The off-field histrionics that a visit to Tynecastle invariably brings is of little interest today. For now, don’t really care about the history of this fixture or the disposition of the natives. Such matters pale into insignificance beside the three points on offer to the team who have won 14 consecutive games in domestic football, a run that extends back to October.
Neil Lennon and his players will let others worry about life’s dramas, the likely influence of Hearts fifth winding-up order, served this week, the “political situation” that has a bearing on Hearts team selection, or even the 2-0 defeat at the same venue four months ago. They will instead focus on how to deliver a disciplined performance against a team who have recorded unlikely highs and lows this season.
10-man Hearts put five goals past St Mirren last month but were lucky to leave Tynecastle with a draw against 10-man St Johnstone at the weekend after Cillian Sheridan ran them ragged. They are neck-and-neck with St Johnstone in the league, both of whom have slipped six points behind Motherwell in the chase for what may yet become a Champions League spot.
The biggest decision for Neil Lennon may be in defence. Celtic have lost only two league goals in their last nine outings (they lost 12 in the previous nine), which has been crucial in their push to the top of the league. This has seen opportunities for now-fit Kelvin Wilson limited. Kelvin played a full 90 minutes in the Scottish Cup against Inverness on Saturday and will give the manager a decision to make.
Happy Birthday to Martin42, 70 years of refusing to take life too seriously. A win tonight would give us a better birthday reference point than the cold and miserable night at Celtic Park 12 years ago.
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‘The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.’
DBBIA/M.GandhiCSC
Folly Folly says:
8 February, 2012 at 15:44
Hertz fitba forum…………..they have McGowan in central defence alongside the big Z centre half that keeps getting sent aff….
Saying Webster has a strain……
Paddy T CQN Lazy Reporter
lionsroar67
We are heading into that part of the season when things are actually won and lost so Neil Lennon has every right, and our support, to offer his opinions on the role of the referee before any match. We have lost our bearings at Tynecastle before, and it usually involves our players getting sent off. If the referee applies the Laws of the Game tonight we will win.
If we were doing this, can you imagine the slagging from the bares…
Rangers are closing in on a deal for former striker Daniel Cousin, STV understands.
The Gabon international held further discussions with club officials and Rangers manager Ally McCoist on Wednesday. The Ibrox club are considering a contract offer for the remainder of the Scottish Premier League season.
Cousin, who played for Rangers from 2007 to 2008, is a free agent after finishing a contract with Sapins FC in his native Gabon. He ended a three-month short-term deal at the end of December.
He would not require a work permit to complete the move as he holds a French passport.
The 35-year-old striker had taken on the role at Sapins to ensure a place in Gabon’s squad for the Africa Cup of Nations. Cousin played in four matches in the continental competition, scoring in a 3-2 win against Morocco.
Rangers could have the player registered in time for this weekend’s match against Dunfermline but the Scottish Football Association have confirmed that Cousin still has a one-match suspension to serve dating back to his previous spell at Ibrox.
A sending off against Celtic in his final match before moving to Hull means that the striker would sit out the next SPL match after his registration is filed.
RalphWaldoEllison-is Neil Lennon Season 2011-12: 8 February, 2012 at 15:53
Aye. When you are dealing with a jury you have people who may be (in this instance) Spurs fans on there or others who may not understand all of the evidence.
The three people involved with the Rangers tax case are not members of the public, but folk who understand financial complexities who will base their independent
judgements on cold hard facts.
Redknapp’s main advantage is he faces no appeal. The monumental disadvantage facing Rangers is there will definitely be an appeal should HMRC not get the verdict in its favour this time.
TinyTim says:
8 February, 2012 at 16:24
——————
TT I concur
Matthews / Rogne / Dan / Charlie
Keep it tight fur an hour………….
Then release the Wee James through the middle…….
Paddy T (who was a better player than a coach.)
Still breezy, cold, dry and dull here in North Ayrshire, as it has been all day. It was supposed to have been a mix of gales and heavy rain by now, with that spreading east, getting to Edinburgh by the time the game starts. I wonder if that will happen now? Wouldn’t fancy going there to play in a gale. Still, if Black isn’t playing, that’s one less hacker to deal with (am I not right in thinking he also “gets stuck into them”?).
Personally, while I’ll probably be as nervous as a kitten during the game, I am enjoying their inevitable demise (along, hopefully, with the mob we face tonight) that I am not too concerned whether we win or not. I am much more anxious about our manager, team and supporters’ well-being. I hope and pray you all get out of there safe and sound.
Stefferano del Bhoyo (but you can call me Neil Lennon) @16:03,
”…………….we could’ve been their salvation!”
