Game time for first 11, Craig Whyte and David Murray reruns

Despite a cast of thousands on the bench against Hamilton Accies yesterday and the points comfortably secured, Neil Lennon made only one substitution before the 86th minute, replacing Mohamed Elyounoussi with Olivier Ntcham with 20 minutes remaining.

There will be occasions when it is more beneficial to make early use of the five substitutions available, but for now, the manager’s principle objective is to get his starting 11 as fit as possible, and that takes game time.  Champions League qualification starts in two weeks, we have three games to prepare for a 90 minute knockout fixture.  While the points are important, these early Premiership games are crucial for building muscles for our series of summer cup finals.

Breaking down packed defences can be difficult so it was great to see how varied Celtic’s play was yesterday.  Elyounoussi, James Forrest, Ryan Christie and Odsonne Edouard’s movement made it difficult for defenders to know how to match up.

A possible consequence of this variety and the high positions of Greg Taylor and Jeremie Frimpong was the number of chances Accies created.  Their goal, from an unnecessarily conceded set-piece, came from one of several good chances.

I had to smile this morning when I saw we were back reading about Oldco Rangers’ old chairmen.  Craig Whyte has been exposed by the Daily Record for allegedly trading under his father’s name in a business designed to do pretty much what he did to Oldco Rangers back in 2012.

I wonder if we will ever see Sir David Murray’s reruns given the same treatment?  No investigative journalism is needed, just read Sir David’s company, Murray Capital Group’s most recent financial statement on a challenge by HMRC “regarding the tax treatment of payments made under the Group’s Share Based Payment Scheme”.

No provision was made in earlier accounts, as “management considered it unlikely that additional tax would be payable to HMRC.” However, “following further legal consultation….. and communication from HMRC… it was now more likely than not that a future cash outflow would be required.”

Never mind, we should let David discretely get on with being David.  Share Based Payment Scheme!  Honestly!  The company also extended it’s year end from 31 December 2019 to 30 June 2020; always a good sign.