The games continue to come thick and fast, and tonight Celtic make the short journey north to face St. Johnstone in Perth. One of the more picturesque parts of Scotland, steeped in history and charm, Perth is always a good day-or in this case night-out.<\/p>\n
The players however, are treating this one as strictly business. Kelvin Wilson is desperate to get the title wrapped up as soon as possible, and Anthony Stokes doesn’t want anyone to take the foot off the pedal. This attitude may yet see us triumph in Turin, as it certainly seems like the team are wounded , and want to hit back. what was that Iniesta asked about what they fed the Celtic players, referring to their physical strength and determination?<\/p>\n
A win in Perth will see a twenty one point gap open at the top, and it seems like the league is a formality. With Scott Brown having performed heroics this season, common sense may now have taken over, and he’s away to seek “further treatment “on his hip problem. Mikael Lustig has a thigh problem, and although Georgios Samaras is back in training, he won’t be risked just yet. If he’d just got off a plane he might have, but he hasn’t.<\/p>\n
With the stunning success of the diarys pre match prediction for the Dundee Utd game, 1-1 being the forecast, which it actually was, but not for long, tonight we will go for 4-0 to Celtic, which will give budding punters a chance to scratch that one from their coupons.<\/p>\n
Gary Hooper has won the SPL player of the month for January, after he scored six goals and turned down three moves during the month. Hooper has scored 23 goals this season, and is maybe being taken a bit for granted by the support. He doesn’t get the same sort of adulation other big hitters have got, but that could be down to this feeling that we won’t have him for very long. Though apart from paper talk, there is no real evidence he wants away. Still, we’ve had a good few years from him even if he does.<\/p>\n
Yesterdays enquiry about the Green Brigade pointed us in the direction of a statement they released about their treatment before the Dundee utd game last Saturday.<\/p>\n
The statement is easily found on the web, and concerns the treatment of a number of supporters by the police, in the Celtic Supporters Association, and at the ground. And in it as well.<\/p>\n
For brving the dreadful beer in the CSA, the GBs reward was to have the police, on the premises, according to the statement, sieze their merchandise. Amongst other incidents that may have taken place, this one is particularly galling, because that is simply not on. Wearing a police uniform doesn’t make it right to simply demand aomething that isn’t theirs, and the CSA need to have a good look at themselves for standing by and letting it happen on their premises, which is a private club. Then there were claims that peoples season cards were being rejected at the turnstiles, “flashing up” a one match ban.<\/p>\n
The Scottish Football Focus Unit are fast adopting an image associated more with those police who bullied the miners during the strike, and they seem to have this idea that they are some sort of task force akin to Elliot ness and his Untouchables.<\/p>\n
If all this is true. So the first move should be to gather evidence, make statements-Celtic have asked for them-and simply sort it out. The guys who had their card rejected should demand answers from the club.<\/p>\n
What happened yesterday was the Affiliation of CSCs, the GB, the club itself, and anyone else with a vested interest released statements. About who met with who and agreed what when. Although the man in charge of policing at Celtic Park, Tommy McCrindle has been removed from his post , amidst accusations he was a little over zealous in his duties. and the job description he had on a now deleted facebook page, where he listed his duties as cleaning up termites, probably haven’t helped any claims he may have about acting impartially.<\/p>\n
So, at least that has been done, but the various groups need to get together, leave their egos at the door, and get to the root of any problems. And then fix them.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, like with the miners, the policy of divide and conquer will win again.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Charles Green might just be paving the way for his exit from the Deathstar as the Daily Record has a story which hints at a massive row at the new club, still less than a year old. The paper reckons he has asked the board to choose between him and Malcolm Murray, who is the chairman. Now, the story could be something or nothing, but the line that the two were “ordered to attend a peace summit in London, organised by Cenkos, who oversaw the share issue” is significant. They have links to Ticketus, and it makes you wonder who is in charge over there. It makes you wonder, but doesn’t make you care.<\/p>\n
But it might all explode again, and put smiles upon our faces.<\/p>\n
Still, the smiling Yorkshireman has been keeping his club in the papers with his fervent ramblings. He’s like a wee midget jumping up and trying to see in the window, and when he gets noticed he just says whatever comes into his mind. Graeme Spiers has questioned his statements, and Mark Dingwall has mocked Spiers, for his “lazy ” article, but doesn’t actually offer anything to back Green up by way of facts.<\/p>\n
No need to list Greens claims here, suffice to say if he hear anything daft being said, it was probably him.<\/p>\n
Hamburg, PSG and Werder Bremen have all kept whichever Celtic teams faced them from scoring, as Bob Cobb pointed out.<\/p>\n
Paolo di Canio has had another leetle problem, and has quit Swindon as manager. His leetle problem at Celtic ended up with him not actually being sold, because the club emphatically refused to sell him. So what happened?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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