The fat lazy author of this once regular offering finally managed to organise at least one day on his hectic jetset lifestyle to put together a preview of the upcoming season.
A season which seems to be upon us somewhat sooner than expected, despite not having to cobble together a dozen or so players in an attempt to qualify for the UCL groups in far off countries whose links to Europe are dubious to say the least.
Nope. It’s already sorted.
Celtic don’t have to qualify for the Champions League or the latter stages of the League Cup.
Without a competitive ball being kicked, both milestones have already been achieved which must leave the protesting Green Brigade a little sick as the new Rodgers era starts to get results
Although the changes probably go deeper than just a new coach.
Mark Lawwell and Michael Nicholson have ridden out the ripples caused by the decision of Ange Postecoglou to leave for London.
Despite not getting the man they wanted, they look set to carry on regardless with Brendan Rodgers, who does seem like he’s happy enough to be back and seems also to be quietly determined to exorcise the ghosts of his previous, shall we say distasteful?…exit.
One thing to note, which was my biggest fear, is that a possible player exodus has been avoided. Apart from Mooy retiring and Jota being advised to take the Saudi pound…something he doesn’t look overly comfortable with….it’s the same core of players who set the standards of last season.
That means that Rodgers has won them over. It also means that the players who were here during his last spell understand why he left.
With Mark Lawwell as de facto director of football Rodgers probably doesn’t baulk at the sound of that name any more…and therefore is more likely to finish what he starts this time around.
Despite the lack of marquee signings…and there is still time to satisfy those who like that sort of thing….just because there is money in the bank there is no need to spend it.
Although the UCL knockout stages may again be a step too far, this squad is not only stronger and has more depth than last time around, it has that little bit of experience.
Looking back, last seasons results hide the fact that only fine margins prevented a better campaign and we can be optimistic if not confident of progress of some sort this time.
Domestically, despite the media overdoing the rebuild at Ibrox…everyone appears to be a superstar who has arrived, and those who have left have been lauded individually as the laptops remain loyal despite an exodus of a volume not seen since someone parted the Red Sea because the ferries were on strike
In one sense they are only doing their job, trying to make the season ahead look a little more competitive.
In another they’re ignoring the fact the Ibrox club are seriously weakened and will probably be out of the running before we notice it’s going a bit darker at night.
The SFA and others will do their bit to help, again largely ignored by mainstream commentators, but it won’t be enough.
Aberdeen got stronger towards the end of last season and if they continue in that vein they’ll push Beale and his mighty crew out of second place…which given the ongoing financial situation at Ibrox would be a disaster.
Sometimes we tend to give far too much attention to the Govan Galacticos and their gullibilly groupies.
Instead we should sit back and try to enjoy what we have, a hungry squad, a manager with the ability to rectify any issues we may have had with him, and a board that has continued with both short and long term policy despite what could have been a massive problem when Postedmissing went to the gold paved streets of London.
It starts for real at lunchtime tomorrow.
Let’s try to enjoy it
Welcome back Bhoys. Yasssssss
HH
Great to have you back, Ralph.
You’ve been missing so long I thought you’d gone to Spurs too.
The focus on youth it’s tremendous. Reo stop thinking of your show reel and play the quick easy ball. Big Joe stick around to mentor the new guy and we need a new guy. Wee Jamesy unfurling the specially commissioned champions golf flag. The GB acting like Celtic’s cheesed off wife again. Get them garage flowers it’s worked for me with most of them. Welcome return of the bi-monthly diary. It’s all good.
great to have the diary back, it’s a long summer without it…
The GB aren’t protesting anything.
Our squad is definitely not stronger than last season.
There’s absolutely zero chance of Aberdeen challenging the huns for 2nd.
But apart from all that..
Brilliant to read the diary again. Tomorrow’s opener against Ross C promises to be a cracker with the likes of Daezen, Kyogo, Abada and Oh all buzzing to showcase their attacking threat with each one more than capable of bagging a hat trick. I’m buzzing too just thinking about it.
Ralston and O’Reilly should both start with Oh, Turnbull and Holm likely to once again make a considerable impact from the bench later on in the game. Yang looked like an exciting player in flashes last Tuesday so I’d like to see more of him as well.
Meanwhile, the staggies have made a few low-key signings such as Irish defender James Brown and securing Eamonn Brophy on a permanent deal to try and strengthen for the season ahead. They’ll probably try to defend resolutely but I don’t expect their resistance to last too long. Indeed, they can consider themselves a tad fortunate to have stayed up but did show impressive fighting spirit to claw back a three-goal deficit in that second leg of their play-off against Thistle.
