SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

Bummer. Blade runner is no longer set in the future. Still,there’s always Celtic.

It’s been an interesting TEN days or so for those of us in the Celtic World. It all started with a wonderful performance and victory over Lazio,a night which brought back memories of so many other fabulous European nights at Celtic Park. Not least,of course,because Fraser Forster was back to his La Gran Muralla best! Lazio,btw,are a decent team with some decent players,and they largely refrained from the type of gamesmanship-cheating,to you and me-that we normally experience from Italian teams. Their fans though,they are vile trash. Goose-stepping through the city centre,recreating a wee bit of home-their own version of The River Tiber,a torrent of pish in the environs of the stadium,their actions inside the ground-all calmly viewed by Plod. Nothing to see here,move along.

Fraser sorted them though-with a little help from his TEN friends,of course! While the fascist scum were sticking their hands out all over the place in reverence of their long-dead leader,our own leader was sticking his hands out all over the place to stop everything that was thrown at him! He probably saved the best till last though,plus a wee v-sign in their direction. Still,it was nice of them to remind us why we revile such scum.

On the back of that,we faced a difficult trip to Aberdeen. On paper anyway. We were ruthless with them for fortyfive minutes,opening up a four goal lead that could have been a lot more. TEN,say! Toyed with them for the main part in the second half as we took our foot off the pedal,rightly mindful of a packed pre-Christmas schedule which will see us perform as often as most panto stars this festive season!

In between those two highs,we had a kick in the nuts from the board. They sneaked out the details of the AGM on Friday night,presumably hoping we would all be blootert from drinking Kestrel with our devil dugs or summat. An AGM is normally the highlight of the year for a Plc,but that’s for a normal Plc. This is Celtic Plc. But they got away with it,the crafty blighters. None of us noticed their reference to Res 12,thus…

“The Board does not consider it to be in the best interests of the Company to take the steps proposed by the resolution. The Board recommends that you vote against this resolution.”

To paraphrase Fergus McCann,it is not always easy being a Celtic supporter,but…

Ach,make up your own paraphrase. I’d get barred if I finished that. We can have our first ever Caption Competition-on which point

Best Wishes to RALPH MALPH from e-Tims,and his family.

There’s been a lot already written in reaction to the board’s actions. Previously there had been a lot written about our board’s inactions! I think we now know our place in their own little view of the world. Utterly shameful stuff.

More utterly shameful stuff was to follow,with news that UEFA hadn’t forgotten their cash cow in Glasgow. They hit the club with two charges,one relating to illicit banners,the other to illicit chanting. That’ll be a reference to the anti-fascist banners displayed by The Green Brigade. So much for the “UEFA Respect” campaign,eh.

The Green Brigade have decided to make amends for their wicked ways though,and you’ve got to love it! A fundraising campaign for refugee organisations in both Rome and Glasgow! I’ve got to tip my hat to them for that one,that’s brilliant. UEFA though,they should be hanging-upside down?-their heads in shame at all of this.

You can read about it here…

While I have no doubt that it was the official UEFA observer who reported all this,another organisation which should be hanging its head in shame over their part in it is The Daily Record. That a supposedly left-leaning newspaper should give publicity,oxygen and coverage to the fascist granddaughter of a murderous fascist dictator absolutely beggars belief. I hope she spends the money she earned from the interviews on a white stick and a guide dog for her plastic surgeon. Oh,and a mirror. That way we might never see her in public again.

The two-way traffic of good news,bad news continued with James Forrest-now in season TEN as a first team regular for us-and Scott Bain both signing extended contracts at the club to keep them here for another four seasons. I’ve always been a fan of Jamesie-for a club who pride ourselves on developing youth,I think the lad has had a lot of harsh criticism over the years. To be fair,some of it was from me,because like most wingers,he can be helluva frustrating at times! And yes,I have compared his running style sometimes to that of a shoplifter running out of a supermarket with a frozen chicken doon his jooks,but there is little doubt that he has been a great player overall for us. Will he be that rarest of things,a one-club man? Time will tell,but it’s looking good for us. And for him.

The retention of Scott Bain is important too. He had become first choice for us and Scotland for a time,but lapses in concentration have cost him both places. I still think he’s a great keeper. I think he has a future with us. Sadly,his main chance will only come if Fraser Forster is not available for us. I still hope that Southampton will let him go on a reduced fee to save on the expense of his contract,so watch this space.

Which brings me to The Main Event. A semi-final at Hampden. Against Hibs. A chance to remind them who’s the daddy,after their theft of two points from us a few weeks ago. I expect us to field our strongest line-up for this-even though we have an important game in midweek,the second leg of our double header against Lazio.

I know that this is the least regarded of the three domestic trophies,but it is the first to be awarded. It puts down a marker,it puts everyone else back into their box. Everyone is hoping for our bubble to burst as we march towards TEN.

Well,winning our TENth successive trophy would be a good start. To do that,we need to win later today. In this case,it IS all about the TEN.

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The south side zombies know all about TEN too. In their case,it’s the projected shortfall in millions of pounds between now and the end of the season. This on top of their accounts sneaked out in the dead of a Friday night-hmmm,reminds me of someone else!-revealing losses of £11m in the last financial year. That’s about £70m since they came into being,which doesn’t include a debt for worthless equity swap of £35m to their useful idiot directors and gladhanders.

On top of that,the auditors only signed the accounts off on the condition of stating their belief in a “material uncertainty” Those are words which are poison in business.

It might do them some good to concentrate more on FFP and less on FTP,methinks.

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Above article by BMCUWP. As always,we welcome contributions from our readers. If you want to have your thoughts published as Article of the Day,mail it to Mahe. We always publish them.

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