Can’t see what all the fuss is about the curling. I watched it yesterday until the girls in the hairdressers asked me to move away from the window.

Gordon Strachan announced his squad for the upcoming friendly against Poland, and three Celtic players made the grade. Scott Brown, Charlie Mulgrew and James Forrest. With Kris commons taking early retirement, the only significant omission was Leigh Griffiths, and the door was left open for him to join the squad later.  Mainly because Steven Fletcher has been named, and no doubt he’ll pick up an injury before the game next month.

The new Celtic forward has been assured by Strachan that his twitter response to being left out against Norway was not the reason for him being left out;

Griffiths tweeted: “Gutted with three call-offs and I ain’t got called up to the squad.”

Thats because “How the fuck can that useless fat orange bastard Kris Boyd be in the squad ahead of me when he couldn’t score in a bucket of fannies. I mean he plays for Kilmarnock and eats monster munch for breakfast. ” is more than 140 characters.

Strachan said;

“I didn’t even know about that, until you told me.

“It is understandable. It was nothing more than you would get in a conversation with your friends at a dinner party.

“But, because of things like Twitter, you don’t have a dinner party now, you have a kind of Twitter party.

“And that’s all right. So long as no one is being derogatory, or being negative towards the squad, myself or the other coaches, then that’s fine.”

Strachan explained why he didn’t pick Griffiths;

“Leigh doesn’t need to do anything different to get back into the squad.

“All any player has to do in their career is get better all the time, and he has a great chance at Celtic to get better.

“Leigh has done absolutely nothing wrong to not be in this squad.

“It’s just that I have picked a certain amount of players for the system we want to play at this moment. And that’s it, really.”

“It’s great to see him playing at this level, rather than the level he was at. I am not speaking about the Wolves level, but the division he was in.”

“I like Leigh as a person, and he could not work any harder than he does when he comes to training with us.”

Surely it would have been simpler just to admit he forgot all about him ?

Celtic hav e released a statement to allay fears that the last two games before the league splits will not be moved to accomodate television, which has done the opposite where the game against Kilmarnock on March 15 is concerned. This is the game that may be brought forward to the Friday.

” CELTIC Football Club has received confirmation today that its matches at Celtic Park on March 22 and March 29 against St Mirren and Ross County respectively will NOT be moved for broadcasting purposes.

Therefore both these matches will take place on those Saturdays, both kicking – off at 3pm.

We have been advised that there will be no changes to these arrangements.

We appreciate this information which we are pleased to communicate to supporters. ”

Sometimes its in what they don’t say.

Speaking of which, the club have invited some supporters to attend a forum tonight, unfortunately Etims have no-one available to offer our tuppence worth,   but CQN have compiled a list of questions that will be put to the powers that be;

questions for the club

It seems to cover the waterfront, and we will await with interest the clubs response.

Georgios Samaras has turned down a massive pay hike to move to Rubin Kazan, according to the papers this morning, but Gregory Ioannadis begs to differ. The agent tweeted;

” More rubbish about Russian offers in the press today. There have been no offers. ”

Something significant might be happening in Scottish football. Just a little thing just now, but it marks a different attitude towards supporters, which to be fair, was what the clubs wanted when they formed the SPFL.

Inverness had been unhappy at the way their supporters were to be seated at the League Cup final atCeltic Park. They had been split into two, some in the main stand, some in the Lions stand.

The SPFL have considered the protests from the Caley fans, and now they have the whole Lions stand. Common sense in Scottish football ? Well, its a start.

Supporters chief Dave Balfour said: “Our chairman Kenny Cameron has been vindicated. We voiced out displeasure at the original plans and he went straight to bat for us.

“Thankfully, it’s a victory for common sense. We’ll forgo seats in the Main Stand but we were always happy to do that.

“The main thing is Inverness Caley Thistle fans are all together and that is exactly what we have got now.

“The SPFL made life hard for themselves and should have organised it this way from the start but the main thing is we got there in the end.

“The great thing is we’ll have the front of the Lisbon Lions Stand and can fill up the back with as many as we can take.”

Armageddon  seems to have bypassed us for the time being.

And it might just bypass the new Rangers club for a while as well.

Sorry. My bad. I meant this one;

Rangers set to receive £1.5million cash boost from investors to ease club’s financial fears

Its from the Record, and the pen of Keith Jackson. Which has put to bed all those nasty little stories that Scotlands prize winning journalist doesn’t know which end of a bic to put to the paper.

Jackson explains;

RECORD Sport understands the Ibrox club’s chief executive Graham Wallace is in advanced discussions to raise the emergency funds from two prominent investors –  the Easdale brothers and hedge fund managers Laxey Partners.

(All down to the hard work of Graham Wallace, who is not leaving. Presumably he’s just putting his coat on because its cold. )

RANGERS hope to rake in a £1.5million windfall that should ensure the club is not dragged back into financial distress.

