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Celtic Diary Monday July 21: Aqui-no ? or Aqui-yes ?

Villareal websites-well, one-are reporting that Javier Aquino will be playing for Celtic this season, and a loan deal will be sorted this week. Apparently, he will get more game time with us, and will play champions league football.

And, of course, it frees up a non EU spot for a player that the Spanish side might actually want to use.

Do they know something we don’t ? More or less, this means that James Forrest isn’t expected to play again anytime soon, and if I was Ronny Deila, I’d be sending him to another doctor, because the one he’s under just now doesn’t seem to be able to fix him. Come to think of it, we aren’t getting many details about whats actually wrong with him .

Wheres my tin foil hat ?

signs

However, Ronny Cully, ( if Deila reckons thats the correct way to spell the name, then everyone has to conform ) in the Evening Times claims-no quotes-that Aquino isn’t coming and that Deila says neither is Moudo Barrow, the other lad mentioned last week.

He might have a point, Celtic tend to surprise us when they sign someone. Someone specific, that is. not just when they make a signing. Although you could argue for both instances I suppose.

Another wide player mentioned was Christian Atsu, Chelseas Ghanaian winger, but he looks more likely to remain in England, all of which leaves Gary Mackay Steven keeping his phone charged up this week.

Out of contract forward Denny Johnstone has been training with Birmingham City, and judging by stories onthe street he won’t be the only striker to leave this summer.

When Anthony Stokes left the pitch after being substitued against Reykjavik, he didn’t look happy. Nothing wrong with that, he wasn’t having a great game, so he could just as easily have been annoyed with himself. Then, messageboards and twitter accounts picked up on the fact that he “snubbed ” Ronny Deila by only offering a short but sweet “low five “, instead of an all dancing all singing high five whilst laughing and joking his way to the bench.

Then he apparently ignored some kids with charity collection buckets in the airport, before moving an old ladies bag out of the luggage rack on the plane so he could put his own case there.

Or something like that.

Anyway, it appears his card is marked, and to quote one poster on KDS, he’s “first out the door under the new manager “, who apparently doesn’t like his body language. To be fair, the poster concerned is normally spot on, but I’d be concerned if Deila took the huff over not getting a wee hug when he pulled Stokes off

frankie howerd

than if he was getting rid of him because he thought he wasn’t good enough. All sounds a bit too tyrannical to me.

And anyway, there was no sign of John Collins holding Deila back and telling him to leave it, because it wasn’t worth it.

With little of concrete substance to talk about , it seems that any little snippet that may or may not have a ring of truth about it is getting blown up out of proportion.

It will only add fuel to the fire when Stokes doesn’t feature in the return leg tomorrow. He’s got a hamstring complaint, and if the same doctor who treats James Forrest is looking at it, he won’t be ready for the group stages, never mind the qualifiers.

By the way, although you’ve probably seen it already, the club have offered advice to supporters about how to get to the game tomorrow.

going to the game

Or in prose form, if you can’t see the video;

same thing in prose

Its a great move by the club, because with the city not having any senior football teams, to some supporters, the trip will be a step into the unknown, and they will need all the help they can get.

The Diary has had a go at the clubs marketing and PR division before, and this time has to record its amazement that it feels one of the most travelled and most numerous supports in the world needs any help in getting along the M8 .

Mind you, it can get busy around tea time, buts its still not as if you’ll need a flask of tea and sandwiches.

City Link, the bus company, are offering 20% off their prices, which granted is a noble gesture, but since that amounts to only around a quid or so, its  neither here nor there. All they had to do was tell the passengers they could bring their own tunes….

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The Wolfetones are getting some plugs just lately on these pages….

 

 

One person who should make the return game is Kris Commons, who suffered a dead leg at the weekend in Dresden. Commons is vital to the way Celtic play, and can always be counted on to grab a goal when the chips are down. Or, indeed , when they are up.

And we are not the only ones to have noticed.

