Loan Hoops - Update

Correct as of 21/11/11


On the 1st of January Dominic Cervi, Morten Rasmussen, Jos Hooiveld & Greig Spence shall all return. The rest of the loanees shall return in the summer. I think possibly Jos Hooiveld has still a place at Celtic after he returns and I would desperately love to see Efraín Juárez back in the squad. Curiously enough Morten Rasmussen could also still be a useful squad player. I've still time for Daryl Murphy after his goal against Dundee Hibernian. Here is the list of our 10 players out on loan and some information.

Niall McGinn - Brentford

Season long loan deal, made 16 appearances scored twice.


Efraín Juárez - Real Zaragoza

Season long loan deal, made 12 appearances scored once.


Darren O'Dea - Leeds United

Season long loan deal, made 15 appearances scored twice.


Josh Thompson - Peterborough United

Season long loan deal, made no appearances.


Daryl Murphy - Ipswich Town

Season long loan deal, made 4 appearances, yet to score.


Richie Towell - Hibernian

Season long loan deal, made 10 appearances.


Greig Spence - Hamilton Academical

Six month loan deal, made 10 appearances, Scored twice.


Jos Hooiveld - Southampton

Six month loan deal, made 11 appearances, Scored twice.


Morten Rasmussen - Sivasspor

Six month loan deal, made 6 appearances, Scored three times.


Dominic Cervi - Greenock Morton

Six month loan deal, made 2 appearances.

The day Celtic returned

Inverness Caledonian Thugs 0 Celtic 2
Stokey 60
Stokey 72

Keeper
F. Forster

Defenders
A. Matthews
V. Wanyama
D. Majstorovic Yellow Card
B. El Kaddouri Yellow Card Substitution 69

Midfielders
B. Kayal Yellow Card
J. Ledley
J. Forrest Substitution Out 82
G. Samaras Substitution Out 55

Strikers
G. Hooper
A. Stokes

Used Subs
K. Commons Substitution In 82
P. McCourt Substitution In 69
S. Ki Substitution In 55

Unused Subs
L. Zaluska
F. Twardzik
D. McGeough
M. Fraser

Celtic produced a vintage performance today to close the gap on 1st place with a delightful and memorable win against a thuggish ICT side today in the Highlands.

Stokes was the man in form with his two goals, both Professional and clinical efforts.

I was delighted to see the return of Ki to the team who has been diagnosed with a mystery illness a couple of weeks ago, heralding the return of the play maker. I can see Celtic improving still further with the return of Kelvin Wilson & Emilio Izaguirre in the future. Combined with captain Brown.

Celtic have also announced the signing of Andre Blackman on a free contract. Expect many more in the winter window.

Hail Hail
TC

In Lennon I Still Trust!

For the last two months I have flitted between faith, anger, hope, disinterest, optimism and uncontrollable pessimism while watching the team that I love stumble and stagger through the early stages of the season like a primed boxer who has suffered a headshot which has turned his legs to jelly. It’s been in a word ‘horrific’ and it hasn’t looked liked getting any better. I’ve sought solace in the words of fellow fans hoping for grains of comforts in the dark hours after a disappointing performance, I’ve read through the majority of blogs in the hope of finding answers and for a good while there I found comfort in them, I agreed with them all, it is all down to the board, we deserve the best players but the manager is being manipulated by these evil dictators that wouldn’t look out of place in North Korea. I agreed that each and every one of us, are part of the greatest support in the world and that we deserve success because of the part that we play. After the defeat to Hearts I started to agree that Lennon isn’t the man for the job, he’s naive, inexperienced, scared to make the BIG calls and tactically inept, I found throughout all of these feelings I only needed to switch  on my phone to twitter and I could get these feelings validated.

Then two things happened.

Firstly my five year old daughter commented on life in general to me in the car by stating “Good things only happen when you believe” as she gazed up at the stars in the night time sky and secondly in a moment of clarity later on that evening as I read through my twitter timeline I realised ‘Misery loves company’.

I questioned myself that night on the reasons why I support Celtic and on why I could place so much faith in Neil Lennon and the answers for me and me alone were as follows

1. I support Celtic because I love Celtic. Throughout any success or failure in my own life they have always been there. I get low I pop on a Celtic DVD. I become successful in something I stick on the Celtic tunes and party. Quite simply I AM CELTIC and CELTIC IS ME.

2. The principles of the support identify me ‘FAITHFUL THROUGH AND THROUGH’ Stand against oppression and know how to enjoy yourself!