Call it early season optimism if you want but I wouldn’t be surprised if we were to be treated to a goal fest tomorrow. Bring it on.
Huge respect to our testimonial kid JF49.
You’ve been missed more than the GB
Great to have the diary back, hope you are in rude health Ralph
Yoghurt no idea how cheesed off I’ve been without the Dairy, Ralph. At first I thought there had been a coo at Etims Towers and you’d been sacked. But pull the udder one, you’ve obviously been milking it to return butter than ever. Let’s face it, a month with no Dairy has been cattlestrophic for your fan base.
Welcome back Ralphie bhoy. The challenge from the the therangers will last about as long as a chocolate fireguard
E-Tims, check, scarf, check, flag-day, check, season ticket (sky or un-reputable websites if on waiting list), check so here we go again. Will sevco finish a distant 2nd or even third with a new menu with untried ingredients, the 9th treble, will James after unfurling the flag be warming the wood with his butt, with Turnball living up to his promise and become a legend, is this another invincible’s, will the Green Brigade be signing Bren’s praises, will Bren realise they meant here for 10-in-a-row, not 10 pishing months, will Bren sign an extension, which would be best for Celtic as it would have ensured sustained success, will we reach the knockout’s in Europe, surely to win the Europa is better than quarter-final heart-break, we shall see. All obvious questions and a little bit of more of the same please, check. Only thing I crave is another European Trophy added to the list along with continued success here in Scotland. Oh and plenty from E-Tims please! Check!
Thought u had joined the GB protests, but obviously not. He will bring in some more players and the team is stronger, although dullards that read the drivel the media puts out about the genius that is the Mole gives them woblies. Looking forward to the bus park tactics of County tomorrow, at least Athletico gave Celtic a game.
Interesting that Dallas is now a full time VAR rep the Orange hand always about. Looking forward to your next article in the year 2525.
Welcome Ralph, I honestly thought you had died.
He did. Several years ago. That’s why he is bare foot in photos.
Very nice to see the Diary back and a good read it was too.
I was really disappointed with the GB’s protest and have absolutely no idea what they hoped to gain from it. James’s testimonial was a good watch against a very decent team who have personal class with their good wishes to us and it’s how sport should be but it never will in Scotland as long as that shower exist in Ibrox and the LRA and SFA continue their one-team bias.
On transfers I think we’re doing very well and just hope Maik Nawrocki turns out to be the player I think he can and I’d love to see us go and show Livakovic we really want him at CP, we certainly need another ‘keeper and he looks the part and we CAN afford him. Also maybe a younger ‘keeper to develop and I’d expect Livakovic to become No 1 pretty early on if we get him. Big Joe’s been terrific and he’s a REAL presence so I’d have him as No 2 and coach any younger guys. I don’t really see a future for Bain or Siegrist unfortunately.
Given what we’ve seen in pre-season I just can’t wait for KO tomorrow. A player of Jota’s class will always be a loss but we still look classy and direct going forward. I think we’re in for a LOT of goals this season.
Hail! Hail! The Glasgow Celtic
“I was really disappointed with the GB’s protest”
What protest?
In absentia, for James Forrest’s testimonial!
correct they didn’t condescend to go. They should give their tickets to supporters.
It wasn’t a slight against BR, they, the green Brigade, state that it isn’t and has never been their policy to attend Testimonials.(Class warfare or the politics of envy, take your pick).
You don’t fool me Ralph. I know a lottery winner when I see one.Sadly missing our first two home games, I will be in Dingle for the St Johnstone game. I thought Charlie summed the
GB situation up when he said, somebody buy them some garage flowers. They can offer a lot at times but they have their own agenda and it should not be confused with most Celtic supporters’ agendas. Sometimes they coincide sometimes they do not, pyros! How I felt about Rodger’s since Feb 2019 has moved on. It’s what adults do after a falling out. So welcome back Bhoys.
Loved the line, since someone parted the red sea due to the ferries being on strike.
“Despite not getting the man they wanted”
Remind me, who was it we wanted rather than a Rodgers Return.
“Looking back, last seasons results hide the fact that only fine margins prevented a better campaign and we can be optimistic if not confident of progress of some sort this time.”
No, this is a hopelessly optimistic view, the realistic assessment is that we were well off the pace and the paltry 2 points we garnered were all we deserved.
