The Calm Before The Storm For Celtic?
Article by Jim Payne
Celtic go into the midweek round of fixtures knowing that a win over Motherwell will take the team back to the top of the League- Aberdeen do not have a game scheduled. ‘Well have been a regular thorn in Celtic’s side for at least quarter of a century but this season the Lanarkshire side’s results have been poor enough to have last season’s runners-up slip into relegation mire so it should be a surprise if at 10pm on Wednesday Celtic is not looking down on the other eleven teams. I say ‘should’ rather than ‘would’ though as Celtic has not always convinced in its own home league matches this season so Celtic’s successful ascent , to this observer at least, is hardly a done deal.
That Celtic have this unexpectedly early chance to return to the top follows last weekend’s matches when Celtic travelled to Hamilton and defeated Accies 2-0 whilst Aberdeen, surprisingly, managed only to draw with Dundee at home thereby reducing the Dons’ lead to two points. Celtic scored two excellent goals in their victory and were rarely extended in an unexpectedly easy win over a team which had beaten Celtic in Glasgow three months earlier and which would have gone, had it won, level on points with the champions. A fair portion of the play on what was a freezing cold day was rather turgid and I thought the artificial surface a touch trickier than the synthetic pitch Celtic had played on at Rugby Park 12 days earlier but overall this was a game Celtic can be pleased to have got out the way in the professional manner it mostly did.
The big talking point after the match was, once again, Kris Commons whose future remains a hot topic. The player’s actions in throwing his boots into the crowd at the end rather suggested the game was his last though Ronny Deila stated that he (Commons) will have to buy new boots as he is going nowhere. Commons was noticeably less impressive at New Douglas Park than in Celtic’s last competitive match but I hope Deila is right and that Kris will stay – until the end of the season at least.
Before the match it was announced that Celtic had signed Dundee United’s Gary Mackay-Steven on a pre-contract deal which means the 24 year-old winger will be joining in the summer. The player looked a really hot prospect a couple of years ago but has not quite kicked on although he had a stormer on New Year’s Day in the Dundee derby when United trounced their city rivals 6-2. He looks worth a punt as does his teammate Stuart Armstrong with whom Celtic has also been linked. The latter player will come at a price as his contract still has approximately 18 months to run and I cannot imagine United’s manager, Jackie McNamara, will be keen to lose this player in the last few months of a season in which his team is still in the mix for all three domestic trophies- and especially not to his team’s main rival. Celtic has never really been a club that has paid more than its initial valuation for players so it will be interesting to see how this one goes.
Celtic has been mentioned in connection with several other players but I would be surprised if much more business is done unless some of our own players are moved on. The media remains full of talk about Virgil Van Dijk going but Celtic would be foolish to allow him to move him on just yet and much of the speculation seems agent fuelled or simply just something to fill website or newspaper space. I am sure that Ronny Deila will be keener to move Derk Boerrigter, Teemu Pukki and Amido Balde on permanently (and there is some talk that Pukki may move to Brondby with whom he is currently on loan) as well perhaps as shedding our own flop loan signings Mubarak Wakaso and Aleksandr Tonev though getting rid of any of these disappointments is easier written than done. As for John Guidetti there seems less speculation regarding his future than there was a month or so ago. The big Swede arrived in a blaze of goals but has not scored in a couple of months though he still looks, overall, the best bet we have to play the loan striker’s role. I have no doubt that Celtic will play their usual bit part in the frenzy that surrounds the closing hours of the transfer window but it is fair to say that none of what Celtic does will distract Jim White and his glamorous yellow clad assistants ( and Nick Collins) much.
As for White, he will hopefully be in mourning on Monday the 2nd of February as by that time Celtic will have played his team in the Scottish League Cup Semi-final. I shall give more attention to that match next week but I note that as it stands the Ibrox club has lost yet another first team coach though given the odd financial situation that exists there the two men who have been in charge this season, Ally McCoist and Kenny McDowell, remain employees of the club I (or should that be company?) on full pay. The Rangers situation seems, yet again, to be approaching yet another day of reckoning and after three years of it I must say I wish I actually believed that this latest ‘crunch meeting’ would be the end of this affair. Or even better, were I being unkind, of them.
See you next week- as they used to sing at the end of The Double Deckers.
