See that Petr Cech has moved from Chelsea to Arsenal. Said he fancied the challenge of playing with just four defenders in front of him.

This morning we’d like to say a big thank you to former Celt Gary Caldwell. The man with the unfeasibly large head proved that he has an unfeasibly large heart to match, with Celtic still occupying a place in it,  when he made a bid for Dundee United liability Nadir Ciftci.

The bid has been accepted, and if it hadn’t, I was going to organise a whip round to send the player to wigan. Or, if necessary , organise for Ciftci to be roundly whipped through the streets of Wigan.

Before Ciftci joined Dundee Utd in 2013, in the previous two years he actually only made eleven first team appearances. Presumably the referees are tougher abroad.

The news will disappoint John Collins, and by association Ronny Deila as well, Collins having said yesterday, on Ciftci;

“I believe there is an approach but that’s all I’ve heard and there’s not a lot I can tell you He has obviously played against us many times last year, he’s a big striker, he’s strong, he’s powerful and he’s got technique as well. We like him,”

Aw. What’s not to like ?

Listen, as far as I’m concerned, he’s the only person ever to be pictured with a non smiling Gary Mackay Steven

and therefore there must be something wrong with him.

The signing of Manchester United youngster Saidy Janko appears to be all but a done deal. The Record back page says;

Saidy Janko on brink of joining Celtic fromMan United

but Hoops are set to miss out on Jelle Vossen

SWISS teenager is back in Scotland to tie up deal while Parkhead club have bid rejected for Nadir Ciftci and Burnley move into pole position to nab Vossen.

So , we miss out on two players, one we weren’t actually in for, and another we couldn’t care less about, but sign a “Swiss Teen ” ..

Whereas on the same page…

Mark Warburton snaps up highly-rated teens

Jordan Gibson and Tom Lang to bolster Rangers academy

Defender Lang, 18, is a Scotland youth team-mate of Ibrox kid Ryan Hardie and joins from Birmingham while 17-year-old striker Gibson is a former Stoke and West Brom trainee.  

“Mister, can I watch your car for you ? ”

So, a Swiss teen , who couldn’t break through into one of the most expensively assembled sides in the world, or two highly rated teens , one from Birmingham, and one without a club.

The headline would suggest that Warburton has head the better of the deals…

But we don’t take any notice of the papers, because we know better.

The Janko deal looks set to be confirmed this week, meaning that Adam Matthews, who it’s rumoured would like to move on, will get his wish.

Back at the ranch, and it seems that Kris Commons will get better sooner than we thought after his foot injury , obtained after a vicious duel with a sliding wardrobe door, turned out to be not so bad after all. After a short period of rest, another of Celtic’s new alternative therapies will be used to get him back to fitness, although probably a little more relaxed than we might like.

John Collins explained;

He is getting better every day. Perhaps in another couple of days he’ll get back on to the grass. 

Yeah. thats what we need. an even more laid back Kris Commons. More worryingly, what happens when he gets the munchies ?

The Aiden McGeady stories won’t go away. Now, opinion amongst the support is divided on the lad. some would love to see a more mature player return to the club, others don’t feel he did enough the last time, and has not proved himself on his travels.

With plenty of options in the wide berths of the team, it may be that there is simply no place for him at Celtic, but how about as an alternative number ten. McGeady could easily play the Johansen role, and it would make sense to have a viable option, because althougb Johansen is top drawer, he will miss games…

Just a thought, mind….

The new away kit is on sale today, just in time to replace the home kits you bought that have already fell apart.

Described as a throwback to the sixties, the top will also be available at tonights game in Paisley against dutch side Den Bosch

Those fans attending the pre-season friendly against Den Bosch at St Mirren Park will also be able to pick up the new kit at the stadium.

The St Mirren club shop will become an official Celtic store for the day, open from 12noon through until after the match, closing at 10pm.

We’re using their ground, their shops, wonder if they want to borrow any of our players in time for their league campaign….

Those of you who use social media instead of going out and meeting people will be aware of another rammy between Second Rangers supporters and Phil MacGhiollabhan, the Irish freelancer who keeps getting up thier noses by pointing out things that they don;t want to hear.

