“We have eleven things on the boil for the summer” said my guy within Celtic yesterday.
Given that it is an 11 a side game I thought that sounded like a lot.
Then he told me that three of them were strikers, but the plan was to land ONE of them.
Ah, ok then…
I was finally on the same page as yer man.
Despite me getting the wrong end of the scouting stick, it was a brief insight into the highly professional operation that is extant at Celtic now.
The most important guy at the Parkhead club is now the manager.
However, it wasn’t always thus.
As Celtic have been drawn against Sevco in a Scottish Cup semi-final, it is worth noting that what happened at Hampden last April was the end of the road for Heated Driveway Productions.
That day Dermot Desmond realised that he had been too hands off for far too long.
Enraged by the Churchillian Dignity on show in the corporate area as Sevco won on penalties he decided to get real.
Brendan Rodgers was the result.
You know the rest.
I was told yesterday that the Antrim man has his guys assessing the merits of two young centre backs, one of them is a Serbian.
My information is that they are also looking closely at a kid at Chelsea called Dominic Solanke.
One piece of scéal that particularly made me smile was the news that Citeh had reached out to Celtic about Paddy Roberts.
I’ll declare an interest and say that I’m a huge fan of the little left footer.
He certainly turned the match at the weekend.
Because of planned acquisitions by Man City the wee man will almost certainly drop down the pecking order even further.
Consequently, another loan or even a purchase by Celtic is now possible.
There is no doubt that he can bring something to the party, especially when the Hoops are up against a well-organised defence.
His reverse pass to play in Scott Sinclair who then set up Moussa Dembélé on 67 minutes was a thing of beauty.
If the wee man is at Parkhead next season, then he will be working on a much swifter surface.
That’s bad news for defenders.
Personally, I would be delighted if Paddy had a long-term future at Celtic.
The thing is that the Roberts deal is now possible because the biggest club in Scotland is on a genuine journey.
Moreover, it is not one where they are joined at the hip in an imagined duopoly so beloved by the stenographers.
Next weekend Celtic will play a club formed in 2012.
The shills in the media will pretend that it was a club that was established in 1872.
The one that had a discriminatory employment policy towards Catholics for most for the 20th century.
A practice that the lads in the press box were largely silent about, although there were one or two honourable exceptions.
So the media will try and convince their customers that Celtic are playing a club that was formed when Queen Victoria was on the throne and not her descendant Queen Elizabeth II.
It was the latter that old Rangers scammed for tax monies.
That’s the main reason that they died.
However, the media are in the denial business to make The People feel better about the historic events of 2012.
Their consistent propagation of this Orwellian lie only further diminishes them in the eyes of the vast majority on Planet Fitba.
This stuff would have worked before the digital disruption, but not now.
However, some in the media think that they are directing a one-way information flow to the powerless.
Wrong.
Dead wrong.
Consequently, I decided to gently administer some learning on Twitter yesterday to one of the Fitba Fourth Estate.
He had tweeted about anonymous types stating that Rangers had died.
Rangers did die.
I’m not anonymous.
Hopefully, he was paying attention.
Celtic will play Sevco on Sunday, but a high-Level narrative is that the biggest club in Scotland will be facing up to Rangers (1872-2012).
That’s false.
Today the stenographers are giddy with excitement about the likely identity of the new head coach or the Director of Fantasy.
However, doesn’t alter the following inconvenient truth:
On the field of play this Sunday Clint Hill will have to deal with Moussa Dembélé.
I’ll just leave that there…
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I have been told that as much as Roberts loves everything about Celtic, he is intent on leaving to fight for his place at City.
Under the Ancien Regime of the Heated Driveway I put on a substantial bet on a big win against ZombiesRThey FC only to be shafted by what looked like a “Treat them gently” instruction to “manager” and playing staff.
I hope Sunday will be payback time.
The future’s green and white!!
I bumped into a mate today who leans more towards the Beach End than London Road.
He regularly follows this blog, and thanks to my a mhac from Sligo I was able to tell him how Phil’s name is pronounced. It’s good to know the truth of the last few years is spreading further than Glasgow, Stand Free Dandy Don Danny!! You’ll defo be runners up again at Hampden!!
Interesting note that Dunfermline put their hands up about fielding a player in a development match when said player was suspended………..the result was scrubbed from being a Pars win to a 3-0 win for their opponents.
Rangers, over a 12 year period, sometimes fielded a complete team of ineligible players, let’s leave the imperfect Bryson to one side, all recipients of illegal DOS/EBT payments none of which were included in their contracts lodged with the SFA, driving a horse and carriage through the SFA rule book.
