Over the last few days of the European transfer window I was keen to find out what business Ajax would be able to complete (what Milan and Barca did is of scant interest). Between Friday and yesterday Ajax lost two players, Danish midfielder Christian Eriksen moved to Tottenham, and yesterday, Belgian defender, Toby Alderweireld joined Atletico Madrid.
Both were big players for the Dutch champions, who could realise €20m from the sales, but attempts to sign Ola John from Benfica and Eljero lia of Werder Bremen failed, instead they paid Heracles Almelo €2.5m for midfielder Lerin Duarte.
The Amsterdamers had a frustrating final few hours of the window. No doubt potential targets were worried about having to face three huge teams in the Champions League. In a difficult group, this is what counts as a break for Celtic. Only five games into their league season and without Champions League qualifiers to use as a yardstick, the group stage will come early for Ajax.
Living adjacent to an over-monied behemoth has considerable drawbacks as even our top clubs struggle to retain teenagers in the face of English lower league competition but such a rich market can also bring enough transfer income to make the difference between feast and famine.
The English Premier League spent £445m on transfers outside England but apart from Celtic and Hamilton Accies, who between them will earn around 4% of that total, I don’t think anyone else in Scotland got a piece of the action.
Nurturing and selling talent to England has to be a strategy for dozens of clubs here. Paying (for them) top wages to players who are no longer able to gain employment in England can only be considered a waste by comparison.
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They seem to act with impunity when it comes to boardroom dealings.
Maybe the new SFA board member should look into this :-)
Tet.
Mail sent. It’s a goodnight from me.hh
The Exiled Tim
Like ye hiv intimated.. Celtic need tae show a wee bit mair Perseverence.
Gie the Kid,in the boax…. a good solid string of SUCCESSIVE starts..
With the Accent oan.. STARTS.
This is No Rocket Science.
Like ye hiv said..
It just makes Sense.
Glad ye agree ,pal..
Kojo
Still,Laughin’
Right guys, after a really busy, fun??? packed day, the ole system is telling me, Get To Yer F@@@@ng Bed. Really tired now and have ra burds to attend to in the mo. So, once again I cannot tell you all of the delight the family have had from CQN after my ole mums stroke. Your support has been nothing short of astonishing. You really have made me believe, miracles do happen. Thank you so much guys and gals. Now let’s keep the Wee Oscar contributions going. eh? I’m up for it. Hehe :))
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar
kojo
did the second drowning man get saved
Number 2 James.
I would be willing to wager my cave on it.
HH
Kojo and TET
Was saying earlier, I would love to see the Next Gen kids to be our representatives in this seasons League Cup competition. Give them that responsibility and see how they roll? Think they would pleasantly surprise us.
TET
That is a pity. Cannot remember the breed the pups were. Let me know, mrsweefra has brilliant knowledge of the canine species. :))
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar
http://t.co/D6YiiHlVyn
Yup, looks like they are barred, oh hang on I forgot
Night all. The echo of my posts are making me deaf!! Night wee Oscar God bless you x
Wee Fra Tim
Pal.. Ah believe in Miracles.
Disnae Everybuddy?
Ah am happy fur you.. noo that yer mother has recovered.. and is well.
Ah said that Ah believe in Miracles. and Ah dae dae.
fur Ah hiv witnessed wan.
Ah had a Buddy, who wiz in a motor Accident..
Ah wiz in the same accident.
Anyway.. The Upshot wiz that He goat a Badly Broken Leg.
Ah wuz unscathed.
He has a Pin inserted,in the Lower part of his Leg.
Well.. He always had Pain in that leg.
Noo.. This Happened aboog Ten Years ago. The Accident, I am talkin Aboot..’
Anywey..
Two yeara ago. Ma Pal. .went tae LOURDES.
Yes.. He had decided tae gie ..Oor Lady a Shot.
When He came back..
He told me tha the Pain had left his Leg..and It noo felt fine.
Whita Relief.
Hmmmmmmmm..
Ah suggested that he should go tae the Doc and Find oot , whit wiz going oan ,wi his Leg..
When he came back fae the doc..
He told me..
There wus nae sign of the Steel Pin!
It had.. well.. Disolved or something.. but ..it wiz Gone,
and so wiz his Pain frum his Leg..
The Doctor, after looking at the X-rays, told him ..his leg was NEVER BROKEN.
Well.. Howdya like Dat?
True Story.
Yes, Ah kin Honestly say..
that
I, Kojo, Believe in Miracles.
“Yes , Virginia, there is a God.. and don’t let anybuddy tell ye different.”
