Celtic have made their first signing of the summer. Sixteen year old keeper Conor Hazard has joined the youth ranks from Cliftonville, and Chris McCart is happy to have him on board.

“It gives us an excellent batch of young goalkeepers, with Ross Doohan coming up from the Academy, Conor coming in and Colin McCabe, while we are hoping to sign Leo Fasan on a professional contract this summer.” 

Well, they do know how to spot a keeper at Celtic, from Boruc onwards anyway, so good luck to the lad, and who knows, we might see a hazard line up with a bombscare in the defence one day, although there are no immediate plans to bring Oliver Tebily back. Or a big Scheidt.

Teemu Pukki, perhaps the only recent signing worth keeping, is on the radar of German cracks ( its from the Record ) Freiburg, but wages could be a stumbling block, as the Bundesligue side are reluctant to pay more than £8000 a week. Not just for Pukki, but for anybody.

I’m being a bit unfair on the Record there, Freiburg are not “cracks ” , they are merely an “outfit ” , which I guess is kind of an insult. Unless Craig Swan hasn’t got the faintest idea who they are, which would be unusual for someone in the MSM.

According to the same article, West Ham are interested in Robert Snodgrass, and are preparing a £3m bid. Newcastle want him as well, but theres no word from Snodgrass, who is proving he is ready  for life at Celtic with a hernia operation.

Well, its company for little James…

Speaking of operations, former Celt Shunsuke Nakamura is in hospital having his gall bladder removed, and if he’s reading this we wish him well. Although he probably isn’t, but we wish him well anyway.

Another Celt tipped to leave, Virgil van Dijk, was the subject of speculation on the Ladbrokes website, as writer Jack Beresford, who may or may not be a Manchester Utd fan, reported;

”  News reports would have you believe that Louis van Gaal marked his appointment as the new Manchester United manager  by submitting a shopping list of transfer targets to the Red Devils board and, though a long-shot, one man hoping to be on that fabled roster is Virgil van Dijk. 

Beresford also neglects to tell us that he has the capacity to read minds.

Currently valued at around £8m by Celtic, the Dutch defender has been the subject of much interest from the Premier League, with United thought to be leading the list of potential suitors.

I think we have a Man Utd fan who likes the look of van Dijk.

However if the Red Devils are planning to recruit Van Dijk this summer, then they may have to move fast, with the race to recruit the 22-year-old already heating up on the continent. “

Yup. He wants van Dijk at Old Trafford. He must have got good odds on it. You wouldn’t get good odds on whether he’s a Manchester Utd fan or not, though.

 John Clark doesn’t speak to the press very often, but when he does he’s worth listening to, and as he and the rest of the Lions prepare to return to Lisbon for this weekends Champions League final, he spoke , amongst other things, of Neil Lennons tenure as manager;

“There is a value in having a feeling for the club and it must be a benefit to Neil as he knows how the fans respond.

“He wants to get better and be at the forefront of everything. It’s a good thing.

“Neil has done well in his short time in management. The club wants to be in the Champions League every year and he has done that. The more experience he gets the better he will be for it.

“I personally don’t want to be involved in that side of things. People have to make up their own mind about how they want to manage the club.

“At times you are disappointed with results but you let them get on with it. If Neil asks me I’ll say something in passing. It was the same with Martin O’Neill and Gordon Strachan.

“But sometimes I’ll bite a sandwich or a pie, rather than biting my tongue!”

 The former centre half and assistant to Billy McNeill made his name as an excellent reader of the game. Perhaps he reads people just as well.

 And this is a great photo..

 The official website tells us;

” Eight of the legends who secured the club’s greatest ever achievement, led by club ambassador, Billy McNeill, will return with family members of Jimmy Johnstone, Ronnie Simpson, Bobby Murdoch, Jock Stein and Sean Fallon.  As well as taking in the final at Benfica’s Stadium of Light, the Lions will return to the Estadio Nacional on the 47th anniversary of their momentous victory. ” 

 I get the feeling there will be a few tears amongst the laughter.

Back to the current squad, and Anthony Stokes, who is in court a week tomorrow on an assault charge after he is alleged to have offered an enthusiastic verdict on an Elvis impersonator, has been reassured that his off the field distraction will not affect his international prospects. Martin O’ Neill, now manager of Ireland, said;

“In these circumstances, I use the old maxim that someone is innocent until proved guilty. Secondly, Anthony Stokes also called me to say that hopefully he wouldn’t be excluded from the squad because of this. And I said ‘absolutely not’.” 

 Innocent until proven guilty. Theres a novel approach. Which brings us to Leigh Griffiths, who is innocent until proven a Celtic player.

