Celtic Diary Tuesday January 7

Celtic have had to delay their flight out to Turkey and won’t be going to their rest camp until today, though thankfully they had plenty of down time hanging around the airport yesterday.

This modern method of transport disturbed a couple of players, who hail from the developing world, but when it was explained to them it was not a “big scary shiny bird ” they calmed down a bit.

A spokesman said yesterday;

‘Unfortunately there was a problem with the incoming chartered aircraft, however we are looking to reschedule our departure for tomorrow.’

The Birmingham Mail has Aston Villa ready to sign Georgios Samaras, with a fee of £2m being mentioned. Samaras himself is said to be disappointed with his new contract offer, which meant he would be around £2,000 a week worse off, but he’s not entirely surprised when he recalls the stance he was asked to take shortly before he was offered the new deal.

Of course, the official Celtic line is that he is staying in Scotland because he’s injured. They really do have a lot of respect for the support in that boardroom, don’t they ?

Somebody told us that even he could see Samaras was leaving.

( Note; If you are reading this with the sound turned down, Mr Wonder would like to make it perfectly clear that he is not singing any songs which are likely to cause offence to anyone.  )

Manager Neil Lennon insists he will be hard to replace, and he probably has a point. ( Samaras, that is. Stevie Wonder is currently thinking over an offer to add vision to the midfield. )

‘He was a big player for big games, that’s the best thing you could say about Sami,’ said the Celtic boss. ‘He has certainly made a huge contribution for me in my time in charge here.

‘I think he’d be hard to replace and I can see why there are clubs interested in him. I know he can be inconsistent but, when he was in the mood for us, he was simply awesome.

‘If he does go – and we’ll probably know in the next week – we will need to work hard to find a like-for-like replacement and these types cost a lot of money.’

Personally, I’d just give that idea a miss.

Especially if it involves the words Ross and McCormack.

Mahmoud Hassan, the shy, retiring Egyptian midfielder says a move for him to Celtic is imminent.

“I’ve stated I want to sign for Celtic. And I have been told that Celtic’s official offer to the club will arrive this week,” the Daily Record quotes him as saying.

The player is very keen to come to Scotland, and has been studying local culture. Thankfully, someone has nicked the bagpipes he was learning.

Heres something you don’t see every day. Its a story from STV online, and it has, in league table form, the results of all Scottish games ever collated to show who is really the top team of all time….

Go on, guess who came top….

And what a tough league it is. Of the top four teams, two are already dead and a third is having trouble breathing. Of the rest, another five are deceased, including Nithsdale Wanderers, which must have annoyed someone when it happened.

Note the “rules at the top “, which have obviously been decided so that the Rangers, Second Rangers or whoever can add another title to their total. This one of course, is equally as valid as any of the ones they won when they decided to overlook any legal or financial obligations , made easier with the ” Unlimited Loan Facility ” provided by their pals at the bank, which incorporated possibly the most flexible  repayment terms ever.

Still, well done Ally. You are the boss of the most successful team in the country. How did that happen ?

come on…

come on…

Oh, for fecks sake. Who wants a pie?

Our local CSC held its monthly meeting last night. From a club which once boasted 70-odd members ( They were all odd, and certainly not worth boasting of, there were just three of us in attendance. Four if you count the guy that was waiting to lock up.

With live tv, streams and countless other things to do rather than make the expensive trip north to watch football in terrible weather, we are lucky to still run trips to all home games, many other English based clubs are down to runing once a month or less.

There will be many , many debates as to why this has come about. Heres todays assignment;

What would you change or improve to make going to the football less of a duty and more of an occasion.

Would you sign a better quality of player ?

Would you improve the facilities ? Edible food, for example, inside and outside the ground ?

Stewarding that looks after the support, instead of bullying them ?

Policing that keeps the support safe, and arrests only troublemakers. ( Unless they are from Amsterdam, obviously, who seemed to carry some sort of diplomatic immunity. )

Would you opt for summer football ?

When the song Let the People Sing is heard of the tannoy, should it carry a disclaimer that says which songs they can sing ?

Would you push for the punishment of the Old Rangers, such as stripping titles, financial recompense ? Or should we just consign them to memory and concentrate on being the first to ten ?

Or would you just like to see the board and the support both work together to stem the tide of disillusionment that is seeping into the stands ?

Its your call. Without Jim Traynor, which is a wonderful concept, as indeed, anything without Jim Traynor would be.

Meanwhile, away from the football,Scientists have stumbled upon a planet considered Earth’s twin, in another solar system 200 light years away.

Known as KOI-314c, the planet is the same weight but 60% larger.

The planet is also much hotter than Earth, with scientists estimating its surface temperatures to be around 104 degC .

I think i know where this idea of twins comes from.