Celtic Diary Friday February 14

Happy Administration Day.

For those romantics amongst you, Happy Valentines Day, and good luck getting any result with whatever you’ve bought your other half today. Remember, do it this year, and they’ll expect it every year.

A bit like Administration Day, really.

Now, all that happened two years ago could have been prevented had the media told the truth to the Ibrox hordes. Instead, they sort of ignored what was going on, and then pretended it didn’t happen anyway, and today, two years down the line, the stage is set for a re-run of a highly entertaining and amusing series of events. And its not that far away…

We hear that they are hoping to bring out a new debit card that will be used by their supporters, with the club getting a cut of all transactions;

So, with the benefit of experience, you’d think that their support-whats left of it-would be hell bent on making sure it doesn’t happen again. Instead, their anger is aimed, much to the delight of the few spivs who haven’t already sold up and sodded off with their share of the spoils, at the Celtic support who have forced “Roll of Honour ” into the UK charts to highlight the nonsense that is the Offensive Behaviour and Threatening Communications Bill.

Chris Graham, who writes for something called the Rangers Standard-which conjures up the image of a chap marching ahead of a fine battalion of clean shaven warriors heading off into battle against some chaps armed with sticks and the occasional stone, has given us his thoughts.

I’m not going to reprint them here, nor provide a link, because apart from it being a really turgid and difficult read, it simply isn’t worth bothering with-just the usual you’re all mindless murderers bullshit, and completely misses the point behind the actual protest.

More so, could it be his indignation and outrage are more aimed  at his own supporters inactivity over the death of their club, whilst the Celtic  support have been successfully mobilised to support not so much a cause, but a very real threat to liberty within society ?

Or is he just a knob ?

In fact, I don’t know why I even mentioned it, not when theres other stuff to be going on with.

Georgios Samaras has been blamed by one or two-okay, maybe a few more than that, supporters for the defeat by Aberdeenlast week, and manager Neil Lennon thinks thats unfair;

“I don’t think making Georgios a scapegoat for it is justified. Our major problem wasn’t going forward. In midfield and defence we were not as cohesive as usual. It’s unfair to make any player a scapegoat for any performance.

“Georgios came into the team and set up our goal. Then we lost our way, we didn’t seem to settle at all, so it’s unfair to blame Georgios. In terms of his future, I’m expecting talks but we are in the dark about whether he is going to stay or go. It’s not been made clear to us yet by him or his representatives.

“At the moment we have to take it that he is going, because his contract’s up in June. My gut feeling is he won’t be here next season, unless something remarkable takes place in the next week or two.

“It would be fair for me to look at alternatives between now and the end of the season. I have to look after the club’s best interests, Georgios obviously must look after his own.

“But the team comes first. It’s up to me, I pick the team. I picked him last week and I might pick him again on Sunday.”

Oh bloody hell. Just as we were ready to forgive him for the occasional lapse….

Debate raged amongst the replies to yesterdays diary as to who would, in the event Lennon left, take the helm at Celtic, which raised excitement in the Owen Coyle household.

We’re kidding ourselves if we don’t think Celtic is still an attractive proposition for a manager, of course it is. So we probably wouldn’t struggle to attract a replacement, its more about whether we would be ambitious enough to go and get one. One who isn’t called Owen Coyle, that is.

Looking at Lennon himself, and the chances of him leaving, his mentors Gordon Strachan and Martin O’ Neill would both reccommend going after four years, Strachan especially reckons thats the life span of a boss.

He might fancy a new challenge, he may want more money, but it seems to me that he just loves the place, so he isn’t for quitting.

But should we keep him, is he up to the job ?

Bar the odd mistake, yes, he is. The problem is that the odd mistake tends to be the same mistake , repeated not once, but a couple of times. He is still a relative novice, and has had to cut his teeth at the top. Having his squad ripped apart on a biannual cycle doesn’t help either, something we tend to forget when criticising him, and neither does not being allowed to replace them.

There are more passes than failure ( especially sidieways ones lol )  but he does need to move it up a gear though, which might be beyond him, but he at least deserves a chance.

Wittering fool Peter Shilton made a few remarks about Fraser Forster needing to move to England the other day, and Neil Lennon has sprung to the defence of his keeper.

“How does Peter Shilton know about Fraser? How often has he watched Celtic play? It sounds like it’s a throwaway remark but sometimes those are the ones that do most damage.

“Peter was one of the world’s best and had such a prolonged career with England but remarks like that are not helpful and certainly not encouraging for Fraser. ”

“They do the player an injustice and it is really unfair on Fraser.

“If Peter had been here over the past two or three months then he might change his mind.

“We know what a good goalkeeper he is and he has done enough to warrant a place on the plane to Brazil. He’s certainly within the top three English goalkeepers.”

Victor Valdes, Barcelona keeper, apparently said that Forster would have to score goals in Scotland as well, to impress the English. He maybe has a point there.

Perhaps fools such as Shilton and Graham are best just ignored, as they are few and far between.

Roddy Forsyth, in the Telegraph asks the question;

” What’s the difference between Scotland and England? Apart, that is, from one insisting on exclusive use of the pound sterling and the other wanting all the North Sea oil for itself? ”

I don’t know, Roddy, whats the difference between Scotland and England, you wonder , with perhaps a yawn and a sigh..

Then, the rest of the article, an excellent summation of the abuse Neil Lennon gets, wakens you from your lethargy;