As the transfer window draws near a close, a wholly made over Celtic squad will be taking the field against Kilmarnock this Tuesday at 2:30 P.M. How much is Celtic made over? Here are the ins and outs over the past month:
IN: Ki Sung-Yeung (midfielder), Morten Rasmussen (striker), Jos Hooiveld (defender), Thomas Rogne (defender), Paul Slane (forward), Edson Braafheid (left defender/wing back) (loan), Diomansy Kamara (striker) (loan to buy).
OUT: Mark Brown (to Hibs), Stephen McManus (loan to Middlesboro), Barry Robson (to Middlesboro), Chris Killen (ditto), Willo Flood (ditto), Gary Caldwell (to Wigan).
The outs do not include players that are on loan and are expected to come back.
And that is so far as it is still possible that there is a move or two in either direction as the SPL window closes at midnight today and the English window closes at 5 P.M. (GMT). So if you liked Celtic’s team last year you can follow them as they play for Middlesboro. Said team is also making a move for a Japanese player who currently plies his trade in Spain.
Oh. The match. Yeah.
So after Morten Rasmussen came on and scored 3 minutes later to give Celtic a 1-0 win over Hamilton the Bhoys move on to their make-up game against Kilmarnock. Celtic remain 10 points back of league leaders. . .that other team. Kilmarnock reside in 11th place after coming off of a 4-4 draw with Dundee United this past weekend. So who will be in our lineup on Tuesday? Your guess is as good as mine as nothing in our lineup seems set.
I hope that we can have a good turn out this Tuesday. I’m probably out for the match but if someone wishes to collect, I’d be indebted.
And welcome back to another mid-week madness match for Celtic. Playing the second of three matches in 6 days Celtic will be hoping to continue their winning ways in a home match versus Hibs tomorrow at 2:45. Celtic came off of a 4-1 win over St. Johnstone this past Sunday while Hibs are coming off of an equally impressive 5-1 demolition of Hamilton.
Lots and lots and lots of movement as it still appears that Stephen McManus may be moving away from Celtic on loan (and probably putting paid to his time at Celtic Park) and Danny Fox on a 1.8 million pound transfer to Burnley. Incoming (and coming directly into the squad) is Morten (Duncan) Rasmussen, our new Danish international striker. Also looking to join the squad is Jos Hooiveld who may be seeing his first action this week as fellow countryman Glenn Loovens will be a closer to game-time decision due to the concussion he received this past Sunday.
Other injury front news has an announcement of Scott McDonald and Scott Brown both in training and returning to full strength.
Fun fact time: which player has 8 goals in the past 10 matches?
If you said Georgios Samaras, give yourself a point. Kind of snuck up on you there, no?
Due to illness I am no more than 50/50 for making the match tomorrow. If someone would be kind enough to collect, consider me indebted to you.
Celtic continues their SPL season by facing off against St. Johnstone this Sunday at half past 10. Celtic remain in second place with 38 points from 19 matches while St. Johnstone are holding on to 9th place with 19 points from 17 matches.
This game begins a series of 3 matches in 6 days for Celtic (Sunday - Wednesday - Saturday) and their hopes to get back in to the SPL race. Celtic have been facing a massive injury woe as Ki Sung-Yueng, Scott McDonald, Stephen McManus, Mark Wilson, Danny Fox, Paul Caddis, and Lee Naylor are injured. Landry NGuemo remains away on international duty.
Shaun Maloney and Scott Brown are apparently fit again but do not seem to factor in to this weekend’s match.
On the transfer news front, saying Scott Brown is leaving gets you sued, Scott McDonald is the next to go out the door to Middlesboro (apparently) or Wigan and we now have signed Thomas Rogne to meet up with Jos Hooiveld. Also rumored to be coming in are Paul Slane (Motherwell) a youngster on a free contract in the summer and (take this as you will) the Danish Duncan Ferguson,Morten Rasmussen for a fee of around 2 million pounds.
I hope to see everyone there on Sunday with a later start to gird our loins for the field of battle.