( Windfall ? Its a payday loan. Even Wonga have never advertised their services as providing a windfall. )

Record Sport understands chief executive Graham Wallace is in advanced discussions to raise the cash from two prominent investors – the Easdale brothers and hedge fund managers Laxey Partners.

( Not David Murray then ? Are they sure about that ? )

It is anticipated these loans will not be repaid but converted into shares later this year, strengthening the positions of both groups at boardroom level.

( Of course they won’t be repaid. Its not how they do things at Ibrox. )

Sources inside Ibrox remain adamant the club is not on the brink of running out of money any time soon but, despite this, Wallace was in London yesterday on the latest leg of an urgent round of fundraising.

( Well, he was on his way to London )

And experts in the city expect the CEO to make an announcement to the stock exchange next week, confirming that the Easdales and Laxey have agreed to pump emergency cash into
the club.

A city source told Record Sport last night: “The club says it has enough cash in the bank to continue trading at the moment but clearly Wallace sees a need for fresh investment.

“In effect, the fact the Easdales and Laxey are prepared to hand over such significant sums is a show of faith in Wallace and the direction he is taking the club.

( No it doesn’t. It means they are skint. )

“They are taking a long-term view because the money will not be paid back quickly – it could be as much as a year down the line – and even then it will be paid back in the form of shares.

“Nothing has been signed off but a deal is close and there should be an official announcement in the next few days, probably early next week.”

( Just before the wages are due. )

The arrangements are expected to be ratified and rubber-stamped at a board meeting scheduled for today.

While Rangers insist their financial position is stable, there have been huge concerns about the club’s continued solvency ever since former financial director Brian Stockbridge predicted there would be just £1m left in their account by April this year – despite having raised £22m from an IPO in December 2012. These worries were heightened recently when Wallace floated the idea of asking Ally McCoist’s first-team squad to accept 15 per cent pay cuts.

( Floated the idea ? The idea was sunk by the players, who told them where to go. )

The club have still to put an exact figure on the expected shortfall in funding between now and the end of the season but it’s believed to run into millions.

In fact, former director Dave King has expressed his belief the club could be facing a second insolvency event in just two years and has offered to pump some of his own money into Ibrox in return for a position of power in the boardroom.

( Ah, Dave King and his white horse and blank chequebook. Keith just can’t leave him out, can he ? Largely because he’s been told to keep him in the news. By Dave King, presumably. )

As we revealed on Monday, King was still attempting to engage with the board last Friday – the anniversary of the day former owner Craig Whyte plunged the club into administration.

But King’s overtures have been consistently resisted by the current regime. It’s understood James and Sandy Easdale and Laxey boss Colin Kingsnorth are dead against any deal that might see their power base diluted.

Other leading shareholders, such as the mysterious Blue Pitch and Margarita Holdings, are also thought to be opposed to King’s involvement.

(Well, can’t he take the hint ? He either buys the club, or he doesn’t get to join in the asset stripping, sorry, rebuilding to a position of strength in the game )

Sandy Easdale has even been credited by some inside Ibrox for helping Wallace to pull this alternative cash injection together.

( Not sure how that works. If Easdale is giving them the money, is he giving him credit for asking him ? )

Rangers can also expect a cheque in excess of £1m early in the spring as part of their merchandising deal with Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct.

( Of course they can. To get a cheque for that much, at say even a fiver per top sold, thats 200,000 tops. )

Our city source said: “Obviously the club will be looking to bring in as much cash as it can get in the short to medium term before the season-ticket renewals start to come in later in the year.”

( Yeah, because the supporters will be rushing out to buy them. Even they aren’t that stupid to get taken in again. )

So, from that , the cash will be in the bank just as soon as the club get proof of income and a couple of guarantors. As the club-or company -have confirmed they are discussing a cash injection to the stock exchange, something is in the air.

Trouble is, it has a somewhat foul aroma attached to it. Not quite the alphabet of vitamins dancing through ones nostrils.

The independence debate rolls on, and the better together campaign held a march to gather support for their campaign;

Funnily enough, there was enough of them to hold up “Fuck it ” and then toddle off home.

If STV show the Mel Gibson movie Braveheart on a continuous loop on the day of the referendum, its in the bag. Especially as the BBC will be showing assorted politicians-from both ends of the spectrum, warning us that the mortgage will go up, the cost of living will shoot through the roof and we won’t have the pound or the queen anymore if we vote yes.

The interesting thing with the “No ” campaign is they are just telling us all the bad things that will happen if we vote yes, as opposed to the good things that will happen if we vote no.

Perhaps because there aren’t any ?

Most of you recognised Tony Cascarino in yesterdays diary. He came to Glasgow with a decent enough cv, and will forever be remembered for leaving and being the makeweight in the deal that brought the legend that is Tommy boyd to the club.

What about this one ?