Charlie Mulgrew continued with his run of scoring last night, (if you don’t count penalties) as a new look Scotland beat estonia 1-0 to , well, add a couple of ranking points. Thats not the point though, what was great to see was Sean Maloney, (ex-Celtic) and Chris Burke (next Celtic?) running at opposition defenders and trying to go past them-which they often did.
Strachan, no giant himself, trusted the little men to do a job, and they didn’t let him down. The site of the short arses in full flow was reminiscent of the great days of Scottish football, when teams would fear a visit to the wet and windy landscape, and the roar of the crowd…
Elsewhere, Ireland, Wales and England all recorded victories, the latter beating Brazil, which means the 2014 World Cup is now cancelled and the trophy awarded to hodgsons men. well, watching SSN you would think so.
International football isn’t a favourite of many, and with Nigerian defender Efe Ambrose now likely to play in the African cup of Nations this weekend, its easy to see why. It looks like he will miss next Tuesdays Champions League tussle with Juventus. His country play Burkina Faso in Sundays final, who were formerley known as Burkina Faso Withdrew, if you look at the old records of the continents football. Seems theres a good reason for wanting a win :
James Forrest should be fit though, he will get a game against Inverness this weekend, as Scotlands top two clubs go head to head in the league. Manager Neil Lennon said;
“James is a brilliant player. You can see what he brings to us and he’s desperate to play. We just need to drip feed him in now gently and we have to be careful theres no reaction. He’s a wonderful talent and one of the best Scottish players we’ve produced for a long, long time….. He’s been training great and desperate to get back in but the physios have been holding him back. We’ve had to listen to them, but it was great to get him some game time.”
Lennon also commented on the goal Forrest scored at Kirkcaldy, saying that his “turn of pace and quality of finish was fantastic. There are not many people who could score that goal.”
Andrea Pirlo, whose parents really wanted a girl, has spoken about next weeks tie. He said Juventus “are prepared for whatever Celtic have to offer.We saw that they beat barcelona in Glasgow, but we are prepared to adapt maybe more than barcelona did….If they want to play football, we’ll play football. but if they want to battle, we are ready to battle.”
With the fearsome reputation of Italians in battle unique worldwide, it should be interesting. Do they still have that flag, the white cross on a white background?
Jay Rasulo, who is the chief financial officer at mickey mouse outfit Disney says that due to losses in the first quarter with Sports arm ESPN, they are looking at an exit from the UK. Which means that Sky or BT vision may make a move for more SPL football. More importantly, and excitingly, it means that Craig Burley may soon be coming to an Unemployment office near you.
Just think, if the tv market goes pear shaped, then games could return to Saturdays at 3pm. Radical or what?
Perhaps the SPL should be looking at their own channel. Without Craig Burley.
Just when you thought the MSM in Scotland was starting to waken up and take their job seriously, Radio Clydes “superscoreboard” has been nominated for an award for its coverage of the Rangers Crisis, in what surely has to be either a massive wind up, or a considerable slight on radio shows in Scotland. Still, in a country where Keith Jackson became Journalist of the Year, we shouldn’t be surprised.
Yesterday, Billy MacBiggott of Larkhall got a mention on this page, and it seems to have gone to his head-well, the space between his ears. He must have seen that article about rangers getting a wind up notice served on them, and screamed about people picking on his club, and asks “when will they leave us alone? ” he continued in this vein for a bit, and then slated Alex Thomson of Channel 4, who has been looking into this particular financial shennannigan.
It looks like the bold saviour of the club, or new father, or whatever he wants to think he is, (Father and Saviour in the same sentence about Rangers!) has not paid the bill to a company he asked to find him some business investors, and has in fact charged it to Sevco, or whatever they are called this week. The bill is for £400,000 , which Rangers PR department has called “insignificant” and not worthy of “further comment.”
With £20-£30 million in the bank, it certainly should be insignificant, so why the need for a payment plan? And as Etims colleague Desi mond asks, why has such a cash rich club been denied banking facilities, such as credit?
Surely Green cannot be telling fibs again? Thing is, even if he has, the Sevco /Rangers/ Rangers international support will continue to shoot the messenger, and blame everyone else, showing that they still haven’t learned.
Jimmy Hogan was correctly identified yesterday as the former Celtic coach with the massive reputation, and as rightly pointed out by Steveo, and Johnny Paton in Graham McColls Celtic biography, if the players had listened to him, the European Cup could well have been at Celtic well before it was.
Goalkeepers tend to be ignored by supporters, so the question today is about them. Which three Celtic keepers have recorded more than 100 shut outs?
Its Thursday numb nuts !
I told you I was ill!
Fixed now.
great wed again, going to bookies to stick a hunner on charlie as first scorer an a 1-0 win to scotlnd on tonights game
Ronnie Simpson, Pat Bonner and Artur Boruc
Good to have you back to normal, Ralph….
