Celtic Diary Thursday February 27

You know, after the result up at Pittodrie, I was feeling all miserable and depressed, but I have managed to turn it around. Now I am depressed and miserable.

Charlie Mulgrew, the man who will step in to help out if anyone is injured, stepped in to speak to the papers about the cataclysmic loss to Aberdeen, because he wants to assure us that the players will be focussed for the upcoming game against Inverness.

“It’s very hard to do and it plays on your mind for a few days. But, we need to put the result behind us and move towards the next match.” 

Reporters were on the edge of their seats as he continued, explaining the benefit of Neil Lennons rousing half time speech.

“It was a similar situation when we were 3-0 down at Kilmarnock a few years back.

“He said a lot of similar things then and he gave us a lot of belief.

“He does that, and maybe on another day we might have gone on and got a result out of it.”

We had someone recording this particular session, and we felt that saying the ” referees an arsehole” and ” get intae these sheepshagging bastards ” somewhat lacked the technical direction, interpersonal communication and motivational assistance required at the top level of professional sport.

Neil Lennon is still harping on about the sending off of Virgil van dijk, so lets examine the rules; ( Law 12, from FIFA.com

• denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player’s goal by an offence punishable by a free kick or a penalty kick

Theres no mention of being the last man, so the Ambrose argument doesn’t come into it. Moving towards goal ? Thats a bit vague, but as it doesn’t say “directly ” moving towards the goal, then just moving forward sort of covers the waterfront there.

Johnny Hayes, the Dons player who ended the run of clean sheets, thinks the Dons got what they deserved ( again ).

” The first half I thought we were much the better team. I haven’t seen Celtic being outplayed like that, even though they were down to 10 men.

“The second half we didn’t control the game as well as we would have liked. We sat deeper and deeper and let Celtic back into the game.

“We were under the cosh for a while but I thought overall we just about deserved to win. We didn’t feel we were going to concede a second goal at all.”

And on his goal ?

“It’s probably my best strike. As soon as I hit it I knew it was going in. ”

I think a few of us knew that before he  hit it.

Hugh Keevins, one of a handful of journalists still working at the Record after the recent exits by Tom Cowan and  James Traynor , has opened a three day “warts and all ” feature celebrating the twentuieth anniversary of the arrival of Fergus McCann. Funnily enough, he forgot to mention the time he compared him unfavourably to Saddam Hussein.

That snippet shows how a headline and a picture can give a completely misleading idea of the story within.

A byline, which identifies the author, can also be misleading. For example;

” The Truth about ( insert Rangers related subject ) ” by ( Insert name of Scottish journalist ) usually means that the article that follows contains anything but.

And so it proves with Keevins summary of McCann at the top of the article. The Jim Craig interview is quite interesting, but Keevins own additions are still just that wee bit nasty.

” ON the first day of our exclusive series marking the 20th anniversary of McCann’s takeover at Celtic Park we speak to Hoops icon Jim Craig who can actually lay claim to starting the revolution. ”

But only in the feverish, befuddled space between the bit that holds Hughs glasses on. 

ON TUESDAY Celtic fans will celebrate the 20th anniversary of Fergus McCann’s takeover of the club.

The wee man with the bunnet was laughed at when he arrived from North America to stop Celtic being closed by their bankers but McCann delivered.

Not by anyone with any sense he wasn’t. Which rules Hugh out.

He famously refused to part with “one thin dime” while Rangers threatened to spend a tenner for every fiver Celtic put down.

If you don’t count the millions he gave  to the bank, I suppose. Oh, and the amount he invested-nearly all he had.

In the end, there was only one winner. Now Record Sport tells the story of the McCann years, warts and all, in an exclusive three-day series.

Well, a sort of Janet and John version of event

LISBON Lion Jim Craig is one of only 11 men entitled to make a comparison between Fergus McCann and Jock Stein.

Er, not quite. I think, on reflection, there are probably a few more.

