![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/CbSV2CWWAAE3Qwa.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFears of a serious challenge from Aberdeen vanished in a fit of giggles last night when Inverness came from behind to win 3-1 in the Highland capital. The dons also got a taste of what its like to face twelve men as Willie Collum, Scotland’s top referee, turned in a trademark performance of such ineptitude that he must surely now be favourite to take up the Presidency of the SFA.<\/p>\n
However, should the northern lights be turned back on when they face Partick, a mere 30-0 win would see Derek McInnes’s side take over at the top on goal difference, though Celtic would have two games in hand.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
They’re not, are they ?<\/p>\n
McInnes diplomatically avoided calling Collum out, but made it clear who he blamed;<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got off to a brilliant start and then make a poor decision and let Inverness back into it, At 1-1, it is finely poised and there to be won, but there were some key decisions in both boxes that went against us. That\u2019s been quite pivotal in the outcome. For their penalty award, at the time, I didn\u2019t think there was anything in it. Having seen it, there\u2019s no contact. I think the player has bought a penalty there, to be honest. He\u2019s gone down under no contact and the referee has assumed there has been contact. We\u2019re disappointed.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBack in December, I thought their same player has bought a penalty, gone down a bit easy. It was the same tonight. You\u2019re hoping the referee sees it. If he sees it again, I think he\u2019d make a different decision.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s gone down under no contact and tried to make out there was. It is clearly not a penalty, but I need to say Inverness played well. It\u2019s not just about decisions, but when the game is finely-poised and there to be won then that decision has been quite pivotal.<\/em><\/p>\n And if that doesn’t make you smile, there’s more….<\/p>\n Norwegian wonderkid\/prospect\/next big thing Kristoffer Ajer flies in to Glasgow today-he doesn’t even need a plane-to undego a medical ahead of his move to celtic in the summer.<\/p>\n Here he is practising lifting his leg up, and its much higher than anyone else we have on the books can do.<\/p>\n \u2018I travel tomorrow and the clubs have agreed everything,\u2019 said Ajer. \u2018So we will look at signing a deal and a medical examination.<\/em><\/p>\n ‘It is huge for me. It\u2019s a big dream I\u2019ve worked for all my life and now it has come true,\u2019 Ajer told Norwegian media.<\/em><\/p>\n Ajer is expected to complete his medical by Wednesday and, if all goes to plan, will be confirmed as a Celtic player before Saturday\u2019s home clash with Inverness.<\/em><\/p>\n Thats from the Daily Mail, who can always be counted on to give good publicity to white, blond , northern Europeans coming into the country.<\/p>\n As long as its not on a boat.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Our development side should play the european qualifiers, especially if Deila continues to maintain that Patrick Roberts isn’t ready \u00a0for the first team yet. The Manchester city loannee keeps scoring and creating goals, and until that trait has been beaten out of him, he won’t feature in the first team.<\/p>\n CELTIC…4<\/em> DUNFERMLINE…1<\/em> PATRICK Roberts bagged a brilliant brace as Celtic\u2019s Development Side turned on the style to defeat Dunfermline 4-1 at Lennoxtown and stretch their lead at the top of the table to six points.<\/em><\/p>\n The on-loan Manchester City player, who had scored and impressed on his debut for the second-string 10 days ago against Motherwell, tormented the Pars for the 75 minutes he was on the pitch. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n It only took him 12 minutes to open the scoring with an exquisite finish after he had been supplied by Scott Allan.<\/em><\/p>\n He then setup Paul McMullan for number two moments later after some trickery on the byline, before Ryan Christie got in the act with a clinical effort into the corner.<\/em><\/p>\n With 11 minutes still to play in the first half, Roberts got his second of the match with another fantastic finish. Collecting a pass and bursting into the box, he casually scooped the ball over goalkeeper Cammy Gill. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Allan, Christie, Roberts. In front of Brown and Armstrong. Or Armstrong and Johansen.<\/p>\n If thats not the midfield five on Saturday, I’m going to stage a mass walkout by myself.<\/p>\n We might not have to worry about qualifying for the champions League soon anyway, with the plans to make it more of an exclusive old pals club on the table.<\/p>\n Of course, that won’t happen, and Scott Brown told us why.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just sounds like someone\u2019s had a great idea and it\u2019s gone pear-shaped.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easy for the clubs who are\u00a0<\/em> \u201cThis isn\u2019t just about Celtic \u2013 there are other big clubs like Ajax and Benfica and Porto, who have also been European champions.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf it were to happen, it would be terrible, I\u2019d be devastated. We haven\u2019t made it for the last two years but not to have it ever again would be gutting for everyone.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMessi said playing at Parkhead was one of the highlights of his career \u2013 but that was just because he was playing against me.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n But it just shows how different grounds and different clubs make the tournament. We should at least have the opportunity to play in the Champions League.