The Europa League draw threw up a group which will provide interest, excitement, and a chance for afew Celtic fans to return to amsterdam and ask the authorities if theres any chance they could finish up the business that they were arrested for the last time they went there.
Celtic face Ajax, Fenerbache and Molde in the group stages, by no means an easy group.
Fenerbache have Robin van Persie in their line up, a feared and prolific striker in his day, and Celtic reacted immediately to the threat by snapping up Tyler Blackett, a Manchester United reserve defender, on loan for the season.
Sometimes, I really don’t know why I bother.
But don’t worry, we’re after Ryan Christie, of Inverness, to bolster a midfield which has worryingly dropped below double figures when it comes to international players.
Apparently , the scouts have decided to just go shopping without checking first with Ronny what is on his list.
A bit like when I sent a young lad at work to get me twenty Bensons. He asked what if they had no Bensons, and I said just get me anything, and he brought me back a meat and potato pie.
Never mind, we’re playing St. Johnstone today, and to alleviate the general despondency amongst the support, there’s a big effort to make the match day experience something special;
Here’s your matchday schedule for today’s match v St Johnstone:
9.00am:
Celtic Superstore opens for the day. The complete 2015/16 New Balance kit range is available in-store now with the Euro Kit available to buy exclusively from Celtic.† Check-out our latest ladies-wear range and a great selection of men’s retro t-shirts are available in-store too. Pop in before kick-off to pick up all your pre-match essentials. A must for all fans!
New Balance. The kit you buy for people you don’t give a toss about.. Which was probably the thinking behind the deal in the first place.
10.30am:
The Ticket Office at Celtic Park opens for supporters looking to buy or collect tickets for the match.
Go along whenever you feel like it to beat the queue.
12.00pm:
The Kerrydale Bar opens for supporters on a first-come, first-served basis. The food court and bar will both open from 12.00pm, with Newcastle v Arsenal showing live on the big screen from 12.45pm. Liam McGrandles will provide the pre-match entertainment playing all your favourite Celtic songs in the build-up to kick-off at 3pm.
Seriously. A bar at the ground showing the fucking English League, where all our decent players end up, because tv pays them ridiculous money. Principles are just something that happens to other clubs.
1.30pm:
Stadium opens. Take the kids to the Family Stand where they’ll find lots to keep them entertained in the run up to kick-off at 3pm with free thunder-sticks up for grabs. The kids can also use our new Family Stand Post-box to send fan mail to Hoopy the Huddle Hound as well as taking the chance to become our Family Stand ‘Family of the Week’ for the chance to feature on the big screen during the match!
Hoopy the Huddle Hound. I was in Lisbon a few years ago, among the home fans, and they had a bloody great eagle swooping and soaring around the stadium. A majestic, even awe inspiring sight. I applauded, and told the local next to me he should come to Celtic Park. We’ve got a guy who dresses up as a dog.
Don’t forget to pick up your Paradise Windfall tickets to be in with the chance to win £10,000. Tickets will be available throughout the stadium ahead of the game, with the draw taking place at half-time. Look out for Windfall staff wearing the famous yellow jerseys and get your tickets to be in with a chance to win.
It used to be a bigger prize until staff complained that customers kept asking for the winning ticket, forcing them to smile and interact. Hard to do, in their defence, when your wage for the hour woudn’t even buy three tickets.
You’ll also be able to get your hands on the match programme and the latest edition of the Celtic View, both for a special combined price of only £4.
Or you can pick them up on the way out of the ground, because most people have read them at half time and left them under their seats.
3.00pm:
Kick-off. It’s time to back the Bhoys to victory against St Johnstone! C’mon the Hoops.
3.02. The ear shattering sound of seats clicking back into place.
3.10 Theres a steward in my way. and he’s deaf.
3.17. He won’t move. More than his jobs worth.
3.22. Move to one of the empty seats a couple of rows back.
3.23 Steward follows. Says he was asked to move by fans in the rows in front.
3.45. Half time. How much for a pie and a bovril. By the way, crisps , a soft drink and a bloody biscuit is neither a meal or a deal. Not when you have to ask about easy payment terms to spread the cost.
