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Celtic Diary Wednesday December 28: Making Your Mind Up For You

With manager Ange Postecoglou not one for disclosing his plans regarding incomings or outgoings during the transfer window, choosing instead to just get on with it, the way the media works has once more come to the fore.

 

 

Oliver Abildgaard, on loan from Rubin Kazan, hasn’t featured much since he arrived, which with the boss having picked his first midfield, is no real surprise, and so one wonders if the papers, well, the Record, have taken to speculation…

 

 

Oliver Abildgaard Celtic loan deal to be ‘ripped up’ as Danish flop set for early Parkhead exit

 

 

To be ripped up ?

 

The Dane has failed to make an impression in the east end of Glasgow and could be heading back to his Russian club early 

 

Er, no, now he “could be heading back to his russian club ”

 

Now Russian reports have indicated that Celtic and Rubin Kazan have reached an agreement to rip up the loan deal and terminate his time in Glasgow

 

 

Indicated ? there is no link to any of the stories, no quotes and as usual, no comment from the club, because Mark Walker, the hack who put this together, felt that a denial would spoil a story he seemed to be losing confidence in as he typed.

 

 

If these people need help in making stuff up, they only have to ask.

 

 

 

There will be one or two leaving, indeed Abildgaard may want to leave, but that possibility is never even considered.

 

 

Robbie Copland, the Record’s “live ” sportswriter, which probably explains the output from some of the others, claims Ladislav almasi of Banik Ostrava is back on the radar, because

 

The Hoops are looking for a new striker

 

 

Notice how certain he is that we’re in the market for a forward.

 

 

I’d expect to see Stephen Kenny get a shot first…..

 

 

 

Celtic pop along the M8 tonight to face Hibernian, though talk Ryan Porteous will sneak a seat on the bus back may be a little premature. There is a player in there somwhere, but Ange doesn’t seem to rate the Scottish market, or at least he has little faith in whoever recommends local talent.

 

He has his own targets, his own sources and frankly they’ve not let him down yet.

 

 

Porteous has too many rough edges for Angeball, and the manager , when talking about the attitude of Reo Hatate, slipped in another thing he looks for in a player…..

 

 

He knows what it’s like to be a full-back because he finds himself in that position during games of football.

“It depends on individual players and Reo loves feedback. He is constantly seeking it. He’s knocking on Gavin Strachan’s door every day asking for analysis and feedback.

“There can be nothing to give him, but he still demands it because he’s that type of player. That’s why he keeps improving and will keep improving.

 

“I don’t think he is going to be a full-back, but the way we play, we could probably take one of our full-backs and put them into midfield and they would understand what to do because the way we play requires them to be in those areas.” 

 

 

Total football ?

 

 

Not far off…

 

 

If only we could snap up Scott Arfield ….

 

 

Laurel-hardy-laughing GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY

 

 

Three points tonight will keep us on course for a second consecutive title, and the crack at the UCL so desired by Postecoglou. How we fare next season in that may yet determine how long he stays with us….as long as he sees improvement we should have him around for a while yet.

 

 

Meanwhile, somewhere over the crazy river, Michael Beale, this weeks Ibrox manager, has inherited the mathematical skills of the accountants over there…. (Scotsman )

 

Michael Beale explains why Rangers should only be three

points behind Celtic

 

 

“The difference is nine points but we’ve only played each other once and they won that game, deservedly. So the difference should be three points, shouldn’t it? It should,” said the Rangers manager. “So we are six points behind against the other teams in the league, the other 10 that we play. That is the disappointing thing. If it just came down to Old Firms it would be more interesting, but you have to beat everybody else. That’s the key message.

 

 

The sudden, sharp realisation that there are other teams in the league and you have to win against them as well…as well ?….may be a sign he is already maturing as a manager.

 

It may also be a sign that he’s a fucking idiot, and Steven Davis will be manager before Easter.

 

 

Surprisingly, the hack, Andrew Smith , not only let him keep talking, but seemed to encourage him by writing it down….

 

 

“If the problem had been that we had only dropped points in that one game we would have a chance, on the second of January, to even it up. As it stands that ain’t going to be enough. We have to win all the other games. Unless we can go on a run of winning in big batches of games it is very hard to get to where we want to get in Scotland, full stop. It is very much us or Celtic every season when it starts, so you have to beat everybody else and do well in the Old Firms. So, for me both our games this week are only worth three points. And the three points tomorrow against Motherwell are the most important three points.”  

 

 

No one from the club/company felt it worth popping their head around the door and telling him his mum had come to pick him up, so he continued….

