Virgil van Dijk looks like a level-headed footballer, so I don’t think his game will be upset by his agent’s loose lips. He has enjoyed a remarkably successful first season at Celtic Park but any attempt by his representatives to create an earner this summer is likely to be inhibited by the three years remaining on his Celtic contract.
There is always a risk of serious injury, but short of that, Virgil’s market value will not diminish in the next 12 months and may even appreciate. He is in a completely different situation from Victor Wanyama and Gary Hooper, who glided into the last two and one year of their contracts respectively.
It’s a truism of football that those spending a nation’s the mineral wealth on football players tend to get what they want, but it remains to be seen if a handful of Champions League performances are enough to tempt this kind of approach onto the table. Great player though he promises to be, Virgil’s not been tested at the top level over a prolonged period.
Thanks again for all your support of the Mary’s Meals Malawi school kitchen project ahead of Friday’s CQteN St Patrick’s Day dinner. You can get involved here.
For whisky aficionados, we have a very special auction running between now and 12:00 on Friday. We have bottle No. 1 of a limited edition (291 in total) Craigallachie Telford’s Bridge, in a wooden box and presentation cardboard tube, whit an authentication certificate.
Bids are by email only to auction@celticquicknews.co.uk. This is a rare and valuable bottle, an opening bid of £100 is on the table. Shipping within UK and Ireland is included. Please include contact details and your bid amount.
Rest in Peace, Rose Theresa Brennan, who died yesterday, and our thoughts and prayers to Martin42 on the loss of his mother, for the difficult days ahead.
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doc
Thanks for that. I think it’s been the first time I’ve been correct on here. :-)) Incidentally, I will be voting yes. :-))
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar.
My sincere condolences to Paul and his family.
Jude
If you get 6 double yokers, we charge you for a doz. hahahaha
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar.
Weefra
looks like I will be heading to Larkhall Saturday for our annual st Partick s day celebrations.
guyfawkesaforeverhero
22:12 on 11 March, 2014winning captains21.55In respect of Paul67′s sad family responsibilities amidst his current fund-raising charity drive, perhaps in due course Mary’s Meals will permit the second school kitchen to be known locally in Malawi as Rose’s Kitchen as a consoling memorial from her grandson.
Lovely idea.
WeeFra, I leaning that way myself, but it’s a complicated issue, just my thoughts on some of the issues to be explored. Some are contradictory, some more straight forward, some very very complicated. We just, all, have to consider them all for ourselves.
Scotland wasn’t invaded and occupied, so always had the decision to make if the people wanted to be independent. Time will tell how people decide, but I think it will be quite close, either way.
Doc
22:08 on
Sorry we didn’t sue for union, it was the rich that wanted it not the ordinary man in scotland
On ‘independence’ from England. The wise words of a man born in Edinburgh, voted one of the 100 greatest Britains of all time. Just replace green flag with saltire and Dublin with Edinburgh for Dublin.
If you remove the English Army tomorrow and hoist the green flag over Dublin Castle., unless you set about the organization of the Socialist Republic your efforts will be in vain. England will still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country
opps should be Dublin with Edinburgh :-(
Any sign of any kind of business plan fae Salmond?
Frank Ryan’s Whiskey
Your name
An Phoblacht and The pogues?
eddieinkirkmichael
22:18 on
11 March, 2014
Doc
22:08 on
Sorry we didn’t sue for union, it was the rich that wanted it not the ordinary man in scotland
==
little evidence to support that, a couple of ‘disturbances’ but no major uprising, most Scots accepted it and joyfully went empire building with their English partners.
Guy Fawkes…can certainly suggest it.
Badabing bing…..
Business plan from Salmond?
Hahahahahahahaha
BT
Pre arranged family commitments, would loved to have joined, as long as they where not night time. Mrs really toils late on. :-((
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar.
The Spirit of Arthur Lee
22:23 on
11 March, 2014
Frank Ryan’s Whiskey
Your name
===
A combo 2 things I like – Frank Ryan – great man and the Pouges “The sickbed of Cuchulainn”
Frank Ryan bought you whiskey in a brothel in Madrid CSC
Frank Ryan’s Whiskey
Thought as much
Cheers
doc
i’m not really into all the historic stuff, valid though some of it may be, I really detest being governed by these tories. I am not a leftie by any means, but the greed of these people make me sick to my stomach. Just MO. :-))
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar.
