{"id":14385,"date":"2019-06-28T09:15:31","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T08:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=14385"},"modified":"2019-06-28T09:16:53","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T08:16:53","slug":"celtic-diary-friday-june-28-incoming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=14385","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Diary Friday June 28: Incoming !"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defender Christophe Julien is in town, ready to sign a four year deal.<\/p>\n

At around \u00a36-7m he’s quite an investment for Celtic, and one hopes that it is an indication that the board is serious about strengthening the team and backing the manager.<\/p>\n

One thing that you won’t see in the Scottish press is that he has just a year left on his contract, and is clearly worth a lot more than we are paying for him.<\/p>\n

More interestingly, as we have been aware that Julien was on the radar pre Neil Lennon, and given that Lee Congerton never found anyone of note, one wonders who actually found the player, and why he hasn’t been promoted.<\/p>\n

Thats if he doesn’t turn out to be a dud, that is, and to be honest, he does look the part.<\/p>\n

From what I can gather, his strong points are strength, anticipation, jumping and aggression.<\/p>\n

He does pick up the occasional yellow card, but thats irrelevant as in Scotland that will be something he’ll get used to anyway.<\/p>\n

All that remains today, apparently, is for him to sort out personal terms..<\/p>\n

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David Turnbull, who hasn’t had much luck lately, will now be staying at Motherwell , due to a potential problem that requires corrective surgery.<\/p>\n

Celtic did offer to borrow the player and attend to the problem, and then pay for him, but Motherwell presumably want to fix it themselves as they know better.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the player is left in limbo. Not limbo dancing, of course. That would be silly with a dodgy leg.<\/p>\n

It’s hard not to feel for the player.<\/p>\n

Not only was his agent taking the piss, but now his club are at it.<\/p>\n

Get your leg fixed, run down your contract and we’ll see you soon.<\/p>\n

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Celtic also seem to be getting caught up in a bidding war for left back Romain Perraud, the Nice left back. Well, I think it’s up to you to judge whether he’s nice or not, although I personally prefer a defender to have a touch of the doo lallys about him and be more nasty than nice.<\/p>\n

It’s between Celtic and Brest-you can do that joke- for the services of the player, at least according to French paper L’Equipe, which , translated, means The Equipe.<\/p>\n

Perraud told the paper;<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of a painful history, I had really hammered my wish to leave and at the end of May, I repeated the same thing.\u00a0I have nothing against the current leaders but Nice missed the train with me.\u00a0I want a new challenge.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Anyone else ?<\/p>\n

Oh, there’s dozens. Including Paddy McNair of Middlesborough,<\/p>\n

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who it seems may struggle to win fans over at Celtic.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Still, if he did join that would be one more of us, and one less of them.<\/p>\n

Every little helps.<\/p>\n

It’s not all good news..<\/p>\n

Kalas heading to Bristol City<\/h4>\n

Bristol City<\/a>\u00a0are set to complete the permanent signing of Tomas Kalas from Chelsea despite interest from Celtic and Rangers.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Leigh Griffiths has spoken of his personal battles, and how he now feels they are behind him and he’s ready to roll again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was major depression,\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople might say, \u2018what\u2019s he got to be depressed about?\u2019, but there are stressful times and it wasn\u2019t the best of times for me. Other people are going through it as well and it\u2019s the same for anybody, if you are going through depression then you need to open up and speak to people. There are people who can help.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cI did try to battle though it. I had to. It\u2019s my job. I can\u2019t just phone up one day and say I\u2019m not training.\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
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\u201cBut that\u2019s why I was grateful to the manager (Rodgers ). He saw it and he gave me the time off I needed. I\u2019m looking forward now.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI never asked for time off. It was Brendan Rodgers who said I needed to get my mind right. So, I have to thank him for that because if I had kept playing I would have done myself serious harm.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy mental health wasn\u2019t right. A lot of things were playing on my mind. So, I just had to step away from football at that time.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been there for most of my life. It had been there for maybe a year, a year and a half. It started off slow but then it started to snowball towards the end.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBrendan saw it in training and he knew I wasn\u2019t right. So, I have taken time off. It has been longer than I expected. But I am just glad to be back pulling the shirt back on again. Physically and mentally, it hasn\u2019t been a cake-walk.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut it is not just my football life. I\u2019ll have a long life after football. I\u2019ve got kids to look after and family to look after. It is a long life after football and I had to make sure I was right.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

If it was previous manager Rodgers who helped start Griffiths\u2019 recovery, it has also helped him to now have Neil Lennon to lean on for advice, who himself has had mental health issues in the past.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Which leads me to this weeks<\/p>\n

Knob of the Week\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

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Yup.<\/p>\n

Me.<\/p>\n

Again.<\/p>\n

I didn’t think Griffiths would play for Celtic again, let alone score a goal.<\/p>\n

But, I’m happy to be proved wrong, as the man himself said..<\/p>\n

Im here until 2022. That\u2019s not changing\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Over on the dark side of town, there was hope..oh hang on, there was perhaps the strangest and most desperate tweet to try to make “rangers ” look like a big club..<\/p>\n

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Chris Jack<\/strong>\u200f\u00a0<\/span><\/span>@Chris_Jack89<\/b><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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