Celtic Diary Monday October 27: Ronnys On A Roll

Celtic stormed to fourth in the league table with a routine 2-0 win over Kilmarnock at Celtic Park yesterday. Other sides slipped up, and the hoops took full advantage by digging in and getting a result. Theres a match report elsewhere on the site which covers the game, and it pety much cover everything.

Except the rain. Last week I watched the game at a beachside bar in the Canaries, this week it was in the North Stand. Which makes me question my sanity.

When the steward handed me a handful of paper towels to wipe my seat with, I almost turned around and went back to the tarrier carrier and to listen to it on the radio. If Neil Lennon brought back the thunder, ronny can lay claim to bringing the accompanying monsoon.

But , as ever, there were a couple of things I picked up on at the game, that you don’t notice on the telly.

It might have just been Kilmarnock and their style, but Stefan Scepovic especially, and a few others less so, were subjected to a lot of off the ball nudges, punches and elbows. Which made me wonder if the next signing t the team should be a Johann Mjallby type rather than a Lubomir Moravcik.

Having watched a number of Celtic sides being bullied on the pitch over the years, its entirely possible that the lack of an enforcer has meant that other sides are a little more rough and ready, and try to intimidate Celtic physically, which was not something that happened during the Martin O’ Neill years.

Just a thought.

More encouraging was the performance of John Guidetti. Quite simply, when he is available to talk to other clubs about a Bosman move in January, we should begin our negotiations as well.

The opening line should be;

” What do we need to do to keep you at Celtic ? ”

And the deal should be concluded with

“Okay. ”

It might not be as difficult as you think… this is from the Manchester evening News…

Guidetti described Celtic Park as “the best place in the world” and admitted it was a “massive honour” to play for the club.

“It makes me so happy,” Guidetti said. “It’s a beautiful place to be.

“All the people treat you so good. We have taco evenings.

“I love to play football and to play for passionate fans for a massive club is a great honour.

The 22-year-old is also targeting a quadruple with the Hoops.

“I want to win the quadruple so I have to focus on every game,” Guidetti said.

“The quadruple is 100% possible. You see that now that we are getting all of our players back like Mikael Lustig, Charlie Mulgrew and Kris Commons.

The club needs to do whatever it takes to keep him. He’s a leader on the pitch, he scores goals and he improves the play of those around him.

And he can take a free kick with confidence, and not the optimistic punt towards goal that we’ve been getting from others this season.

He’s not eligible for the Europa League until the knockout rounds, but with him in the side, theres a feeling that we might get a good run in the tournament. He always looks like he can score, largely because he always thinks he will. That free kick yesterday was the forst one i’ve seen where the kicker actually seemed to will it into the net, regardless of any technique in the shot.

Stefan Scepovic had a good game as well, and as Hector points out in his match report, the moment when Guidetti hugged him before his substitution was a sign that we might have found a lethal partnership.

Thats what wins matches, and although i’m not comparing him with a fellow Swede who did quite well during his seven years at Celtic Park, the fact is, when you score goals you win matches.

Sportscene was on last night, and I regretfully didn’t get back in time to watch it, but Desi mond did, and he pointed out that Pat Nevin was up to his tricks again.

Nevin, who wasn’t a very good footballer, has carried that trait into his television career, by becoming not a very good pundit.

He was pleased to have Stephen Thomson alongside him in the studio, and was looking ahead to the Second Rangers v St. johnstone League cup, which will be shown on the BBC as part of the financial rescue package that winged its way to Ibrox to prevent the new club from entering administration. The other bit was a £2m conditional loan which sees Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley get security on Edmiston House, the Albion car park and two seats on the board, one of which will be the CEO position. More about that later.

Nevin mentioned that he was looking forward-like everyone else-to a Celtic v Rangers game. Which shows how out of touch he is with reality.

No, Pat, we are not all sitting waiting for that one. The only peepil waiting for that one are indeed the peepil. Thats if there are any of them left.

Nevin then went on to mention a fould by Virgil van Djk, and whilst it was a foul, and referee Willie Collum awarded the foul. Nevin happily showed it again. Presumably hoping someone at the SFa saw it as the brutal assault he did, and takes the matter further.

BBC Scotland , which lost almost all of its credibility during the run up to the Scottish referendum, seems determined to lose the rest of it by hiring Pat Nevin. Fortunatley, there are other channels to watch, including Fox News, which at least is honest enough to admit it has an agenda.

Police Scotland have finally announced, after a week long painstaking investigation, that two men, Chris McCluskey. once of Stenhousemuir, currently without a club, and Paul Paton, of Dundee Utd have been arrested and charged with the attack on goalkeeper  Lukasz Zaluska.

They are expected to appear in court in Glasgow next month,

The move comes after the Police asked people who did it, watched cctv of it happening and it only took them a week to charge someone. Wonder if it was the work of this specialist section of the force;

Well done !

 At the game yesterday I noticed a big advert for Celtic TV, where the poster gave us seven good reasons to subscribe..

The first of which was audio coverage of the games-video coverage is only available outside the country. Well, region, you had the chance to be a country but didn’t take it.

You know, audio coverage , like on the radio. Hardly a great selling point for a tv channel.

Celtics media team have a captive audience to provide to, and have a wealth of archive material available,  access to players past and present and even reserve and youth games on tap.

By focusing on that, and producing a better channel, and adding it to the Sky platform, there a lot of potential out there. Yesterday, it went down, and disappointed a lot of supporters. The Sky platform may be expensive, but its professional.

Of course, games would be shown as a delayed transmission, but maybe supporters would prefer that to this image , tweeted by New York CSC during the game.

Finally, just two years since their inception, Second Rangers, a club formed purely to fleece as many of the supporters of the original and now defunct Rangers, have been granted a crisis loan by Mike Ashley, who in turn now has control of affairs over at Ibrox. No doubt he wants to make a few quid himslef out of the deal, but perhaps the scales are finally dropping from the eyes of the support;

Theres even talk the Ally McCoist may not be safe in his job, which means he might join Phillip Nash and Graeme Wallace in the exodus prompted by ashleys emergence.

Mind you, those three pay offs won’t leave much of the £2m for other expenses…

More upsettingly for the money men over there, it appeared that yesterday Kilmarnock had beaten them to a new shirt design… which clearly upset referee Willie Collum.

Its a bit like playing monopoly when you’ve no assets left and you keep throwing the dice hoping to avoid  the square which will finish you off.