 

 

‘If you could guarantee it [a convincing win] I would take it but I just want three points,” he said. “I’d like to have more control at certain times, be a little bit stronger in our positioning and stronger in the duels all over the pitch and I think things in the final third will click. We have been missing Antonio [Colak], Kemar [Roofe], Ianis [Hagi], and [Tom] Lawrence and some of those players have been missing for a long time. The club has invested a lot in those four players and they are really key to us in the final third. I’d like to see a time where I have a problem leaving one of them out or trying to get those four players into the team. I think it will make a difference.”  

 

 

 

One wonders if they’ll recommend adult supervision from now on….

 

 

 

There still seem to be those who either can;t or won;t acknowledge that indirectly, the Resolution 12 campaign led to a lot of work behind the scenes to prevent a recurrence of the cheating that took place shortly befoire Rangers plummeted towards obscurity,

 

 

The reaction of the requisitioners to the revelation that Lawwell did indeed use the smoking gun of evidence should tell you they’re convinced, and when you look at the website that contains it, a simple cross reference with Anders Traverso and Peter Lawwell, factor in 5 way agreements and the “new club ” letter….it is real, and again when the media doctored it, some chose to believe their version rather than the version…the original…that I once stood up on a table in Malones in Glasgow and read out aloud in the manner of a Shakespearian actor, then maybem just maybe , you’ll understand that in this world , sometimes we have to get what we can get, and we may not have got revenge, but we certainly put a stop to the cheating.

 

 

 

Yesterday, we had this….

 

 

Michael Beale just got 25 players fit and ready for Rangers at Ibrox |  Ibrox Noise

 

 

 

Gerry Q

 

Rangers injury list grows as Mick Beale discovers the training dummy has severe rust

 

 

 

Today….

 

 

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Whitearra
1 year ago

Caption : ‘The first scene of the Russian version of Dr. No’.

BJF
1 year ago

Of course we need Scott Arfield, with all this snow around a second back up bus driver is pretty essential.

Tonydtic
1 year ago

Micky Beales new formation leaves the centre half isolated as the rest of the rats cross the river to try and get a game for a good team.

John McDermott
1 year ago

Caption Lizzie’s oot her frock, Lizzie’s oot her frock nah nah nah nah nah na!Lizzie’s oot her frock!!!

AntonDeclan
1 year ago

CAPTION:
I’m sure my agent said “I’ve signed you up for a nice photo shoot”……!

SteveNaive
1 year ago

Porteous… no.

1 year ago
Reply to  SteveNaive

part was

Yoker Bhoy
1 year ago

Looking forward to tonight’s big game against the Cabbage at Easter Road. True to tradition, this current Hibs side are often dangerous coming forward but shaky and leaky in defence, so just as well for them that they have recent double penalty hero David Marshall between the sticks. The other ex-celts in their squad (Hendo and McGeady) probably won’t start but could feature later on in the game. Yer man Aiden, who still wears nº 46 on his back, was surprisingly left out completely in their last league outing as the Edinburgh men romped to a 4-0 win at home to 10-man Livi.
Their fullbacks/wingbacks Cadden and Stevenson are useful coming forward but weak defensively while, in recent games, Ryan Porteous has been moved up to DM, not his natural position and it shows. Further upfield, Martin Boyle will miss out (he still hasn’t recovered from the knee injury that kept him out of the Socceroos’ World Cup squad) so their main attacking threat will come from their nº 7, creative right-sided midfielder Kyle Magennis (a great sigining from St Mirren) and Kevin Nisbet, who has been looking much more like his old self and full of renewed hunger since returning from injury. I expect them to set up in the same 5-3-2 formation that they adopted last weekend but I don’t expect them to be overly defenisve tonight. That is not their way.
This is unlikely to turn out to be anything like the 6-1 stroll we enjoyed back in October but if we can reproduce the type of form shown last Saturday, we can strike early and win with a couple of goals to spare. With player rotation in mind, Giakoumakis might finally get a start while I’d like to see Sead Haksabanovic in there as well – he really tormented the Hibees last October and would be excellent, as would Jota, at exploiting those defensive weaknesses down the flanks. We’re in the nice position of having several more great options out wide of course.
Mon the Hoops!!!!

The Cha
1 year ago
Reply to  Yoker Bhoy

Great stuff.

I would be good to have another big performance, as I don’t think we’ve had one since before St Mirren showed all of Scottish football how to beat us. 😉

On Saturday after going 2 up, we almost coughed up an immediate goal, which happened against Motherwell and Livingston, leading to yet more tight finishes, although we were hardly simply holding on in any of those games.

Hopefully, we can now kick on and start scoring the proverbial barrowload again.