3. I don’t judge my own life by success and I’ve never judged Celtic by the trophy cabinet. Personally I enjoy the good times in my life to the fullest and work ten times harder during the bad times.  This is the theory I attached to supporting Celtic as a bhoy, I guess it helps that I was born supporting Celtic during desperate times but the majority of older fans I speak with from years back say the same thing ‘If yer in it for the silver, go support the Huns fir yill never beat a true Celtic man’s spirit’

4. I support Neil Lennon because when he was appointed I felt differently to how I had felt about previous appointments. I had the sense that we had a man at the helm who wanted the same as the support. A man who wouldn’t leave us and would rebuild us into what we once were, I didn’t expect it to happen overnight, I saw it as a long term project, this excited me as for once it didn’t feel like an all or nothing appointment it felt like finally we were all in agreement that this was the time to rebuild and grow together as a support and as a team. Last season Neil Lennon gave us all a glimpse of what it could be like, what it WILL be like if we stay the course.

5. I support Neil Lennon because he is an emerging manager with great potential. Yes he has made mistakes and you can be damn sure he will make more but that is part of the process of becoming successful. You learn from it and whether you choose to believe it or not Neil Lennon is learning from his mistakes but if we don’t stand strong in the bad times with him we will never see the progress being made and his potential become realised.

6. I support Neil Lennon because he makes the big calls! It may not seem like it but he does, Lenny has had a large section of support pinning the blame directly on him for the tactics he has employed yet yesterday proved to me as a supporter that yes I personally still would like to see a change in formation but regardless of the tactics used if you have 2 or 3 ‘egos’ in your team who clearly think they’re bigger than the club your tactics go out the window. This also leads on to management of players. Some I’m sure will say that if that is the case then Lenny should have confronted the problem players earlier but would Lennon have been right to call out Kayal and Hooper as trouble makers earlier in the season when arguably Beram and Gary alongside Kris Commons are the main fan favourites and their lack of spark could easily be explained by their agents as ‘early season dips in form’ therefore allowing Lennon’s detractors to accuse him of not being loyal to his best players? What Lennon has done is shrewd he has shown guile and wisdom by playing the problem players  until they expose themselves  to the Celtic faithful thus ensuring there can be no illusions, no counter claims in newspaper articles from ego driven players and agents and no hiding place for them behind the criticism levelled at Neil Lennon. They have been exposed and now they have to react and I’m sure if Lennon doesn’t see the reaction that he desires then these players will be punted in January with the full backing of the club and the support!

Quick point on Beram Kayal do a bit of googling on his new agent Pini Zahavi and you will understand why Beram is acting like a prick for want of a better word!

Getting back on point, we live in a world with an ‘I want, I get’ mentality! This culture has been seeping into football like a virus since the dawn of the 90’s and Celtic are not immune to it. We have become ‘expectant fans’ rather than ‘hungry for success fans’ we expect to win every game, we expect to win every tournament we enter and when we don’t we wield the axe on the failures who have not delivered with stunning regularity. So I have to ask when did we as a club, as a support receive this divine right to win everything. When did we acquire this mentality of ‘deserving success without effort’ Success isn’t bought and paid for, it’s achieved through consistency, hard work, determination, development and perseverance. We experienced good times in the early to mid naughties but in two stark contrasting fashions. One was the ‘splash the cash experience under O’Neil’ that wielded direct results from day one, the other was the direct result of paying for the ‘splash the cash experience’ which was the ‘living by our means and developing a team’ under Strachan. We all may have enjoyed it more under O’Neil but we were more successful under Strachan. Since this period of continued success but more importantly prior to it we have been a confused club and its time we as supporters took responsibility for our part in it. It seems like whenever we go through bad times with a team we automatically demand change and expect instant success as a result, when it doesn’t go to plan we blame the board for the lack of quality on the pitch then we attack the manager and demand he resigns or is fired. What we are experiencing now isn’t anything new we’ve been doing it since 1990!

Yes I know the board are to blame for everything from Hitler to Osama Bin Laden according to some but you know what, you aren’t telling us anything that we don’t already know!

As bad as the board are they are also the ones that sanction the moves for the players that you do adore and approve of, they have changed managers that didn’t bring you success, they have sold entire squads to appease new managers, they have listened to the mood of the support during the bad times and acted on it, which for me is their biggest crime because constant change leads to instability and anger, when what we need is stability, the type of stability that brings consistent success. I hate Rangers and everything they stand for but in truth they stick by their managers through good and bad while we chop and change and the results are crystal clear they are more successful when it comes to a trophy count. (Yes a little part of me died inside writing that but there you go).

