Craig Gordon won the Scottish football Writers Player of the Year Award, after his remarkable return to top level football with Celtic.
Many amongst the support were a little afraid when Fraser Forster headed south that we would see a return to the days when Celtics goalkeeper would make every game an adventure, but the former Hearts and Sunderland man has made us forget all about the yellow wall.
I even had to google it to remember his name.
Gordon has every reason to feel good about winning, and can look forward to a good few years at Celtic, a few more medals , and if he’s really lucky, international recognition, where he faces a battle with David Marshall for the top spot.
He seems happy enough with his lot, as he told the Record, though I’m not sure if he underlined the point or they did.
“My first thing was just to get back playing football again. I never thought it would lead here.
“It’s been an incredible journey. Not one I would like to do again as I’d like to stay where I am now but it’s been great to get back to this level. It was special enough the first time coming through the youth ranks and working hard to become a professional.
“To go away, play one game in three years, then come back from that and do it all over again makes it more special for me.”
An inspiration to us all. Although it might be too late for Derk Boerrigter.
Another inspiration comes from Frank McGarvey, the vastly under rated and under celebrated striker who recently put his 1985 cup winning shirt up for auction to raise money pricipally for Maryhill foodbank, but to help the others as well. It went for £3800, which was probably beyond anyones expectations, and led to smiles all around at the news.
“Brother Walfrid founded Celtic to feed the hungry and unemployed people of Glasgow in 1887.
“I found it incredible that in 2015 there are still people going hungry and being fed by food banks.
“The top was lying about my house doing nothing and because someone has come along and paid £3800, it means the food banks in Glasgow will be piled high this week, so I’m very happy about that.
“The response it received was unbelievable.
“Brother Walfrid inspired me to do this. It took a lot for me to sell the strip, I have had it for 30 years and it was very important that it went to a good cause.
“There were two people in me, one wanted to keep the strip and one wanted to sell it for a worthy cause.
“I can’t think of a better cause as I think that Glasgow people are very generous and it was
important for me to try to keep the money here.”
Not to be outdone in the PR stakes, the Level 5 sponsored Record added;
Scotland legend Jim Baxter’s rare No6 shirt from the 2-0 humbling of England at Hampden in 1962 could fetch as much as £4000 at auction next month.
Rare number 6 shirt ?
Surely there’s only one ?
Not to cast doubt on the authenticity of it, but it reminds me of when I was still at school shortly after Kenny Dalglish left for Liverpool, and word got round that someone had got hold of his shirt from the last game, and was selling pieces of it for ten bob, as there was some left over after he cut it down so it would fit him.
I can’t remember the kids name but he’s the sort who would have a chateau in France now, paid for by gullible football fans.
Oh, and we’ll come to them shortly…
Because it’s, after all, a Celtic diary, and here’s a word from our sponsor…
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If the football continues to improve as it has done since the turn of the year, and if Ronny gets a chance to further instill his ideas on the players, then you may regret not renewing.
Thats the diary talking, by the way, not the club.
When the Norwegian “whale murderer ” to quote of of the Diaries less eloquent readers, took over the club, I was one of many doubters, fearing the same end result as we had under the Tony Mowbray regime.
However, lets try to look at the situation from his angle, which given his extraordinary height, will give us a fresh perspective.
He arrived to at Celtic and would have known that the support were distinctly underwhelmed with him. He would have been fully aware that he was inheriting a successful side, which some would argue was at least as difficult as taking over a bottom place club, largely because it leaves little margin for error, and if your own ideas aren’t immediately on taken on board , then it’s the new man who is out on his arse before he’s even had time to decide which photographs to put on his desk.
Whilst some in the support felt he should be given time, others-alright, me-felt that he didn’t have to change much as the team just needed a little tweaking here and there to continue along picking up the title and the occasional cup.
Yet there was something not quite right, players were constantly in and out of the team due to injury, others were not as fit as they should be, and it could be argued, and with some merit, that some had reached a comfort zone and were just coasting along.
History may yet record that Deila changed all that, indeed we are already seeing some results there.
Maybe the criticism of the inflexibility over his use of just one up frontis a little premature, perhaps he had to get everyone playing this way and playing it well before he could add a few extra systems, thus keeping training simple to start with to allow plyers to fully absorb his ideas and learn to trust him.
The last two away games, St. Johnstone and before that, Aberdeen, saw a more contained performance, with Celtic preferring to counter attack more, with pace and strength.
Maybe that’s plan B. And maybe there’s more to come…
Ronny has got his feet under the table now, and watching him speak about the club, there is an underlying passion about how he wants to play the game, sometimes not always evident.
We could be in for a memorable few years…
Away from Celtic and over to other parts of Glasgow, and you’ve probably heard that the successful Ibrox based pantomime “The Fellowship Of The Sting ” , is to be followed up by part two,” The Return of The King ” which ensures a summer of laughter for all of us.
