At last.
After a summer that never really started, and a break that never happened , the real stuff starts this weekend.
In fact, within the space of a fortnight, Celtic will compete in four different tournaments, if you count the International Champions cup as a tournament, which as we have no chance of winning it, we won’t.
Hearts tomorrow in the League, motherwell in the week in the League cup, and a week on Wednesday, Hapoel Beer sheva in the UCL play off.
Who ? I hear you ask.
Well, Heart of Midlothian, to give them their full name, operate out of Tynecastle Stadium in Edinburgh, a provincial town in the eat of Scotland, populated mostly by drug users, drunks and unmarried mothers. Which is pretty much the same as any city these days, except for Stoke On Trent, which imports its drunks from Ireland and Scotland, where they meet once a year under the guise of the Lennon CSC, in the catholic club, Newcastle under Lyme at 5pm today.
How about that for a plug ? They could use my marketing skills at Celtic Park, you know.
We are all aware of Hapoel Beer Sheva, of that I’m sure, but just in case one or two of you have forgotten about them, here’s a little bit of information on them.
Surprisingly, the word Beer is punctuated by a comma when spelt correctly, Be’er, a bit like how you order a drink at two in the morning, and the poor lifestyle connection doesn’t end there, a couple of their nicknames are the Camels, as in the cigarettes, and the Crazy Reds, as in the little tablet you take before engaging in a popular dance craze which involves dancing yourself into dehydration and a probable early death.
Hapoel Be’er Sheva Football Club (Hebrew: מועדון הכדורגל הפועל באר שבע, Moadon HaKaduregel Hapoel Be’er Sheva) is an Israelifootball club and part of the Hapoel Be’er Sheva sports club.
Hapoel Be’er Sheva was founded in 1949[1] is an Israeli football club based in Be’er Sheva. The club is currently in the Israeli Premier League, and is one of Israel’s top clubs since the ’70s.
The team home colours are Red and White, they play their home games at the Turner Stadium which has a capacity of 16,126.
The stadium opened during the early stages of the 2015–16 season, with the club selling a record 12,000 season tickets.[1] However, as it was not ready for the start of the season, Hapoel were forced to play their first home match at the Teddy Stadium inJerusalem.[2] The first match at the ground was played on 21 September 2015, a 0–0 draw with Maccabi Haifa.[3]
Not unlike Tynecastle , when you look at it.
Are they any good ?
Probably, but it appears that this year -so far-is their best performance in europe..
Season | Competition | Round | Club | Home | Away | Aggregate |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1976[2] | UEFA Intertoto Cup | Group 2 | Hertha Berlin | – | – | 3rd |
Standard Liège | – | – | ||||
Køge BK | – | – | ||||
1994[3] | UEFA Intertoto Cup | Group 2 | BSC Young Boys | – | – | 2nd |
Craiova | – | – | ||||
Karlsruhe | – | – | ||||
Häcken | – | – | ||||
1994–95 | UEFA Cup | PR | Aris Thessaloniki | 1–2 | 1–3 | 2–5 |
1995–96 | UEFA Cup | PR | SK Tirana | 2–0 | 1–0 | 3–0 |
1R | Barcelona | 0–7 | 0–5 | 0–12 | ||
1997–98 | UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup | QR | Žalgiris Vilnius | 2–1 (aet) | 0–0 | 2–1 |
1R | Roda | 1–4 | 0–10 | 1–14 | ||
2004[4] | UEFA Intertoto Cup | 1R | Vllaznia | – | – | 2–4 |
2014–15 | UEFA Europa League | 2Q | RNK Split | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–2 |
2015–16 | UEFA Europa League | 2Q | Thun | 1–1 | 1–2 | 2–3 |
2016–17 | UEFA Champions League | 2Q | Sheriff Tiraspol | 3–2 | 0–0 | 3–2 |
3Q | Olympiacos | 1–0 | 0–0 | 1–0 | ||
PO | Celtic FC | – | – | – |
The game could be a commentators nightmare, as they have three players called Bitton in their squad, and one called Brown, but theres nothing else of note when you look at them on paper.
But they are Israeli champions, they have already removed Olympiakos and Sherrif Tiraspol from the tournament, so they must be doing something right.
Though I’m struggling to find it.
