Celtic Diary Wednesday June 25: Nice Guys Don’t Always Finish Last

When you don’t have acountry to support in the world cup, its easy to become a disinterested observer, fuelled partly by jealousy , and partly by indifference.

Then, three minutes into stoppage time in a group game, one of your own wins a penalty , that if he scores, will send his side through, and win him heroic status, but if he misses, they are out. And he becomes a knob.

Georgios Samaras won a penalty for Greece. To the dismay of thousands of watching tims, he stepped up to take it himself. Even his team mates knew that he was as likely to trip over his own feet in the run up as he was to score…

Such as Socratis Papastathopoulos…

Sammy , of course, took it in his stride, and tucked the ball beyond the flailing Ivory coast keeper. Greece qualified, The African side were out, and I got my first genuine jump off the couch moment of this world cup.

I wasn’t the only one. Novak Djokovic, the tennis player, seemed quite pleased as well;

And Samaras ? Well, of course he was over the moon, but at the final whistle, the rest of the world got to see what a truly great sportsman he is, and why Peter Lawwell should be on the phone apologising and offering him the contract he wants.

While his team mates celebrated, Sammy went over to the disconsolate keeper to offer his commiserations. Sometimes, class off the field means more than on it.

But we knew that already. In these days of spoiled and pampered brats whining and whinging their way through their careers, Samaras is different. If image is marketable, then Samaras is worth his weight in gold to the Celtic, but as the diary has often said, Celtics PR and marketing would struggle to sell a cure for the cold.

In fact, he epitomises what it is to be a Celt, and we could do with him setting an example to our own players.

Bring him back home.

Earlier in the day, and in complete contrast, Luis Suarez, rated by some as one of the top players in the world, was at it again. In last summer Confederations cup, he tried to take a bite out of Georgio Chiellini, the Juventus and Italy defender…

He failed that time, but in the clash between the two nations yesterday, he made his mark..

Chiellini, speaking  after the game , said;

“It was ridiculous not to send Suarez off,” he told Rai TV. “It is clear, clear-cut and then there was the obvious dive afterwards because he knew very well that he did something that he shouldn’t have done.”

The defender later told Sky Sports Italia: “Suarez is a sneak and he gets away with it because FIFA wants their stars to play in the World Cup. I’d love to see if they have the courage to use video evidence against him. The referee saw the bite mark too, but did nothing about it.”

Suarez, of course, made his excuses; 

“These are things that happen on the pitch, we were both in the area, he thrust his shoulder into me.

“These things happen on the pitch, and we don’t have to give them so much (importance).” 

His captain, Diego Lugano, said ;

“You saw this, really? You need to show me because I didn’t see anything. Did you see it today or did you see what happened in other years. You couldn’t have seen it today because nothing happened,” 

“The worst of everything is the attitude of Chiellini. He’s a great player, with an enormous status. It doesn’t correspond with Italian football. As sportsmen leaving the field, crying and appealing against a rival. As a man he disappointed me totally.”

And his manager…

“I did not see the incident,” Tabarez said. “I will not make any more comments about it. Luckily, we’ve played many matches without Suarez for qualifiers and, for us, he is a very important player and important person within the group. We will see how to defend him. This is a football World Cup, not about cheap morality.

“Besides the mistakes he might have made, he is the target of the media that give him much more coverage to the alleged things he’s done.

Then, the Uruguayan security guys got Suarez onto the team bus and back to the hotel.

Why mention Suarez ? As far as I’m concerned, he should be banned for life, and the Uruguay team chucked out of the World cup for not sending him home. In fact, defending this gutter rat is as bad as it gets in the hypocritical football world of today.

Simply as a contrast to Samaras. I know which one I’d like to see at Celtic, and I don’t think I need to explain why.

Away from the World Cup, and pre season training has started at Lennoxtown.

Manager Ronny Deila took time out to advertise the upcoming game against Reykjavik, urging supporters to buy a season book, but neglecting to let us know when the game will actually take place.

One game to organise so far, and they haven’t even managed that.

I’m surprised they all turned up at the right place for training. seriously, Celtic , get your act together. If Murrayfield isn’t going to be ready, use Easter Road. Stop messing the support around. and don’t even think of blaming anyone else for making an arse of it.

The Daily Record has footage of Teemu Pukki on holiday, which shows the Finn looking a lot more relaxed than he did last season. hopefully , the break has done him good, and we will see what many suspect is actually a very intelligent and quick forward make a name for himself at Celtic Park. Have a look at him smiling..

Pukki footwork

But even he didn’t seem as happy as Mikael Lustig, the Swedish defender who will almost certainly have enjoyed his time off, and is looking ahead to the new season, having signed a new contract with Celtic in the summer. He explained why he had decided to turn his back on the riches of the souless English Premier League;

“I can only speak for myself. The Premier League is probably the biggest in the world and I cannot blame them for making that decision, but I look at the whole picture,” Lustig told The Scotsman. 

“Why not sign a new contract with a club that I am happy with in a city which my family and I are happy with? It was not a hard decision for me to stay here.

“I love playing for my country as well and you never know what can happen when you change club. Norwich went down, but it was always a dream for Gary to play in the Premier League and he has done it now. Victor did well in Southampton, too. In my case, I feel I have done the right thing. 

“To be able to play in a really big club and win titles as well as playing in Europe every year (makes me happy here).

“It is really hard to go to a bigger club than Celtic for me. Of course, if you are one of the best players in the world, you can maybe pick and choose. However, I feel that I would go to a smaller club if I was to make a change.” 

Looking ahead to the Champions League, Lustig added;

 “The first thing is to reach the group stages. When we reached the last 16, though, that showed you how good things can be.

“You know that you don’t need massive amounts of money to reach that goal. With a little more luck and a little more skill, we could have done a lot better than we did last season.

“For the moment, we have to focus on making the group stage.

“Atletico Madrid probably have more money than us but not much compared to teams likeChelsea or Manchester City. 

“They might not do it every year but the gap is coming down so we will still see other teamsdoing well in the Champions League.

“Atletico showed the smaller clubs what they can do.”

Lustig says Celtic must have the right approach when they take on KR, who are already halfway through their season.

He said: “It’s going to be hard as I know the Icelandic players’ mentality and how the people are. They never give up and are really proud of themselves. So they’ll give 100 per cent.

 For the first time in a while, we are finding players who “get ” Celtic. Hopefully, the club will look after them financially, and not take advantage when it comes to offering pay packets.

 There is still a chance that we can see Celtic compete at the very highest level, there is a strong core to the current squad. Lets not allow it to break up over the summer.

 ” Exactly “. agreed Kris Commons , having returned from holiday and frantically checking his phone messages and mail.

 Remember Helena Costa ? The former Celtic scout who got the top job at a Fench second division side ?

No ? Fantastic, that gives me an excuse to remind you.

 She’s quit. Not even  hanging around long enough to choose the curtains in her office. Look, if Ronny needs a scout, he could do worse. And we still need someone to replace the Neil Lennon calendars..

 The picture yesterday showed a mascot from the nineteenth century wearing a strip-the hoops-that wasn’t adopted until the twentieth. Well done to PR for spotting that.

 On the same theme, whats wrong with this picture ?