Celtic Diary Thursday November 21

Millwall chairman John Berylson has admitted that if David Forde gets an offer from Celtic, the Ireland keeper will be on his way north.

“We’ve sat down with Fordey and told him we want him to stay, and we’ll be speaking to him again over the coming period.

“That said, the reality is if a Champions League club is coming in and going to offer him a contract, we’re not going to be able to match that.

“At the moment David is still very much a Millwall player and committed to us. Celtic is arguably one of the biggest clubs in world football – they play Champions League football and Fordey is ambitious. ”

So it looks like there has been some sort of contact…he continues, claiming he wants to keep Forde;

“We will try our hardest to sign him up but if someone offers him £25,000-a-week, then it’s pretty unlikely that we will be able to.”

£25,000 a week !

Anyone else  think any contact between Celtic and Millwall is likely to be extremely brief ?

We’ll need the money for McGeady anyway.

Opinion is divided on the return of the original prodigal son, though for a lot of reasons it makes sense. He’s out of contract, or will be, he’s vastly experienced, still relatively young, and will have improved over in Russia.

If , as we keep hearing, he is ready to accept a lower income-and why wouldn’t he? he’s made his money with Spartak- and wants a second stint with Celtic, we’d be foolish not to bring him home.

Home is the key word here, he is married now, with a young family, and that would be a major consideration for him.

English clubs will be interested, theres no doubt, Everton are waiting for his reply, but his heart is in Glasgow.

In yesterdays replies, Andy was perhaps the major dissenter, and even he seemed in two minds, stopping just marginally short of typing the word “no ” one hundred times, but overall, there seemed to be a general “yes ” vote.

Other Celts have gone away and come back with great success, Bertie Auld the one who instantly springs to mind, and more recently Charlie Mulgrew. And then there was Charlie Nicholas, which probably means I should have quit while I was ahead..

Holmbert Fridjonsson has signed a three year deal with Celtic, and will join up with his new team mates early next month.

He can’t play until January, but he is looking forward to it;

“I have seen them play in the Champions League while I was in Iceland so I know of some of the boys.

“Iceland shows every game in the Premier League and the Champions League and everybody watches football there so we can see Celtic. ”

Don’t they just go to the pub over there ? Still, should make the shopping more fun.

I think I’m on the point of seeing why Celtic shop there..and why it will take so long for him to arrive.

He continued, despite the interruption;

“When Celtic came in, there was nothing to decide.

“I was buzzing when I heard of their interest and I was just really excited.”

“I will get to know the boys better and train with them and see how it works.

“I think I can be ready. I just have to work hard.

“I’m not going to walk into the team, that’s for sure.”

Asked what Celtic fans can expect to see from him, he added:

“I will try to score goals and hopefully I can do that for the Celtic fans.

“This is just the biggest step-up and I’m delighted.

“The physical side will be more here so I just need to get in the team and hopefully I can adapt pretty well.

“I can play up alone, I can hold up the ball well and link players to the game.

“I’ve got good technique, I’m good in the air and I’ve got a good left foot.”

“The facilities here are excellent. I’m used to Iceland and it’s just a hobby there almost.

“Everything is much better here. With these facilities, you can just get much better if you train there every day.

“I spoke to the manager yesterday and got good feedback from him. I think he can help me a lot.”

Whilst wishing the boy all the best, you cannot help but feel the next time we hear of him will be when he goes back home after not breaking through.

Which could yet happen to Tom Rogic, although manager Neil Lennon has said that the Australian midfielder is not going out on loan, after his national team manager Ange Postecoglou said it would be good for him.

In context though, what the new Australia boss said, after his first game in charge was that he rated Rogic very highly, and in fact he has been posting regularly on here using the name ” Big Nutz” , to try to make a case for Rogic. He said;

“He was electric when he came on.”

“He’s a special player and we need him playing. That will be part of the task leaving this camp, trying to find out how we can get him some game time because he’s going to be an important player, not just at this World Cup, but for the next couple of World Cups.

