Celtic Diary Monday December 14: It’s Turned Out Nice Again

See the X Factor finished last night.

And I got accused of ruining the music industry when they did me for illegal downloads!

I was surprised to learn that Simon Cowell spends around half a million pounds a year on personal security, which is astonishng. He could save a fortune by just being a bit less of a tosser.

Yeah, Celtic won, they played well and I’m all happy again.

All together

” You can stick your Davie Moyes up your arse , up your arse, up your arse..”

There’s a christmas number one in there somewhere.

If Rod Stewart fancies putting the band back together.

Ach no, The Ronny bus isn’t fully back on the road yet, but a few more of the engine troubles were sorted yesterday,  and for those of you who still doubt it will all turn out nice again..

In the sub zero world of Arctic Perth, the hoops, after a nervous start, realsied that the defence hadn’t conceded the first time anyone got near the Celtic goal, and the resultant confidence spread throughout, and Celtic comfortably beat a more than decent St. Johnstone 3-0.

For the first time in a while, the side , admittedly after a shaky start, looked at ease with each other, and there were a few candidates for man of the match, as a number of players had their best games for a while.

And I may have spotted what Stuart Armstrong actually does.

And why he is valuable.

When the former Dundee United man joined Celtic I had to confess I didn’t know too much about him, when he lined up for the Celts I couldn’t really see what he did.

Yet I was aware the side were less effective without him.

When Celtic are in possession, he is the guy hanging behind the man with the ball, in much the same way as Neil Lennon and Paul Telfer used to do for Shunsuke Nakamura.

He covers the mistake.

He offers an alternative ball should the likes of Rogic or Forrest be crowded out. although it doesn’t seem Rogic in particular has noticed him yet, as he runs down more blind alleys than a scouser with a flat screen tv.

Rogic played well yesterday too, and if he would only look up every now and then…

Craig gordon looked a little more assured, probably booseted by his early save from moichael O’Halloran, who would certainly fit in at Celtic, as his pace and reading of the pass are exceptional. He won’t be at St. Johnstone for long, which is a relief to other defences.

Unless he does make the journey to Glasgow.

Emilio Izaguirre, oft criticised , was closer to the form we know he is capable of, despite still being upset over the death of his close friend Arnold Peralta, who he paid tribute to after the game as he walked from the pitch.

Manager Deila explained why he allowed the Honduran to play, despite his personal circumstances;

“I talked with him and he was ready. I trust my players and he did a good job.

“It was hard for him, but he wanted to play and I am very pleased with the way he got through that game, if you take into consideration the circumstances.

“He made that choice himself and it was important that I didn’t have it over his head.” 

Mikael Lustig seemed to be back to , or at least somewhere near, the form we know he is capable of. It was his birthday yestarday, so maybe he got breakfast in bed or something, and it put him in a good mood. Anyway, he looked more like his old self, and was a threat down the right and in the box. Happily this time, it was the opponents box, and maybe he’s more aware of Saidy Janko now than he was before.

The most pleasing aspect for me was the way the central defenders played. It was almost like they knew each other. Deydryck Boyata must have been told to relax, we’ve got no-one else to take your place, so stop panicking.

And it worked. He won the ball in the air, backtracked when needed, and his positioning was much improved. Sometimes he was even in the way of shots on goal.

 There is a player in there, that’s certain if not obvious, and combined with the new bhoy Simunovic, who as O’Halloran nearly found out, has that mean, ruthless streak that is essential in a defender and has been missing probably since Roy Aitken and Mick mcCarthy took it in turns to kick people. If yuo don’t count Johann Mjallby.

Stefan Johansen looked a lot more interested than of late, but the biggest revelation was in Calum MacGregor, who relished the more withdrawn central role, and whilst never doing anything spectacular, made few mistakes and just kept it simple.

 Like Paul Lambert used to do. Like Nir Biton should be doing, only quicker.

And we seem to have stumbled on someone who can take corners as well, as MacGregor more often than not found a Celt in the box.

James Forrest looked a little tired, but was still prepared to run at the defenders, and still did his share of defending, and again was unlucky not to score.

Nadir Ciftci, however, may well have been  found in his living room watching reruns of the game and singing “so fucking easy ” until the early hours after he turned in probably the man of the match performance.

