I like watching a professional perform on the edge. We watched Anthony Stokes do just that at the Cup Final, where despite two superb goals from Gary Hooper, he was clearly head and shoulders above everyone else on the field. This has not always been the way for Anthony, so has too often failed to command a starting place, and live up to the form he promised all those years ago at Falkirk.
Celtic have put a contract in front of him but it will be considerably lighter than the contract Hooper has no intentions of signing. It’s very much up to Anthony now. Deliver and the riches will follow. Don’t bet against him.
Only just catching up on the somewhat demeaning promotion of a football club hiring a new team bus. Every time I see the coach/manager at that club, buses, or to be more precise, Blakey, from On the Buses comes to mind. These people lend themselves to parody so unselfishly.
Coach/Manager
Inspector Blakey
The fascinating part is, only one of the two above was trying to be ridiculous. You enjoy another day of being a Celtic fan.
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Gary Hooper warned over Premier League switch..
Pierre Van Hooijdonk last night advised in-demand Celtic striker Gary Hooper not to go to England – unless he is guaranteed a game.
Hooper, in the final year of his contract at Celtic Park, is being chased by Norwich City and Hull City. The 25-year-old, who notched 31 goals last season including two in the Scottish Cup final win over Hibernian, was the subject of a series of bids from Norwich which were rejected back in January. The Canaries have revived their interest, and while Hooper is rated highly by ex-Celtic favourite Van Hooijdonk, the Dutchman would hate to see him head south for a place on the bench.
Van Hooijdonk said: “He has been a very good player for Celtic over the last couple of years. I always believe that going to England is a good move – as long as you play. If you’re not playing there’s no point. With any move you have to make sure you’re going to get a game. I watched Gary in the cup final and he did really well. He has been scoring a lot of important goals for Celtic. He’s a good player and would survive down south. For me, the first thing I’d look at if the chance of a move came up would be whether I’d be playing regularly. I wouldn’t want to be part of a rotation squad.”
Van Hooijdonk was back seeing old Parkhead team-mate Jackie McNamara yesterday and is convinced the former Scotland star can be a big success in his first full season in charge of Dundee United.
He said: “Jackie did really well with Partick Thistle so earned his chance at Dundee United. Everyone I have spoken to in Scotland said they played very good football, they played the proper way and that’s not easy to do in the First Division. Most people think it’s hard to get promotion from that league playing proper football. Jackie, Simon and Darren were not guys renowned for playing in an old-fashioned style as players so I can see why they love to get the ball down and play. I think they’ll be a success for Dundee United.”
Summa
.
Paddy McCourt in Birmingham talks
BIRMINGHAM CITY are considering another raid on Scotland – with freed Celtic playmaker Paddy McCourt now in their sights.
The hard-up Championship side have already signed up Andrew Shinnie from Inverness and Motherwell keeper Darren Randolph.
They are now in talks with Northern Irish international McCourt, who left Parkhead last month.
Paddy has gone. I think he is talking to Birmingham at the moment. I would recommend Paddy to anyone.
Neil Lennon
Hoops boss Neil Lennon said: “Paddy has gone. I think he is talking to Birmingham at the moment. I would recommend Paddy to anyone.”
The former Derry City player was a fans’ favourite at Celtic and the decision to release him wasn’t welcomed in all quarters.
Lennon added: “He didn’t play as much football as he would have liked last season but he is a great pro, who was well respected in the dressing room and he was a valuable player for me over the last three years.”
Summa
.
Neil Lennon issues Fraser Forster hands off warning
CELTIC boss Neil Lennon has made it clear that prize asset Fraser Forster is not for sale at any price.
Forster deserved more of a chance in the England team, says Neil Lennon
Premier League Sunderland and rivals Norwich City have been linked with the England international squad keeper, but Lennon has the full backing of his Parkhead board that his No is going nowhere.
Celtic could balance the books by selling £12million-rated Victor Wanyama or Gary Hooper for around half that fee, but Lennon is adamant that Forster is off limits.
“Fraser Forster is not for sale,” insisted Lennon. “I have spoken to the board about him and he is a key player.
“We only signed him on a long-term contract last year.
“We don’t need to sell him and we don’t want to sell him. He is not for sale at any price.”
And Lennon believes Forster that he can get back into the England squad with Celtic.
The Englishman was considering his options after Roy Hodgson dropped him for the end-of-season friendlies against Brazil and Republic of Ireland.
It took Forster long enough to break into the set-up on the back of last season’s Champions League heroics, and he doesn’t want to slip back out of the picture again.
