Which comes right at the end, though theres a clue in the picture.

Meanwhile,  a long serving player starts to say goodbye…

Georgios Samaras, who is almost certainly away at the end of the season, has spoken about his time at Celtic, and there is a tinge of sadness in his words;

“When I started playing football, I always wanted to stay at a club for many years.

“I didn’t want to change clubs like other players do, moving every two or three years.

“I wanted to love a club and for it to love me back, so they would remember me for something. This club for me is Celtic.

“I have seen players coming here for six months, one year or two years and maybe they have played 60-70 games, but they won’t be remembered.

“I couldn’t imagine when I first came here on loan for six months that I would stay for another six years. It’s a great achievement to play 250 games but it’s just a number.

“You can take pictures from your career from these games that people will remember for years to come. I will just keep putting miles on the dashboard.”

If you see the souvenirs I have from football – awards, hat-trick balls, medals and trophies – they are all from Celtic.

“When I retire I have my wall of fame and everything there will be Celtic. It’s all about Celtic. I have tried my best and tried to help my team-mates be successful.

“But the most important thing is that it’s good for me to know that I have a connection for the club. I am not a passenger.”

When people ask me why I have been at Celtic for so many years and haven’t gone down south, I always say that after all the hard work we do in pre-season, you get to hold something in May.

“This is when the hard work pays off. It is a moment we as players are all waiting for and hopefully the supporters as well.

“It will be a full house and we can all celebrate three-in-a-row.”

In pre internet and blanket tv coverage days, history would have been kinder to Samaras. When he was good, he was very, very good, but when he was bad…..

However, he rarely hid, and put up with more abuse from the support during a game than anyone else I can remember, apart from maybe Willie Garner, who scored in all his games when he was at Celtic, just not actually for Celtic.

He’ll be missed, but no-one will be able to say exactly why. Thats if he does go, which isn’t certain yet. Olympiakos , in his homeland , have offered him a two year deal, but he’s in no rush to sign it. Samaras has never been in a rush to do anything.

Someone who is regretting not signing a deal with Celtic is Marc Janko, now available for free after Trabzonspor decided he was surplus to their requirements. The Austrian captain could have joined Celtic a while ago, but either the fee-£1.5m-or his own decision put a stop to it. It was the latter, but he’s changed his mind now.

“I now have a commitment from the club that I will be a free transfer… now I’m basically open to anything.” , he said, before texting Neil Lennon saying “pick me, pick me ”

Pat Fenlon has been linked with the vacant assistant managers job at Celtic, prompting Johan Mjallby to offer to stay until a proper replacement can be found. Well, we still keep hearing that Rene Mullensteen has been offered the job… or we keep saying it, which is nearly the same thing.

Estate agents in Glasgow have been emailing Robert Snodgrass with properties after he more or less said he was joining Celtic in the summer. when asked if this was true, he said;

“What division we’re in will be relevant.”

“If things go according to plan and we stay in the Premier League I’ll have a year left and I’ll honour that. As a player, you want to play at the highest level and that’s why I’m giving everything I can to keep Norwich up.

“Everything I do is geared towards keeping us in the Premier League as this club gave me my chance. It’s a fantastic club and I’ve loved every second here.”

Snodgrass then went on to state that a switch to Celtic would be tempting for him:

“I’m flattered to be linked with Celtic as I’ve watched them since I was a kid. I was also in Scottish football and there’s always a part of me that thinks I’ve a point to prove there.

“I also want to be successful and Celtic are a successful club.

“They win things, they could have won the Treble this year and winning things appeals to me.

“That’s a big pull for me.”

Rather than have to talk to the MSM every couple of days or so, he also forwarded his next statement, to be used if by some miracle Norwich are not relegated;

” Whilst I have enjoyed myself at Norwich, and they have been good to me, the chance of performing on the biggest stage of all was too good to turn down. I’d like to thank Norwich for all they have done for me, but as a Celtic supporter, the lure of playing for my team is the fulfillment of a boyhood dream. And Gary says he’d love to come back as well. ”

So, despite stories that Newcastle Utd are ready to battle for his signature,  according to Agent Scotland, on twitter, a £3.5m deal was agreed some time ago, and this will happen. Snodgrass to Celtic, , that is. and he would be well advised to check his boot before leaving East Anglia, as its more than likely Gary Hooper will be hiding in there.

