You know what I just realised ?
The diary has been going for an astonishing five years, starting on September 3 2011.
Five years-or a Fergus McCann, to use laymans terms.
Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun ?
I did consider doing a sort of special edition encompassing all the good bits, in a sort of triumphalist way, but there aren’t any so we’ll just crack on as normal.
Celtic have announced the 24 man squad, plus B listed players, that will carry our hopes and dreams in the champions League.
Taken from the Daily Record, here it is;
GOALKEEPERS
Logan Bailly
Leo Fasan
Dorus de Vries
Craig Gordon
Ross Doohan*
DEFENDERS
Erik Sviatchenko
Kieran Tierney*
Kolo Toure
Eoghan O’Connell*
Emilio Izaguirre
Dedryck Boyata
Jozo Simunovic
Jamie McCart*
Cristian Gamboa
Mikael Lustig
MIDFIELDERS
James Forrest
Stuart Armstrong
Nir Bitton
Scott Brown
Ryan Christie
Liam Henderson*
Regan Hendry*
Callum McGregor
Tom Rogic
Patrick Roberts
FORWARDS
Mark Hill*
Michael Johnston*
Calvin Miller*
Scott Sinclair
Jack Aitchison*
Leigh Griffiths
Nadir Ciftci
Moussa Dembele
Gary Mackay-Steven
* B listed players, according to the UEFA website: “A player may be registered on List B if he is born on or after 1 January 1994 and has been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years since his 15th birthday by the time he is registered with UEFA.
Players aged 16 may be registered on List B if they have been registered with the participating club for the previous two years without interruption.”
Kris Commons, Efe Ambrose and somewhat surprisingly Kristoffer Ajer are not included, which gives us plenty to talk about, as Commons and Ambrose should have moved on, whilst Ajer must be wondering why he moved at all.
Interestingly, Gary Mackay Steven is included, which means pace and counter attacking football will be on the agenda, with no less than four players having the capability of hitting the speed of sound when called upon. And thats without Gamboa and Tierney
Which will be important. In the past, we’ve relied on hoofing the ball hopefully out of danger, now we can run with it, and ease the pressure as well as having a better than average chance of keeping possession.
That will surprise Barcelona, as in previous ties we haven’t tried to hold on to the ball, or they wouldn’t let us, so we might get a chance to see how they cope when they aren’t tippy tappying it to each other with the intention of boring us to indifference.
And Manchester city won’t be able to handle that either, its only their reputation as a football club thats going backwards, their players don;t do the dirty work.
Their squad..
Claudio Bravo, Willy Caballero; Bacary Sagna, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, Aleksandar Kolarov, Gael Clichy, John Stones, Nicolas Otamendi; Fernando, Raheem Sterling, Ilkay Gundogan, Jesus Navas, Kevin De Bruyne, Fabian Delph, Leroy Sane, David Silva, Fernandinho; Nolito, Sergio Aguero, Kelechi Iheanacho.
To me that just looks like someone has grabbed a load of letters out of a scrabble bag, thrown them in the air and written down what it looked like when they landed.
So they are not to be taken too seriously, surely they cannot possibly have a footballer called Gael ? Unless he;s a local lad named after his mother.
And as for the Germans,
To be honest, that rather pointy stick he’s holding wouldn’t be high on the list of things anybody would like “up em “
The football today centres around the Irn Bru cup game away at Livingston, and its receiving very sparse coverage in the media, so you’ll need to go to the game to watch it.
Livingston were on a roll in the first three of their league games, with high scoring wins against Stranraer, Airdrie and Stenhousemuir, but it all went a bit pear last weekend when Queens Park emerged the victors by the narrowest of margins, 1-0.
Celtic are 17/10 to win, and a draw is 5/2, with the home side 13/10. That measn the bookies haven’t a clue, so anyone who knows anything about both sides could make a few quid today, which unfortunately rules me out.
All I know about Livingston is they turned up at Celtic Park for a game once with all their players wearing green plastic noses, which the referee asked them to remove before kick off.
Incidentally, thats why Alex Ferguson used to hate it when Manchester united played on comic relief day.
Anyway, good luck to the youngsters, and hopefully we’ll see them in the next round.
Senior football, of course, has an international break to look forward to, and Scotland are in Malta, with only James Forrest not getting the memo about telling the doctor about aggravating an old injury.
But then again, it has been a tough couple of months for Celtics players, and theres no point in risking further damage with a tough run up to christmas ahead of them.
Both Keiran tierney and Leigh Griffiths have withdrawn, and its better safe than sorry. A wee bit of rest will do them both good.
