So, bonfire night.
Thats when everyone celebrates the last occasion that the British Government actually found weapons of mass destruction.
Remember, never go back to a firework once its lit. Especially if you’ve just put it through someones letterbox.
But all the festivities are just there to take our minds off tomorrow nights crucial game in Amsterdam. Celtic have a superb record over there, with two wins in two attempts in the last thirty years, and with Ajax currently enjoying the type of form that comes to be expected when you have a former Rangers player in charge, the omens are good.
( Well, the first one was okay, but the sequels were terrible. )
Former manager and current cheerleader Gordon Strachan thinks that Celtic will make the last sixteen of this years tournament, and I’m beginning to agree with him.
“I think Celtic can win on Wednesday and I think they can beat AC Milan, That´s not just hoping. I definitely think they can beat them.
“At the moment I think Celtic have the strength and the know-how to definitely get a result there, because Ajax are not in the best of form just now. And they can definitely beat AC Milan.
“Celtic are a better team than Ajax at this moment. The Ajax team will develop – they look like a youth team – I don´t think anybody has had a shave in that team. When you look at them and the Juventus team Celtic played last season, they were men.
“The Ajax team will develop in the next nine months, a year, into an exceptional team again. Ajax´s problem, like most clubs, is they keep improving players then somebody buys them.”
The Scotland boss also thinks that the experience of the Champions League for Celtics players has a knock on effect in the national side.
“There´s absolutely no doubt about it, Celtic´s experience in the Champions League has helped Scottish international football,” Strachan said. “Apart from Celtic, the players don´t have European football, which is a pity. I´m sure if they had it, they would definitely get better.
“It´s not an arrogance. It´s a confidence you feel. When you might have thought: ´Am I good enough?´ It becomes: ´Yes, I am good enough.´
“I would love to get players with that experience staying in Europe longer. How to deal with it, things like travelling all the time and getting used to having less training sessions.”
But we don’t really care about that.
Nir Bitton will miss two Champions League games after he was handed an extra suspension for his sending off in the first game, but Scott Brown will travel with the club regardless of the fact he can’t play.
Thats can’t play in the game, not an overall assessment of his ability. Thought that needed clarification.
Neil Lennon said;
“Scott is coming with us, and I think Adam Matthews will, as well.”
Theres no place for Bobby Lennox or Bertie Auld, though.
Asked if the captain still had a role to play, even though suspended, the manager said: “Why not? It’s always good to have Scott there.
“He is very encouraging and very good in the dressing room, and he will do a bit of training while he is there.”
Why don’t they just say that he was able to tell his wife he’s away to Amsterdam for a couple of days and its work ?
I only got as far as ” I see Celtic will be playing Ajax ”
Lennon was happy with the fact that no-one else got injured on Saturday against Dundee Utd, and was pleased that one or two are getting sharper;
“That was another good 70 minutes for Joe Ledley on Saturday,”
“Derk has come back, Kris Commons and Georgios will be back, James Forrest got another 90 minutes, which was good, and we rested Beram Kayal, which was good.”
Lennon also sounds quite confident about the game..
“We have got to believe that we can get the result we want tomorrow, otherwise there is no point in turning up.
“We will have to be positive, and to get something out of the game would give us a great chance in the last two games.”
So he should. Celtic played very well in milan, and were unlucky to lose. Ajax will have to come at Celtic as they need to win the game to have any chance of European football after Christmas. That means Celtic can play the counter attacking game that suits them at this level.
Samaras and probably Forrest will be crucial tomorrow night. If they are up for it, then another win at Ajax is certainly not beyond the realms of possibility.
Of course, by the time tomorrow rolls around, I’ll be back to being the nervous wreck who thinks we’ll get cuffed.
Elsewhere, Scottish football will now be shown in China after a £20m ten year deal was signed to show games in that country. Thats £2m a year divided between forty two clubs.
The guys who negotiated this deal really went for it, and lets be honest, with negotiating skills like that, you’d have had their dinner money off them every day at school.
Still, in one sense its money for nothing. Which , ironically sums up what these guys do for a living.
And there is another downside, no doubt we’ll be signing a Chinese player soon, whether he’s any good or not, and you’ll be pleased and surprised to know that we’ve already been linked with one.
He’s an attacking midfielder from the Beijjing Guoan club called Zhang Xizhe , who has been described as ;
” one of the few current Chinese players capable of making a real mark on European football.
