Celtic Diary Friday December 18: Celtic To Sue Fans ?

Someones been letting off flares again, and it’s really starting to annoy the club. whilst I’m not a fan of pyrotechnics, as fire has a horribly indiscriminatory way of claiming its victims, and leaves a usually permanent scar, legal action ?

A club statement said;

“As part of our ongoing investigation into the recent match against Fenerbahce in Istanbul and the use of flares within the stadium, Celtic today confirmed that it has indefinitely suspended two individuals from attending all Celtic matches, home and away.

“There have been calls from many for Celtic to raise a civil action in relation to recovering any fines imposed and this is something which the club will consider.

“Celtic supporters travel in their thousands to European matches and the club is always grateful and proud to have such a magnificent following from fans who have earned such a wonderful reputation.

“However, we cannot allow the club and our supporters to be damaged reputationally or financially any more, by a handful of individuals.

“While we await UEFA’s determination, we have been inundated with support from Celtic fans who want an end to this activity and, like the club, do not want those responsible associated with Celtic in any way.” 

Just to clarify, the bit in bold refers to the fans, and not , despite what you may think at first glance, the board. Though it might be worth remembering that paragraph. you never know when we might need it.

By all means, fine them, or ban them. They deserve either.

But a civil action, come one.

Grow up.

However, whilst we’ve got our litigious heads on, maybe that phone call to the lawyers shouldn’t be wasted.

Heres an idea.

The statement mentions financial damage by a handful of individuals…

Can you think of any other individuals who may have damaged the club financially through their actions, or even inaction ?

So, how about the board grow a pair of balls and threaten those who have cost the club millions in lost revenue ? ( No, not Ronny )

The SFA, the SPFL, the directors of Rangers FC, (deceased )

On behalf of not only Celtic supporters, but supporters of other clubs.

We all paid into a fraudulent set up.

And none of us, club or supporter, got the level playing field that we thought we were getting. Someone was cheating, someone was covering up for them, and now its all out in the open, they all want us to move on and forget about it.

If you are going to ring the lawyers, and spend money on legal action, then do aim it at the right people, for the right reasons.

Otherwise, i’ll ring my lawyer, and ask him to sue you for the cost of tickets and travel to Glasgow since 1998, as clearly the club was complicit in the scam that was Scottish football, as they don’t seem to want to do anything about the loss of millions and the damage done to the reputation of the clubs and the game as a whole.

Hey, and my lawyer is good…

Time to stop arsing about Celtic, and start protecting the club from the real bad guys…

Though , if we can talk Neil Doncaster and Stewart Regan into chucking a couple of flares, we might get some action..

The transfer window is just around the corner, and the list of players set to join Martin Odegaard at Celtic grows ever longer.

Having already named everyone they can think of, the Scotsman has now gone full circle and started repeating the ones they named last year; Well, they are repating what the Record said last year, in their Rumour mill, which is nowhere near as accurate or funny as the original Rumour mill.

CELTIC could revive their interest in Alfred Finnbogason, with the Icelandic striker struggling to make an impression at Real Sociedad and loan side Olympiacos, who look set to send him back to the Basque Country.

The 26-year-old has managed just four goals in 27 appearances for Sociedad, and just two in 11 for the Greek outfit.

Well, he might, but as with most Celtic signings, the press will not know before the rest of us.

And anyway, we won’t need anyone else, as manager Ronny Deila hasn’t given up on Anthony Stokes yet…

 “Anthony has to improve the things I have been telling him for one year and if that happens then he is available.

“I will never give up – I know his qualities. I want to make the best out of him and I will never stop putting the demands on him, what he needs to get the best out of him.

“He comes back with a positive mind and is humble but again it is about performances. It is about showing with consistency things have changed. He has apologised. Hopefully now he will make the changes to get him in the right frame of mind to get the best out him.

Stokes to respond to Ronny’s encouragement ?

We sought out a few people who know the errant Irishman, in one of his , er, places of rest;

Ronny , leave it. He’s not interested any more.

Meanwhile, theres another possible problem for Deila. It appears Celtic cannot get in touch with Dave Baldwin, the agent who represents James Forrest, and the boss wants to talk about a new deal.

Agents , of course, usually want to talk about deals all the time, so this is a bit odd…if it’s true, that is.

Its from  Alan Patullo, in the Scotsman, who, in typically ” hey! heres a bad news celtic story,” says..

Ronny Deila is being frustrated in his desire to offer James Forrest a new contract for the unusual reason that Celtic cannot seem to make contact with the player’s elusive agent.

The Celtic manager claims Dave Baldwin, Forrest’s agent, is proving hard to pin down. But Deila hopes he might appear for contract talks in the coming days “like Santa”.

Ronny , quoted in the piece, said;

We have tried to get hold of his agent so you can write that when he has time, he can come in and discuss an offer,” 

“We have tried for a while so hopefully he will come – like Santa. Maybe he has a lot to do. I don’t know how many players he has. It doesn’t concern me but hopefully we will get contact now and start talking.” 

So, we’ve rang him and he wasn’t in.

Or someone has. Or hasn’t.

Celtic are in talks with Leigh Griffiths over an extension, after Griffiths, according to local rags in Norfolk, rejected the chance to go to Norwich, and thus condemning Gary hooper to more misery, as there was mention Hooper could be used as a makeweight in the deal, and note, it was Hooper making up the deal here, and not the other way round.

Right, busy day today, the Lennon CSC are meeting up for a pre christmas drink, and I’ve a lot to do before then.

Heres a picture from the past which shows how things have changed.

Where is it, and when was it ?

We’ve also had a wee bit more trouble with the puppy. Wednesday night we put up all the decorations, with it being nearly christmas, and lo and behold  the wee shite went and ate  all the christmas lights.

So we had to take her to the vet (again) and to be fair, he was great. When he went all gooey and told the pup she was going to be fine, you should have seen her wee face light up.