Celtic Diary Saturday November 24

Scott Brown is in contention to play against Inverness today, while Charlie Mulgrew, Thomas Rogne and Kelvin Wilson are ill, and doubtful. Joe Ledley has still got groin problems, and long term injuries Forrest, Izzaguerre and Stokes are definitely out.

Playing any of these players is just asking for trouble, and if the intention is there to run them till they drop, then Celtic might as well sell all the fringe players in January and spend the money on pain killing drugs and an put another floor on the medical centre.

It defies belief, especially in the case of Scott Brown, that players are willing to risk a long term injury by playing through the pain barrier. Golden rule here, if it hurts when you do something, then don’t do it.

Lennon said, of Browns injury:

“We are not making it any worse, the only problem is its not getting any better.” He sounds surprised, and his first responsibility is to his players well being and health. If its not getting better, then do something about it so it does.

But what do I know?

Terry Butcher has compared his preparations for today with those Celtic made for the Barcelona games. The former England captain who went native after his time in Scotland with Rangers (kids,ask your Dad who they were) has done a decent job up north, and will have his charges fired up today. Using the old adage “This is a good time to play Celtic” might give him hope.

A convincing Celtic win is required, but so is a run out for the fringe players. They may well be needed sooner rather than later to step p to the plate, and it would be easier to raise your game from Premier League to UCL than bench to UCL.

Efe Ambrose is the latest player to say that its time to put the Barcelona game in the past and try to beat Spartak Moscow. This team really does need to achieve something this season, otherwise in thirty or forty years time, Mayan calender permitting, they will all be boring the arse off friends and family with the story of how they beat the best team in the world.

The new club going under the guise of the old Rangers have set another world record! Their game this weekend has been cancelled as Elgin have sold too many tickets, which is quite an achievement. Rangers have demanded a share of the oversell.

With the oldco having been exonarated by the courts of any sort of dodgy dealings, well, thats what they would have you believe, the supporters, the press and even the old directors and players have gone into overdrive , and have succeeded in proving what we already knew. They haven’t understood any of whats been going on, or decided, at all.

Not even a little bit.

Mark Hateley, speaking to Gavin Berry in the record, still hasn’t grasped what  liquidation actually means, as he claims the “club were liquidated and relegated”, and also called for Rangers to be allowed to sign players again.

John Hartson, speaking in the Sun with a mouthful of soup, doesn’t want the titles stripped, and ought to think about the money Celtic fans spent in those years  to watch a lopsided championship, a fair chunk of which went on his wages. Celtic fans don’t want the titles either, but we do want it noted how they won them.

Ally McCoist, now that the loans have been decreed as loans “in principle”-and thats the key. HMRC will now try to establish what they were inpractice-is happy that the Gers under murray were as pure as the driven snow, and their tuneful fans sounded like a fresh mountain stream tumbling down the hills, wants everone to draw a line under their other misdeeds.

The SPL will hold their hearing into dual contracts on January 29, which explains the pressure beginning to build on them to drop the charges.

McCoist reckons that “common sense would now prevail and they would drop it. That would be the ideal situation and we could all start moving forward again. all we want is an opportunity to move forward again. If they did that there would certainly be closure on that point and we could start again.”

Although the two are unrelated, the SPL case is merely administative, they really don’t want this hearing.

But they do want a full investigation into why the charges in the tax case were brought in the first place. On line petitions and demands for a full judicial inquiry are being heard from amongst the 500 million or so strong support.

Well, in the interest of fairness and justice lets just do that. Throw open the books of the club from , say, when David murray took over and lets have a look at them. Like the american trucker did. Like countless other potential investors have!

David Murray has called for an enquiry, but one wonders exactly how much enthusiasm he has for this really, given it was his firms obstructions in releasing paperwork that dragged the case out so long in the first place.

Transparency? well, thats all right in principle, but not in practice. Which, oddly enough , brings us back to the FTTT decision.

Loans, well, in priciple, yes, they were. but , in practice, which is what counts, its common knowledge what they were.

As for that enquiry. go for it. Then they can fall on their swords again. Expect the furore to die down and nothing to happen from the Ibrox camp, the last thing they need is an enquiry, and they know it over there. Like all their other legal threats and ballyhooing, it’ll come to nothing.

Yes, it was Hugh Keevins, yes, it was the supporters club, and yes, its because he’s a clown!

Yesterdays question was yet another excuse to remind us of the laughing stock that is Hugh Keevins, and for that I make no apology. Dalglish has always had a really tense relationship with the media, and in one memorable interview, asked a reporter to talk to his very young daughter , as he’d get more sense out of her than another manager, but who was the other manager he was referring to?

In England, Harry Redknapp, a man who has never won more than half the games at any of his clubs when he was manager, has been given the QPR job. QPR may regret moving so quickly, as we hear that Rafa Benitez will be available in a few weeks…