Whilst theres probably not room in the team for Hooper, at least he went straight home after work and had his tea. Maybe watched a bit of telly, listened to music or built wee model aeroplanes.

Leigh Griffiths social life is well documented, and now the press have turned their guns-or cameras-on Anthony Stokes, who has been known to stop off for a swiftie on the way home.

And not surprisingly, its the Daily Record who have picked up on the latest story. Apparently, an Irishman has been caught singing Irish songs in an Irish bar.

In Ireland.

Can you imagine the excitement in the reporters voice when he rang the editor to ask him to hold the front page and pitched the story ?

Well, yes, because thats not how he would have pitched it. And of course, thats not how it was reported;

Celtic striker Anthony Stokes caught on stage with

a pro-IRA singer at a republican pub in Belfast

waving  an Armalite rifle and a photo of the Grand

hotel in Brighton, whilst wearing a t-shirt that

said ” Why wasn’t the cow a bit more to the left ?”

Alright, I’ve added a bit, but you get the point. 

STOKES, fined by Celtic over a similar incident in 2012, appeared at the ‘Rebel Sunday’ event at a pub on the Falls Road in Belfast.

CELTIC striker Anthony Stokes has been caught on stage with a pro-IRA singer at a republican pub in Belfast.

Stokes, 25, who has already been warned by boss Neil Lennon over his conduct, was pictured at a notorious bar on the Falls Road with his arm around musician Alan Quinn.

A picture taken at the Rock Bar shows a smiling Stokes at the 
microphone with Quinn, who faces trial over video footage of him leading a crowd in IRA chants last year.

Dublin-born Stokes was carpeted by Celtic in 2012 after he attended a memorial for m murdered Real IRA chief Alan Ryan.

He was fined, told by Lennon that he had damaged the club’s name and was urged to stay away from similar events.

And his appearance at the Rebel Sunday night held by the bar every week is sure to incense the club.

A Celtic source said: “A lot of people at the club will be infuriated Stokes has disregarded the manager’s advice and turned up at an event like this.

“Why has a Celtic player turned up in Belfast – on the Falls Road of all places – at an event called Rebel Sunday and gone up on stage?”

Stokes visited the Rock Bar on 
April 6, a day after scoring Celtic’s second goal in a 2-0 win over Dundee United.

On stage with the footballer and 48-year-old Quinn, from Glasgow, was singer Gerry Og McConnell, whose 
repertoire includes songs such as Provo’s Lullaby.

Two nights earlier, the bar had hosted notorious singer Brendan “Bik” McFarlane, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1976 for murdering five people in a pub bombing.

Quinn has been charged with breach of the peace over an incident in the Foggy Dew bar in Gallowgate, Glasgow, last April – just after the death of Margaret Thatcher.

Footage of him conducting a pro-IRA chant appeared on YouTube within hours of Thatcher’s death.

No date has been set for his trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Quinn – whose band are called Shebeen and whose songs include The IRA Will Set Them Free – was so happy with the gig at which Stokes came on stage he tweeted about it.

He wrote: ”Absolutely 
fantastic. Great fun too. Thanks for everything.”

Celtic last night declined to comment.

There was no answer at Quinn’s home in Glasgow’s east end.

And the point is ? Its hard to see what the reporter ( Keith MacLeod ) is getting at. On the one hand, a Celtic “source ” , claims the club will be incensed, yet the club isn’t commenting. And to add to the farcical nature of the report, it concludes by saying “we were going to ask the guy, but he wasn’t in ” 

Stokes , though, could be accused of doing exactly what Lennon has told him not to. after the bombs and bullets in the post, the Irish troubles are very real to Lennon, and whilst Stokes isn’t exactly a distant observer , he should be aware of possible consequences. There is certainly a story or a debate in that, but this article smacks of laziness, and merely a chance to bring another Celt into the limelight.

