Celtic Diary Thursday March 26: A Tale Of Two Goalkeepers

It’s funny how things turn out.

Former Celt Fraser Forster will miss the rest of the season after he sustained a knee injury. We wish him well.

Of all the pictures of injuries I’ve seen, for some reason, perhaps the look on the big guys face, this one is the most upsetting.

Southampton’s website said;

“Forster will be ruled out for the rest of the season. A long-term prediction of when he will return will be made in due course.” 

They could have used his first name. Or do they simply see him as an asset, rather than a person ?

Executive Director of football Les Reed ( what on earth is one of them . Celtic haven’t got one. We’ve got a Ronny. ) added, and at least remembered his name;

“Fraser is an outstanding goalkeeper and has been a huge part of our success this season. While this is a challenging situation, we look forward to him returning to action as soon as he is fully fit.  

“I am sure he will go on to make a significant number of appearances for Southampton and for England, and will get the best support available to help him recover to do so.

“No one will be any sadder than Kelvin Davis, who did an outstanding job replacing Fraser in such circumstances. Nobody could be better to step into the fray in terms of experience and ability.

“Kelvin is a big-game player, who will be ably supported by Paulo Gazzaniga and Cody Cropper. I am sure the team will now be even more motivated to ensure we stay miserly in front of our goal and ruthless at the other end.”

My point ?

Its all so impersonal. Business, I suppose, is business.

Meanwhile, the keeper signed to replace him, who some feared would suffer a recurrence of his dodgy knee, is going from strength to strength.

Craig Gordon played forty five minutes for Scotland last night, as manager gordon Strachan eased him back into his rightful position as Scotlands number one.

Gordon was delighted;

“I don’t think I would have believed it if someone would have told me this time a year ago that I’d have played more than 40 games for Celtic this season and then got back into the Scotland squad,”  

To be fair, we’d have all taken a bit of convincing.

“I was delighted to be back. I really enjoy playing for my country and I was pleased that I still remembered all the words to the national anthem!

“It is a great feeling to be back involved.

“Physically, I am pain free and injury free and I am loving playing. That is more than 40 games this season and there are a fair few still to come.”   

Will he be between the posts for the game against Gibraltar ?  He’s got competition from David Marshall of Cardiff and Alan MacGregor of Mordor.

Gibraltar. I know, it’s ridiculous. Next time round we could be playing the Canary Islands, West Sussex and Bavaria.

“I only found out yesterday morning that I was starting the game so I would imagine that it will be the same again on Sunday – the three of us will be hanging on to see who gets the nod from the manager, That always tends to be the way he does it.

“He tells us the team in the morning so it is just a case of waiting to see what happens between now and then.

“I think both myself and Allan [McGregor] will feel that we didn’t do too much wrong last night while David will feel that he has proved himself at this level too. So the three of us will just need to see who the manager wants to go with.”  

Scotland won the game 1-0, though most of us watching-and probably a few who were playing-would have nodded off by the time Christophe Berra headed the late winner, and it sets Strachans side up for the important one on Sunday.

Against Gibraltar.

A fellow by the name of Matt Ritchie made his Scotland debut last night, which actually co-incided with his first visit north of the border.

Thats nice.

Its all very well strengthening the squad, but this might be taking things a little too far. How can you have any pride in playing for a country you’ve never actually been to ?

Kris Commons, who retired from international football some time ago to prolong his club career, is moaning about the break in games;

“It’s coming at a weird time as I was injured two weeks ago and I would like a run in the team to try to get another couple of goals.

“But for a guy who’s not a spring chicken any more, it’s always nice to try and get a bit of sun, especially living in Glasgow.

“I’m missing out on the Vitamin D, so I need to go and get some sunshine and recharge – I haven’t booked anything yet but I could do with getting in a rocket and flying to the sun just to get some rays.

“But it’s just a great opportunity for me to spend time with my family and friends and do things I’m not normally able to do. 

“I come back into the team feeling fresh and just get that boost when you get a bit of sunshine – you feel recharged and ready to kick on again.” 

They sell vitamin D at the chemist and you could always get a run out in the development squad.

It didn’t do Leigh Griffiths any harm.

Maybe it was all tongue in cheek…

Because the forward certainly sounds serious about the rest of the season.

He told the Celtic View;

“We have some huge games coming up with the semi-final and we want to try and win this league sooner rather than later. These are exciting times for us.

“It’s always difficult with internationals as you are hoping and wishing that everyone does well and gets the results they hope for but you want them to come back fresh and injury free.

“If you start picking up injuries on international duty that’s the most frustrating thing for a club manager.

“But the boys have a commitment to do well for their country and do well at a top level.

“Hopefully they come back feeling fresh and great having put in some good performances 
that will keep them going.

“It’s going to be strange in the semi-final as we are playing Inverness at Hampden and their strengths are probably their home form, the difficulty of travelling up there and trying to get a performance.