There was never a need to await the final Supreme Court ruling, the facts are clear. Every match where just one DOS/EBT recipient played should have had the result binned and awarded 3-0 to the opposition. …….then let the title/trophy stripping begin.
Just remembered that I’d read somewhere that the DOS/EBT payments were declared in the annual Rangers financials from day 1.
Why did no one at the SFA ask then what was the nature of these payments, who were the recipients and why were the details not lodged with the ruling body as specified in the rule book?
All Bryson had to do was walk along the corridor and ask Ogilvie, or Dickson. They could have told him a thing or twenty about the tax scam.
But nope, a £250k fine that after 5 years was never paid but had to be deducted from TV monies due to the Ibrox club.
Compare and contrast the honest Fifers actions with the very dishonest Govan cheats and their accomplices at Hampden.
Thanks Phil, another great article.
Slightly off subject, I recently watched the famous Craig Levin post match interview following a Dundee Utd Rangers IL game dominated by honest mistakes. Clearly upset and struggling to get his head round what he’d just witnessed towards the end of the interview Levine stated the need for foreign refs, the inference being the current lot couldn’t be trusted. And it got me thinking.
So I had a look through the current list of grade 1 Scottish refs and was left wondering what if any procedures / policies the SFA have regarding workplace diversity? To me the game would benefit from a more balanced cross section of society. Has anyone looked at this in more detail?
Kenny, a subject close to my heart.
I would happily take a punt that workplace diversity is a place where the SFA don’t want to go.
Does the current SFA employee demographic represent the wider West of Scotland demographic in creed, colour, gender……….?
Furthermore how many employed by the SFA/SPFL owe an allegiance, through membership of secret society’s, to organisations other than their employer?
An employer with nothing to hide would quite readily respond to an FOI question on this subject…………therein lies the problem. Regan will blank any correspondence sent to him on any subject, I can assure you on that one.
When The Supreme Court throw out the BDO appeal in the next few weeks, holing the LNS farce below the waterline, will Regan set up another enquiry with title and trophy stripping at the heart of it?
You can bet your bottom dollar that he/the SFA won’t go anywhere near it.
Time to move on, nothing to see here, no appetite for title stripping…..that will be the Hampden response.
Dunfermline’s development squad has a winning score scrubbed and a 3-0 win awarded to the opposition for owning up to fielding a player who was suspended and therefore ineligible.
For 12 years and more the cheating establishment club fielded dozens of players, on thousands of occasions, who were ineligible according to the SFA rule book. A small,unpaid for years, fine, slap on the wrist, don’t get caught again was the punishment handed down.
The more things change…………………………
I offer with some hesitation this thought about the current vile regime at Ibrox.
As a boy I saw Jim Baxter play and mostly win against us. When he died we were required to observe three separate minutes of silence on three separate occasions. All were impeccably observed, apart from a very small blemish from an eejit at the end of the third, at Ibrox.
I understand there was no similar recognition of a true giant at the same stadium on Saturday.
What possible reason could lie behind such a deliberate and shameful insult to a Lion?
Probably because he was (in their twisted thinking) a traitor. I recall heading down to Stamperland CoS for “the scramble” at his wedding.
Didn’t UEFA state they were a new club/company? We should play MD and Wee Shorty from the start on Sunday,that would have them sh..ting themselves and send out a powerful message.We don’t lose!
7-1 Celtic, Sevco down to 9 men… odds on that?
Check out who’s the ref.
Oh come on Adrian, allegedly he’s given up his ST.
Couldn’t agree more phil, paddy Roberts is a cracking player was really hoping we could keep him in any shape or form, class act with rogic coming back from injury Sinclair hitting a bit of form and dembely on fire ,I hope we can make progress in champions league with a favourable group
A watershed article I’d suggest. Scottish football should leave them behind, and their tag along type writers. Give them enough ribbon………
Your club insight interests me more, goodstuff.
Cheers HmP
So just how irrelevant are Sevco? How completely insignificant can one club be?
Obviously I want to see Celtic win every game we play! No team in the world does however.
Therefore, should “honest mistakery” reach unprecedented proportions on Sunday and the Young Team fae Govan manage a result as bizarre as their claims of continuance, what would be the true impact?
For me, the short lasting, minor irritation would be akin to a gummsy flea biting on the arse of an elephant! …..Absolutely nothing more.
There is NO Old Firm, Rangers are DEAD, Sevco mean absolutely nothing whatsoever!
They have even taken away that long lasting euphoria that came with beating Rangers, but Rangers DON’T exist anymore and Sevco are so totally irrelevant, embarrassing and laughable in every aspect, they just do not register an interest at all.
They don’t even merit being called “Just another game”, they are just one big lie, one big con, one big joke. A blight on Scottish football which their predecessor did so much to ruin, yet now they have the audacity to try to demand a “rightful” place in.