Kojo
Still, Laughin
Delaneys Dunky
I saw that, like others have said, it’s no gonna happen, too many want to win every game, they are not willing to give the kids a chance, and the club seem to agree, sadly, they are the team of ramorra given the operchancity.
…………………………..
Weefra
Mrs TET is a witch when it come to animals, what she disny know is no worth knowing, he is just wan of them pups, any help would be appreciated mind you >}
I thought he was a German Pointer, he looks like wan, he just doesn’t seem to be growing enough, a small version for sure, I have another dog we got from the carboot last year, we thought he was going to be a small dug, he is no small, infact he is what I would call a small wolfhound, he is pure white, with black skin, and he looks like a half size wolfhound.
I will send you a few pics of them.
Take care mi amigo.
HH
Ok guys, really need to shut down now. Once more, thank you all for you unstinting support you have given to my old mum. This support has, I am convinced, pulled her through the worst possible scenario. She believes in prayer, and always has done, so fair play to you guys, you have created a miracle.
Right off to bed. Night Night Timland (#1 ask Summa) Luv yawl. Lol
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar
Twitter.
Phoenix Company fraud,very much sounds like a newco common to us all http://t.co/SMiPRaBW7Z
Our Peter on the SFA Board …
Wow rangers must be turning in its grave!
My Dear Sydney Tim…..
I Share Your Pain…….
Over Yet Another Botched Transfer Window…..
Celtic Spurned A Golden Opportunity To Step Up A Level……
Reach Escape Velocity…..
And Leave Planet ‘Doughty Strugglers’
Becoming A Genuine Contender In The Champions League…
A Bright Green Planet In The Galaxy….
With New Moons For Maggie McGill To Worship…
Instead Of A Shower Of Wee ‘Flash In The Pan’ Perseid Meteors…..
That Can Sparkle All Too Briefly,Once In A While…..
After Taking All This Time Scouting Finbogasson….
The Celtic Bhored Balk At Heerenven Stated Price….
£5m Gets You Alfie……
The Same As You Got For Over-Rated Hooper……
How’s About £3.5M….? Suggests Oor PennyPinching Irish Raj..
Nothing Doing….Palomine..!
Same As What Happened Last Summer…..
When The Huddersfield CEO Went Public Early On…
And Told Celtic That £3M Would Secure The Signature Of Jordan Rhodes….
At A Time When We Were The Favoured Bidders…..
But The Biscuit Tin Said….NO…..
And FC Venky’s Chicken Came Along Late In The Transfer Window…..
To Sign Him For A Much Bigger Sum…
Now He Has A £10 M. Price Tag..
So We Settle For Just The Attacking Mid-Fielder/Playmaker Pukki….
And Compound Matters By Farming Out MegaWattie To A Struggling Egyptian-Owned Belgian Team…..
Where His Cultural Values Will Be Overwhelmed….
And He Will Return To Us…..A Diminished Prospect……
Still Lacking An Irish Birth Certificate…
If We Had Signed Pukki ….AND Alfie…
Two Pacy,Clinical Finishers……
We Could Have Taken Europe By Storm
And Got The Club Back Amongst The Big Boys Of Europe…..
So…The Midfield Is Weakened….
With The Departure Of The Awesome Wanyama…..?
But With Strikers Carrying REAL Threat..
Other Top Teams Would Have To Adjust Their Line-Ups To Cope…..
Leaving Our Midfielders With More Time And Space…..
What A Shameful Lack Of Ambition….!
The Core Purpose Of The Club Is To Put Out A Winning Team On The Pitch…..
But HEY…! We’ve Got Wi-Fi At Paradise-Oan-The-Clyde…..
And We’ve Got Plans For The ‘Celtic Triangle’…..
With Kilbowie Kelt Behind The Counter Selling 99 Pokey-Hats,Double Nougats
…..And Oysters……
Well Into His ‘Dottage’……..
“Raspberry On Yours…..Sonny ?”
Gerry123
Ah am gled ye asked..
Jist as He wiz aboot tae Haul the Second Drownee. aboard…
He noticed that a Third Drowning man , wiz also struggling in the Waater..
So he.. Drapped Everything.. ( So whtya Epect??)
and Cast Another rope tae the Third Drowning Man..
And started tae haul Him toward the ship..and Safety.
And jist then..
He felt a tap oan his Shoulder.. And the Ship Steward wiz there..
Who told him that the Second Sitting fur Dinner wiz jist Taking Place.. and If he
wanted Any..then he should Hurry doon tae the Salon..