True very true!
Ah well!
Never mind.
Hoops for the first goal!
Hearts 0-2 Celic
ONCE upon a time, no British meal was complete without jelly. It has been eaten since Egyptian times and arrived on these shores with the Saxons. Rosewater- flavoured jelly was a favourite of Henry VIII. The Victorians loved it. In 1923, technology arrived with the invention of the jelly cube. For generations, no childhood meal was over until some jelly had been flicked at the walls. Then suddenly, in the 1990s, we went off the wobbly stuff.
BSE was the final disaster, leading to a ban on gelatin,the vital ingredient.
But last year, the fightback began, initiated by Harry Parr, a trainee architect, and his friend Sam Bompas, a property PR. Together they founded Bompas & Parr Jellymongers to spearhead what they call “the renaissance of English jelly”. They started out making jellies from organic fruit and sold them from a barrow. Now Bompas & Parr have hit the headlines by organising a Jelly Design Competition as part of the London Festival of Architecture. Some of Britain’s top architects are designing jelly buildings for the event, including Norman Foster, Will Alsop and Richard Rogers.
Why architects and jelly? If you find yourself eating in a restaurant at the top of a skyscraper, just remember that all tall buildings are designed to wobble in order not to snap in high winds. Just don’t look out of the window – unless you want to part company with your jelly.
HH
Art of War at 16:04
Super Cup was rated by the police the highest risk game in their scale.
Imagine that it was like 30 000 Rangers fans sitting with 30 000 Celtic fans at one stadium. Legia vs. Wisla game are similar.
“The police are saying they do not have sufficient communication inside the stadium to guarantee security.”
That means that the National Stadium is very hermetic building (with moving roof). There are places where the cell phones have zero communication with the world outside. That was our police biggest concern.
The project was result of cooperation of one Polish and three German companies.
Mibbery creeps into my mind on midweek winter aways. Who is the latest mouth in black?
U
Celtic_First @16:16,
”My point is that if the news blackout did not apply to the rioting after the UEFA Cup Final in 2008, there is no way it could have applied to the events that have brought about the demise of their sorry club. The media could and should have been reporting this for years.”
This is the heart of the matter as far as I’m concerned – keeping stum was never in the long term interests of R@ngers. Short term maybe the Board, maybe the management but never in the interests of the Supporters and small shareholders.
The only way I can explain it is that they got assurances from the desperados in charge they had it under control and just give us three years to sort it……
Bizarro.
Hail! Hail!
I thought Kelvin Wilson played extremely well against ICT on Saturday,,,Tade is a big strong forward and Kelvin handled him very well,,,,i would start with him and Rogne tonight with Charlie at Left full back!!
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Forster,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Matthews,,,,,,,,,,Rogne,,,,,,,,,,K,Wilson,,,,,,,,,Charlie,,,,,,,
Brown,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Wanyama,,,,,,,,,,,,Ledley,,,,,,,,Commons,
,,,,,,,,,Stokes,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Hooper,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Hail hail
67 ECW
As you probably know, confidence is vital in sport, any sport. Celtic players, I am sure, believed they were better than all the other SPL teams but needed a couple of victories and good performances to cement that belief. The Europa League provided the latter and the SPL the former. After that, confidence has simply grown and grown and the results have been a natural consequence.
Your own response to that success is also an important factor. You now look at Celtic in a different way than you did when you were less confident of victories. That, too, will make you feel there has been some almost magical improvement but, as I said, I believe it is all down to confidence….. a transitory commodity so continued application is essential, as our manager regularly points out. Good for him..
JJ
Embdy heard from ole Bournesouprecipe lately?
Not like him to miss the ole larks.
It would be nice to be the last team to beat them before they disappeared…
Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov told RIA Novosti on Wednesday that all wage arrears with the debt-stricken Scottish club have been settled, but admitted to an outstanding tax bill that threatens their future.
British tax authorities lodged a petition with a Scottish court earlier this week saying Hearts had eight days to settle the bill, reported to be around 150,000 pounds, or face liquidation.
“I don’t know what’s going on at Hearts, I’m not in Scotland at the moment,” Romanov told RIA Novosti. “All monies due to the footballers have been paid. It’s probably just that the tax service hasn’t been paid,” he said.
This week’s ultimatum is the third move to wind up the club in four months. The club fended off liquidation attempts in August, November and December after tax bills were settled at the last minute.
A Hearts statement released Tuesday said the club was ‘confident’ the latest debt would be paid in time.
Hearts players have suffered late wages since October.
Romanov put Hearts up for sale in November along with Belarus’ Partizan Minsk and Lithuanian side FK Kaunas, saying he wanted to leave the football business and buy a theater.
