Celtic Diary Wednesday February 6

Scott Brown has been appointed Scotland captain by new manager Gordon Strachan, which will bring a calm maturity to the team. Brown was delighted, calling it a “huge honour”

Brown said;

“He just told me that i was captain and walked away and left me to my own wee moment. He kept it quiet, i was wondering why I was coming downstairs and the only one sitting in reception. He cam up and told me and it was a great moment. Its a huge homour, a thing you dream of when you’re younger, captaining Scotland. ”

speaking of his manager, who signed him for celtic what seems like a thousand years ago, Brown added;

“…he is the same old gaffer,. he enjoys coming into work and he enjoys working with the lads, thats for sure.

Strachan himself, said of Brown;

He already knows what its like to be a captain with pressure, and that made him favourite.”

Scotland face Estonia tonight at pttodrie, and it will be interesting to see how the side play without the negative influence of Craig Levein and Peter Houston, neither of whom are currently in work, and neither of whom should be surprised by that.

Regular contributor to the diary-well, he emails us from time to time in crayon-Billy MacBiggott of Larkhall was spitting fury, saying he will never go to a Scotland game again, as with Lawwell runing the SFA and SPL, Strachan and Brown leading the national team, and the unseen fenian hand destroying his beloved club.

Which is a shame. True football supporters, who follow the wee teams, enjoy their trips abroad as a substitute for regular European club football, so he may just be cutting of his nose to spite his face, even if it does improve the overall visual experience. Anyway, the game is live on Sky Sports tonight, and should be worth a look.

Yesterdays diary, written in a bit of a rush after recovering from the deadly Staffordshire flu virus, which was so severe , the outbreak was kept out of the papers to avoid a national panic, disappearred somewhere into cyberspace, presumably intercepted to prevent news of the illness reaching the public eye. Even now, there is a worry Dustin hoffman will come and take all my blood away for analysis to find a cure to save the world, so I am typing this from under my bed.

One or two other things covered but not published yesterday included a reference to reconstruction, which looks like happening in the 12-12-18 way, and to be honest was accepted by the author as a decent enough idea, and maybe worth a go. That was until it received public support from Gordon Smith, the clueless former SFA man, Rangers man and tv and radio pundit.

He mumbled;

“I played under this system in Austria and Switzerland and I think its quite exciting. ”

Which kind of puts me off a bit.

Meanwhile, the press are starting to turn on phoenix club Rangers. With Dundee United cruising past them with astonishing ease-well, astonishing to the MSM, who never quite understood how bad they actually are until about sixteen seconds into Saturdays game, – one or two hacks have broken ranks, criticising the team, the management and anything else they can think of. When luminaries such as Keith Jackson, Bill Leckie and Graeme spiers begin to criticise Ally McCoist, then the end must indeed be nigh.

but what sort of end are we actually talking about? McCoist to be sacked-possibly, but unlikely, it would be almost impossible to get any decent manager to take on that job, plus any compensation would be beyond the already cash strapped again club.

Phil macGhiollabhan , who tends to dig up the stuff ignored by the press, had news of a winding up order, from some Asian investors, but that has now been sorted, with a payment plan in place. not paid off, you understand, but a promise to pay them.

Which is not unlike the stories of the share issue not quite being as successful as first heralded by the compliant media, with “promisory shares, ” and all sorts of other terms being mentioned, which when looked at closely, actually point to more pledges of investment, rather than actual investment. If the market was led to believe there was huge wads of money going into the club, then their shares would, of course , be worth more..

Except that doesn’t seem to be the case.

When the original club crashed and burned, a lot of blame was was placed on Craig Whyte, who used PAYE money to keep the club going, until European money appeared, which due to one or two tactical errors-putting Mccoist in charge, for instance, -didn’t materialise.

The same tactical error of keeping the Rangers legend in charge has meant that their season is effectively over in Februaury, sure they should win Division Three, but the crowds will dwindle, and with no cups left to compete in, income will drop drastically.

Which makes one wonder if the new club is about to go the way of the old club, the simple fact is they are spending more than they are bringing in, have no line of credit, and Ally mccoist is still manager. Throw in the fact that Lee McCulloch is their top scorer and captain, and the problem becomes apparent. They haven’t got a clue how to get out of it either.

So, suddenley we see the MSM turn on them. Have they got wind of another big story, and they don’t want to look stupid again and let internet bampots take all the glory? Time , of course , will tell.

The catalyst this time could be the fact that the new club will not be fast tracked back into the SPL. Green, when he whinged about the new set up, was whinging about the fact that his team were not being promoted directly to the top level, as he no doubt expected. The prospect of hanging around for a couple more -at least-years at the lower level may not seem attractive any more. Probably because he never thought they would have to.

Don’t forget, its Febraury, and they have a habit of going under in February. Which, during this quiet time of year for them, will already have jelly and ice cream workers looking forward to the overtime, which this time round will see them pretty much pay off their mortgages.

Saturdays diary asked about a former Celtic  coach, who when in Germany, demonstrated how poor the local players were by hitting a wooden panel with rapid shots from each foot, splitting the panel on the second shot. This man , in fact, went on to be known as the “father of German football”-and indeed Hugarian and Dutch as well, and also the grandfather of Brazilian football.

Who was he?