Last week, Phil presented a piece to the Belfast Telegraph, which didn’t paint the Ibrox club in a favourable light, which prompted a response from Uberfan and former director Chris Graham, who during his time as a director , didn’t paint the club in a favourable light either.

Graham represented the RST, who have been fairly guilty of leading Ibrox fans to believe everything is still rosy in the garden, while John James, a blogger on Rangerssupporters loyal, has been at pains to point out that they don’t even own the garden anymore.

The Islamophobic Graham first…. in this long and fairly dull piece, taken from a page entitled  “Exposing the rhats” , but stick with it, because it ties in with the response…

I intend to write occasional updates on the murky PR tactics being used against Rangers by various sources and to explain the reasons for these attacks.  I am by no means an experienced writer so please excuse the fact my writing style is pretty rudimentary.

My background is in PR and I have extensive industry contacts in the London area, this combined with the fact I am a massive Rangers fan spurred me on to do some digging around with some interesting findings.  There has been a flurry of anti-Dave King propaganda in recent weeks spread by various blogs notably the two gents in the subject line.  What confused me about this is what was the motivation?  Rangers are thankfully now in safe hands and although we have a huge challenge ahead of us, the whole “Dave King is skint” line makes them look a bit daft when he is quietly going about his business bringing in new personnel.  Thankfully a friend of mine with no Glasgow connections is close to some of the fine fellows behind this new PR campaign and his apparent lack of interest in scottish football has enabled him to do some useful information gathering on my behalf.

Here are the basic facts as I understand them just now.

– Keith Bishop Associates have subcontracted some Rangers related work to our old friends at Mediahouse.  I don’t at this stage know the exact value of this contract but I can confirm unusually for Jack Irvine that they are providing a very low cost service.

– The purpose of the contract is very simple, to undermine and reduce Rangers Football Club season ticket sales and then any subsequent share issues.

– Reasons for the contract are simple, there is a desire to strengthen the negotiating position for one of Keth Bishop’s clients.  Now Keith Bishop have dozens of clients varying from z list celebs like Nancy Del O’llio to Leeds United but their most well known happens to be Sports Direct.  

The method of doing this is what’s most interesting.  Unusually for Mediahouse absolutely no attempts are being made to get stories placed in the Sun or other scottish papers where Irvine has contacts.  It seems Level 5 and the very capable Stephen Kerr have this side of things sewn up.  As an outside observer I would say this isn’t through any genius on their part just sheer circumstance has them in a great spot from a PR point of view.  A full team’s worth of signings to come in means some fantastic titbits to give out to journalists which nobody will pass on in order to print negative Dave King stories they can’t substantiate.

So Ramsay Smith of Mediahouse has went back to two people who I understand have been very reliable for him in the past, the aforementioned Bill McMurdo and Phil Macgiollabhain.  I can confirm both of these characters have received payment over the last 2 years from Mediahouse to publish stories on behalf of not just one but several of their clients with interests in Rangers.  I can also confirm that the fees they have received although modest have been driven up due to the fact they both control several social media accounts with large numbers of followers.

The social media accounts I have been able to confirm as fake so far are:

The Clumpany – controlled by Phil Macgiollabhain

Ninjaman – controlled by Bill McMurdo

John James(poster on one of the blogs above) – Is actually Ramsay Smith himself.

The most glorious part of this discovery for me is the sheer hypocrisy of Mr Macgiollabhain.  He has been a long term critic of the scottish media calling them “churnalists” and “PR puppets”, he also previously (I assume prior to taking his money) was critical of Mediahouse and Jack Irvine.  As disappointing as it may be to his several thousand followers and occasional donators Phil the “journalist” has been a PR mouthpiece for the likes of the Easdales, Charles Green, Imran Ahmad and now Mike Ashley.  In the same way he gave Mr King the opportunity in a previous blog I invite Phil to deny this “developing story”.

I have some further interesting information about the Keith the self proclaimed Bishop of Soho which I will publish in a future blog, needless to say his financial arrangements with the previous Rangers regime were interesting to say the least.  Hopefully this initial information is useful to help fellow bears at least understand why we are being hit by such negative spin at a time when our future looks particularly bright.  

The future looks particularly bright. Unlike the author, I  suppose.