3.55. There’s someone in my seat. The sodding steward.
4.10. Head to bar. It’s always a better game on the radio.
4.45pm:
The Kerrydale bar re-opens after the final whistle where once again, Liam McGrandles will provide the entertainment before the Spurs v Everton match is shown live on the big screen from 5.30pm. Last season’s silverware will be on display for fan photo opportunities and Hoopy will also make an appearance for all the young Hoops after the match. The bar will close at 6.00pm.
It’ll probably be quiet. Watch more English football ? Instead of maybe a re run of the game, highlighting the talking points and clarifying why Gary Hooper got booked. Well, for a half hour until the bar shuts. Thats because the staff will be on time and a half after six, which would increase the costs, and mean we won’t be able to compete at the top table any more….
Sod this. I’m going to do the ironing.
Where’s that picture of that bloody rabbit ?
7 – 0?
Could not have summed the current board attitude and platitudinal actions towards the support any more visually than the above comments. Never thought I would see the day when my club was more distant from the fans and their values, PL and the board don’t give a damn about the support, big PL and his £600k is all that maters, the living wage? Don’t bother me with that pretentious crap!!
I despair, God bless the fans who travelled to Malmo, you deserve better.
Sadly, all spot-on.
10 out of 10 for the diary, as usual.
Today, St. Johnstone
Gordon
Janko/Boyata/Mulgrew/Izzy
Brown/Bitton
Forrest/Johansen/Commons
Griffiths
Subs. Bailly/Rogic/Ambrose/Mackay-Steven/Armstrong/Commons/Allan
Van Dijk to be protected for top sale price.
Assume Lustig not ready.
I’d like to get Allan some match fitness. Could maybe rest Brown and/or Bitton?
Don’t need to rest anybody for any good reason now.
Bhoys 4-1 winners.Griffiths will get a brace.
This match ends Ciftci’s suspension so he will need to prove what he can do in the weeks to come.
In future, we can play Ciftci up front, with Griffiths coming in from the left midfield 3. I think our fullbacks will then have somebody to aim crosses at.
Hearts may drop a few points at Hamilton.
Aberdeen at Partick will get all 3 points.
Cynical, and destructive article, rather than come up problems, suggest decent solutions to them if of course you can, so for example compare and contrast what goes on elsewhere to do that you might try and visit Stoke! I doubt the match day experience is any better….pointless comparing us to say a U.S. Ball game as the punters in this country don’t have the same attitude to it, where in the U.S. Its a day out for the whole family, in this country and in particular in west of Scotland its focussed on getting to the pub at 12noon putting a coupon on and getting pissed before getting on the bus to stop off at a pub to get pissed some more before heading into the stadium at ( insert whatever time you like as long as it no sooner than 5 mins before the kick off). We can all moan and groan and whilst going out of champions league is like a kick in the sandy galls our club is one of the best run anywhere in the UK and for a club in Scotalnd to be doing what we do it should be a source of pride rather than deriding it because a result didn’t go our way. Keep the Faith and Hail fecking Hail.
Not you as well Ralph!
How come no one can spell Fernebahçe?
Fenerbahce!
Be good to see a positive response today which is why I would like to see us put out the side that started against Malmo.
Minus Van Dijk and put Izzy back in.
The reason I would do so is Virgils head is elsewhere and until he’s replaced properly with a quality signing I would fire Mulgrew in there.
I always think it’s better to judge a side by how it responds to a poor performance.
If these same players cannot respond then they should be benched or shipped out and I include Brown in that too he like several other of our fist picks had a night to forget in Malmo.
My side would be:
.
………..GORDON
.
.JANKO BOYATA MULGREW IZAGUIRRE
.
……..BROWN BITTON
.
..FORREST JOHANSEN ARMSTONG
.
………GRIFFITHS
fenerbahce got done for match fixing in 2013 wonder if the sevconians will invite them to their training ground to compare notes on cheating
Yes we are all sick at the result in Malmo. We have been beat before and will be beat again but we should not kick the team because they all had a bad game and we know that they can play better than that. Surly we all have had bad days at work? And hoping that we get a good turn out today and see the Bhoys win 4 – 5 – or 6 – 0.Hail Hail
Hello guys. Ive calmed down since tuesday night lol. I’m getting behind ronny, that’s a great bit of business in signing young christie.