And the full-back who gained legendary status as a member of the Celtic team that defeated Inter Milan to win the European Cup in 1967 is in no doubt about his verdict.

McCann stands beside the club’s greatest-ever manager on the list of pivotal figures in the club’s history.

And Craig can take some of the credit for paving the way for McCann to come in and revolutionise the club in 1994.

Only in Keevinsworld that is. Hey, I’ve got an idea for a new funpark. Its called Keevinsworld and you just pay to go into a room where you can use your imagination to pretend you are anywhere in the world doing anything you want. And people will listen to your opinions, and nod knowingly whilst casting admiring glances in your direction as they ponder the wit and wisdom of your words. 

His detective work set him off on a countrywide search for shareholders willing to sell their proxy vote to assist McCann’s takeover bid.

It all started when he was clearing out a cupboard at home and had the fortuitous domestic accident he has ever experienced.

Craig said: “A large package fell from a top shelf and whacked me on the head. When I examined it I found it was a folder which listed the names of everyone in Britain who had shares in Celtic.

“My wife, Elizabeth, was the daughter of a Celtic director, Jimmy Farrell, and I assume that was how the folder came to be in our house.

“I also discovered it contained the club’s rules and regulations covering those shareholders – the main one of interest being the fact that 10 shares equalled one vote at any meeting.

“Brian Dempsey got to hear about my discovery and we put together a plan to go out and see who was interested in selling their proxy vote to those who were trying to win control of Celtic.”

Thats actually a good wee story, and Craig might even be understating his role in the revolution a wee bit. 

Craig’s name, and those of the other Lisbon Lions, will be enshrined in the club’s history.

Will be ? It already is.

But the former defender found McCann to be something less than overwhelmed when the two men
met at the start of his campaign on the wee man’s behalf.

Eh ? What with ? Or who with ?

Craig said: “The people who were trying to take over the club needed a big hitter to front their movement.

“He carried no baggage and was, as they say in Glasgow, a tough
wee cookie.

“Fergus wasn’t particularly charismatic or gracious when you met him.

“But I was a player at Celtic when big Jock became manager in 1965 and there were striking similarities with McCann’s arrival almost 30 years later – the main one being he was exactly what the club needed.

“Celtic had won nothing for seven years before Jock arrived. Two years later we were European champions.

“What Celtic needed when Fergus made his pitch for the club in 1994 was a full-blooded revolution.”

Which is what happened. Anyone else think that theres bits missing here, because Craig is an articulate and intelligent man, and that bit doesn’t really sound like him.

What would turn out to be the last home game played by Lou Macari’s side prior to the old board’s removal, against Kilmarnock, was watched by just 10,000 fans. Celtic had failed to stay in Europe beyond Christmas since 1980 and their financial worries were getting to a stage so serious their bank was talking about receivership.

It might have been worth adding that we need a new ground at this stage, and didn’t have the money to pay for it, which I always thought was quite an important issue during the takeover.

McCann, as history would show, transformed Celtic’s fortunes – on and off the park – before he left after five years in charge.

Craig said: “The bank manager was a regular visitor to Celtic Park before Fergus took over.

“But what happened after his installation was that Celtic got a stadium which has become a landmark in the East End of Glasgow.

“The club also got financial stability on the back of tens of thousands becoming season ticket holders and shareholders.

“Fergus wasn’t the easiest man in the world to get along with but he’s rightly bracketed with the greatest figures in Celtic’s history.”

Hugh wouldn’t have liked that bit, so he has to ask the most important question;

The question is would Stein have co-existed peacefully with McCann if the two had been manager and owner at the same time?

For fucks sake. Who cares ?

McCann quickly sacked Macari and had a fractious relationship with the late Tommy Burns as well as Wim Jansen, in spite of the latter winning the league title that stopped Rangers clinching 10 in a row.

None of whom went on to succeed in management. Burns did excel as a coach and mentor, but , being a Celtic man to the core, he didn’t recover professionally from the heartbreak of being sacked.

