Your hand seems to have slipped to the right there as you typed - much like your politics of late.
5/1 are decent odds but I reckon a draw is the most likely outcome. I read an interview there with Gavin Rae where he said he was called into the office expecting to be told he was to leave Rangers and le Guen made him captain. A guy who considers himself surplus to requirements for the worst Rangers team in memory is now their captain. How low they have sunk.
Celtic team today:
01 Boruc,
02 Telfer, 17 Pressley, 48 OāDea, 03 Naylor
25 Nakamura, 18 Lennon, 20 Jarosik, 14 Riordan
37 Beattie, 07 Zurawski
Substitutes
22 Marshall, 09 Miller, 15 Sno, 16 Gravesen, 10 Vennegoor of Hesselink, 46 McGeady, 35 Lawson
OK, Iām a bit pissed off with this. Havenāt checked to see if anyoneās carrying a niggle or whatever but how can Tommy G be dropped and Lennon stay in? Very harsh on McGeady to be left out again. I have no problems with him being rested the other day - every young player needs to be on occasion - but it seems certain players are left out after the slightest dip in form while others can be consistently shit and still never get dropped.
Mick seems to be resting his groin with Pressley making his debut (not calling him āElvisā yet until he does something to endear himself to me). Good to see The Beat get a game but I would have put Riordan up top with him and Aiden on the wing. About time Vinegar Hill figured again too, the Cup game on Saturday against Dumbarton is the ideal game to throw him back in.
I put 20 bob on Motherwell there. Sure why not as they say?
Disappointed thereās no Gravesen. Would liked to have seen Aiden returning but Riordan deserves another game and Strachan was quoted today as saying he wonāt play Riordan as a striker because heās not comfortable there. Pressley and OāDea is an interesting pairing.
Quite an impressive bench.
Quote from The Huddleboard:
āEven if McManus was in a wheelchair - I would still have played him in front of Pressley.ā
Made me laugh.
Canāt be arsed watching the huns game (we have visitors in the sitting room!) but apparently theyāve loads of āLe Guen Outā banners and are all singing āThereās only one Barry Fergusonā etc etc.
Killie on top so far apparently.
Please Leave Govan is another banner according to the HB.
Hadnāt noticed how strong the bench was Clarkey - itās impressive alright. Surprised to see Lawson there - thought he was on loan for the season but must have been just a 6 month thing.
Yeah Lawson played for St Johnstone when they won at Ibrox in the League Cup.
Celtic playing scheidt. A few half chances but nothing on target in 35 minutes of football. Starting to dominate possession and pin them back but no end prodct as of yet.
OāDea from a Naka cross. 1-0.
OāDea has played 4(?) games for Celtic now in this spell and heās had a few shots in all of them - certainly gets involved at the other end of the park. He looked ropey defensively at the weekend, particularly second half, but heāll improve. And I think Pressley alongside him will help him.
Hilarious there on SSN. Huns going mental. One lad in tears outside the ground pining for Barry! Le Guen got some booing when he got off the team bus. Iāll give him a week.
Iām off away now folks so youāll have to rely on BBC, Sky and the likes for the 2nd half. Apologies.
McGeady off the bench makes it 2-0. Huns won 1-0 with a penalty, which is really irrelevant but itās funny because theyāll think theyāve turned another corner thanks to a single goal victory at Motherwell.
Rocko, get the 1998 New Yearās derby up on the site will you. Just been watching it on YouTube. Fair to say itās one of the most important games in Celticās history? I never tire of seeing Lambertās goal, what an incredible strike. Burleyās goal was a thing of beauty too.
Seems Celtic played well second half judging by a quick look at a few sites there. Jan got 25 mins and hit the post. Riordan hit the bar and it appears they didnāt really threaten. We will improve as we get players back so Iām quite happy with that today.
How far wrong can one article be? This is from last season in the Daily Record in Scotland:
Darryl King
ON the day after their European dreams came to an agonising end, the Rangers support received the fillip their chairman had promised.
