Steven Fletcher has his own place in Celtic folklore. We bid for him in January 2009, the player made a public plea to Hibs to allow the deal to happen, but Rod Petrie rejected the approach. Fletcher would go to Burnley at the end of that season for a deal worth around £4m, which seemed eye-watering at the time for a striker who scored 11 goals the previous 12 months.
As Celtic ran out of steam in the spring of 2009 attention turned to what might have been had Fletcher signed. He was the one that got away. The whats, whys and maybes of that time are irrelevant now, but in short, Celtic didn’t value Fletcher at £4m and Petrie reckoned he could get that kind of money in England if he waited.
Before selling to Burnley he didn’t even put the customary call out to Celtic to entice a higher bid. Petrie wanted Hibs to be known as a team who could produce players for the English Premier League – a Hamilton Accies-Lite, if you like. It’s a legitimate strategy.
The player is 28-years-old and now free of the ankle injury which plagued him for over a year. He’s on an astronomical basic wage at Sunderland, who paid north of £10m for his services. Few Scottish footballers will have higher career earnings than him, but that contract ends in June. This season has brought 4 goals from 11 starts for a Sunderland team who sit in a relegation position.
The injury profile makes him a possibility for Celtic. Without it, as a free agent, he would remain in the English Premier League next season (whether Sunderland do or not). His agent will no doubt be shopping him around right now, as will Sunderland, who at the moment will be asking for a consideration to be paid to release him this month.
We must have signed 20 strikers since January 2009, very few as good as Steven Fletcher. I’d take him in a heartbeat.
I’m pleased Anthony Stokes (16 months younger than Fletcher) has a choice of clubs wanting to loan him this month. All three: Dundee United, Inverness and Hibs, would be good places for him. United are a better team than their abysmal points tally indicates, but they are desperately short of strikers. Stokes could transform them. Hibs and Inverness are both clubs looking purposefully towards the second half of the season.
Charity Q&A Night, Carfin
I’m on the (otherwise excellent) Q&A panel at the Xavier Centre, Carfin, on Saturday 30 January alongside two Libson Lions – John Clark and Bertie Auld, Celtic author and sports academic – Dr Joe Bradley, and Fifa referee – Willie Collum.
The purpose of the night is to raise funds for Lanarkshire Cancer Care Trust and the Young Adult Ministry. Tickets will be scarce, so if you’d like to attend, call Mick on 07827 975271 soon.
You know when you look at a line-up and just know it’s going to be a great night…..
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Phone mail is chancy…..u get mine ;-))
BMCUWP
H.H.
Re the subject of foxes. A number of us know WEEFRA and ask to be kept up to date wi events.
Livestock and foxes are not a good mix for a smallholder,but he wouldn’t have mentioned either without us asking.
I know how he feels-I feel like shooting them just for ripping my bin bags.
(If they ever rip my knitting,they’re in real trouble,btw…)
That’s a pisser…..Weefra would give me a shotgun if that’s wat it takes ;-))
H.H.
Bernardo O’Higgins
Chilean independence leader who, together with José de San Martín, freed Chile from Spanish rule in the Chilean War of Independence.
Give him a chance.
Top of the morning to you all from a fair, cold and sunny Fife.
If you know the history: 100 years ago today Celtic beat Hibs by 3-1; The STUC rejected the proposed Bill for conscription into the armed forces and the Glasgow Bakers increased the price of a 2lb loaf of bread by a ha’penny.
Oh and over 3.5 million dead in the first 11 months of the war!
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/1916-01-15%3A+Celtic+3-1+Hibernian%2C+League
H.H.
P.S. Am I the only one or does everyone find their PC going into slow motion when visiting CQN?
.22 if necessary ;-))
H.H. hav no secrets
boomcsc
THELURKINTIM
Aye,bud. Thanks.
BLANTYREKEV
I believe he had considerable assistance from a strangely little-known Scotsman-Thomas,Lord Cochrane.
