Celtic Diary Tuesday August 11; World Cup Star at Celtic Park ?

And we have an exclusive photograph !

Laughter, they say , is the best medicine. Unless you’ve got something wrong with you. Then its just a failure to fully understand the problem.

Alexander Tonev joined the hoops yesterday on a season long loan, with an option to buy for £1.25m. Celtic will pay all of his wages in the meantime, and although he turned us down last year for the bright lights of Birmingham, he’s here now, and I suppose thats what matters.

He spoke to the official website;

“Joining Celtic is unbelievable, and I feel really good about it,” he said. “I’m delighted to have joined the club and I can’t wait to meet up with my new team-mates and start playing for Celtic.

“I already knew all about Celtic. Everybody in Bulgaria knows Celtic. I spoke to Stiliyan Petrov yesterday and he was very happy for me. He wished me good luck and I hope I can do as well for Celtic as Stiliyan did.

“I’m an attacking player, and usually play on the left side of the park, and I like to create and score goals.” 

 Yes, he looks absolutely delighted , in this picture taken at Ross Hall yesterday.

 Ronny Deila said he was pleased with his latest new recruit;

 “Aleksandar’s a very quick player and he has two good feet which he can shoot with.

“He has scored a lot of goals during his time at Lech Poznan and I think he can help bring the club forward with his qualities. We can also make him better.” 

Deila is on record as saying he doesn’t see the point in developing other teams players. So, can we assume he wants to keep this one ?

A second loan signing -this time with no option to buy-arrived last night as well. 19 year old Belgian centre half Jason Denayer has decided to throw his lot in with the hoops for a year as he has little chance of breaking into the Manchester City first team.

Well, not yet, anyway. Heres what they said about him on their website

In his short time at City, Belgian centre half Jason Denayer has proved himself to be a classy operator on the ball and an excellent reader of the game at the heart of the back four.

The 19-year old struck up an excellent partnership with Shay Facey in defence throughout the 2013/14 season as the boy Blues went deep in four competitions at home and abroad.

He scored his first goal for the club in the 6-0 UEFA Youth League win over Bayern Munich at the start of October and continued to shine throughout the season, earning himself opportunities to train with the first-team at Carrington.

A Belgian youth international, the ambitious Denayer will be hoping for an opportunity to make his first-team debut in 2014/15.  

He was nominated for EDS player of the year after a fantastic 2013-14 campaign.

This is exactly the sort of player we should be after, but why no attempt to just buy him ? In fact, why no attempt to just buy anyone ?

The problem with this sort of loan is that you have to give him back afterwards, and we’ve already seen that loans don’t work when Tony Mowbray had nearly a teamful back when he was manager.

Meanwhile, Legia Warsaw will have their appeal heard by UEFA on Wednesday morning, and pressure is mounting for Celtic to do the ” right thing ” and politely decline the offer of a place in the play offs.

The right thing ? Cheats never prosper, as my old granny used to say. and we cannot be seen to be condoning the improper registration of players.

Well, not again, anyway.

David Owen, in an article for “Inside World Football ” offers us his thoughts, presumably because he thinks they matter.

( Who ?-Ed )

( David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen’s Twitter feed can be accessed at www.twitter.com/dodo938.-That’s who-Ralph ) 

I am surely not alone in thinking both a) that it was the correct decision for UEFA to make, but b) that, in this particular case, the punishment seems disproportionate given the circumstances of the tie. I had therefore come around to the view that Celtic ought to contact UEFA to politely decline the second chance they had been handed, while harbouring few illusions about the prospects of this actually happening.

What prompted my intervention was a Tweet from Robert Błaszczak, a self-styled “West London flȃneur”, who I noticed had been following the affair in some detail. “I’m told that Celtic’s ownership structure doesn’t allow directors to make a decision against their economic interest,” Błaszczak Tweeted.

“That’s handy,” I replied, a little glibly. “But it’s in their long-term economic interest to demonstrate they are fair-minded and sporting.” 

Unlike Legia, who field players when they are suspended.

This prompted a number of messages to wing my way from third parties about “fiduciary duties”, “directors responsibilities” and such like – messages that were, I’m sure, for the most part well-founded.

There are two reasons why this strikes me as a particularly interesting area.

First, as I wrote last week in a different context, top football clubs are different to other businesses: “whereas most companies exist to generate wealth for their shareholders, football clubs must balance this against the pursuit of trophies”.

