Celtic Diary Thursday April 9: Three Points. They All Count.

Celtic won 2-0 against ( insert name of opponents here ) to rack up another three points in the quest for four in a row.

Kris Commons and Stefan Johansen scored the goals.

Do you know what is astonishing about this season ?

Celtic don’t have a single player who is in double figures when it comes to goals scored in the league. Johnsen and Guidetti have eight apiece. Anthony Stokes, for all the grief he gets has seven, the same as Kris Commons.

Mackay Steven and Armstrong are up there as well, but that includes their Dundee United goals.

Hah. Dundee United. As The Clumpany , on twitter, remarked;

Back to the goalscoring “problem “.

We’ve noticed the problem almost on a weekly basis, when we talk of the amount of chances created and the proportion of them scored.

Does Ronny have an answer ?

Does it explain the rotation of strikers lately?

Is he giving them a last chance to do something before he spends on a proven , quality striker ?

Well, I’d thought I’d ask , anyway.

Speaking after last nights game, presumably to keep everyone awake, Deila said he was pleased with ….John Guidetti;

“He worked really hard last night, and he was involved in a lot of our play.

“So I was really happy with him. He performed well.

“I think he understands that it is not just about him scoring, but about what he does for the team.

 “He is talking a lot about assists as well, which is good.”

Er, his job in the team is to score goals. Surely ? We have five midfielders to do the “assisting ”

As it was, again, Celtic had to rely on Craig Gordon a little more than we should have.

 “It is always dangerous when you don’t take your chances.

“You know the opposition is going to get one or two, and Thistle did that, but Craig saved us.

“The opening goal came at the right time, just before half-time, and we went on to take the points we needed.” 

 Theres a Champions League campaign just weeks away.

If we haven’t found someone to score goals at that level, we are in trouble.

When he had Henrik Larsson you always felt we’d score, and especially away from home, that was invaluable in Europe. You always have a chance if you have a goalscorer.

 Leigh Griffiths is the closest we have to one, but he isn’t at that level. It’s not to say he can’t get there, but we need someone now.

One player who is excelling in what he does, no matter who the opposition, and who is capable of performing at a higher level, is Stefan Johansen, whose captain’s contribution last night was fantastic.

 Ronny agreed;

‘Stefan is a good player and he is important for us,’ Deila said. ‘He works very hard and communicates well with his team-mates. He did a great job as captain.

‘He has had a good season all along but is improving all the time. He is very fit and you can see it at the end of the games – he is getting on the end of chances because he is still going when others are starting to get tired. Technically he is improving all the time as well. He can still get better.

‘We have conceded only 14 goals this season and of course a lot of that is down to the defence and goalkeeper. But Stefan is one of the pluses in that as well. He works so hard for the team along with Broony and Nir (Bitton) which makes us very solid. He is a good player offensively and defensively.’

Theres talk of the Norwegian as a candidate for Player of the Year, but this is Scotland, and he has to combine his on field efforts with at the very least discovering a cure for Ebola, saving an airplane full of terrified passengers, and getting Second Rangers a nominated advisor and millions of pounds of investment.

 Ronny thinks he’s in with a chance, along with a few other Celts, but he’ll learn;

 ‘There are many good players at Celtic. The best players in Scotland have been here but it’s up to others to pick the player of the year.

‘He is one of the ones doing very well but there are a lot of them. People can talk about Craig (Gordon), Virgil (van dijk), Jason (Denayer), Broony and Nir. You (the media) have to pick. I just see that a lot of our players have been performing well.’

As ever, the press wanted to know how much we could sell him for…but the manager shot them down; 

‘I don’t want to think about it like Stefan being one of our biggest assets in terms of money. I want to think that we have a good player. We want to build the team around players like him – Nir, Jamesy (Forrest) Virgil. We have young players coming up. They can be better and can improve.

‘We just have to keep them here and continue to develop them and fight so hard to get into the European stage.’

Don’t we, Peter ?  

 Peter ?

Well, we can hope….

News from Ibrox, and despite initial misgivings, we hear there will be significant investment at Second Rangers. Glasgow City council have agreed to buy the site of Ibrox Stadium, and will replace it with a major new sewage works, thus helping the club and greatly reducing air pollution  in the area.

Everybodys happy.

Except Haris Vuckic. He wants to leave Newcastle, and claims he would be happy to stay at Second Rangers if they get promoted, and , of course, stay in business.

 Surely not, even the Rumour mill wouldn’t suggest this…… but he might well be staying in Glasgow, and not over there….

Theres also concern over aging forward Kenny Miller, who seemed to misunderstand manager Stuart McCall when he said that the new club would have to scrap their way out of the first division.

We hear he also got a little mixed up when he asked the lass in the picture where she came from. she said she was Lebanese, and Miller later explained to a pal why he lucked out.

 ” she prefers other women and she’s dyslexic “

I didn’t watch it, but there was a leadership debate in Scotland last night. Better Together hasn’t gone away, has it ?

Hang on, I’ve seen these two before…

 I’ll be in Dunoon on Saturday. Just in case, where do the Dunoon CSC watch the game these days ?

Bertie Auld was pictured in a Birmingham strip yesterday, before he went on to prove that they can come back and do well….

Celtic Collectibles to thank again for this picture.

Who is scoring here, and where ?