Breaking out in a sweat ? Runny bottom ? Feeling weak?
Don’t bother with the doctor, its not Ebola, its Europa.
The groups whipping boys are at Celtic Park tonight, this time the opponents are Astra Guirgiu from Romania.
This level of flippancy comes from the fact that Celtic should comfortably beat the Romanaians. Everyone else they have played in the last couple of months has got a result against them, and Celtic are beginning to get used to winning again. Especially in Europe, and I can’t see tonight being any different.
Incidentally, the game hasn’t sold out , and tickets will be on sale right up until kick off.
Ronny Deila has issued a word of caution, claiming that Astra are a good side, and would be at the top of the Scottish Premier, and of course the fact that they are still in Europe means he’s right. Thats unlikely to quell any anticipation amongst the support, but his words are worth listening to. His Stromgodset side played them in a friendly last winter, and Ronny reckons they have got a few good players
“If Astra played in the Scottish Premiership, they would win it if we didn’t,” said Deila. “They would be among the top teams in Scotland. They are not a bad team. The richest man in Romania has them and I also played a friendly against them in January when I was manager of Stromsgodset and they have some quality players there.
“Of course, if you look at the group you see they don’t have any points yet and that is a sign they may be a little bit weaker than Salzburg and Zagreb, but those two teams are very good. It looks like a battle between three teams (for the two qualifying places) and Astra are one of the teams who we have to beat. If we do that, we are in a very good situation in the group.
“I hope people who assume it will be an easy win for us are right but I don’t think so. I think it will be a tough game. We have to prepare well. But I think in the last month things are happening for us and we are going in the right way. The players are starting to get confidence.
“I can see we are starting to get better relationships in the team, patterns in our attacking play and also better in transition defensively. I hope to show that again on Thursday night.”
As opposed to Ralph Malph, who, probably echoing the Scottish Media, said;
“ I’ve never heard of them so they must be shite. ”
Deila came across well in that interview. He’s been respectful, knowledgeable about his opponents and advised caution. What else could he have said ?
Of course, one or two of our own media have criticised him for showing disrespect to the Scottish league, but I can’t see how that is the case. After all, it wouldn’t take them long to report on the other Scottish clubs games at this level this week.
He also took time out to comment, perhaps a little too honestly, on the physical condition of Serbian striker Stefan Scepovic;
“Stefan is very hungry to play and he wants to show himself,” said Deila. “He came on as a sub against Ross County on Saturday and he had a good chance there. You can see in his eyes that he wants to improve. He is a good player, I’ve seen him score some fantastic goals in training this week. I’m looking forward to seeing more from him on the pitch.”
It sounds like he wants to see about half a stone more, as he is working on Scepovic’s physique, which he feels needs to be bulked up;
“We don’t take any drugs, so that will take a bit more time! It will take maybe half a year to get him to the strength we want. But he is working all the time. It’s also about his mentality. Against Ross County he kept the defenders working, his touch was good and now he has to go on from there.”
I know I’ve been a little critical of Deila, and questioned his methods, but the plan with Scepovic sounds impressive. He’s spotted a problem, he’s worked out a solution. One that makes sense. And whilst I’m not making excuses, this comment from the boss yesterday
“We have different options now. That’s good, it’s what I want, I don’t want to stick to one system”
makes me wonder, when you consider one or two other contrasting statements he has been reported as making, whether or not he is saying them at all. Wouldn’t be like the MSM to make something up, would it ?
Ach, maybe it will be a memorable season after all….
Regular readers will have noticed a certain degree of change in the mood of the Diarys author when commenting on the football this season.
Thats because I’m a grumpy old git when its going wrong, but a little hyper or manic when its going right.
Tomorrow I fully expect to be looking at possible teams Celtic will face after Christmas in the knockout stages, and I think tonights game, with which a convincing win would mean Astra will chuck it as far as the return goes, could see the hoops sitting on ten points with two games left.
Especially when Ben Yousseff, who plays for the Romanian cup winners, revealed the in depth information he has been given about Celtic;
““I know Celtic have a lot of fans and a big stadium. That is all I know about them.”
Lukasz Zaluska has been included in the squad for tonight after his impression of Audley Harrison the other night, and Ronny Deila has absolved him of any blame for the incident. Which means the club have investigated the incident, and are obviously fully behind him.
Thats good.
Some supporters got a little hysterical on twitter and other social media at the newspaper reportage of this, claiming that Zaluska didn’t need to be absolved, as he hadn’t done anything, but seeing as how Ronny wasn’t there at the time, he had to be sure.
Again, thats showing mature, responsible management.
