Celtic Diary Tuesday December 8: Transfer Policy Revealed

Now and again, certain things amaze me. Watching a documentary on Henrik Larsson last night, its hard to believe he hasn’t played for Celtic for eleven years.

This sort of thing normally hits me on the anniversary of john Lennons death, my generations Kennedy moment.

That was thirty five years ago today. When the Beatles started dying in the wrong order.

Now, hers an Etims exclusive. We’ve got an official memo which has outlined Celtics new signing policy.

First, you’ll need one  of these…

Then, remove the letters o,v,i,and c from the bag, and maybe a k and a z.

Then roll a dice, and whatever number comes up, pick the corresponding amount of letters from the bag, and re-arrange them until you have something that sounds like it might be someones name.

When Denaayer looked useful, we signed another, er, not so useful Belgian.

Now that Simunovic looks useful, whichever agent sold us on him is now randomly throwing as many exotic Eastern European names to the press as he can think of.

There’s Libor Kozak at Aston Villa. A reserve u-21. Thats right, he can’t get a game for Aston Villa. They’ve asked me twice this week if I’ve still got my boots.

There’s Marko Grujic, currently with Red Star Belgrade.

I could go on and name about a half dozen others, but i’m not going to, as it appears to me more like lazy journalism than anything else.

However, the Diary has frequently pointed out that a lot of time has been spent watching Benfica, and I’m still fairly sure thats where we’ll be shopping soon…

Celtic attended the game between Benfica and Academica this weekend according to Portuguese newspaper Record. The SPL side were frequent visitors to the Portuguese champions last season, and also in this campaign.

O Jogo have confirmed Celtic were on the scouting list to watch Benfica win 3-0. As usual with Benfica games, the match attracted the attention of a number of other clubs from around Europe including FC Koln, Real Betis, Atletico Madrid, Montpellier and SC Braga.

Despite there being no information on who Celtic were monitoring at the weekend it seems they could be casting their eye on somebody in the Benfica team considering the amount of times they have travelled to Portugal this season to watch them play.

Before the yesterday’s game this season Celtic were last seen at Benfica in November when they took on Galatasaray in the Champions League. Previous to this game they were also reported to be at Benfica’s game with Estoril and then Belenenses. However, again there are no reports who Celtic were watching at these game  

Trouble is, though, Benfica are not noted for selling their players cheaply. Along with other Portuguese sides, they make an awful lot of their money from selling their players, and are not always realistic about their prices.

Unless we are to conclude that someone just likes a jolly to Portugal this time of year, though, there must be something in it. The report above is from the Sports Witness website, and the lack of real information, which is common when Celtic are about to make a move in the market, suggests that it might be worth keeping an eye on developments.

Oh, and by the way, Nir bitons agent has changed his mind about the Israeli going south anytime soon;

“These reports are not correct, I have never said that Nir will leave Celtic,” he said.

“Nir has signed a new contract with Celtic and appreciates everything he has there.

“He loves the club and wants to be at Celtic for a very long time.”  

He was then distracted during the call and was clearly heard to tell his son he “wasn’t getting that fucking bike for Christmas and not to ask him again “

 There is to be a new set up to the League Cup next season, which is welcomed because it is new, but as usual with those who run Scottish football, hasn’t really been thought through properly.

Scottish football will have a winter break again from next season after a revamped League Cup tournament was announced which includes a group stage with penalty shoot-outs and bonus points.

A two-week winter break will return for the first time since 2002-03 season after a major overhaul of the League Cup eased fixture congestion.

The revamped competition will see eight pools of five teams face each other in a group stage which takes place throughout July as the SPFL bids to find a solution to calls from supporters for summer football. 

In the new format, any drawn matches will go straight to a penalty shoot-out after 90 minutes, with the winners receiving a bonus point.

The eight group winners and four best runners-up then progress to the last 16 alongside the four clubs who have qualified for Europe and do not have to play in the new group phase.

The group stage will include all the SPFL clubs who are not in Europe along with the winners of the Highland and Lowland Leagues.

The teams will play each other once-its not regionalised-and get more points if they win on penalties…. 

See if you’re anywhere near a bookies the day it starts, could you pop in and put me a fiver on all the games finishing 0-0 after 90 minutes ?

We hear that they’re already working on the new defensive system at Ibrox.which will replace the outmoded man marking  and zonal tactic

The clubs who would benefit from an early competitve start are excluded, which again shows a complete lack of common sense amongst the organisers.

Ah. The organisers.

Neil Doncaster. Who said;

“The new format of the Scottish League Cup marks an exciting new chapter for the competition and sees Scottish football leading the way with a number of innovations.

“Fans, the media and clubs alike have expressed a desire for competitive summer football which will be delivered from next July while the ground-breaking bonus point system should add incentive to teams and excitement for supporters.”  

Oddly enough, this hit the media at the same time, and hasn’t been as widely reported.

All of which prompts me to remind you to cancel Sky.

Doncaster  tried to explain how it worked to his SFA counterpart Stewart Regan, and even he couldn’t figure out why the grinning imbecile thought this would work.

Mind you, Regan probably has other things on his mind. We hear he is considering his position at the SFa in light of recent events, and may soon take action.

Dave King is in court tomorrow.

We hear he’s sorted for  a lift afterwards

Just thought i’d mention it.

A big hello hello to our new readers who , er, followed us from the follow follow forum. apparently we appeared on a thread over there, which contained a link , called ” hypocritcal bastaaads “, presumably not started by anyone with an in depth knowledge of spelling.

Although, to be fair, they were probably right about the hypocrisy.

I’ve been known to offer several conflicting viewpoints on pretty much most things.

Then what we do is pretend that Etims contains a number of different contributors to allow us to blame each other, who don’t actually exist.

Time now for another new feature on here, one which could run and run.

Great Celtic Haircuts Of The past and Present

Or we could go to Great Celtic Conversations Of The Past…

Here we see Jim Craig telling Danny McGrain he is sick of being excluded from the greatest ever Celtic team because of him.

At least, I think thats what is going on. They could just be wondering why Ibrox kit man Jimmy Bell is lurking outside the ground.

Fair play to those innovative chaps over at ibrox. Instead of sitting underneath the dodgy roof, you can now get a premium seat above it;

Yesterdays picture of the old Ibrox train station brought back many memories, and if you haven’t already read it, nip back to the page and read Pensionerbhoys contribution.

Right, name the Celt.

This’ll sort the men from the boys.