Celtic Diary Tuesday August 25: A Price To Pay ?

It looks very much like Celtic will announce a couple of new additions this week, possibly as early as today.

David Turnbull at £2.75m plus add ons is all but done, Aaron Hickey has decided he wants to snub Bayern Munich to return to Celtic now Kieran Tierney is out of the way…this one is important in that he will be classed as a club trained player for the European squad…Shane Duffy’s mates are telling anyone who will listen he’s heading north, and there’s still whoever it was at PSG Lawwell wanted to borrow with a view to buying to consider.

And the marquee signing ?

Well, Lionel Messi is still available….but there are worries that he’s too wee for the rough and tumble of Scottish football.

Though it might be Rodrigo Riquelme, if the spanish media is to be trusted more than the Scottish equivalent. To be honest, we can be fairly sure it should be.

Tomorrow night the European adventure continues with the visit if Hungarian champions Ferencvaros.

They’ve got a defender called Frimpong as well, which is about all I know about their current team.

Their full name is Ferencvaros Torna, so let’s hope the headlines on Thursday are along the lines of Ferencvaros Torna New One, but since no one in the SMSM knows that, it’s unlikely.

Celtic had no problems in overcoming Reykjavik on the previous round, but this will be a lot tougher, although there doesn;t appear to be anything specific to worry about, and as long as the players are up for it, and there are no calamities around concentration, it should be a winnable tie.

However, they cannot and should not be underestimated, especially given Celtic’s capacity to shoot themselves in the foot on these occasions, and it looks like Nir Biton and Hatem Ebn Ahmed will give us that little bit of composure at the back, which whilst not ideal, will do at least until we get a couple of proper defenders in.

Hatem is on record as saying that Neil Lennon trusts him in the big games, and in fairness he is dependable, though I can;t help wondering why he’s not a permanent starter.

Scott Brown is a bit of a worry, not because he’s not capable, but because there is something missing this season, even at this early stage. He’s not quite where he was before lockdown, but this could be something as simple as he needs the atmosphere to kickstart his own aggression, and maybe thats all it is.

Perhaps we could get someone to shout at him for a change to get the fire burning.

Then again, with players still able to be added to the squad, and knowing that Lennon is not averse to chucking people in at the deep end, maybe someone else will be here in time for the game.

One player who probably won’t feature is Kris Ajer, and although it’s only tittle tattle that he wants away, it’s worth remembering what his agent said in March…

“He will not extend his contract with Celtic and will leave this summer.

“There are several clubs who are interested, but I can’t go into their names.

“There are many who have followed him for a long period.

“There are also clubs who would like to have him, but who cannot afford it. There is generally great interest in Kristoffer.”

Curiously, the Liverpool Echo is linking him with a move to Liverpool, and their guys are usually spot on where rumours are concerned. One of them, if you recall, was quite keyed up on the Tierney to Everton move, and was immediately granted honorary pish stained status while all that was going on.

Like we said yesterday, Lawwell would not authorise the spending we are seeing just now if he wasn’t certain the money was coming back with a massive profit.

Meanwhile, the car crash that is Alfredo Morelos continues…with a car crash…

Morelos, touted as a 20…30…40 million player in the papers by all who gorge on lamb is now an isolated and unwanted figure at ibrox. They won’t get anything like what they want for him, and there seems to be confusion over what to do with him.

It’s a problem of their own making, as when they were hyping up into the most lethal thing to come out of Colombia that isn’t sold on street corners, they failed to take into account the effect it would have on him.

And it’s destroyed him.

He’s not an asset any more, he’s a liability, and any potential suitor would look at what else they could get for their money, and there are many more attractive prospects out there.

Having made an arse of the Morelos affair, they are now doing the exact same thing with Ryan Kent, the man they bought for £7m despite him never laying a competitve game for his previous club.

So far, they say they have turned down around £10m from Leeds, although no one in Yorkshire has confirmed this, and they are expecting another bid of around £14m.

All they can really expect is a knock on the door from his agent demanding he is paid as a £14m player, and it may be , as with morelos, that they do give him a new deal, and the papers will tell us that he’s caught Rangersitis, and never wanted to leave the club he calls home etc.

It’s all gone wrong for Gerrard and Morelos so far, will Kent also begin the slide downwards ?

What do you expect when the media dismiss reality to sell their papers to the hordes ?

Jackson now refers to Morelos as a “rotten apple “, without the slightest hint of shame ….he was a major  part of the campaign to hype and sell him, and now it’s all gone wrong, he’s helping to shift the blame onto the player.

Not only do they invent superstars over there, and ignore reality, they have also invented their own medals to make up for not actually winning any….

but, it could actually be true that their campaign to drag us down to their level is working, so maybe we should keep our own doorstep clean before commenting in the state of that of the neighbours…

Yesterday, we had this….

Today….