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Celtic Diary Monday July 6: We Sorted Out The Bankers And You’re Next !

Oh, all right, he didn’t say that. but if one of the hacks had thought of it, it would have been attributed to him.

They have form for what could be termed as sensationalism, as you know.

 

 

Runar Pall Sigmundsen, coach of Celtic’s champions League opponents Stjarnan, has now decided there’s every chance of a shock in the forthcoming tie between the two sides.

Egged on by an enthusiastic Scottish sports media, he said, after watching a calamitous performance by the hoops against Dukla Prague;

It was a great game for us to see.

“Celtic have just started their pre-season preparation and looked a little bit rusty but it was interesting for us to see them in this game.

“Dukla were a very good team and took advantage of a lot of space Celtic left between their defence and midfield. They had some problems with that and it is something we can look at in their game.

“Our players will have to play two great games and everybody will have to play their best ever if we are to beat Celtic.

“But we are very confident. We like to play in this tournament and take confidence from our performances against Motherwell and Lech Poznan in last season’s Europa League. We knocked out two very good teams but this is our first attempt at the Champions League.

“Of course it would be massive to beat Celtic. It is a great opportunity for Stjarnan to play against Celtic and if we have a great result in Glasgow then we can do something big.

“We know it will be a very difficult game but we are optimistic and believe in our playing style and in our team.”   

He’s not fooling anyone. Putting on a pair of spectacles and combing your hair may have fooled Lois Lane into thinking the bloke who worked all day with her at the office wasn’t superman, but we tims can see through that sort of ruse.

 Image result for steven pressley

 Stjarnan may feel they have inside knowledge, but even Pressley/Sigmundsen will know that the Dukla game was a one off. As far as I can remember, the only time Celtic have had a decent pre season recently was when a free flowing Tony Mowbray side thrashed the world’s most successful club, Al Ahly of Egypt, and we all know how that season panned out.

 He continued;

“This was the first time I’ve had the chance to see them live and it was very useful. I won’t get another chance to see them because we have a game of our own on July 12 in our league, so I have to be at that.

“That means I won’t see Celtic’s final game against Real Sociedad before they play us but maybe I’ll get the chance to see it online.

“We will definitely be following it to see how they are playing.

“Celtic are at a different level from Motherwell. They are fantastic and we know it will be very difficult for us.

“The games against Celtic are big for us and we are going to enjoy them.” 

In fairness, the text of the interview doesn’t justify the headline,

We can dump Celtic:

FC Stjarnan boss insists his team can spring Champions

League shock

He doesn’t say he’s going to dump anyone, but they have to sell papers, and they have to stick to their policy. It’s the Record, in case you hadn’t guessed.

The Mail goes with the same line, but the photo they use to back it up suggests that Sigmundsen wasn’t even paying attention to the game;

Stjarnan manager Runar Pall Sigmundsson (centre) watches on during Celtic's clash with Dukla Prague 

The on off saga surrounding Nadir Ciftci and a possible move to Glasgow looks set to conclude one way or another early this week. Jackie MacNamara, the happy go lucky boss of Dundee united, said;

Nadir has turned down Wigan and the other offers haven’t been enough for us to let him speak to anyone else.

“Nadir is fine. He understands what’s happening. It’s a saga every transfer window.

“It doesn’t change anything. I don’t know what’s going to happen or whether he’s going to be here or there.

“But I have to prepare as if he’s going to be here with us and the lad needs to do the same.

“I’ve not spoken to Nadir about it because there’s no need. The club hasn’t accepted anything from Celtic.

“Obviously there has been interest there but it’s not been enough for him to go and speak to them yet.  

Hopefully they are asking for £12 million.

I’m not that keen on Ciftci bringing his personality any where near a happy group at Celtic, and even less keen to have Pierre van Hoooijdonk with a foot in the door either.

 If Ciftci does come, and does well, how long before his agent demands a wage that isn’t fit for a homeless person ?

We don’t need the hassle. Ciftci isn’t worth it.

Remembering van Hooijdonks attitude and perhaps unfairly passing it on to Ciftci may be wrong, when of course, the Turk has never moaned about wages,

No, he just bites, kicks and elbows people.

Chris Sutton, not exactly a shrinking violet on the pitch himself, sees something in ciftci, and he might be right;

“Recruiting a striker is the hardest position to conquer as the good ones cost so much.

“So it comes down to finding a project and Ciftci is at a good age for the club to develop his potential. As a footballer player, he has a lot going for him.

