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<\/p>\nThe tension and excitement builds ahead of a match against our greatest rivals, with a doubt over talismanic striker Leigh Griffiths meaning manager Brendan Rodgers may have to shuffle his pack for the eagerly awaited return to the Nou Camp.<\/p>\n
Before that, Mark Warburton brings his Wunderteam to Celtic Park to give the hoops some much needed practice and a chance to shake off the last little niggles before the big game.<\/p>\n
The media, as you’ve probably noticed, have decided to plug the game as a continuation of an old rivalry, known as the Old Firm, presumably to keep Celtic fans interested, and “rangers “-as the new club like to be known-relevant.<\/p>\n
All a bit tiresome really, and despite the efforts of those in Scotland, the truth is leaking out elsewhere.<\/p>\n
The New York Times, a grown up paper from over the water, tells it like it is;<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Even the BBC, via its Newsbeat feature, a sort of headlines for thickies on Radio One, a sort of radio station for thickies, got it right, the first time , at least;<\/p>\n
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Until a fat chap rang them and pointed out that theres no point in the BBC starting to tell the truth all of a sudden, and a helpful “correction ” was added.<\/p>\n
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With the shock of Celtics abysmal performance against the newcomers in last season’s Scottish cup still fairly fresh in our minds, as with any side, the support want things put right, with a footballing lesson handed out and a score resembling a rugby result.<\/p>\n
But is it worth risking injuries, tiredness or even suspensions later in the league to get that result ?<\/p>\n
Whilst the press are building this up as some sort of major event, its only a major event for the Ibrox club. for us, its just another game. Seriously, there’s no chance that “rangers ” will be challenging for anything this season, although they might get a run in the cups with their luck at getting home draws unlikely to end under the current football administration, and therefore the game should be treated as what it is.<\/p>\n
Should Celtic win, and all the other games this weekend end in home wins, “rangers” will be in seventh place with two wins out of five.<\/p>\n
And they’ve still to play the genuine challengers, Hearts, Aberdeen and St. Johnstone.<\/p>\n
However, if Celtic do decide to go for the jugular, and exact revenge for last seasons debacle, then the psychological damage to Warburtons team could be enough to end their season before the leaves have started falling from the trees.<\/p>\n
Which would be funny, but is it worth the effort ?<\/p>\n
Warburton has gambled on importing “big ” names to his side, figuring that because they’ve played in England, at a decent level, they will shine in Scotland.<\/p>\n
It hasn;t worked out that way, with Barton and hill, the two “blue chip “signings showing us really why no English teams were willing to offer them the deals they wanted. Ian Wright, Carlton Cole and many other “veterans ” could have warned them, the game up here is a lot faster and tougher than what the media tell us it is.<\/p>\n
They may yet adapt, but its unlikely their Damascus moment will be on Saturday at Celtic Park. Those two have struggled against the lesser teams in the league, and will be exposed ruthlessly by the pace and power of Celtic players.<\/p>\n
A couple of the “rangers “players are perhaps better than we would give them credit for. \u00a0Winger Barrie Mackay would be decent in a better side, and James Tavernier looks like he can take a free kick, but Lee Wallace has regressed since joining the Ibrox club, and one day-possibly tomorrow-he’ll realise how far behind he has become.<\/p>\n
Whatever happens, we need everyone to come out if this game in one piece, and not mentally or physically fatigued ahead of the visit to Barcelona, which is far more important.<\/p>\n
There is a case to field a weakened side, which would, or should, still be too strong for the govan pretenders, but even though the game is low on the list of important matches this week, never mind this season, there is a chance to shut an awful lot of peepil up, and that temptation may prove too difficult to resist.<\/p>\n
Someone who may feel he has something to prove in the game is Patrick Roberts, who missed an open goal in the cup game last season. He may want to exorcise a few demons, and would be forgiven if he went out to do so, but publicly at least, he sees it as just another game;<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to approach it like any other game,\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cPeople want to watch it for the atmosphere but we have to play it for three points and the league. We have to be strong and confident and try to win.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Much will depend on how Brendan Rodgers approaches the game, of course, and pre match he told the media<\/p>\n “fuck the huns-oh, wait, is that thing on ?<\/em> “<\/p>\n Well, so someone told us.<\/p>\n What he did say gives us an insight into how he is thinking about \u00a0the game, or at least how i think he is thinking about the game, which is fairly similar to my own thoughts. We’ve translated his comments and tried to explain what he really means<\/p>\n \u201cListen, I respect it is a big game, of course.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n No, it isn’t.<\/p>\n \u201cBut when you are on the professional side and the coaching side, you are having to respect it as another game.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I can’t be arsed with the hype. We’ve bigger fish to fry.<\/p>\n \u201cThe question was asked was did you come to Celtic because of Rangers and I said no.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n A really ridiculous question which makes me wonder if there are any professional journalists in Scotland<\/p>\n \u201cI came here to be manager of Celtic and that was going to bring up many games that I would be proud to represent Celtic in, whether it is Aberdeen or Rangers. Whatever.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Who do you support now your clubs dead ?<\/p>\n \u201cOf course it is a great game to be involved in and it\u2019s the first time Celtic have played Rangers [in the league] for four years.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n First time ever . Add what you want, you will anyway.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, when you are a manager, you have to untap yourself out of the emotion of it and prepare for the game.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n What he really means is he’s going to have to get the players up for the game, as most of them will be thinking about the trip to the Nou Camp. Like he is, but if he tells them that, he’ll be accused of running down the Scottish game, of making it look worthless.<\/p>\n Which, ironically, is what the other clubs predecessors say it is, without them.<\/p>\n Whereas…<\/p>\n \n When the old club left the building, in a mixture of shame and disgrace, we knew they would try to drag us down with them.<\/p>\n A chance to cleans the game of the old ways has gone, and those who clung to the “traditions ” of the old club have attached themselves to the new one.<\/p>\n The more things change, the more they stay the same.<\/p>\n I’m over in Ireland just now, away from all the hype.<\/p>\n I’m still trying to work out how I managed a pub crawl with only two pubs separated by a ferry the other night. In the town of Passage East is the one bar, over the water in Bally hack is another.<\/p>\n The one in Passage East is the better of the two, a genuine rural Irish pub with characters and a genial host, Sean, who unlike most other landlords, says i can come back anytime.<\/p>\n And any town called Passage East sounds like it should be in a movie.<\/p>\n Maybe the wild west, maybe a space station of some sort.<\/p>\n Or an outpost to hide from hordes of flesh eating zombies.<\/p>\n Oh, wait….now theres an idea for Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The tension and excitement builds ahead of a match against our greatest rivals, with a doubt over talismanic striker Leigh Griffiths meaning manager Brendan Rodgers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9754,"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\/09\/images.jpe","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-2xj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753"}],"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=9753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9755,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753\/revisions\/9755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/Cr4ZGkGUsAAksV-.jpg\")
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