Last week, authorities in Belarus expelled Partizan Minsk from the Top League due to Romanov’s refusal to keep bankrolling the team.
http://www.jellyvision.co.uk/jelly-moulds-shop/st_patricks-jellies.php
Bring on the ice cream !!!!
HH
For those who are unaware of the dangers of Toilet Duck
What happened to DBBIA’s car
Zbyszek says:
8 February, 2012 at 16:30
Thanks Zbyszek! I remembered that my wee mate Oskar Zobolewski was trying to get on the design team for that. Probably his fault if there is a problem haha!!
It would be no problem for the polis over here though i bet.
HH
AoW
I would be wary of tweets etc, saying x player is injured,on bench.Focus Celtic,win tonight would be massive step to the title.
Celtic_First: 8 February, 2012 at 16:16
“However, when debacles such as Manchester 2008 occurred, this clearly was not part of the deal and Spiers and others reported it fully”
But not many of them. The blame, not for the first time, was put on Chelsea fans. The Retard even went as far as putting a photo from a demonstration on the Continent with some guy throwing a Molotov Cocktail under the headline THE RIOTERS WORE NO COLOURS
The dead giveaway was there were no Rangers fans anywhere in the photo – on a day when over 100,000 of them were in Manchester City centre.
Shameful.
PS. Meant to say i hope it won’t be long before Rankers `imagine’ what it is like to have 30,000 fans. toot -toot!!!
):-)))))
ASonOfDan says:
8 February, 2012 at 16:36
Great piece…where did you access it???
Loved the last sentence..
“Last week, authorities in Belarus expelled Partizan Minsk from the Top League due to Romanov’s refusal to keep bankrolling the team.”
Oh that we had such leadership in the Scottish game. Instead we get the farce that is MBB and the Lithuanian Czar.
HH
RWE CSC
Phil Mac Giolla Bhain
The VAT man doesn’t agree with the suave billionaire about the Ticketus deal.
More trouble coming down the pipe.
Kilbowie Kelt says:
8 February, 2012 at 12:11
Paddy Gallagher says:
8 February, 2012 at 11:12
My turn for the ‘jockey club bet this week’ thinking of going for Celtic minus 1 goal tonight 2/1 and more than 2.5 goals 11/10.
Anybody think it’s a bad idea?
——————————-
Paddy,
I hope you are aware that you would not be able to do this bet as a ‘double’. They would be regarded as having a related contingency. You could only do them as completely separate single bets.
Good Luck.
****************
Cheers big bud.. Was going to do two singles but placed the tank on Celtic – 1 goal. 2/1 This morning but only got 6/4. Happy with that bet.
brendan-behan,
Just read that one. I presume it means that they want their share of the Ticketus cash. Another bill to add to the pile …
ibleedgreenandwhite1 says:
8 February, 2012 at 16:34
I agree , though KW was excellent at the weekend and his pace helps immensely. One fault however is that he tends to take a wee bit too long once he has the ball and is looking to play the right pass, but would stick with the same set up tonight as at ICT with wee Jamesey in for KC.
Gordon_J backing Neil Lennon says:
That was my summary of the situation,,
I love Jelly n Ice Cream, but thery hsave to be in seperate bowls!
With £11.35 Billion in net assets, the Strathclyde Pension Fund – the pension fund for Local Governement workers at formerly Strathclyde Regional and now Glasgow City Council – ranks in the top 20 investment funds in the UK.
It is fair to describe SPF as huge.
12% of its investments, up to £1.36 Billion at current value, are permitted in Property, albeit that currently only £633M is so committed.
The Fund operates within the terms of its Statement of Investment Principles, which provide a guide to the nature, extent and balance of investments made.
While the primary purpose of the fund is to manage the pension contributions of its Local Government members, it also has a secondary, implied function to support the communities from which its members are drawn. The fund applies the UN Principles of Responsible Investment, meaning that investment decisions are informed by Environmental, Social and Governance considerations.
Just last month for example, SIF announced a new £100M “New Opportunities Fund” focussed exclusively on making equity and debt investments in businesses in the Glasgow and Strathclyde area.
Clearly, if the Fund Managers can generate social and community benefits in the form of local economic growth for example, in addition to delivering a return on funds invested, this approach should be encouraged.
I mention all of this in the context of the crisis enveloping Rangers. Most observers consider that the key to any positive outcome for Rangers is the continuing use of Ibrox Stadium as a football venue – the consensus is that the land would cost more to remediate for redevelopment than it would be worth to sell afterwards.
