We’ve had a couple of days now to digest the result on Wednesday, and it’s not as bad as some would have you believe. we won, we know what we did wrong, and we know how to put it right. Gordon Strachan seems to agree;

Anyway, Ronny has a plan, and he’s sticking to it;

“I know that when we play our system well, it is not possible to stop us – So it’s more about getting what we believe in out there on the pitch,” 

“I know if we play our system well, we will always get opportunities and be hard to play against.”

“You have to believe in the system. We have a very clear system we play with and that will be the future for us.” 

Or is it?

So, with that in mind, there’s every chance we will get the result we need on Tuesday, and we can concentrate on tomorrows gane at Tannadice, where we see a resumption of hostilities with Jackie MacNamara’s dundde United, who haven’t started the season as well as they might have hoped, and in turn have created a mini crisis at Celtic, because we now have to look elsewhere for our players.

Jolly Jackie Mac has been talking to the Dundee Courier, who wanted to know if he thought Celtic would rest a couple of players, given the exertions of last Wednesday and the importance of next Tuesday;

“That doesn’t matter because they have a big enough squad to cope with it, considering the resources they have.

“So I wouldn’t look too much into people getting changed or being injured. We have injuries ourselves, about six of them.”

So, if Celtic made 11 changes they would still be formidable foes?

“Of course, yes, and they would be for a reason – they have the resources,” said the United boss.

“You have to compete on both fronts (domestic and European) as a Celtic player and you are judged on Europe.

“In the league matches you are expected to win every one and it doesn’t matter who is rested and who is playing. The players are at Celtic for a reason and that is they are deemed good enough to do it.”  

United were battered by Hamilton last week, and it’s plain the defeat inflicted some psychological scarring;

“We know what they are capable of doing from training and some of the games and we want to see them take that out on to the park.

“There was a lot of fear there on Saturday and at times we went as individuals rather than stay together as a team. It was a bad game for us last week and it’s important we bounce back.

“It’s a cliché but we really do have to get back to basics and do things properly.

“Saturday was disappointing and a lot of things went wrong.

“So there are a lot of things we have to put right this weekend, otherwise we will get punished from a team that does punish sides for mistakes. We have had a good reaction from the players this week.

“Hopefully it (Hamilton) was just a one-off. We haven’t looked that bad in any of the other games.

“We have looked solid enough and there have been thin lines between winning, drawing and losing matches, taking Saturday aside.”  

Celtic probably will rest players, an idea that can sometimes backfire as the impetus is interrupted, but it’s very unlikely that Mikael lustig will feature.

The big swede appeared to pull or even snap a hamsring in the Malmo game, and resumed his place on the stretcher. Worryingly though, he was in tears as he suffered yet antoher setback in what has become a long line since he cut his hair.

Well, you know what happened to Samson…  Lustig is distraught. I hope it isn’t as bad as it appeared.

When he admitted that he wasn’t one hundred per cent earlier in the season, many of us wondered why he was being rushed back, especially as the policy of waiting until James Forrest was fully fit seems to have worked wonders for the winger.

It looks like this has now backfired. after the game, Ronny said;

“ It doesn’t look good for Lustig. We have to see how serious it is. He is an important player and we will see tomorrow how bad it is.”

At the time of writing, there is no news on the injury, save that we may miss the return in Malmo. That could mean anything, but I suppose no news is good news.

Unless you are the editor of the Ibrox Evening times, that is. Then you have to rely on puff pieces from PR companies.

In fact, when there is little news around, most media outlets just make something up.

With Jason Denaayer touted for a return to Celtic for another years loan, it was inevitable it would transopire he wasn’t. Marseille, according to reports in France, will be his stopping point for the next twelve months.

Stoke City were reportedly joining the race for Virgil van Dijk, but Mark Hughes said he wasn’t when I looked at  last nights evening paper.

Which leads to an interesting snippet from the Huddleboard, the manic and highly entertaining fans forum, which wonders if one of their posters was sacked from his job at Celtic for divulging sensitive information… such as an eleven million pound offer for van dijk being on the table, but not actually being rejected or accepted.

Which isn’t surprising. Celtic have said all along that van Dijks going nowhere until at least after the qualifiers.