Three goalkeepers with more than 100 shut-outs:
Frank Haffey, Ian Andrews and Stuart Kerr? No? No, I meant Artur Boruc, Pat Bonner and John Fallon
Ffs Ralph! You have many scots/italian followers on this site. Your attempt at humour (I, hope), is at best risible, at worst offensive. Of course I can take a joke, but think you should leave all the flag (fleg) type guff for followers of the more downmarket sites we hear of. Btw I have no favorite Italian, English or any other team for that matter- only Celtic- & no one will cheer louder than me if (when) we dump the old lady of Turin out & make platini & co eat their derisory words! Rant over, hail hail bud.
“With the fearsome reputation of Italians in battle unique worldwide, it should be interesting. Do they still have that flag, the white cross on a white background?”
Just to make a point and dispel the myth that Italian forces in WWII carried a flag with “a white cross on a white background”, ask any allied survivors of El Alamain what they thought of the Italian Parachute regiment “Il Folgore”. Also, were it not for the sacrifice of two Alpine Divisions at Waluiki between 26th and 28th January 1943, the Julia and the Cuneense, the latter my great-uncle’s, stragglers of German and Hungarian soldiers who joind the retreating column with the Alpine Tridentina division, would not have broken out of the Soviet encirclment of the Axis Forecs at Nikolajewka on the 28th of January 1943 (by the way, the Tridentina led the attack against the Soviets that day and lost thousands in the initial bayonet charge).After 11 days retreating in subzero conditions from the Don front near Stalingrad, fighting battle after battle, poorly equipped, no armour, with little ammunition, (at one point my uncle’s battalion took out four T-34 russian tanks armed only with hand grenades), strafed by Russian aircraft and badly outnumbered, the survivors at Waluiki had no option but to surrender, since they had run out of ammunition. The wounded were shot, those unfortunate to be captured died like flies on the long marches back towards the Urals, where they were then herded like cattle on train towards the Stalags, many dying on the voyage each day. In the stalags they faced starvation and disease, many dying of typhus in the summer of 1943. I have no idea where my great-uncle rests, but I hope he died, before he was marched back to the camps. History is written by the winners, but they rarely give an account of men, fighting, not for a cause or a political ideal, but for their lives, trying only to survive so that one day they may see their loved ones again.
As for Juventus, I hate the cheating swine and hope we put 4 past them.
Well put, Marcello. Men and women are brave the world over. Problem is, they are sometimes very poorly led (e.g. Cadorna in WWI …)
It’s safe to say everyone was poorly led during the Great War. As for Stalingrad, the German 6th Army was already surrounded in December, yet the Italian Alpine Divisions were not given orders to retreat until the 17th of January, and by then they too were already encircled. They had to sit tight in order to hold off the Soviets while the Germans retreated.
Mussolini led 80,000 of the Italian Alpine Reginments to their death. Mountain troops supposedly deployed to occupy the mountains in the Caucasus, re-routed to occupy the line on a Steppe along a river. Sheer folly! Oh aye they had mountain equipment along with their outdated weaponry.
Indeed it is a myth, and written only as humour,with no intent to offend. Just read the beauty and the sorrow,a collection of letters and diaries which tell the stories of twenty ww1 participants from their point of view. One is an Italian American who joined the Alpine Regiment, and there is no denying individual courage, although questions of leadership competence do remain.
its a great book,and worth a look.
Peter Latchford, Pat Bonner & Ronnie Simpson?
Charlie Shaw, Packie and Davy Adams…..
Ralph
Welcome back to normal, you…….!
Has anyone been watching the African nations? I hope Effie gets it out of his system before coming back. I am putting it down to being uncomfortable with international football. Otherwise, we have a top player coming back as a has been.
So RC has been awarded for its contribution to human ignorance. If they keep this up, Oscar will be nothing but a statue of himself. Dusty Bin is more appropriate for Scotland’s radio joke. The questions on that show were pathetic too.
Re the Italians during the war. Personally I admire a people who recognise their mistakes. I sympathise with a nation that wakes up to the futility of war. This is not cowardice or capitulation but rather it demonstrates wisdom and humility. Should we not admire rather than ridicule?
I do recognise that you were just joking, Ralph. I was targeting those cynics that constantly portray the Italians as cowards who surrendered at every little drawback.
Goalkeepers guess: Ronnie Simpson, Packy Bonner and Johnny Thompson. Johnlittledick mentioned my favourite, Frank Haffey. If Frank had 100 shut outs, it must have been from entering the goalmouth because I can hardly remember him having 1. I met him a couple of times, though, and he was a great guy.
H H
I would just like you all to know that I have fallen in love …….she has a smile that can kill the devil at a hundred yards.
I’m too old for this!