The fan concerned is me, by the way. It’s all getting out of hand. Something has to be done about such  actions which can only lead to fear, misunderstanding and a return to the dark days of hatred and division. What am I on about ? This, quite simply the most abusive thing I have ever seen on the internet, without exception. How can, in the 21st century , this sort of thing be deemed acceptable? Theres a lot of it about , it appears. a current murder trial, where you would think the media have enough to comment on, one paper found another angle. It appears the accused , somewhat the worse for wear, decided to ask Anthony Stokes, Celtic ‘s Irish forward, if his dad could get him a gun. Which makes a lovely story, if you’re sitting in a bar having a laugh, but as for front page news, it’s extraordinarily irresponsible. It could endanger Stokes’s life. It could certainly damage his career, and it’s all hearsay. If Stokes had retired to a back room, and met the chap on the car park with a couple of Armalites and some ammo, fair enough, but other than that, it’s nonsense. any club looking to sign Stokes will be put off by this, whether it’s true or not. That dream move to Real Madrid won’t happen now, although there is interest from their neighbours Provisional Madrid. The newspapers. The silly season is truly upon us. The Record;

Celtic scrap move for Jonathan Mensah:

The Scotsman;

Celtic line up Mensah move

Who do you believe ? One of them has to be wrong. Mensah is suspended for the next four months, which makes any move unlikely, but by the same token, if Deila thinks he’s worth waiting for, now is a good time to move as no-one else will be interested. The Record quotes a “source close to Mensah ”

 “Celtic are still interested in Jonathan despite this ban by the CAS.

“They want to have him, so this ruling is just a temporary setback.” 

Well, it may be as Mensah is on the list, but despite what you have heard, van Dijk will be here for the qualifiers. Unless a top European club makes a move before then.

 Denaayer wants to go back to Manchester City, thats fairly evident, so a quality centre back is required, but it’s too late to bed a new one in before those games, so it looks like Efe, charlie or Mikael Lustig alongside van Dijk.

Van Dijk will probably go in January, so maybe Mensah, or more likely, Dedryck Boyota will be in place by then.

Lustig has assured the club he will be ready for the Champions League, although he will nit be playing for Sweden this summer.

“I won’t make the Sweden European Championship qualifiers next month,” Lustig said, “but I am aiming to be back when we start up for the new season.” 

It’s just a question of how long he lasts. Fully fit, Lustig is arguably our best defender, so we have to hope the longer lay off has given him time to fully recover.

 In the past, players were often rushed back from an injury, only to get hurt again a couple of games later. This doesn’t happen under Deila, so we should be optimistic about the Swede returning in better shape.

We hear it’s Zouhair Feddal the club wants, anyway, which makes us just as clueless as the papers. It was in Italy’s “Tutto Mercato “, which means “all market “, as it concentrates on transfers.

 The conflicting reports are merely evidence that the papers haven’t got a clue, which is worth remembering before you take any notice of them. If there’s no attributed quotes, it’s probably not true.

Despite speculation of a move to Leeds, Leigh Griffiths has said he wants to wear the number nine jersey at Celtic;

 “If I’m the main man to lead the Champions League qualifiers I will be delighted.  “The John Guidetti situation has not been resolved yet and if he signs here then great. “But if not I will be banging on that door to get the No9 jersey because that’s the jersey you want as a Celtic player.”

He deserves a crack at it, firstly as a reward for his attitude and work ethic, but mainly because he’s our top scorer, and will continue to improve.

 He summed it up himself;

 “The first four or five months were a bit stop-start and I didn’t play as much as I wanted to but since January-February I have been playing every game and that’s what I want to be doing – not just here but also on the international scene. “Training has been intense and if you train well and the manager picks you then you have to be ready. “They Celtic coaches wanted me to work on certain aspects of my game and I went away and did that and challenged myself and that’s why I’m playing now.”   There’s a game on tonight, if you’re interested. Live on You Tube, at this link; ScottishCupOfficial It’s the Youth Cup Final, between Celtic and new club Rangers. Captain Connor MacManus spoke ahead of the game, with a maturity not often seen in lads of his age. Or any other age, for that matter.

“The majority of us have played in these games so we know what it takes and we need to keep the game calm for a start because I don’t think the game suits us if it’s end-to-end.

“I know we’ve got players who can play and we have to play to our strengths but in the first 15 or 20 minutes, the battle has to be won.