Time for THE GREEN MAN to come to the aid of the party!
BIGNAN
Mine goes into Dave-mode!
WEEFRATHETIM on 14TH JANUARY 2016 10:37 PM
‘DD
Yer urban foxes are nothing like the wild ones. They are almost tame, but the wild ones, will never be tamed. They kill just for the fun of it. Horrible, horrible bassas. Total vermin. Take my word for that. They will kill a complete chicken coup and not even take one for food. Terrible creatures. That’s why farmers have no problems getting “shotgun” licences.’
####
Foxes are predators. Their natural instinct is to kill prey. If they gain access to a hen coop they’ll kill everything they can, if only to stop the squawking and commotion.
That does not make them evil.
To attribute moral characteristics to animals is problematic, to say the least.
If you’re going to regard the fox as evil, because it threatens your income, what moral attributes would you attribute to a chicken or a lamb, animals that you’re going to kill to sell or to eat? Are they kindly, beneficent animals? If they are, should you be killing them?
The reality is that the fox, following its natural instincts, is your economic enemy. That’s all. As far as the fox is concerned it’s not personal, just business.
Foxes aren’t terrible creatures. They are doing what they have evolved (were created) to do in a damaged ecosystem and degraded habitat.
Most of the problem arises from the fact that man has killed off all the apex predators (bear, wolf,lynx) that would naturally have kept the number of foxes in check, and that’s why there are so many of them. If you have to kill them fair enough but do it with a cool head and a proper understanding of what’s going on. If nothing else it might improve your aim.
I’ll try another, more blunt way…….you know all this discussion about foxes is going to hurt someone ?
Desist.
Some would say I’m a psychopath…..some would say I’m normal…..death to foxes ;-))
H.H.
S.F.T.B.
Well.
In all our little jousts ,I`ve usually found your efforts comprehensible.
Apart from this most recent one directed to my goodself.
Forwhy?
This O`Higgins?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernardo_O%27Higgins
ERNIE LYNCH
Aw,all those years of being told that animals only kill to survive,to eat.
Turns out it’s all because they canny stand the racket from a few birds?
(They should try my local on a Monday morning. Half-a-dozen of them,shrieking weans in tow. Place is like a bomb-site by the time they’re through.)
Btw,as you are an expert on the psychology of so many different species,can you explain the habits of the Groundhog Day know-it-all? He seems to hibernate for months before popping up all over the place.
‘Football fans should combat abuse by reporting “anything which makes them uncomfortable”, a senior Police Scotland officer has said.
Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Cribbins said fans should report incidents to officers or stewards.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-35317169
######
So remember folks, anything that makes you uncomfortable.
Underwear a bit itchy, shoes pinching a bit, a chilly breeze, indigestion, bovril too salty, pie too greasy, team selection not to your liking.
Anything.
BIG-CUP-WINNERS, unfortunately you’re right. Though who can really stop anyone discussing whatever they like these days on CQN.
On a happier note I had the pleasure of returning to using Scotrail recently, I can confirm the carriages are just as good now as when I last looked ;)
Greenpinata
No worries mate
I did think neilbhoy seemed to put Weefra in the same league as organised fox hunting events and I was only pointing out his is a smallholding which relies on income from his poultry
DD and he discussed the difference in opinion without the hunts being mentioned
(Spellcheck working this time)
Hail Hail
Re WEEFRATIM and foxes: if some bassa breaks into your house and steals ALL your hard-earned wages I am quite sure if you could get your hands on him you would say he was a victim of his circumstances! The ‘Bhoy’ is a tenant farmer as has been mentioned often on here ,predators are his natural enemy. It is called relevancy.
Sociopath would b closer to the mark..it’s cool a’ve put the lid(l) on me ;.;-))
H.H.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on 15TH JANUARY 2016 9:28 AM
ERNIE LYNCH
‘Aw,all those years of being told that animals only kill to survive,to eat.’
