Celtic Diary Wednesday September 2: The Clouds Gather

Shane Duffy has agreed to a one year loan at Celtic, with Brighton paying a chunk of his wages and Celtic forcing the price down, largely due to the player saying he was going nowhere else, to around half of what Brighton wanted.

So we hear, at least.

Duffy could be the man to inspire the side to the title as it’s clear from his pals that it is his dream move, and this time we’ve signed someone with more than a Celtic subbuteo team in his locker.

This is a modern day Roy Aitken, and whilst some respect has to be given to a players statistics, much more has to be given to his heart, mechanically, of course, but emotionally as well.

So what if he can’t get a game for Brighton ?

What he has done up to now is irrelevant, it’s what he does when he pulls n the hoops that matters. And he appears to be looking forward to doing that because it means something to him, which is exactly what we need just now.

That’s because we’re hearing a lot of things of late, and not many of them are aurally pleasant .

Apart from Duffy agreeing to come and lead the charge to ten…watch this space as there is talk of him being offered the captains armband should he stay beyond the loan….there’s not much to put a smile on our faces.

Chaos reigns at the ranch as there appears to be a lack of leadership from above. Whilst the manager showed strength in coaxing a win over Motherwell from the players, there is a real worry about the fact that he had to.

Whilst he is paid to motivate them, amongst other things, it cannot be ignored that in a historically important season that he had to.

Scott Brown has picked up a number of bookings this season already, and whilst there is a case that he may be the victim of enthusiastic refereeing, and all the conspiracy theories that go with it, is he simply getting slower and his tackles therefore later ?

Have the coaching staff realised that he is not going to be as effective this year, and with the probablity that Callum MacGregor will be re-united with Breandan Rodgers, there’s a sense of alarm running through the club ?

One or two of our pish stained and incredibly unhinged through alcohol abuse colleagues have also heard rumblings, but that could be a bowel issue.

Leigh Griffiths and Oddsone Edoaurd.

Both have “strains “, which always make me suspicious anyway, and with Griffiths having had some issues and created several more, it’s unlikely that we will see him in the hoops again, unless its a home made video on Instafacebook, or whatever it’s called.

Same with Bolingoli Boli, a man whose attitude has to be called into question over his trip to Spain, but also that he sat down and told the manager it was all lies, until the pictures appeared in the paper of him getting off the plane, a roundabout way of the hacks letting Lennon know they are fully aware of the antics of some of his players, but the impasse has been kept becuase they are also fully aware that a number of Ibrox based players have behaved equally badly.

The SFA have handed Boli a lengthy ban, not to punish the player, but to punish Celtic, as it means we’re stuck with him until the next window.

And the news we didn’t want to hear…..

Oddsone Edouard has had his head turned by his agent, and yet again we’re going to lose a talismanic striker…I had my doubts over this bit, though his absence from the team and the sudden disinterest in signing a new deal , even just an extension that chucks him a few extra notes for hanging around, have placed doubt in my mind.

Then, whilst I was still in denial, there was this….

Odsonne Edouard to Aston Villa: £45m Celtic demand, agent talks & impact of Champions League exit

Thats from Birmingham Live, this morning, and it’s effectively a round up of all the links and stories of the Villa connections to Edouard thus far.

There’s quite a few, and I won’t ruin your day further by pasting them on here.

But it seems certain that the agent, who has diplomatically said Eddy is happy, is touting for offers.

I couldn’t find anyone who would dispute that, but it was late when I asked and you can only imagine how drunk our agents were by then…

And we know Celtic won’t refuse a suitable offer.

Now you know why we’ve got Klimala and Aljeti…though you always did, but didn’t want to admit it….

So there is some sort of plan in place, but it’s a reactive rather than proactive one.

The Champions league exit means that players will move sooner rather than later, we did say some time ago that the team that lifts the ten will be considerably different from the one that lifted the ninth….

Money isn’t the issue, not in itself, but thats three successive failures at the top level, and whilst you cannot lose what you never had, there have been some alarm bells ringing , especially  as there is still no sign of fans returning to the stadium, and indeed, no certainty that the season will be completed.

Shirt sales seem to be going well, though….

And we can always watch the games on telly….

And some of the players seem happy…

SonofCelts 

At least one player’s bum out the window following new fitness tests, say reports  

Today….