Celtic go again

Tonight, here in the country that gave them their roots, it’s pre-season friendly time for the Hoops.

Next month, Martin O’Neill will be back in the home dugout at Celtic Park on SPFL business.

This time, he isn’t arriving like some football paramedic desperately trying to revive a critically ill league campaign.

Since the most unlikely title win in recent years, the Irishman in the tracksuit has a chance to get his players in for pre-season and all that stuff.

Of course, there’s also been the World Cup across the Pond.

Jogo bonito is now a game of four quarters.

“France has a free kick on the edge of the opposition’s box, but first, a word from our sponsors!”

Hydration or hyper commercialism?

Now that the US of A has been eliminated, Celtic’s interest in the competition has entirely ended.

Unless, of course, Trump sends in ICE to arrest the Belgians!

Waterford Whispers on the airgead as usual.

Imagine having to create a fictional USD President as corrupt as yer man.

That’s the challenge of writing fiction.

It has to be believable!

In fairness to our Kraut Jock friend in the Oval Office, he’s always on brand.

Thankfully, except for Austin Trusty, none of our Bhoys seems to have been injured in the World Cup.

Small mercies.

Of course,  the necessary time off will delay their inclusion into what will almost certainly be a re-engineered squad.

My own time down the Word Mines was annoyingly interrupted with WhatsApp messages claiming to be impeccably sourced.

Breaking News: They weren’t!

One in particular claimed that Celtic’s victorious interim manager from last season was being offered much-reduced terms to sign on for another year.

As I have stated here many times, myth will always Trump evidence.

The thing is, given the work experience comms operation at Celtic, it COULD have been true.

When it comes to getting in front of a bad news narrative, it really is amateur hour at the richest club in Scotland.

I wasn’t surprised that the interim management team that ended last season with two trophies was back at Lennoxtown for training.

In fairness to the fan media types who were the shrillest in their certitude regarding the “nickel-and-dime” narrative, they didn’t miss a beat.

The new focus for the anger algorithm on fan media is recruitment.

Once more, the club itself has no reputation in such matters, so a lot of the mud sticks.

The simple arithmetic of recruiting players is often lost in the online venting.

A few days ago, a well-placed source in agent land walked me through a possible deal that Celtic HAD been involved in.

The player in question was playing his trade in Continental Europe.

I’m told that his club was paying him €5k per week.

My understanding is that Celtic were willing to pay him £15k per week (€17.5k).

When the player’s availability was leaked, almost certainly by his agent, several EPL clubs were willing to offer £40k per week.

Game over.

Unfortunately, none of that computes in the online world of anger.

By contrast, sane, evidence-based Celtic content can be found at the Huddle Breakdown.

It’s the gold standard for Celtic fan media.

So, here’s what the public data on Celtic as of today:

The interim management team that ended last season is back on a permanent basis.

Well, for one year…

Celtic have acquired the services of Ross Grant, who was the set-piece coach at Hearts last season.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has been given another year at the club.

Except for Mr Grant, it all seems very short-term, and there’s a distinct lack of succession planning.

It’s almost as if the main decision maker is a bit distracted.

Across the city, it‘s about the Dollars.

Always the Dollars.

The wage structure drawn up by Paddy Stewart will be ruthlessly enforced.

High earners will leave,

Already, their captain and keeper have gone.

Moreover, I doubt if they will be difficult to deal with over Nedim Bajrami or Danilo Pereira da Silva.

As for arrivals, the Delaware crew has plans to bring in cheaper replacements.

That doesn’t mean that the new additions will not be pleasing to the Ibrox klanbase.

Mr McInnes and young Shankland represent “a pivot to staunch” (Alan Morrison).

Other moves fall into that category.

What remains is the basic arithmetic of Scottish football.

Celtic have more season ticket holders than there are seats inside the stadium Mr Bomber played for.

After last season, Celtic and the SPFL are now firmly in Bayern Munich territory.

An utter binfire of a campaign still produced a league and cup double for the Parkhead outfit.

The club formed by Irish immigrants is now the default champions at the start of every season.

That’s not arrogance.

It’s arithmetic.

Only Celtic can stop Celtic.

That’s an essential truth that the Stenography Corps is not allowed to go near.

For the avoidance of doubt, the truth of Celtic’s ethnicity is not unconnected from that iron rule on the sports desks.