Griffiths is in front of an SFA disciplinary panel tomorrow where he will find out what form his execution will take after he sung a song in a pub before a football match he was going to watch. These days in Scotland, singing certain songs is outlawed, walking in large crowds is outlawed, and you could be in trouble if you walk ion the cracks in the pavement.

 Interestingly, the Scottish National Party are a little concerned that they are being seen as a little heavy handed with their current policing policy, and are giving the impression that they are drifting towards being a right wing totalitarian organisation. In order to appease the left wing section of Scottish society, they will change the name of the party after independence, to try to appeal to the more moderate amongst us. They will add the word “socialist ” to their title, giving them a whole new and broader appeal.

 Sorry, I digress…

 Griffiths is charged with not acting in the best interests of football by paying Bt Sports up to £250,000 to show games featuring a club in the lower tiers of Scottish football as a sweetener to them after they said they wouldn’t want to show that shite, especially as people would be eating their dinners at that time. With a real fear that impressionable children would be exposed to songs of hatred and bigotry , the tv company needed a sweetener, and Griffiths duly obliged , but asked them not to tell anyone.

 Hang on-that wasn’t Griffiths. He sung a song in a pub. Which cost him four weeks wages, and might cost him a fine.

 We’re talking about Neil ” I’ll get a sponsor for the league soon, honest ” Doncaster !

The man who claims to have salvaged the tv deal by , er, paying the company to show the games, and in his defence says that the other clubs got to share fifteen million pounds between them. Though surely if a company pulls out of a contract, then they are due you the money anyway, unless you let them put in “safeguards “

 Celtic Research, on twitter, has more detail on it, and the story finally made the national press when Keith Jackson got hold of it from the bold CR.

( Jackson has actually gone up in my estimation since he joined twitter, and might yet prove to be a proper journalist. )

THE cost of the “cashback“ deal between Scotland’s league bosses and TV companies after the Rangers collapse is currently sitting at more than £700,000.

Record Sport can reveal £250,000 has already been paid back to broadcasters – with another £250,000 set to follow this summer – for screening the Ibrox club’s rise through the bottom two tiers.

Actually, it was Celtic Research who revealed it….

The cash has been dished out as subsidies to ESPN, BT Sport and Sky to help them cover the soaring production expenses involved in staging live broadcasts from remote and ill-equipped grounds.

True enough. Petrol just keeps going  up and up. And those hedges can block the view…

And as part of a separate agreement the total payout rose by another £225,000 to a whopping £725,000 after last term’s viewing figures for the full Scottish game failed to hit projected targets.

Hang on. Scottish football has a deal that says if not enough people watch we’ll give you your money back ?

Details of the deal struck in summer 2012 – during crisis talks involving league boss Neil Doncaster, Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell and the broadcasters – were leaked online over the weekend sparking an angry reaction from fans.

Record Sport can confirm the bumper payments were part of the £15million-a-year package negotiated with Sky and ESPN in the wake of the financial collapse at Ibrox which wiped Rangers out of the top flight.

” Out of the top flight ” ? Surely “out of existence “

But last night SPFL sources denied suggestions the deal was struck to keep Rangers in the media spotlight.

When they were scratching around desperately for a sponsor ? So, why then, if not to help the stricken Rangers, was the deal struck-especially  with  a cashback facility ? 

And Doncaster said: “The support given to Scottish football by our broadcast partners, in 2012 and since, has been fundamental to the health of our game.”

Really ? They pay peanuts, and tamper with kick off times and dates. Fundamental to the health of the game does not mean standing legs akimbo over supporters and taking a laxative. Metaphorically, of course.

The subsidies, covering seasons 2012-13 and 2013-14, were agreed after ESPN and Sky demanded a share of 15 Rangers matches per season but were unwilling to shell out the extra cash required for live broadcasts at lower-league grounds.

Well, tell them where to go. 

ESPN were also paid the viewing figure rebate of £225k. But when their contract was taken over by BT a year ago that clause was removed – sparing the SPFL another big payout.

Doncaster is also believed to be angered by claims the TV deal was altered ahead of Rangers’ liquidation to stipulate it must include four Old Firm derbies a season.

Our SPFL source said: “That stipulation had been part of all the SPL’s TV deals for a decade. It was inserted at the broadcasters’ request.

“So when Rangers collapsed the SPL was in breach of contract. The deal agreed with the broadcasters was saving the game.”

And this is the important bit. A sporting contest, i.e. the Premier League, is being told by a television company who can compete. Which is against the rules. Which also begs the question, did the tv companies know that Rangers were going under , and asked for a get out clause ? And if it was common knowledge, why wasn’t it made more common ?