In the UEFA Best Player of the Year Poll, the top ten nominees were as below;

• Diego Costa (Spain, Club Atlético de Madrid – now at Chelsea FC)
• Ángel Di María (Argentina, Real Madrid CF)
• James Rodríguez (Colombia, AS Monaco FC)
• Philipp Lahm (Germany, FC Bayern München)
• Lionel Messi (Argentina, FC Barcelona)
• Thomas Müller (Germany, FC Bayern München)
• Manuel Neuer (Germany, FC Bayern München)
• Arjen Robben (Netherlands, FC Bayern München)
• Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, Real Madrid CF)
• Luis Suárez (Uruguay, Liverpool FC – now at FC Barcelona) 

Note, only one player in the Supreme English League…

Then, below that ten were these players;

11 Sergio Ramos, Spain, Real Madrid CF
12 Thibaut Courtois, Belgium, Club Atlético de Madrid (Chelsea FC)
13 Zlatan Ibrahimović, Sweden, Paris Saint-Germain
Andrea Pirlo, Italy, Juventus
15 Yaya Touré, Ivory Coast, Manchester City FC
16 Toni Kroos, Germany, FC Bayern München – now at Real Madrid CF
17 Neymar, Brazil, FC Barcelona
Bastian Schweinsteiger, Germany, FC Bayern München
19 Gareth Bale, Wales, Real Madrid CF
20 Diego Godin, Uruguay, Club Atlético de Madrid
21 Sergio Agüero, Argentina, Manchester City FC
Koke, Spain, Club Atlético de Madrid
Arturo Vidal, Chile, Juventus
24 Karim Benzema, France, Real Madrid CF
Kris Commons, Scotland, Celtic FC
Javier Mascherano, Argentina, FC Barcelona
Franck Ribéry, France, FC Bayern München
28 Mario Götze, Germany, FC Bayern München
Mats Hummels, Germany, Borussia Dortmund
Ivan Rakitić, Croatia, Sevilla FC – now at FC Barcelona
Thiago Silva, Brazil, Paris Saint-Germain
Wesley Sneijder, Netherlands, Galatasaray AŞ
Carlos Tévez, Argentina, Juventus
Arda Turan, Turkey, Club Atlético de Madrid
Robin van Persie, Netherlands, Manchester United FC

Note again, only three from the English League, but more importantly, theres one from the Scottish League !

Commons comes in at number 24, and considering he wasn’t at the World Cup, and plays in the Armageddon League, thats a hell of an achievement.

Oh. I mentioned the Scottish League. So its time for the Dig At Doncater, a regular feature in the Diary.

Actually, its more of a national pastime as the beleagured and talentless head of the SPFL is under yet more critcism.

The league looks like its about to enter a second season without a sponsor, and seeing how thats a pretty important aspect of Doncasters job description, then it naturally follows that he should do the decent thing and call it a day.

Or, of course, some hungry journalist with an eye for a story and a nose for the stench of decay might actually ring him and ask him why he’s failed to deliver again.

Thats not going to happen, because this is Scotland, and no-one ever asks anyone awkward questions. But there are one or two on twitter who are starting to get restless, and have asked the BBCs Jim Spence, who has been known to not give the proverbial flying feck about telling the truth, to look into it.

Its the SPFL AGM today, and Spence suggested on twitter that if no sponsor is found, then a charity should get a freebie for a year, which is an excellent idea, but doesn’t deal with the fact that doncaster has failed again.

The idea of a charity is sound, the PR would be fantastic, though it would have to be a proper charity, not like those legends games that a certain club organised and then unfortunately found the administration costs were higher than expected.

The AGM might well be interesting today, which would make a change, but nobody is anticipating blood on the carpet. Which is a shame.

Doncasters partner in crime-and comedy-isn’t helping himself either. The Scotlands Women Under 19s have a chance of progressing in their European Championship . a win over Norway will see them in the semi final stage.

Or as Stewart Regan puts it;

Just landed at Schiphol en route to see the Scotland Women U19’s take on Norway in Sarpsborg tonight. Come on girls – let’s make the semi’s!

frankie howerd

Food for thought now, and its from Bayern Munich chief Uli Hoeness. Worth thinking about for a couple of reasons as he discusses the price of season books….

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You know what, maybe Peter Lawwell isn’t so bad after all. Its still £100 less for a book than two years ago, although its stretching it a bit to call it £100 off this far down the line.

What was that I said about the marketing at Celtic ? All they had to do was paraphrase Hoeness, and Lawwell would have been seen as a man of the people.