So he thereupon. Drapped everything.. and Hurried doon tae Dinner..
fur ,awe that Hauling and Pulling had Gien him a Fair Appetite.
THE End.
Kojo
Still Laughin’
Tet
You have seen our email, contact us tomorrow as we had exactly the same problems with a german pointer cross. The good news, he is now a superb member of the family. Night night.
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar
hen1rik
looks familiar
What better way for two like-minded football suits like Peter Lawwell and Campbell Ogilvie to get to know each other even better than they already do than by sharing cosy SFA meetings without ever having to address the misgivings that many Celtic fans feel about the SFA handling of Rangers European license from 2011 or the improbably corrupt LNS verdict and its associated SFA evidence: Peter Lawwell seems to have shirked the yoke of representing the interests of the many thousands of Celtic fans who were robbed of ticket money for 10 or more years under the false pretense of watching a fair sporting contest.
How fortunate that Peter Lawwell should be voted into that most corrupt body of sporting governance after its’ many recent months of turbulence during which he seems to have taken a vow of silence rather than voice the concerns of the people who pay his wages at the corruption displayed by that same rotten organ. Anyone might think his silence has helped cement the handshakes which welcomed him into the body of the kirk, so to speak.
Now that some of the most corrupt episodes in Scottish football history have been swept under the Hampden carpet, Peter Lawwell’s extra corporeal gravitas upon that bulging carpet should help to keep those unquestioned misdemeanours safely stamped down and unquestioned. Suffice to say that the future cannot hold any issues of national football governance more worthy of comment from Celtic FC than those of the SFA’s most recent history which have passed over with nary a peep from Peter Lawwell. He surely is shaping up to be the perfect candidate for his new role.
remember this wee phrase ” the difference is in the thickness!” lol
are we gonna have a list fir thing for big peter to do?
1) change stadium name to the Jock Stein stadium
2)change rankers end to the west stand
3)transfer windae will slamm shut when i tell it to
4)cam ogilvie..you have ma tea and toast ready for every meeting(nae sauce)
5)bryson your fired
hh
Ah a Gotta .. Run, Son
Seeya
Kojo
Still Laughin
All that wasted energy and your only recruit to the cause is the imaginary friend with whom you share an ISP address.
Laughin’- you bet?
How can we trust the fascists to run the country when they are so wasteful in employing such inefficient trolls?
Bet you the guy on FF has recruited more than you.
acoustamatix
i see where your coming from.lets see what happens when he actualy takes up his post and how he responds at our agm then we can realy judge him h.h
TET
Aye, sadly that probably is the majority opinion. Oh well, we shall see how they fare against the cream of Europe’s youth, in the Next Gen Tourney.
DD
Looking forward to it, we are up there with the best when it comes to the kids, shame that they are no really getting their chance, what would I know.
HH
…………..
Take care and god bless Timland.
HH
KTF
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport..
Mark Steyn’s Song of the Week
(From Steyn Online )
by Rolf Harris
September 1, 2013

Just about the only part of my career I truly regret was the time I spent at the BBC, who very kindly fired me back in the Nineties. Notwithstanding recent headlines re Jimmy Savile, Stuart Hall and others, not everyone at the Beeb in my day was a paedophile – or at least I don’t think so. Nonetheless, I was saddened to see Rolf Harris ensnared by “Operation Yewtree”, charged with indecent assaults against two underage girls back in the Eighties. He is innocent until proven guilty, of course, but, if he is so proven, it will probably ensure the demise of his great Aussie novelty song. Here’s what I had to say about it on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 2010:
This week we celebrate one of the most tender and sophisticated marriages of words and music. Altogether now:
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport
Tie me kangaroo down
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport
Tie me kangaroo down…
But you can’t tie a good kangaroo down, and this one bounces on over the decades. It’s the magnum opus of composer/lyricist/vocalist/accordionist/didgeridooist/wobble boardist Rolf Harris, who turns 80 tomorrow. When the Queen turned 80, Rolf was invited round to the palace to paint her portrait. So now he’s hit the big eight-zero, maybe Her Majesty will come round and return the favor. Born in Perth, Western Australia, on March 30th 1930, the “beat-bearded Australian” (in Time magazine’s description: they left out “bespectacled”) is largely unknown in the United States but, after almost 60 years in showbusiness, remains a colossus in Britain, Oz, New Zealand, South Africa and many other parts of the Commonwealth. Early on, he found himself in Canada entirely by mistake, as one does, and so got a gig at a club in Vancouver, where he was such a hit he was held over for 31 weeks until the club burned down on Christmas Eve. It was in Her Majesty’s northern Dominion that he introduced his non-marsupial, tripedal blockbuster “Jake The Peg (With The Extra Leg)”. Aside from his own compositions, his musical accomplishments range from a Number One revival of a 1902 weepie “Two Little Boys” (which Tim Rice mentioned on The Mark Steyn Christmas Show a couple of months back, and which is one of Mrs Thatcher’s two favorite records) to the indisputably all-time greatest version of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven”.