Late replacement for Tierney Lee Wallace could have seized the opportunity to stake his claim in the team, but its the annula Ornagefest this weekend, as “rangers ” face Linfield, and he’s in the squad for that game in case he recovers from the injury he’s picked up whilst he’s on the boat to Ireland.
Their arrogance knows no bounds, does it ?
With Scotland due to face Malta at 7.45 tomorrow night, we can expect the hopes of a nation to be fully extinguished by roughly half past nine. Which is about an hour longer than most campaigns last.
I’d love to be proven wrong, but as long as Strachan keeps picking players I’ve never heard of from English clubs I didn’t want to hear of, then there is little chance of progress.
Progress is something very much on Celtic manager Brendan rodgers mind, as he explains in an interesting and revealing interview for Celtic TV, which is a far better way of getting anything the club wants to say than putting it in the media.
Its on Freeview you tube, for those who haven’t seen it, and he comes across relaxed , sincere and as a man who is very happy with his lot at the moment.
As for domestic football, thats on hold at the moment, and I can;t be the only one who has seen that the fixture computer has thrown the first league meeting between Celtic and “rangers ” after the break, which gives everyone an extra week to harp on about it, and try to get the term “Old Firm ” back into general usage.
With Aberdeen setting the standard by pointing out that they’ve never played the Ibrox club before its time for Celtic to follow their lead.
Perhaps a couple of paragraphs welcoming them to Celtic Park, and hoping that they are nothing like the previous team from Ibrox, and that we look forward to a long and prosperous rivalry where sport and fair play is the winner.
Ah, wait, thats the wrong club.
Devoy 45, who epitomised the heart and spirit of Celtic when he declined the £200 prize winning a competition he never intended to, which was how to win it, has stated he doesn’t want the money and I can spend it on beer, fags and rehab …oh hang on, I’m reading the wrong email here, -the one i sent him asking if it was alright if I …
What he does want to do is give it to the Macari Centre in Stoke, the former Celtic manager’s charity which took over a council building and turned it into a shelter for the homeless.
Macari, speaking in February, said at the time
“I thought about it in the summer months when I was walking around and seeing so many people begging on the streets.
“I thought that with the winter months approaching they’d need to get a roof over their head.
“I wanted to get something done about it.”
The centre opens at 7pm each night and rough sleepers are provided with a meal and a change of clothes, as well as the option of a hot shower and a warm bed for the night before having breakfast and leaving before 9am the next day.
It is staffed by six people as well as unpaid volunteers.
It is open to people who just turn up as well as those referred there by agencies.
They will also have access to advice to help them find a permanent home.
Lou added: “I went on a walk in Hanley on Monday night to see if there was a real need for a homeless shelter.
“I came across something like 12 or 13 of them sleeping rough and they told me their various reasons for ending up living on the streets.
“People should not have to sleep rough in this day and age.
“As well as giving them somewhere to sleep for the night we are also going to try referring them to others to get them the help they need to return to a normal routine.
“If we can get just one person through the doors and off the streets then this has all been worthwhile.
“I hope this is only the beginning.”
Devoy has asked for the donation to come from Celtic football Club Supporters, and I’ll make it so later today.
Lou Macari, you can take the man away from Celtic, but not Celtic from the man.
And Devoy ?
Well, he is now the winner of a truly unique award…
Great Guy Of All Time
Caption competition time, and yesterdays..from the Daily Mail, included this, from Arsene Parcelie..
But its not always about presentation, as excellent as it is, but it did manage a credible second, as the winner was..
Caption:
I’ve still got THOSE pics on ma phone!
You see, you don;t have to be crude , you can leave the crudity in the mind of the reader.
Some of the replies, I mean, the guys helmet isn’t even purple, even i can see that.
Silly sods.
Steve Naive suggested a picture from the current Celtic calendar would make for a decent caption comp, but when i googled it, this came up…
and I have to say I don’t recognise anyone anyone in that picture.
Does anyone know what its all about ?
And Steve, if you could maybe post the picture you’re on about, and we’ll use it later on ?
Cheers.
Right, I’m away across the water tonight to the old country for a week.
A wee tour of the place, with Wexford as a base.
The Diary will still appear, otherwise I’ll have to talk to the wife, and as many of you claim you use this tome to escape from your own spouses for a moment or two, then its only fair I can as well.
I’m not leaving until later tonight, so I’ll try to get the Macari Centre thing done before I go, and I’ll get pictures to show me handing money over, something which members of the Lennon CSC will want to see themselves, as they’ve never actually seen it happen in the flesh.
Five years of this nonsense.
Thanks for reading.
It’ll get better when I get the hang of it.
I promise.
