It's the eve of our first game in the League Cup or what ever they call it now as I sit down to write this months Editorial as the League Cup no longer offers European football for the winners it has somewhat been devalued with the bigger clubs using the tournament for playing players on the fringes of the squad unless of course its Derby match between us and Rangers then all the first team players get wheeled out.
I hope by the time you come to read this that we have secured passage to the next round and that Tony Mowbray does it with a second string team because with little investment put into the team in the summer we can only hope and pray that someone shines in the reserves because what has been on offer lately has been poor and in the case of the second half in Israel it was simply clueless. Only for Artur Boruc it would have been more embarrassing. I was having flash backs to the John Barnes era. I am sure Artur will be writing "all I want for Christmas is two centre backs" to Santa. We had three centre halves on against Hapoel and still could not keep them out. The mind boggles why Darren O'Dea was let go down south to Reading after signing a new contract.
A few months back the news filtered through that Gary Caldwell was pursuing a new contract and that the value he had put on himself and the one the club had were a good distance apart and it seems that's how it has played out. The story has been knocking about for a few weeks so why do we have to read it on the day of an important game in Europe when surly the newspapers have more to write about. I can understand it in the summer when journalists are sitting around the office with nothing to do but make up transfer gossip. Insistently Celtic have had no one show interest in Gary during the summer. I think he may be listening too much to his brother and about Premiership wages. There a good boy Gary off you go to join him if you can't afford to live on your pitiful wages in these recessionary times.
While very little was being spent on bringing in quality players in the summer, those in power were plotting some Eastern Promise with a young South Korean player set to join us in January, another one for the future I hear you cringe, yes were going to have some team in a few years if all these one for the future players do come through but I live in the now, I want to see players coming to the club who are ready to walk into the first team like when Craig Bellamy arrived on loan a few years ago.
After the transfer window had closed we signed Zheng Zhi the Chinese captain who just happened to be unemployed at the time although Tony Mowbray would have us believe he was chasing him for a while, well why did he not sign him if he rated him so highly when he came to the club first. And let us not forget we still have Koki Mizuno who finds it hard to get on the subs bench. It certainly seems like the board see, by signing players from the Far East that they may be another avenue into a lucrative market.
I can imagine the three amigos of Dermot, Peter and John talking on the mobile phones in the morning after watching the reaction of the crazed fans in the Far East when Man Utd and Real Madrid come to town and thinking "We can exploit that market too" Unfortunately it does not seem to work like that. What they should remember is Man Utd may have Park the South Korean player in their team but he is just a supporting act. Manchester Utd have exploited the market, firstly, with David Beckham a home grown talent who came up through the youth system, married a pop star and became the most marketable man in the World. Then Alex Ferguson stumbled across Ronaldo while playing a friendly against Sporting Lisbon and snapped him up and it was his skill that excited people in the Far East not the colour of his Skin or his origins. They may be crazy about football but they isn't going to queue up to see Scot Brown and Stephen McManus and they can see their own native players when they return for international duty.
I have nothing against Peter Lawell I know he comes from good Celtic stock but he is the Chief Executive and the front for the Celtic board so he must bear some of the criticism that is aimed at him and the others around the boardroom table. The board have gambled not with money but with the lack of it and they have been dealt out of the game. Failure to qualify for the Champions League by winning the SPL has cost us big time. Season ticket waiting lists is pie in the sky stuff as fans have stayed away.
Why would you bother buying a season book when you can pick and choose your games and buy a ticket from the ticket office and that includes European games. The club are trying everything to shift tickets. The latest is a five match package which includes the Rangers game. If I'm not mistaken and feel free to contact me and correct me but the last time our supporters bought such match packages was back when John Barnes was manager and we all know how that ended.
I was sceptical about the arrival of Shunsuke Nakmura and Du Weiss. One proved to be an exceptional talent and the other got 45 minutes against Clyde before being sent packing. If I remember correctly Adam Virgo replaced him and that's saying something for the £1 million wonder boy recommended to Gordon Strachan by none other than the now Aberdeen manager, Manager Mark McGee (Thank God he never got the Celtic managers job) For those wondering where Adam went were not sure but the club has assured us that he gave Hoopy back his boots and strip before leaving.
Naka was first class, he may have gone off the boil in his last season but he gave us plenty of great memories, with his goal against Man U at Celtic Park the highlight. The departure of Naka , Bobo and others may have eased the wage bill but in Naka's case the club will also be down the revenue he brought in from merchandising. We did see an increase in numbers of Japanese attending games but not in the numbers the club would have hoped for. I hope that our foreign imports from China and the like work out, I really do but I am not as optimistic as those in the boardroom.
I should be happy right now after the late showing against Hearts which secured all three points and put us two points ahead of our bitter rivals from across the city at the top of the SPL summit but sadly I am not. I think we have been poor in recent games and some of the players look disinterested at times. Really with the exception of Aiden and Artur we don't really have an abundance of quality. So what some of the players should realise it that what they lack in quality they should make up for in commitment and effort which would be appreciated by us the Celtic Fans who still turn up every week.
The drop off in those attending games may have something to do with the recession for those travelling long distances but it most likely has more to do with what we are watching on the park and the amount of empty seats has been noticeable since midway through last season. The perfect way to get bums back on seats is to beat Rapid Vienna and Rangers. So it over to you Tony, where is the attractive football you promised us, you know we're all behind you well for the moment but anymore horror shows like the one witnessed in the second half in Tel Aviv and we might just be singing from a different hymn sheet. We did not expect you to beat Arsenal but in Israel we expected and deserved more.
