Celtic Diary Monday February 7: Monday Morning Sure Looks Fine

Any doubts or fears we had about falling over any molehills were removed yesterday as Celtic put on a first half performance, the likes of which, have not seen for the best part of a week.

Three up again at half time, Celtic could have, and maybe should have scored more, but we’d take a 4-0 win at Fir Park any day of the week.

There were a few of us worried the game would be a bit of a comedown after the highlights of the win over “rangers “, but as Tom Rogic said, when asked how Celtic would handle being out in front…

https://twitter.com/i/status/1490348124845580289

… it’s not really somethng we should be worried about.

A trip to Aberdeen is next, and without geting all complacent, I think we can approach that one with a degree of optimism,

Speaking of Rogic, he was a one man wrecking machine yesterday. a performance filled with skill, creativity and, believe it or not, unlimited energy and enthusiasm. Postecoglou has improved some players, but the effect he’s had on Rogic is astounding.

In fact, with a bot more effort he could be up there with Joe Aribo….

Speaking of comparisons with the superstars over the river, Ryan Kent is widely touted as a £20m player, though admittedly not by anyone who knows anything about football, and his best season ever returned thirteen goals.

Liel Abada has scored fourteen this season, in five different competitions, with one still to go, and is only twenty, and unlike Kent, he isn’t a knob.

It took nearly half an hour for the hoops to pen their account yesterday, and then about fifteen minutes to kill the game after that.

Abada latched onto Hatates pass to score the first, and although it looked a fairly basic square pass across goal, watch it again.

The Japanese midfielder looked up, assessed the situation, and put in a superbly placed pass…watch the movement on the ball…that meant even if abada hadn;t been looking it would have hit his foot and gone in.

I’ve noticed that about Hatate, he plays passes the way Nakamura took free kicks, and it may be that he , like our original oriental hero , plays the ball with his toe, in the way a snooker player controls the cue ball with his cue.

Tom Rogic then got in on the act, and Daezen Maeda scored possibly the greatest chipped goal of all time, placing the ball at such an angle that it was scooped over a defender , appeared briefly on the radar at Glasgow Airport before dropping horizontally to bounce over the line.

Celtic did have a couple chalked off, as referee John Beaton felt he at least had to make some sort of effort, and although arguably he was right, the first one actually saw a Motherwell defender handle the ball, quite deliberately, before it was put into the net.

A stonewall penalty, shown on BBC sportscene, yet not mentioned by either of the experts or the hairy fellow, which is odd.

Well, not really.

And to be honest, it doesn’t really matter, does it ?

After all, it was 4-0 in the end.

Well, yes it does matter, and it might matter yet.

What if the league comes down to goal difference ? And once more, we lose by one goal ?

More likely, what if Motherwell qualify for a European place, by one goal….

So far this season, we’ve seen more than enough honest mistakes, more than enough to make a difference somewhere down the line, and we’ve seen a media narrative that seems to if not actively promote assaults on our players, then certainly to condone it.

As usual, the club are silent, although some will give them the benefit of the doubt and accept that things are being said behind closed doors.

Frankly, the current board do not deserve the benefit of the doubt, and the time to draw attention to these incidents is now, when we are top of the tree and playing scintillating football.

Postecoglou is clearly getting fed up with the piss poor standard of reportage in this country, and to be honest, with Channel five pulling Neighbours from its schedules, the pressure on him to be the face of Australia in British media is mounting.

His reply to one question, about Japanese players, is telling….

I suppose I have to be careful about putting all the piss poor journalists into one stereotype, but after due care and consideration, I was right.

So was Ange, of course. It really is lazy journalism, and if those idiots were a wee bit sharper, they’d see that, but they’re not, so they don’t.

Ange is  good value for money, but it’s not for him to get tangled up in the murky politics of Scottish football. nor should he have to deal with the muppets in the media, but he does it well, and let’s face it, we’re enjoying it a wee bit more than maybe we should.

And behind all the shennanigans designed to help that plucky cash strapped  new club,  I’m quite sure if anyone told him to ease off on them he would have a short and succinct answer for them.

The same would apply the first time he’s told to protect the Old Firm brand…..

However, it strikes me that thats what the board are hoping for, and that’s wrong.

His job is to run the football team,and to represent the interets of his players on a day to day basis.

Theirs is to run a club, and to protect it’s assets, the most valuable of which are the players.

Surely they can see it’s not in their own interests to have players assaulted, and to prevent that they must ensure a fair and level playing field with officials whose integrity is beyond reproach ?

Yes, it sounds churlish when the Ange Wagon is roll roll rolling along, but there will always be someone waiting to put a stick between the spokes,. and we need to stop them before they do.

Yesterday, we had this….

Johnny Manc 

 Gets rid of even the Naziest stains  

Today….