It can’t be long now until the media have to step back and say “We’ve tried and tried and tried, but it has actually cost us our own livelihoods so, no more”.
Too late MSM! You failed…..just like dead Rangers.
Even a very unlikely win for Sevco will have no impact at all…What a position we are in!
Thank you Brendan, for restoring our pride.
The good thing is there is a euphoric feeling in beating any “team” pretending to be “ra peepul”.One of the main reasons is the pain the Huns feel and are going through.I listen to “them” talking to each other and always think Thank God I’m A Tim!
Excellent words and every one the truth
Phil
What is really funny about the whole survival myth is that it is, somewhat ironically, shot to pieces by what is written in wrought iron above the gates of the very stadium Bomber Brown played for. It says, quite clearly, Rangers Football Club Ltd (https://goo.gl/images/QN2LcC). That last bit (Ltd), clearly establishes the CLUB as a financial entity, rather than as some ethereal deity beyond financial reproach. You will also note that Financial Fair Play rules talk of clubs’ finances, not those of engine room subsidiaries, holding companies etc etc. You also don’t have to a City whizzkid to know that if administration is life support, then liquidation is a funeral service followed by a reading of the will and the distribution of assets held by the deceased to creditors and beneficiaries. So how anyone, especially the very same journalists who, at the time, pronounced Rangers dead, can now say they survived is beyond me. I know Easter isn’t that far away, so resurrection is in vogue for a few weeks, but come on!
That gate signage on the business premises is wrong and illegal. They need to change it to THE Rangers Football Club Ltd.
RFC Ltd is long gone. Imagine another business keeping the signage of a previous Liquidated entity over the premises.
They are a joke and the evidence stares everyone in the face Daily.
Re Rangers(sic)…..are the gates (and dead entity) not listed so they CAN’T change them??
After reading this I’ve changed my mind about them hanging around in their current underfunded state for us to laugh at. I want them gone. Finished. What will Tender Meat Baws and his mates have to write about then??
If any of them were to (no sniggering) write a word of truth about Rangers/Sevco, they would do it anonymously too. That’s why they write such arse lickingly grovelling bollocks. Cowards to a man
I want them gone too, for the last 5 year especially. I think there will always be a club playing from Ibrokes. Everything will happen to ensure that. It has so far. Bunch of liars and cowards. Apologists and deflection experts.
The shithawks that make up the SMSM are an absolute disgrace to sports journalism. RFC died. We know it, they know, yet they still peddle the continuation lie. It must be tough knowing that your a sell out for a salary in every falsehood regarding Sevco. Wee Paddy would be a great buy and I think if he starts on Sunday he’ll roger the manky mob. Roll on Sunday for more slaughtering.
my political inclinations made me want to buy/support the new paper The National but when I read its sports coverage from the likes of lindsay I had to accept that with blatant lies re sevco being same club being promulgated . .NOTHING published therein could be trusted . .so it sadly joined the rest of the puerile smsm as being a non part of my reading list.
Once again excellent article. Between yourself and JJ. It’s always excellent. Donation made.
Míle Buíochas
I fancy Celtic to win by a margin of 3 or more goals on Sunday. Not cocky, just looking at the difference between the teams. I would not like to be a sevco fan going into this fixture … or any fixture. I simply wouldn’t like to be a sevco fan!!
Even playing 11 on 14? Or, after a wee bit of honesty, 10 on 14?
The need for establishment figures to continually tell each other fairy stories in public that they didn’t f*ck up the most “privileged” position in world football is beyond ridicule and pathos.
Doctors swear an oath to “First, do no harm”. Google live by “Don’t be evil”, Pilots fly by “In God we trust, everything else we check”. The People killed one club with “Blueness trumps competence, accept no responsibility, talk superiority.” and is well on the way to killing another with the same modus operandi.
Could the most heartless, merciless, sadistic Celtic fan design a more exquisite hell for The People than what they have created for themselves?
Yes,but I cannot write it here,Phil simply,and rightly so,wouldn’t permit it.Although,I shall try and see if this passes Phil’s rigorous scrutineering process……
Safe to say I,and anyone else,could,as part of an ongoing diet,feed them excrement/fecal matter from a slingshot on a daily basis,or,whenever the mood takes me,and any fan,from any other TAX PAYING club whom would like to participate.That also includes their own fans.(give it time)Although this is NOT permissible during game time,as it would spoil the spectacle of them getting ANOTHER drubbing at the feet of BRs ever-improving team.
Please don’t think for a second Phil I’m going back to the dark place,I’M NEVER going back there again.But,for me the real irony is that an entity that they cherish most,her maj,might just be the one hammering the nails into their coffin.Oh the joy………
And Paddy Roberts signing a full Tim/e contract for the Bhoys,can only be a good thing,I,like Phil,rate him highly.Potentially,a great acquisition.
