Celtic Diary Tuesday October 5: Catching Up

Apologies again for the non appearthe last few days, but again i was up north on family business. I did think about writing them while I was up there, but I would have had to use my phone to do it, and the key board, as some of you may remember from a previous effort, puts the wrong words in.

So, where were we ?

Ach, lets start fresh.

From Sports Witness…

Scouts Attending have revealed that Celtic officials were present in Copenhagen on Sunday night to watch France beat Denmark 2-1. There are no concrete reports of who Celtic were monitoring, but there are suggestions they had their eye on a few FC Midtjylland players. It’s been claimed the Scottish side may have been watching Jakob Poulsen, Pione Sisto and Erik Sviatchenko who all played a part in the game. 

Celtic have also been present in Sweden during this current campaign after they attended a game involving Malmo. The Swedish side knocked Celtic out of the Champions League playoffs earlier in the season 

Next season, the management intend to watch Champions League opponents before we actually play them.

The first story is a continuation of the policy where we find someone, bring him in on the cheap, and hope he raises us a few quid from Southampton.

Or Arsenal, as the case may be with Nir Biton, who caught the eye with a trademark long range goal for Israel.  It seems the gunners are after the ex-military man (see what I did there ) and he could be the next one to head south for a significant sum.

The Israeli is suspended for their game tonight with Belguim, and so should come back after the break fit and raring to go. Well, raring to stay would be a better way of putting it. He’s on record as saying he is happy in Glasgow, and wants a new contract.

At least until he sees the money on offer, anyway.

The policy of buying in “projects “has had a knock on effect in a surprising, though not really when you think about it, place.

I mean, for instance, Alfie conn606 on twitter has a pre release picture of the 2020 Celtic first team already out on twitter

When you buy your new top, or one for the kids, whose name goes on the back of it  ?

Gary Mackay Steven and Stuart Armstrong had a few, Kris Commons before that, but since the days of Larsson, Sutton et al , there has been no marquee signing to give the club shop a boost.

Mind you, at 50p a letter, at least theres no sign of re-signing Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, but it could be why we never went for Messi.

As Paul McStay used to say, we need a buzz about the place.

Maybe we should look at how other clubs and supporters  do their shirt promotions;

Come to think of it, maybe we shouldn’t.

Speaking of former players, Sean Maloney, who runs about a bit breathing heavily for Scotland, said that the nations elimination from euro 2016 was a low point for him;

“I’d probably say it was the worst. I’ve lost leagues on the final day and I’ve been relegated with Wigan.”  

He’s referring to that sunday in Motherwell when Scott MacDonald scored a couple to rob Celtic of the title. Maloney reckons that ldrawing with Poland was worse ?

He should have been on our bus that day.

Or, as happened to one of ours, heading through to Edinburgh on the train, with happy huns everywhere.

Maloney has absolutely no idea what despair really is.

Though watching Alan hutton kick his way through the ninety minute assault on Robert Lewandowski reminded me why I couldn’t care less about Scotland, and haven’t done for a while.

It just shows that nothing really changes;

Questions really have to be asked;

Though probably not that one.

Still with internationals, a big well done to Efe Ambrose , who scored in nigerias 3-0 win over Cameroon. for Nigeria.

He was delighted.

“I give glory to God for the goal. The goal is dedicated to my lovely wife, Adenike Sarah Ambrose, this is because of her prayers and support to my career. She is always there for me during good and bad periods,”  

Reading between the lines, it’s nice, or at least refreshing, to see , a player who actually cares about how he performs on the pitch, and recognise that those around him are affected by his moods and behaviour.

If there was ever a player I wanted to see do really well with Celtic, it’s the big Nigerian.

If you were thinking of heading to the big firework display in Glasgow for this years bonfire night-and i don’t mean the traditional burning of evidence that usually takes place in the Baillieston/Barlanark/ Easterhouse area, you can relax. It’s been moved to the fourth, so you can take in the Molde game on the fifth as well now.

Lord Provost of Glasgow, Councillor Sadie Docherty, said:

“We always aim to make the Glasgow fireworks display the safest and most spectacular way to enjoy Guy Fawkes night.

“This year we faced the prospect of having a major European football match held at the same time. For safety reasons we took the decision to move the fireworks to the 4th of November. The display promises something special for everyone.” 

Sometimes a club cannot move a fixture, which incidentally is why the BBC are showing the Ross County -Inverness league cup game. They can only show games on a Tuesday, and Celtic have to play on the Sunday before due to a Europa game on the Thursday, so the Hearts game has to be on the Wednesday.

And not because they are all huns at the BBC. which, of course they aren’t.

Not all of them, anyway.

Maciej Zurawski was the Pole in the picture on Friday, who always looked like he was about to burst onto the scene, but never quite got there.

What’s Stefan Johansen saying to Martin Odegaard ? If it’s not about his bad back, that is.

Anyway, loads to do so I need to get started. My new Korean neighbour wants to take his dog out and he’s needing a loan of my oven gloves.