“He uses his body well, he can score different types of goals, he can bring others into the game and he can be a right handful…

“Also, Deila likes to play that centre-forward position as a lone task and he can do that really well from what I’ve seen.”

The whole saga has reminded me of the  sour taste left behind by van Hooijdonk, who moaned about money here, at Nottingham Forest, and then at Benfica.

 There’s no room for disruptive agents at Celtic, and whilst you could argue that he’s only doing his job-as he is now trying to get Ciftci the move he wants, there’s a horrible feeling that what is happening at United now will happen at Celtic in twelve months time.

I can’t put my finger exactly why I want to give this deal a miss, but there’s a lot about it that doesn’t  feel right.

 Anyway, even if he does get here, he’s got to displace Leigh Griffiths from the line up, and Griffiths, the most natural striker we’ve had in many a year, won’t give his place up easily.

Griffiths admitted he was tiring on Saturday, but also pointed out why…

 “It was good. I felt good for 45 minutes and I started to tire around the 60 minutes mark. We have only been back training since Monday and it was good to get an hour under my belt and I will be raring to go next week.

“You want to get fitness but we want to win games as well and it was disappointing not to win it, but it was only a friendly and we have another one to go before the Champions League game.

“We pressed them well in the first half, though it was disappointing defending from our point of view but we showed what we were going forward and creating chances. After 75 minutes they started popping the ball about and we looked a bit tired and jaded.

“We will have a full week’s training before we play Sociedad. It will be good test for us but we will be raring to go. They are a great side and have had some good results in La Liga and hopefully we can show what we are all about.”  

 This could be a big season for Griffiths. He has shown what he can do, after an unconvincing start, and with a run in the side, and the support from the midfield three, he could easily score thirty plus. In Europe there are fears that he won’t be able to step up, or he’s not big enough, or strong enough, and all the usual doubts, but he won’t let us down.

Defenders do not like his all action bustling style, and he has the speed of thought, which when combined with confidence, that  could be the difference between a bad result and a memorable one.

 If players were judged on heart alone, he’d be world class. Work on his upper body strength and he will be.

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The Scotsman has dug up the old “Martin Odegaard”  on loan story, presumably so that they can follow it up later with a “Celts fail to land Ronny’s protege ” piece later.

 Ronny says he is not good enough for the Celtic first team. Celtic have not , officially , made any recent moves to get him, and he’s going to Getafe anyway.

 It was in the Spanish papers. Scottish papers have a different way of looking at things.

Anyway, why bring in a loan player, as good as he might be, and develop him when Liam Henderson and Tom Rogic are waiting to be helped to the next level ?

Meanwhile, on the dark side of town, there’s confirmation that Deloitte, the auditing firm, no longer do the books at ibrox. They quit , apparently after their staff received threats from an unknown source…

Chris Graham, who lives in his own wee world, hinted it might have been those “rangers haters ” who haunt the poor man’s dreams

Of course it was. It couldn’t possibly be anyone else. and Deloitte would have stayed on had it not happened.

John James, who lets the world know what really goes on over there, had more to say on the absent chariman, Dave king and his “wealth “

I have come into some more information in regard to our convicted criminal chairman. Estimates of the funds held and subsequently frozen in a London bank have been wildly exaggerated. To evade tax, Mr King switched funds from one British Virgin Islands trust to another. He then established two Guernsey based trusts that fed into a London account. The total value of this account was £7.8M. Having checked numerous court transcripts, I can find no ‘relief’ order, therefore £1.6M was not provided to King on an annual basis as previously claimed.

One of his jets was found in France. It was valued at $42M (£26M) and sold for £10M. The other was seized at an airport in South Africa and sold for an undisclosed sum. He was informed that if he attempted to board this plane he would be arrested. King’s primary strategy to evade tax was to invest in aircraft. 

Everything he owned, including his watch and golf clubs, that he claimed were owned by a trust and ‘loaned’ to him, went under the hammer.

All that remained after he paid SARS and his fines was one property in his wife’s name, which was created by demolishing 3 properties, and his £7.8M in his London account. He would have received some interest on this sum, but this was subject to UK tax.

As has long been established, King will receive some compensation from BDO. An interim payment is due later this month.

There are no hidden accounts or assets. SARS had the authority to pursue up to £230M of his assets if these could be found, which was 200% of his estimated wealth. He repatriated NOSA from Hong Kong to South Africa. All his asset classes are now in South Africa 

So we now know exactly what he has access to. He won’t be risking any of it in Rangers.

