Celtic Diary Tuesday September 8; Scots Unique Amongst UK.

International football is a different game from that which we see every week at domestic level. Still, congratulations to Scotlands first artificially created club who managed a friendly against an artificially created country.

Scotland didn’t bow out of the euro’s last night, but most of the players can probably relax and start to look for bargains amongst the early booking offers for two week breaks next summer. Not surprising really, although the Scots did put up a fight, they were still comfortably beaten by a German side who didn’t really have to play at anywhere near their capability.

And as for Scotland, they had a keeper who insisted on palming the ball back into play, a defence who stood around admiring the German forwards, a midfield that kicked anything that moved, except the ball, and Steven Fletcher.

Celtic nearly bought him. whoever suggested this must be a fucking idiot, or a season book holder at Pittodrie. Or his agent.

For me, and probably countless others, when Scotland were chasing the game, and remarkably in with a shout of geting something out of it, Gordon Strachan, aided by Mark McGhee and Stuart McCall, ( I might be on the point of spotting the problem here ) decided that in form Leigh Griffiths should be left on the bench, and Chris Martin and someone called Ritchie were what was needed to swing the game.

Chris Martin plays for Derby, a team that’s not even sure of its pronunciation, and I haven’t got the faintest idea who the other bloke is.

Strachan talks a good game, but thats about it. Still, at least he watched the game in the same way we all watch Scotland games;

International football brings us all together, come to think of it, maybe thats what the better together campaign was all about, as all the other British regions will not only have a team out in France next summer, they could all end up topping their group. The idea, of course, is that Scots have someone to cheer for.

Frankly, the only person happy with the last two games was probably Paul Lambert…and he had to sit next to Neil McCann.

Mind you, perhaps everyone forgetting club loyalties for a moment and getting behind the national team isn’t such a bad idea.

Someone at the SFA ticket office obviously has a sense of humour. And he doesn’t like disabled fans either;

Or , knowing the Scots had decided to pick players such as Hutton, Hanley , Morrison and Fletcher, perhaps he thought he was doing them a favour by putting them behind the hoardings.

Wee Finlay didn’t think so.

This was his view;

The bottom one is hurting my eyes just looking at the picture. It must have been awful during the game.

Celtic supporters will be familiar with this, having been stuck behind these boards on more than one occasion. Time to ditch Hampden, and play internationals s around the country, picking venues to match the anticipated crowd. That way, the atmosphere will be better, and bigger nations will fear coming to Celtic Park, which can be an intimidating place for anyone to visit.

Use Murrayfield for cup finals, Edinburgh is, after all, the capital. Hampden just hasn’t got it anymore. Sell the place, and divide the money up between the clubs.

Incidentally, I know Sean Maloney scored, and Strachan likes having someone even shorter than him around in case he fancies hitting someone, but when he justifies picking some of the diddies he does by claiming they play in a more competitive league , it’s worth remembering that Maloney, who must at least be  in his forties, was blowing out of his arse after singing the national anthem. That’s because he has been playing kickball, in the USA.

Still, at least we can feel a little bit of comfort in knowing that Steven Fletcher isn’t at Celtic. Based on his performances in the last two games, Poland probably won’t bother with a defence, or a keeper, and even Gibraltar will fancy their chances of a clean sheet.

Ach, enough of that. At least Griffiths only had his pride hurt, and hopefully he’ll take it out on Aberdeen on Saturday. So far, the international break hasn’t left us with any extra work for the medical staff, but perhaps Ronny should give Stefan Johansen a kick up the arse, after the Norwegian , who hasn’t had the best run of form in a Celtic jersey, told us why;

“I’ve had a tough, tough week. I was very close to missing both of the games against Bulgaria and Croatia, but I made it.

“But I was driven to play well because of the thought of qualifying for the European Championships.

Maybe he should be given a rest, and Kris commons can play against Aberdeen.

For all the talk of a one team league, Saturday’s game is crucial. The Dons ran Celtic a lot closer than the eventual seventeen point gap suggests, and this season, their form is even more impressive. five games, five wins and incredibly, just one goal conceded.

Celtic tend to miss a lot more than they score, and the game is shaping up, even this early, to be one which will determine how the season goes.

 Should the dons win, their fans will be rustling their sweetie wrappers well into the night, whilst Celtic’s already fragile confidence could be shattered.

 A new defence, a misfiring midfield ? We’ve got it all.

For Aberdeen, this is exactly when you want to be playing Celtic. For Celtic, well, it could be a bit nervy.

Remember when we called for more competition in the league ?

I’ve changed my mind.

Though I guess it is nice to be looking forward to what should be a cracking game.

Chris Sutton, who knows a thing or two about playing up front, has offered Ronny some advice for the game.

“Ronny is a stickler for this 4-2-3-1 formation because it has suited him throughout his managerial career,”

“But I believe there is still a place for two strikers and maybe Ronny should think about going this way with Ciftci and Griffiths.”

“When you play 4-2-3-1 the best player in the team has to be that centre-forward,

“The best striker I’ve seen playing in that position is Didier Drogba at Chelsea. Celtic – like a lot of teams – don’t have that kind of player.”

It couldn’t hurt to occasionally try something different. Even if it’s just to appear less predictable. The other teams in Scotland are learning how to play against Celtic, something which Age Areheid of Malmo mastered after just ninety minutes.

 With four consecutive titles in the bag, it’s the best chance we will have, certainly in my lifetime, of rectifying the wrong caused by David Murrays artificially created nine in a row by going one better.

Of course, Murray used a somewhat unique fiscal policy to attain the funds for his  nine in a row, and  replacement club Second Rangers may have missed a trick with this superb marketing idea as they stumble through what appears to be a permanent cash flow problem.

Surely it should be ” Wan A Ra Peepil ” ?

Football is a funny old game. congratulations have to go out to Airdrie, formed in 2002, who secured a trophy no less than twenty seven years before they first saw the light of day.

Well done.

Thats from the SPFL website.

The picture yesterday showed one of the more despised images in recent times with a Nazi flag flying over it.

Today, and this is a proper quiz. anyone with the name Celtic collectibles on twitter isn’t allowed to enter.

What is happening here ?