{"id":7069,"date":"2015-05-10T11:14:03","date_gmt":"2015-05-10T10:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=7069"},"modified":"2015-05-10T11:14:03","modified_gmt":"2015-05-10T10:14:03","slug":"celtic-diary-sunday-may-10-first-game-for-the-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=7069","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Diary Sunday May 10: First Game For The Champions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two days in, and there’s a disaster for the David Cameron government as Aston villa beat West Ham 1-0.<\/p>\n

Or was it ?<\/p>\n

He doesn’t know which side he’s on.<\/p>\n

Need to watch what I say about him now he’s got his own Bodyguard Regiment<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

The Scottish Sun might have picked it’s side though, with a headline yesterday that will have a section of the population reaching for their bloomails box.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bill Leckie was last seen chapping on the door of his old pal ” Muz ” sobbing that it wasn’t him.<\/p>\n

All I can say is, massive respect is due to Rangers – and Muz in particular – for keeping Brian Laudrup in the game.<\/span>

And before all you Celtic fans – including the one standing over me with a<\/span>
rolling pin as I write this – start giving it the there-ye-go-ah-always-<\/span>
knew-he-was-wanna-them paranoia, remember one thing.<\/span>

Rangers also beat you when Laudrup WASN’T playing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Were I a Celtic man, I would be so afraid. No manager, no sign of a manager,<\/span>
two biggest names threatening to do a bunk, no sign of new blood, season<\/span>
ticket holders in a major huff.<\/span>

Call me picky, but things do not look good. And hell mend them.<\/span>
I cannot believe how quickly and how far Fergus McCann has allowed things to<\/span>
slip, especially after Tommy Burns took them so close.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ibrox men are, I reckon, one more signing away from finally leaving<\/span>
their greatest rivals – and, therefore, the rest of us – so far behind them<\/span>
they will be no more than a dancing dot on the horizon.<\/span>

Who is that signing? I’d go for Batistuta – though Muz says no – but whoever<\/span>
they end up with he will be big time and he will be here soon.<\/span>

It’s enough to make any Celtic fan hide behind the couch. Sorry? Oh, you<\/span>
already are. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Leckie in 1997 there, showing the foresight, wit and wisdom that makes him a legend in his own lunchtime.<\/p>\n

Celtic are up in the frozen north today for the game against second placed Aberdeen, and with the pressure off , it’s not one to risk a couple of quid on.<\/p>\n

But it should be a bit of a party. Enjoy it if you’re up there, but beware the local temptations…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Aberdeen will have Barry Robson and Nicky Low back, while the hoops have no fresh injury worries, but are expected to rotate the squad a bit as the team winds down for a rest before the champions League qualifiers.<\/p>\n

Except if I was a Celtic player, I’d bear in mind that Ronny doesn’t seem -publicly at least-to be thinking about winding down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big, big game,\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n

\u201cWe want to finish the season by winning our three league games.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to show we are the best team in Scotland. Aberdeen haven\u2019t beaten us this season and we want to continue that.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAberdeen have done very, very well and they should be very proud. They were very close (to us) in the middle part of the season.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBut we have been very consistent since Christmas. We lost five points – one draw and one defeat – and they couldn\u2019t cope with that.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSo although they have pushed us I think we deserved to win.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe players are looking forward to the game. I want to see energy and hopefully we will win.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good feeling that we have won the league,\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody expected it. You don\u2019t get a lot of recognition when you win the league at Celtic.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody says you should win it by 30 points and every other team is bad, but it has to be done and we want to do it in a certain way as well.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have shown that we are about development and creating an attacking team and that we want to win trophies.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSo far we have done that and that makes me proud and also very, very hungry to keep on driving this team and this club forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s important to keep it going, to practice and practice movement, passing, crossing and above all , shooting.<\/p>\n

Whoever we play will want to beat the champions, so these games shouldn’t be taken lightly, as confidence will suffer if performances and results are bad.<\/p>\n