However, there is another scandal that could impact his holding in Micromega, which is held in his daughter’s name. 56% of his daughter’s holding of 76% was acquired by a foreign company called Drenk, owned by King in The British Virgin Islands. Having breached the 30% barrier, King was compelled to make an offer for the remaining 44%. He chose not to. He broke the law, aided and abetted by CEO, Greg Morris This was discovered by irate shareholders who challenged Morris to provide an answer. They are still awaiting his response.

MoeGoe, I eventually got there. He’s a slippery character. He had over £8M at his disposal when initiating the hostile takeover of Rangers. However he did not use any of it. He borrowed £2.5M to avoid transgressing exchange controls, something that he admitted to in regard to the trusts in BVI, which were exposed at his trial in London. 

 

The toxicity surrounding King means they will never get credit, they will never be able to sell shares, and no-one with any sense will invest in them.

Or as John James puts it…

Everything that could have gone wrong off the field has gone wrong. Paul Murray has spent his short tenure fighting fires, many of them started by our convicted criminal chairman. Cast your mind back to the statement, to The London Stock Exchange, in regard to King. This statement was read by everyone who matters in financial circles. I have never seen any individual more publicly excoriated than King. As soon as this was issued, everyone knew exactly how toxic King was and why no exchange, or brokers to an exchange, would engage with RIFC. We were well warned.

 Speaking of toxicity, this story has a rather pungent whiff about it;

Macleod ‘would return to Ibrox’

FORMER Rangers midfielder Lewis Macleod has admitted he’d love to return to Ibrox, just six months after being sold for £1 million.

New Gers boss Mark Warburton signed Macleod for Brentford but boyhood Rangers fan Macleod has said he ‘wants to go back one day’ – despite still waiting to make his Brentford debut.

He said: “I’ve always said that Rangers are my club and I would want to go back some day. But I’ve just moved down here and I’ve not even started yet as far as I’m concerned. Brentford are my priority  

A million ? Really ?

Someone at Brentford must be looking into that particular deal. Or at the English FA.

And if not, they should be.

Anyway, we hear the Second Rangers squad have decided to record a cover version of Bruce Springsteens “Girls in Their Summer Clothes ” to raise extra funds.

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 Another winner there lads.

The money raised will go towards the signing on fee for John Eustace, the man earmarked for the captaincy at Ibrox. If they can find him , that is.

There’s a lot of money heading towards Ibrox, as Lego produce another box set designed for the young Ibrox fan.

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 The highly under rated Pat McCluskey was the man in yesterdays picture, can anyone tell us the connection between Pat and this fellow ?

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Highland Tim
8 years ago

I am going to say it is John McCluskey who was an even better player than his brother George. I saw him playing in the 70’s for Celtic Boys Club on the Island of Lewis. I hope i am wrong but I think he had health issues and passed away at an early age. 🙁

TonyB
8 years ago

There’s no way Celtic should be even considering anyone called Nadir.

Lowest of the low? No Thanks.

Can we no find anyone called Zenith?

dziekanowski's nightclub child
8 years ago

For me Ciftci has no heart, once they where 2 down against the hoops last season in the last game at Celtic park he sat out wide and chucked it.

Glasgow Southside
8 years ago

Something not right here. Why would we pay one and a half million for a player who probably will not be free of suspension until October?
Surely it makes more sense to let United bear the cost of his wages and then make them a reduced offer in January or sign him for nothing next season.
Celtic are not usually daft with money and United don’t have much of a hand to bluff with.
Anyway I don’t want him at the Club his on field behaviour is disgraceful apart from biting people I seem to remember him kicking our captain on the head.

stu67
8 years ago

Rather have Finnbogason – have a word with Moyes later in the week and make an offer
_ he hasn’t set the heather on fire in Spain , but we all know he has the ability ( may be a language/culture thing ) Confident he could do it with us under Ronny

