Did you see the news today ? Michael McIntyre has stormed off the stage because a woman in the front row at one of his gigs wouldn’t get off her phone.
She was just asking the management what time the comedian was due on.
And if its true that a terrorist subject has Tony Blairs address, should we be campaigning for his release ?
Its international week, which means that theres not much news about Celtic to talk about, so I’m amusing myself by looking at other headlines.
The other big story is the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, which is causing a bit of panic, but personally i don’t think its a bad thing. I was at the doctors with my dodgy ankle yesterday, which is making it awkward for me to move around, but when the guy at the window coughed and told the receptionist he thought he’d got the virus, it certainly improved my mobility, because I ran like fuck all the way home.
Kris Commons will be offered a chance to move to Bolton, according to the Daily Mail, who clearly thought that the photo of him outside the staff canteen at Boltons training ground in yesterdays diary.was genuine.
And there are no quotes, from either the player or his former manager, to suggest theres anything in it.
And of course, there is no suggestion that Commons may start to work his ticket to be re-united with his old boss if Celtics new contract offer is consistent with the recent trend to introduce the ” Living Wage” for the players.
Bolton isn’t too far from Stoke, so last night I popped over to have a couple of beers with Lennon, but such is his impact on the town, there was no chance to ask him, as we were subject to countless interruptions.
There was football last night, and Scotland put in a hell of a performance against an excellent Poland side to come away with a highly respectable 2-2 draw. That sets up a potentially classic encounter between Ireland and Scotland at Celtic Park next month, and Etims have found a website that will enable you to quickly raise enough money to buy a ticket for the game;
www,sellyourkidneysand yourkidsforcash.com
( Please don’t click on the link. These days there probably is such a site, and its probably connected to the private healthcare industry. )
One thing of note, commentator /summariser Davie Provan kept reminding us that the Poles decision to use just two midfielders was allowing Scotland more space, yet the Scottish decision to use two was allowing them to overrun the Poles.
He probably knows what he means.
One game which caught the attention, though for all the wrong reasons was the Serbia-Albania clash, which was abandoned by the English referee when the players, staff and anyone else who was nearby started fighting when a drone carrying a flag which supported the independence of Kosovo flew into the stadium.
It was grabbed by the Serbian captain,
and then all hell broke loose;
UEFA haven’t decided what sort of punishments to hand out yet, and won’t make any decisions until they’ve read the referees report.
Which he will write as soon as he stops shaking and comes out of the toilet.
By the way, anyone thinking of renting a drone and attaching a saltire to it next month when England come to visit is clearly off their head. Its November, it’ll be rainy and windy and the craft probably end up somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.
There was another game last night, which may have been of more significance to us tims, when the development side faced Hamilton.
CELTIC…2
(Griffiths 47, Scepovic 82)
HAMILTON…0
Note the scorers, who were played together up front. Is this a way of getting them used to each other ?
Those of us who criticise Ronny Deila have backed their claims by pointing out that there doesn’t seem to be any signs that he is doing anything positive to make things better, or that we can’t see what he is trying to do with the players.
Well, maybe this is evidence that he does have some sort of plan underway.
Normal football returns on Saturday, when a refreshed and recharged Celtic travel to Dingwall, never an easy day out, to face Ross County, which reminds me, if anyone knows a decent Celtic pub-I know, they’re all decent, in Lanzarote, let me know, as I’m heading out there on Friday for a couple of days and will need somewhere to watch the game.
The hotel does claim to have satellite tv in all rooms, but I fear I won’t be able to understand the commentators, especially if they have Sky Sports.
The match is important, as a win will ease some of the pressure that is building up on the manager, although its a difficult game at the best of times up in the highlands, so I’d probably be happy with a draw and a good team performance.
Thing is, you see, Second Rangers could be bursting on the scene with talk of another bail out….
( I know, its probably nonsense, it usually is, but this time it might be for real. )
Dave King confident £16m
bailout deal can be struck at Rangers
after crunch talks with the board
claimed an ecstatic Keith Jackson in the Record;
KING and mysterious wealthy supporter George Letham spent around two hours locked in discussions with the Ibrox board over their proposed £16m bailout.
DAVE King last night emerged from crunch talks with the Rangers board and declared he is confident a deal can be struck over his proposed £16million bailout.
King flew into Scotland from South Africa on Monday night to meet up with mysterious wealthy supporter George Letham – pictured for the first time on our front page today
I haven’t seen it, but I presume he’s looking suitably embarrassed at being in the company of the convicted tax fraudster.
