Police Scotland will be on full alert in the Highlands today as the hordes who rampaged through Amsterdam descend on the small town of Dingwall for todays lunchtime Premier League game between Ross County and Celtic. n fact, there is talk of them bringing in a local expert to help keep the crowds under control with his no nonsense approach.
Back up will be available if needed.
So you’d better behave yourselves.
After the midweek riots, which left Amsterdam in ruins during the week, the mayor of Dundee got in touch with his Dutch counterpart and the two have agreed to hold a candlelit vigil in memory of those who were affected by the wrecking crew from Glasgow.
Anyway, its time to move forward, and look ahead to todays game, which is live on BT Sports at noon.
I had a quick look at the live webcam in Dingwall town centre to make sure there was no repeat of midweek events, and to be honest , it doesn’t look good.
Last word on the Ajax game goes to former striker Chris Sutton, who summed up the way we all feel;
” When the going gets tough any team needs to earn the right to play. And when you are on the big stage, back yourself because that’s what playing for Celtic is all about – the huge games.
The players possess the quality, they just have to trust themselves more.
That’s what Celtic didn’t do in Amsterdam. Waiting to see what happened, as opposed to taking the game to Ajax, meant Celtic flopped.
Now they have the proverbial cup final against Milan to show they’ve absorbed that lesson. ”
And with that the likelihood of Jorge Cadete getting to coach our strikers disappeared in a puff of smoke. Get the big fella back to remind the players , er, how to play and play with a bit of pride.
Actually, lets give the last word on Amsterdam to their police chief, a guy called Rob van der Veen, who said , of the police tactics;
“We only use violence when we get violence in our direction.
“We defend ourselves. That is how we work.”
“We don’t attack people. What we do is focus on a person who has to be arrested.
“Two officers in plain clothes will get hold of the guy, and a few other officers make a sort of ring round them to make sure they can do their work and take out the person that has to be arrested. ”
Margaret Thatcher would have cried tears thinking she missed out on this guy when the miners went on strike.
My Grandad was at the game, and he was having a wee bit of trouble at customs when he couldn’t find his passport.
” Have you never been to the Netherlands before , ? ” asked the official.
” Yes, but I was in uniform and there were none of you dutch feckers anywhere to be seen. ”
Anyway, Neil Lennon is moaning about the early kick off against Ross County today, and he’s got a point.
We could do with waiting until January for our next game to give us a chance to get rid of the imposters in the team, and start all over again.
Apart from the defence, the rest can all go. If we can find a buyer , that is.
Without checking, if someone scores a hat trick today ( thats three in one game for our younger readers, ) he will shoot straight to the top of our scoring charts.
Shoot straight. Theres a laugh.
Today, lets change the way we approach the game.
Lets keep the tempo and the urgency high, from the start of the game until the finish.
Lets show that we have been hurt by the defeat in the week, and we are going to start putting things right now.
Slates can be wiped, supporters are notoriously fickle, and lets come away from todays game at least thinking we have a chance against Milan and Barcelona.
Its time to restore some pride.
Its time to come out fighting when everyone is against you. Like the support did in the week. Show some balls , Celtic, and lets make the football something to look forward to again.
Elsewhere, a super typhoon has hit the Phillipines. If it had hit Ibrox it would have been classed as a fecking amazing typhoon.
Which brings us to our former foes down in the south side.
One of todays papers has a souvenbir special featuring vintage pictures of Celtic and the now defunct Rangers, which cynics might call a desperate attempt to keep alive the obselete ” Old Firm ” tag, which allows the bigots to peddle the ” two sides of the same coin ” myth.
This buch of handsome devils are the Rangers team from 1894, who won the first ever “Old Firm ” game, according to the paper.
And heres a picture from the last ever fixture between the two, strangely not included in their anthology.
The picture yesterday was taken from the 1957 League Cup Final, a 7-1 win to Celtic which, of course, can never now be repeated.
The Scottish MSM, which performs so well usually, has had a few moments of triumph, and a few moments of shame. But we perhaps don’t seem to recognise just how difficult their job can be.
Todays little teaser,
No, not her,
Today, can you help the reporter piece together a possible story, or even an angle to a story, from the following clues…
All of these can be found on the web.
Celtic fans attacked by masked Ajax supporters
Watch Ajax Fans Clash with Manchester City Fans and Police in Amsterdam’s Famous Red Light District (Video)
Celtic fans named 3rd best in world, no other British club in top 10
ajax hooligans attack the subway with ac milan fans
And then, can you explain how they missed it ?
Agree with your ongoing comments about our strikers. We need an out and out poacher but some ammunition from the mid field would be nice as well. We just dont create enough I dont think especially in the CL this season.
I read a few days ago that Blackburn are heavily in debt, something like £50m and counting. It would be a refreshing change if we actually spent some of the money we are hoarding and but a bid in for Rhodes in Jan.