Whatever the real story behind all this, Stokes -and Griffiths-need to grow up and stop giving the papers something to write about. Because sooner or later, someone at Celtic will just say “fuck it, get rid ”

Anyway, whats this we hear about Kris Commons and Emilio Izaguerre, four in the morning , drunkenly stumbling around the Gallowgate, keying cars and singing the Helicopter song as Efe Ambrose backflips along behind them with an accoustic guitar ?

Nothing. Thats what. They just go home to their families after work, and make model aeroplanes.

Mind you, its a hell of an image…

The next final of the Glasgow Cup will be played behind closed doors after fans of new Rangers tore up seats and generally reminded us what we have missed since the old club went into liquidation.

Gordon Parks, in the Record, and now on twitter –  ( by popular demand, according to his colleague Keith Jackson, until one wag ( me ) pointed out that Jackson obviously didn’t understand the words “popular ” and “demand “) gave us this;

ORGANISERS of the 127-year-old 
tournament have been forced to pick up the £10,000 repair bill for the extensive damage caused by Rangers fans in Celtic Park’s main stand on Monday night.

Woah, run that past me again! Did he blame the Rangers fans ? He did ! 

NEXT season’s Glasgow Cup Final is set to be played behind closed doors as the competition counts the cost of the latest Old Firm shame game.

Organisers of the 127-year-old 
tournament are determined to act after being forced to pick up the £10,000 repair bill for the extensive damage caused by Rangers fans in Celtic Park’s main stand on Monday night.

More than 100 seats were wrecked and smoke bombs, flares and bangers were released as Celtic lifted the Under-17-trophy amid a toxic atmosphere of sectarian chanting.

It was a repeat of last season’s trouble which erupted at Firhill that saw the Glasgow FA fork out the money to compensate Partick Thistle from their own funds after Rangers and Celtic thugs went on the rampage.

Record Sport understands the organisers had already looked at banning fans from this years’ final but relented in favour of attempting to maintain the spirit of the competition. However, after the conduct of both sets of supporters once again brought the final into disrepute, 
association president and Celtic finance director Eric Riley has called a meeting for later
this week with fellow FA 
office-bearers to discuss sanctions on Old Firm fans should they reach the Final next season.

Stewarding and police costs as well as the added charge of 
clean-up costs in the aftermath of Monday’s final will mean this season’s competition has 
operated at a loss.

Glasgow FA and Queen’s Park committee member Malky Mackay Senior admits a solution is being discussed to prevent the reputation of competition from being further damaged.

He said: “We need to look at the situation for future finals due to the behaviour we have seen. The price of policing these games doesn’t come cheap and our association doesn’t have the money that’s been needed to cope with what we have had to deal with in the past few years.

“Celtic and Rangers can’t be expected to control the actions of elements from within their support. This is a society issue.”

Er, yes they can. Effectively, the Glasgow FA are not going to ask New Rangers for the money for repairs. The Glasgow FA are part of the SFA, and obviously theres a connection between the SFA, and the Ibrox club, and maybe backs have been scratched, hands have been shook and knobs have been fiddled with, and yet again, they’ve been bailed out. 

Of course, I am not implying that there is any sort of corruption or favouritism at Hampden where the toxic Ibrox club are concerned.

And Campbell Ogilvie is an honourable man…so are they all, all honourable men.

Celtic Park will also host a game between Scotland and England in November. Lets hope that Gordon Strachan plays as many Celtic players as he can, which should keep any fans of the new club as far as possible from the ground.

And lets resist the temptation to move  the U-20 title decider from Lennoxtown to make a few bob. Theres a real danger that the young Ibrox team could win the league, and the Celts have to stop them. Just how insufferable would that make them ?

And how can a senior side so bad have a youth team so good ?

Its Gordon Durie !

Time he got a proper job… away from that place.  If he’s put together a side that compete with the lads from Lennoxtown, then he needs another job…

Just saying like…..

Malky Mackay was the man in the Queens Park strip in his pre Celtic days.

Pre Celtic days again-who is this ?

PS-you do know that the Sevco board have been in discussions with the SFA and the SPFL about administration, don’t you ?

We do.