Indeed, there has been a growing sense in recent months that it will be difficult for Guoan to retain the youngster, who provided 11 goals this season and topped the Super League charts for assists with 12, appearing in all 30 league matches for the capital side. ”
Frankly, its hard to believe that somewhere on a red ash pitch in the west of Scotland there isn’t someone of at least equal capabilities. And could you have a look for a striker as well.
If anyone in China is reading this, and knows which hotel Lawwell is staying in, go and have a beer with him. Then, when he’s drunk, nick his passport and his shoes. That way he might never get back.
Today sees the draw for the Scottish Cup fourth round, and its the one where big teams like Celtic enter the competition, and as usual all the wee teams ( like Second Rangers ) will be hoping for a big name to come out alongside theirs.
The wee Rangers will be hoping for Motherwell, which is roughly the equivalent of a bye for them, while Celtic will be hoping to avoid the Ibrox club, even though it is roughly the equivalent of a bye for us.
Alex Ferguson will be pulling the balls out of the pot, which is live on Sky at midday.
Call me a suspicious old scroat, but the media interest in the tournament is a little worrying, which surely doesn’t mean there are a couple of hot balls in there somewhere…
Alan Hansen, once a great player, now a terrible pundit, reckons that Fraser Forster should get a game for England. But he does have his reservations;
“If you are being brutally honest, Roy does not have any genuine alternatives.”
“Forster had a fantastic game for Celtic against Barcelona in the Champions League last season, but we have not seen him on the biggest stage,”
For someone who avoided heading the ball, Hansen has the knack of talking like someone who has suffered cranial injury, and although he seems to be referring to the World Cup as the biggest stage, its fair to say that players such as George Weah and George Best didn’t really lack something in their game that could have been put right by playing against Zaire or Costa Rica.
Hansen was quite popular on the BBC, but never quite graduated to a bigger stage.
Poor Joe Hart. He doesn’t even realise he’s going to be dropped. Hodgson has told him, but it went straight over his head.
Yesterdays picture showed a still from the 3-0 over Cologne in 1992, which promised to be the start of a great run in Europe. It wasn’t, and there wasn’t another great run for years. In fact, there wasn’t a great game for years. But heres one-where and what ?
M v B II
hahahahahahahahaahahahaaha!
Men against boys. Take that souness.Ewood park. Uefa Cup. My all time favourite away game.
Henrik scoring against Blackburn’s brad friedel. We once had him on our books along with Shay Given and Gordon Marshall. Which one of the three did we keep? Ohhhh dear!
Bhoys v Men 😉
Nov 15th 2002
Hail Haik
PEEENESSS!
Oh your Tu-Gayyyyy, hush hush, bye the bye
Your Tu-gay gay, hush hush, bye the bye!
There have been many “hard men” in the Scottish game, but the moustached beast was by far the dirtiest b’stard I ever saw kick a ball. Think George McCluskey, Billy stark, siggi jonsson, Peter nicholas, the boy from s Bucharest rotariu, I could go on, but cowards tackles the lot of them! What a joy to see henrik & the bhoys put his team to the sword. One of my all time favourite European nights:-) Get intae them tomorrow night Celtic! Great opportunity to stick it to another ex c bun. Feelin positive, 2 1 us again.
Barga bhoy
“There have been many “hard men” in the Scottish game”
Not in a million years. He was a coward at heart and could hide in a centimeter of grass when things were going badly. Hard men were the Sean Fallons and the Davy Hays of football not sleekit coorin timorous beasties like this man. You later description is much more apt.
“by far the dirtiest b’stard I ever saw kick a ball”
But fair dos. We should keep in mind, though, he did begin to expose and challenge the sectarian employment policy at Ibrox and took on the peepil themselves.
H H
Think its a bit much to call him a coward, i saw him stand up to Yosser Hughes once whilst wee Sammy Lee was shyting himself.
GeezAJob CSC
Desi
Maybe misphrased. I meant he was known to hide in games when he was needed to get stuck in. I would certainly not claim that anyone who stood up to big Yosser was a coward, an idiot maybe. His face itself was enough to frighten the ….out of anybody. Maybe Souness read the David v Goliath story beforehand and believed it could happen again.
I had a lot of time for his efforts to get rid of the employment policy but a could not stand him as a player.
H H
I wa sonly joking. I hope ypu liked your fame within the latest Podcast with Stephen Sullivan!
Im sure you would like the outro tune too, Seans favourite!