One advantage Celtic may have is that the Israeli league doesn’t start for a fortnight, when Hapoel face Hapoel Ranaana in their opener, so we should be just that little bit sharper than they are.
Overall, its not the most difficult tie we could face, but we need to remember that this is the play off round, and there are no diddies at this stage of the competition.
With the signing deadline for eligibilty for this round on Monday, its good to hear that a deal, pending a medical, has finally been done for Scott Sinclair, who seems to be highly rated by Brendan Rodgers if not Aston Villa fans, so we’ll have to trust the gaffer on this one.
Meanwhile, here’s another picture of Helen Flanagan, who quite an attractive young lass, who no doubt has a warm and caring personality.
Thats taken from the episode of coronation Street where she smuggled Grant and Phil Mitchell out of town when they were wanted for questioning after the murder of JR Ewing, who owned a petrol station on Brookside Close.
Since leaving Coronation Street, her career has gone the way of nearly everyone else who left the soap opera, though not as badly as that of Geoffrey Hughes, who died the other day.
Her tv appearances have been limited to I’m a Celebrity get me out of here, Celebrity Super Spa and Celebrity Wedding, although she did get a gig as a nurse in Holby City, as most actresses do at some point.
Her boyfriend is the one who has joined Celtic, but pictures of him are far less interesting, so we’ll give that a miss.
We also hear that another signing is “imminent ” , and may even be concluded this weekend.
One can only wonder who it might be, and what his girlfriend looks like.
This weekend, Celtic face Hearts in the opening game of what could end in a sixth successive league title, and there really couldn’t be a tougher place to start.
Hearts and Aberdeen will provide the strongest challenges this year, regardless of what you are told in the mainstream national media, and not surprisingly, that suits the Edinburgh side, as Hearts manager Robbie Neilsen explained;
“A team of Rangers’ size, with the budget they’ve got and the players they’ve got, they would expecting to be challenging near the top of the league. We’re delighted everyone is talking about Rangers and Celtic,” said Neilson. “It gets us under the radar, nobody is bothered about us, we can just go and win games and try to get as high up the league as we can.”
Midfielder Arnold Djoum, who has signed an extended deal, echoed his manager, and showed the rest of us exactly how they plan to go about their business this season;
“Maybe it is good for us that we don’t have a lot of pressure on us this season There will be pressure but not like Celtic or Rangers, because they have to be first. So if they are not, that’s a big thing. Ourselves and Aberdeen can keep a low profile, take it game by game and see what happens. So I think it’s good we are not under so much pressure. Our team is not used to that.”
Looking ahead to tomorrows game, Neilsen said;
“It depends what Brendan does with his formation,” said Neilson. “He’s changed it a few times now, they’ve brought a couple of players in and they have a big squad so they can rotate it. “We’ll concentrate on ourselves and try to put a team together that is going to go and win the game. You want to play in big games. We’re in a good place at the moment fitness-wise so it’s a great time to get Celtic.”
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers is up for the next phase in his career…
“My mantra and focus is always the next game anyway,” .
“We had a big game during the week and I got to sleep at 1.30am after it. “At 4.30am, I was studying Hearts for the game on Sunday. You’ve got no time to rest. I didn’t set my alarm, by the way, I just couldn’t sleep!
“I’ve got scouts here who do great work, including John McGlynn who knows Hearts inside out. But it’s also good to see it with your own eyes. Now everything gets poured into planning to get the best result against Hearts.
“I watched a recording of their last European game which they lost. They worked hard and were unfortunate. Conor Sammon is a new player for them and I know Don Cowie well. He is an excellent player, I took him to Watford when I was manager there and he did a really good job for me. “So we will give Hearts plenty of respect but we go there with confidence that we can get a result.
“That night I went there with Liverpool, it was very passionate. I was surprised when they told me afterwards how many people were in the stadium, because it feels like a lot more.
“It will be the first time for me going into the first league game of a season after having already played competitive fixtures in Europe. We are having the game in August and it feels like December already!
“But it means we are in a good physical state going into the game. So I’m now looking forward to the Premiership starting. It’s new for me in every way and I’m excited about.”
but, but, Brendan, what about the “rangers ” ?