We proclaim to be a ‘family’ we are not, families stick together through thick and thin and endure the bad times because they know together the good times will be better for it. In reality were more ‘the oldest swinger in town’ constantly seeking love, thinking we’ve found it then throwing it away when it lets us down, never actually stopping to think of the part we play in the failure of the relationship because there always seems to be a sexy alternative that will surely deliver and match our needs.

I’m tired of all the constant change that happens at Celtic then the inevitable new burst of excitement when we hire a new manager who signs new player after new player who is photographed standing with scarf aloft inside paradise ready to become an idol of our own making when he only see’s us as a stepping stone to the EPL or worse a place to warm his arse on the bench for the entirety of his contract. I’m tired of all the doom and gloom merchants telling me ‘it’s the board’s fault’ then shouting anyone down who disagrees with their opinion. I’m tired of reading blogs about why Lennon is tactically inept and he should have adopted this or that approach from people who are seriously beginning to believe their own hype in a faceless cyber world. It’s time to be brave and change mentality as a support, let’s see the storm through and witness the new dawn we all wished for when Lennon took charge only 18 months ago, lets stand up for Lennon and the bhoys who want to be there and show them that they have our belief and faith and that we want THIS team to be successful. Let’s just support rather than judge! LET’S EARN OUR SUCCESS!!!

I am 100% behind Neil Lennon, I have stated some of the reasons as to why on here and could continue till my fingers hurt from typing. To put it simply my daughter summed it up better than any other could…

‘Good things only happen when you believe”

I believe in Neil Lennon

I believe in Celtic

I believe in the Celtic faithful.

@AngusSunblest reporting for Total Celtic aboard the good ship SixtySevenLive.

Super Ledley Is Majestic Defending Was Atrocious

Another SPL game another win for Celtic. If only the story was as simple as that. Celtic have had two relatively easy wins in the league and cup since last weekend’s defeat but there is more to this than meets the eye.

What was apparent was the scintillating and very eye catching performance of Joe Ledley against an underpowered Inverness who never really threatened anything except to win a lot of corners and make the Celtic defence yet more jittery than usual. It was clear that Ledley’s superbly taken goal did a lot to raise the team’s spirits and overall performance as another stunner featuring yet another direct run and finish by James Forrest soon followed.

The real talking point of course this week has been the obvious nervousness and lack of confidence at the heart of the Celtic defence. Like a lot of commentators I used to attribute the at times shambolic play by our defenders as a by-product of the nervousness of the crowd at Celtic Park that would somehow be transmitted to the players on the pitch, and that the crowd and players would add to this nervousness as the intensity rose and games got tight. That however is now very much last season’s theory.

As this nervousness has shown itself in both home and away games this season and clearly had some bearing on the overall poor performance of the team at Ibrox last weekend, there seems to be a lot more to this phenonmenon. Confidence just seems to go out the window especially in the goalkeeper and the central defenders and this in turn seems to infect the entire team at times when flowing moves turn to anxious flails. In golfing terms we seem to get the yips.

Other sporting teams have tried it before, and as major personnel changes are at least a couple of months away, but is it time for Celtic to get a mind coach into Lennoxtown to get to the root of this anxiety before it derails the season? Sure some of our defenders have individual weaknesses and Forster seems to have a psychological problem with commanding his penalty area – as the Kevin Bridges joke goes ‘no fear of anyone sending Fraser Forster a dangerous parcel as he’d never come to collect it.’ So could it be that it’s all in the mind and some positive thinking, followed of course by some positive action on the field, may cure the problem?

Strangely there are times when Celtic seem to be only one intercepted pass away from reaching the blistering form of the end of last season and in fact the 4-0 thrashing of Motherwell only two weeks ago was probably one of the best Celtic performances of the past few years.

For me it’s clear we’re missing that special added ingredient of our best form. That liitle ‘je ne sais quoi’ of past performances. That’s the width, speed and inventiveness of our attacking wing-backs.

Emilio Izaguirre and Mark Wilson were a key element in some of Celtic’s best performances in the last campaign. It’s obvious that with Emilio out through long-term injury and Wilson showing nowhere near the same form as last season Celtic have lost some of their zest and cutting edge. Izzy and Wilson were stand out performers in some key matches last season and their replacements have yet to show the same flair and sheer speed to cut though opposing defences and create more openings.