 Doncaster is an incompetent idiot, of that there is no doubt. His claim that he saved the contract, which was signed after he spent weeks telling everyone that the game in Scotland was doomed without Rangers. Remember, he tried to bully other clubs into allowing the new club back in at the top. And the all new singing and dancing SPFL still doesn’t have a sponsor, which in itself should be a sackable offence.

In medical terms, Doncaster is a carrier. One who shows no symptoms of  an illness but passes it on to those who  he comes into contact with. That illness is Tourettes, which inflicts the sufferer with foul and abusive language.

 If Peter Lawwell was involved in these shennanigans then he has a bit of explaining to do as well. On the one hand , he was telling supporters, via the press, that Celtic were a “stand alone  business ”  whilst it now appears he too, was helping the cancer from Ibrox to eat away at the games credibility.

 Its simple really.

All we ask for is that the best dozen or so clubs pay their bills and play each other on a regular basis, with the top sides competing in Europe every year.

Surely it can’t be that hard to organise ?

With around 80,000 people attending matches most weeks, and thousands more watching or listening via the media it can’t be too difficult to sell.

 We just have the wrong people with the wrong agenda in charge.

Some clubs have already grasped the idea of marketing. Motherwell, for instance, offer two kids season books with every adult one bought. Albion Rovers, as we have seen, are doing a pay what you can afford. It will take some forward thinking, but the game can be improved if we want to improve it.

 Just keep the SFA out of it, thats all. They’ve had their chance, and nearly killed it.

Celtic , incidentally , will be answering any questions about our own season books on twitter today.

If you’ve got any questions regarding 2014/15 season tickets, join us here for a Twitter Q&A today at 12pm

When Rangers crashed out of the land of the living, the Diary said they would go kicking and screaming, trying to take everyone with them. What we didn’t reckon on was the amount of  help they would get from the authorities in peddling the Armageddon myth.

 But it looks like they have finally stopped  kicking and screaming over there. Dave King has gone quiet, Ally Mccoist isn’t involved in trying to flog season books, and the fans have stopped buying them. all of which means it must be time for a protest.

Cartuja, from KDs , is at the scene…

 Another of their protests, the plan to sell red and black striped shirts to raise money for another fighting fund, has hit the buffers. Nike are a little peturbed they’ve used their design without permission.

Cartuja, again, sums it up.

  They do like a protest, or a march. In fact, they get pepper sprayed by the police so often they are now seasoned campaigners.

But the club still has its cheerleaders, who despite the inevitable impending collapse, still think the sun is shining and the garden is coming along nicely.

Scott McDermott, in the Record , for instance;

Rangers boss Ally McCoist set to move for freed West Brom

playmaker Scott Allan

Due to his bulk, one assumes he will be moving very slowly..

ALLY McCoist is ready to crank up his interest in freed West Brom playmaker Scott Allan.

Is that sort of thing legal ?

The Rangers manager is a long-time admirer of the former Dundee United kid who was released on Monday.

Allan, a Scotland Under-21 star, was tipped for stardom after bursting on the scene at Tannadice as a 19-year-old.

The Baggies signed on a two-and-a-half year contract in January 2012 and enjoyed a successful loan spell at Portsmouth.

But last year he was farmed out to Championship outfit Birmingham on a season-long deal – and made just seven appearances.

Too much too soon again, he needs to think long and hard about his next move.

McCoist now wants to bring Allan to Ibrox on a free after missing out on him due to financial restraints at Ibrox two years ago.

A bit longer and harder than that. Are these financial restraints McDermott refers to also known as “liquidation ” ?

Allan is looking for a fresh challenge and despite interest from several top-flight Scottish clubs, Record Sport understands he’s keen on a switch to the team he grew up supporting.

Well, if he wants a challenge that has the added excitement of wondering if he’ll get paid this month….

Meanwhile, McCoist is still confident of securing a two-year deal for Kenny Miller. The former Scotland frontman left Vancouver last month and has an agreement with McCoist to return to Ibrox for a third spell.

Perhaps he’ll be paying him out of his own pocket. 

But out-of-contract St Mirren midfielder Kenny McLean will not join Rangers.

I believe the actual quote was “fuck that “

Check out our team of Scottish free agents who have been told they are free to find new clubs this summer..

No doubt a list soon to lengthen when the Ibrox club trims its costs… 

 A young Tommy Burns was hiding behind the letters in yesterdays picture, another of Barry Mcgonigles restorations.

This isn’t a restoration, its a player at Glenavon, in 1949. who is it ?