Celtic Diary Monday May 18: Early Start to The Silly Season ?

Early start today, and as neither time nor buses wait for no man, it’ll be mercifully short…

Did you enjoy that ?

The papers have been full of their nonsense, and the latest one to “leave ” is striker Leigh Griffiths. Leeds are looking to spend £1m on the lad, and offer him more money than Celtic are currently paying him.

And their chairman won’t take no for an answer.

Well, thats that then.

If he goes, the Bhoyband will be advertising for a new frontman;

The days of supporters, thanks to the internet, believing this tripe are long gone. So maybe the hacks know this, and as a result are competing amongst themselves to come up with the silliest story, although to be air, a number of them have been doing that for a number of years already.

With top scorer Griffiths “available ” for a million, it’s a surprise to learn that Anthony Stokes, who isn’t even a first teamer, will fetch £2m when he moves to Leeds, according to the Mail. Or he could be off to the USA, or he could be going nowhere.

Can’t imagine he’d move to the States. Elvis impersonation is a major business over there, and the cops shoot people instead of arresting them.

Griffiths and Stokes up front for Leeds ? Guidetti away to Stoke ?

Looks like they could do with getting agents who can actually work for them, who don’t listen to the nonsense about Scottish football, armageddon and the best league in the world down south.

This might sound daft, but my own thoughts are that the hardest sell about brngng someone to Glasgow might just be the fact that it always rains and it’s bloody freezing.

And that wind….

That’s long been an excuse for the northern clubs in england. Working environment must come into it, and perhaps we should only sign players in the summer. Imagine getting off a plane in glasgow, in january, knowing that a Spanish or italian team are still an option, which probably explains why Scepovic had to be dragged to the ground.

Maybe we should keep an eye on the weather forecasts when we show prospective players around the ground.

And please, if we take them to a game, make sure it’s a home one. Some of the pitches in Scotland during the winter…

Of course, that could be a factor in the supposed signing of Danny Wilson from Hearts, and where Boyota is concerned, after Manchester, Glasgow will seem like the Bahamas to him.

Manager Ronny Deila watched charlie Mulgrew make a return to the side on Friday-it seems so long ago, what are we supposed to do all weekend ? – and expressed his delight and faith in the big man as he looked ahead to the Champions League qualifiers. along woth Scott Brown, he reckons he now has two leaders at the club;

“They bring experience and they bring quality Both Scott and Charlie are leaders in the dressing room. They are big characters. They help the place to have a good atmosphere and they are always joking around. 

Woah. Somethings not right. He’ calling him “Scott “….

“But it is more than that too. They are very good on the training pitch. They work hard, they train hard, they are prepared to give 100 per cent and those same qualities are shown every time they play. They are an example to the other players with the way they approach training and games.

“Having both of them in the team is something that we had only for a short time this season.

“We are a stronger team with them in it.

“It was so important for us that we got Charlie back before the end of the season. We had to be careful because we did not want to push him too early and then find that he was set-back.

“So we had to be very careful with our timing but it has been big to get him some games before the end of the season.

“He will work hard over the summer. He will have a programme to follow and it means that when he comes back he should be at the same level as everyone else.”  

Mulgrew is reliable, versatile and can hit a free kick and a corner. One wonders of our lack of goals from set pieces is down to him not being in the team for the last thirty five games….

 Theres just one game left now, ironically against Inverness who made it so, and there’s a dilemma for the boss in that he has to decide whether or not to rest players, or to go full strength and hand out a humiating confidence destroying thrashing that will leave the highlanders so shattered that Falkirk will have little difficulty in picking up the Scottish cup.

 I’d prefer the latter, but common sense and self interest means that we have to think of ourselves first, and forego that self satisfied smirk if the cup did end up in central Scotland.

 Temptation must be there though.

You could fill a few pages simply by listing the players we have been linked with, but really there’s little point. my guess is that whoever has been earmarked is already sitting looking at the offer, and he hasn’t told anyone.

 So we’ll wait until there’s something a little more concrete.

We do have an eye on a big central defender, but he’s sitting on the fence at the moment.

Fair play to the scout who’s been watching him. he’s been taking his work very seriously..

Scouts you say ?

John Park could be away to Norwich, of the grapevine is correct.

After one or two successes, the recent record of the former hibs man has been uder scrutiny, and with Deila having his own ideas about the type of player he wants.i.e. good ones, it might be better for everyone if a fresh pair of eyes is brought in.

We believe that Park was made an offer he couldn’t resist, not only by Norwich, but by Deila as well;

right, theres a bus to catch, and it’s taking me to Glasgow, not for signing tlaks though.

Apparently we don’t need any more players of my caliber.

Finally, a quick word of congratulations to Second rangers, who now face Hibernian for the chance to face Motherwell for the chance to be relegated next season. It’s great to see the new boys doing well in what must be a rarified atmosphere for the club.

Even the fans helped out, by asking this months manager Stuart McCall to read out an inspiring letter.

The club were a goal down at half time, so another leter, discovered later by Jungle G on twitter, was hastily composed;

Which did the trick;

The Glasgow Observer quote in Saturdays Diary, expanded to its full length in the replies courtesy of Jamsie olloy, makes for interesting reading. As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. ( One reply, from Tony B , had that quote in French, which is testament to the higher level of intellect on this site. You won’t see that on Follow Follow. )

Right, if you haven’t eaten yet, look away now.

It’s caption competition time;