However with Emilio approaching recovery we have to hope that he will soon be back in the first team and that his contribution can be matched with a return to form by Mark Wilson. But in the meantime those yips need to be cured and with the resources that are available to the manager.

And if the team is being affected by the off field antics of the despicable Scottish press then they will just have to learn to become immune to it and ignore the ongoing attempts to unsettle the players and the management team. Leave it to the citizen journalists to shame the traditional media into action and report the truth and too apparent imbalances that happen on a daily basis in the SPL.

As Neil Lennon said today 'the fans were brilliant'. And we all need to be brilliant both on and off line too.

@the_eriugena chief reporter on Celtic and the media for @SixtySevenLive

The smell of fear - Forty thousand Orcs.

Lhadies & Ghents, Bhoys & Ghirls it's that time again. The first Glasgow derby of the season. Can you smell it? Although that could be the smell of fear from thousands of Orcs soiling themselves in abject fear.
Have they got over the 2^nd January yet? Or what about the 20^th February when we tore them to shreds. The 2^nd of March was also very pleasing.

Last season against the Kinning Park XI was great for a number of reasons. We beat them three times, drawing two and losing two. Scoring 10 goals in the process. Undefeated at Govan Zoo.

4 October 2010 Celtic Park 1–3

02 January 2011 Death Star 2–0

06 February 2011 Mordor 2–2

20 February 2011 Celtic Park 3–0

02 March 2011 Celtic Park 1–0

20 March 2011 Hampden Park 1–2

24 April 2011 Snake Mountain 0–0

This game promises so much more, with our fans in the free broomloan trying to evoke a party atmosphere with beach balls and Taxman masks, while the bitter and twisted fans of 1690 FC engage in the usual sectarian choir of hatred and right wing jingoism. Let us only hope that Patrick Nevins oversized head or the SFA is listening, this Tim shall not be holding his breath.

This question also has to be asked - Will the club that practiced religious bigotry for most of its history be able to field a team for a future derby? Two court orders freezing their bank assets of many months of wages and the upcoming £50,000,000 HMRC tax case says its more than likely that the 138 year establishment club shall not see 139. This could well be the last time we face “Scotlands Shame”.

Two great new fads were borne of last season. The Broony & The Lenny. It will be interesting to see what new Hunskelping antics the team have in store. Talking about Hunskelping this past couple of weeks in the Timternet has been particularly hilarious. What with the Billionaire Craig Whyte on the verge of taking Cessnock FC into administration, the extremely funny attempts of the Rankgers twitter account inviting questions for David “Jurassic” Weir with the TwitterCSC hijacking it & the general GIRUY to the Scottish Sports “Journalists” who are clueless when it comes to this HMRC tax bill.

To summarize the pavement pirates have been weakened over the transfer window while Celtic have got stronger. But as the saying goes. “a wounded animal is at its most dangerous when cornered” But I shall state in no uncertain words that I do believe that Celtic shall win the league this season. But we shall need to go out and work for it and want it more than the scum. I shall leave you all with this little ditty. Oh, the Rangers are Shite.

Hail Hail

TotalCeltic

On-board the good ship SSL.

P.S All you mad Tims should be getting these printed if you are on you're way to iPox.

Uefa Rule Against Euromillions Rollover

Well it looks like justice has been done at last. The official Uefa website declares, ‘The Appeals Body heard the parties and decided to reject the appeal lodged by Sion, confirming that the Swiss club had fielded ineligible players in both matches. As a consequence, Celtic remain qualified for the UEFA Europa League group stage and will play against Club Atlético de Madrid on Thursday 15 September.’

So it looks like a victory for common sense after the Swiss club clearly broke Uefa and Fifa rules and fielded ineligible players in both legs of the Europa League tie against Celtic. In short FC Sion cheated, and knowingly cheated, and in spite of their attempts to circumvent football justice by appealing to just about every Swiss civil court they could find, they have been finally find guilty – and any further appeals would come after the Madrid v Celtic tie.

In truth though, as we reported at the time, the best way to have avoided this whole sorry situation would have been for FC Sion to have never been allowed to play in the Europa League against Celtic in the first place. They had broken the rules of football long before the tie took place and they only compounded their offence by fielding ineligible and therefore illegal players against Celtic in both legs.

The implications will be that despite their legal successes in other courts, FC Sion and their directors have bought the Swiss league and all those associated with it to a very low place and there should be repercussions for all Swiss football for allowing these clear rule breaches to continue and there has been much reported discontent with FC Sion from other clubs in their home league.