The 25-year-old knows Joe Hart has the No 1 spot cemented down but competition has increased with Ben Foster coming out of international retirement and Norwich City’s John Ruddy returning after almost a season out through injury.
Forster is desperate to be on the flight to Brazil for next summer’s World Cup and Lennon believes Celtic can help him achieve that dream – with more success in Scotland and the Champions League.
Lennon said: “I was disappointed for Fraser that he was left out of the England squad at the end of the season.
“He is definitely good enough to play for England.
We don’t need to sell him and we don’t want to sell him. He is not for sale at any price.”
Neil Lennon
“We got him into the England squad. It was with us and through his own performances that he got his England chance.
“I am hoping he can replicate those performances again for us this season.”
Lennon, who is currently putting his side through their paces in Germany, is more interested in adding to his squad ahead of their Champions League opener with Northern Irish champions Cliftonville.
He has already signed Amido Balde from Vitoria Guimaraes and Virgil van Djik from Groningen and is looking to beef up his side again, especially on the left-hand side.
He has taken French trialist Steven Mouyokolo out to Germany so he can take a second look at the former Hull and Wolves defender.
“I would probably like to bring in two more and it is not dependent on players leaving,” said Lennon. “I want another player for the left-hand side.
“We need competition or cover for Emilio Izaguirre, and we would also like another left-sided player as well.”
Lennon has decided to base his main pre-season training camp in Bad Gogging, Bavaria for the second year running.
It boosted Celtic’s preparations for last season’s Champions League qualifiers and Lennon is hoping it will have the same impact this time around.
“It worked for us last season and got us the results we wanted,” he said. “It is ideal because you basically walk out of the hotel and on to the training pitch.
“It is private, there are no distractions and we will get a lot of good work out of it.”
Celtic kick off their campaign tonight against Ukrainian side Sevastopol, before they take on Romanian side CFR Cluj and Greuther Furth before they sign off with a trip to the German capital to play Union Berlin.
Summa
.
Rangers have to keep an eye on their spending or face financial woe again
Michael Grant The Herald
I T is a simple question with an answer which manages to be both surprising and somehow all too familiar: which Scottish club has signed the most players this close season?
WELCOME ABOARD: Nicky Clark is just one of seven new arrivals at Rangers this summer, with perhaps more to come before season starts
The answer is the same club that has suffered the greatest financial implosion of them all, but can still look as though money burns a hole in its pocket. Rangers.
Two questions regularly being asked around the game right now are “where are Rangers finding the money” and “are they heading for trouble”. At the time of their £22m share flotation in December, it was well enough known that the club was losing £1m a month. That was a staggering revelation and a damning indictment of the business model implemented by Charles Green’s consortium. Rangers shifted a phenomenal number of season tickets last year and the take-up for the share issue was impressive, too. But for the new regime to be haemorrhaging so much cash every month beggared belief.
Ever since, there have been plenty who feared – and just as many who hoped – the club was sleepwalking its way back into insolvency. To them, it still looks very much as though Rangers must be living beyond their means and repeating, albeit on a much smaller scale, the failures of judgment that got Sir David Murray into such catastrophic trouble in the first place and left him passing the buck to Craig Whyte.
In fact, there have been cost-cutting drives since the share issue. Carlos Bocanegra, Dorin Goian and Neil Alexander have just been moved out, taking around £45,000 off the weekly wage bill. Although Craig Mather is the interim chief executive picking up most of the money Green was on, Imran Ahmad will not be replaced as commercial director, which amounted to a considerable saving. Neil Murray, Tommy Wilson and Pip Yeates left as chief scout, reserve coach and physio respectively, with only the scouting role earmarked to be filled again (because a good scout will eventually pay for himself many times over). Some other staff around the club have also gone. Around £1m has come off the maintenance bill.
But it still costs around £1.5m per month to run Rangers and it works out that only around £1.1m is coming in. Season-ticket sales for the coming campaign stand at almost 28,000 after the deadline for renewals last Friday, with the figure expected to reach around 36,000-37,000 after they go on general sale. That amounts to about £10m to add to the £7m-£8m left in the bank from the share issue. But the fact remains: Rangers are running at a loss, and at a loss taken seriously enough within the club for jobs to be under review with the likelihood of a number of redundancies around Ibrox. They have to put a brake on spending. Mather has been asked by the board to cut costs and, inevitably, one of the routes he must go down is a cold, dispassionate look at which areas are carrying some expendable fat.