The police have sent extra officers to look into the matter, and we hear they are treating the case as urgent, and will use all modern methods of investigation to ascertain the sequence of events that lead to Zaluska neing knocked unconscious and left in the gutter.
Why they haven’t just asked someone and looked at the cctv, however, is a mystery. Usually , a fracas after a night out will see the assailant in court within a couple of days. They appear to be dragging their feet on this one.
The Sun have already decided who it was. Etims doesn’t do rumours and half baked stories.
They seem to think that Paul Paton of Dundee Utd had something to do with it;
I’d never heard of this guy, but his facebook profile indicates a thoroughly charmimg man. Which, of course, found its way on to twitter;
Wonder which team he supports, and which one he doesn’t .
Then, it appears he changed his “likes ” page…
As I said, a pleasant, charming individual who , er, knows what he likes, until, it is rumoured, a Scottish journalist tipped him off about changing his profile a wee bit…
Surely not. We asked our drunken mole if he knew anything about it, but he was asleep with the drink. After all, he’d just had his breakfast.
Meanwhile, Dundee United have dropped Paton and Mark Wilson for the upcoming game against Inverness;
The Dundee Evening Telegraph said;
The Tangerines announced they were investigating the conduct of two players “following information received”.
No further detail was given but that pair are in hot water in the aftermath of an incident in Glasgow early on Monday which left ex-United goalkeeper Lukasz Zaluska needing hospital treatment.
The 32-year-old was out partying in the West End of Glasgow when he was assaulted and rushed to hospital with head injuries.
Current United stars Paul Paton and Mark Wilson were also in the area at the time.
Police are investigating the incident, and no one has been arrested in connection with the assault.
The club are not passing judgement or suggesting any involvement in the Zaluska fracas.
But until all the facts are known, there’s a feeling at Tannadice it wouldn’t be appropriate for either to be involved at first-team level.
Wilson has already published a statement.
“Mark was out for a meal with his wife and some other couples. “On his way home with his wife they came across his friend & former team-mate Lukasz. Mark tried to calm a matter down & latterly help Lukasz as he was in a distressed situation”
Paton has said nothing.
The fixture changes forDecember and January have been announced, and there are four changes to Celtics matches, with two more lunchtime kick offs, one tea time, and a trip to Kilmarnock on a Monday night.
At least we have plenty of notice. Until someone changes them again.
Notice was also given of the Celtics board intent over the living wage issue…
You don’t need to read all of it. Its a no.
Its a great big no, in huge great flashing lights.
A company which doesn’t pay its employees a living wage ?
A company prepared to deal with sports manufacturers Nike, who also have a questionable employment and wage policy ?
Maybe Rangers supporters were right all along.
Maybe the company is different from the club.
Completely fucking different.
This guy outlined the club….
Cartuja from KDS outlined the company..
Jock Stein, another one who defined the club, went into the crowd at Stirling Albion to point out that the republican songs being sone were not to his taste. As illustrated in yesterdays diary.
Today, we go right back to the early days of the club, not the company.
A big Thank You to this, published by Paul Lyons on twitter. Its one I’ve never seen before, what is it ?
Either our first ever team or audition for a barbers quartet.. hail hail must win tonight.
Ralph, I’ve got to agree with you on the Living Wage issue. As an employer myself, I guarantee my employees a “better than fair” wage to not just motivate but to reinforce their worth to the company.
This statement should be embarrassing to those who consider themselves Celtic Minded.
As for the game, I’m excited to be at my first match in 18 months and I can’t wait to get to Glasgow!!!
Celtic 4-0,tonight. Stokes (2) Scepovic (1) DeNayer (1).
Good diary.
I agree Ralph,80 odd hours,after Zaluska suffered a brutal
attack,and still NO arrests ?
Cetic have always had a good relationship with Dundee United.
Conversely,United do not have much time for the cheating club at Ibrokes.I hope one bad egg,does not sour our relationship with United.Maybe,we could go in for Ciftci in January,to
smooth things over.
I do not know why,we did not go fo Ciftci,who would have been half of the price of Scepovic,and would have hit the ground running ?
Tonight,3 points is all that matters.Still missing CL,the last 2 nights shows Champions League football is where we HAVE
to be part of next season.Alas !
I,m beginning to think it,s a good job we didn,t make the CL after what Chelsea done to Maribor.
JB,
Very negative.I can think of 23M reasons,why it’s BETTER to be in it.Next season,it will ONLY be worth 33M to be in it.However,
our board have not adopted a strategy of bringinging in 2 quality players,in order for the extra finance,to have an effect
on the team.Downsizing has failed.
