Celtic TV interview with Jim O’Brien who’s on loan at Dunfermline. I love the way he hates Rangers. Think he’s declared for Ireland too.
‘Up against Rangers for the 2nd time this month on Sunday Jim, how do you feel about that prospect?’
‘They’re obviously asking for a doing coming up again.’
‘Are you still Celtic daft?’
‘Definitely, i want to come back to be a Celtic player long-term’
‘So what are you?’
‘Celtic daft!’
All the wise owls will be suggesting this could be one of Celtic’s most important signings of recent years. They may be right. From the official site:
Celtic’s latest signing coup
Newsroom Staff
CELTIC Football Club is today delighted to announce that John Park will join as Football Development Manager. John joins from Hibernian where he was Youth Academy Director.
Speaking about his appointment, John Park said: Im delighted to be here. Its a fantastic opportunity and Im looking forward to getting started.
The Football Development Manager role has developed because Celtic is such a massive club. Theyre looking to co-ordinate all the scouting, all the recruitment throughout the club, and they have seen me as the person deemed fit enough to take up the position.
Ive already met Gordon Strachan and were looking forward to working together, looking for quality players for him in his first-team, and working with the rest of the team.
There is already a lot of good staff working at the club and were looking to enhance that.
When I joined Hibernian in April 1998 it was a great career move for me. Hibernian is a fantastic club with some great people and the chairmans been brilliant with me all the way along.
Now this new role at Celtic is another challenge in my career and I think its the right challenge for me.
Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell added: I am absolutely delighted that John has agreed to join Celtic in this new and exciting role. It is a major coup for us to have secured his services.
Everyone will be aware of his incredible record at Hibernian and the terrific work he did in the youth development of the club.
Johns main task will be to co-ordinate and manage our scouting network throughout the Club.
Scouting for quality talent is extremely important to a Club like Celtic when competing at the highest level against clubs with significantly higher football budgets.
John will join Ray Clarke, Tom ONeill and the rest of the scouting team with the objective of putting Celtic at the forefront of identifying talent around Europe.
It could be a great appointment. Should be a decent liaison between the likes of Ray Clarke and the youth development side of things. With Tommy Burns recently committing himself to the club we’ve got a great development team in place.
DUMBARTON… 2
CELTIC… 2
JEAN-JOEL Perrier Doumbe made his ‘debut’ in the Hoops and played a part in both goals as a young reserve side drew with Dumbarton in tonight’s specially-arranged friendly.
The former Auxerre and Rennes defender set-up one and sparked the move for Celtic’s opener as Willie McStay’s men were twice forced to level in this competitive friendly, with Kjartan Finnbogason scoring in the first half and Cillian Sheridan grabbing a late second.
FULL MATCH REPORT TO FOLLOW
CELTIC (4-4-2) McGovern; Perrier-Doumbe, Kennedy, Cuthbert, Irvine (Richardson 82); Riley, McGlinchey (Millar, 82), Bjarnason, Conroy; Finnbogason (Cahillane 82), Sheridan.
Another 90 minutes for JFK too.
Lennon has said he’s very impressed with Doumbe so far.
I hope ‘we’ sign a few coonts today as I’m still annoyed about Maloney.
Cillian Sheridan on the bench for Celtic today.
is he irish? what do you know about him?
He’s a 17 year old guy from Cavan who only joined Celtic last summer. Scored 15 goals in 10 games or something for the Under 19s before getting promoted to the reserves in November and he scored 2 more on his debut at that level. They’ve had a winter break so he hasn’t played that much recently but he’s a very good record overall.
Big guy for his age and for a striker and while he’s still a bit raw (like the Beat) he has definite potential. Very early days for him to be making the first team bench though (Riordan is injured and Big Jan suspended) so I don’t think he’ll figure for a while.
Reserves won again today, 3-1 at Dunfermline after being 1-0 down. That’s 15 wins and 1 draw now. McGlinchey with 2 and the promising Icelandic striker (not attempting to spell his name) with a bullet header, said to be as good as Sutton’s away to Ajax. Kennedy played another 90 minutes too and the other Icelandic guy, Bjarnason, was meant to be excellent.
This article appeared in Icelandic newspaper Frttablai this morning. Good line from Strachan at the end. These 2 definitely have promise, it’ll be interesting to see if they stay:
You play for Celtic reserves, not Barcelona.
Kjartan Henry Finnbogason says that Celtic manager Gordon Strachan is very British in his football philosphy and isnt a great fan of fanzy flicks. Celtic have offered Finnbogason and his Icelandic teammate Theodor Elmar Bjarnason a new contract.
The Scottish giants offered the duo, who are both Iceland Under 21 internationals, a new two-year contract last weekend. Celtic invited the players parents and their agent Olafur Gardarson to Glasgow. Gordon Strachan then had a meeting with the players and their parents after Celtics win at the weekend.
In that meeting Strachan made it clear and obvious that he has high expectations for the boys and said it would in the best interest of their footballing career to remain at the club. The duo is still waiting for a chance in the first team.
The meeting went well and of course it is a great honour for both of us that a club like Celtic shows this kind of faith in us and is ready to offer us new contracts. However I will take my time in taking a decision because I am now at a stage in my career that I have to be involved in first team action and that has to happen next season, said Finnbogason to Frttablai yesterday.
