Celtic Diary Wednesday February 12

We don’t often mention the independence debate in the Diary, but I can’t be the only one who has worked out that David Cameron wants Scotland to stay in the Union because its the only place above the flood line. We shouldn’t laugh, its bad enough for Manchester Utd fans with the way their team is playing, without having Surrey and Berkshire flooded as well.

So, with the success of Roll of Honour in bringing attention to the hypocrisy of the new anti -fans laws ( thats what they look like to me ) I’m bringing out a single to help flood victims, its called Trouble over Bridgewater.

Right, its  back to focussing on the league, and Neil Lennon will become only the fourth manager in Celtics history to secure three in a row, after Maley, Stein and Strachan.

It might sound a little dull, perhaps uninspiring, but each title is important if we are to erase the memory of a tainted nine in a row from across the city, and make sure the world is spinning correctly in its orbit again, signalling that all is well. In fact, look at this picture, and tell me you didn’t suddenly feel a very strong desire to win ten.

Give us the ten-aye, because when they finally had to go out and earn a title, they couldn’t.

With criticism being hurled at virtually everyone connected with Celtic, except John Clark and Danny McGrain, who lets face it, could burn the main stand down and we’d still say “so what ? “, then maybe its time to concentrate on whats good, and leave the moaning to those that are still moaning that Jock Stein didn’t play John Hughes in the 67 final.

And you can’t help but think that Stein would have struggled to achieve all he did had the internet been around in his day. Contrary to the image we have of his teams, especially that one, they had off days as well, and even Jimmy Johnstone was robbed of possession once or twice. In fact, my Dad remembers Bobby Murdoch misplacing a pass once.

More recently, there tends to be a glossing over of the Martin O’ Neill years as well, with all the credit for the success in the early 2000s being down to him. sure, he revitalised a tired team, but the likes of Lambert, Mjallby, Petrov, Moravcik and Larsson were already there, and with a spine like that -especially Larsson-success was inevitable.

We tend to forget the bad games when we look back, and I’m quite certain that as we draw closer to the sacred tenth title, weeks like this will have faded into the memory. There isn’t a film thats been made, nor a sport thats been played which is thrilling and exciting from start to finish, so we shouldn’t expect football to be any different.

Are we really that bad ? Is this really a crisis ? Is Neil Lennon so bloody hopeless and his team so bloody predictable that we’d get more joy watching the games on teletext ?

Of course not.

In Fraser Forster we have a keeper capable of pulling off breathtaking saves, as well as sometimes leaving us a little shaken by the odd wrong decision. Still, you can’t argue that its not exciting. He could do with a bit of work on his kickouts, though.

In defence we have sheer class with Mikael Lustig and Virgil van Dijk, roving wing play from Matthews and Izzaguerre , with a bright new prospect already catching the eye of his international coaches in Darnell Fisher.

And theres Efe Ambrose to keep us on the edge of our seats with his unconventional approach to the game.

Whatever else you might say about Scott Brown, he’s a dedicated captain, energetic, powerful, and on form an absolute inspiration , not unlike Roy Aitken , and he has Stefan Johansen and Nir Bitton for support. Two largely untested players thus far, but reason enough to go to games to see how they fit in. Then theres Liam Henderson and others bubbling under, such as promising Israeli Beram Kayal.

And we’ve now seen after Saturdays game why Charlie Mulgrew is in the tea. Reliable, steady, and worth a goal or two.  Extremely under rated, and one of our own.

There is criticism of the amount of midfielders that have been allowed to leave, such as Wanyama , Ledley and Ki, but if they want to go, then they want to go. Whatever the reason.

As far as wide players go, Samaras looks to have made his mind up to go, and he’ll be unhappy to leave under a cloud. Again though, as with James Forrest, goood to watch when on their game, but frustrating when they aren’t. Come on, even Larsson didn’t score in every game.

Which brings us to the forwards. Kris Commons has the chance to become a legend, he doesn’t know it yet, but he is improving with age, and if he continues in a free role behind the front two, he will be the star of this particular era.

With Leigh Griffiths already in, and looking quite lively-alright, he’s only done twenty minutes so far, and Tony Watt growing up in Belguim, we might not need the six million pound forward after all. These two could be our new Sutton and Larsson, or Nicholas and McGarvey.

We won’t know until we see it though, just as we won’t know what we have in Pukki, Balde Fridjonsson and Boerrigter until they get a decent run in the side.

Lennon may feel that he has gone stale after nearly four years in the job, and there does seem to be an O’ Neillesque tendency to stick to the same pattern with the same players.

In management, one rule should be at the foremost of a mangers thoughts.

Be predictable in your unpredictability.

Lennon could do worse than give this a go, both when dealing with the players and with answering the criticism from fans.

Things aren’t so bad.

Not as bad as for that bloke who blew himself up showing trainees how to be suicide bombers. His last words, apparently,  were;

” Right, pay attention, I’m not going to show you this again. ”

Or that fellow on Channel 4s poverty fest Benefits Street,  Fungi, who discovered he had a lump on his chest. He was relieved when he went to the doctors and found out it wasn’t an ounce of pride.

So, we should look on the bright side. And count our blessings.

Elsewhere, things look a little better for Dundee Utd, after they wiped out bank debt with the help of a few wealthy supporters and some “soft loans ”

But finance guru Neil Patey, the expert wheeled out by tv companies to give his views on football finance, has urged caution;

“On the face of it this all seems to be positive but the one question I’d ask is: ‘Who provided the money and what conditions are attached to it?’

“We don’t know how wealthy these guys are. They might not have asked for security but do they have any sort of voting rights? Is it pure debt? Is there any interest? Is it cash paid?

“My assumption is if it’s a group of fans they might have done it out of generosity rather than a hard business arrangement and you’d hope the conditions attached were lenient.

“You see other football situations and business situations where banks are doing deals to secure some sort of repayment because they know they might never get full repayment so it wouldn’t surprise me if there was some sort of compromise agreement.”

Patey was the man who told us that Rangers CVA would be accepted by HMRC, despite it being common knowledge in the financial world that they don’t do that sort of thing. He also reckoned the club would be taken over by foreign investors-which was right, but not in the sense he meant it.

So, Dundee Utd are probably safe.

But are the new Rangers ?

Well, a leak from the SPFL indicates that they are about to ditch plans for automatic relegation for clubs in administration… co-incidence ?

Ewing Grahame explains-so good luck in trying to understand it;

By the way-isn’t it time for the VAT to be paid ?