Celtic Diary Monday January 5: Crisis ? What Crisis ?

Maybe its an overstatement.

Maybe the alarm bells are going off to soon.

Aberdeens win over Motherwell yesterday put them four points clear at the top of the league. Then , behind them, just one point separates four teams.

Nip and tuck it is, then, and if Celtic fail to beat Kilmarnock at Rugby Park tonight, the team will be heading off to the Canary Islands leaving everyone else a chance to rack up a bit of a gap.

Nip and tuck. as in if we don’t nip this little wobble in the bud, then we could be well and truly tucked.

Craig Gordon says he’s not worried, due to the quality Celtic have in the dressing room.

Ralph Malph says he’s worried because that quality isn’t transferring itself to the pitch.

Tonights game will be played on Kilmarnocks artificial pitch, and there was a wee bit of a row when the Ayrshire club refused to allow the hoops to train on it ahead of the game. You can’t blame them, they will look for every possible advantage they can get in the match, but the fuss Celtic kicked up made one or two of us feel that Ronny was getting his excuses in early, even though the manager moved swiftly to put those fears to rest.

: “I have a lot of experience of artificial pitches, so for me it is just normal. I understand it’s different for the players because they have not played on it so much.

“But it is much better to play on a good artificial pitch than on a bumpy, natural grass pitch. The tempo of the game will be higher and the ball is going to move quickly. But it’s important that it is a top-quality artificial pitch.”  

There are rumours though , that the surface wasn’t actually ready so the Celts couldn’t have trained on it anyway,

 but we hear that a former Kilmarnock employee is has a bit of time on his hands just now, and he has a keen interest in gardening, so everything should be done in time for kick off. He’s just getting a list of what he needs together and then he will be down there this afternoon.

Kilmarnock keeper Craig Samaon explained his clubs decision;

 “I can understand Celtic’s logic and them wanting to try our surface out but I can understand why we have said no.

“We wouldn’t phone up a club like St Mirren and ask them if we could come and train on their pitch before we play on it.

“And Celtic aren’t going to phone another club who have a grass pitch and ask to try that out either.”  

Sorry, try that again;

“I can understand Celtic’s logic and them wanting to try our surface out but I can understand why we have said no.

“We wouldn’t phone up a club like St Mirren and ask them if we could come and train on their pitch before we play on it.

“And Celtic aren’t going to phone another club who have a grass pitch and ask to try that out either.”  

Maybe its me, but that didn’t make any sense even a second time around.

After reading that, the club itself tried to clarify things;

 “There is no current rule which states that any club should grant another club access to their stadium prior to games and maybe that’s something for the SPFL to look at.

“No other side have asked for or been granted access to our pitch and it’s only fair on other clubs that we refused Celtic’s request.” 

So there.

 Remember the Ajax centre half we mentioned last week ? The one where I forgot his name, so technically I suppose we didn’t mention him ? That was Stefano Denswil, or, as it has turned out, Stefano Denswon’t. He’s joined Club Brugge instead, and that means we will be looking elsewhere.

 Anywhere else will do, because otherwise we will be stuck with the off form Efe Ambrose, who co-incidentally, is another one not concerned by the recent run of poor results;

“Aberdeen are at the top and they deserve it, they are a great team and have been playing well,” said Ambrose.

“We respect them and we look for the challenge from them. Not just them, Dundee United, so we need to step up.

“The best of Celtic is going to come because we know there are teams behind us trying to take the title from us.

“What we need to do is win every game from now until the end of the season and I believe we have the ability and the squad that can do that.

“But it is easier said than done. People think it is easy for Celtic for win the league but it isn’t. Every team wants to beat Celtic so that makes it difficult. It puts pressure on us. We have not been at our best, but that is football. I think it will change this year. Against Kilmarnock it is going to be a different Celtic team.”  

 Efe himself has been struggling in training, and during a cross country run he had to be helped to the finish line by a team mate.

Anyway, we hear that both Leicester and QPR are keen on him, with a loan move a possibility.

All of which leaves us a little short in defence. Although some would argue that ambrose being away makes no difference to the overall quality, it does to the quantity. On a recent tour of Celtic Park, a fan enquired as to what the bricked up hole in Peter Lawwells office was, and was peturbed to hear that it was , in fact, the transfer window.

 Deila himself is on record as sayinng he doesn’t expect too many signings this month, and his priority is to keep players.

 Kris Commons, who is amongst those believed to be looking for a way out, is apparently hanging on. The Twitterati claim its because he doesn’t want to sign a permanent deal elsewhere only to see a new manager take over at Celtic before the end of the season.

 Surely nonsense….

Which brings us to the other big news today !

Lets start at the beginning;

 Anyhoo, that club died, another similarly named one took its place, and it appears they , too, are teetering on the edge of the abyss.

Second Rangers have taken out a loan of £500,000 , secured against the money they are due from the sale of wonderkid Lewis MacLoed to Brentford.

 Another insolvency event  is rumoured, in fact one or two sources claim its why Neil Doncaster felt secure enough to refer to them as the same club last week, although that might be crediting him with a little more intelligence than we have previously seen evidence of.

Some questions need to be asked, but to be honest theres no-one suitable to ask them, and there isn’t really anyone suitable to answer them either, a situation which needs to addressed sooner rather than later.

 I’ll float one up there though…

Are the club trading while insolvent, and if not, could we see a bit of proof ? After all, supporters will be buying tickets, booking flights, hiring buses and reserving hotel rooms for the February clash between Celtic and Second Rangers.

 We could do with knowing if they’ll be around for the game.

 Anton Rogan, the legendary left back featured in Saturdays Diary, bringing back memories and old jokes-remember the one which claimed Polish defender Dariusz Wdodczyks first words of English were “Fucks sake, Anton “

 You know what, though. Rogan was a favourite of mine, and we need more of his kind. just not maybe in defence. One mazy run down the flank against the now defunct Rangers had me on my feet cheering, as it was obvious that the player was having the time of his life, even though the move went nowhere..

 Now, why are these two so happy ?

 Note-it has nothing to do with battering  Barcelona players in the tunnel.

 Oh, and by the way, apparently another American businessman is about to put in a bid to take over the cash strapped Ibrox club mentioned earlier.

 We have exclusive pictures of the reaction from Ibrox…

 Something else made me laugh the other day. Remember the old Carry On films, where the characters had names that suited their jobs, such as WC boggs , who owned a toilet factory ?

 Anyone think of a job for this guy ?