© e-Football 2014 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football
Celtic go into the midweek round of fixtures knowing that a win over Motherwell will take the team back to the top of the League- Aberdeen do not have a game scheduled. ‘Well have been a regular thorn in Celtic’s side for at least quarter of a century but this season the Lanarkshire side’s results have been poor enough to have last season’s runners-up slip into relegation mire so it should be a surprise if at 10pm on Wednesday Celtic is not looking down on the other eleven teams. I say ‘should’ rather than ‘would’ though as Celtic has not always convinced in its own home league matches this season so Celtic’s successful ascent , to this observer at least, is hardly a done deal.
That Celtic have this unexpectedly early chance to return to the top follows last weekend’s matches when Celtic travelled to Hamilton and defeated Accies 2-0 whilst Aberdeen, surprisingly, managed only to draw with Dundee at home thereby reducing the Dons’ lead to two points. Celtic scored two excellent goals in their victory and were rarely extended in an unexpectedly easy win over a team which had beaten Celtic in Glasgow three months earlier and which would have gone, had it won, level on points with the champions. A fair portion of the play on what was a freezing cold day was rather turgid and I thought the artificial surface a touch trickier than the synthetic pitch Celtic had played on at Rugby Park 12 days earlier but overall this was a game Celtic can be pleased to have got out the way in the professional manner it mostly did.
The big talking point after the match was, once again, Kris Commons whose future remains a hot topic. The player’s actions in throwing his boots into the crowd at the end rather suggested the game was his last though Ronny Deila stated that he (Commons) will have to buy new boots as he is going nowhere. Commons was noticeably less impressive at New Douglas Park than in Celtic’s last competitive match but I hope Deila is right and that Kris will stay – until the end of the season at least.
Before the match it was announced that Celtic had signed Dundee United’s Gary Mackay-Steven on a pre-contract deal which means the 24 year-old winger will be joining in the summer. The player looked a really hot prospect a couple of years ago but has not quite kicked on although he had a stormer on New Year’s Day in the Dundee derby when United trounced their city rivals 6-2. He looks worth a punt as does his teammate Stuart Armstrong with whom Celtic has also been linked. The latter player will come at a price as his contract still has approximately 18 months to run and I cannot imagine United’s manager, Jackie McNamara, will be keen to lose this player in the last few months of a season in which his team is still in the mix for all three domestic trophies- and especially not to his team’s main rival. Celtic has never really been a club that has paid more than its initial valuation for players so it will be interesting to see how this one goes.
Celtic has been mentioned in connection with several other players but I would be surprised if much more business is done unless some of our own players are moved on. The media remains full of talk about Virgil Van Dijk going but Celtic would be foolish to allow him to move him on just yet and much of the speculation seems agent fuelled or simply just something to fill website or newspaper space. I am sure that Ronny Deila will be keener to move Derk Boerrigter, Teemu Pukki and Amido Balde on permanently (and there is some talk that Pukki may move to Brondby with whom he is currently on loan) as well perhaps as shedding our own flop loan signings Mubarak Wakaso and Aleksandr Tonev though getting rid of any of these disappointments is easier written than done. As for John Guidetti there seems less speculation regarding his future than there was a month or so ago. The big Swede arrived in a blaze of goals but has not scored in a couple of months though he still looks, overall, the best bet we have to play the loan striker’s role. I have no doubt that Celtic will play their usual bit part in the frenzy that surrounds the closing hours of the transfer window but it is fair to say that none of what Celtic does will distract Jim White and his glamorous yellow clad assistants ( and Nick Collins) much.
As for White, he will hopefully be in mourning on Monday the 2nd of February as by that time Celtic will have played his team in the Scottish League Cup Semi-final. I shall give more attention to that match next week but I note that as it stands the Ibrox club has lost yet another first team coach though given the odd financial situation that exists there the two men who have been in charge this season, Ally McCoist and Kenny McDowell, remain employees of the club I (or should that be company?) on full pay. The Rangers situation seems, yet again, to be approaching yet another day of reckoning and after three years of it I must say I wish I actually believed that this latest ‘crunch meeting’ would be the end of this affair. Or even better, were I being unkind, of them.
See you next week- as they used to sing at the end of The Double Deckers.
© e-Football 2014 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football
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