###
Well if you think about it for a minute (I know it’s early), would a survival instinct not make a predator want to silence something that was attracting attention by making a lot of noise?
OBAFuscation.
Plain and simply sleekit…………………
Offensive does not, and never will, equate in meaning to sectarian.
What is shortbread going on about this morning?
Police asking football fans to report anything offensive or upsetting ?
I think we are living in the safest time ever to watch football in Scotland. Going to a game now is so tame its almost boring.
Theres no serious hooliganisim. Police are not even needed at the grounds.
The occassional smoke device can be dealt with by stewards.
The only sectarian singing is done by you-know-who.
By the way it would be very easy for the polis to identify hundreds of the Billy Boys as they were caught on camera sitting in their own seats.
Ernie Lynch
Excellent post, you said it all for me. Humans are the only ‘animal’ that kills for fun. The real vermin on planet Earth.
………oh, just reading back.
Has there been a “kostoom” change?
Ernie
that’s wat a knife a double bladed knife is for ;-))
H.H.
ERNIELYNCH
Snide comment as ever. FYI,it may be 947am,but that is not early if you work nightshifts.
You said that foxes kill merely to silence the coop. I reckon yer talking pish while trying to be posh and ejikaitit.
Your call. I can trade insults back and forth all day. I much prefer it to having my mate insulted.
Btw,you still haven’t replied about the Groundhog Day know-it-all. Just saying,like…
Nite nite sleep well u sheep lol ;-))
H.H.
Morning Bhoys from a very cold very white Central Scotland I am looking forward to tonights game I think United will be up for it after there cup win last week.However I expect a narrow win for the hoops. H.H.
Morning all.
BBC Scotland doing its best to deflect from the sectarian singing coming out of Govan. They suddenly highlight Celtic supporters letting off flares. Now, I have no desire to defend them but the policeman this morning said there were 33 incidents already this season. Why have they only brought this up now?? Someone could get killed, to quote the policeman. Surely the BBC should have been all over this already? That chap Goodlad seems to be the latest off the production line of anti-Celtic broadcasters.
Game off…ground too hard…..boooo sais my realisst ;-))
Happy to b proven wrong ;-)?
H.H.
Oh, those other 32 incidents do NOT seem to have involved Celtic. I wonder who the other teams were.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on 15TH JANUARY 2016 9:47 AM
A fox is a predator. It kills to eat. It’s evolved over millions of years to do that. It there’s food readily available it will kill it.
At the time it isn’t working out meal plans for the forthcoming week. It isn’t counting as it goes. It isn’t saying to itself “OK that’ll see me through the next few days, so i’ll just leave the rest.” There’s prey ready to hand so it kills it.
That instinct to kill will be strengthened if the prey is squawking and attracting attention and will make the fox all the more frenzied in its killing.
The fox is doing what’s natural to it. What’s unnatural in the scenario is an enclosed space stuffed full of easy prey. That doesn’t occur in nature.
So if you want to evaluate how a fox behaves in that situation you have to look at it from its position, not yours.
I’m looking forward to the game. Boyata is expected to return.
I reckon he will go with:
Gordon, Lustig, Boyata, Simo, Tierney, Biton, Johansen, Rogic, Commons, Forrest, Griffiths
To be honest, I do think Ronny has given up on our wide players and wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to bring in the lad from City
A fox does what nature programmed it to do.
A lion kills the cubs sired by a different lion.
Survival of the fittest genes.
” ….Auchtermuchty…!? “
PCS….
your wrong …..cause as eddieinkirkm sais….some of us Sung a political song…..not a secterian song…..OBAF…..tell the diff
H.H.
Fur fox sake
Thelurkintim
I understand that If the game was postponed for a frozen pitch DUFC would be fined for inadequate pitch protection, rule H10 specifically mentioning the clubs requirement and responsibility to ensure protection against frozen pitches.