Burns was removed and the Dutchman quit due to irreconcilable differences with McCann after less than 12 months as manager.

Craig said: “Big Jock once told me it wasn’t all plain sailing when he was working under Sir Robert Kelly, the Celtic chairman.

“I was once sent off in a European Cup tie in Russia and Jock told me to apologise to the player I’d got involved with on the park.

“I refused and was left out of the team for the next match because it was
Sir Robert’s policy that any man sent off should issue an apology.

“Fergus might have turned out to be like Cardiff’s owner, Vincent Tan, if he’d stayed in charge of Celtic.

Thats ridiculous even by Keevins own fairly low standards. The odds are he probably wouldn’t have.

“But if he hadn’t shown up at all in 1994 I don’t know what kind of future Celtic would have had without him.”

Theres a fairly good reference point over the other side of the city. Should give you some idea. 

When he reads that , Jim Craig-notice he isn’t “Mr Craig “, despite his achievements in the game-will probably shake his head and wonder how what he said came out like that at the other end of Keevins pen.

Can’t wait for part two.

Speaking of the other side of the city, it looks like full blooded civil war is about to break out between the forces of the King (Dave ) and the forces of reform ( in that they want to turn the place into a tesco ).

King, who is a convicted tax fraudster who avoided jail by paying millions of pounds to the South African government , would, by definition, not pass a “fit and proper persons ” test , as defined by the SFA, and therefore wouldn’t be allowed to own them anyway, wants to own them.

The reformers, led by a consortium of asset strippers and the hostage Ally McCoist, haven’t finished their stripping yet, so are content to largely ignore Kings MSM backed campaign for a new share issue-i.e. he wants to use fans money- because frankly it doesn’t matter how much the press trumpet the South African, he doesn’t have any shares in the current incarnation, and he won’t buy any.

Meanwhile, they are desperate for cash to remain a going concern, and because no-one will lend them any-even secured short term, which is hard to believe, they have had to lend it to themselves, with  an enormous fee payable in September, which they won’t have and then they will wave goodbye to the Albion Car Park and the Edmiston house building.

Meanwhile, desperate journalists, themselves complicit in this mess, plead the case for King to be allowed to take over.

Amidst a blaze of publicity, King told Ibrox supporters to withhold their season book money, and not to buy pies , or shirts and so on.

“I do not believe that Rangers should be under the control of one owner/benefactor,” King said. “We have seen the damage caused when the club becomes a hostage to the fluctuating whims and wealth of a single owner. I see my role as being the lead investor of a like-minded consortium that will invest in the club, along with the supporters, without the short-sightedness of an immediate return on investment.”  

Richard Wilson, writing in the Herald, offers his opinion;

King, like other potential investors, cannot buy a controlling stake in the markets without paying over the odds. That is the legacy of the decision of the consortium behind Charles Green to limit shareholders to small holdings. A fair price would reflect the financial state of the club because any owner needs to either invest heavily in the business or downsize it. The current board and King appear to fundamentally disagree on how the club should be run. 

He’s right. King wants to save it, the current lot want to kill it.

Richard Wilson full article can be read here, and its worth a look if you can’t find anything else to make your eyes bleed. Wilson article

Funnily enough, he doesn’t mention the criminal convictions…

Neither do the Sun;

He’s a “tycoon ” again. Not a “glib and shameless liar, ” as a South  African judge described him.

Then theres the Evening Times..and Matthew Lindsay, who makes the suuculent lamb era look positively Woodward and Bernstein with this sycophantic nonsense.more shite fromthe MSM

The campaign is in full swing. The end truly is near.

40, 35, 30, 25, 20 ?

Thats the predicted attendance at Celtics next few home games, if you are a glass half full sort of person.

You can hear myself and Desi discussing Lennons options to put bums on seats on the latest podcast, which will be on the site tomorrow morning.

Thats if you want to make your ears bleed as well as your eyes.

Celtic Collectables on twitter does some great pictures, and he’s floored me with this one. Who is it ?