Celtic Diary Wednesday January 15

Stefan Johansen should be revealed as a Celtic player this afternoon. He’s signed a three and a half year deal which means he could feature in up to a dozen games.

Johansen joins from Stromgodset for a fee of £1.7m , according to the Record, which will rise subject to appearances. Which means its £1.7m.

He decided to move to Celtic after praise for the club came from brittle defender and compatriot Tomas Rogne, who said the medical facilities are amongst the best in Europe.

Well, he probably did. Johansen told the Scotsman;

“I talked a little bit with Thomas because I played in the (Norway) Under-21s with him,I have heard from the national (team) guys that it’s a fantastic city and the Celtic fans are unbelievable. I hope it’s going to work out and I’m looking forward to it.”

He comes highly recommended, and might actually be the creative midfielder we are crying out for. Just because none of us have heard of him doesn’t mean he’s not very good, or incapable of holding down a first team place. You just have to hope he’s given a chance.

Thomas Rogic has seen his loan move and World cup hopes all but disappear after his move to Japan fell through when club Vegalta Sendai realised their league doesn’t start until March, and Rogic would only have nine games with them. Which concerned them because he’s never managed such a long  run of matches.

Rogic could now head down south to England or move to a European club instead. His agent, Daniel Berman, confirmed: “We have contingency plans in place.” -probably involving a lot of screaming, a lot of shouting and pins being stuck into a little ginger haired doll. You have to feel for him, he came halfway round the world and never really got a run of games to show what he could do. Which applies to most signings these days, but we don’t see what the manager sees in training, so we’ll just have to take his word for it that they weren’t up to it. After all, theres not many gone on to better things.

Didier Agathe, who was in Lennons “best ever players I’ve played with” team was a notoriously poor trainer, and its not always the most important aspect of a player, but one wonders if he was worse than Agathe, just how bad was he ?

Jumping the gun a bit there, but there must be a reason he never got a shot-like the promising Dylan McGeouch , subject of an enterprising bid from Coventry City ( they are under an embargo ), Calum McGregor- who hasn’t even been told if he’s staying at Notts County and now Paul George , who is off to Hamilton on loan.

When there is a lot of pressure from the support, as there is just now, especially in home games, a manager would be reluctant to test youngsters for any length of time, and with the fans demanding big name signings, Lennon may feel he’s caught between a rock and a hard place.

But showing interest in Dundee Utd youngsters, no matter how talented, and buying unknown projects, is a bit of a kick in the teeth to a youth side that has swept all before it for several years.

I have a mate who lives in Dundee, incidentally, and he says when his girlfriend puts on her pyjamas, he’s never sure if she’s going to bed or going out shopping.

So, do we get a big name striker ? A response to the diary yesterday asked if there was something in the Jordan Rhodes link, or were we just now taking the piss out of ourselves.

Bit of both, if I’m honest. He is the one that we want, but it looks like we aren’t doing anything about it. Unless its a case of ignoring it until the last day, and then offering a skint Blackburn some hard cash.

Another forward in Englandshire to be linked, via SSN, is Adam le Fondre-he is a footballer, not a dessert,-who has lost his way a bit at Reading, and he isn’t much good at writing and arithmetic either…I know, I’ll get my coat.

Theres a general malaise about the support just now, which some might find difficult to fathom. It could be a sense of just going through the motions, with the league won before a ball is kicked, with nothing really to look forward to.

But for those of us who lived through the nineties, and those older who saw the pre Stein years then we would say enjoy it, relish every minute, because as the saying goes, you can never be too thin, or else you were never too fat.

( Note, this is not medical advice, thats because I’m not a doctor. )

So, it must be time to laugh, and to try to pick ourselves up. There is always someone worse off than yourself, for instance David Cameron’s barber, who got an MBE . despite having several opportunities to stab the guy in the neck and failing every time. Imagine how embarrassed he must feel when he got a medal for making an arse of his mission.

Or Ally McCoist, who just a few months after being told he had to take a pay cut himself, now has to cut the wage bill of his new football club. Poor Ally, just when everything was going so well, he now faces life in the next tier of Scottish football, when he’s up against full time teams, with just seven or eight times their financial clout.

Never mind, who wants a pie ?

Oh, sorry , theres none left

Oh here, the fellow says the shop up the road has a couple

But enough of them, lets talk about football instead.

Congratulations must go to Christian Ronaldo, who has been awarded the Balon d’Or , which could go some way to giving him the confidence he obviously lacks, and there is a little bit of encouraging news for beleagured Manchester Utd boss and former Celt Davie Moyes. Although Manchester Utd had no players in FIFAs World XI, there was good news when Ashley Young was nominated as best actor at the Golden Globes.

That was big George Young holding Bobby Collins in yesterdays picture. Young , of course, is immortalised in the Coronation cup song, mainly due to the tinge of blue in his nose. Theres not many Rangers players in Celtic songs, so he’s fairly unique, i suppose.

Thats if you don’t count Ronald and Frank de Boer.

See if you can guess what popular ditty, sung a few years ago, is suggested by these pictures..

Oh, one more thing.

This from a local source, at Port Vale.

The one on the left is Sam Johnson, Port Vale reserve. The other is US international Sean Johnson, he’s the one we apparently want.