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Celtic Diary Tuesday May 5: Brown Tells It Like It Is

We’ll leave the Diana jokes out , I guess. eighteen years is probably too soon. But it’s only fair to offer a thought for poor old Prince Harry, the ginger one. He’s been moved down a spot to fifth in line for the throne, which he shouldn’t really moan about.

One DNA test would move him off it altogether.

They’ve named the new baby, after that bird in Geordie shore, which was a bit of a surprise. Would have been better to call it Elizabeth Paris Mercedes. blending modernity with history and also making it easier to explain what happened to granny.

The baby came into the world at 3.7 kilogrammes, which is  about 3 million pounds to the taxpayer.

All right, I’ll stop it.

Back at the football, and Scott Brown has been looking back on clinching four in a row;

“I was in the house watching the scores coming in and I was delighted All the lads were on a group chat together, sending messages back and forwards congratulating each other.

“It was weird, but Friday night football was good as well. We got a great reception outside the ground, there was a good crowd and the lads were brilliant from start to finish and scored five goals.

“It was hard for us to start with this season but at the end of it we got what we deserved. It was a good challenge from Aberdeen all the way.

“Their games were always on the Saturday and we were always on the Sunday and they pushed us hard but we kept fighting all the way and kept playing good football. It was attractive and that’s what we try to promote at this club.

“Everyone automatically just thinks we will win the league but it’s hard to go out and win those games week in, week out, especially in Europe as well. Playing on a Thursday and then a Sunday from the start of the season was hard but we managed to get the results.” 

Ronny Deila has won Scott Brown over

and he confirmed the strength of the mutual respect between captain and manager;

“I was delighted for him. He was under a lot of pressure coming to a big club but he has dealt with it unbelievably well. His backroom staff have helped him through thick and thin. He enjoys the club, the spirit and the surroundings.

“He understands it’s all about winning at this club. He wants to play good, attractive football but sometimes when the pitches aren’t that good we have to win the battles before we can get the ball down.”

Looking forward, Brown added;

We have a solid, settled squad and everyone seems to be enjoying their football, and hopefully we can keep that for as long as we possibly can, We brought in Stuart (Armstrong) and Gaz (Mackay-Steven) as well and they definitely helped us improve in the last half of the season.”  

Anyone who has their doubts about the fitness regime should have a look at how many goals Celtic score late in each half…

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Brown was speaking at the launch of the new home top for next season, and he and Gary Mackay Steven couldn’t resist a giggle when someone asked if he missed the Rangers games…

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“Not in the slightest. If it comes back it comes back, but it it doesn’t then it doesn’t.” 

I wonder if Kris commons was listening…

 Brown is 29 now, and wants to be around for the ten in a row, should it be achieved. Asked about his fitness he drew a line about when he would quit…

“I’ve got six, seven, eight years left in me. I feel as good as I did at 21 so as long as I feel like this I’ll keep playing.” 

“Once Craigy Gordon starts sprinting past me, that’s when I know I have to chuck it!”  

New home kit, featured on here months ago, looks okay.

New away kit ?

We have no idea.

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Emilio Izaguirre has, according to the mainstream media, done a “U Turn ” on his plans to play for Honduras in the gold Cup in July.

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Thanks Frankie, so we can suspect that might not be entirely true, as the Izzy  himself explains;

 “My plans are to be called to the national team, if selected. It depends on the coach Jorge Luis Pinto and Celtic say, they are the bosses. 

“But that is my wish.

“There was some confusion because if we had qualified for the Scottish Cup Final we would be playing on May 31 and therefore did not know if I was going to be traveling to take part in the friendlies.

“But I am now free and ready to join the camp on May 25.

“Wearing the Honduras shirt is the proudest achievement of my career. I have been blessed to play in two World Cups. I have nearly 80 caps and I still want to earn more.

“I’ve not had the chance to play in a Gold Cup since 2007 as there are always Champions League qualifiers at that time.

“I’ve not spoken directly with the manager, but he knows I am always ready.” 

If he doesn’t get to join up with Honduras, there’s one way he can recreate the experience at home;

Former players sometimes manage to scrape away some of the venner we’ve applied to them over the years since they quit, but there’s one who has reversed the trend.

 Frank McGarvey reminded those fortunate enough to have made a good living from the club what its really all about;

Frank McGarvey and Davie Provan hold aloft the Scottish Cup in 1985 after defeating Dundee Utd in the final. Picture: TSPL

 “Brother Walfrid founded Celtic for the maintenance of dinner tables for the children and the unemployed.

“He said that in 1887. I can’t believe that in 2015 we have to have food banks because people do not have enough to eat.

“I was lucky enough to play for Celtic and the jersey obviously has great sentimental value to me. It was the last time I wore a Celtic jersey before I moved to St Mirren.