Wonder if they will interview diving Croatian / Brazilian midget Eduardo on Arsenal TV….just to gauge his opinion on Arjen Robben’s diving like.
ryecatcher-yeah i know, it might be a wee help :)
Martin, Paul & family.
YNWA God bless. The Celtic family are with you at this sad time!!
GCT….you appear slaughter young Tony Watt in a very MSM fashion then , as if to qualify your Celtic credentials,you say I
Have lived in London a few years back and can’t think of one club from that city who are in any way Celtic ‘friendly’.
Testimonial cash cows and that’s about it.
Arsene Whinger………GIRFUY
You say I will be the first to admit that I am wrong.It doesn’t work like that.
BBB
ryecatcher
Spot on there kiddo. IMHO :-))
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar.
Weefra
Had a few D Y’s recently!!
EddieinKirkmichael, there were a fair amount of riots, but no popular rebellion.
The Union was for the benefit of the rich, without doubt.
WeeFra, in my lifetime we have had somewhere around 18 years of Labour rule, the rest Tory. Scotland never in that time voted for a Tory Government, so that is a very fair point.
Jude
Lucky you, we get about 1 in 25. Want to bring us some over??? :-)))
Weefra HH supporting Wee Oscar,
A Roman just walked into the pub I am currently in(can’t leave due to Motown classics on the speakers) and ordered a Martinus. The barman said ‘ don’t you mean Martini?’. Roman bloke says ‘ if i wanted a double I’d have asked for one!’
Tony Watt will be a huge player for Celtic next season.
The manager at Lierse is a bit of a numpty apparently.
GrowingupinpublicisdifficultCSC
Bot a couple of Gordons Gin & Tonic tinny’s out of Tesco. Very tasty and only £1.25p.
Wd recommend btw!!
Roman bloke’s mate came in and stuck up 2 fingers and said ‘5 pints please’
Sorry…
jude2005 is Neil Lennon \o/
Quarter Gill?
Frank Ryan’s Whiskey
22:23 on
You obviously don’t read much of the histirical documents of the day mate
Outsiders often think of, or refer to, the UK (which is an abbreviation of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) as England. This is incorrect. England is only one of the constituent states of the United Kingdom. The others are Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The reasons for Wales and Northern Ireland being ‘united’ with England are outwith the scope of this page but are not entirely irrelevant to the history of Scotland’s relations with England. This page merely recounts some of the background to the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England in 1707.
Since 1603, when the Scottish king (James VI) also became King of England, on the death of Elizabeth I of England, the monarch had been jointly King or Queen of Scotland and England despite the fact that both were still independent countries with their own parliaments. That being the case there was always the possibility of a return to separate monarchs and since this was perceived as a possible threat to English stability, the English moved to neutralize the threat. This was not just paranoia. There was the experience of Charles I’s reign and the English Civil War, with Scotland’s attitude(s), to be remembered and, in more recent times, an attempted Jacobite insurrection based in Scotland after William II/III’s accession to power. More would follow later. Ultimately the English were successful in their policy and the Hanoverian dynasty became established as the ruling royal house in both Scotland and England. It was a long time after the Union before the question was finally resolved, however, and not until, as so often in Scottish history, there had been a good deal of bloodshed.
The Union
Scotland was an independent country until 1707 when the English parliament, using a mixture of quite open blackmail and less open bribery, persuaded a powerful group of Scottish aristocrats to vote for the union of the English and Scottish parliaments. In those days the vast majority of the population had no say in such decisions. They did not have the right to vote, though they did show their general opinion of the union by rioting. The English establishment’s motivation, expressed through their parliament, was to destroy any threat to the Hanoverian succession in England (the incumbent, Queen Anne having no surviving issue and the ‘Hanoverian succession’ being a politically engineered move to ensure that the English monarch would be a Protestant) by making sure it would apply to Britain as a whole i.e. to make sure that the (Roman Catholic) Jacobites could not ascend the throne in Scotland while a Hanoverian sat on the English throne.