“The game takes care of itself, the first-team players will tell you that as it’s similar to their game at Hampden it’s going to be a battle for the first 20 minutes and hopefully as it levels out we can take advantage.”

 “I think although I’m captain and wearing the armband, and obviously it’s a cliché that there are 11 captains, but genuinely there are in this side.

“There’s not so much responsibility on me, I know I’ve got players behind me that can look after themselves and there’s players in front doing the same but I’ll do my bit.

“If you don’t relish these occasions then the game can pass you by. We have to win and we have to win the battle, we have to earn the right to play and it doesn’t matter who you are playing against.

“It’s no one’s God-given right to go and win a football match, so both teams will be going out to do that and hopefully we can win that battle and after that, start playing the football.” 

 Good luck to the youngsters. At least this time they will have family and friends watching, but there is no public sale of tickets, as there has been crowd trouble at previous games.

 Still want them back ? Of course you don’t. Despite Hugh keevins saying on air that any Celtic fan who says they don’t is a liar, the general consensus seems to be if they come up, they come up. If they don’t, they don’t.

 Over on the Scotsman website, a more sober and realistic view comes from “Old Firm Is history…

Rangers don’t exist, at least not in reality. However, be that as it may I don’t believe the best thing for Scottish football would be another season in the lower league for the International Pretenders. 

Gaining promotion would put the pretenders in a position in which they would need to face Celtic, Hearts, Aberdeen and United four times in a season and let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want to see that? 

Promotion will mean spending more of other people’s money, it will mean borrowing on a massive scale, it will mean debt that they will find impossible to service on the basis they are chasing a dream they are first not big enough to realise and secondly, not wealthy enough to buy. 

But what it really means is four massive defeats to Celtic in an era that could see the Parkhead club win as many as 40 head to heads in a row.

I followed Rangers all my life and we won the head to head race with Celtic and that chapter closed with our death, we won the head to head race. 

The new race stands at Celtic 1 win, International Newco Rangers 0 wins. By the time next season is over it will Celtic 5 – International Newco Rangers 0 and it could be 40-0 before the newco pretenders ever win a head to head against Celtic.

Tell you what if they do come up to the top flight for the first time in their history I would put money on them going straight back down, it’s a good bet.   

And they have a chance to do that, after a 2-0 win at Ibrox over Hibernian. It’s only half time , but Hibs need to look at their performance on the big stage again, and and do something about it.

 There’s every chance that the new club will make the top level, as the momentum is with them now, as it was with Hamilton last year.

If they come up, they come up….

The deflection away from the decision by the SFA to announce that Dave King is a fit and proper person continues, albeit subtely, in the national press.

The SFA have refused to answer questions,

but then again, no-one has asked any..

 The general consensus is that he’s here now, and we should all let him get on with it.

 Keith Jackson, in the Record, is still obsessed with people who are considerably richer than he is-or at least, those he thinks are considerably richer than he is, but this time he’s determined not to be made a fool of…

King talked casually about blowing north of £30m of his children’s inheritance on Rangers as if he had dropped more down the back of the family sofa.

 This was in a Q and A with Jackson “last year “.

Now Jackson wants answers…

In fact, having recently signed a £40m cheque to the South African tax man, what is left in his kitty?

Yes, it’s vulgar to talk about money but, now that he’s finally been cleared to get his wallet out, King must give a few straight answers. How much does he estimates this rebuild will cost? And how much of the tab is he personally willing to cover.

Also, King may wish to explain why he’s not already parted with a first £5m in order to clear Mike Ashley out of Ibrox and reclaim the club’s brick and mortar assets along with its badges and crests. It could be that there is a strategy in play here and perhaps the ongoing probes into Ashley’s business with previous Rangers owners might be at the heart of it.  

Right . Own up .

Who’s got his laptop ?

While lamb may be back on the menu, Jackson might not be at the table .

Graeme Spiers, in the Herald, did condemn the decision, but left it at that.

A laughable decision, but now let Dave King crack on

Spiers and Jackson. Tools You Can Trust ?   Momo Sylla was the last person to join Celtic from St. Johnstone. He moved for £650,000 back in August 2001.

Now, who is on the phone to former Rangers boss Dick Advocaat, and what are they talking about.

Advocaat. I always wonder about names, and their origins. Was his family in the drinks business ? I understand the likes of Butcher, Fletcher, Baker and so on. But what about this guy ?

Whats the story there ?