Celtic Diary Wednesday November 20

The Celtic Charity Foundation has a couple of fundraising initiatives during the festivities, both of which are entirely noble, and deserve a wee bit of support;

Celtic Charity Wonderland, Sunday, December 15, 2013
 
Our Celtic Charity Wonderland event – to be hosted by Scottish actor, Martin Compston – will take place in the Kerrydale Suite on Sunday, December 15.  It will include a Cruise Catwalk show featuring first team players, drinks and dining, live music, auction, raffle and Christmas market.

The main beneficiary will be CHAS (Children’s Hospice Association Scotland), a charity that provides the only hospice services in Scotland for children and young people who have life-shortening conditions for which there is no known cure.

CHAS runs two children’s hospices, Rachel House in Kinross and Robin House in Balloch, and a home care service called CHAS at Home.
 
Tickets are available here – http://www.celticfc.net/downloads/Charity_Wonderland_Booking_Form.pdf – or by calling 0141 551 4262.  Diamond places are now sold out but we currently have limited availability in the Emerald category. 
 

Celtic Christmas Appeal 2013
 
Christmas is one of the most challenging times of year for individuals and families who face poverty and homelessness and that is why we launched our 2013 Christmas Appeal.

Our target is to provide a proper Christmas meal for around 150 local families, who otherwise would go without, as well as gifts for the younger family members.  We are also aiming to support seven local charities, who support the homeless and most vulnerable people in society.

Every penny raised will be spent to support those in need.

The generosity and compassion of the Celtic Family is unique and unsurpassed, and Celtic FC Foundation is requesting your support once again for an Appeal which epitomises the very essence of our club and truly honours the founding principles of Brother Walfrid.

To get behind the Celtic Christmas Appeal 2013, donations can be made in the following ways:

1. Text – text ‘CELT07’ followed by ‘£1’, ‘£5’ or ‘£10’ to 70070
2. Online – https://mydonate.bt.com/events/celticchristmas/106503
3. Cash – there are collection boxes located in all Celtic Stores
4. Cheque – payable to ‘Celtic FC Foundation’ and sent to Celtic FC Foundation, Celtic Park, Glasgow, G40 3RE.

Any donation you can make this Christmas will help make a real difference to those who need it most. Thank you for your wonderful and continued support.

So if you can help, its one of those appeals where the money donated actually goes where it is intended. Itself a novelty these days.

Its not Friday, so we are not going to mention a little story we keep hearing, from different sources, believe it or not , in different countries, but a former forward wants to return to Celtic, and is quite happy to accept the clubs wage structure.

And he won’t cost a penny in fees, which will no doubt alert Peter and the Penny Pinchers, who are performing all week at Celtic Park. Actually, they are more like the resident house band, though they’ve never quite achieved the popularity they feel they deserve.

Aiden McGeady has had his fall outs with Neil Lennon, but they may  have both matured enough to put the past behind them, and resume their working relationship.

Which would give us a playmaker. If only we could find a finisher.

Homlbert Fridjonsson has signed, but we could do with something a little more experienced.

In other news, a group of Rangers supporters out hiking in the Highlands have discovered and defrosted a caveman, who had been frozen for thousands of years. Conversations have until now consisted of monosyllabic grunts, but the caveman is confident he can teach them some words.

Actually, thats not true. Rangers supporters don’t exist anymore. Their club, like the caveman, is dead. Although this chap, on follow Follow, a website which caters for the support of the tribute act, says they are not a new club after all.

He explained thus;

History Intact… simple as ABC
Sometimes you have to resort to explaining things in a child-like manner to thick people. Today I attempted to explain the new club / old club to a bheggar work-colleague who was insisting we are a new club because ‘yeez wur liquidatit’.

” Once there was a chicken called Rangers FC that was born in 1872. The chicken went about its business until many years later it laid an egg (the company). Many, many years later that egg went bad and it had to be thrown away. In 2012 the chicken then laid another egg and so this egg was the new company.
So it does not matter how many eggs come and go…. the chicken has always been, and always will be there.