Let’s not forget,it was only 2 years ago,that we beat the mighty Barca.Champions League money is ESSENTIAL for us to be dominant in Scotland.With 10 in a row a realistic goal.
That was always going to happen.
That old team photo…has the guy at the front drawn on a pair of socks?
Don’t know what to write about today, i’m afraid of upsetting bisto frank.
How about writing telling us what pictures you drawed for mummy in the nursery today petal?
Frank,
What was that,you said about snide comments to fellow fans ?
Grammar ? Try drew,instead of drawed ??
It’s called stooping to a level Holy C—.
As for the spelling jibe, please read the sentence again and look up irony in the dictionary f–kwit.
Crawl back to where you came from.The diary has had good healthy debate,the past month or so,without your crap !
Was thinking of doing just that but I might stick around to annoy you and your bumchums holey erse.
RE the Zaluska incident surely this should be relatively easy to solve. Mark Wilson has already said he came to Zaluska’s aid and tried to calm the situation meaning he knows who the other guy was or wasn’t. So if a team mate from DU wasn’t involved he should be able to clear him straight away … but he hasn’t done that (yet) it seems.
First ever Celtic team complete with directors?
I hope Zaluska isn’t covering up for someone by saying he didn’t see the attackers. He needs to be strong and do the right thing.
I know he says they came from behind , but , whilst if they were strangers I’d understand him not being able to identify them ;
presumably he knows these guys , so even in an attack from behind , he must know who it was .
Also , his wife was a witness , I’d have thought that not only would she be able to identify them , but that she probably knows them too.
Plus , after the Lennon attack , I’d be very surprised if this street isn’t well covered with CCTV.
What I’m getting at is , I hope Zaluska isn’t going along the lines of “not wanting to press charges” , BECAUSE he knows these bastards.
Another good article regarding the living wage, you could rehilight the food bank collections. The team picture is from the Hibees v pre Celtic friendly that caused the formation officially of the club, I am that old.
The photo is the fist ever photo of a celtic team.
watching CL last night I got a bit depressed / bored. When decent teams like Roma and Liverpool get thumped at home by Bayern / Real then what chance do Celtic have?
The whole “competition” is becoming a closed shop with only a very select few – Bayern, Real, Barca, Chelsea likely to make Semi finals / finals and all other clubs are there to be connon fodder for them. It wasnt all that long ago that Monaco, Porto (grrr) were getting to finals – I cant see that happening any more, its become a cartel of the super clubs amd entry into the elite is so prohibitively expensive that clubs cant afford it, or if they try will fall foul of FFP rules.
So its presitigious and finincially beneficial for Celtic to get into it, but we, like all bar a few clubs, have no realistic prospect of going very far in it, and the same teams year in year out will be in semi finals / finals.
The cyclical nature of football in the past, where a team would be built up and have a cycle of success before the team is broken up and fades e.g. Notts Forest, Celtic has gone because these super teams have the spending power to maintain their position eternally, causing boredom with the whole thing for all bar fans of these super -elite teams.
Bit heavy there, sorry.
On a lighter note, and loght years away from CL, dont know if people saw the herald the other day, where Fat Salary was getting Mc Moist about his £16m warchest. He admitted they have no scouts at the minute but that they keep across potential out of contract players. Fair enough, but this high end scouting is carried out by Stevie, the IT guy!! Brilliant.
welcome to modern day football at the top level. It’s crap.
Don’t be giving our board any ideas now or they might get the ticket office staff to do a bit of Internet scouting when it’s quiet. All done on minimum wage of course.
Celtic’s first ever team. Looking at it now on the wall of my den. Okay the garage
I totally agree, jpm88. Good post.
Re: big jock going into the stand. Could someone please explain to a reader that was too young, and wasn’t around at the time (me); what was the reaction of the supporters at the time? Both at the match, and in the days/weeks that followed. It would be a fascinating insight into the general Celtic community at the time. And perhaps even more interesting to compare it to how it would be received if it occurred today, in this day and age,particularly as our “world” these days is so small with recent advancements in technology such as the internet.
Thanks for reading.
Big nutz…I was a a game in Easter road in about 74 when Jock came over to the Celtic end ‘remonssrating’ with some of the fans on the terrace for the pro-IRA song, it was at the end of the game Jock was on the park but the fans were on the terrace , basically the chanting dwindled out, there was no real confrontation nor anyone telling Jock ti git bucked.As yi may know the Jungle in the 70’s was always going to throw up rebels songs with most joining in. Today it wouldnt happen – and rightly so IMO. It was literraly a differant age.
HAIL HAIL N aw that !!