Blackburn will have a fire sale soon so he will be the first to go you would think. I hope he looks at Hoopers career since he left us. Playing as a loan striker, feeding off scraps for a bottom half of the premiership team in front of 20 thousand is no comparison to playing for Celtic. We just need to get the cheque book out!
Unfortunately we seem to be having the same conversation again and again and again, the team are just not up to it, every aspect of Whats happening at Celtic at the moment needs to be v closely looked at, from fitness training, as we just dont seem to be able to compete for the full 90+ minutes, and have far to many niggling injuries on a regular basis, training ground tactics needs a MASSIVE overhaul, our set pieces are woeful, along with v v poor delivery from wide positions in open play.But for me i the biggest issue is the manager, his team selections and ability to make game saving tactical changes are getting worse with time not better, the squad he is putting 2gether is getting weaker and less skillful and unproven replacements are most definitely not working, maybe the answer is change from the top down i dont know, but i do know that im not being fooled into thinking that the current Celtic set up is anything but very mediocre and thats not acceptable.. hail hail, GOD BLESS THE CELTIC+
Ralph
Have you ever felt like the chocolate on the conveyor belt that gets plucked off, on a good day by that young lady in the photo (I never have good days :()? If not, then try commenting on a regular basis on this sight and you will be convinced there is a plot to make sure you rarely ever reach the selection box. The ETims storage unit must be bursting at the seams with my rejects and this week has been like no other. Do you ever consider what a great job that moderator guy has, reading all my gems that never see the light of day for you and all the other poor readers on here? You should reconsider his contract given he has exclusive access the prize comments. Having said that, it is a week best ignored given the range of “bad” news stories.
For about 30 minutes or more, I was beginning to believe today was like the rest. Even the goal before half time did not inspire confidence. Then the second half highland come-back was looking like one of those quite inexplicable sequels that have become the norm of late, except, in our case, the goody does not win in the end. Virgil and Joe helped put the old ticker back on Greenwich tick-tock again and my lunch kind of gradually slithered back into my stomach. I read somewhere that our players should be made to experience what the fans go through and i would endorse that in blood. I remember having a quick word with Roy Aitken (we just happened to meet on the way out one day. No, I am not, nor was I ever “familiar” with players) after a match where he expressed how terrible it was to sit and watch. It was during one of those periods in his earlier career when he spent more time suspended than playing. I think it is called “Doing a Broonie” these days. Anyway, I remember him saying he could not stand it and thought he would go nuts if he was not be playing regularly. He obviously got something for his dilemma given the amount of occasions he sat in the stand. In the end today’s sounded like not a bad win, even though we are still waiting for the elusive forward line to discover what a goal is. At the rate the defenders are scoring, Big Frasers value could end up being the number of goals he scores rather than saves. I guess it was acceptable considering some of the results in the frozen north in the past.
I had to listen to the Celtic fans’ favourite, auntie bee baw babbety. Like the first team, CTV gave up about 10 minutes in. They redirected listeners to the reserve team but they were on a loser too – very Celtic! I think they got back on the air somewhere around 15 minutes to go, at least that’s when I found them again. But, by that time my day was ruined as I had had to endure a whole lunchtime of a wishing-Ross-County-would-score impartial commentary. As they say, all’s well that ends well and the loss of my comment merely helped to empty the biscuit tin. So, thanks for a great afternoon. I distracted myself by catching up on the diary and other posts that I had missed for a few days due to the 24/7 occupations of retirement. If only my original comment had been used as a substitute, we might have won more convincingly.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend. You never know, by Monday UEFA might reverse the Ajax score out of fear of our rampaging hordes and the SNP might realise that legal idiocy is the affair of national lampoons and not government (now there is a quiz question. What is the difference?). I also have it on the best of authority that the proverbial pigs have arranged flying lessons this weekend – wheeeeeee, grunt!!.
H H
Give Tommy fuckin rogic a crack, lenny!
Absolutely disgusted that the club are giving 10 grand to the poppy appeal,that ten grand should have went to a more deserving cause i.e the Maryhill food bank,it,s one of the reasons I only give to specific charities so I know where my moneys going,I have never given to things like television charity nights as my money may end up with charities(ie missionaries) that I fundamentally disagree with,I also have never given to The celtic charity and im so glad know as some of my cash may have went murdering scum,I bet a lot of fans will think twice before contributing in the future
BRITISH FORCES MURDERING BASTARDS
deadhead67, aptly named & people like are the reason that sometimes I despair of my fellow fans,
so the British forces were murdering bastards in the first two world wars?
Technically yes. A lot of civilians were killed, Dresden for example.
Inevitable in World Wars though.
We’ll said Dooda. I served in the armed forces and I’m a life long Celtic fan, born in Glasgow to Irish Catholic parents. I’m happy to accept criticism of Governments who make poor decisions on where and when to use our forces but not of the people who do the job. Yes, there are some loons in there, but there is in every large organisation…..like the Celtic support for instance!!