Maybe ronny is doing the right thing building a young squad. We really need now a quality left back.so Pl give him the money to do his job.
It’s been a tough week for ronny.
I wish him well today, keep the faith. Hail hail
Food for thought. Last year’s Europe League.
Salzburg at Celtic Park 1-3
Salzburg at Salzburg 2-2
Dinamo Zagreb at Celtic Park 1-0
Dinamo at Dinamo 3-4
Astra at Celtic Park 2-1
Astra Away 1-1
Total: won 2 Drew 2 Lost 2
Standings:
Salzburg 16 pts.
Celtic 8 pts.
Dinamo 6 pts.
Astra 4 pts.
We went through on 8 points, winning only twice. I think we can do better than that this year.
Oh dear
Are we ‘avin a laugh or what!
I see Blackett was voted as the strongest guy at Man Utd last year so even if we don’t see him in the team we might have someone to support on Superstars, he might even give that Brian Jacks a run for his money.
Talking about superstars, I would much rather see a good quality, promising younger player come to the club as opposed to these English Premiership has beens who treat us like a hobby and come for a year at the end of their career cos they always supported us a boy. To them I say fuck off, much rather have a youngster who sees this as an opportunity to learn and grow as a player.
I’ll go sit over there and roar on Ronny by myself.
“Sometimes I wonder why I bother”
Sometimes we all feel like that. I’d say (from reading your top-class Diary) that you bother because you care. Not “care” in the same way as our Chief Executive Bean-Counter whose ‘Charity’ most certainly begins at home. No, you genuinely care and so do (most of) your many ardent readers. FFS Ralph, please don’t throw the towel in. You’re right to expose the continuing shame that is Celtic PLC’s disgraceful treatment of Celtic fans. As I once saw on another site, “FC not PLC”.
We’re all still seriously hurting from Tuesday but please remember, it’s fans like you who make us “A Club Like No Other” (not a PLC like no other, they’re all the fucking same)
HH
Ralph
I just tripped over a dummy 🙂
To be honest, I agree with many of your points, not because of Celtic F.C. but because it is a boardroom attitude in all clubs with little or nothing but a business outlook i.e. every major club in any league. When profit rules, nothing stands in the way, neither staff, facilities nor fans. Standards can drop and clients can moan but in the end if the coppers keep rolling then fuck the rest. We are not on the same planet if we think football is not intoxicated by the capitalist ideal. In lots of ways it personifies it when profit becomes king and the customer is conned or simply ignored. Compare a clubs offers, if you will, to the “bargains” at any superstore. We are duped into accepting the store’s generosity when all the time it has manipulated us into buying something at the going price by selling it at a higher one for a week or two beforehand or offering a reduced price on the larger sized item only to be still dearer than two of the half sized ones. Much of our lives is one massive big con. Surely we can not be so naive as to believe our football experience will be any different. Celtic is simply riding the football capitalist bandwagon, sad but a fact. It is left to the support to uphold the democratic, selfless principals of the funders. Even then there is no guarantee their great efforts will not be hijacked by the powers that be to enhance their personal gain. But we live with all that while continuing to express our objections and even contempt at times because we are, in the end, all that is Celtic, the good and the bad, the mighty and the lowly, the great and the “second best”.
However, that does not take away my distress at the Diary being on its current depressed state of mind. It can be dangerous if it becomes a permanent one and if you do not believe you are depressed then this brief extract from Google might help you change your mind,
“…. as a general rule, if you are depressed, you feel sad, hopeless and lose interest in things you used to enjoy.” 🙁
Come back to us soon :).
