearly stated that the club would die and all of its history be wiped out if a CVA wasn’t agreed. Still, no one stepped up. The club died and the fans allowed it to die. Maybe if you had driven around with a van at the time demanding the truth, things would have been different. Probably not, right enough. It’s only a van. Not a vehicle for real change.
Charles Green was rightly suspected, but a few choice digs at Celtic and Neil Lennon and you all loved him. That shows you up for the utter lack of intelligence of your entire support. That no one could see past him anymore, simply because he had found out that bigotry was the glue that held your club together.
The truth is that Rangers exists no more than a succulent lamb breathes on a plate.
You have sat and watched your new Company be torn to pieces and you have done it with a smile on your face, backing one asset stripper one minute, then backing another a minute later. You do not have the wherewithal to make up your own mind, instead buying the stories of scheister after scheister as long as someone with ‘Rangers best interests at heart’ testifies on their behalf.
Whether that’s Ally McCoist or Walter Smith depends on whether they are walking away, threatening to walk away, or meeting themselves coming back.
You are idiots, led by idiots. The smart people associated with the defunct club and the soon to be defunt replacement company are those who left with their pockets full, to the wailing of ‘why us?’ ringing in their ears. Well, why not you? You are a soft target. You have been fooled, duped, laughed at, and duped again. Not just by the spivs, but by football in general and society at large.
It has been no surprise to hear of your zombie incarnation beaten by the likes of Annan, the only surprise was it took 3 or 4 days to learn of such ‘shock results’. Because no matter how you try to keep your ugly mugs in the paper, the fact is your Sevco is truly an irrelevance.
William Burroughs said this in an interview:
“The nasty sort of power: white junk, I call it—rightness; they’re right, right, right—and if they lost that power, they would suffer excruciating withdrawal symptoms. The picture we get of the whole [Rangers FC and fans], people who are exclusively preoccupied with power and advantage, this must be an addiction. Suppose they lose it? Well, it’s been their whole life.”
Study that and you get close to The Truth. The day your club was liquidated, it lost it’s status in society as a self-proclaimed ‘institution’ second only to the Church of Scotland in importance (another multilayered soundbite that was gobbled up by the easily outfoxed Ibrox fodder). Get used to it. It’s not coming back.
Any further versions of the ‘the company’ are just like the whiff of mint sauce in the air as the plate gets cleaned.
You’re finished. And that’s The Truth. ”
Brilliant. Meantime, I’ll keep it simple for any of the sons of struth who happen to drop by in here, as they would struggle with the outlaws message;
and a little advice for them…
There were some excellent answers again to the spot the difference yesterday, our own Desi mond amongst the better ones, though i am a little worried about which east end pub he is using which is filled with men wearing green mankinis, and on that basis will resist the offer of a pre match drink in the future.
Whats going on here ?
I see dead people.
As the clock ticked painfully…….Ally waited and watched.
Greggs opens at half seven.
Damn, I can still smell that glove!
Please god don’t let that bald patch get any bigger
Well i think that little history lesson frm KDS pritty much covers it, put into small easy to read sentences and paragraphs with naw many big words so as all the gullible,dumb ass, uneducated fuckwits down at DIEBOX may just be able to grasp who and why there horrible bigoted sham of a club died FOREVER. I will never stop reminding any OLDCO SCUM fan that there club is dead and will never rise again, there part in Scottish society has shamed Scotland for generations, and that is the only legacy carried over from the corpse of OLDCO.. AN OCCASIONAL EMBARRASSMENT BUT A PERMANENT DISGRACE..
hail hail+
Does he have an explosive device hidden in his y-fronts and is whipering ALLYHU AKBAR repeatedly under his breath, prior to igniting the aforementioned IED if the SFA do the right thing and turn down the latest tax criminal/charlatan who would be King?
Bless me Father for I have sinned………..
Santa .could you bring me a Chairman, a Chief Executive and couple board members as i’m bereft of them. Must be of sound character or maybe not. To be perfectly honest ..honesty is hard to find around here. Thanks santa. P.S. any chance of a warchest?