As always, the timing from club owner David Murray was impeccable.
But this is no sweetener just to keep the legions happy after defeat in Villarreal consigned them to nothing more than 10 SPL games between now and the end of the season.
Murray wasnāt in at the start 20 years ago when Graeme Souness kick-started the Rangers revolution that reshaped the face of Scottish football.
But the Edinburgh millionaire is at the very forefront this time, in direct response to a season from hell that has seen his club fall so far behind Celtic in the league championship that it is simply intolerable for the supporters.
In a momentous week for the Ibrox club, which included the brave end of their Champions League adventure, the Rangers fans have now witnessed the first shafts of light in the āmoonbeam of successā that Murray said was lying in wait for the club.
The outstanding French coach Paul Le Guen is expected to confirm this weekend that he will take charge of Rangers next season.
That news preceded the tie in Villarreal. But the announcement last night of the massive guaranteed 48m retail deal that Murray has brokered with sports chain JJB, proves to fans that Le Guen will be armed with the transfer cash he needs to rebuild the team.
It is believed Le Guen will be handed upwards of 15m this summer to spend on new players, and that eight new faces have been earmarked.
For some time now the name of the 6m-rated French internationalist Sidney Govou has been circulating.
Every manager has a player who follows him around the clubs he works at and, such is the relationship between Le Guen and Govou from their time at Lyon, the winger is said to be the incoming managerās No.1 target.
Lilleās Greek defender Stathis Tavlaridis was the subject of two failed transfer attempts last summer by Alex McLeish.
But in recent times Le Guenās No.2 Yves Colleu, has watched the former Arsenal centre-half in the flesh and he is likely to appear back on the radar.
Nantes keeper Mickael Landreau has been told he can leave the club this summer on a free transfer after seven years.
Suggestions in France are that Le Guen rates him highly and will move for the 26 year-old as Lyon shot-stopper Gregory Coupet would be too expensive.
Closer to home, a deal for Hibsā Derek Riordan - who Rangers missed out on in January - remains on-going and he should be at Ibrox by the time Le Guen arrives in the summer.
His Easter Road team-mate Scott Brown, was the player McLeish wanted to sign for a year now and that is another move strongly being tipped in the Ibrox corridors.
With eight new players expected, Le Guen will have to trim the squad but that can be done without too many problems.
Rangers have a raft of stars out of contract in the summer and all of them - bar Peter Lovenkrands, who will be offered an improved new deal - are certain to go.
Ronald Wattereus, Marvin Andrews, Soto Kyrgiakos, Bob Malcolm and Alex Rae - who is believed to be considering a role coaching the Ibrox kids - will all be released saving 50,000 a week in wages.
But there could be one or two shocks in terms of the players Le Guen wants to get rid off as he embarks on his mission to get Rangers back to the top.
Stefan Klos, the highest earner at the club on 27,000-a- week, is believed to be wanted by Hamburg and, with a year left on his deal, the keeper is likely to move on after seven and a half years of sterling service.
The futures of players such as Jose-Pierre Fanfan, and Zura Khizanishvili who is on loan at Blackburn Rovers, must also be in doubt.
And, with Le Guen now watching, a couple of the first team regulars at this moment may only have 10 games to save their futures at the club.
Already Chris Burke, who has been in sparkling form this season, has impressed so much that an extended deal until 2009 is being mentioned - but others will enjoy no such backing.
Murray, and the new boss, will hope that this fear of the axe will inspire the entire squad to reel in Hearts and give the club another crack at the Champions League next season.
However, clearly, if they do get back to the promised land, the team that went down in Spain will bear no resemblance to the one that will start next seasonās campaign.
Publication date 09/03/06
Quote from Ferguson in the paper today:
āI will be cremated in the jersey I wore the night I was first made captain of Rangers. I have already decided that I will be clothed in that light blue shirt with my captainās armband on when they send me to that big dressing room in the sky.ā
What a nutter.
