{"id":5860,"date":"2014-10-23T10:31:28","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T09:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=5860"},"modified":"2014-10-23T10:31:28","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T09:31:28","slug":"celtic-diary-thursday-october-23-so-a-club-is-different-from-a-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=5860","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Diary Thursday October 23: So, A Club Is Different From A Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

Breaking out in a sweat ? Runny bottom ? Feeling weak?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don’t bother with the doctor, its not Ebola, its Europa.<\/p>\n

The groups whipping boys are at Celtic Park tonight, this time the opponents are Astra Guirgiu from Romania.<\/p>\n

This level of flippancy comes from the fact that Celtic should comfortably beat the Romanaians. Everyone else they have played in the last couple of months has got a result against them, and Celtic are beginning to get used to winning again. Especially in Europe, and \u00a0I can’t see tonight being any different.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, the game hasn’t sold out , and tickets will be on sale right up until kick off.<\/p>\n

Ronny Deila has issued a word of caution, claiming that Astra are a good side, and would be at the top of the Scottish Premier, and of course the fact that they are still in Europe means he’s right. Thats unlikely to quell any anticipation amongst the support, but his words are worth listening to. His Stromgodset side played them in a friendly last winter, and Ronny reckons they have got a few good players<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Astra played in the Scottish Premiership, they would win it if we didn\u2019t,\u201d said Deila. \u201cThey would be among the top teams in Scotland. They are not a bad team. The richest man in Romania has them and I also played a friendly against them in January when I was manager of Stromsgodset and they have some quality players there.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, if you look at the group you see they don\u2019t have any points yet and that is a sign they may be a little bit weaker than Salzburg and Zagreb, but those two teams are very good. It looks like a battle between three teams (for the two qualifying places) and Astra are one of the teams who we have to beat. If we do that, we are in a very good situation in the group.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI hope people who assume it will be an easy win for us are right but I don\u2019t think so. I think it will be a tough game. We have to prepare well. But I think in the last month things are happening for us and we are going in the right way. The players are starting to get confidence.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI can see we are starting to get better relationships in the team, patterns in our attacking play and also better in transition defensively. I hope to show that again on Thursday night.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0As opposed to Ralph Malph, who, probably echoing the Scottish Media, said;<\/p>\n

“ I’ve never heard of them so they must be shite. ”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Deila came across well in that interview. He’s been respectful, knowledgeable about his opponents and advised caution. What else could he have said ?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Of course, one or two of our own media have criticised him for showing disrespect to the Scottish league, but I can’t see how that is the case. After all, it wouldn’t take them long to report on the other Scottish clubs games at this level this week.<\/p>\n

\u00a0He also took time out to comment, perhaps a little too honestly, on the physical condition of Serbian striker Stefan Scepovic;<\/p>\n

\u201cStefan is very hungry to play and he wants to show himself,\u201d said Deila. \u201cHe came on as a sub against Ross County on Saturday and he had a good chance there. You can see in his eyes that he wants to improve. He is a good player, I\u2019ve seen him score some fantastic goals in training this week. I\u2019m looking forward to seeing more from him on the pitch.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0It sounds like he wants to see about half a stone more, as he is working on Scepovic’s physique, which he feels needs to be bulked up;<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t take any drugs, so that will take a bit more time! It will take maybe half a year to get him to the strength we want. But he is working all the time. It\u2019s also about his mentality. Against Ross County he kept the defenders working, his touch was good and now he has to go on from there.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0I know I’ve been a little critical of Deila, and questioned his methods, but the plan with Scepovic sounds impressive. He’s spotted a problem, he’s worked out a solution. One that makes sense. And whilst I’m not making excuses, this comment from the boss yesterday<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have different options now. That\u2019s good, it\u2019s what I want, I don\u2019t want to stick to one system”\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

makes me wonder, when you consider one or two other contrasting statements he has been reported as making, whether or not he is saying them at all. Wouldn’t be like the MSM to make something up, would it ?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ach, maybe it will be a memorable season after all….<\/p>\n

\u00a0Regular readers will have noticed a certain degree of change in the mood of the Diarys author when commenting on the football this season.<\/p>\n

Thats because I’m a grumpy old git when its going wrong, but a little hyper or manic when its going right.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Tomorrow I fully expect to be looking at possible teams Celtic will face after Christmas in the knockout stages, and I think tonights game, with which a convincing win would mean Astra will chuck it as far as the return goes, could see the hoops sitting on ten points with two games left.<\/p>\n

Especially when Ben Yousseff, who plays for the Romanian cup winners, revealed the in depth information he has been given about Celtic;<\/p>\n

