Celtic Diary Monday February 3

Celtic eased past St. Mirren 1-0, with Kris Commons restored to first goalscorer after Joe Ledley moved down south to sample the bright lights of London town.

Where a warm, cockney welcome awaits him

Lets hope he stays out of trouble. Hordes of beautiful temptresses await him, and he needs to be careful

Fraser Forster completed his eleventh consecutive league shut out and now holds the club record. He will be aiming for another club record, that of Charlie Shaw who kept thirteen domestic clean sheets back in 1914, and should he keep Aberdeen at bay in the Cup this weekend, he’ll have equalled that.

During yesterdays game, on the eighteenth minute, Celtics support sang “theres only one Neil Lennon ” to show support for the manager , who had been subjected to abuse and the throwing of missiles while watching Aberdeen beat St. Johnstone at Tynecastle, and he showed his appreciation.

“I can’t thank them enough for that. I think it gave the players a real lift.

“It’s something we don’t hear very often in games where we’re so much in control, but I think the supporters felt it meant a lot to me personally.”

“I’ve been at all the grounds, I was at Motherwell the week before watching Aberdeen and I’ve been all up and down the country, and I’ve never had to put up with that before,” the 42-year-old said.

“It makes me think twice about going to games if that’s the type of thing that’s going to happen. It could have been worse, somebody could have been hurt.

“I’m not over-exaggerating it, someone could have been hit in the eye with a coin. It’s just not on.

“Eventually you’ve got to say ‘right’ and maybe need to look at something else in your life if you can’t go to a game and enjoy it when you’re out working.”

A lot has been said about the cause of the assault, for instance most messageboards hint at anti Irish racism, and while its true the image of Lennon in the press is often of the snarling aggressive troublemaker, its unlikely to have been that from Aberdeen fans, who tend not to be bigots. Racism, is of course abhorrent, as it brings in overtones of ruthless mercenary overlords who exploited people for their own financial gain. I saw that film 12 years a slave at the pictures this weekend, and it gave me an idea of the horrors of exploitation. It was a fiver for a Coke.

Lennon himself described it as

” just a section of their supporters who probably had far too much to drink and wanted to single me out.

“I don’t think it was sectarian. It was drink-fuelled and yes, it is unacceptable.”

I wonder if it had anything to do with him referring to Aberdeen fans as “sheepshaggers ” during a speech at Celtic Park some years ago…. something everyone seems to have forgotten.

No wonder they were upset. Its only a minority of their fans who are distracted during the lambing season. Thats why I never eat lamb. You never know whats happened to it before.

The SPFL issued an apology to the Celtic boss, via Neil Doncaster;

“We’d like to congratulate Aberdeen and Inverness Caledonian Thistle on reaching the Scottish League Cup Final after two thrilling semi-finals this weekend.

“Unfortunately, we understand that the Celtic manager Neil Lennon was the subject of abusive treatment by a minority of fans during yesterday’s game.

“Given this occurred at one of our games, we’d like to apologise to Neil Lennon for this utterly unacceptable behaviour.

“The SPFL is united in its total condemnation of this type of incident, which has no place in a football stadium nor society overall.”

He sure earns his money, that fellow.

Anyway, the incident should not detract from how well things are going on the pitch.

Stefan Johansen knows there is no such thing as a second impression, and he made the loss of Joe Ledley more bearable with his efforts yesterday. You always worry when a player talks a good game, see Hooiveld, Jos, and fear that he may not actually deliver when it matters. But not this guy, he slotted in as though he’d been there forever, and even passed the ball forward now and again. After his full debut, the Norwegian was asked if he felt he could replace Ledley;

‘I hope so. It was bad that Joe left the club because he was a fantastic player and I could have learned a lot from him. But that is how football is – players come, players leave and you just need to make the best of what you have today.

‘I got my chance and I think I did well, so I’m going to keep on working hard and try to make that place mine.

‘I haven’t played a match since November 15 – I just had two subs appearances and a reserve match. There is more to come when I get my full match fitness. In the last few minutes I was tired.’