“In the right environment, playing regular club football at a good level, he could be, well, I don’t know what he could be. I don’t want us, as a nation, to miss out on that.”-

Whatever it is.

Rogics former boss, Graeme Arnold, is now coaching  Vegalta Sendai, and Postecoglou thinks that a move to Japan would get the lad more game time;

“I think that (a loan to Japan) would be fantastic. Arnie knows him, and we know Arnie is a fantastic coach. He’s got the best out of Tommy, and the J-League is a strong competition.

“It’s a World Cup year. There wouldn’t be a player on the planet who is going to a World Cup who wouldn’t, for the next six months, think the best move for him would be to play regular football.”

Lennon, though, says that only his early season injury has prevented him from playing more regularly with Celtic , and he might even feature against Aberdeen this Saturday.

Kris Commons made his debut against Aberdeen at Hampden a few years ago, and he has been talking of how he has matured since then;

“My experiences have been a huge asset to me,” he said. “Not only league football but winning trophies, playing at the top level, playing in European games, that´s the experiences I´ve gathered over the last three years.

“Looking back to that first game against Aberdeen, I was so fresh, I was still a boy, but now I feel more mature, I´m a man and I feel like I know the game a bit better.

“It´s now my turn to guide and direct young players rather than people guiding me, and that´s an experience thing for me. I was relatively mature then but there were still older players in the squad that I respected, players I´d listen to for advice.

“But it´s flipped a little bit now and I´m classed as the more experienced player in the group so I’m getting asked for my input a bit more.”

He looked ahead to this weekends game;

“Aberdeen are a good side and we found it difficult at their place at the start of the season,” he recalled. “We came away with a hard-fought win, but they are well-organised with a strong fan base so they are a tough team to play against.

“It´s all set up for them to do well but it´s one thing to do it once every two or three weeks and another doing it week-in-week-out, and that´s what you need to do to be the champions. That´s where we gain the advantage because we´re more than capable of doing it every week.

“My memories of playing against Aberdeen are very black and white, there´s never anything in between. We either win comfortably or scrape a win so it´s always a nice game to play in.

“You know you’re going to get a good game but if we turn up and play to our strengths, we are more than capable of putting in a few goals.”

We could do with a morale boosting big win, to keep things buzzing in time for the arrival of Milan on Tuesday. They haven’t appointed a new manager yet, but things are so bad for the Rossoneri that Pippi Inzhagi is already out and about choosing the carpets and curtains for the  managers office. A bad result in Glasgow, and Milan will have a new boss on Wednesday.

Over in Amsterdam today, the six Celtic fans beaten up by Dutch police will have their say in court.

Two supporters, Andy Vance and Padraig Mullan, have been kept in custody for more than two weeks in the lead up to the court date.

The four other fans of the Parkhead club, who also face allegations of violence against the police, are also expected to appear at Amsterdam District Court on Thursday afternoon.

Its not looking good for the tims, here we see one of them running at four coppers, while another has dragged a few down on top of him in what must be some sort of complex martial arts move.

Good luck guys.

If it goes badly for them, does anyone have a helicopter I can borrow ?

Over on the dark side of the Clyde, 3.3 million shares in the new Rangers club were sold yesterday, ahead of the Worthington Groups expected announcement that they have the funds in place to contest ownership of the assets of the now defunct old Rangers. Which is a remarkable coincidence.

You would think anyone with the money to buy that amount of shares would also employ some sort of financial analyst who would advise them that there are much better and safer ways to invest their funds.

Now, some good news to pass on. Bobby Lennox, who recently had surgery on his heart, is recovering well and expected to be home in a couple of days. Thats what we wanted to hear. All the best to him.

Yesterday, Harald Brattbakk showed us what he does for a living these days, and heres another former player who has a different trade now. Who is he, and why was he in the news recently ?

Oh, by the way, I’ve just got had a parcel delivered by the new UK Mail. Fair play to the driver, he apologised for it being late, and said it wouldn’t happen again.

Except its not mine. anybody expecting a parcel ?