“\u201cI know Celtic have a lot of fans and a big stadium. That is all I know about them.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Lukasz Zaluska<\/strong> has been included in the squad for tonight after his impression of Audley Harrison the other night, and Ronny Deila has absolved him of any blame for the incident. Which means the club have investigated the incident, and are obviously fully behind him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Thats good.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Some supporters got a little hysterical on twitter and other social media at the newspaper reportage of this, claiming that Zaluska didn’t need to be absolved, as he hadn’t done anything, but seeing as how Ronny wasn’t there at the time, he had to be sure.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Again, thats showing mature, responsible management.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The police have sent extra officers to look into the matter, and we hear they are treating the case as urgent, and will use all modern methods of investigation to ascertain the sequence of events that lead to Zaluska neing knocked unconscious and left in the gutter.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Why they haven’t just asked someone and looked at the cctv, however, is a mystery. Usually , a fracas after a night out will see the assailant in court within a couple of days. They appear to be dragging their feet on this one.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Sun have already decided who it was. Etims doesn’t do rumours and half baked stories.<\/p>\n

\u00a0They seem to think that Paul Paton of Dundee Utd had something to do with it;<\/p>\n

I’d never heard of this guy, but his facebook profile indicates a thoroughly charmimg man. Which, of course, found its way on to twitter;<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0Wonder which team he supports, and which one he doesn’t .<\/p>\n

\u00a0Then, it appears he changed his “likes ” page…<\/p>\n

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\u00a0As I said, a pleasant, charming individual who , er, knows what he likes, until, it is rumoured, a Scottish journalist tipped him off about changing his profile a wee bit…<\/p>\n

\u00a0Surely not. We asked our drunken mole if he knew anything about it, but he was asleep with the drink. After all, he’d just had his breakfast.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile,<\/strong> Dundee United have dropped Paton and Mark Wilson for the upcoming game against Inverness;<\/p>\n

The Dundee Evening Telegraph said;<\/p>\n

The Tangerines announced they were investigating the conduct of two players \u201cfollowing information received\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

No further detail was given but that pair are in hot water in the aftermath of an incident in Glasgow early on Monday which left ex-United goalkeeper Lukasz Zaluska needing hospital treatment.<\/em><\/p>\n

The 32-year-old was out partying in the West End of Glasgow when he was assaulted and rushed to hospital with head injuries.<\/em><\/p>\n

Current United stars Paul Paton and Mark Wilson were also in the area at the time.<\/em><\/p>\n

Police are investigating the incident, and no one has been arrested in connection with the assault.<\/em><\/p>\n

The club are not passing judgement or suggesting any involvement in the Zaluska fracas.<\/em><\/p>\n

But until all the facts are known, there\u2019s a feeling at Tannadice it wouldn\u2019t be appropriate for either to be involved at first-team level.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Wilson has already published a statement.<\/p>\n

“Mark was out for a meal with his wife and some other couples. \u201cOn his way home with his wife they came across\u00a0his friend & former team-mate Lukasz. Mark tried to calm a matter down & latterly help Lukasz as he was in a distressed situation”\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Paton has said nothing.<\/p>\n

The fixture changes f<\/strong>or<\/strong>December and January have been announced, and there are four changes to Celtics matches, with two more \u00a0lunchtime kick offs, one tea time, and a trip to Kilmarnock on a Monday night.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At least we have plenty of notice. Until someone changes them again.<\/p>\n

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\n

\u00a0Notice was also given of the Celtics board intent over the living wage issue…\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

You don’t need to read all of it. Its a no.<\/p>\n

Its a great big no, in huge great flashing lights.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0A company which doesn’t pay its employees a living wage ?<\/p>\n

A company prepared to deal with sports manufacturers Nike, who also have a questionable employment and wage policy ?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Maybe Rangers supporters were right all along.<\/p>\n

Maybe the company is different from the club.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Completely fucking different.<\/p>\n

This guy outlined the club….<\/p>\n

\"brother<\/a><\/p>\n

Cartuja from KDS outlined the company..<\/p>\n

\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jock Stein, another one who defined the club, went into the crowd at Stirling Albion to point out that the republican songs being sone were not to his taste. As illustrated in yesterdays diary.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Today, we go right back to the early days of the club, not the company.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A big Thank You to this, published by Paul Lyons on twitter. Its one I’ve never seen before, what is it ?<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breaking out in a sweat ? Runny bottom ? Feeling weak? Don’t bother with the doctor, its not Ebola, its Europa. The groups whipping boys…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/seperate-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-1ww","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5863,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5860\/revisions\/5863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}