Congratulations, and best wishes go out to “rangers “, winners of 54 titles in just four hugely successful years of existence as they try their hand at competing on a week to week basis with full time players in Scotlands elite league.
With the media fully behind this rags to riches tale, it came as no surprise that Rodgers was asked to mention them in his list of potential challengers, which was nice, and he duly obliged, and credit to him for not laughing.
“I don’t know a lot of the teams well but I think you look at the usual suspects who have been in and around it in the Premiership,”.
“Aberdeen are an experienced team who were close to Celtic for three quarters of the time last season. They’ve obviously just come out of European football which means they’ll maybe have less games to play. “They have been building without too many changes. I know some of the players there and they are good players. They will be around it.
“Robbie Neilson at Hearts [pictured above] has been trying to build something. They lose players but he’s still organised and he is working to have maybe another challenge this year.
“Rangers will of course have their supporters demanding that they are up there and doing well.
“Then you look at the great job big Tommy Wright has done at St Johnstone. They finished fourth last year so I’m thinking every game will be a difficult test.
“But our concentration is primarily on ourselves. If you win the games you should win, then you are
in with a good chance of
winning the title again.”
It doesn’t hurt to be nice, does it ?
Unless you happen to be fuckwitted “rangers ” midfielder Joey “The Mouth ” Barton, who really ought to be showing a little more respect to the Scottish game, considering its saved him from the scrapheap;
So much so that his manager, Mark “The Hat ” Warburton, has tried to calm things down a wee bit;
“They don’t need a comment from any player.
“Obviously Scott is a very experienced international player, but we don’t need a comment from players to get ready for Saturday.
“Before Scott’s comments, Joey said some words and I said it is Joey’s opinion.
“Football is a game of opinion. As long as it is put forward in a respectful manner, I have no problem with it and Scott has made his thoughts very clear and good luck to him.
“At the end of the season if he is proven right I am sure he will put his hand up, if he is not I am sure we will have our word, obviously.
“But our focus has to be on Rangers and what we do and hopefully we will start off on a positive note and take it from there.
With aging forward Kenny “the tosser ” Miller also adding his tuppence worth during the week, it appears that nerves are beginning to fray over at Ibrox, but they usually do when they actually have to go out and do something , instead of talking about it.
All of this talk is, as usual, a deflection from the real issues at ibrox, because it wouldn;t do for the club who will single handedly save Scottish football this season to have any bad publicity.
Publicity like this, an article which has been given no publicity whatsoever, which isn’t surprising…
From RFC blog daviesleftpeg:
My friends, as you may already know, my blog only ever appears when
something comes to my attention which is unjust towards our team or fans.
The Lionbrand is something which meets those requirements. The tag line
“All Profits Go to Club” is a massive lie, a falsehood, which is designed
to dupe, us, the fans. With one simple example I can prove this to be
untrue.
Lionbrand “Sons of Struth” products. The profit from this line goes to
Craig Houston’s football academy. Is that Rangers Football Club? Is the
Lionbrand actually the Lying Brand? Yes, it would certainly seem that way.
What about all the other lines they promote such as RST? I think with some
certainty we can say that doesn’t go to the club either.
Lionbrand like to stay in the shadows and, to this date, don’t like to
mention who’s involved or in charge. What we do know is the Rangers
Supporters Trust seem to be getting all the benefits. The profits which are
supposedly going to club are sitting in an RST account or have been used
for Season Tickets. Tickets for whom?
Lionbrand originally had money sent via Mark Dingwalls PayPal account for
Follow Follow. Shortly thereafter it was changed to their own account.
However, none of their dealings have been transparent or open. When
questioned by the Vanguard Bears about cash being given to the club an
obtuse reply was sent;
“We don’t hand it to the club. They would get into trouble.”
Just how exactly would Rangers get into trouble? If a legitimate business
purports to give Rangers 100% of their profits surely that should be viable
and above board? Is this possibly the single most ridiculous claim made by
the Lionbrand?
If you thought only a small amount of cash was involved, in this business,
I have news for you. Lionbrand claims to have sold 5000 of their Red &
Black tops. If that was a £10 profit going to the club that’s £50,000. They
also planned on opening up a retail business at three locations. How would
this be affordable for a business giving away all its profits? Simple
answer, it’s not! To date Lionbrand have been asked, on more than one
occasion, to prove that it hands over cash to the club. No satisfactory
reply has been given. There are no photographs of Mr X handing over a big
oversized cheque to Paul Murray. Just how many season tickets do they own
to justify that all profits go to the club?