I see in lāEquipe today there was a story about Ferguson having a āpenchant dāalcohol.ā One of the French lads on the HB reckons that might mean that he has a penchant for alcohol. That quote above suggests they might be bang on the money.
From CelticUnderground, some of the players he compares Aiden to are ridiculous.
Aiden Time to Leave the Playground!
Written by Harry Brady
Sunday, 31 December 2006
Like most Celtic addicts, I awaited the arrival of Aiden McGeady into the first team with great excitement. We had all heard glowing reports of this youngster for whom we had beaten off the advances of Man Utd among others. Just 6 months before his debut I had bumped into Alan MacInally who informed me that McGeady and McGlinchy were the best two U16ās he had ever seen.
My excitement was also tinged with trepidation, how many future stars have burst forth from our reserve scene only to be pale shadow of the Baggio they are claimed to resemble. I watched with excitement therefore as Aiden mesmerised Hearts at Tynecastle, believing that maybe this time the hype was true. Over this past year however my admiration of Aiden has not been of the same level as some of my fellow supporters. I have vented my irritation as he ducked out of a challenge in Copenhagen a la Reggie Blinker, I screamed as fellow Tims cheered when he took on half the Rangers team to produceā¦nothing. During the Dundee Utd game I realised why I found it hard to warm to Aiden. I played football with at school and so, probably, did you.
Aiden was the best player in my and your school team. He was the guy who could pick the ball up from the keeper and take it the length of the park, beating 10 players twice in the process. He was by far the most talented player at school, but my god didnāt he know it! The problem was he couldnāt share the glory. So after heād beaten everyone (twice) he found himself way out wide. You (or someone) were standing unmarked 5 yards out screaming for a pass. But he was better than you. Why should he share the glory of that mazy run. So from the acutest of angles he shot - and missed!
Defending a corner, the ball would break to Aiden, your keeper (or you) were screaming to punt it clear, but he was better than everyone, he could dribble the ball out of defence. To be fair sometimes he could. Others times he couldnāt and youād loose a goal.
Donāt get me wrong, Iām all for creative talented players displaying their skill in a Celtic jersey, but Aiden needs to learn a lot of this soon if he is not to turn into another Simon Donnelly or Mark Burchill. Last season, when sitting on the bench Aiden was often heard to deride his team mates on the park who he believed to be inferior to him. Aiden needs to learn that he is no longer on the school pitch. No longer can he be the greedy player because heās ābetter than everyone else.ā Itās time to lift your head.
Outside football I loved watching Ali, Ray Leonard, Eubank and Botham. In modern times Hamed, Flintoff and Pietersen could hardly be described as shrinking violets, they were great and they told you. The difference was they delivered best on the big stage. Where was Aiden when we needed him 2 yards from goal against Artmedia. He disappeared at Old Trafford and against Copenhagen, that challenge (or lack of) on the keeper!
Aiden has all the tricks he needs to be a superstar. But whatās the point in having those tricks if you donāt know when to use them and when to keep it simple. Compare the important crosses Aiden has supplied compared to the less talented but more direct Lee Naylor. I used to think the same of Ronaldo at Man Utd, but this season he has become the player many predicted. Aiden is only 20 and can still learn, learn to lift his head. But if he thinks heās made it. If he thinks heās The Man! I saw Steve Fulton being good at 20, the same at 25. Burchill being good at 20, Dunfermline at 25. Aiden, itās time to step up, make grown up decisions, lift your head, pass the ball and deliver on the big stage.
I saw that the other day (and your reply). Itās an absolutely crazy article and makes no allowance for his development and just how much he has improved over the last 12 months.
Le Guen is gone!
Itās funny how Mr Murray never sacks managers, another āmutual consentā parting of the ways!
I didnāt think they had the money to pay him off myself but this means they wonāt have any money to buy any players.
It would also appear that PLG hadnāt discussed stripping the captaincy from Ferguson with Murray as he said he had done.
Great laugh though. My moneyās on Billy Davies at Derby taking over.