Daviebhoy
8 years ago

For me everyone is being down on Ciftci. I honestly think Ronnie and Johnny must see something in the guy which fits in with their overall plan. Also they will be talking to GMS and Armstrong who both played and trained with the guy while all were at United. I genuinely think if he ends up in Paradise he will be a very good addition to the squad being assembled by Ronnie and Johnny.
Keep up the good work Ralph, thank you for making each Diary day a good day.HH

charlie
8 years ago

if we sign citfci the sfa will give him a forty match ban better to wait till january just to annoy the sh@thooses ha ha

deadhead67
8 years ago

Yeah they saw something in that so called player from Cardiff that worked out well .Does anyone know Bitons situation is he injured ,we looked terrible in the midfield without him on saturday,surely he is a first choice for europe ,then up until last season I though that about Commons,but that idiot manager didn,t and look what happened

yestim
8 years ago
Reply to  deadhead67

That idiot manager who won two trophies

Devoy45
8 years ago

I’m doubtful about Ciftci being a wise signing but like all Tims I’ll welcome him and cheer him to do well if/when he arrives in Paradise.

maryhillbhoy
8 years ago

Deadhead67
I have to say respectfully it feels unduly pedantic to point out that the result against Maribor went from qualification after a nil nil draw to exiting after a defeat AFTER the introduction of Commons which I assume you would have agreed with.
So I find myself as always struggling to see your point.

Kaldist
8 years ago

It is John McCluskey. And he is alive and well. A great player, but not quite as good as George. Sadly he had a bad injury and we never got to see the potential he had.

Funkyy
8 years ago

Ralph, I honestly respect your opinion and that of the other guys who don’t fancy Ciftci as a Celtic player. I understand your doubts about his temperament/behaviour and I also don’t want any thug types signing for our team. But I do think that under Ronny and schooled in the Celtic manner he can become a real asset. I believe he has the talent/ability to be a top notch striker with the service that he will receive from the midfield that we have..ffs my granny could score with the service we are capable of providing.
Griffiths is gonna be great this next season, but you cannae put everything on one guys’s shoulders (as Argentina found out in the Copa America final at the weekend). There’ll be games that he needs to be rested for, or times when he is injured and can’t play or can’t be risked. I liked Ciftci from seasons BEFORE last season’s shenanigans (biting and kicking)for which he will be punished and hopefully learn from. The rehabilitation will be down to Ronny and John Collins. I actually think the answer to our striking problems was right under our noses all along, nothing to do with “cheap alternative” or other comments that people have made. I don’t want him just for what he is, but for what I think he can become in our team. Look how Van Dyke, Biton and Denayer have blossomed…none of us had a clue about these guys. So I hope we call McNamara’s bluff and offer a we bit more to get this guy. I’m sure you’ll all be out of your seats when he starts banging in the goals.
As far as Van Hooijdonk is concerned, if Ciftci is signed on a 4 year contract, he can go winge in a corner about wages in 12 month’s time, the player will receive what was agreed..end of.
Finally, my dug keeps telling me to write to the diary…all I hear everyday is “Ralf, ralf, ralf!!!”. H.H.
Yours sincerely,
Nadir Ciftci.

Monti
8 years ago

Ciftci comes with baggage I understand that, however on the positive side of Ciftci is that he scores goals in Scotland and has been here for a few years now.
Balde, Pukki, Rasmussen have all been shite and contributed nothing.
I’m sure Stuart Armstrong and GMS have provided all the relevant information to Ronny regarding Ciftci.
At £1.5m it’s worth a gamble.
As for his supposed dodgy temperament?he has lived in Dundee for three years for fuck sake….I think anyone would find that tough
going.

Charlie Saiz
8 years ago
Reply to  Monti

I concur with brother Montague ..shite sorry wrang site shhhh 😉
£1.5m is not a lot of money for a striker PROVEN in Scotland already.
If he can translate that form to Europe then it will seem a steal if it were to happen.
On the mentality of the player agreed he is a bit of a heider but he would not be the first to done the hoops with that accusation levelled at him would he?
Hartson and Bellamy were no shrinking violets either.
Sutton has him spot on his style og game would suit our set up he can lead the line as a lone frontman, he can use his physical aspect to retain the ball and bring others into play much like Sutton did so well at Celtic.
Ciftci does also bully defenders and that is something we have lacked the last few years think back to the Juve games and Hooper being ragdolled about the box by that cunt Lickingstonners.
Ciftci would have put a stop top that pronto.
He reminds me a bit of Costa at chelsea in his attitude and I don’t mind a bit of that in a forward, defenders hate it.
I happen to think he’s frustrated at United and perceives he is better than them and should be plying his trade at a bigger outfit.
He could be transformed at Celtic I think.
I also think Deila and Collins think this too.
We have some solid blokes already in our dressing room the likes of Brown and Virgil would put a muzzle on him I think.

1888fc.
8 years ago

Isnt PVH the agent of VVD?

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