The SFA , and we knew they would, decided that Dave King, the man condemned as a “glib and shameless liar ” by a South African court, is after all a fit and proper person to join the board over at the new club formed to replace the one he helped David Murray send over the cliff.
Craig whyte, who tried to put the Murray fiasco behind the club, and put it back onto at least an even keel, until he ran aground on the rock that was McCoist and his management ability, was adjudged unfit by the same body, after he didn’t pay the tax and national insurance just before taking the club into administration, which was his only legal issue.
King beats him hands down with over forty convcitions, huge fines and assets worth millions seized to avoid a prison sentence.
I’m not quite sure the SFA understand their own guidelines here. By the way, now that they’ve ignored the rules, they’re actually called guidelines.
Still, at least Campbell Ogilivie will be gone soon, and they can all blame him when it goes tits up again.
By the way, anyone who thinks King may have changed his spots should read this from Grant Russell, who shows how the glib and shameless one has er, started being glib and shameless already…
Mike Ashley, who is awaiting the meeting with the board so he can ask for his money back, will be a little worried this morning. King is likely to use that loan as the reason he bumps this company before starting Third Rangers in a new sixteen team top division after the SFA finally reveal what their plan was all along.
Oh come on, we all knew it.
The media will tell us that everyones happy over on the other side of town now, especially the support, who now have a true Rangers an that they can lob money at, because he sure doesn’t show any sign of using his own, as the other board memebrs have found out.
Except surely even they aren’t daft enough to fall for it again. It’s taken a while, but apart from a few overzealous “traditionalists “, the majority have been quietly slipping away and recognise privavtely what has been going on…
Shock…..Denial ……Acceptance
Thats what happens when you grieve the loss of a loved one.
The new club face Hibernian in the first leg of the paly off to see who will play off against motherwell, and already the Edinburgh side are expressing concerns about the state of the Ibrox pitch;
By the way, we hear that a veteran defender is so desperate to sign for Celtic that he’s offered to bring his own shirt…
Or perhaps he was subliminally telling another club he wasn;t interested in a return.
Speaking of defenders, Ikeche Anya as cover for Izzaguirre ? Not actually as daft as it sounds, given the strength of cover we have in other positions….
There was no diary yesterday, I didn’t get home until seven in the morning after travelling overnight on a bus that went so slow that when i offered to walk in front with a red lamp to warn other road users, the driver vetoed it as I would get too far ahead of him.
Here’s a question thats been doing the rounds on the interweb, and I wonder of anyone knows the answer…
Who was the last person to leave St. johnstone to join Celtic ?
I know we signed Atholl Henderson from them, but that was a long time ago. I assume it’s something of a trick question, which is another way of saying fuctifino, if it isn’t the bold Atholl.
Momo Sylla I believe. If not be kind it’s my first post after years as an admirer
Was it Mo Sylla ?
I reckon Momo Sylla?
Aggie the tea lady for a lap of honour for tongue lashing Souness
The fact that “as we expected” is used to describe the acceptance of the fit and proper status of King shows that we have not only got so used to corruption in our game we expect it.
The whole charade that has been the sevco pantomime would not be tolerated anywhere apart from Scotland, well possibly Qatar or some lesser African countries.
I understand that most of us have drawn some “Jelly and Ice Cream” moments from the goings on over the years, I myself have had great pleasure watching their demise, but this for me is a GIRUY from the authorities to every other club in Scotland, not just Celtic.
I think that this is one too many bending or ignoring of rules/guidelines and without sounding like a politician, a debate with all member clubs supporter’s groups to gather their views is required.
Has anyone got any ideas on how this could be achieved, could you, Ralph or Desi initiate such a debate on here or an alternative site?
I don’t know if this could be achieved, but I do know that without fans football is nothing, applies to all clubs, not just Celtic and if all the clubs unite in a collective action it may once and for all send the message to the SFA/SPFL or whatever they are naming themselves now that they represent all clubs.
Spot on yestim, and they wonder why it takes 2 years to find a sponsor, cause if we had a company would we sponsor a governing body of Scottish football that allows clubs to spend out with thier means and never question them at all, corrupt Boy Scouts for bigoted men…..time for all of us to take a stand
Why is Callum Murray, who supposedly referee’d his last game 2 weeks ago the referee at the Rangers game tonight?
It’s too late for a debate. PL was part of the fit and proper process. He rubber stamped KIng. Make what you will of that. I made my mind up a long while ago to stop taking it roon the back. I dont look good in Pampers.
125:
There is absolutely nothing to suggest at this stage that PL had anything to do with this decision
125:
There is absolutely nothing at this time to suggest PL had anything to do with this decision
So two questions:
1) As per SFA rules / guidelines / whatever is King fit & proper?
2) Are you surprised he got approved?