The first ever publicity Photo for Movember ! 🙂
Agree with elcormaco, why not put teams from Germany,England,Spain & to a lesser extent Italy into a 16 team european cup cause that’s what uefa want don’t want we fiddly teams outside they countries. And why doesn’t some country/person take uefa to court for calling it champions league when it clearly isn’t also banners & posters calling for fair play ? Where is the fairness in the champions league when 4 teams go in from some country’s & now whoever wins the Europa league goes in what if they win there league & runners up win there’s.
The Champions League is in danger of becoming boring and farcical. As much as I have been excited and enthralled by Europe’s premier tournament, it is in serious danger of turning people away in terms of the economic disparity of the mega teams and the rest.
BT sport might shit themselves when people decide not to purchase their package from next season onwards.
Money, sadly, is destroying the game.
“Against Ross County he kept the defenders working, his touch was good”…
________________________________
He is a striker.
He’s supposed to score goals.
He doesn’t.
He should have scored after coming on as a substitute last Saturday.
He didn’t.
Mainly because of his dreadful first touch.
Over to you Ronny…
Who’s the guy with the mustache in the photo, anybody know?
watched last night L’pool v real after 30 mins about as exciting as watching paint dry gave up, reds hopeless Madrid far to good Celtic give L’pool a run for their money no problem must win tonight, 3 nil
HH
Come on tonight lads. Hail hail, come on ronny. Looking forward to seeing this year’s summer signings. Berget if playing better up his game. Or out the door
LonCelt,
Berget is only here till January(thank,God)then back to Cardiff for him !
Holy sea I thought after the dundee United game we done good business but disappointed since. Got good feeling about tonight. Been a tough week at the club, shocking what happened to zaluska, sickening.
I’m going to.drive johansen to the airport, there’s more football in an ashtray. The man’s an embarrassment. Can’t complete a pass, hole pub laughs when the man tries make a pass. Chase the man away utter rubbish
Can any player make a pass. Bloody shocking
Ralph
Just a quickie. I was listening to game on CTV. Sounded absolutely – awful?
Anyway, I just wanted to point out those are some of my mates in the photo who were in the first Celtic team. I am surprised you have not seen it before. I am sure it is published in Brian Wilson’s book on Celtic as well as in other publications. Could be and often am, in fact usually wrong!!
Have to shoot. I need to study for a training session – all f****ng (No! it’s flipping!!)day Saturday! Who thinks them up? The NO campaign?
Another big thanks to all who wanted to join my funeral celebrations. Sorry guys!! I will get round to addressing all your comments soon. So, take some time off work if you want to read them. By the way the fireworks are piling up as each bit falls off. It should be some explosion when the day comes and me a damp squib.
H H
Desi
Wasn’t spammed but then I am corn beefed!!
H H
@PB “Sounded awful?” Be grateful you didn’t see it!! It was embarrassing. Cant bear this sh*t. Been a fan for nearly 50 years and this is as bad as I can remember. Sutton is bang on. Taxi for Delia.
bisto is your brother called ronald? by the way i done a portrait of you my mum said it stank!!!
?????
Thank feck that is over and done with. What an ordeal to sit through 90 minutes of that arse and mind numbing tosh. I have kept my powder dry on RD thus far but I cannot see one iota of progress whatsoever. Ok, we got the 3 points (huzzah!) but any more of that and it will be both ends as well as the top tier being closed.
Exactly!! Glad it is not only me who considers us pure tosh!
The weather and the moaning sold arsepiece sitting behind me didn’t exactly help my foul mood but, Lord Almighty, this season so far has been the worst since the pre-Fergus days.
“Watching Celtic these days is a bit like being at a works nite out (surrounded by friends and enemies) and your fairly drunk and lonely uncle wanders in and decides to tell all his embarrassing jokes and chat up the ladies and offer to ‘sort’ various problems for the lads… embarrassing as fuck, hurts a little too as you know what a great guy he is a a you’ve spent some great times and he’s helped you through some bad times… you love him to bits and he’ll always be family – but right now you just want him to fuck off and sober up!”
I love it!
utter pish.got out of goal again.nae midfield,,wingers and naebody in the box.FFS the ayrshires huns are nae on tv
PS – Sutton was 100% correct in everything he saw and said – it was only the bleedin’ obvious right enough. Yet somehow, because he played in the same team as Lenny the reason he said those things was because of an ‘agenda against Deila’ ??
WTF?? A blind dug can see problems in the set up!
I’m starting to believe that I’ve hit on the problem – the players are following Deila’Deila’s instructions TOO well…!!!
I have decide I will not be happy till Deila and the utter dross he has brought in are gone.
Dear Santa……….