If Rangers fold and do not resurrect in some form or another, Ibrox stadium will slowly rot to little more than a latter day Cathkin Park, unwanted for its purpose, and holding no value comercially to redevelop.
Given the considerable investment to date in the adjacent Helen St corridor, and the existing plans for the redevelopment of the Hinshelwood scheme, Glasgow City Council has a problem. Such a rotting carcass is not an attractive anchor for the area’s social and economic regeneration.
While it would be inappropriate for Rangers’ Tax Debts to be forgiven or repaid from the public purse in some form or other, there are other alternatves.
To date most opinions have considered a private sector sale of the stadium as a football venue in either an Adminstration or Liquidation process as probable. This still seems most likely, but any private sector buyer will need to be satisfied that the proposed tenant – a post Admin or Newco Rangers – is adequately capitalised to mitigate the risk of further financial problems downstream. The credit worthiness of the tenant becomes a key issue in this regard, and it is likely that the market value of the stadium will be reduced to reflect the requisite risk.
Commercial Properties are valued on a return on investment model, with valuations made on a multiple of ‘yield’ – the rental value in this case. It is increasingly common for leases to be tied to turnover in retail properties, with typical deals ranging between 8 and 12% of turnover dependent upon an assortment of factors.
A healthy Rangers, turning over some £40M per year from the stadium, would (excluding current circumstances) be an attractive tenant to a prospective investor. Applying a typical yield of 6.5% to such a turnover related rental would give a value to the stadium of around £50 Million conservatively, a sum that would come in rather handy to an Adminstrator of the company given the reported debts.
However, as noted, the value is somewhat impaired by the tenant’s creditworthniness, and it is unlikely that an investor would offer full market value given a tenant with a difficult trading history.
Clearly, the greater the value achieved in the sale, the better the prospects for a new Rangers emerging from the chaos.
In summary, while Ibrox may have been worth £50M as a property ‘sale and lease back’ investment say 5 years ago, in the current circumstances the achievable value is substantially less, and the forward prospects for the football operation consequently diminished.
Glasgow City Council will have a well informed view of the economic value of Rangers as a local business and a local employer. While the first team ‘stars’ come from near and far, the vast majority of the 280 or so employees are local to Glasgow. Furthermore, in addition to any supplies sourced locally, Rangers are in essence a tourist attraction, bringing revenue to the city every time they play at home. The multiplied economic effect of Rangers on the Glasgow economy is measured in the tens of millions each year.
Glasgow City Council would be within their remit to consider what actions they might take, within the rules of the Green Book (gen up) to help maintain this substantial economic entity going foward.
It would though not be appropriate or indeed allowable for the Council to invest substantially in Rangers per se.
However, it would be entirely within the remit and objectives of the Strathclyde Pension Fund to consider a property investment. Provided the risk/reward balance of the investment reflected their Investment Principles, there are a number of drivers beyond simple return on investment that might prove to be attractive for the Committee charged with managing the interests of the scheme members and the wider remit the role brings.
Were SPF to purchase Ibrox for say £40M, and provide a leasehold to a well funded Newco, say a full repairing lease with upwardly moving rent reviews linked to turnover benchmarked at £2.5M per year, it would be entirely justifiable from both the investment and social/community benefit perspectives.
Indeed, I should be surprised if such a scheme had not already been explored, if only at a preliminary level.
Just a thought.
TBB
Steinreignedsupreme,
I was in Salford on that infamous day. Now, I know the national news for a couple of days highlighted their attack on the lone policeman. There was no way any media could suggest it was anyone other than them who attacked him, surely. The BBC in England had no such problems. The cowardly, drunken, murderous mob were bedecked in the “peepil’s team” jerseys.
Tried to log on to FF to get an update on the huns at tynecastle tonight but it seems I’ve joined the long list of banned Tims,I don’t think I even posted how they tracked me down I do not know?
Anyway I was looking forward to having a look when we win the treble but still not a big loss reading that racist sectarian nonsense.
greenjedi says:
8 February, 2012 at 16:51
Try this !!
http://www.jellyvision.co.uk/jelly-moulds-shop/football-jellies.php
HH
The Battered Bunnet,
Are you suggesting that my pension pot be used to buy Ibrox and lease it to the newco?
Brilliant!
Gordon
I’d have a word with your people at bto :¬)
Relations strained between Hearts and the playing staff.
This is great stuff from the BBC:
Leveson Inquiry:
Guido Fawkes ‘forced lawyers to chase’
The man behind political website Guido Fawkes has told how he avoided legal action by using foreign web hosts.
Paul Staines said he published a Merrill Lynch memo about the potential £50bn cost of bailing out Northern Rock bank despite legal attempts to stop it because people “had a right to know”.
