Celtic Diary Sunday February 16

Firstly, I’ll be watching MTV or listening to Radio One tonight to hear the Irish Brigades contribution to the music scene with Roll of Honour, and see when it comes on, I need you all to open up all your  windows, turn the volume way way up, and sing along to it at the top of your voices.

They can’t arrest all of us. Well, they won’t arrest me, I live in England.

The song, of course , has been available to download all week, and should be at least mentioned by the sanitised mainstream outlets around teatime. Its doubtful it will be played, but the whole point was to draw attention to the ludicrous Threatening Behaviour and Walking on the Cracks in the Pavement bill, which has seen another football fan sent to jail this week.

James Beattie was walking to the Aberdeen Motherwell game at Fir Park when a policeman heard him call Neil Lennon a fenian bastard. Neil Lennon never heard him, so its doubtful any harm was done, but the guy got ten months. Ten months in the big house for calling someone who wasn’t there a name.

Step back a second, because anyone who seriously thinks that Scotland is capable of going it alone while the people who made that law are anywhere near the new independent government needs to take a long look at themselves.

Won’t be long before this sort of image is portrayed of the Irish again…

And then there’ll be mock outrage and everyone will get the jail. Is it just me who thinks the whole nonsense about the offensive behaviour bill is just a sideline. and if they lock everyone up they can’t vote against independence ?

Ralph Malphs Two Step Plan for a Successful Scotland ;

1) Dump the English government.

2) Dump the Scottish Government.

3) Sell Oil

4) Improve the teaching of Arithmetic.

Celtic play host to St. Johnstone today, and Charlie Mulgrew still hasn’t stopped talking. He waits until he’s on the pitch to do that, like all the other players.

He was still praising Fraser Forster, long after the press had left the room, and only the official Celtic site reporter was left. And that was because he was waiting to lock up.

Fraser’s matured a lot and there’s a lot more confidence,” Mulgrew said. “He’s always been a great shot-stopper, he’s got a great physical presence about him and he’s does a lot of talking, so he’s a top keeper.

“He’s proved he can play at the highest level, and there’s no reason why he can’t go to the World Cup with England.”

“As a team overall we’ve defended well,” he said. “Obviously big Fraser deserves a lot of credit for the saves he’s made, but it’s a team effort. We attack and we score as a team, and we defend as a team too.”

Forster himself reckons he can achieve all his ambitions with Celtic ;

“I’ve read Peter Shilton’s comments. But I got my first cap while playing for Celtic and had the opportunity to play inthe Champions League.

“A club of this stature is always very attractive and every player that joins is delighted to get the chance to play in Europe.

“For me, Celtic’s been a fantastic club and will always be a big part of my life.

“I managed to get into squads and then that first cap, so there’s no reason why I can’t make the World Cup. If you’re playing as well as you can for your club, that will be watched and noted. You can only play as well as you can for Celtic, and that’s enough.”

“It would be fantastic to be a part of a World Cup finals in Brazil. I’d love to be on the plane. It would be a great way to finish the season.”

Good management by Lennon, keeping the boy on what has been a tremendous learning curve ?

“The summer feels a long way away. We’ve got almost a third of the season to go.

“The manager has been complimentary about me and I’ll always thank him for putting his faith in me and bringing me on so much.

“But it’s a case of waiting and seeing what happens.

“You can say that about a lot of players at the club and even about the manager.

“Over the last four years, his achievements have been fantastic. It’s just a matter of time until he gets a job in the Premier League or somewhere like that.”

Interesting, because the other papers have been full of articles about Lennons future. Will he stay, will he go, will anyone care ?

Lennon is approaching the milestone of four years, which will see him become the clubs longest serving manager since Stein. Which will have some screamiong in despair, and others quietly applauding.

He told the Record;

“Well, yes. I think you know instinctively when there is a cut-off point. Whether mine is here yet, I don’t know.

“I speak to Gordon Strachan about managers and their shelf lives. But it’s not high on my agenda at the minute.

“There are a lot of managers out of work. I don’t fancy looking at wallpaper and
carpets because once you’re out of a job it’s very difficult to get back in.

“This is a great job. One, it is good money – it pays the bills and keeps the clothes on the kids. And two, you can be forgotten about very quickly.

“There are good managers who have been out of football for two or three years.

“So you have to be careful. I’m not saying I’m going to leave and walk straight into another job. I haven’t made any designated plans for that and I’m not in any rush.

“Celtic is a huge job but, like everything else, you have good and bad days. The good days are good and the bad days are horrific. But that’s part of the excitement as well. You have to be a bit of a masochist to do this job.”

He admitted that losing theWanyamas and Hoopers and Ledleys is getting to him, though;

“ Quality needs to be replaced to get us back to the level we were at 15 months ago where, for me, we peaked by beating Barcelona.”

Today , though, we are more interested in how we perform against St. Johnstone. With a back drop of apathy for the rest of the season, Lennon needs to do something to create a buzz about games now, otherwise the crowds and atmosphere will suffer.

If we play like we did against Aberdeen, half arsed and disinterested, then we might well see crowds fall and criticism rise, but going back to a diamond four and two up front will see us all eating our dinners afterwards with a big smile on our faces.

I’d like to see Forster in goal, with fisher, Ambrose, van Dijk and Izzaguerre at the back. Mulgrew in front of them, and Brown and Johansen in front of him. That leaves Kris Commons to support Leigh Griffiths and Teemu Pukki.

However, we are likely to see James Forrest in there somewhere, so its unlikely that Pukki will start, which is a shame. He creates space, which Commons and Griffiths would capitalise on.

Prediction ? About 7-0 . With Grififths and Commons getting a couple to ad to singles from Brown, van Dijk and Pukki.

No point in watching the game now the oracle has spoken, is there ?

The game in yesterdays picture was the famous 6-2 win over Rangers, which was as good a day out as anyone could ever hope for.

Hugh Dallas was on the sidelines, deep in thought and looking every inch the impartial official.

Heres another impartial observer. Who, where and why ?

I’m glad all that Valentines weekend nonsense is over. Single men, single women, all sitting down alone watching films with a tissue in their hand.

My wife had a go at me for not taking her out for a meal-she loves dining out. Bloody hell. She never takes me to a lap dancing club.