Quizball, the BBC tv show which, like the old five a sides tournament on Sportsnight, and the Anglo Scottish Cup,was discontinued when a Scottish team won it. It annoyed the BBC in those days, you see.

Scotland , though, would get its own back when Alan Hansen got the summariser job on Match of the Day, which must have annoyed them even more.

Now that I have mentioned the old Sportsnight Fivies, Celtic were the team who won it, and they beat Southampton in the final. Who was the up and coming striker who made a name for himself that night…?

 

 

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Alan McGrane
9 years ago

Remember watching it and it was Charlie Nicholas who scored.

Shame he became a useless pundit!

9 years ago

Celtic won Quizball embarrasingly easily with Jim Craig the star player.

They then arranged a special game between the all conquering Celtic team and an England team of World Cup winners.

Again, the Celtic quartet was all over England like a rash until David Vine the quiz master started making honest mistakes by allowing England to get points with wrong answers etc. It became obvious that Celtic was never going to be allowed to win and England gained a narrow victory.

So they cheated to win the World Cup and cheated to win Quiz Ball. And they have the cheek to slag off Maradona.

Una
9 years ago

Stokes Out !!

9 years ago

I’m getting a bit concerned we haven’t made any signings yet. We really need to reach the Champions League Groups stages

Stevie
9 years ago
Reply to  David

They won’t spend a penny till they know if they are in the champions league..yet they risk not getting there by not spending on the squad. Same annoying scenarios seems to play out most summers. Then we get to August 31st and we see some loan and free transfer duds join up…

enattendanthector
9 years ago

Have never seen or heard of Aquino. May be a good player but quite old at 24 not to have held down a regular place at Villareal. Stokes’ attitude has always been a rollercoaster.

9 years ago

feck the hoonz

Gerry
9 years ago

£200 more per ticket only generates £2m of income; so Bayern only have 10,000 season ticket holders?
Appreciate the sentiment and treatment of fans but the Pres may want to speak to his Finance department about getting some new calculators.

jas
9 years ago

Financial matters aren’t Hoeness’s greatest attribute, isn’t the German Hector asked him to appear at Nuremburg or something?

jas
9 years ago
Reply to  jas

hasn’t (isn’t) or asking (asked)……doh!

John Murray
9 years ago

Would this be the same Uli Hoeness who was recently banged up for 3 and half years for tax evasion!?

John Murray
9 years ago

Just another dodgy Hun!

holy sea
9 years ago

Ralph,if anybody knows the inside track at our club,then iit’s Ronny Cully ( a good Tim,trusted by the club )
As for Stokes,he only started playing when the mad,mental Grif arrived.Ronny’s 4-2-3-1 DOES NOT WORK,as we WON’T spend
the money on the 1.Sparky Grif is NO winger,so he HAS to revert back to 2 up front tomorrow night.
As for spfl sponsor,Celtic by way of uefa payment to spfl for us being in CL groups,means they should do the honourable act,
and rename the spfl leagues, ‘ The Celtic Way ‘

elcormaco
9 years ago

You ve gone a bit Frankie Howard yourself Ralph: “I’d be concerned if Deila took the huff over not getting a wee hug when he pulled Stokes off” oo er, nudge nudge etc etc. It would be the decent thing to do.

I m wanting Stokes out too Una, not because he didnt hug Ronny or any of his alleged off field stuff, I simply dont believe he is good enough. he has had a few years now, and he has scored some great goals but he isnt a consistent or reliable enough goal scorer imo. I dont think we need a “striker” who score 15 great goals in Scotland and none in Europe, but some one who will score any kind of goal again and again.

The bears really are revolting now – I got into a Twitter row with one last week who demanded proof of tax irregularities the club admitted to and unpaid PAYE and NI when they were liquidated. It started when I challenged one who was demanding media and HMRC apoloigies and he piped up with some wild stuff about Celtic and child abuse, which I chose to ignore on the grounds that some things are much more importantnt than football ans shouldnt even enter the discussion e.g. I would never make a joke about the Ibrox disaster.
Apparently FTT and creditors report documents just arent robust enough evidence for our erstwhile rivals and slandering other clubs or people with anything that comes into their head is fair if it is attacking people who point out uncomforatbale truths about their owen midden.

Charlie Saiz
9 years ago

Charlie Nicholas he tore them all a new one.

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