Celtic Diary Tuesday May 12: Van Dijk’s Dilemma

I’m hearing there’s a bit of a rammy going on in Cardiff. apparemtly there’s an advert on the side of buses featuring a scantily clad lass telling the public they can ride her all day for £3.

Working girls in the town are complaining that it shows an unrealistic level of attractiveness and is undercutting their prices by around 50%.

The bus company have responded by cutting their price to just a quid with the new logo inviting customers to “pound me all day”

The Welsh will go to any extreme to disassociate themselves from Aberdeen fans.

Speaking of aberdeen, it appears ronny Deila had a point when he said that Derek MacInnes never believed he could win the league,and that may have affected the players.

“I think you credit Celtic because even when they’re not at their best, they still find ways to win,”

“I feel as if I have a bit of Celtic in my team at the minute – that mentality. We have shown that against others, even when we’ve not been at our best. It’s important we keep that with us.

“We haven’t got the results against them and that’s played a huge part in the outcome of our league campaign but we’ll be ready for them next season – and we’ll try and improve.

“Last season we managed to beat Celtic a couple of times but dropped points to other teams.

“This campaign we’ve been outstanding against the other teams and we have to be pleased with that.” 

“We’ll try and improve “-not exactly inspiring.

Compare and contrast Ronny’s message to Tottenham, Arsenal and anyone else who is looking to buy Virgil van Dijk….

“He will stay a Celtic player. That’s our target, to get stronger. They’ve been good all season. The whole back four with the goalkeeper have been good. That’s one of the reasons why we won the league,” 

If thats the case then there’s no doubt who is calling the shots on the park at Celtic. Had a previous manager said that, we’d have nodded and sat back waiting for the “he wanted to go and we had an offer we couldn’t refuse ” statement.

Something is different about it when Ronny says it.

So far anyway.

However, speaking on Dutch regional radio, which is what football stars do, van dijk , according to the Record, who are acting as his agent this summer, gave the clearest indication yet he will quit Glasgow in the summer. 

In the Record office, there was much rejoicing.

That is the Record , by the way, and not, to paraphrase Frankie Boyle, a holding pen for the Jeremy Kyle show.

“Celtic are a great club with a fantastic stadium and the fans are great.

“But the competition is not too good.

“I want to develop. If the opportunity is there, I would definitely consider a transfer.

“But maybe there will be nothing.” 

and then…

“We were in all competitions after the winter break and that’s something Celtic always strive for. 

“Unfortunately, we did not win all the cups and we were eliminated by Inter Milan in the Europa League.

“That’s a shame but apart from that it was a successful season. 

Not exactly a come and get me, but also not a don’t come and get me.

The Express went even further, claiming that Celtic would sell for £10m.

Ah. The Express.

Human Rights Madness ? In the same sentence.

And a souvenir issue of a London crook who was arrested a million years ago. See where it says “the world’s greatest newspaper”…

The least they could do is make it more absorbent.

Anyway….

Remember when Bobby Lennox was offered a lot of money to move south. Booby does, but only after the event. Stein never told him.

When Henrik Larsson was at Celtic, according to Martin O’Neill he was the subject of interest from Manchester united. O’Neill didn’t tell the Swede until the bid reached £14m.

Larsson wasn’t interested. Lawwell eventually recovered from the shock, ( thats why if you go on the stadium tour you’ll see an abundance of defibrillators. You never know when it could happen again ) and went on to run the club quite well anyway.

We know that Ronny deila reads the diary ( no , we don’t -Ed ) and the shock of a measured and thoughtful reply from Deadhead yesterday, without capital letter, prompted the boss to comment on Tom Rogic.

“Of course he can still have a future here at Celtic,” 

“He has been very unlucky here in his Celtic career. He looks lean, he looks fast and it is up to him now what happens.

“It is not too late for him. I am always wanting to give everyone a chance. I am pleased for him that he is fit again and we will see what happens over the next few weeks.

“He has worked very hard in the gym and on the training pitch. He looks fit, but obviously he has not played a lot of football so he needs some game time.” 

 Some have commented that the Australian media were desperate for a hero, and Rogic fitted the bill. Thus the level of hype around the player never quite fitted with his ability.

 A sort of Rafael Scheidt situation, but Ronny has obviously seen something in the man worth working on, so thats good enough for me.

Transfer news ? Well, speculation , anyway.

From Sports Witness. not the conclusion the article draws…

Portuguese newspaper A Bola have reported that Celtic sent scouts to Portugal at the weekend to watch the game between Benfica and Penafiel. Over the past couple of seasons Celtic have made several trips to Portugal and last month they attended the ‘O Classico ‘clash between Benfica and FC Porto.

A Bola revealed Celtic attended Saturday’s Portuguese league clash and that they were joined on the on the scouting list by number of other clubs. The game ended in a 4-0 win for Benfica, and it now looks certain Jorge Jesus’ side will retain their title this season. There have been no concrete claims to who the SPL side were watching on Saturday which the case is normally when the Portuguese press report on the scouting lists. Clubs generally attend the games with no targets in mind as the objective is to see what talent is coming through.

Portuguese football has become a hotbed for young talent coming through, and many of the top clubs from across Europe are looking to take advantage by picking up these players for relatively low transfer fees. Many of the clubs in Portugal are experiencing financial problems, and therefore are being forced to sell some of their youngsters to balance the books. However, the top three clubs Porto, Sporting Lisbon and Benfica have responded by tying down their young talent to long contracts with huge termination clauses so that they don’t lose them on the cheap. 

So, we’re not actually looking at anyone specifically, but it’s a good day out.

So, tell me again why our scouting system is doing it’s job.

There is a little bit of good news.

Nadir ciftci, who some have argued could be the solution to our striking problems, is wanted by Rotherham and Wolverhampton. Ciftci

Ciftci is six feet tall, but weighs a meagre 77kg, which is around twelve  stone.

Which explains why he keeps getting suspended. He’s not big enough to be the player he wants to be.

Or the player we want.

Anyhoo, Leigh Griffiths or Nadir Ciftci ?

A jury will not be needed to deliberate on that one.

Anyway, politics now, and it’s time to reflect on the general election.

You won’t see that level of considered opinion on newsnight. As accurate as it may be.

 On Sunday I found out that my mother in law voted conservative.

She always comes round for Sunday dinner-she’s unconscious the rest of the week-and I put the picture from the other days diary of the polling station with the foodbank notice next to it by her plate.

 And I convinced her that it was all her fault.

Because it is.

Yesterdays picture showed Kris Commons finally revealing what he’s been carrying under his shirt for the last couple of years.

Today, we have a guest question.

Over to Tim buffy…