Yoker Bhoy
1 year ago
Reply to  The Cha

Agreed Cha (especially with the bit where you put ‘great stuff’) 😉

St Mirren seem to have knocked Livi off their perch to become our new bogey team. I’ve never been inside St Mirren Park but on TV it looks a far cry from Love Street and gives the impression of being a bit of a hellhole pressure cooker of a place with a horrible tiny pitch which severely inhibits our players from strutting their usual stuff. We’ve had a fair bit of difficulty getting results there for quite a few years now but I’m sure Ange and his men will come up with a good remedy, just like they did with Livi. Binning that crappy grey strip the lads wore that day would be a start.

The Cha
1 year ago
Reply to  Yoker Bhoy

Good point about New Love Street, St Mirren Park or whatever it’s called these days.

We didn’t score either in our single visit last season and we will have another visit this season, irrespective of whether they make the top 6.

I’ve forgotten what happened the season before but that’s no bad thing. 🙂

1 year ago
Reply to  Yoker Bhoy

Easter Road. The

Dziekanowski's nightclub child
1 year ago

Caption: It’s okay, I’ll wait here until next winter.

Cartvale88
1 year ago

Caption
Abilgard looking forward to his return to Rubin Khazan.

Ralphie you are like the buses, waiting for one then three come along all at once.
The hysteria in the media about all things Rankers is almost at Covoid level. Jackass in the Daily Wanker and the Billy Boys Corporation are in meltdown about the Sootside mob.
Looking forward to the Hibees, as Ange works his magic. Have a great 2023

Honest Hoops
1 year ago

Caption; Robbie Copland’s version on how the titanic’s survivors were rescued..

Bognorbhoy
1 year ago

Caption…
Oliver Abildgaards missus melts hearts and minds and rivers , as she sings John sebastians ” darling be home soon “

Drew67
1 year ago

Think Porteous is a player alright.just a bit immature wi his behaviour.Ange would def be the man to sort him oot.
Agree wi Yoker Bhoy would start Haksabanovic.

Woof Charlie
1 year ago

Caption: : After John Noakes’ bobsleigh, Farah dropping escapade of 1975 his rivalry with Valerie Singleton reached its zenith. Here we see Val in her ill-advised Stalingrad loony dook of ’76. A broadcasting disaster that coined the phrase ‘drowning the tortoise.’ The subsequent Bough, Secombe threesome revelation would herald the end of Blue Peter’s golden front three.

Sancheto
1 year ago

Caption – SFA cheerleader starts to worry as hell begins to thaw with the realisation that Celtic will surpass the iconic “55” league titles of their favourite team.

The Cha
1 year ago

Caption – still more appropriately dressed than the new (same as the old one) emperor.

The resistance that persists

IMG_20221225_154249.jpg
1 year ago

`cause you looked down

1 year ago
Reply to  portpower

a gut

1 year ago

The team to play

1 year ago

Take it for yourself

1 year ago
Reply to  portpower

if

Patrick O hara
1 year ago

CAPTION
The floating striker,sorry I meant streaker, goes with the floe.

1 year ago

Well, do not scroll

TAMBHOY
1 year ago

The Bearette’s are going extinct because (not melting ice)but the fear of CELTIC

Uibh fhaili
1 year ago

Trains on strike the sub way closed for emergency works but mr beale (mick) gets the wags into the asbestos dome for their big game

Yoker Bhoy
1 year ago

The first 15-20 minutes of the first half aside, that was a treat to watch. The further the game went on, the better we got with the bhoys turning in a Rolls Royce / Harlem Globetrotters type performance. Definitely one of the best shows I’ve seen this season with everyone playing well. Could have scored quite a few more but the most pleasing of all for me was the passing in the final third, crisp and clinical. The speed and precision of some of it was scary at times. Starting to look much more like a CL team now. The hun game at the hun stadium in hunland can’t come soon enough.

TicToc
1 year ago

Well, what a PERFORMANCE to see out 2022. Credit to Hibs for an enterprising start and not resorting to kicking us off the park as we completely overcame them. Rather than be pedantic I would say Muir reffed it very well.
I don’t remember any cards and apart from 1 or 2 poor tackles, including 1 from Giakoumakis, I didn’t see the need for any. A great night all round and we’re back on top form. Now, let me see, who’s next? Aye, bring it on!
I think we’ve got the best SQUAD of players we’ve ever had right now. Just think about the starting 11 and the talent on the bench. WOW! It’s another great day to be a Tim.

1 year ago

Before a ball is kicked, there is only one thing on Ryan Porteousmind, maim the opposition.
The lad is pathetic.

Some bassa had a meal on me in Texas. Thats me getting a new bank card for Christmas.

shiltrum
1 year ago

Caption: ASDA mate it’s that way .

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