When Rolf painted the Queen, he was reviving a family tradition. His grandfather painted her grandfather, King George V, in a portrait which was exhibited at the Australian National Portrait Gallery a year or so back. It’s fair to say Rolf paints with a somewhat broader brush. For decades, he turned up on telly every week with big half-gallon pots of Dulux emulsion in assorted colors and the sort of four-inch brush you’d use to cover a wall in nothing flat, and he’d dip it in the black paint and do a couple of streaks on a big board, and then wait for it to dry so he could add a couple of big white streaks, usually killing the time by singing a song and enquiring between verses, “Can you tell what it is yet?” He’s the only entertainer I know of who got a half-century TV career out of making the audience literally watch paint dry.
Indeed, it was while experimenting with paint-drying methods that he invented one of the two great musical instruments with which he’s indelibly associated (three, if you include the stylophone). One day in 1958 Rolf dashed off another masterpiece on a piece of two-foot-by-three-foot Masonite board and, to hasten its drying, propped it up against an oil heater. But the board got too hot, so he took it by the short edges and wobbled it back and forth to cool it down. And, when he did so, he was struck by the resonance of the sound. It was like a tight bongo, and Rolf thought it might go well with a song he’d written a few months earlier, on the back of the menu while dining his bride at a Lyon’s Corner House off Marble Arch in London. The idea had been to write an Aussie version of one of Harry Belafonte’s Caribbean calypsos and call it “Kangalypso”. But along the way the concept slipped its moorings. It became the tale of a dying stockman, or rancher, and Rolf opens it with a spoken intro:
There’s an old Australian stockman, lying, dying, and he gets himself up on one elbow, and he turns to his mates, who are gathered round him and he says:
Watch me wallabies feed, mate
Watch me wallabies feed
They’re a dangerous breed, mate
So watch me wallabies feed
Altogether now!
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport
Tie me kangaroo down
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport
Tie me kangaroo down…
The premise of the song is simple: Take every well known Antipodean creature and give ’em a verse apiece, and save the chorus for the most famous one of all. So the old stockman issues instructions apropos his cockatoo, his koala and his platypus duck:
Keep me cockatoo cool, Curl…
Take me koala back, Jack…
Mind me platypus duck, Bill…
By the way, a couple of weeks ago our Song of the Week was Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”. About twenty years after Rolf Harris wrote “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport”, Simon wrote “Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover”. I’ve always had an urge to ask him whether, consciously or subconsciously, “Fifty Ways” was inspired by “Tie Me Kangaroo Down”. Consider:
You just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don’t need to be coy, Roy…
That’s Mr Simon, 1975. But look at what Rolf was doing back in 1957:
Take me koala back, Jack…
Play your didgeridoo, Blue…
Tan me hide when I’m dead, Fred…
Coincidence? Or deep down inside Paul Simon is there an Aussie novelty song trying to break out? Simon once showed me his original drafts for many of his lyrics, but I never snuck a peek to see whether this one started out as “Fifty Ways To Leave Your Wombat”.
The didgeridoo, incidentally, is an aboriginal wind instrument made from hollowed out eucalyptus trees, and it’s the sound the old stockman asks his mate, Blue, to keep playing until he’s safely through to the great hereafter. When Rolf came to record his song, it was getting non-didgeridoo players that turned out to be the problem. He had tried out “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” on stage at the Down Under Club in London, and he knew he had a hit. And so it was that he borrowed a bit of studio time from TVW-7, the Aussie TV station he was working at in those days, and recorded him and the band on a single microphone. He had four musicians, and, rather than pay them, he offered them each ten per cent of the royalties. Not one took him up on the offer, insisting instead on a flat fee of £7 because they all thought the number was a surefire flop. It was the worst business decision any of them ever made. Between the didgeridoo and the wobble board, “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” rocketed to the top of the Australian charts in 1960 – and Masonite sold 55,000 kangaroo-stenciled wobble boards off the back of it. Rolf’s song had everything, including a bit of social content. Unfortunately, it’s not the kind of social content that’s weathered the years too well:
Let me Abos go loose, Lou
Let me Abos go loose
They’re of no further use, Lou
So let me Abos go loose
Altogether now!
