Celtic Diary Saturday December 6: Ronny wins Manager of the Month

Congratulations to the likeable Norwegian. He’s on a roll now……

Every season one of those games comes along which gives you a freak score.

7-0, 6-3, that sort of thing.

Today will be that day.

Celtic take the short run out to Lanarkshire to visit Motherwell, who haven’t been having the best of it this year. They’ve lost six of their last seven games, Stuart McCall has fallen on his sword, and they still haven’t re-opened Tullys.

Back in September when the sides drew 1-1 at Celtic Park, things we different, as the hoops were just beginning to get used to Ronny Deila and his ways, but now, as Adam Matthews says, things are different;

“It’s always tough when you go away to Motherwell, They’ve been a top side in the past couple of season and we know what to expect, so we’ll have to be at the top of our game if we want to take all three points.

 “They’ll take confidence from the last time they played us but we’re a different team now.

 “We’ve played more games than anyone else this season, so it is tough, but hopefully now we can concentrate on the league and create that gap we want.” 

 That gap was shortened when Dundee Uts beat Ross County last night, and Inverness, who face Dundee at Dens will be looking to keep the pressure on.

 So, despite the weakened state of the league, ( Copyright MSM ) there is no room for complacency.

1		Celtic	14		6	1	1	15	5		4	1	1	13	4		19	32
2		Dundee United	15		6	1	0	14	4		4	0	4	14	13		11	31
3		Inverness CT	14		6	2	0	14	5		3	0	3	8	7		10	29
4		Hamilton Accies	14		4	2	1	14	5		4	1	2	13	9		13	27
5		Aberdeen	14		4	1	2	12	9		4	0	3	8	8		3	25
6		Dundee	14		1	4	2	9	11		4	1	2	10	6		2	20
7		Kilmarnock	14		4	0	3	10	9		2	2	3	6	10		-3	20
8		St Johnstone	14		3	0	4	7	10		2	2	3	5	7		-5	17
9		Partick Thistle	14		3	1	3	12	7		1	2	4	5	11		-1	15
10		Motherwell	14		2	0	4	3	10		1	1	6	6	14		-15	10
11		St Mirren	14		0	1	6	3	12		2	1	4	7	13		-15	8
12		Ross County	15		1	0	6	7	16		1	2	5	8	18		-19	8

The game is on Sky Sports at 12.45, which means Neil McCann could make a public apology for his recent rant where he called John Guidetti a cheat. Of course, he won’t, and we’ll be subjected to more of his expert opinion and presumably the first time a Celt commits a foul, McCann will be calling for the re-introduction of public flogging , which I suppose would help with the viewing figures.

Gordon, Matthews Ambrose, van Dijk, Izaguerre, Brown Johansen, Bitton, Stokes, Forrest Guidetti.

I’m quite confident I’ve called the line up correct for the first time this season.

And the score, 7-0. Motherwell are awful, Celtic are playing fairly well, and the team does seem to create a lot of chances whoever they play, so we are due one of those games when they all go in.

Elsewhere, and presumably to take the heat off their pal Ally Mccoist, the MSM are back to touting Celtic s top men for a move.

John Guidetti, as Diary readers already know, is apparently on the wanted list of French side Marseille, who will be losing Andre Pierre Gignac to England, and the Daily Record have the scoop this morning. Not bad, just a few days after we did it.

However, the article puts the boot in further, with a wee  bite from Scandinavia…

Meanwhile, Guidetti has been criticised by his Swedish international team-mate Markus Rosenborg for achieving nothing yet.

Guidetti has been in brilliant form for the Scottish champions this season and it’s earned him a recall to the national team.

But that’s angered 33-times capped Malmo striker Rosenborg who believes his club colleague Isaac Thelin should be picked to partner Zlatan Ibrahimovic instead.

Rosenborg said: “From what I’ve seen Isaac is much better than Guidetti.

“Guidetti gets so much written about him without ever really doing anything.

“I watched the Under-21 matches recently and Isaac has considerably improved while Guidetti hasn’t.

“Guidetti has a good instinct for goals and has done well in Scotland but you need to check on his progress and I see no major development in John when compared to Isaac.

“For me Isaac is clearly the greater talent.

“He has the physique, he is good in the air and with the ball at his feet.”  

 So, this guy I’ve never heard of says his pal , who I couldn’t care less about, is better than guidetti and should play for Sweden. Thats newsworthy.

 Then there’s van dijk, who will definitely leave Celtic one day, according to the Record. To be fair, they’re right. In fact, everyone will. One day.

 There is a glimmer of something better, something more positive, though.

Martin Odegaard, the Norwegian wonderkid, has been all over Europe on trials with some of the continents biggest clubs. Now, with all this nonsense about how hard it is to sell the Scottish league, and how its difficult to attract players here, so with ronny Deila astonishingly quite confident of landing him for Celtic, you’d think that maybe it should be a big story;

…. competition to sign Odegaard is fierce but says Celtic hold a key advantage: Deila himself.

“He is a very good player but we have to stand in line: there are 20 clubs, maybe more, who want him,” the Celtic manager told reporters. “He has been to clubs all over Europe to Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool. PSG [Paris Saint-Germain] wanted him but he hasn’t had time to visit. So there is some hard competition. 

“But I have control over that situation; I know what is happening there. He’s in the town where my kids live and I know a lot of people there. We??ll see if there are possibilities, of course, and we will try. But there’s very hard competition.

“This is more about Martin’s choices. What is his thinking now? Is it go to a big club and try to break in there and go down that road or go to a smaller club in not such a good league but where it is easier to get into the first team?” 

Make no mistake, to land Odegaard would be a serious boost to Celtics credibility. And it would force some of us to admit that we may have to doff our caps to the boss.

And theres this, from the Scotsman.

CELTIC are looking into the possibility of bringing Nigerian striker Olarenwaju Kayode to Celtic Park, according to reports. 

The 21-year old currently stars for Israeli club Maccabi Netanya where he netted ten times last season before making his loan move from ASEC Mimosas permanent in the summer. 

Kayode fits Celtic’s ‘buy low, sell high’, prospect hungry signing policy, and though he doesn’t possess the pedigree of a Guidetti, for example, he has represented Nigeria at various youth levels and is close to a breakthrough into the senior national team squad.

In addition, the player’s agent is Dudu Dahan who, in the past, helped broker the deals which brought Efe Ambrose, Nir Biton, Rami Gershon and Beram Kayal to the Glasgow giants. 

Of course, anyone can look the part in a you tube video, but, er, to be fair, this guy looks the part in this you tube video;

kayode

Radio clyde advertised Half-Season books last night, which raised a few eyebrows amongst us here at Etims. Didn’t the club say they weren’t doing that this year ?

Curiously, the official website is prompting supporters not to miss the second half, and to be there for the run in. The tickets entitle fans to ten home league games and the usual perks, but nowhere does it tell you how much they are. But there is an additional benefit;

A further benefit will be your inclusion in the exclusive renewal period alongside existing Season Ticket holders to secure your seat for the 2015/16 season. 

Thankfully, there was no mention of any new club being in the Premier League next season, somehow making it more appealing to get on that renewal list.

But you know they debated whether or not to say that.

Thankfully, they didn’t. Presumably because they want to actually sell some of these.

Brothers Guiseppe and Franco Baresi captained the two Milan teams in yesterdays picture, which fascinated me, as i didn’t know there was a second Baresi.

Caption competition again….