I d say the answers to both are no. The SFA admit as much in their statement, they had to go to extreme lengths to give some cover / justification for ignoring their own rules. King has now let it be known he was essentially blackmailing the SFA, letting them know he d only invest if he got to be chairman, glibly ignoring his own publicly stated position on the matter.
Its sad that its no surprise, but it really isn’t. This whole time “considering” has been considering how to sell Scottish football fans a jobbie, nothing more
But you know what, I m not fussed. Ra Bearzz are gleeful today, but they have a track record of backing any bam who says he’s gonna put money in. Same for the press. No need to scrutinise or question, youse are just afraid/ jealous/ obsessed etc etc.
The “obsessed” and “internet bampots” were right about Whyte, right about Green and will be right about King. His “plan” such as it is, involves spending other people’s money, and since the last board have already tried and failed to get City investment, the other people will be Ra peepil. So King as saviour is entirely misleading, he’ll only be a saviour to the extent they pony up, and that will have a limited attraction given the sense of entitlement they have and desire for a sugar daddy to come and buy success for them – its what they’re used to. So let them enjoy their moment of wilful delusion, save the funniest tweets, and when they tire of King and want him gone too and the next sugar daddy to come in and show timmy, or want to know why the SFA let the glib and shameless one head up their club, remind them of this time when given enough rope, they’ve decided to hang themselves once more. And laugh. Not because we’re obsessed, or afraid or any of that drivel, Celtic will be miles ahead of them, laugh because Karma is one funny bitch
Elcormaco,
I agree with most of what you are saying, they will fail again with investment, no listing etc, but it is not the stills that are the issue for once. the issue lies purely with the authorities or lack of them in this case.
The stills are way behind us so it does not affect anything to do with Celtic, however letting the authorities ride rough shot over everybody set precedence for future misdemeanors.
Do we wait for some decision that does affect us or should we be proactive. That’s all I am asking
its really not a shock that king got in…. but lets be serious… it what we wanted.. ashely would of kept them going and going but now he has the hump and clearly wont be funding them anymore
just been told that the two centre backs are 100% not going to be here next season.. denayer will be with another english team and virgil is going to southampton… not going to reveal my sources however its water tight… so lets hope we have some signings in place by the middle of june to get to work on the champions league
I’m waiting on them getting pumped by hibs and not getting promoted
…. then we will have a mysterious “fire at ibrokes” …. insurance covers the
stadium repairs and all the dodgy paperwork is ‘lost’ in the “accident ”
…. just a thought !!! couldn’t happen … could it ???
I think we are getting too hot and bothered over king being passed fit and proper, Scottish football has been corrupt probably since the start and has always bent over backwards for the establishment team so there is really nothing new there.
There are great times ahead for us and only misery for sevco and there is nothing the sfa, referees or the media can do to change that. Ok they can and will try to help them as much as they can and be against us as much as possible but where we are and where we are going (hopefully out of Scottish football), there will be no stopping us.
Very good times ahead and I’m very excited about it too.
Hail hail
stu67:
Overheard in a Masonic Ludge last night…( not by me I hasten to add)…
“Paul..sorry to hear about the huge fire at the Stadium on Monday.”…
“SSShhh…It’s next Monday.”
🙂 love it !!
Whit Ewanbhoy said…
Hail hail.
Whaurs ma brilliant response to stu67…?
Aw naw…!!
King is a fit and proper person to be chairman of Rangers…..but no other team.Rangers are now so inured to having crooks at the helm that he will be a snug and smug fit, until the next financial catastrophe brings them once more to the brink.
Second try….first in ether!
Dave King is a fit and proper person to be chairman of Rangers…..but not any other club. Rangers are so inured to being run by crooks that the fans will accept the new incumbent who will fit in snugly and smugly, until such time as the next financial catastrophe hits the club and King hightails it back to South Africa. Shame on the SFA for not having the balls to arrive at the “fit and proper” decision.
On a serious note, fair play to Sir David of Sud Africa. What a talent. I just saw his interview on Bt and not only did he look the interviewer in the eye, he looked right down the camera at the same time. He’s gonna need that funky vision to watch uncle Mike build his empire from under him.
I think it’s great king has been declared, er… “fit and proper”.
It confirms yet again the leanings of the football establishment.
It puts king front and centre of an investment/finance shit storm that’ll will break him and alienates big mikey bhoy who would be a serious adversary for us.
In the words of our former manager “this isn’t the end, it’s just the beginning” of the sevco omnishambles…
Meanwhile the Unseen Fenian Hand (capital letters), Ronny Deila and all of Us just keep doing our best and marching on, safe in the knowledge that all we thought was true….. is true.
What’s not to like?
Good one by Frank McGarvey, reminds me of one Sunday afternoon at Knockburn school in balornock. As usual there was an eleven a side going on when the bold Frank shows up and asks for a game, aye mate, you can go in goals!!! Brilliant.