 Not just for two excellently taken goals, but for the effort he put in. more than once he was seen to suddenly jerk himself awake , as though suddenly remembering he had to backtrack. and he did.

The goals will do his confidence the world of good.

The performance will do the players the world of good.

And it will keep the press off the clubs  back for a week or so.

In conclusion, there are little signs that it’s coming together. Yes, it’s a lot slower than we would have liked, and yes, there have been mistakes made.

 But in truth, that was the sixteenth consecutive win in matches directly after a European game , so all we need to do is win a couple or three of those, and we’re sorted.

Those of you at the game would have noticed Police Scotland swing into action as a banner once again caught their attention. After first checking none of the protagonists were Dutch, they stormed towards the trouble hotspot.

Over at Ibrox, however, it seems the Dutch / Orange connection had them soiling their underwear again;

One suspects it may not be just us who bought jelly and ice cream that year….

To be fair, the police were dealing with a particulary serious traffic offender outside, and may have been left a little understrength in the ground

And there was trouble with a rogue biker, who, as befits the reputation given to those who use two wheels instead of four, which needed extra attention;

Anyway, I’ve not seen any comments on these accusations yet by Police Scotland, as they won’t be back in the office until lunchtime. They’re out kicking doors in until then, and it may even be this evening until they can comment as they are all on a course to deal with people who want to take photographs of their ineptitude;

Speaking of Ibrox, Dave King has announced how he will raise the money to pay Mike Ashley’s £5m-which we hear is nearer £6.5m due to penalty payments-and we have to say you cannot fault the mans dignity;

At one o’clock today, Celtic will learn their next opponents in the UEFA Youth Legue, which isn’t really a league, but at least it’s exclusively for youth players and youth  teams. The Champions League, of course, is wrong on both counts.

Joe McHugh, on the videocelts website, explains it far better than I could, and in more depth if you would care to take a look;

VideoCelts

Celtic’s opponents will come from Real Madrid, CSKA Moskva, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, Roma, Arsenal, Dynamo Kyiv or Valencia.

Should Celtic win that tie they will then have another one off tie against Paris Saint-Germain, PSV Eindhoven, Benfica, Manchester City, Barcelona, Dinamo Zagreb, Chelsea or Lyon for a place in the last eight.

After the Next Gen Series UEFA took control of u-19 football in season 13/14 with the format exactly the same as the senior competition.

After running for two seasons the u-19 event has acquired an identity of it’s own with the champions from 32 countries playing through two rounds to reach the last 24.

That switch has opened the door to teams like Ajax, Anderlect, Middlesbrough and Elfsborg to join Celtic with the one off ties at this stage bringing a new dimension to European competitions.

With no-overage players allowed the Youth League gives the young Celtic squad the opportunity to play on level terms against their peers from across the continent.

We should all be a little happier today.

Looking at the big picture, the side seem to be relieved that the intense pressure that comes with flying a solo flag for Scotland in europe has been lifted. The press never gave the club any kind of support, or even encouragement. They were waiting for us to fail, and we obliged.

And the media , as we know, sometimes get it wrong when they fall over themselves to get a story out;

All of this may create, and I hope it does, a siege mentality within the squad, and it will benefit us next time round.

Perhaps we too, should give the benefit of the doubt to the management team sometimes. When ronny speaks, it’s important to remeber his first language is not English, and maybe what he days doesn’t come out like it forms in his head.

john collins gets a bad time as well, but his six years as a player showed that he does care about the club, perhaps sometimes too much. After his service as a player, he could be cut  a little more slack from time to time.

And for all the flak given to John Kennedy, again, yes he is still learning, and yes we may have got it wrong with zonal marking, but you’ll notice it’s been quietly dropped.

Which means that the side are practicing both styles, which will give us more options in the future.

Rememebr what Ronny said about teaching them one style, and then introducing others ?

I think we may see a bit more flexibility as we put the team together that will have a crack at the UCL next summer.

For now, lets try to enjoy the prospect of a treble.

Who knows when it may come around again ?

And so, to the caption competition, with a photgraph taken outside the studio of the Jeremy Kyle show. What could the title of that particular episode be ?

By the way, the leader picture is of comedian/singer George Formby, famous for his rather risque tunes on the ukelele. Thats not his real name, of course, he took his stage name from his home town of George, near Southport.