Finnbogason has had his share of injuries since joining Celtic and spent a one and a half year on the sidelines. He has now fully recovered and started playing again for the reserves last november and he has not looked back as he has scored 7 goals in 8 matches so far this season. In fact Finnbogasons statistics at the club make a remarkable reading: 22 goals in 25 matches for the Under 19s and the reserves.
I am doing quite well these days and my form is always improving. Strachan is very keen on attending our matches and I also train with the first team a lot. I am hopefull that I will get a chance with the first team before the season is over. Especially as Celtic is leading the league by 20 points and the title is ours for sure. I have to patient because things change very quickly, said Finnbogason who added that Strachan is special and a good manager.
I enjoy training under his guidance and he is very vocal. He once stopped a training session because I did a backheel pass and walked over to me and said: Son, you play for Celtic reserves, not Barcelona. He just wants his British type of football, concluded Finnbogason.
Sheridan gets Celtic seal of approval
26/02/2007 - 14:59:50
Celtic striker Cillian Sheridan showed with one small but important contribution to the Parkhead sides Tennents Scottish Cup comeback against Inverness Caledonian Thistle that the Hoops comprehensive scouting system continues to unearth promising youngsters for manager Gordon Strachan.
Sheridan, from Cavan in Ireland, only turned 18 on Friday and few travelling fans at the Tulloch Caledonian stadium would have known anything about him as he replaced Mark Wilson with 16 minutes to go with the visitors trailing to Graham Baynes first-half opener.
However, after defender Steven Pressley dramatically levelled the score with an 89th-minute header, the Irishman set up Kenny Miller to score the winner deep into injury time.
Celtic under-19 coach Joe McBride described Sheridan rise through the Parkhead ranks as spectacular.
He said: Cillians rise has been spectacular and he has really caught the eye.
Hes only been at Celtic since last summer. We took him to Villarreal with the youth team just after he came and he did okay but since the league started he has been great.
He has been scoring all sorts of goals, from blistering shots from outside the box to tap-ins.
He has improved with every game and even scored two for the reserves when he moved up to play for them against Motherwell.
Cillian is the one player we have who is similar, in some ways, to Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, thats perhaps why the manager has taken him.
I dont know if weve lost him to the first team now but he can play with the under-19s for another season.
Its a double edged-sword, it would be good to keep him for our team but it would be nice to lose him to the first team, thats what we are here for.
McBride claims Sheridan settled quickly on arriving from Cavan last summer.
He said: He is basically a shy and quiet guy but you could say he is a typical Irishman.
On one of the bus journeys in Villarreal we tried to get a sing-song going among the boys but no-one would get up. But once Cillian got up, there was no getting him down again.
I hope he makes it as a footballer because he will never make it as a singer.
Inverness manager Charlie Christie was still reeling from Celtics remarkable comeback.
He said: We did have some tired legs, maybe because of the possession Celtic had but we defended well and they never looked like getting back. But it just wasnt to be for us.
From the Celtic site:
Cillian signs on the line
Joe Sullivan
THE club is delighted to announce that teenage striker Cillian Sheridan, who marked his debut by setting up Kenny Miller’s last-gasp winner in Sundays dramatic 2-1 Scottish Cup win over Inverness CT has agreed a new contract which will run for the next three years.
The young Irish striker said: I am delighted to agree this new contract with Celtic and commit myself to the club until 2010.
It is a privilege to be part of a club of Celtics size and stature.
It was fantastic to play some part in Sundays match and I will be working hard to try and ensure that I can make many more appearances for the Celtic first team.
There are some top players here and I know it will be difficult but I will certainly be doing all I can to force my way into the first team.
Manager Gordon Strachan added: We are delighted to have secured Cillian on this long-term contract.
He wants to play his football here at Celtic and we are pleased that he has committed his future to the club
He is a talented player and, like other players at the club, he has the potential to achieve a great deal in the game.
We will do all we can to ensure that Cillian and these other players realise their potential.
Cillian just turned 18-years-old on Friday and has made speedy progress from the Under-19 to the reserves and was rewarded with his first-team debut just two days after his birthday.
The young Irish striker will be appearing on Celtic TVs Daily Huddle tonight (Tuesday) at 7pm.
Good stuff. I might record that Daily Huddle and put it up in the multimedia section if there’s demand.
Yeah, stick it up. Only have Celtic TV in Wexford so won’t see it otherwise.
Where’s the Sheridan interview for me, rocko?
Ball Ox completely fogot. I’ll try and record the later one but I have to record Shameless for Mrs Rock as well.
Right - managed to grab it before recording Shameless.
http://www.thefreekick.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=37&topic=341.0
Oh and this is his Bebo page: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=380059077
Good work, seems like a quiet, unassuming lad.
Was just checking out his bebo and half the Celtic youth team are in his friends list; Paul Cahilane, Paul Skinner, Eric Foley, Tim Kiely, Andrew Traub, Kevin Cawley.
It’s weird how you pin your hopes on these lads and they’re still kids. Reading their pages is gas.
The Bebo pages are hilarious. I see he reckons he’ll be home on Saturday night or so he’s telling some bird anyway. Does that mean he’s not playing Saturday?
Great news:
O’Dea signs new Bhoys contract
13/03/2007 - 09:21:37
Celtics Darren ODea has signed a new contract with the club. The deal will keep the defender at Parkhead until the end of the 2009-10 season.