There is some good news this morning, if we are to believe a somewhat slurred message left on the Etims dictaphone, in that Daezen Maeda will shortly sign a new contract.

What’s more, it will be with Celtic.

Although this may be a cunning move to bump his price up, the chances of Maeda sulking in the style of Stilian Petrov are low. He seems much happier here than the pouting Petrov was in the end, and hopefully it is a sign that we do want to keep our better players, and will only sell if the player is actively seeking a move.

Or if the money is too good to turn down.

Meanwhile, Nicolas Keuhn (sic) has posted a montage of his favourite moments of last season, with the message;

One of the replies to his post politely asked the question…

I think she may be on to something there.

This could work for the board, who must already be regretting organising a “glamour ” friendly with Newcastle United next month. According to “The Mag”, a Newcastle fanzine , Newcastle have sold their allocation, whilst home sales have been described as “dire ”

That seems to be a rather polite way of saying “fucking shocking ” as season book holders are still a little miffed at the exclusion of pre season kickabouts from their books is yet another example of cash being hoarded by the board, the board may yet see fit to announce and field a blue chip signing, and thus head off dissension before it starts to take hold.

Mind you, they won’t. But it’s an idea.

Another rule change in Scotland sees Celtic move to link up with Queen’s Park to allow young players from the top divisions to go on loan to the lower leagues to help them develop. Reserve and youth players at Celtic, for instance, may be held back by a lack of first team football, which is unfair to an extent as they have been deemed to have more potential than some who already play first team football, but at a lower level.

Though there is risk of injury, overall this can only help everyone, and may mean less young talent is lost either to England, or to the game completely.

Kris Ajer benefitted from a loan spell, as did Ryan Christie, and optimists hope that Marco Tillio will return from Australia a better player when he rejoins Celtic in the summer.

Moves like this indicate that Scottish football may be ready to move into the 21st century after all.

Meanwhile, over the river, “rangers ” are set to announce that Russell Martin is about to be their new manager.

Which has sent even their staunchest of supporters over the top.

The comparison with Manchester City and Barcelona points to a desperate media trying to dress up a particularly chunky number two with a liberal splashing of glitter.

Martin used to play for Scotland, in that famous iron curtain defence that also contained Grant Hanley and several other players who shouldn’t have been anywhere near the shirt. He did work in a supermarket before becoming a footballer , in the loosest possible meaning of the word, which will be handy as they are usually hiring around christmas, which , co-incidentally, is when he’ll be looking for work.

Mustn’t grumble though, Scottish football needs a club playing out of Ibrox to provide the laughter and fun for the rest of us.

Yesterday, we had this…

Today