The Scottish Cup waits for Celtic tomorrow as they travel to Cappielow Park to face off against Morton. Morton, who currently reside in 8th place in Division One have lost matches to the big freeze recently and will come to the match without former Celt Paul McGowan, who is suspended.
Celtic who are coming off of a 1-1 draw with 12th place Falkirk (sigh) can now have the ‘injury-hit’ tag placed on them with Ki out for a month with an ankle injury, Danny Fox out with a groin injury, Stephen McManus out with a calf injury and our long term walking wounded of Scott McDonald, Shaun Maloney and Scott Brown still missing out. It is reported that Glenn Loovens will be returning to action after some tummy trouble.
As it being January two reports have surfaced in the past 24 hours. The first is Lee Naylor to Ipswich Town to join Roy Keane (which doesn’t make the best of sense as Danny Fox is hurt) and Philippe Senderos leaving Arsenal to join Celtic on loan. For those not knowledgeable about Senderos he is a central defender (YAY!) who plays internationally for Switzerland. If he does join Celtic (and that announcement should come today if it is coming) he would be the second Swiss defender to join Celtic in recent history. Let us hope he does better than the first.
The game will NOT be broadcast but you may be able to find online options for the game. Let us hope the Hoops find a better run of play tomorrow!
Celtic are back in league play again this Saturday, playing Falkirk at home. Celtic are currently residing in 2nd place in the table, 7 points back of the huns and 4 points in front of third placed Hibs. Falkirk are at the bottom of the table 2 points away from Kilmarnock who reside in 11th place.
Of course some changes have come to the team with Gary Caldwell going to Wigan, Willo Flood (who?) and Chris Killen (who?) going on loan to Middlesboro for the remainder of their contracts and Barry Robson (who was playing well) gone in a transfer to Middlesboro as well.
Joining Celtic is Jos Hooiveld, a 6′3″ center half who was bought from AIK in the Swedish league. He, like Georgios Samaras began his career at Heerenveen and is under contract for the next 3 1/2 years.
Other rumors abound, including (no, not mentioning Keane) Celtic looking at Thomas Rogne a 19 year old Norwegian center half and Markus Johnsson a Swedish right back who plays for AIK.
Adding more fun on the injury front, Scott McDonald will be out the remainder of the month with hernia surgery and the condition of Landry N’Guemo is yet to be determined as he came off injured in the Africa Cup of Nations. Long term injuries to Shaun Maloney and Scott Brown have yet to have a comeback date announced.
In Scottish Cup news, some interesting info. Dunfirmline had to forfeit their 7-1 victory over Stenhousemuir due to the fielding of an ineligible player. This means if Celtic overcome Morton then we would face off against a lesser light in the next round. Dunfirmline plan on appealing, but don’t you believe it.
I hope to see everyone bright and mid-morningy on Saturday!
Celtic kick off the first match of 2010 against our cross-town anchor and league leaders, huns FC. The huns sit atop the league with 43 points from 18 matches while Celtic reside in second place with 36 points from 17 matches as our mid-week match was called off due to poor road and parking conditions. Celtic will be replaying the Kilmarnock match on January 20th.
The huns DID play their mid-week match against Dundee United, dismantling them 7-1, scoring 4 after Kenny Miller was sent off with a straight red that is 100% sure to be appealed, making him eligible for Sunday’s match. Celtic previously played last weekend, winning 2-0 over a very spry Hamilton with goals from Niall McGinn and Glenn Loovens.
The huns come in to the match with a clean bill of health while Celtic welcome back Koki Mizuno (yes, he does still play for us) from 3 months off due to knee surgery and welcome in Ki Sung-Yueng (wearing #18) and welcome back Darren O’Dea from his loan spell at Reading. Still out for another three weeks are Scott Brown and Shaun Maloney.
Yet another player who will NOT be joining Celtic is Dmitry Verkhovtsov, Belarussian defender who was in Glasgow for a tryout with Celtic.
Let us all come together at Fado to see if Celtic can grab all the points at Celtic Park and narrow that huns lead. And get 2010 off to a rousing start!