Sure, we started games with a whirlwind but the oppo knew we would blow ourselves out long before the end and they’d comfortably achieve the result they wanted.
Whether they’re called marquee singnings, we clearly need to substantially up our game if we’re going to compete at that level and the signings we’ve made ain’t that.
If we’re honest, it should keep us ahead of the Huns and nothing extra but, I suspect, that’s all the vast majority of fand want.
Hi Ralph, welcome to E-Tims…what a coincidence, the guy who used to do this
Diary a long long time a ago before he got sacked for bad time-keeping was also called Ralph…small world right enough eh?
Ha!Ha!Ha!, brilliant!
Here we GO..☘☘
A lot of the comments seem
to be all over
the place, hic!
Amazing…..you put a comment on to expose the ‘all over the place stuff’ and it comes up in perfect order without a giant gear-wheel. WTF? 🙂
The 2nd half today a kind of big disappointment but we got the essential 3 pts even though we lost the 2nd half 2-1. We maybe need to be aware of that as it’s only RC we’re playing today.
CCV looks his imperious self and Nawrocki looked in command throughout.
Turnbull had a terrific 1st half……it’s 1st game of the season, we win and we’re (only!) 2 goals to the good. That’ll do, for now.
There’s a HUGE amount of promise in the squad and it’ll be interesting to see what our best eleven eventually looks like, if indeed we have one. Horses for courses and all that.
Anyway, we’re off and running and currently TOTL! 🙂
Beale “finks” it’s all over….it is ALREADY. GIRFUT
We didn’t hit top gear and seemed a bit rusty but still scored 4.
They’re in for a mauling when we visit their midden.
Beale must stay. lol
The kid may hate it but Killi Lyons will forever be known as Lisbon in these perts.
The huns had better go out and buy a lot more players cos these new signings ain’t cutting it. Joint bottom of the league, sounds about right.
Michael Beale:
“Today was just a tactic to confuse Servette.”
sevco leery FC.
Beale has gone with The Flying V 3.0 formation.
Genius.
Kilmarnock 1 ” rangers ” 0
Oh dear
Stupid, stupid huns
Shook hands on the bet with my annual bottle of malt supplier in the boozer at 5.10 last night. Offered him a 3 point start. He looked offended. Deary me.
I can’t believe everyone is missing the most important stat, we’re top of the Penalty count league!
I thought we were very disjointed, even after weathering the initial onslaught and being 3-0 up at HT, Ross County still had good periods in the 2nd.
Early days obviously, with the manager and players still getting used to each other and we’ve got a month for things to click into gear before the big games start.
I had to laugh at the disappointment in this comment in the Beeb match report:
“There was no sign of hostility at Celtic Park towards manager Rodgers”
I suspect a few of our ‘supporters’ would also feel let down. 😉
I like the Scotsman’s ‘win overshadowed’ by Starfelt departure. Like the big guy but like Ajer he has that way of losing the ball needlessly that will cost us a few in the SPFL but a bucket full in the CL. A decent fee would be a boost and let’s face it the books are already healthy. Keeper and new centre back are priority for me.
starfelt is 3rd choice CB now. Getting him and welsh off the books would be great if we can sign another CB.
well done Brendan, off to a winning start! This was more important than the performance as the man needs to get pseudo supporters like the goon brigade back in their box.
Welcome back, Ralph.
You’ve been missed.
Interesting take on the Kilmarnock game by the BBC who ran with the Headline
New-look Rangers’ hopes of wrestling the Scottish Premiership title off rivals Celtic got off to the worst possible start as they were shocked by a reinvigorated Kilmarnock.
New look Rangers…
Lets see how they stack up to last Seasons Rangers:
4-3-3 Check
Butland
Tavpen Goldson Souttar Barasic
Lundstrum Raskin Dowell
Lammers Dessers Sima
Subs Used Jack Cantwell Roofe Da Silva
Same System new Keeper
Same Back 4
1 new MF
New frontline
3 out of 4 subs regulars
Now compare this to Reinvigorated Kilmarnock
3-5-2
Dennis
Armstrong Mayo Deas Findlay Ndba
Watson Lyons Magennis
Kennedy Watkins
Subs used Murray McKenzie Cameron Vassell
New Keeper
new Defence apart from the Right Back
1 new MF
New Frontline
All subs used regulars
basically Rangers made 5 changes and Kilmarnock 8 to last Season.
Excuses for the changes to one club whilst bigging up the changes to the other.