The Daily Record, reprising its role as the voice of common sense, claims that;

Celtic fans invoke spirit of legend Jock Stein as they voice anger over banners displayed at Champions League match

The reporter, Keith McLeod, quotes a couple of posters from the Etims  wayward child Kerrydale Street.co.uk as evidence.

Well, nearly. They quote two posters, first, Christy Moore ( probably not the singer, but do you see what they did there?)

“I feel it’s like the situation with the Green Brigade – can they not just stick to the rules we all need to follow in the stadium?

“Why do they think they are above the rules or different to everyone else?”

And then, Nopaseran36, who countered with;

“Politics always has and always will play an integral part in the sport.

“For decades, the terraces have been a sanctuary for a vast array of politcal opinion, all over the world.”

Not quite invoking the great mans spirit, but it does give them the chance to remind us of the time when Stein went into the crowd at Annfield, Stirling, to stop sectarian chanting.

Actually, he was warning people of the dangers of long hair when working with machinery, so I heard.

And the old debate about who can sing what about who and when and where raises its head again.

Are the Green Brigade right ? Is Celtic Park the place to raise political issues, however valid ?

Well, there is a way to sort it out once and for all, a way to establish whether or not the Celtic support want to see these banners and hear these songs.

The club will be fined by UEFA for the banner. Thats a given. So, the Brigade should organise a bucket collection on a match day to pay the fine. That will settle it once and for all, and put an end to any arguments.

To defend their stance, the GB issued a statement;

“The club’s statement claims that we assured them that our display would be purely football related but that in fact it had nothing to do with football.

“In reality, however, what was assured to them was that our plans were completely relative to Celtic and indeed football.

“Given that it is Celtic fans who are filling up prison cells and court rooms because of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, and the manner in which it criminalises legitimate expression of political opinion, this display could not have been more relevant in the current context,”

“The fans are the lifeblood of any football club and to deem fan issues as irrelevant is frankly disgraceful.

“While we understand and sympathise fully with fans who may disagree with the timing of [Tuesday night’s] display we are honest enough to admit that the timing was of no coincidence. This act has been in place for over 18 months yet the club have offered next to no support to the fans on this matter.

“As a group, we were told that Celtic Football Club would publicly support the fans on this issue.

“Regrettably, this has not transpired in spite of the fact that public pressure could have had a telling impact on the justice committee as they discussed the possibility of an early review of the act.

“It is our opinion that the level of apathy from Celtic PLC towards the criminalisation of their supporters is unforgivable.

“We find their accusation of the Green Brigade disrespecting the club to be completely ironic and totally laughable when we consider the level of disrespect they have repeatedly shown to their supporters for far too long.

“As the number of Celtic fans banned from games continues to grow and the court cases and all additional baggage piles up, we will stand by them, we will stand with the Celtic support and as always we will defend our right to cultural and political expression.”

You have to admire them for standing up for what they believe in, thats refreshing in itself these days.

But it was  always said that Margaret Thatcher was lucky in her enemies, who kept picking the wrong battles to fight at the wrong time.

I fear this is what the Brigade have done on this occasion. And the board, who do show an astonishing apathy, perhaps even callousness,  towards the support, will win this battle, and maybe even the war.

The GB have made an excellent point, and should have stimulated debate. Just at the wrong time.

Aaron Taylor Sinclair is a target for Celtic, acccording to the Express, which means he isn’t. He’s a left back, which shows the management are listening to the fans demands for a striker.

Hang on, theres a transfer window about to swing open. We can expect more of this shite. Out will go Lustig, Forster, Ledley and Samaras, to be replaced by Ryan Gauld, Taylor Sinclair and Stevie May.

Actually, perhaps we could do with a couple of guys with names like Stevie and Ryan. Instead of just going for the extra money when names are printed on shirts. Perhaps thats why we got beat on Tuesday.

Footballers should be called Jimmy, or Bertie, or Wullie. Not Teemu, Amido or Georgios. ( I’ll make an exception for Virgil, though. )

And they should do a couple of hours down the pit before playing on a Saturday.

On a more serious matter, James Forrest has been helping police with their enquiries after it was alleged that he forgot to put away little james after a visit to the toilet. We’ve all done it. Drink is a terrible thing.

In his defence, I do detect a little double standard here. If, for instance , one espies a lass in a bar with a disproportionately large amount of her flesh visible, and you happen to glance for too long, you are deemed a pervert.

Yet, if you happen to accidentally expose a smaller amount of your own flesh, you are still the pervert.

Theres a banner for the GB if they want to protest.

Speaking of banners, the more timely but equally thought provoking banner at the Aberdeen game is under investigation by the SFA.

I thought it was where the air ambulance came in.

Now, if the lyrics to Flower of Scotland are deemed political, then theres going to be an awful lot of worms leaping from the can.

Somehow, the word “worms”  is kind of apt when we mention the SFA.

The £15,000 prize from the Paradise windfall on Tuesday hasn’t been claimed yet. The winning ticket, J3802 was sold in the South West corner. Somebody who left at half time because he was fed up may be a little more fed up when he realises he put his jeans in the wash when he got in.

Wait-maybe it was Beram Kayal !

Yesterday we invoked the memory of the Celtic -Hamburg game from 1996, which was another occasion when four forwards started the game, and another occasion when the opposition picked us off at will.

For the record, those forwards were Thom, van Hooijdonk, di Canio and Cadete. Not quite the quality we had on show against Milan, but evidence that the tactic may be somewhat over ambitious no matter who is up front.

Six months after quitting the drink, finally a chance to quit cigarettes as well.

After trying hypnosis, patches, chewing gum, sweeties, lollipops cold turkey and e-cigs , the governments decision to put fags in plain packaging should ensure I’m done by Christmas.

I had a wee look at Question Time last night, and with the quality of panellist on show, it was refreshing to see that politicians up there aren’t any better than the ones in Westminster.

You have to feel sorry for that fellow Andrew Carmichael, who looked completely out of his depth. Actually, no, I feel sorry for the people he beat in the election to become an MP. What sort of clueless freaks must they have been ?

Which brings us to Sevco/Rangers / Deidco.

The rebel faction met en-masse ( theres a couple of words they won’t like ) to try to muster up support to remove the current board and replace them with mostly the one that dropped them in the shit in the first place.

Theres an AGM on the 19th of December, and it looks like the rebels ( look, I did it again ) are rising ( woah, look at me mammy , I’m dancing ) in anger for the cause ( aint no stopping me now doo be doo doo doo doo ).

They want their men in place and will stop at nothing to get them there. ( Except actually buy any shares that is )

Perhaps they could take over a post office or something.

If you have been listening to any of the etims podcasts you’ll know we have a wee sweepstake running , trying to predict when the latest incarnation from Ibrox will bite the dust. ( Just thought, don’t remind them who the last person who died and rose again was. They’ll have a fit. And he did it at Easter. )

I’m going for the 18th, the day before the scheduled AGM-anyone seen any adverts or paperwork for it yet ?  Just saying, like…

When do you think they’ll close the place down?

First prize is  a season ticket to Third Rangers, second prize two tickets, and third prize is a hospitality box for life.

( Note, if anyone is actually expecting to receive this prize, then I’ll just close the place down and start again, debt free. )

Incidentally, Ally McCoist will be at the Downing Street St. Andrews bash. Maybe he’ll take this opportunity to drop off some of the money they owe .