It would appear those involved in this business are Derek Johnstone,
Christine Sommerville, Craig Houston, Chris Graham & Stan Gordon. To what
extent I’m unaware but all have a hand in the dealings and/or profits.
Derek Ian Johnstone & Christine Sommerville are the sole directors of
Fleshers Haugh Ltd the parent company. Derek denies being in control of
Lionbrand. All but one were involved with RST.
Now here’s the thing. Lionbrand have now changed their infamous lie of;
“100% of Profit Goes Directly to the Club” to “Most of the Profit Goes to
Club 1872”.
They have, indeed, been stringing our fans along. The Vanguard Bears did,
in fact, call them out and stated “To date nothing has been given directly
to the club.”
With the statement, from our Chairman, regarding not buying the official
jersey and appointment of John Brown, to a position within Rangers Retail,
I smelled a rat. Transpires, Stan Gordon, is in fact, John Browns best
mate, coincidence?
Why is our club not taking control of this financially viable business &
market? Why does the club continue to be associated with unsavoury
characters such as Chris Graham & Craig Houston? Why, when we so
desperately need finance, are we allowing others to make the Blue Pound?
Would our fantastic manager actually have a transfer kitty if the club took
charge? Personally I want the official jersey my team wears. I want the
club to make a stand and stop being associated with a certain embarrassing
element. In short I want transparency and truth. Ask questions if you want
the same. If you don’t Club 1972 will end up with the racist Chris Graham,
Ibrox stormer Craig Houston, abusive publican Robert Marshall and the CIC
King James Blair. You were warned!
Oh dear.
They’re at it again, it seems.
And then there’s the fiasco over the kits beong sold by Mike Ashley against the wishes of the club, who are threatening legal action of he does, although they should be concerned that this case would not be available on a no win no fee basis, and therefore they will have to consider their actions very carefully.
Perhaps they will make a statement. That should do the trick;
And then there’s something you may not have seen, certainly not north of the border…
On top of all that, the SFA released a report on the trouble after the Scottish cup final, which surprisingly didn;t echo the view of Keith Jackson, who reported on the vicious assaults on the staff and players of “rangers ”
In fact, the report pretty much told the truth…a refreshing change where the SFA are involved.
Its well worth a read, as it has a go at everyone, right down to the design of Hampden Park!
Scottish Cup Final 2016 Commission of Enquiry – Report of SP Bowen
What is certain is that should the Resolution 12 guys push for an enquiry into the Nimmo Smith enquiry, Bowen should be the man to do it.
Mainly because he’s unlikely to get any more work from the SFA.
The Ibrox club slammed the “inaccuracies ” in the report, or what they perceived to be inaccuracies, but didn’t actually specify what they were.
But they have demanded a meeting with, amongst others, the author, who no doubt is resigned to the fatc he’ll have to pay for his own beer ..
We can state however that we will be seeking an urgent meeting with the author of the report, Sheriff Principal Edward Bowen, the Scottish FA’s Chief Executive Stewart Regan and his Compliance Officer, Tony McGlennan.
“It is imperative that we gain insight into the underlying basis for the findings in the report given that we consider it contains a number of factual inaccuracies and contradictions.
“It is right that the club gives the author and requisitioner of the report the opportunity to comment on our concerns prior to making a conclusive statement.
It’s a good job there aren’t any problems with the ground, or any doubts over the issue of a safety certificate for the old place, otherwise they really would have to work overtime to keep the bad news at a minimum. In fact, they’d probably have to pay an agency or something to help them out.
You know, to deflect it all away from them…
Or, of course, they could just play down our good news stories…
Its going to be a long season for them, or a very short one, depending on when the money runs out…
Reality may just be about to bite them.. no matter how much they try to avoid it;
Yesterday we showed a classic picture of the old Celtic boot room,
you didn;t let us down with the quality of replies, and it was difficult to pick a winner, but I felt i had to go went with the surreal.. as it still makes me chuckle because of what could be on the other side of those walls..
Caption – Celtic squad go overboard as they practice diving headers
today, ponder this if you will..