Emenike, Ashley and only Montrose

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I suppose we should start by heading the warning from Sevconian under-performer, Ian Black, who suggested that the Third Division is harder than the SPL.  By this logic, Second Division Arbroath will terrify the life out of the Celtic defence ahead of their Scottish Cup tie tomorrow, they did, after all, put three goals past Inverurie Locos in the Third Round tie, and again in the replay.

Only Montrose

Having previously experienced the delights of Brechin, Forfar and the Dundee clubs, after tomorrow, the only Tayside club I will not have seen will be Montrose.  These opportunities don’t come around often enough!

In all seriousness, Second and Third Division football is not difficult, it is essentially Keep Fit on the cheap.  Celtic must deal with the sincere endeavour of their opponents while giving an opportunity for several fringe players to grace Celtic Park.

With our midfield already stretched by injury and suspension ahead of the Spartak game, Neil Lennon will want to guard this area of the team in particular.  Spartak play their last game before heading to Glasgow tonight, at home to Zenit, who sit five points about them after 17 games.  This is a huge game for Spartak and interim manager Valery Karpin, who will either succeed as interim, and be made permanent boss, or to fail and to also lose his general manager position.

Unusually for the Champions League, they have five days to recover before facing Celtic, a game Karpin is keen to win.  Celtic will technically only have four days rest but the bulk of players likely to play in midweek will surely be rested tomorrow.

Spartak will be without striker Welliton, who travelled to Germany for an operation this week.  Emmanuel Emenike, who scored twice against Celtic last month, is likely to lead the line.  Emenike is a penalty box striker who is more than capable of exploiting gaps in the Celtic box.  Karpin may instead opt to play target-man Artyom Dzuba as a sole striker.  Dzuba is not a prodigious goal-scorer but he is able to hold play up and bring others into the game.

I loved media suggestions today that Sports Direct have a fight on their hands from other firms if they want their brand used to rename Ibrox.  You have to admire the intellectual endeavour that goes into news coverage in this country.  Sports Direct area THE key business partner for The Rangers.  The only issue open to question is how much skin they are in the game for and what they get in return.  Remember this when you’re buying sports kit for Christmas!

Unlike the CQN Annual, the perfect Christmas present, available here and not found in any Sports Direct store.

Lower league clubs will all surely be quaking in their boots at the news The Rangers will not only bring in well over £20m in a share issue, but could also earn countless riches from stadium naming rights.  The leaked IPO PowerPoint presentation suggested the Offer for Subscription would commence on Monday. I am sure it is on-plan.

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  1. Buffalo Bills Bhoy on

    Have not bought anything from JJB or Sport Direct in over 10 years! Only ever buy Celtic stuff from the Celtic shop. Don’t help the Sevconians!

  2. Steinreignedsupreme on

    Paul 67 –

     

     

    As I posted at the end of the previous blog – the rebranding of Ibrox story is the latest lame attempt to revive the flagging share issue.

     

     

    It will never happen. I note no one is asking Mike Ashley about his supposed interest.

  3. The Battered Bunnet on

    This is the final day for bidders to submit offers for naming rights to my Moustache.

     

     

    I expect nothing more than the usual CQN response: Humour; Imagination; and Good Old Fashioned Calumny.

  4. Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire on

    snotters were big on the menu this week

     

    TBB’s snotter warmer

  5. Lennon n Mc....Mjallby on

    So in what society is a press witchhunt justified for a person who mocks plane crashes in a football stadium but stays silent on somebody dressing up as a notorious paedophile in a football stadium thinking he’s mocking thousands of people?

     

     

    Answer- Scottish society.

  6. Not sure if this has been posted already – but from the Daily Record’s web site, they have this beauty:-

     

     

    “As the Leveson Report is published, the Daily Record remains proud of its own record, and that of Media Scotland, of aiding democracy by asking questions, shining a light in dark corners and standing up to corruption.”

     

     

    Just astonishing that they can write this nonsense with a straight face.

  7. Only Montrose —

     

     

    I went to a game there . Stood next to a wee group of male eider ducks . Handsome chaps . They had a wee fight and flew off .

  8. “Just astonishing that they can write this nonsense with a straight face”

     

    >>>>>>>>

     

    They do, and they will write even more now that Cameron has effectively trashed The Leveson Report.

  9. Philbhoy - It's just the beginning! on

    Didn’t Montrose always win when outnumbered?

     

     

    Mibbe they’ll get a man sent of and then win.

     

     

    Makes sense tae me.

  10. Hmmmm lower divison teams and early rounds of Scottish cup.

     

     

    I give you Stranraer I think centenary season.

     

     

    They were 1-0 at Celtic park and I think missed a penalty we only equalised with ??? 3 minutes to go ..

  11. It’s the logic of the Damned.

     

    It’s sometimes called ( Ian) Black Humour…..

     

     

    ‘ Aye, aye, aye ,aye.

     

    Division One’s better than Premier.

     

    Division Two’s better than either of them,

     

    & Division Three’s where we all wannabe.’

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