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe size of our support makes us one of the biggest clubs in Europe and they follow us\u00a0<\/em> <\/p>\n \u201cIf you ask opposition players, they struggle with it. The fans sing their hearts out for 90 minutes and get right behind us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt suits them, eh? Maybe we should make a plan as well. It\u2019s not the Champions League anymore if they do that. The champions of every country should be in it. It\u2019s hard already because England, Spain, Germany and Italy have four teams. We have to get through three qualifiers.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBack in the good old days, champions went straight into the tournament. It\u2019s a hard one\u00a0<\/em> <\/p>\n <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Brown has experience of the champions League, and is certainly someone who would have thoughts on the matter that should be listened to.<\/p>\n But, er, Mark Warburton, who has yet to manager at the top level even in Scotland, why was he asked about something he knows nothing about ?<\/p>\n \u201cGordon Strachan knows the importance of having players with Champions League experience It\u2019s the only way to help their development at the top level.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou talk about the young players here. Are they behind Celtic? Yes, because Chris McCart and the boys at Celtic have been playing in the Next Gen and the UEFA Youth League. Our aim is to get the boys here in that.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBest against best is the only way you prepare, you have to make sure you\u2019re challenged. You take that away from the national team and it will have a massive negative impact on Gordon.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Warburton harbours hopes of managing the Ibrox men in the Champions League but said: \u201cIt\u2019s not just about Rangers, it\u2019s the whole ethos, the whole idea.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cSome massive Premier League clubs don\u2019t qualify. This year it could be Manchester United and Chelsea. If you take that away, if you focus purely on top clubs, it\u2019ll be like a league without promotion or relegation.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou devalue the competition and that would be a great shame.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n You only devalue European competitions when you let cheats participate….<\/p>\n The whole issue of big clubs breaking away surfaces every so often, and it usually means they just want a bigger share of the pot, or guaranteed qualification for the “big clubs ” who don’t make it.<\/p>\n It won’t be exclusively invitation only, but there may be a rule which means previous European champions get automatic entry, or clubs with big grounds get in. It’ll just mean more qualifiers for the others.<\/p>\n Personally, I’d make the qualifiers into a group format, thus spreading the money around a bit more, and removing the “off night ” fear that can cost clubs dearly.<\/p>\n But include everyone, exceptt maybe the current holders.<\/p>\n Peter Lawwell has been away trying to garner support for resistance to the idea. He has made contact with Ajax and a number of other similar clubs from Europes smaller countries and talks will take place soon.<\/p>\n They are , however, probably doomed to failure because Neil Doncaster has thrown his weight behind the idea, and has also gone off to talk to people trying to muster support.<\/p>\n Lets hope they tell him they’re not home, because he will no doubt want a certain new club involved in any solution, which of course, due to their creative accounting and financial history, mean that other nations might not be so keen.<\/p>\n The talk is centred around the re-introduction of the old Atlantic League idea, involving teams such as Celtic, Porto,Ajax, Benfica etc, but isn’t that doing, albeit on a smaller scale, exactly what we are criticising UEFA for with the champions League ?<\/p>\n The idea would see a diminshed presence in the clubs domestic leagues, which in turn would rob snmaller clubs of finance.<\/p>\n Just the tiniest hint of hypocrisy there, then.<\/p>\n Time for a caption competition, and what could all the fuss be about here ?<\/p>\n \n \n \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fears of a serious challenge from Aberdeen vanished in a fit of giggles last night when Inverness came from behind to win 3-1 in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7951,"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\/10\/bottle-crashing.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-2fy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8652"}],"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=8652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8653,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8652\/revisions\/8653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.dormeo.net\/images\/images_2012\/sad_sheep.png\")
\n<\/span><\/p>\n![\"The](\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2016\/02\/16\/01\/313DBF4600000578-3448662-image-a-2_1455587086637.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n(Roberts 12, 34, McMullan 14, Christie 31)<\/em><\/p>\n
\n(Crossan 54)<\/em><\/p>\n
\nautomatically in the tournament year after year to decide that they\u2019re the only ones who should be in it but that\u2019s not right.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nwherever we go. The fans at Celtic Park are incredible on Champions League nights.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nto hear about this new plan, hopefully UEFA don\u2019t go with it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/CbPTLkYWcAAeWV0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n