Celtic Diary Saturday August 13: Either We Play Them, Or We Don’t

This whole Hapoel Be’er Sheva thing is getting on my nerves.

Its fairly simple. either we feel strongly enough about the situation in Palestine to withdraw from the competition, or we don’t. By playing them, we accept the rules of the tournament and decide that not waving flags is also part of a condition of entry, along with playing teams from the nation state of Israel.

We can’t have it both ways.

I’m not campaigning for a withdrawal, we entered the competition knowing that an Israeli team was involved, and therefore we accpeted the possibility that this might happen. But if the club should adopt a moral position and decide to pull out, then I’d support it.

But, of course, we know they won’t. This is the real world.

However, what we can do, as suggested earlier in the week, is light up our mobile phones, maybe at half time, and in song you can protest…

In order to get the point across, maybe “All We Are Saying Is Give Peace a Chance “, the John Lennon anthem, could make a valid point.

We won’t be fined, banned or have the stadium closed for that.

Celtic are out in Ireland today, thankfully theres no controversial issues there anymore, to face Italian Inter Milan, and despite the old Roman Empire occupying europe as recently as a couple of thousand years ago, they did give us roads and a few other things, so the game should go off quite peacefully.

It’s being held at Thomond Park, in Limerick, home of Angela’s Ashes author Frank McCourt, and hell raising actor Richard Harris, two guys who didn’t get on with each other, but since they are both dead it doesn;t really matter much to either of them any more.

Kick off is 19 00 hours, unfortunate for those who have clocks that only go up to twelve, and the game is live on Sky sports 2.

I don’t have Sky, I have  long since cancelled it to avoid paying for english teams to buy all our best players, and remove the level playing field within European football.

However, I do have a firestick with a kodi attachment that means I can watch it and not pay for it.

So fuck ’em.

Mediaset Premium are also showing the game live, whoever they are.

So, how are we doing in the International champions cup ?

Very well, if you look at the bank balance. so far the club will bank a reported/rumoured £7.5m, or to illustrate this in real terms,

So Partcik boss alan Archibald, who  moaned about Celtics participation, can put that in his pipe and stick it where the sun doesn;t shine, a glorious mixed metaphor if ever there was one.

He said:

 “I think it’s disrespectful to the rest of the teams and it makes the league look poor. 

“I don’t think it happens anywhere else that I’m aware of.

“I do think it’s a bit farcical whoever it happens to, it’s not great to have a weekend off, but it’s happened to us again.

“It would be better if we were all playing every Saturday, and it gives other teams a chance to catch back up with us.

I’m not saying that we were going to go and beat Celtic, but who is to say that we weren’t going to go and do it?

“I think and certainly hope that they address it soon, it’s just something we need to deal with though and it’s for the powers that be to deal with it.” 

Who is to say Partick weren’t going to beat Celtic ? Pretty much everyone, I would have thought.

Anyway, he should be glad of the weekend off, its going to take him that long to pick all his toys up and put them back into his pram.

The game itself won’t feature any of the players from Wednesdays defeat of Motherwell, and the others are included to kep their match fitness at the highest possible level. As you can see in this video, those not included in the trip didnt train yesterday either.

Though you can’t see them not training, because, er, they’re not training.

Celtic training video

Can you pick an eleven featruing no players from Wednesday ? Right back would be a problem, but the side would include Griffiths, Biton, Johansen, Toure, Tierney , Ciftci, Armstrong and possibly even Commons…

Transfer stories, apart from Schweinsteiger ?

Dorus de Vries has had a medical, and at thirty five it probably took longer than most, but should also help him get life insurance and the free pen you get just for asking off that Michael Parkinson fellow.

 He’s expected to give Craig Gordon competition for the number one shirt.

Stefan Johansens on off move to Galatasaray could be back on again, unless the club refuses to deal with the Turks on account of the military coup and subsequent oppression over there. Officials from Gala are reportedly flying to Glasgow for talks.