“Hampden is a different kettle of fish, it’s the big pitch and we will have a good chunk of support there.

“It’s a massive game we will be going into with full confidence. We will be looking to win comfortably and march on into the final.” 

“We had four attackers on and the people who came off the bench were hungry to get goals.

“We weren’t happy at two or three – we wanted four or five and kept pushing for that. We’re not just happy at winning games, we want to entertain and all get on the scoresheet.

“It shows the understanding and the wavelength people have in training and it’s good that it comes out in matches as well.” 

“You can’t win a championship and two cups in the same year without rotating.

“We have a strong squad and there are players itching to come back into the starting XI.

“James Forrest has come back and was outstanding. From start to finish against Dundee United he was tremendous and very direct.

“He has unbelievable pace and everyone knows about the quality James possesses. We just need to keep him fit, healthy and on the park.

“We know what we have from him and these sorts of performances are the ones that win championships and cups.

“There is a good chunk of games coming thick and fast and sometimes the adrenalin,
especially when you play under the floodlights at Celtic, just gives you that little bit extra.

“It keeps us going. Everyone keeps talking about the Treble and that’s something we will keep aspiring to achieve.”  

Under Neil Lennon, there seemed to be an expectation, especially after the liquidation of Rangers, that the treble would be a regular occurrence . Which , as we know, turned out not to be the case.

 Deila has changed that , and to do it he has had to change the mentality at Celtic. Perhaps the players had started to believe the papers when they claimed that there was no competition.

 Or perhaps they couldn’t grasp the basic fact that football is eleven against eleven on the pitch, and its not about what you get paid into your bank every month.

 Something Henrik Larsson realises, and he’s taken a radical step at his club, Helsingborg, to try and improve matters.

He’s implemented a wage cap, of around £3000 a month, to encourage players to learn their trade, and then move abroad to earn their money.

 Larsson said;

“I don’t mind players earning money, but it should mean at the same time that the club is doing good.

“If the club is doing good, the club is getting income, then the club can share it with the players. But when the situation is not going according to plan, you have to look at the financial bit and see what you can change.” 

“I think that the average wage in Sweden is too high. They won’t be financially independent from the money they earn here.

“They earn good money, but I think there has to be the desire to develop, to go on to a bigger league and earn your money there.”

At first glance, it might look a little short sighted to pay less than other clubs to upcoming talent, especially now that agents do most deals, but he has a point of sorts. If I wanted to learn to be a footballer, theres not many better than Larsson to be teaching me.

“It’s always difficult, but there are always players that have the desire to do something with their football,” 

“There are players who tend not to look at the money short-term, they have a bigger plan. I haven’t found it that hard to attract good players to the club.”  

 If Celtic are considering some sort of mutually beneficial loan and development set up with another club, then I think there is an obvious candidate, one who is doing it in a way that would earn an admiring glance from Deila.

Celtic have decided they will back john Guidetti after the SFA decided he would have to answer to them when he sung an “offensive ” song on Dutch TV.

 Quite who was offended is unclear, but I hope they’re okay.

If you are offended by something it can affect your family life, making things strained at home, it can lead to depression, it can lead to drug or alcohol abuse, and consequently a life of crime.

 Before you know it you’ve lost your family, your job and probably your house.

Or, alternatively, you could just fucking grow up and move on.

Anyway, we hear that a highly respected law firm is helping the Swede defend the charge, and the first step is a poster campaign.

 It could be that Guidetti misunderstood the depth of feeling that a section of Scottish society has for prolonging a myth. We all know they died, it just sems we are not allowed to say it.

 Guidetti is of Scandinavian descent, and maybe over there they are more accustomed to speaking the truth and ust getting on with things.

 Maybe it is a west of Scotland thing, to use a cliche, or maybe its just something in the national psyche.

 There is a school of thought that actually claims there is a national stereotype, trivialised by claims such as Scots are tightfisted, Russinas are rude, and Germans are arrogant.

 There is also a school of thought that claims physical appearance can be directly traced to a persons place of origin.

 For example, you may have heard of a term “Lactose Intolerant ” , the inability to digest cows milk.

In fact, this condition is evidence that a persons place of origin can actually influence the body’s evolution.

 Think about it, a human baby is given milk from another species, and is capable of digesting it. That didn’t happen by accident. It turns out that around 75% of the worlds population is, in fact, lactose intolerant.

 Those who aren’t are primarily descended from early Northern European dairy farmers, and is often cited as proof that evolution is on going.

 Every day is a school day with Etims.

 Theres actually a simple test that each of us can do, which will in fact use body shape to determine our own roots.

Have a look at this photo, and compare it to your own shape….

You really have to be careful not to upset people these days, as a bakers across the country have    discovered;

You know what, although it wouldn’t surprise anyone these days, I’d better point out that the above is, in fact a mock up.

You don’t believe me, do you ?

Some great answers to the caption competition yesterday, worth another look if you’ve not seen them all.

In fact, it’s time for another….

What’s so funny ?