I shall be off to Cali within the next 48 hours,I may be across a vast ocean,but I shall be keenly observing this ongoing fitba comedy roadshow through these pages.
Phil,you are a very rare thing,i.e. A sports journalist writing and investigating the farce that is serfco,and being brave enough to put your name to it.Hail! Hail! Mo chara,lang may yir lumm reek.☮️
ps.Got 5/1 for Celts -1 goal,and beat them in both games@Ray Winstones bookie.
I believe this is the time and dreams our Fathers could only dream about. For years ordinary folk like them who had a faith and a club that they could follow to help them forget the hard times were made to relive the hardships every working,unemployed or school days.
There is no fucking Rangers (Yes) and whilst you Matt of the Herald and others insist we refuse to buy your papers because of it. When the truth is blatantly denied and lies sold for profit then your journalist studies have taught you nothing but fraud.
Death means death and if not i would as Hearts fans demand the money back.The Herald will die if it remains to feed porkies and like the Herald so too will all its sister papers.If the truth offends and you refuse to acknowledge to avoid offending then you are fucked.
Hail Hail Phil you put a ventriloquest dummy back in its box.No comeback he lit the fire and got pissed on.
I share your admiration of wee Paddy and I’d like to think he will improve also. If he stays at Celtic and makes those improvements we could have a genuine world class player on our books. The type who would attract interest from those clubs who earmark the skillful game changer.
His value would soar and it would be a great investment from Celtic and more importantly it would be fab to see him at the hoops for a few seasons more.
You highlight a very good point about the duopoly, I reckon the media outwith Scotland will lock onto this split much quicker than the sevco PR club.
Scottish competition will hopefully become a side show to the main event (in Euro competition) for the Celts.
The sevco bluster on the Caixinha squirrel is typical of the PR clout they have in the scottish press. Absolutely none of it adds up except they are trying to show RELEVANCE, which effectively died with the oldco. Follow the money cos this is an exercise in starting off the SB sales pitch, nothing more.
The Herald headline….. ‘Rangers born 1872 .. Died 2012’!
Now they delete any reference to their demise on their threads.
Shameful.
Phil, excellent piece. I had similar thoughts when I read BBC Scotland Sport around 8am. Therefore I e-mailed them saying that the concept of Old Firm was liquidated in 2012,that means that it was ” deed”, and resurrection only exists in the minds of Zombie fantasists.( except those of a religious leaning)
BBC is not a seeker of truth, but a mouthpiece for the establishment interests. “Economical with the actuality ” and purveyors of low grade leech.
I have been on a desert island for a while …. are you kidding ?!!!! Rangers are no more ?? !!!! My goodness , who’d have thought that could ever happen ??!! They were the people…
Bang on as usual Phil. My worry is that we’re going into Sunday a bit too cocky. They always raise their game against us (well the old lot did anyway). Let’s hope Celtic are on the ball from the first minute as I think Sevco will be.
The “form book goes out of the window” cliche is nonsense.
Look at the three matches against Sevco this season.
That’s your guide for the likely outcome.
And you are spot on about large sections of the media being in thrall to the idea that Rangers still exist. Ideally they like to imagine it’s the SDM-era Rangers… Sky Sports are one of the worst culprits. You should see who they have lined up as pundits over the coming weeks!
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2017/03/05/the-perfect-sky-sports-panel/
Indeed. Sky Sports coverage makes for painful viewing and listening. BT sports, although not perfect, tries harder.
Whilst the media maybe in thrall to them their fans don’t seem to reciprocate. You only have to read their forum sites to get a flavour of what da peepul think of the esteemed stenographers. “Jackass of the Daily Rectum” is a regular phrase on the likes of Follow Follow. I don’t know how they’ve done it but the Record seems to have managed to get themselves at odds with both sets of fans. Surely that deserves some kind of award.
There seems to have been an increase in esteemed members of the press pack sneering at folk on social media and those evil types who write blogs. Anyone would think that it was bloggers who killed Rangers… [If I may…] https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2017/03/06/bloggers-killed-rangers-football-club/
A fine piece once again, Clumpster, but full respect must go to Phil for his absolute skewering of yon two mushrooms from the mainstream, Mince Latté and Keef Jackass, with their own words.
Jacko’s crass mention of his salary (again) will soon be rammed down his throat backwards when his scummy rag gets flushed down the lavvy of eternity with all the rest of them.
Scotland’s shame, defending Scotland’s shame, and all they can do is attack the truth tellers.
They should move to Africa when their titles go bust, as they seem to just love living in de Nile.