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport
Tie me kangaroo down…
“Abo” is slang for “Aboriginal”, and it’s not so much that the dying stockman lets them go loose only now that “they’re of no further use’ to him so much as the fact that they’re the fourth attraction in what’s otherwise a menagerie of animals. By 1962, when Rolf re-recorded the song, the offending verse was already being dropped from performances. The re-recording was produced by George Martin, who was just about to start work with an up-and-coming band EMI had taken on called the Beatles. In December 1963, Rolf found himself on the BBC radio show “From Us To You” with the Fab Four, and naturally treated them to “Tie Me Kangaroo Down”. The lads joined in on the chorus, and Rolf rewrote the lyrics for his new backing singers:
ROLF:
Cut yer hair once a year, boys
Cut yer hair once a year
If it covers yer ears you can’t hear, boys
So cut your hair once a year
Altogether now!
ROLF AND THE BEATLES:
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport
Tie me kangaroo down
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport
Tie me kangaroo down!
ROLF:
Don’t ill-treat me pet dingo, Ringo
Don’t ill-treat me pet dingo
He can’t understand your lingo, Ringo
So don’t ill-treat me pet dingo
Altogether now!
ROLF AND THE BEATLES:
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport…
The special material didn’t all rise to the heights of Ringo ill-treating Rolf’s dingo. “George’s guitar’s on the blink, I think” is a bit of a cheat, as it doesn’t rhyme the name. “Prop me up by the wall, Paul” is just about serviceable, but “Keep the hits coming on, John” is very lame. There’ve been a lot of customized rewrites over the years, increasingly sentimental. Rolf at the 1982 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony:
Let me welcome you to the Games, friends
Welcome you to the Games
Look, I don’t know all of your names, friends
But let me welcome you to the Games
Altogether now!
Ah, well. It never fails to please. There are other interpreters: Fellow Aussie Nicole Kidman did it on “Saturday Night Live”, and Elvis Costello sang it on “Frasier”. Pat Boone covered it but found big Rolf harder than Little Richard to bounce a hit off. Weirdest of all, Ray Conniff decided to include the song on his boffo easy-listening LP built around the big song from Dr Zhivago. It sold two million copies, which makes it the biggest-selling version in the United States, and, not having any idea what the lyric meant, Ray got his vocalist to include the Abo verse. There’s a Fijian version, which perhaps gets closest to Rolf’s original “Kangalypso” concept, and a Jewish punk version, and a rude version:
I got a joey for you, girl
I got a joey for you
Put your hand in my pouch, girl
And I’ll jump all over you…
A joey is a baby kangaroo. Speaking of which, in 2005 Rolf himself did an ill-advised remake with the Australian children’s act, the Wiggles. I confess a little of the Wiggles goes a very long way with me. By contrast, Rolf has managed to parlay a piece of Masonite board, a hollowed out eucalyptus and a half-dozen pots of paint into six decades of international success. I don’t know what his birthday plans are, but I figure he’s got a ways to go yet before he’s ready for his last verse:
Tan me hide when I’m dead, Fred
Tan me hide when I’m dead
So we tanned his hide when he died, Clyde
And that’s it hanging on the shed…
As he likes to say, “Can you tell what it is?” Ah, well, there are worse ways to go. Don’t drop dead playing golf, Rolf. And happy birthday.
Just catching up. What position has Peter lawwell taken up in the sfa?
Too Many Milk-Stouts Tonight,Ena….?
Time To Put In The Curlers….No ?
newradbhoy
headpuppet master..the unseen fenian hand lol
no, not one and there never will be one.
Sack the Useless recruiting sergeant!
The Battered Bunnet @18:54
I think and hope you are right. I have what an old boss of mine used to call a healthy paranoia. I am not saying Celtic are complicit. I am saying it worries me a great deal if they are.
Tommysbhoy.
Do you mean top dog?
Is he Campbell ogilvies boss ?
Latest text I have received
100 euros for a ticket for the Celtic end of the Amsterdam Arena
Scotsmans front page, Murrayfield ?
https://twitter.com/nickeardley/status/375013534243254275/photo/1
I’ve still to read the last half of posts from the 2nd, so excuse me if I haven’t responded to anything I should have.
Auldheid @ 17:33 on 2 September, 2013
It was lovely to meet you and see you in action without a keyboard slowing you down
Morrissey the 23rd
How was the concert/movie?
Do you know if it i going on general release?
kojo
thats one of your saddest stories, reminds me of the pilot who put on his
parachute and told the passengers he was going for help as the engines
where ready to pack in but he wasn’t quick enough
the end