Treble chasing; business, not personal, the dirty battle

Amid the general hilarity on Scottish football at the moment I’m sure it’s not escaped Ronny Deila’s attention that we have one of our most important games of the season coming up on Saturday.  The league is a marathon without any specific focus, the League Cup final is another huge game, but facing Dundee away is exactly the kind of game a club who are chasing a treble often lose.

It was Dundee who knocked the Aberdeen bandwagon off its tracks.  Given half a chance they will do the same to Celtic on Saturday.

Kenny McDowall must have felt a bit humiliated at being told he has to pick players on loan from Newcastle United, although clearly not humiliated enough to tell them to stuff the remainder of his contract.

Llambias’ instruction appears bizarre, but there’s always two sides to each story.  If McDowall informed his chief executive that he would not use the players, for reasons other than sporting merit, Llambias may well feel justified in making the instruction.

This public shaming of Llambias, the board, and by extension, Mike Ashley, is another act in a dirty battle.  Still, “It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business”, as Dave King almost said about Ashley yesterday.

Ashley’s men may be robbed of the ability to pick the team after an EGM next month, but he remains able to inflict a lot of ‘assistance towards the club’ before then.  If I can paraphrase Tom Hagan, ‘Mr Ashley never asks a second favour once he’s refused the first, understood?’  When personal offence has been taken, sometimes even good business isn’t enough to bring a ruthless patriarch to the table.

When news of the attack on the 10-year-old boy broke on Monday I assumed it would be a matter of hours before the offender was charged.  Three days on without news is concerning.  It appears that those who associate with people who believe random violence is acceptable and care little about the application on justice – which has nothing to do with any specific policing issue.

Hard cash is now available to anyone with information leading to an arrest. If you can’t report the offender for the sake of the victim, do it for the money.  You don’t need to be a witness to report the issue and collect the reward, you just need to know enough to get the ball rolling.

Well done to all who have gotten involved in the appeal to help the victim, especially organiser Rod Lee.  Stunning work, Rod.

CQN11 St Patrick’s Dinner, Cup Final weekend, Friday 13 March, at the Kerrydale Suite, Celtic Park, email me for details, celticquicknews@gmail.com