Celtic Diary Monday October 5: Amidst All The Fuss

Busy weekend in the world of football.

Dick Advocaat , who did as much as anyone to kill off Rangers, has quit his job as Sunderland manager, caiming someone poured lemonade over him and it just sort of snowballed from there.

Brendan Rogers, who refused the Chelsea job because he was building a career, has been sacked at Liverpool. Rogers, made an honorary scouser during his time up there, certainly got into the swing of things by stealing a living.

Jose Mourinho hasn’t gone yet, but he says he will as soon as he loses the dressing room.

There are stories that Derek McInnes up at aberdeen has lost the dressing room. His side suffered a humiliating third defeat in a row, this time to St. johnstone, who took five off Celtic’s main challengers.

With the anyone but Celtic mentality in the Scottish press, that result was too much for some to take;

Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted.

Looks like Barry “Baz” Ferguson was right all along.

Still, fair play to the Dons fans. They didn’t behave like fans of Old Rangers, tearing up towns and vomiting in the streets.

One or two were upset , though. But emergency services were on hand to help.

Next , McInnes, in line with the Ferguson article,  will go out and spend money he hasn’t got on players he can’t afford and hide the remonders from HMRC about the monthly direct debits which haven’t been paid. to challenge Celtic and improve Scottish football, of course.

Celtic responded yesterday with a hard fought 2-1 win over Hamilton in Lanarkshire. The relief felt by Ronny Deila was evident as he pumped his fists in delight at the final whistle.

Celtic had gone behind when Efe Ambrose was again posted missing at a Hamilton throw in, and Deydrck Boyata was forced to show he can make an arse of it as well, and Hamilton were one up.

But Celtic don’t have a problem coming from behind, and by half time Boyata, presumably thinking he was in his own half, managed to side foot an equaliser, and then little Leigh Griffiths scored another headed goal, which kind of negates any argument about his aerial ability.

Ronny deila has introduced the high pressing game into scottish football, but a number of sides has misinterpreted it, as they seem to pressure the player and not the ball. Hamilton were no different, and credit must go to Celtic for keeping the heid, although there were times when you longed for a Bertie auld or a Roy Aitken to hand out a wee bit of the rough stuff in the other direction.

Scott Brown can give a mean stare, but it’s hardly likely to frighten some six and a half foot meathead who’s been kicking lumps out of the wingers for an hour.

Hamilton away is a difficult game. Celtic did well to get a result.

So, the gap at the top is now down to just one point, and everything seems to be going to plan again.

Manager ronny Deila doesn’t seem to care. He’s looking at the big picture, the long term view;

“It’s very encouraging. We are breathing down their necks and will keep pushing.

It’s early to feel pressure. We have only played ten games. We will push on and talk at the end of March and see who is in the title race and who is not. ”

Complacency creeping in ? I hope not.

The international break has come at a time when the management can pause and reflect, taking a look back at what’s wrong and trying to fix it.

The primary problem is in defence. The centre halfs. Only Efe Ambrose has looked comfortable, but he makes everyone else uncomfortable.

Simunovic is injured, which in itself is a rather worrying reminder of one or two other signings…

The Croatian only made 32 and 30 appearances in the last two campaigns he had for Dinamo Zagreb, but there’s no record of any injury-at least that I can find-during his time there.

Yet he comes to Celtic, and hurts himself immediately.

Transfer market.com listed his value at £1,4m , and Celtic paid £5,5m for him. There is little or no record of any of his achievements. It’s inpossibe to find any articles about him from before our sudden interest.

The price itself is a mystery. When did Celtic start to sanction that sort of money ?

Maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places….or thinking the wrong thoughts.

But I am thinking that there’s something not right here.

Of course, I’m probably wrong. I usually am.

Someone who isn’t wrong is Peter Houston, manager of Falkirk , who fell prey to the unique style of refereeing teams encounter at Ibrox when the home side are struggling.

Listen to what he has to say here.

Houston on Referees

Whats interesting is that Warburton did his whinging behind closed doors, and thus escapes censure. houston, who was assistant to Craog Levein when the former Scotland boss had a rant during his time in club management about the same thing.

But it will all go unnoticed….

Won’t matter anyway.

By the way, it’s not just the first division the Ibrox side are in contention for-there’s another title they are making a strong showing for…

Today would have been Jock Steins ninety third birthday.

I’m going to quote Pat Crerand on the great man…

“I’ll tell you this, a hundred years from today all of us will be forgotten, no matter who we are and how important we think we are. No one will remember us. But Jock Stein will be remembered. He made Celtic, and he was the greatest manager Scotland ever produced. I’m just glad I have such great memories of the man.” 

Caption competition ?

Well, why not ?