To those of us on the outside there seems to be only one answer to that: the playing department. Rangers have a squad of more than 30. This summer they’ve signed Scotland’s No.3 goalkeeper from Kilmarnock (giving him a substantial wage rise), two of the best players from two top-six clubs (Motherwell’s Nicky Law, Jon Daly from Dundee United), a Honduran internationalist (Arnold Peralta), and experienced former players Steven Smith and Richard Foster. None of those could remotely be described as extravagant deals and the wages are lower than the outrageous £6000-per-week plus bonuses given to Ian Black. But it still amounts to a considerable outlay for sledgehammers to crack a nut. Rangers are still only in the third tier, remember.
Although moving on Goian, Bocanegra and Alexander (Kane Hemmings has been the only other departure so far) means the players’ wage bill will come down, it is still way above the target figure of around £4m. Ally McCoist has wanted a centre-half all summer but signing an eighth new player, which would increase the size of his squad by four bodies since the end of the season, would be impossible to justify if staff who have been a part of the furniture for years get a tap on the shoulder and their P45.
Throughout the vast majority of his career, McCoist knew only big squads at Rangers, lots of players, options for every position. It is those who are most ingrained in the club’s customs who are bound to find it hardest to adjust to austerity, even after the destruction of last summer’s exodus and the Scottish Football Association registration embargo. Frankly, he has already built a squad which should be comfortably good enough to win not only SPFL League One but the SPFL Championship, as well, without the need for further additions.
But if he does try to land a defender, it surely isn’t going to happen until more players have been moved out. Rangers know they are still losing too much money, just as McCoist knows the manager doesn’t operate within a bubble. When it comes to pressure to make savings, no-one’s exempt.
Summa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z16_l7bT_Qw
they get rid of two internationals,do they have even one player in their squad that would play in the spl?…….as I grew up I always(and I suspect many cqner did too) made up an old firm team…..when you try to compare nowadays it is so difficult I only know of shiells and elbows mcculloch I don’t even know their first names……..that’s the way I was of motherwell and ICT ffs that’s how low they have sunk, i’m 52and it wouldn’t surprise me that i’ll never, in my lifetime see them crowned Scottish champions the way football is governed they will never regain what they had they are finished done kaput……the war is over ….the rebels have won……allow them to regain spl status cos that’s just about their limit…..horriblepeople.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNonxHP1iM8
why is there not a movement in football to utterly stop cheating? spains penalty last night? all the histrionics….on and on lets get back to the days of sportsmanship the cabal may have started the rot………..we must put an end to it…..anything unsporting must be severely dealt with …..aye severely
CHARLIEBHOY
There has always been punishment for cheating in Scotland.
The victims are mercilessly lampooned as being paranoid.
BMCUWP
Well said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slu23kGEw48
teuchter ár lá
Some rattling good tunes there.
I will return to them later-the neighbours are liable to complain when they are woken by the Rebs at five in the morning.
Bobby
Nae bother mate, I’m just havin’ a wee (Canada)? day celebration.
The night is still young here and I’m enjoying a wee bottle of (would you believe)Eldorado……and singing awa’ tae myself.
wife thinks I’m mental.
Any meets in Glasgow scheduled for the end of August?
Hail Hail
Teuchter ár lá
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcj48HvL3us
bobbys boots: – the paranoia that you mention, is no longer secluded to a pre sevco tim they are a horrible cabal of a peepl and let us keep reminding them of it…….history in years to come will determine their tainted trophies, they may shout watp but we should acknowledge it by shouting back “you are the people” with the tone and expression that you’ve just spoken to scum (that they are)
charliebhoy
Their grandkids will be Celtic supporters and probably dancing to this song….tae hell wi them a’.
I’ve got Mrs Teuchter up dancing noo :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08fOqihDIdk
teuchter ár lá
To help you wind down Dominion Day…..
http://www.nme.com/nme-video/youtube/id/zAGBV1WaQtQ
Afraid I’m not back till the end of September,but some fine gentlemen on this site will willingly lead you astray!
CANAMALAR is likely to be over at that time,and from the sound of things will be holding court regularly in various friendly establishments in Partick.
Just tell people where and when,and wait for the party to begin!
How long are you over for?
CHARLIEBHOY
Any time I head back to Kilwinning these days,my hun mates studiously avoid all mention of football-apart from one,who is soon put right.
They know,mate. They know.
Morning all,
Jobo will be on shortly to assure you that a dry, still morning is breaking over the Dechmont Massif, with high whispery cirriform catching the colours of dawn.