The main instrument of English blackmail was the Alien Act of 1705, passed by the English parliament. This astounding act presumed to legislate for Scotland even though Scotland was, at the time, a foreign country. The Alien Act stated that the Scots must accept the Hanoverian succession in SCOTLAND (remember Scotland was an independent nation at this time) or begin negotiations for a union of the English and Scottish parliaments by Christmas day 1705 or else the three main Scottish exports to England (cattle, linen and coal) would be banned and Scots not already living in England would be treated as aliens. These threats were specifically aimed at the pockets of the Scottish nobility who were the only people who could bring about the union of Scotland with England. The Scots parliament had passed the Act of Security in 1703 (approved by Queen Anne in 1704) which allowed for circumstances in which Scotland would not choose the same monarch as England to succeed Queen Anne. The Alien Act was therefore, in itself, an emphatic denial of Scottish independence.
The bribery, too, was aimed at the nobility, for the same reason as the threats i.e.they possessed the power in Scotland. The largest bribe was compensation for the loss made by investors in the Darien scheme, an ill-fated Scottish colonisation scheme in Central America. Virtually all the nobility had lost money in this and the Scots blamed the collapse of the scheme on England, which was in good measure true, and recognized by this compensation. In addition there was widespread distribution of smaller amounts of cash and also advancement in their careers of those who might be useful to the unionist cause.
Blackmail and bribery being thought perhaps insufficient, a propaganda campaign was instigated and military pressure was brought to bear. Troops were moved to the border in an indication of England’s willingness to use force if the other methods failed.
This concentrated campaign by the English to force a union of Scotland and England hoped to achieve something they had been unable to achieve in the previous 400 years despite massive military, and even at times, diplomatic, efforts, namely the destruction of Scottish independence and the subjection of Scotland to English rule. The disgrace is not just that England wished to dominate Scotland. After all, from an English point of view it was in their interests to do so. The disgrace is much more that their campaign was brought to success by the treachery of certain members of the Scottish nobility, a not unfamiliar occurrence in Scottish history.
In any event, negotiations for a union of Scotland with England were decided on. ‘Negotiations’ may not be the best term for what occurred since one might expect that if two countries negotiate then each country would choose its own representatives. Having forced events thus far the English were hardly going to be reasonable now. The union was to be portrayed as a merger, but they naturally regarded it as a takeover. If the Scots were allowed to choose their own representatives they might well not think primarily of the English interest. Here the historical accident which meant that Queen Anne was the monarch of both Scotland and England helped out. On 1 September 1705, in an act of treachery remarkable even for the Scottish aristocracy, the Duke of Hamilton, supposedly leader of the opposition to the union, ensured that Queen Anne (in reality her English political ministers) would choose both the English and Scottish negotiators. After that the term ‘negotiation’ becomes a joke; it was simply a discussion of details amongst Crown appointees. A package of proposals was put forward in 1706. Well supported by the Scottish nobility in parliament but less popular with the other parliamentary factions (who were nevertheless pressured into supporting it by the nobility) and unpopular amongst the general public, the Treaty of Union was passed by both the English and Scottish parliaments and came into force on 1 May 1707.
The treacherous Duke of Hamilton, who had been well rewarded by the English for selling out his country, died in 1712 after a duel with Lord Mohun in London.
Praecepta
Fabianski was better than Artur Boruc when was at the same age. I thought that Legia had the better goalkeeper in him when Boruc left for Celtic. Arsenal was not good place for Fabianski.
EddieinKirkmichael, we did sue for Union.
For whose benefit is obvious but the democratically elected Government of the time did sue for Union.
Now we have the democratic choice to end that Union.
I am ready to make that choice, not because of how it came about, but because I think, in time, we will live in a much fairer country, and more importantly our children’s children will too.
Tory rule being a fairly large part.
A poor and negative campaign from the No side.
But, more importantly, optimism. I think we can.
Listen to online debate from intellectuals, independent people, there are those for and those against, I find those who are neutral the most persuasive.
Good night all
Tell those close to you how much they mean to you.
Hail Hail
ryecatcher
Im with you on that one. He doesnt play Tony till he is 3-2 down. The guys a numpty!!