Theres a champions league tournament just a few weeks away….alright, ten or so, but they will go very quickly.<\/p>\n

Nobody can say Aberdeen haven’t done well this season, and congratulations-however tainted-must go to john hughes for securing a Europen place with Inverness, and perhaps the game has improved overall \u00a0in Scotland.<\/p>\n

Part of the reason for this could be the younger managers who have taken up posts aith the bigger clubs. That includes Robbie Neilsen at Hearts, who will certainly be there or thereabouts next season.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t include Jim Jeffries, jimmy Calderwood or Kenny Shiels.<\/p>\n

Especially Kenny Shiels, who provides the amusement for this mornings diary with his latest outburst.<\/p>\n

From joe McHugh on Videocelts;<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>My granny could have won the league with Celtic,I don\u2019t think you can say Deila\u2019s been successful yet. If you look at it realistically, Celtic were 1\/100 to win the league before a ball was kicked, and he\u2019s achieved that.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRonny has the best squad of players, and by far the biggest budget in the country so he really should have won the Treble.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the advantages they have, Celtic should win everything. but Ronny is 39. Maybe if he\u2019d been 49, with more experience, he could have closed out the Scottish Cup.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

“Being honest, the treble should be nailed on for Celtic. People would have been backing them to do that last summer and understandably so, when you consider Hearts, hibs and Rangers aren’t even in the top division. ”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Shiels had to leave morton this time last year after supporters threatened to boycott season books if he didn’t do one, and at the time he told the Daily record;<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand how people feel about me in Greenock. I had to consider the season ticket sales with me still there after the Hamilton defeat. The supporters will have been wanting a change and I understood that.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe club needs to sell season tickets and if I\u2019d still been in charge they wouldn\u2019t have sold many. If a change of manager gives them optimism for the future then that\u2019s the best situation for them.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI had talks with the chairman, Douglas Rae, and my biggest disappointment is for him. Morton are a good club, he deserves success and I hope he gets it.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the person at the club who deserves it most as he\u2019s put his hand in his pocket year on year. He\u2019s a good, honest man.\u201d \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0He has yet to find another job, which isn’t surprising. Perhaps he should have handed over control of Morton to his granny. Then they might have avoided relegation.<\/p>\n

Theres the usual stories in the papers about transfers.<\/p>\n

Virgil van dijk is now a target for Tottenham, Englands perennial losers, which could spark a bidding war with Arsenal.<\/p>\n

Aye, okay. You’ve maybe noticed that Celtic players are never involved in bidding wars.<\/p>\n

We just seem to agree a fee and then they’re gone…<\/p>\n

Not everyone goes , even when it’s obvious to all that they should.<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

A wee reminder of what she should be working towards .<\/p>\n

New club Second Rangers recorded a crucial 2-1 win over Queen of the South to give them an excellent chance of progressing through the play offs. They seem to have adapted to the artificial pitch at Palmerston so they can now play on plastic, if not pay with it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There was one moment of controversy, where eagke eyed referee Alan Muir failed to see a foul on a QOS player, but awarded a free kick to the Ibrox club anyway.<\/p>\n

And it lead to their opening goal.<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Britains Got Talent last night may well have discovered the next big thing in boy bands…<\/p>\n

\"Embedded<\/p>\n

The fans who supported the men who stopped the ten were featured in yesterdays picture.<\/p>\n

For the inside info on the week leading to that game, grab a seat and listen to our Tommy Boyd podcast on the front page of the site.<\/p>\n

It’s my son’s twenty first today, and we were going to have a party with a theme around popular eighties band “The Smiths “, but for some reason we couldn’t get a DJ.<\/p>\n

In this picture, some supporters are proudly showing off a trophy won by celtic. Which one is it ?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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Two days in, and there’s a disaster for the David Cameron government as Aston villa beat West Ham 1-0. Or was it ? He doesn’t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7070,"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\/2015\/05\/champs.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-1Q1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7069"}],"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=7069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7071,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7069\/revisions\/7071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}