H H
Hmm all a bit whinny today. I agree a better home match day experience could be provided with entrance gates further for the stadium. Could be all kinds of things organized – however Scotland’s problem with puritanical alcohol restrictions and sadly too many people piss drunk mitigates against the pre match family atmosphere. I also think the club is well run. That said I’d like to see the board talk about a vision and strategy for the club and Celtic Park as a great match day venue. I’m happy we are not going down the path of for every fiver we spend a tender of money we don’t have. We know how that ended up. So Board what is our plan for the next 5 years? What targets for trophies and European competition do we have? What budgets can we give the manager? How do we fill up Celtic Park every week? What commercial partnerships can we enter to drive more revenue to invest in players and facilities? How can we get better TV deals?
U.S.A. Football or baseball that is the way to go.
Entice the fans/families to turn up two hours before kick off, motivate the fans in the stadium, more big screens, more entertainment instead of the plebeian parsiminous way of keeping the fans happy.
Sorry I forgot the burglar bars and other crap outside the stadium.
If you buy the programme or Celtic View a raffle to spend a day with the team and Leenoxtown, think out of the box or the biscuit tin.
Also give the fans decent security on the visits to Amsterdam, home of the thuggee police and Turkey, I cannot spell Fenernace.
Protect the image of a football club that is the fans,
I missed the game today but your description of the match experience ten out of ten.
I know why you bother.
I watched the game in Galway on Tuesday during a trip over. I spent the night with the bhoys of the Galway CSC who I contacted prior to leaving, a great crowd.
Remember Matt McGlones fanzine.
Once a Tim always a Tim.
Some good points Broxburn bhoy to be able to go into the ground and have a seat coffee ( we don’t all drink alcahol) something to eat relax and then go through turnstile how good would that be and also extra revenu for the club ( if price’s are right ) would I think encourage more fans I have a season ticket at the Lisbon lion end and there would be room food for thought hail hail
Top of the league!!!!!!!!!! And we can definitely play better than we did today…but a good performance considering that (we assume) the players feel as disappointed as us (almost) after Tuesday.
The road to the Champions League 2016-2017 starts here and now!!!! HH
Cheer up Ralph!!!!!!
3-1 against a team who had their mojo working against us all last season. We play Aberdeen, Dundee then Hearts so have a chance to put some daylight between us.It will be good to get the transfer window closed to see where we are after that. This team has improved but we need to tighten up our defence as well as score more goals for the number of chances we get. Ciftci will be available against Aberdeen. He is the type of striker we haven’t had in recent seasons. I’m sure he’ll be ok long term.
This was a game that they had to get through (with a win) and get it by with. There was always gonna be the uncertainty of how they would perform knowing that the support was totally, totally pissed off with them. A dull draw or even a defeat could have been on the cards….and seeing the Green Brigade’s banner as they came out onto the pitch must have been less than uplifting for the players.
But as Devoy45 said, even in that climate we beat our bogie team, so lets take a deep breath and file the Malmo experience under “Things not permitted to happen again”. The Green Brigade have made their protest, no problem with that, but now it’s time to buckle down and give the team 100% support and not flog the Malmo loss to death. I think the players got the message.
Although it’s a long year until the 2016-17 Champions League, times flies when you’re enjoying yourself, so let’s enjoy a run in the Europa, consolidate our position at the top of the league, win a couple of cups (the treble) and stick it to the hacks and the TV pundits with their “hunbiased” opinions. HH.
I feel your pain Ralph, all the way down here in Sydney, but it is people like you who are the pulse, heartbeat of our great club. HAIL HAIL.
Well when a seen the bhoys walk out today the anger disappeared, I just had a moment to myself before kick off when a looked around and thought to myself I have loved this club all my life fuck the CL be thankfull were champions and on top domestically remember the real bad times when we win fuck all and couldn’t even challenge in scotland stop being a prick your not hear for the glory your hear cause your dyed in the wool and fuking love the club.
So I have picked myself and dusted myself down and am getting on with it we will sell who we sell and we will sign who we sign I have no control over that so why bother, fuck Lawell and the board the club will always be their, they will no.
HH
geo i think we got off on the rang feet reading your post god bless your fenian heartCOYBIB
Way to go Geo!!!! HH
Mibbie a wee reminder fae The Bunnet: “supporting Celtic is never easy but it is always worthwhile.” HAIL HAIL!
I like some of Victoria Wood’s stuff too. As you’re nicking her material, at least give her the credit.