There is also a story doing the rounds that Norwich City are prepared to give Gary Hooper back to Celtic-but only if we give them Leigh Griffiths. Ah, well, if you don’t ask you don’t get. Actually, even if you do ask you don’t get in this case.

What is Griffiths worth these days, with his attitude and aptitude ?

I’d take Hooper back, don’t get me wrong. but as an understudy to Griffiths, who barring injury, suspension or a jail sentence, will get between thirty and forty goals for the club.

And probably even more after Christmas.

Stefan Scepovic, who has lost all interest in Celtic is likely to be the subkect of a bid from Maccabi Tel Aviv. If anyone from the Israeli  is reading this, Scep, as the fans affectionately call him is a genuinely clas forward who has difficulty in adapting to the Scottish climate, or something equally valid, and we would all be really sorry to see him go. In fact he’s worth ten million and what you are about to committ is nothing short of daylight robbery etc, etc.

With anthony stokes out of favour, and seemingly heading back down south, eltic are very light up front, which leads me to believe that there is a plan to bring someone else in should the side overcome Malmo next week, but that really wouldn’t be fair on Griffiths, who has already seen off  Guidetti and Ciftci within a few months of each other for possession of the striker role.

But we do need someone else, as Griffiths cannot be expected to do it all by himself.

Hooper would be ideal. But there is a risk that all the enthusiasm he has for the game has been sucked out of him in East Anglia, a place that can suck the life out of even the strongest.

Jordan Larsson, son of former Celt Henrik, had a chat with Ollie Sutton, son of Chris on social media. Two lads who spent a lot of time together as kids , talking about the football.

Malmo fans, who are starting to come across as thoroughly unlikeable, reacted by sending a fair bot of hate mail. Helsingborgs, who jordan plays for, have backed their man with a terse and supportive statement;

“Helsingborgs strongly reject all forms of hatred, intimidation and harassment. It is regrettable that individuals in our society can not accept differences, human dignity and the right of everyone to an opinion. 

That it then also done anonymously is a worrying social phenomenon and it should be taken very seriously.

I’m going to enjoy beating them.

Speaking of online abuse, the Morning Star published this ;

Rangers Fan Rep Posts Homophobic Slur To Allan

A RANGERS fans representative was caught posting homophobic abuse at a football player on Tuesday night after he signed for the club’s rivals.

Sons of Struth founder Craig Houston was so incensed with Hibernian midfielder Scott Allan’s decision to sign for Celtic, that he posted video tweets with homophobic comments aimed at the Scottish youngster.

In these tweets supposedly “honouring” Rangers midfielder Andy Halliday, he labelled Allan as a “gay” and called him “a poofter.”

Boyhood Rangers fan Allan had been the subject of three bids from the Ibrox side, with each rejected by Hibernian as they refused to sell to their title rivals. This led to Allan handing in a transfer request to force a move to Ibrox but again this was rejected.

Houston had lauded the potential arrival of Allan to Ibrox by labelling him a talented midfielder and that his agent would do everything in his power to make sure he would sign a pre-contract agreement for Rangers in January. This was just days before Celtic signed the youngster for £275,000.

When confronted online by the BBC’s Tom English over his “homophobic moment,” Houston  — who had labelled the Irishman as anti-Rangers during a previous BBC Sportsound show — claimed that the journalist was pandering to Celtic fans.

Houston said: “Someone seems to be playing to their target audience. Again.”

Houston, who hails from Linwood, cofounded Sons of Struth with convicted drug dealer, football hooligan and former BNP supporter Sandy Chugg……… 

……..This latest Rangers fan rep scandal comes months after Chris Graham of the Rangers Supporters Trust had to resign from the Rangers board after just two days as a director, following a racist tweet posted to a Muslim cleric depicting the Prophet Mohammed engaged in a sex act in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo terror attack.

Houston was unavailable for comment.  

No wonder a section of their support is so offensive. Look at who speaks for them.

Or is it the support that is offensive, and their representatives feel they have to speak for them ?

Anyway, as to rumours of players in and out, we can confirm that some will leave, others will stay and some new ones will arrive.

At least we are honest.

Away from football, this made me chuckle. Good news ? Really ?

And as for dedicated following of your team, this Helsinki fan will take some beating, as he sits down to watch his club face Krasnodar in russia.

Right, something to think about here.

The venue, score and opposition if you know them, but something unusual happened in this game. What ?