Lawyers had to “chase” the story in different jurisdictions, he said.
Irish citizen Mr Staines told the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics he was not bound by UK judges’ orders.
“What I think you’re missing is that I’m a citizen of a free republic and, since 1922, I don’t have to pay attention to what a British judge orders me to do.”
Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer, Huffington Post UK editor Carla Buzasi, Martin Moore of the Media Standards Trust, Will Moy of Full Fact, Helen Belcher, of Transmedia Watch, and Pam Surphlis, of Support After Murder and Manslaughter in Northern Ireland (SAMM NI) have also been giving evidence to the inquiry
‘Spurious threats’
Mr Staines said by publishing information in several countries during the Northern Rock crisis he forced lawyers Carter Ruck to “chase it” in several jurisdictions.
He used hosting sites in countries where normal business hours were closed, meaning the lawyers had to wait until morning before taking the matter up with the sites’ owners.
“It’s impossible for them to do anything,” he added.
Mr Staines said Guido Fawkes, which has a daily readership of 50,000-100,000, was now hosted by a small US hosting service, partly in order to stop UK authorities from getting at him.
He said: “I don’t want the site to disappear because someone has made what I would view as a spurious threat.”
Asked why he was not prepared to join any regulatory body, Mr Staines said two journalists had told him hacking and blagging had been “personally authorised” by Sunday Mirror editor Tina Weaver, who sits on the PCC and ethics committee, the editorial standards committee.
“She knows all the bad things that have gone on under her rule. It’s ridiculous,” he said.
Ms Weaver has previously told the inquiry she was not aware of phone hacking at her newspaper but there was no guarantee that it had not occurred.
Mr Staines, who has a background as a think tank member, professional gambler, rave party organiser, hedge-fund manager and investment adviser, also said political journalists often used his website to launch attacks on rivals.
“Quite often they’ll stick the knife in to each other by me and won’t have their fingerprints on the story.”
He said journalists still working in the industry would be reluctant to write openly about other journalists or address the inquiry for fear it would harm their careers.
He described the interaction between his blog and the more traditional media, saying Sunday newspapers sometimes asked him to keep a story going so that they could “go big” on it on Sunday.
‘Five-a-side team’
Illustrating the difficulties in preventing publication of details banned by injunctions, Mr Staines told how in 2011 he posted a fictional five-a-side football team on Twitter, naming Ryan Giggs as one of the players – the footballer was at that time covered by an injunction banning him from being identified as the player who allegedly had had an affair with celebrity Imogen Thomas.
Several lawyers threatened action against him but it came to nothing, he said.
He had also been issued with injunctions in three jurisdictions on behalf of politician Zac Goldsmith and his sister, Jemima Khan but said the pair received a judicial rebuke from an Irish High Court judge over the case.
“This was before she [Ms Khan] became a freedom of information campaigner,” he added.
Another example of the blog challenging the law came when it “set out a riddle” to identify former RBS chief Fred Goodwin, who had taken out an injunction that banned his name being linked to allegations of an affair.
Mr Starmer told the inquiry there had been “only a handful of cases” where his office has considered bringing charges against journalists.
He said a policy was needed that “set out in one place the factors that prosecutors will take into account when considering whether to prosecute journalists acting in the course of their newsgathering”.
‘Immense distress’
He promised an interim policy to make things clearer, followed by consultation.
Ms Belcher, whose organisation monitors the media portrayal of transgender people, said people had been forced to move house after receiving threats after newspaper articles were published about them.
She gave the example of a Sun story, headlined “Dad-of-two driver changes gear in sex swap”, which caused the subject of the story and her children “immense distress” as it was written as though she had colluded with it, when she had not even been contacted by the paper.
“She had nothing to do with the story. It is pure expose. It has nothing to do with the public interest.”
But she said transgender people did not tend to complain about newspaper articles, because nothing ever changed despite the Press Complaints Commission receiving a number of complaints.
Meanwhile, it has emerged Heather Mills is to give evidence at the Leveson Inquiry into press standards.
The ex-wife of Sir Paul McCartney is expected to answer questions relating to evidence from former News of the World editor Piers Morgan.
Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, who appeared on Monday, will also return to the inquiry on Thursday.
if the big tax case goes against rangers this effectively means that rangers used taxpayers money to fund their success over the last 11 seasons.
it goes without saying that they should be disqualified and their 5 league titles should be handed over to us.
this of course will mean that the blessed martin won 5 in a row and wee gordon won 4 in a row and that neil is going for 3 in row.
as a club we are heading for 12 in a row.
must be a new world record!
their cup victories should then go to the beaten finalists.
celtic should stand firm on this matter.