Celtic Diary Thursday June 2: Summer Of Hope Continues…

It’s not just the support who have been revitlalised by the statement of intent that is the appointment of Brendan Rodgers.

The players, who with the exception of Mikael Lustig, are feeling the good vibes as well.

Just as you and me are looking ahead to the new season, the wave of enthusiasm has spread to our heroes as well.

The manager has been ringing round telling them he’s looking forward to working with them and will see them at training. That small gesture, that involvement with them at this early stage, has given them a chance to awaken from the Deila collins induced apathy of last season, and has even sent some of them scurrying to the gym to make sure they are in tip top condition when it all begins again.

Can’t be bad, can it ?

So for all the paper talk about signings, the linking with loans and the spending of warchests, I’d wait a while, because, and it makes sense, the boss wants to see for himself what he has got, and move forward from there.

Take Leigh Griffiths for instance..

“Brendan has a track record for making great players even better. You only need to look at what he did with the likes of Suarez and Sturridge when he was in charge of Liverpool.

“There are always things you can improve on. I could have improved on certain things last season.

“This manager will know things about me and will have things he wants to change about me. I can improve as a player and the only way to do that is by working hard on the training field.

“We will sit down and have a decent chat on the training ground when 
pre-season starts. We’ll discuss how he wants me to play and how he wants me to adapt to his formations.

Thats formations, plural, which in itself is enough to get everyone curious. 

“I’m looking forward to getting the season back up and running.

“I can’t wait to see what formation and style of football he wants to play but most importantly there are 
competitive games straight away with the Champions League qualifiers.”

“Hopefully we can make it third time lucky by getting into the group stage.

“Brendan is famous for his attacking football. He brought it to Swansea and then to Liverpool and was just three games away from winning the title down in England.

“You don’t win the Premier League if you are not a decent team playing some decent football. Hopefully he will bring most of his ideas up here and the players will get on board with what he wants to do. I had a brief chat with him when he was introduced to the Celtic supporters last week but we will go into more detail when we are back at training.

“I got a call at 3.30pm asking me to come through, walk out for two seconds, dance with the fans and then head home in rush-hour traffic.

“Seriously though, it was nice to see the new gaffer and introduce myself.

“He said he was looking forward to working with me and I can’t wait to start working with him.” 

That last line is pretty much what he’s told everyone.

The lack of Celtic players at the Euros could turn out to be a major factor when these games roll around. The players should be fresh, enthusiastic and raring to go. 

That could well be the difference between qualifying and not qualifying.

The advert describing the lack of governance at the SFA, and their somewhat creative outlook on the UEFA rulebook, hit the newstands in Switzerland yesterday.

It hit them so loud that it woke Stewart Regan, the man at the centre of the controversy. And lo, he did speak unto the nation…

“It’s our understanding that the requisitioners accept that there are no issues with the granting of the license to Rangers. Where they do have an issue is in what’s called the monitoring period, immediately after the granting of the license to Rangers. Our position on that monitoring period is that we have fully complied with all of the UEFA regulations and requirements during that period.

He understands-thats the key word here-that the requisitioners “accept that there are no issues with the granting of the licence. ”

It means that later he can say he must have misunderstood.

Well, to a man they would disagree his assessment of their view, unless I am much mistaken. He could be interpreting the aim of the requisitioners, which is not to castigate Rangers, but to draw attention to the governing body.

Or, of course, he could be full of shit.

Answers on a post card.please. but not to the SFA, they won’t read it.

“We have said that if the requisitioners are still not happy they should take it up with UEFA. We’ve supplied the email addresses and contact details of the people that the requisitioners need to speak to and I don’t know if the requisitioners have made contact with them yet but they have told us that is their intention. We’ve said if they do that then we’ll fully cooperate and comply with any requests for information from UEFA and we’ve provided details at UEFA for the requisitioners to make contact. So we believe that the matter has been communicated to those involved and they will deal with it as they see fit. Our position hasn’t changed on this since 2013 and we’ve been in dialogue with Celtic since then on this point.”   

Then he went on to talk about the cup final, and the disgraceful scenes, and so on. and anything else he could think of, which included a threat from Justice minister Michael Matheson to withdraw funding for the game it doesn’t get a grip on fan behaviour.

Honestly, you’d think these people just fed each other lines.

Regan’s  not saying anything new, but credit to the Res 12 guys for getting him to say anything at all.

It’s a start, and yet another brick has been dislodged from the dam.

For those who may think that Rangers didn’t break the rules, here’s confirmation that they did. You are not allowed an overdue tax bill that does not have an arrangement to pay accepted by the tax authorities if you want to play in europe.

Look at the date…this is whats called a change of circumstances from what the SFA told UEFA earlier in the year. Its what they -or Rangers-failed to notify UEFA of, largely because it would have meant they couldn’t play in the following seasons UCL.

Now its the clubs turn to speak, and show that just as we support them, often too blindly, they can return the favour and tell everyone exactly where they stand.

Although I am aware that there appears to be a plan here, and so far it seems to be working, so if the club wants to wait, thats fine.

As long as that is what they are doing, waiting, and not ignoring.

Anyway, to sum up the events of yesterday., Carl JungleBhoy, a regular reader of the Diary, has spotted a pattern…

Regan has a couple of options now.

He can continue to try and bluff it out, shifting the focus elsewhere, which would be Ibrox, or he can come clean. He can try to salvage whats left of his reputation and tell the world exactly what has been going on behind the walls at Hampden.

Agent Regan, its time to break cover and send us your report….

We are ready to believe.

Hell, if you tell us whats been really happening, we will grant you immunity from prosecution and , more importantly, ridicule.

We missed a caption competition yesterday, as i felt it didn’t fit with the point i was making about the way the press had let down a few of their own, so today we will return to those vintage pics, and start all over again.

But before we do that, can i ask you to register your vote for tomorrows knob of the week award.

You see, we did it properly last week, and we’ve even presented the winner with the trophy, which he was delighted to receive.

And if K-dogg could send me the picture again, becuase somehow I’ve deleted it, I can publish it tomorrow, along with the news of this weeks winner

Anyway, amidst all this talk of the establishment circling the wagons, we appear to have found proof..