Not that the schism in Switzerland has been much reported by any Scottish or UK hacks apart from the well informed Videocelts blog. It was with an air of great reluctance that the Scottish media reported today’s ruling against Sion, and indeed it speaks volumes about the media that it was left to Celtic Football Club themselves and Tony Hamilton as @polishturnstile on Twitter to break the Celtic Europa victory via the web and social media.

For there is clearly no kudos for Scottish and UK journalists in breaking a positive Celtic story in the week of the run up to a Glasgow Derby game and especially when last night saw the inner circle of the press sharing an intimate Indian meal with Motherwell billionaire Craig Whyte as they attempt to shield him from the glare of being interrogated by any real journalists.

It would have been so consoling to the toothless Scottish hacks to have a nice juicy ‘Celtic out of Europa league again’ bone to suck on at this difficult time for Rangers and the Rangers media entourage. Sadly horrific dreams of administration and indigestion are to be the only hangover from Whyte’s last supper.

So Celtic can look forward to a Europa league campaign after all, and the fans can anticipate another Beach Ball Sunday if, that is, their opponents can field a team. All this at a time when the Celtic team showed their optimum form of the season overcoming a clueless Stuart McCall’s Motherwell outfit last weekend with some often breathtaking attacking football.

Because the other thing that the media entourage are not reporting is the obvious dissatisfaction and dissent among the Ibrox side most notably that of Jelavic who mysteriously seemed to discover an injury on his return to Glasgow having played a full and injury free game for Croatia last week – see my conversation with @CroatianSoccer on Twitter for more.

But it also looks like the normally well oiled media machine that surrounds Rangers in the week leading up to a Glasgow Derby has come well and truly unstuck as reports emerge tonight that former chief Martin Bain has secured the freezing of a further half million pounds of Rangers assets over fears of ‘insolvency’.

For Celtic there are only positives to be taken from today’s events as win, lose or draw against Atlético Madrid on Thursday it will be a rewarding experience for the young Celtic team and their still young manager to face more inventive opposition than they normally meet in the depressed SPL.

The outcome will be all the more rewarding too in other respects as the Euromillions from the campaign will be all the more welcome at this difficult time for Celtic’s poverty stricken opponents.

@the_eriugena chief reporter on Celtic and the media for @SixtySevenLive

Celtic Transfer Window Activity

IN: 4 @ £3,100,000

1 July 2011...........Kelvin Wilson..............Nottingham Forest.....Free
1 July 2011...........Adam Matthews...........Cardiff City...............Free
9 July 2011...........Victor Wanyama..........K. Beerschot AC.......£900,000
30 August 2011....Mohamed Bangura......AIK............................£2.2 million

LOANS IN: 2

17 August 2011.....Fraser Forster..............Newcastle United.......Season Loan
31 August 2011.....Badr El Kaddouri........Dynamo Kiev............6 Month Loan


SOLD: 1 @ £1,000,000

31 August 2011.....Shaun Maloney............Wigan Athletic...........£1,000,000

RELEASED: 11

1 May 2011...........Michael Ordish..............Out of Contract..........Released
1 May 2011...........Jordan Lowdon..............Out of Contract..........Released
1 May 2011...........Matty Hughes.................Out of Contract.........Released
1 May 2011...........Kieran Brennan..............Out of Contract..........Released
4 June 2011...........Sean Fitzharris................Greenock Morton......Free
7 June 2011...........Paul McGowan...............St Mirren...................Free
20 June 2011.........Ryan Conroy...................Dundee.....................Free
1 July 2011............Freddie Ljungberg..........Shimizu......................Free
1 July 2011............Andreas Hinkel...............Out of Contract..........Released
1 July 2011............Ben Hutchinson..............Kilmarnock................Free
8 July 2011............Graham Carey.................St Mirren...................Free

LOANS OUT: 8

7 July 2011............Niall McGinn...............Brentford......................Season Loan
26 July 2011..........Efraín Juárez................Zaragoza.......................Season Loan
4 August 2011.......Darren O'Dea...............Leeds United................Season Loan
9 August 2011.......Josh Thompson............Peterborough United.....Season Loan
25 August 2011.....Daryl Murphy...............Ipswich Town..............Season Loan
25 August 2011.....Richie Towell...............Hibernian......................Season Loan
26 August 2011.....Greig Spence................Hamilton Academical...Season Loan
31 August 2011......Jos Hooiveld................Southampton.................6 Month Loan
5 September 2011..Morten Rasmussen......Sivasspor.....................Six Month Loan