“But I thought it would be a good idea to raise some money to help some people in Glasgow, and not just Celtic fans, to get through some tough times.

“I have not yet decided exactly how I will auction the shirt, but I hope it will make a good amount of money to go towards the food banks.” 

A nice wee bit of PR for the club could be engineered here, and an another  piece of history added to the clubs museum…

Over to Ian Jamieson, head of PR at Celtic…wherever he is….

Hang on, I’ve got his email address. I’ll keep you posted.

And well done, Frank McGarvey.

McCluskey/McGarvey and Nicholas / McGarvey were two of the most effective striking partnerships of the last thirty years.

He played his part.

Speaking of strikers, John Guidetti will get 2.6m euros as his signing on fee when he joins Sporting Lisbon. On top of a very decent wage.

 He’ll be available for a nominal fee shortly after Christmas, when his initial burst of energy runs out.

On the way in could be the splendidly named Jonathas Cristian de Jesus, currently at Elche, on loan from  Pescara.

jonathas

I am already having nightmares where the supporters, having ditched eighties electro pop move on to modern r and b to dance along with him….

He’s a Brazilian…oh, wait, I’ll stop there.  And hope everyone else does as well.

See the next time our scouting team bring in a foreign dud, the whole lot should be fired.

( the author reserves the right to change his mind if Jonathas turns out to be the next Ronaldo, but its highly unlikely he’ll have to. )

The Sunday Post, a newspaper which clings desperately to . er, a conservative and some may say Pilgrim lifestyle-the Pilgrims who were a little strict on lifestyles, so strict, in fact, they all jumped on a ship to the new world when the government of the time wouldn’t let them be as strict as they wanted to be, are doing one of those expose type stories which , to be honest, isn’t usually associated with the paper.

A financial watchdog is investigating payments between a number of public bodies and Celtic Football Club.

 

Audit Scotland’s probe centres on the club’s north of Glasgow training HQ built in 2007.

They are examining a paper trail between the club, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and East Dunbartonshire Council over the state-of-the-art £8.5 million facility.

The council is said to have paid the football giants a significant sum over the last 18 months to allow members of the public limited access to the training ground. But the facility is only available for use on limited occasions.

Council officials have cited “commercial reasons” as their reason for refusing to disclose figures behind the service-level agreement.

Audit Scotland became involved after receiving a number of complaints about value-for-money public spending.

A spokesman for Audit Scotland said: “We have received several letters on this subject. As such, we have a team of local auditors who are making enquiries into this matter.” 

Wonder of any of those letters had a Larkhall postmark, and perhaps the enquiry should centre on who wrote it for him.

Council officials say the public are allowed to use some of the pitches on Wednesday evenings and at some points during the summer.

The council inherited the deal from the Lennoxtown Initiative, a non-profit body set up by the council and the NHS to regenerate the area in 2002.

Thomas Glen, Director of Development and Regeneration at East Dunbartonshire Council, said, “East Dunbartonshire Council is a partner on the Lennoxtown Initiative which had a service-level agreement with Celtic Football Club to allow for community access to the Lennoxtown facility.

“The Council provided £68,377.20 in September, 2013, to support the delivery of this agreement. We fully support Audit Scotland in any responsible monitoring of the public pound.”

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed it is co-operating with auditors.

Their spokesman said: “We are aware that Audit Scotland are looking into this matter and have supplied them with all the relevant information that they have asked for.”  

And here is that information…

Information on Lennoxtown land deal

Well worth a read, especially if any of your colleagues are of the belief that shennanigans took place.

Another deflection ?

Seems like no-one in the MSM is taking football is fixed up on their offer. Or are they…?

It’s all about Resolution 12, non payment of taxes, and the continuation of “Rangers ” as a club, in the eyes of UEFA..

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At least one person involved has moved on…

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whats the story behind this game ?

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Tam The Tim
8 years ago

Jimmy Greaves having a stroke. Match shown is us against Spurs at Hampden pre-season. 3-3 draw and I think Greaves scored two.
HH

elcormaco
8 years ago

All hail the champions. Great to have it won, there were a couple of points in the season when it began to get a bit too close for comfort, but we do want competition – from any team able to provide it – and so it was good to see Aberdeen push us so hard, and will be brilliant seeing them give us a guard of honour at Pittodrie.

The game on Friday was superb, I can’t recall the last time I enjoyed a performance as much, great goals and kept going for more even after the result was secure. Johansen has looked knackered for a few weeks now, I d get him on his holidays now to freshen him up for July, and possibly Brown too, even without them we should still be competitive and really the season is done now with no cup final ahead, so Ronny should think about getting some a good pre season to come back roaring in July.

