Riches available for Ronny, now let Imran retire to Charlotte Sq
The point was made several times below yesterday’s article that Ronny Deila needs a full strength team on the park tomorrow, as well as an impressive performance and result, which is hard to argue with.
The possibility that Scott Brown could return, as well as potential debuts for Aleks Tonev, Wakaso Mubarak, Stefan Scepovic and John Guidetti gives the manager an embarrassment of riches. Enormous changes are needed, but their introduction needs to be measured. Aberdeen will arrive having beaten us home and away last season; their Cup win at Celtic Park [a successful ground all round for them recently]was particularly impressive.
The Scottish media were clearly briefed that Mike Ashley was set to dump ownership of Newcastle United to take control of the dump in Govan, which was reported in good faith, but unfortunately for those hoping the Sports Direct owner would buy into the Rangers International share issue will be disappointed. This morning a statement from Ashley read, “I will not be participating in the Open Offer which closes at 11am today, Friday September 12, 2014”.
I’m sure the Easdales and our man Philip Nash have another buyer swooping to the rescue. Maybe our other pal Imran!
In a busy morning at Newco they settled with former director Imran Ahmed, who had claimed £625k in monies owed and costs. You may consider Ahmed has a brass-plated neck to squeeze the pips from the club he co-founded two years ago, but when so many others in the management team have been superbly compensated, there was little chance he would hold his hands up and leave without consideration.
Hopefully the Scottish media will allow him to retire to Charlotte Square and put the matter behind him, before any embarrassing insolvency event, as is the way around these parts.
Many thanks for the magnificent response to the Magners’ competition, which has now closed. Special thanks to those of you who helped Mary’s Meals at this difficult time for aid agencies in Africa.
I have the photos from the second and third school kitchens you financed for Mary’s Meals in Malawi. The mood on the blog has been so…. challenging in recent times I wasn’t sure how to introduce anything off-message, but we’ll profile them soon.
There is also a survey coming up next week. I’ve been working with a (proper) academic from our community who suggested we should record exactly who we, the Celtic support, are, in 2014. Planning to run from Monday, so look out for it.
The draw for tomorrow’s tickets will be made shortly so check your inbox.