If you accept this, is it right for football club directors to be subject to the same fiduciary duties as those of other businesses?

Second, in order to make a judgment as to where a director’s fiduciary duties lie, you need, I would have thought, to be able to value the alternatives.

In Celtic’s case, these are a) the unexpected reprieve and b) the kudos that would come from having the club acclaimed, at least for a time, as a global paragon of fair play and sportsmanship.

One thing that is immediately apparent is that a) is easier to measure than b).

In last season’s Champions League, Celtic made €17.57 million in participation- and performance-related revenue.

I think he might be on the point of spotting why Celtic will not “politely decline ” the offer of a play off place.

HeCould a mere act of magnanimity have such an effect on the club’s reputation that it would stand any chance of adding that sort of sum to its brand value? 

No.

No.

I have to say that it does not strike me as out of the question, although we are dealing with a more nebulous concept than the hard cash which a Champions League run would bring dropping through the door.

The club, after all, would be revered in Poland; there might be Fairplay Awards to look forward to; there must even be some value to the improved standing it would enjoy with old-fashioned bleeding hearts like me. 

Oh, it would be nice to be revered in Poland. In fact, I know several supporters who refused to renew season books on the grounds that we are not revered in Poland.

O
There would be considerable benefits, economic and otherwise, in other words, to doing what I, and no doubt others, would regard as the right thing. And while the immediate financial penalties are obvious, particularly if you believe them capable of beating Maribor, it is at least arguable that ceding their play-off berth to Legia would be in the long-term interests of the club.

  The writer declines to list any of these benefits, largely because it seems he can’t think of any , except for being known world wide as nice guys. Oh, and on top of allowing teams in Scotland-well, one, to be fair-to flout registration rules and win trophies at our expense, European ones can do it as well.    

Gordon Strachan agrees.

 .

“Celtic have no part in this at all. It’s all down to Legia. I don’t think Celtic complained – it came from another source.

“That’s the rules and you have to deal with it. Legia can’t make the rules up. Sometimes rules can be really cruel and there’s no doubt they’ve been really cruel to Legia.

“But if Celtic agreed to overturn the decision where do we go after that? Do we bend rules depending on how high you are up the pecking list in superstardom?

“If you did that then Pele would be running the Brazil side – and he has come away with a few crackers in his time!”

Though you do have to feel a little bit sorry for Marta Ostrowska in all of this. she’s the secretary who made the mistake, and has been advised by police to leave Warsaw for a few days;

 “There have been occasions where someone called the club and asked for my address. 

“There have been threats. I’ve been told it would be better for me and my family to spend a few days outside of Warsaw.” 

Somehow, thats our fault as well.

 Transfer news now, well, rumours and made up stuff. See if you can guess which is which. On the way out are Anthony Stokes ( Cardiff on loan ) Leigh Griffiths ( back to Hibs, also on loan ) and Virgil van Dijk, Southampton, later this week.

 On the way in, Billy Sharp, Southampton, a striker , Ghana keeper Adam Kwarasey, Stromgodset,  Killian Overmeire, central defensive midfielder at Lokeren,

Bjorn Siguradarson , another Wolves striker who is out of favour,

and Tarik Elyounoussi, a Norwegian winger at Hoffenhein.

 The drunk who told us seemed quite convinced, and I have to admit to being impressed that he had conjured up three players I’d never heard of before.

 Meanwhile, on the subject of drink, and food, those matchday essentials, theres news of a new caterer at Celtic Park.

 Well, at least he’d be cheap.

 Its actually an american company, famed for introducing the eleven dollar beer and thirteen dollar cheeseburger at american sporting events, though i’m sure they won’t be doing that at Celtic Park…

 Maleys Bhoys on twitter has published an article on them, which is worth a look. I’d post a link , but this ol’ steam driven laptop of mine is playing up again. Either that or I’m terminally stupid .

Yesterday, we showed a picture of the birthplace of one Brother Walfrid, who went on to form a football club to alleviate poverty in Glasgow. You know the one.

Today, his message seems even more poignant as foodbanks abound in Scotland, with thousands of people depending on them for sustenance. Celtic have also contributed £50,000 to the one in Parkhead.

 There is a link to that, but again, for some reason I can’t post it. Maybe Desi or Hector can add it later.

Now, today, can anyone explain this picture ?