Anyhow, John James hit back.

RST :”We contacted the Belfast Telegraph today outlining our member’s concerns and making them aware of the hate speech, lies and background of the man they had chosen to publish. The Belfast Telegraph were prompt in their response and we are satisfied that they had no prior knowledge of Mr MacGiollabhain.
Their response read as follows:
‘Much like the Scottish Sun, we had no prior knowledge of the author. The piece was used on a one-off basis and in the light of the information provided, it’s highly unlikely there will be a two-off. If we’d known then what we know now says it all’.
We would like to thank our members for bringing the article to our attention and we are confident that they will not have to endure Mr MacGiollabhain’s work appearing in the Belfast Telegraph again. Hopefully other newspapers will also be more careful before publishing work from Mr MacGiollabhain or others of a similar ilk who may be unknown to them.”

This claim was vigorously refuted by the editor of The Belfast Telegraph, thus:
file:///C:/Users/Guest/Downloads/Letter-from-Gail-Walker-290615.pdf

It would appear that someone at the RST created some fiction that they attributed to The Belfast Telrgraph. The less than erudite use of ‘two-off’ should have been instructive. Was Chris Graham the author of this piece of creative writing?Mr Graham is getting rather exercised about this glib and shameless mendacity. Apparently we should always defer to our 48 hour director in matters where PMG is involved, irrespective of the truth of the matter.The Midas touch, or the gift of profiting from whatever one undertakes, is named for a legendary king of Phrygia. Mr Graham’s Islamaphobic tweets and RST fiction might suggest he has the SIDAM touch, which is generally accepted as everything that he touches turns to shit. A rare talent for a London based PR Agent.

In his long piece attacking this site, he ‘unmasked’ me as Ramsay Smith – no Mr Graham, SIDAM.

He suggested that Ninjaman was actually a pseudonym for Bill. No Mr Graham, SIDAM.

He also decided that The Clumpany was a pseudonym of PMG. I decided to acquaint myself with this individual’s output. Amusing in an anti-Rangers way but not PMG.

More SIDAM Mr Graham.  

Oh come on, can’t you all be friends…

Those of you on twitter would have spotted and read the highly amusing, and fairly addictive blogs from The Clumpany. He’s been around a while.

I thought it only fair to ask him if he was, in fact, Phil. I’ve never seen them in the same room, or even in separate rooms, so I figured I should check.

He replied;

“Apropos rumours about The Clumpany, and for the avoidance of doubt dear reader, this is a loss-making business without a credit line from a bank. Kind regards.”

“Possibly from Donegal”  

The plot thickens…..but you feel it will never quite reach the thickness of those desperate to remain in denial.

But to hell with the darkside. The light has returned !

Celtic are back in action tonight, and thats all that matters.

Boy has Paisley changed.

Celtic face Den Bosch as the training and preparation for the Stjarnan tie steps up a notch. The Dutch side finished 16th in the Eerste division last season, which was a little off the promotion places. They do have a forward called Berry Powell who scored nineteen in that campaign, which is a fair return for a struggling side, so if you get bored, and are fed up watching the aeroplanes take off, you could always pretend you are a scout and keep an eye on him.

Celtic could, and probably should, get that 7-0 win I’ve been harping on about for months.

We hear Roman Abramovich is in town, his boat is on the Clyde.

Wonder what he wants. With Petr Cech gone, could he be about to snatch Wes Foderingham from under Mark Warburtons nose ?

Might be an idea to give Craig Gordon the day off. Just in case.

It’s not been a long summer, but thanks for keeping me interested as well, because otherwise I think I might have gone mad. It’s kept me busy sorting out the nonsense from the truth, but publishing both anyway.

What also grabbed my attention, on this site, was El cormaco’s insightful  and amusing view from his sofa. Have a look at it if you haven’t already.

Especially the bit about the league cup. I’d like to see a League cup, played exclusively in July with the sections first, then quarter finals but with all games played at venues decided by the toss of a coin, with sides playing each other only once in the sections. I think that would keep everyone interested.

The picture of Jamie The Kid yesterday prompted a number of amusing replies. today, we ask where this is, and does anyone remember what they were doing that day ?