Celtics European co-efficient shot up again last night with yet another away win, this time \u00a0against former European champions Steaua Bucharest. Despite falling behind in the first half \u00a0to a Stefan Nikolic strike, the hoops rallied and goals early in the second half from Georgios Samaras and Mo Bangura meant it was a comfortable, morale boosting win ahead of the real stuff starting again on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Alright, it was only a training match, alright, it meant nothing, but for a football starved Celtic support it was like winning the European Cup. Alright, it wasn’t, but it certainly provided a chance to watch a few players we don’t normally see, and we got a rare Mo Bangura goal to talk about as well. He is the surprised looking one in the picture above.<\/p>\n
The live feed for ESPN was initially provided by Look TV, which is a Romanian company, and they decided that their adverts should be shown during the game, by simply migrating the main feature to the top left of the screen, and the advert forming a reverse L shape to the right. Of course, this was criticised and eventually removed by ESPN, as it left no room for their wee boxes telling us which offerings of \u00a0turgidity masquerading as football were on in the next few days.<\/p>\n
Craig Burley was at his enthusiastic best, and at times surpassed even his own previous levels of ignorance and pettiness.<\/p>\n
“Its a meaningless game, trust me”<\/p>\n
“Its not a morale boosting win”<\/p>\n
“I watch a lot of Italian football, and , actually how are Juventus doing just now?”<\/p>\n
My favourite was when he commented on Scott Browns tweet to congratulate new Scotland boss Gordon Strachan<\/p>\n
“Why didn’t he just phone him, like normal people? If I open a twitter account just shoot me. ”<\/p>\n
Today, the social network site reports over 50,000 new accounts in the name of Craig Burley.<\/p>\n
ESPN are to blame for employing the guy in the first place, as anyone who listens to him talk about football would realise after about twenty minutes that he lacks the wit, knowledge and articulacy to be in the job he’s in.<\/p>\n
Which we hear is pretty much why Peter Houston isn’t in the Blackpool job yet.<\/p>\n
As mentioned briefly above, former boss Gordon Strachan is now the “proud” manager of Scotland. good luck to him, and perhaps we can now see a proper manager get the best out of his players -and there are plenty of good players in the set up-instead of covering for his own inadequacies by blaming the team.<\/p>\n
One player we are hoping Neil Lennon can get the best out of is attacking midfielder Tomas Rogic. His club, Central Coast Mariners have agreed a price with Celtic, and all the player has to do is sort out personal terms and learn how to pass the ball sidieways.<\/p>\n
Its gone a little quiet on other players coming in, and only the usual stories about players leaving (although someone on twitter reckons Barcelona want Fraser Forster. A revamp of the dressing room means none of the other \u00a0players can reach the towels) , so perhaps we’ll get a bit of peace for a few days. As long as no-one gives Downing and Bent any encouragement..<\/p>\n
The Herald has published its list of the \u00a030 most influential men in Scottish football. not surprisingly, the unseen fenian hand of Peter Lawwell is at number one, with babbling funster Charles Green in at number two. Lennon is at five with the rest filled up with money men and decision makers.<\/p>\n
James Traynor is in there as well, but only so his former colleagues at the paper can have a pop at the once respected writer. (Well, he was respected once. It was a Thursday.)<\/p>\n
Celtic may well have taken a wee boost of confidence from last nights win, but spare a thought for Aussie player Francesco Stella, who has been told he is not good enough for third division newboys Sevco. He left yesterday with the good wishes of all at Ibrox, and cried all the way to McDonalds, where he failed the application form by getting his date of birth wrong.<\/p>\n
Bit unfair really, he probably just realised he made a mistake and wanted out of there. In fact, the success of the New Blues means that bigger teams have been queuing up to swoop for the new breed of Murray Park starlets…Oh, hang on…<\/p>\n
Away from football, cyclist and drugs cheat Lance Armstrong has confessed on the Oprah Winfrey show that he did indeed cheat to win his titles and medals. All the money he earned as well was therefore acumulated on a lie.<\/p>\n
Wonder if this sort of honesty will catch on in Scotland.<\/p>\n
After a surprise defeat in an early round of Europe by greek side Olympiakos Piraeus, manager Jock Stein made the comment about leaving it to teams who were good enough to still be in the tournament. Ant owens got the name right, but the wrong game. Good shout , though.<\/p>\n
Today, its about last nights opponents Steaua. which European record did they break this season?<\/p>\n
Now.I’m away to the fridge to check on those burgers I bought from Tesco yesterday.<\/p>\n
Aaaaaaannnnddd they’re off.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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