{"id":9440,"date":"2016-07-26T08:45:15","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T07:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=9440"},"modified":"2016-07-26T08:45:15","modified_gmt":"2016-07-26T07:45:15","slug":"celtic-diary-tuesday-july-26-a-few-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=9440","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Diary Tuesday July 26: A Few Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, quite a few really.<\/p>\n

Erik Sviatchenko became the latest centre half to pick up an inury and not travel with the squad to Khazakstan yesterday.<\/p>\n

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That now means that five of our centre halves will be missing against Astana, seven if you count the two that will no doubt be posted missing during the game.<\/p>\n

Never mind.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It looks as though the big man will get a chance to atone for his past errors in Europe with Brendan Rodgers simply having no ne else to turn to.<\/p>\n

The full list of fit experienced central defenders is;<\/p>\n

Ambrose.<\/p>\n

Mikael Lustig can play there at a puch, which leaves Saidy Janko as right back, but he has failed to impress, at least defensively, and with this being the away leg, keeping things tight at the back is essential.<\/p>\n

Eoghan O’Connell did well at Leicester, but his inexperience is a worry. and if he errs in any way, it could be confidence destroying, putting his development back years.<\/p>\n

Kolo Toure’s \u00a0experience could have been utilised, maybe as a third centre back behind Ambrose and O’Connell to help keep things tidy, but he hasn’t travelled, and its too late to rush him out now, due largely to the distance involved and time difference, which would mean he’d arrive about forty minutes before he left, or something.<\/p>\n

A shame, because as this graph shows, he’s anything but past it…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Thats two defenders in with the initials KT, maybe theres a pattern emerging. Maybe Kritian Tamme, the Levidia and Estonia u-21 keeper is next ?<\/p>\n

Or Kenny Tele, at Ajax ?<\/p>\n

Well, there at least would be more of a structure to recruitment policy if they’d done that over the last few years. and probably less duds.<\/p>\n

Charlie Mulgrew is another option, but only if he can be found and persuaded to sign acontract which is nowhere near as good as the one he’s been offered down south.<\/p>\n

He is reported to have said he can’t manage Wednesday anyway, but as they’ve only offered a playing deal that seems irrelevant.<\/p>\n

I’m here all week. Try the veal.<\/p>\n

It’s not exactly keeping the nerves at bay ahead of tomorrow afternoons game. Thats right. tomorrow afternoon,<\/p>\n

The six hour time difference means that kick off British summer Time is 3pm.<\/p>\n

Thats what happens when they regionalise the European cup and include a central Asian section.<\/p>\n

Though one has to remember, that if true, Peter Lawwell failing to carry out the formalities in the Shane Duffy fiasco may now be nothing short of corporate negligence.<\/p>\n

Assistant manager Chris Davies sounded calm, but he was probably tired;<\/p>\n

\u2018We have a gameplan for Astana, we have had a good look at them and we know what we have to do.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018It will be a difficult game. They are a team who have done well in the Champions League at home.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018The pitch is astrosturf but is a little bit quicker than the Red Imps\u2019 surface. That could help.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018They are physical, they have quality and we will have to be on our game.\u2019\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ll be happy just to stay in the game as long as we can.<\/p>\n

There’s little that could have been done to prevent this situation, when faced with the cold light of day. injuries are injuries, and to have four out, if you count Ajer, is just bad luck.<\/p>\n

Whatever way you try to perm the defence, it looks like Efe will be in there, and , well, Efe is in there….<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Stefan Johansen hasn’t travelled either, though Nir Biton has, and along with Tom Rogic , these are the latest tipped to be heading for the exit door before the window closes, which is quite a spectacular mixing of metaphors if i do say so myself.<\/p>\n

It would be nice to get through these games and look forward to group football of some sort.<\/p>\n

From where I’m sitting this morning, I’d be happy with Europa at this stage, to allow the manager a chance to see what he’s got to work with.<\/p>\n

but, and this is the most important thing of all, we’re not done yet. This is Astana, who have a decent home record at this level.<\/p>\n

Thats it, really. Decent.<\/p>\n

\n

Of course, the manager might decide that the best thing we could do is unsettle the Khazaks by wearing the all new pink strip, and hope that we can disturb their concentration by looking ridiculous.<\/p>\n

It’s an idea.<\/p>\n

Reaction to the kit has not been good, and sales will indicate if there is such a thing as bad publicity…<\/p>\n

The third kit is designed for children, and we have been given an exclusive pictures of the young lad who test marketed it at school…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Certainly thought this through, haven’t they ?<\/p>\n

Out of the three strips that have now become official seasons kit for Celtic, two are entirely unsuitable for use during a first team game, and one of those is actually unsuitable for anything.<\/p>\n

Still, if you want one, go and get one…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

Elsewhere, and as if the feat of collecting 54 titles in just four years wasn’t remarkable enough, it seems “rangers ” have done something else \u00a0no-one can claim to have achieved;<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A mere four months before the competition even starts for Premiership clubs. Thats Scottish Premiership, not English Premiership, as named by those marketing experts over at the league.<\/p>\n

Well done Warburton! Setting the pace for others to follow…<\/p>\n

\n

Lets get the caption competition back on the road, with this image, which conjures up childhood memories for those of us who spent summer in Dunoon..<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Well, quite a few really. Erik Sviatchenko became the latest centre half to pick up an inury and not travel with the squad to Khazakstan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9441,"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\/2016\/07\/We-Cant-Solve-Problems-By-Using-The-Same-Kind-Of-Thinking-We-Used-When-We-Created-Them.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-2sg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9440"}],"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=9440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9442,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9440\/revisions\/9442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}