The hapless sellik fan look very puzzled and I did indeed feel like Edmund Blackadder becoming exasperated as he tries to teach Baldrick to count ”

Night of the Living Rednecks, on KDS illustrated the issue with another outstanding picture

No wonder the “Sellik ” fan looked puzzled. I’m still trying to envisage this immortal chicken, and make the connection with a football club and its fans. Unless its one of those headless ones running around the farmyard.

Tom English, the other day, said that if it walks like a duck, and if it talks like a duck, then it is a duck, when he tried to explain the current version of the club. Fair enough, but if a duck dies, and you replace it, its not the same duck.

Poor Tom. He was doing so well, too.

Still on the new club, they have officially complained to the SFA about Peter Lawwells, who cracked a joke at their expense at the Celtic Agm.  Lawwell has denied doing it at their expense, he says he did it for free.

” RANGERS last night officially filed a letter of complaint to the SFA demanding they take action against Peter Lawwell.

Record Sport revealed on Saturday that the Ibrox club would take action after Lawwell mocked Rangers at Celtic’s agm.

And the Ibrox club have now written to compliance officer Vincent Lunny asking him to probe the Hoops chief’s Rory Bremner jibe.

Lawwell, who is the professional clubs’ representative on the SFA’s main board, questioned whether Rangers’ 140-year history remains unbroken.

The Parkhead supremo was responding to a shareholder who asked why the football authorities were still referring to the Ibrox club as Rangers following their liquidation just two seasons ago. ”

They have another new CEO, a chap called Greg Wallace, who says he

” watched from afar as the Rangers support came to the club’s aid during the times of turmoil …”

Coincidentally, , “Afar ” is exactly where all the other CEOs have gone. With the fans money.

The international football is done with now for a while, we can get back to the real game.

Scott Brown captained Scotland to a 1-0 win in Norway, although its probably fair to say that keeper David Marshall was the main reason scotland came away with a win.

Brown also managed to score the winning goal, which made him the hero of the hour;

“I judged the conditions really well didn’t I? I hit it into the ground so that the goalie couldn’t see it.

“No, it was just a hit and hope to be honest. It took a deflection and caught the keeper out. It was on target so I will take it.

“I don’t get too many. I’d love to score every week but I will take them when they come.

“It wasn’t the best of performances but we will take the result. We improved in the second half and passed it better. We were a bit braver too.”

But he also showed that he still hasn’t got the hang of responsibility when he kicked out at Vergod Forran in the first half. Brown was banned by the SFA from talking about it, but defender Gordon Greer ( who ? ) played it all down;

“It was just one of those things. I don’t think there was anything in it. Browny gives his all in every game and that is what makes him such a special player.”

Heard it all before. Thankfully, Adam Matthews , Joe Ledley,  Nir Bitton and Beram Kayal are all able deputies in the middle, and surely its time to give Tom Rogic a crack ?

The Aussie was outstanding for his country against Coast Rica, and a run in the team cannot be far away. Especially as we don’t have to play Morton again.

The fans who are being held in custody in Amsterdam are in court tomorrow. The Celtic Trust have issued a report from Fans Against criminalisation, which gives an up to date summary, and repeats the appeal for donations at the Aberdeen game.

FAC report

Speaking of the Aberdeen game, we’ve space and tickets in the tarrier carrier this Saturday for anyone who fancies a run up. Stoke to Glasgow and all points inbetween.

But we are short of a ticket for the Milan game, if anyone can help.

Shameless plugs, I know, but we need all the help we can get.

Georgios Samaras became the latest Celt to book his trip to the World cup, Greece saw off Romania last night, but Mikael Lustig won’t be going, as Portugal were too strong for Sweden , in what was actually quite a good game.

It’ll be nice for the players to get a wee break next summer, until the UCL qualifiers, that is. Would Celtic be allowed to postpone games if they have players on international duty ?

Finally, congratulations must go to the City of Hull, which has just been awarded the city of culture status for 2017, beating off stiff competition from Dundee.

In other news Liverpool has been named “Crime Free Capital of Britain”, Glasgow has been named “City Of Soberness”, Birmingham has won the acclaimed “Accent Of The Year” award and London has been named “City People Feel The Government Doesn’t Do Enough For”

Yesterday we had a picture from the Dundee win over Hearts, which combined with a display of pure, inventive football at Love Street, saw Celtic win the league back in 1986.

More good memories, but who is this guy, and why does he invoke good memories ?