Johansen also believes he can form a strong central midfield partnership with skipper Scott Brown.

‘It’s fantastic to play with Scott. He’s an experienced guy and a real captain. He helped me as he talks a lot, you can see why he’s been a top player for a long time. It’s good to have a guy like that when you come to a new club.’

Wait until he’s shouting at him for getting sent off in the UCL…

Anthony Stokes , restored to the team after suspension, passed up a golden opportunity to seal the points when he didn’t pass to Derk Boerrigter when the two of them were clear through on the Saints keeper, the Irishman tried to go round him instead, and made an arse of it.

Leigh Griffiths it is then.

Theres still trouble over at Second Rangers, who , it seems are hurtling towards the precipice just like their predecessors First Rangers. Lubo lubo explains on KDS;

“You have to remember there are two companies. RIFC (which had the ipo) and TRFC (the clumpany). RIFC raised the IPO dosh, TRFC spent it. TRFC will owe RIFC for the IPO money it has spent. It would be clearer if TRFC published accounts but they dont have to do so until May. RIFC will claim the money spent as debt, relieve TRFC of it’s property assets and become a very profitable property leasing company with one client signed up to a long term onerous lease including paying for upkeep after it sells TRFC (probably for a pound) to ra bares next saviour. ”

Another poster, bogjumper, then asks;

” S’cuse the ignorance -would that not have been indicated in the clumpany’s accounts which were audited etc. ?”

to which lubolubo replies, and when you read this, the whole fiasco becomes a bit clearer;

“It was.

p25 of the Accounts of RIFC accounts shows £16.163m ‘Amounts due from subsidiary undertakings’ . There is a Note(15) on p59 which goes on to explain that the “Amounts due to RIFC from The Rangers Football Club Ltd represents the proceeds of the Initial Public Offering less costs incurred in the fundraising. The net funds from this activity have been made available to the subsidiary as working capital.”

I think people are going to be disappointed if they expect a drawn out administration. The way I see how this is going to go down, will be a quick and relatively bloodless. The spivs will ensure that there are little to no external liabilities or debts and no cash left. Basically what is owed will be owed to RIFC and RIFC alone. RIFC simply take the assets for the debt and with no external creditors they’ll have a free run at it. A friendly administrator will be appointed and TRFC will be sold sans assets to a pre nominated bidder (King?) who will have already agreed the terms of the lease. TRFC might take that opportunity to cut costs significantly (letting players and staff go) but that depends on who comes in.

Alternatively it could be a bloodbath where the spivs don’t have a buyer lined up to purchase TRFC out of administration, and are simply happy to take the assets knowing whoever comes in will have to deal with them or find somewhere else to play. That could get messy. There will be absolutely no funds to sustain the business when it goes under so if the administration takes time then all bets are off. The only certainty in the whole shebang is that either administration or a takeover is coming (there is no danger of them being able to cut costs without it, and no-one will touch a new share issue to fund the business) and that RIFC will end up a property company with Ibrox, the training centre, the car park and associated buildings. TRFC will either be bought or go completely under. ”

Thats about as good an explanation of events at Ibrox as you will find anywhere.

Even as we speak, Ally McCoist is trying desperately to find someone who will explain it to him. Because, of course, he had no idea what was going on. Some things just seem to escape his notice.

Roll of Honour, the song that gets you arrested, will be available on itunes next wek, as Fans Against Criminalisation , along with the Irish Brigade make a push for an appearance on MTV. Details here;

FAC roll of honour

Has to be worth a shot, but I’m not sure it will be a hit unless loads of scantily dressed young ladies are gyrating on the screen with their bottoms in the air, as seems to be the in thing amongst pop pickers these days. Still, if it helps, I could probably find time to interview and audition a few .

It was visionary Kevin Kelly who described Celtic as “good payers” when talking about getting John Collins a new contract. Perhaps he was referring to how much his own family took out of the club.

Who are these three, and whats the guy in the middles connection with Celtic ?