Shocking that it should come to this. With thanks to FlyBE
Teuchter ar la
Seems my vid at 0525 doesn’t load!
Hopefully this does
http://tube.klingeltontipp.de/music_zAGBV1WaQtQ&feature=youtube_gdata.html
Bobby
Just a week mate. There was a lady who once sat up all night knitting me a scarf and tammy on the eve of the Scottish cup final in 1967….well, she will be 89 years young and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I also have a mates daughters wedding – marrying an Aussie bloke who I met when we went to Brisbane under Tony
Mowbray’s watch.
I’ll see what time I have but it would be great to catch up with a couple of the punters and have a few beers.
Another great patriot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWCI15jWwsA
Teuchter ár lá
THE BATTERED BUNNET
Had a volume of poetry for breakfast this morning?
That description would brighten up any morning!
bobbys boots I am well aware they know…….its just to be made public,thats what really matters……..I really don’t give a flying one……they just seem to have got away with it……………….I would rather that they got stripped of honours….them in division 4,3 or 2 means diddley to me……I just enjoy their pain (and my dad brought me up a catholic too)
Bobby
Link at 5.40 no problem….Cheers
Teuchter ar la
Aussies are all the same-turn yer back,they take liberties!
My sister married my mate from Brisbane in 94. Jee-zoh,better start saving for a 20th Anniversary present.
Congratulations to the happy couple,and to the 89yo champion knitter when the time comes. I was still getting bootees knitted in 67!
CHARLIEBHOY
You are much more forgiving than I.
I want them obliterated. It might take fifty years for their legacy of bile and hatred to disappear,but the sooner the better.
in 67 ah wiz an alter bhoy…….bobby yer jist a wean
Bobby
And she’s still knittin’ like crazy
http://i43.tinypic.com/332xhfp.jpg
Teuchter ár lá
Morning champions
The wee Scottish woman who does the bbc weather just advised us that it could be scorchio next week ;)
bobs boots I have never ever argued or disputed anything on this site but forgiving a la them not a chance………….for instance skellys .9(interview concluded). got job well done start Monday ….I walk out chuffed as fkkk to see mr d hay in the coffee shop….I say hello sit with him and do the albert kidd thing…..mr hay and I had a right good hour or so together……Monday came,me suited up went in, only to be told that the position had been already filled …………is that due to me laughing with Davey hay or was it already filled….more likely bobby,our paranoia…………or maybe not
I sang this to my 6 year old grand-daughter last night and she fell asleep in my arms…
Take a bow…….absolutely brilliant
=====================================
• Morrissey the 23rd
14:24 on 30 June, 2013
The wheels on the bus go round & round
The pies in the oven were nice & brown
As the Sevco bus rolled into town
For a Ramsdens cup tie
The bus was something to behold
The best bus in the world I,m told
WATP in letters bold
headrests & a carpet
The satnav told them where to go
Just in case they didnae know
As long as the oven was turned down low
It didnae use much petrol
Then the sudden hand of fate
The tax disc had gone out of date
The huns don,t pay the going rate
So the bus was then impounded
The wheels on the bus go round no more
Theres a clamp on the wheel by the drivers door
The pies in the oven ain,t hot no more
But that won,t worry Sally
the weather reports are similar to the war……..tell them what they want to hear they ‘ll believe it
Charliebhoy
I believe :)
The Boy Jinky 06:23
She has a point, its 43 °C just now, prob the same next week….
EN
Good morning friends from an anything but scorchio East Kilbride. A grey and very dull start to the day here with the heavens just getting ready to open.
Off to Dumfries later this morning for my daughter’s graduation – an MA in Primary Education with distinction, no less..
proudveryproudCSC
Congratulations to your daughter jobo.
Dont forget to get there early and pop up to brotherWalfrids grave
BT – good shout, if there’s time. Tried once before and think I went to the wrong cemetry. Off to check Google.
Good morning CQNers,
Teuchter ár lá, your overnight posts put a smile on my face this morning, thanks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiSRnFy-7Hc
Murdochbhoy, still smiling.
Jobo, you’ve every reason to feel a proud dad today.
Slightly overcast, with a summer breeze on a fine Children morn.
Good luck to Lenny and the bhoys during their Tuetonic Tour.
Proper
preparation
prevents
Poor
Performance
Contracts to Miss Baldie great achievement.
Hope the weather holds for you Jobo!
Congratulations to your daughter, Jobo, and to your whole family.
Much success to that fine young teacher.