Ahead of Celtic’s next important match, the club were handed a bit of a bonus when Lionel Messi and Barcelona admitted the Catalan clubs talisman might not make the game.<\/p>\n
“Tests conducted today on Leo Messi have confirmed that the player is still having trouble with the adductor muscle in his left hamstring. He has been recommended to lighten his training load over the next few days and his availability will depend on how the issue progresses.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n The match takes place just one week from today, and whilst the group favourites are going to have a weekend fraught with worry, Celtic will warm up with a game against newly promoted “rangers “, which should allow them to shake off any rustiness acquired during the international break.<\/p>\n “Take it easy” will be the warning passed to the players from manager Brendan Rodgers, as he ponders the possibility of sending out a weakened team to avoid the possibility of Celtics main men picking up injuries against the aging but enthusiastic “rangers ” defence.<\/p>\n You can’t blame him.<\/p>\n The new club have only been around for a few short years, and whilst their climb to first class football has been admirable, achieved on a budget second only to Celtic, the high pressure environment of a packed Celtic Park-somewhere the club have never actually played-may prove overwhelming for the Ibrox collection of journeymen players and managers.<\/p>\n Despite this, the media have cranked the game into the showpiece of the season, as they pretend the visitors are in fact, Rangers, the former rivals of Celtic who went into liquidation a few years ago following a massive mismanagement of financial resources. It might make for good tv, but its not what it used to be.<\/p>\n With “rangers ” pretending to be Rangers, in order to make the game seem important, perhaps when Celtic face Barcelona , we could pretend we’re Real Madrid, and maybe generate a little more interest worldwide.<\/p>\n There have been an astonishing amount of puff pieces in the papers already, offering advice to the “rnagers 2 players, most of whom have never played in a game with so much hype around it, or at least with so much unjustified hype around it, and they may be feeling a little bewildered by it all.<\/p>\n Perhaps its being done by the media to stop them loking at their contracts and saying publicly that they haven’t signed for Rangers, but for a new club aimed at providing a service for the estranged fans of the old club.<\/p>\n Including those with laptops who are professional journalists, or at least thats what it says on their contracts.<\/p>\n The game, marketed as the biggest in Scotland, and the sole reson television companies buy into the SPFL, will be shown on tv at the same time as the Manchester derby in England , by the same company, which shows how highly they value it. Although there are claims that its because Manchester City and Celtic both play champions League games on the Tuesday, the overlap could have been avoided by making the glasgow sides play earlier, say 11am, and the Manchester teams kick off at 1pm.<\/p>\n This may seem a little odd, but there are games on a Friday night these days, and that too, would have been an option. Whenever Celtic play whatever form of Rangers is currently in use, there is trouble after the game, and with a whole day to drink, and Sunday to recover, perhaps the Friday night option would have been a better bet.<\/p>\n Especially as it would limit the pre match drinking as people would be at work.<\/p>\n The debate will rage on this week as to whether or not its an “old firm ” game, which of course it isn’t, as the establishment tries to sell something that they claim is as Scottish as porridge, the krankies and highland toffee, when in fact all you will see are Irish flags, Union flags and palestinian flags, two of which represent freedom, the other oppression.<\/p>\n Scotland kind of gets left out on these occasions.<\/p>\n For the new club, its the biggest game of their season, for Celtic its a warm up ahead of one of several big games in the run up to Christmas, yet for some reason I think that will be overlooked, but hopefully not by Celtic.<\/p>\n Something else that needs the greatest of care is how Celtic FC handle the pre match press conferences.<\/p>\n As the questions by the hacks will be loaded, and as the papers will be desperate for Celtic to recognise the new club as the same one that is currently undeging the liquidation process, it might need a little bit more preparation by the PR guys, to avoid misleading anyone.<\/p>\n You see, theres a certain amount of naivety around the Ibrox club, which was expertly and beautifully explained by dmaclaughlin87, who commented after the recent trip to Belfast by “rangers “, for a testimonial.<\/p>\n Saturday September 3rd, South Belfast, one of the world\u2019s most decorated football clubs is involved in a glamour testimonial to celebrate one of the Irish League\u2019s veterans. But, while the highly decorated South Belfast Blues suffer defeat to a 4 year old club from Scotland, we\u2019re not here to talk about the football, it\u2019s all about the political and cultural ramifications of what went on in the stands, on the pitch and around the grounds of The National Football Stadium Arena at Windsor Park Road (or something like that).\u00a0While much will be made of the naive behaviour of the infantile football club, or its legions of followers that have gravitated to them following the liquidation of Glasgow Rangers, I would like to focus on Linfield.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The full article, under the title<\/p>\nNot unexpected, very\u00a0unwelcome<\/h1>\n