– and they arrived at Ibrox yesterday afternoon.
The pair spent around two hours locked in discussions with Gers chairman David Somers, chief executive Graham Wallace and director Philip Nash before coming out in bullish mood.
Bullish mood ? Surely theres a “t” missing from that anagram ?
King refused to divulge details of the meeting but when asked if he was optimistic their bid would be accepted, he said: “Yes, we are.”
Rangers confirmed two weeks ago they had repaid £1.5m of emergency loans made to the club in February and March, including £1m from Letham.
Record Sport revealed last week King had teamed up with Letham and former director Paul Murray to bankroll an urgently needed rescue package that would enable the club to stave off yet more financial distress.
In return for the huge cash injection, King and his group want a 51 per cent stake in Rangers through the issue of new shares.
But King’s sudden arrival on Scottish soil indicates he is close to securing a deal.
Either that or the cops in South Africa are after him again.
The Glasgow Castlemilk-born millionaire pitched up at Ibrox along with Letham just before 3pm yesterday. Wallace and Nash were already at the stadium while chairman Somers arrived 20 minutes later.
He’s no use, he’s only a millionaire. how the mighty have fallen, it used to be billionaires. soon they’ll be reduced to a whip round at the lodge. Or being roundly whipped at the lodge. Either should raise a considerable amount of cash with the correct sponsorship.
The parties didn’t drag out the discussions as King and Letham reappeared around 4.50pm and promptly hopped in a taxi bound for a city hotel.
Somers and Wallace held back before escaping from a different exit in the ground around an hour later without making comment.
Escaping. Somebody probably chucked a ladder up against the outside wall, presumably in a dummy run for when they all go to another big hoose after its discovered what they are really up to.
Allegedly, of course, because there is no suggestion that convicted tax fraudster Dave King could be up to any shennanigans at all. It would be completely out of character.
The bailout talks are expected to continue today and King may even attempt to make contact with Ashley – who owns an 8.92 per cent chunk of the Ibrox club – during his visit to see if common ground can be found.
As well as controlling the club’s retail stores and shirt sales, Ashley also owns the naming rights for the stadium as part of a hugely controversial £1 deal with former CEO Charles Green – an agreement that was uncovered by Record Sport.
If the naming rights for a pound is controversial, what does that make buying the whole club for a pound ?
But if King’s consortium holds no threat to Ashley’s lucrative contracts then the Sports Direct boss could yet be talked into scaling back on his own ongoing attempts to grab a bigger share of boardroom control.
Oh, its a consortium.
Doesn’t anyone who wants to buy that club ever use their own money ?
Sandro Mazzola was the player adopting the pose replicated by all those little plastic footballers got with our tabletop football games when we were kids in the seventies.
At least we can see where the inspiration comes from there. The guy who designed bar football must have been watching the Human Centipede on dvd when he came up with that one.
Heres a wee question for you, before Scott Brown, who was the last Celtic captain to score for Scotland….?
What concerns me is save king and Ashley finding common ground and bankrolling them. Be typical after all this if sevco end up with money to burn and can spend spend spend
stu uefa financial fair play rules put play to that. you can only spend what you earn, the huns have never been able to fairly earn as much as us. stop worrying the new club is a busted flush, how many times have they had these little stories to cling on to. HH
Stu,
Don’t worry about the Zombies, you should be far more concerned with our majority shareholder, CEO and management team. HH!
Stephen McManus
Gary “Calamity” Caldwell? And it was no doubt to make amends for an own goal.
Ralph,accept a draw against County ?
Well seen,you are going away to the sun for a few days !
It’s a MUST WIN game,we can’t afford to drop any more points.
If the players are NOT fired up,and stung by all the criticism,
and fail to win,then serious questions,will have to be asked,
to just what direction is this team,under Ronny,going in ?
The Ha’penny Inn in Puerto Del Carmen is a good place to go to watch the game, always a good crowd of Tims and usually some live rebel music thrown in for good measure.
Why doesnt Keith Jackson mention Letham actually charging interest on his loan to Rangers which also needed back by security.
I think i will stick with Downfall Phil for my rangers Board meeting information.
Good night for ex Celtic managers all round and Nov 14th clash with both back at Parkhead could be some game. Lets hope its a good day on Saturday for the current manager.
If Celtic don’t finish with all 3 points at Ross County on Saturday….Deila shouldn’t return to Glasgow with the players.
Interesting to see what transpires over there.
Ashley appeared to lose interest in Newcastle when he realized that despite being a billionaire , he couldn’t compete with the likes of Abramovich and the Man City boys.