Desi
I haven’t listened to it yet. Start greetin’. A’ve no been too well. Surely you did not spoil a perfectly good interview with a terrific lad by even mentioning me? I am watching the young guns and will be onto the pod afterwards. We should be about 4-0 up. Missed a pen and three almost sitters. Sadly there are reflections of both senior sides in each team. If the big boys play the same way we definitely could hump them but for elcormaco’s sake, they are unbeatable.
H H
Yosser: father, I’m desperate. Priest: call me dan, son. Yosser: I’m desperate dan…..thud. Walks out with crucifix Mark on forehead. Classic :- D
Ralph
Top class diary with top class “good humour”. Personally, I only ever went to Amsterdam because the mates said there was loads of craic there and I do like a good conversation. One cup of coffee and a cake and a couple of biscuits and I was so cracked up I never got round to much chatting. I only remember blue lights, some flashing and feeling wabbly things like peeled water melons on my face. I must go back sometime and stay sober for some proper craic.
You seem to miss the point with Chinese footballers. They are like Chinese nesting dolls. You buy one and find there are another four inside. That is not a bad deal and probably the kind of bargain that appeals to Peter Lawwell. What he fails to realise is that if the outside one is crap, it is more than likely the other four are even worse. Still, you never know, some old Chinese artisan might just slip in a wee special now and then. I missed the picture quiz yesterday so here is my “sad” effort today.
“Whit! Pay us in yens? Are ye kiddin’, pal? We want proper money.”
“You thought you were buying football?”
Enough of the …………..!!
Well, guys, it is my personal opinion that if we go for it with some Vim tomorrow and Scrub the deficit with a bit of Ajax and then we could Wipe The Floor with Milan and go into the last sixteen with a Clean Sheet. On the other hand we could make a right Messi of it all and end up being Brushed aside into Has Bins. Wow! Those biscuits! Like you Desi, I am totally confident of a positive result – if I blowhard in the bag.
I see we drew Hearts in the cup. Did you have a gut feeling we would get Wee Rangers or was it a pure guess? I see it is at Tynecastle. Well, at least Mr, McCoist will be happy that the biggest game in Edinburgh this season has gone to his favoured club. Can you imagine him and Hanson on Match of the Day? The studio would be like a flood in the Amazon with all the piss flowing. Best simply to NOT IMAGINE. These things have an “awfy” habit of coming to pass. I keep saying, I hope Roy of the English Rovers has a change of Hart and keeps said goalkeeper in place. Until Big Fraser leaves, i would be happy for him to avoid the “killing fields” of English International press reports.
Quiz; One of the rare occasions when I was really happy to be in England – my first two fingers genuinely were stiff with arthritis. It was like the sequel to the Leeds game, nowhere near the same standard but somehow, just as enjoyable to watch.
H H
yes, What a night that was at Ewood. To be fair blackburn had passed us off the park at Celtic Park, but what a tool Souness was to come out with the men vs boys line – thanks. I think that was the night that the English media had to acknowedge Larsson was a world class talent
Just saw the scottish cup draw – one ogilvie team needing money get a home draw against celtic obviously, 2nd rangers are away though? who messed up?
I m trying to find the optimism we can do Ajax again, they are in terrible form, a young team etc etc, but we seem to do better away when the odds are stacked more against us- can’t people start talking Ajax up a bit more please? And who to play as striker? sammi should be wide left, so Stokes, Pukki or Balde?
Stokes is never gonna be a regular goalscorer at this level, Pukki looks like he d rather grab 40 winks than a goal and Im not sure Balde is really a footballer. Jamesy in the “false 9” and Derk on the right? a 4 -6- 0? So many choices, so few goal scorers!
4-6-0…Levein….OUT!!
🙂
Desi
I have just listened to the podcast. I guess my secret is out of the bag now. Up till the point he speaks about me Stephen was telling the truth but that brief description of Arthur is way off the mark. However, I now appreciate that my little snippet was far more important than I realised and feel I was so fortunate to know about it. I am really please I posted it on here. It just goes to show that not everything I write is pure drivel. Now and then there is something worthwhile in spite of myself. I might now tell, without too much embarrassment, a tale or two about the launch. Meantime, I hope more and more fans and others read Sean’s wonderful story. He is a legend if ever Celtic had one but more, he is an extraordinary man. Stephen writes about Celtic’s fairest ever hardman and Sligo’s gentlest tough guy, with exceptional delicacy and affection.
H H
PS
Meant to say thank you for the tune. I sing it to the pots and pans every day when cooking though there are a couple of different verses in my version and Bing is off tune compared to my rendition. I will do it on the podcast for you some day. See I am a dreamer but Northumberland doesn’t fit the same.
H H