Celtic Diary Saturday January 3: Happy New Year.

Estonian Vodka.

Not the best way to bring in the New Year.

So apologies for the tardiness of the greeting.

Anyway, now that my eyesight has returned, whats been happening ?

The game against Partick was postponed, which allowed Aberdeen to be the first non Glasgow side to top the league at the turn of the year in 22 years. If I was an Aberdeen supporter, I’d be thinking that the club had hit the front at the right time to make a serious bid for the title.

But I’m not, so I’ll call it a fluke.

But Celtic need to wake up. With Mondays game at Kilmarnock now a must win, its starting to look like the trip to the Canaries was a mistake. The team could be more than a couple of points adrift when ot gets back, and considering the first match is away at Hamilton, who destroyed Motherwell on Ne’er Day, then I think we need to start taking it a little more seriously.

A little more seriously than Ronny Deila appears to be taking it, that is;

 “So far we have been the best team in this league. We have scored most and conceded fewest.

“If we win our game in hand we will be two points ahead. We know what we have been doing is the best in the league but we have to keep progressing.

“It is still in our hands, if we win all our games we’ll be league winners.

“It is early though to start talking about it. There are 19 games left, 20 for us, so we’ll see how things are when there’s one month left. Then you can start talking.” 

“Our players are used to fighting for a championship. They’ve been in this situation before. The last two seasons haven’t maybe been so tight but the club and the players are used to fighting for trophies, more than others.

“They can find an extra gear if necessary. The mood is positive and there’s a good atmosphere. We’re training well and just have to get back on track to win games.

“I don’t notice an added edge in training now that Aberdeen are top. There are so many games left and we need to keep focus.

“Aberdeen are not used to being top and it’s better to have the experience. We’ll see when we come to April. Hopefully we’ll be ahead and can even win the league as quick as possible.” 

No, Aberdeen are not used to leading the pack. Or winning leagues.

Neither is Ronny Deila, though.

Still, it won’t matter if we don’t win the treble. At least , according to Chris Sutton.

SO Ronny Deila isn’t worried that Celtic aren’t starting the New Year top of the league because he’s confident their superiority will show through when it counts at the end of the season.

I’m inclined to agree with him on that, in fact he might yet come away with a domestic Treble in his back pocket.

But if Celtic were to pull off a clean sweep in 2015 it would surely go down as the most unconvincing Treble in the history of Scottish football, such has been the inconsistency of this team and the poor standard of some performances. 

Okay, we have been inconsistent, perhaps we should be doing better. But its a bit harsh to say it would be an unconvincing treble. A treble is a treble.

 Neil Lennon couldn’t do it, Gordon Strachan couldn’t do it.

Deila might well do it, and that would be a hell of an achievement in his first season, especially as the other clubs are suddenly playing with a little more conviction and belief.

Sutton continued…

 As is stands Jock Stein and Martin O’Neill are the only Celtic managers to have achieved this special feat. But you could hardly compare their teams, who reigned supreme with a strangehold of the domestic game, to Deila’s stuttering side.

I’m sure even Deila himself would see the absurdity of a situation where his name is ranked in the history books beside arguably the best two managers in the club’s history, who led the club to that legendary European Cup win in 1967 and the UEFA Cup Final in 2003. 

Has anyone told him that Celtic are still in Europe ?

Ex players seem to enjoy putting the boot in, and Sutton especially seems to have an axe to grind. He keeps having his digs, and he’s going to lose a lot of the respect he earned as a player. We are fully aware of the teams shortcomings, but there are still twenty games to go in the league, and a handful of cup matches that give Deila more than a fighting chance to silence his critics.

It hasn’t been a quiet New Year elsewhere either, with a young american lass coming out and acusing Prince Andrew of using her as a sex slave. Shocking stuff. But we hear that Buck hoose has offered her a goodwill trip to 1paris, complete with chauffeur driven Mercedes.

Neil Doncaster, somehow still in a job at the SFA despite showing an overwhelming lack of competence says that Rangers are , in fact, the same club as the old one that got liquidated.

Which appears to have convinced Dave King, the convicted tax fraudster from South Africa, and a few others to buy up some shares and put themselves in a position where they may need to make a final takeover bid. Thats because with the new shares, and those held by the Smiths, Mccoists et al, they own more than Mike Ashley, who has control at the moment.

If thats how it works. whatever happens at that place often bears little resemblance to the rules that everyone else has to follow anyway, so Its little more than an amusing sideshow anyway.

Doncaster needs to be called out for his outburst. 276 creditors need paying.

The transfer window has opened today, which means that Ronny Deila can start to work his way down the list of players he wants to bring in.

Theres been a few names mentioned, such as Ikeche anay, Ivan Santini and the Dundee Utd pair of Gary Mackay Steven and Stuart Armstrong.

As usual, we expect to bring in players the press haven’t mentioned. Scott Allen of Hibernian, for instance, or Peter Pawlett of Aberdeen.

As for outgoings…. Ronny has , according to some sources, given a list of no less than ten players he wants to get rid of. Or he would be happy to see go. Or , more diplomatically, are not in his plans.

Efe Ambrose, not surprisingly, is on that list. Which is why we are talking to Ajax about one of their centre halfs.

Kris Commons is also likely to be on that list, along with Beram Kayal, Derk Boerrigter and the usual suspects.  Commons , linked with Bolton, may not get the move he is said to want, as Neil Lennon admits there is no money to spend at the Lancashire club;

“The situation right now is that we haven’t got any money to spend, only what we generate from selling players,”

“We have to be clever with loans, then if we get a bit of money in we can try and use it wisely.”

“I’d definitely rather players come in than go out, put it that way. We do look a little bit light at the moment in certain areas of the squad.” 

The big worry, of course , is that we lose Virgil van Dijk, because he’s the only decent centre half we have. The Dutchman is on record as sayoing he’ll hang around until the summer, but as we all know, money talks. It might not be able to sing , dance or walk, but when it opens its mouth people listen, and a big offer will almost certainly see him out the door. We need to have a couple of centre halves in, just in case.

Jason Denaayer could be recalled at any time, especially if his injury doesn’t clear up soon, and we hear that John guidetti, who doesn’t seem to want to stay any more, can go in January, but Manchester city would have to pay Celtic if that did happen.

I’ll be glad when its February.

Meanwhile, Stephen Frails development side are taking part in the Mercedes Benz Junior Cup in Stuttgart, a prstigious event featuring some of the continents top clubs. This morning the hoops face Fenerbahce, and you can catch up with the action, the news and everything else here;

Mercedes Benz Cup

On this day in 1987, this guy joined the hoops. Who is he ?