Celtic Diary Friday January 3

We used to do all sorts of rumours on a Friday, so,in a sort of New Year blast from the past, theres a couple of little stories we’ve made up that we simply have to share with you. Thats my panto dame voice.

Harvey Nichols traditionally have a sale this time of year, and who is that looking suitably embarrassed over at the counter but Kenny Miller, once of Celtic, twice of First Rangers. He’s having a bit of trouble with his credit card, and we can only hope it was all sorted out, and not declined as a wicked, wicked man from Morningside tells us.

Maybe it was one of those MBNA cards, that had a logo of the old club on it. That alone would be enough to send any credit card machine into meltdown.

Looks like those Gissa Job pleas to Ally McCoist were a little more desperate than first thought.

Ally McCoist. The man who lights up a room by moving away from the window.

David Marshall to return to Celtic if Fraser Forster heads south ?

Its not that unlikely, as we hear that loopy Cardiff owner Vincent Tan is not impressed with Marshalls goal scoring record.

Back up north, and Airdrie fans were warned last night not to use the words ” Champions League ” as it has been deemed particularly hurtful and offensive to supporters of the new Rangers club.

But there was never any chance of that happening. Not while Jim Ballantyne is involved with the Lanarkshire side, now called Airdrieonians after the club that died a few years ago.

Heres his thoughts from last nights match programme;

Arsenal, according to the ever reliable social network Twitter, are about to pay anything between £7m and £15m for Georgios Samaras, and Celtic will use £6m of that to buy Steven Fletcher from Sunderland. ( The latter story has appeared in the Record, so we know its shite )

Oliver Norwood will hand in a transfer request if his club knocks back a £1m offer from Celtic, and Mahmoud Hassan, the Egyptian Trezeguet, says it would be a dream to join Celtic and play in the champions League next season.

And you thought our rumours and stories were a load of nuts. Just thought we’d show you what else is out there.

This one, from WA Today, might have legs , though. Tom Rogic going on loan has been mentioned before here, but with Neil Lennon reluctant to freshen his side up in case someone passes the ball forward, it looks like this time there might be something in it. He may well be off to his old manager in Japan for a while, as his World Cup place is under threat.

Neil Lennon says he expects to be answering questions about transfer speculation for a while yet. This statement came after he was asked about stories linking the club with Leigh Griffiths, who did well for Hibs on loan last season, before being made to return to his own club Wolves, who play in the West Midlands Sunday Superleague.

“That (Griffiths) is just speculation,” said Lennon. “I am going to get names thrown at me all month now but I am not going to name names.

“It is a long month, it has just begun and I am being asked questions already. I will probably be doing this for 31 days.

“But I am determined to bring players in to make the squad better for the latter half of the season to give some of the players here, who have been magnificent for us this season, a hand and to make us better.

“We are in a decent position financially, where we can look to bring players in. There is no question of that.

“If we pick up a couple of injuries the squad looks light — for us.”

Other statements expected this month are

” We tried, but the club wanted too much money ”

” He didn’t want to play in Scotland ”

” He would have broken our wage structure ”

” Other moves by other clubs didn’t happen, so we couldn’t get the ones we wanted. ”

and finally, ” This guy is one we’ve been after for a while, and we are pleased to have got him, as several other clubs were in for him. ” -which will apply to someone we’ve never heard of, from a club that is languishing in a fourth division in a country which can only be found on google.

There must be some talent already on our books. Instead of looking for youngsters at Dundee Utd, what about the ones in our own youth teams, that have dominated the game at that level since Willie Maley was manager ?

The under 17s are going out to Turkey as well; ( this from the clubs official site )

Prior to the departure of Neil Lennon´s men, the Under-17s will head to Antalya on Saturday for an intense two-week programme of training and games thanks to funding from the Leonardo Di Vinci Project.

Designed to accelerate the youngsters´ development and ensure they are in peak condition for the second half of the season, Professional Academy Manager Tommy McIntyre told the official website that the exercise would be hugely beneficial.

“It´s a Leonardo Di Vinci programme which we have now taken part in on numerous occasions,” he explained. “We have been to Turkey before and then went to Portugal and are now going back to Turkey again.

“We generally look to do it on an 18-month cycle. If we do it in the summer then we get two weeks of working with a new squad and have that quality team-building.

“And when you go in January it gives us that two-week period to work again with the squad. The weather will be pleasant and the facilities are good so we won´t have to look at indoor facilities because of snow of whatever.

“We will have two weeks of working in quality facilities where we can get the players back into the fold again which is a benefit for us.

“We are taking a squad of 18 players and five members of staff. The players are all under 17 and it will be good to work them over that sustained and intense period.

“We will have a lot of gym work and sometimes we will be doing three sessions a day. There will be Pilates and a lot of conditioning work to go with the technical and tactical development so it will be a real full on intense programme for them.

“Another benefit is that we are taking on three games. It´s not a tournament but we will play against top teams from Italy, Romania and Turkey, so it gives us a chance to see where we are in terms of teams from other countries.”

Then , when they get back, the players will languish in the under 19s before going on a work placement with Macdonalds and KFC.

Really, what is the point of doing all this hard work with the youngsters if they are clearly not going to be given a run in the first team later on ? Thats a run, not just the odd cameo.

Well, a cunning plan is being implemented at Lennoxtown even as we speak, and on their return from Turkey, all players will now be called James Forrest, which should ensure a prolonged involvement with the big boys.

Hibernian played Hearts in last nights televised match, and reports say that it was Hibs biggest home crowd in twenty years. Armageddon seems to have missed Edinburgh, and judging from other attendances over the last couple of weeks, football is doing just fine.

Its only Celtic who are suffering-if , indeed , you can call 45,000 or so season books suffering.  So, are we any closer to a wee chat with the club to sort things out ? Are the fans going to get round the table with the board-or its representatives – to try to make life better for us all ?

Anythings possible…..

Meanwhile, Charlotte Fakeover has appeared again, this time with a draft document for share transfer between anyone who wants to own a piece of Second Rangers..

TRFCL-to-RIFC-Share-Exchange-Agreement

Interesting reading, if only to see how many pieces the pie is cut into.

No, not that sort of pie.

Oh, bloody hell. Here.

We have also got exclusive reaction from around the worlds stock market at the news that these shares are on the open market;

Those pictures in yesterdays diary first appeared in the Celtic View , which means for a lot of us its the first time we had seen them. At least, without a picture of a dog in a hooped shirt next to it. They were from the Bermuda tour of 1972, and well done to everyone who spotted that.

Who is this guy, and what is his connection with Scottish football ?