Well done to Ronny, has had a very good first season, I d still like a tactical plan B, there have been times when on heavy pitches against well drilled teams playing one striker and going side to side has not been enough to break them down, so I d like a little more tactical flexibility. But overall a very encouraging season, if we can keep our centre backs and get one or two quality players in – not projects or punts, but actual honest to goodness players ready to step up, then next season could be very good.

Well done to our new city rivals 2nd Rangers on their excellent showing in just their third season, to finish 3rd and be in the playoffs with only the second highest wage bill in Scotland really is an achievement by the players and their assorted managers, I m sure we will all wish them well in the play offs.

This pzj tool is no doubt heavily involved in this latest waste of time and money looking into deals between Celtic and local councils. I asked him once on twitter if he was interested in investigating any possible instance of state aid or football fraud, or only those involving Celtic. You’ll not be surprised to hear he admitted Celtic were his only interest. That a grown man (I presume) will waste his life on deluded “whataboutery” goose chases, to try some how to paint us as financially doped as the teams he has supported, while happily ignoring the very clear impropriety of his teams is a rather sad state of affairs.

I guess it’s a good principle that claims have to be investigated but at what point can the complainant be revealed as a persistent time and money waster and billed for the frivolous charges he brings up? I went on Rangers Media last night for a chuckle and he has got them all fired up again with their Timmy conspiracies and that bears should be asking prospective MPs what they intend to do about this scandal etc etc, pretty sad stuff when they fail to acknowledge anything done in their club’s name was anything but correct, but they are who they are and I shouldn’t expect them to change.

Any way Hail Hail to the champions, 4 in a row, and a guard of honour to come. Hoopy days

deadhead67
8 years ago

FUCK THE SNP

tom o'neill
8 years ago
Reply to  deadhead67

High quality of political debate.

highseastim
8 years ago
Reply to  deadhead67

Straight from the OO book of vocabulary!!

morto
8 years ago

Is it just me or does Jonathan look a lot like Amido Balde? Are we taking him back and trying to pass him off as a new signing!!

steve naieve
8 years ago

Sevconians have adopted an old Tina Turner song as their new anthem
‘Simply Third Best’

8 years ago

Ralph

You just cannot resist turning that wee rumour mill, can you? Thanks for reactivating my allergy to Brazil nuts. That is all I needed to build me up for next season. Why not give a young Glesga nutter a chance instead. Nice, though, to know Spaghetti wont be a hoop next season.

The new strip is ok but not the haute couture production I was lead to believe it would be. If that monstrosity of an away strip is the real thing, then the club should look for a replacement tailor in the transfer window.

A strip of great value is Frank McGarvey’s. Wonderful gesture by the lad. Well done!

What truly annoys me about the media “investigators” or “Celtic fault finders” as they should be known, is that they really do suck us into giving them any kind of recognition. I want to simply ignore them but find myself enjoying the ridiculousness of their rants too powerful to resist. Maybe the latest on the blue front will see the whole idiotic, bigoted tribe finally gone once and for all.

But Broonie cheers me when I’m blue, man! Bit of rap for you there, Ralph. He is good to listen to. Eleven like him and we might not get classy football but it would be great fun.

Finally, well done to Ronny, the staff and the players for all their successes at all levels. Not a bad haul for a first timer – and you know how I feel about the man from Norway, so I expect even more next season.

Photo is Spurs v Celtic (Lions) at Hampden. I think it was a pre-season friendly not long after the European Cup. Greaves did score twice and, if my memory is right, we had to come back twice. I was there and I definitely remember the crowd was massive – often were then, of course. There were some players in that Spurs team then too, Jennings, Blanchfower, Gilzean, McKay, Greaves etc. So, it was no mean result in the end.

H H

8 years ago

Ralph

The wee wheel on Google turned round and round but nothing appeared. Is that the wheel of good fortune?

H H

Paul Macca
8 years ago

This thing about Guidetti .. all the papers over here are running with the story , HOWEVER .. The Sporting Coach has his jaiket on a shoogily peg … PLUS Sporting has a yearly salary cap of 650 000 euros .. they are selling players who want an increase .. the club was a financial basketcase trying to compete with both Porto and Benfica. Latest rumour that is going round is they have offered him the 650 per year and the rest is in performance linked prizes .. Plays 20 games gets extra X Scores 15 goals gets extra Y etc. SUPPOSEDLY he doesnt like that idea PLUS is asking for a 3.5 million euro tax free signing fee. So mibbes aye mibbes naw

Funkyy
8 years ago

I see sevco’s manager, whit’s is name again? Oh aye, McCool is declaring that “not winning promotion would not be acceptable”. Anybody else get the feeling that his message is aimed at the refs more than the players?

Phaco
8 years ago
Reply to  Funkyy

What is also not acceptable is bad spelling on this blog you naughty bhoy. It is McTool. Hh

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