SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

Two things arrived yesterday,pretty much out of left field,and certainly we didn’t have an inkling of either at the start of the week. The second one concerns Bolingoli,and I’ll get back to him,but the first is the signing of a new striker. Not a new loan striker,not a project either that only the anoraks amongst us have ever heard of,but a fully signed,fully fledged international,young but experienced at the highest level.

Welcome to Paradise,Albian Ajeti. I hope we enjoy the pleasure of each other’s company for a number of years to come. Get yourself settled in during our enforced break,come out firing on all cylinders,show the world what a young hungry and skilled player looks like. You’re in good company,of course,and you’ll never find better fans anywhere,but while we are far from a fickle bunch,we  are always on the lookout for a new hero!

Congratulations too to the club for getting this deal over the line after for a while it looked dead in the water. The problem wasn’t at our end,but with West Ham,who were playing silly buggers with the player. Quite rightly,AA dug his heels in. If West Ham want him to leave,and he’s happy to do so while taking a pay cut in the process,they can damn well pony up a settlement first. And another slap on the back for taking cognisance of the rift between the player and club and turning the original loan deal into a permanent one. 

All we need now is a left-sided centre back. These don’t grow on trees,as it turns out. We are being strongly linked with the hard as nails Irish international,Shane Duffy,and while he would be a tremendous acquisition-anyone who can tame Katie Price won’t have a problem with the pseudo-hard men up here!-he can’t really be called a left-sided centre back. Sure,he can shoot with his left-he’s scored a couple of times with it-but does he possess the finesse with that foot that is required to pass or tackle with it? To be honest,I’d be more comfortable with him on the left of a two or three man central defence than I would be with any of our current alternatives. I know that certain posters will be screaming-“Accident waiting to happen! No!!!”-but in the absence of any alternatives,his signing will be warmly welcomed. 

Even more so if we can get him on a permanent deal for about the same fee as our other two big summer signings. Like as soon as possible. 

Which brings me to the second part of this morning‘s discussion. And again,it is the fall-out from Bolingoli’s ridiculous European jaunt last week. I got a text from my big pal in Bicester about 6pm last night,telling me that plans were afoot to punish him and the Aberdeen players who between them have jeopardised the upcoming season-by introducing punishment for an offence that didn’t exist at the time that those offences were committed! Yes,each of them broke Scottish and UK Government directives introduced during this Covid-19 crisis,but there were at the time no regulations from the SPFL/SFA to punish players or clubs who did so. 

Now,I’ve no problem with these regulations being brought into force-after all it seems that footballers can’t ALL be trusted to behave as expected by the rest of society. But then,neither can Dominic Cummings,Stanley Johnson,any number of halfwits breathing down your neck in a supermarket queue or getting in your face at a pub,to give but a few examples. But you can’t have broken a law that doesn’t exist. Retrospective law is bad law,and that has always been a universal tenet. Laws and regulations tend to be introduced as a result of infractions which the lawmakers deem to be reprehensible and not to be tolerated in a decent society. Which is as it should be. And as such,it is right that Scottish football makes these infractions a punishable disciplinary offence. 

But not after the fact. That is an affront to justice. As is the notion of also punishing the clubs involved. In fact,there are no precedents for the latter whatsoever. Not for off-the-field infractions. Players have gone to jail for off-the-field offences,and no club has been sanctioned as a result. In fact,Duncan Ferguson was jailed for an offence of violent thuggery ON the pitch and his club received no sanction whatsoever from the authorities. This is a pile of nonsense,the likes of which we have come to expect from the incompetents at Hampden,and which in fact we have almost become used to. But that doesn’t mean that it is right,and it certainly doesn’t mean that we should simply accept it. 

I expect Aberdeen and Celtic to fight every step of the way any suggestion of a sanction against either club or players,for this is a precedent which must be avoided at all costs. The possible repercussions of accepting it,that it will be the thin end of a bloody big wedge,are too scary to contemplate. 

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Above article by BMCUWP. Usual rules if you fancy a shot at Article of the Day. Mail it to MAHE.

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