And Torino are after Jozo Simunovic, presumably to test their new state of the art medical centre, and are prepared to pay £4.5m for him. Or they aren’t. Simunovic says he’s heard nothing, but then again he’s probably got a great big bandage on his head, having hurt himself at the haircut shop.

Meanwhile, James Forrest, who has signed a new deal this week, spoke of why he signed…and his first phone call from new manager Brendan Rodgers..

‘We were due back in a couple of weeks’ time – I was here when I got the call,  ‘He said he’d seen me play before and liked the way I’d played.

‘It was obviously good to hear (him say that) as I knew I’d only six months left on my contract. He just said that pre-season was going to be hard so to come back in good shape and to show him what I had.

‘Basically it was a clean slate so I knew I was going to get my chance to at least show what I could do. If it didn’t work out it didn’t work out. But I’m glad I’m staying here. That’s what I was wanting to do.

‘As soon as I came back I said I wanted to stay and I’m glad that six or seven weeks on we’ve got it done.’

Forrest also went on to mention those who questioned his loyalty, after it was falsely reported he had turned down a new deal. Diary readers, of course, know better..

‘It’s hard – it wasn’t nice then, ‘Folk have maybe read things and think that’s what happened but I knew different myself and was obviously hoping I’d get a chance to show that I wanted to be here.

‘That’s the thing – there were always rumours but I never said I wanted to leave the club. People close to me and inside the club knew that as well.

‘We can all read stuff but I never had it in my head that it was definitely done and I was definitely away. I knew in April that there was going to be a new manager and I was kind of hoping then that when he was in there was going to be a clean slate and I could show him what I could do and I am just glad that happened.

‘I told the manager that as soon as he came in that I wanted to stay. I’ve never said anything different. I knew I’d get my chance to show everyone and I feel I’ve done that this pre-season.’

Anyway, now that his contract is all done and dusted, he can get on with what he does best.

Shame on you if you thought I was going to finish this sentence with the words “getting injured “.

Chris Sutton, who has the ability to irritate and delight in equal measure when he speaks, has come away with a belter of a statement in his column today;

One minute there is Dave King saying Rangers should be up challenging for the title. The next it’s Warburton trying to talk down their expectations.

I’m not saying there is disharmony in the camp but they are hardly singing from the same hymn sheet. 

It conjures up a wonderful image of the two men, standing side by side on a summer sunday morning, the sun streaming through the cloured  leaded windows of a chapel nudging each other as they sing along to hymn number 1690.

Simply delightful.

Fair play to Sutton. He said a lot of things about Celtic, and doesn;t seem to be bothered about ishing it out to “rangers ” .

There are very few in the media who have a go at both sides in equal measure.

Which brings me to an apology.

I have to apologise to andy Walker, former Celtic player turned tv football expert, who really should have been in contention for Knob of The Week yesterday, but lost out due to the consistency of Robbie Neilsen.

Walker had given his own opinions on the Jamie Walker incident, and like everyone else, he’s entitled to them. As ridiculous as they are.

…Brown’s comments were immature and thoughtless. Adopting the moral high ground is a dangerous stance to take on incidents like this. 

So when someone cheats, its “dangerous” to point it out ?

Probably explains the media stance on a recent financial scandal and subsequent fraudulent claim about a club coming out of liquidation…

“Will Brown label a Celtic or Scotland team-mate a cheat when one of them is guilty of a debatable foul/penalty later in the season?

Probably not. Thats called “grassing “

“It was left to Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers to bring a more calm and measured response to the incident when he chose to praise the referee for admitting his mistake.

“Having previously worked with Luis Suarez, he will realise that footballers can get the benefit of certain decisions with clever play that others in the game find infuriating.”

It’s not “clever “. It’s cheating.

So, heartfelt apologies to Walker, you didn’t win Knob of the Week this week, but the potential is there for future success. Keep working on it, keep doing what you’re doing, and no doubt before long you will join a list of dedicated professionals who are at the top of their profession, and sometimes don;t get the full recognition for their actions.

And know what, I’m sure you’ll get there one day. 

Yesterdays caption competiton revealed the conversation between two top professionals on the park