Celtic, after the B team faced down Vienna in an exciting 3-3 fightback draw now go to Tynecastle to face off against Hearts in an SPL match between 2nd placed Celtic and 8th placed Hearts.
Celtic come in to the match with a few new injuries picked up including Lee Naylor, Danny Fox, Georgios Samaras and possibly Niall McGinn (who had one heck of a match midweek).
Hearts will be without Christian Nade, Ian Black and Suso Santana.
Let us see if Celtic can continue their excellent run. It won’t be snowing, it’ll be a little chilly but why fight the Christmas crowds? Get to Fado and show your support for our club!
And our Europa League adventure comes to a close tomorrow at 12:45 P.M. Celtic face off against Rapid Vienna at the Austrian National Stadium in a match that has little bearing on the table outside of pride.
Celtic are bringing a less-than-full-strength squad to Austria with Lee Naylor and Paddy McCourt declared out, Zheng Zhi ineligible and our two long term injury Bhoys still being injured and not eligible for action. So will Celtic take the Wolves way out and run out an entire ‘B’ team? Will we see Willo Flood in his (most likely) Celtic swan song? Early team reports have Celtic resting many starting players for our trip to Tynecastle this Sunday to face off against the Jambos.
The match is broadcast on DirecTv in the United States as well as the usual internet outlets. If you have more than a passing interesting in watching some non-traditional (meaning not the guys who have run out a nice form recently) players, this could be your chance to watch people who will be moving on in January or possibly some players for tomorrow!
Celtic face off against 5th place Motherwell at Fir Park this Saturday at 7:45 A.M. Celtic are working on a 3 game winning streak and bring no new injuries to the match. Motherwell, however are somewhat injury plagued as Shaun Hutchinson, Chris Humphrey, Marc Fitzpatrick, Darren Smith and Paul Slane are all out. They are coming off of a 2-0 loss to Hibs last weekend.
Outside of the match, Celtic have been linked with everyone with a pulse, taken several teams worth of trialists on and the Motherwell manager, Jim Gannon, has risen amazingly high in my estimation via his mid-week rant against Hugh “The Golden Apron” Dallas and Scottish refereeing in general. His statement, “Dallas had to defend the referee because the result of the game might have been different if he’d got his decisions correct at Ibrox.
“Celtic might look back on that result at the end of the season and decide that Ibrox in October is when they lost the league championship.
“There’s a question mark over the standard of refereeing in Scotland and the mistakes that are being made are having an effect on the league table.” has made me quite proud. Well done, sir.
Yes, it is cold and it’ll be early, but I’d love to see everyone there for an entertaining match.
A reasonable hour kickoff versus a dangerous opponent? Certainly! Bring it on.
Celtic face off against Aberdeen tomorrow at 10:00 A.M. Celtic are coming off of a mid-week game where they defeated Hapoel Tel-Aviv 2-0 (and the scoreline should have been more in our favor if you have seen the match) and previously defeated St. Mirren 3-1. Aberdeen are, of course, coming off of a 1-0 win over the huns at Pittodrie after playing down a man for the last 30 minutes of the match. If you’ve seen any of that match you also know that scoreline deceives somewhat as Aberdeen had two more excellent chances that did not bounce their way.
Returning to the lineup will be Artur Boruc (who pushed to start midweek but did not) and Zheng Zhi who was ‘injured’ or better said ‘ineligible’ for the midweek match. Other long term injury concerns are not coming back for a while as of yet.
On the transfer front, even though Tony Mowbray says Osman Chavez, an actual center back, impressed he would not be signed and neither would Sander Puri, an Estonian winger. Nothing was mentioned of the four Hungarian players we have on trial, but those would be for the future anyway. Coming in on trial is Milos Lacny, a 21 year old Slovakian winger/striker who is capped by their U-21 team. Since 2007 he has scored 11 goals in 29 appearances. Yes, the January transfer window approaches, meaning everyone everywhere will be linked to Celtic and we will sign Willo Flood (again).
It’ll be cold tomorrow folks, so bundle up accordingly and I will see you at the Shed at 10!
