Celtic Diary Sunday December 27: Which Celtic Will turn Up ?

Thats the question on everyones lips this morning, along with “Who drank all the bloody vodka ? ” as the world returns to normal after the annual binge to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

I got to cook Christmas dinner this year, but the general agreement was that as it smelt better on the way out I’ll not be doing it again.

Celtic face Hearts this afternoon, and despite the best efforts of piss poor referee Willie Collum, the hoops can go three clear and a game in hand as Aberdeen could only draw with Inverness yesterday.

It took another of Collums late interventions to get that result, when he s[potted an infringement in the box late on to give the dons a chance to salvage something from the game.

The whistler has a habit of what could be called having an influence on results, and it makes me wonder if it’s not worth seeing what betting sites he’s using, I’m not saying he’s in the slightest bit corrupt, but if I was him I’d rather be remembered as trying to make a few quid on the side as opposed to being completely incompetent and an irritating, nauseous wee shite to boot.

Anyway, Ronny Deila can now concentrate on playing his strongest side with the players all in their best positions as the run in ti the silverware begins.

Can’t he ?

And who knows ? We might even get a Ronny roar today, instead of the usual roars at Ronny, which seem to always end in the word “off”.

The Norwegian said :

“Will I do the Ronny Roar again? We’ll see, you never know. Would I come out of Tynecastle again if I did it there though?

“I haven’t felt it was right for it lately. There hasn’t been enough to have a Ronny Roar. But it will come back. Things must turn round and that’s what we want to do. The festive season could be the time to do it.

“Is it dependant on the team playing well? You have to be satisfied yourself with what you’re doing. If you’re standing in front of supporters you have to feel ‘this is fantastic’ and good about where we are going.

“Everybody agrees there are things that can be better and we’re working really hard to get on the right track again.

“It would depend how I feel in the match and what situation we are in. There will be a time and a place.

“We’ve had good performances and not so good performances. Overall, everybody knows we’re not happy about not going through in Europe. That’s the main thing.

“I love winning and whoever we play against just to win is a fantastic feeling. So it will come back and we have so much to play for. I’m looking forward to that.”

Would he come out of Tynecastle alive if he did ?

Over celebration at the Edinburgh stadium doesn’t seem to bother Leigh Griffiths, as if you recall he always likes to show his feelings after scoring, even on the way home afterwards;

hopefully Griffiths will be fit today, as the jury seems to have already decided on the two back up strikers Carlton Cole and Nadir Ciftci.

Whilst both are powerful and easy to find with a high ball, they aren’t quick enough to take advantage, so plan b , as it were, isn’t really much of a plan at all.

Unless you can think of a word beginning with b to give it a full title.

Back when Alex Fergusons Manchester United could call a draw with Norwich, Stoke or Bournemouth a shock result, actually, to be honest, it still would be a shock result, the dour Scots side never really used to kick in until after christmas, as he used the previous months to get some of his younger players up to speed with the demands of first team football.

Perhaps this is the case at Celtic these days, and if it isn’t , then I’m flat out of excuses for Ronny, and if we keep playing like we’ve had our heart and soul surgically removed, then he’s on his own.

So today, the players need to prove they’ve got the balls to play for Celtic, and there is no better place to prove that than at Tynecastle.

The small ground is deigned in such a way that the support is steeply stacked and close to the players. As far as atmospheres go, it can get a bit lively.

And they’re not a bad side either, if a little enthusiastic;

 “Hearts are a physical team. We have to stand up to everything. But it is about playing quickly enough, moving the ball and giving them problems.

“We have met them in every cup and we have beaten them.

“We also had a draw with them at home in a game we should have won. So we have done well against Hearts and I am looking for another good performance.

“Their team spirit is excellent. They have two strikers who are strong, can hold up the ball and fight.

“They have a couple of wingers who are quite skilful and can cause problems. They also don’t concede many goals against any team and that is a positive.

“Hearts are a big club who had some troubles in the past but they’ve built up a new team again.

“They play good football. From what I saw last season they were a top-six team but they’re top four so they’ve done even better.

“Tynecastle has one of the best atmospheres in the division and it’s going to be a huge game.

“I’ve been twice with Celtic, getting two victories, and we’ll do everything we can to get a third.”

The words of Ronny deila there, and surely I can’t be the only one who has noticed that Celtic’s management are either full of praise for opponents, are a little disparaging, prompting criticism from the fans.

As i’m not sure who the PR guy is for the club, I cannot really criticise him, except to say that if we don’t know who he is, then perhaps he could be doing a little bit more than he is at the moment.

In the meantime, perhaps I could offer my own services, with this template to be filled in before all away games.

“We are looking forward to the visit to ( fill in as applicable ) , We always find that ( Fill in as applicable ) will try to maim as many of our players as possible until the referee remebers that he is on camera and should probably book one or two to make the statistics look good.  Then theres the fans, a more ignorant bigoted set of tossers spilling their bile for a couple of hours you couldn’t hope to meet. . Still, its better than being abused by our own fans at Celtic Park “

At least it would be honest.

If Deila does go with his strongest available eleven, Gordon, Lustig, Simunovic, Boyata, Tierney, Johansen, MacGregor, Armstrong, Commons, Forrest , Griffiths.

I’ve included Commons for Rogic because the Aussie Ardiles seems hell bent on scoring a solo goal to rival Ricky Villa’s English cup final effort but until he learns to run around defenders instead of in to the biggest crowd of them he can find, that isn’t going to happen.

And anyway, he would make a better impact sub in a game like this.

Boyata , despite the occasional howler still needs time to learn to work alongside Simunovic, although it was a close call to elect to play him, as Efe Ambrose would make me feel a little more comfortable with the back line.

All we need is a professional , hard working performance with a wee bit of fight and a wee bit of heart.

I’ve had enough shocks this Christmas as it is.

I’ll be watching the game on television, and remember, if you are too, not everything you see can be completely trusted

Anyway, I’ve to pop out now, it’s been raining a bit in these parts, and I don’t want to miss the ferry to the Co-op.

but before i go, best wishes, thoughts and prayers are with Celtic author/historian Tom Campbell, who is undergoing heart surgery in Canada today.

From all of us to you Tom, all the best, and let us know how you get on as soon as you can.