Looked like he was viewing sevco as a cheap alternative , if he couldn’t be a big fish in a big pond then he’d be a big fish in a small pond.
I’d have thought that the goings on at our club with the clear lack of intent, direction and ambition , would have given him further encouragement.
Worst case scenario ; Ashley being another Murray except this time using his own money.
As a Celtic fan I would be more comfortable if King and co took control.
Obviously, in an ideal world we wouldn’t be concerned with whatever the outcome over there , but the reality is we are in a weak place right now.
We initially put huge daylight between us and them, right up to the Juve games. However ,since then we’ve slipped all the way back to where we were 2/3 years ago.
We’ve a coach we’re unsure of , a leader who doesn’t want to lead,
and an “office boy” who picks the players ( with the help of his side-kick).
Oh , and our top tier is closed as often as not.
So I think we better start to get a grip sharp’ish or else we could be watching a re-run of 90’s horror film.
Also, one rule from “The Art Of War” is “know your enemy”.
Well put, sums up exactly what’s going on.
There is a way:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29624410
jpm88,
Our ‘ weak ‘ position,just now,is all down to,self-inflicted wounds.To stay well ahead of THEM,Champions League football is essential.
As much as Ronny,was to blame for Maribor.I have some sympathy with him,as the board’s preparation for CL qualifiers was a shambles.Too many pre-season games.Players not signed.Loan players signed that were unfit.
Therefore,we waved bye to minimum 15M.Add in gates,merchandising,and 22-23M would have been grossed.
BT will have the rights for CL,next season,with the minimum
payment going up to 23M,and potentially we could gross 33M.
But,first we have to win the league.Then have players in place,
not loan players,to make sure we do EVERTHING,in order to qualify for groups.
One disaster,we can lick our wounds.But,with the finance available,next year,to slip up again,is NEGLIGENCE by the Celtic board.
Sos,post lost,any chance…
There is no way the Easdales will allow their shareholding to be effectively diluted as per Kings master plan. Haven’t we been here before ?
PS, Ralph, have you heard if Pensionerbhoy is OK ,I miss his ramblings and pleas for recovery of his lost tomes !
Well said JPM88, never a truer word spoken, but it is never to late, maybe just maybe Ronnie and Jonnie can turn it all around.
Ralph I am disappointed that you would be happy with a draw, just shows how the expectations have dropped.
4-1 to the TIC HH
Scotland vs Republic of Ireland. Will this be the first time that both international sides will be managed by former managers of the same club (Strachan and O’Neill), and the assistant managers will be former players of the same club (McGhee and Keane), and both captains probably will be ‘Celts’ as well (Brown and Keane)? And to be played at Celtic Park?
The Ha’penny inn in Puerto Del Carmen is closed. The Blarney Stone inside the La Hoya centre might have the game.
Peter Lawwell may want to have. Look at this from an article on the BBC Sport website;
“Meanwhile Justin King, the former chief executive of Sainsbury’s, said football was running a business plan that let the supporters down.
“Any business that thinks it can simply rely upon the loyalty of its customers, regardless of how they treat them, in the end will fail,” King said.
“Because if you ever start acting in a way that assumes that your customer will keep coming regardless of what you do to them then you’ll start doing things that actually are not in your customers’ interests.””
The new club across the city will hopefully go down the swannie I hope, we really don’t want their scum to ever darken our door again. However, I fear they will actually crawl out of their hole eventually, their money problems solved and will cast their shadow once again over Scottish football. The msm is not going to change their minds and that includes the bbc who are just going along with the same old shit as if nothing happened. When the filthy scum enter the spl it will be , as far as they are concerned, payback time and things will be worse than ever. Of course there’s nothing the media loves more than a good pagger and they will once again come out with their faux horror at the ‘OF’ thugs.
HH
Ralph,Any chance,finding a post at 11.54am,that didn’t appear ?
Thanks,Ralph.
Something else to put a smile on your face!
If you are going to act like a twat, make sure it’s at the final whistle and you don’t rub John Guidetti’s face in it!
https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/early-doors/arrogant-star-humiliated-after-this-celebration-goes-wrong-082841071.html
Not quite a Broony, but well played young Guidetti …
Last week the Sons of Strewth/Union of Fans or similar organisation were in all the papers demanding that the SFA rigourously apply the dual ownership regulations when it came to dealing with Mike Ashley. Can we therefore assume that they will make the same demands concerning the fit and proper regulations when it comes to dealing with the “glib and shameless liar”?
Good point tb. I think we all know the answer…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29624410